SOCIALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON THE CHURCH

Introduction

The prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 9:6-7 that, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders…of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end….”  For us whose faith is Bible based, we rejoice in Isaiah’s prophesy.  We look forward to God’s government and eternal peace when, as citizens of heaven, we will thrive when His kingdom reigns.

In the meantime, humans have and will devise their own various systems of government.  Humans have tried monarchies, dictatorships, representative republics, and statist collectivism… plus many other variations.  They have ranged from very autocratic to very loose federations.  In Biblical times we see governmental systems run by dictators who ruled with an iron fist and claimed to be divine to systems with little leadership at all where everyone was on their own.

During the 2016 U.S. Presidential race, a candidate proclaimed himself to be a “democratic socialist”.  He came close to being the candidate of the Democratic Party.  In 2018, several “socialists” were elected to Congress.  Recent surveys have reported that a significant portion of the population is favorable to “socialism”.  The Democratic Socialists of America had about 6000 members in 2016.  They now have 50,000 members.  Fifty-seven percent of Democrats favor socialism over capitalism according to an August Gallup Poll.

So, we would be wise to find out just what socialism is and what are the ramifications for those whose faith is Bible based.  What will be the impact of a surge in socialism on the body of Christ?

Let’s define socialism.  The dictionary says it is, “a theory or system of ownership of the means of production and distribution by society rather than by individuals”.  So, the distinctive of socialism is that the state controls the production and distribution of goods and services versus a system where such thing are controlled by individuals.

Characteristics of Statist Collectivism

The technical term for all such systems of government is STATIST COLLECTIVISM (SC).  To help identify what governmental systems fall into this category, here is a list of the typical characteristics:

Of the state, by the state, and for the state.  The state is supreme.  It overrules all other considerations including individuals.  It is a direct assault on the U.S. Constitution where the individual is supreme.  Mussolini, a complete statist, said it best, “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

SC was recently on display worldwide when the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea had a massive musical and dance performance celebrating the individual submitting all to the state.  It was pure SC propaganda.  Perhaps North Korea influenced the ceremony.

Massive governmental control.  Governmental control is injected into every phase of life.  Go back and take a historical look at the U.S. in the 1930’s and early 1940’s.  There was a governmental bureau

controlling every facet of life.  The situation was so absurd that it was comical.  In Germany, the VW Beatle is a perfect example of over reach.  The German National Socialists designed a car that all Germans were to have…the Beatle.  It made no difference what sized family you had or what your occupation, you were going to drive a Beatle.  The only problem was that the VW plants were converted  into military production before the plan could be carried out.  SC always means massive and ever- growing government.

Base of support.  All SC governmental systems have a base of support to supply the energy and resources to drive the system.  For example, Marxist Communism has the proletariat (working class).  Italian Fascists had national identity. German National Socialists had ethnicity and national identity.

Individual freedoms, property and businesses are confiscated by the state.  Nothing really belongs to the individual.

The center of decision making is removed as far as possible from the individual in order to erase the idea that the individual has any control.

The State runs education, media, and news.  Such input to the individual is screened by the state.

Violence arm.  All SC systems have had a violence arm or enforcement arm that is used to silence and pound opposition into submission. Examples would be the Brown Shirts, Black Shirts, KKK, and KGB type groups.

Animosity toward Bible based communities of faith.  The opposition ranges from outlawing such groups and their activities altogether to restricting them until they are minimized.  The reason is obvious.  The Bible elevates the individual and calls the followers to “Love the Lord God Almighty with all your heart, mind, and soul”.  It calls the followers “citizens of heaven”.  That makes SC furious and jealous.  They demand allegiance to the state.

