As you know, I am on the emailing list of Doug Hamilton, preacher at the Junction City Church of Christ, Junction City, KS. I would like to share with you a two part sermon from Doug.

Note
 This two part series was originally preached by Doug Hamilton on the two sequential Sundays of October 24th and 31st, 2021.

Satan’s Tool Box

By Doug Hamilton, Junction City Church of Christ, Junction City, KS

Revelation 20:1-3

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time."

To understand this passage, it is important to know that Satan, the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), will use any government-tool to attack the mission of Christ and his people. For the first-century church in the Roman Empire, the devil, i.e., the dragon, launched [imperial] persecution against the church through the Roman government (Revelation 17:8-13). By the end of the revelation from Christ (Revelation 20:1-3), we find this particular tool, the [Imperial] Government run by Caesar, being taken out of the [toolbox] of Satan. The children of God ultimately receiving justice, the keepers "of the commandments of God" (Revelation 12:17) were victorious (Revelation chapters 21 and 22). Satan did his best to use the two beasts, Civil Rome (Revelation 13:1-10) and Religious Rome (Revelation 13:11-18), but with ultimate failure. This did not mean that Satan would not emerge again in the future with another attack against the Christians, but that he would not be able to access that particular tool, the [Imperial] Caesar-cult weapon, having been bound from it.

Why mention this at the beginning of a new mini-series of lessons? Satan has many [imperial] government tools in his [box] and he is not afraid to use them, but in the end, they will fail. This truth is captured in the Book of Daniel, concerning the four major empires, leading to the kingdom of Christ. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome were all crushed by the kingdom of God through Christ.

Daniel 2:45

"a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold".

Just like the Egyptian empire was used to assault God’s people, it was ultimately taken out of the [toolbox] of Satan (Exodus 14:27). Satan has a [toolbox] of government-tools to assault the kingdom of God, but they ultimately fail in light of the kingdom of God.

Since the dawn of time, the devil has been deceiving the people of God (Genesis 3:6), using an array of tools, including governments, like Egyptian, Canaanite, Hittite, Babylonian, Persian, Athenian, and Roman. Through the course of time, the tools of Satan have come and gone, just as governments have arisen and fallen. So, what is the predominant tool that Satan is using today? Undoubtably, the devil’s present tool of choice is Marxism.

What is Marxism?

"Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx" (Brooks, 2021). Primarily, it was his philosophical thoughts on capitalism and the effects on labor, production, and the economy of nations. His political theory taught that the [bourgeoisie] (the wealthy capitalist minority) would eventually be overcome by the proletariat (the working class) and ultimately move to revolutionary communism. Simply put, Marxism is an ideology which examines and condemns a free capitalist system, seeking to move it through socialism and ultimately to communism in the end.

Many governments have modified and applied the Marxist philosophy since the time of its founder. A Marxist-Leninist movement occurred in Russia in 1917, making it the first Marxist nation to be established, until it’s fall in 1991. The Marxist philosophy of China, referred to as Maoism, was implemented in 1949 and is still in place today. Castro led a Cuban Revolution in 1959 (History.com, 2009), imposing his version of Marxist-Leninism, which is still in place today. Many countries have tried it in the past, but most fell in a short time. Today, there are only five countries left which still have communism, but [there are] many others who are socialist, the transitional stage to communism. They all share some common traits of Marxism which Christians should be very concerned about.

[What are some] Prevalent Marxist Anti-Christian Traits

  1. Anti-Religion
    Karl Marx was one of nine children, growing up in Prussia with a wealthy Jewish- lineage. Though his parents were Jewish, they converted to Lutheran in 1816, after an 1815 law banning Jews from high society was initiated (Biography, 2021). His father was a huge fan of the godless philosophers Immanuel Kant and Voltaire. This was nurtured into the heart of young Karl, including his hostility against religion. Karl Marx, was an atheist, and referred to religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" and the "opium of the people" (Boer, 2016). He was hostile against religion, for it went against his evolutionary-based theory that belief in God only hinders the arrival of a communist utopia. Writing in 1844, he said, "The first requisite [necessary requirement] of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion" (Seering, 2020). His loathing of religion was so adamant, that even Charles Darwin "rejected the offer" (Ruiz, 2018) of Marx’s proposal to dedicate his publication Das Capitol in 1880.

