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Latest revision as of 17:42, 7 April 2024
All things common
Jesus preached that we should seek His kingdom of God that he promised to take from the Pharisees and appoint to those who would bear fruit. He called out some to become His disciples training them to be ministers of that kingdom, requiring them to sell their property[1] and eventually appointed that little flock a kingdom as is clearly stated in the text.
- Acts 2:42 47 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common[2]; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
There is a lot of confusion created by the quote in Acts about believers having all "All things in common".
Acts 2:44 "And all that believed were together, and had all things common;" the word translated "all things" is ἅπαντα hapanta[3] which actually means "all" while the first word all which we see in the sentence is Πάντες, pantes meaning "Everybody" from pas[4] which means collectively as each individual.
Acts 2:45 "And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." We know that the apostles were taking care of the needy, receiving the freewill offerings or sacrificed of the people and in the vey next verse they are rightly dividing the bread from house to house. Yet people want to be live that early Christians were socialist and that Jesus was preaching some form of socialism by taking Act 2:44 out of the context of all His other teachings and the whole Bible.
The word "had" is the word that means to have i.e. own, possess.
So, where else do we see the phrase "all things common"?
- Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any [of them] that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had[5] all things common.
It is here they talk about Joses, a levite, becoming one of them but Ananias failing the test of faith succumbed to a mysterious death.
That all has to do with the called out apostles appointed by Jesus and not the people in general. Everyone was not required to give up all they had and give it to the poor to follow Jesus. This was a requirement for those who wanted to be disciples or student ministers.[6] This has nothing to do with Jesus being a socialist. Jesus was just the opposite and even condemned the Pharisees for their socialist system of Corban.
The early Church and the Christian community was a sharing society dependent upon individual choice under what Paul calls the perfect law of liberty. Those choices included the free assemblies "of the people" living by faith, hope and charity providing social welfare fueled by a daily sacrifice "for the people and by the people". These charitable practices through the ministers of the Church, who were a public servant, providing a daily ministration that bound the people by love instead of force, hope instead of entitlements and faith instead of allegiance.
While love, which comes in the form of charity, is imposed by God and Jesus Christ, the enforcement is through the spirit and not men like Cain, Nimrod, or Caesar of the world. . Those who misinterpret the "all things common" quote incorrectly fail to understand the separation of the Church and state. Originally the power of the State was the power of the people held individually by the people in a Natural state. The ministers of the Church composed first of disciples and then called Apostles or ambassadors and ministers were separate from the general population of the people.
They were not better or rulers but like Christ, they were people who came out because they were called out to serve as shepherds of Gods flock, his people, his nation.
Like the Levites of old, Moses and Jesus created a system of self-government where the ministers were separate and titular. They could not exercise authority one over the other like the Benefactors of the world in fact they were to be in the world but not of the world or depend upon its benefits as members.
While they owned all things in common they did not exercise authority one over the other. The people did not belong to the body of Levites but individually belonged to God[7] Himself or so is the intention of God. The ministers of the Church in the wilderness and the early Church belonged to God as bond servants and therefore they owned all things common [8] but the people were to be returned to their possessions and their families.[9]
The same as the Church in the wilderness the early Church as a group of appointed ministers called out of the world of Rome to minister to the Kingdom of God at hand was composed of men and women who belonged to God like the Levites before them. To say they were not of the "world" and were assigned to feed his sheep just as the Levites served the tents of the congregations of a free people by providing a Daily ministration through the righteous Corban of Christ. The sacrifice of the people given as Freewill offerings which the New Testament calls charity was the key to the kingdom. They, the Church and His ordained ministers, held things as joint heirs of a society with a mission of charity as unhewn but lively Stones from which the living Altars of God may be built to set all men free who repent and seek His Way.
The sheep of Christ hear His voice[10] and live by charity not by force. The appointed shepherds of Christ's Kingdom of God at hand provide a network of charity in service and a daily ministration of righteousness according to The Way of Christ as one body in the world but not of it.
Understanding the church in general and the Church specific will also help people understand why those rich men and the disciples who wanted to become appointed ministers of this unique form of free government as the called out of Christ had to give up "all their property" and hold all things in common.
