Part III of Salvation and the Different Worldviews – Socialism and Communism

The Importance of Understanding Other Worldviews

We have been talking about the importance of understanding the different worldviews that Christians can encounter today. This is third installment of Salvation and the Different Worldviews. I hope you are beginning to see how important it is to know about these worldviews and how they can negatively influence those who do not yet know Christ as their Savior. Some worldviews can negatively impact our nation, too, especially if a worldview becomes so dominate that it becomes the common belief and the economic system for our country. So, it isn’t just our own worldview that affects our lives. The worldview of others can affect our economic well-being, our personal relationships, and they can also affect how we interact with other people including our mentees. So, it is important to know what others believe and why they believe the way they do.

So far we have learned that each worldview affects the way a person acts, lives, and sees the world. Developing your own worldview starts at home when you are a child. It is also influenced by both the negative and positive things that occur in each person’s life, as well as by the information or knowledge received in school and life.

Like-minded people will often espouse a particular worldview, and some will even feel that anyone who doesn’t see the world from their vantage point is wrong and needs to change how they believe. But, we cannot change other people nor can we change how they think. However, we can share the Truth and pray that those who do not know the Truth, such as the atheists, will see the Truth that is right in front of them. In speaking of those who believed on Him, Jesus said, “And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” – (John 8: 32. Amplified). Just as importantly, though, we need to know how to share Truth, whether it is through personal relationships or through ARCM relationships. Therefore, it is important that every Christian understand the differing worldviews today, so we can find a way to show others the Truth.

It is important that we become familiar with the differing worldviews, because even though we live in a very large world, technology and instant communication has shrunk the world. A worldview held by someone in a different part of the world, like North Korea or the Middle East, would not have been extremely important to us individually fifty or even thirty years ago. However, today worldviews from around the world can not only influence our belief system as well as our economic way of  life, but they can also affect and influence our safety as a nation and individually. 

When people hate us, we need to know why they hate, and we need to know how to show others our love. But, some worldviews such as the hate of ISIS and of North Korea may not be able to be affected by our love, in which case we need to know that we must protect ourselves from annihilation. So, we need to continue talking about some of the common worldviews today that can affect us nationally and personally. For, many of these worldviews shade the Truth. See if you can determine what part of Truth has been shaded or hidden in the following two worldviews: socialism and communism?

Billy Graham said that, “Truth is timeless. Truth does not differ from one age to another, from one people to another, from one geographical location to another… the great all-prevailing Truth stands for time and eternity.”

– (p. 135. Billy Graham in Quotes. c. 2011).

Then King Solomon from his book of Proverbs tells us to: “Buy the Truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.”

– (Proverbs 23:23. NIV).

There is always an ultimate Truth. We know that Truth is timeless, and that it needs to be protected and not sold. So many people today sell out the Truth of a situation in order to make money or get power. However, true “born-again” Christians know that we have been given the ability to recognize the Truth in situations, if we look closely at things and listen to the discerning Holy Spirit within each of us. Unfortunately, so many people refuse to look closely and refuse to search out the Truth of statements or of the Truth of worldviews and beliefs espoused by others, because it may take time and prayer. But we all need to search for the Truth, which can mean doing research, studying a topic and looking into the Word of God to see how God views a particular situation or belief. 

We need to pray for the wisdom to recognize the Truth, the discipline to seek out answers and uncover untruths and the ability to understand how a particular worldview, statement or situation can impact our lives and the lives of others. Sadly, though, even Christians may refuse to study the Word of God and may often fail to listen to the Holy Spirit who will give them the Truth, if they just ask and listen. In fact, Jesus said in speaking of the Holy Spirit who would come to believers when Jesus went back to Heaven: “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all Truth…” – (John 16: 13. NIV).

If you are a “born-again” Christian the Holy Spirit or Spirit of Truth indwells you so that you can easily recognize the Truth and untruths. So, if we have the Spirit of Truth in us, why do we put our heads in the sand and fail to pay attention to or recognize the Truth? Could it be that we just don’t care about anything but our little part of the world? We forget that what others believe can affect our little part of the world.

Now, let’s take a look at the following two worldviews. Do you know what each of these worldviews advocate? I cannot possibly write an entire college course on either socialism or communism for this blog. But, if you are interested in learning more about these two worldviews, please do not just accept what the liberal professors tell you, for they have an agenda to get you to believe their worldview. Instead, do your own research and then pray asking God to enlighten you about the Truth of these worldviews. Ask yourself if these worldviews are something to help us or will they actually harm us? Ask yourself if there is an ulterior motive for those who espouse these worldviews?

