Christianity is the answer to Communism.” Few slogans are more certain to gain an enthusiastic response from any typical gathering in America than this one. It can be used with the widest variety of groups—Catholic or Protestant, evangelical or liberal, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon or Christian Scientist—and the response is always favorable.
Even superficial investigation discloses that the Christianity which is the “alleged” answer to communism is differently conceived by the representatives of these various groups. Each interpret Christianity in the context of its own peculiar creed.
Some Distressing Facts
Using the term Christianity in its widest and loosest connotation, the claim that it is the answer to communism is extremely difficult to substantiate. The following facts are high hurdles to surmount.
1. In little more than a generation the Communists have brought under their control more people than the total world population that today has heard the story of Christ in minimal detail. Approximately one billion people are now under Communist control. It is true that the great majority of them are not Communists. Nevertheless, the entire younger generation of this one billion is being taught the doctrines of communism in schools which are Communist-organized, directed, and controlled. Many of them can articulate the doctrines of communism far more coherently than the majority of youth living in so-called Christian countries can articulate the doctrines of Christianity.
2. The Church has failed in the basic task committed to it by the Lord Jesus. He said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This we have utterly failed to do. Take India as an example. This nation has an approximate population of 400 million. Of these, 10 million are nominal Christians. This means that 390 million know nothing of the gospel of Christ. We have not obeyed the command of our Lord; many of us are not even conscious of our failure; more are totally unconcerned. Yet we still proclaim that we are faithful and obedient servants of our Lord.
3. In 1957, in the Indian elections, a Communist government was freely chosen in Kerala, the best educated and the most Christian of the Indian states. One third of the population professes to be Christian. It is widely reported that a majority of the Christians voted for a Communist candidate.
Meeting Ignorance And Indulgence
We are impelled to a restatement of two basic propositions we tend to overlook: An ignorant Christianity is the answer to little. “Study to show thyself approved unto God” (2 Tim. 2:15) remains an imperative. A self-indulgent, lukewarm Christianity is an offense to God. “Because you are lukewarm, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).
Before Christianity can meet the Communist challenge, some things are urgently required. Instead of parroting slogans, which are frequently boastful, we need a deep sense of our failure to obey our Lord and to heed his command. This realization of failure should lead to repentance, and this repentance in turn to a deep search for the causes of our failure and a determination to remedy them.
The Great Barrier
Recently, in a meeting in the Los Angeles area, a man rose and asked: “What is the greatest barrier to Communist advance?… The greatest barrier everywhere, in all countries, under all conditions?”
“I think I know what you want me to say,” I replied. “I wish I could say ‘Christianity,’ but the record is against it. For example, the most Christian Indian State has just elected a Communist government by free election.”
“Your brand of Christianity is different from mine.” I realized he was a Roman Catholic.
“I presume you believe the Roman Catholic religion is the great barrier to communism. Again the facts contradict this. Italy, the home of Catholicism, has the largest percentage of Communists in its population of any country in the world: larger than Russia, larger than China.”
“The Communists are the enemies of God and Christ. They are atheists.”
“I know they are; you know they are; the Communists know they are. But Indian Christians don’t.”
“They must know!”
“Why must they? Who told them the truth about the real nature of communism? The democratic governments have not done so; the churches have not done so; the Communists certainly have not done so. All the Communists have told them is the false promise of abundance, happiness, and freedom. This freedom allegedly includes religious freedom. This promise is proclaimed in beautiful and most convincing literature. Consequently they are unconscious of any offense to their Christian conscience when they vote a Communist into power.”
The Need Of Understanding
It is easy to convince evangelicals that Catholicism is not the answer to communism. Many of us, however, are equally convinced that we have the answer, “the pure Gospel.” Preach the Gospel and you have the answer to communism. Recently in a meeting in an Episcopal church, I was warmly supported by a fine Baptist brother. During the question time he rose to ask a question: “When all is said and done, would you not say that a true, born again experience is the real answer to communism?”
I fear I could not have hurt him more had I lashed him across the face. “No, I wouldn’t. A born again experience is the answer to the question of the possession of eternal life. It is not the answer to the question of safety on the highway. You need to know the rules of the road and to obey them. Nor is it the answer to poliomyelitis.”
Ignorance is dangerous, and frequently sinful. The ignorance of leaders, even Christian leaders, of the true nature of communism is appalling. Superficial observation of local Communist behavior is no substitute for a knowledge of the philosophy, motives, morals, and organization of this evil enemy.
Consider this visitor to a tuberculosis sanitarium. He is conducted around beautifully landscaped gardens. Tuberculosis certainly creates an environment of beauty. He is escorted through the marble columns into the reception hall and met by a charming receptionist who takes him on a tour of the institution. He is impressed by the pride of the institution, the kitchen with its most modern cooking equipment and its superb sanitation. Next, the plumbing fixtures impress him. Finally, he is escorted into the wards. In preparation for his coming the patients have all been given a dose of anti-pertussive mixture so that coughing is minimal. The linen is snowy white. The nurses are neat, beautiful, and attentive. Many of the patients have a rather attractive flush—a type of ethereal beauty. Many of them have the optimistic outlook characteristic of the disease, the famous “spes pthysica.”
Duly impressed, he makes his report. “I am impressed by what I have seen. It seems to me there are many features to tuberculosis equal, if not superior, to health. It has created an environment of beauty; the patients have all achieved the goal for which most healthy people strive—economic security. They don’t have to rise from bed early in the morning and undergo the dangers and frustrations of modern peak hour traffic. They are liberated from the competitive aspects of modern life; no hotel provides the intimate personal service the tubercular patient receives from the nurses. I think we ought to allow tuberculosis to go its own way; coexist with it.”
