God spoke to Pastor Barbara and showed her that the way we are numbering the people with Covid-19 is just like the sin that David committed by numbering the people.
God was angry with David for doing this. God is angry at us for numbering the people with Covid-19.
II Samuel 24: 1, 10 – 17 [NKJV]
Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
10 And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12 “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.” ’ ” 13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”
14 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. 16 And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
It’s time that we learn the lesson that David learned and stop numbering the people with Covid-19.
We don’t get all in an uproar about the people who die from heart attacks, or car accidents, or bike accidents.
Some are too focused on these numbers and not on what God wants.
Tonight, we are going to discussing 4 Lessons Learned from Socialism.
The notes were taken from multiple, but the 2 main sources are Eddie Hyatt, & Julie Roys.
Revelation 13: 11 – 17 [NKJV]
11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Socialism, social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members.
Socialism is the tool by which the world will be made ready to receive the kingdom of the beast.
The desire for socialism is growing in America.
It is being taught to the American people as the new wave of the future. They are selling it as the way to help everyone.
They are persuading people to abandon Capitalism
It is a lie that has never worked in the past and it will never work in the future…
Before the Soviet Union, Cuba and Venezuela, socialism was tried right here on American soil and utterly failed. The Pilgrims, who established the first permanent English settlement in New England in the fall of 1620, at first attempted a socialist style of living. They disbanded it, however, when it became obvious their community could not survive with such a system.
The Pilgrim's journey to America was funded by a group of venture capitalists who provided the ship and supplies for their journey to the New World. In return, the Pilgrims agreed to live communally with everyone receiving the same recompense for their work, and with everything above their necessities going into a common fund to be used to pay their creditors.
In other words, there was no inequality. Income produced by farming, fishing and fur trading would be spread around and evenly divided among members of the community. There would be only one economic class of people in this system.
William Bradford, who served as governor of Plymouth for many years, told of the challenges of this socialist system and how it almost destroyed their community (Hyatt, The Pilgrims, 52).
Four lessons the Pilgrims would teach modern America about socialism are:
No. 1 Socialism destroys initiative;
No. 2 Socialism fosters irresponsibility;
No. 3 Socialism extinguishes hope and generates strife; and
No. 4 Socialism is incompatible with human nature.
Lesson No. 1: Socialism destroys initiative. Under this socialist system, everyone received the same recompense for their work. No matter how hard, or how little, they worked, all received the same income. With no reward tied to their labor, initiative was destroyed, and everyone put forth their least effort.
Why work and dream when you are trapped in a socialist system that mandates equality of outcome for everyone? This socialist system destroyed initiative and almost destroyed the Pilgrim community.[i]
Matthew 25: 14 – 30 [NKJV]
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
According to socialists like Bernie Sanders, the greatest problem in the world is the unequal distribution of wealth.
His website declares: "The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time."
This betrays a fundamentally materialistic worldview, which is the basis of socialism.
To socialists, all that really exists is the material world.
In fact, Karl Marx, the father of socialism/communism, invented the notion of dialectical materialism — the belief that matter contains a creative power within itself. This enabled Marx to eliminate the need for a creator, essentially erasing the existence of anything non-material.
To socialists, suffering is caused by the unequal distribution of stuff — and salvation is achieved by the re-distribution of stuff.
There's no acknowledgment of spiritual issues. There's just an assumption that if everyone is given equal stuff, all the problems in society will somehow dissolve.
This worldview contradicts Christianity, which affirms the existence of both a material and a non-material world — and teaches that mankind's greatest problems are spiritual.
The Bible says the cause of suffering is sin and salvation is found in the cross of Christ, which liberates us from sin.
Because of sin, though, there will always be inequalities in wealth.
As the parable of the talents shows, those with good character tend to accumulate more; those with bad character may lose everything they have.
