SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM: OLD DEVILS WITH NEW SMILES

Socialism is not creeping in anymore. It is marching in with microphones, votes, and applause. What once would have been exposed as dangerous nonsense is now being sold as compassion and progress. New York City is about to swear in a mayor who openly embraces socialism. Zorhan Mamdani is not an outlier. He is a symptom.

Standing beside him are polished voices like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, leaders who have learned how to take failed ideas and dress them up with moral pressure and emotional stories. They tell us socialism is about caring. They tell us opposition is unloving. They tell us this is the future.

It is not the future. It is the past, and it has always ended the same way.

Socialism teaches that government should control wealth and force equality. Communism is simply socialism finished. Socialism promises help. Communism demands obedience. Socialism starts with redistribution. Communism ends with confiscation. One is the road. The other is the cliff.

These ideas did not come from Christ. They came from rebellion against God, responsibility, and authority. They are not just political systems. They are false gospels. They promise a better world without repentance, salvation without Christ, and justice without righteousness.

Here is why they are dead wrong.

1. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM ERASE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Socialism talks about groups. God talks about people.

Under socialism, failure is always someone else’s fault. Under communism, the individual disappears altogether. The Bible never treats men as economic categories. God deals with souls one at a time.

Romans 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

You will not stand before God as part of a class. You will not blame the system. You will not point to history. You will answer for yourself.

Socialism spreads responsibility so thin that no one feels guilty. God places responsibility so clearly that no one escapes it.

2. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT STEALING

Socialism survives by calling ownership greedy. Communism survives by abolishing ownership altogether.

God never apologized for property. He protected it.

Exodus 20:15 “Thou shalt not steal.”

Exodus 20:17  “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”

Socialism says taking is justice if the government does it. God says theft is sin, no matter who signs the paperwork. Communism just finishes the job and calls everything state property.

God does not change His law because politicians change their slogans.

3. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM DESTROY THE WORK ETHIC GOD CREATED

God tied work to provision on purpose. Socialism cuts that cord. Communism burns it.

That does not mean Scripture teaches cruelty or indifference. The Bible is clear that those who truly cannot work should be cared for. God commands compassion for the elderly, the disabled, the widowed, and those facing genuine hardship. There is nothing unbiblical about helping people who cannot provide for themselves.

But socialism does not stop there.

Socialism blurs the line between cannot and will not. Communism erases it entirely. In both systems, provision is treated as an entitlement rather than a responsibility. When benefits are guaranteed without expectation, work loses its meaning and dignity erodes.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

Notice the wording. Paul did not say cannot. He said would not. God makes a clear distinction that modern systems refuse to make.

We already see this creeping reality in our own nation. Government programs originally designed as temporary help have become permanent substitutes for responsibility. Assistance has turned into dependency. Safety nets have become hammocks. When able-bodied men are paid not to work, character collapses and families suffer.

When the government becomes the primary provider, it also becomes the primary authority. Dependence always creates leverage. Socialism uses benefits to buy loyalty. Communism uses rations to enforce obedience.

God’s design is better. Work produces dignity. Responsibility builds character. Provision follows labor. Compassion exists without destroying accountability. The church helps the needy. Families shoulder responsibility. And men who are able-bodied are expected to work.

When work is optional, dignity is lost. When dependency is rewarded, freedom dies.

4. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM REPLACE LOVE WITH FORCE

Christian compassion comes from a changed heart. Socialist compassion comes from a threat. Communist compassion comes from fear.

2 Corinthians 9:7 “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

The words “of necessity” destroy the socialist argument. Forced giving is not generosity. It is confiscation. Socialism paints it prettier. Communism drops the paint and shows the fist.

God changes hearts so people give. The state takes because it cannot change hearts.

5. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM ALWAYS GROW INTO TYRANNY

Socialism promises protection. Communism delivers possession. Power never stops at enough.

God warned Israel exactly how centralized power behaves.

1 Samuel 8:11 “And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.”

Notice the word take. Socialism takes a little at a time. Communism takes everything. The bigger the government gets, the smaller the citizen becomes.

Power never shrinks. It only tightens.

6. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM WEAKEN THE FAMILY TO EMPOWER THE STATE

Socialism does not start by attacking the church. It starts by replacing the family.

In socialism, the state becomes the provider. In communism, the state becomes the parent. When the government supplies what fathers once did, fathers become unnecessary. When the state educates, feeds, and disciplines children, parents lose authority.

God designed the family to be the first line of responsibility.

Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”

Strong families do not need massive government. That is why socialism slowly sidelines the home and communism openly undermines it. Break the family, and you create dependence. Create dependence, and you gain control.

The state grows strongest where the family grows weakest.

7. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM REQUIRE ENVY TO FUNCTION

Socialism preaches equality, but it runs on envy. Communism enforces equality by force, but it is fueled by resentment.

The Bible never celebrates envy. It condemns it.

Proverbs 14:30 “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

Socialism teaches people to measure their worth by what others have. Communism punishes anyone who rises above the crowd. God never promised equal outcomes. He promised righteous judgment.

When envy becomes policy, success becomes a crime.

8. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM MISUNDERSTAND HUMAN NATURE

Socialism assumes people are basically good and just need the right system. Communism assumes people will cooperate if forced. God says man’s problem is deeper than structure.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

No system fixes a sinful heart. Socialism rearranges sinners and expects righteousness to appear. Communism concentrates power and expects corruption to disappear. Both ignore what God already said.

Change the system without changing the heart, and you only change who sins in charge.

9. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM TURN GOVERNMENT INTO A SAVIOR

Socialism promises security. Communism promises order. Both promise what only Christ can give.

Government was never meant to save souls or fix hearts.

Psalm 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.”

When people look to the state for salvation, liberty dies and faith follows. Socialism baptizes government power. Communism demands worship of it.

Any system that replaces Christ with the state is not neutral. It is idolatry.

10. SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM ARE COUNTERFEIT GOSPELS

Socialism offers hope without repentance. Communism offers order without righteousness. Neither offers forgiveness.

The Gospel does what no government ever can.

John 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Socialism promises freedom and delivers dependence. Communism promises equality and delivers chains. Christ alone delivers freedom, forgiveness, and new life.

No law saves sinners. No program regenerates hearts. No government replaces the cross.

Socialism and communism are not compassionate alternatives. They are false gospels built on envy, enforced by power, and guaranteed to fail. God’s way still works. Personal responsibility. Honest labor. Voluntary generosity. Strong families. Limited government. And a risen Christ.

The world does not need a new economic plan. It needs hearts broken over sin and lives surrendered fully to God.