Intrusions Of The Darkness

 

A Brief Study in the Tactics of 

         Our Unseen Enemy

 

 1.0 ~ The Background Realities of Human Suffering

 The larger human picture, (background and foreground) is not that hard to grasp.  And yet, most of us really never do. Perhaps it’s that generational thing. Every time a generation kinda’ figures it out, before you know it, they’re all dead. Then we have to start all over in the next generation, trying to make ourselves, once again, broadly and accurately aware of that experiential picture which we typically just call - "life."

Or, maybe our struggle to understand life accurately simply lies in our willing ignorance. It seems that many of us share the feeling that if we know something, then we come under some obligation to act on what we know. 

 So, if we don’t want to be bothered, then we just don’t bother to know. Thus, we often merely bury our head in the sands of life’s blinding tedium as a means of escaping the responsibility of that "knowing."

But be all of that as it may, for those who are courageous enough to take in the larger human landscape, there is a more truthful perspective to be had. And, that larger view does allow us to see far beyond the more simplistic life interpretations.  As a prime example, it allows us to quickly move past the assumption that our competing social and political philosophies are just a ho-hum part of our world. 

Rather, the more sophisticated view of our reality accurately places these competing philosophical approaches into the context where they truly belong. It understands them to be a very real extension of that ever raging war between God and Satan, between the Light and the Darkness.   

 Indeed, that cosmic conflict has been an ingrained part of the human experience from our very beginning.  And, that sophisticated view of life calls us to understand the background dynamics of all of our human confrontations.  And, for those who want to understand those dynamics, the jumping off point is at a very simple and very basic question.  And, that question is this: "What is Truth?" 

And, here is the short and simple answer.   Truth is merely the correct interpretation of reality.

The nature of the truth is really that simple. Truth is only ever just the discovery of reality as it actually is.  So, all we have to do to arrive at truth is correctly interpret reality - right?

But wait! Therein lies the human dilemma. The real difficulty lies not in knowing the definition of truth, but in actually achieving what that definition specifies. It is in the fog of our varied interpretations of reality where we typically lose our way in our truth quest.

 And, that is understandable since you and I were never meant to be the authoritative interpreters of reality.  Rather, God has always reserved that role for Himself – and rightly so.

Even the brightest human beings are pitifully under-qualified to define true morality, true right or wrong, true good or evil. We simply do not have the capacity to make those calls authoritatively.  Our view of reality is simply too limited both in its perspective and its breadth

Thus, God requires that we trust Him and embrace, through Christ, His values and the interpretations of life (truth) which are distilled by those divine values. The Bible refers to our awareness of those divine values and their resulting interpretations as "Light."  And, it refers to the absence of an awareness of those things as "Darkness."

Obviously, it also follows then, that in man's God-given capacity to make autonomous decisions and choices there does exist space for us to make alternative interpretations of reality which differ from God's - bogus though they may be.  And, it's these alternative interpretations which then begin to compete with God’s view of things.  And this, in turn, gives rise to a relational rift with God.  And that conflict is all about one very central question.  "Who actually gets to be the authoritative truth-giver?"

The roots of this conflict can be traced all the way back to the mind of Satan.  This idea that there can be legitimate alternatives to God's view of good and evil originated there. And, Satan then passed it on to mankind through his treacherous temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 

 His false promise to the first couple was this, "You shall be like God, knowing good and evil."  Essentially, he was telling them you can become your own truth-giver, your own interpreter of reality.  

 What he did not tell the first couple was that their “knowledge of good and evil” was not a knowledge based in a broad and accurate awareness of reality, as is God's. Rather, theirs was a subjective determination of good and evil - entirely based only in their very limited and ever changing personal perspectives. In other words, Satan offered a view of reality no longer based in God's omniscient understanding of life. 

Instead, "Good" became, "What seems good to me in this moment." And, "Evil" became, "What seems evil to me in this moment."

When Adam and Eve chose to embraced this competing truth-giver status and interpret reality for themselves, their relationship with their benevolent Creator was immediately poisoned by the inclusion of this chronic and out-of-bounds disagreement of hearts. And, so was also their relationship to each other by the same poison. For now, they no longer shared, even among themselves, a common world view based in God's singularly trustworthy divine truth.