The only churches that can be allowed to function are those who completely submit to the state and “toe the SC line”.  There are people who are a part of communities of faith who are enamored by various SC systems.  They think its good for the state to care for everyone’s needs from cradle to grave.  They even point to Acts 4 as an example of socialism at work, but Acts 4 has nothing to do with socialism.  It’s just the opposite.  Let’s take a look.  “All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  There were no needy persons among them.  For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:32-35).  Here is what happened.  Every year, Jews from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost.  The city was jammed with visitors in addition to the local residents.  The visitors were equipped to stay about a week.  Due to the injection of the Gospel, many came to put their faith in Christ and stayed in Jerusalem to be discipled in their new faith in Christ by the apostles.  Thousands stayed in Jerusalem to be fed spiritually, so the city was filled with local Jews, local Jews who had been converted, and thousands of out of town Jews who had been

converted.  The visitors soon ran out of resources.  They weren’t prepared for a long stay.  It quickly became a serious problem.  Compassion and generosity swept over the city.  People who had means shared with those who didn’t so all could survive the special occasion.  Contributions were made to the apostles who distributed that which was collected to the needy.  People in Jerusalem hosted the visitors and all managed to survive until the out of town crowd returned home, and then things returned to normal. What was abnormal was the intense persecution of the new believers.  The fact that “there were no needy persons among them” was not due to socialism.  It was charity!  It was voluntary sharing.  It was also temporary to meet an unusual circumstance.  Socialism is by the state and it is not voluntary nor temporary.  Acts 4 is an example of enormous charity.  The government was not involved and wasn’t even supportive.  Acts also records other circumstances where glorious charity was given to meet the physical demands of the needy.  To this day, the church has stepped up and contributed to the needs of various needy groups.  The bottom line is that Acts 4 is not a defense of socialism.

In-fighting. SC groups have a historical tendency to fight each other over minimal differences.  Russia is the best example.  Millions have died in feuds between various SC factions due to very minor differences.

Eugenics.  Another characteristic that often hangs around SC groups is eugenics.  Eugenics is the proliferation of the superior races and the extermination of the inferior races.  It is the most virulent racism ever known.  Remember, in the SC world, the state is everything.  The individual is at the mercy of the state.  If the SC core decides a particular group is a threat to the state, it is acceptable to eliminate them.  The German National Socialists did not invent eugenics.  They adopted it from other SC groups.  Eugenics was well developed in Europe and the U.S. long before Hitler came to power.  The British SC group called the Fabians was full of Europe’s most ardent eugenicists.  When the socialist and hedonist, Margaret Sanger sought exile in London from federal prosecution, she landed in bed with the Fabians.  The eugenicists among them discipled her, and when she returned home, she was a full disciple.  She became a spokesperson for eugenics in America.  America Progressives arranged for and paid for massive rallies all over the country where the proliferation of the superiors and elimination of the inferiors was preached.  Sanger published eugenic periodicals and formed the “Negro Project”, the purpose of which was to exterminate the African Americans in the south by sterilization, contraception, and abortion.  After a scandal, she re-packaged her efforts and founded “Planned Parenthood” which continues its eugenics until the present.  Notice where their abortion clinics were located.  Notice the racial statistics.  Proportionately, minorities are aborted at double the rate as others.  Recently, NYC reported that African American abortions were greater than live births.  Planned Parenthood was founded on eugenics and has never forgotten those roots.  Eugenics was and is practiced among SC governments.  The best known were the Nazi killing camps, but the practice continues today where whole people groups are being eliminated. 

The Achilles Heal of SC

SC has a long history of failure.  There were SC experiments in America before the American Revolution.  They failed.  It will always fail because it is based on a flawed view of human nature.  People are diverse.  They have different tastes, passions and motivations.  Some love the city, others love the country, the

coasts, or the mountains, or the farm. People want to make their own decisions about such things.  They want to make their own choices-not told what to choose by some government agency.  People want to achieve.  They set their own goals, work toward them, and celebrate accomplishments. People need to compete.  They are not satisfied for everyone to end up at the same level.  People need purpose, a reason to exist.  Meaninglessness is the greatest hell of all.  People need to love and be loved, and to be recognized as more than a grain of sand on the beach of SC.  People are nauseated by the idea that we are just an accidental product of Matter plus Time plus Chance.

