Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ Honor your father and your mother.’ ” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”
So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing.
Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
Acts 4:32-35:
Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.
Based on the scriptures below taught by Jesus, does it show Jesus Christ was a liberal and believed in socialism?
I'm guessing this is a reactionary post to when I spoke of conservatism. These are the typical attempts socialist Christians make to argue but no.
For one thing you're fleshing out a single part as if it's several indicators but the example of the rich man is where he asks Jesus what he needs to be *perfect* to which Jesus say to the rich man that what truly matters is if he has the heart to follow him and disregard wealth, not that wealth in itself is bad, or that him being rich is a sin.
And the second regarding the disciples concerns a particular period in their history where common ownership was the best way for them to live, furthermore, something socialists always want to ignore is that it was *voluntary*.
In another verse it speaks of those who are rich in this world to put their faith in God and not something as uncertain as wealth and to share in their riches. It doesn't say that being rich is a sin, on the contrary, it can be a blessing in the hands of good people. A very wealthy Christian pair I know who own the land I live on are amazing and humble people, they own their own company and make fortunes every week, they own several estates in the city, but are also the warmest, kindest and most generous souls, raising money for charity, sports centers for the youngsters and more. They are far more genuine in their faith than any I have met.
Paul furthermore states in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that "He who does not work shall not eat." And Proverbs is full of verses that exemplifies personal responsibility and right of ownership, as is the very ten commandments themselves: "Thy shalt not covet thine neighbors house."
Socialism is a completely failed ideology based in petty jealousy and deluded notions of utopia, that has lead to poverty, bankruptcy, uprisings, starvation and dictatorships every time it has been attempted, and has harvested multitudes of lives. Anyone propagating socialism, especially those who dare try to enforce ideology on Jesus ought to be deeply ashamed. Jesus is not something so mediocre and mundane as a revolutionary or political figure, He is the Son of God.
Who says in socialism nobody is going work? No one.
And, dude you're jumping through hopes to try to justify yourself and your conservativism. Lol... the disciples in the 1st century thought socialism was the best way to live but somehow now it isn't? Many European countries still practice socialism and live in prosperity.
Lastly I never said being rich is morally wrong, but being a greedy scum sure is being evil especially at the hurt and expense of the weak and vulnerable to exploit them financially.
I think you really need to read up on political ideologies and what they really stand for because I see holes in your knowledge here.
Socialism dictates the shared ownership of production by the people and a complete abolition of privatization, essentially a worldview of rights without obligations. There's a distribution of wealth meaning that no matter how hard you work your earnings won't be your earnings but will go to other people who work less hard. This is not Biblical to anyone who has opened the good book more than once.
"And, dude you're jumping through hopes to try to justify yourself and your conservativism". That's far too weak man. Far too weak to constitute an argument, you're just bantering.
I need not justify anything. I am a conservative and a Christian, Christian comes first and conservative second, but the Bible isn't socialist and you didn't properly address any point I actually made.
"Many European countries still practice socialism and live in prosperity." Oh vey. No, not at all. But humor me, name one. Seriously, name *one*. This'll be interesting given my education in political science.
"somehow now it isn't?" No. Exactly. Because again we're speaking of a small period during the disciples' starting to evangelize. Paul himself had a private enterprise in tent making and his own "account" so to speak of savings and funds. And the New Testament is rife with using business and business owners as good examples of stewardship, take the parable of the wealthy man who went away to be king and entrusted money to three servants. Two made business and increased his wealth, the other merely dug the money into the ground out of fear of his master. But the master punished him for having been lazy and faithless and not having posited money into the bank to double it, and this parable does not speak ill of the master but of the servant, meaning to say that we as believers are to bear good fruit and multiply the blessings God gives us. Then we have proverbs that literally states that a good man is to invest in his community and build businesses, and that "In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” Proverbs. 14:23.
What we have here is you grasping for straws to justify a disgusting ideology rooted in complete negligence of reality, as Margaret Thatcher said; The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples' money.
Just please man, read the Bible with honest and not biased eyes. Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, because there is judgement over false teachings like this. Your rationale is superficial and lacking, and you base your arguments on hatred of conservatives rather than a desire for truth.
I'm not advocating against business owners and private enterprise nor private great wealth as you seem to interpret, but I am against greedy capitalist or governments who support exploitation of the needy, desperate and disadvantaged for the sake of a dollar.
