Socialism's utopian illusion is sweeping our Western culture. Will socialism destroy the America we have all known? We have heard much about the rise of socialism in our nation. Does socialism affect you? Will it change your life, family, children, work or future? What is socialism? Is socialism an evil thing? Does socialism affect the Church? Should Christians be concerned?
The short definition of socialism is this: Socialism is a political theory that advocates government ownership of industry or, said another way, government ownership in the means of production. At the beginning of the 21st century, we have experienced an unprecedented shift from a free market economy (private ownership in the means of production) to a massive buildup of Federal Government ownership in business, particularly the banking, insurance, and mortgage industries. This ownership and control in businesses by the Federal Government is also known as fascism.
Let me give you a few examples of the increase in the size of the United States Federal Government. The American government has increased in size by some estimates a whopping 40 percent and continues to grow no matter the political party. The government has now created, purchased, owns or controls:
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, employing more than 200,000 employees.
- Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, employing more than 45,000 airport police, security, and baggage screener employees.
- American International Group, Inc., or AIG, a major insurance corporation. The cost to U.S. taxpayers for the purchase and bailout was over $122 billion and counting.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA, a newly-minted regulatory agency over Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. The cost for purchase and bailout to the U.S. taxpayers was over $200 billion and counting.
- Banker “Rescue Plan,” HEIST. The cost to the U.S. taxpayers $700 billion, plus $150 billion in political pork.
In total, the U.S. Federal Government now employees more than 14 million workers, not including state government employees. The government also controls a large part of the means of production. The tipping point toward more fascism and a socialistic America has been in the works for many years and is ever increasing.
Free market capitalism is the antithesis of big government ownership and direct involvement in business. It is an economic system based on private property and business ownership of the means of production. This free market capitalistic system gives an opportunity for every average citizen to achieve the American dream of life, liberty, and property ownership. The fundamental spirit of capitalism, however, has been assailed in Washington D. C. moving us dangerously close to a form of government that is contrary to the U.S. Constitution and the spirit of free-market capitalism.
This alone is dangerous. None of this reveals, however, the political theory of socialism that undermines our republic. It is a socialistic ideology that is dangerous to the Church of Christ and our liberty as American citizens. So let’s examine some of the socialist thinking points of the utopian revolutionaries. By understanding their ideology, we get a better idea of the direction our nation is heading.
THE UTOPIAN MAN
The secular socialists believe in the utopian man, the masters of the universe. Utopian man is the perfected man or the god man. Educated from childhood to believe in the evolution of man from savage beast to enlightened being, socialists believe in the social engineering of the humanistic god man.
Much of modern socialistic and fascist ideology has its roots in the French, German and Russian Revolutions. Nicholas Bonneville (1700-1828), for example, was an atheist and revolutionary journalist during the French Revolution. He believed it was vital to rally intellectuals to lead humankind. These intellectuals said Bonneville, would be the “legislators of the universe” and the protectors of the people. According to Bonneville, “Man is God” and will “one day become angelic.” This is the same lie that Satan used to deceive Eve. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
STATE AS SOURCE
The socialist revolutionary also looks to the State, in our case the Federal Government, rather than God as its source for education, food, labor, and leadership. Philippe Buonarroti (1761-1837), another father of socialistic ideology during the French Revolution, said,
“Let the Republic be the sole proprietor; like a mother, it will afford to each of its member's equal education, food, and labor.”
Buonarroti was a utopian (perfect man) socialist revolutionary. As a Freemason, he was an active supporter of the French revolution and believed that the state (republic) should take a paternal role in the affairs of man. He also promoted breaking down all “marks of private property” ownership. You will understand why in a moment.
To promote the State as one’s source is a direct violation of Scripture that declares: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19) and “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). To look to Christ for direction, truth, and life is a direct violation of the socialistic ideology of the utopian man.
ELIMINATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY OWNERSHIP
Socialists view private property ownership as the root of all evil. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), another secular thinker whose views are still popular in our universities went as far to teach that competition was evil. As already stated, free market capitalism is the ownership of the means of production. It has been a fundamental right in capitalistic America. This means of production leads to the American dream of property ownership. That idea is under attack with rights of ownership being “regulated” by more and bigger government.
We now have, for example, “code enforcement” officers in cities employed to inspect your actions as a homeowner, from the color you paint your house, when to mow your grass, how to trim your trees and where to place your trash cans. In my city, after a hurricane toppled a large tree it was illegal to fill the remaining hole with sand without a city permit. To those that don’t comply hefty fines are imposed that offer an additional source of revenue for tax-starved cities. Government involvement in every aspect of life is increasing.
Eminent domain is another form of government meddling in the capitalistic system of private property rights. Eminent domain is the power of government to seize the private property of its citizens for “the common good” of the city. When eminent domain was challenged the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 it constitutional provided there was “just compensation” according to the Fifth Amendment.
This attack on and the elimination of individual property rights through the potential corruption of eminent domain and other regulations can be better understood in the premise of equal distribution of goods or the redistribution of wealth. Remember we are examining the ideology of socialism and what it will produce.
EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS
Socialism promotes equality among each citizen. To achieve this goal they believe in the redistribution of wealth.
“Own everything in common, nothing for yourself…the equality of nature…the republic of equals” said French political theorist Sylvain Marechal (1750-1803) written in “Voyages of Pythagoras.”
Equality sounds good especially for those struggling for economic freedom. Equality without labor, however, is not biblical.
