The Dangers of Socialism

2 Thessalonians 3:6-12; Lesson 34, August 16, 2020.

Definition: Socialism is a form of government based upon a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates/requires that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. For that regulation to succeed, it must be controlled by a few, or a ruler. Socialism results in two classes, the rulers and the ruled.

Clarification: Socialism is the pole opposite of Capitalism or the free market. Socialism seeks to control or regulate the market. The individual becomes a serf of the few in control. Socialism becomes the enemy of the family, private property, individual prosperity, and religious faith. The reason socialism opposes religion, for us Christianity, is that it cannot control the individual’s belief, which places faith in God, not government.

1. Socialism and Communism are based on the same ideology.
Communism is but an extreme form of socialism. From the ideological standpoint, there is no substantial difference between the two. In fact, the Communist Soviet Union called itself the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991) and Communist China, Cuba and Vietnam define themselves as Socialist nations.  The Nazis are also Socialists.  Nazi is short for National Socialist German Workers Party.

2. Socialism violates personal freedom.
Socialism seeks to eliminate “injustice” by transferring rights and responsibilities from individuals and families to the State. In the process, Socialism actually creates injustice. It destroys true liberty: the freedom to decide all matters that lie within our own competence and to follow the course shown by our reason, within the laws of morality, including the dictates of justice and charity. True freedom comes from our relationship with God (Jn 8:31-32), which as we will see, socialism opposes/resists.

3. Socialism violates human nature.
Socialism opposes the natural desire of human nature. It destroys personal initiative – a fruit of our intellect and free will – and replaces it with State control. It leads to totalitarianism, with its government and police repression, wherever it is implemented. Totalitarianism is founded by force.

4. Socialism violates private property.
Socialism calls for “redistributing the wealth” by taking from the “rich” to give to the poor. It imposes taxes that punish those who have been able to take greater advantage of their productive talents, capacity to work or thrift. It uses taxation to promote economic and social egalitarianism, a goal that will be fully achieved, according to The Communist Manifesto, with the “abolition of private property.” (Throughout Scripture we find that private property ownership is encouraged.)

5. Socialism oppose traditional marriage.
By opposing religious faith, Socialism also opposes biblical morality. Therefore, Socialism sees no moral reason for people to restrict sex to marriage, that is, to an indissoluble union between a man and a woman. Furthermore, socialism undermines private property, which Friedrich Engels, founder of modern socialism and communism along with Karl Marx, saw as the foundation of traditional marriage.

6. Socialism opposes parental rights in education.
Socialism has the State, and not parents, control the education of children. Almost from birth, children are to be handed over to public institutions, where they will be taught what the State wants, regardless of parental views. Evolution must be taught. School prayer must be forbidden.

7. Socialism promotes radical equality.
A supposed absolute equality among men is the fundamental assumption of socialism. Therefore, it sees any inequality as unjust in itself. Private employers (capitalists) are quickly portrayed as “exploiters” whose profits really belong to their employees (workers). As a consequence, they rule out the system of wage earning. The Bible recognizes the application of individual God given gifts, skills, and pursuits. 

8. Socialism promotes atheism.
Belief in God, who unlike us is infinite, omnipotent and omniscient, clashes head-on with the principle of absolute equality. Socialism therefore rejects the spiritual, claiming that only matter exists. God, the soul, and the next life are illusions according to socialism.

9. Socialism promotes relativism.
For Socialism there are no absolute truths or revealed morals that establish standards of conduct that apply to everyone, everywhere, and always (everything is relative). Everything evolves, including right and wrong, good and evil. There is no place for biblical standards, neither in the private mind nor in the public square.

10. Socialism mocks/opposes religion.
According to Karl Marx, religion is “the opium of the people.” In other words, faith in God is a dangerous drug and should be controlled. Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, agreed: “Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.”