Socialism vs the Bible

  And all the churchgoers whose chief concern is getting their daily pat on the head from the progressives on social media, soiled themselves simultaneously.

Disputing Incorrect Conceptions

    Just because your biased and unapologetically Marxist professor and a myriad of laypeople who have never bothered to educate themselves about the facts surrounding socialism or capitalism keep vomiting the following sentiments incessantly, that doesn't make them true. No, capitalism is not synonymous with greed, nor is socialism synonymous with altruism.

    Actually, by examining the 2016 top 25 nations based on charitable donations in billions (most recent data available to examine on Wikipedia), you will see that in America, a capitalist nation, citizens donate fifteen dollars for every one dollar donated by the next most generous nation (the UK), a socialist nation. In fact, if you added the donations of the 5 most prosperous socialist nations, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, and Italy respectively, Americans still donate more than six times as do all those nations combined.

    The next most prosperous nation after the USA is China with around one-third the US's GDP. Americans donate one hundred and twenty-nine times what the Chinese donate. For the record, China is a communist nation. Communism is basically socialism on steroids. 

    Charitable donations aside, when you examine economies worldwide, with capitalist nations on one end of the spectrum and communist nations on the other end of the spectrum, what you see is, the farther you get from the United States and the closer you get to countries like China and North Korea, the wider the chasm between the haves and have-nots gets. 

    Have you ever noticed how the leaders of communist nations like Kim Jong Un, and all those closest to them have servants and eat the best foods and live in the lap of luxury while all the rest of the people in their nation live in squalor? This is also true for socialist nations but to a lesser degree. If communism is socialism on steroids, it stands to reason that socialism is merely communism-lite.

    The main distinction between socialist countries and communist countries is the degree to which the government oppresses its people. Any restriction on a person's ability to use hard work and ingenuity to better one's quality of life is oppression. If hamstringing every citizen's ability to better their quality of life freely, while politicians and their friends pop Champaign nightly in their secure warm mansions is your idea of heaven, your sense of morality is defunct. If forced altruism is your answer to societal woes like poverty, your morality is counterfeit.

    You might get a hearty "atta girl!" from one of the bots that follows you on Facadebook, or an equally morally defunct human hiding behind a keyboard. Perhaps you'll win the fleeting approval of that beautiful Instagram model who, in reality, is a five-foot two, forty-something fry cook with a lazy eye living in his mother's basement, or worse, a Krassenstein. If that is where your treasure lies, and let's face it... for many of you it is, that might be enough for you. 

    This particular post, however, is meant not for the meaningless approval of fake people on social media platforms but the approval of the Most High, by contrasting those empty worldly values with Biblical values that were handed down from a Holy God to an unholy people.

    It's also worth noting that Marxists only preach socialism as a means to open the door for communism. There are only two types of people who are pro-Marxism:

            1. Those who know they will be among the oppressors. 

            2. Those who don't know they will be among the oppressed.

    Those in the naive pro-socialism crowd, those whose counterfeit morality is willing to trade away other people's freedom and autonomy by force for some government-run, and therefore inefficient and wasteful, altruism, are little more than useful idiots to the pro-Marxist crowd. If you don't think that the ultimate end of socialism is totalitarian Marxism, ask one of your British friends to make a social media post stating that there are only two genders, then, educate yourself on the best way to send an apology pack of cigarettes to them in their jail cell.

What Does the Bible Say About Socialism?

    There are two main characteristics of every society, economic philosophy (capitalism, socialism, etc) and governing body (democracy, monarchy, dictatorship etc).

    With that in mind, probably the most powerful anti-socialism/communism statement in the Bible, is the God of the universe's utter rejection of socialism or communism as the economic philosophy to govern the society that He handed down to Moses at Horeb. When it came time to bring His people into the promised land, the all powerful, all knowing God selected capitalism as an economic philosophy.

    The degree to which you balked at that last sentence is commensurate with the degree to which you have been brainwashed by the leftist progressive culture at large. If the term "greed" popped into your head immediately, you're pretty far gone.

    In truth, capitalism is merely characterized by individual private property ownership and free production and trade between those individuals, unfettered by a governing body. In the most simplistic terms, you own a piece of property and you choose to grow tomatoes on your property and trade some of your tomatoes away to your neighbor who grows lettuce on their property.You both trade some of your produce with the other neighbor who has beef to trade and still another neighbor who bakes bread. Now everybody can build themselves a hamburger and the government had no say in your hamburger trade.