To carry out this equality, a redistribution of wealth must take place through the intervention of a fascist government. In a fascist state, the elite are those that take from the wealthy (through various taxes and regulations) and give to the poor after skimming off their cut (administrative fees). Providing a helping hand to the poor, widows and orphans is indeed biblical. To do so by force, however, is not. The government cannot make the heart of man virtuous through laws as the socialist utopian revolutionary proposes.
Nothing is free. The “Declaration of Independence” offers equality of opportunity. In the Parable of the Talents, for example, Christ rebukes the man that buried his talent in the ground. Notice he doesn’t take by force from the one with ten talents or enact legislation and give it to the man that buried his talent.
Secular thinkers have historically had a problem with the Christian concept of good and evil, or the idea of a sinful man in need of a Savior. To them, the first sins committed by Adam and Eve are nothing but a myth. They believe that inequality is inherently evil and prefer to treat a stricken society through education, legislation, and as government policymakers.
Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) who influenced the French revolution proposed that the “damn businessman” invented the concept of private property that created a form of envy among the people. This resentment according to him birthed all sorts of conflict and evil in the world. To the socialist, therefore, the free market capitalist system itself is evil and not the person. Evil, then, is the direct result of the unequal distribution of wealth.
This is an outright deception to the Christian who understands the fallen nature of man that cannot save himself and looks to the sacrificed Christ for the atonement of sin.
STATE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
Many parents are not happy with the quality of education their children are receiving in the public school. Again, to the socialist, education is a means for building a new type of human being, the utopian man that finds salvation through intellectual enlightenment. The problem with that is it doesn’t work. As we move closer to socialism within the United States, we will see more and more government involvement and experimental social engineering of our children. The result will be lawless children, void of honorable virtues and unable to think.
A SECULAR SOCIETY
A socialist believes in a secular society void of biblical morality, biblical guidance, biblical wisdom, in short void of Christ. Theodore Dezamy, another communist revolutionary, believed it important to abolish all kinds of elite education. By doing so, he felt that it would promote the equality and brotherhood (fraternity) of man within an atheistic society. As an atheist, he taught “equals know neither God nor the devil.”
As Christians, we believe that Christ is vital to life and happiness. We believe in the Word of God. We believe, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). An atheist would flatly reject that belief as foolishness and one dangerously opposed to the utopian society.
FRATERNAL NATIONALISM
The socialist likes to talk of the brotherhood of men that promote a nationalism centered on the cause of equality. Today this ideology is heard in statements like “the common good,” or “it’s time to sacrifice.” These are code words for a socialistic nationalism used to replace the capitalistic ideology of equal opportunity among men through the division of labor.
In Christianity, liberty means the freedom to do what God has called you to do within a free society. To the socialist, however, liberty means freedom from godly restraints in morality and the equality of men that are free from the evils of capitalism.
SPIRITUAL, NOT RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
Leaders during the French revolution also looked to the occult for prophetic revelation to build the utopian man within a utopian society. Pythagoras of Samos (572 BC-500 BC) was one of their intellectual icons. He was a Greek philosopher and mystic that believed the future could be predicted through mathematics. Much of his Orphic beliefs were instituted within the Masonic lodges during the French revolution.
As already said, the socialist believes in the creation of the utopian man, the enlightened being. On their path to Nirvana, they may embrace spiritualism, mysticism, Kaballah, New Age practices, and Yoga but are strictly opposed to the God of the Bible. They don’t believe in good and evil, nor do they see the need for salvation. In fact, the socialist believes a man can save himself. They believe in the spiritual man but not the religious man. As Christians, we believe that a religious person is one that is legalistic, self-righteous and hypocritical that has only a form of godliness. Therefore a true Christian denies the religious spirit but does have a religion, the religion of Christianity with Jesus Christ as founder and cornerstone of that religion.
Socialism is on the move again. It is being promoted by university professors, in our public schools, textbooks, newspapers and even through propaganda cartoons for our children. As Christians, we can overcome this anti-Christ spirit. We are, after all, the only danger to its ideology. To overcome this spirit and thinking, however, will require us to educate ourselves with a biblical worldview. I like what J. Stanley Oakes Jr. of Kings College wrote. “If people study the Bible solely within the confines of religion, it risks creating a spiritual ghetto where, at best, the gospel affects the heart, the home, and the family but has little to do with government, business, education, the media, the courts, or society at large.”
Friends, we must do more than have good church services within the four walls of our buildings. We must break the cycle of the dumbing down of the Church that ignores the warfare of ideas within our world. It’s time to stop entertaining ourselves and begin to educate ourselves. We must become a thinking people. Adolf Hitler said, “What luck for rulers that men do not think.” It’s time to think again and to renew our minds with the Word of God (Romans 12:2).
Christ taught us to be salt and light in a dark world. Far too many people are ignoring what is taking place around them, and others are looking to the “rapture” as an escape rather than preparing themselves to make a difference in this world. In my book “Kingdom Living”, we discuss God’s expectations of His sons and daughters and various strategies to make a difference with our lives. We can turn this around. We can possess the land.
Each believer is unique and has something particular that God has called that person to do in advancing Christian life and Kingdom culture. In short, to make a difference in their lives that brings glory to God (John 15:8). Yes, each believer is part of the universal Body of Christ, but that body is in the world. Let’s get this reputation, “Those that have turned the world upside down have come here too.” As a Christian, you have something to say that the world needs to hear. Don’t withdraw yourself from the world and the affairs of men, be that city set on a hill.
Your partner,
(c) Apostle Jonas Clark
www.jonasclark.com