Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
This is evidenced in (Thessalonians 3:10) where it is written, "For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: 'If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.'" Ideally, each person contributes what they can to the well being of everyone else. This is further evidenced in (Ephesians 4:28), where it is written, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need."
Public ownership of certain means of production is supported in (Isaiah 65:21-22) where it is written, "They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands." The lesson seems clear that one should not labor on behalf someone else, unless, of course, they are in need, but labor should be for the benefit of society, rather than an individual.
There are also passages where His messages appear to be warnings to those who do not heed the above lessons of sharing and brotherly love. In (Luke 6:20-24) it is written, "And He lifted up his eyes in his disciples and said: 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate...
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.'" There is also a passage in (Acts 5:1-10) where a man sells his lands and then delivers only part to the Apostle's rather than sharing it. Because he failed to contribute all of the proceeds, he was punished by death. Throughout the New Testament one sees a continued emphasis on sharing.
As for brotherly love, there are too many passages to cite them all. One such example is in (James 2:1-5) where it is written, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, 'you sit here in a good place,' while you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there,' or 'Sit down at my feet,' have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" Yet another fine example is in (Galatians 6:2) where it is written, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." There is no disputing this meaning. In (Galatians 5:14) it is written, "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Thus, the ecological teaching of the Bible is of stewardship, so that rather than being "spiritual at the earth's expense [….] it means exactly the opposite: do not desecrate or depreciate these gifts […] by turning them into worldly 'treasure'; do not reduce life to money or to any other mere quantity" (Berry 526). This biblical ecology would seem in direct opposition to the engagement with capitalism Benne and
Is it possible that four or five billion people could be mistaken when it comes to believing in the existence of God? For the most part, organized religion was created by human beings who found it necessary to construct a belief system in order to control human society and the actions of men upon the Earth. But if the atheist is correct, then all organized religion and their related principles
A favorite target for conspiracists today as well as in the past, a group of European intellectuals created the Order of the Illuminati in May 1776, in Bavaria, Germany, under the leadership of Adam Weishaupt (Atkins, 2002). In this regard, Stewart (2002) reports that, "The 'great' conspiracy organized in the last half of the eighteenth century through the efforts of a number of secret societies that were striving for
The world would now be required to accept socialism, Leninism, and eventually Stalinism, as part of the European landscape. With the defeat of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire; the shift in the balance of power moved toward the only major participant not devastated on its own soil by war -- the United States. The U.S. grew in economic power after Versailles, assisting not only its former allies in rebuilding,
Esposito finds that the premodernist revival movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries contributed to the pattern of Islamic politics that developed and left a legacy for the twentieth century. These movements were motivated primarily in response to internal decay rather than external, colonial threat (Esposito 40-41). At the same time, many areas of the Islamic world experienced the impact of the economic and military challenge of an emerging and
Neo-Orthodoxy The term "neo-orthodoxy" refers to a 20th century movement among Protestant theologians -- in the United States and in Europe -- that emerged following the bloody carnage of World War I. The disillusionment that several Christian theologians -- and millions of others impacted by the War -- experienced led to a rejection of the liberal Christian movement which had urged the adaptation of an ongoing sense of optimism that seemed