Every major worldview tries to describe where suffering comes from, and how to find “salvation” or liberation from that suffering. Communism, or Marxism (named after the founder, Karl Marx, 1818-1883), is a worldview that is growing in popularity among activist groups in the West and it believes that life’s problems ultimately boil down to inequality between the rich and poor. The solution? Take away private property and share everything equally. The ideology can sound convincing in theory, but in practice it has become one of the most destructive forces in human history.
Sometimes people who are infatuated with communism claim that the early Christians practiced a “prototype” of it when they sold all they had and shared with each other. The book of Acts says this,
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:44-47).
At first glance, it does look a bit like Communism, they “had everything in common,” and “sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” So, what’s the difference between the early Church and the ideology that began with Marx in the nineteenth century? If we could distill both movements down to their essential natures, we would find that one is founded on love, and the other fear.
WHO WAS KARL MARX AND WHAT IS COMMUNISM?
Karl Marx’s life is not one that betrays any sense of triumph or glamor. The man was known for his poor hygiene and suffered from a severe skin condition that left him covered in boils; constant pain and insomnia were part of the package as well. He had seven children with his wife Jenny von Westphalen but only 3 survived to adulthood. He rarely held down a job and survived off the wealth of his supporter Friedrich Engels; whose money incidentally came from the kind of factories that Marx deplored. Finally, he was known for his infatuation with violence and, like many of his colleagues, waxed poetically about a romance with satan. The life is one enamored with darkness and sorrow, and even Jenny’s father who admired the rising intellectual star, worried that the “demon” that attacked Marx would take his daughter under as well.
Marx was influenced by German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel but sought to ground the latter’s ideas in a materialistic framework that denounced morals and God. He believed these things were “the opiate of the people,” and would only get in the way of the revolution communism needed. His Communist Manifesto (1848), which was written with Friedrich Engels, called for violence and revolution without apology. Russia was the first nation to fulfill Marx’s revolutionary advice, killing anywhere between 20 and 60 million of its own people in the process. Other countries followed suit, China, Cambodia, North Korea, Yugoslavia, and more. The result is that since Marx’s time, over 100 million people have died through Communist genocides. If we combine the death tolls from WW1 and WW2, and double it, Communism has still killed more people. What’s even more harrowing is that the atrocities continue to this day, one only has to look at China’s treatment of Christians and the Uyghur concentration camps. In short, Communism is the darkest form of government that we’ve ever witnessed, and that’s exactly what we would expect given that it arose from a violent and atheistic framework. As the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky once said “the problem of communism is not an economic problem. The problem of Communism is the problem of atheism.”
WHAT ABOUT THE EARLY DISCIPLES?
By now, the differences between the early disciples and what Marx envisioned in the perfect Communist world should be clear. But if not, I’ll put it simply. Communism is the forced abolishment of private property, and the early disciples willingly shared their possessions out of love. What this means is that if you live under a Communist regime, everything you own will be taken from you and given to the state. You will be forced to share what you own with the government. In the early Church, disciples were so filled with the love of God that they willingly gave up their possessions to meet each others needs. One could say the Church resembled a Communist state in lieu of it’s communal habits, but real Communism, is something that Jesus would have never advocated. For one, Communism despises belief in God and there’s a reason that people have to smuggle Bibles into Communist countries (it’s seen as one of the biggest threats to a regime). And two, Communism is functions by forcing people to do the will of the state, or else be put in camps or killed, and this is true to Marx’s original teachings which swing the door wide open for all sorts of genocidal behavior.
WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE COMMUNISM?
When I first learned about Communism in a high school politics class, my reaction was, “this is definitely the best system out there.” It sounded so nice and compassionate to share everything with everyone. Mind you I had never really heard of any political system before in my life. But one reason that Communism appeals to people, especially university students who are being taught by Marxist professors, is that it claims to level the playing field. The oppressors will be humbled and the oppressed get a taste of the pie too.
Communism appeals to those who are hurting. It pictures the world how people who’ve been abused feel. Marx was bullied by the imperialists of his day, and today those who may feel bullied by traditionalists see Communism as a form of retribution against the standing order. Communism pictures people in one of two categories, the abused and the abusers. People who’ve been ostracised, bullied, or shunned by their peers often gravitate towards identifying with the “abused,” in Marx’s scheme. This is why those who are enamored with Communism are either blissfully unaware of what it might stand for, or they see it as a way of finding the power they feel has been removed from their lives.
Jesus loves the Communists, even the ultra-violent Antifa groups who terrorize neighborhoods all over the world. They are hurting, and they’ve bought into the ideology of a very distraught and darkened man. And he bought into the deception of materialistic atheism that was poisoning his colleagues at the time. But God is love, and His love provides validation in ways that Communism never can. So as universities and activist groups continue to indoctrinate the young minds of our societies with vile and hopeless ideas, it makes it all the more urgent to get God’s Word into people’s hearts and provide people with the answers they so desperately need.