Jesus the socialist

 America is as much an economic phenomenon as it is a nation. It is built on a system whose driving force is the profit motive. Our economy blatantly rewards greed. In classic economic theory greed is good. A person who is motivated by greed will create, as unintended byproducts, benefits for everyone, such as employment and the development of new goods and services. Let the rich get richer, the saying goes, and the benefits will "trickle down" to the rest of us.

 Under a pure capitalistic system the government keeps hands off and allows the market to decide how the money flows. The problem is, as we have found in this era of deregulation, the money flows to the top.

Tampering with the market system to redistribute the wealth or assure that the poor are protected is labeled "socialism."

By these standards Jesus was a socialist.

 Jesus spoke remarkably often about wealth and poverty. To the poor he said, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God," (Luke's version). To the rich he said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth," and "go, sell what you have, and give to the poor." When the rich turned away from him because they couldn't follow his command he observed, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

For Jesus, helping the poor and the outcast is not optional: it is the essence of what it means to love God. In the parable of the last judgement he welcomes the righteous into heaven saying, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." When the righteous answered that they didn't recall doing any of these things, he said, "as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

We are to "forgive our debtors" and "give to every one who begs from you." But don't handouts contribute to moral decay? Jesus was more concerned about the moral decay in those who are so attached to their wealth that they would hoard it for themselves. In our better moments most of us recognize that giving does not corrupt. We sacrifice to give good things to our children and do our best to provide them with years of carefree existence as they grow up. We do this to give them a sense of security and a foundation for growth. People who have been devastated by misfortune, or for whatever reason are down and out, may need even more help because they may not have what it takes to recover on their own.

 What's wrong with trickle-down economics? Every time I hear that phrase I think of the story Jesus told about a rich man and the beggar Lazarus "who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table." Needless to say, the story ends with Lazarus going to a better place than the rich man. Trickle down theory is about crumbs. Those who say we should settle for crumbs would make us a nation of beggars.

Greed may be a driving force for the economy, but Jesus saw it is as destructive to community. Greed may leave a few crumbs behind for the poor, and it may do some unintended good, but it destroys compassion. Compassion is in short supply in our society today where workers are being downsized in the name of efficiency, prisons are being expanded to insulate society from its underclasses, and the middle class is abandoned by the rich to fight it out with the poor for the table scraps.

Jesus' response to economic inequality is very direct: we are to share the wealth. I once heard a talk about world hunger. The point was that we produce far more food than is needed to feed everyone on earth. The problem is not lack of supply; it is maldistribution. Many people are simply too poor to buy the food they need. This talk gave me a new perspective on the story of the feeding of the 5000. Jesus was out in the desert followed by a huge crowd. The disciples were concerned that it was getting late in the day and they didn't have enough food to feed the crowd. My suspicion is that Jesus sensed there was plenty of food in the crowd, but whereas some had plenty, others had nothing. Sensing an opportunity to make a point, he instructed his disciples to take their five loaves and two fish and distribute them freely to the crowd. By the sheer audaciousness of this act he induced those with food to join him in giving it away. The result is everyone was fed that day with twelve baskets left over. If Jesus simply did a magic trick and made food appear, what's the point? Whoopee! He's divine. He's not like us. But if, by his act of giving away all he had in the face of the overwhelming crowd, he demonstrated the power of a sharing community, he achieved a real miracle! Sharing is a lesson we especially need to learn today.

 

Thank you for your time. James

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Replies

  • Hi James,

    Thanks for the reply. Whether it was or wasn't a heart attack, I had no fear of leaving here. That's the bottom line for each of us.

    Your definition of Science and mine are not the same, but I so agree, you have to go by your choices and I will continue with mine.

    Yes, Dr. Kelly was a Dentist with a good business and never had any desire to get into Integrated Physiology, Health Science or Nutrition. He developed Pancreatic Cancer and tried to go mainstream and they sent him home to die.

    He began study, found Dr.Beard's Work and began Clinical Trials..on himself. 30 years later, he wrote the last chapter to his book, One Man's Answer To Cancer.

