Invited on the “Washington Watch” program to talk about his new book, Lutzer told show host Tony Perkins it began with Lutzer’s plan to preach at Karl Marx’s gravesite and tomb, located in London.
“And then, when I was doing the research, it dawned on me that he was a contemporary of D.L. Moody,” Lutzer, pastor emeritus of The Moody Church, recalled.
Marx is considered the father of communist thought after co-writing "The Communist Manifesto" with Friedrich Engels. Marx died in 1883 at the age of 64.
Moody, a well-known American evangelist, became famous across the British Isles for his revival tours that drew crowds of 30,000 to listen to him preach. He died in 1899 at the age of 62.
Digging into the history of both men, Lutzer said the idea of his book was born when he considered how both of them were influencing the West with completely different worldviews.
Marx is obviously known for embracing communism, and its claim that capitalism is oppression, but Lutzer said the communist thinker also believed mankind is good.
“The only reason that we do evil,” said Lutzer, summarizing Marx’s ideology, “is because of oppression.”
That “oppression” touched almost everything in society, from marriage and the traditional family structure to shopkeepers and landlords who exploited the worker.
Moody, meanwhile, preached the gospel message of sinful men rescued by a loving Savior.
“Moody, he preached this: Ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit,” Lutzer said of the famous preacher.
“Two very different worldviews,” Perkins commented, “but still getting at the same need in the heart of man.”
A story Lutzer stumbled upon during his research was that Engels, the "Communist Manifesto" co-writer, was angered on his deathbed by the success of Christianity and the Church in England and in the West.
“Engels is about to die. Marx has already died,” Lutzer shared. “And Engels is reminiscing: Why didn't communism come to England?”
One reason Engels pointed to, Lutzer learned, was because of Moody and Ira Sankey, the gospel singer and hymn writer who traveled with the evangelist.
Engels named Moody and Sankey by name in his 1892 book, “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific,” that was written three years before the Communist thinker died.
Engels, who once attended a Moody revival, was convinced the evangelist was supported by the wealthy, the bourgeoise, to make the workers submissive.
In the “Marx and Moody” book, however, noted Moody biographer and co-writer Gregg William Quiggle sets the record straight. He points out the late evangelist was moved by the poor and the lower class in England, and he did something about it.
“Moody began orphanages,” Lutzer advised. “He began centers for poor families to pick up food.”
Moody himself had been born into poverty. He was 4 years old when his bricklaying father died. He was forced to work at age 10. His ministry was already helping the poor in Chicago's slums when he traveled to England for his revival stops.
Marx and Engels, meanwhile, were born into wealthy, well-educated families in Prussia.