Through the first couple, the whole of mankind was then infected with this dark inclination which was essentially, self-determination.  And this was exactly what Satan intended to achieve.  In effect, the arch-demon created a complete equilibrium of truth, where, in man's mind, the supremacy of God's interpretations of reality was entirely lost.  Thus, not only was a trusting and peaceful relationship with God broken, but simultaneously chaos, confusion, and an interpersonal hyper-competitiveness also began to darken the landscape of the human experience.

So, through Satan's treacherous temptation, mankind became completely infected with this prime inner motive, the motive of self-determination, in his desire to be his own truth-giver.  And, it is now this inner heart motive which still clearly marks and identifies the children of the Darkness - Satan's converts. 

And, indeed, it is this rebellious motive which, in essence, is a declaration of self-sovereignty, which is the essential sin essence within the heart of the yet un-redeemed.  And it is from the influence of this powerful inner drive for self-determination that all actual acts of sin then spring.  

Thus, it is this heart motive which will unavoidably become the first issue on the last day.  Long before our actual works will be weighed in God's judgement balances - the presence of this motive in our heart (the precise opposite of the faith motive) will already have sealed our eternal fate.

Thus, it is this dark motive of self-determination which the redemptive work of Christ first and most urgently targets.  Obviously, the omniscient mind of God easily understands, "Solve this self-determination problem, and all else all but solves itself under the empowering touch of the Living Savior."

Nevertheless, even at this late hour in redemptive history, much of humanity remains lost in the dark delusions of what might be very accurately called, the satanic encouragement to embrace their own "designer truth."  Indeed, anecdotal evidence clearly indicates that the larger populace of the world, even now, uses only their own interpretations of life's circumstances to self-determine their philosophical issues, life choices, and personal directions, etc. 

But, aware or not, they do so at devastating expense to their relationship to God.  The Self-determined Life Approach (my will be done in my life) is the exact opposite of the more humble, Faith Life Approach (God's will be done in my life.)  So, that former approach incurs real spiritual peril for it's victim.

 2.0 ~ The Foreground Outflows of These Background Realities

 And, because most in the world simply choose to trust in their own interpretive sufficiency as opposed to God's, they become easy pray for Satan's treacherous employment and victimization.  Thus, they become his dupes - the unwitting servants of his chaos, confusion, hyper-competition and interpersonal disagreement.  

 Just as Satan always intended, these are just the natural results of an existence where all truth, everyone's interpretation of every circumstance of reality, carries equal weight and value with their counterparts' - and even with God's.  Thus, the self-determined ever serve Satan's ends in this broken world.  And, through these deluded human pawns, Satan's Dark Demonic Economy finds an easy means to repeatedly and brutally insert itself into the human philosophical and political landscape with always the same horrible results.  

 And sadly, humanity, now being widely devoid of the more accurate awareness provided by the divine interpretations, repeatedly and broadly fails to recognize the onslaught of Satan's violent treachery for what it truly is. Nevertheless, these times of widespread upheaval and bloodletting are not complicated occurrences.  They are simply demonic incursions of completely vile spiritual evil into the physical dimension, operating in and through their human henchmen and dupes.  

And, indeed, these human instruments are of the sadist sort. Believing themselves to be serving their own self-determined agenda, they have no idea, in most cases at least, that they are actually serving the brutal ends of their cruel demonic masters.  And that, always at the huge expense of their own species.

Thus, in generation after generation, the Darkness is able to recreate times of extreme violence and devastation in the human experience.  And, this remains true, even though the Darkness never really bothers to change its essential process or individual tactics.

For example, always, the mind of the Darkness comes with a prospectus for some delusional noble cause, the worth of which supposedly justifies the hateful and often bloody means which are required to achieve it. Then, using this cause of twisted and/ or exaggerated worth, the Darkness tempts those deluded human instruments, who fancy themselves somehow entitled, and even obligated, to do the treacherous bidding of this demon inspired cause.

And, eventually, the Darkness always points to some straw demon at which their hateful energies must be directed. And so, the satanic encouragements come. "Hate the black man, or the white man, or the rich man, or the capitalist, or the Jew, or the Christian, etc., etc., etc., “for they threaten our noble agenda.”

