So I read over the synopsis of the King Smurf tale on Wikipedia and could not help but see a great way for parent’s to teach their children about politics and tyrants. In the story, Papa Smurf leaves to get an ingredient for a potion he is working on and the Smurfs find themselves leaderless and chaos ensues. This is largely because the Smurfs are basically like children, much like many of the adults in this country.
So eventually the Smurfs decide to elect a new leader but at first all of them declare themselves the leader. One clever Smurf, who is unnamed as far as I can tell, decides to win as many votes as he can through the usual political crap that the Statists do like holding a parade and giving out rounds of raspberry juice. His only opponent is Brainy, who everyone hates anyway, so this Smurf is of course elected to be their leader.
He immediately declares himself King Smurf and his tyrannical reign begins. No, there are no death camps in this story, but there is a rebellion, the likes of which even that suck-up Brainy eventually joins, and a huge battle at the end that is broken up when Papa Smurf finally comes back. Talk about a fragile society where one guy leaving temporarily causes society to collapse into an oppressive dictatorship.
The parallels between that story and just about any tyrants rise to power in Western civilization is pretty clear, unless you are a total idiot. What really stands about this story is how King Smurf became king. He did so by basically lying and promising everything the Smurfs ever wanted. When he got into power, however, he has them build a castle for him and oppresses his fellow Smurfs because he can.
While the Wikipedia entry discusses the parallels between Hitler and King Smurf, you can easily draw parallels to any other Socialist dictator’s rise to power from Vladimir Lenin to Hugo Chavez. They constantly promise people that they will take care of whatever they need to be taken care of and usually find a scapegoat to divert attention when things are not going that well. Lenin even massacred some people when they demanded that he make good on some of his promises.
These are men who would be kings of us all and dupe people into believing in them and the hope they offer. Ultimately, when they get into power, it is obvious that they are kings of nothing and had no ability to save us from the get go. Much like Obama is predictably turning out to be. Let us just hope that he does not turn tyrant on us when things do not go his way.
Now, contrast that with God. God is the rightful king of this world. The Earth is the lord’s and everything in it belongs to him. In terms of property ownership from a Christian perspective, everything we have is only allowed by Him. He could easily take all that we have anyway if He wanted to. And I bet He would if He were a tyrant and not a loving God.
Another contrast between God and the kings of nothing is that everything He has promised us He has given us or will give us in time. He sent His Son to die for our sins and He sent His Holy Spirit to aid us in our struggles. He made Israel a great nation and then allowed it to fall when it became too corrupt, just as He promised through one of His greatest servants Moses.
There is a fine line between cult leaders and Statist dictators. They both seem to follow the same pattern of leadership where they become all things to all people. People will believe anything and even add expectations to their leader that even he or she has not promised (like the woman who believed she would not have to pay her mortgage once Obama became President).
Not surprisingly, people place a lot of expectations on God and when He does not follow through, they tend get upset like they have been betrayed or something. But God’s Will is supreme. As Vox Day likes to say sometimes, “His game, his rules” (I think that is paraphrased, but the meaning is correct I think). He does not have to bow to your every whim and the more you expect out of Him, the more you will be disappointed. For those of you who feel cheated at times, remember Psalm 16:5.
Meanwhile the kings of nothing continue their tricks and deceptions and always manage to dupe the irrational and the stupid. They will continue to fill that void of hopelessness in your life just enough to fool you.
But if you are filled with the joy that only the salvation of Jesus can bring, it is much harder for them to trick you. If you find your contentment in Him, you will find yourself not believing in kings of nothing, but in the one true King.