On Sunday, September 27, I was proud to take part in the second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday. My sermon was entitled, The Seductive Smile of Socialism (You can listen to this message in its entirety at www.lstones.org under “podcasts”).

Using Proverbs 5:3-6 and 7:21-27 as my foundational texts, I compared the alluring ways of a perverse woman with seductive nature of socialism. Solomon warned:

The lips of a seductive woman are oh so sweet,
   her soft words are oh so smooth.
From this text, I highlighted several key points. I’ll discuss each over the next several blogs.

But it won’t be long before she’s gravel in your mouth,
   a pain in your gut, a wound in your heart.

Point #1: Like a seductress, socialism must first create and prey upon an atmosphere of discontent and dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.

Have you noticed how everything in America is in a “crisis” situation according to this administration. “We are on the verge of a depression,’ they say, ‘ so let us spend over a trillion dollars to bail us out before everything crashes.” “We have a serious health care crisis,’ they warn, ’so we have to nationalize health care and spend another trillion dollars right now,” even before anyone has had time to actually read the bill!  

When you listen to the evening news it’s a constant barrage of bad news and pessimistic prognostications. Gloom, doom and the hope of the almighty federal government riding over the hill to save us…if, and only if, we act NOW!

 This is all part of the seductive spirit of socialism. You see, unless you and I are feeling frustrated, cheated, and entitled to more (and depressed about how bad off we think we are) we’ll never allow the government to grab more and more of our freedom. Think about it. Every government power grab is set up by creating fear and dissatisfaction in the hearts of the people. We literally hand over our liberty for the false promise of security.

But how destitute are we? Compared with the rest of the world, are we really that bad off? In the next blog I’ll share some rather amazing stats comparing the prosperity of America with that of our socialistic neighbors across the pond. You’ll be shocked with what is revealed! Stay tuned.

The great reformer, Martin Luther, underscored the principle of self-government when he said, “Love God and do as you please.” In other words, the man or woman who loves the Lord and lives in joyful obedience to God’s law is free to do as they please. Liberty is not the right to do whatever I want whenever I want. That is anarchy. Biblical liberty is the ability to do that which is virtuous. Moral freedom is the tap root of the Liberty Tree.

Our founding fathers clearly understood this connection between Christianity and self-government. In his Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, George Washington observed, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” 

President John Adams agreed. He wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

James Madison, our 4^th President and the chief architect of the Constitution concurred: “We have staked the whole of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Those who are lawless and rebellious demonstrate a complete lack of self-control and must necessarily be restrained by a government outside of themselves.  I love this quote by Edmund Burke, the great British orator and statesman during the time of the Revolution. It highlights the unbreakable link between liberty and virtue. He writes,

“What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils: for it is folly, vice and madness, without restraint. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

A large federal government is the sign of a lack of self-government among the people. When we are weak and lack self-control, “our passions forge our fetters.” Perhaps this explains our current predicament.

The glory of the American form of government is found in the radical concept of the self-governed individual living in freedom under God. This is exactly the model we find with the first man, Adam. When Adam lived in obedience to God, he was able to enjoy tremendous liberty and blessing. God gave Adam one test. Out of all the freedoms he was given by God, there was only one prohibition, only one tree, that was forbidden. The purpose of this prohibition was to test Adam’s ability to govern himself. When Adam ate of the tree, demonstrating a complete lack of self-control, he forfeited his role as regent on the earth.

Adam’s failure to govern himself had terrible consequences upon his family. Adam’s son, Cain, murders his own brother! Now God decides to intervene. Civil government is first introduced in Genesis 9:5-7 where God introduces the legal concept of capital punishment to restrain the spread of evil in the earth. 

The lesson is clear: Those who are incapable of ruling themselves by God’s law will ultimately be ruled by someone else. 

For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. ¹⁰ The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders,  liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching (I Timothy 1:9-10).

Self-government is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26). This is why we must be “born again.” Our rebellious hearts must be regenerated before they can come under the reign of Christ.

 This highlights our need for revival in America. We cannot expect cultural transformation without spiritual awakening. We must first deal with the root, the wicked human heart, before we can see the fruit of a transformed society. Lasting change is always from the inside out.