Angels of Light / Agents of Babylon (Part 4- Final)

Manipulators Being Manipulated

The wolves are out to win and make money along the way... but they're often being used too. They are often tools in the arsenal of greater powers.

The part that I find the most disappointing is that the people at the bottom, the people sitting in the pews, working for a corporation, for that glorious 401k.... they can't see they're being manipulated. They can't see the end goals of these organizations. When you try and show them, they deny it. They're willfully blind. They are self-deceived.

Many of the so-called ministries are tools of greater powers. They are often being backed and funded by corporate interests who wish to reach a massive and wealthy but blind and gullible voting bloc.

The so-called leaders of Evangelicalism are their willing agents. It's an old game borrowed from the sleazy world of the back alley.

The problem is moral. They refuse to see. They cannot comprehend what they themselves are a part of and are trying to do.

The Left is guilty too but if anything their naivety is with regard to potential. Of course one might also point out that the vast majority of these folks are claiming neither to be Christian nor to be building a system on the Scriptures. It's ironic but both the Christian Left and Right think the state can (in different senses) fulfill the teachings and mission of Christ.

So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain...

The Left thinks it can curb evil with institutions and models that decentralize power. It's funny how the Christian Left has a pretty low view of sin in terms of theological elaboration...and yet, when it comes to application, they don't trust human nature. That's why they can't trust the Free Market. The Free Market fits well enough with a Pelagian view of man, but it's strange to see so many Calvinists clamouring after it.

If you take power away from the state, the corporate world is happy to step in and rule...and get rich at the same time.

Power fills vacuums, it quickly consolidates.

All of the solutions, whether large-scale socialism, or anarchic localism...they will only work for a short time. Every system has so many variables and factors affecting it that unless you can get everything to 'click' at once, solve a half-dozen problems simultaneously the model will quickly deviate and begin to break down.

And if you actually were able to clean the slate and make everything work... it would last about five minutes before someone comes along and breaks the rules, lies, cheats, steals, or finds some other way to manipulate it to their own ends. And if that doesn't work, they'll kill you.

"If we could just get the right president elected.... "

These people are delusional.

The Right is naive about the present and the past. The tendency is to over-simplify, to romanticise, to ignore problems and in some cases whole people groups that are inconvenient to deal with.

But all of this is pointless if you can't get people to think about fundamental questions and if they won't be honest with themselves. The teachers and the leaders... it is them who I blame the most. It is they who will answer for what they're doing.

There is no truth in them. Their framing of arguments, their questions, their solutions are all distortions. Listening to them I cannot agree with their use of statistics, the explanation of the past and present, their leading questions. It is deception and manipulation.  

Focus on the Family, the ACLJ/Jay Sekulow Live show, D James Kennedy, The Albert Mohler Program, Family Talk, Janet Mefferd, Break Point, VCY/Crosstalk, Generations Radio and Today's Issues.

All of these programmes, even the ones that are now defunct... are a moral travesty.

Even if I agree with their politics and goals (which I don't) I find their methods detestable.

I was so encouraged not long ago when a woman I know who has not had television for many years was encouraged by her friends to sign up for cable and watch Fox News. She's a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. Her shelves are adorned with pictures of John Wayne and books by Barry Goldwater and Curtis LeMay.

She couldn't stand Fox News and after a short time got rid of the cable service. Despite our differences, I respected the fact that she found it morally and intellectually offensive. It was a dog and pony show masquerading as news and information. She was appalled that fellow conservatives should like such a thing. Mind you, she agrees with the overall viewpoints of Beck, O'Reilly and the rest of them. But she doesn't respect them. I found it a refreshing testimony to her integrity even if her understanding of the world is misguided.

The Problem is Moral

In the end it's a matter of the heart both for the leaders and the followers. They believe what they want to believe and will not entertain anything that might shake the foundations of the thought-systems they have erected. The agenda is paramount in all matters.

If you're not with them or question them, you are an enemy. In fact if you question them on any point then you must share in all the sins of their enemies.

If I don't embrace their view of economics or political power, I'm immediately a pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, tree-hugging communist.

They bear false witness.

The world uses these tools. These are the rules and paths of power. This is the world of dog-eat-dog, the law of the jungle. These tactics have no place in the Kingdom.

"Well, we're only doing it because the Left is doing it."

How many times have I heard that? You think the Left is crushing you? Read Proverbs 3:

³¹ Do not envy the oppressor,
And choose none of his ways;
³² For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord,
But His secret counsel is with the upright.
³³ The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked,
But He blesses the home of the just.
³⁴ Surely He scorns the scornful,
But gives grace to the humble.
³⁵ The wise shall inherit glory,
But shame shall be the legacy of fools.

 

The Truth is never treason in Christ's Kingdom. If we adhere to any nation or tribe, economic or political system and are not willing to put Christ first...then we are guilty of idolatry.

Nationalism is idolatry. Conservatism is incompatible with a Biblical worldview. That does not mean that embracing Liberalism is the necessary consequent. To think so is to embrace a fallacy.

If we think we have to twist and manipulate, shout down and insult... then we serve the flesh, not the Kingdom.

Read the Proverbs and understand riches are not money... it is the wisdom of Christ.

And understand that money is more than a unit of labour or currency, or something to purchase goods with... it represents power, security and respectability. Seek it at your peril. The Kingdom will quickly slip away from you as you are choked and entangled by this world's enticements.

These systems, these nations, these models will all burn when Christ returns.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Quit trying to save Babylon....build Zion. Wake up, you're being used. You're being taught the world's wisdom and worldly values in the guise of Biblical worldview and piety. It is anti-wisdom and that road leads to hell.

¹² But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. ¹³ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11.12-15)