The Socialistic and Communistic Worldviews versus True Freedom.

There are worldviews that we once thought would never be part of the American culture. However, with the advent of World War II in the late nineteen thirties and the growth of socialism and communism in the late nineteen forties and the early nineteen fifties, America began to see these two worldviews appear and take root in the United States. Because of devastation of WWII and the oppression of those who lived under socialism and communism during the next few decades after the war, people could see what socialism and communism did to other countries and their peoples. Consequently, our government and many Americans became very afraid of socialists and communists. At one point our country was so afraid of communism that the government harassed communists and anyone that did not agree with democracy. These were truly dark and shameful days for the United States and Freedom, as governmental people tried to eradicate communism.

The hoped for eradication of communism started easily enough with the harassment of people who held these worldview beliefs. But even some who didn’t believe were also harassed by the government and the IRS (This was similar to what the IRS did to Conservatives and Tea Party members a couple of years ago, but to a much greater degree). A congressional committee was given almost unlimited power to seek out and destroy communism within our country. This committee was led by Senator McCarthy.

Eventually, the government, “of the people, by the people, and for the people” realized that true freedom meant the freedom to express our beliefs, and freedom for others to be able to express their beliefs too, even though we may not agree with their beliefs. But, before people in the U.S. came to their senses and realized the Truth of the situation, many lives were ruined through rumors and actual government persecution. Indeed, many people lost their jobs from just the possibility of them being a communist. Fear of anything can cause humans to overreact and do things that they would not normally do. But the opposite of fear is love. The Apostle John tells us in his writings about Christ and how to live as a true Christian that:

“There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection.” 

-- (I John 4: 18. Amplified).

True freedom expresses love toward others. Christians have true freedom in Christ through the love that Christ expressed by dying on the cross for our sins and then conquering death with His resurrection. We can show His love and our love for others by caring about people and their needs. We can show our love, too, by not hurting others for their beliefs. Instead, we should try to express the Truth of Christ to them through our lives and in our words. We can also point out falsehoods, lies, and misleading statements by those who have an agenda to have their worldview accepted by all.

Even in this fallen world, true freedom should give everyone a chance to express their opinions and beliefs without fear of losing a job or being ridiculed; with everyone being respectful of the other person’s views even if we don’t agree with them. True Freedom should not force anyone to believe another's worldview. But, to keep persecution for beliefs or worldviews from ever happening again, we need to first respect and love each other. 

So that we are never forced into accepting another person's or groups' worldview, the way that those in communistic countries have been forced to accept their government's worldview, we need to be aware of the many different worldviews that others hold. We need to understand the truth or the falsehoods relating to their worldview. Furthermore, we have to fully understand what some worldviews can do to our personal rights and our freedoms, especially if they are not exposed to the light of Truth. Then, we have to speak up when we see that a particular belief will hurt our nation or someone else. At the same time, we have to understand and accept the right of others to express themselves. But we do not have to accept the enforcement of their worldview or belief upon us. In order to keep that from happening, we just need to seek the Truth while we work hard to expose the untruths, deceptions, and lies before they become the accepted norm.

Christians have to seek Truth from the Word of God, pray for insight. We should not put our heads in the sand and hope that the things that we suspect are wrong will eventually go away. Worse yet are those who refuse to see what is going on around them, as they go about living their lives for themselves; not wanting to be bothered by politics or the worldviews of others. Instead, Christians throughout our nation must pray for our freedom and for the Truth to always be seen. We must always seek out the Truth from every situation or belief. Moreover, we have to quit accepting at face value everything that we see and hear without looking further into the situation. For, just because someone in the media or in politics tells us something will be good for us, doesn’t mean that it will. So, we have to be discerning as well as willing to research for the Truth.

In order to be discerning, we need to have some knowledge on which to base our understanding. This means that we need to read and listen in order to become aware of what is going on around us and in order to gain knowledge. Then when we receive discernment from the Holy Spirit, we can look more closely at the event or the words that are being spoken by others. With the Holy Spirit's prompting, we can look closer at a particular worldview, belief or statement to see if it is indeed true or it is false. We also need to test everything against the Word of God. Obviously, we can see and read with our two eyes, but we need to also use our “Third Eye” to ferret out the Truth. 

