Communism is enjoying a resurgence today, even in America. But communism is against each of the 10 Commandments and vice versa.
How does communism violate all 10 points of the greatest legal code ever revealed to man? Let me count the ways.
- In the first commandment, God says that He alone is God. Communism says there is no God. But the communists act like the state is God. Christian Freedom, International—led by Wendy Wright—has an article on its website on why Christians can’t be communists in China, noting, “To join the Party, you must give up your Christian faith.” The article quotes Wang Zuoan, Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs for China, who declares, “Party members should not have religious beliefs, which is a red line for all members….Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party’s faith… they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion.”
- In the second command, God says we are to worship no idols. In practice, communism promotes the worship of idols. For decades, Russians have worshiped Vladimir Lenin, who forced communism on that nation.
- In command number three, God says that we should not take His name in vain. But communism says there is no God. So, if they ever use His name, it would only be in cursing or in denying that He exists.
- In the fourth Commandment, God says we are to honor the Sabbath. Since the rise of Christianity, believers in Jesus have worshiped the Lord on Sunday because He rose from the dead on Sunday. In 1929, the Soviet government abolished the traditional seven-day week, including Sunday as a day off. They wanted to maximize productivity in the factories. But the problem was premature death. The abolishment of the weekend (because of its ties to the Judeo-Christian tradition) was called nepreyvka. History.com wrote about what could be called the violation of this command: “For 11 Years the Soviet Union Had No Weekend.” That experiment failed. People need breaks. The Sabbath gives us a break every week.
- “Honor your father and your mother,” commands God in number five. But the playbook of this movement, The "Communist Manifesto" (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, advocates, “the Abolition of the Family!” (the exclamation point is in the original). So much for honoring parents.
- The sixth commandment says, 'Thou shalt do no murder. The communists violated this precept as much as any of them. Instead of bringing life, communism brought death. "The Black Book of Communism" (Harvard University Press, 1999) documents the widespread killings by communist regimes, in country after country, where it was imposed, in the 20th century alone.
- The seventh command prohibits committing adultery. As noted in point number five, under communism, the family (including marriage) is subservient to the state.
- The eighth commandment declares, 'Thou shalt Not Steal. And it doesn’t add, “unless thou art the government.” But communism steals, supposedly in the name of the worker, as they “seize the means of production.” They steal from the laborers, the very people they claim to help.
- The ninth command prohibits lying. The basis of communism is the biggest lie of all, that there is no God. In practice, lying is at the heart of communism, which claims that they ushered in “the workers’ paradise.
- Finally, the 10th commandment gets at the fountainhead of the communists' propaganda—Thou shalt not covet. Communism is the politics of envy. If Elon Musk has a lot of money, it is because you don’t. It’s an either/or, they say.
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Historian Bill Federer wrote a book, "The Ten Commandments and Their Influence on America." He documents how the Ten Commandments have been important to America’s legal system.
For example, President Harry S. Truman said in 1950, “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.”
What a contrast to those places where full-blown communism has sway, such as in China, where pictures of Jesus or images of the cross are replaced by Xi or by Mao. Over this last weekend, the U.K. Telegraph wrote: “Christians are disappearing for worshipping a God other than Xi.”
I’ll take the 10 Commandments and the freedom this affords society any day over the tyranny of the communists.
Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries. He has written/co-written 36 books, including George Washington’s Sacred Fire (with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.).
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