Common Definition of Social Gospel
However, It’s assumptions were incorrect!
From Rousseau came the French Revolution which became the basis for Marxist Socialism {commonly misnamed Communism} that later became the Soviet Revolution. However, socialism did not begin nor end with violent socialism. In England as in America a Middle Way socialism came into being. It sprang from several springs nearly simultaneously such as Progressivism and the Social Gospel movement; however, these all merged into national socialism which was labeled the Progressive Era. America’s socialism hid behind the flag of two world wars and several minor wars before emerging as today’s Social Justice movement. Thus, while national socialism was defeated in Europe, Germany and Italy, it quietly grew stronger in America and its Western allies. Today the battle is not between liberty and socialism as some would have you believe. The battle is simply between flavors of socialism; i.e., national socialism or international socialism, commonly labeled as globalism.
The Social Gospel movement, just as the Progressive Movement, grew out of misperceptions of laissez faire economics and ignorance of the true causes of living conditions in the now sprawling urban areas. Politicians were quick to jump on the bandwagon since it increased governmental power at all levels; especially, the federal or central level.
The industrial revolution literally exploded across the landscape from the mid to late 18th century into the 20th century across Western cultures. This created unprecedented opportunities for millions who had previously been consigned to crushing poverty for centuries with its attendant squalid living conditions, malnutrition and stunted life spans. Indeed, the demand for labor was so great that literally millions came to America alone through a few restricted entry points, the most famous being Ellis Island sin New York City. These workers, and their families, remained in or near their city entry points or moved en mass to other major urban areas such as Chicago; unfortunately cities had shortages of living space and families chose to live tightly packed in order to be within walking distance of work. No one denies that unscrupulous landlords took advantage of these conditions but the underlying reason for housing shortage was usually restrictive building and zoning regulations imposed by the cities themselves which created a lack of new, affordable, available housing. Thus, government was the cause of the squalid living conditions and as usual denied any responsibility. The evil culprit became laissez faire economics when it was these same economics that created a historically unprecedented increase in living standards the world had never encountered. Sigh, it is the curse of people with good intentions but a largesse of ignorance to define the movements that support the growth of government; i.e., socialism.
Walter Rauschenbusch Defined the
Social Gospel Movement Without the Gospel
Reverend Walter Rauschenbusch came from the burnt over area of New York {Second Great Awakening}, trained in Germany and came back to America to minister in New York City. Along with others he changed the definition of gospel salvation. Paul said let anyone who teaches any other gospel, “let him be accursed” (Ga 1:6-10). Rev Rauschenbusch preached a different gospel. He preached that, “required social as well as individual salvation, and he demanded ‘a new order that would rest on the Christian principles of equal rights and democratic distribution of economic power (Walter Rauschenbusch AMERICAN MINISTER. Encyclopedia Brittanica.).'” Undoubtably he was influenced by German socialism under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Chancellor sought to use socialism to impede, if not stop, libertarianism and laissez faire economics from under mining the power of the newly formed German state. This philosophy probably seeped into Rev Rauschenbusch’s religious dogma with a notable exception. Rev Rauschenbusch did not think of using governmental power to make changes in America’s urban social issues; indeed, he sought to use churches, private charities, to improve the plight of the downtrodden. The problem is that his zeal was influenced by his ignorance of proper economics. Society was learning how to deal with such massive immediate growth that had never occurred previously. However, as Murray Rothbard pointed out in his book, The Progressive Era (Mises Institute. 2017.), government and big, inefficient businesses were coming together to form cartels to keep prices and profits high. This first formation of big business failed because of the self-correcting process of the laissez faire marketplace. Finally, big business sought a marriage with government who had the power of the state and the gun to enforce policies that were detrimental to both consumers and the markets. Thus, Rev Rauschenbusch and many who came after him developed a gentle, progressive socialism at the same time as big business and government. However, as in Germany so also in America, government came to distrust other entities that were outside its sphere of influence. The growth of the Young Men’s Christian Association {YMCA} and the Salvation Army were solutions outside of government control; if successful then government power would be challenged and maybe even decreased. America’s entry into World War I was predicated primarily on establishing socialism on a grand scale as war emergency measures. This was later reestablished and expanded during both the Great Depression and World War II.
The Social Gospel Destroyed the Gospel
In Many “Mainline” Denominations
The Social Gospel movement brought socialism into many churches. Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was a Christian Socialist in a Baptist Church. Though the church removed him, he still promoted his social gospel without the gospel in the form of a pledge to national socialism that was quickly adopted by public education. Thus, millions of school children, later citizens, were taught about the primacy of the central government via the flag. Later, Protestant churches adopted a similar “pledge to the church” that still exits today. But it also meant that many future citizens accepted the truth of socialism under the guise of nationalism {national socialism} without ever having the terms defined.
Conclusion: The Social Gospel movement replaced Christ’s Gospel with Lucifer’s false gospel. God said all people are sinners (Ro 3:23). All sinners are worthy of death; in fact, God said that the soul who sins shall pay for his, or her, own sin with their own death (Ez 18:20). Socialism promotes the philosophy that one’s problems are not your fault but the fault of others beyond your control. You are an alcoholic because you have a disease. You are addicted to opioids because your doctor prescribed them to you; it’s the doctor’s fault. You are powerless because of these forces arrayed against you; therefore, you need big government to intervene and punish others rather than yourself (Ro 2:1-4).
The Social Gospel movement was not obvious in its attempts to subjugate the true gospel. Germanic higher biblical, textual criticism was also attacking the veracity of the Bible at this time. Without the solid foundation of the Bible whole denominations switched from reliance on the normative hermeneutical interpretation of the Scriptures to an allegorical approach that allowed the reader to make the Bible “say” anything that was convenient. And, since evolutionary scientism was becoming the law of the land even the very foundation of Creation was being swept away. In this multi-prong attack Lucifer emasculated the gospel leaving vast numbers of Americans to either abandon the true faith or alter their faith in God to a faith in government which they could then elect or influence. However, even this was a smoke screen that was never to become more than a campaign slogan.
Today, the gospel is not taught in many seminaries or promote in most church denominations. The YMCA and the Salvation Army have become nothing more than props for local government. The conditions that government socialism was supposed to fix remain and are exacerbated. Government cannot and does not want to fix these problems because these remain urban voting farms just as Indian reservations have become rural voting farms. The equality and solidarity envisioned by Rev Rauschenbusch is being achieved with the consent of the governed. Equality means sinking to the lowest common denominator, because its cheaper that way, and solidarity means never allowing anyone to try and rise above their current level. Thus, the promise of the Industrial Revolution to allow one to rise out of crushing poverty based on one’s talent and abilities is being crushed today. Whole societies are being pulled back into a kind of serfdom of egalitarianism through both civil and religious means. The leaders of these peoples promote crushing the hope of their citizens thinking they will rise above the fray to be with the few power elites. But in the end the truth will remain. Each person is responsible for his or her own spiritual condition. Socialism is not simply an economic issue; it is a spiritual issue that masquerades as an economic issue. It seeks nothing less than to crush the gospel, crush those who are saved by the true gospel and plunge the world into a darkness of lies and violence with its own consent (Jo 8:44). The Social Justice movement is simply an extension of this overall program which we will discuss in our next post.