The Great Deceptions: #4-Marxism and Left-Wing Ideology

Great Deceptions: #4-Marxism, The West’s Most Powerful Cult

Our verse guiding this series is Ps. 2:1: Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Why are people so easily deceived? Why do they embrace so many foolish ideas? I have been exploring the great deceptions of my lifetime. Today we consider number four. Marxism and its Left-wing offspring.

According to Yoram Hazony, the great Israeli scholar, Marxism is back, and making an astonishingly successful bid to seize control of our thinking. Marxist ideas influence the most important American media companies, universities and schools, major corporations and philanthropic organizations, and even the courts, the government bureaucracy, and some churches. 

I observed this early in my academic career. When I first started teaching at the University of Colorado I was pressured to keep my religious views to myself. Any public expression of Christianity was considered a violation of the separation of church and state. But I noticed that my Leftist colleagues were under no such restrictions. They could stand in the classroom and promote their views without any fear of repercussion. They could share their most deeply held beliefs and I couldn’t. I witnessed the double standard by which the Christian faith was judged and Marxism excused.

Marxism has indeed returned in great power to much of America. It comes in various disguises. Black Lives Matter is an obviously Marxist movement. But it is not disguised. They publicly proclaim themselves Marxist.  Critical race theory is Marxist to its core while it demands to be the dominant curriculum in America’s schools. People who call themselves Progressives or Leftists operate under thoroughly Marxist assumptions.

So Marxism has returned. Karl Marx is the most powerful cult leader of the past 150 years. Marxism is a Christian cult. It is religious through and through.

A Christian cult? When I was a graduate student in theology one of my professors defined a Christian cult as a group that takes a true doctrine of Christianity and distorts it. The example he used was the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They take a true doctrine—the humanity of Jesus—and distort it by making Jesus little more than human. Marxists take a true doctrine of Christianity—the equal worth of all people in the eyes of God, taught in Gen. 1:27, and distort it beyond recognition.

I’m not the only one calling Marxism a religion. Jordan Peterson in an interview in the WSJ asserts that the Leftists attacking Western culture are “possessed with a religious idea.”

Alexandra de Sanctis writing in National Review says: The Left’s worldview functions as a religion, punishing or coercing dissenters and silencing heretics.

Damian Thompson in the British magazine, the Spectator, says: Black Lives Matter is…a cult…. [their] protests are indeed a form of displaced religious activity….

The idea is not new. 80 years ago the world’s greatest historian, Arnold Toynbee said, “Communism, which is another of our latter-day religions, is, I think, a leaf taken from the book of Christianity --a leaf torn out and misread.” Almost the exact definition of a Christian cult.

Marxism is powerful. Hazony observes that Liberals over time capitulate to the Marxists whether the subject is God and religion, man and woman, honor and duty, family, nation, or anything else. They are too weak to withstand it.

Marxism has worked its way into the everyday life of Americans. In the words of Catholic theologian Joseph Bottum, “it sustains the certitude of salvation and a self-perpetuating spiritual aura.” Bottum argues that Marxism and other non-Christian ideas have succeeded on religion terms.

Make no mistake. Marxism is now the state religion of the United States of America. Hazony is right. It is seizing control of American media companies, universities and the entire educational establishment, major corporations and philanthropic organizations, foundations. and even the courts, the government bureaucracy, and many churches. Evangelical pulpits often support Marxist organizations.

I want to turn now to the seven basic doctrinal convictions of Marxism and why they are wrong.

Their #1 doctrine and by far the most important is that there is no God. In Romans 1:20 the Apostle Paul says that God’s existence is clear to everyone, however, in v.21 Paul says that men do not honor God or thank Him. So what happens as a result? Their thinking becomes futile, pointless, empty. Darkness descends upon them. They think they are smart but they have become fools.

This is a perfect description of Marxism. They think they are the smartest people in the world but they are deceived and as a result all of their prescriptions for society end in many of the greatest catastrophes to ever befall the human race.

Marxist doctrine #2. Human beings are basically good. Marxism is wrong about God and it is wrong about humanity. People, according to Marx, are basically good but they are basically stupid. So an intellectual elite has to tell them how to think. Which is why the Marxists are always totalitarians. They have to control every aspect of your existence because you aren’t smart enough to make good decisions for yourself.

Marxist doctrine #3. The goal of every society is absolute equality. When you see unequal outcomes—in income, education, or anything else—you know there is a sinister evil at work causing this inequality. This is the organizing principle of all Marxist evaluations of society. This is why they hate capitalism. Capitalism is not fundamentally about money. It is fundamentally about freedom. And freedom always, always produces unequal outcomes. So capitalism must be eradicated.

Marxist doctrine #4. Historically people have always divided themselves up into classes, one class is the oppressor, one class is the oppressed, hence conflict is the permanent state of mankind. Every historical situation requires revolution—the oppressed rising up and destroying the oppressor.

Marxist doctrine #5. Because of the oppressor/oppressed nature of society, violence is essential. Violence is morally right. This is why Marxist governments have murdered more of their own citizens as a matter of state policy than all other governments in the history of mankind combined.  When I was a professor at the University of Colorado I had a Marxist teaching assistant. Professors try to give their TAs an opportunity to teach. Since I had a lecture coming up on the appeal of Marxism, I decided to let my TA, a true believer,  teach the class. I remember he took my lecture notes and presented them to the class almost unedited. Then at the end he said, “Dr. Mitchell has given eight reasons why Marxism has so much appeal. I want to give one more. In a Marxist revolution we get to kill the oppressor.”

