voluntary

cult

... Also; Ethnically pure socialism works. No one argues against this.

The word you are looking for is "commune", they lived in a religious commune.

So what is a State? The church is a state in a theocracy. You can have self-governing microstates within larger states ... like cult leaders with their compounds. There is the outside law, but there is also an internal law .. and people who violate them will be pushed out of the group or punished.

I've heard people say the book of Acts/early church isn't communistic because people had a choice. The couple who refused to sell everything was struck down, not because they refused to give everything over, but because they lied about it. Bullshit. It is a story to instil fear and obedience to the Church (State).

I do think all regions, in their very early cult-like stages, are very communistic. Over time, that has to dissolve for the religion to stabilize and grow. High growth religions do lose extreme control (look at 3rd/4th generation Mormons and Jehova's Witnesses). Will Scientology every become a causal religion with the cult stuff fading? Who knows. The Hare Krishna's have been around forever and they're certainly still a controlling and dominating cult.

I like a lot of the ideas from Christianity, but I left the born-again/evangelical stuff way back in the early 2000s. I was hard against the church for decades, but in recent years I've come to understand and appreciate how much of the Bible was essential to the creation of western civilization. The rejection of faith is the primary reason for our current downfall (read the book: _The Strange Death of Europe_).

There are a lot of bad things in the Bible as well (and even in the teaching of Christ) and I do think this is one of them. Do not turnover every aspect of yourself to a collective and lose your identity. What led me to leave the faith was in University: I talked to a lot of other Christians about what they believe. I didn't interrupt or try to defend/argue/apologize ... I just listened. When I realized just how diverse Christian's views on God and morality were, across such a large group of people, it really opened my eyes.

I do not agree with the Steve Deace's of the world that see demonic influences around every corner and tell people they should radicalize. But I understand why they're becoming hard-liners and support a return to revival due to how absolutely batshit insane the world has gotten.

I don't know what the right answer is, but it's important to note right now, in America (and even Canada/Europe) the Church is massively divided on the topics of COVID, Lockdowns and even homosexuality and gender ideology. You cannot have other gods before you. You cannot be unevenly yoked. The tenants of Christianity are being tested, and there is no longer a unifying base in Christian culture in the West.