3 Biblical Bulwarks Against the Socialist Agenda
We need to recall and reaffirm these core principles to stop the radical leftist juggernaut:
Call it what you will – socialism, progressivism, the radical left – but the forces seeking to undermine and ultimately destroy the West are ever at work. Overseas for example we have the Democratic Party now fully captured by the hardcore secular left, absolutely beholden to revolutionary groups such as BLM and Antifa.
And in places like Victoria we have the ruling members of the Socialist Left faction of the Labor Party causing untold damage and devastation, seen most recently in its completely incompetent and disastrous handling of the corona crisis. All throughout the West we see these forces of corruption, destruction and revolution fully at work.
Being an all-encompassing worldview, secular left ideology needs to be countered by a countervailing and all-encompassing worldview. And there is only one that is up to the task. While the Judeo-Christian worldview is much more than merely a worldview, it alone has the moral and intellectual platform with which to withstand out of control leftism.
In particular, there are three key tenets found in the Judeo-Christian worldview which are fundamentally and unequivocally opposed to the basic tenets of the socialist vision. While others can be mentioned, these three basic principles are sufficient to show the utter incompatibility between the two worldviews.
God, not the state, is supreme
First and foremost is the basic understanding that the One True God alone is worthy of our full obedience and worship. The State is never to take the place of God, exalting itself above all else and everyone else. Indeed, bear in mind the first collective attempt of man warring against God – something that God took instant action against.
I refer to the Tower of Babel situation in which mere humans thought they could band together, create a superstate, and rebel against their Creator. That did not end up very well. We find this theme occurring throughout the Old Testament, but it certainly ramps up in the New.
Christ, not Caesar, is Lord. That is one massive message proclaimed throughout the Gospels and the rest of the Bible. Yet the radical leftists do in fact worship the State, and they do seek to have a handful of elites lord it over all the rest of us. They are all about power and control. But things are different in God’s kingdom. As I just again read today in Matthew 20:25-28:
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Christianity is about servanthood; communism is about mastery and control. Biblical Christians seek to serve others, while the all-powerful State seeks to enslave all others. In seeking such total control, it seeks to be deified. But this is something God will never stand by and tolerate for long.
For more on these truths, see this piece: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/05/15/the-state-is-not-absolute/
Private property
A second major impediment to the socialist agenda is the radical differences each side takes to issue of private property. Under socialism this is of course one of the great evils, and it all must be relinquished to the State. The theory of course is that everyone owns everything, but the reality is far, far different. In every known attempt at socialism, a small group of powerful overlords own whatever they want, while the masses live in want and in poverty.
While the abolition of all private property is at the heart of the socialist agenda, biblical Christianity takes a much different view. Indeed, two of the Ten Commandments clearly speak against this notion. The Eighth Commandment speaks against theft (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19) and the Tenth warns against covetousness (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). They of course presuppose and fully rest upon the notion of private ownership of possessions.
Plenty of other basic biblical themes support this. The various commands not to remove boundary markers are one bit of evidence (see for example Proverbs 15:25; 22:28; 23:10). And talk of everyone sitting under his own fig tree and his own vineyard – including in the future state – also indicates this (see passages such as Isaiah 65:21; Micah 4:4; and Zechariah 3:10).
Christians are called to be charitable with what they own. The gift of giving obviously depends upon people actually owning things. Christian work – be it evangelism or medical missions or what have you – can only be supported if Christians have something to give to it in the first place.
When the State owns everything, then a handful of rulers decide where money and resources will go and what projects will be financed. Having private ownership puts a check on the overreach of the State – having nothing your own makes the State absolute and fully tyrannical.
Further details on this can be found here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/05/30/bible-private-property/
Personal responsibility
The final notion essential to the biblical worldview is that of personal responsibility. Everyone is morally responsible, and everyone is morally accountable. We all must give an account of the lives we lived, and there will be no passing of the buck. When Adam and Eve first sinned, we saw that attempt for Adam to blame Eve. That did not wash then, and it still does not.
