Capitalism and Socialism

1. Capitalism and Socialism God Cares About Government so you should too!

2. Freedom or“Free Stuff” God Cares About Government so you should too!

3. Via Negativa Capitalism

4. Current Bias • Germany • Jew = hatred • America • Capitalism/rich =hatred • Christian school • Being rich worse than being criminal

5. Capitalism and Socialism • “I’m not interested in government or politics” or Christians/church should not be involved in politics… • Family, Church … any other of God’s institutions we should neglect? • Government and politics matter • Biblically • Colossians 1:15-20 – • Government is the Lord’s idea, he cares about it and so should we • Romans 13 • Government is a human agent or vehicle for God to work through • Practically/pragmatically • North and South Korea

6. North Korea

7. South Korea

8. North and South Korea church South Korea North Korea no known Missionaries Publication of Christian literature Churches Free worship • Only the US sends out more cross-cultural missionaries than South Korea: 16,616 missionaries to 173 countries. By 2030 the Korean church wants that number to be 100,000. • The capital Seoul contains eleven of the world’s twelve largest congregations. • The Yoido Full Gospel Church is the largest single church in the world. Its 800,000 members attend different services across dozens of campuses. Every year they add 10,000 members

9. Capitalism and Socialism

10. A history lesson might help

11. Dangerous times • History is: • Lost or unknown • Rewritten • Apathy

12. History lost or unknown • “He’s a cool dude” • Why is he cool? • “I don’t know, man, he did some cool stuff” • Do you know the evil that he is responsible for? • “yeah, I heard something about that but you can’t trust that kind of stuff you don’t even know if it’s true”

13. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • Yes, evil has and is done in the false name of Christianity (KKK, kooks, etc.) • Yes, born-again, regenerated evangelical Christians can do terrible things – just asking King David

14. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The claims against religion, in general, and specifically against Christianity are, by and large distortions, ignore and falsify historical evidence and are highly exaggerated • Prominent atheist have been very successful convincing millions of people that religion has been the bane of history • “religion and in particular, Christianity, has given us stonings, witch-burnings, crusades, inquisitions, Jihad, fatwas, suicide bombers and abortion clinic gunmen” (Sam Harris The End of Faith)

15. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The horrors of the lack of Christianity (atheism, Marxism, communism, etc.) are unimaginably horrific

16. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • Rethinking History • “Islam Is a peaceful religion which has been hijacked by a few and receives bad press. We need to take a look at Christianity as well. Christians have done a lot of bad things in the name of Christ throughout the ages“ • Mr. xxxxx- history teacher in a Christian school

17. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The Crusades – “a set of world historical Christian crimes whose trail of violence scars the earth in human memory even to this day” James Carroll • This is a common theme – religion is bad but Christianity is worse • But is it true?

18. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The Crusades revisited • Before the rise of Islam the region we call the Middle East was predominately Christian • More than 200 years after Islamic armies conquered the Middle East and forced their way into Europe, Christians finally did strike back • Rallied by the Pope Urban II and ruling dynasties in Europe, 11th century Christians attempted to recover the heartland Christianity and defended against militant Islam • These efforts are now called the Crusades • this term is a later invention was not used by Christians or Muslims who fought the battles

19. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • Who were the crusaders? • portrayed as murderous and greedy conquerors • Their rulers provided nothing – they were expected to bring their own supplies and equipment • most expected and did come back poor then they left • yes there was looting and forging on the way

20. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The 1st Crusade was a success and Christians captured Jerusalem in 1009 and held it for several decades • The Muslims regrouped and routed the Crusaders and Saladin reconquered Jerusalem in 1187 • Subsequent Crusades were failures and Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule

21. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • Crusades • would be better described as a belated, clumsy and unsuccessful effort to defeat Islamic imperialism • without the Crusades, Western civilization might have been complete overrun by the forces of Islam

22. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The Inquisition • contemporary historians have now established that the horrific images of Inquisition are largely a myth concocted first by the political enemies of Spain – mainly English writers who shaped our American understanding of that event • the idea that the Inquisition targeted Jews is fantasy • Inquisition trials were fair and more lenient than their secular counterparts not only in Spain but across Europe

23. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • The Inquisition • frequently the penalty was only a form of penance • while the unjustifiable death of every human being is tragic accurate historical estimations are between 1000 and 2000 deaths over 350 year period of time – not the overly sensationalized amounts conveyed

24. History rewrittenChristianity under attack • Witch trials in Europe • “no one knows how many were killed perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions Carl Sagan (citing no sources) • historical sources put the number at slightly less than 100,000 • Numbers matter • I scream and sin against my co-worker once a month; I scream and sin against my co-worker 100 times a month

