Revolution

Introduction: We seem to have this romanticized view of revolution in our culture, which is probably a result of the communist conspiracy and the mislabeling of our own War for Independence as the American Revolution. Therefore, when we saw the so-called Arab Spring, many newsmen spoke of it and a Jeffersonian Democracy in the same breath (even though many warned, “It is not going to be a Jeffersonian Democracy right off the bat”). However, the Bible teaches that revolution is anti-establishment and anti-God; and many Christians (and non-Christians) recognize that the events in the Muslim world simply represent a shift in power from one evil dictator to an even more evil dictator, under a thin veneer of democracy. The Doctrine of Revolution takes a look at revolution from a more Biblical perspective, so that, when you observe such things taking place, you do not mistakenly think that, things are going to get better because the people are revolting against tyranny. It’s not like that at all.

In reviewing this doctrine (which was originally a rehash of this doctrine done by two other people), I believed that this doctrine need to be fleshed out a bit more.

1.       Definition of a revolution:

          1)       A revolution is the violent overthrow of an existing government.

          2)       The power structure of the existing government is thrown down; previous rulers are often destroyed, imprisoned and/or executed.

          3)       If you learn nothing else, know this: a revolution is about power. It is all about one man or one faction without power (or with limited power) who want greater or absolute power. Because the desire is to satiate a driving lust, they will do anything to get that power. To the revolutionist, the ends always justify the means—the ends being seizure of power.

          4)       An election is not a revolution; one party may trade places with another party, but if this is done lawfully according to the laws of a state, this is simply an election.

          5)       A war for independence, such as was the beginning of the United States, is not a revolution. We did not seek to destroy the power structure in England we sought, as a country, to remove England’s control over us.

2.       Parties to the revolution:

          1)       The government structure and people who are in power.

          2)       Patriots, who support the establishment government.

          3)       The incorruptibles who support divine establishment.

          4)       The crusaders who have become convinced that their government must be removed. These crusaders are often moral, self-righteous, and drive by a cause. Think of the people who first populated Tahrir Square in Egypt. A significant number of people must be convinced not only of the rightness of the cause, but then be persuaded to take up arms against their own government. Karl Marx calls these the useful idiots, which term used to describe an uneducated mass of people that accomplished a goal of political puppetmasters. Although most of the crusaders can be convinced that the ends justifies the means, they must be convinced that the ends are more desirable than the status quo. Many times, crusaders can be led by fairly superficial means, as in simply liking the leader who is proposing revolution. This was Absalom’s approach. He put down David’s approach to justice, but all he did was tell litigants what they wanted to hear (2Sam. 15:1–4).

          5)       Revolutionaries often recognize malcontents within a society, and when the malcontents reaches critical mass, the revolutionaries make their movement known.

          6)       The hard-core revolutionaries who often orchestrate the revolution, sometimes as leaders, and sometimes behind the scenes. These are the criminals and they will do anything to take power—lie, cheat, steal, murder, torture, intimidate. Whatever it takes. Those who surround these criminals will actually make up the new power structure, if the revolution is successful. However, they recognize that they must nurture along the crusaders, because no country can simply be overthrown by a few criminals.

          7)       As R. B. Thieme, Jr. taught it, crusader arrogance + criminal arrogance = revolution.

3.       The vocabulary:

          1)       A revolution is a type of conspiracy; they conspire against the established powers that be.

          2)       The plan of the conspirators is called a plot.

          3)       The means of carrying out the revolution is called intrigue or machination.

          4)       The crusaders are those whom have been blinded by propaganda and believe that replacing the current government with a new government will be a great thing. A revolution cannot succeed without crusaders.

          5)       The criminal revolutionaries are those who desire to seize the power. Often, they will manage the revolution (as much as a revolution can be managed); but they might also hang back and assert themselves when the time is right.

4.       The general principle behind legitimate governing authority is found in Rom. 13:1–7 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. So that there is no misunderstand, legitimate governing authority is whoever is in power. Paul wrote this when Rome ruled over Palestine, and Rome was persecuting the saints.

          1)       As an aside, this is what the believer is allowed to do: you are allowed to evangelize and you are allowed to teach or listen to the teaching of the Word of God. The governmental authorities which tell you that you may not do this can be ignored.

          2)       However, so that there is no misunderstanding here, you do not have the right to use your time on the job to evangelize. That is, your boss may have sent you out on a service call, but you felt called to stand on a street corner and preach the forgiveness of sin. You are in the wrong. You need to do the work for which you have been hired. If you know of a good street corner, then you go there on your own time.

