Jesus was not a capitalist, he was definitely an anarchist. My logic is simple and sound.
The man and Son of God loathed the establishment. He also appears to have been against the financial system a majority of the world has adopted in greater numbers and sometimes with more faith than the religion based off his life work.
And who can blame the man?
I’ll start with the anti-capitalist Jesus. As he wandered across the desert, Jesus preached his philosophies and beliefs to all who would listen. These views included a compassion for the poor that went beyond any personal desires for wealth or comfort.
He asked all who were rich to give their possessions to the poor and follow him. He actually demanded them to give up the pursuit of wealth, give up on the idea of capitalism.
Where is the financial growth, the entrepreneurial spirit in such demands? Spiritual, not financial growth was the most important pursuit in life. Jesus could have had himself a comfortable life as a carpenter. The Son of God would have probably made some quality tables. Instead he chose a purposeful life of poverty and pain.
Consider this: Thousands flock to see Jesus. No one brings anything to eat. In such a situation, it makes sense for people to bring food to sell for higher prices, like the overpriced hotdogs at an OU football game. The disciples recommend the people be dispersed into town so they can purchase food. But no; Jesus takes the charity of a small child and turns it in to a way to feed the masses, not to profit from them.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” He is not saying you are blessed because now you are making money, he is saying that the poor are further separated from the sinful nature and dangers of capital accumulation. The blind, lame, sick and outcast come to Jesus, but none come asking monetary blessing from him.
Where in the Bible does Jesus talk about the benefits of competition? Is there any talk of the genius of an invisible hand? I have yet to see an invisible hand in the teachings of Jesus.
Now for the anarchist Jesus. Jesus made no pledges to any nation. In fact, the accepted interpretation of a messiah during his time was a political leader who would lead to the people to rise up against Roman rule and occupation. That was not his purpose though. Jesus cared little for government. The Devil tempted Jesus in the desert with the power to rule kingdoms. Even though his immediate influence would have been greater, governmental leadership was rejected.
He loved the poor. But never once does Jesus talk about the state’s role in taking care of the poor. No burden is placed upon the government to take care of the poor. Following Christ and taking care of the poor did not mean founding a government that would take care of the poor and sick so they burden was removed from you. It meant actually taking care of the poor and sick.
He was no revolutionary anarchist though. No calls to overthrow the establishment were uttered from his lips. As I said before, the troubles of government were not his concern. So when placed with a question of tax evasion, Jesus says to acknowledge government and pay what taxes are required of you; and all else save for God and your spiritual growth.
The establishment, whether it be the religious establishment or the political establishment, were of particular concern to Jesus. He also was of particular concern to them. After all, it was the Roman government that sentenced him to death and the Jewish theocratic government that led his first trial.
What kind of a government could exist with a turn the other cheek mentality?
The anarchist, anti-capitalist views of Jesus are best seen in the actions of the early Christian church. In the early church, the believers felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had. And although these early Christians were not working for maximum capital gain, they did not attempt to rely upon a welfare state to take care of their material needs while they pursued spiritual needs. There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them. It was the people, not the government, who took care of the poor. Besides, even if the government would have been involved, the people’s way of living was more socialist than capitalist anyway.
It may be hard, sometimes nearly impossible to live outside of government or capitalism. But it is what Jesus preached both through words and actions.
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William 2 years, 1 month ago
Excellent work John. These concepts are so simple and so obvious, but completely misunderstood by the modern Christian church. If Jesus were alive today giving an account of his teachings he would be speaking along the same lines, with added condemnation of the bulk of the Christian following. The Pharisees of our day are not the Jewish elite, but rather the "Western Christian."
zbdy 2 years, 1 month ago
jesus was an ANTICHRIST as well.
wait, was the author in fact jesus himself?
BrianCBiggs 2 years, 1 month ago
dio, I think it would be very difficult for you to actually argue that Jesus didn't exist. And, though I disagree with much of John Best's interpretations, he does seem to be endeavoring to use the New Testament as the basis for his description of Jesus. If someone were to argue for a different view of Jesus because it is a view of him that they prefer (rather than on the basis of Scripture), then that view seems to be obviously inferior and unsubstantiated. And if someone presents another view of Christ based on the same text then they can wrangle with each other over the consistent application of hermeneutics and exercise of exegesis. The only way you can argue that Christ's character "can be whatever you like" is if you argue that the NT does not give us real descriptions of an actual man named Jesus: something even Bart Ehrman wouldn't claim. Now, your bald assertion may necessarily imply that, but I think you'll find it extremely hard to actually argue such an outlandish thing.
