Democracy is often described as a "great experiment", but it is an experiment that has largely failed.

For three hundred years, western political thought has revolved around the concept of putting the masses of people in control of the government, and more generally, of society as a whole. Communism, with its claim of building a People's Republic, was a phase in this process, a process that has reached its culmination with democracy. Who are "the people"? Are they the white Aryran race? The proletariat? Democracy's answer is that they are the majority.

Putting "the people" in power is a dubious proposition at best. A consistent theme in the Bible is that most people are wicked and only a minority are righteous. Jesus perhaps put this most succinctly in the Sermon on the Mount: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter though it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)

See, the majority could choose Godly men, they could choose disciples, they could choose leaders who guide them to give up their worldly possessions, to be conservative in their sexual relations, to seek God's guidance in every aspect of their lives. Democracy has genuinely extended this power of choice to the majority.

What do they choose instead? Men who preach that self-interest drives human progress forward, men who dangle material possessions in front of them to "prove" that their "system" "works", men who glamorise sexual promiscuity, men who brainwash the masses into perversion, men who seek the conquest and submission of anyone who opposes populist government. In short, men who reject Christ.

An election is a means to determine the will of the majority. The majority, by design, wins, and minorities must simply vote and lose. Elections are "free and fair" only if you accept the proposition that 100 million people have the right to rule over 10 million others simply because there's more of them. There is really nothing fair about an election. It's a political tool designed to put a single group of people — the majority — in control of the government. Minorities, especially small minorities, are almost totally disenfranchised.

How to characterise the majority? They're sinful by nature, inclined to defy God in the deluded belief that men are capable of managing our own affairs without him. They're lured by worldly posessions, apt to believe that capitalism is advanced and effective because it provides houses, cars, computers, cell phones, air travel, supermarkets brimming over with food, all manner of toys and gadgets to ease and amuse, great sporting spectacles and spectacular architecture. They're deceived by propaganda that spins tales of freedom and democracy, liberty and justice, the joy of sex and the excitement of war, piped out twenty-four-seven, a hundred channels at a time.

And the church? The church preaches that we don't really have to do everything Jesus said, not 100%, not all the time. We just need to believe, believe, that he's the Son of God, accept Him as our Lord and Savior, trust in His finished work on the cross to wash away our sins and gain us eternal life. We don't have to actually do what he says.

Yet the church has played its role. Just as Peter explained in Acts 2:23, God uses wicked men to carry out his holy will, and he has used a sloppy, lukewarm church to preach Christ's Gospel all over the world. It hasn't died out for two thousand years, and is still available for anyone who will read the Bible and take it seriously.

The words printed in red are the most important teachings in the Bible — the words of Jesus. Study them first. If you simply read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and really put Christ's teachings into practice, you'll be doing better than most Christians, who are like the foolish builder in Matthew 7. They hear the words, but don't put them into practice.

"Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder." (James 2:18-19)

Advocates for democracy will ask what alternative system of government should replace it, and expect to argue against communism, fascism, monarchy, theocracy, etc. The question presupposes that is a just and righteous system of government, that such a thing is possible. The Bible teaches that it is not. There is nothing in the Bible, and certainly nothing in the book of Revelation that suggests that men are capable of creating a just and righteous system of government. To the contrary, Revelation teaches that all man-made systems of government are inevitably beasts that oppose and enslave the righteous and that only the return of Jesus Christ will lead to a righteous kingdom ruled by saints.

What then, are the righteous to do? First, set aside the deception of majority propaganda and realize that there is no group of people, either the proletariat or the majority, who have any "right" to rule over everyone else. Only God legitimately has that kind of authority.

Next, recognize that the leadership of democracy is, in fact, wicked, that self-interest in the pursuit of money does not drive human progress forward, and is instead driving us to the annihilation of all human life on this planet: "If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened." (Matthew 24:22)

Realize that we do have freedom, but it's not the kind of freedom the majority talks about. People have the freedom to accept Christ in almost all places and in all times. There are consequences to that decision — persecution, sometimes severe, and actually preaching the Gospel can be quite challenging. In some parts of the world it's illegal. Here, we don't have that problem, but we're faced with an institutionalised church that largely preaches that we don't have to obey Christ. Attempts to preach the Gospel, especially the economic teachings (those are the most hated), are often met with opposition from the very people who invoke the name of Jesus most publicly.

