For example even though everything we have is a gift from God, whether that be an able body or mind, are you suggesting that we still should hold everything in common with our neighbor? Should a hard working man share his possession with a lazy man? Is socialism appealing to you?
Hi again Wes, and thanks for responding to my post.
See, that is my problem. I can not draw a conclusion at this point. I have not studied enough economics in a Christian perspective to be sure I can have a solid opnion. My main point was that I want to be very, very sure that whatever conlusion I do end up enbracing has passed through the fire of the Word of God. And I'm somehow seem to have a gut feeling that I have yet to hear the "truth" from the standard secular perspectives that say I should choose from either lierbalism or conservatism. I offered the Calvin quotes because he is a man I have some trust in, and his comments seem germane. Of course I do understand that Scripture is our only fully trustworthy source. But I do have some respect for church fathers, even in their human weakness. So I look to them for help in understanding. Once again to answer you in more specifics I will repeat some things I said in other posts.
(I'm not sure if the other comments I made are in this thread or not. I'm pretty tired tonight. I have been working 11 hour days for the last couple of weeks. I am a bus driver for a mass transit system and due to a number of quirky reasons we are very short-handed right now. And you can't just slap somebody into the seat of a 45 foot motor coach and have them dash around downtown Pittsburgh in rush hour. Hehehe. So I probably should have waited till morning to respond to you. But I do enjoy the fine discussions here even though I am very new to group.)
I am most certainly not advocating that goods be held in common. Communisim and socialism are not Christ centered, at least in my opnion. And in another post I quoted from 2 Thessalonians 3:10 - "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat." So according to that proof-text you would not want to share with a lazy man. So I find it confusing to read John Calvin's teaching: "...we must not think of a man's real value, but only of his creation in the image of God to which we owe all possible honor and love. ...Suppose that he is unworthy of your least exertion; but the image of God which recommends him to you deserves that you surrender yourself and all your possessions to him." I do understand that one is Holy Scripture and the other just a man talking, but how do I reconcile what appears to be very conflicting ideas.
Lately I have been praying extra hard that I be granted more wisdom. If you have a spare moment in your devotional time please ask God to remove at least some of the fog in my intelligence challenged mind.
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