JJanowiak 2 years, 1 month ago
There are some columnists for the Daily who might say that Jesus was really an anarcho-capitalist!
diamondateme 2 years, 1 month ago
You're telling me Jesus wants me to give my money to the poor and not to the megachurch?!?! If we gave our money to those in need, our churches wouldn't be able to purchase HD cameras, plasma screens, smart lights, and a state of the art sound system! I guess Jesus didn't realize how beneficial materialism could be...
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
Jesus christ, like Santa Claus, never existed to begin with. So the character can be whatever you like, just like the invisible golden dragon living in my garage.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
@leimapapa
"You're a troll as am I. How are we not on the same wavelength here?"
You should go to 4chan's /b/ board and see what a troll really is. I just log on here to annoy rednecks and teabaggers like you.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
@ThatOneGuyFromThatOnePlace
Thanks buddy, your post is a fine illustration of what constitute idiocy, d-baggery and trolling. Only an imbecile would bother to speak about my insignificance and take time to write it down here. Bravo. Not to mention that anonymously trolling around is, by definition, the act of a transparent and bitter person.
If you do not want to talk about that column, then just get the f-out of here.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
@Brian
It will be very difficult for you to prove that he/she/it ever existed. The bible, for instance, is absolutely no evidence that the guy existed. If you think you can use the bible to do so, then I will refer to episodes of Star Trek to convince you that aliens exist.
Jesus christ is a myth, like everything else you worship. Try to prove this is not true if you do not agree. Go ahead, use a clear cut scientific method and try find evidences that the person you are referring to ever existed. I guarantee that you will find nothing at all.
Years ago, someone told me jesus was a myth. I was doubtful at first, but I seriously started to investigate the claim. To control that I was searching it properly, I looked for evidences of the existence of Julius Cesar at the same time. I quickly found evidences for Cesar, but after all these years I have never found a single evidence for jesus christ.
You can still say that the absence of evidences is not an evidence of absence, sure. But there are no evidences that an invisible golden dragon lives in my garage after all...
djc0922 2 years, 1 month ago
I don't even understand why I am trying to convince you, really. You gave about 44 minutes before coming to me with such a close-minded and instigative reply. We are technically on similar sides religiously, but come on, history is made on the bases of texts & writings, and if you can't give Jesus Christ the pass HISTORICALLY, then you also deny popular figures like Buddha, Chuang Tzu, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh (HISTORICALLY), and a serious chunk of other stuff before common era and then some from our current era. I'm sorry if it bothers you that some historical figures are worshipped massively or in an erratic manner, but it does not take away from their existence.
That dragon in your garage does not exist, but I can tell you right now that there are no scriptures or texts of him from anyone either.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
All written at least 50~100 years after the "facts", and if you read them they just say: "christians worship someone named yoshua/christus/etc". Just like you would read a post on a Star Trek forum today saying: "klingons worship". Very informative indeed. Verdict: not evidences.
SAME THING. Written 200 years after the "facts" and talk about Jews worshiping... "a wise king". You call that evidence!?
In other words you are using Star Trek episodes to justify the existence of aliens. Do I need to mention that the Qu'ran was written AT LEAST 700 years after the "facts"?
A bazillion of authors from different part of the ancient world wrote about him when he was alive, including his enemies. You can see his career unfolding with the different texts. Jesus? Not a single author or chronicler ever wrote about him when he was supposedly alive, or even years after his "death". There are portraits on coins and statues of Cesar where you can see the person aging in between them. Jesus? They recycled Apollo's statues and he looks different on everyone of them, not to mention that they are no contemporary statue. You can trace the ruins of Cesar's palaces and the place he personally lived, with strict respect of the text descriptions. Jesus? Nothing at all. Etc, etc.
djc0922 2 years, 1 month ago
@Dio
I don't know what crap sources made you believe he never existed, but anyone who has any particular interest in history can show you that Jesus existed. There are so many historical sources besides the bible that has Jesus of Nazareth in them, some even show him before his whole 'Divine Role' or whatever the Gospels proclaim.
Go ask any historian in any University if Jesus existed, and they will tell you that he did. The only thing that people argue about is the whole 'Jesus Christ' or 'Son of God' stuff and whether he can do all the stuff that the gospels proclaim (Rising from the dead, curing the blind, etc.). That I can't argue because I am not too sure just yet.
leimapapa 2 years, 1 month ago
Everything that has ever happened in the past is a myth. If we are convinced that writers in the past (in dio's case, the writers of the Bible) were out to trick and manipulate people, then we can't really accept anything as ever happening the way we're told before the advent of video recordings.