          3)       Similarly, you may have occasion to witness to someone on the job; however, when it comes to work, you must remain within the law in what you do. You cannot operate a cash register and witness to every person who goes through your checkout line.

5.       General information about the government in power:

          1)       No government is perfect. Choose the best president, prime minister or dictator of any nation, and there will be problems with that person and with their administration.

          2)       A people get the government that they deserve. Sometimes, the only sort of leader that can lead an recalcitrant population is a ruthless man with great dictatorial powers.

          3)       Since men have sin natures, there will be some graft and corruption; some waste, fraud and abuse; and there will be some problems with the judicial system, no matter what.

          4)       The less able a people are to govern themselves, the more the government will step in to govern them.

          5)       Revolutions certainly are based often upon real gripes and on oppression; however, a people get the government they deserve.

          6)       However, do not expect that a revolution is based solely upon legitimate gripes and problems; propaganda against the government in power must be used to stir up the masses into mobs.

6.       Power lust and ideology:

          1)       Most people do not understand the strength of power lust and they often ascribe to their leaders the philosophy that they themselves have.

          2)       Some people simply desire power and will espouse whatever doctrines they believe will get them to that power.

          3)       I took a political ideology course as a young person, and the one thing that struck me was, political ideology was not necessarily a driving factor for political leaders and revolutionaries; these ideologies were often a means to an end. That is, a communist leader may espouse the principles of socialism and communism, but that final step of communism, which is the eventual rule by the proletariat, never takes place. They may be a great salesman for communism, but that does not mean that they believe it.

          4)       People with great power lust may or may not have any real regard for the people whom they wish to rule over. They may sell themselves as being compassionate and a man of the people, because that gains support. Whether they believe any of that is a whole other thing.

          5)       George W. Bush (a Republican) was not dramatically different when it came to exercising his executive power than Bill Clinton (a Democrat). Although they had different philosophies, their policies were quite similar. On the other hand, Barack Obama, who had never had any experience running anything, was very different from Clinton, in that, his ideology seems to motivate him greatly.

          6)       My understanding is that, Herbert Hoover (a Republican) and FDR (a Democrat) were far more similar to one another than Hoover was to fellow Republican Calvin Coolidge (if memory serves, Coolidge was quite cool to Hoover and possibly did not even support him). In this case, Coolidge seems to be far more wedded to his ideology than Hoover (but, unlike Obama, Coolidge knew how to function in a leadership position).

          7)       In our democracy, we have seen a number of politicians change sides, even thought the Democrats and Republicans are further apart in ideology than I have ever seen in my lifetime. Susan Martinez, Charlie Crist (former Republican governor of Florida), Arlen Spector, and Artur Davis all come to mind as politicians who have changed parties (Spector changed parties twice). Obviously, we do not know if these represent a true philosophical shift or simply a choice which the politicians believe will gain them votes.

7.       Believers and a revolution.

          1)       God expects for man to organize and orderly society which allows for evangelization and then the teaching of the Word of God. If you can teach the Word of God freely, then the government is fine.

          2)       Furthermore, even if Bible teaching is outlawed, that does not allow for believers to join a revolution. Believers continue to spread the gospel and to teach God’s Word of Truth. We are allow to break the law when it comes to those two things. Acts 5:29

          3)       Because a revolution can destroy law and order within a country, and thereby greatly impede the spread of the gospel and the teaching of Bible doctrine, a believer is not to support a revolution.

          4)       When a believer finds himself in the middle of a revolution, he has to bear in mind, the present government is never as bad as it is made out to be; and the replacement government is never as good as it is made out to be.

          5)       When God gave the land of Canaan to the Jews, and Joshua came into the land and took it by force, it was reasonable for Rahab the prostitute to turn against her own people and to support Joshua.

          6)       However, the revolt against King David was wrong.

          7)       It was wrong for David to revolt against King Saul (and he did not). When it was time for Saul to die, God took him out via the sin unto death. David did not have to lift a finger against King Saul.

          8)       And the Apostle Paul was never given the go-ahead to join the rebellious Jews and revolt against Rome. Paul clearly supported the institutionalized authority of Rome, even though it improperly applied its authority on several occasions (including against Paul). See Rom. 13. 1Peter 2:13–16 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as supreme; or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to those who do well, for this is the will of God. By well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as servants of God.

          9)       Being screwed over by your government is not a reason to join a revolution against it.

