“Socialism is the philosophy of failure,

“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.”  Winston Churchill                                              For several months, my article in the newsletter has been looking at the glaring inconsistencies between Christianity and Socialism. Socialists routinely equate the 2 and few Christians can point out the incompatibility Knowing those incompatibilities are essential if a Christian is to live an unchained life in a clear, unconfused Christian witness.
There is an election this month. Few in politics come right out and admit they're Socialist/ Communist even though they may vote more taxes to expand expensive and badly-administered programs, or vote to reduce your freedoms of speech, property an worship. The only way for the Christian to vote wisely is to know the “enemy” and to know that it IS an enemy. To do that, we should turn to biblical ideas as a guide in voting. No, Jesus isn't running for any office, but that's no excuse to stay ignorant, remain confused or not vote.
An article by B. Brooks notes that Not only does the Bible not support socialism, it also fundamentally opposes it on moral grounds.   Even if one believes that Jesus does require his followers to shun wealth for the sake of the Gospel (which is not quite accurate), his message does not encourage his followers to weaponize the ballot-box to force fellow citizens to pay higher tax rates than they do. As 2 Corinthians 9: 7 puts it, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Socialists just demand giving.
The most basic understanding of Judaeo-Christian ethics will tell you that it is wrong to take things that do not belong to you. The fact that such thefts support the welfare of others and are done via the faceless anonymity of the state makes no difference. A vote for socialism is a vote for theft, and God will not count as charitable those who are generous with other people’s money.
The foundation of socialism is envy. It is worth mentioning that covetousness was prohibited in the Ten Commandments & that envy is included in the classical (now, mostly Catholic) list of Deadly Sins. The reality is that ALL sin is deadly, as in leading to death and separation from God, but envy is considered deadly because, like pride, it leads to more sins.
The 10th commandment is not the only statute broken when envy is allowed free reign. Once socialism is put into practice, the 8th commandment is inevitably broken when one citizen does not want to surrender his property and has it taken from him by force. In some cases , a person who resists redistribution will have his life taken, thus violating the seventh commandment as well.
Remember, Communism /Socialism murdered over 100 million who resisted it and imprisioned many millions more. If Socialism is such a good idea and everybody will be happy when they own nothing, why were SO many so Unhappy that they had to be convinced by firing-squad or Gulag? I guess the Left doesn't really believe people are basically good, no matter what they say.
Socialism never admits to such coarse motives or methods. No, they steal in order to provide what they call equality. Remember, No stuff or payment is FREE. Everything has a cost to someone somewhere sometime. In Socialism's case, the cost is vastly higher than the “free” stuff's value. They say they're making sure everybody pays & gets a “fair share”, but if A works harder, longer and smarter than B, why should he bother to do so if it only means he'll end up with the same as B, who is less gifted or didn't work as much or as hard? It is singularly, clearly not fair. This has universally destroyed motivation in Communist/ Socialist systems. Socialists enforce equal outcomes for Unequal input. In practice, Socialism is grossly Unequal in outcome. And the “rulers” still make out better than anyone else. Dramatically so. The Bible is indeed adamant that all are CREATED equal (cf. Declaration of Independence), but we are free agents and all are gifted differently and some are just more fortunate—this is not & cannot be Heaven. (Just one of the reasons being that such inequities are to encourage us to crave God supremely, NOT other people's stuff. In reality, Socialism/ Communism are extremely greedy and materialistic.) Consequently, outcomes ARE very different in this world. The real equality is that God loves us all equally and we are, each of us, equally important to Him. Certainly, when we have faith in Jesus as our Savior & that he died that we might be eternally free from sin and death—THEN we have real equality with meaning. Pastor Geoff                                                                                          "For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."                                                                   2 Thessalonians 3:10