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75 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Deserves serious consideration., May 22, 2004
This review is from: Marx & Satan (Paperback)
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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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"MARX BELIEVED IN GOD AND HATED HIM" [Page 84], October 22, 2006
On page 71 of my 1979 edition of WAS KARL MARX A SATANIST?, Richard Wurmbrand writes: Marx did not love mankind. Mazzini, who had known him well, wrote that he had "a destructive spirit. His heart bursts with hatred rather than with love toward men." I know of no testimonies to the contrary from Marx's contemporaries. Marx the loving man is a myth constructed only after his death.
This is a factor that all men and women who lean toward Communism/Socialism as a result of genuine concern for the welfare of all people would be wise to seriously consider before ascribing any noble aspirations to the manifesto Marx gave to the world. If what Marx wrote was true, that he harbored "hatred against all gods" and that he wished to avenge himself "against the One who rules above", should it surprise any of us then that the fruit of his philosophy is responsible for unspeakable torture, terribly unjust acts, and the murder of about 100 million people worldwide? Should any thinking person be mystified by the obvious unfeasibility of Marx's secular Communism/Socialism wherever it has been tried, and by the destruction and unhappiness it inevitably leads to for the people it proposes to benefit?
WAS KARL MARX A SATANIST? By Richard Wurmbrand is just a small, 84 page booklet, but it contains lots of food for thought. If I was part of a jury given the responsibility to officially answer this question, in all honesty, I could not say that Wurmbrand's booklet proves its contention beyond all reasonable doubt. Wurmbrand essentially concedes this point when he writes, "I am conscious that the evidence which I give here is only circumstantial ..... I do not claim to have provided undisputable proof that Marx was a member of a sect of devil-worshippers, but I believe that there are sufficient leads to imply this. There are certainly enough leads to infer satanic influence upon his life and teachings ..... The sins of Marxism, like those of Nazism, surpass the ordinary. They are satanic." With that I wholeheartedly concur.
For the student such as myself, interested in the study of secret occult societies, there are a number of little "dots" provided in Wurmbrand's booklet that aid in seeing "the big picture" when one is connecting those dots. For instance, there's Karl's association with Moses Hess, whose family name appears in any detailed study of the Illuminati, and Karl's own Son-In-Law, Edward Aveling, friend of luciferian Annie Besant, and a leading personality in her luciferian Theosophy organization.
On page 67, Wurmbrand makes the extremely intriguing supposition: "Communists have the habit of creating front-organizations. [The above text] suggests the probability that Communist movements are themselves front-organizations for occult satanism. This would also explain why all the political, economical, cultural, and military weapons used against Communism have proved so inefficient. The means to fight satanism are spiritual, not carnal..."
I've given this book 3 stars only because of its cursory examination of a topic worthy of rigorous, scholarly study, and because it is not ultimately able to conclusively prove what it proposes. But anyone interested in this idea will find WAS KARL MARX A SATANIST? well worth reading and considering.
On February 27, 1852, Karl Marx wrote to his comrade in evil, Friedrich Engels, about an inheritance he would come into if his wife's ill uncle passed away: "If the dog dies, I would be out of mischief." On March 2nd, Engels replied, "I congratulate you for the sickness of the hinderer of an inheritance, and I hope that the catastrophe will happen now." As bad luck for Marx would have it, the old man recovered and did not depart for a better world until 1855. But on March 8th of that year, Marx wrote again to Engels, expressing his glee: "A very happy event. Yesterday we were told about the death of the 90-year-old uncle of my wife. My wife will receive some 100 Lst; even more if the old dog has not left a part of his money to the lady who administered his house."
These are the two great "humanitarians" who gave this world the joys of Communism/Socialism. I'll say this much: If Karl Marx was NOT a satanist, he certainly missed his second calling. (God called him first - as God calls to each of us first - but we KNOW Marx wasn't listening to THAT Voice!)
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55 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Karl Marx, High Priest of Satan!, December 26, 2003
This review is from: Marx & Satan (Paperback)
"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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