Joel Rosenberg in his book The Epicenter, explains how to use our “Third Eye,” which basically means that we are to view all political and economic statements as well as the worldviews of others against the Truth of the Bible. The Holy Spirit or Spirit of Truth will help us recognize when something is not quite right. We just need to be willing to pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s voice. It is everyone’s responsibility, though, to search out the Truth and not just accept someone else’s worldview because it sounds good.

Now, let’s take a look at the two worldviews of Socialism and Communism. How do they fit in with the Christian worldview and the Truth of the Bible? Although Socialism and Communism are really two separate worldviews, for simplicity sake in this blog I am lumping them together. Even though they have several differences, the reason I chose to lump them together is that Communism is just the extreme end result of Socialism.

Socialism

As I said before, it would take an entire college course to provide all the information on Socialism, but I will try to give a brief explanation, because we have an espoused Socialist running for President of the United States. Actually we have two socialists running for President, but the other Socialist running for President just doesn’t want to be perceived as a socialist for the sake of winning the political race. She needs the Democratic Party’s endorsement for her campaign. So, for her it is better to quietly be a socialist and then bring the socialist tenants into the White House when she gets there. The Truth of her political agenda and her worldview is being hidden from the public for the sake of winning the race. Perhaps we need to research what her worldview means for our country, for it includes socialism. So, what is socialism?

The principles of Socialism were first advocated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), a German social philosopher and economist, and by Fredrick Engels (1820-1895), a fellow German socialist leader and writer, who was a close associate of Karl Marx. In the Marxist doctrine, Socialism is actually a social and economic stage within society in general that comes between Democracy and Capitalism (which is what the United States originally believed in and still does to a great extent) and Communism. So, according to Marx and Engels, the social and economic stages of a society would progress from Democracy/ Capitalism to Socialism, and then finally ending with Communism.

Ruling the People Through an Economic Principle

Although Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism each have a strong economic premise, each also has a type of governmental rule linked to it. The governmental rule of the people by Democracy is linked to the economic principle of Capitalism, because without Democracy Capitalism would not be able to be maintained. Democracy provides a certain amount of freedom for capitalism, because it allows the people to rule through fair voting and the exchange of ideas that can benefit the overall society; as opposed to a Monarchy or a Dictatorship that has one person in control of the rule of the people, 

Democracy is supposed to be the rule of the people through the chosen representatives of the people; chosen through fair elections to make decisions for the country. Decisions and rules that affect everyone in a democracy are supposed to be made through majority rulings. But, in recent years our true democracy has been dwindling away, because minorities and liberals have demanded to have their way, and they no longer accept what the majority of people want. For example, even though the majority of the people want the right to bear arms to be maintained, which is provided for in our Constitution, there are minority groups and other groups like the liberals who are doing everything in their power to take that right away from the majority of people. The minority has taken their case to the power of the media, and is lobbying for stricter gun laws, as they work hard to get their worldview pushed upon the majority. They want their worldview to be forced upon the majority of people even if the majority does not want it.

The fight of the minority groups to get their way and impose their worldviews, whatever they are, upon the majority of people has actually affected the Capitalistic worldview of America. For, it is now affecting our economic freedoms, because many companies and small corporations are now succumbing to the demands of many minorities’ worldviews as well as to the liberal worldview. This means that even “mom and pop” businesses are going out of business because of the liberal worldview and because of some of the minorities’ worldviews. So, the freedom to sell products and make a living  is being taken away, simply because someone doesn’t like the way the business owner does business. Instead of going to a different store to get what they want, an individual can now sue to take away the right of that business owner to work or have a business. Again, this attitude of the individual wanting what they want no matter what the majority of people around them want or no matter how it will affect the life of another all goes back to selfishness and a belief in a “self-focused” worldview. Will this attitude and worldview of “self” eventually affect or even destroy the Capitalistic worldview of America too?

Advanced or Extreme Liberalism proceeds Socialism

I mentioned that some minorities and even liberals are now making demands upon corporations and companies to adhere to their worldview. So, I believe that there is actually another economic and governmental worldview stage that comes after Democracy and Capitalism, but before Socialism; that stage is advanced or extreme liberalism. For, when liberals gain such power that they control what people are allowed to say through the political correctness policing of our words, then we have already given up much of the freedom that comes with capitalism and democracy. 

Today, extreme liberals even want people fired for expressing their views on situations or because of certain beliefs. If you don’t agree with these liberals’ worldview then you are targeted as a subversive, or someone who is to be ridiculed. Advanced or extreme liberalism is so powerful today that these individuals, through the media, lobby for and often get what they want; even to the firing of someone from their job. 

