Eric Douma: The Religion of Marxism

Karl Marx We hear the phrase “religious right” often in our political discourse, referring to people who have political views that are informed by their Judeo-Christian worldview. For this episode, Eric Douma joins me to discuss the “religious left”. Marxism is commonly thought of as a Leftist political ideology, but there is a dangerous religious worldview that drives that ideology behind the scenes.

The subject matter of this episode includes the Emergent Church. To better understand the Emergent Church, listen to episode 18 with Bob DeWaay. Bob is the most authoritative researcher in the world on the Emergent Church.

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Outline of the Discussion

The political philosophy of those in power in the United States today was developed by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
In the 1980s, Francis Schaeffer said the most dangerous religion in America is statism, making the state out to be a god.
Karl Marx became disenfranchised with Christianity as an adolescent, and sought out the teachings of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach, a staunch materialist.
Hagel was a panentheist, and taught about “spiritual evolution” that would happen as two opposite views would clash with each other and emerge as a synthesis of the two.
As a panentheist, Hagel believed that god was in everything, drawing all things to himself. The spiritual evolution that he taught was the means by which his panentheistic god would draw everything to himself in order to bring about utopia. This is what as known as “Progressivism,” that everything progresses toward a better world.
Hegelians believe that the role of the government is take from the “haves” and give to the “have-nots” in order to facilitate the process of pitting two opposites (wealth and poverty) against each other in order to bring about a synthesis. On a grand scale, this is the process of pitting capitalism against socialism to bring about communism.
Marxism had its rise in America in the 20th century because it appeals to the masses, by way of their covetousness.
The Emergent Church is driven by three things:
- Epistomology: The study of how we know things. They reject logic and foundationalism for “coherentism”, a system of socially-constructed reality.
- Eschatology: The study of last things. They believe what Hegel taught, that god is drawing all things to himself.
- Emergence Theory: that god unfolds himself in the universe (remember god is panentheistic, he is IN everything.)
The common denominator of the three driving forces of the Emergent Church is the teachings of Yergen Moltman. He taught a “theology of hope.” He spiritualized (or Christianized) the teachings of Marxism.
This teaching, like all false teaching, follows the model of the original false teaching that was spread in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent told Eve that she would “be like God.”
Marxism denies government the one role that the government is ordained by God to carry out: the restraint of evil.