Against Christianity (Lecture III.)
“O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches,” [Ps. 104:24] — so once, already thousands of years ago, Thy servant David proclaimed, after he had looked at the work of Thy creation, preservation and government with a mindful spirit. And so we too must proclaim today, wherever we may look, because everywhere we see brightly shining traces of Thy infinite power, wisdom and goodness.
O so protect us from that spirit of darkness which calls itself Light, and which, now poured out over whole multitudes of unfortunate men, denies Thee, the creator, sustainer, and ruler of all things, or yet Thy sacred government and wise order of things.
Let us rather recognize ever more vividly that Thou hast done everything well, and that only sinful man has corrupted Thy work. Help us, therefore, that we rebuke not Thee but ourselves, as often as the distress of this earth oppresses us. Let us not sink in the ever higher and higher rising floods of unbelief, but help us that we, whether thousands and but thousands fall, may persevere in faith until the end, until we shall look with joy at what we have believed, and enjoy what we have hoped for here. Hear us for the sake of Jesus Christ, Thine only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
—————————
The question which occupies us in this evening hour is, as everyone present knows, this one: Why should and can no sensible person, let alone a Christian, take part in the efforts of the Communists and Socialists, much less become a member of one of their associations? Three answers are given to this question: I. Because their aspirations are against reason, nature and experience; II. Because they are against Christianity; and finally III. Because the accusation of Communism against the Christian religion and Church, that it impedes rather than promotes the material well-being of man is unfounded and unjust. We have already considered the first answer. We have tested Communism and Socialism according to reason, nature and history, and we have seen that even here it does not stand the test. [page 41] But there have already been Christians [1947-56] who have claimed that Communism and Socialism can be justified on the basis of Holy Scripture, the only reliable document of Christianity. Yes, even unbelievers have claimed this, partly the Communists themselves, of course the latter not because they really believed it, but in order to beat us Christians with our own weapons.
There are mainly four passages of Holy Scripture that are held against us as proof that if we want to be true Bible believers, we must also recognize the aspirations of Communism and Socialism as fully justified. The first passage is found in the first chapter of Holy Scripture, where we hear how God gives man dominion over the earth and all that is on it. The second passage is found in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, where the conditions of the first Christian community in Jerusalem are described. A third passage is found in the eighteenth chapter of St. Luke, where we are told that Christ once said to a rich man: “Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” The fourth passage, finally, is found in the twentieth chapter of St. Matthew the Evangelist. There we find that well-known parable of the workers in the vineyard excellent. Well then, let us first take a close look at these four passages of the Scriptures and see whether they really speak for or against Communism and Socialism, i.e. for or against community of goods or common labor for common earning.
Thus we read first of all in the first chapter of Genesis [Gen. 1:26-29]:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image… and said unto them…: replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth… And God said: behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
Here, however, we hear that God, the Lord, has made man or mankind the owner of the earth and of all [1947-57] that lives and moves upon it. But we hear nothing of how this property of all mankind is to be used, in what manner the earth, and all that lives and moves on it, are to be used. So the dear God must have left it to man himself, namely to his reason, to arrange this. If a rich man would give a saw, a plane, and other tools, and bread, meat, coffee, a sewing machine, a doll, [page 42] a hobby-horse, and other toys to a carpenter who was run down by misfortune and mortgaged, well, he would have given all this to the whole poor carpenter family; and if he had not added anything at all, had made clever conditions as to how they were to be used, the carpenter would have known that he had to use them to the best of his knowledge and belief. The carpenter would think that the hobbyhorse and the other toys were not for him, but for his children, and if he had been given a cradle, he would not think he should lie down in it. Nor would he think that the sewing machine was for him, but for his wife. In short, it would be property for the family, but for distribution among the members of the family. This is what God the LORD has done. He has given the whole earth and all that is upon it to mankind, but has not made any determination, has not made any arrangement as to how it should be dealt with. After all, man is not an animal that goes about irrationally and does not know the purposes of the creatures. Man has reason, which he should now use. Of course, in the beginning, when the whole earth was still an unclaimed good, it was possible for each individual person to get what he liked. What he took possession of, that was his rightful property. This might still be evident today. If, for example, a shipping company was shipwrecked and ended up on the coast of an uninhabited, unowned island, the company would simply take possession of that island. Anyone would have the right to settle there and take over part of it.
But what happened after God, the Lord, had given the earth and all that was in it to all mankind? Did the first inhabitants establish Communism, introduce community of goods or common work for common acquisition? Nothing of the kind. Already in the fourth chapter of Genesis we hear [Gen. 4:2-4]: “Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And it came [1947-58] to pass after many days, that Cain brought sacrifice unto the LORD of the fruits of the field, and of the firstfruits of his host, and of their fat: And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.” Neither Cain nor Abel believed that what each of them had was common to both. No, each sacrificed what he rightly considered his personal property. He could not have otherwise sacrificed it but his own.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - Continued in Part 12: - - - - - - - - - - - -Here is how Christians need to defend against the rampant Socialism in America today, not Peace and Love, as good as those are, but with the Truth found only in God's Word. Now we know with certainty that Communism is far removed from the natural order of things.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments only accepted when directly related to the post.