And, when the Darkness has gained strategic positioning and has enticed enough gullible, or disgruntled, or ner-do-well foot soldiers  to its delusional cause, it always turns militant.  And predictably, it begins to demand submission from non-subscribers on pain of severe reprisals. 

 3.0 ~ The Mature Intrusion

In this stage of its offensive, the Darkness becomes the open oppressor. The cloak of pretense is cast away. And those human soldiers who have given themselves to the Darkness are now forced to abandon, altogether, any lingering shred of questioning conscience. Now, they are forced to follow even the cruelest extremes of the Darkness.  And so, they do. They consummate the final sale of their soul by this final level of mindless obedience - more, at this point, to protect themselves than to achieve any "noble" purpose. 

 So, by the time these consuming fires of pure evil are finished, even those who initially fanned their flames are being destroyed by them. And, one more time, the Darkness celebrates the success of its bloody intrusion into the human experience, while standing on the new graves of freshly slaughtered humanity.

 4.0 ~ A Tragic Drama of Treachery and Gullibility

In the 1930’s, Adolf Hitler, took his place in a long line of dark-hearted human apostles who have served the Darkness in this way over the course of history.  And, he obediently followed this exact pattern. His "noble cause" was to bring into being a German supremacy – an Aryan Race who "deserved" to rule over the Earth.

And, to that cause, he drew his dupes of the Darkness – the Nazi rank and file. And, he directed their manufactured hatred toward his straw demons, especially the Jewish people, among others.

Eventually, the ranks of Hitler’s Nazi Party, devout and ready to unknowingly serve the concealed mind of Satan through Hitler became sufficiently powerful to capture the German government. And predictably, as always, with sufficient positioning and numbers came that militant phase. So, they began reprisals, including outright murder, against all who opposed their “noble agenda."

In the course of this offensive from Hell, millions died.  And six million defenseless Jews, from little innocent boys and girls, to their mothers and fathers, to feeble old men and women were callously butchered by these deluded, servants of the Darkness. And, it was all in the name of their “righteous cause” - essentially Hitler's deluded perspective on good and evil - the Nazi version of "truth."

And then, roughly contemporary with the Nazi madness, Satan's evil economy of darkness opened another offensive - this time, alighting on Russian soil in the form of Marxist Communism.  First, Vladimir Lenin became the new apostle of the Darkness, spouting the new cause authored by Karl Marx:  "Power to the workers!" and pointing to the new straw man to hate and destroy.

Lenin targeted the scourge of the capitalist "Bourgeoisie" ruling class.  His twisted delusion was a world of matured "social justice" ever enforced by the "dictatorship of the proletariat," or working class. 

Again, by means of political intrigues and murderous force, when the ranks of his deluded followers became strong enough, Lenin made his militant move.  He then violently and mercilessly put down all opposition to his Marxist "truth," his interpretations of reality - his version of good and evil. And once more, from Lenin, to Stalin, even to our present-day Putin, the bloodletting has continued wearing a human face but moved by a satanic mind.

In total, it is estimated that 100,000,000 graves have been dug around the world to mark the blood path that this offensive of the Darkness has taken over its decades.  And still, that total continues to rise every day in Ukraine, in Russia, itself, and far beyond

And, even as Russia has waned under the weight of its own infection by Satan's Marxism offensive, yet, the arch-demon has still managed to sell that philosophical snake oil to other parts of the planet. And, indeed, He found many gullible converts to this hapless delusion in America.  And, in that completely counter intuitive success, perhaps never before in history has human gullibility been more starkly underscored. 

And so, this Devil Process began again in America.  And, sporting new names like Neo-socialism, Liberalism, Progressivism, and Globalism the tentacles of the Darkness began again to radiate outward.

And today, the Darkness has now begun to very forcefully deploy this aggregated alignment of delusional Marxist groups and their media, academic, and money-men allies under the more amalgamated banner of simply, The American Political Left.  

