The Unintentional Destruction of
Intentional Communities
To destroy is to spoil so that restoration
is impossible, to break down or break up. How many communities
have broken down or broken up due to the impossibility of perfecting
the human nature? How often has man destroyed man by trying to
improve man by man’s own strength or will?
Just like Soviet Communism failed to enoble the
human nature and solve problems without God, so all are doomed
to failure by thinking that living in community makes "perfectability"
possible. It is a fantasy to think that merely living together
can empower people to overcome their "imperfectability"
and somehow arrive at peace and harmony with their fellow man.
This is an erroneous concept, a mere delusion. Individuals who
believe such claims are in the state of being deceived.
Regardless of how creative one’s imagination (or how
deeply one plunges into one’s make-believe world),
attaining to "utopia" is an absolute impossiblity
without the very Spirit of the true God, the Creator of
all. If you took all the human attempts at community, as
well as all fanciful communities in human literature, and
compared them to the historical account of Acts 4:32-35,
you would find the solution to why community always fails.
Here in verse 33 lies, without question, the answer to what
destroys community life — the absence of the "abundant
grace upon them all." If, in community, the lovingkindness,
favor and good will of our Master Yahshua
is not upon them ALL, then destruction is at hand. This
is, of course, why even the community in the book of Acts
eventually degenerated into the dull and oppressive system
of Popes and bishops and priests and laymen.
Living in "community" without Him means
putting your faith in the perfectability of human nature by human
means. This way of life has utterly failed countless times, even
resulting in cruel masters being put in positions of unlimited
power and authority over others, whether popes, cult leaders,
or communist dictators. This has caused immense human suffering
and disappointment. But the same is true when community is set
up without authority and everyone does what is right in
his own eyes — lives are ruined and wasted. Without individual
members in community experiencing daily "abundant
grace" upon them, "community" will continue on
its deluded pathway and will remain a threat to the life and happiness
of those who indulge in it.
Living in the "commonwealth of Israel" as described
in the New Covenant Scriptures is the only way God’s
people can or will live on earth in this age (or even the
next age, when the whole world will belong to our Master
Yahshua). Then, at
last, world peace will be achieved by those who did live
communally, but by the grace and strength that God supplied
for their every human need and every human deed. Community
cannot exist any other way than the way that gives God the
glory and not men. Perfectionism is an illusion. Without
Him, the motive cannot be pure.
The road to destruction is paved with good intentional
communities.
1 Ephesians 2:12; Acts
2:42-47; 4:32-35
2 Revelation 11:15
3 1 Peter 4:11
4 Colossians 1:13,23,28
5 1 Corinthians 3:17
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