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I remember hearing someone say many years ago that the early Christians lived by socialistic principles in the way they took care of each other. While that person may have been sincere, this is ignorance personified! In Acts 2:44 the Bible does say that the early believers “…had all things common…” But that in no way supports the idea that they operated as socialists. The early followers of Jesus chose to share their belongings with the other believers. They weren’t forced to do it by government mandate. They weren’t taxed by government and then had redistributed to other believers their goods. No! Out of the love of the Lord Jesus, Who lived inside them, they chose to give to their brothers and sisters in Christ what they needed. There’s a huge difference in those two ideas concerning how you meet the needs of the poor.
Socialism and Christianity do not mix! Karl Marx, the father of modern day socialism, knew this. Concerning his goal to establish communism, he listed his first goal as being…
“To dethrone God…”
(Agenda: Grinding America Down, Curtis Bowers, 2010)
Socialism, and its ultimate goal, communism, will not mix with Christianity. To try to mix them is like trying to mix oil and water. You might stir them up together; but when everything settles they will have divided off into two completely different entities. People who say they are Christians and want to mix socialism and Christianity either do not know the Lord at all, or they are so shallow in Him they know very little about how God thinks; which means they have never read very much of the Bible.
The socialistic principle of, “everybody getting free everything” goes completely against what God teaches in the Scripture. God told Adam, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…” (Genesis 3:19) God never intended for us to have to “sweat” to get our bread; labor came because of sin. However, God did intend for us to work, for He Himself works. Jesus stated, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” (John 5:17) The Apostle, Paul, told the Christians at Thessalonica, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) God teaches us the importance of work with His creation. He says in Proverbs, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-7) God’s animals work to get their food. He intends us to do the same!
Socialism promises free education, free health care, and free retirement. But make no mistake about it: Nothing is free in this world! God made it like Himself: He works, therefore every material gain is accompanied by someone’s working for it. If you get a “free” education, someone else is paying for it by the taxes the government took from that person’s work earnings.
Our real problem today isn’t the need of the poor in our land. Our real problem is that we’ve deserted the Scriptures as our guide for living in this world as well as the next! Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Our only choices are live by the Bible—or die by man’s philosophy.
President Andrew Jackson once said, about the Bible:
“That Book…is the Rock on which our republic rests.”
(America’s God and Country, Federer, p. 311)
Do you live by the Bible? Our nation won’t live by it unless we do, as individuals!
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.