Third World Socialism in Biblical Perspective

by Jon Bonk

Since there are probably more opinions about politics than there are people to hold them, any discussion of politics is bound to be controversial. But the Bible peels away the cultural veneer missionaries sometimes mistake for Christianity and forces them to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, rather than some transient political ideal.

Since there are probably more opinions about politics than there are people to hold them, any discussion of politics is bound to be controversial. But the Bible peels away the cultural veneer missionaries sometimes mistake for Christianity and forces them to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, rather than some transient political ideal.

DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM
Discussions about socialism (even among missionaries) tend frequently to distort and misrepresent the actual state of affairs. It seems that the word, especially among those who have been reared in North America, is emotionally charged. As a topic of discussion, it virtually guarantees heated debate between even the closest of friends.

The word "socialism" evokes in many imaginations scenes of Siberian prison camps, torture chambers, Stalin grinning from beneath his moustache, and ghastly oppression. Discussions too often tend to degenerate into emotional diatribes in which the person dominating the "discussion" generates a lot of heat but produces no light, and serves merely to compel his listeners to secretly vow never to discuss the issue again.

What, then, is socialism? Socialism may be defined as any socioeconomic theory that challenges the sanctity of private property and favors its use for public welfare. There are varying degrees of socialism, ranging from the mild form which holds that certain public utilities and natural resources should be owned by the state (e.g., as in Canada), to the thorough-going variety which insists that property should be held in common rather than individually (e.g., as in the early church – Acts 2, and China).¹

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
Before suggesting guidelines which may help the missionary determine his personal attitude toward socialism, there are six points that must be kept firmly in mind, for they are the foundation upon which attitudes should be built.

1. The ground of authority for evangelicals is the Bible. No other rule of faith and practice is acknowledged.

2. There is no particular type of socioeconomic system singled out in Scripture as being preferred by God.² Rather, the Bible makes it quite clear that God is sovereign over all nations.

This point is nowhere more forcibly made than with Habbakuk when he questioned God’s plan to use the Chaldeans (a very wicked nation) to punish Judah (also wicked, but not as wicked as Chaldea). God’s answer to Habbakuk was, "the just shall live by faith" (Habbakuk 2:4), not by some preferred type of political system.

Even the world’s most stable political kingdoms are transient and can expect to survive only three or four centuries. Hence, for Christians generally and for missionaries particularly, time and energy spent in defending or tearing down any of this world’s kingdoms is time and energy wasted. In more than just a figurative sense, the true Christian is a stranger and a pilgrim on this earth, even in his homeland. His citizenship is above (Heb. 11: 13; 1 Pet. 2:11).³

3. God is calling out a people for his name "from every tribe and tongue and nation" (Rev. 5:9), and he has promised to be with his people until the end of the age, even with those Christians whom he has placed as salt and light within socialistic societies.

4. The political environment in which the early church was born and developed was hardly in keeping with modern-day Western democratic ideals, yet neither Christ, nor Paul, nor any other of the early apostles is recorded as spending much time decrying one political system and lauding another. Instead, they provided early Christians with general guidelines to be followed regardless of the political environment.

"Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s," said Christ to those fellow- countrymen who wished to test his political loyalties. "Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities…for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God," Paul admonished Jewish believers who chafed under totalitarian Roman oppression.

5. The Western democratic system of government is not morally superior to all others. Americanism and Christianity are not synonymous, nor are democracy and Christianity, private property and Christianity, or individual freedom and Christianity. The Christian can make legitimate claim to only one kind of freedom, for "he whom the Son shall make free shall be free indeed" (John 8:36), even if that one is an apostle in prison or a slave in Caesar’s household.⁴ Although America traditionally boasted, "In God we trust," she has never even pretended to trust in Jesus Christ, and there is salvation in no other name (Acts 4:12).

Furthermore, Christians must soberly recognize that if Habbakuk 2:12 is to be understood literally, God’s judgement must yet fall on North America (as well, of course, as on the nations in the Communist world), for the continent and its cities were without doubt built with blood, the blood of the Indian.

6. The real question, then, is not, "What should be the attitude of the missionary toward socialism?" It is much broader than that. It is the same question as confronted the earliest missionaries, when socialism was not even a political consideration. The question is, "What should be the attitude of a Christian to the government of the country in which he finds himself?" Today’s answer, too, is the same as the apostle’s: "Be subject . . . " (Rom. 13: 1). In circumstances where there is a conflict between obedience to God and obedience to the government, missionaries disobey the government, for "it is better to obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:29).

GUIDELINES
In the light of these principles, the following guidelines help the missionary to develop a biblical, realistic attitude toward socialism.

1. The missionary should strive to have the broad view of this world’s political systems, the biblical view.

2. He must try to become informed about the true nature of the socialism being practiced by the country in which he works, and avoid the temptation to dismiss anything which is contrary to his personal political views. It is embarrassing to hear a colleague who knows nothing about socialism expound on its evils. And it is potentially harmful to the testimony of the national church if such naive views are interpreted by listeners as "the Christian view of socialism.