    Here is that link again, http://thereflectionhouse.com/Nutrition_and_Cancer.htm Dr. Robert Good of Sloane-Kettering tried to get Dr.Kelly's work published and here is a quote, "Robert Good was at the top of his profession: President of Sloan-Kettering, father of modern immunology, and did the first bone marrow transplant in history. Yet, he couldn't get it published," Gonzalez says. "He couldn't even get a single case report published.

    They are not going to let anyone kill the goose laying the 200 billion dollar golden egg. Life is choice.

    But in a thousand years none of this will matter, James. We will know as we are known.

    Hope your day is awesome,

    Mark

     

     

     

     

  • My bet is you NEVER had a heart attack. Heartburn far more probable.

    Mark Edward Kroger said:

    Hi James,

    You're right about taxol. I was talking to a friend this morning and his wife is taking the synthesized version for breast cancer. It has to be a little different from the natural thing since you can't patent a natural compound. Just think she is paying thousands of dollars for something she could be getting for free. Just being silly, but it shows me they sure are making a lot of money off of nature.

    The taxol is in the roots, stems, needles and seeds, but not the aril-fleshly cone or berry. Several species of birds in Europe eat the aril and swallow the seeds and it is through the birds' droppings, the Yews get spread all over Europe. I like the berries, they are good for me and I will continue to eat them each fall. I eat the crab apples, also.

    Wall Street Marketing at its finest. No one needs vitamins or minerals, just eat a good diet. We are the most overfed, under nourished population on the planet. One of the highest in Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease, the Inflammation Neurologic Diseases and a host of others. Pellagra and Scurvy would be drup required diseases if Wall Street Pharmaceuticals could have gotten a hold on the Media in time. 

    The supervisor that called that morning, told me about three weeks later, he never saw someone recover from a heart attack so fast in his life. It's because I didn't add insult to injury. I gave my body the raw materials it needed, eliminated the inputs causing me my problems and it  did just fine. It is programmed to make the repairs it needs, if the raw materials there and I don't shut it down with profit oriented alchemy.

    But more important than all of that, James, is I appreaciate and love my Lord. He made my day awesome and I always want Him to know that I know that with Him, I get it all and without Him, my life would be like those who think "Life sucks and then you die." I look forward to every moment of every day and it is because of Him.

    Have a great day, James,

    Mark

     

     

     

     

  •   Hi Mark,

     I wrote a long bit,I deleted it.  You can stick to your folklore remedies I'll stick to science.

     

    You should look into eating Hemp seeds for your diet.(The Most Nutritionally Complete Food Source In The World )If ever a plant was made by a god this is it. It contains all the essential amino acids (digestive enzymes) and essential fats. omega 3 and omega 6.

    http://www.ratical.org/renewables/hempseed1.html

     

     

     I will say this  Dr. Kelley was a dentist not a medical doctor.

     You should read this.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Donald_Kelley

     

    It's hard to agree to disagree with someone that throws out so much of what science says.

      You have a great day too.

    James

     

     

    PS. You can patent how a natural chemical is synthetically  made.  

     

     

     


    Mark Edward Kroger said:

    Hi James,

    I didn't mean for that to sound negative on vitamins and minerals. It is a choice. I choose to take them and you choose not to. It is certainly alright for both of us. I tried to find a tutorial that had some depth in simplicity to post on vitamins's roles as co enzymes and minerals' roles as catalysts and their interrelationships with protein.

    The guy whose wife has breast cancer, I told them about Dr. Kelly and being given two months to live with pancreatic cancer. He lived for 30 more years and wrote "One Man's Answer To Cancer" It's on the internet. Wall Street Pharmaceutical led attacks on him, call him a Quack, but their survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 60 days. They were afraid to even look at it. So I just tried to plant a seed and leave it be.

    I just choose to study nutrition and take supplements. It probably won't change my departure date if it is preset. But my energy is optimal. I don't feel run down or depressed. If I remarry, I will have to work with her to find a diet we can both live with.

    One would have to work at overdosing on the fat soluble vitamins and it is nest to impossible to OD on the water soluble ones. It's far easier to OD on drugs. One could definitely get too high of levels of certain minerals, particularly Iron if they megadosed. But most of the populace is so undernourished, they have no fear of that.

