Surveys show a resurgence in support for socialism, especially among Millennials and other young people. They see it as a fairer way to distribute goods and services and bring about a more equal society.

Although it sounds great in theory, wherever socialism has been tried, it has failed miserably, leading directly to poverty and tyranny. Today’s collapse of a once-prosperous Venezuela is only the latest evidence. It took less than 20 years for debt-free Venezuela to experience economic disaster. Socialism fails because it violates the instructions God gave to us in the Bible for a fulfilling life.

For starters, socialism teaches that all things are held in common ownership and controlled by the state. The Bible teaches the importance of honoring property rights and caring for one’s own family. Ultimately, God owns all things and we’re merely stewards of His creation, including the work of our hands and returns on our investments. When the state confiscates our earnings, it also robs God of our offerings—by design.

If we look at each of the Ten Commandments, it is revealed that all of them directly oppose the tenets of socialism. The first four commandments are about our relationship with God. The next six deal with behavior toward our fellow man.

You shall have no other gods before Me.

Socialism and its offshoots – communism, fascism, democratic socialism and National socialism (Nazism) – all put the state above all other powers. There is no room for God, which is why socialists are in a permanent war with the church and are focused on creating a faith-free society.

You shall make no idols.

Idols are anything that takes the place of God in the hierarchy of values. Under socialism, sheer power over one’s fellow man is an idol. Another is building utopias – the unicorns of government because such perfect societies do not exist.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Historically, when socialists take over a culture, it becomes depraved and perverse. To enforce their new immoral order, its advocates go out of their way to blaspheme God and particularly Jesus Christ. The majority of Hollywood is famously leftist, and has taken this road since Christian review boards abandoned their role in the 1960s, opening up films to any and all ways to shock audiences.

Keep the Sabbath day holy.

Sundays are no different from any other day in socialist societies. In fact, people going to church on a Sunday are identified and often persecuted in places like communist China, where atheism is the official state religion. Even in our market-based society, materialism – a necessary precept of socialism – has pushed respect for the Sabbath to the margins.

Honor your father and your mother.

Socialism has been at war with marriage and family since it arose at the time of the French Revolution in 1789. Unlike America’s revolution of 1776, the French version sought to throw off Christianity and establish an all-encompassing government that was to supplant the family. Frederich Engels, co-author with Karl Marx of “The Communist Manifesto,” wrote essays explaining the need to do away with marital fidelity and to assign children to the state. He and Marx correctly saw the family as a bulwark of the church, and both had to be destroyed to pave the way for atheistic dictatorships.

You shall not murder.

Many people misinterpret this commandment as a broader order not to kill for any reason. Ironically, socialists have long promoted abortion – the direct taking of an innocent human life – as a way to “liberate” women and men from parental responsibilities.

You shall not commit adultery.

In the 1960s, Americans became familiar with the term “free love,” but socialists have been promoting it heavily since the early 1800s. Pornography, sex outside marriage, prostitution and abortion all militate against marriage fidelity. Socialists have fashioned euphemisms like “choice,” “sex work,” and “sexual freedom” to cover the retreat from Biblical morality.

You shall not steal.

Socialism is grand theft. It uses the state to take earnings from productive people and redistribute it to create dependency and thus permanent political power for those handing it out. One of the best definitions of slavery is 100 percent taxation – when someone else controls the fruits of one’s labor. In socialist countries, private property is a thing of the past.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

This is not just about telling lies in a witness situation but also about using lies to advance one’s own wellbeing at the expense of others. Socialism is built on a mountain of lies about human nature, which is why it eventually must resort to violence. Karl Marx wrote that “the ends justify the means,” which says you can do or say anything as long as it advances the socialist revolution.

You shall not covet.

Socialism’s main tenet is envy, stoking resentment against others who have more, even to the point of using violence to get it. This temptation goes back to Genesis, when Cain killed Abel out of envy for Abel’s success in achieving God’s favor. It was also on display when the serpent told Adam and Eve that they needed to disobey God because they lacked His power, and that if they ate from the tree of Good and Evil, the result would be that “ye shall be as gods.” This is nothing less than coveting divinity and displacing God, which Satan himself did to his own detriment and continues to try to persuade us to do.

Of Satan, Jesus said, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

God originated life, natural marriage and love and gave us the Ten Commandments. It shouldn’t be a mystery as to where the deceptive cake of socialism was baked.

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Robert Knight

A writer for Timothy Partners, Ltd. He is a regular weekly columnist for The Washington Times and Townhall.com and is frequently published by AmericanThinker.com, DailyCaller.com, OneNewsNow.com, and others. His latest book is “A Strong Constitution: What Would America Look Like If We Followed the Law” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2018).