Socialism
The Mask of the Beast
I am not going senile in the title. Yes, I know that in the Last Days, the Bible talks about the mark of the beast. Here’s the famous reference:
“Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon… Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666″ (Revelation 13:11-18).
A. Fauci (Dr. Anthony Fauci) contains 6 letters, and he was born on June 6. That adds up to “666.”
Just kidding.
But I have been thinking of a parallel–the mask of the Beast.
A Satanic Pentecost: Why America is Burning
I wrote on the War for Western Civilization last week not knowing the next battle for America would soon erupt.
On May 31, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday–the day the Early Church was born. Some powerful spiritual events took place last weekend including GO Day, Make Jesus Known, the Praise Walk (March for Jesus), and the Unite 714 prayer day–all meant to empower God’s people.
On the same weekend, the satanic world empowered their forces to wreak havoc and destruction in dozens of U.S. cities.
A Satanic Pentecost.
Why is America burning?
A Satanic Pentecost: Why America is Burning
You can’t form a battle plan for prayer or practical involvement until you properly identify the landscape and opponent you face. Today I’d like to analyze who is responsible for the present rioting in American cities. A satanic Pentecost has been launched—fires of hate instead of tongues of Good News– that we must understand and resist.
Here how I view the battlefield.
Satanic agitation
We must never forget that Satan and his invisible demons tempt and manipulate human beings on earth. Satan is the father of lies and the original source of violence and murder (John 8:44). Whenever you see deception and anarchy, you know that diabolical spiritual forces are inciting the mayhem.
I wish “the evening news” acknowledged this truth. Demons are motivating and stirring up people to do carnage. We must bind them in Jesus’ Name as our first course of action.
A despicable police-mistake.
George Floyd, who was being arrested for forgery, died May 25 after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt for minutes on his neck during an arrest. Floyd’s last agonizing words were that he couldn’t breathe. Three officers witnessed Chauvin’s actions but did nothing to stop him.
Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder, and bail was set at $500,000. All four officers were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. Chauvin’s charge could go higher. He committed a careless and despicable act by taking Floyd’s life. That’s one point on which every American can agree.
Floyd’s death lit a match of racial hatred against “systemic injustice.” But is it warranted?
There are nearly 800,000 police in the USA. Most attempt to do their jobs well and over 99% of Americans do not commit crimes (16 million crimes – 2018 – .2% of population of 325 million). In 2019, 320 whites, 238 African Americans, and 159 Hispanics were killed by police during a crime incident.
Black deaths by police are not systemic–and most police protect the public.
In the case of George Floyd, a rogue cop (with eighteen citations) committed a deplorable act. Justice should be swift and harsh.
Anarchists producing looting and destruction.
There is no excuse for the violence and looting now raging in America. George Floyd’s death is being flaunted as a tool for anarchy by those who hate this nation.
Dr. Martin Luther King would be heartened by the peaceful protests taking place. They are necessary in a republic of laws not people. But he would be deeply grieved over the violent and senseless destruction of property. Godly protest never commits crimes.
Two evil forces have tarnished the peaceful protests. Using social media to find soft targets, leftist militants like Antifa and paid anarchists have used Floyd’s death as an opportunity to burn and loot the cities. They should be arrested and judged just like Derek Chauvin.
Attorney General Bill Barr weighed in on the escalating violence: “Unfortunately with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protests are being hijacked by violent radical elements. Groups of outside radical agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda,”
Fanning the flames of violence or racism is despicable too.
Political leadership unwilling to bring law and order (justice).
Racism isn’t the issue. A crime is a crime. It doesn’t matter what color a person is or who perpetrated it. Justice must be blind.
Now that cities burn primarily in Democrat-run principalities and states, we are witnessing progressive mayors and governors’ impotence to use the police and the National Guard to restore order. Their own policies of being soft on crime are coming back to haunt them. In many cities, politicians are “letting” the anarchists destroy people’s livelihoods.
That’s insane. Vote for officials who believe in evil and will protect you from it.
Failure to renew the African American family.
