The Real Origin of Socialism/Communism
It is destroying our culture. It’s a good idea to understand the concepts.
You might think Socialism/Communism began with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and the Communist Manifesto in 1848. In truth, Marx and Engels were following in the footsteps and philosophy of the European Israelites of the 16th and 17th Centuries who were feeling safe and secure with the culture that was developing, especially in Western Europe.
That culture was removing the last vestiges of the “Dark Ages” fomented by the authoritarian Roman Catholic Church; the industrial revolution, the scientific revolution, the Renaissance, the Reformation all pointed to a bright and prosperous future.
The Christian Israelites (not Jews) who had migrated from the Middle East during the “Great Migration” (250 – 500 CE) helped spread the Gospel of Jesus to the whole European Continent.
By the 1500’s they were scattered among many nations and peoples but the bloodlines of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob remained.
As the Israelites have always done when they feel safe and secure, they began to rebel against God. If you’ve read the Bible at any length, you probably can recall several examples of the Israelites’ rebellions.
It began in England, France and other nations that formed Western Civilization.
The Scientific Revolution
During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, scientific thought underwent a revolution. A new view of nature emerged, replacing the Greek view that had dominated science for almost 2,000 years.
Science became a separate discipline, distinct from both philosophy and technology, and it came to be regarded as having utilitarian1 goals.
Out of the ferment of the Renaissance and Reformation there arose a new view of science, bringing about the following transformations: the reeducation of common sense in favor of abstract reasoning; the substitution of a quantitative for a qualitative view of nature; the view of nature as a machine rather than as an organism; the development of an experimental method that sought definite answers to certain limited questions couched in the framework of specific theories; the acceptance of new criteria for explanation, stressing the “how” rather than the “why” that had characterized the Aristotelian search for final causes.
Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton founded a new physics based on mathematics; they and their followers and students solved major problems of mechanics and cosmology synthesizing the mechanical philosophy and mathematization of nature.
The technologies, innovations and marvels of science – such as radio, television, computers, space travel, aviation and the Internet et al would not have been possible but for the foundations laid by these pioneers and many others who developed the “scientific method”2.
The Enlightenment
Not content to learn to measure and explain the workings of our world and the solar system by observation and mathematics, some philosophers chaffed at the concept of a Creator, a God who not only provided guidelines for human behavior but was actively watching their actions and knew their motivations.
As all of us are conscious of our sinful natures, these philosophers were unable to endure the thought of One Perfect Infinite Being, omnipotent, ever-present, who read their hearts, a God who is “about his path, and about his bed, and spies out all his ways.” [Psalm 139:1–4]
They instinctively caught at anything whereby they might be relieved from the intolerable burden of such a thought; and here the rebellious mind of man devised a way to pacify their minds and justify their rebellion.
The movement was called “The Enlightenment” but that is truly one of the worst misnomers in human history. In truth, they lost sight of the light!
Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) and others of similar minds and education wrote and taught that “reason” alone should be able to establish “truth”; there was no need for a “god” to help discern what is true. Mankind alone with no help from God could ascertain “truth”.
Today, in America and throughout Western Civilization, we see the result of what happens when man denies his Creator. Man becomes his own “god”, able to discern the meaning of life, how man should live, what laws he should obey, his goals in life and what — if anyone or anything — he should revere and worship.
All of these things could be discerned by man’s “brilliant mind” and intelligence.
This belief that reason alone, with no help or inspiration from God, can solve all the problems in this world has had disastrous consequences.
These “brilliant” intellectuals’ belief in “reason” subsequently developed into the concept that man could become infallible if not for his “ignorance”. A great many influential teachers, philosophers and leaders adopted this philosophy.
If only enough people could be “educated”, they could then solve all the problems of the world. If only the “right people” were in charge — those who adopted “reason” as their god — then the evils of society in the whole world could be eradicated.
Over time, this philosophy led to liberalism, socialism, fascism and communism in various countries and their governments.
