Gary North on Marxism - AD on FLF Network

Hello there, this is A .D. Robles, and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Alright, well today I've been thinking about doing this episode for the last week or so, and how I wanted to do it, and things like that kind of thing.

Gary North as a Major Influence and Why This Book Matters

But, you know, you might not know this, but Gary North is definitely one of the biggest influences on my Christian life that there is. There's just no question about it. He's written so many books. I have not read them all, definitely not.

But actually, I knew about Gary North before I even became a Christian. In fact, I heard about Gary North through the website lewrockwell .com, which is a famous anarcho-capitalist, libertarian-type website.

And I didn't even know he was a Christian. I mean, everything he wrote, I just absolutely loved it. It made so much sense to me. And then I became a Christian, and shortly after found out that Gary North was a Christian as well.

And, you know, when I looked at it, I was like, oh, he must be one of those fake Christians. You know, he just calls himself a Christian, but not really. But then I looked into it, and this guy's legit.

This guy's a Presbyterian. I mean, he's a hardcore Christian, probably the hardest core Christian that I knew at the time. And I just have to say, I mean, Gary North is excellent. If you've never read any of his books, the good news is that he puts so many of them online for free in PDF versions and stuff like that.

And that's just the kind of guy he is. I mean, he cares very much about the message he's putting forward. And, you know, of course, he wants to make money as well, but that almost seems like a secondary thing to him.

I mean, he puts this stuff out for free because he wants people to have it, which I think is very commendable, and I appreciate it very much. So if you have never read Gary North, let me recommend that you check out GaryNorth .com today.

And there's just so much. You could spend your lifetime reading Gary North stuff and footnotes and stuff like that. He's just that prolific in his writing. So what I find amazing about it is that it's the kind of writing that is timeless almost.

It seems like it's relevant, just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. He wrote a lot in the 80s and the 90s. I'm over here playing with my Ninja Turtles. This guy's writing books that are going to influence my life, you know, in 30 years.

You know what I mean? Like, it's just amazing the way God works through his people. And today, what I've decided to do is I'm going to read an excerpt from a book called Liberating Planet Earth. Liberating Planet Earth.

And this is a book that is so relevant for today. Let's kind of go through it. This is the PDF that I have online. He wrote this book, it looks like, in 1987. And so, again, you know, I'm playing Ninja Turtles.

He's writing books about liberation theology. That's what this book is about, which is amazing because this is so relevant today because liberation theology is kind of having a bit of a resurgence these days.

Liberation Theology, James Cone, and Marxist Influence in Seminaries

In fact, there was an article that I was quoted in in the New York Times where there was another Christian quoted, one of the teachers at Southeastern, where he says that he teaches James Cone. He teaches liberation theology, but what he does is he doesn't tell you what it is.

He teaches the ideas, but he doesn't I thought I heard something over there. He doesn't tell you where they come from. He doesn't cite them because he knows that if he says it's liberation theology or he knows that if he says it's James Cone that he's teaching, people are going to have their guard up.

And he wants to kind of be able to teach those truths from James Cone, at least from his perspective, because they're not truths. James Cone was a lunatic. But he wants to teach those truths from James Cone in a way that sounds plausible without actually citing it.

It's a very tricky kind of sneaky, sly way to promote liberation theology. And so many of us have pointed out that many people have and they're starting to be a little bit more open about this. In fact, you'll see people that are talking about how influenced they are by James Cone and liberation theology and things of that nature.

So they're starting to become more open about it, but still it's kind of under the radar. And so I think it's very this book, you might want to read it, Liberating Planet Earth, because it is extremely relevant to today's context where liberation theology is being taught either to you maybe if you're in seminary or your kids if you're sending your kids to seminary.

I mean, there's just no question about it that this kind of stuff is being taught. Now, the conservatives, of course, will say, well, we teach all of the non-Christian or heterodox stuff because we want to teach against it.

And that's a very sneaky response because on the one hand, liberation theology is pretty extreme. There's no question about it. And so I'm not saying that these teachers teach all of liberation theology.

But the thing is, though, that there are problematic aspects that are being taught as if they are true. And so it's like they're not going to go all the way and say that in order to become a Christian, in order to get saved, you need to become black like Christ because that's what James Cone taught.

They're not going to go that far typically. Some of them I start to wonder. I don't know if you guys saw that Beth Moore thread about how it was very important that Jesus was brown. For saving mankind, he had to be brown, I guess.

I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but that's very close to going along the lines of James Cone. But anyway, so I'm not going to say they'll never go that far, but typically they don't. But they still teach untruth.

They still teach heresy. That is liberation theology influence for sure. It's almost like a new version of it, a new version of liberation theology. And what's genius about Gary North is that he is very good at looking under the hood and telling you what is really being taught.

James Cone, if you ever read his stuff, there's a bunch of gobbledygook. It's very hard to kind of pull things apart and find out where he's actually getting this stuff. But what Gary North here does in this book, Liberating Planet Earth, is he really shows you what's actually being taught here.

