Before entering into the consequences of idealism, it is worth understanding some important ramifications that Plato drew from his cave analogy.¹ Philosophy alone is able to enter into the world of truth in order to understand it. Philosophy alone is able to return back to the world occupied by men and their thoughts and actions. The philosopher therefore ought to occupy a prominent position in “the republic.” The philosopher ought to be the king of the republic or at least be acknowledged as a guiding force in the republic. The knowledge of ideas from the realm of the ideal is the wisdom that ought to guide the republic, as well as defend and preserve it from all enemies.

So Plato wrote in his Republic:

But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty. Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the den, and you will know what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth. And thus our State, which is also yours, will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good.²

The teaching regarding who is to be a qualified leader of Plato’s republic is an important and necessary part of Plato’s ideal world. If philosophy is to govern the republic, then the philosopher is certainly the only person equipped with the necessary knowledge and ability to lead. If idealism is to reign, then the idealist should be the lord.

No doubt the above is an enticing thought. People readily give themselves to the pursuit of a grand vision. When that vision is demonstrated to be higher than they are, a goal that is worthy of their utmost endeavors to attain it, they are willing to give themselves to its pursuit. For its attainment they will sacrifice themselves and their resources. They will be prepared to sacrifice their individuality, their persons, and even their lives in warfare, as the funeral oration of Demosthenes for Athens so clearly demonstrates. They will be willing to forsake their families and friendships. Even more, they will be willing to destroy their families and friends for the sake of the ideal set before them.

It is astonishing to grasp that all the above pursuit and sacrifice are for an idea, an idea that is not one’s own but someone else’s idea. It is not real. History has shown that the idea is not attainable. No matter how widely believed or desired, the idea has not been accomplished. Though it has been widely pursued by nations, the deep desire has not been realized. Though so much has been sacrificed, even so much blood shed, the goal has not been attained. The result is a broken ruins and a dispirited populace.

Idealism and Babel

Idealism as rebellion against God is the record of the tower of Babel (Gen. 11). The gathered people had their ideal: “Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (v. 4). To attain this ideal they devoted their resources. “They had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter” (v. 3). To accomplish their goal they pledged together their strength and ability. “Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly” (v. 3).

In the words of God himself, scripture then gives notice of their idealistic pursuit: “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Gen. 11:6). It was a united people, who shared one language and who by their language shared their imaginations to accomplish their goal of disobedience and rebellion. The judgment of God on their words and actions is the particular expression of what he had declared about man earlier: “For the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (8:21).

The work of God to confound the language of the people was in direct relationship to their statements recorded in Genesis 11:3–4. They declared their common dedication, as it is recorded in the beginning of each verse: “And they said…Go to, let us…”

Genesis 11 is instructive as a record of the rebellion of the people against God. “Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4). These words the people spoke in direct opposition to the word that God had spoken to Noah and through Noah to his descendants: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Bring forth abundantly in the earth” (9:1, 7).

The testimony of holy scripture stands against the human race. Idealism is no neutral matter. Idealism is the product of the imaginations of men in their purposes to establish a world that stands over against God’s. Idealism is rebellion against God. It is rebellion against the commandments of God, against the judgments of God, and against the world as God has created it, upholds it, and governs it by the power of his providence. Idealism is, in fact, the labor of men to remake the world as they vainly desire it to be. They desire it to be a utopia that is free from the judgments of God. Men desire the world to be without the government of the sovereign God over all. Men desire the world to be a heaven on earth, attained by man alone, apart from the grace of God in Christ. One can easily see the kingdom of antichrist arising out of the imaginations of the people to build a city and the tower of Babel to “make us a name.”

Looking at the rebellious labor of wicked men in the light of scripture’s judgment presents the opportunity to distinguish idealism from its related term, ideology.

Idealism is a category of thought. It ought to be recognized as being broader than a mere kind of philosophy because it incorporates matters into it beyond the scope of philosophy. Idealism might be better described as a philosophy that has very practical effects. Idealism considers the realm of events and circumstances in the world in which men carry on as physical creatures and judges that realm to be under the control of another, higher realm. This higher realm that has control of the lower is superior. This superiority is not due to mere control, but the higher realm is better or even perfect in relationship to the lower realm. Access into this higher, ideal realm signifies superior knowledge, namely, wisdom. This access into the higher realm also signifies a qualification to exert an influence or control over the lower realm.