In each and every country where these brilliant minds have obtained the power of government, those governments have sooner or later oppressed and murdered their citizens.
Besides the great evil of oppression and the slaughter of millions upon millions of innocent people, those governments eventually destroyed their countries: Communism under Lenin and Stalin et al in the Soviet Union; Mao Zedong in China; Mussolini with Fascism in Italy; Hitler and National Socialism in Germany.
These are just the most atrocious examples with infamous leaders. Add to those Fidel Castro and Cuba; Hugo Chavez started and Nicolas Maduro has finished destroying Venezuela.
In every place this political philosophy — liberalism, progressivism, socialism, Marxism, communism (they are all close kin) — has gained power, the people have been oppressed and eventually the country has been destroyed.
China has so far escaped total destruction by incorporating many facets of a free market society. However, 60+ million Chinese died during Mao’s reign of terror.
But, thank God, not all the people of Western Civilization adopted this concept.
America was founded by people who actually understood human nature
Those who founded the United States of America rejected liberalism’s view of human kind. Though they shared the concepts of free speech, freedom of the press and strict limitations on the power of government, they did not share the concept that any human being, or all of humanity, could ever become “perfect”.
No matter how much they were educated, how much they believed in and lived by “reason” alone, no matter how good were their intentions, they believed that mankind has always been and always will be imperfect — in fact will come nowhere near perfection.
They understood mankind’s innate lust for power over others – the natural tendency of all governments to become oppressive. America’s founders understood true human nature.
As the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
“The carnal (natural) mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” [Romans 8:7 (KJV 1900)].
Those who wrote the U. S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers truly understood mankind and attempted to put safeguards in place to limit the power of government.
Though some of them were quite far from being “orthodox” Christians, they all believed in God and did not count on the “innate goodness” in man or governments — even if that man or the governments claimed to be guided by reason alone.
Some of the founders rejected much of the Bible because they believed that Abraham’s Covenant with God had not been kept.
They knew that those Covenant promises included physical promises that were never kept in Biblical times: political and economic hegemony, innumerable descendants with nations “bowing down” to a nation of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and those descendants becoming “a blessing for the whole world”.
Though most believed to some degree in Jesus and that the teachings of the Bible were a spiritual blessing to mankind, the physical parts of Abraham’s Covenant did not happen in Bible times and in their time – 1776 – they could not recognize that the physical blessings promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants were in the process of being bestowed even as they were writing the Constitution!
Those physical blessings had just begun falling upon Great Britain, the British Commonwealth, the United States and the rest of the countries that make up Western Civilization in the last half of the 17th Century.
They did not consider that Great Britain was becoming the largest-by-far Empire the world has ever known. The country they were founding would become the most powerful single nation the world has ever seen. Western Civilization would come to dominate the whole world!
It happened. I spent 35 years researching this phenomenon.
In a self-published a book on Amazon in August 2018, I trace the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through the rise and fall of the nation of Israel, through their captivities, the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Macedonian (Greek) and Roman Empires.
I show how God sequestered Israelites (mostly not Jews) in the Parthian Empire until the time of Jesus when those Israelites could return to God and fulfill their purpose – spreading the Gospel of Jesus to the whole world.
I followed them as they migrated from the Middle-East to Eastern Europe, Central and then Western Europe, to Great Britain, to America and to the many nations that make up Western Civilization.
Those descendants took part in the Renaissance, the industrial and scientific revolutions and, yes, in the “Enlightenment” and helped Western Civilization continue spreading the Gospel of Jesus to the whole world.
In my 35+ years of research on the matter, I’ve come to truly marvel in astonishment at what God has accomplished. It has become obvious that He planned Western Civilization “from the beginning”.
God’s Covenant promises to Abraham and his descendants were unconditional. They were not based on how “good” the Israelites were – the stories in the Bible remove that idea completely!
But God always delivers on His promises – unlike mankind – and those physical blessings were delivered resulting in Western Civilization holding political and economic hegemony and the domination (to some extent) of the whole world.