A dollar and more profits matters more to them than the welfare of a human being especially those at socially bottom.
That's all well and good. But it is one thing to want to see better ethical restrictions on capitalism, and advocate for socialism, a failed experiment on society.
Capitalism has raised a third of the world out of abject poverty and has seen the greatest percentage of well off people out of all economical models. Does capitalism have bad sides, yes, all models have. But unlike socialism, capitalism doesn't make any claim to being the flawless liberation of mankind that will create utopia, and unlike socialism capitalism actually works.
So base your critique on that backdrop instead. Or by all means travel to places where socialism has been attempted like Venezuela which is bankrupt and starving, or Cuba where unemployment is sky high, or North Korea where government intervention is absolute and people's homes are dark because the state decides how much electricity you get and when.
What the Scandinavian countries have done is to have a Free Market system restrained by ethical laws and undergirded by a welfare system. This is FAR from socialism, and the backbone of economic success here comes from enterprises, (IKEA, Volvo, H&M, Ericsson, Nokia, Scania etc.).
Alright, but as I hope you know China isn't in Europe.
China's economy is a hybrid of socialist and market economies with state owned enterprises and foreign private businesses, they largely use economic planning. And for decades, western China has been absolutely destitute on the countryside well below the poverty line. It is only recently now improving thanks to increasing trade and foreign investment. So what has actually saved China is that it hasn't full on been socialist, even then the economy hasn't been all that great.
To a degree or not it doesn't matter, the answer is the same, no country on earth practices full on Socialism. And if capitalism is your main economic model of choice, then maybe not try to propagate for socialist Jesus? And don't just haphazardly claim that there are prosperous and successful socialist nations out there when you clearly have no real example of it.
You are misinterpreting scripture and this is very common.
It wasn’t wealth itself that kept the rich young man from following Jesus. It was the LOVE of money and possessions that interfered with his desire to follow good. Money in itself is not evil.
1 Timothy 6:10 “For the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.” It is not “Money is the root of all evil”. Quit twisting it.
Yes some people abuse capitalism to exploit others out of greed. Yes it can create monopolies that are anticompetitive and exploit workers (Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon are all monopolies but they pay lip service homage to the woke culture so liberals let them off the hook).
But nowhere did Jesus say that the government should tax all its citizens and redistribute wealth. No where is this mentioned in the Bible (old or New Testament) period. The underlying motivation of this is envy which in itself is a detestable sin.
Also the elitists who push this crap would be considered tax collectors. They enriched themselves unfairly by taking of other Jews. Tax collectors do NOT have a good reputation if you actually read the New Testament.
I'm not twisting nothing. Nowhere in the Bible it says you have to tax people at a certain amount or what economic method a government can or can't use.
The Bible clearly teaches against oppression, greed, and commands for workers to be paid a fair wage. In fact in the book of James teaches God will destroy those who abuse workers who are defenseless at the hand of their oppressors.
I don’t defend greed. I don’t deny capitalism does sometimes lead to exploitation. But communism kills. Don’t deny it because we seen this happen in throughout history in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and the Soviet Union. China also has a horrible record of human rights abuses. However their current government system is much more complicated.
But socialism is rooted in envy and has always harmed economic development and innovation. It punishes people who put the extra work, discipline and sacrifice wanting to excel.
Even when Jesus walked the earth people were as mean and hateful and selfish as they are now. Why do u think he was condemned for being caring and loving and understanding.
U can't force people to follow his words. All u can do is love all ur brothers and sisters even if their beliefs do not line up with yours.
And take care of as many people as you can and hope your caring actions inspire as many as possible to do the same.
Jesus wasn't hated and condemned because he was loving, caring and understanding.. lol he was hated because he testified that people were evil to their face and they hated him for it.
Amos 5:10:
They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, And they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.
John 7:7: Jesus speaking
The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
His actions were a threat to their way of life that they were used to and he showed a better way and not a way they wanted the world to know, so they villianized him.
The gentiles hated Him and crucified Him because they didn’t believe He was the messiah and they Jesus to prove He wasn’t but 3 days later the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty showing that He was and still is the Son of God.
@OddBeMe You didn't even watch the video. You don't need to be religious to learn from the bible. Most self help and self growth books are things taken from the bible, and made more atheist friendly. Your attitude will always keep you broke.