    This is one of the trademarks of a Marxist-based philosophy, the restriction of religion. In a capitalist system, as expressed in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, there is freedom of religion. They know "the fool hath said in his heart, [']There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). In a Marxist-based people, there is freedom from religion. In essence, they teach [that] the person who believes there is [a] God, is a fool. This makes it a powerful tool in Satan’s hands to persecute God’s people.

  2. Anti-Family
    "Marxists argue that the nuclear family performs ideological functions for Capitalism - the family acts as a unit of consumption and teaches passive acceptance of hierarchy" (Thompson, 2021). To the Marxist philosopher, wealth is passed down through families as private property, [they believe that’s] not being equitable and promoting class inequality.

    The Bible teaches Christians to seek the values of a nuclear family {i.e. a family consisting of a pair of adults father and a mother and their children}. God knows how society functions best, having a married husband and wife (Genesis 2:24) with offspring (Psalm 127:5) to pass down blessings of hard labor (Proverbs 13:22) and the knowledge of Christ (Ephesians 6:4). Marx’s Communist Manifesto call[s] for the abolition of the family, for [they say,] "patriarchy and capitalism worked in tandem to produce willing, alienated workers, where women became little more than instruments of production for the men who lorded over them" (Ho, 2019).

    The devil really appreciates this aspect [, of breaking the family apart,] of the Marxist philosophy.

  3. Anti-Blessing
    Marx defined private property as anything a person owned which was used to use another person to produce [that] something (Encyclopedia of Marxism, 2021). [In other words, if YOU own something that was used to employ someone ELSE to make it, that something is private property. which they consider a bad thing.] Hence, nobody can own a business which employed another, for that would breed class suppression. Everything is to be run by the state so that nobody can profit from another. Marxism loves words like equitable, for that means the blessings are the same for all, despite whether it was earned or not.

    This is in direct conflict with what the Christian is taught.

    1 Timothy 5:18

    For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing," and "The laborer is worthy of his wages."

    Christians are encouraged to work hard (2 Thessalonians 3:10) and the blessings will come (Genesis 2:15). The devil really can appreciate the potential of this tool, separating hard work from the blessings of God.

The devil finds [these tools] incredibly valuable, for [they strike] at the heart of the people of faith, undermining the building-blocks of a functional society and incentives from God. Paul wrote in:

1 Timothy 2:1,2 (ESV)

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Additionally, Paul identified that a mechanism which the devil uses is through teaching [, specifically, the teaching of demons,] (1 Timothy 4:1). If the devil could turn the populace against people of faith by teaching an anti-religious, anti-family, an anti-blessing philosophy, then the table will be set against Christians.

Ironically, much of what we see in the collapsing of our society points directly to the philosophy of Marxism. In the second lesson, we will look closer at these societal issues which are presently changing the landscape for people of faith. Perhaps by being able to better understand [what is] occurring [we] will be able to better recognize how the devil is using the tool of Marxism from his [toolbox] to hinder the people of God. The devil is walking about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Let not the Christians be ignorant of the schemes of the devil (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Part I: Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Marxism

The History of Critical Race Theory

The foundation of CRT goes back long before, being rooted in the radical 1960s and anchored in the critical legal studies movement, which is an offspring of Marxism ([Encyclopedia] Britannica, 2021). "Marxist scholars in the West simply adapted their revolutionary theory to the social and racial unrest of the 1960s. Abandoning Marx’s economic dialectic [i.e. the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions] of capitalists and workers, they substituted race for class and sought to create a revolutionary coalition of the dispossessed based on racial and ethnic categories" (Rufo, 2021).

[CRT] was initially put together [in an] attempt to identify the causes of injustices against minorities in our legal system, so the original resolve was well-intentioned. [However, they anchored it to Marxism, because after all, our higher education teaches Marxism is good, Capitalism is bad, But] Remember that Marxism uses a foundation [that] is anti-religious, anti-family, and anti-blessing, for their founder, Karl Marx, was an atheist, and referred to religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" and the "opium of the people" (Boer, 2016). This contrasted his evolutionary-based theory of socialism, which voids individual behaviors from consequential outcomes.

Martin Luther King’s movement [on the other hand] powerfully addressed race-relations, being anchored in Christian principles and the Christian concept of color-blindness.

Genesis 1:27

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

This religious foundation, that all men [are created] in the likeness and image of God, brought about very needed changes for all.

