Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 432 | Was Jesus a Capitalist? | Q&A

Episode Date: June 3, 2021

On today's Q&A episode, we discuss the potential political leaning of Jesus, whether "generational trauma" is a real thing, and how humanity has (or hasn't) changed since the era when the events of the Bible occurred. --- Today's sponsor: Gabi: Put your insurance policy to the test with Gabi. It's totally free to check your policy to see if you could be saving money; go to Gabi.com/RELATABLE to find out! --- Previous episodes: Ep 81: Purity Culture --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Today we are doing a Q&A where I answered the questions that you guys sent me on Instagram. Thank you guys so much for sending me such thoughtful questions. Here's a good question. Someone asked, has humanity changed since biblical times? I would say no. I would echo Ecclesiastes in saying that nothing is new under the sun. Now has technology changed? Yes. Have societies changed in some ways because of technology and just because of globalism, the discovery of the world and the interconnecting of different cultures and different kinds of people, the evolution of language. Yes, of course, those things have changed, but of course, we know that, one, Jesus Christ stays the same. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And also, like, we know that, you know, God is the great I am. So he's suspended in the eternal now.

He's not I was. He's not I will be. He is, I am. He transcends. time and space. And so what we see is a long length of time. For him, it's just a blot. It's just a dot on the span of eternity. Humans have changed in the ways that I just explained, but human nature, I don't think, has changed. Like if we look at some of the ancient cultures and we look at some of the ancient societies and the ancient sins that were written about in the Bible, that were written about by historians. If we read about, for example, like Pompeii, some of the terrible degeneracy and the perversion

and the sexual immorality and the enslavement and the barbarism that was pervasive. And for example, ancient Rome in their forms of entertainment, I mean, that was barbaric immorality, probably what we would see at its worst. If we look at what Nero did to the Christians and how wicked of a leader he was, if we look at a variety of different events and different kinds of kingdoms and regimes over the span of history, we see that evil has prevailed for many years and many different times in many different regions of the world.

And things have gotten better than they've gotten worse. And it just seems like the different forms of immorality and the different forms of perversion, the different forms of degeneracy and hatred, in war, in violence have gotten better and worse, better and worse throughout history. God has remained the same. Human beings just simply go through these different cycles of societal downfall and then societal improvement based on the principles that they decide to build their civilizations and their societies and primarily their families on. And I think it's the same today. Again, we have different tools.

We have maybe different curriculum. We have different language. We have different technology. But it's still the same. Like we are still striving after idols. We are still allowing ourselves to devolve into degeneracy, whether it's sexually or otherwise. And so I don't think that there is anything new that is happening today, as wicked as it seems, that has not happened or is not happening. It hasn't happened in other parts of the world. And even in this part of the world at various points in history, evil just kind of takes on different forms according to different people, different culture, different times.

But it's all the same recycled garbage. I remember hearing someone say that like Satan, the serpent might be clever. but he's not creative. Like he doesn't really come up with new ways to tempt us. Every temptation since the Garden of Eden, like every spiral into immorality and rebellion from God has started with the question that he asked Eve. Did God really say?

And that's the same thing today. When we are questioning God's authority, when we are questioning his definitions of what is right, what is wrong, did God really say, that it will always lead us to calling evil, good and calling good evil. And I certainly think that we are, we're running fast in that direction in this country today. If we're not already there, maybe we're past the point of no return. John McArthur has talked about that this country is already under judgment. And we have

wicked leaders making wicked decisions. We're in a post-truth society. And this is just another season of world history of that's going to lead to, that's going to lead to major suffering because of human rebellion. So we don't know what's going to happen in the future. We don't know if God will have mercy on us and spare us from that kind of fate. I pray that he does. I pray for our leaders all the time that they would have wisdom and compassion and make good decisions for the people in this country, that they would execute real biblical justice, that they would, seek real biblical truth. That's not what we're seeing exemplified, of course, from our leaders right now. But that is what I pray for. So I don't know, it's kind of comforting that human nature

