SOCIALISM: INCOMPATIBLE WITH FREEDOM AND LIBERTY
TEXT: EPH. 6:12
INTRODUCTION:
On this Sunday before the 4th of July 2019, we celebrate the 243rd year of our founding as a nation. America is called, “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” We’re the land where liberty reigns and people are free to live their lives as they see fit without the interference of an oppressive government, so long as their actions do no harm to others. Let’s let these words in our Declaration of Independence speak to us again: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.''
Unalienable rights are rights that not capable of being taken away because they come from God. As Americans, we must be reminded that our country is under attack from enemies who do not believe in God. Many of these people, some of whom have unfortunately gained positions of power in our government, do not believe a Creator-God exists. To them, since there’s no God, there are no “unalienable” rights He has given us -- they don’t exist. This is the mindset of our enemy.
I contend that this attack on our political system of Constitutional Republicanism comes from Socialism, and it is incompatible with the freedom and liberty expressed in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Some would say Communism is America’s greatest enemy, but I say “No.” Karl Marx, the father of Communism, believed and taught that all inequality, misery and suffering was caused by Capitalism. According to Marx, “Capitalists” are owners of the property, such as industries, companies, manufacturing concerns and farms, etc. In the Socialist phase, property, and the means of production is taken away from the Capitalists, if necessary, and most of the time by violence. This property, formerly owned by the “Capitalists,” would be put in the hands of the people—the workers.
Marx viewed Socialism as a transitional state of government when the property is being taken from the Capitalists and given to the workers and it would eventually lead to Communism. Marx believed the eventual Communist society would be a utopia, a “worker’s paradise,” where all is peace and love and joy with the motto: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” which would come about in the final communistic system. But Marx’s vision has never come to fruition, and it never will, because it always gets stuck in the “Socialism” phase, and dictatorship is always the result.
Socialism can be on the left of the political spectrum, such as the so-called “Democratic Socialism” of Senator Bernie Sanders, who honeymooned with his wife in the U.S.S.R., or on the political right, as in Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The term “Nazi” means The National SOCIALIST German Workers Party. I admit that my explanation of Socialism and Communism is simplistic, but I’m a preacher, not a Professor of Politics. What I want to emphasize on this eve of Independence Day, is the danger that Socialism represents to our country.
Back to our text, in this 6th and closing chapter of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells children to honor and obey their parents, fathers to raise their children in the nurture of the Lord, servants to be obedient to their masters, and for masters to be kind to their servants. Then in verses 10-13 he says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devel. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” I want us to focus on verse 12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” He’s talking about the devel and his demonic hordes, and the humans they control.
Let’s look at some names given to saten in the Bible as applied to the title of my message: “Socialism is of the devel.”
I. JESUS CALLS THE DEVEL A MURDERER
A. In John chapter 8, Jesus is speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees who were constantly opposed to Him and His work. In verse 44 He says to them: “You are of your father the devel, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning…”
B. Let’s consider his name as “murderer.” What was the first murder – the beginning of murder? It was when Cain murdered his brother Abel. Saten works through people as he did through Cain, therefore Jesus called saten a “murderer from the beginning.”
C. Some people are literally possessed by one or more of his demons. Others are simply tools, manipulated into helping him in his attempted destruction of all things related to the true God, and His Son, the Lord Jesus, and of Christianity itself.
D. Socialism is of the devel, because no political ideology has been so exceptionally murderous as Socialism.
E. Remember that Russia was formerly called the U.S.S.R, “The Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics,” where more than 20 million of her people were killed in the name of their deadly ideology.
F. As I pointed out earlier, Nazi was the shortened form of “The National Socialist German Workers Party,” and that evil form of Socialism led to WW II, where an estimated total of 70–85 million people perished.
G. China’s Mao Zedong said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." He was responsible for the deaths of 65 million Chinese in the Socialist phase of his pursuit of a perfect Communist Society.
H. Socialism is of the devel, because like him, Socialism is murderous
II. JESUS CALLS THE DEVEL A LIAR
A. In John 8:44, Jesus said that the devel ”…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
B. Why did Jesus say the devel was “the father” of all lying? Why, because he told the first and the greatest lie: that God is the liar, not him
1. He told Eve in the Garden of Eden, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). He was saying that God is a liar.
2. Eve told him God said they are not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the midst of the garden.
3. Then he went on with his lying. He said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4, 5).
C. His lying continues. He still tells people they can become gods, through the lies of The New Age Movement and other forms of Eastern religion.
D. That is why Jesus called him a liar and the father of all lying. He is the beginner of lying.
E. Socialism is also built on lies. It teaches that its political philosophy can ultimately create a heaven on earth, but its most evil lie is that Christianity is the greatest enemy of mankind’s happiness.
F. Listen to the amazing declaration of Anatole Lunarcharsky, former Commissar of Education in the U.S.S.R.: “We hate Christians and Christianity. Even the best of them must be considered our worst enemies. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the revolution. Down with love one’s neighbor! What we want is hate…only then will we conquer the universe.” (Quoted in the Congressional Record, Vol. 7, pp 1539-1540).