Its primary face is now the fully Marxist conscripted Democrat Party. And, its muscles are those bureaucratic Marxist and Islamic  operatives (seen and unseen) now entrenched in the seats of power within the present American government - and to include the important nexus players such as Barack Obama, and big money-men, like as George Soros and Jeff Zuckerberg. 

Thus, one more time, we see a deluded, devilish group who believe themselves to be the entitled ones of the higher conscience in whom all wisdom resides.  And, true to form, at the behest of their demon handlers, they have now gone through the typical developmental stages of this American intrusion of the Darkness.  

 And now, as part of their final push for permanently ensconced power in America, they are employing those standard, final stage tactics of sedition like constant crisis creation, divide and conquer, character assassination, outright lies, pot-stirring, class bashing, overtly breaking and weaponizing our laws, vastly exaggerating social negatives, openly encouraging the disintegration of our primary institutions (like police and the Constitution), and using deceptive personal and organizational fronts - to name but a few.

And, they continue to loudly tout their "noble cause" of "social justice throughout the global community" to cover their true motive - which is still the same as it has always been.  Indeed, this is just one more thinly veneered attempt at a joint, man/demon power-grab. 

 And, as have been all the others before it, this effort is merely intended to establish yet another platform, an American platform, for the cruel domination of the human species.  And, it's aimed toward the eventuality of the whole human species being made to universally serve the whims of the demonic Darkness and their treasonous, and thus, satanically well-favored human henchmen.  

 So, in truth, this is just one more in a long string of now typical satanic con jobs designed to diminish, bleed, and kowtow humanity.  And, save its occupation of this present moment, this dark intrusion is not, in essence, one whit different from those which have preceded it.  

 Always, when the Darkness has violently inserted itself into this dimension, conditions become less socially just, not more.  Always, prosperity of both soul and treasure is vastly diminished, never increased.  And, stability, peace, human life, and valued human gains are broadly lost.  And, if we do not defeat this present incursion, those outcomes will simply be replicated one more time.

 But it is true.  Many still just don't recognize this man/demon coalition of evil - largely due to the absence of the divine truth in their heart.  Thus, they remain incapable of seeing this two dimensional picture with its duality of evil. 

And, in their blindness, each day, spiritually sightless people move ever closer to the complete loss of their moral sanity, their hopefulness, their personal decency, and their truly noble aspirations.   And sometimes, by the weight of their numbers, their blindness draws the rest of us into those devastating losses also.  And now, may be such a time in America.

Indeed, if the present gravitation toward the empty promises of Marxism is not quickly arrested, there can be little doubt that all will be soon lost.  And more graves, our graves, and the graves of our children, and the ash heap of America's national greatness will forever memorialize that widespread spiritual blindness and the fumbling failure to actually do the right thing on the part of those who could see.  

 5.0 ~ The Good Way Forward

But there is yet an opportunity, however brief, to do the right thing in America.  We can again choose, to re-embrace God and the supremacy of His truth by embracing the Lordship of the Living Jesus, including His values, the truth those values distill, and His guiding daily companionship.  And, in the power and blessing of that truly devoted relational walk, we will be set free from the domination of the Darkness - in our hearts and in our nation.   

 Jesus said of His followers, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."  Indeed, we can be set free from the chaos of that devilish, self-determined life approach to walk amiably again with our Creator / Redeemer God who truly loves us.  

 And, in that thorough personal newness that He not only offers, but actually empowers through the Living Christ, we can confidently combat and conquer these violent intrusions of the Darkness - both as an individual and as a nation.  

And, unlike those of America's Marxist subversives, God's promises are never empty.  He can and will bring personal and national renewal if we freshly humble ourselves and respectfully reach out to Him in these troubled days.

"Call on Me and I will show you great and mighty things." - God

 

Long Ropes And Stone Cold Hearts

In these modern, or as those who are so full of themselves like to say: in these “Post-modern” times, there is a question which has lately begun to desperately present itself. The question is this. Is there a way to deal with an arrogant, majority America who typically has no real awareness of, or concern for, anything beyond their own “small-life shopping list.” Is there yet a way to cause this self-consumed majority to care again about the divine perspective on their character and behavior?

The great gift which Christ offers to the individual is a way back from this self-centered darkness which so blinds us to the divine perspective. But, how does that work when we don’t even recognize that we are, indeed, immersed in a personal darkness?

