As America approaches the November 2020 presidential elections, the nation is deeply divided. And this division is not just between Republicans and Democrats. The Democratic Party itself is deeply divided between moderate socialists like Pete Buttigieg and Michael Bloomberg and radical socialists like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

This divide is reminiscent of the divide between the Mensheviks and the more radical Bolsheviks during the “October Revolution,” or Bolshevik Revolution, in Russia.

This is history that every American needs to understand.

The Bolshevik Revolution unleashed some of the most violent events in world history. Vladimir Lenin and his supporters overthrew the Russian government in 1917, then forcibly reorganized the Russian empire into the world’s first socialist state. This revolution unleashed a civil war that killed 10 million people. The Bolsheviks won, consolidated their power, and established a Soviet state that slaughtered another 50 million people. All told, the Bolsheviks murdered as many as were killed in World War ii.

Yet the Bolshevik Revolution wasn’t all that bad, according to some paid staffers working for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. These radical socialists say that while launching another Bolshevik Revolution in the United States is not preferable, it may be necessary.

One field organizer for Sanders, Mason Baird, said in a video recorded secretly by Project Veritas: “We would need a federal government and labor union movement that is working together to strip power away from capitalists and preferably directing violence toward property …. A militant labor movement is kind of our last—our last real—chance before we try other means. … After we abolish landlords, we don’t have to kill them, that’s my feeling, I think it’s damaging to the soul, but there were plenty of excesses in 1917 I would hope to avoid. … I’m not excited about the prospect of armed struggle.”

This man is not talking about political strategy or which “battleground” states are key for his candidate to win the most votes in. He is talking about actual battlegrounds. America’s current system has to be torn down, he says. If you can do it without large-scale killing, great; but if you can’t, you can always resort to your backup plan and kill 10 million men, women and children.

Shockingly, despite being exposed in this video, Baird remains a full-time paid member of the Sanders campaign. Even more shockingly, Baird was actually one of the more moderate people revealed by Project Veritas investigators.

The average American probably thinks that an event as violent as the Bolshevik Revolution could never happen in the United States. But he does not realize that there is an organized, active, powerful movement working to abolish the U.S. Constitution and establish a Communist system of government.

History and Bible prophecy show that if Americans do not turn to God in repentance, they will suffer a civil war many times worse than the Bolshevik Revolution.

Hardcore Radicals

Mason Baird is far from the only Communist working for Sen. Bernie Sanders. Another field organizer in South Carolina, Daniel Taylor, told Project Veritas reporters that plans are underway for extreme action.

“We don’t want to scare people off. You first have to feel it out before you get into the crazy stuff,” he said. “You know, we were talking about more extreme organizations like Antifa, you were talking about, Yellow Vests [French protesters], all that, but we’re kind of keeping that on the back burner for now. … Change won’t come easily, regardless. Even if Bernie is elected, change will not come swiftly or easily, so the connections we make now in the campaign with people, and volunteers, it’s important we retain that regardless of the outcome. It’s unfortunate that we have to make plans for extreme action, but like I said, they’re not going to give it to us, even if Bernie is elected.”

Taylor did not detail the kind of “extreme action” he was considering. But an Iowa field organizer for the Sanders Campaign, Kyle Jurek, told Project Veritas reporters that if Donald Trump is reelected, cities will “burn.”

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“The only thing that fascists understand is violence,” Jurek said, referring to Trump supporters. “So the only way you can confront them is with violence.” In another conversation, Jurek suggested that supporters of President Trump should be reeducated in prison camps. “There’s a reason Joseph Stalin had gulags, right?” he said. “Actually, gulags were a lot better than what the cia has told us that they were. Like, people were actually paid a living wage in gulags; they had conjugal visits in gulags. Gulags were actually meant for, like, reeducation. Greatest way to breaking a … billionaire of their, like, privilege, and the idea that they’re superior: Go out and break rocks for 12 hours a day. You’re now a working-class person and you’re going to … learn what that means, right?”

Incredibly, Jurek may not be the most radical Sanders employee caught on tape. When Sanders campaign field organizer Martin Weissgerber was asked by Project Veritas undercover reporters what he would do if Sanders lost the election, he answered, “I’ll straight up get armed. I want to learn how to shoot and go train. I’m ready for the … revolution, bro … I’m telling you. Guillotine the rich.”

Bernie Sanders, who is trying to become president of the United States, has not condemned these comments. He has retained all who made them as paid staffers in his campaign.

Revolution Redux

In its pure form, socialism means the government controls the economy. It owns not just the Postal Service, it owns everything, without competition: mines, mills, refineries, builders, railroads, automakers, carriers, distributors, ports, airlines, telecoms, news media, banks, schools, hospitals, farms, groceries, restaurants, stores—everything. Most American socialists say the government doesn’t have to literally own all businesses as long as it controls them through heavy regulations and taxes.

People like Senator Sanders emphasize that they are “democratic” socialists, which means that this enormously powerful government they want to create will be voted in by a majority of the people. Sanders says this to distance himself from the violent atrocities committed by “authoritarian communism” in the Soviet Union. Some take comfort in this distinction. They shouldn’t.

Vladimir Lenin joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902. He said that the masses must be led by a “vanguard” party, the vanguard party must be led by central leadership, and the central leadership must wield enormous power. Most of the people in the party agreed. They began calling themselves Bolsheviks, from the Russian word for “majority.” Those who wanted party leadership to remain decentralized were called Mensheviks, from the Russian word for “minority.”

At that time, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was a small party of young intellectuals. In 1907, there were only 38,200 Mensheviks and 46,100 Bolsheviks. Three out of four Bolsheviks were age 30 or younger.

