Many Christians think that private property required to serve God, and in arguing for it, make a distinction between private property and government-"owned" property. One such person who identified himself as a pastor wrote about my article:
Capitalism is biblical. The only alternative to capitalism, is government theft of property. Jesus' command not to serve mammon, and that individuals should give to the poor, assumes that one has control over one's property, over one's money, and can choose to do with it what he wishes. The government taxing people, and giving that money to others, is theft. It is forbidden in the Old Testament; the tithe for the poor was to be given directly from the individual, to the poor, with no governmental or legal involvement. You are in serious, serious error, and I urge you to repent of your sponsorship of governmental theft.
Rejecting and hating mammon does NOT assume that one has control over "one's" property, money and choose to do as one wishes! Doing as one wishes is to do as one wills, not as God wills. To do as one chooses with one's property and money as one sees fit is to love money. Rejecting and hating mammon to the core means that one must regard what one has in possession to be belong to God, and serving God alone. It is to cut off the money and property one has, shun it from one's heart and hate it.
This pastor, in his self-righteousness, presumptuously accuses me of supporting governmental theft of property! If he does think that he is entitled to do as he chooses with his possessions as he chooses, rather than as God chooses, he is under the spirit of mammon.
The dichotomy of private property versus state property is a false one in the Biblical sense. The true dichotomy is human-owned property versus God-owned property. Human owned property includes both private property and state-owned property. Whether property is private or state-owned, both are based on the doctrine of private property, the idea that individuals have absolute sovereignty over the property they possess. This essentially means that because people own what they possess, they can do whatever they choose with it. The notion of doing whatever one chooses is of the spirit of liberalism, the core of spirit of humanism which many professing Christians claim to be so against.
Private property elevates gifts from God above giver, and the individuals who receive gifts to have a "right" to use it. Gifts from God is that which He is not obliged to give to anyone. He would be perfectly justified in letting an individual undergo loss of possessions as He did with Job (Job 1). What any individual possesses is not that which one is entitled to, but rather given only by God to carry out His purposes, whether they acknowledge it or not. We live in world, not run by humans, but by God who uses humans, both the saved and unsaved to carry out His purposes. The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4).
Indeed, God does use the godless to carry out His purposes in ways that we fallible humans cannot understand. I believe He used Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, the "fathers" of sociology who hated Christianity, as He used the ungodly Pontius Pilate, to carry out His work in attacking capitalism which is born of private property.
The doctrine of private property attaches individuals to their property, making property of the person as the soul is of the individual. It reverses the God-given order of humanity having dominion over property,to be property having dominion over humanity. It may seem as though private property renders individuals over property, the great deception of private property. The spirit of mammon works through private property by making people enslaved to acquiring property that they "need" to earn, rather than respect property to be God-owned in and of itself, on the grounds that property is to be "earned" because whoever labours more for it, by giving paying more for it, has a greater right to it.
Private property does not provide liberty, but enslaves people to serving mammon through acquiring more money to gain it. It does not "teach" people to work hard for God, but rather forces people to work harder for earthly things that will rot. In seeking to acquire one's "own" property, one enslaves oneself to one's pursuit of serving mammon.
It is because it reverses the God-given order of humanity having dominion over property, that is, the earth, it is a defiance of God being the Provider. It denies God's Sovereignty, and rejects the Biblical ethic of giving, rendering it a greedy, materialistic, wicked doctrine of the spirit of mammon.
Capitalism is biblical. The only alternative to capitalism, is government theft of property. Jesus' command not to serve mammon, and that individuals should give to the poor, assumes that one has control over one's property, over one's money, and can choose to do with it what he wishes. The government taxing people, and giving that money to others, is theft. It is forbidden in the Old Testament; the tithe for the poor was to be given directly from the individual, to the poor, with no governmental or legal involvement. You are in serious, serious error, and I urge you to repent of your sponsorship of governmental theft.
Rejecting and hating mammon does NOT assume that one has control over "one's" property, money and choose to do as one wishes! Doing as one wishes is to do as one wills, not as God wills. To do as one chooses with one's property and money as one sees fit is to love money. Rejecting and hating mammon to the core means that one must regard what one has in possession to be belong to God, and serving God alone. It is to cut off the money and property one has, shun it from one's heart and hate it.
This pastor, in his self-righteousness, presumptuously accuses me of supporting governmental theft of property! If he does think that he is entitled to do as he chooses with his possessions as he chooses, rather than as God chooses, he is under the spirit of mammon.
The dichotomy of private property versus state property is a false one in the Biblical sense. The true dichotomy is human-owned property versus God-owned property. Human owned property includes both private property and state-owned property. Whether property is private or state-owned, both are based on the doctrine of private property, the idea that individuals have absolute sovereignty over the property they possess. This essentially means that because people own what they possess, they can do whatever they choose with it. The notion of doing whatever one chooses is of the spirit of liberalism, the core of spirit of humanism which many professing Christians claim to be so against.
Private property elevates gifts from God above giver, and the individuals who receive gifts to have a "right" to use it. Gifts from God is that which He is not obliged to give to anyone. He would be perfectly justified in letting an individual undergo loss of possessions as He did with Job (Job 1). What any individual possesses is not that which one is entitled to, but rather given only by God to carry out His purposes, whether they acknowledge it or not. We live in world, not run by humans, but by God who uses humans, both the saved and unsaved to carry out His purposes. The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4).
Indeed, God does use the godless to carry out His purposes in ways that we fallible humans cannot understand. I believe He used Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, the "fathers" of sociology who hated Christianity, as He used the ungodly Pontius Pilate, to carry out His work in attacking capitalism which is born of private property.
The doctrine of private property attaches individuals to their property, making property of the person as the soul is of the individual. It reverses the God-given order of humanity having dominion over property,to be property having dominion over humanity. It may seem as though private property renders individuals over property, the great deception of private property. The spirit of mammon works through private property by making people enslaved to acquiring property that they "need" to earn, rather than respect property to be God-owned in and of itself, on the grounds that property is to be "earned" because whoever labours more for it, by giving paying more for it, has a greater right to it.
Private property does not provide liberty, but enslaves people to serving mammon through acquiring more money to gain it. It does not "teach" people to work hard for God, but rather forces people to work harder for earthly things that will rot. In seeking to acquire one's "own" property, one enslaves oneself to one's pursuit of serving mammon.
It is because it reverses the God-given order of humanity having dominion over property, that is, the earth, it is a defiance of God being the Provider. It denies God's Sovereignty, and rejects the Biblical ethic of giving, rendering it a greedy, materialistic, wicked doctrine of the spirit of mammon.
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