Only a crazy person would think Jesus was a socialist. The man would have to give up all he had to follow Christ because he constantly moved around. You can't take sheep with you.
Also he said you shouldn't lie, cheat and steal that would eliminate him as a liberal. He said man is has dominion over animals, so that means you can kill and eat meat. Which liberals don't believe you should eat animals.
He also said if you don't work , then you should not eat. That doesn't sound like he was for food stamps.
He also told the woman at the well , she had many husbands (sex with a lot of men) , saved her from being stoned and told her sin no more. Meaning sex with anyone you not married to is a sin. Liberals think sex with 6 year old is great.
He also said a man should not lay with a man like he lays with a woman, meaning homosexuality is a sin and wrong. Name me a liberal that believes that.
Still believe he is a liberal? He would have been more Republican than a Democrat. I am sure he wouldn't like what many Republicans are doing either, but at least they believe the bible exists. They don't think praying is evil. They are also ok with preachers talking about politics in church services.
I just want to say something. I think I have said something like this similarly in the past. I may disagree with you. I may go off on you and call you names.
But never forget that I respect you as a man.
You are not a coward. I know you are the same here at GaG as you with people you meet in life. And that is about the biggest compliment I can give to another man.
As for your post. I think we got it all wrong. Jesus would never run for office.
Mark 12:17
Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
Yes. But Socialism is a manmade construct. I mean true socialism only fails because man is evil by nature. One thing i always enjoyed learning about Christianity and all the other mystery cults of the time. Is that The Christians were smart enough to make their religion a VERY marketable one. One could say Christianity survived to this day because. Basically anyone could join. You didn't have to have wealth or status. That's why i like rhis passage you posted. Because a poor person really had nothing to lose following Jesus. The same could not be said for the rich. Jim Gaffigan does a dunny bit on this @ the 1:25 mark
I'm not sure. Those types of policies can force other people to give. It is not voluntary. Voluntary action is commendable as I see it and in line with the values, I understand of Christianity. Like a man who gives of his own pocket is great. A man who forces another at gunpoint to give doesn't seem so great.
Not forcing someone to give out of their own, but rather policies where greedy capitalists can't exploit the disadvantaged and vulnerable. A CEO making over 300× more than his employees salary is unbelievable and unjust.
Damn greedy capitalist without restrain exploited children and put them in harms way for the sake of making a buck and to this day the same tactic exist, where profits is more important than the welfare of a human being.
Agreed but I think even if we take a filty rich, horrible type like that and force him to give, to redistribute, then it takes the virtue out of giving. It takes the free will thing out of it. It's probably an overly optimistic view to expect anything much to happen by leaving everyone with a choice. But I figure from a moral perspective, the idea is supposed to be to teach, persuade, rather than force.
It will be law. A CEO and corporation can't make X amount times more than his employees and employees must be paid a fair and just wage with dignity.
In Denmark a Macdonalds employee makes $22 a hour, has healthcare, 6 week paid vacation and a Big Mac over there just cost 27 cents more than the U. S. Big Mac burger.
I'd get all behind it if I could see that working in the US. From what I can tell though of countries with fairly generous social programs is that they have a homogeneous population that largely agrees on the issues, and feels like the government is providing them all a service. I think that's partly what makes things work without people rioting over the extremely high taxes. They mostly feel like they're getting back something in return. I think with a country as large and as divided though as the US, it's much tougher to pull such things off effectively... a lot more money goes down the drain through the middleman, and the divisiveness often leads to policies that are the worst of both worlds.
You're right. Homogeneous society is were it will work.
The U. S. is too divided in terms of race, ethnicity, religions and people by the millions from literally every country around the world. Diversity doesn't work because humans by nature are tribal.
I think the difficulty with bureaucracies in those cases is that so many conflicting opinions exist that the compromise ends up being the worst possible solution. On diversity though, I think diversity and unity aren't exactly polar opposite ideas... but unity is especially important as I see in a culture with people of diverse backgrounds. Like Rome was extremely diverse -- the Roman empire assimilated all sorts of people from various cultures across the Mediterranean. But in spite of all these cultural backgrounds, they were extremely united in terms of "Roman" values... so much so that ex-slaves turned into proud Roman citizens. I sometimes wonder if that's a requirement for harmony -- especially in a diverse ground... like the people need to largely share the same subset of ideals, values.
Rome is Europe which means nearly all of them were white and look like each other. Yes unity in other aspects like values and cultures are important but people will be much less resistant to a person that looks nothing like them.