Well, sometimes it simply doesn’t work. Sometimes, our darkness is so impermeable that it is, in fact, terminal. Sometimes the long rope of God’s great patience becomes the very rope with which we simply hang ourselves, spiritually. 

Thus, as we continually ignore His overtures, we eventually just miss our opportunity for personal renewal and a life lived in the joys of the higher plane. And, that’s that.

But sometimes, there is a better outcome. Sometimes, resulting from the twists and turns of life, we find ourselves humbled before God and at the end of our own arrogant rope. And there, sitting in the puddle of our own calamity and stripped of our sense of self-sufficiency, finally, we are able to truly see the degraded condition of our life for what it really is. 

And, in those moments of clarity, we suddenly understand the value of Christ’s offer to start us over and make all things new. So there, at the end of our own rope, we decide to tie a big knot of devotion to God and hang on for dear life.

And, in those desperate moments, it becomes much easier to see the stupidity of ever believing that the quality of life could actually reside in such fleeting things as possessions, or primo jobs, or costly hobbies and toys, etc. And how could it not become obvious when we find ourselves surrounded by those things, and yet, also find that we are still devastated and miserable in both our inner and outer life. 

From gold chains, to custom wheels, to smartphones, to nice homes, to bank accounts and spectacular vacations, all taken together, such “trinketry” and low aspirations never amount to anything more than a powerful testimony to our own small mindedness.  And this is especially true when we compare the empitiness of those things to Christ’s offer to bring a sweeping elevation and nobility to our life. 

 And, indeed, He does entirely change who we are and what we are about. He brushes aside our silly little materialistic ideas of what life is supposed to be and brings a hugeness, not only to our awareness level, but to our personal potential. 

And, He does it in precisely the right way.  He empowers a profound transformation of our character which entirely changes how we encounter life – and thus, the quality of life, itself.

So - is there a way to deal with this very self-assured majority in present day America? Oh, there’s a way. It is just a matter of giving them “enough rope,” and then, waiting to see which one of those aforementioned knots they tie when they come to the end of it. And, in fact, God is doing that very thing, right now.

If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! - Jesus

Before Now

I am 65 years old. And here is the America I knew before now.

It was an America that had racial resentments. But, it was not an America where government officials actually sought to catalyzed those resentments and use them for political gain. Even in the 60’s when the Civil Rights Movement brought racial tension to a pinnacle, the core interest of the government was to bring the nation together – not racially divide and inflame it. But, that was before now.

And granted, in the former America, there was racial inequality. But, in that America, we righted much of that inequality with more just laws and a true change of national heart on the issues of civil diversity. 

And, for a time, in that America, our progress was truly measurable. Our definition of “my neighbor” actually was becoming more broadened. But sadly, that was before now, when we have lost so much ground.

And, in the former America, the Office of the Attorney General was the devoted guardian of the integrity of our laws. It did not summarily dismantle that integrity with grotesque reinterpretations and a pick and choose enforcement style as with the Obama administrations.

In former America, we elected presidents who saw the nation’s warts and sought to change them. But, they did not do so by disavowing the character of the nation as a whole and acquiescing to a twisted caricature of it as some sort of world oppressor.

In that former America, there were the “Have’s” and the “Have Not’s,” as there always will be. But, in that America, we largely rejected the hateful “Cain and Able” notion that the way up is to pull your brother down. 

 Rather, the former America more widely embraced the idea that hard work and risk taking were the way up. In that America, personal wealth building was thought to be an admirable pursuit and the best means of personal prosperity and security.

Barack Obama promised to profoundly change America. Regrettably, with the help of his marxist pals, I believe he has kept his word. But, I much prefer the “Old America” where we sought to employ the more honest and truly effective political processes of over seditious treachery and outright thuggery. 

The Space Between

More gun control! Better legislation regarding the mentally disturbed! We raise our voices to say something that will help us somehow endure the painful insanity of 20 dead children in Connecticut. 

 We frantically search our mind for anything that will move us back from this horrible aberration and return us to the peacefulness of normal. And, no doubt, in the intensity of our present emotions, we will find new mechanics to make our society more and better controlled.