hasn't really changed, that there has been this kind of wickedness before. But it's, I mean, it's also obviously very troubling. But through it all, the answer to the wickedness that is in the human heart has been and will be Jesus Christ. Like it will always be God's redemption. It will always be God who can make hearts of stones into hearts of flesh, hearts that want to follow him, hearts that want to emulate him, hearts that want to create a community that is based on the biblical values of love and charity and generosity and respect that Christianity gives us, that the Bible gives us. And so because human nature doesn't change, because wickedness is always going to be here. It's Christians' responsibilities to be that light that Jesus calls us to

be, to infuse every sphere in which we occupy with the light and the truth of the gospel without any trepidation and without any shame at all. All right. Next question. Generational trauma, is that something that is real? It depends on the context, I think. So generational trauma, in the sense that like your mom, for example, went through something really traumatic and that experience then affected you and your family or it affected her to the point to where it affected you and your family or even just hearing her tell about some traumatic incident that she that she went through. That could in effect traumatize you in a certain way. Like that could have a negative effect on your mind and then you could deal with like secondhand trauma.

Or like listening to a grandparent. For example, if you are someone who is black and you listen to a grandparent, talk about living in the Jim Crow South and talk about real institutional systemic racism and injustice that existed then, you know, being hosed down with a fire hose for just trying to vote in the Jim Crow South, that kind of story could affect you and could traumatize you in a certain way to where you are carrying something that other people whose grandparents did not experience that are not carrying. Now, there is also this kind of superstitious talking about generational trauma that I see.

And that is like this idea that your ancestors have like spiritually passed down trauma to you. And just because like you hear a story about something that your great, great, great, great grandmother endured, that you are like carrying superstitiously, spiritually, like that piece of trauma that you inherited it, that again, is superstitious. That's nonsense. Yes, it could affect you mentally to hear that story, but to say that you have like inherited the trauma from your ancestors and that that is burdening you and you are living that out today, that is like a form of, I would say like necromancy, that is a form of witchcraft and superstition that is not real. There's certainly no biblical basis for it. And of course, the Bible speaks against necromancy and calls it evil

and says that we shouldn't have a part of it. But that is, that's more like, that's mysticism. That is, that's not real. That's, that's just not real. We don't have that kind of ability to inherit experiences of our ancestors. And so when it comes to that kind of generational trauma, no. When it comes to hearing people that you know go through something real and traumatic, could that affect you? Yes. And it's not just people of color who would have that.

It's anyone whose grandparents, like if they were Soviet dissidents or they were your great grandparents were, you know, Holocaust survivors, like having those stories passed down, like in a tangible way. Yes, of course, that could affect you. you. That trauma, of course, should not define us. It can guide us and it can help us see things in a particular way and it can teach us things. But we can't, we also can't say that it was the same thing as living through it. I think that's diminishing the real lived experiences of our ancestors who lived through the things that they are now telling us about, if that makes sense.

All right. Someone asks me, what is purity culture? So we actually did an episode titled Purity Culture that you can go back and listen to. There's good parts of so-called purity culture, bad parts of so-called purity culture, purity culture, like that's such a trend to put culture at the end of something and then to make it sound very controversial. So I think there are, I grew up Southern Baptist. And so I know what people are talking about. They're talking about the kind of nonsense that's like, as soon as you make out with a boy, you're less valuable. You're not going to want to, you're not marriage material anymore. And you're not worthy and you are degraded. You're kind of like this flower that has been picked apart that no one wants anymore. That is a part of what young people are

told. Like, you guys know I'm not like some deconstructivist ex-Vangelical who is just trying to speak out against the toxicity of Southern Baptist culture. But, like, I remember my friends and me as, as teenagers, reading, reading this book called Datable that said, basically, like, the more you do with a guy, the more you are like a used car. And the more a car is used, the more their value goes, down and the less someone will want it. Well, that is counter to the regenerative message of the gospel that once you are in Christ, once you are in Christ, your past sins, they don't define you, they don't mar you, they don't devalue you. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and the righteousness and the purity that you have is given to you by Christ. So if you are someone

who you had sex, you did whatever, before you became a Christian, once you become a a Christian, like, you're not your old self anymore. You don't carry around, you know, like a used car tag that says all of the ways that you have been used. Like, that is not the gospel. And if you are acceptable enough to the God of the universe because of the righteousness and the purity that Christ has transferred to you by his death on the cross, then you are acceptable, period.

