Paradise?

[patientlywaiting]

[QUOTE=Old 33;13972]Well that's not correct. As the Framers set up the Constitution, the federal government did a number of things other than provide for an army. Among them:


print money



QUOTE]


The proper term should be "coin" money.

[KnightErrant]

Acts Chapter 2 describes the early church. This is one of the foundations we use in our church for our small group ministry. Are the ideas given in this chapter applicable to a perfect economy or is this still flawed because of sin? I am particularly thinking about the idea of giving to each other as they have need.

So have we, as the church, allowed government to replace our role in helping the poor and needy?

And do you think we would still have giving opportunities in a perfect economy?

No one is questioning that there will be opportunities for giving, just that there will be no opportunities for taking!" Giving shall be completely voluntary, not enforced by the Celestial IRS.
:yikes

I know, I know, supposedly the early Christians in Jerusalem held everything in common, but even then, when people sold their houses or fields to give to the poor among them, it was still voluntary. Peter said even to Annanais and Saphira, "Was the field not yours to do with as you pleased? And afterwards, was the money not yours to do with as you pleased? But Satan has put in into your hearts to lie to the Holy Spirit." It wasn't keeping the money back that got them into trouble, but the hypocrisy of keeping some back and trying to get credit for giving it all.
:scripture

And later, when Paul was ministering to the Gentiles, there is never any mention of holding goods in common, just attempts to raise money "to relieve the poverty of the Saints in Jerusalem." Apparently even among the best people in the world Socialism cannot produce anything but poverty.
:gaah

[ehbowen]

I think that a Biblical economy would be based on hard money. A firm gold standard throughout; no fiat money.

I don't believe that Heaven is a place where "everything is free"; rather, I think that it is a place where everyone is rich (or at least has that opportunity). I believe that, even in Heaven, gold is still a store of value for physical wealth; it's just that it's safer in the streets of God's Kingdom than it is in Fort Knox here on Earth.