          10)     The believer needs to separate the principle of authority from the person in authority. I write this in 2012, and if I was told there is a line over there to stand in, if I thought President Barack Obama was leading the United States in the wrong direction, I would go stand in that line. However, we do not get to revolt against President Obama, even if it becomes clear he is a socialist, a Muslim and anti-American.

          11)     For some application, one of the great problems in this country, in our churches, is that the Word of God is not taught. Therefore, Democrats will go into churches and teach exactly the opposite of what is in the Bible, and they will be cheered. That is our problem; the inaccurate teaching of the Word of God or the lack of teaching of the Word of God.

          12)     This is not a new thing. Martin Luther King ran civil rights out of the Black churches, for the most part, and thus politicizing the local church. It does not matter whether civil rights is a good thing or a bad thing; whether King is to be revered or disdained; Bible doctrine should be taught in the churches, which will involve an occasional application to society and politics. However, a social movement to solve man’s problems with man’s solutions should not be coopted by any local church.

          13)     On many occasions, politicians like Bill and Hillary Clinton have spoken from pulpits of various churches—this is completely wrong, no matter what party is doing the speaking. This is very different from a pastor-teacher teaching the doctrine of divine establishment to his congregation.

          14)     The Apostles in Rome did not organize against the Roman government to bring it down, even though they persecuted Christians for an extended period of time. As Tertullian spoke around a.d. 200 of Christians in Rome: “We are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled all the places that belong to you -- cities, islands, forts, towns, exchanges; the military camps themselves, tribes, town councils, the palace, the senate, the market-place; we have left you nothing but your temples” This was not the result of revolting against the Roman government; it was a result of evangelism and the teaching of Bible doctrine. Paul was able to travel all over the ancient world safely because Rome had established law and order in that huge region. The other apostles were apparently able to do the same thing.

          15)     Christians in China have the right idea. Christianity is growing in the nation of China; people are learning about Jesus and believing in Him; and the Word of God, to some extent, is being taught. They are not forming some great underground militia to bring down the government.

8.       Revolutions and mob action:

          1)       Revolution involves lawless mobs which cannot reason or solve problems.

          2)       Mob action is emotional and destructive the enemy of establishment.

          3)       Mob action seems to intimidate and destroy proper authority.

          4)       Mobs destroy personal freedom and private property. Their focus is on the ends; never on the means.

          5)       Therefore, mobs are self-destructive. They have no establishment, no authority to perpetuate themselves. Mobs must die.

          6)       Whether the established authority maintains control or whether the revolutionary criminals seize power, mobs must be eventually stopped, and they will be. There will be no peace until unruly mobs—originally the crusaders brought into the revolution—are put down.

          7)       No ruler will ever come to power by means of a revolution where the mobs will universally accept him. There will remain those who oppose newly constituted authority. We are seeing that in Tahrir Square (in Cairo, Egypt) today (I write this in December of 2012). If these mobs escalate, the current elected leader, Morsi, will either bend to try to meet some of their demands, or he will take these mobs out by force.

9.       Revolutions in the Bible:

          1)       The Korah revolution against Moses. Num. 16 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD).

          2)       Absalom against David. 2Sam. 15–19 (HTML)

                     (1)      One of the fascinating studies of the Bible is to see how Absalom is transformed by being a protective brother to being a criminal revolutionary.

                     (2)      Absalom not only turned against his father, but used criminal acts and deception in order to organize a revolution against his father. See 2Sam. 14 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD); 15 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD).

                     (3)      Several psalms appear to be based upon this revolution:

                     (4)      Psalm 3 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD); Psalm 41 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD); Psalm 55 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD); Psalm 62 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD); Psalm 64 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD)

          3)       Sheba against David. 2Sam. 20 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD).

          4)       God did not support the revolution in any of these cases.

10.     Revolution turns into a civil war:

          1)       If the establishment cannot shut down the revolution in time, it becomes a civil war.

          2)       If the public becomes divided between the revolutionaries and the establishment government, then there will be a civil war.

          3)       Then you have two forces at war to gain power: the establishment army and the revolutionary army.

11.     Revolution is against God.

          1)       Revolution involves lying and deception and unwarranted attacks against existing royalty. 2Sam. 15:4–5, 7–10 Psalm 62:4 (No doubt, on account of his majesty, they took counsel to thrust [him] out. They delight in deception; [for] with their [lit., his] mouth, they bless; but in their thinking, they curse [him].)

          2)       Men are placed in authority by God and should be left there until God removes them. 1Sam. 26:7–11 Daniel 2:21 Rom. 13:1–2 (Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.)