Advanced or extreme liberalism has even found its way into our democratic government. The extreme liberals find ways to go around or hold hostage the democratic workings of our government. Instead of allowing the majority to rule, extreme liberals ridicule, use the media, and lobby groups to get liberal agendas passed or to block the views of the majority of Americans. But again, it is all founded on what a very few elite or rich want for our country. That is why, every Christian and every person who wants to maintain capitalism and our democratic way of life should understand the implications of advanced or extreme liberalism. For, the next stage after advanced liberalism is Socialism as advocated by Marx and Engels.

Socialism is overall an economic structure set up to rule and control people through the idea that there should neither be the rich or the poor. The ideal would be that there would just be a middle class. In other words, all people should be living equally without waste and for the good of all. In Socialism, private ownership once based on capitalistic ownership and production as well as entrepreneurial enterprises, have all but been eliminated for the equalization of society. However, in the extreme, individuals can no longer develop and produce items to sell on their own, because all production and distribution is done by the government, so that supposedly everyone will have the same piece of the pie. For, in Socialism, all members of society are to share in the work as well as in the products and profits, so that there are no poor members of society. But it turns out that there is one group of people who will still benefit greatly in socialism. The very rich will continue to be very rich, and they will not have to share.

Comparison of the Socialistic Worldview to the Capitalistic and Christian Worldview

In the Capitalistic worldview, anyone who is willing to work hard, anyone who can think outside the box and come up with new ideas, and anyone who wants to succeed can start their own business. A Capitalist can make economic deals with other capitalists to create more jobs and provide greater production for items to be sold. However, there will also be those people who have no desire to become business owners or entrepreneurs. Many people who want to work, want to work for someone else so they do not have the headaches or responsibility of owning a business. In a capitalistic worldview that is fine and wonderful too, because everyone is free to work as much or as little as they want in a Capitalistic society. Usually, the amount of money that one makes depends on the job, the education, the desire to succeed, and the individuals’ abilities. Because Capitalism allows for free enterprise, there will be those who succeed and there will be others that fail. However, a person can start over as many times as they want or as often as they need in order to succeed. On the other hand, in socialism supposedly everyone will have a  job, but little opportunity to do that which is their heart's desire. Neither are their opportunities for great entrepreneurs.

In the capitalistic and democratic worldview, some people will be blessed with initiative and/or an entrepreneurial spirit, while other people may be blessed with the ability to become lawyers, doctors, important housewives, technological innovators, or workers in stores or corporations. There is the freedom to become whatever kind of worker you wish to become. But, in the capitalistic worldview everyone has a chance to succeed through hard work, education, or an entrepreneurial spirit. Capitalism is not a share and share alike worldview, but it is a worldview that gives everyone a chance to succeed. We need to remember, that Capitalism also goes along with the Christian worldview too, for in the Bible we read that “Diligent hands bring wealth.”

– (Proverbs 10:4. NIV).

Unfortunately, there will always be those people who for whatever reason seem to remain poor. Even Christ said, “The poor you will always have with you…” – (Matthew 26: 11. NIV). So, the idea of being able to eliminate the poor has no bases in history or fact. However, Christ also tells us that as loving caring people who believe in Him, we are to care for those less fortunate and are to help those who need our help. That is why Christians reach out to the poor and needy. So, within the Capitalistic worldview there is also the need for the Christian worldview, because it is from the Christian worldview that organizations and companies have been developed to help those who can’t help themselves.

The Christian worldview fits in nicely together with the worldviews of democracy and capitalism, because Christianity has within it an inherent caring about the other person. Christianity also cares about the freedoms of others. Christianity, too, supports the dreams and the fulfillment of the dreams of those who are willing to work hard. In fact, the Apostle Paul told his mentee, Titus, that “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.” – (Titus 3: 14. NIV).

Although not everyone will make the same amount of money in Capitalism, through the democracy of choice and the love expressed through Christianity, those who find themselves needing help, will often be able to find help from those who have been blessed with the ability to make money. The worldviews of Democracy and Capitalism give everyone the freedom to share or to help another person without being told that they have to share with others. Years ago, in a White House speech, the famous Sir Winston Churchill spoke about the unequal blessings of Capitalism and compared them to the supposedly equal or rather enforced sharing of blessings within in the worldview of Socialism. Sir Winston Churchill compared capitalism and socialism saying, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Speech at a White House Luncheon (June 26, 1954). So, if there is truly any sharing going on within socialism it appears to be the sharing of misery.

