Christ has as much to do with state capitalism as He has to do with state socialism. Christ's kingdom is not of this world (untill he returns) and while he has not returned it's not the Christians aim to establish a political system, as this has nothing to do with following Christ.
This view fundamentally misunderstands Jesus's message. When Jesus said his kingdom was "not of this world," he wasn't endorsing political quietism. His ministry directly challenged economic and political systems that oppressed the poor.
The Greatest Commandment - to love God and neighbor - has real-world implications for how we structure our economy and society. We can't truly love our neighbors while supporting systems that exploit them.
Jesus consistently sided with the poor and condemned the wealthy. He overturned the money-changers' tables, condemned exploitation, and told the rich to give away their wealth. The early church practiced economic communalism. This wasn't abstract spirituality - it was practical action.
Christians aren't called to be passive observers of injustice while waiting for Christ's return. We're called to work for God's kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven" - which means actively opposing systems that create poverty and working for economic justice now.
The actions of Jesus were not political actions and neither are his commands about supporting any system. We can't truly love our neighbors while supporting systems that exploit them, this is exactly true and that's why Christ doesn't support capitalism nor socialism. But He came as a servant, not as a politician.
Quite frankly if you don't think Jesus was political, we're not even reading the same Bible. I don't know how anyone could look at the misery of this world—which is a product of the "political"—and think Jesus would be alright with it.
Okay, then show where Jesus in the bible makes political statements about how we should organize government? Jesus Christ asked us to care for the poor, but this is for His followers and never does he ask us to make this into a system in any political way. Or do you define politics in another way? It seems we probably are reading a different bible. Where am I saying Jesus would be alright with suffering? He's just not fixing it with politics.
Your misunderstanding what politics is. Politics isn't just what's on CNN, it;s the way we decide collectively as a community or society to distribute power and come together cooperatively. Because—like it or not—humans have to live together in order to survive. This was true before the advent of agriculture, and it's even more true after it. Thus, because we have to live together, we have to figure out and decide upon the general rules of living together.
What society has decided upon - that is, our current politics - is that the wealthy (the people who already have a lot of money) get to endlessly exploit the workers (the people who have only their labor - or less - to sell on the anything-but-free market). This system creates an evil amount inequality where the eight richest men own as much wealth as half the world, or 3 billion people (Oxfam, 2017). So our society - through politics (more explicitly, political economy) - allows children to starve to death while others have more money than they could spend in a 1,000 lifetimes.
Thus, any clear-headed reading of the Greatest Commandment would see this as a violation of the God's order that we must love our neighbors. It's a political statement in the truest sense. The Greatest Commandment is not, love your neighbors only if you can see them, or only if they're American, or only if they are selling their labor. Is the starving child in Africa not my neighbor? Is the Central American migrant who is trying to cross into the US with her two children because CAFTA devastated her home country not my neighbor?
Jesus's message was political from the very start. In his first sermon in Luke 4:18-19, he explicitly declares he came to "proclaim release to the captives...let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" - referring to the Jubilee year when debts were forgiven and economic inequality was reset. Is that not a call to do the same?
Further, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) challenged existing power structures, offering an alternative vision of society based on justice and care for the marginalized. When Jesus says "Blessed are the poor" and "woe to you who are rich" (Luke 6:20-26), he's making a clear statement—not just about helping the poor, but about economic systems.
And that's not even mentioning Jesus's cleansing of the Temple. It was a direct action against the economic exploitation happening there. He physically disrupted a system that was oppressing poor people under the guise of religion.
And we must always remember that Jesus was executed not for blasphemy but sedition. Jesus was not executed by the religious authorities, Jesus was executed by the Roman state specifically because his message and movement threatened their political order. The charge posted on his cross - "King of the Jews" - was explicitly political. To not see this is to deny the truth of Christ.
What are the communities formed by the Christians? Exactly: Christian communities. It's not for unbelievers, since you cannot force them, neither does Christ or Paul. Love cannot be forced .The way Christ distributes power is by serving others in love and we are to follow him by taking up our cross. People who do not follow his commandments, will have to stand accountable for God. What is political about those passages you quote? It are statements about reality we believe and should act accordingly, but again it cannot be applied with force. About the cleansing of the temple, maybe you should read the Gospel of John why Christ has authority to cleanse the temple. I'm now leaving this discussion and we'll stand accountable for God, but I think you're in serious error by trying to force your politics inti Christ's message.
Maybe you’d care to explain why the most misery and poverty is currently found in socialist/communist countries like Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, China before Deng, and the old USSR.