John the Baptist was against the use of force in creating the altruistic society of Christianity. Christ forbid the use of force for all Christians in providing the benefits of society and warned against covetousness through the Ten Commandments in His directives about Eternal life and Corban of the Socialism of the Pharisees.
Primitive Communism
Some will suggest that "Primitive communism is a way of describing the gift economies of hunter-gatherers throughout history, where resources and property hunted and gathered are shared with all members of a group, in accordance with individual needs."
But the primitive societies may have been egalitarian but they were not communist societies because:
Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs within an economic system in which the distribution of property and resources is primarily controlled by the government.
In the above statement several fallacies should be obvious if the mind of the reader is not already effected by jealous, envy, bitterness or ignorance.
When property is publicly owned rather than "privately owned" choices will be in the hands of the rulers of the collective. The power of choice will be centralized and the individual with less choice will become a person, a mere member.
"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.”[11]
Agreement or conquest
Marxist ideas include the idea that Primitive Communism consisted of "the ancient communal and State ownership which proceeds especially from the union of several tribes into a city by agreement or by conquest."
Karl Marx wanted to build a city that was a caldron and you be the flesh. Like Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, and Caesar, Karl Marx wanted to build cities of blood[12] where the city is the caldron, and we be the flesh are spoken of by the prophets.[13] A theme repeated throughout the history of man from the bondage of Egypt to the Golden calf. From Nimrod's Babylon to Caesar's free bread of the Imperial Cult of Rome and Herod's and the Pharisees' Corban man has bound himself in systems that lead to tyranny through greed and wantonness.
Swelling vanity
"For when they speak great swelling [words] of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, [through much] wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." 2 Peter 2:18-22
Original societies
Original societies of man were centered in the family or an extended family called a clan which may have come together as tribes through mutual sharing of danger and resources. Those who willingly chose to share what they produced or gathered by an individual free choice created bonds which held society together based on the nobility of the heart, mutual trust and moral respect.
The compelled sharing by any political power or authoritarian hierarchies that exercise authority would give rise to tyranny if not abuse like we see in the true story of the Cains or Nimrods of the world.
There may have been a hierarchy within a free society but it was often based on honor and respect through the virtues of courage, unselfish sacrifice, and ability. When corporate society formed a political unit and established a legal system it was often based on Natural Law and the law of the Father.
There were other systems born out of those early tribes and offices of Priests and Patronus such as systems of One Purse. Within those systems rulers or a ruling class may call themselves benefactors but they only share with the people what they take from others through systems of legal charity.
Roman Montero wrote a book, "All things in common", suggesting that early Christians were communists because of his private interpretation of the "all things common" quote. Roman redefines communism as from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. That of course is not the definition of Communism because you must answer how the distribution is made.
Who has the authority to take from one and give to another which is the very function of charity. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 makes it clear that if you do not work you should not eat.
Communism is not a system of charity but a system of one purse which runs to evil and we are warned against.
The idea of "primitive communism" originated from the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They of course argued that hunter-gatherer societies were traditionally based on egalitarian social relations and common ownership. They used their faulty logic to promote the covetous ruler-ship of collectivism through the state which was one of the great disasters of our time.
Their ideas about Communism eventually produced some of the most bloodthirsty governments of the last millennium robbing and destroying some of the most productive members of society.
Suggesting that "primitive communism" is the natural course of society is utter nonsense.
Define liberty
Communism hates liberty.
"Who may define liberty?"
It is far more than independence of a nation. It is not a catalog of political ‘rights.'
Liberty is a thing of the spirit – to be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, and to speak without fear – free to challenge wrong and oppression with surety of justice.
Liberty conceives that the mind and spirit of men can be free only if the individual is free to choose his own calling, to develop his talents, to win and keep a home sacred from intrusion, to rear children in ordered security. It holds he must be free to earn, to spend, to save, honestly to accumulate property that may give protection in old age and to loved ones..... It holds, both in principle and in world experience, that these intellectual and spiritual freedoms cannot thrive except where there are also these economic freedoms. It insists equally upon protections to all these freedoms, or there is no liberty." The Challenge to Liberty, by Herbert Hoover, pg. 2
Primitive Inuit
Among primitive Inuit you would commonly share any seal you caught in hope that if you did not catch a seal the next day others might share with you what they caught. You owned your knife, your spear, your bow, your mukluks and parka which might be the total of your wealth. And if you were a really good hunter people would make sure you got the lion share of food and even gift warmer mittens to you because you were more important than others.