Later, Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr., (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) who was an American politician who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson, from 1965 to 1969, said about Socialism: “Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.” In other words, the worldview of socialism does not really care about the unfortunate. 

The Socialistic worldview cares only about how much richer the rich can become.

In the Christian worldview, followers of Christ are concerned for the unfortunate in many different ways. Christians often feed those who lack food. In fact, Christians often start caring programs like “Hope House” here in the Ozarks that provides clothing and household items for just pennies and that gives food to those who cannot afford to feed their families. The Christian worldview is compassionate, caring, and encouraging; caring about the needs of those less fortunate. But most of all, the Christian worldview cares about the souls of all those that do not yet know Christ as their Savior. “For the Son of man (Jesus Christ) came to seek and to save what was lost.” – (Luke 19: 10. NIV). Furthermore, Jesus Christ gave His followers, i.e. Christians, a mission to do the same, telling us to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. …”—(Matthew 28: 19-20. NIV).

In the Christian worldview, we care where others will end up spending eternity. Christians want everyone to develop a relationship with Christ through the repentance of their sins and their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as the risen Son of God. It is the soul that seeks a relationship with God and His Son. We can reach more people for Christ through a loving and caring attitude than through isolationism and selfishness.

The Socialistic worldview wants the government to provide equal jobs, equal money, etc. for all members of society so that there are basically no longer three working classes. But, the middle class is the one that is hit the hardest, because the middle class is the class that will be expected to work the hardest to provide the money needed for the poor so that everyone will have what they need. In Socialism, though, there is still a small group of rich people who control a great deal of the government and the economic aspects of society. Unfortunately, Socialism leads right into the final stage of society which is Communism. For, Communism is just a higher stage of socialism in which ownership of all property is by the community as a whole, which is basically the government. There are only workers for the government.

Communism

Karl Marx, Lenin, Engels and others believed in a classless and stateless society. In 1948 Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels published the Communistic Manifesto, which was a pamphlet advocating their theory of Communism. They believed that there should be an equal distribution of all goods and services to be provided only by dictatorial entity. The Manifesto also proposed an immediate, rather than gradualistic adherence to this type of society. The government would be in total control and anyone who did not fall into line and work willingly for a pittance would find that the retribution of the government would be severe. Quickly, countries such as the U.S.R.R., China and other countries like Cuba and North Korea decided to form governments based on Communism. They started by choosing to have only a one party government system that controlled the economy, with a dictatorial leader. They placed an emphasis on the importance of the state rather than the importance of individual liberties.

People under communism would no longer own their own homes or property and only the top members of the government would be allowed to have luxuries. The people of a Communistic country often stand in line for hours to get their portion of a little bread and rice to exist upon.

This idea of communism, though, had been around for some time. In fact, one poet, Ebenezer Elliot (1781- 1849) said, “What is a communist? One who hath yearnings for equal division of unequal earnings.” – (Poetical Works, 1846. Epigram). How prophetic his words were.

People living under a communistic regime are no longer allowed to practice their own religion. They have to adhere to the state religion if there is one. During its communistic years ruled by the iron hand of the KGB, the U.S.R.R. did away with all Christianity, and so did China. If someone believed in Jesus Christ, they had to worship Him without the government finding out or they could be put in prison for life or killed. So, gradually many underground churches sprang up even though the people knew they could be thrown in jail or worse if they were discovered. But the cruelty of Communistic control of the people did not just stop with controlling what people believed or by controlling the peoples’ religious choices. The government often controlled even the intimate aspect of the couples’ lives. For example, the government of Communistic China even told their people how many children they could have, and they did not want girls. A Communistic government (dictator) has total control of every part of the human’s life.

The Communistic worldview today is not as popular as it once was, although in many colleges today it is making a resurgence through professors who espouse this worldview. However, the ideal often sounds so much better than the actual reality of some government thug putting his boot on your neck to hold you down and to keep you from having any individual liberties. Philosophically speaking, one can make anything sound good, but as my mother would say, “the proof is in the pudding.” People need to be careful, because we can be get caught up in the hype and in our emotions in regard to the needs of others or the unfairness of the rich having things that we don’t have. Students often get caught up in a whirlwind of emotions and the desire to be “unselfish” when some professor tells his students that capitalistic greed is horrible and that everyone should have the same thing in life. But remember,

“Our emotions can lie to us, and we need to counter our emotions with the Truth.”

