This is part of an ongoing series that will be posted each Monday. You can read the introduction to this series by clicking here.

MONDAY! Time once again for Monday School – STILL “The Rational Corrective To All That Nonsense They Tried To Teach You Yesterday!”

Today’s Lesson: Was Peter A Ruthless Communist?

Several recent lessons have been devoted to searching the Bible for good, moral people we might properly encourage children and others to emulate.

The first part of the Bible seems remarkably lacking in such examples.

The second part seems little better, offering as it does a highly problematic Jesus character who seems to have surrounded himself with less than sterling disciples.

We could examine the faults of those disciples in great detail but I think one often overlooked example will suffice for today.

That example involves Peter – the “rock” on which Jesus allegedly declared he would build his church (Matt. 16:18-19).

According to the Bible itself, Peter has a great number of faults: He repeatedly misunderstood Jesus’s simple message; he rebuked Jesus, prompting Jesus to call him Satan; he resorted to violence, prompting Jesus to order him to put up his sword; he abandoned Jesus after Jesus was arrested; and he denied even knowing Jesus no fewer than three times. Again and again, Peter seems less like a rock than mud puddle.

It can be argued, however, that the authors of the Bible intended the story of Peter to be a moral lesson that’s about as sophisticated as an Aesop fable: “Don’t be like this foolish man! Abandon your evil, stupid ways and become the good, enlightened person Peter ultimately did! Jesus didn’t give up on him – He won’t give up on you, either! UNLESS you persist in your evil, stupid ways past the point of no return!”

That’s not a bad spin to put on Peter’s story – as far as it goes. Unfortunately for Christians, it ignores what the Bible apparently considers the “good” Peter to have been.

Consider the following, often ignored passages from the fourth and fifth chapters of Acts :

“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common…. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need….

“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.

“And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.”

It seems that the early Christians under Peter practiced a very strict form of Communism. Everything was held in common and was doled out according to need – “need” being determined by the leaders like Peter to whom all wealth was delivered. When a member of the community dared to hold back some of his own wealth for himself, Peter basically killed him – and his wife, too – as an example to any other members who might be thinking about keeping anything from the church. That passage about how “great fear came upon all the church” sure sounds like the predictable results of a mini Reign of Terror to me.

Exactly how does this differ from the similar crimes that conservative Christian Americans have often charged godless Marxists with?

Exactly how does Peter’s morality differ from that of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao?

Discuss.