Ideology is agreement by a number of persons over a particular set of ideals. These persons agree to be controlled by this set of ideals, always in their thoughts and very often in their actions. They agree to be governed by this set of ideals and in doing so submit to leaders that have access to these ideals.

Then it is easy to see Plato as an idealist and his philosophy as idealism. His teaching was too broad and general to be represented as an ideology. However, the agreement of men recorded in Genesis 11 was an ideology, especially as that ideology laid behind the building of the tower of Babel.

Idealism of Communism: Consequences

One of the most striking demonstrations of the power of ideology presented itself throughout the twentieth century and strongly carries its effect into the twenty-first. Communism wiped out populations throughout countries in the eastern hemisphere. Communism is the form of government of the countries of China, North Korea, and Cuba. It is the form of government also of several countries in South America. It should also be observed that communism is still a power that entices many in Western civilization; for example, the United States still has the Communist Party on its voting ballots and Communist Party members running for office.

Chiefly the brainchild of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and their Communist Manifesto, communism came to its revolutionary beginning with the overthrow of the tsars and their government in Russia and, in their place, the ascendence of Vladimir Lenin with his Bolshevik Party. The communistic ideal was intolerant of any rivals or any dissent. Religion was not allowed to teach a heaven to come about through the return of Christ in glory: heaven was on earth, the “workman’s paradise.” Higher level education in the liberal arts was shut down: education was only to serve the interests of the state and its programs; the physical science alone could properly serve the interests of the state. Liberal education was too dangerous because of its critical thought. Art and literature carried the same dangers but were allowed only in the service of propaganda. In the same interest of propaganda, freedom of the press and freedom of speech were both denied for the sake of eliminating all criticism. These denials must be noted in connection with the severe ideology of communism. For the same reason that religion could not be tolerated in a communistic society, all faith had to be turned to support the ideology of the state. Just as faith in the ideology was to be the unity of the people, so all dissent by a free press and free speech was a manifest form of unbelief.

But the most tangible consequence of communistic ideology was the death of an estimated one hundred million people.

 Communism took so many lives because of the nature of communism. In communism, so clearly by definition, the individual person has absolutely no value. The only unit having any value is the collective, the unit that is the productive, controlling, overarching state. Think of Plato’s “hive” in the quotation above from the Republic. This collective was not meant to be limited to the individual nation. The ideology of communism was meant to spread over the entire globe as a movement that took up nation-states into a single collective. The first line of The Communist Manifesto is important: “Workers of the world, unite!” What matters is the collective. The individual means nothing. What matters is the global reach of the movement. The more widespread the movement, the less the individual can matter.

The irony of communism is that some certain, specific individuals do matter. In God’s just judgment communism cannot exist without the elevation of certain men to the glorious height of divinity. So Lenin and Stalin came to be gods in the Soviet Union; Chairman Mao in China; Kim Jong-il in North Korea and presently his son, Kim Jong-un; Fidel Castro in Cuba; Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam; and Pol Pot in Cambodia. Idealism needs its idealogues: men of vision, men of will and determination, men of speech and rhetoric, men arrogant and ruthless. One or two must embody and run the ideology that requires the devoted sacrifice of millions to bring about their “workman’s paradise.” Plato’s Republic needs its “guardians.”

At present, society is confronted with an ideology that is even more revolutionary. Though it is so different from communism in its form and expression, this ideology has the same targets in view as communism: God and marriage, home and family. The movement is sometimes associated with the constantly augmented acronym LGBTQ. More specifically, the energy of this movement is directed into one area, so it is being called “the transgender movement.” The basic ideology of this movement is that gender is a sociological construct that is not rooted in the physical makeup of this world, not only the world of human beings but also all of the biological realm.

In comparison with other ideologies, the above ideology of gender so clearly shows the conflict between idealism and reality. This ideology seeks to obliterate every distinction between male and female, to make every distinction invalid. The terminology demanded by the movement is clear: “pregnant person” and “gender fluid.” Historical persons are described as “cisgendered” because they understood themselves to be either male or female in a setting in which all understood that men were men and women were women. But another feature that makes this gender ideology so outstanding as an ideology is its widespread acceptance and promotion. Before the idol of this ideology bow artists, politicians, corporate executives, and collegiate and professional sports associations. News media not only covers the progress of this gender ideology but also shamelessly promotes it while “cancelling” and denigrating those critical of the ideology in any way. It seems to be only a matter of time before dissent from and criticism of this ideology will result in outright persecution.

