The most insightful critics of Marxism said that socialism’s greatest failure comes not from economics but anthropology and theology. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., put that reality on display on Easter Sunday, when he tweeted that collective social action “is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
On the holiest holiday on the liturgical calendar, Warnock wrote:
The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.
For those conversant with the Bible, heresy seems an apt description of Warnock’s couplet.
Christians of every background – Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox – agree that literally no event in cosmic history transcends the importance of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ destruction of death and harrowing of Hell hold preeminence even among the other precious truths revealed by the four evangelists, such as His teachings and miracles. Orthodox Christianity relies on the Apostle Paul’s extended argument in I Corinthians 15: “[I]f Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain,” he writes, and “ye are yet in your sins” (vs. 14, 17). Christianity’s formation of Western culture echoes through the ages, as Easter remains one of our most important holidays.
Nor does Warnock redeem himself by claiming we can “save ourselves.” Soteriologically, human beings lack all capacity to effect their own salvation (Ephesians 2:8)....