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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Deserves serious consideration., May 22, 2004
As a grad student in China studies, I once made the mistake of referring to Marx and Satan in the footnote of a paper for a very by-the-book scholar. He circled the title in heavy red ink and wrote in the margin with even heavier sarcasm: "Might the book have a bias?" Richard Wurmbrand certainly did have a bias, though not the one the "one star" reviewers below accuse him of. No, this is not "anti-Semitic drivel;" Wurmbrand was himself a Jew, persecuted by the fascists for his race, who loved his people. No, he is not a "reactionary fanatic," nor does this book represent "the scarier mindscapes of the Bible Belt." Wurmbrand is actually from Romania, which is I believe some distance from Texas, and you read his many fascinating books, you will find he was actually quite thoughtful. But yes, he was biased against communism. He spent many years in slave labor camps, was tortured, and saw friends die. (A slave labor camp, I might point out, is rather a scarier place than a Southern Baptist church; tens of millions of people died in such places in the last century.) Despite the provocative title of this book, such experiences did not render Wurmbrand bitter or unhinged. His argument here is not a vitriolic piece of ad hominem; rather it is a serious suggestion, backed up, it seems, by a fair amount of circumstantial evidence. It is commonly argued that Marx had nothing to do with the crimes of communism. Even if Wurmbrand's central thesis does not convince you, the evidence he offers does at least show the spiritual or psychological continuity between Marx and the crimes committed in his name. The book has its flaws, true. The evidence Wurmbrand offers is not overpowering. Wurmbrand sometimes takes phrases like "demonic fury" a little too seriously; I suspect it was often mere hyperboli. Also, he is not critical enough with his sources. Although he does not base anything on it, in one place he seems to accept the "Ritual Satanic Abuse" scam, for example. Finally, the book is a bit gossipy. Still, Wurmbrand knows a great deal about communism. He seems to have read very widely in primary sources, and provides strongly suggestive quotes to back up his thesis. He shows caution at times, and is knowledgeable and thoughtful. A few months ago I came across a dissertation in my university library entitled "The Role of Atheism in the Marxist Tradition." The author of the dissertation, a journalist named David Aikman, wrote it under the guidance of Donald Treadgold, editor of the Slavic Review and a leading historian of the Soviet Union. It was interesting to me to find that Aikman took Wurmbrand's thesis very seriously, and in his own study of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, had found additional evidence that seemed to point in the same general direction. What did Marx and his chief disciples really believe? As Wurmbrand admits, Marx and Satan is not the final word on that question. But I think this little book does point out a set of facts that more conventional history largely ignores, and that ought to be considered; and not only as an intellectual curiosity. Wurmbrand was not an arm-chair critic, but a witness, survivor, philosopher, and passionate lover of God and man. The facts he points out, and his observations on this subject, are worth considering, if not just for their own sake, for the sake of those who died. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Karl Marx, High Priest of Satan!, December 26, 2003
"The good of the workers was only a pretense. Where proletarians do not fight for Socialist ideals, Marxists will exploit racial differences or the so-called generation gap. The main thing is, religion must be destroyed."_Marx and Satan_ by Richard Wurmbrand is a small book that advances the theory that Karl Marx was a member of a Satanic cult. To this affect, Wurmbrand, a Lutheran pastor who had been imprisoned by Communist authorities in Romania, cites many examples of Marx's poetry and personal writings. He also delves into the backgrounds of other members of the early communist/socialist movements, notably Frederick Engels and Moses Hess. Marx was born a Jew, however he was baptized at age seven for his family's business reasons. It appears that Marx may have been devout in his early years, but he later turned against Christianity with a vengeance. Marx's poetry contains references to overthrowing God and having himself [Marx] reign in His stead. Despite his current reputation in liberal academia as a champion of the rights of the poor, Marx made many disparaging comments about the poor and unenlightened. Despite his pretenses as being a champion of the exploited classes, the poor have generally in history been the ones least likely to change their "primitive" worldview in the face of drastic social change. Most of those committed to Communist/Marxist ideology in America are those from well-educated, upwardly mobile types who think they are "enlightened" about humanity's true condition. Marx called the Slavs and Russians of Eastern Europe scum and reactionary