Modern Marxism: A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World

Modern Marxism: A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World

Nov. 14, 2024

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Patricia Engler

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 11/14/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:       Hello and welcome to this Thursday edition of Stand In the Gap Today, and it’s our monthly emphasis on creation, culture, and apologetics. And in this focus, well, we present an aspect of some relevant cultural consideration and intentionally intertwined that with a thread of what we call apologetics or instruction in how to identify the biblical truth, which applies to that and how to defend truth on that issue through the lens of a biblical worldview perspective. And as is always the case, there is a direct connection. Believe it or not, if you listen to the program, often there’s a direct connection on everything that you pursue that can take you back to creation, the God of creation, and more importantly or as important connected to it, his plan of redemption, his concept of justice, and of certainly God’s love. And within the recent election, fresh on everybody’s minds, it provides a perfect climate to consider fundamental approaches to governance, laws and policies, the purpose for government, the role of God, morality and individual choice and culture, all of those things heavily a part of all that has been discussed prior to this last election and now and will in the months ahead, it’s a perfect time to consider, for instance, the pillars which uphold a free and moral society.

Sam Rohrer:       One that is able to expect God’s national blessing, which God says will happen if there is a fear of God, an embracing of such facts as absolute truth as coming from God, rights from God. God is judged before whom all will one day give account in our country here in America, constitution as guaranteeing those rights and government under God and its role in defending those rights. But it’s also a perfect time to consider honestly the enemies of liberty, the enemy with hostile philosophies which attack and undermine freedom. And I’m going to say the now collapsing pillars which have long supported America and generally the West. So today on this program, I’m going to approach all these things from the perspective of a returning guest, Patricia Engler. She’s a Christian apologetic speaker for Answers in Genesis, and she’s also an author of the book She’s had out for some time Prepare to Thrive, a Survival Guide for Christian Students Today. However, I’m not going to talk with her about that book, but I am going to talk with her about a book that she has recently written, the result of a lot of resource of a study around the world. But that book’s name is Modern Marxism, A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World. And so I’m just going to keep that title and that’s the title of the program today. And with that I welcome to the program again, Patricia Engler. Patricia, thank you so much for being back with me.

Patricia Engler:  Thank you. Great to be back,

Sam Rohrer:       Patricia, you were with me early this year. You mentioned that you had done a lot of research, you traveled to Europe and you were going to put something together, which you now have in the form of this book where you’re looking at the roots and the branches. I’m going to call it that way of Marxism. Most people, even those who love America, they know that Marxism is reality. They know in their head at least that it has permeated American and western culture, but probably not likely, fully aware of how or sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to identify it and apply to it, biblical truth. So let me just get us going here right now. Let me ask you this. What prompted you to write this specific book and how did your decision to research it by traveling in Europe contribute to it?

Patricia Engler:  Right. So basically Marxism is this modern day Goliath defying the armies of the living God. So that’s what prompted me to get started on this. I used to think this giant was dead communism you might think of as something in the past. But in 2018, my first clue, I was at a Canadian university and I saw a poster telling students to join Canada’s young communist league saying Capitalism is war and climate crisis, racism, patriarchy, colonialism and all that. And that should have been a red flag to me for how these issues that we’re hearing about today are really being exploited to promote a destructive Marxist agenda. But then it wasn’t until a year later, after I’d come back from my first round of backpacking travels interviewing students that I heard a presentation about Marxism that really opened my eyes to the situation. And around that same time, a college student told me, universities are teaching so much Marxism, churches need tools to equip young people how to respond. So then that’s what inspired me to go to Europe, research different historical sites and firsthand get real footage and data and stories to help develop those tools like the book. And along the way I saw more literal signs of Marxism revival, like that poster in Canada, but now in other places like London and Northern Ireland. And I even ran into a pro-communist protest in Berlin just a couple of miles from where the Berlin Wall had stood not 50 years ago.