3. He must avoid the tendency to pass negative judgment on every pro-East or anti-West development. Missionaries are not sent to be protectors of Western interests. They are sent as ambassadors of God’s Kingdom. No man can serve two masters.

4. The missionary should recognize that the pro-Western orientation of the world is coming to an end.⁵ This fact is no where better evidenced than in recent decisions of the United Nations.

5. He should not be surprised that most Third World countries, suffering acute economic misery, seek for politico -economic models that promise swift conquest of mass poverty. It is quite understandable that these countries do not take Western democracy as their model, in view of the deep resentment felt against anything even remotely connected with the colonialism of yesteryear. Rightly or wrongly, the West is portrayed as the guilty source of all present evil in the Third World, and no confidence is felt in Western ideas.

6. The U.S.S.R. and China, in the eyes of these poor nations, have recently faced similar problems and within two generations have brought about the miracle of economic development so desperately sought after by Third World nations. "From a nation of half-starved, illiterate, foreign- dominated people, Mao Tsetung and company have brought China to relative political stability, dramatic economic success and, perhaps psychologically most important, a great national pride in human achievement."⁶ Hence, it is quite logical that such countries should serve as models of economic development.

7. The missionary should not regard the national church as the protector of Western values. Nor should he consider the church as a bulwark against socialism. Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, and such a view serves merely to divert the church from its task.

8. Even though the Western orientation of the world may be drawing to a close, the missionary has no basis for feeling pessimistic about the future of the Christian world mission. More countries today are open to the gospel than at any time in history.

9. The missionary must constantly bear in mind the great truth that God is sovereign. No political movement takes him by surprise. Every political movement is permitted to exist by him, and serves a purpose within his larger plan.

10. The missionary must love his enemies, even his political enemies.

CONCLUSION
The history of Christianity is the story of its "repeated ability to survive the passing of an era…of which it once seemed to be an inseparable part."⁷ Scores of examples from history verify this fact.

The mighty Roman Empire, which waged an all-out war against the numerically weak Christianity of that day, has faded into the musty pages of history while the church survives. The church outlasted the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of "Reason." It thrived during the tumultuous years of the Industrial Revolution. And it will survive all present and future political and social upheavals as well.

Socialism may well spell the end of a given political system, cherished Western tradition, or worthwhile cultural values. But it will never mean the end of the church, Christ’s Body. Christ will never allow his Body to be destroyed, nor will he allow any member of his Body to be subjected to testing greater than he can bear (2 Cor. 10: 13). This includes members of his Body in the most socialistic country imaginable. There will never be a political system that can successfully dictate terms to the Holy Spirit, although it might try (Psalm 2).

When Christ promised, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18), he did not qualify his promise by adding, "… that is, I will build it if the Communists and Socialists don’t take over." Such a qualifying condition may well be in the back of some missionaries’ minds, but it is not a part of Christ’s promise.

Even when it is our lot to serve God in a hostile political environment, missionaries should be like Paul … afflicted, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed … for "we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:8-11, 16-18).

As missionaries run the race that has been set before them, let them be careful to stay on the track, keeping their eyes on the goal so as not to be diverted into striving for the things which are seen and therefore temporal. Their calling is to preach the Good News. Let them be faithful to that calling.

Endnotes
1. Some would argue that the Bible presupposes property rights, and that the whole matter of stewardship rests on this point, since if we do not own or control anything we cannot reasonably be held accountable for it. There are several flaws inherent in this argument: First, implicit is a misunderstanding of the nature of ”private property." I know of no socialist nation where everything, including one’s clothing, wages, furniture, etc. belongs to the state. The individual, so long as he is alive, has jurisdiction over his personal effects, household goods and usually home. While he may not own real estate, that is not to say that the Bible’s teaching on stewardship is, for him, negated, any more than it would have been negated for soldiers or slaves of Paul’s time. Furthermore, we are accountable for what we have, not for what we don’t have. God does not hold us responsible for what we do not and cannot own (see Mark 12:41-44).
2. God will, it is true, bless the nation that honors him. But to my knowledge, no modern nation qualifies for his blessing by this criteria.
3. While it is true that the philosophical underpinnings of Marxist socialism must be seriously questioned by the Christian, it Is not the purpose of this paper either to condemn or condone any political system. God allows systems to rise and fall, and he does so for specific purposes. His people often have lessons to learn (e.g., Habbakuk). And his people may rest in the confidence that even political things will work together for good (Rom. 8:28).
4. This is not to deny the presence of biblical principles in the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. But then there are ”biblical” principles implicit in certain communist documents as well, yet they can hardly be called "Christian. " See Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression by Jose Miranda (New York: Orbis Books, 1974).
5. The ideas for this point, as well as for points 5, 6 and 7, are further developed in the article by Hans-Gerd Schatte, "Communism and African Socialism," pp. 71-91 of World Mission and World Communism, edited by Gerhard Hoffmann and Wilhelm Wille and published by the John Knox Press (Richmond) in 1971.
6. Robert C. Larson, Wansui: Insights on China Today (Waco: Word Books, 1974), p. 123.
7. Warren Webster, "Mission in Time and Space," in Church-Mission Tensions Today edited by C. Peter Wagner (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972), p. 106.

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