Communism’s Blueprint For Conquest

Message delivered in The Moody Church Prayer Meeting on October 11, 1950

In 1848, Karl Marx and Frederick Engles, the founders of Communism, published the Communist Manifesto, the opening words of which were: “There is a spectre haunting Europe”—the spectre of Communism.

Today that would be a gross understatement. The spectre not only haunts Europe: it has almost conquered and destroyed Europe as it was known. It is meanacing, in a most real sense, the entire world. It has conquered the greater part of Europe and Asia, so that the Communist government of Russia enjoys supremacy over countless millions of people, has the largest army, the largest air force, the greatest number of tanks, the most visious military force the world has ever known at its disposal.

In distant Korea, the ground is being watered with the blood of the sons of America, sacrifice to appease this spectre of Communism. South of Korea, the vast area of China has been conquered by the Soviet government in fulfillment of its plans laid long ago. And 450 million Chinese are now in the hands of the Kremlin, to be transformed at the appropraite moment into North Korean soldiers. The vast populace of the East is afraid, and everywhere Communism is on the march.

Now none of these things have happened by accident. Long ago Joseph Stalin himself was appointed Commissar for Nationalities by Lenin. He laid the groundwork and worked out the plans for the conquest of the Eastern nations, so that he could consolidate and utilize them for the final overthrow of the West. And as the Communist plans have gone with complete satisfaction in the East, so they also have plans for the Democratic countries. Plans for the conquest, internal and external, not only of these Eastern countries, the whole of Europe, of Australia, of South America, but of the United States of America.

To study the unparalleled advance of Communism in the light of the plans which the Communists announced beforehand, and to see how the plans have gone according to program, is certainly a rather frightening experience. The basic strategy of their planning was laid down in 1920 by a gentleman known as Lenin.

As I have gone about speaking in America, I have usually asked three questions: “Who has heard of Communism?” “Who is opposed to Communism?” and “Who knows what Communism is?” The most I have had raise their hand on the third question is four. That impressed on me in a most real fashion that the only thing equaling the American's opposition and hatred of Communism is their ignorance and inability to understand and deal with it. Therefore I must admit that the questions I have been asking are far too advanced.

When somebody puts his hand up that he knows Communism, I ask one question: “What is the philosophy of Communism?” To that question I have received one correct answer and only one.

What is the philosophy of Communism? The correct answer is, of course, dialectical materialism. Most of you have never heard of it, but it is the religion of 800 million people—and I use the word religion advisedly. You can’t have a scientific textbook published in Russia today unless it is filled with adoring references to dialectical materialism. And in reading the writing of the Chinese Communists, I find their leader lays it down quite clearly that the Church in China has a future only insofar as it adapts itself to and forwards the new concept, the new education, of dialectical materialism.

If you don’t know what dialectical materialism is you know nothing about Communism. Because it’s as true today as it ever was, that as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And as a movement thinketh in its heart, so it is. The fundamental need is for us to understand what Communism thinks, how it feels, what it proposes to do, to enter into its mind, into its heart, so that we can oppose it with enlightenment and with efficiency.

I’ve found so many people in America who have never even heard of Lenin! I thought everyone had heard of Lenin even if they didn’t know very much about him. Lenin was the great strategist, the great brain, the great mind of the Communists, the founder of the Bolsheviks, the dictator of Russia. Never heard of Lenin! The man who has brought the world to its present condition, humanly speaking, the man who, with his minute army of serfs conquered the mighty empire of the Czars!

Lenin wrote the blueprints—that plan since executed by the Communists to bring them to their present position athwart the world! The man whose body lies in a mighty tomb in Red Square in Moscow, where, for twenty-six years, an endless stream of worshiping pilgrims have walked past in idolatrous adoration, day and night without ceasing. Never heard of Lenin!

In 1920 he must have been the world’s busiest man. His fantastically small army of eighty thousand Bolsheviks—that was the total membership of the Bolshevik party—had captured the empire of 190 million people. There was civil war on every side; the country was exhausted by a long and losing war. There were riots, there was famine and starvation. The country was being invaded from the east and from the west by external armies. Everywhere there was sudden death.

And in the center of it all was Lenin, with his administrative officer, Joseph Stalin, alongside. He manipulated, planned and schemed, and had the intolerable responsibility of the whole organization.

Nevertheless, in this crisis year, overwhelmed with tremendous responsibilities, he found time to write a book. It is the most satanically inspired book I know, the cleverest book I know, a book that is a text book at every Communist school, a book which lays the groundwork of the entire Communist strategy since the time of Lenin. This book is called “Left Wing Communism and Infantile Disorder,” and it was written primarily as an attack on certain German Communists, and others, who were saying, “We Communists should be honest, we should speak the truth.”

