Communist Ideology

Good for Food, a Delight to the Eyes, and Desirable to Make One Wise

Is leftist ideology the trend of the day?
I went to a national men’s ministry Bible study in my district recently and heard that the leftist ideology was in trend these days. Among the wealthy in the Gangnam area, if a person is not center-left politically, he or she is thought to be unenlightened. There’s even a new phrase coined?the “Gangnam left-wing.”
Although trends easily come and go with the times, ideology is not a trend because it can determine the rise and fall of both individuals and nations. When I attended college in the 1980s, a period of time in which both left-wing and rightwing ideologies were pitted against each other, I was deeply engrossed in the left-wing ideology. However, as a person who has experienced firsthand its lies, corruption, and great harmful effects and seen the fall of the communist nations, including the Soviet Union, I cannot help but feel greatly concerned when I watch what is going on today. Communist nations, which were established as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, failed to surpass the one-century mark in building an ideal world. As a result, it self-destructed in 1992 after 75 years and became “historical trash.” Amazingly, many people still think that this is the way to utopia and seek after it as if it were some mirage.

“Utopia: there is no place like it on earth”
Communism has failed historically, and its fundamental problems are well-known throughout the universe. But why are there yet so many people so fascinated by its ideology?
In 2005, the UK’s BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) took a poll and asked, “Who is the most famous and influential thinker in the world?” The number one answer to this was Karl Marx (1818-1883, Germany). Marx’s communist ideology was not perfected in reality. Nevertheless, as he had sharply and objectively criticized the problems of capitalism (extreme gaps between the wealthy and the poor due to a drastic increase of production and consumption that resulted from scientific and technological advancements; also, the loss of man’s autonomy and dignity after being relegated to the position of a profit-making tool) and led that communism could give many alternatives to it, his theory is still considered “a religion with no better alternative.”



If there were a world where everyone is treated equally and enjoys a good life with no one going without food, it truly must be the ideal world (Utopia). There is probably no one who has not once dreamt of this kind of society. Ironically, however, utopia in Greek means “no place like it on earth” (ou means “not exist” and topos means “place”). Communist ideology dreams of the ideal paradise on this earth, but no such place has ever been realized on this corrupted earth, nor will it ever be.
The only time when the essence of communist ideology?that of sharing private property communally as the need arises?was ever successfully implemented was within the early church as is recorded in the New Testament.
“And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need” (Acts 2:44-45).
“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them” (Acts 4:32).
“For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:34-35).
If we look at these verses only, there appears to be little difference between what the early church was like and what the Communists say in their slogan, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

Was the Early Church Marx’s model?
“And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).
The reason the early church could establish this kind of ideal community was fourfold: the believers experienced the resurrection of Jesus Christ; they were forgiven of their sins by believing in Jesus Christ; they received the Holy Spirit as a gift; and they were moved with abundant grace by the testimony of the Apostles. They laid out all the possessions before the Apostles and no one claimed anything as his own. The Apostles took what was offered and distributed them according to the people’s needs.
Karl Marx, the founder of Communism, disregarded the fact that the “communist community” of the early church was possible because of the forgiveness of sins through the precious blood of Jesus Christ and the endowment of the Holy Spirit. Instead, he created this fictional ideology that a communist society would come by man’s effort, or as an inevitable result of the advancement of history. This had something to do with the influence he received from his father, who was a descendant of a Jewish rabbi but had later converted to Protestantism; moreover, he was religiously liberal.
Lenin, the founder of communism in Russia, said that a communist revolution does not occur automatically but is the result of the class struggle between the bourgeoisie (the capitalist class) and the proletariat (the working class). He further asserted that the dictatorship of the proletariat was inevitable in this process. As a result of the effort to convert the world to communism through violent revolutions, Eastern Europe and China became communist nations. Their incitement to communize the Korean peninsula also initiated the Korean War. However, by God’s sovereign grace, the South was protected from communism, but the North has preserved its communist dictatorship to this day.
Communism is an erroneous theory that contains the fundamental flaw of disregarding man’s basic desires. As people do not receive the fruits of their own effort, their motivation for labor decreases, causing low production which then leads to a vicious cycle of poverty in the communist regime. In addition, because all possessions are given up to the communist party, only the party leaders benefit from the dictatorship, creating another level of class and inequality. Communism, with its declining economy and rising corruption, self-destructed 75 years after its inception.



The true identity of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil which mixes good and evil
Communism, based on atheism, materialism, and humanism, is an ideology of the descendants of Nimrod who built the tower of Babel in an effort to defy God and elevate themselves through their own efforts. In accordance with the original meaning of the word Babel (“confusion”), they possessed the confused ideology that they could preserve their lives through man’s artifice and efforts, not through obeying God’s Word. However, it bears the fruits of evil.
Marx knew the Bible; but by calling religion “an opiate of the masses,” he changed the truth of the Bible into falsehood and the lies of communism into the truth. This is the same as what the serpent had done in the Garden of Eden. It made the Words of God?that if they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, “they will surely die”?sound like a lie while making his lies?that “they shall not die”?sound like the truth. When the woman heard the serpent’s words and looked at the fruit, it appeared to be good for food, a delight to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. However, the result of believing what the serpent said was tragic death.
“Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (Pro 26:11).
“It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire’” (2 Pet 2:22).

Let us remember the past
This is why we must remember the past (Deut 32:7).
The past that we must remember is not only the past that contains the footprints of our forefathers of faith?the very footprints that are imbued with God’s work of redemption. But we must also remember the painful past of disobedience in which the original sin as well as the ancestral and selfcommitted sins prevent us from escaping fetters of iniquity. If we forget the atrocities and harmful consequences of communism through our experience in the tragic fratricidal Korean War and fall for the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which is disguised as the “enlightened left-wing,” then we will be passing down to our descendants the same tragic results once again.

Missionary Joanna Lee (Yonsei University, Sociology Major / Chongsin Graduate School)