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Democrat primary wins are indicating that the Democrat Party is unapolgetically moving towards socialism. The following is from an editorial published in oThe Washington Post: Democrats want to talk about Republicans living in the past, but the new progressives, as they like to call themselves, are in fact a lot like the old socialists. They want free college, free cash, free health care, new mandates for this and that, and so on. The latest progressive policy du jour to be gaining traction among Democratic Party presidential hopefuls is the so-called “job guarantee.”
For once I agree with Hillary Clinton. She said that her loss can be attributed to the fact that the Democrat Party is made up of a majority of socialists. The shift is among the young:
According to the 2017 YouGov-Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism, more millennials would prefer to live in socialist countries than they would in capitalist countries. That fact reveals a powerful force shifting today’s Democratic Party.
In addition, Robert Reich is promoting his video to gain support for abolishing the Electoral College. He knows that it would be nearly impossible to amend the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College. He is proposing a workaround that amounts to stealing votes from a presidential candidate who wins the majority of votes in a state. This is a perfect strategy for a socialist like Reich and would be a double whammy if enough socialists get elected to Congress.
Most modern advocates of the caretaker State believe that the only hope for mankind is for citizens to relinquish personal responsibility and hand more authority over to the “experts” who work in the bureaucratic halls of civil government. Some have called this “womb to tomb” security. This is the false security of the prison cell: free shelter, food, clothing, and educational and vocational training. Any society that seeks to substitute God for Government will eventually find itself enslaved by government. Socialism is a form of self-induced slavery.
A slew of candidates are running in the 2018 elections as in-the-open socialists, in the latest sign that the Bernie Sanders wing is looking to expand its political footprint — as mainstream Democrats, in turn, embrace their big-government policies. Those running under the socialist banner this year include nearly two dozen candidates, for offices at all levels. One, Texas attorney Franklin Bynum, … proclaimed he’s running on a “far-left” agenda as he touted his Democratic Socialists of America “comrades.” (Fox News)
It is no accident that God is called “Our Father” because He gives us “life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25). God is our Father by creation. The State has not called us into existence. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” are not given to us by the State; rather, they are an “endowment,” gifts from God’s gracious hand.
When the freed Israelite slaves were hungry, instead of turning to God their Father for provision, they turned to the supposed security of tyrannical Egypt: “Would that we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Ex. 16:3). Their god was their appetite (Phil. 3:19): “For such men are slaves not of our Lord Jesus Christ but of their own appetites” (Rom. 16:19).
God fed the Israelites in the wilderness, and yet they sought the supposed security of Egypt instead of the freedom and security they had with God as their Father. Even after God provided them the food they needed, they still grumbled. Egypt still seemed attractive.
“And the rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna’” (Num. 11:4-6).
They were saying, “You can’t beat security . . . three meals a day … a roof over our heads . . . steady work …. ‘Slavery? That’s such an unpleasant word …. We always knew where our next meal was coming from…. That’s security.” No, that’s a dog’s life.
Did you catch what they said? They believed that things had been “free” in Egypt. Free? They had been slaves! They had paid for these things with their own lives. A return to Egypt meant bondage to a system where they had no voice in the way they lived. There was no future for them in Egypt. Their children’s children would be slaves, called into service to build a civilization to the glory of Pharaoh. Marching on to Canaan meant a promised land “flowing with milk and honey” where they could build a civilization based on the blueprint laid out in Scripture for the glory of God and as a beacon to the nations (cf. Deut. 4).
Slavery is the demonic imitation of service to God. When men rebel against God, they are rejecting God as their Lord and Master. In doing so, they fall under the mastery of sin and ultimately under mere men as their rulers.
We should not expect God’s covenant people to choose being slaves to the State over freedom in Christ: “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). The status that the Christian has is no longer one of abject slavery but of servant-sonship: “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father!’ Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal. 4:6-7).
