I started writing this as I was educating myself on theories of economics, and as usual God wonderfully graced me with a study, and a lesson, and something to share from His Word.
It will take some patience and education first for you to understand all that is written here so please read the links here, then come back and finish the story.
Here in is the definition of Anarchist and Anarchy, and many are workable and have worked. There have been several experimental communities as well, some of the earliest Pilgrim communities were such as you will read, but start with these, to get the picture, this will help you understand why I think as I do because, my mind is always oriented on God's Words that not of men. It is always being graciously turned from my way of thinking, and others to the way He thinks and wills. This is the work of Christ, He gives us the mind of Christ. He transforms and conforms our minds to His thinking so we might do HIS WILL and not that of our own.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_and_capitalism Anarchy versus Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_and_present_anarchist_communities#Modern_Times_.281851_to_late_1860s.29 Anarchist Communities Past and Present
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_anarchism Outline of Anarchism
Now let's look at what Christian Anarchy is considered:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism - A MUST READ -Christian Anarchism
Let’s us read if you have completed the information in the links. This is the first story of the first "Christian" Anarchist Community in the Bible.
Let’s read together this mighty event brought on by God’s Spirit and His intentions before the early church after Pentecost and the Apostles really became part to the will of God for His people
ACTS 2: 41-47
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;
45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
NOW THIS WAS A PERFECT CHRISTIAN ANARCHIST COMMUNITY!
This is really what “church” should be, and can be, if led and directed by the Holy Spirit, not just a meeting of coming together but living COMMUNITY that lives together, shares ALL things in common, they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need, having one mind, breaking bread from house to house, taking meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and note this important thing-- they had favor with all the people.... and God was mightily empowering their life to be the light and salt of the world, so many were being added and saved.
This is where the DYNAMIC POWER OF THE GOD OF LOVE IS SEEN.
First we see, they were baptized, that day ( I believe this means into the body of Christ, spiritual immersion) for there is only one baptism, that is of the Holy Spirit.
Now let’s look at the proper and God directed and produced preliminaries that lead to this outburst of love and communal living.
DEVOTION TO THE APOSTOLIC TEACHING AND FELLOWSHIP, the BREAKING OF BREAD AND TO PRAYER....
this lead to a SENSE OF AWE.
and many wonders and signs were taking place through the Apostles, (the Apostles are no longer here with us, but each believer is called into the ministry of reconciliation and as an Ambassador of Christ. THEY ARE IN ESSENCE AN APOSTLE -Christ in you.
Thus when we get to know this REALLY perhaps there would be more demonstrations of power of the Spirit and there would be more signs and wonders.
NOW HEREIN IS WHERE WE FIND THE MEMBERS OF SUCH A COMMUNITY..
44 And all those who had believed were together
If we look to the problem that developed in the Early Church, the reason this wonderful flow of the Spirit failed is the Apostles moved to a hierarchy in essence. We will see contributing factors to this, the people gave their priesthood over to men, and these Apostles wanted to quit being a contributing member of the communal relationship as servants, they had to “give more time to the reading of the Word’.
I think this came about largely as a misunderstanding on their part, what they were doing before all this great and mighty work of God began.
Let’s return to the Chapter and Verses before all this happened.
ACTS 1:13-14
13When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Let’s see what happened. Anytime there are Christians being added, to the fold, and us being both human (flesh) and Christian (spiritual) sinner and saint, there would arise an occasion for the flesh to stir problems among this harmonious beautiful flow of God’s peace and love with one another.
So let’s look at what happened, and what transpired that brought forth the problem and how it came about that would soon break up what we have seen as the Christian living experience with one another, and what would eventually break it down.. and what God would use to correct all this.
We first must see, this continued while the Word was going out.
GAIN Started with prayer with one another... Fellowship with the Father first through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. This is prayer. Getting into our closet with Him and communing with Him first.
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.
33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales
35 and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.
WE STILL SEE HARMONIOUS CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (ANARCHY) no leadership until that last verse, VERSE 35*
and lay them at the Apostles feet...