And it seems we must do this for the sake of our own sanity. Because we know, deep down, that what happened at Sandy Hook and in many other such instances is, on some level, endemic to the species. 

 And, while most of us, on a normal day, would rather die, ourselves, than harm a child, we also know very well that, as a group, we are not absolutely impervious to lapses in the certainty of normal. So, we are tormented by the possibility of those abnormal days.

Maybe, our slip will stem from mental illness, as in Sandy Hook. Maybe it will come through a moment of road rage. Maybe aberration will find us in a moment deluged by alcohol. Or, maybe we will lose ourselves because of the fierce emotions of a broken heart, or some grinding abuse, or some deep disappointment.

There are a thousand directions from which our variance can come. And that awareness frightens us as a species. And so we look for better ways to contain ourselves and make our behavior more certain.

Many do look to laws and legislation. But, while those things are helpful and necessary, they are not really the headwaters of the solution – especially in a society as free as ours. 

 With this higher level of personal freedom, also comes the opportunity for higher levels of personal and social misconduct. And, in fact, the progressing reality in America is that the society has very intentionally moved away from the mechanisms which help us hold at bay the dark side of liberty.

For example, we have more recently embraced a parental attitude which says it’s OK to dispense with implanting a respect for the values and authority of a holy God in the heart of our children? But, is it really OK to send a child into adulthood and into society without their own well vetted moral compass?

What, then, will guide them when they are deciding whether or not to drink and drive, or use drugs, or resort to violence? Will we, as parents, always be there when they are deciding whether or not to risk their future to premarital sex? 

 Is it really reasonable to believe that we will always be there to guide them every time they are faced with reckless, or dangerous, or immoral choices? We, absolutely will not.

But, God can be there. He can accompany them through every moment of every day in their mind, their value system, and their conscience. And yet, as a society, we are quickly trending away from His influence on the hearts and minds of our children – and on our own, for that matter.

As a further example of this vector, we have largely surrendered our children to base and violent movies and video games while neglecting their exposure to the Church and the Bible? And we seem also to have surrendered to the idea that public schools and peer groups are an adequate replacement for loving and available parents wielding a resolute “veto power” and well proven values to pass along?

If, in the wrenching emotions of such national tragedies as Sandy Hook, we are desperately looking for redemption and answers, we would be well served to simply return to the old ones. The best way to hold the line against social aberrations and the excesses of freedom is to begin with the inner person. Our best hope is to reinvest ourselves in the cultivation of a government within the heart of the citizen.

The larger reality is this.  A society that is not first governed in the heart of its citizens is not truly governed at all. 

This is true because, in the space between the gaze of a police officer, and the reach of law, and the decrees of political governments, people will always do what they want to do. And that space where there are no external controls always exists.

So, the real hope of any society is that the heart of its people will simply incline to good and right things. Then, we are truly governed – even in the space where no one sees.

Interpretations

I hope you can bear with me for three or four short paragraphs while I wax a bit abstract. When we look beyond the small panoramas of our daily tedium, we realize that, indeed, the Apostle John had it right. In his writings, he portrays life in terms of Light and Darkness, and the tension which exists between the two.

We now know the meaning of the apostle’s analogy. The Light represents an accurate perception of reality, or truth - especially God’s truth. The Darkness represents a false interpretation of reality, or delusion - especially the delusions authored by Satan. So, the idea is that our perception of reality is defined by one or the other of these views.

Thus, either the divine voice interprets reality to our mind, giving us a true perspective on the circumstances of life. Or, the satanic voice interprets our reality with a deceptive alternative view, so that we no longer see reality correctly - as God sees it.

Alright, I’m done with “waxing.” Now, let’s look at how these ideas play out in the more concrete terms of this American culture.

America, in service to God’s purpose, was raised up by Him for a very specific reason. It was to champion the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the modern world. There are many more facets to America's existence. But, this is God's priority for her.

As the practical means to serve that purpose, God has used American capitalism. And, in the process, He taught the culture to embrace these primary values: personal liberty, personal responsibility, charity, and faith. And from these economic and philosophical threads the Creator has woven the unique fabric of the American culture.