    If I could only take one supplement, it would be digestive enzymes. Enzymes are a catch 22. It takes enzymes to make enzymes, so once the body is so deficient, it has to be jump started. Supplements or Power Juicing is best, but a diet high in raw fruits and veggies went go a long way.

    I just wanted to close on a more cordial note. It is so okay to disagree, as long as we affirm the person and disagree with the subject matter. Agree to disagree.

    Have a great day James,

    Mark

     

  • Hi James,

    I didn't mean for that to sound negative on vitamins and minerals. It is a choice. I choose to take them and you choose not to. It is certainly alright for both of us. I tried to find a tutorial that had some depth in simplicity to post on vitamins's roles as co enzymes and minerals' roles as catalysts and their interrelationships with protein.

    The guy whose wife has breast cancer, I told them about Dr. Kelly and being given two months to live with pancreatic cancer. He lived for 30 more years and wrote "One Man's Answer To Cancer" It's on the internet. Wall Street Pharmaceutical led attacks on him, call him a Quack, but their survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 60 days. They were afraid to even look at it. So I just tried to plant a seed and leave it be.

    I just choose to study nutrition and take supplements. It probably won't change my departure date if it is preset. But my energy is optimal. I don't feel run down or depressed. If I remarry, I will have to work with her to find a diet we can both live with.

    One would have to work at overdosing on the fat soluble vitamins and it is nest to impossible to OD on the water soluble ones. It's far easier to OD on drugs. One could definitely get too high of levels of certain minerals, particularly Iron if they megadosed. But most of the populace is so undernourished, they have no fear of that.

    If I could only take one supplement, it would be digestive enzymes. Enzymes are a catch 22. It takes enzymes to make enzymes, so once the body is so deficient, it has to be jump started. Supplements or Power Juicing is best, but a diet high in raw fruits and veggies went go a long way.

    I just wanted to close on a more cordial note. It is so okay to disagree, as long as we affirm the person and disagree with the subject matter. Agree to disagree.

    Have a great day James,

    Mark

     

  • Hi James,

    You're right about taxol. I was talking to a friend this morning and his wife is taking the synthesized version for breast cancer. It has to be a little different from the natural thing since you can't patent a natural compound. Just think she is paying thousands of dollars for something she could be getting for free. Just being silly, but it shows me they sure are making a lot of money off of nature.

    The taxol is in the roots, stems, needles and seeds, but not the aril-fleshly cone or berry. Several species of birds in Europe eat the aril and swallow the seeds and it is through the birds' droppings, the Yews get spread all over Europe. I like the berries, they are good for me and I will continue to eat them each fall. I eat the crab apples, also.

    Wall Street Marketing at its finest. No one needs vitamins or minerals, just eat a good diet. We are the most overfed, under nourished population on the planet. One of the highest in Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease, the Inflammation Neurologic Diseases and a host of others. Pellagra and Scurvy would be drup required diseases if Wall Street Pharmaceuticals could have gotten a hold on the Media in time. 

    The supervisor that called that morning, told me about three weeks later, he never saw someone recover from a heart attack so fast in his life. It's because I didn't add insult to injury. I gave my body the raw materials it needed, eliminated the inputs causing me my problems and it  did just fine. It is programmed to make the repairs it needs, if the raw materials there and I don't shut it down with profit oriented alchemy.

    But more important than all of that, James, is I appreaciate and love my Lord. He made my day awesome and I always want Him to know that I know that with Him, I get it all and without Him, my life would be like those who think "Life sucks and then you die." I look forward to every moment of every day and it is because of Him.

    Have a great day, James,

    Mark

     

     

     

     

  •  Hi Mark,

    I take not a vitamin one. No need to. It's easy to get all the body needs be eating good food. The secret is too much of anything is bad. That includes vitamins all but Vitamin D that is. With this one it appears God designed us all to be naked and running around near the equator, because these people are the only ones getting the vitamin D we need. Sounds good to me. 

     

     I wonder, if ya asked the grounds keeper on campus what chemical spraying those berry bushes are getting?

    Did you know this bush that ancient German and Celtic tribes used its wood for bows to fight the Romans.