WHY did they do this? The question I have to ask, was this God’s intent for the whole community since they were all in Christ, and though the Apostles had a special appointment to preach the Word of God, on what Scriptural basis was this being done, was it something they learned from Christ, or something the assumed as new believers that they should do?
Was this perhaps with all this empowering, and the beauty of this whole thing that God put together, that since the Apostles were still relatively young in this NEW BIRTH of THE SPIRIT, there may have been just a little inclination to move toward somewhat a desire to be honored, a little perhaps self worship or self importance building again, recall their discussion with Jesus and His reply when they were arguing among themselves as to who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God?
THE APOSTLES WORDS
MARK 9:33-.
33They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way?"
34But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.
35Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all."
36Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,
37"Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."
JESUS WORDS -
Matthew 23:10-12
10"Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.
11"But the greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
Now let's look at a new problem thrown into this beautiful harmonious work of God that began at Pentecost
Acts 6:1-3 (New American Standard Bible)
1 Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.
2So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.
3"Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.
Now we can deduct from what is said here, this was typical to maintain community health, equality, common sharing and no one person being over another, the community would be summoned together, who included ALL, them and the new disciples (converts).
Now note, what is said.....first off it doesn’t seem to be there was a consensus asked for on how to solve this problem rather the Apostles who must have felt of great importance, instead of stepping down from their APOSTLE ROLE to become mere servants of the tables, they said ( I am sure with some sense of their own new found authority to do so, and due to the respect of them for leading them to Christ of the people, and them being with Christ both parties failed here to recall Jesus teaching of servitude and leadership.
Should not everyone been doing what they were doing, paying attention to the Word of God, and praying, etc. but now they say, they say, IT IS NOT DESIRABLE FOR “US” to NEGLECT THE WORD OF GOD.... were they not at that moment neglecting Jesus words stating in Matthew 23:10-12...
A man who is humbled would have said, let us serve them, so you don’t have to neglect the Word of God, or in this case, they should have had a consensus of all as to what the Apostles would do, in this case. in handling the problem with a heart of SERVITUDE, rather than the old one, where they argued who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God, were they not experiencing with all the people, the other disciples this Kingdom from heaven come to earth in the beauty of what God was doing with them all.
I surmise three faults for the failure of this harmonious community. God would fix it though this change away from His community to the one He desired by the hand of the Lord by his bringing forth persecution onto this changed community from the one He has created before it all started moving away from veneration of Christ to the Apostles.
The first thing we can see is the people were lifting up the Apostles in their hearts, we see this, in the laying of the goods at their feet to be distributed, and now with the unquestioned obeying of the Apostles without an overall consensus of the ALL.
The second thing we see is without the Apostles giving them the same respectful special recognition as joint heirs in Christ, for though they were new believers, that made them right now just like them DISCIPLES and soon to be APOSTLES as well.
All the same, sons of the living God, They too would be SENT OUT TO PREACH THE GOOD NEWS TO THE WORLD. AS WELL. They were no different then them, had they not all shared God's grace, what did one have over another, that was not given?
Paul's points we find in the book of Corinthians.
Third, the most important one missed by us, and all of them- how did this all begin? How did this beautiful community, the shining example of Ekklesia get started in the first place, Prayer and coming together and waiting on the Lord until Holy Spirit empowered to receive the Word and Will from God the Father through the Son on how to handle the problem. Perhaps like we so often find, there would never have been a decision that would have to been directed or acted upon, if HE would have been sought in the beginning to resolve the problem. He did the first one, with the lies of the two who thought they could get by with deception.
Was not jealousy not just another symptom of the flesh, that God could have dealt with these widows on, of course it was, we see he dealt with the first issue Himself. Though the Apostles were the tool or medium of His heart by words, it was not the power of Peter that killed these two, but the power of God.
The entire scene we see here as things begin to unravel and with those with error on their part of their perceptions of the Apostles, the Apostles part of the error on how they were to see themselves, and first and foremost their lack of prayer and Holy Spirit empowerment.....ended this community of love, and moved into authoritarian rule rather then communal servitude of one to another.
A HIERARCHY WAS BORN, the FIRST... But God always desired for them to keep their first love, their first devotion to one another, and not serve men but God, and not recognize one man over another. to keep to prayer first.
THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRAYER BY THE COMMUNITY RATHER THAN ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE TO THE APOSTLES and note..the last statement, they tell them so that they may select the persons. In other words only they held the absolute authority to put someone in charge. Where does in charge come from? Were they to start now, assigning others function within the body, or was this harmony of spirit and truth to continue to be the work of the Holy Spirit? I say, it was, it is and yet is meant to be the work of the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit to be His work and not of ourselves.
Now before all this, God had shown them and the people HIS POWER against lying to one another which is the same as lying to God, but I believe as human nature is these new Spirit baptized believers which included the Apostles, assigned this power displayed to the person (PETER) rather than to God, and thus they were not about to ask for a general consensus whereby they would be included, they were in fear now of the APOSTLES, which was never God’s intent in the incident leading to this point, HIS intent was to keep honesty and the sharing heart of holding all things in common within the community. His creation of this first examples of Christian community was God's intention for them to continue to be of one mind and heart for one another and towards God, sharing all things in common, as led by the Spirit.
Instead what developed was a veneration of the Apostles, which is typical of yet carnal minded Christians, to venerate MEN rather then worship GOD!
Instead what developed was a veneration of the Apostles of themselves.
What happened, happened because they failed to turn to their first love in fellowship of one another and prayer first, as found prior to Pentecost.
Let’s look at this story preceding this one in:
Acts 5
1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet.
3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?
4 "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."
5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it.
6 The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.
7Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 And Peter responded to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?" And she said, "Yes, that was the price."
9 Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well."
10 And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.
12 At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico.
13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.
What happened to the beauty of the Oneness they all had in the beginning, though the teaching was being told of the story of Jesus by the Apostles, why did they suddenly misunderstand who the Apostles were, and begin to FEAR and some wouldn’t even associate with them, and why did they hold them in HIGH ESTEEM.
Did Jesus ever teach we were to hold others in high esteem, well yes, of course, for one another. Paul said to esteem others better then yourselves, but sometimes esteem can become more than that - for both parties. The one receiving it, can often get puffed up over it, and the one giving it, can often turn esteem into idolatry instead understanding the equality of the Spirit. Paul, Peter and John were eventually all taught this, but yet there would be others to come, who would not listen to God, and continued in their way of the flesh, We can read of one of these in 3 John.
This I believe became the preliminary to the whole serving tables issue, and how it was resolved.
They the Apostles instead of wanting to be Servants and contributing in equality shorted the beautiful transpiring of simple faith and love between ALL the members including the Apostles for the sake of their “higher pursuits” and in so doing a new hierarchy was born. FIRST THE PEOPLE VENERATED THE APOSTLES beyond esteem, and this due to human nature to always worship the creation instead of the Creator this is the tendency of the flesh or carnal minded man, whether it be ourselves or another men.
THEN THE APOSTLES VENERATED THEMSELVES BECAUSE OF THEIR HUMAN NATURE, which we had seen already in their carnal thinking in Matthew. The flesh can come up at anytime to bite us, beware, I know and learn this everyday, so they now acted out of that old habit of thinking they were now considered leaders who they now believed they could appoint leadership under them. The Deacons.
They were not about to dirty their hands and be mere servants of the tables of food, they were much to important for that lowly duty, they would be the "keepers of the Oracles of God", the guardians of truth.
Whoops, anyone reading this notice there was NO PRAYER prior to their decision, the Holy Spirit was allocated to stay out of the situation and let them handle it.
We wonder why we don't see God work like He did in these times.
We started at the premise of this error altogether and then said, this is the church. NOT!
The ekklesia was won over by wolves waiting in the corridors to draw men after themselves, and for what personal gain. Paul warned it would happen why because he knew that they had matured and learned these things, and he was seeing it happen back the, just look at the reason he wrote so many letters (epistles) I Corinthians shows this carnal tendency of man's nature to always want to worship the creation rather then the Creator. Read Romans One
THE MODERN DAY CHURCH WAS BORN.. and the beautiful EKKLESIA that God had put together on Pentecost, would disintegrate for a time being, into leaders and lay people and still does, whenever the Holy Spirit and Christ words are delegated to the door, instead of our hearts for God and love toward Him and one another.