And, though there have been growing pains, glitches, and mistakes along the way, for America’s first two hundred years, this mix has been a winning combination. This blend of elements has, indeed, enabled the nation to accomplish its divine purpose. 

 It has also made the nation benevolent beyond any other. It has made her ever more just. And, it has made her broadly and wildly affluent.

Thus, America has truly been a bright and shining reflector of God’s light and goodness to all peoples of the modern world. And, bottom line, the Darkness “ain’t” one bit happy about that.

The Darkness, the satanic antithesis to God’s light, has its own designs for America. The intention of the Darkness is to bring down this instrument of divine enlightenment. And it has found willing servants for its plan in the leadership of the Democrat Party and their supporting network of elitists and "sell out" special interest groups.

Under the pretentious banner of “Social Justice,” these servants of the Darkness, whether wittingly or unwittingly, intend to rip apart the good fabric of American life, and reweave it into a much more sinister pattern. Their intention is to use the coarse fibers of Marxist Socialism to do this. This political philosophy necessarily leads to a demanding and intrusive central government, much diminished civil rights, and the micro regulation of citizens and institutions.

The Democrat plan to achieve this transformation of the American culture is really just a simple one-liner. It goes like this. “By whatever means - make every citizen and institution dependent on (and therefore subject to) the central government.”

So, for example, states are made dependent by the money which is returned to them from federal funds for transportation, education, social programs, etc. Business is made beholden to government through contracts, loans, crony capitalism, and bail outs, as well as the need for favorable laws and regulations. Citizens are made dependent on the government through give-away and entitlement programs, government provided medical care, retirement and disability programs, etc.

And on and on it goes, the plan being to eventually engulf all of our citizens and institutions in a similar way. Then, as the number of “federal sucklings” swells to a sufficient level, the harsh intent of these Socialist schemers will emerge as an empowered national tactic - without pretense: “Do as we wish or know the pain of our disapproval.”

The Darkness and the liberal elitists who serve it have every intention of extinguishing the bright light of America by this simple, “sell your soul to us” method. And, they intend to do so while keeping their treachery carefully cloaked under noble sounding rhetoric and the pretext of serving the "higher social conscience.”

But, in truth, the Darkness cares nothing for any moral high ground, social or otherwise. The Darkness cares only about extinguishing the light of God’s love and benevolence. Their real intention is to remake America, and ultimately the world, into a place where only the views of the Darkness shape and rule reality.

Indeed, American politics do not happen in an existential vacuum. As do all other things, they occur, just as John indicated, in the context of this larger struggle between divine Light and satanic Darkness. 

And, the vortex of this great conflict draws all of us in, on one side or the other. Be assured, our political affiliations in these days make very clear the true allegiance of our heart and the real destiny of our soul.

May a merciful God dispel the liberal darkness in America before its natural outflows become our just deserts.

*John 1:1-5 // 3:16 – 21 //1st John 1:7

The Big Disconnect

There are two realities which we must embrace in this life in order to “get it right.” First we should embrace the reality that God is holy. And second, we should understand that humanity remains always accountable to His holy value system.

So, “The Big Drama” tends to go down like this. In America, we have many people who, like unruly children at play on a long summer day, have somehow dismissed the fact that "Dad" will be home at five o’clock. So, as the day wears on, they simply ignore his established rules for the family.

And, when mother Wisdom attempts to correct them in order to save them from later punishment - nothing doing. They only become more incorrigible, choosing still to ignore the five o’clock realities. 

 Why, because, for them, they are not realities. They are merely the idle threats of a prudish old woman with antique ideas and not one clue when it comes to having "real fun" in life.

So, they write off Wisdom. And they write off the rules. And, they do as they please, and all the more so as the day wears on, eventually throwing out even their respect for the Rule Maker.

Thus, is the big disconnect in this present American culture. It is a widespread kind of mental oblivion when it comes to God's governing values. In fact, we have many "wayward children" who have so far dismissed the Rule Maker from their personal world view that He is simply a non-issue for them.

So, for example, these disobedient children have no reservations about throwing off the God defined sexual mores’. Thus, they easily embrace twisted, and base sexual behavior as in same sex pairings. 