Sam Rohrer:       Interesting. All that’s very intriguing and very helpful. Let’s go a little bit further here. According to your research, to what extent does Marxism, you used the word communist new, but Marxism as a foundational philosophy of culture, which we know it does, and you’ll expand upon it because it touches on life generally, government, economics, education and all of that. But to what degree does that influence the modern woke world concept, say for instance, other than some other non-biblical worldview philosophies, what’s distinctive about Marxism and why you focused on that?

Patricia Engler:  Yes, it does have a lot of distinctives, but ultimately the main similarity to it in other worldviews, something we see in Answers in Genesis, there’s ultimately two different worldviews. Either God’s word or not God’s word, so man’s word. And at its core, Marxism is another manifestation of that philosophy that humans are the authority for truth. So in that sense, it’s not really new and overlaps with other things like evolution, but it does have this distinctive storyline and it’s this false gospel rooted in that underlying message we’re hearing preached in so many areas of culture. You mentioned government, education, civil life, even churches unfortunately. And this narrative, we’ll talk about it more, but it basically says there’s two kinds of people, oppressors versus oppressed. And that those categories are based not on your actual behavior or character, but on social traits like your income and gender and skin tone.

Patricia Engler:  And the story goes that if you’re oppressed, you can do no evil, but if you’re an oppressor, you cannot help being evil and the oppressed need to wake up and take back power by whatever means necessary. Riots, vandalism, knocking down statues, all of that is called social justice. And that’s this idea we’re hearing about in so many of the ideologies that are very vocal today. And it’s also the main message behind this thinking of cancel culture, which basically says that Christians are oppressors who must be silenced. So I’m sure people can think of all kinds of examples of how these sorts of messages are really permeating today’s culture. So those are kind of the distinctives, but again, at its core, it’s just another false gospel of man’s word rebelling against God’s word. And that rebellion is as old as Eden and it’s just as destructive as ever leading to both physical and spiritual death. So that’s the answer in a nutshell. I’d say

Sam Rohrer:       That’s a good answer and a nutshell, and we’re at the break here right now. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us. My special guest today is Patricia Engler. She is working with and part of answers in Genesis, a speaker for them, an apologetic speaker in that area. And she’s written a new book entitled Modern Marxism, A Guide for Christians in a Woke World, which is available at the answersingenesis.org website. But we’re going to walk through the basic construct of that book beginning in the next segment. Got a little bit of the background there, but stay with us and I think you’ll be very, very intrigued and encouraged. Well, Patricia, as part of your, I’m going to say well laid out and structured book as I’ve looked over things, that would be one of my comments. But the title of again is Modern Marxism, A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World.

Sam Rohrer:       But in that you gave this short overview, and I’m just going to read it because I think it sums things up very well and then we’ll go from there. But you say this, Western civilization is rapidly changing. Hostility against Christians is escalating amidst a firestorm of social issues. Many of these issues from cancel culture to critical theories to attacks on the family arise from a false gospel rooted in Marxism. This false gospel saturates today’s culture in classrooms and even churches. You go to say, modern Marxism helps Christians understand and respond to these realities from the foundation of God’s word beginning in Genesis. Alright, Patricia, you then have a logically structured book. You put it into three main parts, which I’d like to use as a little of a roadmap for the program today. It fits quite well into this segment two and then three and then four.

Sam Rohrer:       In part one you introduce and explain the problem. These are my words of Marxism Part two, you tend to go more the direction of the cause, you present the common strategies of this revolutionary agenda. And then in part three you present practical tools for a biblical response. I’ll say the solution. So let’s start with this problem. In part one of the book, it consists of five chapters I’m giving you as you’re listening ladies and gentlemen, just a little bit of a clue of what it is. It’s not a big a long book, but it’s a good book. Five chapters you’ve included under a theme of this backstories that lead to modern Marxism as you refer to it. So here’s my question. Can you share an overview of the long history of past efforts at Revolution as you state that have set the stage for modern Marxism and distinguish here as well, you used the word modern Marxism. So logically I want you to compare that against to what other form, classical Marxism or some other version of Marxism. Alright.