So for a sinful man to say you're not acceptable to me because of the things that you did before you're a Christian or whatever is to put himself in a place that's higher than God because God has said that you are acceptable to him through Christ. He has made you pure. Now, I still think talking about sexual purity is very important. I mean, the Bible talks about sexual purity and sexual immorality very blatantly. Jesus talks about the importance of faithfulness in marriage as he describes marriage, for example, in Matthew 19. And so, and 1 Corinthians 6.9 says that the, you know, the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians talks a lot about sexual immorality and why it's important to honor our bodies and what holy sexuality is supposed to look like. But I think purity culture back in the day, 80s, 90s, early 2000s, they focused on the devaluation of an image bear because they made out too much or because they had sex or something. And they focused on the consequences of it and not on the why. Like, why do we remain pure in the sense? And I don't even necessarily like that term because

we're made pure in Christ. But like, why do we abstain from sex before we get married? Like, why do we treat our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. Why do we not let ourselves be used by guys? Like, why do we honor our bodies as consecrating our bodies to the Lord as living sacrifices? Why do we do these things? It's not because it's not just to make yourself more valuable to a husband one day. Like, it's not to make yourself look more presentable to a man. It is because God loves you and you love God and because he created you and he knows what's best for your body. And he says, this is not just how you honor me. This is not just how you glorify me, but this is also how you honor the wonderful and fearfully made body that I gave you. This is what's

going to be best for you, spiritually, emotionally, physically. If you follow these guidelines for sex, God says, this is what I have for you because I love you and cherish you so much. Because you are so incredibly worth dying for, God said, incredible. Incredibly. not because of anything we bring to the table, but because of his grace. And because I died for you, and now you are mine. I have made you my child. I have given you a new self. This is how you are to live in a way that brings me glory and is good for you.

This is why. It's not because God will love you less or your husband will love you less if you make out with too many guys in high school. It's because God knows what is best for us as our creator. and he knows what's best for our hearts and best for our bodies and best for our spirits and best for our minds. Now, I'm not saying that no one was taught that correctly in the Southern Baptist world. And no one was taught that correctly in the Christian church. I actually think it's very overblown the toxicity of purity culture today.

And it's also the people who typically are criticizing purity culture, which we have criticized parts of purity culture on this podcast before, are typically the ones who are saying that anything goes. Like anything should go as far as so-called sex work, as far as any form of sexuality, as far as any sex or, you know, any sex partners you want to have, just go for it. And that certainly is not where we need to go if you had problems with how you were taught about sex in church. Like don't tell me that that kind of degeneracy is going to lead to whole and happy people because it's not.

I still trust what God has to say about sex and what God has to say about the body because he created me and so therefore he knows what's best for me. That should be the mentality. It's not fear of worthlessness. It's gratitude for worth. It's gratitude for the worth that God has given you through Christ. It's not fear that you're going to be devalued or the fear that you're going to be devalued that you don't go too far with guys in high school. It is the gratitude for the value that God has said that you have that you continue to obey him. in the area of sex, but in all things. So I think it's a shift in mentality that's probably, that's probably necessary.

Next question. Does it make sense to move if you don't like your state's current restrictions or potential of future? I think so. I think so. I think it's time to move to red states if you're a conservative person and just make them redder. I think that your life will be better.