This argument relies on several false premises. First, it ignores how U.S. economic warfare, sanctions, and military interventions have deliberately undermined socialist experiments. Cuba has been under crushing U.S. sanctions for over 60 years. Venezuela faces extensive U.S. sanctions. The USSR faced decades of military encirclement and economic isolation.
Despite this, Cuba has achieved universal healthcare, high literacy rates, and lower infant mortality than the U.S. Before U.S.-backed coups and sanctions, Venezuela dramatically reduced poverty through social programs. China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty since its revolution.
The real question is why capitalist countries like Haiti, Honduras, and Guatemala - firmly in the U.S. sphere of influence - remain in desperate poverty despite abundant resources. The answer is that capitalism doesn't create prosperity - it extracts wealth from the Global South to enrich the Global North.
This ignores how Nordic social democracies have achieved high living standards through strong social programs. It also ignores how the U.S. achieved its prosperity through slavery, indigenous genocide, and imperial exploitation - not free market capitalism.
What creates poverty is not socialism but imperialism, which uses military force and economic coercion to maintain global inequality. Any honest analysis must account for how powerful nations actively prevent independent development in the Global South.
Not buying it at all. China was dirt poor under traditional communism. As soon as Deng allowed some capitalism, poverty dropped drastically. North Korea is a hell hole. South Korea has grown like a weed, economically. Cuba received massive subsidies from the USSR and still maintained high levels of poverty. Their health care system is highly overrated. Nordic countries gave up on socialism because it didn’t work. They just have high taxes, low corruption and a good work ethic. That wealth that was allegedly extracted from the global south went to their corrupt leaders’ swiss bank accounts. Jesus had many opportunities to speak to the rich and powerful and his message was not to give to the poor, but to quit being greedy hypocrites and recognize him as the Christ, the son of the Living God.
I have been watching "The Chosen" as it was recommended to me. It is educational and interesting to see Bible stories I have retained come to life in this adaptation of Jesus' life. Your stacks are timely and further educate me.
As an aside, my adult journey with organized religion started in the Born Again movement of the late 1970s when I accepted Christ. That 50-year convoluted pathway has led me to openly admit I am an atheist. I have always said to my Evangelical Christian friends, "I support your beliefs as long as they do no harm to you or to anyone else." I think we are now at a time in history when many Christians are doing great harm to others and it will come back to reflect on them individually.
This is an indept teaching. Remain blessed.
Thank you for posting this important information.
Thank you Mark for your support!
Christ has as much to do with state capitalism as He has to do with state socialism. Christ's kingdom is not of this world (untill he returns) and while he has not returned it's not the Christians aim to establish a political system, as this has nothing to do with following Christ.
This view fundamentally misunderstands Jesus's message. When Jesus said his kingdom was "not of this world," he wasn't endorsing political quietism. His ministry directly challenged economic and political systems that oppressed the poor.
The Greatest Commandment - to love God and neighbor - has real-world implications for how we structure our economy and society. We can't truly love our neighbors while supporting systems that exploit them.
Jesus consistently sided with the poor and condemned the wealthy. He overturned the money-changers' tables, condemned exploitation, and told the rich to give away their wealth. The early church practiced economic communalism. This wasn't abstract spirituality - it was practical action.
Christians aren't called to be passive observers of injustice while waiting for Christ's return. We're called to work for God's kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven" - which means actively opposing systems that create poverty and working for economic justice now.
The actions of Jesus were not political actions and neither are his commands about supporting any system. We can't truly love our neighbors while supporting systems that exploit them, this is exactly true and that's why Christ doesn't support capitalism nor socialism. But He came as a servant, not as a politician.
Quite frankly if you don't think Jesus was political, we're not even reading the same Bible. I don't know how anyone could look at the misery of this world—which is a product of the "political"—and think Jesus would be alright with it.
Okay, then show where Jesus in the bible makes political statements about how we should organize government? Jesus Christ asked us to care for the poor, but this is for His followers and never does he ask us to make this into a system in any political way. Or do you define politics in another way? It seems we probably are reading a different bible. Where am I saying Jesus would be alright with suffering? He's just not fixing it with politics.
Your misunderstanding what politics is. Politics isn't just what's on CNN, it;s the way we decide collectively as a community or society to distribute power and come together cooperatively. Because—like it or not—humans have to live together in order to survive. This was true before the advent of agriculture, and it's even more true after it. Thus, because we have to live together, we have to figure out and decide upon the general rules of living together.
What society has decided upon - that is, our current politics - is that the wealthy (the people who already have a lot of money) get to endlessly exploit the workers (the people who have only their labor - or less - to sell on the anything-but-free market). This system creates an evil amount inequality where the eight richest men own as much wealth as half the world, or 3 billion people (Oxfam, 2017). So our society - through politics (more explicitly, political economy) - allows children to starve to death while others have more money than they could spend in a 1,000 lifetimes.
