The second man who rules the world from his grave is Karl Marx. In 1850 Karl Marx introduced a little book called The Communist Manifesto. This was an explanation of social theories, containing a short economic treatise. It opens with the words, “The specter of communism is moving across Europe.” Perhaps you have read The Communist Manifesto. It was printed in 1850. It presented a set of views that had never been put together before, but the results it has produced today are astonishing. The reception of this work was so encouraging that by about 1863, Marx introduced the great work of his life, Das Capital. The financing of that work came from an English capitalist by the name of Frederick Engels. Das Capital is a large, involved economic treatise, rather circumlocutory (wordy) and confusing in my judgment, but nevertheless a book that has made a devastating impact upon the world. One man, one book, and the fuse was lit.
What did Marx say in Das Capital? He said the history moves in a wave motion, and we are approaching the last wave of history. Although Marx got his ideas for many people, the two main ones were Hegel and Feuerbach. Hegel was the greatest philosopher in the era immediately before Marx—he gave us dialectics. The other gentleman, by the name of Feuerbach, was the world's leading materialist. So what Marx actually believed can be defined as ”dialectical materialism.” Dialectical materialism may sound complicated, but there are more young people studying this philosophy today (with a deep passion, as if it were a religion) than there are young people studying the Bible.
Dialectical materialism is the idea that there is a force within history that moves history forward, not on a constant plane, but in a wave motion. The rising wave is the thesis, and there is another wave that rises to oppose that wave, the antithesis. These two waves come together, and they subside to form a new condition called the synthesis. Marx said there have been many wave motions in the past, but we are now approaching the last one. The capitalist society is the thesis—the economic, social, and political philosophy that controls the world. But rising against it is an inevitable force that will surely succeed, just as surely as the sun comes up in the morning—the socialist world revolution. It will overwhelm the thesis; it will be the antithesis, and then dialectical materialism will be finished. History will move into a beautiful, serene future that will not be characterized by new wave motions, or new revolutions. We will have a redeemed society when the socialist world revolution reaches hegemony, rulership of the entire world.
In his book, Das Capital, he therefore extended a call. He said:
Workers of the world, unite. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a world to win. Let the bourgeoisie tremble at the prospect of a socialist world revolution.
Marx said many other things, but we must understand his idea of capital. Capital is not just money—because Marx was an economic determinist, which means that he believed capital was the very life blood of the universe. His idea was that the workers of the world, the ones who do the labor, make everything possible. They have invested life, and blood, and time, and spirit, into producing things. As a result, these things have been sold at a profit, but the profit has not been given to the members of the working class. Therefore, they are debilitated, despairing, and the very motivation that can produce destiny has been taken from them. The profit has been skimmed off, stolen from them by the most greedy, avaricious monsters who have ever lived in the history of the world—the capitalists (those who own the means of production).
Therefore, to Karl Marx, the capitalist was not just a rich man. He was an enemy of progress. He was a person who represented the quintessence of evil. He is to be taken and destroyed, and until he is, history will continue to be trapped in its dread fixation at this point. Because the life blood of the working class, the excessive value called capital, has been taken from them, they are imprisoned, therefore, at this time. The working class will be liberated by the socialist world revolution. They will bring to pass a redeemed society. Capitalism and capitalists will be obliterated, and we will have a wonderful world tomorrow.
The effect of Das Capital was fantastic. In 1903, there were just a few hundred communists in the world. They gathered in London for what they called the Third Communist Internationale. They had a discussion: Who is worthy to be a member of the Communist Party? Who is worthy to join us? Some said, ”We need everybody we can get, because we are small, we have no money, and we are persona non grata from everywhere. Let's accept anyone.” In the midst of that discussion, a lean, aquiline, well-spoken man stood up with fire in his eye. He looked the crowd in the face and, in effect, said:
Are you out of your mind? We will never conquer the world with the partial loyalty of anybody, but rather, we are interested in total dedication or nothing. A communist is not one who gives a little part of his substance to the cause. A communist is not even one who is willing to die for communism. A communist is one who has already died, and who lives the balance of his life on borrowed time. A communist is a dead man on furlough. If you believe that, come with us, and if you don't, get out!