Patricia Engler:  Yes, absolutely. So to kind of set things up, even before Karl Marx German philosopher in the 1800’s, there were other different socialists and revolutionaries who are already calling for some kind of communism. And one that really stood out to me in my research, he was an early socialist named Robert Owen. He advocated for a version of globalist socialism based on the abolition of marriage. He thought people would own nothing and be happy, might sound familiar. And in the mid 1800’s around when Marx was also writing this guy, Robert Owen said that sea spirits had endorsed his ideas about socialism and that these spirits would eventually lead people to accept it. So there’s really dark spiritual roots behind socialism. I unpack those a lot more in depth in chapter four. So meanwhile, Karl Marx was on the scene, he again believed that history is the story of class conflict.

Patricia Engler:  You have oppressors versus the oppressed leading up to industrial revolution capitalism, Marx believed with the wealthy business owners oppressing the working class. And Marx in classical Marxism thought that history must progress along a certain path. He thought the workers would eventually unite, revolt against the wealthy, take back the means of productions like factories to be public property, and then create these communist societies where people would supposedly live happily ever after without God and government and family and so on. That of course never happened as planned. It led to tons of deaths and just disaster consistently. So then later, neo-Marxist or modern Marxist reformulated some of Marx’s ideas throughout the 20th centuries. So they rejected Marxist’s, faulty some of his faulty historical and economic assumptions. But the key is they kept his basic worldview belief that society is oppressive and has to be overturned. And they also expanded those categories of oppressors versus oppressed to include other social groups. So where Marx and classical Marxism viewed just the wealthiest, the oppressors and the workers as oppressed modern Marxism expands that to see the oppresses is also people like men, Christians, heterosexuals, light-skinned people, able-bodied people, Europeans colonialists, and then everyone who does not identify with these groups is automatically prejudged as an oppressed person. So it prejudges people as oppresses versus oppressed just based on their social categories. So that’s an overview of modern Marxism compared to classical Marxism.

Sam Rohrer:       Okay, that’s excellent. But I got to ask you a question at this point. You have used communism as a term a couple of times, but then we’re talking neo Marxism, modern Marxism versus the classically. Just describe that. I want you to draw a distinction here. How are you according to your research separating communism from Marxism? Or are you using them interchangeably?

Patricia Engler:  Yeah, that’s a great question. So I like to point people to the definitions given in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. If you look at the definition of Marxism, you’ll see it says a theory of policies and practices advocated by Karl Marx, especially a theory and practice of socialism. Then if you go look at the definition for socialism and then the definition for communism, you’ll find they are very, very similar according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary talking about a system where there’s no private property, a system of group living, the means of production are owned and controlled by the government and so on. So I’m using them with a lot of overlap in mind based on those definitions.

Sam Rohrer:       And we’re not going to go into other things, ladies and gentlemen, fascism, socialism, communism, all little bit different. But for the basis of this Marxism, this central component piece that goes through it, we’re focusing on that here today in chapter two, petition of your book, you entitle it new battles, old War God’s Word versus Marxism. And of course you’ve made it clear from the beginning and all of our listeners know if they listen to the program much know that there are worldviews, you’re talking at a worldview, a biblical worldview starts with God and then there’s basically everything else. And you effectively said that earlier, but in this case, in breaking it out so people understand it, because written this as a guide, you cite four ancient lies, again, takes us back to the concept of there was something good and now there’s this other that’s coming as a counterfeit, you cite these four ancient lies, then you define a biblical worldview and the competing Marxist worldview. So let’s camp here a little bit. What are the four ancient lies?