12.     The original revolutionist was Satan, who rebelled against God.

          1)       Satan cannot rebel with integrity.

          2)       We know in the Garden of Eden, Satan lied to the woman to get her to eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree.

13.     Satan’s 5 “I Will’s” are related to his revolt against God.

          1)       "I will ascend into Heaven." This is the third Heaven, the Throne Room. I will take God's place.

          2)       "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." "I will rule angels." Job 38:7, Jude 13, Rev. 12:3, 4.

          3)       "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north." This is Earth as a place. Psalm 48:2 "I will rule mankind."

          4)       "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds." "I'll be supreme." He wills to displace God as the Sovereign of the universe.

          5)       "I will be like the Most High." I will be like God. This is power lust.

14.     Famous revolutions in recent history:

          1)       The French Revolution.

                     (1)      Jacques Necker was a crusader. Marat and Robespierre were the revolutionaries.

                     (2)      There was unrest in France (i.e., a revolution) between 1788 and 1804, when Napoleon was made emperor of France.

                     (3)      Although Napoleon was a great military man, he ruthlessly destroyed those who opposed his power.

                     (4)      He turned cannons on the mobs in Paris is 1795, which cleared the streets.

                     (5)      He also took control of the press, dropping the number of newspapers in Paris from over 60 in 1799 to 4 by 1814.

          2)       The Russian Revolution.

                     (1)      Trotsky and Kerensky were the crusaders, but Stalin and Lenin were the criminals.

                     (2)      The Russian Revolution replaced on autocracy (rule by one man) with another more oppressive and deadly autocracy.

                     (3)      Stalin, the Communist dictator who ruled after the revolution, killed approximately 23 million people. Insofar as I know, this was unprecedented. This includes the purges and the Ukraine famine.

          3)       Communist revolutions in general:

                     (1)      Communists have the distinction that, once the revolution is over, they kill far more people than are killed in the revolution.

                     (2)      Mao Ze-Dong killed somewhere between 49 and 78 million, making him the greatest killer in the 20^th century, if not in world history.

                     (3)      Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) killed 1.7 million.

                     (4)      Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) killed 1.6 million in purges and concentration camps (which concentration camps exist to this day, where people are enslaved, are starved, and have not even a modicum of freedom, including those who are sons or grandsons of suspected enemies of the state)

          4)       The Arab Spring.

                     (1)      People discovered that demonstrations and, eventually, a revolution, could be organized by means of tweets, facebook, and various internet messaging outlets.

                     (2)      Most of the leaders in Arab countries are/were hard-nosed dictators because Muslims require vicious, hard-nosed dictators to keep them in line.

                     (3)      Egypt has been a good example for us to witness. Thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square to protest the very tough dictator Mubarak. Although Mubarak was a vicious dictator, Egypt was generally at peace, there were no huge purges of people as Mao or Stalin had done, and tourism was a major industry in Egypt. Most of the people who gathered in the streets to revolt are the crusaders; those who finally took power are the hard-core revolutionaries, the criminals. In the chaos, hundreds of Christians have been killed or persecuted.

          5)       The United States did not participate in a revolution, but in a war for independence.

          6)       Our liberal history attempts to inculcate us with the idea that a popular revolution is a good thing and will result in a better government.

15.     The concept of time, the believer and revolution:

          1)       We all have a limited time on this earth, and each nation has a limited time on this earth (although it may go through several incarnations).

          2)       A revolution takes up precious time. Let’s say it is possible to replace a poor government by a better one through revolution; there are still years which are lost—as few as 5 and as many as 20 or even more. And, even assuming a better governing authority takes power, there will be problems with lawlessness, corruption, anger and oppression for many decades to come. After all, if a society has gone through a civil war, then those who lose will necessarily be oppressed in the aftermath.

          3)       Those years easily make the difference between an immature believer and a mature believer.

          4)       With the chaos and unrest, and then the resultant rebuilding of the country, one or two generations can be lost to the revolution, with limited evangelization and a lack of law and order, which limits the teaching of the Word of God.

          5)       It is not our job as believers to fix up the devil’s world. It is our job to evangelize and teach (or to support these objectives). Also, we as believers, are to advance spiritually. This all takes time. We lose that time when we are involved in a revolution.

16.     Revolution and the United States today:

          1)       We have revolutionary forces acting within the United States constantly, who carefully monitor demonstrations and public opinion to determine if critical mass has been met (that is, there are enough malcontents to shape into a revolution). Communists have been functioning in our country for at least a century now, carefully taking the pulse of America; and infiltrating American institutions at every level to increase the number of malcontents.

