The Bible versus Socialism
By Geo. E. Vadney
IN making the statement that “before Socialism can triumph, religious faith must be destroyed,” Robert Blatchford, editor of the Clarion, a Socialist paper of London, Eng., and one of the most prominent of present-day teachers of Socialism, uttered one of the most truthful statements ever made concerning that doctrine, for Socialism and the Bible stand as directly opposite to each other as do darkness and daylight. Socialism is merely a theory based on evolution, impracticable in its every conception,—a theory which is the invention of a finite mind discontented with its environments. It is espoused by dreamers, while the Bible is composed of the master-thoughts of an infinite mind endowed with the power to bring about the creation of innumerable planets and to fix the destiny of the living souls upon them. It contains the fundamental principles of every code of laws, both theological and secular, in Christendom; and its truths have carried the children of God through trials and tribulations which the pen is inadequate to picture or the tongue to describe. The ultimate aim of Socialism is to bring about universal government in which there will be no distinction between capital and labor, all the great industries will be owned and operated by the people, and envy, strife, and contention will be eliminated from the world. The desire is commendable. Yet by reading the history of the world, we find that from the earliest dawn of creation down to the present day there has never been a time when the human race has not been torn and tossed by the jealous passions of mankind; and the only prophetic account of such a time that can be found in the Bible, is the description of life in the new earth, beginning at the close of the millennium and lasting throughout eternity. Then, and then only, does it say that “the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.” Isa. 5:15-17. And even this is vastly different from the socialistic dream; for in the new earth we will be subjects of the kingdom of God, subject to the laws of God, and shall have a king upon the throne in the city of the New Jerusalem in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We learn from the Scriptures that if we would in any degree attain that blissful state of existence which it is claimed will be the culmination of the present Socialist propaganda, each and every one of us must come into harmony with God and have the ways of God. But instead of this harmony now, we find in the holy word that God Himself has said: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55: 8, 9. The fact that the adherents of Socialism make the assertion that under a Marxian form of government, there would be no contention between capital and labor, and that there would be no rich or poor, but that all men would be upon an equal basis, and each one receive the wealth that he produces, should of itself be conclusive proof to every student of God’s word that Socialism is an impossibility; for the Bible positively states that when the great day of the Lord’s wrath is come, “the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman,” shall hide “themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.” Rev. 6: 15. There are all the classes still. That avarice, envy, and strife will not be eliminated from the world is prophesied by the apostle Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, in which he states “that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” 2 Tim. 3: 1-5. Instead of being inspired by the words of Christ, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5: 5), the hearts of many Socialists of to-day are filled with envy and bitterness toward their neighbors who have been more fortunate in gathering unto themselves a store of worldly goods. This is in direct opposition to the admonition which says, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” James 5: 7. The present increasing impatience and envy and discontentment, will, if continued, inevitably involve the world in the horrors and bloodshed of universal war, which will not end until the living wicked are destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. 2 Thess. 2: 8. The Socialists inform us that the next fifty years will bring about the realization of their dreams; but the Lord states that many and various signs, as recorded in Matthew 24 and many other scriptures, are sure forerunners of that great and awful day of God, and that this generation is the last that this earth in its present condition shall know. Therefore, instead of looking for a time of peace and prosperity as predicted by Socialism, we should look for the glorious appearing of our Lord in the heavens, and prepare ourselves to inhabit a heaven on the earth made new. While we all may yearn for a time when there shall be no trusts and combines, no perplexing question of capital and labor, where there shall be no strikes or wars, and where the flag of anarchy will never wave, and where the hand of tyranny has been stilled by the stroke of an everlasting death, those of us who study God’s word should know that the only confederacy, the only union, or the only party that God recognizes, is the one that accepts for its platform the unchanged and unalloyed word of the living God. The only ones who shall live in that glorious kingdom, which will be lighted by the glory of God, where the nations of those who are saved shall walk in the light of it, where there shall be no night, and where there shall in nowise enter anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, are those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 21: 23-27), those who have kept the commandments of God and have observed every precept of His word.