Liberal Logic And Fascism

Well Worth The Time To Read

Most Americans have not read Jonah Goldberg‘s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. It’s a well researched and very important book that will help you to understand the connections linking communism, fascism, Nazism, and liberalism. I highly recommend that you read it. According to Goldberg:

(Liberal) logic seems to be that multiculturalism, the Peace Corps, and such are good things — things that liberals approve of — and good things can’t be fascist by simple virtue of the fact that liberals approve of them. . . .

The major flaw in all of this is that fascism, properly understood, is not a phenomenon of the right at all. Instead, it is, and always has been, a phenomenon of the left. This fact — an inconvenient truth if there ever was one — is obscured in our time by the equally mistaken belief that fascism and communism are opposites. In reality, they are closely related, historical competitors for the same constituents. . . .

Before the war, fascism was widely viewed as a progressive social movement with many liberal and left-wing adherents in Europe and the United States. . . .

Indeed, it is my argument that during World War I, America became a fascist country, albeit temporarily. The first appearance of modern totalitarianism in the Western world wasn’t in Italy or Germany but in the United States of America. How else would you describe a country where the world’s first modern propaganda ministry was established; political prisoners by the thousands were harassed, beaten, spied upon, and thrown in jail simply for expressing private opinions; the national leader accused foreigners or immigrants of injecting treasonous “poison into the American bloodstream;” newspapers and magazines were shut down for criticizing the government; nearly a hundred thousand government propaganda agents were sent out among the people to whip up support for the regime and its war; college professors imposed loyalty oaths on their colleagues; nearly a quarter-million goons were given legal authority to intimidate and beat “slackers” and dissenters; and leading artists and writers dedicated their crafts to proselytizing for the government? (pp. 7 – 12)

Resting In Assurance

Quoting Arthur W. Pink:

It is only in proportion as the Christian manifests the fruit of a genuine conversion that he is entitled to regard himself and be regarded by others as one of the called and elect of God. It is just in proportion as we add to our faith the other Christian graces that we have solid ground on which to rest in the assurance we belong to the family of Christ. It is not those who are governed by self-will, but “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

Jefferson On Immigrants

Thomas Jefferson

Quoting Thomas Jefferson:

“Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular.”

The Responsibility Of The Man Of God

This phrase “man of God,” is used in the Old Testament to describe Moses who spoke for God. The phrase was also used of the angelic messenger sent

John MacArthur

by God to announce Sampson’s birth. Man of God is used to describe Samuel, who spoke the divine Word of God. It is used of Elijah, and Elisha, and David. It always refers to an anointed spokesman for God. It was the title for the messenger who proclaimed the Word of God. John MacArthur writes of this as he discusses 1 Timothy 6:11-14:

11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . (1 Timothy 6)

This is a very definitive text, and if I were to draw your attention to any one part of it as an introduction, I would draw your attention to verse 11 and a phrase, actually the second phrase in the verse, “O man of God”. . . .

When I was a young boy and first felt the call to preach, my dad encouraged me to be a man of God. That was a great phrase and left an indelible impression upon my mind. Be a man of God. And that desire that my dad had for me has really been my desire through all the years of my ministry. . . .

I am God’s man, and anyone who’s called to this ministry is God’s man. The man who personally belongs to God. That is a really interesting term, man of God. It may, at first, seem as something of a generic term. But, in fact, it is not. There’s only one person in the New Testament who is called man of God, and that is Timothy. And he is called that here. But it is extended a little beyond Timothy, because, later on in Paul’s writing to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, he says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And there’s the phrase “man of God” again. Paul says, “Timothy, you are God’s man.” And then later, he says, “God’s man is made complete by his knowledge and faithfulness to Scripture.” It is the Scripture that is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. And since that is the man of God’s responsibility, he cannot be complete…he cannot be equipped without the Word of God. So if you want to ask, “What is the primary responsibility of the man of God?” It is to proclaim the Word of God. And the better the man of God understands the Word of God, the better able he is to reprove, rebuke, exhort, train. The better he is able to fulfill his calling and be adequate for every good work. (“Identifying a Man of God”)