"Jesus is Lord!" was treasonous in Rome, not a cute t-shirt slogan for youth pastors. Christians were regularly executed because they would not confess that, " Caesar is lord!"
Luk 6:22
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!
If the words,"Jesus is Lord!", is not treasonous, you're using it wrong.
#noKingButChrist
#Jesus
#JesusIsLord
Yeah I said this a fair bit during the national madness that was Elizabeth Windsor's funeral and the coming of 'King' Charles. Certainly divided opinion among fellow Christians, and showed how deeply people here cling to earthly pomp even when, on the surface, it appears to only be a figurehead.
I find a lot of the early Christians very impressive. Money and property held communally, proper attention paid to Matthew when he talks about giving away your wealth.
The subsequent history of Christianity mainly shows that a lot can go wrong over a couple of millenia :-)
" Money and property held communally,..." That turned out to be a failure. Which is why Paul had to raise money for them from Christians that didn't.
1 Corinthians 16:1-3
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
Communism is a long and dangerous dream. Always has been, always will be.
But by my reading of the bible, it's very hard for me to accept that someone is a real Christian once they are retaining more than the median resources for the society in which they live.
In the USA median wage is about $50Kpa. A real Christain blessed by God with the ability to make more, and who keeps it, has a hard time explaining to me why they are not using that surplus for good.
But that's just me.
Not sure you're seeing this exactly right?
#[2]
My take is this: All legit organization must be voluntary. The ecclesia at its inception in Acts was exactly that, *not at all* a state-compelled communism. And it was a roaring success for a time.
It was only considerably later--after concentrated persecution resulting in diaspora--that Paul found it necessary to take up a collection for "the po' folks back home" in Jerusalem. And even then, that gift was gathered in a 💯% voluntary fashion, for "God loves a cheerful giver."
Fair enough, I used Communism as a shorthand rather than it's formalism. Many groups tried holding all in common over the centuries before Marx tied it to the State.
I also accept it's a hard ask, even voluntarily. Hence my personal metric of median income in your society. It's unreasonable to expect an American to live in America on an Indian income. But is reasonable to as a rich American Christain why they are not living like an average American, and using the rest of their wealth for good.
FYI when i ask this of real people, they tend to either tell me the bible is poetry, not to be taken literally. Which is fine, when they take that approach to the Bible in general, but hilarious, (some might say hypocritical) when they say other parts have to be taken literally :-)
Well said.
I have to observe that, given the tools of BTC, Lightning ⚡, and Nostr, I am *so* excited and optimistic about the prospects for the ecclesia to break out of state bondage and do some serious advancing of the Kingdom of God...
The main problem I see that remains is waking the 🐏🐑 up to the new reality.😜😆
Yes.
What evidence do you have of a "roaring success”? It couldn't have lasted too long all the same players were alive.
Acts 1-7; and more specifically, Acts 5:14 and Acts 6:7 come to mind...
But then the great persecution of Acts 8 began... Tough on us, but served to spread the good news as believers scattered throughout the 🌍world...
"Jesus is LORD" is still treasonous today. Try giving the first-fruits of your "wages" to God... What's that you say? Your "employer" withheld that and gave it to the state-god instead?
#[0]
It's past time for the ecclesia to wake up and deny the presumptive 'territorial jurisdiction' of the state(s) (fiefdoms of satan that they are) and stand firmly on the assertion of No King But Christ Jesus.
https://peakd.com/library/@creatr/the-kingdom-of-jesus-god-the-heavens-my-library-shelf
This is the 🔥 that I doom scroll endlessly in search of.