Patricia Engler:  So just to quickly summarize them, lie one says God’s word is not completely true. We know that goes back to the Garden of Eden. When Satan tempted eve with the lines, did God really say and then went on to contradict that. So then where Marx kind of came up with his own worldview, he was definitely buying lie one, lie two then says, truth is up to humans. So you’re saying humanity is the authority for determining what’s real and what’s right, which of course Marx again did making up his own worldview and saying, humans are essentially the drivers of history and the authority for determining what’s real. Then lie three, which goes along with that says, you can be like God, which again very familiar from the Garden of Eden, whenever we’re making ourselves the authority for truth and morality, we accept this lie. And then finally lie four says Jesus is ultimately less than who scripture says he is. So for instance, we can talk about this more, but scripture says Jesus is our only hope and our only savior, whereas Marxism saw the workers as humanity’s hope via this kind of workspace, revolutionary version of salvation. So that’s a quick summary

Sam Rohrer:       And that is a great summary. Within the context we’ve used these words as well, worldview, Marxist worldview, biblical worldview, some of these lies you’ve identified. I know people listening say, oh, I can see evidence of all of those things all about us. But if you were to define quickly in contrast, biblical worldview, Marxist worldview, what would you highlight as being compare those distinctive things?

Patricia Engler:  Yeah, so at its core, Marxism made his own false gospel based on a false idea of humanity’s nature core problem and redemptive hope. So we know God’s word, he’s human nature, humans are creatures. We’re sinful creatures. Our main problem is that we have rebelled against God. So that is why we need Jesus as our savior. So that’s the biblical version of humanity’s nature, core problem and redemptive hope. But Mark saw humans by nature as self-creators who shape reality in line with their own visions. He thought, our problem is socioeconomic conditions keep people from living as fulfilled self-creators because they’re oppressed by these conditions. So that was his version of sin. And then he thought humanity’s only hope for redemption is again for the oppressed to wake up and take back power via political revolution or a cultural revolution if you’re a neo-Marxist. And then that redistribution of power is what Marxist considers social justice. But that’s another term that’s very different from how God’s word Jesus, justice a scripture, we know condemned injustice in terms of people’s sinful actions or attitudes, not their social identities. And God’s word is also clear that our core problem of sin is something that affects all humans. So we’re not automatically good or bad based on our social traits, unlike what Neo Marxism says, all of us are people who need Jesus, and Jesus alone offers freedom and redemption. So those are the mean worldview differences I’d highlight there.

Sam Rohrer:       Okay, only about a minute left, but let me just ask you this clarification from your research was Karl Marx, from which we get Marxism, was he more about developing an economic system that accomplished the things you talked about? Or is there evidence that he actually was attempting to develop a new religion?

Patricia Engler:  Well, he certainly focused on economics, but I think it is pretty clear if you go back and look at his own history, he grew up in a nominally Christian family. He was baptized young as a Lutheran. His dad had rejected his Jewish roots and converted to kind of a nominal Protestantism. And as a teenager, Marx wrote a really Christian standing essay that affirmed only Jesus can redeem us. But then he became really enamored with unbiblical philosophies and became an atheist at university. And then that’s when he began developing this totally contrary worldview idea. And then when Darwin’s ideas came out, Marx latched onto them to justify his own thinking. So I think really the worldview behind his economic assumptions is very clearly, and I certainly think that he would’ve understood that. And then later Neo Marx has been thinking of, for instance, Antonio Ramey, an Italian communist said himself, socialism is precisely the religion that has to kill Christianity. So at least Marxist followers, if not Marx himself, viewed religion as something that socialism needed to overcome.

Sam Rohrer:       Well, ladies and gentlemen, as we’ve talked about many times, one’s worldview is ultimately a religious view because it starts with who is God or am I God or somebody else? God. So at its heart it goes there, which we’re talking about Marxism today. Certainly we heard that it has a deep roots there. When we come back, we’re going to talk about Marxism and its attack strategy. Well, if you’re just joining us now, we’re halfway through the program. My guest today is Patricia Engler. She is with Answers in Genesis. She’s one of the younger members of the team. But Patricia, you’re already prolific and you’re writing having written two books and the one today we’re talking about modern Marxism, A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World. And ladies and gentlemen, if you’re interested in it, you can find it at answersingenesis.org. Spell all that out.org. That’s available on their website.

