Marxism, Liberation Theology, Gnosticism

 Marxism

• This ideology was initiated by Karl Marx who was the most influential of all of the atheists. 
• As a college student, Karl Marx stated, "Criticism of religion is the foundation of all criticism"  (Geisler, N., L., 1999).
• According to the Marxist concept of the universe, there is no room for a Creator or Ruler.
• Marxism says that there are no moral absolutes for a couple reasons:  
• There is no eternal realm.
• The only absolute is unfolding dialectic world process.
• There is no foundational essence for general principles.
• Good and evil are determined by socio-economic structure. 
• According to Marxism, whatever promotes the ultimate cause of communism is good, while whatever goes against it is evil.
• Marxism also mentions that in a perfect society, private morals are eliminated and ethics of the community are achieved which is determined by material production which in turn determines religion, metaphysics, and morality.   
• Marx's view of the world is materialistic.  It ignores the spiritual and religious aspects of human nature.
• His metaphysics rejects the supernatural, where he rules out the possibility of miracles.
• The idea of a human utopia has failed miserably throughout history.  The revolutionary means of a perfect community has caused mass destruction in history.  
• Meanwhile, Christians view is that the means of transforming humankind is regeneration.  Freedom is found in Christ-not a government takeover.
• Karl Marx's father said, "And since that heart is obviously animated and governed by a demon not granted to all men, is that demon heavenly or Faustian?" when referring to Karl's desire for fame (Geisler, 1999).

Liberation Theology

• Liberation theology has to do with the experience of the injustice of poverty.  
• Liberationists seek to to determine a course of corrective measures in action.  
• Most liberationists believe the Bible promotes peace and justice that would require modification of economic and political structures.  
• Liberationists have made Christianity equal with Communism. 
• "First, such a theology tries to impose on society ethics that were originally limited to God’s people. Neither in OT Israel nor in the NT church were believers mandated to make God’s laws or principles the laws of every nation. Second, the liberationist hermeneutic usually plays down the voluntary nature of NT giving" (Klein, et al., 2017).
• Paul states, "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7 ESV).
• "They may overlook that 'the poor' in Scripture are consistently not all the physically dispossessed or oppressed but those who in their need turn to God as their only hope" (Klein, et al., 2017).
• Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).  Nicodemus questioned how these things could be, and Jesus replied, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" (John 3:9-10).   In this instance, Nicodemus is being told by Jesus that he has a need for spiritual rebirth.
• Liberation theologists interpret the Bible for their agenda of justice for the poor instead of the Bible being a set of principles.  It is a distinct shift in interpreting the Bible and is also referred to as postmodernism.  For postmodern interpreters, the reader's perception of the text is the ultimate basis of authority for the text's meaning instead of the text itself.
• Ferguson said, "What, for example, happens to history as a means of God’s self-disclosure? Once again, it would appear that the content of the kerygma as an object of faith has been obscured. There is little recognition that the crucifixion and resurrection are historical events themselves creative of language, not merely ‘language events.’ Language as the only hermeneutical guide fails to do full justice to history" (Klein, et al., 2017).
• Postmodern openness can lead to grave danger of relativism.  
• If the greatest virtue is avoiding interpretations that offend others, do we abandon the search for truth? (Klein, et al., 2017).
• Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
• And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:15-16)

Gnosticism

• Gnosticism has four major concepts and they include the following:
• a secret knowledge that had liberating and redeeming effects, 
• the presence of a divine spark in humans that proceeded from the divine realm
• radical dualism (two opposing realms) interwoven within a monistic view of deity (supreme unknown God), and
• myth of creation of world explaining human's present issue-remoteness from God (Puskas & Crump, 2008).

• Monism insists that all of reality is one.  It is a contrast to every form of pluralism.  Parmenides initially posed this and argued that there cannot be more than one thing and that there is one single being. However, Christianity is committed to the many of pluralism saying that God differs from creation.
• A theistic worldview says that God exists in and beyond our world, the world is not eternal, the universe was not created from pre-existing material, and the universe was brought into existence by God.  The sovereign God cannot be locked out of His universe, and on occasion he directly intervenes in what are called miracles.  It also states that people are made in God's image (Geisler, 1999).  

References

Geisler, N., L., (1999). Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Baker Books.

Holy Bible: ESV (2001). Good News Publishers. Wheaton, Illinois.

Klein, W. W., Blomberg, C. L., & Hubbard, R. L., (2017). Introduction to biblical interpretation

(3rd ed.). Zondervan.

Puskas, C. B., & Crump, D. M. (2008). An introduction to the Gospels and Acts. William B. Eerdmans

Pub.