And, of course, God’s underlying purposes have been fulfilled: the Gospel of Jesus has been presented to the whole world; Western Civilization has promulgated the blessings of medicine, innovations in agriculture, to some extent the rule of law and all the inventions in science, technology, manufacturing to the whole world – the physical blessings that God promised to Abraham.
America and Western Civilization are under assault by Socialism/Communism
Sadly, I must inform you that same 35+ years of research has uncovered nothing in the scriptures or in history that says the United States and Western Civilization cannot be decimated by our sinful natures.
Beginning with the corruption that resulted from “the Enlightenment”, it has been likely that our culture would deteriorate – that we would move so far away from God that we will be in big trouble.
For almost 150 years, the USA had avoided the plague of government based upon the “reasoning” of man and mostly followed the guidelines set out by the founding “fathers” of a limited government and the “rule of law”.
Great Britain and other nations of Western Europe began to investigate socialism in the middle of the 18th Century and many succumbed in the next Century to their detriment. That is in part the reason why the USA rose to be the dominant world power by the 1940’s.
But then, in the early 1900’s, we began to implement changes to the standards of the Constitution: the Federal Reserve was created, the “income” tax was unlawfully imposed and the Federal government started accruing more and more power; Social Security and the direct election of Senators. The Senate was designed to represent state governments and not the people directly – thus being a body that could curb the enthusiasm for radical change. It was intended that state governments could limit the power of the Federal government.
Then came the “Great Society”, Medicare and the many rulings of the Supreme Court that find phantom “rights” in the constitution and that directly violate the founders’ intentions.
Great power accrued during WWI and WWII was never rescinded.
Today our government – much blame goes to the Supreme Court – is present in almost every facet of our lives. A perusal of online newspapers and articles confirm that our culture is under attack from within.
Socialism is proclaimed openly by political candidates; many of their proposals reek of communism and fascism. “Progressives” have no fear of proposing legislation and agendas that would have made Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao and even Hitler smile.
The legacy media in all forms have abandoned any pretense of “objective” reporting and openly espouse their belief that part of their job is influence change in our culture – using their templates of political beliefs, of course.
Censorship is open and rampant throughout the trillion dollar social media platforms and many of those platforms promote the “canceling” of any person, especially political and cultural leaders who deviate from their perceived “truth” – their “reasoning”, if you will.
Why am I telling you this?
Because the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who founded this nation and Western Civilization, and all those who love God regardless of their ancestry, the color of their skin or any other factor are the people who could save this country.
In my book “The End from the Beginning (The Origin of Western Civilization)”, I emphasize over and again that the New Covenant God gave us through Jesus is for all people for all time – each and every one who is open to God’s teaching.
Western Civilization has given more freedom and access to wealth for common, ordinary people than any previous culture in all of history.
Are we going to give that up without a fight? If so, then we deserve what is coming and it won’t be pretty.
You. will. not. like. it. – whatever your present political philosophy.
By “fight” I do not mean violence, though at some point that may be inevitable.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure”, wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William S. Smith, a diplomatic official in London on November 13, 1787.
It does not have to come to that.
We can, first of all, clean up our own lives, take care of our families, friends and neighbors. We can truly “resist” without public confrontation except at the times of our own choosing.
When Jesus sent His disciples to “the lost sheep of the House of Israel” – referring primarily to those Israelites in the Parthian Empire,
He said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.: Matthew 10:16 (NIV)
He promised to help us know what to say and when [Matthew 10:17-20].
I urge you, if you don’t know the Bible, get into it with your family if possible.
If you don’t know the history of the Covenant; if you don’t know the story of the founding of Western Civilization, do your own research.
I offer this plug for my book, “The End from the Beginning (The Origin of Western Civilization)3” which in some 308 pages (with extended citation, footnotes and end notes) provides some excellent Bible study, covers 4,000 years history from Abraham to 1800 AD and greatly expands the information in this post.