Sam Rohrer:       But Patricia in part two, in the last segment, we just touched on a few of the elements in part one where you’re laying out the problem of Marxism in part two, chapter six to eight, which gives people an idea that this is not a gigantically big book. It’s quite condensed and focused, but you effectively out the Marxist strategies plural to undermine the foundations of our culture. And I’m going to say any other culture that has anything that looks like a biblical worldview pillar underneath of it, because you’ve already made that contrast. It’s a view of life. It is a religion, it is an economic system. Marxism is, it has everything about it has a counter posing position to that which is a biblical worldview which will find itself identified in the scripture. But in chapter six here of part two of your book, you identify five specific strategies or areas of attack, part of the Marxist agenda, you can put it that way. Would you identify these five and how these strategies, I’m going to say were implemented since we’re way down the road and the degree of success you would say they have achieved. In other words, they implemented these strategies five prongs. Now we have a western culture looking specifically at America. How successful have these been?

Patricia Engler:  Oh yeah. I think people will probably be able to think of a lot of examples as I go through these. So these are five ways that you need to break down the old society in order to replace it with a new one. And to do that, you have to first fire out what I call the foundations of societies. And because after all, the point of a revolution again is to make a new social order. But every society ultimately rests on the world view beliefs of its citizens, which are sustained by institutions like families, churches, schools, and the media. So the first thing you want to do is to weaken those worldviews. And one way to do that is to weaken the church. So you can do that through a couple of ways, active attacks that restrict Christian’s legal rights and freedoms, or you can encourage Christians to passively compromise on God’s word to accommodate the culture, which we’ve been seeing going on for a long time.

Patricia Engler:  It’s not just rooted in this neo-Marxist strategy, but it is something that the church has almost handed over to the Marxist in that sense. And another thing, you can see this back in historical attacks on the church, even during the French Revolution, for instance, what you want to do is keep a policy of religious freedom, but only apply that freedom to Christians who ultimately bow to the stake that strategy, the weakening church’s strategy. And then next you want to attack the family. Family of course keeps society stable. God ordained it as the discipleship unit for passing that godly worldview from one generation to the next. Do you want to disrupt the family? That was some of the language that people say the black life matters movement for instance, used disrupt the family so you can disciple the next generation instead. And that is also what we saw in history, say during Lenin’s regime where they did things like make divorce easier, decriminalized adultery would send husbands and wives to work in separate factories, undercutting parental rights, illegalizing abortion, things that again we see happening today.

Patricia Engler:  And then fourth, you want to target young people. They’re the ones who will be society’s future decision makers, voters, parents. And they’re also still figuring out what they believe they’ve had the least time to learn from history. They’re the easiest to influence mass through schools, which we’re really seeing so many schools and curricula teach these sort of Marxist oppressive versus oppressed narratives. And then once you recruited young people, they have a lot of energy to invest in your agendas. So historically revolutions have always required young people. And then fifth, going along with all these other strategies you want to sexualize children, that helps break down the family. It helps turn kids against the church and confuses them about their identities. So then you can give them a new identity and a new family within the revolutionary agenda. So again, we can think of so many examples, different movements, and so many of the headlines we would look at today would be examples of how these strategies are playing out in our own culture. Very prevalent, but thankfully there are things we can do which we’ll I think get to in segment four,

Sam Rohrer:       Looking at what you have identified and would say, yeah, here it is. Every one of those things you mentioned is an attacking of an area of authority or institution we would say as established by God, whether it be the home or government or the church, you mentioned that. And then there are substrates underneath every one of those. I don’t know if you go into them in your book or not, but attack the family. Yes. But now how do you do that? There are multiple subset of strategies there. How do you target the next generation? Weaken them if you do it. Marxism is effective. Multiple strategies, how you do that, multiple strategies of how you sexualize children, all these things that you’ve talked about. Do you go into any kind of detail that in your book?