G. The Communists (who are really Socialists) created a list of strategy goals for the destruction of America.
1. Goal 27 is: “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
2. Goal 28 is: “Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
H. When Karl Marx was asked what his object in life was, he said, “To dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” Another Socialist, Hienrich Heine, declared: “Our hearts are filled with compassion for it is…Jehovah Himself who is making ready to die.”
I. In his book, “The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom,” author and former F.B.I. agent, Cleon Skousen, wrote that Marx and his comrades, “…called Jesus Christ an itinerant preacher whose life and writing was effeminate and weak. They ridiculed the possibility of His resurrection. They denied the immortality of human life and the existence of the spirit or soul.”
J. There are many other lies of socialism, too many for me to go into further here. Suffice to say its greatest lie is the lie about God – that He is a liar, or even worse: that He doesn’t exist. Socialism is atheistic at its core.
K. Socialism is of the devel, because, like the devel, it is an ideology built on lies.
III. THE BIBLE CALLS THE DEVEL THE DECEIVER OF THE WHOLE WORLD (Rev. 12:9)
A. Throughout human history, the devel has deceived the whole world. He started out by deceiving Eve, and he’s been doing it ever since.
1. He deceived the Israelites when they came out of Egypt into believing the Moses would not come back from the mountain, so they made a golden calf, called it their god, and worshipped it.
2. Paul told Timothy in his 2nd letter that in the last days, the devel will inspire “…evil people and impostors to go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Tim. 3:13).
3. In the last days, the beast and the false prophet will deceive people into taking the mark of the beast and worshipping the beast (Rev. 19:20).
B. Socialism has been the deceiver of millions. In Communist China (which is really Socialist China), in 1957 what is called “The Great Deception” took place. Mao Zedong and the Communist Party encouraged Chinese citizens, particularly writers and intellectuals, to voice opinions and criticisms of the party and the government.
C. The FB page, “Socialism Sucks,” says, “Mao saw this as a chance to cement Socialism. He had a plan. It was a diabolical plan and the Chinese people would again pay for their willingness to trust Mao.
1. Criticism of Marxist-Leninist ideology and the Party's corrupt role with Socialist policies often took center stage. Students on college campuses, published posters denouncing Socialism and Mao.
2. At Peking University, a "Democratic Wall” was created, with posters stating: "intellectuals are virtually…tortured while living in a communist society. There is a total lack of freedom if the CPC is to continue on ruling the country."
3. Mao said his real reason for the Hundred Flowers Campaign was to "entice the snakes out of their caves." In this deception campaign, the protestors were systematically rounded up, thrown in prison camps, tortured, and 1.5 million were killed.
D. According to the website: "Impact Ministries," “Marx originally hated Socialism; he hated the idea of even giving people false hope. He wanted to create suffering, provoke mankind to blame God for their suffering and ultimately reject God."
1. "But he had to have a means of seducing the nations into abandoning God’s Word. He needed something that gave hope, seduced the world and brought about suffering."
2. "He saw Socialism as the only deception seductive enough to destroy the world."
E. The current crop of Socialists in America, who are almost exclusively in one political party, are practicing deception on a massive scale. They’ve put forth many deceptions, but here are just three:
1. The Green New Deal, a 10-year effort to eliminate fossil fuels…that would completely transform the American economy put the federal government in partial or complete control over large sectors, and retrofit every building in America, changing the way we travel and eat, and switch the entire electrical grid to renewable energy sources. A truly ridiculous deception campaign
2. Medicare for all, which would greatly expand the federal role in health care, promising to wipe out the health-insurance industry and do away with employer-sponsored health plans that now cover roughly 175 million Americans. A great deception.
3. Abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which upholds immigration laws; protect “sanctuary cities” (local jurisdictions that don’t fully cooperate with federal efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants); and take down existing walls on the southern border, walls which Speaker Nancy Pelosi has referred to as “an immorality.” Another unbelievable deception.
F. Socialism is of the devel, because, like the devel, it is an ideology of deception.
Closing:
In his 1986 Independence Day Address to the Nation, President Reagan talked about two of our Founding Fathers, Adams, and Jefferson, who both died within hours of each other, on July 4th, 1826. He said, “My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past…we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God…that black and white, we are one nation indivisible…whether Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.”
Let’s remember on this Independence Day another saying by Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Another saying that has been attributed to Ronald Reagan was that “Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it, and hell where they already have it.” It’s not certain that he really said that, but it’s true, nevertheless. Former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
I didn’t even go into the socialist murderers Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Pol Pot, or Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, the socialist liars of Venezuela, or the grand deceivers of The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Mihn. In summary, as the devel is murderous, so too is socialism. It has murdered tens of millions. As the devel is a liar, so too is socialism. It is built on lies. As devel is a deceiver, so too is socialism. It is full of deception, and its practitioners are deceivers. Let us pray not only on Independence Day, but always, that America will never become a socialist country.
Only Jesus Christ can bring true liberty. The Scripture says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17). Only He can make us truly free. Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Only Jesus can give the peace we are all looking for. He said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). Only Jesus, not a political philosophy and for sure, no Socialism can give us a little bit of heaven here on earth. Not only that, only Jesus can take us to the heaven where He sits on His throne. Give up Socialism and trust Jesus.