Then you turn on the news. We're told that our military is fighting for freedom and against terrorism. It is also fighting to install this system of government at gunpoint throughout the Middle East.

A more accurate perception of this global conflict is a war between two wicked philosophies. On the one hand, Islam pays lip service to Jesus (claiming to respect him as a great prophet), but does not adhere to his teaching, subscribing instead to Muhammad's philosophy of jihad. Muhammad conquered Mecca; that's how it became a holy city. On the other hand, democracy is the latest western political system preaching that it is the only legitimate system of government, that the majority of people have the right to rule over everyone else, armed to the teeth and committed to conquest.

Al Qaeda wipes out the World Trade Center on 9/11; the United States responds by conquering Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Libya, now Syria. ISIS blows up train stations, airports, soccer stadiums, concert halls in retaliation. Each proclaims that its enemy is wicked, wicked, WICKED! (not a difficult proposition for either side to support) and that it must therefore be just. In fact, both sides are wicked philosophies which reject the Messiah, battling each other for world domination.

The majority have the right to rule the world, no matter how depraved and self-serving their leadership. The world's largest prison state, committed to breaking the individual and forcing him to submit to majority rule, is an exemplar of freedom. A media that silences all opposition to democracy is a free press. Terrorists that murder unarmed concert goers are freedom fighters. Tyrants who dynamite ancient ruins are protecting their cultural heritage. Masked executioners that publicly execute Christians are carrying out God's commandments to punish apostates.

It's all smoke and mirrors. It's all Satan. It's all lies.

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Cor 1:18)

"We preach Chirst crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Cor 1:23)

Why is the Gospel foolishness to perishing Gentiles? Take Luke 6:30: "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back." Most people read that, say to themselves, "that's crazy", and go do something else. We cling to our wordly possessions, give some, but no more, and if somebody steals our car, we call the police. Strict obediance to the gospel is seen as foolishness. Jews, on other hand, have a different problem. They're fanatics about obediance to Torah. Torah says not to eat pork; they don't eat pork. Torah says not to work on the Sabbath; they won't turn on the microwave. They'll do anything God commands, no matter how crazy it sounds, but there's a catch — they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

We need to be Messianic Christians, clear in our belief that Jesus is the Son of God and strict in our obediance to him. Then the Gospel, to us, is neither foolishness nor a stumbling block. It contains the teaching of the Messiah on how to live our lives in a way pleasing to God, and it is not the way of the majority. Even if it were nothing more than that, it would be enough for us to live in this way and accept any ill consequences that result, knowing that we're doing right in a world that is evil.

Yet Christ promises us more. He taught us that God is actively involved in the lives of those who serve him. Luke 12:

²² Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

Why is Jesus telling his disciples not to worry about life, or eating, or clothing? Because he's giving them a hard teaching now, one that will cause persecution. A teaching that will cause them to wonder how they will eat if they obey it.

²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.

You're going to hear "it doesn't work in the real world." Jesus taught us about a different world, a kingdom of God, that transcends the 70 short years we'll live in these bodies, and is eternal. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." (John 4:34) Obediance to God is more important than food, but wait...

²⁴ Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Jesus didn't pick this bird at random. Ravens are scavengers that find their food discarded near trash cans, or washed up on the beach. They don't hunt like eagles, and they don't forage like chickens. Yet they are not dumb birds; in fact, they are smart and crafty. Elsewhere, Jesus tells us "be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16)

²⁵ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?

In Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God, Jonathan Edwards described an amazing scene: the uncoverted man walking "over the pit of hell on a rotten covering"; "the arrows of death [flying] unseen at noon-day"; a car crash, a heart attack, an inoperable tumor — no miracle is required to vanish from the face of this Earth in an instant. The very air we breath has been prepared for us from eternity — on no other planet in this star system could we sit down on the open ground without perishing.

²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

To Jesus, adding a single hour to life is a very little thing!

²⁷ "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

They do not labor or spin — they do not work! Yet Christ did not call his disciples to be lazy, their work is the work of God!

²⁸ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith!

God will feed us, God will clothe us... he actively supports our lives.

²⁹ And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.

It can be terrifying! How will we eat if we live the way he's teaching? Don't worry about it.

³⁰ For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.

The pagan world! Look at them run! After food and clothes, of course, then after houses and cars, money and sex, relationships, marriage, raising kids, retirement! Run, run, run! How much of it is for God?

