Cities in Ashes: The False Gospel of Socialism

When rulers forget the One who gave them their authority, cities bend. They do not stay neutral. They warp into realms of their own design, petty city-states, not founded on justice but on spectacle. The stage lights blaze with intensity, the slogans resound with fervor, yet the beams that support the structure are decayed.

Isaiah warned us long ago: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isa. 5:20).

Paul added: “Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil” (Rom. 13:3).

Yet in city after city across America, the sword God entrusted to punish evil and protect the innocent lies rusting in its scabbard. Wolves roam the streets, and the shepherds are absent, or worse, playing on the stage themselves.

In January, Los Angeles struggled in the midst of a firestorm. Smoke choking neighborhoods, families fleeing and Mayor Karen Bass was far from Los Angeles, on a trip to Africa. Leadership is not forbidden to travel, but shepherds do not wander when the wolves come. The optics alone told the story: citizens facing ash and flame, while their mayor posed abroad. And who had been left to guard the city? A deputy mayor who had already disgraced the office by faking a bomb threat to City Hall.

This was not governance. It was theater. Public safety reduced to a parody, while the people were left to sweep broken glass between acts. The Bible says the shepherd who runs when the wolf appears is a hireling, not a shepherd at all (John 10:12–13). Los Angeles knows the sting of that verse. 

Then there is Charlotte, North Carolina. A young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, came to America seeking refuge. Instead, she was murdered on a light-rail train by a man everyone knew was dangerous. His record shouted it. His illness was no secret. Still, he walked free. When the killing came, officials delayed, deflected, and spoke in riddles. They called it a “system failure.” But let’s speak plain: it was failure of courage. Failure to guard the gates. Paul said rulers are God’s servants “to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). Instead, Charlotte’s leaders let the sword rust, and the innocent paid the price. 

No list is complete without San Francisco. Once a jewel of the West, now hollowed out by policies that confuse mercy with license. Streets littered with needles, stores closing one after another, whole districts abandoned after dark. Leaders talk of “compassion,” but compassion that leaves addicts to die in tents is not mercy, it is negligence baptized in fine words. Micah 6:8 says the Lord requires us to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” San Francisco’s rulers managed the slogans but not the substance. Justice is absent, mercy is twisted, and humility is unknown. 

Chicago, the city of broad shoulders, now bowed beneath its own bloodshed. Summer after summer, weekends bring body counts that sound more like war reports than community updates. Mothers bury sons, children learn to duck at the sound of cars backfiring. Politicians give press conferences, then retreat behind armed guards.

Jeremiah once cried over Jerusalem: “Violence and destruction resound in her; her sickness and wounds are ever before me” (Jer. 6:7). Swap the name, and the verse reads like a headline. 

And of course, there is New York—America’s gate. Its leaders talk equity while subways turn into hunting grounds. Bail reforms swing wide the door for predators who cycle in and out before the ink is dry. Meanwhile, crime victims become statistics and law-abiding citizens learn silence. This is what happens when rulers seek applause over obedience. Jesus warned His disciples: “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. It shall not be so among you” (Matt. 20:25–26). Yet in New York, power lords itself proudly while the people bear the cost. 

These failures are not isolated. They are symptoms of a deeper creed—one preached in city after city under many names, but best known as socialism. The Left kneels at the altar of the false gospel of Socialism. 

And hear me clearly: this is not about hating Democrats or painting half the country as “the enemy.” Scripture tells us: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph. 6:12). The real enemy is spiritual. 

Socialism is one of those principalities. A false gospel. It promises "salvation through government". "Equality without truth". "Mercy without repentance". "Security without God".

It dresses itself as compassion, but its fruit is despair. It excuses crime in the name of equity, while silencing truth in the name of unity. It fills streets with tents of homeless while filling offices with bureaucrats who skim off the top. It preaches “democracy” while ruling by agenda-driven committees and by radical decrees. It builds schools that churn out cynicism and propaganda instead of wisdom. Socialism doesn’t need the name on the label to corrode a city. Whenever leaders trade accountability for applause, theory for neighbors, slogans for repentance, the rot has already set in. The Bible says: “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7:16).

Look at the fruits: Streets that look like war zones. Families fractured. Children trained to rehearse grievances instead of embracing grace. Leaders who fly off during disasters and return to lectures about compassion. This is not compassion. It is cruelty with a smile. 

So what do we do? Not despair. Not curse flesh and blood. Not surrender the city to the wolves. We speak the truth faster than the spin. “Speak the truth to one another; render true judgments that make for peace” (Zech. 8:16).

We demand justice for the innocent and consequences for the guilty. “He has shown you, O man, what is good” (Mic. 6:8).

We raise leaders who fear God more than cameras. “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (Matt. 20:26).

We plant churches in the middle of broken neighborhoods. Open homes to the lonely. Guard our streets as families, not just as voters. Live as the city of God inside the city of man. 

Socialism always collapses. History proves it. Nations that tried it are graveyards of slogans. But the kingdom of Christ does not collapse. “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” (Isa. 9:7).

That is our hope. That is our banner. Not Left or Right, not Democrat or Republican, but Christ crucified, risen, reigning.

The city of man burns. The city of God stands. 

And so we fight—not with hatred, but with truth. Not with violence, but with courage. Not against flesh and blood, but against the lies that enslave them.

Because only the truth sets man free.