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Christ's Economic System

daninthelionsden

daninthelionsden

Member
When I was on this forum a few years ago, I created a thread...The Economic System of the Beast......or a title close to that. Several chimed in with their favorite theories and all seemed to roughly conclude some out of control corporate dominated fascism hybrid system.....blah blah blah. But then I posted a thread asking what Christ's economic system ...if any would look like.......not many, if anyone replied.......Care to give it a shot? Will Christ allow the accumulation of wealth?
 
daninthelionsden said:
When I was on this forum a few years ago, I created a thread...The Economic System of the Beast......or a title close to that. Several chimed in with their favorite theories and all seemed to roughly conclude some out of control corporate dominated fascism hybrid system.....blah blah blah. But then I posted a thread asking what Christ's economic system ...if any would look like.......not many, if anyone replied.......Care to give it a shot? Will Christ allow the accumulation of wealth?
Click to expand...
I've never thought of it. You're talking about when Christ comes back and sets up his earthly kingdom?
 
Isaiah 11:6-9 gives a portion of prophesy to earth being made into a paradise again. Peace even among the animals. Jesus taught in parables about the kingdom of God, and a few of them like the parable of the talents (riches), talk about a reward for doing well. With some receiving a greater reward, and greater responsibility then others. In the sermon on the mount in Mathew 5, Jesus gives a number of blessings given to those who hold the characteristics that were being blessed. Simularily in Luke 6, Jesus gives a simular sermon with blessings and punishments given.

With these things in mind, my guess would be that the world we live in after Jesus instills His kingdom on Earth would be bountiful with everything we need to get by, without struggle or hardship to get by. As to wealth, if treasures in heaven relate to wealth, then it could be possible that it's given to us by the measure that God determines we deserve. Differing from one person to another. Wealth might not be needed to be traded, or bought. It might just be given by God. After all if it's a paridise like earth, and we all have what we need; we might not want anything else but you to be close to God.
 
Not_Now.Soon said:
Isaiah 11:6-9 gives a portion of prophesy to earth being made into a paradise again. Peace even among the animals. Jesus taught in parables about the kingdom of God, and a few of them like the parable of the talents (riches), talk about a reward for doing well. With some receiving a greater reward, and greater responsibility then others. In the sermon on the mount in Mathew 5, Jesus gives a number of blessings given to those who hold the characteristics that were being blessed. Simularily in Luke 6, Jesus gives a simular sermon with blessings and punishments given.

With these things in mind, my guess would be that the world we live in after Jesus instills His kingdom on Earth would be bountiful with everything we need to get by, without struggle or hardship to get by. As to wealth, if treasures in heaven relate to wealth, then it could be possible that it's given to us by the measure that God determines we deserve. Differing from one person to another. Wealth might not be needed to be traded, or bought. It might just be given by God. After all if it's a paridise like earth, and we all have what we need; we might not want anything else but you to be close to God.
Click to expand...
I like that. Well put.
 
daninthelionsden said:
When I was on this forum a few years ago, I created a thread...The Economic System of the Beast......or a title close to that. Several chimed in with their favorite theories and all seemed to roughly conclude some out of control corporate dominated fascism hybrid system.....blah blah blah. But then I posted a thread asking what Christ's economic system ...if any would look like.......not many, if anyone replied.......Care to give it a shot? Will Christ allow the accumulation of wealth?
Click to expand...

To some extent my answer depends on what you mean by 'wealth'? My first thought when I read your post was that Christ actually asks us to forsake all of our wealth and distribute to the poor (Luke 14:33, 12:33). He says that we cannot serve two masters, God and money (Matt 6:24). He spoke about the pearl of great price and that if people could truly perceive the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven and the kind of wealth that Jesus was speaking about, then we would give up all our worldly wealth to acquire it. I think at this stage we would not even be thinking about worldly wealth, because we would understand its insignificance against the eternal perspective. This leaves me wondering whether we need to redefine our attitude towards wealth, before we contemplate Christ's Kingdom.

