KARL MARX AD 1818-1883
Matthew 7:16-20 “By their fruit you will recognize them.”
Robert L. Heilbroner writes: “We turn to Marx, therefore, not because he is infallible, but because he is inescapable.”
It was A.W. Tozer who coined the phrase “truth and error walk the same highway.” When we read about some of these philosophers there are some elements of truth that one can get a hold of, but what happens is that the bad becomes more prominent and others come along and push their erroneous ideas even further. We see this with those who followed Thomas Aquinas where they took that one flaw in his reasoning, when he suggested that apart from the Scripture there could be a second method of thought built on human reasoning, one step further.
In a letter to his father on March 2, 1837 Heilbroner’s father expressed concern that a demon may have infiltrated Marx’s heart. Perhaps the father was responding to a poem that Marx sent to his father on his 55th birthday where he said: “My soul, true to God, is chosen for hell. I am great like God. I clothe myself in darkness like him.”
It is said that without Descartes and Locke there would have been no Kant and without Kant and Hegel there would have been no Marx. Satan tries to imitate God and in the spread of these erroneous ideas we see this being carried out through his disciples. For example, if we look at the moving of the Holy Spirit we see how He works.
We can trace Moravianism to Zinzendorf to Franke, but still we need to go further. We would have to go back to the Bohemian martyrs of the 15th century and they would be traced back to John Huss who yielded up his life in the burning flames.
We see how this movement effected the 19th century. What we see is that there is a true apostolic succession through which the Holy Spirit is communicated from generation to generation. Moravianism was born out of Pietism, so Methodism was born out of Moravianism.
We go back and we see John Wesley sitting at the feet of Christian David, the Moravian carpenter and preacher at Herrnhut. Also God used another Moravian preacher by the name of Peter Bohler to show John Wesley his spiritual barrenness.
So the great influences in Marx’s life included Immanuel Kant, Hegel and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles Darwin. Kant believed that truth is derived from man as the ultimate source not God.
The Communist Manifesto is a good summary of Marx’s ideology and work. Regarding Marx’s Manifesto, Kevin Swanson concludes that Christianity is irrelevant. It would seem that he recognizes that ancient religions were overcome by Christianity, but in his warped thinking Christian ideas will give way to rationalist ideas. He states: “Communism abolishes eternal truths; it abolishes all religion and morality.”
It would seem that Marx’s explanation of history is class warfare and struggle for freedom and equality. For him, economic inequality is an injustice and must be rectified by revolution and forced redistribution. I think it is interesting to hear the ‘progressives’ here in the United States talking about economic inequality. When he was running for president, Barak Obama said to Joe (the plumber), “We must spread the wealth around.”
Is this the Scriptural task laid down by God for the government; that to take from those who have and give to those who do not have? This is not what God had in mind for prospering at our work. We are to give of our own free will.
Class conflict and envy goes against the tenth commandment of God: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17) It is interesting that Marx considers class conflict and envy wrong or evil when he rejects God and His absolutes. Trying to eliminate class conflicts and envy through egalitarian measure (equal outcome) does not solve the problem of sin or the covetousness that resides in the heart of man. Only Christ can do that.
Marx opposed all forms of economic inequality. However, the Bible does not condemn pay scales, even for people doing the same work. Look at the parable of Matthew 20:1-15 where Jesus insists that a landowner could pay his workers whatever he would like to pay them, as long as the workers agree on the pay at the start of their work. There are other Scripture passages that would seem to indicate God forbidding the redistribution of wealth. (Exodus 23:3, 6, 7, 30:15) “The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives.”
Kevin Swanson says: “Humanist solutions to the problem of sin and slavery in this sin-cursed world will always turn out to be counter-productive. Karl Marx’s solution has failed, and it will always fail. Petty tyrannies of the old world were replaced by a far more aggressive and extensive, highly centralized, bureaucratic tyranny.”
In closing, Marx understood perfectly that the battle of worldviews must be fought in the area of education, especially ‘government controlled’ education. I cannot go into it now because of lack of time and space, but we see the battle being fought here in my own country with the new syllabus coming out called “Common Core,” being forced on our children in the public schools.
It is not that we take our older children out of the public arena, but that we as parents and grandparents (guardians) of our children – give our children the ‘tools’ they need to fight these erroneous ideas and to be able to counteract them through Scripture, faith and prayer. We are to protect our children from false teaching by raising them up in the truth of God’s Word, and with faith in God. Without this strong foundation, they will not know what to think, but will conform to the environment of the education they are put in from early childhood.
Education was once considered the responsibility of parents and grandparents, along with biblical churches; the Holy Bible as the most important book of all. In our first American schools the Bible was taught and children were to know it from beginning to end, but this is not the case today in our schools and universities.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7
The Bible and prayer have been thrown out of our public schools. We see the consequence of this as we watch all the grievous news reports.
We must understand the strongholds we are up against and to tear them down, and like Scripture says; to bring every thought into obedience to Christ.