The communist dictator "president" of Venezuela Hugo Chavez
died
of cancer
in 2013
. The UK Telegraph repor
ted in 2013 that Chavez began
his third term
by raising his right hand and proclaiming
, "Fatherland, socialism or death...I swear by Christ, the greatest socialist in history..."
As Washington Times Columnist Robert Knight points out in his recent column "Coopting Jesus Christ for Unholy purposes, "
Today's Progressives, for example, brazenly misquote the Sermon on the Mount as if it were the first draft of "The Communist Manifesto." They claim that
Jesus would back open borders, forced redistribution of wealth, seizure of private property and, most of all, sexual anarchy."
All around the world governments are trying to say their way of governing combined with Christianity equals social justice. In Nicaragua, for example, the communists placed billboards all around the country with their "President" Daniel Ortega's picture on it and the caption: "
cristiano, socialista, solidario". Many other countries in Central and South America are following suit. European and African nations are also seeing this type of strategy.
Socialists often claim Christianity as socialism based on Acts 4:32, "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common."
The difference here is that the early disciples of Christ in Acts voluntarily out of the love of their hearts gave one to another. In Socialism and Communism, government becomes god and distribution of personal property by the state is compulsory. Chapter II. Proletarians and Communists of the Communist Manifesto says, "
But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." The idea of invoking Jesus Christ or God in support of the socialist cause given the truth of its manifesto, is no less than mocking God.
Communists invoke God in order to manipulate Christians into believing that Jesus was a socialist and therefore it is a good deed to accept the government as an instrument of God. Knight writes further: "
Democrats have been working hard to spin their version of Jesus...they and their media allies have been working overtime to create a Christ who would bless their leftist politics." Knight gives examples of how democrats proclaim that Christ is the center of their lives, yet disparage the faith and character of those who disagree with their brand of theology-which often includes killing of the preborn, promotion of sexual immorality, and denying the right to express Christ in the public square. Beware of these people.