³¹ But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

There's another way to get these things, that you need in this life. Not from pursuing them directly, but by pursuing God, by praying every day to know what his work is and to do it.

³² "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

The kingdom!? His Kingdom!?! Oh my goodness! Listen up, little flock, here it comes!

³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Do what!? "Sell your possessions and give to the poor!" That's what he wants us to do? I can see him now, sitting on a grassy field, teaching his disciples. He has no money; he has no job; he sleeps outside. He tells them to leave everything and follow him. Why?

³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What kind of world is Christ talking about? What is the kingdom of God like?

It's a place where everyone is obedient to God — "Our Father, who art in heaven... Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." In Heaven, presumably, God's will is done. Since everyone is working for the same boss, we're all on the same team. Maybe we don't always see eye to eye, but we're inclined to set aside our disagreements and work together.

On Earth, on the other hand, we're most certainly not on the same team. Remember, it's competition that drives human progress forward. Why would we ever advance the ball in the opposite direction? We're out to beat the other guys, and win.

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had... There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." (Acts 4:32-35)

Our churches don't look anything like this today. The believers give some of what they own to the church, perhaps as much as ten percent, but most certainly claim plenty of their posessions as they own. The minister stands up in front of the congregation, gives a beautiful benediction, then drives home to his comfortable house while the poorest members of his congregation go back to sleeping on the streets.

Acts 4 is communism, communism, I tell you, and we've seen communism in Russia and don't want any part of it.

Acts 4 may teach communism (it depends on how you define the word communism), but it's not Marxism. The differences are at least three-fold. First, Marxism is an atheist philosophy, while Christ taught anything but. His central teaching was not only the existance of God, but the love of God, the importance of obeying God, and God's active involvement in the lives of his people.

Second, Marxism looks to the government to solve our problems, since they don't believe in God and they don't believe in a free market. Christ taught us to look to God to solve our problems, teaching not only that he exists, but that he is actively involved in mens' lives and will even work miracles for those who serve him. Finally, the early Church was led by apostles, that's whose feet the money was laid at. Not part-time ministers, not theology PhDs, no one who had written a book (yet), but Jesus's hand-picked Twelve.

We may not have the Twelve Apostles walking with us today, but how would we act if we did? Would we make ten percent of our wealth available to them? Fifty percent? Eighty? There are some among us, I am sure, who would give every penny they owned to the church if it asked, and only the most worldly and indifferent pastors would take advantage of such devotion in their flock. If we're not willing to give everything we own to the church, then why not? What kind of leadership has the church got? Are they devout disciples burdened with Peter's charge to "feed my sheep", or are they sloppy Christians who have fudged the Gospel their entire lives to avoid persecution?

You build a community; the leadership wants everyone to go out and gather firewood. I don't want to do that, I want to program computer software instead. Well, the leadership doesn't value that, likely because they don't understand the software, so they're going to pressure me into gathering firewood instead, when in fact I'm gifted by God to do something other than gathering firewood. This is the problem with Marxism. Some "leadership" thinks that it knows how to manage a society better than the individuals that make it up, and no matter how smart the leaders are, there's plenty of people who know more than they do about almost any specific subject, and they don't understand better than an individual how to apply that man's gifts and talents.

Capitalism is just a variant on this. We're told that free markets are superior to managed economies because individuals can decide for themselves how to best apply their time and talent. That's true to an extent, but the society still has a scheme for deciding whether an individual is contributing, and how much, and that scheme is to measure the contribution by how much money you make. When you look at Jesus's teaching about money, you realize that that isn't a very good scheme. People who are obedient to his teachings aren't going to have much money, so in fact the people who are the most valuable to God aren't going to valued very high at all by society. It's all screwed up.

Marxism teaches us another warning lesson: the need to have multiple leaders. Some people really want to be leaders, and a few of them are even called by God to lead, but none of us are so in touch with his power that we can figure how to manage a community all by ourselves. If we try, then we become tyrants. Instead, it's better to have multiple leaders, strong minded, tough skinned disciples who aren't afraid to criticise each other, and who are secure enough in their own personality that they can accept criticism with an open mind. When several such individuals with differing opinions and perspectives can come into agreement on a course of action, then there's a lot better chance that it's a wise decision than if one guy is calling all the shots.