At the same time, there was another racial-rights movement rooted in Marxism and centered in the universities. Marxism is primarily an economical theory, and by the late 1960s, [it] was already widely dismissed through the failings of the Communist economies. It was during this time that Marxist theory left the economic departments of colleges and transitioned into the field of social sciences.

According to former tenured Princeton professor Carol Swain,…​

[T]hey simply made a few adjustments to apply race and gender from Marxism. [She says,]

"In simple terms, CRT views American society and government through a Marxist analytical lens, emphasizing group power and group conflict…​the standard Marxist worldview…​From this vantage point, social institutions -economic, social, security, religious cultural, etc.- are all described as elements of capitalist oppression. Marxists consequently advocate upending the social order and reconstituting society along socialist lines" (Swain & Schott, 2021).

These professors nurtured young minds, proposing the same steps used in other Marxist revolutions. As a professor from [the] University of California at Irvine reminisced, "Marxism and feminism, Marxism and deconstruction, Marxism and race - this is where the exciting debates are" (Barringer, 1989).

Critical Race Theory (CRT) was officially organized in 1989 [in] Madison, Wisconsin, by a single group of more than twenty individuals (Onwuachi-Willig, 2009), mostly minority, Ivy- league, educated liberals in their twenties. They combined their thoughts of legitimate racial concerns, but unlike MLK, [they] placed it on the backdrop of Marxism. In other words, King looked at it through the lens of…​

Galatians 3:27

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus",

making the emphasis color-blind, just like God intended. [But] These young Marxists emphasized [the] differences as what primarily defines the person and labels them.

Many of these radical, well-educated, and well-funded pro-Marxist young people, went on to teach in the universities, kept further developing their theory. It was published in 2001, titled Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. They proposed and promoted certain concepts of their theory as fact, all contrary to Christian teaching. The American Bar Association identifies these radical concepts as the following (George, 2021).

  • "Recognition that race is not biologically real, but is socially constructed and socially significant."

  • "Acknowledgement that racism is a normal feature of society and is embedded within systems and institutions, like the legal system, that replicate racial inequality."

  • "Rejection of popular understandings about racism"

This is the exact opposite of the Biblically-based model which King pointed out in his movement, placing prejudice and division at the center [of racism]. Now the [CRT] group is attempting to take a law-school college theory and impart it to elementary students. Listen to what the Marxist Theory, CRT, has spawned in the news as of late.

Some of the Recent Headlines

SWR: See if the outcome of the deconstruction or upending of our social order is not division

  • "Virginia college staff training video labels straight, white, Christian males as 'oppressors' who engage in the 'systematic subjugation' of minorities" (Taylor, 2021).

  • "Penn State professor singles out 'average White guy' in lecture, says race benefits him over Black students" (Colton, 2021)

  • "A Black mom is accusing a Las Vegas charter school of creating a hostile learning environment for her white-passing son by requiring him to participate in the school’s social justice curriculum."

  • In a New York School, there is now a lawsuit from an incident of "forcing the student to publicly confess his identities as a white, male Christian and then attach 'official', derogatory labels to them violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on compelled speech" (Dunn, 2021).

  • "Bi-racial high school senior who can pass for white receives failing grade after refusing to publicly confess his 'white dominance' and 'attach derogatory labels' to his race, gender, religious and sexual identity" (Edwards, 2021)

  • "WHITE TEACHERS WHO REFUSE TO TEACH CRT SHOULD LEAVE PROFESSION" (Dukes, 2021)

  • Schools teaching critical race theory means pitting students against one another (Prior, 2021).

  • Christian Schools Boom in a Revolt Against Curriculum and Pandemic Rules (Graham, 2021)

SWR: As Jesus said, "…​[A] kingdom divided against itself…​ cannot stand." Mark 3:24, He said the same for a city and a house, if they are divided they cannot stand. Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:25; Luke 11:17.

Anything which promotes one race above another race is racist! The Christian should have nothing to do with any of the tools of Satan, including Marxism. If, however, you want some CRT, allow me to remind [you] of Christ['s] Relationship Teachings (CRT). We can easily process this CRT and it is great for the Christian soul.

In Closing

Jesus loves the little children All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black & white They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Jesus cares for all the children, All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight
Jesus cares for all the children of the world

Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world