Kruptikos: Socialism (4) – Warning from Germany

[ i  ] THE WAY TO DO A GREAT DEAL IS TO KEEP ON DOING A LITTLE. THE WAY TO DO NOTHING AT ALL IS TO BE CONTINUALLY RESOLVING THAT YOU WILL DO EVERYTHING.  CHARLES SPURGEON "XPR NVH XZ EZ V YMRVX ERVA KL XZ BRRU ZF EZKFY V AKXXAR. XPR NVH XZ EZ FZXPKFY VX VAA KL XZ WR JZFXKFDVAAH MRLZASKFY XPVX HZD NKAA EZ RSRMHXPKFY.”  JPVMARL LUDMYRZF In our hopefully upcoming DVD series “the Engagement” we will have a tour entitled “Fruit, Weeds and Counterfeits”. One of the key elements of that tour will include a survey of the many “counterfeits” that we find in our culture that deceive and pull us away from the true meaning of agape love. One of those counterfeits is best described by Linus from the cartoon “Peanuts”: I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand! It’s funny, but this is so true of our modern culture. This is the Hollywood notion of gushing about loving the World, but in so doing, loving no one, really. The true agape love that we are called to (we will try to define it in tE) can only be carried out within the context of a deep relationship. If you fervently seek the true good of an individual, you can only do that with a small number of folks. C. S. Lewis put it this way: It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular. And G. K. Chesterton noted this, which might seem as if he were speaking of the progressive elite in our culture today: They hate kings, they hate priests, they hate soldiers, they hate sailors. They distrust men of science, they denounce the middle classes, they despair of working men, but they adore humanity. Only they always speak of humanity as if it were a curious foreign nation…They are ceasing to be human in the effort to be humane. What is happening here is that we have embraced a counterfeit of true agape love. True agape love operates only in the “small”. We have substituted in its place the “large” and in so doing have destroyed it. I have, of late, been fascinated by the understanding that Jesus, when He started His ministry, did so by calling together a few men…twelve in number. Yet He really concentrated on three. If you study the Gospels, you will find that Jesus did heal many and He did speak to the multitudes, but it appears that His focus was on these few men. And when He left, it was to these few that He gave the charge to then go and make disciples of the nations. But how were they to do that? I would submit to you that they understood it within the example that He had given them. Paul expressed it this way: And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 2 Timothy 2:2 All of this is in keeping with the God who created only two human beings and then told them to fill the earth. They were not expected to have a million babies. They would have a few and those would have a few and eventually this notion of the “few” would become the “many”. In summarizing the entire law, Jesus told us to agape God and to agape our neighbor. He didn’t tell us to agape the world, for we cannot do that. We are awash in a culture that has bowed the knee to itself. We worship ourselves. We believe that we are a god who can generate truth within our own heart. Because we are a slave to our hunger for significance, we then dream of big things for ourselves…in our daydreams we are the one that ends up being so, so significant. We get the girl, we get the guy, we win the lottery, we become famous, we become the greatest entertainer or athlete, we are loved, we are adored, we are the center of attention. Motivational speakers after motivational speakers encourage us to think big, to dream big dreams. We love to think big. We love to dream big dreams. I am not saying that there isn’t a place for that at specific times and places in one’s life, for there is a need to not settle for that which is less than what we can do or accomplish with the gifts God has given us. But we are in danger of reinforcing the lie that anything "significant" has to come from that which is “big” and never from that which is “small”….that “big” is “significant” and “small” is therefore “insignificant”. How deceitful. It keeps the body of Christ from thinking that there is something quite grand about dedicating your life to your family and the neighbors that live next door. It keeps us from action because we think our part is too “small”. It fuels our sense of insignificance. It ignites lust. It fans the flames of jealousy and class warfare. It destroys contentment. It makes us want. It renders us ineffective. We want the “big” and not the “small”. Despising the few, we want it all. Even when we want to help others, we can get overwhelmed by the reality that there are too many needy, too many sick, too many abused…just too many. The problems are just so large… And we end up doing nothing. Oh, we resolve to do something…but we have to make the “something” big in order for us to think that it is worthwhile and significant. But we can’t. So we don’t. I suspect that if Linus were real and he were sitting around the fireplace with Jesus and he uttered his sad commentary: “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.” that it is possible Jesus would have smiled and then quietly said, “I can’t stand mankind. But I love people.” Don’t let “big” get in your way of taking time for the widow next door. The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything.  Charles Spurgeon