Now God because He is all loving and powerful God worked with this anyway. He always works within and around our choices for His will to be done.
God always works to His own Counsel and Will.
We look at the situation and say what now? God says, I am still at work in the error and the solutions. I am at work in the evil and the good, I am all Powerful and there are no other Gods before ME!
We see, that Stephen suddenly now assigned a position as a Deacon, took on more of a role as Apostle in preaching openly, and God moving through him to do miracles and such. Even being the first to preach to Saul, and to die while Saul (Paul) stood by holding Stephens cloak. God cannot be resisted, we can make choices but God rules and always wins, there is no other will or power before Him.
At the same time this all begin to happen it resulted in they the Christian community beconimg a power in the eyes of the Temple leaders, rather than just a community or sect of strange people who acted in strange ways.
This strangeness as listed there in Acts with their holding all things in common, and so on which was exemplified in the beginning, this is still too strange for people who today who so worship Capitalism, Money and their own property, and ownership of goods, yet call themselves "anointed one's".
The ekklesia threatened Judaism, it's power over the people, especially when God let it move from it's beginnings to what it now became, a power of itself, with it's governmental structure now, instead of it's community structure of just loving and sharing individuals. Just as the real Ekklesia life threatens carnal sinful men today, the Temple worshiping Jews already had enough power to deal with, which was Rome, and the last thing they wanted was a new “political power" to deal with, so persecution broke out against the Christians.
Now if we carefully look at this, I believe this was God’s chastisement against His body, in not staying in love and instead moving toward a hierarchy rather than a community, and it scattered them. But it was also God's plan to instruct the Apostles and the new Disciples.
We know as well, the original Apostles, were chastised by this as well, by this great persecution, the Great Tribulation.
Why? God loves us so, he allows us to make choices, but always with consequences of His love to –redirect us back to Him.. He says, Here is the path, walk you therefore in it. and what happens when we don't he will find away so we will desire His path and will, out of love for Him and worship for Him.
Now with a scattered, "church' (formulated government with some at the top, some underneath them, and then the laity), it resulted in a break up of this very new thing which God had not created but within His Counsel and Will, He made it happen anyway for reasons of instruction to them so they would never again allow it to happen to them who truly believed and trusted in God and Christ as the head of the ekklesia.
We don't always see God in the decisions of men, and how they are all still within His own counsel and will.
Thus God would not allow Paul to stay in one place and brought persecution to drive him from one place to the next. He remained constantly on the move and I am sure from reading Acts, not because of his choice either.
Paul went from town to town, nation to nation sharing the Gospel of Christ, lest He be tempted to do the same thing, God used this persecution as well.
Paul would have easily been, become or been elected as a high authority in a “church” government, if left to remain in Jerusalem with his background and Jewish training and authority as a Pharisee, trained under Gamailiel and the hierarchy of Judaism (priest and the people) He too would have become part of the "church at Jerusalem and he too would have become lifted up of heart as the people venerated him as well. He would have not spread the Gospel and the EKKLESIA being born out of that, he would have but settled into His new found position of power and become just another ”church” leader.... .
So God always gets what He desires, though we may make choices, and most of the time wrong choices, HE RULES wonderfully and mysteriously even today, as we watch more and more people coming out of the “church” hierarchy seeking to experience that original day of Pentecost, and community of believers life of harmony and love of one to another, before the errors and ways of men came in, yet God was at work in it all. He still is.
So, God still works today to be King of each man, thus the church system is no different them ancient Israel’s cry for “give us a king”. or the change that took place in the community of believers in this story we read in the book of Acts, as these new believers began to venerate the Apostles, and the Apostles themselves. Leaving out the seeking of God's will first, by fellowship, prayer and waiting upon the Lord.
They were not yet perfect men, nor are we. We are joint heirs in Jesus Christ, and thanks to the beauty of the way God works all things together for those that love God, He is yet doing things to bring His body in unity and love once again, He always has, and His goal is for us to look just like the one that transpired spiritually on the day of Pentecost.