Lenin turns on them and says, “You children, you who fall prey to all the silly doctrines of the capitalist system under which you live! There is no such thing as truth, except class truth!

“We have only one standard by which we can test whether an action is right or wrong, whether it is true or false. If it aids the revolution and the Communist dictatorship it is good, honest, beautiful; if it hinders it, it is bad, dishonest, and ugly. If it helps it, it is true, if it hinders it, it is false!”

Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” Lenin gave the Communists the answer. “Truth is that which advances the cause of proletarian revolution and Communist Dictatorship.”

This point needs to be understood in order to have any comprehension of Communist statements. People look with amazement at Mr. Vyshinsky and Mr. Molotov in the United Nations sessions when they stand up and with the most apparent sincerity tell the most outrageous lies. They can do it becaue they are not telling lies: they are telling the proletarian truth because it aids the Cause! Therefore, it is the truth, says Lenin. It’s not merely convenience; that’s what truth is! They must be prepared to do anything and say anything that will advance the cause of proletarian revolution and Communist dictatorship.

Then Lenin goes on to a practical question. He says, “Now you people go out to the public and try to get a crowd for yourselves—that’s foolish! Nobody will listen to you. You must look around and find an organization that already has a crowd: in Communist jargon, an organization in contact with the masses.

“It doesn’t matter what you think of that organization. It may be the worst, the most reactionary in the world. Nevertheless, if it has a crowd, it is your duty as a Communist to attach yourself to that organization. Worm your way into it, then utilize the crowd in that organization for your Communist purposes.

“When you are through with the organization, what are you to do? You just destroy it; wring it dry and then throw it away.” It is of no more value than that. Or take a man who has popularity and the ear of the people, support him, utilize him, and when they are through with him, just throw him overboard. There’s no more value attached to an individual than that!

And then Lenin names some organizations that must be infiltrated and used. “The church,” he says, “is just a reactionary, vicious servant of the masses to enslave the workers—the church is an abomination. Nevertheless, it has a crowd!” What then must the Communist do? He must infiltrate the church until his kind get in a strong enough position so that they can destroy it. This policy has been carried on with a great measure of success in many Protestant church groups.

As Lenin goes on to list the other organizations that must be infiltrated, he lays particular stress upon the trade unions. He says, “Through your infiltration of the trade unions the revolution is to be brought about and the Communist dictatorship established.”

Last year in Australia we had a remarkable experience. We saw the blueprint of Lenin in this regard fulfilled in minute detail.

Now in Australia there are between seven and eight thousand Communists out of the total population of eight million—the Communists number less than one per thousand. And yet, following in detail the plan outlined by Lenin, this Communist minority, disciplined, fanatical and instructed, went within an ace of conquering the country last year by armed assault. This was done without one man or one dollar helping them from the outside!

Lenin says the revolution and dictatorship are to take place in five steps. The first one is infiltration: the infiltration of different organizations, but particularly the infiltration of the industrial unions. The second step is the calling of an industrial strike.

“When,” he says, “you’ve got in control of the unions, you will always be able to get men to strike, because you will have a vast reservior of human greed. You’ll find that no matter how well paid they are, no matter how good their conditions are, you’ll always be able to stir the workers up to want more.” An industrial strike is defined by the Communists as a strike for better wages, shorter hours, better vacation payments, pension privileges, and things of that nature. “You must start off with an industrial strike, otherwise you won’t be able to get men to strike. You’ve got to work on their greed.

“And when the industrial strike is established, you are then to turn it into a political strike.” The Communists define a political strike as a strike aimed at destroying standards of living, causing unemployment, insecurity, privations, distrust, fear, a general tension, a sense of unrest.

“Then,” says Lenin, “when you’ve thrown the country into that state, you use your propganda machine to go around shouting ‘The Capitalist system is broken down; Capitalism is to blame for all this! There’s only one way to right it. Revolt! Revolt! REVOLT!’ And when the political strike has proceeded far enough, your fourth step is to fan it into armed insurrection.

Armed insurrection brings chaos, fighting in the streets, cities without lights, without water, without conveniences, with incredible hardship, everything disorganized and broken down. The only remaining authority capable of bringing life back into the economy will be the Communists. Through your control of the trade unions, you can get the men back to work, bring electricity back into the lights, water into the mains, gas into the stoves, set the street cars running. You are then to institute the dictatorship of the Communist party.”

Now that is the five-step blueprint laid down by Lenin. And we saw less than one in a thousand, last year, carry it within an ace of complete success. Their infiltration of the trade unions has been so successful that self-proclaimed Communists are in places of authority in more than thirty percent of Australian trade unions.