people. Curiously, he polemicizes against his own people the Jews, characterizing them as supporters of tyrants and as capitalist exploiters. The biggest issue that liberals (who are basically "softcore Marxists" that use subtle propaganda rather than open revolutionary violence) have with the world is the influence that traditional religion, in particular, Christianity, wields. This means the belief that mankind is not merely the product of material (i.e. economic, evolutionary, sexual, biological, etc.) drives, but rather the product of a reflected divine nature. Wurmbrand speculates that Marx may in fact have been a Satanic high priest. It makes sense that a Satanic cult would use classical Marxism as a front to achieve its ends in destroying the worship of Christ. Communism, as articulated in Marx and Engles' _Communist Manifesto_, states that human society is the product of competition between various classes of economic status. Marx revels in that the bourgeoisie businessmen and merchants destroyed Europe's old feudal structure, but that current setup would be violently overthrown by the proletariat, the common masses of humanity. His fellow revolutionary and propagandist #1 is the mysterious Robin Goodfellow, who is the spirit of revolution and Shakespeare's "knavish spirit that misleads nightwanderers, laughing at their harm." Marx's demands for radical social revolution have been institutionalized in the government, academia, and even in many churches today, furthering the humanist New World Order based on the Luciferian principle of autonomy and rebellion against the Divine Order. Satanism reverses opposites and tries to turn black into white, right into wrong. Marxism/Communism is not about helping the poor achieve economic equity ("the poor you will have with you always"), but about Satanic rebellion and the destruction of Christ's Church. There are some problems with _Marx and Satan_. One glaring irregularity is Wurmbrand's statement that the Satanic cult is "older than Christianity." Christianity is just a more recent name for the worship of He Who Is, rather than Satanism, the worship of transgression and rebellion. He is also off when he supports Theodore Herzel's Zionism. On a positive note, _Marx and Satan_ is not written in a spiteful manner towards its subjects, but rather with an attitude of compassion and repentance. Also recommended about the unusual beliefs of the founders of socialism: _Moses Hess: Prophet of Communism and Zionism_ by Avineri.
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32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important contribution to our understanding of Marx., February 20, 1999
Was Karl Marx an active Satanist? This seemingly phantastic suggestion gets strong circumstantial evidence in Richard Wurmbrand's study. He reaches his conclusion by considering several facts. The young Karl Marx was a believing Christian, as his earliest writings demonstrate, but at an early stage his love for Christ, for some unknown reason, turned into hate, and his thinking is radically changed. In his youth Marx wrote poetry, and in his poems he starts revealing horrific thoughts. Filled with venom, they tell us about self-idolizing and dreams of destruction and usurpation of God. He writes about his vision to wander victorious through the ruins of the world, and through the streangth of his words feel equal with the creator. On the other hand, however, he knows that he will fail: "I know it full well, my soul - once true to God - is chosen for hell". In one poem he confesses that he has bought a sword from the prince of darkness. This is significant, as the introduction rite to the Satanist order involves buying a sword from Satan, paying with one's soul. Other poems, too, contain allusions to Satanic rites, for instance one named Oulanem (a distortion of Immanuel). Marx' housekeeper told that her master was a pious man. He used to kneel on his bedroom and pray with black candles burning. Karl Marx' correspondence with his family members contain some strange details. He calls his son "dear devil" and is himself titled "highpriest" - an office that does not exist in any other religion than Satanism (except ancient Judaism, a religion that he rejected emphatically). His doughter has also told that he used to tell scaring fairy tales to his children, about people who sold their souls to the devil. Marx' appearance is also worth considering. Though having a beard was not uncommon in his age, it was by no means common to let it grow shaggy as he did. In the Satanist order of Joanna Woolcott, however, this was the praxis. Wurmbrand offers more arguments and their cumulative effect is, in my opinion, convincing. This side of Karl Marx has of course been suppressed, not least beacause those who are interested in him usually do not want to believe it. It is interesting to notice that when the Communist party of India decided to make a rebuttal of the book, all they came up to was a plead to judge Marxism on its own value and not to care about the religious views of its architect. (Of related interest is Gary North: Marx' Religion of Revolution).
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