This idea of "primitive communism" by Marx and Engels is fiction.
A sharing society and communism are not the same thing.
They would have been better to call those early sharing societies "primitive capitalism".
The hunter or gatherer accumulates food or resources because he owns his personal means of production, his labor. What he gathers is his. He may consume it, use it, store it or he may take it back to the camp or tribe where he then may choose to share with other hunter-gatherers in that he will win or earn their favor and appreciation to win favor and promote community.
This "primitive capitalism" was practiced by whole nations which had a system of voluntary redistribution of wealth through what was called altars.
The egalitarian society is one where all people deserve equal rights and opportunities not a right to what others produce, hunt or gather. A sharing society dependent upon charitable love for one another was the tradition of the early Church and Moses but John the Baptist and Jesus were specific that you should not force that sharing by an exercising authority over the other.
Yes, Justin the Martyr and Tertulian talked about sharing bread and the apostles rightly divided bread from house to house, but this was within a system of charity and choice. There was no Benefactors who exercised authority one over the other in the Christian community.
Jesus was not a socialist nor did the early Church practice communism. Communism is not a system of charity but a system of one purse which the Bible says runs to evil and we are warned against.
Montero and others who misinterpret the "all things common" quote incorrectly fail to understand the separation of the Church and state or people. Like the Levites of old, Moses and Jesus created a system of self-government where the ministers were separate and titular from the general population of the people. They could not exercise authority one over the other like the Benefactors of the world. While they owned all things in common they did not exercise authority one over the other. The people did not belong to the body of Levites but individually belonged to God[14] Himself or so is the intention of God. The ministers of the Church in the wilderness and the early Church owned all things in common [15] but the people were returned to their possessions and their families[16].
The same as the Church in the wilderness the early Church as a group of appointed ministers called out to minister to the Kingdom of God at hand was composed of men and women who belonged to God, were not of the "world" and were assigned to feed his sheep just as the Levites served the tents of the congregations by providing a Daily ministration through the Corban or sacrifice of the people given as Freewill offerings which the New Testament calls charity. They, the Church and its ordained ministers, held things as joint heirs of a society with a mission of charity as unhewn but lively Stones from which the living Altars of God may be built.
The sheep of Christ hear his voice and live by charity not by force, the appointed shepherds of Christ provide a network of charity and a daily ministration of righteousness according to The Way of Christ.
In fact you cannot be a Communist nor even a socialist and a Christian at the same time. If we are going to define a Christian as someone who believes Jesus and wants to do what he said. Socialism relies upon men who call themselves Benefactors but exercise authority one over the other.
Montero does see the Church and the Christian community as a system of self-supporting charity where people provided and cared for one another but those who think the Christians were communists or even socialist are misled in their final conclusion because they do not understand the nature of the relationship of the appointed Church and the people they were meant to serve and the Kingdom of God and how it works and does not work.
Jesus was not a socialist. We were to take care of one another but only by freewill offerings motivated out of a loving heart and not a covetous one.
Communist Altruism
- “PHILOSOPHICAL opinion is heavily weighted against the notion that members of a large community can care about one another except in cases of extreme emergency, such as war or natural disaster... Humans are simply born with a limited amount of caring capacity...Marx disagrees. He thinks that an unalienated society is possible. It is a society in which members of the community take an interest in the interests of their fellow citizens non-instrumentally.” The Possibility of Communist Altruism J. L. Jenkins History of Philosophy Quarterly Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 95-109
What if 'members of the community take a covetous interest in the interests of their fellow citizens'?
It is not the system that saves society but the morality. Morality is a choice made by individuals. You cannot enforce morality or altruism without becoming a Cain, Nimrod or Caesar of the world. You can seek to protect your neighbor from falling victim to the abusive choices of others by seeking the Kingdom of God, which is the right to be ruled by God in your heart and mind and by seeking the righteousness of God whose son came to serve.
Early Israel was a large community that operated entirely by freewill offerings. It had no king or ruler, no property, sales or income tax. It did have a tithe but you chose to whom you would give it and there was no enforceable penalty for failing to do so. It had an all-volunteer army and was virtually invincible. It did not oppress the stranger in its midst and had good relationships with many of its neighbors because of the sacrifice of the "Red Heifer".