Thus, any clear-headed reading of the Greatest Commandment would see this as a violation of the God's order that we must love our neighbors. It's a political statement in the truest sense. The Greatest Commandment is not, love your neighbors only if you can see them, or only if they're American, or only if they are selling their labor. Is the starving child in Africa not my neighbor? Is the Central American migrant who is trying to cross into the US with her two children because CAFTA devastated her home country not my neighbor?
Jesus's message was political from the very start. In his first sermon in Luke 4:18-19, he explicitly declares he came to "proclaim release to the captives...let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" - referring to the Jubilee year when debts were forgiven and economic inequality was reset. Is that not a call to do the same?
Further, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) challenged existing power structures, offering an alternative vision of society based on justice and care for the marginalized. When Jesus says "Blessed are the poor" and "woe to you who are rich" (Luke 6:20-26), he's making a clear statement—not just about helping the poor, but about economic systems.
And that's not even mentioning Jesus's cleansing of the Temple. It was a direct action against the economic exploitation happening there. He physically disrupted a system that was oppressing poor people under the guise of religion.
And we must always remember that Jesus was executed not for blasphemy but sedition. Jesus was not executed by the religious authorities, Jesus was executed by the Roman state specifically because his message and movement threatened their political order. The charge posted on his cross - "King of the Jews" - was explicitly political. To not see this is to deny the truth of Christ.
What are the communities formed by the Christians? Exactly: Christian communities. It's not for unbelievers, since you cannot force them, neither does Christ or Paul. Love cannot be forced .The way Christ distributes power is by serving others in love and we are to follow him by taking up our cross. People who do not follow his commandments, will have to stand accountable for God. What is political about those passages you quote? It are statements about reality we believe and should act accordingly, but again it cannot be applied with force. About the cleansing of the temple, maybe you should read the Gospel of John why Christ has authority to cleanse the temple. I'm now leaving this discussion and we'll stand accountable for God, but I think you're in serious error by trying to force your politics inti Christ's message.
Maybe you’d care to explain why the most misery and poverty is currently found in socialist/communist countries like Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, China before Deng, and the old USSR.
This argument relies on several false premises. First, it ignores how U.S. economic warfare, sanctions, and military interventions have deliberately undermined socialist experiments. Cuba has been under crushing U.S. sanctions for over 60 years. Venezuela faces extensive U.S. sanctions. The USSR faced decades of military encirclement and economic isolation.
Despite this, Cuba has achieved universal healthcare, high literacy rates, and lower infant mortality than the U.S. Before U.S.-backed coups and sanctions, Venezuela dramatically reduced poverty through social programs. China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty since its revolution.
The real question is why capitalist countries like Haiti, Honduras, and Guatemala - firmly in the U.S. sphere of influence - remain in desperate poverty despite abundant resources. The answer is that capitalism doesn't create prosperity - it extracts wealth from the Global South to enrich the Global North.
This ignores how Nordic social democracies have achieved high living standards through strong social programs. It also ignores how the U.S. achieved its prosperity through slavery, indigenous genocide, and imperial exploitation - not free market capitalism.
What creates poverty is not socialism but imperialism, which uses military force and economic coercion to maintain global inequality. Any honest analysis must account for how powerful nations actively prevent independent development in the Global South.
Not buying it at all. China was dirt poor under traditional communism. As soon as Deng allowed some capitalism, poverty dropped drastically. North Korea is a hell hole. South Korea has grown like a weed, economically. Cuba received massive subsidies from the USSR and still maintained high levels of poverty. Their health care system is highly overrated. Nordic countries gave up on socialism because it didn’t work. They just have high taxes, low corruption and a good work ethic. That wealth that was allegedly extracted from the global south went to their corrupt leaders’ swiss bank accounts. Jesus had many opportunities to speak to the rich and powerful and his message was not to give to the poor, but to quit being greedy hypocrites and recognize him as the Christ, the son of the Living God.
I have been watching "The Chosen" as it was recommended to me. It is educational and interesting to see Bible stories I have retained come to life in this adaptation of Jesus' life. Your stacks are timely and further educate me.
As an aside, my adult journey with organized religion started in the Born Again movement of the late 1970s when I accepted Christ. That 50-year convoluted pathway has led me to openly admit I am an atheist. I have always said to my Evangelical Christian friends, "I support your beliefs as long as they do no harm to you or to anyone else." I think we are now at a time in history when many Christians are doing great harm to others and it will come back to reflect on them individually.
I absolutely agree.