Patricia Engler:  I provide examples here and there, but I like to leave it up to the reader as well to identify. So here are the strategies then as readers are going through and reading the headlines or looking around them at their culture and probably their own schools, just seeing these things playing out because like you said, they’re happening in so many different ways, but at least knowing the broad strategies, what’s going on here can be very helpful for identifying the specifics.

Sam Rohrer:       Yep, I agree with you a hundred percent. We go into chapter seven, you’ve entitled that Conditioning the culture processes that prime society for a soft totalitarian reset. Now you used your words carefully and we can spend a lot of time on each of those. But here I’m going to ask you this question, would you identify the processes you’ve identified a plural processes, and explain the reason though it may be obvious and why these strategies and why you’ve designated them as processes, not as singular. Events. Processes to me are over time events come and they go, you use processes. Is that the Marxist thought and why?

Patricia Engler:  Yeah. So I would definitely say processes like what you identified there, they happen gradually over time and they can happen through a bunch of different means and for a number of reasons. So I have that caveat in the book. It’s not just that there’s one organization or group that’s been orchestrating everything for all these years. They’ve been going on on a lot of levels to be that straightforward. So this isn’t just like a conspiracy theory tangent. These are ways to identify processes that make society more vulnerable to manipulation and control. So that different, say revolutionary agendas can easily step in and take over. So process one is what I call trivialization, basically are dumbing society down so that people don’t want or know how to think for themselves. For example, making sure the three Rs taught in schools are not so much reading, writing, arithmetic as radicalism, rhetoric and recreation and encouraging people to use media and entertainment and the internet in different technology in ways that bypass thinking.

Patricia Engler:  So for instance, on the internet culture, that’s really changed the concept of winning an argument from presenting the most logical synthesis of the highest quality facts to posting the most memorable insult and things like say generative ai, you can use to totally outsource your reading and research and thinking and communication skills at a time. And we need them more than ever. So again, people aren’t necessarily organizing these events for Marxist strategy, but it is a process that can make society vulnerable to it. So then that’s Trivialization. Second is atomization, which is isolating people from each other, breaking down community support networks. Isolated people are easier to control, they have less chance of others reminding them of what’s true as well. And then steps three and four go together, I call them desensitization. So making people used to immorality and then theorization, which is that idea that therapeutic is what philosophers use for the term that life’s purposes to be happy and then prioritizing happiness over everything else.

Patricia Engler:  So then when these go together, you can redefine good as doing whatever makes you happy, regardless of what God’s word says that helps to weaken families and churches like we talked about. And it conditions people to choose convenience and pleasure over freedom and conviction, which again makes people easier to control. And then fifth is what I call supervision. That involves setting up the digital surveillance infrastructure that totalitarian systems need. For instance, communist regimes in the past had to torture people for the kind of information that’s just posted online and being collected by apps today. And vague privacy policies certainly contribute to that. So that is an overview of the five processes that make societies vulnerable to revolution.

Sam Rohrer:       Patricia well identified. I think everybody listening, no doubt if they caught all of those could envision and apply to them things that they have seen witnessed themselves without a doubt. It makes me think, Patricia, and I’ve spoken a lot about Marxism and philosophies and that kind of thing with my time in government and on this program here, but I thought of three Ds that describe what we’re talking about. Well, that Marxism employs deception, division and death. Nothing about the Marxist philosophy builds up, enlarges improves. It is all about the other couched in deception. And you only have about 30 seconds here, not very much. So if we need to carry over, we will. But you use the word soft totalitarian reset, which I’m supposing would be in contrast to a hard totalitarian revolution perhaps. But what do you mean by that? And if you don’t have time here, we’ll carry it over.

