The religious left is rising up with a new found boldness and turning up their rhetoric to try and convince folks that its socialist agenda is actually true Christianity. Do not be fooled, it is not. A fallacy that both secular Socialists as well as the Religious Left try to promulgate is that the early church taught and practiced “socialism”. That assertion is completely specious based upon a presuppositional eisegesis but it is not at all a sound exegesis of either the text, or of the historical record of the early church.
Notwithstanding all their rhetoric and all their emotional assertions, the Gospel isn't a socialist manifesto by any stretch of the imagination. Furthermore, the early church did not practice socialism, and most certainly not as it is defined by Karl Marx or any of today's "Democratic Socialists". In fact, when you actually analyze it – Marxism is a complete corruption and distortion of Jesus's teachings and the early church's practice. "Christian socialism", in any of it's various forms, such as "progressive Christianity", or "liberation theology" are nothing other than a false gospel.
Despite protestations to the contrary, socialism take’s God out of the picture (Marx was a humanist and an atheist) and replaces God with the State. The state is the all Supreme Sovereign under socialism. Socialism is what you get when you remove the Sovereignty of God, the Holy Spirit, the Scripture’s, and Christian virtue and morality out of the equation of benevolent giving.
There is a fundamental distinction that is essential and crucial to understand. It is the distinction between "giving" as a voluntary contribution, or a confiscation by compulsion. Contribution, or confiscation? It's as simple as that.
Both in the Bible as a whole and with Jesus's teaching in particular, caring for the poor and needy, as well as a general altruism is an individualistic and personal virtue and responsibility. “But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17 )
The moral virtue of sharing & benevolence is to be voluntarily exercised, otherwise it would be no virtue at all. The Bible never once, not in the Law of Moses, or in Jesus teachings ever mandated a governmental confiscatory policy of wealth redistribution or a societal egalitarianism. Never once. And it is precisely this fundamental point that Socialists, both secular and the so-called Christian Progressives, fail to acknowledge and grasp. Knowing and understanding the fundamental difference between a voluntary contribution, or a governmental confiscation is absolutely essential. It is the difference between night and day.
Now, to be sure, there are sincere folks who appeal to the book of Acts (cf./ Acts 4:32) to suggest that the early church was socialist in its practice. However, that is a complete misunderstanding both of what the early church was practicing and what socialism actually espouses. Those who would appeal to the practice of the early church in the book of Acts, overlook the fact that what they began to practice was a voluntary benevolence, not a government enforced redistribution of wealth, nor was it even remotely a system where the Apostle’s (Viz. the church) owned and controlled the means of production!
Sadly however there never seems to be a shortage of those who want to twist the scriptures to fit their ideology. In an article published in the Washington Post, “It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity”, (Sept.19th, 2011), Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a Professor at the Chicago Theological Seminary, writes, “… the self-styled Christian capitalists don’t ever seem to recall that in the Book of Acts, the early disciples “shared all things in common. This is what the Bible actually says about the economic practices of Jesus’ followers: “Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common... There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need.” (Acts 4:32-35.)
The whole of Professor Thistlethwaite’s essay is full of scripture texts used out of context as a pretext for her socialist ideology. There is much in her article that this “theologian” asserts that is completely off the mark, but I will simply address her statement regarding the passage from Acts which she says we, “…self-styled Christian capitalists” ignore.
This passage has been used time and again by leftists as a proof-text for their socialist state ever since Socialist economic theory came into existence. Yet, what they constantly fail to grasp either by willful ignorance or duplicity is the very real difference between giving freely and giving by compulsion, they simply can’t seem to understand the difference between contribution and confiscation!
Professor Thistlethwaite states in regard to the passage’s in Acts, “This is what the Bible actually says about the economic practices of Jesus’ followers…” Well no, not whatsoever, actually, that is simply what her convoluted eisegesis would assert, but in fact, the bible does not make that a prescription of economic philosophy at all. The passage in Acts simply records what a local community of believers did spontaneously as a response to the needs of its own church community and not the populace on a whole. Furthermore, and this simply cannot be emphasized enough, it was NOT ordered to be done, nor commanded to be done by the Apostles, it was not mandated.