Yet in the socialist world where the State is everything, it seems that no one takes responsibility for anything. And if blame is to go around, there is always some nameless bureaucrat somewhere that can be the fall guy. The tyrants at the top are never responsible for anything.
In fact, we are seeing this played out right now, with the worst government ever in Victorian history playing these same games. Over a dozen top-level apparatchiks and head honchos, including the Premier himself, were called to give evidence at a public inquiry on the hotel quarantine debacle that directly led to 20,000 corona cases and 800 deaths.
But every single one of these leaders – top politicians, bureaucrats, and MPS – said they had no clue what happened or how it happened. Every one of them! They all had collective amnesia, and could not recall anything. That was exactly the line Dan Andrews took yesterday.
So today to get some heat off himself he threw the health minister under the bus. She has now resigned. But the truth is, the buck stops with Andrews. He is directly responsible for this horrific stuff-up. In fact, as he said in early August “I’m accountable for any mistakes, and all mistakes, that are made. I have never shirked that responsibility.”
So he should be the first to resign – along with many others. But he keeps shifting responsibility, keeps blaming others – including the Victorian people – and keeps trying to weasel his way out of things. He has thrown every single Victorian under the bus, and he needs to go – NOW.
But being humble, accountable and accepting responsibility is the Judeo-Christian way of doing things. It is not how the secular left operates. They never own up to anything, and always find others to blame, and always find scapegoats as their sacrificial lambs.
For more on the matter of moral accountability, see this article: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2018/01/18/death-right-wrong-abandoning-moral-categories/
Here then are three main aspects to the Judeo-Christian worldview which directly and forcibly stand against the major emphasis of the socialist left. Others could be mentioned. But what is needed now is a remembering and a reaffirmation of some of these key Christian concepts as the push by the progressives continues to flatten everything in its path.
Unless we recall and restore these major biblical truths, we will all be losers in the long run. Let me finish by noting the words of another concerned Christian. Eddie Hyatt has just recently penned a similar sort of piece to this one, and what he says about America is fully applicable to what we find in Australia:
Psalm 33:12a says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” The Democratic Party’s move toward Marxism/socialism and its rejection of the God of the Bible should deeply concern every American, for they are following in the path of so many failed, totalitarian movements of history.
The greatest threat to their vision for America is a Christian awakening wherein the masses renew their faith in God. When that happens, people are set free from dependence on government. Their faith is now in God, and they want government to merely protect them in their quest for those God-given, Constitutional rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Let us, therefore, ask God to visit this nation once again with another Great Awakening. God has sent such awakenings again and again in our history at times of great national crisis. I am convinced that He is ready to do it again. https://old.charismamag.com/life/culture/46641-why-christianity-poses-a-major-threat-to-the-marxist-vision-for-america
Amen.
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Great article Brother! Bless you Bill in every way.
Thanks Kaye.
Thank you Bill,
have at last listened to the YouTube sermon of the Carnegie Church Live pastor, could not find his name, titled simply God and Government. He makes some excellent points and employs scripture to justly justify his research into the present crisis of governance throughout the world. His point about government serving the people and the people serving God, and one another, is a key truth.
We see pride and power where there should be humility and service. I do indeed feel like I have been hit by a bus.
How to get Christ back into the public conscience is our challenge, He is our proper ruler and gives the perfect example of humility and service.
Governments are there by gift of God, to serve His children. Our presiding forefathers, of the Commonwealth of Australia and the USA are among those nations, that were established with this true foundation. We all must return to these founding principles.
God bless us with willingness and courage to say so and do so.
Harry
Amen.
May we recommend a powerfully insightful recent publication (August, 2020) by Sean Hannity entitled ‘Live Free or Die – America (And The World) On The Brink’.
Vital reading!
As to personal responsibility, Johannes Leak’s cartoon in today’s Weekend Australia nailed it!