Patricia Engler:  Yeah, that’s fine. So this is a concept that Rod Greer summarized in his book Live Not By Lies, and he was basically explaining that hard totalitarianism is like what the Soviet Union did trying to control people by force and violence. Whereas soft totalitarianism is this scenario where it’s social control that happens by luring people to prioritize those things like pleasure, safety and comfort over convenience, freedom, personal conviction and all of that. And that’s what we see happening through things like cancel culture, social credit systems, ESG scores, the push for an access economy. I read about all of those more in chapter one. So it’s basically a way of luring people into a new world order by manipulating their feelings and emotions and getting people to prioritize happiness. But then you control how they get that happiness and you only give them access to it when they follow what you’re telling them to do.

Sam Rohrer:       Ah, there you go. It’s superb job. You got a lot in there ladies. Gentlemen, stay with us. We come back, we’re going to move to the third part of the book, which I’m going to say is really more of a solution now, these things being established, what can we do? What should we know? How should we respond to protect that witch is under assault by Marxism? Well, as we go into our final segment now, if you’ve been with us from the beginning, don’t turn us off yet, stay with us and we’ll get a conclusion to this. But my special guest, Patricia Engr with Answers in Genesis has written a book in the title of that book. It’s very relevant to where we are today, modern Marxism, A guide for Christians in a Woke New World. Certainly we all know we’ve witnessed it for years. The undermining of those very pillars of morality and truth that have laid the foundation down for this country.

Sam Rohrer:       And most of you listening to me would be God-fearing. At least you understand that the West has historically been defined by a framing of their thinking according to generally speaking, a Judeo-Christian worldview. It is what we call a biblical worldview, what we’re talking about here that recognizes that God has a plan and that plan is a plan of redemption and that God is, God created a fall, sin came into this world, God of love, a God of justice, steps in and lays out his plan of redemption that manifests his judgment and his love through the provision of Jesus Christ, God’s son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that’s John three 16, we know and that all who come to him and faith can be restored, redeemed redemption plan. And all of this is what the word of God lays out.

Sam Rohrer:       Now that is just a way, a longer way to explain a biblical worldview, but from the beginning, as Patricia has been saying, there have been attempt after attempt, after attempt under different names, under different philosophies, but they have all attacked one of those things that I have just explained. And more Patricia, in your book, you’ve laid out, well the problem, you’ve gone back into some history and pulled up some really important historical things. You’ve gone to the cause. I’m going to cut that way. The strategies, the agenda of neo, the modern Marxism to effectively deceive people. I’m saying to deceive and to supplant God’s truth with another approach and the soft totalitarianism, I’ll put it in my perspective ladies and gentlemen, is to make people believe that by doing what Marxism, the devil I’m going to say ultimately want you to do that people actually give up voluntarily, give up those things that have been the foundation of which God has blessed us in this nation and the West. That’s really what it is. It is a process of deception and division that biblically we know ends in death. Now, those are my words, Patricia. Let me get into it here and ask you this. What’s the essential message in your chapter nine where you present three secrets to standing strong?

Patricia Engler:  Yeah, this is where it gets to me more exciting because this is actually, okay, so how shall we live? We don’t want to just end on this negative note, but now what do we actually do about this? We know there’s hostility increasing. So this chapter explains how there are three biblically based personal foundations that all Christians need to keep and live out a strong biblical worldview in hard environments and then actually apply that worldview in ways that impact their surroundings. If you look at scripture at different major research studies, at stories from Christians and stories of world changing Christians, all of those stories and examples, often you’ll find point to the importance of these three foundations, which I’ve also heard Christian students all over the world say, help them keep their faith during universities. So these are very universal. So what are they? Number one, having strong spiritual foundations is about having a close personal walk with God, making God’s word, the basis for your thinking and decision-making in every area.