And I want to read to you an excerpt initially from the introduction. And we'll kind of take it from there because I think this is so relevant for today. You know what I mean? Let the reader understand.

Anyway, here's a section on liberation theology in the introduction section from Gary North's great book, Liberating Planet Earth. He says, quote, This is a book about liberation theology. In fact, it's a book about two radically different types of theology, each of which claims to be preaching liberation.

One of these systems is Marxist and the other is Christian. One is based upon the teachings of a man who claimed that religion is the opium of the people, while the other is based on the teachings of a perfect man who was also the incarnation of God himself.

We must be clear about this from the beginning. Karl Marx, the founder of the political movement known as communism, was an atheist. He had been a liberal Christian as a youth, as we can see in his schoolboy essay, quote, On the Union of the Faithful with Christ, according to John.

But by the age 20, he had abandoned his belief in God. In an essay he wrote in 1843 at age 25, Marx said religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world and the soul of a soulless condition.

It is the opium of the people. In that same essay, he argued for humanism, the idea that mankind is the highest form of being. In other words, that man is God. The criticism of religion ends with the doctrine that man is the supreme being for man.

Again, the emancipation of Germany is only possible in practice if one adopts the point of view that the theory according to which man is the highest being. The emphasis were his. I have added nothing.

So you see, let me just stop there for a moment. See, Gary North is making the case that Marxism is another religion. It's in contrast to Christianity. And what he said here in no uncertain terms is that liberation theology is Marxist.

So liberation theology is diametrically opposed to Christianity, according to Gary North, which I totally agree with that. And so it's very weird because like you wouldn't see Christians in seminaries and supposedly conservative Christian seminaries.

You wouldn't see them teaching the ideas of, I don't know, say, you know, John Smith. Is it John Smith? Joseph Smith, the Mormon guy. You wouldn't see them teaching those kinds of ideas, you know, of a totally different religion, right?

But yet somehow they're teaching liberation theology's ideas. That's a very weird thing. You wouldn't see seminaries teaching the ideas of Muhammad in classes without quoting Muhammad so that you wouldn't have your guard up, right?

Like you wouldn't ever see anyone admit that. But they're doing it with liberation theology. And according to Gary North, which I agree, it's the same kind of thing. Liberation theology is as much of a false religion as Mormonism is or Islam is.

It's a different religion. Let's go back to Gary North here and let's see it. He says, We now know what Marx was, an atheistic humanist. But what about Jesus? What did Jesus say about himself? At his trial before the Jewish leaders, the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?

The Jews did not mention the name of God. They use such word as blessed as substitutes. Jesus knew what he was being asked. Are you the son of God? He replied, I am. And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death. Gary North goes on.

He says, Jesus' words were blasphemy unless he was really the son of God. By Hebrew law, he was worthy of death unless he really was the son of God. By his resurrection from the dead and his ascension to heaven to stand at the right hand of God, he proved that he was who he said he was.

He was God walking on earth. He said plainly, I and my father are one. Jesus said that belief in him as the son of God is a life and death issue. It is eternal life and death issue. This is quoting the Bible again.

It says, The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Listen to this. This is the words of Gary North again. This is so relevant to our current context where liberation theology, Marxist theology, and Marxist systems are being taught in our seminaries today.

This is critical to understand. I want you to hear what Gary North said back in 1987. I mean, this has been decades ago. We should know this already. For some reason, we're not getting it, right? We're allowing liberation theology to influence the way that we are engaging the culture when it comes to the issue of race.

That is unacceptable. That is unchristian. That is paganism. Here's what Gary North says. There can be no compromise here. Let me repeat that in case it wasn't clear. There can be no compromise here. It is either faith in God or faith in man.

It is either Christianity or Marxism. There is no honest and accurate way to put Marxism together with Christianity. Listen to Gary North's words. This is what I say about how he's influenced the way that I speak, right?

Gary North's writing has influenced the way that I speak because he speaks directly. He does not leave any wiggle room. He doesn't leave you able to use weasel words. He speaks directly and concisely and precisely.

Here is what he says. He says, there is no honest and accurate way to put Marxism together with Christianity. These two deeply religious systems are at war with one another. Marx understood this completely.

This war will not end until either Christianity perishes, and it will never perish, or Marxism perishes. Anyone who attempts to put these two systems together into one system is either self-deceived or else a conscious agent of the communists who is seeking to deceive others.

He is either ignorant or evil. Do you see what's happened here? Do you see what's happened here? There's no other option. You either don't know what you're doing. Southern seminary, Southeastern seminary, these people that are pushing James Cone's ideas without quoting him or even if they do quote him, they're either ignorant or they are pure evil because they are introducing false doctrines into the doctrine of Christ.

They're attempting to merge false doctrines of demons with Christianity, and as Gary North says right here, that's impossible. You can't do it. It cannot happen. All right, let me continue a little bit because this next section is fantastic.