After Czar Nicolas ii abdicated in 1917, Bolsheviks began calling for insurrection against the new Russian Provisional Government. These calls sparked the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7, when Red Guard militia retaliated against the government for shutting down one of their printing presses. The Bolsheviks marched against pro-government forces in Petrograd, now called St. Petersburg.

Yet the Bolshevik Party still ran candidates for office in elections that November, hoping to conquer Russia by democratic means. But these “democratic socialists” received only 23 percent of the vote.

Rather than accept the results of the election, they claimed that the system was rigged and said the only way to fix it was to establish a new system of government run by councils of working-class citizens called Soviets.

When the Bolsheviks declared the 1917 election illegitimate, their insurrection erupted into full-scale civil war. They changed the name of their party to the Russian Communist Party and recruited a Red Army to fight the anti-Communists and their White Army. The war continued for five years until the Bolsheviks defeated the anti-Communists and achieved their dream: The Soviet Union was established.

Former American Communist Whittaker Chambers later wrote about what it is that separates Communists from the millions of socialists who are an unwitting part of communism’s secret strength. “Have you the moral strength to take upon yourself the crimes of history so the man at last may close his chronicle of age-old, senseless suffering and replace it with purpose and a plan?” he asked in his book Witness. “The answer a man makes to this question is the difference between a Communist and those miscellaneous socialist, liberals, fellow travelers, unclassified progressives and men of goodwill, all of whom share a similar vision, but do not share the faith because they will not take upon themselves the penalties of the faith.”

The “miscellaneous socialist” is different from the true Communist only in that he lacks the will to commit acts of violence.

Socialism cannot be permanently established by democratic means. Most people will ultimately reject it—if you give them the chance. At that point, socialists have to either give up their dream or start shooting people.

An American-style Communist revolution with American-style rhetoric, American-style violence and American-style reeducation camps sounds impossible to many. But to one of the top contenders for the American presidency and many of his paid campaign staff members, “extreme action” is merely on the “back burner.”

Down With Capitalism

The late Herbert W. Armstrong explained in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy that the peoples who settled the U.S. and Britain descended from the ancient Israelites. God made an unconditional promise to Abraham to give his descendants great material wealth. God kept this promise by giving the U.S. and Britain nearly three fourths of the world’s usable resources and wealth during the peak of their power. But God did not promise to keep blessing these nations if they turned away from Him.

A prophecy in Leviticus 26 states that if the descendants of Israel came to despise God’s statutes, He would strip away their blessings and allow their cities to be laid waste. In a January 1949 Plain Truth article, “The Plain Truth About Communism,” Mr. Armstrong specified that communism is a tool of the devil to blot out America’s blessings.

“The real goal of the Communist plotters is the violent overthrow of the United States and the British Empire. Why? We are the real ‘capitalist’ nations. We possess nearly three fourths of all the world’s ‘capital’—its developed and usable resources and wealth. … The plain truth, known by so few, is that we possess greater wealth and national resources than any other nation ever did, because Almighty God gave us this wealth in fulfillment of His birthright promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! And communism is the devil’s effort, through his demon-inspired human tools, to take from us this greatest national and economic blessing God ever conferred on any people! And since this blessing from God is the world’s ‘capital’ atheistic communism shouts, ‘Down with capitalism.’”

Mr. Armstrong based his forecast of future events and trends on Bible prophecy. Hosea 7:8-9 predicts that the modern-day descendants of ancient Israel would mix themselves with foreigners and, by extension, their foreign ideologies. The far-left ideas put forward by the Democratic Party today are not based on traditional American culture, which is largely based on the Bible. They are ideas that were brought to America from German and Russian universities. For decades, these anti-Bible ideologies have subversively “devoured” America’s strength while the average citizen “knoweth it not.”

Soon, the atheistic ideals of Communist philosophy will ignite a violent revolution.

‘You Will Revolt More and More’

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers” (Isaiah 1:4-7).

This passage describes cause and effect. The people are “laden with iniquity,” or sin, therefore the “whole head is sick.” The government is corrupt and the nation is faint. As a consequence, the people “revolt more and more.” This revolution intensifies until strangers burn down cities and tear down America’s system of government.

When Federal Bureau of Investigation informant Larry Grathwohl infiltrated the Weather Underground Organization in the 1970s, he reported that these radical Communists estimated they would have to kill 25 million people establish communism in America. That is a lot more than died during the Bolshevik Revolution, yet the Bible shows that the death count will actually be far higher still.

A sobering prophecy in Ezekiel 5:12 reveals that one third of the population of end-time America and Britain will die from the pestilence, famine and violence that will result from civil war. That equals more than 100 million deaths from rioting and warfare in the U.S.—10 times more than in Russia! (Request our free book Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet for more explanation of this prophecy.)

Today, socialism is gathering strength. What people don’t understand about “democratic socialism” is that its purpose is the same as the purpose of “dictatorial socialism”: to overthrow constitutional government, by violence if necessary. Bible prophecy shows that America’s great blessings will indeed be taken away—not just because socialists “outmaneuvered” conservatives— but because the American people as a whole have turned away from God. This has opened the door to communism and many other attacks inspired by the devil.

The coming violence in America’s cities is punishment, but it is punishment with a purpose. God will use it to show us the result of sin and turning away from Him to our own ways of thinking. He will use it to lead us to Him (Ezekiel 12:17-20). God blessed Abraham for his obedience to His law, and his descendants were supposed to follow his example. Only after people learn this lesson will God bless America—and all nations—with peace, joy and prosperity. It is a matter of life-and-death importance that everyone who hears this message take note of the seriousness of the times, evaluate their lifestyle and turn to God in heartfelt repentance.