He made sure of this, with the persecution that came upon the church of Jerusalem that scattered many of the Christians, caused some to be arrested, some even killed but it was never God’s desire to ruin or destroy the body of Christ, it was and is always to correct us and show us altogether what He still desires to have today, for His people, that day of Pentecost and Community amongst believers once more.
I am a CHRISTIAN ANARCHIST... as defined as you read at the beginning of this article, I am one, who believes in letting the Spirit of God have His way with believers, and remembering to always be SERVANTS and NOT MASTERS.
To be joint heirs in Christ with all our brothers and sisters in Christ.
To be non-resistant to those who wish to power over us, but always working toward righteousness, truth and peace toward ALL men.
To be the living organism of Christ in our relationship and fellowship with God, and allow Him to bring to pass this community of love we saw in the beginning of ACTS and to be sure, before making any decisions to pray and wait upon the Lord.
The beautiful part of God's love is man's choices, do not thwart His Counsel or Will.
He will have His will be done, and He does, for
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
I think that any real community formulated and born of God will be one that is libertarian in principle, controlled by the life of Christ within us in behavior and attitude, guarded by the principles of Christ words and His life, and will be revealed by our love of one to ANOTHER and we will love others, as He commanded us, to love one another even as I HAVE LOVED YOU.
This will bring the birth of the EARLY EKKLESIA TO LIGHT TO BE SEEN AS THE ONE TRUE CHURCH OF GOD.
The original community of believers, breaking and sharing bread, and going from house to house, was God’s Intent and Will for HIS EKKLESIA and the pattern we see after the conversion of these many on the day of Pentecost is the pattern for our community together yet today.
But men being men, first, we can upset this work of God temporarily, and those who are called out to preach the Good News, "the Apostles" can upset the work of the Spirit as well, because they DESIRE to “devote more time to the study of the Word.” rather then serve the tables.
I see not one prayer uttered in the beginning of THEIR DECISION or ONE PERSON NOT COWERING TO OBEY whatever they said. It is better to obey God then men.
Not one recall of the words of Jesus to them as Apostles about being servants first, and because of the tendency to give and assign even the distribution of the goods to the APOSTLES by the people, they were no longer of ONE MIND, sharing the mind of Christ. Something happened earlier that effected this, and FEAR WAS UPON THE HEARTS OF THESE MEN. Their devotion to one another and God was replaced with fear instead of love for the Father. The fear should have been of the deceitfulness of sin, that can come in, and trap us all, if we do not stay in prayer and devotion to the Word of God, and have one mind and heart sharing all things in common. It can happen to us today and tomorrow.
This is the very same thing or reason that we have paid Pastors today, instead of community as a living organism of the life of Christ in us, we have chose to fear men, fear our God rather then love Him, and worse yet to venerate men, rather than God, and some have placed themselves in places of leadership when they were called to be servants and not the head, always wanting to do the directing, preaching, miracle working and more and not asking for a consensus of each of us and allowing the Holy Spirit to do what God would have done with us, and in us. We are all priest now. We are no longer any man's underling, to be treated as such, is a slap in God's face and to disdain the blood of Christ that bought us ALL. We were not saved to be mere lay person (peasants). While others desire to “devote themselves to the Word of God”.. we may set them an example, by the love we have for one another, without them. That we can still serve one another without them telling us how, when and where to do so.
I see unlike many do in the body today, and even some who wish to set the course of history back by their own efforts by forming new church.
The first pattern we see in Acts of the body of Christ is what God desires, men will always circumvent it, because it is our flesh tendency to do so, but God will always be working by circumstance or persecution (chastisement) to circumcise our hearts to bring us back to our first love- Jesus Christ as King, and all of us equally as HIS SERVANTS.
I think far too long we have been told how to interpret this passage, as I wrote, I was amazed as the Spirit of God begin to bring to recall verses, and Jesus talk with the Disciples, and the incidents that lead to all of this. I thank Him for His Word to my heart tonight, and I pray it may be Word to us all.
AMEN AND AMEN
Joseph W. Black D.D.
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