A Sub-Saharan African can have the same values and ideas as a Chinese person but they look totally different from one another then suspicions, doubts and fear creep into their minds.
It just won't work because people feel comfortable with people who look like them.
I've seen some cases that seem to offer hope at least as far as diversity of looks... but mixed bags. Like Singapore. I've never seen such a teeny place with such a diverse range of people. And Singapore still has its share of issues but relatively small in my experience for such a small place packed full of people from all over the world. But they seem to do a good job there with the whole unity and "homogeneity" thing in spite of it by fostering a strong sense of national pride... "S-I-N-G-APORE! Gooo Singapore!" That sort of stuff -- people of all sorts proudly waving Singaporean flags. The downside that I saw is that the government infringes on personal liberties... freedom of speech is like a repressed country there -- strong censorship, no criticizing of the government in public media, that sort of stuff. And the penalties for violating laws are extremely harsh.
I'm all pragmatic but the way I see it is like, in a country that is sufficiently small/homogeneous where the people genuinely believe that the government is "for the people, by the people", they can get away with a lot more social programs, higher taxes, more regulations. Because people believe in it. But in a country where people are all jaded and so divided, I tend to think the safer side is a smaller government. I'm happy either way though -- whatever works -- to mitigate suffering.
Jesus also said that you are to become a snake handler and heal the sick with magic.
Mark 16:17–18
17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: bin my name they will cast out demons; cthey will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
I don't have a horse in this race. However, I felt I needed to point out that all these scriptures are describing is Jesus being compassionate in attitude towards the poor and encouraging voluntary donation--none of which is precluded by capitalism. The only thing that capitalism precludes is forced redistribution of wealth by the state, of which these scriptures make no mention.
Jesus the great philosopher would not be for Socialism you’re right in the sense he be a liberal but he be a classical liberal which is now conservative nowadays we’re talking about Edmund Burke John Locke basically the liberal party of the 1700s and 1800s
Socialism and communism aren't voluntary. They are forced on you! Being generous to the less fortunate, is voluntary.
The Bible cites- quite literally- hundreds of passages about helping the less fortunate, most notably being the "widows and orphans", and about God loving a cheerful giver.
Jesus was certainly more liberal than the authorities of his day and he was a strong believer in charity and good works. However he said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are Gods." So either he wasn't much interested in politics or he didn't favour a tax-cutting agenda.
I think the difference is, he wanted this to be done voluntarily, not by force of some governing body. That people should share what they have out of the goodness of their own hearts.
We don't pay taxes for religious reasons. It is not a good deed if it is taken from you by force, and you have no choice in the matter. You asked if what you shared showed that Jesus believed in socialism. I'm assuming you want people to give their take on it. Mine is that I think he wanted it to be voluntary. That's my take. Like it or don't. Take it or leave it.
I was with you until I saw "FOX NEWS" so you're opposed to free speech, free exchange of ideas and want silence everyone that disagrees with you. Welcome to Cuba Comrade...
Communists don't believe in God or allow religion, so Jesus would never be a Communist. Heaven is a Kingdom. Last I remember , Communists in Russia killed their last King and his whole family. But you liberals keep rewriting history as fiction.
There are rich Socialists. The bible says it is hard for a rich man to make it, but it says it is hard for believers to make it. The path to heaven is narrow , but the path to hell is wide.
I know so, Stalin was rich, Hitler was rich, Hitler's confederates were rich. They had the most expensive paintings in the world. Bill Gates is a socialist and he sure ain't poor. Your problem is that you don't know what a Conservative is or a Socialist.
I know exactly what I am talking about , you are the one misinforming the people. You are not even a Christian. Sounds like you have turned away for Christ to me.
@888theGreat: lol.. you don't come to close to me on how much I love God, and fear God and love the Bible. You are completely ignorant of the Bible, bet you don't ever read it.
read it all. Your problem is that you are the false religion which is Catholic. You have the bible and your own bible and when a conflict comes between the bible and your added to the Catholic bible, you choose your catholic rules bible over it and that is why you won't be in heaven after you die. The bible clearly says don't add to or take away from the scriptures. The best thing for you is to give up your cult and just use the bible.
Home > Society & Politics > Questions > Based on the scriptures below taught by Jesus, does it show Jesus Christ was a liberal and believed in socialism?
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