Chapter I INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNIST ESCHATOLOGY
PART ONE 22
HISTORICAL SECTION 22
Chapter II THE MARXIST LENINIST PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY 23
Chapter III THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF MARXISM 32
Chapter IV THE ADVENT OF MARXIST LENINIST REVOLUTIONISM 54
Chapter V LENIN'S IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIALISM 72
Chapter VI THE POST-LENINISTIC HISTORY OF COMMUNISM 83
FOREWORD
In a very moving passage, St. Paul declares, "For we are saved by hope" (Rom. 8:24). As John Murray has pointed out, this can be better rendered, "For in hope were we saved." It meant, Murray makes clear, that, "In hope" refers to the fact that the salvation bestowed in the past, the salvation now in possession, is characterized by hope. Hope is an ingredient inseparable from the salvation possessed; in that sense it is salvation conditioned by and oriented to hope. This is simply to say that salvation can never be divorced from the outlook and outreach which hope implies. The salvation now in possession is incomplete, and this is reflected in the consciousness of the believer in the expectancy of hope directed to the adoption, the redemption of the body.*
Life as an assured and certain hope gave to Christian culture a dynamic power as long as that dimension of hope remained. As defective eschatologies removed that hope from history and restricted it to eternity, Christian culture retreated to the cloister and to the walls of the church. Its imperial and conquering power had been undercut, and the kingship of Christ, and of the believer in Christ, was severely limited.
The dramatic rise of Marxism coincided with the retreat of Christianity. Marxism offered a saving hope, although a false one, and it parodied the Biblical faith in the sovereign, predestinating power of God with its ideas of materialistic determinism. It has offered victory to a world where too often ostensible Christians have offered instead retreat.
Now, with the growing internal crisis in the world of Marxism, its inner decay and loss of hope, it is especially important to analyze the significance of Marxist eschatology in terms of a Biblical eschatology, and to indicate that the Marxist hope has been indeed a fantastic illusion.
In an already published Chalcedon Study, Gary North, in Marx's Religion of Revolution: The Doctrine of Creative Destruction (Nutley, N.J.: The Craig Press, 1968), has given an unequalled analysis of the economic fallacies of Marxism and their roots in a cosmology of chaos. Now, in this work, Francis Nigel Lee gives us the most thorough and illuminating study yet made of the communist eschatology, its roots, implications, and consequences, as well as its far-reaching ramifications in every area of life.
More is involved, however, than barren analysis. Dr. Lee gives us a framework for action as well as for understanding, with a full awareness that ideas have consequences. This is a work, therefore, of major importance, and it has implications far beyond its subject. It is a study written for those who plan to command the future under God by one who regards it as his duty and calling under God to do so.