An astonished listener asks, “What about the Tubercle Bacillus?” The reply is prompt. “I did not see one. I looked under the beds and behind the doors and saw no trace of a single one. I think rabble-rousers have invented them for their own selfish purposes.”
In any circumstances such a report would be ludicrous; from a medical man it would be insane.
In the spiritual realm, ministers and church leaders are analogous to physicians in the bodily realm. They should appreciate the evil nature of the germ of godlessness. They should see beneath the superficial symptoms to the underlying spiritual pathology.
The record of many leaders of the National and World Council of Churches in relation to communism is reprehensible indeed. Their judgments have been predominantly superficial and symptomatic. Many religious delegations to Russia and China give reports appropriate to second-rate sanitary inspectors. One well-known ecclesiastic visited Russia in 1938. This year climaxed the Stalinist murder orgy during which Stalin soaked the soil of Russia with the blood of the Communist elite. This visitor reported that Russia was fulfilling the kingdom of God on earth.
What Communism Involves
The Christian attitude to communism should be lucidly clear. Communism believes, teaches, and practices the doctrines that:
1. There is no God.
2. Man is a beast, created by evolution and molded by the economic environment.
3. The Communist Party has been historically ordained to conquer the world and environmentally to regenerate mankind.
These doctrines are in fundamental conflict with every fundamental and vital evangelical Christian truth.
God’s Word is lucidly clear concerning the consequences of godlessness. Psalm 14 says, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” The consequences are specific, “They are corrupt; They have done abominable works; There is none that doeth good; They have shamed the council of the poor.” Godlessness and contempt for human life are linked in Romans 3: “Their feet are swift to shed blood” (v. 15), “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (v. 18).
Christian leadership should have proclaimed the truth that all the evils of moral degeneracy and mass murder that have characterized Communist conduct are inherent in Communist doctrine. The trumpet should give a certain sound. To rationalize Communist conduct—to pardon and excuse and justify simply because Christians also have failed—is evidence of spiritual blindness and abdication from Christian leadership. To praise communism because of material achievements is treason to spiritual truth.
The unbridgeable gulf between communism and Christianity, both in theory and practice, is obvious to the average thinking Christian. It takes someone skilled in the mental gymnastics of theological semantics to see in communism merely a “Christian heresy.”
Practical Program
Communism is very largely a triumph of organization. It must be combatted with an organized program. With deep humility and an acute awareness of our failure to obey our Lord, with a clear picture of the godlessness, immorality, bestiality, and tactical mobility of our spiritual enemy, we must find a way to work actively against the Communist danger.
The great weapon at our disposal is the Truth. From their ideological base in the dialectic, the Communists can emerge in any guise. They wear the uniforms of their enemies and appear devoted to all manner of contradictory causes. They can assume the contour and color of any environment. They become all things to all men that they may enslave all. A Christian missionary working in a Moslem country could not embrace the Moslem faith, live a life of apparent matchless devotion to all Moslem causes for the sole purpose of opening a door for the Christian Gospel. To the Communist this is normal conduct, righteous and honorable. They assume the mantle of Christian, Moslem, or Jew, worker or business man, traitor or patriot, libertine or puritan, with equal facility.
Since the great majority of people in the unconquered areas of the world meet communism, not in the form of abstract doctrine, but in the form of passionate advocacy of their immediate self-interest, they are very likely to be deceived by it. Vaccination is necessary or they will succumb as the unvaccinated fall prey to the smallpox virus. The effective vaccine is the truth concerning the ultimate reality of communism. As a loving mother warns her child never to accept candy from a stranger and then get into his automobile, so the children of God should be warned never to accept the Communist candy, however sweet and nutritious it may be. Behind it lurks limitless evil, slavery, and death.
Every preacher and missionary should administer this vaccine of truth. The tragedy is that so many simply do not possess the requisite knowledge or even the desire to secure that knowledge. The leadership in the battle against godlessness is the prerogative of the ministers of God. Adequate knowledge of Communist deceitfulness should be the possession of every preacher and Christian teacher and should be woven into the fabric of their entire ministry. When we consider the missionary, the need is unspeakably urgent. To send missionaries to the field today without adequate knowledge of the philosophy, organization and strategy of communism is like sending out an Arctic expedition unequipped to meet ice.
The hour is late. The enemy is gaining on all fronts. Christian civilization appears in its death throes. To confront this danger with pious phrase-mongering is to substitute garrulity for spirituality. To take refuge in prophetic fatalism is escapism. Nevertheless, our confidence is in God who took a boy’s lunch and fed five thousand. He took all the food there was available and then performed the miracle of multiplication. As we give to the limit of our intellectual, spiritual, and material assets, we may yet with the eye of faith see the approaching victory.
END
A Brighter Hellas
Our sun-born schools have reared in Ocean Stream
A snakeless isle where in the quiet glade
On Rousseau and romance graced youths may dream,
On golden joys ere sin made man afraid,
In native honour girt, a gleaming knight,
Our Wilson rode to Versailles’ mirrored hall;
But witchery of Wales and Gallic sleight
His dazzled reason gently did enthrall.
Our Roosevelt at Yalta chinked his glass
Gainst Stalin’s cup with guileless bonhomie;
The charming son of Groton smiled, alas,
And wrought a wastrel’s peace unwittingly.
The north blows grey, and we awake, to find
Dire wars before us, vanity behind.
DAVID S. BERKELEY
Fred C. Schwarz, surgeon and psychiatrist from Sydney, Australia, is Executive Director of the Christian-Communism Crusade with headquarters in Long Beach, California. In his world lecture tours he has addressed the nation’s largest civic, professional, student and industrial management clubs on the menace of communism and the Christian answer.