That's what he told them, and most of them got out, leaving only about seventeen or eighteen followers. He spoke to that little group and said:
Gentlemen, you are people of destiny. You can conquer the world. History has laid its hand of destiny upon your shoulders. We will move out in ever-widening circles. We will capture nation after nation, and finally the world, and a transformed future will be ours.
He preached dialectical materialism to them, the doctrine of the inevitable conquest of the world—man, body, soul, and spirit—by the new force, the socialist world revolution. Did they believe it? They believed it with a passion. By 1917, they had about four thousand followers, and they gathered strength. They stole the revolution in Russia. Less than four thousand people captured a country of one hundred fifty million people. Lenin was the speaker in those days (his real name was Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov). He called himself Lenin, which he chose as a pen name, to veil his own identity while writing for a magazine called Iskra, which means “the spark.” He was a very charismatic type leader. After he captured Russia in October 1917, he made a significant statement. He said:
People think this is the end. It's not; it's just the beginning. We now have Russia. We will move out from here, and we will take Europe, we will take the masses of Asia, and we will finally take the United States. Decadent, outnumbered, demoralized, it will fall like a ripe plum into our hands.
This was a very presumptuous boast, particularly when most of Russia was still starving to death.
But look at the record. What do the socialists now have? Even with the fall of the Soviet union to so-called a “free enterprise” system, most of Asia, Europe, and Africa's governments remain in the grips of socialism. The third world countries in the Americas have adopted the socialist philosophy, and the U.S. is rapidly accepting its doctrine. They have a dominant ideological force that has the world increasingly galvanized in their direction. Make no mistake about it—the third world nations and most of the other nations of the world are turning against the cause of democracy and Christianity that was once represented by the United States. They are endorsing and supporting the socialist revolution that is now sweeping the world, to the extent that, in my judgment, we are approaching desperate days in the future of our world. The socialists have said: “Make no mistake about it. We don't underestimate our problem. Conquering the world is a very difficult job. It's like lifting a boulder. Getting it up off the ground and getting it to the midpoint—that's only done with supreme effort. But once you get it to the midpoint, the rest comes easily. Nothing can stand in the way.”
Solzhenitsyn, whom we ignore at our peril, wrote a little thing called World War III Is Already Lost. If you haven't read it, you should get a copy. Solzhenitsyn said that the conquest of the world in the name of socialism, and the destruction of nations, takes the form of an avalanche. It is easy to start at the beginning, but as it gathers momentum, it finally achieves the force whereby nothing can stand in its way. General Wiedemeier, recently retired from United States Army, and who is very knowledgeable on the subject, was recently asked the question, “Sir, in your opinion, how late is it to try to stop the program of socialist world conquest? He said, ”In my judgment, it is too late.” Do you think the decisions that are being made by this nation and other nations of the West will indeed stop the arrogant thrust of militant atheism to conquer the world? If you do, think again. Socialism rules with especially devastating impact across the world because of its ideological force.
The Marxists are already teaching, even in the United States, that the individual counts for nothing. The individual is atoms in motion—zero—that's what he is worth. The repository of life is the group. The individual is only significant as he becomes a part of the group, and the group is that mystical unity which is the only thing that represents value in the world. The socialists also advocate a very plausible story about how they can accomplish perfection in the world. If I were not a Christian, as deeply as I have studied this thing, I think that I might at least have listened to a fleeting temptation to become a dialectical materialist. Have you read The God That Failed, which contains Arthur Koestler's testimony? He's a former communist, and he says:
But you know, I long for those days. Life will never again be so pure; life will never again be so simple. Never again will I see as clear a purpose as was presented to me in the name of communist world conquest.
I ask you the question, Are we presenting to our young people, in the name of Jesus Christ, a clear purpose worth living for? Or has the dread ambiguity that has settled upon an unthinking Church made our message so confusing that almost anybody can beguile these young people, looking for a purpose in life, into doing something else? I hope not, but I greatly fear for the future unless there is a clear alternative voice in the name of Jesus Christ lifted before all of Western civilization soon. Not tomorrow, not next year—now. In my view, at present there is a great thrust by Marxists who hold many positions of power in the world of politics, business, and religion, to steal the accomplishments of the cause of freedom in this and many other lands.