Socialism of Christ

by Austin Bierbower

  It appears also that force was contemplated in this opposition, at least at first; so that a conflict of arms and blood were in prospect. An old kingdom and civilization cannot go down, and a new one arise, without war, war being the invariable condition of a change of dynasty, of form of government, or of basis of society. "I came," says Christ, "not to bring peace, but a sword." "The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence; and the violent take it by force.' "Suppose ye that I came to give peace on earth? Nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house, divided, three against two, and two against three; father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter- in-law against mother-in-law."

  The disciples at one time secretly armed themselves, as if for a trial of their strength, or for making a nucleus of an army for their future operations. The impetuous Peter actually commenced to fight, and among other exploits, cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. There was also at one time an open fight between the followers of Christ and others; for it is. said of Barabbas, who was released, instead of Christ, at the crucifixion, that he was one "who had made insurrection with Jesus, and in the riot killed a person."

  That Christ, or at least His followers, contemplated force in their proposed revolution, appears also from many other circumstances mentioned in the Gospels. At one time Jesus, in considering the difficulty and hopelessness of His task, arising from the apparent security of the then existing powers, said, in view of matching them with an equal force on His side, "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are safe. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth the spoils." And then, as if contemplating the universality of the conflict on both sides, He adds, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." He appeared to think that the whole world was to be involved in a conflict, as the Parisian socialists think with regard to their city issues, and that none were to be excluded from one side, except to be on the other.

  The preparations for this war seem to have been carried on in the dark, and the signals and countersigns of the conspiracy to have been made "in an unknown tongue." They were to keep counsel, and watch for an opportunity. The kingdom of Heaven was to come "like a thief in the night." Speaking to His followers, Jesus said, "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching; and if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants; for know this, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye, therefore, ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not."

  He also advises prudent calculation; and a considerate weighing of their means, lest the project fail in a foolhardy enterprise. "For which of you," He asked, "intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand; or else sends an embassador for peace?"

  He further encouraged them to patience and the preservation of discipline. "Who, then," He asked, "is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But if that servant say. in his heart, 'My lord delayeth his coming,' and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat, and drink, and to be drunken, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes, (military discipline) ; but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, much shall be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. I am come to send fire upon the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished."

  All this was said by Jesus to His disciples, and said in private. Then going to the people He addressed them on the same subject, but with more caution, and in enigmas. "When ye see a cloud rise up out of the west, straightway ye say there cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth, but how is it that ye do not discern the signs of the times?"

  In short, He let it be understood that there was to be a bloody conflict, which should go to the heart of society, tearing asunder the family ties, and in which the closest alliances, whether of love or interest, should be disrupted. We have seen that father and son, and mother- in-law and daughter-in-law, were to be set at variance, as is always the case in civil war. "But it needs must be," He said ; and the better to prepare the people for this unnatural warfare, He taught them to lift His cause above all other interests, and not to be diverted by any extremes of personal sacrifice to which it might lead. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, mother, wife, and children, and brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple." He even required them to set it above life itself. "Whosoever shall save his life (in this cause) shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall save it."

  In view of this red revolution, violence was, therefore, evidently anticipated, and such extremes of violence as characterized the French Revolution and the late Commune of Paris. Socialists have always resorted to extremes in measures, just as they have to extremes in theories and general aims. Their unbridled thought and passion, their consciousness of wrongs suffered, and their inexperience in government and practical management, naturally lead them to this.

  We accordingly find the early Christians preparing for a reign of terror; one which was subsequently realized in the triumph of Christianity, and the consequent wars of the Roman Empire, as well as in the dark ages which followed. Bloodshed, demolition of property, iconoclasm, and an unsparing overthrow of institutions was general in their program. The utterance of Christ, "the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence," was enough to authorize such excesses in the public mind. War on synagogues, temples, statues and palaces was declared, like that of the Paris Commune against churches and royal residences. "Destroy this temple," says Christ, "and in three days I will build it;" conveying a threat which was understood literally, and was alleged against Him at His trial; though His" followers tried in vain to explain it as symbolical, and as referring to the destruction and resurrection of His body; in vain, I say, for on another occasion, when taken specially to see the temple, He said, "Verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." Regicides and pontificides, in their warfare against the nobility and priests, have usually insisted that you must destroy the nests or the birds will come back again. Nero perhaps had some reason to charge the early Christians with the burning of Rome, although they have denied it, just as the Commune have denied the burning of Paris; for the latter say that the government did it, and charged it to the Commune to make the latter odious, and to give the authorities a pretext to punish them. The witnesses against one of Christ's disciples who was arrested, said, "We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place." Christ's own words, too, gave color to such charges. "With what measure ye mete," He said, in sending out His disciples on what promised to be an errand of destruction, "it shall be measured to you again."

  The work was decreed to be radical, and they were to spare nothing. "Do men," asks Christ, "put new wine into old bottles, or
sew new cloth on an old garment?" Instead of this, He says, "The axe is laid at the root of the tree;" and nothing of the old regime is to be left standing. In sending out His adherents, He further said that to those who should not receive them they should shake off the dust from their feet, and threaten that it shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment—a future reckoning day on earth, as they then understood—for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida!" He said, ''And thou Capernaum, which art exalted to Heaven, shalt be cast down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day!"

  We have seen that Christ threatened to send fire upon the earth, and that after all these violent threats, which were generally made to the disciples only or else in parables to the public, "to whom it was not given to know the things of the kingdom of God," He found it necessary to tell them not to tell the people. On one occasion, when He had neglected this precaution, Peter expressly asked Him, "Lord, speakest thou these things to us, or even to all?" in other words: Can we repeat these things; or are they among the secret or hidden things of the kingdom of God, which policy requires us to keep to ourselves?