Patricia Engler:  So ways I encourage especially young people, but really all Christians to build these pretty straightforward, studying God’s word, praying regularly, worshiping, memorizing scripture, seeking biblical wisdom there entire books in the Bible about that based on your identity as well, on the fact that you belong to Jesus rather than on anything else. And then drawing biblical boundaries ahead of time regarding pressures or temptations that you may soon face. And then when that moment of pressure comes, you will have already decided how to respond. So that’s spiritual foundations. Second is intellectual foundations living out and defending a biblical worldview. The ways to build those are to study apologetics resources and develop biblical critical thinking skills to answer new questions that come up. So that will help you recognize and respond to false gospels like modern Marxism. And then the third is interpersonal foundations, having a strong Christian community support network around you, and then that helps combat that atomization strategy that isolates people from each other so that they’re easier to control.

Patricia Engler:  And then ways to build those include, for instance, having intergenerational discipleship, keeping connections between seniors and youth, stay in churches, giving opportunities for that mentorship to happen. And then for young people, I also definitely encourage them and all Christians plug into a biblical local church because the church itself and the Christian family both historically function as a sort of resistance cell or Christian resistance movement to things like Marxism. I talk in chapter eight about historically it has been Christians who have helped to end communism in some of those places where it’s happened. The fall of the Berlin Wall, and I also talked about the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia we’re in large part spearheaded by churchgoers. So many interesting things there, but those are really the three foundations that Christians need to stand strong in a hostile world.

Sam Rohrer:       Excellently stated, spiritual foundations, intellectual foundations, interpersonal foundations, ladies and gentlemen, we’re going back to foundations, all of these based on truth, God’s word being truth. Only just a couple minutes left, you might have time to go through all of these. Chapter 10, you actually identify 12 tactics for Christian resistance, you say, or counter-revolutionary strategies. Alright, now those foundations you identified excellent right there. Now some of these counter strategies to supporting them, and you won’t have time to finish, just give a little bit of a summary of what you can.

Patricia Engler:  Yep. So as many as possible, one, defend the institutions of marriage, family, and churches. Two, disciple young people, three, counter false gospels and show the true one instead. Four, harness the power of media, our education and technology to share truth instead of lies. Five is using technology wisely and biblically. Six, speaking the truth in love with wisdom and gentleness. Seven, defending human life at every age and stage to resist dehumanization strategies. Eight, living not by lies, as Alexander Soni told people under communism, saying not to participate in lies by refusing to say what they didn’t think. Nine, resist different brainwashing tactics that are meant to present human made ideas as the unquestionable truth. And to censor dissident, 10 is to live above reproach so that no one will have a good reason to oppose us. Like what Paul encouraged Titus to do, 11 is to know your legal rights like Paul did himself in Acts 22.

Patricia Engler:  And then 12 is to overcome evil with good, including by loving our enemies as Jesus taught. And I also finished the book with some encouragement to remind people that Jesus is the victor. He has overcome this world. We can expect it will be hard to follow him, but we know it will be worth. And when we make his word, the foundation for our thinking and living in every area, that is the foundational starting point for really applying these strategies and then watching God impact the culture through them. Even if we never see the results, we know faithfulness is worth it. So that is in a nutshell, the 12 strategies that you can learn more about them. Of course in chapter 10,

Sam Rohrer:       Patricia, that brings us right up to the end. You are a person of organization. I will tell you, and now our listeners publicly, very logical, very biblical in the approach, the structure of this book, ladies and gentlemen, the title of it again, and I would encourage you to get it, modern Marxism, A Guide for Christians in a Woke New World. And whereas it’s focused on Marxist strategy, these approaches and the underpinnings of this will help in the identification of any false gospel, any unbiblical, anti-biblical worldview philosophy. It really will. Patricia Engler from Answers and General, thank you so much for being with me. So much good information. Thank you for spending the time on the book and we’re glad to make it known. To our listeners, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us today. Again, you go back to this website on our app, download the program, listen to it, get a transcript of the entire program available right there and then share it with a friend. That’s a great thing that you can do.