Communities Ancient

Ancient communities

All communities were survival communities in ancient times.

The natural and gregarious nature of man drew people together. Families and clans were naturally bound by common origins or lineal consanguinity. Bringing a broader group together was often based on common interests or beliefs or stimulated by a common threat.

Different forms of tribal communities and cultures thrived and worked to prosper society and others degenerated and disappeared. Sometimes societies morphed into their very antitheses when new generations forgot the wisdom of their more ancient counter parts.

Most, in the beginning, were voluntary societies. Because of the independence required to survive social bonds and the virtues that nurture them developed over time.

Civil societies were also communities but evolved away from the voluntary society to a more controlled society. While control could be imposed by policy, members would often become dependent upon society itself either because the alternative outside of that society was too difficult or dangerous or because members of society lost the ability to survive on their own.

There are a vast list of societies and forms of governments used to aid in the function of those societies.

The Greek city states, which provided a variety of community forms, Ancient Rome and its evolution into an imperial power. Ancient Israel, the Teuton tribes and confederations all came about, evolved and degenerated over the centuries.

From Cain to Nimrod or Pharaoh to Caesar we have seen civilizations and governments come and go.

What can we learn from their mistakes and policies?

And do we have the humility or wisdom to recognize their errors in our own pursuits and practices?

The ancient paths

Jesus was the Highest son of David and the anointed king of Judea which is why they called Him Christ. But his kingdom of God was not of or like the world of Rome. He was also to take the place of John the Baptist if John was killed which made Jesus both High priest and King.
Jesus as the Christ was not like the Fathers of the earth who called themselves Benefactors and made the people live by force, fear, and fealty. If we are to come in the name of Christ we must think differently, becoming doers of the word and learn to live by faith, hope, and charity by sitting down in a network of tens.

“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

"Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge," Proverbs 22:20

This writing is upon our heart and mind. It is God who gives us His identity through His Holy Spirit as we repent ad seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

The problem is not the world but us, and the knowledge we lack. We have forgotten the ancient ways of God which was the Way of Christ and while many are called few have the heart to see the truth of The Way and follow it in fellowship.

"Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways [from] the ancient paths, to walk in paths, [in] a way not cast up;" Jeremiah 18:15

Many will say the way of salvation or redemption is here or there but Christ told us the answer and gave us the keys to liberty under God.

Christ had His plan, called The Way which was The Blessed Strategy. We were told we would be entangled again in the elements of the world, become merchandise, curse children and become surety for debt. This would be because of covetous practices and abandoning the way, not because of the conspiracies and subterfuge of the world.

We should not think that we can just claim fraud and set ourselves free any more than Adam could exonerate his own failing by blaming the God and the woman He gave Adam.

We cannot save ourselves with the strategies of men nor our own cleverness. We are to repent and turn that repentance into action. To repent is to think differently. We can forgive so that we may be forgiven. We can gather together in patterns of ten to save others as Christ commanded so that we might be saved.

While we do these things Christ told us to do, and walk in His way we may have to pay our "tale of bricks" and even be friends with the unrighteous mammon Christ came to teach us "the art of being free" if we will have ears to hear and eyes to see and become doers of the will of the father.

I sympathize with those who see the present bondage of the world. I empathize with their struggle and pain but salvation is not by endless repetition of words and phrases of the law but by the whole truth of the perfect law of liberty and seeking the righteousness of God which we have neglected.

Are your assemblies rooted in the way of Christ or have you forsaken the gathering together?

The term perfected is associated with the adoption of Moses and redemption.

Moses was adopted into the family of the Pharaoh and Israel was set free by that adoption but they had to follow the leadership of Moses who redeemed them through that adoption. Moses' repentance from the exercising authority as the Pharaoh and his obedience to God opened a door to freedom and redemption from the bondage of Egypt. Jesus as high priest and King laid down his life so that we may also be redeemed if we are willing to repent and seek His kingdom of God and the righteousness of God.

You may not look to those benefactors who exercise authority but have you gathered to become the benefactors who exercise love?

Are your ministers of the Church/ekklesia gathered in the spirits of just men or those that Covet the wages of unrighteousness?

• "To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect," Hebrews 12:23

Is the ekklesia in one accord doing what Christ commanded and providing a daily ministration based in faith, hope, and charity of the general assembly?

• "Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was <5048> faith made perfect ?" James 2:22

Are the general assembly of the people and the Church keeping the word of Christ according to the law of love?

• "But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is <5048> the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." 1 John 2:5

If we will not live by that love, even love our enemies that they might be saved, how can we hope for the miracles of God?

If we will not gather as Christ commanded how can we love one another in the meaningful ways of the early Church?

• "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us... 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:12

• "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:23-26

Voluntary society

Society is people living together so that they are fruitful and not destroyed. A question is what and how is a community ordered. How is a free society bound together to make it strong enough to overcome the dangers and disasters of the world without jeopardizing the liberty of personal choice? Should society be formed from the bottom up by acts of service, love and mutual respect or top down through those who exercise authority through contracts, covenants and compacts?
Is the communion of a free society through charity or force?
Jesus was "another king" of a Society and community that made it possible for the people to survive and thrive during the decline and fall of the Imperial Cult of Rome.
History repeats itself but we have to understand its truths.
Abraham's society of friends and their Lively Stones of a Living Altar, before the witness of Melchizedek the righteous king of peace, were able to stop and defeat overnight an army from other societies that was ravaging local city states like perfect savages. They had formed an intentional community according to the perfect law of liberty. There are many mysteries revealed if we will have the patience to look and the courage to open our eyes and our hearts and our minds.

