The essay on ‘Communism and the Bible’ throws light on the fact as to whether the Bible promoted communism or not. Jesus has mentioned two verses which point out to the fact that there was existence of communism in Christianity and that all Christians had to surrender their possessions to the needy. He as well quotes the capitalist views and refers to it by stating that whatever is due to the emperor will go to him and whatever is due to God, shall go to him. Therefore, we can say that Christians used to help the needy and were generous in their donations. The following references ‘Christian communism and ‘All things in common: The economic practices of the early Christians.’ point to these factors.
The great ruler Constantine made Christianity a sovereign religion. The texts encouraged the people to live a simple life by giving to the poor (Culture Matters, n.d.). Many have the thought that Communism and religion cannot overlap, however, Christianity in communism dates back to thousands of years. The two key verses in the Bible depict that the Bible was in favor of and supported Communism. Karl Kautsky was the one who brought forth the Christian communism. He was a Marxist. He was the one who led the German social-democratic movement. He and his friend Engels set up the foundations of Christian communism. However, it was Karl Kautsky who along with his other partners was instrumental in developing it further (Boer,R. n.d.).
The Gospels in the Bible contain many sayings that pose a challenge to Romans ideas of private property, the rule by an emperor and torturing the colonized areas. The challenge to private property is quoted by Jesus in his own words as” it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”. In another verse he quotes saying “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. His meaning is that god has to get everything while Caesar should not get anything as he feels that Rome has not given anything to the people (Culture Matters, n.d.).
Kautsky puts forth two views on Christianity, he stated that one aspect was power based on economic policies and a substitute for it and the second was a force to institute communism which could not be done away with and was going to be prevalent in the following years. Kautsky stated that the early Christians were communists and they had all their possessions kept in a treasury and distributed to needy persons. However, in this case, the production of goods was not increased and people had to find out other ways to procure goods for distribution. He introduces the Dulcinians, who were the active and revolutionary form of the Christian communism (Boer,R. n.d.).
The Gospel mentions two verses in Acts 2-44, 45 and 4-32-35 which relate to an egalitarian thought and practice of a group which believed in following ideological principles. This community stood united against a brutal Roman empire. Capitalism had become imbibed in the people’s minds where one could see only materialistic things in a human being. None could come out of this thinking even if they desired to, as it had become deeply rooted in them. It was only the Christian community that invoked people to detach themselves from this bondage and create the world as a better place to live in (Montero,R.2017). The first Act principles did not hold on for long as people could not hold back their selfish attitudes and capitalist thinking. The other reason was the Christians in the early period were very generous that they forsook everything they possessed hoping that Jesus would come and save them. The other Act 4:35 says that anyone who is needy had to give whatever they had even if it meant selling their possessions. This was carried out by the apostles rather than by the individuals themselves. However, this led to the impoverishment of the Jerusalem Christians and they had to seek the mercy of other Christians who were not involved in this Act. Actually the