The unions which they control include all these basic industries on which our entire life depends: the coal mining industry (and coal is the very heart of Australian economy. We have no natural oil or gas, no water power.), the waterside workers, the heavy industries of iron and steel. In our own state, New South Wales, they also control the Teachers Federation.

The policy of the Communist controlled Miners Federation is that there shall not be any coal stocks anywhere throughout the country. Consequently, as soon as a strike is even threatened, the most severe restrictions on electricity, gas and transport have to come into operation. The Communists, at a day’s notice, can hold the community at ransom.

In the middle of winter last year the Communists called a sudden Australia-wide coal strike. It was an industrial strike, a strike for better conditions. The claims were being considered by the Arbitration court, an independent tribunal, but before a decision could be given the Communists called a strike.

Immediately the most severe handicaps and restrictions were placed on the entire community. Gas for cooking was allowed one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Otherwise the gas was turned off. Electricity was allowed for one light, and one light only, in the house. None of our homes have central heating; most of them depend on electric radiators or gas heaters. And neither could be used by anyone without a medical prescription.

Hundreds of thousands of men were immediately unemployed. Even hospitals were closed down. The entire economy went to pieces.

If such a strike could be maintained for one month, Sydney, a city of one and a half million people, would be without gas for cooking (and there’s no alternative), without electricity which provided cooking, heating, transport; without sanitation, without sewerage, without water and without food. You can see what a desperate thing it was that this attack should be made upon the community.

The Labor Party’s Socialist Government declared it was a revolutionary attempt by the Communists to take over the entire country. They instituted legislation the severity of which has never been known before in a democratic country. They froze trade union funds; they put the army into the open cut coal mines.

Now they froze trade union funds retrospectively, so that the trade unions could not draw the money to pay strike pay and keep the strike going. However, three unions had withdrawn large sums of money from the bank to be used for strike pay. They were called before the arbitration court and ordered to surrender this money. They refused to do so and their secretaries and presidents were jailed for contempt of court.

The Communist party was similarly called before the court and ordered to hand in the money it had drawn from the bank. To everybody’s great surprise, when we had expected the Communist party to show its courage, its fortitude, and the fact that it couldn’t be intimidated, it meekly handed back the money so that its officers could go free.

And the Communist party, in its own press, justified its actions by saying that had they allowed the leaders of the Communist party to be jailed, the strike would have been decapitated. It was an open confession as to where the leadership of the strike rested.

You can just imagine the state of affairs that existed, how the revolutionary state at which the Communists were aiming was coming to pass. There were all sorts of rumors circulating around, there was bitterness and fear, and worry about the future. Everywhere there were agitators upon boxes screaming about the vicious government and how it was oppressing the workers. Everything was at that inflamable stage where anything could happen—the very aim and object of the Communist party.

Three steps had been accomplished: infiltration of the trade unions, calling an industrial strike, and transforming it into a political strike. The next step was to be open revolution. We didn’t actually have this, but we had a rehearsal for it. The Communist technique of “Bring the workers onto the street in armed revolution,” as they say.

When the secretary of the Waterside Workers Federation was committed to jail, masses of waterside workers marched through the streets. It didn’t break out into open riot, but you could see the potentialities were all there. The Communists were just having a rehearsal, learning what lessons they could learn, to apply to their attack next time. I heard the secretary of the Communist party say that they expected to seize control within five years. And I would remind you that the Communists represent, in our country, less than one per thousand of the population.

There are many very important lessons that could be learned. One of them was this: leadership is of the utmost importance. Some say that provided the bulk of the group is loyal, the fact that its leadership is a bit extreme does not matter. But during the critical period, the attitude taken by every group in Australia was simply a reflection of the political standing of its leadership and nothing else. What was important was what the leaders thought, not what the masses thought.

I’ll just give you one illustration: The railway workers in Australia are all nationalized. The government owns all the railroads; the workers are organized into what is known as the Australian Railways Union. There are two state groups: Victoria and New South Wales. The two states are adjacent to each other in the same way as Illinois and Indiana. Is there any difference between the citizens of Illinois and Indiana? Well, there is no difference between the railway workers of Victoria and New South Wales.

They are exactly the same sort of people, and yet the Australia Railways Union in Victoria supported the strike, went hand-in-glove with the Communists, fought the Government, and was on the side of the revolution. The Australia Railways Union in New South Wales opposed the Communists, supported the Government, transported the coal mined by the army and was effective in breaking the strike.