A voluntary society is one in which the right of the individual to make choices remains intact and un-infringed as long as they do not injure the rights of another.

The power to choose resides in every individual within the social structure of a family through which rights may be inherent.

All righteous government is by the consent of the individual. There are many forms and means whereby that consent may occur through the Nature Law.

In society there are standards, customs, and common practices established to protect those rights including prohibitions against stealing, killing or doing anything that may directly and or indirectly deprive other members of society of their right to pursue their own liberty to choose.

"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.

People living close to nature may be more aware of the cause and effect written in Nature itself which may be recognized as Natural Law.

They may also perceive because of this natural cause and effect that certain behaviors are more desirable to maintain a stable society that is capable of defending its members from threats both foreign and domestic. Those behaviors may be described as social virtues.

Such societies must reward virtue and discourage negative or non-virtuous behavior that may be called social vices. Lack of the practice of unselfish virtue may weaken individuals, breaking down the family, from which society is born, and undermine the social bonds and thereby degenerate society as a whole. When there is a degeneration of social bonds that should make society strong and viable against the forces of nature, usurpers or tyrants, the whole of society is threatened.

Any system, culture, custom, or practice which may restrict, relieve, reduces the responsibility of the individual may, and often does degenerate the life and viability of the spirit of liberty living in that individual and eventually even their perception of truth.

While a voluntary society is concerned with protection of the rights, health, and prosperity of all, they must also be aware of the need of morals, education(the accumulation of knowledge and skill), and the promotion of the general character of their fellow neighbor, both near and far.

They also know that they must express with some consistency concern for the well being of the poor amongst them, foreigner or sojourner who comes into contact with them, and even to the point of extending justice and mercy at times to their enemy.

While the needs of the many may seem to outweigh the needs of the one the sacredness of individual and that right to choose should outweigh the desires of the many or the rights of all will soon fall into condemnation and peril.

Social forces

Some societies where people care about themselves more than their neighbor will be tempted to insure what had been social bonds through contractual bonds including oaths of fealty, national allegiance, and systems of one purse. The Golden calf of the Bible was an example of consolidating the control of the wealth of society in the hands of a few.

Such systems do create the bands of a society but also produces fealty and with that power may become centralized and in the hands of the few, or in a democracy in the hands of the many at the peril of individual choice and liberty.

In a voluntary society there would be no taxation or tribute, no mandatory service nor systems of corvee. There would be no king to exercise authority and therefore no legal charity nor Corban provided by forced compliance.

All societies and members of society may have needs as individuals or families. It is the means by which society attends to these social needs which determines the nature and strength of its social bonds and therefore the health and liberty within society. It has been long understood that there is a human responsibility in every individual to attend to the honest needs of their fellow man.

We see this cause and effect expressed in the golden rule, in the sayings of wise social reformers like Moses and Jesus and others we think of the promoters of religion who said "love thy neighbor as thy self".

Religion in ancient times was often expressed in symbols and personalities through stories and myths but in essence it was defined as how you love the character of the Creator of life and how you cared and loved your neighbor as yourself. Pure Religion in the Bible was how you fulfilled that duty to your fellow man of justice and mercy without the use of force, or oaths of fealty the the governments of the world.

We are warned in the New Testament that we must not engage in covetous practices or we will become merchandise and curse children, our own and our neighbors. "Judge not" lest ye be judged suggests that if you judge it is okay to take from your neighbor then it must also be okay to take from you. Both early Israel and the early Church understood that desiring benefits at the expense of others was desiring the reward of unrighteousness and would lead us back into the bondage of Egypt.

It would seem that the Modern Church is ignorant of the truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom which can set the living free in real ways today.

The religions of the world are suffering from their own Mass Formation Psychosis. It would seem that before "fake news" there was the "fake good news" that has caused false religion to justify the covetous practices of public religion and the welfare state.

Christ was clear that we were not to go to the governments and rulers who "exercise authority" one over the other even though they called themselves "benefactors".

It is the means of social welfare that will predetermine the out come of liberty in society through cause and effect built into Natural Law of the universe.

Proverbs tells us to put a "knife" to our throat before we eat at the table of rulers. Christians would not eat at that table of Rome because they knew if they bite one another they would be devoured. The early Christians would not eat the free bread of welfare state which was the Christian conflict with Rome. They knew it was a snare and a trap.

Polybius even told us before Christ that the masses would become perfect savages if they did not curb our appetite for benefits at the expense of our neighbor and the future of their children.

Whatever actions taken, as a society or nation, is the result first of individual choice of the exercise of charity and sacrifice rather than any form of collective or legal charity.

"The bands of a free society are social bonds of Faith, Hope, and Charity and by nature are the antitheses of the bands of tyranny which are force, fear, and fealty."

"The former is mutually dependent through the exercise of love and sacrifice by The Way of freewill sacrifice according to the perfect law of liberty and the independent choices of the individuals of society gathered in a fractal network as Jesus Christ and the God of Nature commanded."

"The benefits provided by the force of governments can only provide the people with the wages of unrighteousness culturing licentiousness and vices among a slothfull people who choose to engage in covetous practices which both curse children and makes them merchandise."

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