I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I think hopefully I've whet your appetite a little bit to look into Gary North and specifically this book because it's so relevant. If you care about what's being taught in our seminaries, what's being pushed by Big Eva, what's being pushed by the Gospel Coalition and friends of the Gospel Coalition, Jamar Tisby is big on James Cone and all of this kind of stuff.

I want you to hear this, what was going on in the 80s, right? It's still going on 40 years later. Listen to what Gary North says. He says this, the popular religious system today known as liberation theology is an attempt to combine the revolutionary communism of Karl Marx and the language of certain passages in the Bible that make it sound as if the Bible preaches communism's bloody revolution and socialism.

Do you hear that? Like the theology was trying to get the foundational ideas of Karl Marx into biblical flowery sounding language. That is what's happening right now in this social justice movement. Have you noticed how often they will quote verses that are very vague that talk about the oppressed classes, right?

God's on the side of the oppressed, things like that. But what they do is they inject it with the meaning of communists, the meaning of Marxists and socialism, and they were doing the same thing today or in the 80s.

That's amazing. The communists were using religion as a tool is what he's saying, and they're doing the same thing today. He says this, he says the humanistic version of the Bible's message of message of liberation never mentions either the divinity of Christ or the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ, which is different from his divinity or salvation by faith in Christ alone or the requirement of Christian to obey lawful authorities or transforming the power of the gospel or the transforming power of God's Holy Spirit or the continuing requirements of God's law or God's covenants with mankind.

Or the 8th commandment, you shall not steal or the 10th commandment, you shall not covet or dozens of other basic themes in the Bible. The Marxists do not believe in a God who created this world and will bring it to its final judgment.

They believe only in man. So he's talking about the secular Marxists, the real like hardcore, you know, proletariat Marxists. They don't believe in any of that stuff. And so he asks the question. He says this.

Listen to this. This gives you a window into what's going on right now with the progressives that are using religion in the same way that the communists were using it back in the 80s. It's happening today.

This is why we talk about Marxism. I'm not saying that teachers in Southern Seminary are saying Marxism is the way of the future. They're not doing that. What they're doing instead is teaching the ideas of Marxists, either ignorantly or because they're evil.

And in trying to pretend it's biblical because the Bible does preach a gospel of liberation. But it's not this kind of liberation. I want you to hear this. He asks the question and then answers it. Why then have they adopted liberation theology?

If these people are atheists, right? They're secular. Why have they adopted liberation theology? He says three reasons suffice. One, the normal communist practice of deception. They're just liars all the time.

So that's number one. They're deceivers. Two, the need to infuse stagnating Marxist thought with new religious impulse. You see, Marxism was dying out. So they needed to inject it with some kind of new life.

And it's happening again today. This is amazing to see that in the 80s this was happening and it's happening now again. They're trying again. And see, this time they're not calling it liberation theology.

This time they're calling it social justice. This time they're calling it something different. And they're just trying again because this is who they are. They never stop. This is a diametrically opposed religion to Christianity.

And as Gary North just said, either Christianity is going to die or Marxism is going to die. And that's that. So they're giving it another college try. And that's why I have my YouTube channel. That's why I stand up to this because this is not going to happen.

Here's a third reason. The realization that it's a high-risk strategy to impose atheism on a religious society prematurely. Now, he goes into more detail about all these three. Hopefully, I've whet your appetite.

I'll include the link to this in the description of this video if you want to see it. It's free. It's a PDF. Why not? But this is what's happening, man. This is what's happening. The Marxists are on the move, my friend.

And they're trying again. They're going to give it another college try because liberation theology was kind of a form of Marxism. It wasn't pure Marxism, but it was influenced by Marxism. It was teaching Marxist ideas but kind of changing it a little bit so maybe it's more palatable.

And it's happening again. These people are promoting fundamentally Marxist ideas. Yeah, you know, they might change it. They don't mention the proletariat anymore. It's not about that anymore. Now they've changed it.

Now they talk about white privilege. Now they talk about whiteness and how whiteness is wicked and how blackness is this awesome, amazing thing. They've got a new system. They're going to try. They're going to give it the college try.

And notice, Gary North knew back then that not everyone was doing this intentionally. Some people were just ignorant, but the point is we must oppose each. Because whether or not you're doing it intentionally or ignorantly, the result will be the same if you are successful.

And so we must oppose this because the goal of Marxists, and they're becoming more open about this. You saw the Black Lives Matter say, you know, we're trained Marxists. You know what I mean? That kind of thing.

I believe them. You know what I mean? Call me crazy. Call me crazy. If someone tells me that they're a Marxist, I'm going to believe them. But you see, the thing is so many people that march with Black Lives Matter, including Christians, they're not trained Marxists.

So they might be doing it ignorantly. But we must oppose it because the end goal for any anti-Christian organization or non-Christian religion is the end of Christianity. And that's not going to happen.

I'm a post-millennial, my friend. That's not going to happen. But we have a role to play in this. We must stand up to the Marxists. And Gary North here, this guy who has influenced my life in so many ways, knew it back in the 80s.

And he knows it today. There's no question about it. Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. Let the reader understand, or I guess the listener. God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.