Yet, even if we are unable to accumulate wealth, Christianity teaches that we can still have an abundant life. That's because our quality of life is not determined by how much stuff we have, but by our relationship to Christ.[ii]
Lesson No. 2: Socialism fosters irresponsibility. Young men, Bradford said, resented getting paid the same as older men when they did so much more of the work. As a result, they tended to slouch and slack since they knew they would receive the same no matter how hard they worked.
Knowing they would receive the same no matter how hard or how little they worked, the women often refused go to the fields to work, complaining of sickness and headaches. To have compelled them to go, Bradford said, would have been considered tyranny and oppression.
With no individual reward tied to their innovation and labor, everyone gave their least effort. Irresponsibility became obvious throughout the community and many became gripped with a sense of hopelessness.[iii]
Socialists want to distribute wealth to individuals according to their need, regardless of virtue.
As Karl Marx, famously said, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
However, whenever any institution provides aid, it runs the risk of removing God-designed rewards and consequences. It can punish those who are industrious by making them pay for those who are not. And, it can reward those who aren't industrious by giving them the fruits of another man's labor. This is precisely what socialism does.
Interestingly, Marx mooched off others his whole life, and failed to provide for his wife and children.
As Aristotle once noted, "Men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives."
The Bible teaches that aid should be tied to responsibility. First, anyone who refuses to work should be refused aid.[iv]
II Thessalonians 3: 6 – 14 [NKJV]
6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, 9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
"The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."
Next, no one should be given aid whose family can provide for him.
In fact, the Apostle Paul said that a man who fails to provide for his family is "worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim. 5:8) The church also required widows receiving aid to have "a reputation of good works." (1 Tim. 5:10) So, even in dispensing aid, the church rewarded virtue and discouraged vice. Unfortunately, socialism does just the opposite.[v]
Barack Obama once defended his socialist policies to a little girl by saying, "We've got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money. If you had a whole pizza, and your friend had no pizza, would you give him a slice?"
That sounds pretty Christian, right?
What Christian wouldn't endorse sharing your abundance with someone who has nothing?
However, Obama wasn't endorsing people voluntarily sharing their wealth with others; he was endorsing the government forcibly taking a piece of the pie from one person and giving it to someone else.
Put another way, that's saying that if you have three cars and your neighbor has none, the government has a right to take your car and give it to your neighbor. That's not Christian; that's stealing!
But, socialists don't believe in private property. And, some Christian socialists actually assert that the Bible doesn't either. That's preposterous.
Both the Old Testament and New Testament unequivocally affirm private property.
We can't even obey the eighth commandment to not steal, unless we accept the notion of private ownership.
Nor, can we steward our money as the Bible commands if the state owns our money, not us.
So, for an economic and political system to be Christian, it must protect private ownership and allow individuals freedom to allocate their resources according to their conscience.[vi]
Lesson No. 3: Socialism extinguishes hope and generates strife. This socialist system led to a widespread sense of hopelessness. With everyone locked into a closed economic system, there was nothing individuals or families could do to improve their personal lot. Feeling caught in a trap, bickering and strife began to emerge.
The older men, Bradford said, felt they deserved more honor and recompense because of their age and resented getting paid the same as the youngsters in their midst. The young men, on the other hand, resented getting paid the same as the older men when they often did more of the work.
This sense of hopelessness and the ensuing strife drained energy and discouraged innovative thinking and led to very serious complications for the community.[vii]
The Lazy Factory Worker
Imagine a fictional nation in which the entire economy is socialized in line with Marx’s ideology. Now, imagine Don and Lazy Bill work at an automotive plant, where they each have identical jobs on the plant’s assembly line.
Don is an exceptional worker. He works faster and harder than everyone else on the line, including Lazy Bill, who is the plant’s least-productive worker. Not only is Don an outstanding employee, he’s a pleasure to be around and has exceptional leadership qualities, regularly going above and beyond his position’s requirements.
Lazy Bill is not only the plant’s worst employee, he’s also a poor communicator and unwilling to fulfill his duties in a timely manner. Lazy Bill isn’t bad at his job because he’s intellectually or physically incapable of doing it, he just doesn’t enjoy working as much as Don does.