I think that she'll be happier living around people. people that share a lot of your same values. Unfortunately, that's just kind of where we are as a country. We're polarized and it's not getting any better. And so you might as well keep the strongholds strong. Like if you're living in California, if you're living in Colorado, which used to be a red state, they both used to be red states. Interesting. It's almost like there's a strategy behind it. If you're living in a blue state, you're probably not going to make it red, but you can make the red state's redder. And you can influence the state representatives, the state legislature, to pass good laws and to affect change in the way that aligns with your values. And so if you are living in a state

that has draconian lockdowns that has ruined people's lives and livelihoods for no scientific reason over the past, you know, more than a year, and you don't see any end in sight and you just see things getting worse, then I would absolutely move if you can. I say move to red states, move to red communities, make them even redder and more conservative strongholds. Let's see. Next question. Okay. Do you think Jesus was a capitalist?

Well, Jesus was not, first, let me say Jesus was not a socialist or a communist, as we've talked about many times in this podcast. Socialism and communism is the government forcing you to give up your capital, forcing you to give up your money and your property and then redistributing it that to other people who did not earn it in the hopes of creating total complete equality. Scandinavian countries are not socialistic. They've got large welfare states, but they've got a flat tax. So everyone, no matter how much you make, pays 60% in taxes in most of those countries are about 60% in taxes. America has a very progressive tax rate. Most of the taxes that are being paid in this country

are actually by the top 25% earners. So when people say the rich don't pay their fair share, the top half of Americans are pretty much the only ones paying taxes. They're paying the large bulk of the taxes in the country. And so I just wanted to clear that up. But socialism, it forcibly redistributes wealth. It forcibly redistributes property in the hopes of keeping everyone the same. But it always leads to misery. It always leads to resentment. It always leads to more greed and more oppression. And the only people that get to keep their wealth are the ones that the very top, like Jeff Bezos and all the people at the top of these corporations are not going to be the ones that are hurt by socialism. They are going to be able to continue to line their pockets. The politicians are

never the ones that are hurt by socialism. That's why they're pro lockdown. They don't care. And these major corporations, they're pro lockdown. They're fine. It's the small business owners. It's the average working class people. It's the blue collar workers that are really affected by these kinds, these kinds of policies. So let me just clear that up. That is what socialism is. It's the forced redistribution of wealth and property, hoping for total and complete equality across the board.

It never leads to that. We don't see that modeled at all in the life of Jesus. He tells people to sell what they have and give it to the poor. He encourages taking care of the poor. He encourages you even taking the clothes off your back and giving it to someone who needs it. But he does not advocate for the government confiscating these things, forcing you to give up these things and then give it to other people.

The kind of generosity and charity that Jesus is calling us to is one that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is individual. It is voluntary. It is not one that is forced by the state. And so anyone who says Jesus was a communist or a socialist either has not read the Bible or doesn't know what socialism and communism are. So I would say that, that he's not a socialist or communist.

We don't see that anywhere in the Bible whatsoever, but we do actually see a protection and a preservation and a premium placed on private property. The idea that what's yours is yours, what's mine is mine, two commandments in the Old Testament, as we've said, speak against the kind of covetousness and theft that we see in socialistic communist societies, and that is do not steal and do not covet. So that means that God has placed legitimacy on private personal property, that what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. And not only am I not allowed to steal something that you have according to God? And by the way, Christians still uphold the moral law of the Ten Commandments. These were fulfilled and doubled down on by Jesus,

not done away with the way that the ceremonial and cleansing laws were because Jesus became our cleansing. And so we still abide by do not steal and do not covet. That's reiterated throughout the New Testament, which means that there is legitimacy, there is validity to private personal property. There is validity. There is legitimacy to what you earn and what you have being yours. Not the states, not mine. And it's not even just wrong to forcibly take it.

