Our goal is to discern:
1) What is happening?
2) What is not happening?
3) What we can do about it?
We might paraphrase Question 3: What can we do to be the salt and light we are called to be in our times? In order to be the light we are called to be, we must have it or have understanding of it. We are exhorted in Proverbs 4:7, “Acquire wisdom, and with all your acquiring, get understanding.” Every Christian should be compelled to understand their times. The Lord even rebuked those as hypocrites who knew the signs of the weather better than they knew the signs of the times.
We are also told in I Corinthians 2:10 that the Holy Spirit “searches all things, even the depths of God.” Therefore, if we are “Spirit-filled,” or led by the Spirit, we should be compelled to search out all things in depth. No Christian should be shallow in their understanding. For this reason, we want to address with some depth Question 1: What is happening?
As I wrote more than twenty years ago in my book, The Harvest, nations that were under communist oppression would begin to experience increasing liberty, and those who had been free would experience increasing oppression. Less than two years after this was written, the Iron Curtain collapsed, and freedom came much more quickly to those living under the yoke of communism than I or anyone had been expecting. Even China, which is still a communist nation in name, now has a remarkable degree of economic freedom, which has helped to turn it into one of the most powerful economic engines in the world. History teaches clearly that freedom and economic growth are co-related, and oppression always leads to poverty.
At the same time, there has been a basic and continuous erosion of liberty in the nations that were considered free before. In just the last few months, laws and policies that have opened the door wide for the oppression of socialism in the United States have been passed so fast that it is almost the reverse of when the Iron Curtain came down. Just as free enterprise cannot work without freedom, socialism cannot work with freedom, but has to implement a basic control on its people to work. Of course, socialists claim that their system has the greatest freedom, and they may sincerely believe it, but history testifies that this is a big lie in every case.
Socialism is built on a false ideal that we should work harder when we are working for the common good. This sounds good, and certainly would be ideal, but it does not work. Those who actually work harder when working for the common good, number a tiny percentage of the people, including those who spout this philosophy. No amount of indoctrinating has been able to change this. The fact is that almost all people will work with less focus, devotion, and zeal when working for the common good than when they have something personal to gain. To the degree that the quotient of personal incentive is added this will change.
Socialism may equalize people, but it is by bringing everyone down to the lowest level, not by raising anyone up. Of course, even under communism the ruling elite lived like kings—they only required everyone else to be equal. Socialism destroys initiative because working harder has no reward, so it cannot help but to impoverish a nation. Economic growth comes from initiative and risk, but no one is going to do this if there is no hope of a reward.
The government does not produce anything, so those working for government are not producers, and therefore cannot grow the infrastructure of a strong economy. In the United States, we are approaching having nearly 40 percent of all people either working for the government, or living on entitlements, who therefore must be supported by the rest who are producers. In the last few months, this ratio was dramatically increased, and all future plans point to more increase in the percentage of non-producers living off of those who actually produce something. Even this level has never been sustained for long without an implosion of the economy. With all trends pointing toward this getting much worse, we are headed toward an economic implosion.
As the saying goes, “Unless you change your direction, you will end up where you are headed.” Where we are now headed is untenable, but those determined to implement socialism will have to increase their control on people, and the economy, to try to make it work. Therefore, we can expect a steady loss of liberty. The foundation for totalitarianism has already been laid, and bricks are being laid on top of it almost weekly now.
Capitalism is not the greatest threat to socialism—freedom is. Capitalism is a result of freedom. Though the goals of the present administration may be mostly economic, the means must be to reign in freedom. Religious liberty is the greatest threat to any form of tyranny, so we can expect religious liberty to be a primary target of increasing control.
We don’t have to lose this battle for our freedom, and we will cover how it can be won when we address our third question: What can we do about it? However, first we must address Question 2: What is not happening? We will do this next week.