Modern Christians and most Jews have little understanding of how that system of government worked and functioned. Even Israel forgot the secret of their success and chose a king, a ruler which was a rejection of God. God allowed them to pick someone to rule over them but listed five things to write down and read to him every day as a reminder of his limitation.
Any constitution that tries to set up a government without those limitations on those who will be in power would not be a biblical constitution.
But who is aware of those restrictions and why they were to be written down. Karl Marx certainly did not. Marx thinks a communist society will be able to operate according to the principle “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need.”
The operating word here is “from”.
Who decides the “from”?
Who should decide the legitimacy of a “need”?
In basic capitalism the one who sweats and toils to produce gets to decide the fate and distribution of the products of his labor, sweat and blood, but in communism someone else who did not travail and toil to produce will decide for those who do. Certainly there can be abuses created by individuals who start out practicing capitalism because capitalism leaves the choice in the hands of the individual.
Communists, socialists and other progressives want to take choice away from the individual and give it to the collective or its representatives. There can be little or no Communist Altruism because the system itself is predicated on the principle of taking choice away from the individual which is the primary characteristic of basic capitalism.
Personal selfishness allows society to neglect their neighbor. This is why both Jesus and Moses said you must love your neighbor as yourself and why Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their system of Corban and their failure to attend to the weightier matters.
- “Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing”. Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. (1892 – 1982)
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Footnotes
- ↑ Luke 14:33 "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."
- ↑ An interesting observation is the word common is from 2839 ~κοινός~ koinos translated common 7 times, unclean 3, defiled 1, unholy 1. It primarily meant "common, mutual, shared, joint".
- ↑ 537 ἅπας hapas [hap’-as] from 1 (as a particle of union) and 3956 individually coming together; adj; TDNT-5:886,795; [{See TDNT 604 }]
AV-all 34, all things 5, whole 3, every one 1, every 1; 44
- 1) quite, all, the whole, all together, all
- ↑ 3956 ~πᾶς~ pas \@pas\@ including all the forms of declension; adj AV-all 748, all things 170, every 117, all men 41, whosoever 31, everyone 28, whole 12, all manner of 11, every man 11, no + 3756 9, every thing 7, any 7, whatsoever 6, whosoever + 3739 + 302 3, always + 1223 3, daily + 2250 2, any thing 2, no + 3361 2, not tr 7, misc 26; 1243
- 1) individually
- 1a) each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything
- 2) collectively
- 2a) some of all types
- 1) individually
- ↑ The phrase "had all things common" with the word "had" in Acts 2:44 is translated from "echo" which is a different word than we see in Acts 4:32 "en".
2258 ἦν en [ane] imperfect of 1510; v; AV-was 267, were 115, had been 12, had 11, taught + 1321 4, stood + 2476 4, misc 42, vr was 1; 457- 1) I was, etc.
- ↑ Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
- ↑ Numbers 3:12 And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;
- Numbers 3:45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.
- Numbers 8:14 Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
- ↑ Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
- Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
- ↑ Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
- Leviticus 25:41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
- ↑ John 10:8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
- John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
- John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
- Psalms 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
- John 10:3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
- ↑ Archibald MacLeish
- ↑ Ezekiel 7:23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
- Ezekiel 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
- Ezekiel 22:2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.
- Ezekiel 22:3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
- Ezekiel 24:6 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum [is] therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.
- Ezekiel 24:9 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.
- Hosea 6:8 Gilead [is] a city of them that work iniquity, [and is] polluted with blood.
- ↑ Ezekiel 9:9, Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 22:3, Habakkuk 2:12, Jeremiah 22:13, Micah 3, Hosea 6:8. It is the cities of Cain, and Nimrod, Pharaoh's Egypt or Caesar's Rome but also FDR's New Deal and LBJ's [New_Deal#Great_Society|Great Society]] where the people have one purse, bite one another to obtain free benefits, and love the wages of unrighteousness. It is the Welfare State where Legal charity has replaced the love of Christ and the modern Churches of the world tickle the ears of the people.
- ↑ Numbers 3:12 And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;
- Numbers 3:45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.
- Numbers 8:14 Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
- ↑ Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
- ↑ Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
- Leviticus 25:41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
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