Early Christian Communities

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TheGrungeDiva

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I seem to remember a lively and polite discussion (debate but it never got mean) about what a "Christian Nation" would look like about 6 months ago. Last Sunday in church, one of the Scripture readings was from Acts chapter 4, as follows:

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
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Does anyone else see the similarities between this and communism? Now, the problem with communism as it is played out in modern politics is that it is too often coupled with fascism, a system of government whereby the individuals have no choice in the matter. I have to assume that if one of these believers didn't like the way things were going, the community would have let them, as Cartman say, "Take their toys and go home."

I'm fairly certain there would be certain rules in the above community that would be taboo, and/or would warrant some kind of punishment, though I suspect the punishment would be getting banned from the community. I imagine a lot of the things we Christians argue about in the US, where Christians want to see a law, but non-Christians don't, were banned in the above community.

I wonder if this is the pay-off. If living in a society where abortion, homosexuality, porn, etc. were illegal and banned meant living in the above type of commune, would you accept that?

I would love to hear what others think.
 
God loved what they were doing so much that He killed Ananias and Saphira for tainting it. To have this kind of community we need love not laws. It would be a church not a government. They were a church not a government. The world would ruin it if the idea was used by the world.
 
In that case, the church IS the government.

By the way 'government' is not a dirty word... it's just how people organize themselves.

Grunge kinda nailed it, I think. It would have to be completely voluntary to have any hope of actually working and it's really difficult to conceptualize something like that on a large scale. Hippie commune is probably closer to reality than a communist regime... and really much closer to what the Bible describes, I think. It was around 5000 people coming together... like a decent sized small town.

It seems like what many Christians are wanting, however, is for the government to declare that this is a Christian nation and we all have to be Christians and Christians are better than everybody else. They want Constantine. Kill the heretics! Purge them from the community! lol

Which would I prefer? I have no idea. I like having my family and my church and a handful of Christian friends. It would be interesting to only know other Christians, but we see on this forum how Christians 'get along' when they exist in a vacuum. They slowly start to turn on each other and make mountains out of mole hills. The adversity and conflict that the fallen world brings should be the glue that keeps us together. To try and remove yourself from the world or block out the world is kind of just inviting a different set of problems. It could be cool for a while, but to maintain something like that would be difficult. Drugs would probably be necessary.
 
It seems socialistic/communistic however instead of the apostles being the head of the church government and forcing them to share their wealth, they do it out of godly love for each other. It's interesting to note that everybody had the choice of what they contributed and if they contributed; it was out of the Holy Spirit that they were communal. But they reserved some for themselves as well.
 
TheGrungeDiva said:
I seem to remember a lively and polite discussion (debate but it never got mean) about what a "Christian Nation" would look like about 6 months ago. Last Sunday in church, one of the Scripture readings was from Acts chapter 4, as follows:

Does anyone else see the similarities between this and communism? Now, the problem with communism as it is played out in modern politics is that it is too often coupled with fascism, a system of government whereby the individuals have no choice in the matter. I have to assume that if one of these believers didn't like the way things were going, the community would have let them, as Cartman say, "Take their toys and go home."....
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If you by the term "communism" mean the marxian version, then, no. While Marx (as well as other contemporaries of similar mind before him) borrowed verses from Acts 2 & 4 in the NT to exemplify a communistic vision, the head motif in marxian thought is utterly materialist. As such it is built not only on the principle of social, or class, struggle but also historical struggle.

Again dialectical materialist, where progress and evolution of means and forces of production are essential to implement the basic ideas. An ancient or an underdeveloped society can never implement the ideas of Marx, since these societies are either primitive, semi-feudal or feudal. All expressions of organized religion, especially with state power (or its equivalent in civil life) influence is seen as "reactionary" and must therefore be fought until its extinction.

Marx thought requires a development of society in stages ending with capitalism and democracy and from there a supposedly even better socialistic society would evolve with the working class leading the direction and eventually seizing power through revolution and rule until the rise of communism. Marx expected the world revolution to start off in the highest developed and leading capitalist western countries.
 
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tribesman said:
If you by the term "communism" mean the marxian version, then, no.
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Wow. Excellent summary of marxism. However, that is not what I meant by communism. I agree with you that Marx was wrong, and I challenge his use of the term "communism" in his vision. His ideas were more properly labeled "fascism."

But thanks for the excellent discussion! I am truly impressed!
 
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