Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children,
    but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.

• Proverbs 13:22

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

• Ephesians 4:28

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

• 1 Corinthians 13:3

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

• Acts 2:44-45

“ ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, the second as farce.’ – Karl Marx”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist.  He was expelled from Germany and France for fomenting revolutionary ideas.  He settled in London and wrote the Communist Manifesto.

Karl Marx wanted to abolish religion in general.  This idea that Jesus and the early church taught communism is inane.  Marx spoke of taking property when a landowner dies, not allowing the children to inherit.  Confiscation of personal property is a government stealing from its own people.  The Bible teaches us to earn a living and give some of what we earn to the poor, out of love, not coercion.

We could give away everything, but without love, this gift means nothing and we are left with nothing.

In the life of Marx, he tried revolution in Germany and France and he failed.  That was the tragedy.  Each attempt since then has led to a farce.  But this farce is deadly.  Anyone that opposes them is killed or tortured.  The cultural revolution in China has led to a nation that is afraid to innovate.  I was once asked to teach a group of Chinese engineers how to design an aluminum can recycling furnace.  When the course was completed, we watched them as they stared in abject terror at the empty engineering drawing.  Finally, the translator whispered to me that they had been taught that creativity got you sent to a reeducation camp.  We then gave them drawings of a type of furnace that could melt aluminum cans efficiently.  They poured into their work of reverse engineering what had been created by others.  They were good at stealing ideas but were afraid to create a new and better idea.

We seem to be willing to go down this same road again.  Ephesians 4 speaks of not stealing, but out of love giving to the poor.  Second Thessalonians is more blunt – if you do not work, you do not eat.  But we live in a world with growing thoughts of entitlement and apathy.  Why work when the government is willing to pay you to do nothing?  Then that little pay is not enough, and the people find ways of stealing from the government or their neighbors.  This leads to no one trusting anyone else.

And the biggest loser is love.  We do not love because we do not trust our neighbor.  But we do not love because we did not trust God in the first place, and He gives us what we need.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.