commentary: Socialism is Mob Rule (Part One)
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 25-Jan-20; Sermon #1526c; 15 minutes
Description: (show)
I recall that one of the first Bible studies that Evelyn and I attended when we became part of the Radio Church of God was on the subject that I'm going to to speak on here in just a moment. I believe that we heard this Bible study in 1961. It was given by Bill McDowell, and the subject was descriptions of types of governments. Those governments were theocracy, dictatorship, communism, democracy and socialism. It was not a a detailed study, full of of technicalities. He gave broad descriptions, comparing overviews of each and historical national examples of their operations.
This subject arises in my mind because we are now in the lead up to another national election, combined with the attempted impeachment of President Trump, also underway at the same time and in the news almost minute by minute at certain times of the day.
I'm not going to proceed as Bill McDowell did. I will not even give a brief overview of any of these five, but I did hear a man give his opinion that at this stage in the development of who is going to garner the Democratic Party, it is possible that the Millennials' voting might carry the day for Bernie Sanders. I do not believe that. I think there are still enough sane people in the United States that they do not want socialism. So to me, the organizational form really is of little importance. But at the same time, I do want to look, at least somewhat casually, at the historical precedence of what has developed within almost every nation that switches to a socialistic economic form.
My title is, "Socialism is Mob Rule." It is it's basic economic operating procedures that are my concern because for the downtrodden masses of the unemployed (or the barely employed, for a good part of the time), it appears to them as though it is full of opportunities. But to employers— business owners—its track record is absolutely dismal. It generates more citizen riots by the unemployed than any other form of government.
Virtually every nation in Europe has a form of socialism as their government, and I am convinced that especially in Northwestern Europe, a very high percentage of those nations populations are of Israelitish extraction. No, I do not mean Jewish, though they are there too. I do mean Israelitish. For some reason, Jews do not seem to be persuaded by that form of government. Remember, there were two nations descended from Abraham, and socialism hasn't attracted the Jews' participation, at least very much—unless they are running it; that makes a difference.
One of my concerns is that, up to this point, the Millennials seem to find Bernie Sanders and his brand of socialism attractive and therefore appealing to their mental makeup as a good candidate. They seem to like what he says, but I believe that they will not swing this election and vote him in.
When we get all of the political fluff out of the way, socialism operates on on almost totally godless economic system. It is literally nothing more than a massive system of thievery. The government in authority whenever they are using this form robs from Peter to give Paul something for what, on the surface, appears to be nothing.
Several years back, I read a comment from a leading religious leader in this nation. It was very much against the socialistic form of government. He wrote that, "In terms of national governments, socialism is the political embodiment of nothing more than plunder on a massive scale." He also called socialism, "the denial of the rule of law, of private property, of individual liberty, and is therefore destructive of Christianity."
Even worse than that, he added yet another devastating point. He wrote, almost mimicking what I just read to you, "It is the denial of the rule of law, of private property, of individual liberty, all in the name of Christianity."
In other words, it is the selling of this ungodly system to persuade the people's acceptance of it as being a true Christian way of life in terms of government. All the while, it is nothing more than a system of government-backed piracy that builds two bitter fruits into the lives of the common man.
History has shown and recorded that socialism unleashes the lust of the mob and the police power of the mob on the nation. How do we know that? Well, recorded history, which includes the Bible, reveals God's reaction. Never forget that the Scriptures tell us that "you shall know them by their fruits."
Now we true Christians have got to understand: Brethren, there is no free lunch. That's a mythological motto that socialists try to persuade people by. Somebody has to pay the bill. The bills always—I mean, always—come due.
Incidentally—this is a little bit of an aside—I mentioned the term "police." The English term "police" is distantly rooted in another term that indicates a high place, meaning, a place of power. Police have power. It is the same root as our word "city." The root is the Greek word polis. Anciently, cities were often located on the top of the highest elevation in the area, so it was a defensible place. It was a high place.
How many times have you read of God castigating the Hebrews for visiting and getting mixed up in the false gods' high places—their places of power? This may surprise you. That term "high place" in the Bible's usage most specifically refers to the altar, which was always placed so that one had to look up at it. The high place—the altar—represented the place of power, the place where the god sits judging.
History reveals that one of the dangers of socialism is that it subtly persuades the uninformed and unguarded non-Christians to lust for what their reasoning puts into their minds but are unwilling to work for it. I realize that I'm oversimplifying something here, but that is a major reason people like socialism. They think they are getting something for nothing, and it persuades them.
I am not absolutely sure of the reasons why. But socialism has a historical track record of persuading people to congregate into mobs in order to get their heart's desire by means of the force of the mob. The government itself, in this case, becomes their high place that they look up to, and the power is in their mob. It is fear of the mob and whatever or whomever they believe is opposing them that wins their desire. It's usually the human government, and I believe that if one considers the mob as one person, it begins to become easier to comprehend one major element of why mobs form easily under [socialist] economic systems. It is a mob that does not respect or fear the government to the same intensity when one believes he has a large group of people with him.
Having what they desire, plus the large group of people, overwhelms their respect, their fear, of governmental power. This also happens occasionally, even under despotic rulers and even under kings who seemingly rule by divine right, but nowhere near as often as under socialistic governments.
There are two simple causes of why this occurs. They're kind of distant from the scene of the mob, but nonetheless, this is what helps them to build. This is simple to understand if one believes the Bible's principles. One of the reasons that God really admired Abraham was that He was confident Abraham would teach his children. It says that right in the Bible, that he would teach his children about God and His purpose. Why? Because mob rule has at its base nothing more complicated that a massive lack of proper childrearing.
The first of the two reasons is they do not know that God is the author of government, and all governments answer to Him—and God will judge. And so they take action into their own hands. A Christian wouldn't do that.
Number two is that children must be taught to work with as much of the understanding of, and acceptance of, the fact that life is not always fair because of others' sins, and believe it or not, that even includes Adam and Eve. They started this mess, and it has never let up—to rebel against government. And a mob influences that. The reverberations of this go that far back. And if you do not believe me, have you ever thought of Romans 8:18 in this manner? Maybe more on this subject to come.
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Sermon Topics
The Gospel