[ i  ] Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. – John Lennon The Kruptikos encoding was: "WCTJWSV SA LAGGVGGWASG, W XASFVU WQ HAI BTS. SA SVVF QAU JUVVF AU RISJVU, T YUAKRVURAAF AQ CTS. – PARS NVSSAS" When Satan tempted Eve, he offered her another way to bliss. When Satan tempted Jesus, he offered Him another way as well. Judas, no doubt, thought the way offered to him would lead to something better than what Jesus was offering. Today, we have another proposition laid before us. It is just as tempting, because, on the surface, it sounds so good. And, again, all we have to do is turn from God and His ways and follow another path. Jesus spoke of this as well when He said there were two ways before us, one was small and narrow and the other wide and broad (Matthew 7:13-14). By this, He was telling us that the wide gate and the broad road are certainly tempting… so tempting, in fact, that “many” go that way. Yes, it looks easier and it appears much more pleasant. There is even a hint of paradise at the end. But it is a false path, a deceptive way. It may appear pleasurable, but it leads, as Jesus told us, to destruction.  So, too, the belief that there is a utopia at the end of the socialism path. It is so appealing, so alluring, so “right”, that many in our culture are again falling prey to its promises.  John Lennon was a ‘believer’. He thought this was the paradise we should all pursue: Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us, only sky. Imagine all the people, living for today. Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people, living in peace. Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, sharing all the world. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.  I put the promises in bold:  all people living for today… living in peace… no greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man… sharing all the world… and the world will be as one. It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Peace, no hunger… brotherhood. But, of course, there are the pre-requisites to get there. I underlined those: no heaven; no Hell; no countries; no religion; no possessions Lennon gave us simply an excerpt from the list of necessities that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels laid out as the means to achieve utopia. Lennon didn’t list them all in his short song, but Marx included the destruction of marriage, the family and the church as well. The real cost of Socialism/Marxism/Communism has to be kept somewhat hidden. Lennon knew this for he said as much in his self-description of “Imagine”: [it is] anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic… but because it’s sugar-coated, it’s accepted. And the truth under the covers of Socialism must be sugar-coated, for no one would want what really comes to those who take this broad road and the means to get there. It may sound so idealistic to croon about no one having possessions, but living that way, as we have seen it played out in places like East Berlin, is more of a hell on earth than even a hint of paradise. Policing out the belief in God is gruesome. “Stomping out” might be a better phrase. Vladimir Lenin said that the price to get to the socialistic utopia was worth it, even if it cost the lives of millions of people. Which it did. Some estimate 90 million at the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic’s bloody hands.  In the end, it is nothing but a scam. The promise is whispered that if you join the revolution and take down the owners and then give up your possessions, you will enter into a utopia. What a scam. The East Berliners lived in poverty while the leaders lived in palaces. The same is true in Cuba and Venezuela and throughout socialism’s history. I would like to begin a series that will look at the promises of this scam and the means and the “way” that is offered to get there and compare those claims to the ones we find in a biblical worldview. We are on the possible precipice of being swept into this by a host of believers in socialism and we best know what is down that broad path. Here is a comment from “The Socialist Party of Great Britain”. I think it is important for you to read this, for it will help you understand the passion for the utopia they are fighting for and the deception in which it is couched: "Imagine", the song, was unquestionably Lennon’s finest moment. Its lyrical and conceptual clarity shone sunlight of vision upon our dark and violent world. It urged us to imagine a world without property, without religion, without nations, living in peace. It postulated an economic order in which both greed and hunger would be impossible. Socialists also share this vision. They support the cause that approaches humanity towards the goal of a classless economic order in which wage labor, money and buying and selling have been replaced by free people working together to meet their needs without the constraints imposed by the market system, in short, a world of peace, equality, abundance and ecological sustainability. You may think that we are dreamers, but we are not the only ones. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.  This is the “One-World-Government/Community” of Socialism/Marxism. We will look at that vision and compare it to God’s design. [next]