The description of Christian economics in Acts 4… sounds a lot like “communism”, right? I’m not crazy for thinking that?
“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”———Acts 4:32-35 NRSVUE
Lots of people have maybe skewed versions of socialism and communism, and I don’t think this is an exact comparison because the 1st Century didn’t exactly have a means of production, but it is a redistribution of wealth and in modern terms would be seen as socialist.
(For anyone wondering: I define communism as a stateless, classless, moneyless society. The apostles I think would be considered the state, because the wealth isn’t co-owned by ALL the Christian’s. But it would still be under the socialist umbrella)
This IS, however, what a lot of capitalists would see as straight-up “communism”. Giving land/resources/everything to leaders and having it redistributed. And in the Bible, this is seen as a good thing! I think a lot of people, especially American Christians who are pro-capitalists, could use this passage to understand how socialism could be beneficial and also to destigmatize communism and learn what it really is.
But I think this tells us also that right-wing evangelicals.. don’t read their bibles. lol. Because if they saw this and actually CARED about the apostles actions, they would either not be Christian or they would not be such awful pro-capitalists who don’t care about communitarianism.
Anyway. Those are my thoughts. If I missed something I’ll edit this post later. This is technically me reposting it with more context because I don’t think my point was very clear in the first version. God bless everyone, love y’all :)