     

     I know that Paclitaxe has replaced taxol as the generic name of the compound. It  is used to treat breast cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer, AIDS and a few more cancers. I also know that fatal reactions have occurred in patients taken it. IE; IT KILLED THEM!! Plus it is a chemotherapy drug.


    Mark Edward Kroger said:

    Hi James,

    Thanks for your concern. My supervisor said the same thing. My neighbor, a very pretty woman about my age had a heart attack and after they got done with her with stints nitro glyercin, a heart bypass and a half dozen drugs, she looks like the living dead. But they sure did make a lot of money off of her.

    My diet now is soft boiled eggs, a couple of hamburgers a couple of times a week-I throw away the bread, fresh chopped onions with cashew nuts, fresh tomatoes, apples, oranges, grapes, celery and stuff like that. I take a Multimineral, Multvitamin, 500 milligrams on Niacin, a separate Selenium, Magnesium and B100. I also take Vanadium, Chromium, 5000 IU of D3, Omega 3s, a Probiotic and digestive enzymes. I have some more in there, but you get the idea. They cost me a lot less than Merck or Pfizer would cost me.  I am high energy from 4:30 am to 10 pm when I have to force myself to go to sleep.

    I take no drugs whatsoever. This was a choice I made for me. I reap the rewards or suffer the consequences for every choice I make. But I won't turn that choice over to Wall Street. I will do a little study on my own. Wall Street will congratulate each other for today's trading as they shovel dirt over me. No thanks.

    But my bottom line is I know I am one breath from eternity and I didn't give me my first breath and I can't stop my last, when it goes. My eternal destination is important to me. When I've been there a thousand years, whether I lived here 50 years or 115 years, it won't matter, except for maybe my deposits in eternity, but where I go is important to me and again I will not turn that choice over to another as I reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. I can play "Lets explain it away." It won't change reality one iota, so it is in my best interest to find out what that reality is.

    James, I don't mind your straw man arguments, but I know when we get Home, you will thank me, Jaunita, Paul, Steve, Lisa and a whole lot of others for our prayers.

    It seems to me, you don't like me talking about rewards or consequences of choice, but I include myself in every one of those statements. We each make our choices and reap the results of those choices. With Jesus, I will eventually get it all, without Jesus, I lose it all. At checkout time, everyone will find out if that is true or not.

    You will never have to give an account for me, just you and vice versa. You can do a litmus test if you are sincere. Do like Elijah did, "Let God be God..." and see who shows up.

    Have a great day, James,

    Mark

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Hi James,

    Jesus the Socialist or Jesus The Christ?

    Our eternity rests on that answer.

    7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
    8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
    9  He made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
    10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in    heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
    ----
    13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
    ----
    37 He answered and said unto them, "You give them to eat." He didn't say Vote for Rome to do it.
    --
    25 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute [money], came to Peter and said, Doth not your master pay    tribute?
    26 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?
    27 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
    28 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
    ----
    36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
    37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
    38 This is the first and great commandment.
    39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
    40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
    ----
    13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
    ----
    Jesus the Socialist is really Jesus the Christ and the Gospel isn't to set up a utopia on earth and ask his blessing on it and expect Him to receive us because of it. "What did we do with Jesus?"

    ---

    When I made my last entry, it was an attempt at wry humor, which didn't work very well. When they told me that they were taxus berries, I did a Net search and found an edu that did an analysis of the berry and I made copies and gave to Grounds.

    They know why I eat them, they are just afraid of them. I no longer eat the seeds as they have some taxol in them and a plant hormone to slow the growth of the plant. I just like them because they are a free source of nutrition and free is good.

    Just a note: Drug companies found that taxol works better on most cancers than chemo and they are trying to patented a drug from it. For me, I will stick to the nutrition side of things.

    I just didn't want to leave that last entry like that.

    Have a great day!

    Mark

     

  • Something awesome happened right after that. In the fall, we have several crab apple trees, some berry trees and these bushes that are everywhere. I thought if these berries don't kill me, they might be good for me. I ate a few berries off the bushes to see if I got sick. They have a seed inside of them. The berry was good tasting but the big seed in it was bitter.

    Someone from Grounds saw me eating those berries and they ran up to me and told me I would drop over dead. Turns out they are called European Yew bushes and the needles, stems and roots are toxic, but the berries are very nutritious.