In Marx’s socialist scheme, Don and Lazy Bill would each receive exactly the same amount of wealth to satisfy their “needs”—food, clothing, housing, etc. Even though Don’s work is unquestionably more important to the factory, he wouldn’t receive any additional benefits.
Some workers—perhaps even our fictional worker Don—might continue to work at a productive pace despite Lazy Bill’s performance and the apparent unfairness of a system that provides all workers, regardless of talent or work ethic, the same amount of wealth. Don might enjoy his job so much that he doesn’t need any additional incentives to work more efficiently. But what about the rest of the workers in the factory, those who aren’t as unproductive as Lazy Bill but also don’t enjoy working as much as Don?
In socialism, for a nation’s productivity to remain the same, all workers must continue to produce at the same rate without financial incentives as they do with financial incentives, or else the entire economy’s productivity inevitably will decline. So, the workers watching Lazy Bill benefit from the same amount of wealth every week as they do would need to continue working at a high rate out of some altruistic desire for the community, nation, or world, not because it’s in their own best interests to do so.
Wherever such a model has been imposed on a large scale, productivity has nearly always fallen absent some other motivation (fear of war, for instance, or violence). The reason is obvious: When the lowest-performing, laziest workers receive the same wealth as the highest-performing, hardest-working individuals, there’s little, if any, motivation for most people to work as hard or harder than the most productive employee. Instead, the entire factory workforce only needs to work as hard as the least-productive person. Put simply, the entire socialist economy is a race to the bottom.
This is a significant reason why so many so-called “socialist” and “communist” regimes throughout the world end up resorting to violence, because without violence, threats to remove liberty, etc., there’s simply no reason for people to freely choose to work at an efficient rate. Everyone works as little as possible, dragging the entire country down. With this in mind, it’s fair to reason that without an oppressive, tyrannical centralized power, it’s impossible to have an equal distribution of wealth. Of course, the existence of a powerful state capable of forcing others to work makes it impossible to have a classless society—an essential component of Marxism. This is an extremely important reason why there has never been a truly Marxist society in the world.[viii]
Lesson No. 4: Socialism is incompatible with human nature. Bradford believed socialism did not work because it runs counter to human nature as created by God. In Scripture, God rewards individuals for their labor and good works. Capitalism works because it is compatible with the reality of human nature and the world in which we live.
I will never forget visiting Eastern Europe shortly after the fall of the Soviet Empire. I was struck by the grey, drab environment. Even the buildings seemed so plain, flat and lackluster.
It was obvious the Marxist system had robbed the people of life, energy and creativity. I am here reminded of the words of Winston Churchill, "Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."
Socialists demonize the rich, blaming all of society's problems on them.
Bernie Sanders once posted to his Facebook Page: "Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America."
Here, Sanders is mimicking Karl Marx, who viewed history as a series of class struggles between the rich and the poor — and advocated overthrowing the ruling class.
Scripture strongly warns the rich and powerful not to oppress the poor.
In fact, Proverbs 14:31 says, "Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for his maker . . ."
But, Sanders — and other Leftists, including Hillary Clinton — go far beyond decrying specific acts of injustice. They basically condemn an entire class of people simply for possessing wealth. And, they encourage those who are poor to overthrow them.
In fact, Clinton once said the U.S. economy required a "toppling" of the wealthiest 1%.
A little known fact about socialism is that, from its beginning, it has sought to destroy marriage and family.
Grove City Professor Paul Kengor explains this in detail in his book, Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Marriage and Family.
Essentially, what socialism seeks is for the state to replace the family. That way, it can indoctrinate children in its Leftist way of thinking, and remove from them any notions of God and religion.
Friedrich Engels, co-author with Marx of the "The Communist Manifesto," once wrote that the society he envisioned would be one where "the single family ceases to be the economic unit of society. Private housekeeping is transformed into a social industry. The care and education of the children becomes a public affair."