My students just stared and shivered. But at least they had gotten a look at what a Marxist revolution aims to do.

Marxist doctrine #6. There is no such thing as objective truth. All so-called truth is merely a construction, a creation of the dominant society. Marx said that the oppressor class invents truths that allow it to maintain its oppression. That is why the board of Seattle’s public schools recently decided that math as racist—because it is a product of the oppressor class, and it seems as though oppressors are better at math than the oppressed. Radical feminists have taught for years there are no important biological differences between men and women—the differences are socially constructed, a purely Marxist idea. And now the rage is to change one’s gender since gender is a social construction not objective biological reality. I have dealt with this in another video but make no mistake—it’s whole cloth, a Marxist idea.

Marxist Doctrine #7: The Revolution of the oppressed brings heaven to earth. At the end of time the oppressed finally destroy the oppressor and a utopian state descends upon the earth. 

Marxist doctrine #8. Marxism is a typical religion in that one is saved by doing good works. In Marxism you do not have a soul to save but you do want to live what you consider an authentic life. For the Marxist, what are good works? Left-wing political activism. Joseph Bottum has said you save your soul, not by living a good life, but by how you vote. Supporting Left-wing causes saves your soul. Notice Marxists do not believe in personal morality. A person can live a dreadfully immoral life but still be viewed heroically by Marxists if they hold the correct political views.

Marxism has a clear set of doctrinal beliefs, but Marxism is wrong; tragically wrong.

To begin with Marxism is wrong about God. There is indeed a God, and He sits enthroned in the heavens. Let’s go back to Psalm 2. According to that passage God laughs at the raging Marxists. He holds them in derision. He will speak to them in His wrath. He will break them with a rod of iron. Haven’t we already seen this? There have been approximately 40 or more Marxist states in the past hundred years and most of them have already been obliterated from the face of the earth. None were conquered by an outward force. They died mysterious deaths from within. There are only a handful of Marxist states in the world today—North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela. And don’t you doubt that our God will break them with a rod of iron. God creates the reality in which we live. It is not socially constructed but fixed by His Almighty hand and creative power, as stated in His word.

Marxism is wrong about God and it is wrong about man. Man is not basically good. He is tainted with original sin and capable of every manner of evil. No one proves the biblical truth of sinful humanity better than Marxists.

Marxism is wrong about constant class conflict. Society always breaks down into different groups or classes but they are not automatically at war with each other. There are tradeoffs. The different groups usually choose to get along with each other. The wars in world history have not been between classes but between tribes or nations.  Blacks have been oppressed in America but we are also the best country in the history of the world for blacks to live in. We have by far the richest black community that has ever existed. We have a giant, successful black middle class. American blacks are among the most famous and successful people who have ever lived. According to the WSJ last year 22 million black Africans entered a lottery to get visas to the United States. They don’t plan to come here because they think they will be oppressed. They come here to be free and rich.

Marxism is wrong about equality. The Bible has created the only worldview in history that considers all human beings as equally valuable. But equal outcomes in income or education or talents have never occurred and never will. The New Testament teaches that each one of us is differently gifted. Some of us will be better at certain things than others. C.S. Lewis devotes a chapter to this issue in his wonderful book, Miracles. He says inequality produces one of the finest human traits—admiration. We admire the skills and gifts of other people and we applaud them. It is good for our souls to do so. Inequality is a good and marvelous thing. I have three black sons and it may come as a surprise to you that they are better athletes than I am. Quite a bit better. I have sat in the stands many hours applauding their accomplishments, and yes, quite often envying them. It was good for me to be sitting there watching them succeed. 

So Marxism is wrong about God, man, creation, economics, class warfare, and eqalitarianism. Finally, Marxism is wrong about the promise of heaven on earth. It has turned out to be a colossal lie, one of the greatest of all time. When the so-called oppressed conquer the so-called oppressors, Utopia does not ensue. Instead, as Yazony says, we see history’s greatest parade of horrors. There is a heaven, but it does not exist on earth. It will populated by those who have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ.

In watching Marxism’s march through our culture it can be discouraging. But do not be discouraged. Marxism will not win. It has already been defeated scores of times in the past century and it will be defeated again. In my next video I will explain why. Until then, may our God continue to bless you in a mighty way.

Africans applying for U.S. visas: https://www.wsj.com/articles/africans-knock-on-americas-door-11600879821?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Jordan Peterson Interview in the Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-man-they-couldnt-cancel-11619806528?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Damian Thompson, The Spectator: https://spectator.us/topic/black-lives-matter-religion-woke-white-people/

Alexandra de Sanctis in National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/identity-politics-excommunicates-its-heretics/#slide-1

Arnold Toynbee, Christianity and Civilization(1940), https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-civilisation-Memorial-delivered-Sheldonian/dp/B00CLC08PW/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=arnold+toynbee+christianity+and+civilization&qid=1620147979&sr=8-7

The best treatment of Marxism I have ever read: https://quillette.com/2020/08/16/the-challenge-of-marxism/