Spurgeon’s Warning: We Preach Christ Crucified, Not Class Warfare

⚒️ Article 9 for The Age of Counterfeit Kingdoms, Red Banners in the Pulpit

Marxism’s First Assault on the Church

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The First Red Flag Was in the Pulpit

“Marx could not plant his revolution in England—Spurgeon’s pulpit saw to that.”

In the 19th century, Europe’s streets filled with the red banners of revolution. Karl Marx promised a utopia without God, a paradise achieved by tearing down the “oppressors” and exalting the working class as saviors of history. His Communist Manifesto thundered with a kind of secular eschatology: the end of history would be a classless society, the state would wither away, and man would be free at last.

But Marx’s revolution was not merely political. It was religious in its claims, while being anti-religious in its substance. He replaced God with history, sin with oppression, and redemption with revolution. Marxism was—and is—a counterfeit gospel.

Yet when Marx and his disciples tried to bring their doctrine into England, they met a force they could not overcome: biblical literacy among the common people, and the pulpit of Charles Spurgeon.

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Spurgeon Against “Christless Socialism”

Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers,” was no stranger to the poor. He built orphanages, trained pastors from working-class homes, and filled the pews of the Metropolitan Tabernacle with London’s laborers. He cared deeply about justice and mercy—but he would not give an inch to the ideological theft of compassion.

He thundered:

> “I would not have you exchange the gold of the gospel for the base metal of mere social improvement… I hate socialism because it interferes with Christian charity and substitutes the power of the State for the free gifts of the people.”

And again:

> “To attempt national regeneration without personal regeneration is to dream of erecting a house without materials.”

For Spurgeon, the problem with socialism was not that it cared for the poor—but that it denied Christ and reduced man to material conditions. Poverty was real, but sin was deeper. Only the cross could heal man’s root disease.

Where Marx promised revolution, Spurgeon preached regeneration. Where Marx exalted envy, Spurgeon preached Christ crucified.

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Why Marx Failed in England

Why did Marxism spread like wildfire in continental Europe but sputter in England?

1. Biblical Literacy Among the Masses

The ordinary English laborer was more likely to carry a Bible than a manifesto. Centuries of Reformation preaching and hymn-singing had built an instinct that knew salvation came not through politics but through Christ.

2. The Pulpit of Spurgeon

Spurgeon’s reach was immense: 6,000 people packed his church every week, and millions read his sermons in print worldwide. When he called “Christless socialism” a delusion, his words immunized countless believers against Marxist rhetoric.

3. The Church’s Active Mercy

Evangelicals in England had not abandoned the poor. Orphanages, hospitals, and Sunday schools sprouted from the soil of revival. The gospel was meeting needs before Marxism could hijack them.

In short: Marx failed in England because the gospel was still preached and believed.

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The False Gospel of Marx

The Scriptures give us categories to expose Marxism for what it is:

Colossians 2:8 — “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Marxism is exactly this: philosophy built on envy and class struggle, deceit packaged as compassion.

John 18:36 — “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Marx promised a kingdom of this world—an earthly utopia. But Christ’s kingdom cannot be achieved by revolution, only by redemption.

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 — “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

Marxism disguises envy as justice, covetousness as compassion, and hatred as love.

At its root, Marxism is atheistic, materialistic, and blasphemous. Marx himself wrote: “My object in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” This is not a theory of economics. It is rebellion against God.

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The American Turn—From Spurgeon to MLK Jr.

If England rejected Marx’s infiltration through the pulpit, America would later open its doors in a different way.

By the mid–20th century, Martin Luther King Jr. was celebrated not only as a civil rights leader but also as a Christian preacher. Yet his own writings show that he denied the very heart of Christianity:

In his seminary papers, King rejected the virgin birth, saying it was a “mythological story.”

He denied the bodily resurrection of Christ, calling it “symbolic of truth, not fact.”

He openly affirmed socialist principles, praising Marx’s analysis of class struggle.

In his own words, King wrote: “Any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned with the slums that damn them… is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried.”

This was not the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners. It was the social gospel—a baptized Marxism that exalted temporal change over eternal redemption.

The tragedy is this: where Spurgeon’s pulpit kept Marxism out, American pulpits in the 20th century often let Marxist ideology in under the banner of “justice.”

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Compassion Without Christ Becomes Corruption

Marxism thrives when it hijacks Christian compassion:

It speaks of justice but redefines it as redistribution.

It speaks of peace but pursues it through class warfare.

It speaks of equality but enforces it by tyranny.

Compassion divorced from Christ becomes a weapon of manipulation. The church that forgets this will trade the gospel for slogans.

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A Pastoral Plea

Beloved, we must heed the lesson of history:

Test every call for justice by the Word of God.

Refuse the gospel of envy. Christ calls us to generosity, not covetousness.

Preach regeneration, not revolution. No system will save man apart from the cross.

Spurgeon’s words should be our banner: “We preach Christ crucified, not class warfare.”

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Closing Vision

The red banners will fall, as all kingdoms of men must. But the banner of the cross has never been torn down—and it never will.

✒️ The Pilgrim’s Post