Terry Applegate | On March 27, 2018

The raised fist, sometimes associated with Socialism and resistance.

The evidence is building that Americans are turning away from their long cherished love for democracy, freedom and capitalism in an astonishing fashion.

For example, in a 2017 Gallup survey, Millennials (18 – 29 year olds) had almost equally positive views of both capitalism and socialism (57% – 55%, respectively).

In a stunning 2017 You-Gov survey, 37% of America said they preferred socialism or even communism over capitalism.

And, believe it or not, a World Values Survey found that 24% of young Americans think that democracy is a “bad” or “very bad” way of running the country.

It appears that more and more Americans want a “planned” rather than free economy, an abolition of the differences between business owners and workers and ultimately an end to private property – all distinctives of a socialist state.

Socialism envisions a future perfect condition for man – one achieved through man’s own efforts – a sort of societal pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps.

Non-Christians find this concept easy to embrace.  If man is good, they reason, then why shouldn’t he be perfectible and, if perfectible, why not through human exertion?

Christians, on the other hand, believe in original sin, the fallenness of man, and know that the only perfect state for humankind will come under the direct governance of Jesus Christ after his return.

Until then, Christians know that the poor will always be with us and that man is not God and is incapable of engineering his own utopia.

Socialisms underlying basic assumption of man’s perfectibility through human engineered social means leads to one of its central tenants; a planned economy.

Thinking about this, it is obvious that a planned economy must needs a planner(s).  Along with planning comes control (the plan is no good if people are allowed to go off plan) and control is the more effective the more it is centralized.

It becomes easy to understand why socialized countries usually end up being governed by all-powerful tyrants.

Contrast the Christian way where God favors each man with maximum liberty, able to choose for himself either a blessed or cursed future.

The God of the bible frowns upon the more centralized governmental systems, instead preferring direct relationship with each individual person – a feat only He can do.

God does not need intermediate human constructed social artifices to communicate with every human on the planet.  He can do it directly, the Holy Spirit not being constrained.

However, Satan can only relate to one person at a time.

Not possessing the Godly attributes of omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience, he must rely on his devilish minions, who are likewise limited.

Hence, he is forever furthering the cause of centralized human power so as to be able to influence the more of humanity with his finite number of devils.

In other words, if control is cemented in a limited number of people, he can the more thoroughly corrupt them with his likewise limited number of underlings.  But, they would be vastly less effective in their evil work where power is dissipated and they have to deal with decision makers who are free and numerous (a democracy).

This is one reason why Christianity has traditionally viewed government as the preserver of freedom, order and justice under the law-word of God, while socialists think government is a revolutionary tool to be used by those who would be gods, to fix creation because the Creator didn’t do right the first time.

The second socialist distinctive, the adolescent dream of extinguishing differences of class, wealth, position, etc., reeks of hypocrisy.

Why?  Because its planned and controlled economy requires planners and controllers who, by necessity, possess more power than any capitalist business owner could ever dream of possessing.

While pretending to the levelling of all peoples, socialism retains its planners carrying out the will of its masters proving that it is more a game about power than it is about egalitarianism.

And, of course, the Bible never advocates for egalitarianism.  As far back as the 10 Commandments, it assumes inequality and finds no sin in its existence.  The only sin being in our hearts as we covet what we don’t have.

The fact that we are capable of coveting is de facto Biblical acknowledgement that we aren’t equal.

Socialism, then, can be viewed as the antithesis of Christianity in that it institutionalizes envy in its attempt to level everyone to the same conditions.

God, anti-egalitarian that He is, separates the sheep from the goats, sending some to heaven and some to hell – no levelling here.

Actually, the same can be noticed about socialisms third aspect, the abolition of private property.

When nationalization of property occurs it is only the transfer of rights of ownership from many individuals to one government.

The prerogatives of ownership still exist, only now they will be exercised by a different class of people, those who possess governmental power.

It is somewhat difficult to conjure up a reason to believe why these people who happen to work for government will be better managers of property than the former free (now dependent) owners would.

But, there are reasons to believe that stewardship by design usually results in an outcome less benign.

A private property owner has his own interest at stake.  Any bad decision will impact his own well-being negatively.

He is highly incentivized to make constructive beneficial choices.

Conversely, a bureaucrat is not harmed (even if society is) by his bad decisions.  He has no personal stake and suffers no personal ramifications for mistakes.

This is why we see so many colossal public policy mistakes (such as the vast western fires on ill-managed public lands and massive pollution events like the recent EPA Animas River spill fiasco in Colorado, etc.)

There is no personal skin in the game for government workers, their pie-in-the-sky schemes are implemented by fiat and when they fail, all of us have to pay, but not them.

The Biblical take on private property is one that takes seriously individual & familial ownership, “The prince shall not take from the people’s inheritance, thrusting them out of their possession…”

In fact, private ownership of property is so important in God’s economy that He instructed the Israelites in the laws of Jubilee, mandating the return of any alienated property to its original owner (or family) every 50 years.

And, in the case of Naboth’s vineyard, God’s displeasure with governmental confiscation of private property is made abundantly clear.

Private property is the clear Biblical source for man’s liberty under God to pursue the stewardship mandate.  Without its possession, man is left to play the slave under the mastery of the all-powerful state.

Socialists must suffer from some adolescent psychological malady to be able to continue to lust after an imaginary perfect world even when all logical evidence points to mans’ inability to establish heaven on earth.

How can they believe that man is good and not fallen after Nazism, 100 or more million deaths – by design – from Communism, untold suffering and murder directly attributable to Maoism – all off-shoots in varying flavors of socialism and, all in the last century?

How can they be so stupid, arrogant and obstinate to believe socialism can deliver the goods vis-à-vis capitalism and republicanism given the historical record?

Their ability to maintain their amazing faith in their own ability to re-organize the world in a better way even when the evidence and reason declares that all such efforts have and will miserably fail, borders on the maniacal.

The Christians duty is to resist these professed prophets of social perfection and defend the faith, its doctrines and the necessary corollaries and all that they mean for man’s civil structures – educational, cultural, social, economic and governmental.

Terry Applegate

Terry Applegate writes from Utah in the winter and Michigan in the summer. He is CEO of Applegate Insulation, serves on the board for Citizens for Traditional Values, Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association and the European Theological Seminary and is married to Val with three children and four grand-children.