Communism

TUES., FEB. 16, 1988, 6:12 AM
FARM, STUDY

A great social force in the earth today is called communism. It is considered the enemy of your culture, for it is equated with loss of freedom and with autocratic government. You must also know that it has roots in the early Christian church where they had everything in common, and no one had need. You are not an anti-communist, and you suspect I am not either, but you are not certain what I shall say about this force. You will listen, o son, and then you will know.

As I already have indicated, communism is a social form used by early Christians, for, in love, you should not be able to amass money, property, and goods while others around you are in need. Now I must admit that this early church did not consider itself as the forerunner of the myriad forms of Christianity which are here in the earth nearly 2,000 years later. These folks had a vision that My second coming would be soon… in their lifetime… and then there would be no need for accumulations. As the early fervent converts began to pass on, and the rapture had not come older patterns began to rearise.

Further, if you are someone with much in the way of money, goods, and talents it is rather easy to give to those in true need who fully appreciate what is given, but more difficult when those who take are lazy and unappreciative. Conversion to Christianity does not bestow perfection… and even some of those who came into the group did so more for the benefits now than the later spiritual rewards. In every church today there are some who give little, but assume they should have all the benefits.

Back to communism. It is an interesting and intriguing system. In one sense it developed to counter the greed and inequality that was evident in “Christian” systems, and also to counter the too-great emphasis on the life-to-come, keeping many people in a life of poverty and slavery here in the earth. Ironically, in order to try to recreate the social and economic structure it seemed to be necessary to cast out Christianity and Me, the Triune God. And because those who “had” were generally unwilling to be “made equal” with many others the governmental system had to be repressive. In theory this would wither away as the merits of sharing became evident.

Equality and justice are compatible only when people are perfect. Persons are not, from My creative style, equal in many respects. Pure justice suggests that if one does more… or more of some valued service… she should receive more. It requires near perfection to refuse these extra compensations or to give them away to those with less talent or energy.

As Jesus I preached and taught of perfection in living. Give to others… turn the other cheek… be perfect as I am perfect… It is easy to see that these teachings could become a “standard,” and those who come the closest are the best. But I died and was resurrected, and from this act came grace, wherein “the best” are those who accept Me most fully, irrespective of other behaviors.

Oh, yes, I realize that the one saved by grace should henceforth be well nigh perfect in behavior, but, again, even the saved are not perfected. Even Paul, the originator of the doctrine of grace (out of his own vivid experience) lamented his lack of capacity to do what he knew was right all of the time.

So… with imperfect citizens a communist culture eventually must bend toward freedom to have more if you produce more… and choose not to give it away… or it must maintain itself through repressive measures, which then recreates the classes of repressor and repressed.