Part Three: What is Christian Civilization?

Last week, I referenced a speech given by Vice President Vance in which he talked about the need to defend a “certain” Christian civilization (see Part Two), I suspect he did not mean a civilization built on the teachings of Christ.

If the Christian Nationalist movement is interested in Christian civilization, perhaps we should look at what the oldest Christian communities were like.

When I was first starting my career, the concept of the “Acts 2 Church” was very popular. Acts 2 talks about the church in Jerusalem, in the earliest stage, right after Jesus ascended into heaven following the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the people gathered.

“ They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (verse 42)

This verse, when isolated, sounds cultic; the people sat around and hung on every word that the apostles spoke. I have heard this used to build up pastoral leadership and establish small group models in many churches.

If we keep reading, as one should, a different picture emerges. 

“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.” (Vv. 44-45)

Now they really start to sound like a hippie commune. For years, because it was always presented in the context of an ideal Christian community (or church), I imagined them living on the outskirts of town in a commune - even though the text seems to contradict that image. 

When we get to chapter five, something changes. A man (Ananias) sold his field and gave the money to the church, but he held some back, lied about it, and was struck dead! Then his wife (Sapphira) came by and, not knowing what happened with her husband, also lied about holding some of the money back and was struck dead.

It seems the apostle Peter had the authority to bring about this punishment for their sins.

When we combine that story with the communal living situation, it sounds almost Stalinist. Is that the ideal Christian civilization?

It wasn’t until recently, when I was watching something about the Declaration of Independence and heard the last line read aloud that something clicked.

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor"

The Acts 2 church wasn’t a commune outside of suburban Jerusalem! They were dissidents!

They constituted a small fraction of the population and followed a leader that had been executed for sedition and blasphemy. They knew what it meant to have traitors in their midst (Judas, see Matthew 26).

When Paul wrote to the other early churches in the 40s and 50s, they were also small dissident groups. That’s why it was so important that they not exclude anyone and not allow factions to develop within their ranks.

They also believed that Jesus would one day return and overthrow the powers of darkness. They were waiting for that day to come and in the meantime, they formed small communities that cared for one another and for strangers.

That’s how Christianity grew. They didn’t plant churches with Bible studies and potlucks. They let strangers, travelers, sleep in their homes, fed the hungry, and cared for the sick and wounded. They took in the abandoned children and the infants left out to die of exposure.

They were the poor and the marginalized who formed a solidarity movement and they refused to allow the powers of this world divide them.

They weren’t starting “churches,” they weren’t insurrectionists, and they weren’t communists (big “C” or little “c”), nor were they either capitalists or socialists. They were Christians. They were people who lived out the teachings of the one they believed was the Christ, the Messiah - Jesus.

They were people who believed that the God of the universe stepped into the world and saw them as friends. They believed that everyone who they came across was their neighbor, their equal - they were not beneath the Romans and the Samaritans were not beneath them.

They believed that nothing made any person more or less valuable in the eyes of God, therefore nothing made a person more or less valuable in their eyes.

They weren’t trying to overthrow the Roman Empire, they were trying to survive it. They expected God to overthrow the Empire. At first they expected it soon, but over time, they modified their expectations.

And one day, it happened.

The purpose of this series is to flesh out the story of how the Bible came to be an instrument of power so that Christians can be empowered to reject bibliolatry and authoritarianism and follow Jesus instead. See full bibliography here. 

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