  The general destruction of life and property contemplated in the prosecution of their designs seemed to be ever present to the mind of Christ, and to trouble Him. When told of some Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the sacrifices, and of the eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell, He said, "Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The sufferings of the people under the old regime, and the turning of the scales and consequent suffering of their oppressors, is further set forth in the parable of the unjust judge and the widow. "And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him? Verily I say unto you, He will avenge them speedily." Destruction was certain, terrible and immediately before His eyes.

  On approaching Jerusalem He wept in view of its coming desolation, and said, "O Jerusa- em! Jerusalem ! thou that killest the prophets,

  Socialism of Christ—4

  and stonest them thit are sent unto thee! how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Referring to the same calamity, He says : "As for these things which ye behold, the days will come in which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down;" or, according to another gospel, "If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee around, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knowest not the day of thy visitation."

  And when they asked Him saying, "Master, when shall these things be?" He answered, "Be not deceived * * The time draweth near. But when ye shall hear of wars and enmities, be not deceived, for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by.

  * * Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven. * * In patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh."

  And then follows a scene which would adequately describe the reign of the Paris Commune : "Then let those which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them which are in the countries enter thereunto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." "But woe unto those that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon the people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after the things which are coming upon the earth; for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a o'oud (or army), with power and great glory. A id when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, for your redemption draweth nigh."

  And when the women who followed Him up Calvaiy to the crucifixion bewailed Him,He said, "Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold the days are coming in the which the/ shall cry, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.' Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us !' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'"

  Such was the reign of terror which the early Christian movement threatened as the probable result of the struggle between the antagonistic powers for the supremacy.

  This anticipated violence and lawlessness on the part of the new sect or party naturally attracted the attention of the rulers, and called out their interposition; which fact itself—the interposition of the state against the early Christians—is further evidence that the conduct and schemes of the latter were regarded as insurrectionary and as civil offences.

  Christ Himself expected this interposition,and prophesied to His followers, "Ye shall be brought before governors and kings," and "Ye shall all be hated for my name's sake." And He advised them, under such circumstances, "When persecuted in one city to flee to another," and "when brought unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers to take no thought what to say," knowing that socialists and reformers never lack for words in defence of their course.

  It is recorded of Christ, that "He was numbered among the transgressors." He was particularly charged as being an insurrectionist. "He stirreth up the people." Pilate says of Him at His trial, "Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people;" or, as elsewhere related, His accusers say: "We have found this man perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar"—a charge not unlike that preferred against Socrates, that "he corrupted the youth and made the worse appear the better reason." And when one Jason was arraigned for having entertained the apostles, and was brought with them before the rulers, it was said : "Those that have turned the world upside down have come hither also, whom Jason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, (the emperor himself it seems had taken alarm and interdicted the movement by decree) saying that there is another King, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and rulers of the city when they heard these things."

  The Jews recognizing the insurrectionary character of the Christian movement, urged before Pilate, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cassar." And more than once Christ Himself was asked, "By what authority doest thou these things." The Romans arrested His disciples for teaching, as they expressed it, what is "not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe," and gave it as their experience of them that "These men do exceedingly trouble our city." In fact everything tends to show that Christ was understood at the time as instigating a lawless movement, having for its object a civil revolution.

  As might be expected in view of such contemplated violence and general clash of authorities, the rulers were strongly arrayed against the early Christians. Officials interested in preserving the peace and stability of society, have always been the opponents and persecutors of socialism and socialists. Kings and aristocrats, especially, knowing that if the socialists should gain their ends they would be the first to fall, have always been intolerant of their radicalism. The recent legislation in France, Germany, Russia and other countries against the internationalists, socialists, nihilists and similar classes is an illustration of this. So .Christ and the apostles were resist
ed by the united authorities of their time. "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For_of a truth, against the holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together; and now, Lord, behold their threatenings." "The chief priests, scribes, and chiefs of the people," it is elsewhere related, "sought to kill Him;" and the arrests both of Himself, and of His followers, and the prohibition of their preaching are among the most common narrations of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles.

  Jesus had all this in contemplation, and taught His followers to expect it as they propagated His cause. "I send you," He said, "as lambs among wolves." "Ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake." Like Rochefort, Louis Blanc, Raspail, Most, and every other socialistic leader, "He was numbered among the transgressors." When certain of the common people, supposed to have good sense, and to be of a law-abiding disposition, espoused His cause, the Pharisees, in trying to dissuade them, said: "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers believed on Him?" showing that it was a popular but not a loyal movement.

  As indicating how they stood at the court, Herod's step-daughter, instructed by her mother, asked for the head of John the Baptist in a charger, a request not unlike some made by Eugenie and other favorites at the French court under the late empire—requests, for example, that some friend should challenge and kill in duel the most dangerous of the opposition. The example of Herodias will ever remain as an illustration of court refinement, which in several other respects has its counterpart in the modern persecutions of radicals. While the job was put up in Herod's own house, he procured it to be published abroad that he was sorry, and that he had been personally opposed to it, but reluctantly yielded because he had made a promise, or was caught by a sort of "phila- poena" or pledge. And here we may observe, too, that it incidentally leaks out that John the Baptist had taken up the popular scandal against royalty, and was making capital out of it for his cause, just as the communists and opposition in all royal countries do to-day; for they hold up ad nauseam the corruption and illicit amours of men and women at court in order to create popular indignation against them. La vertu c'est plutot dans la chaumierre que dans le palais. If, therefore, Herodias adopted the measures of Eugenie, Isabella, or the Prince of Wales, she had the same provocation as these, namely, the exposing of her unchastity by a political opponent.