Another thought is that man created money, God didn't. If you were thinking about money with regards to 'wealth', I think money would be obsolete in Christ's economic system, because His system would be governed by the principles of the Kingdom of Heaven i.e. Christ's teachings. If everyone one is adopting these principles (Christ's teachings) then each person would be responding to the needs of others around them, and everyone will be receiving whatever they need in return, without any need for money. It is very hard to imagine Christ's physical rule on earth being mediated by a monetary system (though there may be some kind of 'gift economy' and 'resource based economy').

I'm sure He will distribute responsibility, but more responsibility may not mean more 'wealth', in a worldly sense. We only need to look at Jesus' example to realise that, spiritually speaking, the more responsibility we have, the more our lives will reflect, like Jesus, that of a servant, which (unlike a lot of other Christians may argue) would mean less (worldly) wealth, not more. He said that the greatest leader will be as a servant. I suspect until we are able to contemplate becoming nothing in the world; no wealth, no status, no nothing... just seeking to love and serve others, it will be hard for us to imagine how Christ's Kingdom will truly operate, because we will be limited by our own worldly attitudes, desires and experiences.

In summary, I think the more we can do now to put Christ's teachings (i.e. His 'system') into practice, the more we will cultivate the spiritual vision needed to understand and live out His system, that is, to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
 
daninthelionsden said:
When I was on this forum a few years ago, I created a thread...The Economic System of the Beast......or a title close to that. Several chimed in with their favorite theories and all seemed to roughly conclude some out of control corporate dominated fascism hybrid system.....blah blah blah. But then I posted a thread asking what Christ's economic system ...if any would look like.......not many, if anyone replied.......Care to give it a shot? Will Christ allow the accumulation of wealth?
Click to expand...

Our modern economic system is based on usury. It is a subject that is rarely addressed and more important to the subject than the 'accumulation of wealth' IMO.
 
CFrancis said:
To some extent my answer depends on what you mean by 'wealth'? My first thought when I read your post was that Christ actually asks us to forsake all of our wealth and distribute to the poor (Luke 14:33, 12:33). He says that we cannot serve two masters, God and money (Matt 6:24). He spoke about the pearl of great price and that if people could truly perceive the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven and the kind of wealth that Jesus was speaking about, then we would give up all our worldly wealth to acquire it. I think at this stage we would not even be thinking about worldly wealth, because we would understand its insignificance against the eternal perspective. This leaves me wondering whether we need to redefine our attitude towards wealth, before we contemplate Christ's Kingdom.

Another thought is that man created money, God didn't. If you were thinking about money with regards to 'wealth', I think money would be obsolete in Christ's economic system, because His system would be governed by the principles of the Kingdom of Heaven i.e. Christ's teachings. If everyone one is adopting these principles (Christ's teachings) then each person would be responding to the needs of others around them, and everyone will be receiving whatever they need in return, without any need for money. It is very hard to imagine Christ's physical rule on earth being mediated by a monetary system (though there may be some kind of 'gift economy' and 'resource based economy').

I'm sure He will distribute responsibility, but more responsibility may not mean more 'wealth', in a worldly sense. We only need to look at Jesus' example to realise that, spiritually speaking, the more responsibility we have, the more our lives will reflect, like Jesus, that of a servant, which (unlike a lot of other Christians may argue) would mean less (worldly) wealth, not more. He said that the greatest leader will be as a servant. I suspect until we are able to contemplate becoming nothing in the world; no wealth, no status, no nothing... just seeking to love and serve others, it will be hard for us to imagine how Christ's Kingdom will truly operate, because we will be limited by our own worldly attitudes, desires and experiences.

In summary, I think the more we can do now to put Christ's teachings (i.e. His 'system') into practice, the more we will cultivate the spiritual vision needed to understand and live out His system, that is, to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Click to expand...
excellent
 
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