The Biblical view of human nature is that it is un-regenerated and puts self first.  All else is a distant second.  The regenerated nature puts God first.  Both natures are in sharp contrast with the SC view.

SC has always failed because it wars against all the precepts of human nature.  People don’t want to be forced or molded into a preconceived image of the perfect being by a small group of bureaucrats who think they know what is best for the individual.  The most important aspects of the SC view of human nature is to be conforming and submissive.  Humans aren’t very good at those aspects.

That’s when the SC moves in and crushes the rebellion with dictatorial policies.  We see it all over the world today.  SC systems are installed and they soon devolve into a dictatorship.  Any hint of democracy is trashed and a leader claws into the position of ultimate power and dominates until the system collapses. We see it in Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Turkey, etc.  A dictator will crush the rebellion and takes complete control.  Individual rights and freedoms are abolished and the state (the dictator) grabs all the control and the individual is in chains.

That is why the term “Democratic Socialism” is absurd.  SC never leads to more democracy.  It always leads to more central control and the abolition of democracy.  Bible based communities of faith have to be crushed as well.  There is far too much individualism in the Bible.  The Bible contains admonitions, prohibitions, salvation, consequences, and promises which are all aimed at individuals.  The Bible elevates the individual.  SC elevates the state as Mussolini stated so forcefully; therefore, SC must demand the Bible based groups be outlawed or must submit to the state and change their teachings to comply with the state.  Look who is demanding the church change or be closed.  Universities are shutting down ministries which have been on campus for decades. Why? Who is demanding that very established charities abolish their policies?  Who is removing Dr. Ben Carson’s name from a Detroit school because he is a devout believer and promotes individual advancement? It’s the SC.

How Should Believers Respond?

The SC is screaming in the face of Biblically based faiths, “You are not welcome here anymore.  You are the enemy and we are going to destroy you.  You not only need to condone our beliefs and actions, you must facilitate them or you will die”.

How should Bible based believers respond?  Surrender?  NO!  Accommodate?  NO!  We need to follow the example of the Biblical heroes we have studied for centuries.  They were called “prophets”.  They called people to repent and loved the opposition enough to draw their attention to God’s Word and

Way.  They willingly suffered the consequences of their boldness and currently reside with the Father as “overcomers”.  We need to honor their memory by following their footsteps.

History of SC

People want to know why there are so many varieties of SC.  A historical survey will help clarify the situation.  We could go back to the experiments prior to the Revolutionary War.  But, let’s begin with Karl Marx.  He believed in a natural evolution of a society from a monarchy to a capitalist state which would be overthrown by a workers (proletariat) rebellion resulting in a communist state bringing about a utopia.  He believed it would begin in Germany or England.  He was astonished that it happened in Russia.  Lenin was in agreement with Marx, but added his belief that the proletariat needed a powerful, charismatic leader to motivate and guide them, and a statist collectivism government was established.  Parties that bought into Marxist ideas were established in various countries…Italy, France, England, Germany, and the United States.  The Italian socialists began to espouse a hybrid.  Gentile and others noticed that the base of Russian communism lacked the fervor they desired.  They observed that a base composed of nationalism offered more energetic support, so they developed Italian Fascism.  Mussolini, a product of a socialist family and follower of communism, was interested in Gentile’s thoughts. He was eventually converted to fascism.  His influence was great in other countries including with the American Progressives.  The two groups exchanged ideas, letters, visits, and admiration.

Mussolini also influenced a younger socialist/communist in Austria, Adolph Hitler.  Hitler was finally converted to switch the base from class to nation.  He formed the German National Socialist Workers Party, but Hitler added to the base the element of ethnicity.  His new base became nation plus super race plus hatred of Jews.  He bought into the eugenics that already existed in Europe and the United States.  He set out to proliferate the “super race” and exterminate the inferior and dangerous Jews and all others he designated as “inferiors”.

The English Fabians already were imbedded with eugenicists. The American Progressives history of dealing with the American Indians and African slaves excited Hitler to accelerate his cause.  He studied how America had organized plantations for slaves and how they dealt with the Indian population with reservations.  He was most enthusiastic about Roosevelts’ National Recovery Act which gave government enormous power over business and production.  He thought it was ingenious.  It became the model for the Third Reich.