For those who haven’t read it, the cartoon has a drawing of Daniel Andrews calmly seated (with his hands behind his head) and the words ‘The buck stops there’, with eight arrows pointing downwards (and none towards him).
Agree with you Bill that Dan Andrews has put the blame on his health minister to save his skin for the moment so she has resigned. If he were a ‘decent’ man he should have taken the blame and resigned which we hope he will do, but I’m only hoping. He still thinks he has got to save the state and only he can do it. I hope he remembers his words and resigns but Victorians could get someone just as draconian???
It is important to reinforce why we must reject Socialism, and reaffirm our Christian faith.
Thanks Bill, always a great read.
Yeah so health ministers are now solely responsible for security. Who’da thought? She, being a labor minister, probably was incompetent but the obvious incompetence doesn’t end there.
People forget that the term fascism comes from the idea of a bunch of sticks bundled together becoming strong. The way the Labor politicians stick together and cover for each other’s incompetence and are supported in what they do by the public media is an example of fascism.
Of course every crook knows that courts can’t force you to remember things. This is standard fare for wrongdoers faced with court, but even the fact that they are willing to show that so many within the Labor power structure had no clue as to what was going on means that at very least they are incompetent but they obviously think it’s easier to get away with being seen as incompetent, with you incompetence being covered up by the public media, than actually facing up to corruption.
I certainly want a revival too. But it takes more than a small remnant to get the majority of the church must wake up and acknowledge and repent of it’s role in society getting to this point. To many I have seen in the revival camp want the revival but don’t want to acknowledge what the church did and failed to do. And so many think a remnant is enough and the majority does not have to want revival.
Some wanting national healing speak of Israel being a theocracy so if the church repents and asks for healing that all we need. But our nation is NOT a theocracy so we need to get more than just those already in the church on board. Especially give how few of those who call themselves Christian really are.
As much as the left says it hates theocracy it does. The question isn’t should we be theocracy to them the question is who is god??? If you look at it every world view is religious, everyone has a religion all you have to know is “who is god?????????”
Great article, as usual Bill!
Let me address each issue in turn.
1. The supremacy of the state – governments are put in place by God, & His rule over people is delegated to them (Rom. 13), as it was delegated to Adam in the Garden of Eden, & Noah & his family in the post-flood world. When the church puts itself in the place of God, & is usurping its authority, the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3) is broken.
2. Private property – a classics teacher in high school referred to the situation in Acts 2:42-47 as an “utopian communism”; somehow he forgot that the surrendering & sharing of goods was voluntary on the part of the individual believers, not mandated by the church (or state) at the time. You make your living, then you can buy “luxuries” on what’s left over. In the Communist state, there is no incentive to work, as the state can determine what you have worked for can be given to a person who has not worked for it. Theft by the state from individuals breaks the 8th commandment (Ex. 20:15)
3. Personal responsibility – each individual is accountable for his/her own actions, but sadly since the time of Cain “Am I my brother’s keeper” (Gen. 4:9) & his parents shifting blame (Gen. 3:12-14), humans to this day have mostly been loathe to take personal responsibility for their actions, instead blaming circumstances, or invoking the victim mentality. Heb. 9:27
Thanks Stephen. Yes I deal with those dodgy understandings of the early chapters in Acts here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/06/21/difficult-bible-passages-acts-432-511/
Thanks Bill. What I can’t reconcile is why a significant majority of Victorians believe Andrews is doing a good job. Are they all dills down there? Besides you well know Ministers are appointed in the Labor Party based on factional allegiance. Competence is secondary at best. Now re the polls in Victoria let’s pray that they are wrong in the US. Trump is not perfect but the alternative is unthinkable. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court says it all. The Dems are apoplectic. Yes let’s pray for Australia but at this time lets pray for America.
Thanks John. Yes quite so. Indeed, here is an important reminder: we have 4 important elections coming up real soon that we must keep covered in prayer:
-Saturday October 17 New Zealand
-Saturday October 17 Australian Capital Territory
-Saturday October 31 Queensland
-Tuesday November 3 USA