RE: Who was Jesus?
August 22, 2021 at 8:41 am
(This post was last modified: August 22, 2021 at 8:44 am by Fake Messiah.)
(August 21, 2021 at 11:02 pm)Mashmont Wrote: Communism includes violence. The disciiples were not communists. .... They confiscate from the doers and the few line their own pockets. And socialist leaders never follow the rules they dictate for others. They live like royalty. Jesus lived like a pauper.
According to the Bible, that's exactly what apostles did. They did take people's property, shared it, and used violence towards the unwilling
Quote:"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." (Acts 4:32)
Life in the early Christian commune was rough going for those who didn't give everything to the apostles
Quote:"... A man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. With his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. 'Ananias,' Peter asked, 'why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds for the land? You did not lie to us, but to God!'
Now when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died.
After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter said to her, Tell me whether you and your husband sold the land for such and such a price.' And she said, 'Yes, that was the price.'
Then Peter said to her, 'How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.'
Immediately she fell down at his feet and died.
(Acts 5:1-11)
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"