    Greed, however, is a human characteristic that is independent of governing economic philosophy and exists within all societies regardless of which economic philosophy is in effect. To tie greed exclusively to capitalism vs  socialism or communism is a blatant lie. Besides, I can't think of anything more greedy than socialist and communist government officials living in the lap of luxury while the citizens on whose backs the economy rides eek out meager existences at best or live in abject poverty at worst.

    Back to the Bible, to be more precise about the philosophy that the Most High selected as the best method for governing His people in the promised land, ancient Israel was intended to operate as a capitalistic theocracy. There was no governing body. There were no rulers, no taxes and there was absolutely no expectation of any person or persons creating any new laws or regulations.

    There was a priesthood, whose primary responsibility was to carry out religious ceremonial tasks and there was a tithe that was intended to provide income for those priests. By God's design, priests were not given property like the rest of the citizens for the purpose of enterprise. Also by God's design, the tithe, was not enforced at the end of a spear or threat of jail or property seizure. Tithe was a matter of religious observance, of demonstrating obedience to the God whose theocracy you were a part of. The same is true for the other laws and principles handed down to the citizens of Israel via Moses that commanded them to take care of widows, orphans and foreigners in their communities.

    To make matters worse for socialism, around 400 years after Israel took possession of the land of Canaan, the people demanded a change to God's governing design from capitalistic theocracy to capitalistic monarchy.  God's response was, (and I'm extremely paraphrasing here), "Lol, ok! Enjoy conscription and taxes and less sovereignty over your own property. You demanded it, I'm going to let you have it and don't come crying to me later when it oppresses you." God's solemn warning against the creation of a governing body or "the state" can be found in 1 Samuel 8:10-18. 

    The reason this doesn't bode well for socialism is because, based on God's warning against the creation of a centralized administrative state, God was never in favor of a system whereby an individual or a group of individuals has the power to subjugate an entire nation of people. Whereas capitalism implies private ownership and free trade among individuals and the decentralization of power, socialism implies a centralized concentration of power by the state that "allows" those it chooses to have some private ownership, while at the same time maintaining the power to also control the means of production and trade at will. Communism, which is merely a stone's throw away from socialism ideologically, implies total power by a centralized state, the state's complete ownership of all property, and total control over the means of production and trade.

<cough>PRICE CONTROLS!</cough>

But That Was the Old Covenant, We're Under a New Covenant Now.

    I'm going to stop you right there. I've already covered this subject in this blog post here. 

    Even if the new covenant meant a total departure from the old Covenant, which it doesn't, are you trying to make the argument that Jesus was pro-centralized oppressive governing body that controls people's lives? The Sovereign God of the universe who spoke all matter into existence doesn't even presume to control people's lives, what makes you think He's ok with mere mortals attempting to do so? 

    If you have any doubt, try cracking open a concordance and looking up the word "oppression" and see for yourself that Jesus was never at any time pro-oppression... even from governments who claim to be benevolent in their control of the lives of their citizens. Here's a few references with which to wet your whistle.

“Is this not the fast which I choose? To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free, And break every yoke?  -Isaiah 58:6

 If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them. Ecc 5:8

Render Unto Ceasar

    It seems like every person who is determined to manipulate Christians into accepting the oppression from their overlords, LOOOOOOVES to quote this verse. They take it out of context, of course. If you don't know the whole story it's easy to twist the interpretation.

    So what is the context?

    Jesus was asked a question by a couple of fake followers who were trying to trap Him into saying something that would put Him in hot water with the Roman government. Jesus saw through their duality and responded with the famous exchange:

“Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  Luke 20:24-25

     So let's be clear, their question was NOT, "Hey Jesus, do you approve of the oppressive Roman system of government?". Their question was specifically, "...is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Ceasar or not?" In other words, is it a sin against God to pay taxes to the oppressive government?

    Were you expecting Jesus to lay the blame for the sin of oppression at the feet of the oppressed as opposed to the oppressor? Does that make sense to anyone at all?

    For anyone to suggest that Jesus was somehow cosigning the oppression committed by the Roman government by saying "render unto Ceasar" in that context would be tantamount to suggesting that Jesus, by telling a robbery victim who is being held at gunpoint to "just give him your wallet" in order to stave off possible death, means that Jesus is now giving the thumbs up to armed robbery. How ludicrous!

