The Two Sides of Power

Last updated on: March 11, 2022 at 11:19 am by Richard E. Simmons III

The Two Sides of Power 2022-03-11T11:19:30-06:00 Richard E. Simmons III

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Several years ago I wrote a blog about how nations rule over their people. It was a contrast between the Communist dictatorships of the day and the western world. I realized that this blog is very pertinent to the times we live in as we try to understand the senseless invasion of Ukraine by the Russians. However it also helps us understand nations that are governed by leaders with an atheistic worldview who rule with an iron fist.

*****

I recently read about a conversation that Philip Yancey had with the editor-in-chief of Pravda, which was the largest newspaper in Russia, just as their communist state was collapsing back in 1991. He told Yancey that communism, though atheistic, has a great deal in common with Christianity. He said, “We oppose poverty, you oppose poverty. We fight injustice, you fight injustice.” Then he made this incredible admission, “Yet somehow we communists have created a monstrosity, killing and imprisoning millions of our citizens.”

I think this editor-in-chief saw some parallels between these two belief systems, though one was centered on a theistic view of life while the other was atheistic. Yancey then makes a great observation:

A primary difference between the two, however, lies in their use of power. Communism tends to enforce its beliefs from the top down, at the point of a gun – hence the excesses of Stalin’s purges and Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Jesus described a movement that grows from the bottom up, with changes taking place internally rather than externally.

This is what separates Christianity from all other philosophies and religions of the world. Its emphasis is on our interior life. In his teaching, Jesus is very clear about this. Our inner life is the source from which our exterior life flows. His desire is to transform our inner life with His transforming power.

We see the power of God demonstrated in many communist countries. Daniel Aikman, the former Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine estimates up to three thousand Western Christians work in China as English teachers, many of them vocal about their faith. Aikman says:

“This often annoys Public Security Bureau officials monitoring the foreign presence across Chinese campuses. But over the years, China’s higher education system has learned to appreciate the quality of the Christian teachers. They behave well, they don’t get drunk, they don’t flirt with the local girls, they don’t have romantic relationships even with other foreigners, they are diligent, and they don’t complain a lot.” Aikman adds, “The steady drip-drip-drip of one-on-one Christian evangelism by these earnest foreign teachers has had a deep impact among young Chinese intellectuals. Almost every urban young Christian I met in China had come to the Christian faith through a foreign, English-speaking teacher.”

These young people’s lives are changed from the bottom up rather than imposed from the top down.

The problem governments have with this top down approach is that they give their people an arbitrary morality that is imposed from the top down. However it is not effective.

Philip Yancey says that these countries that indoctrinate their citizens with an atheistic worldview experience an incalculable cost to their people who live with a morality untethered from moral absolutes.

An example of this is described by Josif Ton, a Romanian pastor and teacher. Back when Romania was under a communist regime, his job was to teach Romanian students how to lead good, moral lives so they would grow up to be good citizens. The problem he ran into was that his students had been taught that they are the product of chance combinations of matter, and that life is governed by Darwinian laws. That the strong survive and flourish and the weak are relegated to the bottom of society. In their view of life, there was no afterlife, there was no God who they would have to give an account to. Ton tried to go in and teach them to be noble and honorable people and to seek to spend their energies on doing good for the Romanian people. However, they had no motivation for goodness. They saw life in a godless world where you grab and live totally for yourself. They couldn’t come up with any reason to live an unselfish, virtuous life.

This is why a nation needs a spiritual foundation, because it creates and strengthens the notion of duty. As the great English historian Lord Acton said, that having that spiritual underpinning “creates an invisible yoke of duty on every citizen. It gives a reason to deny self-interest, to obey the law, to sacrifice for others. “However, when we abandon our spiritual roots,” he says, “duty loses its hold on our hearts. Crime and lawlessness are then unleashed.”

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 4, 2022

Believing Responsibly

Next Post

March 17, 2022 What the World Needs Now

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Character Development Inspiration Leadership Life Purpose Personal Growth Relationships Seeking God Spiritual Truth The Bible True Masculinity Uncategorized Wisdom

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Ezekiel cook his food over as a sign of coming judgment?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Cow dung Wood Ashes Stones