{"id":10830,"date":"2021-01-04T19:28:35","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=10830"},"modified":"2022-01-12T15:15:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:15:30","slug":"jesus-and-socialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=10830","title":{"rendered":"Jesus and Socialism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note: \u00a0<\/strong>This MS is available in<strong> \u00a0<\/strong>larger font on our <b>Brief Articles 1\u00a0<\/b>page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Those who espouse certain social, moral, or political agendas sometimes invoke the Bible in general or Jesus in particular for their cause (notwithstanding their disavowal of both). They thus pander to the many believers who still believe in both.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From time to time, advocates of socialism and\/or communism charge that Jesus taught and the early Christians practiced such. Some brazenly averred that the New Testament is a sort of socialist \u201cmanifesto\u201d and that Jesus was the first socialist. Let us examine some of their \u201cProofs\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>The rich young ruler<\/strong> (Mat. 19: 16\u201322). Jesus told this wealthy man to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, then follow Him. Socialists cite this statement as an example of Jesus\u2019 socio-political philosophy. However, He never gave this order to any of the thousands of others He taught. Simply put, Jesus knew that this man\u2019s wealth was his god, and that as long as he possessed it, it possessed <strong>him<\/strong>. Jesus had\/has to be first, or not at all.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>The Judgment scene<\/strong> (Mat. 25:31\u201346). In describing the final Judgment (incredibly, liberals call this literal description a \u201cparable\u201d), Jesus said He would separate the lost from the saved. Those who will be saved are those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and such like. He condemns those who had failed to do so. However, socialists seek their agenda here in vain. Jesus is simply emphasizing the <strong>personal<\/strong> benevolence and helpfulness each one should practice toward another. They also fail to note that this passage is only one of many that state the bases of our final accounting (e.g., one\u2019s words [Mat. 12: 37], one\u2019s faith and baptism [Mark. 16:16], one\u2019s faithfulness [Mat. 10:22], all of Jesus\u2019 words [John 12:48]).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>The practice of the early saints <\/strong>(Acts 2:44; 4:32). Indeed, these disciples had \u201call things common,\u201d not selfishly grasping their own possessions. However, this was a voluntary generosity, <strong>willingly<\/strong> performed to help the helpless. There is no hint that the apostles ordered such. Contrariwise, Peter told Ananias: \u201cWhile it remained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power?\u201d (5:4).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Those who advocate centralized\/collectivist government and a welfare state that <strong>mandates<\/strong> \u201cbenevolence\u201d by forcing producers to support non-producers must seek their endorsement elsewhere. Paul wrote: \u201cIf any will not work, neither let him eat\u201d (2 The. 3:10). Jesus\u2019 \u201cgolden rule,\u00a0 \u201cWhatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them\u201d (Mat. 7:12), urges <strong>voluntary<\/strong>, not confiscatory \u201cgiving\u201d of the property and possessions of others. <strong>Jesus was not a socialist.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, May 25, 2012].<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note: \u00a0This MS is available in \u00a0larger font on our Brief Articles 1\u00a0page.] \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those who espouse certain social, moral, or political agendas sometimes invoke the Bible in general or Jesus in particular for their cause (notwithstanding their disavowal of both). They thus&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=10830\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Jesus and Socialism<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,212,837],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communism","category-politics","category-socialism","wpcat-838-id","wpcat-212-id","wpcat-837-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10830"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17333,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830\/revisions\/17333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}