    I have eaten every berry off of those half a mile or so bushes scattered around campus for three seasons and Grounds is still waiting for me to drop over. When they come by, I offer them a berry and they give me funny looks...

  • Hi James,

    Thanks for your concern. My supervisor said the same thing. My neighbor, a very pretty woman about my age had a heart attack and after they got done with her with stints nitro glyercin, a heart bypass and a half dozen drugs, she looks like the living dead. But they sure did make a lot of money off of her.

    My diet now is soft boiled eggs, a couple of hamburgers a couple of times a week-I throw away the bread, fresh chopped onions with cashew nuts, fresh tomatoes, apples, oranges, grapes, celery and stuff like that. I take a Multimineral, Multvitamin, 500 milligrams on Niacin, a separate Selenium, Magnesium and B100. I also take Vanadium, Chromium, 5000 IU of D3, Omega 3s, a Probiotic and digestive enzymes. I have some more in there, but you get the idea. They cost me a lot less than Merck or Pfizer would cost me.  I am high energy from 4:30 am to 10 pm when I have to force myself to go to sleep.

    I take no drugs whatsoever. This was a choice I made for me. I reap the rewards or suffer the consequences for every choice I make. But I won't turn that choice over to Wall Street. I will do a little study on my own. Wall Street will congratulate each other for today's trading as they shovel dirt over me. No thanks.

    But my bottom line is I know I am one breath from eternity and I didn't give me my first breath and I can't stop my last, when it goes. My eternal destination is important to me. When I've been there a thousand years, whether I lived here 50 years or 115 years, it won't matter, except for maybe my deposits in eternity, but where I go is important to me and again I will not turn that choice over to another as I reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. I can play "Lets explain it away." It won't change reality one iota, so it is in my best interest to find out what that reality is.

    James, I don't mind your straw man arguments, but I know when we get Home, you will thank me, Jaunita, Paul, Steve, Lisa and a whole lot of others for our prayers.

    It seems to me, you don't like me talking about rewards or consequences of choice, but I include myself in every one of those statements. We each make our choices and reap the results of those choices. With Jesus, I will eventually get it all, without Jesus, I lose it all. At checkout time, everyone will find out if that is true or not.

    You will never have to give an account for me, just you and vice versa. You can do a litmus test if you are sincere. Do like Elijah did, "Let God be God..." and see who shows up.

    Have a great day, James,

    Mark

     

     

     

     

     

     

  •  

     

     Mark,

     

    For most atheist myself included,the Bible was just the beginning. I have also read the Muslim's Koran

    the Buddhist Tripitaka  and the  Hindu's Hindu Vedas. I even read The Egyptian Book of The Dead.All of them contain about the same ancient knowledge. A few of them are far older than the Bible.

     

     It's a safe bet for me to believe that I checked out all the earths resources on the after life more thoroughly than you did.I find it disturbing that you like so many other Christians are wishing for the end. Almost every post you make tells of how your ready to die with the threat that I will go to hell.

     

     I can help but believe that many Christians want to trash the earth to speed God's return. You enjoy trashing the pharmaceutical industry as pushing chemicals on  us when it is a very small source of them in our modern world. Man made junk is pumped into everything. Our clothing is dipped into formaldehyde so it won't rot on store shelves.New cars owners breath in all kinds of volatile organic compounds as does every thing from underarm deodorant to paint to cleaning fluids to the mattress we place newborns on.

     Most of our food is cloned from a single plant. Just one plant plague can easily wipe-out the world supply of a food. Like bananas.

     

     My Dad died quickly shortly after retirement of a nasty form of leukemia. A form of leukemia that is said to be 90 percent environmental. The nasty man made junk he worked with in the Navy as a young man killed him as work stress  is probable in the death of your coworker. Studies show that stress kills,retire earlier form high stress jobs will help you live longer.

     

    If you truly had a heart attack, you damaged your heart muscle.Smart thing to do would be to have it checked out Mark. The sooner a person gets medical treatment the less permanent damage to the heart muscle you will have.

     

    PS. buy a reusable coffee cup your adding to the destruction of the earth and wasting your money.

     

    James

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