And I'm not just talking about paying. I'm not just talking about paying taxes, which Jesus says, rendered to Caesar. What is Caesar? is not even a conversation about taxes. But anyway, I'm talking about, you know, actual theft and the theft of property and of someone's entire livelihood, whether it's by the state or whether it's by an individual. That's wrong. It's an injustice. It's stealing. And we're not just not supposed to steal. The Bible also says we're not even supposed to want something that's not our. So that's how much God cares about someone's property is that you're not allowed to steal it,

but you're not even allowed to want it. You're not even allowed to look at it and say, you know what, that should be mine. Or I really want that. Or that's unfair that person has that and I don't have that and I want that. That's covetousness. And God calls us against it. And socialism and communism are only covetousness.

That's exactly what they are. So to say that Jesus was a communist or a socialist, it just completely disregards any kind of biblical theology or any understanding of what these institutions are and how they've played out throughout history and how they play out economically to do. day. But the question was, is Jesus is capitalist? It depends on what you mean by capitalists. Obviously, I believe that he cares because he is God, so we can't separate the God of the Old

Testament from Jesus. We believe that he endorses the commandments. Obviously, we also see that in the Gospels. And so, yes, of course, we believe that he cares in property and would not be for the confiscation and redistribution of property. But it depends on what you mean by, is he a capitalist? A lot of people equate capitalism with like this love for the accumulation of wealth and greed. And Jesus is against that. The New Testament also says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So desiring to build up your treasure here on earth and desiring to hoard wealth for the sake of your status or for the sake of your comfort and security rather than being generous with what God has graciously given you is wrong. But that's not what capitalism should actually equate to. It's not the same thing as greed. It's not the same thing as hoarding of wealth. It is simply the freedom to be able to provide for you and provide for your family. That might be a lot of money. It might be a little money. Capitalism allows you to be as greedy

or as generous as you want to be, it's not synonymous with being greedy. In socialism, you don't have, you don't have the freedom to be greedy or generous. You can only be greedy. You're only left with absolutely what you need. And so there's no need and no desire for charity. In capitalism, you can be extremely greedy. That's true. But you can also be extremely generous. And it's the only system that actually allows that. So, yeah, again, it just kind of depends. on how you actually define capitalist. Do I think that he is someone who is like some, you know, serial entrepreneur who is trying to make as much money as possible and instructing his followers to do that? No, I don't. But whereas socialism and communism are a system,

capitalism is just what naturally happens. I'm not talking about crony capitalism, which I think we have a lot of here in the United States, but actual supply and I've talked to you before about how the stories that I've read from North Korea, where they are completely indoctrinated with the wonders of communism from an early age. And they're told about the evils of imperialistic Japan and the United States, the evils of capitalism and how North Korea is this wonderful place of abundance, even while they are starving and they are being oppressed and they are being jailed for any kind of dissent or complaint. They're also being told that communism is amazing. Well, while they were starving, particularly in the famine,

I think in the late 90s, they started smuggling or getting food smuggled from China and then selling it in these illegal black markets in North Korea. And what did they do? They bought and they sold and they traded and they set the value of things. And there was a supply and demand free market, even though it was illegal within these small communities in North Korea. They didn't learn about the economics of supply and demand. Like they didn't learn about how capitalism worked. They didn't know anything about the marketplace or about economics. And yet they created basically this microcosm of capitalism based on need.

That's what capitalism does. It is a system in its natural form based on need. Now, again, there's crony capitalism and all of these things that come into play today. Corporatism that we see so much and so terrifyingly in the United States. states today, that is not necessarily just a, that's, that's not just capitalism. But if you're talking about capitalism in the sense that it's just the free market of supply and demand and meeting people's demand with supply, that you can see naturally sprout up anywhere there is a need and anywhere there is a supply. So that's not a system. So I couldn't say that Jesus

is against that natural occurrence of supply and demand in capitalism that we see in countries that have never even learned what capitalism is because that seems to be just a part of human nature. That seems to be a part of the mind that God just gave us. So, yeah, but I don't like putting Jesus into any particular political or economic category. I don't say he's a Republican. I don't say certainly that he's Democrat. I don't say that he's either of those because he transcends all of it.

