Marx and Lenin Were Stalin for Time   (March 25, 2018)

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            Whether we realize it or not, we are all philosophers—for everyone has a “philosophy of history.” Our philosophy of history is evident when we answer the question, “Is the universe governed by chance or is it headed toward some [pre]determined end or goal?”

          Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of The Communist Manifesto, believed history was moving inexorably toward a revolution in which the workers of the world would unite and overthrow those who owned the “means of production” (e.g., factory and business owners). This revolution would happen when the workers became aware they were being exploited by those who sat in cushioned offices and took the profits for themselves without adding anything of value to the goods and services being sold. Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin came along a little later and decided history needed some help. So they “forced the inevitable” (an obvious contradiction) on the Russian people by starting a revolution to help advance history toward its goal: a “communist world.” Anyone who did not help or who actively resisted their agenda was judged to be an enemy of progress or insane. If you did not help with the revolution, you were imprisoned or (more likely) shot.

          In more recent times there have been influential intellectuals in Western democracies who, though sworn enemies of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, still agree they must “force the inevitable” by supporting revolutionary movements in the world who (they believe) “yearn to be free” and possess the right to self-government. Those who disagree with these intellectuals’ tactics are labeled naïve, uninformed and even “imbalanced.”

          The apostle Paul settled any discussion about the end of history when he told an audience of philosophers on a hill in Athens, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31) 

          The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that history is moving toward a singular goal: a day when God will judge all men justly—not based on whether they helped advance the cause of communism, democracy or any other human political system but—based on whether or not they helped one cause: the cause of Jesus Christ, and his message. Examine your life. Repent while there is time. Live for Jesus because nothing else in history matters.