The “elephant in the room” behind the African American violence has been the destruction of the black family since the 1950’s. With 70% of African American children now born out of wedlock, many absent fathers, poor schools, a plethora of inner-city gangs and too many welfare incentives, a large portion of the African American population stands mired in anger and hopelessness.
Many other American families are not far behind in the 21st century.
Four things can help transform African American lives: 1) Faith in God, 2) Choice in education and graduating high school, 3) Having children within marriage, and 4) Ridding the cities of gangs and filling them with opportunities.
Complicit media outlets and celebrities who promote America’s demise.
I am sickened by news broadcasters who legitimize anarchy by calling them “protesters” and by celebrities like Colin Kaepernick encouraging more violence. They cheerlead evil and should be denounced by all peaceful protesters and law-abiding citizens.
Ginning up the progressive base to defeat President Trump in November.
This assault on the cities is the latest attempt by demonic/human forces to destroy America and Western Civilization by defeating Donald Trump in November. They failed via the Russia Collusion hoax and the Mueller investigation which will be exposed this summer in the Durham Report. Impeachment also tanked, along with some Blue State governors’ exploitation of the coronavirus pandemic (lock downs).
Thus, an anarchist hissy fit was ordered to not let a “crisis go to waste.” To bring down America and the West, a weak globalist leader is needed occupy the White House.
Donald Trump must be removed.
Two quotes and a Scripture come to mind as I ponder the Summer of 2020 cultural battle. James Madison explained in 1778 the secret of American liberty:
“We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments of God.”
A society must operate by self-government (control) out of love and respect for God or it will descend into anarchy or a police state. Those are the three choices.
America stands at a crossroads.
Samuel Adams warned in 1775:
“While the people are virtuous, they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.” … If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.”
Does America have enough personal and public virtue to weather this storm?
We will soon find out.
A final prophetic word comes from Isaiah 24:4-6 where I will substitute the word “cities” for “earth” to bring it home:
“The [cities] dry up and wither, the [cities] languish and wither, the heavens languish with the earth. The [cities] are defiled by its people for they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth and its people must bear their guilt.”
It’s time to repent, pray, stop evil, reconcile and pour the light of Jesus into our traumatized nation.
We must extinguish the satanic Pentecost–or die as a nation.
Socialism’s Three Aces & Two Jokers
My faith is somewhat restored in the American voter after Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday surge lifted him once again to front-runner status for the Democrat nomination for president. After winning nine states, he leads Bernie Sanders in the delegate count by about sixty delegates (though Joe looks every bit his 77 years of age and appears to be in early stages of dementia).
But Bernie Sanders won four states including nearly one million votes in the big enchilada of California. This despite being an ardent atheist/socialist who hates America, who never really had a real job, became a millionaire through nepotism/capitalism, and whose ideas would crash the American economy and probably lead to a totalitarian government.
How could anybody in their right mind vote for him?
Because socialism has three aces in its deck of cards (but also two jokers).
Socialism’s Three Aces and Two Jokers
I’ve written a few articles this past year on the evils of socialism. I never believed that Marxism/socialism/communism–all fruits of the same atheistic political tree–would become fashionable in the West in my lifetime. After all, this centralized philosophy brutally killed over 100 million people in the 20th century, imprisoned billions behind an Iron/Bamboo Curtain and led to misery everywhere it was tried.
Lee Edwards of the Heritage Foundation points out how India, Israel and the United Kingdom also dabbled in socialist waters before seeing the light.
Here’s his summary in Three Nations That Tried Socialism and Rejected It:
“As we have seen from our examination of Israel, India, and the United Kingdom, the economic system that works best for the greatest number is not socialism with its central controls, Utopian promises, and OPM (other people’s money), but the free-market system with its emphasis on competition and entrepreneurship. All three countries tried socialism for decades, and all three finally rejected it for the simplest of reasons—it doesn’t work.”
“Socialism is guilty of a fatal conceit: It believes its system can make better decisions for the people than they can for themselves. It is the end-product of a 19th-century prophet whose prophecies (such as the inevitable disappearance of the middle class) have been proven wrong time and again.”
“According to the World Bank, more than 1 billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty in the past 25 years, ‘one of the greatest human achievements of our time.’ Of those billion, approximately 731 million are Chinese, and 168 million Indians.”