25. oppressed

26. Communism • Myriads of lesser atheistic tyrants • Fidel Castro • Kim Jong- ILL • Ahmadinejad • Pol Pot • Leader of the Khmer Rouge (Communist Party that ruled Cambodia from 1975 – 1979) • Tortured and mass murdered 1.5 – 2 million people using them for fertilizer

27. Communism– the big 3 • Stalin • Hitler • Mao

28. Comparing the big 3’s of atheism and “Christianity” Stalin, Hitler and Mao Zedung Crusades, Inquisition and Witch hunts 200,000 deaths • Collectively their atheistic regimes in a single century murdered more than 100 million people • Unmeasurable suffering

29. Comparing the big 3’s of atheism and “Christianity” • 200,000 : 100,000,000 • Deaths caused by “Christian rulers” over a 500 Year period of time amount to only .002% of the number of the deaths caused by communist atheists of Stalin, Hitler and Mao in a space of a few decades • Atheistic regimes operate without the moral restraints that religion produces

30. Communism

32. Marxism • The name comes from Karl Marx (1818 – 1883), a German thinker born into a Jewish family that converted to Christianity when he was born. He became an atheist before college. • rejected any notion of a Creator or transcendent being. • The universe started and sustains itself – no outside force required. • We created God and religion in our image to meet our needs. • Matter is the highest reality – evolved into mankind as its most elevated form.

33. Marxism • Since no transcendent Lawgiver exists, Marxism rejects moral absolutes. It considers: • mankind good, • but believes in evil, described as economic inequity and the ensuing abuse of power. • Human injustice results from class conflict between the haves and have-nots. Private property amplifies greed, leading to social ills, which must be corrected by revolution replacing the old economic structures with new ones. • The ends justify the means as long as those promote the communist society Marxism seeks.

34. Marxism • The new society will have no wages, money, or social classes, an eventually no state. Utopia is achieved when there is eventually no state!?!

35. Socialism • seeks to create immediate material equality for all people by standardizing wages, confiscating from wealthier residents much of their personal holdings and also highly regulating and taxing industry. • legislates government control over property, handing over production and delivery of material goods to the state. • Marxists believe socialism is a temporary half-life between capitalism and communism.

36. Current Socialist Countrieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_countries • Bangladesh • Republic of India • Democratic Socialistic Republic of Sri Lanka • United Republic of Tanzania • Syrian Arab Republic

37. Previous Socialist Countrieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_countries • Algeria • Republic of Egypt • Ghana • Indonesia • Iraq • Kenya • Libyan Arab Republic • Nicaragua • Sudan • Uganda • United Arab Republic All currently one-party systems.

38. Socialism and communism • Communism and Socialism describe a progression of philosophies. The relationship between these policies and Marxism is that they aim, in varying degrees, at achieving the ends of Marxism

39. Socialism and communism

40. COMMUNISM

43. Social justice A new name for an old enemy socialism

45. Socialism • There is No Private Property, - the State Owns all • In Socialism, government holds all right to property ownership, even if all goods are not yet confiscated • The Ten Commandments form the center of the Old and New Testament law. Rules against theft and coveting, contained therein, demand pre-existing private property rights. • Knowing this, would Christ then still insist government had exclusive legal claim to all property? • Yet, even if government did own all property, would the Bible writers posit the state would wisely allocate property according to Christ’s standards?

46. Socialism • Socialism Ignores Laziness • Socialism financially supports those refusing to work • Proverbs 6:6-8 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest • 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 you…For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.”

47. Socialism • Teaches all Authority belongs to the government • Col 1 ; Rom 13; Matt 22 • John 19:8-11, Pilate asks, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus replied, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” • Declaration of Independence - rights come from God • In Acts 4:19-20, when the Apostles were ordered to stop evangelizing, they responded, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God

48. Socialism • Branch of Humanism • Socialism is an atheistic, humanistic philosophical system • Romans 12:2—Don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…to test and approve what God’s will is

49. Socialism • Seeks to create heaven on earth by believing a Utopia can be achieved by making everything equal • Revelations 21:1-4—“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”“ • Doesn’t the Bible portray Heaven, or the New Jerusalem, arriving after the return of Christ, as a perfect city? • If Paradise does come to earth, will it really be delivered by secular atheists using Marxist doctrines?

50. Socialism • The state replaces the church • it is the primary role of government to protect the people and have just laws • Primary role of the Church is to advance the Gospel which in turn help the needy • In Matthew 22:15-21, Christ says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” • Jesus separates civil government and church