With our culture ever embracing Socialism and Communism, you might wonder, what in the world is going on? Let’s peel back some of the layers and we’ll discover that the Devil really is in the details. Let’s understand why Socialism has become so attractive. And so, I’d like to take us back to the roots of the ideology and blow away some of the smoke.
American students, whether at the public school level or at the university level, are being propagated with ideologies that reject the Judeo-Christian values most of us share. As a matter of fact, studies of Millennials between the ages of 25-30 have shown they believe that George W. Bush murdered more people in the last hundred years than even Joseph Stalin! Can you imagine that?
You think, “What in the world is going on? How could they be so misguided?” Well, here is the sad reality — many liberal churches have jumped onto the ideological bandwagon and have embraced what they call Liberation Theology. They began to reject the Judeo-Christian values of the Christian faith, saying that faith amounts to “White Colonialism.” And, they are embracing ideologies that lead toward absolute Atheism.
The origins of some of these errant ideologies — Communism, Socialism, and Critical Theory — come, by and large, from a man named Karl Marx. Karl Marx was born in Germany. He was a Jew. He was raised in a family that had become either Catholic or Lutheran by and large. But, at an early age, Marx began to disregard some of the beliefs of his parents and grandparents. When he entered a public university, he met a theology professor who was a strong Atheist. Yes, a theology professor who was an Atheist! Karl Marx gravitated to this man. They launched a newspaper for students and others advocating Atheism and rejecting specifically Christianity. In Trieste, Germany, one of the places where the Church first found a foothold in the nation of Germany, these two mocked Christians, even on their holy days, and they did things to gain attention and advocated for Atheism.
In time, Karl Marx developed not just a hatred for the Church and Christianity, but a fascination with the occult. He was drawn to satanic imagery and thoughts, and he became fixated on Hell and the Devil himself. Marx’s friends feared that he had become possessed! He exhibited a deep hatred of humanity in general and women in particular, and an absolute disdain for the Church.
His friends worried that he might have had a demon within him. This fact was documented in a great book by an author named Paul Kengor called The Devil and Karl Marx. Kengor documents how Marx embraced, not just the ideology of Atheism, but a hatred of all things specifically Christian. Marx himself admitted that he seemed drawn toward dark and evil thoughts, as if someone inside of him was convincing him to turn away from the true and living God.
We all know the rest of the story. Over the last 120 years, the Marxist ideology has caused more human suffering than any other ideology in the history of mankind. Why? Because people who embrace Marxist ideology reject God and they reject any kind of outside structure of beliefs concerning what is right and wrong. To them, mankind should be left to their own designs. Marxists also promote the emergence of a globally-held Humanism that they believe will lead to greater human prosperity.
History proves, though, that Marxism inevitably leads to greater death and destruction. Just look to Russia under Joseph Stalin. Look to Cambodia under Pol Pot and the Communists who ruled that nation. Look to every other Communist or Socialist nation that’s ever existed. Even right now, we are witnessing Venezuela, which was once one of the most prosperous nations in South America, fall into abject poverty and a loss of all the people’s liberties under Socialism.
And yet, young people in this country seem to want to embrace Socialism as the wave of the future. As Christians, I would urge all of us to contend earnestly against that failed and bankrupt ideology.
Look to what Jude wrote in Jude 1:3, “Beloved, I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, but I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” We need to contend earnestly in our culture, in our churches, and in our families. And indeed, if you’re a parent of a student who attends a public school, whether at the secondary level or at the university level, you need to make sure to contend earnestly for their faith because they are going to be hearing from other voices that are telling them to reject their Christian faith. They’re being indoctrinated by their teachers to reject all of the godly beliefs that have been handed down to them.
I will close with a word that Jesus Christ shared with the church at Sardis. John recorded in Revelation 3:3 the words of Jesus Christ when he said, “So, remember what you have received and heard, and keep it and repent.” In other words, don’t cast aside the beliefs that God has handed down to us. Don’t follow after the proponents of Critical Theory. Marx advocated criticizing everything, and not for the sake of building up the structures that we have. When he taught to criticize, he meant to tear down all of the structures — specifically socio-economic structures, the family, and the Church and Christianity in particular. Today, concerning those proponents of Critical Theory, whether they be in politics, in theology, or in race relations, realize that their ultimate goal is to tear down all of the structures upheld by Judeo-Christian values so that they can rebuild on an ideology based on total Atheism.
Jesus commanded the church in Sardis in Revelation 3:2 to, “Wake up!” It’s time for us to wake up and recognize the threat multiplying around us, and to contend earnestly for the Christian faith.
