📖 Biblical Definition
Communism violates multiple biblical principles. The Eighth Commandment — "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15) — presupposes the legitimacy of private property. The Tenth Commandment — "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17) — forbids the envy that drives redistributive ideology. Some cite Acts 2:44-45 ("they had all things in common") as biblical communism, but the early church's sharing was voluntary, local, temporary, and motivated by love — not enforced by the state at gunpoint. Biblical generosity flows from a free heart under God's law; communism flows from coercion under man's ideology. The two are antithetical.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The term did not appear in Webster 1828. The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848.
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COM'MON, a. Belonging equally to more than one, or to many indefinitely. Public; general; serving for the use of all. Note: Webster understood "common" as shared use, not as state-enforced abolition of private ownership. The common good was served by just laws, not by the destruction of property rights.
📖 Key Scripture
• Exodus 20:15 — "You shall not steal." (Presupposes private property.)
• Exodus 20:17 — "You shall not covet." (Forbids the envy that drives redistribution.)
• Acts 5:4 — Peter to Ananias: "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?" (Affirms voluntary giving, not compulsion.)
• 2 Thessalonians 3:10 — "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Communism is repackaged under softer labels while its atheistic, anti-property foundations remain unchanged.
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Communism has killed more people in the twentieth century than any other ideology — over 100 million dead under Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and their successors. It is built on atheistic materialism, the denial of God's moral law, and the worship of the state. Yet it is continually rehabilitated under new names: "democratic socialism," "social justice," "equity." Some progressive Christians even claim that Jesus was a communist. This is blasphemous. Jesus never called for the state to seize property. He called individuals to voluntary generosity. The difference between Christian charity and communist redistribution is the difference between a gift and a robbery — one comes from love, the other from coercion.
Usage
• "Communism violates the Eighth and Tenth Commandments simultaneously — it institutionalizes theft driven by envy."
• "Acts 2 describes voluntary generosity within a local church. Communism describes state-enforced confiscation under threat of death. They are opposites."
• "Peter told Ananias the property was his to keep or give freely — that single verse demolishes the claim that the early church was communist."