There are many forms of democracy. If there is a form of democracy that takes its place in the kingdom of God, we can expect it to be much more brilliant than any form that we have now. Even so, the basic premise that the Lord wants our participation in His government is right. Now what about communism?
Like democracy, what is called "communism" has many forms, but overall it resulted in probably the most cruel, oppressive, and unworkable form of government ever devised by men. It simply will not work well with fallen mankind, whose nature is basically selfish and self-centered. However, could it work in redeemed, restored mankind? There are certainly aspects of it that could.
However, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's look briefly at a good example of how a form of communism was applied in the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown, Virginia. In Jamestown, they had a common garden that all were supposed to work in and eat from. For two years, half the population starved during the winter. Then they decided to give each family their own plot of ground to cultivate and eat from, and no one ever starved again.
There was a simple reason this worked out the way it did—when there was a common garden most, being controlled by their selfishness, expected others to do the work, and therefore few did any work and little was accomplished. When the people grasped that they would only eat what they worked for, they worked! This is the basic difference between free enterprise and socialism. Free enterprise directly rewards labor and diligence, whereas socialism erodes the basic reasons for initiative because working harder does not result in any advantage over the ones who do not work at all.
Because selfish, self-centered people have little motivation to produce in a socialistic system, communism had to become increasingly controlling, oppressive, and cruel to get production out of its workers. If there is no greater reward for working harder, why should you? Even so, for a period of time in the first century, the church in Jerusalem basically established an economy that was communist or based on the commune, having all things in common, and it seemed to work well. This form of economy can work well if there is true love for one another. Without love, it will not work, but in the kingdom, as mankind grows less selfish and more loving, we can expect to see a form of this evolve. This is why I think some of the ideals or philosophy of communism could work in a redeemed, restored people, but will not work until the kingdom comes.
Why do we need to know this now? First, some of the governmental principles that the kingdom will be built on and that are being implemented now to prepare the way for the kingdom, are being developed in companies or other organizations, not just governments. There are companies that have developed such a comradery and caring for one another among their employees that they have probably reached a level of production even greater than selfishness could have inspired. Love is a more powerful motivator than selfishness. Companies that build such a comradery usually have long waiting lists of people applying for jobs, even if they pay lower wages.
Man was created first to have fellowship with God, and second to work, to cultivate the Garden. Even sociologists have recognized that meaningful labor is essential to the mental well-being of every human being. It is in our basic makeup that we must accomplish something. Think about it—who do you know who has an ambition to live an insignificant, unproductive life? If you deny meaningful labor to any human being, they will quickly go insane and become anti-social. That is why some forms of welfare which have been developed and implemented have turned into one of the cruelest forms of oppression and bondage and are a primary root of the lawlessness that the Lord and the apostles prophesied would come upon the world at the end of this age.
How does socialism produce lawlessness? Our relief workers witnessed it firsthand during the Katrina disaster. Many, and possibly most, of the victims were poor or at least low income. This is often the case and does seem unfair. However, you could quickly and easily tell the difference between those who worked and those on welfare. Those who worked were usually very appreciative of the help, while those on welfare could be so demanding and even threatening, that it was not a big surprise to many of the relief workers when some even started shooting at the rescuers. These had been taught that the government would give them whatever they needed, so when the government fell short of their expectations, they became enraged and in some cases violent.
In the time to come, many things are going to occur that will be beyond any government's ability to deal with. Even for the expected bird flu pandemic, the wealthiest, most powerful government in the world has already said not to rely on the government for help in this crisis, that the most they will be able to do will be to just try and keep order. The lawlessness has the potential to be as devastating as the pandemic. How do we prepare for this? Be sure that we, our families, our churches, and all that we have are built soundly on the government of God—the kingdom.
Of course, we also need to allow for the fact that during the Hurricane Katrina disaster many of the people were terribly traumatized, some having lost everything they had, including loved ones. About 40 percent of people who are traumatized react violently. For this reason, I greatly appreciated the way our workers very graciously handled this sometimes bad and obnoxious behavior. Even so, at times this behavior on the part of the victims went beyond obnoxious and became scary. One of our volunteers, who brought a brand new stainless steel mobile kitchen down at his own expense, even got shot.
The government of God is going to have to put the ax to the root of this tree of lawlessness that has been planted and watered by socialism. How will that be done? That will be one of the ultimate questions that we will need to address in the time to come, and we will seek to do this in the weeks to come.