We saw Marxism in Russia, and democracy and capitalism look a lot more like Marxism then Christianity does. Both loudly proclaim to have built a "people's" government, have choosen wicked leadership, and rage against anyone who opposes "the people". It's a tribute to the power of deception and propaganda that the majority can tar and feather the most devout Christians with the label "communist". Perhaps those who "[have] everything in common" (Acts 2:44) can be labeled communist by defining the word in the broadest way possible, but it's only a clever propaganda trick, much like lumping rapists and husbands together by labeling them both as "heterosexuals".

Everyone who opposes private property, whether they support government confiscation or teach that we should give voluntarily, is grouped together and labelled "communist". This is done to support a lifestyle where we can read a teaching like "give to anyone who asks" and simply refuse to do it. Many in our Laedocian church don't want to hear it, but there is a strong current in Christ's teachings that rejects attachment to material things, ranging from the aforementioned "give to anyone who asks", through the famous "if a man steals your coat, give him your cloak as well", the admonition that "you can not serve both God and Money", warnings that "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven" and "any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple", the teaching in Acts 2 and Acts 4 about the "communism" in the early church, the poverty of Christ ("the son of man has no place to rest his head") and his apostles ("Silver or gold I do not have" — Acts 3:6), the list just keeps going, I have to stop somewhere!

Caring sacrificially for everyone that God puts in your life is hard. It's much easier to give so much and no more. There's all kinds of rationalisations — "you have to work", "you have to take care of yourself financially", "these people are just lazy", "sometimes you need to be tough".

We do need to work, but we need to work for God, not money! Many of Jesus's disciples were working when he called them. Peter and Andrew were fishing, and James and John were preparing their nets to go fishing. Matthew was sitting at his tax collector's booth. Jesus isn't interested in lazy disciples, but he also makes it clear that you can not serve both God and money. It's easy to fall into the trap of working for something or someone other than God, and this is especially true in a society whose leadership has rejected the Gospel. Capitalists have no intention of "giving to anyone who asks"; their lifestyle is a rejection of the Gospel, but they run 90% of the jobs. You can hardly drive a city bus without working for a boss who tells you that you must not give rides to people who don't pay. There's nothing immoral about driving a bus, but if you're expected to turn away the poor, then its better not to work that job at all than either defy God or defy your boss.

The problem with "we have to work" is the definition of the word "work". The majority define "work" to mean "making money", and if you're not making money, then by their definition, you're not working. All those people Jesus healed? He didn't send any of them a bill.

A disciple better not be siting around smoking weed and watching cable TV all day while waiting for a government welfare handout, he needs to be on his knees, in prayer, asking God what work He wants done, and if the church doesn't want to support it, then that's the church's problem, not his. God said that he'd provide for the disciple, not that the church would, but if the church isn't doing its part, then it's fit for nothing but to be spit of his mouth (Rev 3:16)

"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." (Rev 3:17) That sure describes our church today — look at it! It's got buildings all over the place, fancy video and sound systems, gymnasiums, auditoriums, TV networks, publishing houses, all preaching about Jesus.

"But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (Rev 3:17)

Pitiful church! All these denominations, all these stupid theological arguments about the Trinity, salvation, evolution, baptism, being "born again", the "Sinner's Prayer", asking people if you're "100% sure where you'll go if you die tomorrow", but those most devoutly obedient to the Gospel are lambasted as confused, deceived, lazy, and immoral.

Blind church that holds the word of God, the key to salvation, and just doesn't think we have to do it, after all, we're saved, we're born again, our sins are washed away in the blood of the cross, we're going to heaven and we really don't have to live just the way Jesus taught.

Poor church! How many of these ministers can heal the sick? Cast out demons? Raise the dead? What kind of wealth have they really got?

Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were openly critical of Hitler's Nazi regime. Martin Luther took on the Catholic Church by nailing 95 of his criticisms to a church door. Jesus Christ himself could be harshly critical of the religious leaders of his time. Christians do not, and should not, remain silent in the face of sin. Rather, the approach should be one of "loving the sinner but hating the sin"; being critical without being rude, judgemental, or intolerant, even though we will be accused of these things.

Ultimately, there's only one person any of us can change. We can't change our family, we can't change our friends, we can't change the church, we can't change the majority. We can choose, each of us, to live the way taught by Christ.

Salvation is free, but it is not cheap.