But But But... Muh Social Programs

    Ahhhh the potent tonic of counterfeit morality also known as forced altruism.

    Ok. So, for those who don't know, forcibly taking money out of another person's pocket against their will, and giving it to another person just because YOU'VE decided that the other person needs it more, has never been, nor will it ever be, a moral act. Advocating for a government entity to carry out your ideological robbery and redistribution plan, doesn't all of the sudden make it a moral act either.

    No. You are NOT a "good person" just because you support government tax subsidized social programs. In fact, you're a mini tyrant. Even the most powerful being in the universe, who commanded His people to take care of the widow and the orphan never presumed to forcibly extract and redistribute assets.

    In the government that God handed down to Moses, there were requirements to take care of people in need. In fact, I would even go so far as to suggest that the requirements weren't merely to give to the needy but to preemptively set aside a portion of your assets for the expressed purpose of having it available for the needy to take without even having to ask. You can see this principle demonstrated in Deuteronomy 24:19-22

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

21 “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

    As you can plainly see, your gifts to the poor were not only to be preemptive, with the expectation that you would be providing for the unfortunate in your community, but also, a regular and perpetual practice.

    What is also clear, is that even though these requirements are stated in the form of a commandment, there is no punitive mechanism in place so as to enforce these sundry laws. Instead, there is the incentive "...in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands."

    Why is that?

    Could it be, because God is not even remotely interested in insincere worship?

    Could it also be that it is not possible to have genuine love for God without also having genuine love for those that God loves?

    There is another side to this coin. There were also moral expectations placed on the needy as well. Those in need are not given carte blanche when it comes to receiving help, nor are they supposed to feel entitled to it. This is addressed in Deuteronomy 23:24-25

24 “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your basket.

25 “When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.

    Receiving help does have limits.

    Whereas not being willing to help your fellow man with the excess that God has given to you is a form of greed, so is being unwilling to work your way out of a perpetual state of need to the point that you become financially parasitic. It's morally wrong to become a constant fiscal drain on your community for two reasons:

            1. Your constant need eats up resources that others who are genuinely in need might otherwise be able to use.

            2. Your expectation that others be willing to give so that you can constantly take is hypocritical since you have no intention of giving of yourself as well.

    Being a lifelong taker is also a form of greed.

    The scriptures above allow for people facing hard times to take whatever they need but only as they pass by. Meaning, on a temporary basis. There is no provision in the government of ancient Israel for a person to live a life of continual dependence upon other's hard labor, whether that be from a person's refusal to work and provide for oneself, or as a bureaucrat.

    Social programs, in practice, are not only incredibly wasteful with the money they extract from people against their will, but they all allow rampant abuse from a large number of recipients. Politicians that advocate strongly for social programs are more than happy to trade the earnings of hard working citizens for votes from those who are the perpetual recipients of the fruits of other people's labor.

    Let's approach this from another angle. Just because robbing banks and using the stolen money to buy food for starving children would solve the social problem of food insecurity, that does NOT make robbing banks to feed kids a morally righteous act. The ends do NOT justify the means. The same is true for forced altruism. Twisting someone's arm to do good in your eyes gains you exactly zero morality points in God's eyes.

    We haven't even touched on the incredibly immoral act of ransacking people's wages that they would otherwise be able to feed their children with, and spending it on programs that violate their moral values. 

    How many tanks did your staunchly anti-war cousin's taxes send to Ukraine this year? How many copies of the book "Gender Queer" did Christians' and Muslims' tax dollars purchase to be placed in public elementary school or middle school libraries across the nation this year?

    Wouldn't it be morally evil to hijack a Jewish or Muslim person's paycheck, only to use the money they are forced to hand over to purchase ham and bread and pay the salaries of the government employees who will then force feed their children ham sandwiches?

    In that same vein, should Christians and Muslims be forced to work hard every day and surrender money that they could otherwise use to put a roof over their children's heads, so that it can be handed over to an oppressive system that seeks to undermine the moral ideas that they pass down to those same children?

Conclusion

    If God, in His wisdom, thought that a "socialist utopia" was possible, He would have handed it down to Moses at Horeb. However, God, in His wisdom, knew all about man's propensity for evil and lust for power, and the inevitability of rampant oppression that those few tyrants would impose on the rest of the world.

    Any attempt to characterize socialism as a moral good is a lie as the values and principles of socialism do not align with the values and principles contained within the inerrant Word of God.

  Bible 1, socialism 0