Like he's the creator and the sustainer of the universe. And he's too big for our political boxes. Like he is the god of the universe, not just the god of America, to think that he could be in any way placed in these small boxes of our categories of how we understand the world is just to not comprehend his infiniteness, which we can't comprehend it, but to try to make him smaller by putting him into our categories,

I think is wrong. So he transcends all of it. All I know is that he is perfectly good. He is perfectly just. He created us. He says what is and what isn't, what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad.

And I will defer to him in all things. All right. I think that we got time for a couple more questions. Okay, so I got two questions on this. So apparently there's like this TikTok video going around saying that Jesus was a racist that he called, I think, I'm not even looking at it, and I'm just thinking about this, like spontaneously.

I think the video was about the story with Jesus talking to a woman who came to Jesus and was like, and Jesus basically at first answered her like, why would, why would I allow you to take part, why would I allow you to take part of something that is actually for Israel? And basically called her a dog. And she was like, oh, I just want the crumbs from your stuff. table and then he was amazed by her faith. He, I think that that is the story that he's referencing, that this TikToker is referencing when he says Jesus is racist and then repented of that.

And he's talking about repentance. That's not the first time that I've heard a so-called progressive Christian talk about Jesus's repentance. Jesus did not repent. He's never repented because Jesus didn't sin. But again, progressive Christians often, not always, but often don't see Jesus as a perfect savior. They see him more as an example or an activist or just an imperfect guy who really just represents

all of us. So he's really just kind of this guy that we can learn from that had good teachings, but wasn't God himself. And therefore, we don't have to hold him to different standards than we hold ourselves. And obviously, that is a mistaken, completely unbiblical, self-contrived view of Jesus that is imaginary. I mean, that's like worshipping Barney. There's like there's no reality or substance to that Jesus when you create.

to Jesus of your own imagination, not the Jesus that the church fathers understood and have always understood through scripture and through special revelation. And so, yeah, I've heard this before, this idea of repenting that Jesus repented from sin. Well, Jesus never sin. He who knew no sin took on our sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He was sinless. He was the spotless land. That is how he was able to accomplish propitiation. That's how he was able to accomplish reconciliation because he was our perfect sacrifice. And because he is God made flesh and died to death, he didn't have to die after living a life that he didn't have to live in rising from the dead, conquering sin and death. We are given, believers are given his righteousness and

his perfection and therefore his acceptance before God. And so not understanding that, not understanding his divinity, not understanding his perfection, not understanding his sinlessness means that you don't understand the sacrifice, which means you don't understand what God did for us, which means you don't understand Christianity, you don't understand the cross, you don't understand the gospel, you don't understand what anything about the faith is. Anything that Jesus did, anything that Jesus said was done in perfect righteousness. Now, I think the realization that, we need to see in a story like this or in any of the stories of Jesus is that Jesus wasn't just this nice guy. Like people also love to think of Jesus as just this like very nice, gentle guy that

was just always like his tone was always perfect and he was just completely unoffensive. That's not what we see in scripture about Jesus. Like there are parts, when I, there's times that I read Jesus's words where I'm like, man, that's really harsh. Like that's super intense. That's, wow. I'd wouldn't have said it that way or like that hurts my feelings or whatever like jesus was not mr nice guy he was kind of course exceedingly kind and compassionate and loving of course that's who he is god is love jesus is love um but was he this nice nice guy no i don't we don't see that in scripture and so it might just be that this particular passage makes people who see jesus like that uncomfortable but it doesn't mean that he is human, that he's finite, that he's fallible, and that he's

sin and needed to repent of it. It just means that in his perfection, he chose to do this, which means that it wasn't a sin. Like, we have to start from, we have to start from the knowledge that Jesus is perfect and sinless and then go from there. And therefore, everything that he says and everything that he does is in truth and in love. So I hope that's an adequate response. All right. I think that is all that we have time for today. Thank you so much for listening and we will be back here soon.