 These "care free" citizens often think it fine to murder children in their mother’s womb as a matter of personal convenience. They tend to believe it better to live by the expedient of the moment than by any divine rule.

And, this great disconnect has, indeed, broadly touched our culture. Thus, in every venue of our national life, we are now divided by the vastly differing values between those who embrace a Holy God and those who don't.

And because of this division in America - for now - there is no longer a universally recognized moral referee. Nor is there any longer an argument-settling set of values, such as we once knew through God's preeminence in the nation.

And sadly - for now - there is no decisive way to expose the folley of these wayward children of the darkness. There is no way to win the intellectual argument of right and wrong with them. Their arrogant disconnect with the truth, and the authority behind it, is so complete that there is simply no basis for explanation. They have so thoroughly replaced the divine value system with the confused concoctions of their own "higher conscience" that God's truth has become incomprehensible to them.

So - for now – we are left with only this maddening stalemate between the enlightened values of God and the dark values of the disconnected. Yet, there remain two possibilities for breaking this stalemate and once again establishing God's truth in the nation.

The first is the possibility of a Spiritual Revival in the country. We can always hope, and we should already be praying that the Holy Spirit would sweep over our land to once again refresh a national embrace of our Creator and His holy values. And, this is certainly the course which faith and true charity would choose.

However, this failing, the alternative means of correction remains eminent. And this alternative has nothing to do with a voluntary response. It has only to do with the hour.  The reality is - It's almost "five o’clock."

Attacking The Arrow

The writer of Proverbs said, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." So, that wise writer advises us to watch out for the condition of our heart "with all diligence." But it would seem that such scrutiny and self-discipline are not a priority for most in the country today.

As a result, the collective heart of our nation has become degraded. It is a simple matter of mathematics. Within a nation there are many individual hearts which, when taken together, create a kind of "composite national heart." And the big numbers are on the side of baseness these days.

However, I was once told that, in one way, it is safer to hunt a lion with a bow and arrow than with a gun. (Stay with me here. I know that last turn was a tight one, but we gotta' go to Africa, just for a minute to finish this conversation.) 

It seems that if the archer is off the mark, the lion sees the arrow that has wounded him and attacks the arrow, believing it to be the source of his trouble. So, the archer stays safe.

But, in the case of the gun, if the shot is not well placed, the lion will turn and attack the hunter. Because he cannot see the bullet, he attributes his pain to the right source.

The point? To solve our national problems, we must stop merely attacking the arrow. It may be the source of our pain, but it is not the root of our problem. We certainly have to take care of practical, everyday political and fiscal concerns; but, we must never forget that those things are only "the arrows."

The real source of our trouble lies within ourselves. The issues of life, as the proverb says, always, in reality, revolve around the condition of the heart. There would have been no Enron debacle had the CEO of the company simply had a good heart. 

There would have been no need for a Wall Street bailout, if the Wall Street players were well governed within. Fanny Mae, and Freddy Mac, and the Social Security Trust Fund would be perfectly healthy today if good hearts had been directing and managing those institutions.

When you think about it, a nation of people not governed in their hearts is not really governed at all. If we only behave and do the right thing when someone is looking, with what then are we left. We are left with the necessity of a police state.

But, in fact, even then, we cannot hire enough policemen; we cannot pass enough laws; we cannot form enough oversight committees to govern a nation that has no inner, heart government.

 It is not the constitution and the laws of this republic which distinguish it and make it great. It is the righteous hearts which embrace and honor those things.

Our basic instinct is, of course, to take the most direct action to stop our pain. So, we just "attack the arrow." We make up our minds to hire and fire our politicians. We develop new economic strategies, etc. etc., etc.

But, in reality, we don’t have a political problem (though we do). We don’t have economic problems (though we obviously do). But, what we have first is a heart problem. 

We are not well governed within, as a people. And, until we are, no matter how intensely we wrestle with the "arrows," the pain will just keep on coming.

How do you stop the demise of a nation? You point it back to God, the Fixer of Hearts, and let Him do His work on a national scale. This may not seem the most direct solution; but, in fact, it is the only course which will correct the mathematics of good and evil in the national heart.