Similarly today, Bernie Sanders calls for a "revolution" in childcare and for the government to provide early childhood education beginning with children as young as six-weeks-old. And, he's a proud supporter of gay marriage — what Kengor calls "communism's Trojan Horse" to secure the final takedown of traditional marriage.
To socialists, what Bernie describes is a utopia. But, to Christians, it's a dystopia. That's because there's nothing Christian about socialism — and there's absolutely no way Jesus would ever support it.
The rich are not causing all the problems in American society.
People like Bill Gates are not acquiring wealth by stealing from the masses.
They're creating great products, which produce wealth, and actually provide jobs for many people.
But, even if they were exploiting the poor, nowhere does Scripture support the have-nots demanding money from the haves. Instead, it teaches that we should not covet (Exodus 20:17) and should be content in all circumstances (Phil. 4:11
To Survive, They Had to Change
When it became obvious lack and perhaps starvation would be their lot, Bradford and the leaders of the colony decided to make a change. After much prayer and discussion, they dispensed with that part of the agreement with their creditors that required them to live communally until their debt was paid. In its place, they implemented a free entrepreneurial system that included private ownership of property (Hyatt, The Pilgrims, 52-53).
They Experience the Blessing of Free Enterprise
According to Bradford, they divided the land around them, allotting to each family a certain portion that would be theirs to work and use for their own needs. Bradford said there was an immediate change. The young men began to work much harder because they now knew they would eat the fruit of their own labors.
There were no more complaints from the older men for the same reason. And now the women were seen going into the fields to work, taking the children with them, because they knew they and their family would personally benefit.
Instead of lacking food, each family now grew more food than they needed, and they began to trade with one another for furnishings, clothes and other goods. They also had enough excess to trade with the Indians for furs and other items. In short, the colony began to prosper when they got rid of their socialist form of government and implemented a free, entrepreneurial system.
Of their experience with socialism, Bradford wrote:
"This community [socialism] was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort ... and showed the vanity of that conceit of Plato's, and applauded by some of later times, that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God" (Hyatt, The Pilgrims, 53-54).
Christianity & Capitalism
As Christians, our responsibility is to call people to Christ and help them live out their Christianity in the real world. Living out our Christianity means a life of responsibility, not looking for government hand-outs but working and prospering in a way that we can give a hand-up to those in need.
We desire the best for the greatest number of people which is why we must reject the contemporary vision of a government-mandated socialist system in America.
This article was derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's books, 1726: The Year That Defined America and The Pilgrims, both available from Amazon and his website at eddiehyatt.com.[ix]
[i] How Socialism Is Building Momentum in America; By Eddie Hyatt; https://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/47180-how-the-pilgrims-tried-socialism-mdash-and-it-almost-destroyed-them [ii] By Julie Roys, CP Op-Ed Contributor FOLLOW| Tuesday, July 12, 2016; https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-reasons-socialism-is-not-christian-opinion.html [iii] How Socialism Is Building Momentum in America; By Eddie Hyatt; https://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/47180-how-the-pilgrims-tried-socialism-mdash-and-it-almost-destroyed-them [iv] By Julie Roys, CP Op-Ed Contributor FOLLOW| Tuesday, July 12, 2016; https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-reasons-socialism-is-not-christian-opinion.html [v] By Julie Roys, CP Op-Ed Contributor FOLLOW| Tuesday, July 12, 2016; https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-reasons-socialism-is-not-christian-opinion.html [vi] By Julie Roys, CP Op-Ed Contributor FOLLOW| Tuesday, July 12, 2016; https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-reasons-socialism-is-not-christian-opinion.html [vii] How Socialism Is Building Momentum in America; By Eddie Hyatt; https://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/47180-how-the-pilgrims-tried-socialism-mdash-and-it-almost-destroyed-them [viii] https://stoppingsocialism.com/2019/02/why-socialism-will-never-work/ [ix] How Socialism Is Building Momentum in America; By Eddie Hyatt; https://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/47180-how-the-pilgrims-tried-socialism-mdash-and-it-almost-destroyed-them