The only difference between these two groups is that the leader in Victoria was a Communist, and the leader in New South Wales was an anti-Communist. At the time of crisis, when everything hung in the balance, no matter what the vast mass of men thought the attitude of the leaders controlled, because they had all the constitutional provisions for making the decision and committing their own membership. Leadership is of tremendous importance in these days.

However, this time the Communists weren’t successful in Australia. The Government was able to rally enough support among the trade unions and the strike was broken. The miners went back to work, the wheels of industry began to turn again. The unemployed were taken back to work, the water was turned into the mains, the gas into homes, and Australia had a respite and came back almost to normal.

But the Communists are still entrenched in the trade unions. Not one of them has been ejected or suffered in any way. The Government is endeavoring to eliminate them, so far without success. It is a very difficult problem.

The thing I’m trying to impress is that there is a group that is dangerous, not only by reason of its external armed forces (it is tremendously dangerous on that account, don’t underestimate it), but it is also dangerous because of its satanic cleverness, militant discipline, and the fact that it knows the weakness of human personality and character. It is prepared to utilize the corruption of the human heart for its own purposes to bring about the destruction of democracy.

There are one or two spiritual lessons that I would like to draw from this. The Communists believe they are elect, the chosen of history to rule the world. The Word of God says to the Christians, “Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot by men.”

And it is a regrettable but true fact that the Communists expect and receive a much greater standard of consecration than anything that is given by the Christian Church to the Lord Jesus Christ. How does a Communist get into a position of leadership? By his own deliberate self-denial and sacrifice in the immediate interests of the workers so that he can persuade them he’s their best friend. Communists have won their positions by their devotion to the Cause.

Lenin had a slogan, “Fewer but better,” and he actually split the Russian Social Democratic party on this very principle. He said, “We won’t accept into membership anyone with any reservations whatsoever. We won’t accept into our membership anyone unless he is an active, disciplined, working member in one of our organizations.” There’s no such thing as a mixed general membership.

I wonder how we’d get on if we applied that to churches—nobody allowed in church membership unless he was an active worker, disciplined and proven, in one of the organizations, carrying out the work.

Now that principle of which Lenin built the Bolshevik party was the concept of self denial discipline for a Cause. And if you join the Communist party, you surrender yourself to it absolutely. If they wish, they separate even husband and wife, they break up families. A man must love the party more than his own children. The party must come first.

Can’t we draw a lesson from this on the tremendous need there is for our Christian consecration to be genuine? You know, the Lord Jesus makes tremendous demands on us. He said to the rich young ruler, “Go and sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.” “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” The Communists are prepared to do it, but are the Christians?

There are in the United States of America, I believe, between seventy and eighty thousand Communists. There are twenty-seven million alleged members of the Protestant Church. If there was any genuineness about the love, the devotion to Christ of these church members, Communism would be a thing to be laughed at. But Communists set a standard of devotion and loyalty and personal zeal that the Christians can’t equal.

There’s another lesson that Communism teaches, and I think it is also very important. The Communist never underestimates the value of theory, the value of thought, and the value of planning. And I believe in study classes: “Study to show thyself approved.”

How few Christian people there are who are willing to think! When I came to America I was taken aside and warned by some well-meaning people: “You must understand that the Americans are a very frothy people, charming and generous. Never speak for more than twenty minutes, and always tell some funny stories.”

How true it is. How people like something stirring and emotional but will not get down to the sound teaching of the basic doctrines of the Word of God. What we need is knowledge of the Word of God, “workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”

So the Communists have a standared of consecration, of thinking, of self-discipline, of study, of education, and they have a tremendous sense of destiny. They are the very elect, the chosen. But the Word of God says we were chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. Redeemed and justified, we should have the sense of security and victory, because we are the chosen, not of history, but the chosen of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And lastly, there is one personality, there is one man who dominates the loyalty and the hearts and the thoughts of all the Communists—Joseph Stalin. In the name of Joseph Stalin and for the sake of Joseph Stalin, they are prepared to wage tremendous battles, suffer incredible hardships, just fling themselves as offerings to eminent death, in the glorious name of Joseph Stalin.

“But I know a Name, a precious Name—‘Tis Jesus.” And the very loyalty and passion of our hearts and the love of our lives, should be centered in this glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we see what these people under satanic inspiration, consecrated to their goal, loyal to their leader, studying their doctrine, faithful onto death, can do, surely we can hear the call to take up our cross, and follow Jesus whithersoever He leads.

Take your stand with Him, with consecration, with enthusiasm, with loyalty, with devotion. Are you prepared to do it? You are the chosen, the elect, the salt of the earth, through whom millions are to be preserved and won to the Lord in these last days. God grant that we might take up the challenge and follow Him.