When the people reject God as their King, they adopt the slave mentality. They look for security outside of Christ. There are always powerful men who are ready, willing, and able to accommodate this evil search, and such men find their way to the exercise of power — the State. They seek political slaves, and they find them since there are always enough people who desire slavery over freedom.
During the biblical period of the Judges, the governing institutions of Israel had become corrupt: from the individual in self-government, where “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6) to the judges in civil government who turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice (1 Sam. 8:3). Even the priesthood, was corrupt: “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the LORD and the custom of the priests with the people” (1 Sam. 2:12-13).
The corruption of the individual resulted in the corruption of family, church, and State. The people turned to Samuel and demanded a “king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam. 8:5). In making this demand, God told Samuel: “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them” (1 Sam. 8:7). They turned to the false security offered to them by a civil government that would subject them to slavery in the name of security.
God told Samuel to warn them of the judgment they could expect. Each of the following kingly provisions is an idolatrous substitute for God’s faithful provision to His people:
- The king would raise an army for his purposes in opposition to the law (Deut. 20). Samuel told the people that war would be a way of life in Israel: “He will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots” (1 Sam. 8:11). Instead of appearing before the LORD “three times a year” as part of God’s army (Ex. 23:17), the men would appear before this king “like all the nations” (8:5).
- The king would use this army for personal profit: “He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots” (8:12).
- The young women of Israel would be subject to the whims and fancies of the king: “He will take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers” (8:13). God cares and provides for his daughters (Ex. 3:22), while Saul abuses the daughters of Israel.
- Private property will no longer be safe. The property and labor of others will be used to pay for political favors: “He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants” (1 Sam. 8:14). What belongs to God and is given to the people as a stewardship under God (Deut. 6:10-11), Saul would steal in order to increase his power and influence over the nation (cf. 1 Kings 21).
- The king would demand a tithe in taxation a sign of tyranny, for only God can require a tenth: “He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants” (1 Sam. 8:15).
Eventually the people “will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day” (1 Sam. 8:18).
Even after Samuel warned the Israelites that the king would be a tyrant, the people still wanted a king: “Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles’” (8:19-20).
Our modern State operates in a similar fashion. Taxes are far above ten percent: federal, state, and local. In the United States, some states have a sales tax alone that approaches ten percent (e.g., Louisiana). Add to that a state income tax, property taxes, federal income tax, and the Social Security tax. Politicians use this tax money to bribe voters to vote for them. The poor are promised favors, governmental benefits through the tax, if they will only vote them into office. Of course, the Congress has the full force of its police power to require compliance.
There are those who are convinced that a better society can be created and maintained by turning over nearly all authority, power, and jurisdiction to benevolent caretakers of our souls. “God is not needed,” they say. And we begin to believe it. “Just give us a little more power. A bit more jurisdictional authority. All we need is a few more tax dollars. After this, you’ll see the difference.”
We do see the difference. The merchants of promise have an insatiable appetite for control. There is never enough money to do want they claim needs to be done. So they’re back again for more money. In all of this God is rejected as our Father. The State becomes a benefactor, buying votes with the slippery voice of the promise and the transfer of wealth from the “haves” to the “have-nots.”
How do these merchants of promise remain in office? We, the people, keep them there. The nation has chosen its god, and its Government.
The American people, millions of Christians included, have fallen into the trap of looking to the State as a substitute father, looking for sustenance. God is our Father. He cares for us. Turning to the State for every provision is a form of slavery. Civil Government has a very limited role, defined by God in Scripture. To go beyond those biblical limits turns the State into God’s competitor.
“AND DO NOT CALL ANYONE ON EARTH YOUR FATHER; FOR ONE IS YOUR FATHER, HE WHO IS IN HEAVEN. AND DO NOT BE CALLED LEADERS; FOR ONE IS YOUR LEADER, THAT IS CHRIST” (MATT. 23:9-10)
- Gary DeMar is a Senior Fellow at American Vision and author of over 30 books
American media outnumbers protest in awkward reporting