Mussolini resisted following Hitler’s inclusion of ethnicity in the base.  He had no animosity for Jews.  In fact, he had Jews in his movement.  It was only when his Italian Fascists were in decline that he reluctantly caved in to Hitler’s pressure and agreed half heartedly to follow Hitler’s lead.

The end of World War II did not mean SC was dead.  Yes, the German National Socialists and the Italian Fascists fell, but the Soviet Union pressed on into the Cold War.  Communism spread to other parts of the world.  It spread to the far east and into South America and Africa.  American Progressives grabbed a hold of education, the media, and key governmental positions.  English Fabians kept their influence until Margaret Thatcher dealt the English SC a nasty blow and saved the nation. So SC has spread after World War II

The ultimate result has been and always will be the same.  The people rebel and a dictator arises to put down the disenchanted and grab ultimate authority and the country devolves. 

We see it happening before our eyes all over the world.  And, yet, we have politicians trying to promote SC for America. Jay Richards, a fellow at the Discovery Institute and an expert on economics and free markets, says that the current Democratic Socialists are not all the same.  Some are historical socialists who hold to the abolition of private property, and government ownership of productive property.  Others are promoting a system associated with Scandinavian nations.  Those countries are not socialist.  They are free-market economies with high rates of taxation that finance generous public services.  They depend on dynamic capitalistic practices that socialists dislike.  The Democratic Socialists do not like being associated with places like Venezuela, because they say they advocate for democratic elections.  They fail to realize that Hugo Chavez was freely elected.  Richards goes on to say that the Democratic Socialists is a movement in which a population gets more and more accustomed to dependency. Rather than focusing on how we create value and wealth for ourselves and others, we focus on how we confiscate the wealth of other people.  The more the population is in that confiscatory mode, the more dangerous it gets.

There is a better choice…a much better choice.  We don’t have to settle for the SC cousins from hell: Marxists, Communists, Fascists, National Socialists, English Fabians, and American Progressives, and all of their descendants.

The Better Choice

Several centuries ago, a group of very intelligent, brave patriots came up with a different system of government that has changed the world for all who live inside the system.  It is called the “Constitutional Representative Republic” (CRR).  The characteristics are in sharp contrast to the SC system. First, it is of the people, by the people, and for the people.  The state is to serve the people which is the opposite of SC.  Government is to be minimal.  The rights and freedoms of the individual are to take priority.  The centers of decision making are to be as close to the people as possible to facilitate individual participation. Government intrusion into production and business is to be minimal.  Every individual has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The individual has guaranteed freedoms of faith, pursuit of personal enhancement, and the economic freedom to do business, and expression of speech, and beliefs.  Rather than a built-in animosity toward Bible based faith communities, CRR recognizes the value of Biblical faith.  The founders of CRR often recorded their recognition that the core values taught in the Bible were absolutely vital to the success of CRR.  Such core values as Accountability, Honesty, Caring, Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, etc. must be a vital part in the lives of the citizens living in a CRR society.  CRR encourages those faith groups that teach and practice such values.

Conclusion

SC has never worked.  It can’t work.  It contradicts human nature.  It will always devolve into a dictatorship.  We might as well settle for a monarchy again.  Bible based communities of faith will always be at odds with SC.  SC always demands that such communities toe the official line or go away.  The

only positive option for those communities of faith is to go underground and keep on spreading the Good News, knowing that the risk is great. 

Don’t be fooled by the propaganda promoting “soft Socialism”.  They start with such ideas as free tuition for college, minimum wage, abolish ICE, guaranteed basic wage for all, Medicare for all, tax the other guy.  The gullible will say, “I like some of those.  I like free stuff.  Maybe SC is not so bad”.  It’s bad.  Real bad and none of those things are “free”.  We as Bible based communities of faith need to realize the blessing God gave to the world when CRR was founded and be thankful.  There is no better system this side of heaven.