– (p.135. Billy Graham in Quotes, c. 2011).

Since the nineteen fifties, liberal and leftist professors have been advocating both socialism and communism, and there have always been some students who believed them. For, many college students back in the forties and fifties were searching for something to believe in. That hasn't changed, for there are still those today that are searching for something to believe in and hold on to, because they have this empty spot in their souls. That is why Christians need to know what the worldviews of Socialism and Communism are all about. We need to know what our young adults are coming to believe and why they are accepting what their professors tell them. We cannot put our heads in the sand, and then one day find that all our young people are advocating Socialism or worse Communism.

We need to understand that no matter how many wonderful words are used or how great socialism is expressed by someone who is running for president, that the Truth of socialism is that it is for the rich, and it eventually leads right into communism. We also need to understand that words on a campaign trail do not always tell you about the worldview of the one giving the speeches. So, we need to look at the candidates past beliefs, their track record, their liberal agendas and the overall way they view the world. Even though people can change their belief on a particular issue, the worldview of that person is harder to change, because a worldview is part of who they are. So, when a candidate for President tells you that they no longer believe the way they once believed about a particular topic or issue, look closer at their overall worldview to find out what they really believe today. Did they really make a life-changing Truth altering decision, or did they just decide to say that they believe a particular way to get your vote?

A German man by the name of Martin Niemoeller (1892- 1984) is quoted as having said, “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” 

If we do not know what a worldview is, or we just put our heads down and act like our lives won’t be affected by those who are forceful enough to get their worldview pushed through, then we can find ourselves in the same boat as Martin Niemoeller. As Christians, we have to know what is going on around us. We have to talk to and mentor our children about the different worldviews, so they will not be blindsided by what has gone on before. We have to show others the Truth.

Remember, too, that Socialism is just a stepping stone to Communism. Our youth will be the next leaders of our land. We need to prepare our high school students before they ever get into college and before they have professors who try to sway their beliefs with false philosophies and worldviews that go against their Christian upbringing. For those who have already succumbed to these two worldviews, we need to understand what it is they think they believe, so that we can talk to them rationally and with the Truth. Have they just added socialism to their worldview because a professor has touched their emotions? As Christians and as Christian parents, we have to understand our children and the worldviews that they have heard about and received in school in order to speak into their lives through active mentoring (ARCM) or to speak as a person who cares about them.

There are many college students who do not have any faith in God, so they have latched onto the socialism movement to have something to believe in. Please understand the present socialist movement is being led by college professors and others like Bernie Sanders who is running for President of the United States. We cannot ignore this movement just because at the present it doesn’t affect us. For if it continues to grow, at some point it will affect everyone. If we elect people who are socialist into government positions or elect a socialist as President of the United States, they will have a “bully platform” for their beliefs. They can press their false beliefs upon an unsuspecting nation. Therefore, as Christians we have to become active mentors to others and especially to our young people. But first, we must understand what they believe and why they believe the way that they do. We have to understand the worldviews that they will encounter in life.

Sadly, some of these young college people will be told that the early Christian church advocated socialism. Perhaps the only time that the professors open the Bible will be to take their students to the book of Acts in the Bible to try to show them that the first century church advocated and worked on socialism. But, in order to understand the first century church in Jerusalem, it is important to understand the setting, the context, and their reasons for helping each other by sharing what they had at that time. They were trying to survive persecution. Later, the church people were able to stand on their own. There was no advocacy of socialism, per se, because sharing at that time was just a method of making sure that they survived.

Read the books of Acts, Romans, and some of the other New Testament books to discover what was really going on with the first century church. In fact, all Christians and Christian mentors must begin to have a good understanding of the Word of God in order to help others understand the Bible and to not be tripped up by those who think they know a little or just enough to stump a Christian. We have to know the Truth. Please start to look at the worldviews of others, and then learn as much as you can so that you will know how to witness and talk to others who hold those worldviews.

Why not take a few minutes to write down some of the worldviews that you have encountered in your life now that you know what a worldview is. Whether it is the worldview of a rich friend, a conservative friend, a liberal or an atheist friend, think about what they have told you that they believe. How do their beliefs differ from yours? How would you describe your worldview to them?

I will end this week’s blog with this Scripture from the Bible:

“Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding: He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you.” 

-- (Proverbs 2: 3-11. NKJV).

You Can Do It!  You can share your worldview about Christ with others.