          2)       Many in our society—possibly even a majority—have been brought up to believe that a popular uprising against and existing government is a good thing and will have good outcomes.

          3)       As has occurred in many European countries, communists (more properly, socialists) have discovered that they can take over a countries peacefully, by means of propaganda and election.

          4)       Socialists have permeated our schools, our media sources and the Democratic party.

          5)       As a result, the democratic party has become the American socialist party; with most democrats professing an ideology that would have shocked Truman or JFK.

          6)       Huge numbers of people in the democratic party now see nothing wrong with socialism and socialistic policies and the state intrusively controlling behavior of its citizens.

                     (1)      Examples of this have been Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, banning large soft drinks and forbidding many private charity agencies from providing food in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, because he is unable to monitor the salt and fat content.

                     (2)      California has also been involved in critical missteps toward socialism. Although many people recognize that the California government spends too much, they continually reelect Democrats, who move the state toward great financial insolvency. Collective bargaining for state employees, which is bankrupting California came to pass during the administration of Governor Jerry Brown. So, at a time when the state’s ability to meet its obligations has reached critical mass, who does the state reelect? A much older Jerry Brown.

                     (3)      Those in the Obama administration have spoken out several times against the FoxNews corporation, suggesting that the population not even listen to them. Many on the left have been working almost tirelessly to shut down voices like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity (although these same people will argue passionately for the “freedom of speech” of pornographers). Colleges and universities routinely ban conservative speakers and large number of students will do everything possible to disrupt or shut down conservative speakers who make it to their campus, to the point of throwing feces at them. In a nation where we supposedly have freedom of speech and freedom of the press, this is troubling to the patriot and a boon to socialists.

                     (4)      In order for socialism to work, it must control the information sources and the population.

          7)       Socialists have even coopted science in order to facilitate massive wealth redistribution.

          8)       Socialism is simply government control of most everything.

                     (1)      Government control of education has been a process which continued throughout the 1800's and where education became compulsory in all states by 1918. This is not because there was no education prior to this.

                     (2)      Monetary policy is set by government, which began to some degree under FDR, who set the price of gold.

                     (3)      Government began to seize authority over retirement under FDR by the establishment of the social security system, which was a Ponzi scheme that would have been illegal in the private sector. The same is true of Medicare; and we are about to pay the piper because of the baby boomer generation.

                     (4)      The United States seized control of the mortgage market under Clinton and Bush, which is one of the greatest government seizures of power, and gave the government control over a $5 trillion industry. Government mismanagement of this authority resulted in the recession of 2008.

                     (5)      Under President Obama, the United States seized control of student loans, 2 car companies, and set the stage for control of medical insurance sector, which will eventually give them power over the entire medical sector.

                     (6)      Our spiritual problem is, too many people are looking to the government as a god, as nearly incorruptible, as a benevolent force for good. Therefore, many people place their hope in government rather than in God, even though it is shown, time after time, that government mismanages nearly everything it has control over (social security, medicare, medicaid, FNMA, FHLMC, FEMA, the student loan program; even the post office, which, apart from the military, is probably government’s best run organization).

17.     General Comments:

          1)       The problem with man is man. We all have sin natures and we all have lusts. We distort law and order.

          2)       It is the police and the establishment military who protect our freedoms. We could not have evangelism without the military and without a police force.

          3)       Revolution is a human solution and it does not work.

          4)       Revolution is always anti-God and anti-establishment.

          5)       Revolution requires the motivation of arrogance and/or hatred.

          6)       Strong delusion must permeate the masses who support the revolution.

          7)       Respect for law and order must be destroyed in a significant portion of the population in order to get a people to revolt.

          8)       A lack of respect for life and innocence must permeate the masses in order to get a people to revolt.

          9)       The ignorant masses, or the useful idiots, must be caused to focus on the ends in spite of the means. Divine good requires that a right thing be done in a right way. It does not allow for a right thing to be done in a wrong way.

          10)     Revolution always seeks to replace one government by an inferior government; one tyrant by an even more vicious tyrant.

          11)     Revolutionaries do not understand Bible doctrine and they do not understand what God expects of them.

The doctrines below were culled from the Liberalism, Conservatism and Christianity (HTML) (PDF). Originally, however, these two doctrines were taken from elsewhere on the internet, but they appear to be reasonably accurate.

Didaskalos Outlines the Doctrine of Revolution