will vanish for ever from the relations between people and between nations” (pp. 874-875). (There are several places in this quotation where we should like to have placed exclamation points in brackets, but the reader can amuse himself with this diversion.) Liu Shao Chi, second in command of Chinese com munism, adds his statement of inevitability (referring to the Chinese conquest, of course): “The cause of Com munism has become a powerful invincible force through out the world. There is not the slightest doubt that this force will continue to advance and will win final and complete victory” {How to be a Good Communist, 1938, p. 41). In his Nationalism and Internationalism he wrote, “Undoubtedly the number of liberated peoples from now on will grow day by day. It will not be long before the whole of mankind will be freed from imperial istic domination. Whatever setbacks the struggle may en dure, its general trend towards liberation is an inevitable and irresistible law of history” (p. 24). “Every great people believes,” says Dostoyevsky, “and must believe if it intends to live long, that in it alone resides the salvation of the world; that it lives in order to stand at the head of the nations, to affiliate and unite all of them, and to lead them in a concordant choir toward the final goal preordained for them” ( Diary of a Writer, Jan. 1877, p. 575.) Dostoyevsky says further in his Diary for January 1877: “Russia . . . in conjunction with Slavdom, and at its head, will utter to the whole world the greatest word ever heard, and that word will precisely be a covenant of One writes, in speaking of two of the prominent and influential Russian pre-revolution writers, “Neither Dos toyevsky nor Danilevsky had the slightest doubt what the forces of Darkness were: middle-class Western society, with its spirit of greed embodied in capitalism and its violent internal dissensions expressed in the multiparty system and in racial and class strife. . . . But through its social injustices and the alienation of man from his true humanity, the West, in spite of its apparent strength and proud achievements, was doomed to go down in the inevitable struggle with the new Israel — [which is] Russia in the case of Dostoyevsky and Danilevsky, the proletariat in the case of Marx, Russian and the prole- universal human fellowship, and no longer in the spirit of personal egoism by means of which at present men and nations unnaturally, because of the struggle for existence, unite with each other in their civilization. . . . The Russian national idea, in the last analysis, is but the universal fellowship of men” Diary of a Writer, New York, 1949, p. 578). Inasmuch as the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments expounds in detail a “word” or gospel, of the kingdom, which promises the fulfillment of many prom ises and longings of the human heart and society, false messiahs and messianic systems have had to pick up the same theme in general, and at the same time to set themselves in direct opposition to the divine program in this respect. The Psalmist was doubtless referring to this when he wrote, “Why do the nations make a tumult and the peoples devise an empty scheme? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers together against the Lord and His anointed, saying ‘Let us tear their restrain ing bands apart, and let us cast their shackles from us’ ” (Psa. 2:1-3, Berkeley translation). (Note that both Rus sian and Chinese communism play heavily on the idea of “the people’s” this and “the people’s” that; Red China is officially “The People’s Republic of China,” actually neither the people’s, nor a republic.) They have found it necessary to “set themselves” firmly against both Juda ism and Christianity.
tariat in the case of Stalin. The God of history was on the side of righteousness” (Hans Kohn, “Dostoyevsky and Danilevsky” in Continuity and Change in Russian and Soviet Thought, edited with an introduction by Ernest J. Simmons, 1955, p. 503). In any messianic program there must of necessity be a messiah. In the past there have been many false messiahs, and the Scripture predicts that in the last days there will be many more false Christs. One must not be misled by the fact that at certain stages of the devel opment of any false messianic program this “messiah” is not in the foreground. In contradistinction to the Bibli cal plan, in whch the true Messiah will appear and set up His kingdom, the false program involves the proper preparation of the ground, and the bringing of society to a satisfactory condition, before the “messiah” reveals him self. The virtual deification of both the Chinese and Russian dictators, with their pictures prominently plas tered in public places by the hundreds of thousands, is an evidence of the tendency to look to a single leader and to direct the people’s attention and loyalty to him. In the Chinese system of communism we find a very interesting teaching along this line. There is a more prominent place given to the individual “leader” and the tendency to endow him with superhuman power and authority. Because of this some have felt that the Chinese variety is to be feared more than the Russian, which has been too closely associated with democratic and quasi- democratic systems of government. We are indebted heavily for an illuminating insight into this phase of communism to an article that appeared some time ago in the magazine, Religion in Life, entitled “Mao Tse-tung and the Decree of Heaven” (Summer issue, 1961, p. 401-411). Jeremy Ingalls in this article expresses her conviction that Maoism represents a more “spiritual” concept of communism than the Russian variety. The Chinese would not deny the materialistic aspect of communism, but feel rather that they have a purer form, or are maintaining a purer form, than the Russians. Hence their continuing criticism of Khrushchev (which can readily be followed in the weekly Peking Review published in China). Charles W. Winegamer put its succinctly: “Com munism is indeed the political formula of the Anti- Christ” ( The Cross and the Flag, March 1962, p. 29). A good antidote to this position is to be found in 2 John 1:9-11. Every Christian should obey these plain com mands of Christ. A study of the glory of the Messianic kingdom, as outlined in the Bible, and, in fact, the broad idea of glory as it relates to Christ as King, will set up a con trast in which the paltry humanistic boasts of atheistic communism fade into pitiable insignificance. Unfortunately there are some among us who, like the ancient Israelites, protest that it is “better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.” But Moses said to Israel, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” (Ex. 14:12-13). We shall conclude with this indictment: Communism is a counterfeit “kingdom of God,” and the. most effective way to understand and to oppose it is to study the true Kingdom of God, and proclaim its greatness. We suggest a thorough study of Dr. Alva J. McClain’s recent book, The Greatness of the Kingdom (Zondervan, 1959), and then a more thorough examination of the great three- volume work of George N. H. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom (1884, reprinted by Kregel Publications in 1957)
JU N E , 1963
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