If dio is convinced that the writers of the Bible and those who compiled it at the Council of Trent were evil and hated him personally, that's his own burden to bear. You can't just let the guy be a "controversial" college student? Fie, I say.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
@leimapapa
"Everything that has ever happened in the past is a myth"
Absolutely not. As usual you get your facts wrong, leimapapa.
"dio is convinced that (...) those who compiled it at the Council of Trent were evil and hated him personally"
I have never said anything like this. Do you even understand English?
ThatOneGuyFromThatOnePlace 2 years, 1 month ago
@dio
Annoying rednecks? Wow, I'm sure that takes some skill... I fully appreciate the fact that you want to annoy people who deserve to be knocked down a peg. I really do. It's a noble pursuit. However, you just so happen to be a pustule of insignificance. By my pretense of "backing you up" when you spout your whiny d-baggery, I'm lending you significance which you otherwise don't have. You're welcome.
But now I'm afraid you've asked me to be blunt. You are in no way the voice of reason that you think you are. You're a transparent, bitter college kid who probably just got your "eyes opened" by the Zeitgeist movie, and is using this site to vent his misguided angst.
Again, I don't mean to reduce you to a stereotype... wait no, I do, because you are entirely irrelevant.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
@djc0922
Your answer is typical of all the intellectually lazy people who think evidences are out there and that they are hold by reputable scholars in every single universities.
They are no evidences, hence no "crap sources" as you nicely put it. You are in a university, then just do like me, go ahead and ask scholars for evidences. Go to the Bizzell library and search for records. I guarantee that you will never find ANYTHING AT ALL.
djc0922 2 years, 1 month ago
@Dio
What? How was my answer intellectually lazy? I just told you what I know. I major in Western History, but I know through a project I did earlier in my college career about Christianity, that there are records in which Jesus of Nazareth is mentioned. I have notes from a previous professor that specifically states "essentially all scholars agree that the mere historical existence of Jesus can be established using documentary and other evidence."
Examples - Greco-Roman Era writings (Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny the Younger) - Mara bar Sarapion's Letter to her Son (A Syrian) - There Are Many Gnostic Texts outside the Christian version, such as the Babylonian Talmud, The Qu'ran, and not all of their text is pure fiction.
What more do you want? I can't get you his bones or anything, yet somehow it seems that you can prove to me Julius Caesar, an even older figure whom is also mostly based on text? I seriously smell pure instigation in your response.
leimapapa 2 years, 1 month ago
@dio
I know it wasn't nice, but I have to admit it... I was mocking you with my first sentence. At the same time, I was trying to give you an out for writing something invalid, not to mention just bitter and sad. You're a troll as am I. How are we not on the same wavelength here?
And the second snippet of mine that you "refuted" was a wild assumption by me (which I made because I don't really care to get to know you, anonymous internet person) about what you might think in order to justify lying and, once again, to provide you with an out. See how I used quotation marks to insinuate that you didn't refute anything? That was pretty clever, no?
Seriously, stop trying to justify your troll comments. You don't owe these people (me included) any explanations.
ThatOneGuyFromThatOnePlace 2 years, 1 month ago
@dio
Pardon me for being sick of looking at the comments where nicer people tiptoe around the feelings of an a-hole like you. I decided to answer what was surely just going to be another measured response that you don't deserve. All you do is insult people and call them dumb or crazy. You're a one trick pony, and I don't care if some other troll tries to make you think you're having an impact. In order to tell people what to do or to read, it might help if you... I don't know... mattered?
You are indeed irrelevant, but you irk me enough just enough to make me jump in for some coward who doesn't have the balls to call a spade a spade. You are nothing but a smug little ant. Enjoy the temporary significance this one bitter person has given you.
@leimapapa Stop it. You're an enabler, plain and simple.
dio 2 years, 1 month ago
@ThatOneGuyFromThatOnePlace
Well, I have been having chatting with other people about all this though PMs after you started trolling the forum. Meanwhile you are all alone with me here, shelling insults because it makes you feel important. How does it looks now, newbie? Don't you have this extra sense that makes you feel like you have been an a-hole from the start?
leimapapa 2 years, 1 month ago
@ThatOneGuyFromThatOnePlace
Wow, calm down, dick. Can't we all just get along?
@dio
The guy admitted to being a bitter douche. Calling him an a-hole back isn't going to do much. And to your initial comment, if you're here to annoy rednecks and teabaggers, I'm here to annoy and teabag you.
kip777 1 year, 8 months ago
Real good stuff! Fight for truth!! just a dumb kid from Idaho here...when did the letter "j" actualy come into existence?