Understanding Underdogma

Over the past 3½ years since losing Eddie, one of the blessings of my life is the friends I have made. In God’s Providence and through Eddie’s article, I was able to meet and become close friends with Mark Levin. And through Mark’s radio show and my occasional appearances there, many of his listeners have befriended me. One of those friends is Michael Prell.

Michael has a fascinating biography; I encourage you to read it. Michael also has a groundbreaking book coming out this Tuesday, February 1st. The book is titled Underdogma: How America’s enemies use our love for the underdog to trash American power.

Michael describes his book as a “biography of…a belief system I named Underdogma.” Underdogma is defined as “the belief that those who have less power are virtuous and noble – because they have less power, and that those who have more power are to be scorned – because they have more power.”

How does Underdogma match up to Scripture? One passage that may come immediately to mind is in Jesus’ Beatitudes:

    “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

Michael addresses this possibility in his book; he writes:

    Jesus came close to articulating Underdogma by blessing the meek and declaring them inheritors of the earth.

But what actually is meekness? Is it synonymous with weakness? No, it rhymes but it as actually antonymous. Bible commentator Warren Wiersbe writes on Matthew 5:5:

    Meekness is not weakness, for both Moses and Jesus were meek men (Num. 12:3; Matt. 11:29). This word translated “meek” was used by the Greeks to describe a horse that had been broken. It refers to power under control.

Being meek means you are strong but you have self-control. No one was more powerful than Jesus Christ and yet He was the model of self-control. In fact if Underdogmatists clearly understood Christ’s teaching here, they would avoid it like the plague.

Jesus was teaching about our attitudes towards our sins. Michael writes about Underdogma’s two-part definition:

    Together, the two sides of Underdogma act like a ‘gag reflex’ to power—against those who have it, and for those who do not. And evidence of this reflex is all around us.

Is there anyone more powerful or richer than God Almighty? Was Jesus Christ God Incarnate—Immanuel, God with us? Perhaps on the cross Underdogmatists might have rooted for Jesus but I seriously doubt they would have followed Him after His Sermon on the Mount:

    “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:27-29)

Michael also writes:

    Jesus also touched upon the second part of Underdogma (scorn for the powerful) by stating: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” –Matthew 19:24

Would Underdogmatists be correct embracing this verse to make their argument against the rich? No, because 1st Century Jews believed that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing on one’s life. This was true to a point, but linked to Jesus’ teaching on money, this young man loved mammon more than Christ and Jesus teaches we cannot serve two masters.

I’m not sure if Michael meant to make this a general point or a specific point about the rich young ruler when he wrote:

    Jesus did not demonize the rich man for being rich. He simply stated that the price of admission for eternal life was to give away one’s money.

For the rich young ruler to be “saved”, to receive eternal life, his cost was to give up his riches. They were his idols. Jesus knew this young man’s heart and knew that he loved money more than Christ.

There are plenty of rich people in heaven; they did not have to give away their money to receive eternal life. Christ paid the cost of eternal life on the cross.

We cannot buy eternal life; we must just surrender our wills to Christ and make Him our King, our Lord.

Notice too that Jesus that in Matthew 19:24 Jesus did not say it was impossible for a rich person to enter into heaven; He’s teaching it would be very difficult. Why? Because most unsaved rich people do not believe they need a Savior; they have a savings account!

Michael is exactly right in destroying the Underdogmatists’ hope that Jesus is on their side by writing:

    If Jesus had practiced Underdogma, he would have declared the rich man evil (or, in today’s parlance, a “big, rich fat cat”)—because he had money—rather than offering the rich man a path to salvation by giving away his money and getting into heaven.

America has many problems; Michael acknowledges that as I have many times here at Salt and Light Blog. And Michael rightly states:

    America’s greatness comes from the American spirit. The American spirit is the opposite of Underdogma.

That America spirit is grounded in Biblical principles, completely antithetical to the Underdogma belief system.

I have written that if America is once again to return to her greatness we don’t need to turn to the G-O-P, we need G-O-D. Michael writes:

    There are those who wish we had another Ronald Reagan to lead us at this pivotal moment in American history. I disagree. In Ronald Reagan, we had a leader who led a movement. In the Tea Parties, we have a movement in search of a leader. The power is now in the hands of the people. Just like the Founders intended. This is how we will defeat Underdogma. By returning to our founding principles and rekindling the American spirit.

That rekindling that Michael writes of and so many Americans long for is called revival. That will only come one heart at a time. And never has the time called louder for revival than now because one of our great enemies, an enemy that adds to the fog of political correctness, is Underdogma.

Beloved, you need to read this book. Buy it today!

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