“The main driver of this uplift from poverty has been the globalization of the international trading system. China owes most of its success to the trade freedom offered by the U.S. and the rest of the world.”
“The latest edition of Index of Economic Freedom from The Heritage Foundation confirms the global trend toward economic freedom: Economies rated ‘free, or mostly free’ enjoy incomes that are more than five times higher than the incomes of ‘repressed economies’ such as those of North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.”
“Whether we are talking about the actions of an agricultural country of 1.3 billion, or the nation that sparked the industrial revolution, or a small Middle Eastern country populated by some of the smartest people in the world, capitalism tops socialism every time.”
If what Edwards says is true (and I agree), then why are millions of Americans in 2020, especially younger Americans, voting for their own demise?
Because socialism has “three aces” in its deck of cards that make it very attractive.
Ace #1 – Fallen human nature
Socialism appeals enticingly to our fallen nature which tends to put ourselves first and finds it natural to take the easy road over that of self-control and hard work. In our “flesh,” we want as much “free stuff” as we can get–which remains the huge draw of Bernie’s message. Free healthcare. Free college. Free housing. Free everything!
Fallen, non-redeemed human beings want someone else to take care of them–even if they lose their own self-respect and everything they possess. Me-first handouts are the road most desired.
Ace #2 – Unthinking Citizens
One of the greatest Satanic achievements in the past two generations has been abysmal decline of both morals and public education. In much of the Western World, secular activists have successfully removed the Bible and character virtues from the government schools, refused to teach civics and history accurately, and succeeded in loading many universities with Marxist professors.
Today’s youth are voting for socialists in droves because they are ignorant of both reality and history. The children of the Internet–with vast resources of learning available to them–have become the stupidest generation in memory–while mesmerized with self on their hand-held machines.
Samuel Adams promised the American nation three hundred years ago that if “virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people they will never be enslaved. This will be their security.”
Today virtue is out of style and knowledge of right and wrong on the wane. Freedom will expire with it if we don’t start thinking again.
Ace #3 – Deficit Spending
It’s easy to blame the Fall and progressive education for the seduction of socialism. But deficit spending?
Yes–by politicians in both parties and all of us citizens who have let our nation roll up 23 trillion dollars in debt. We gaze blankly at that staggering total, hear Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren talk about adding scores of trillions more–and don’t blink an eye. That “invisible” debt hasn’t hurt us yet (we think), so why not trillions more?
That’s what unthinking and inexperienced people believe.
But it’s a lie–a facade. The debt will catch up to us. And the more of it, the faster and more devastating comes the crash.
Thus, with the aces of human depravity, ignorance, and debt amnesia in his deck of political cards, Bernie Sanders is succeeding at bluffing a portion of the American electorate toward socialism.
Rep. Liz Cheney points out this philosophy will lead to the death of freedom:
“We know that socialism extinguishes freedom, we know that socialism steals power from the people, we know that socialism creates authoritarianism. It has to create authoritarianism, because as [former British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher said, socialists cannot let people choose, because if the socialists let people choose, they know the people won’t choose socialism.”
Last week Vice President Mike Pence told the truth about socialism to a cheering crowd at the C-PAC gathering in Washington D.C.:
“Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried, in every era in every continent. Freedom works. It was freedom and not socialism that ended slavery, ended two world wars, [and] has made America a beacon of hope.”
Though the socialist movement contains three attractive aces, it also features two jokers that do not enhance its hand–Sanders and Warren. Bernie is angry and Warren is mean-spirited. Both lie about their past, their programs, and remain power-hungry politicians that most American voters are rejecting at the polls in 2020.
But the temperature of Sanders/Warren socialism is rising and has given America a fever. What happens in the future when a young, “attractive” socialist leads this insidious parade?
I hope we don’t find out and here’s what we must do.
We need to re-evangelize the American nation to combat selfish human nature. We must push for school choice in education to elevate good teaching and God’s truth. And we must vote for courageous civic leaders that have the guts to attack the deficit.
We desperately need God back at the center of our national life. Jesus Christ alone possesses the true vaccine for the virus of socialism–revival in His Name and through his power.