It never ceases to amaze me that when Bible believing Christians quote the bible, or want to refer to their faith in the discourse of public policy we are called ‘theocrats’ or even ‘hater’s’, yet when a leftist desires to quote the Bible, or appeals to Jesus they however, are called compassionate and caring! That observation aside, Susan Brooks article, “It’s not class- warfare; It’s Christianity” is pure sophistry. She goes on to say, “Americans sharing more equally in the burden of pulling our country out of massive debt, and using tax revenue to stimulate the economy and create jobs isn’t ‘class warfare,’ it’s actually Christianity.” Sorry Ms. Brooks, I can’t seem to find that chapter in my bible! Her article simply promulgates the age-old class warfare rhetoric the left has always utilized, and it is definitely not Christianity. As a Christian I absolutely believe in, and in fact, engage in charitable giving. However, confiscatory taxation for government largesse is not sharing, actually, it’s stealing from one group of people in order to "redistribute the wealth" to another group of people through an subjective and arbitrary metric of "fairness". But that is neither Christian nor biblical, it is however, the standard operating procedure for the false gospel of the "religious left".
These specious ideas are again given the veneer of Christianity in another article that was published in Patheos titled, “Jesus was a Socialist”, (by Chuck McKnight). In his column the author also makes an appeal to the Acts church as well. But it is quite telling what he admits to; “It’s not uncommon to hear people claim that the early church practiced a form of socialism. After all, the Book of Acts does seem to describe something along those lines… But Christians of a capitalist bent tend to brush this aside with a stock response. The Book of Acts, they point out, is descriptive rather than prescriptive. That is, these early believers acted voluntarily, and Acts merely records what they did, but the book stops short of actually instructing other believers to follow their example. Fair enough. On a technicality, they are correct.”
“On a technicality, they are correct.” Well! When it comes to proper biblical exegesis the “correct technicality” settles the issue! When you go beyond the “correct technicality” you then construct an ideology built upon eisegesis not exegesis!
Mcknight writes in his article: “… if we work together as a nation, we do have the resources to eradicate poverty. There’s enough to go around for everyone. The only reason this hasn’t yet happened is that we, as a nation, have allowed individuals to amass excessive wealth and thus hoard what should be communal resources—land, shelter, food, etc.” There is so much that is simply wrong with this statement, but the short of it is that his assertion is Marxism pure and simple, not Christianity!
To give from one’s resources freely is in fact a Christian virtue; to have it confiscated by governing authority however, is both theft and tyranny. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 9:7 “Let each one give just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” And the context of that verse in 2nd Corinthians is precisely for the collecting of funds for the poor of another church. The Bible never teaches benevolence by means of compulsion; the very idea is an oxymoron.
It is precisely because of America's Judeo-Christian roots and ethic's that we are the most generous and responsive nation of people on the face of the earth! When tragedy and need strikes here at home and around the globe we Americans are 2nd to none in freely giving! No, it is not a question of "helping the poor and those in need" that is the issue, that is nothing but a leftist straw man! It is their insistence that the government should be the arbiter of both my resources and my Christian virtue that is the issue!
However, it’s their policies of tax and spend, along with their waste, fraud, and inefficiencies that have done more harm than good to the plight of the poor and needy, and that is more than demonstrable! They have created a completely dependent segment of society, not because they are benevolent, compassionate, and caring, but solely to insure their power and the control of the state over the individual. And that is what Socialism is all about in a nutshell – control and power, under the guise of “fairness” and “justice”. However, the “fairness” and “justice” part never seems to actually work out in their socialist utopia.
Socialism masquerades as fairness, and compassion – but it has nothing to do with fairness and compassion – it is only about confiscation and control. It is an ideology that believes you exist for the sake of the state rather than the state existing for the sake of the people! That is a subtle but nonetheless, important distinction!
The religious left would rather Jesus be a government Social Worker than a personal Savior, to whom we must each give an account to. Ironically, by the way, aren’t these the same folks who are always pontificating to us about separation of church and state? If they want to be consistent about their “separation of church and state” mantra – then please don’t use the power of the state to implement a forced income redistribution under the banner of “Christianity”!
I wrote in a previous article; “In the past few decades an ideological theology has evolved in many churches and is given the euphemistic term of “the social gospel” or “Liberation theology”. However, there is no such thing as a “social gospel”. At least not in the sense the “religious left” promulgates it. The gospel is not a “social” gospel but rather it is a “soteriological” gospel. (viz. – a gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, not societal transformation through government mandate!).” (“Does the Bible teach socialism?" https://ajwhite777.wixsite.com/outd/post/does-the-bible-teach-socialism)
Make no mistake, the gloves are off, and the socialist’s and the authoritarian statist’s new found “Christian” friends are the liberal preachers and the false teachers of “social justice” and the "progressive Christianity" movement found on the "religious left". But let there be no doubt about it, it is a twisted and perverted gospel they peddle based on envy, class warfare, and covetousness, not biblical righteousness. What they advocate for is a false gospel based on the egalitarian theories and ideology of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, not the teachings of Jesus Christ, nor the teachings of the apostles, or the balanced teachings of the Bible on the whole. Winston Churchill had it exactly right when he said; “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” It most certainly however, isn’t the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Andy White -
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