Though both communism and the transgender movement are ideologies, there is a notable difference between them. Communism needed the revolutionary force of violent overthrow. Thus the deaths of so many millions. In sharp contrast the transgender movement has required no such force. So many willingly throw themselves into this movement. How remarkable it is that fear of being “cancelled” now carries the same force as the threat of torture and death previously did!

Ideas have consequences. Idealism has consequences. Ideology has severe consequences.

Especially gender ideology directly reveals one of the most severe consequences of idealism.

No matter how real idealism is thought to be, no matter how many promote it or are caught in its grip, idealism is always at war with reality. Idealism is not a way of understanding or comprehending reality. Idealism is only the product of man’s sinful and vain imagination, whether the imagination of one or the imagination shared by a vast multitude. No matter how much the nations rage, the heathen will always be imagining a vain thing (Ps. 2:1). No matter how much the ideology of the transgender movement may prevail among men, the order of God’s creation—creating man and animals and fish and birds as male and female—remains and will remain unchanged.

The consequence of idealism is the loss of contact with all reality: the reality of this world under the providential government of God, the reality of God’s revelation of himself in his word, and the reality that is God himself. Rebellious man must not only lose contact with these points of reality and truth outside of himself, but he must also ultimately lose contact with himself and therefore destroy himself. It is no coincidence but is the consequence of God’s judgment that self-destructive behavior is so prevalent with idealism.

It ought to be evident from the above examples of communism and the transgender movement that the world’s refusal to accept the created order of family and gender is an aspect of God’s judgment upon those who refuse to worship and serve him. But that refusal, under God’s judgment, must be the sharp, clear warning to God’s people to flee from even the least inclination to adopt and follow any ideology, let alone to give themselves over to the vain philosophy of idealism. How blessed it is to be rooted and grounded in the reality that is God’s created order, providentially sustained and governed by him alone! How blessed it is to be rooted and grounded by a true and living faith in scripture alone as the authoritative word of God! How blessed it is to live in fellowship and friendship with the living and true God! The church of Jesus Christ has been redeemed by his blood. Her redemption is from the vanity of idolatry, the idolatry of the vain ideas of men. Her redemption is from the service of them that are no gods and from the service of those who are only men posing themselves as God. Her redemption is from following the blind and vain thoughts of men to follow her God according to the word of his truth: “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men” (1 Cor. 7:23).

Idealism and the Church

The consequences of idealism carry their force into the church. The inroads of idealism into the church have taken and still take the form of allegiance to worldly ideologies. The schism among the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (GKN) that led to the deposition of Klaas Schilder and others in 1944 was due not only to tension between the distinct differences between the Afscheiding and the Doleantie. But it was due also to the allegiance of many in the GKN to the Nazi party in the country, both before and during the war. The question ought at least to be raised in this connection whether Schilder’s ouster from the GKN was due to sympathies shared among idealists in defense of their respective idealisms. Schilder was opposed to the idealism of the Nazi party and what he saw as idealism in his own denomination.

In the present day there is a great deal of turmoil in Reformed and Presbyterian denominations due to pressures from society. What was unthinkable to have present in these denominations a few decades ago is openly invited. Those who attempt to keep the doors closed are slandered. Tension is leading to divisions in mainline denominations. These divisions are continuing into more conservative denominations. The liberal consensus sees these divisions as mere clashes of ideologies. But the clashes are between ideologies and the word of God. Or, to speak more generally, the clashes are truly between idealism and the word of God.

As can be seen in the above paragraph, there is only one power to protect God’s elect, covenant people from the inroads of these threatening ideologies of men: the living and abiding word of God. His word is the light to shine on the darkness to show its deceitfulness. His word alone declares the vanity of the thoughts of men, that men will be unable to prevail with their words against God and his people. His word is that God’s people cannot be plucked out of their savior’s hand. God’s word is the light to shine upon them, upon their God, and upon all their pathway before God. God’s word is the word of his kingdom that stands in triumph over all the kingdoms of men.

The consequences of idealism in doctrinal debate in the church will be treated next, the Lord willing.