3-1-21<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s discuss children, if you have any; or grandchildren. Or yourself, reader, if you are a young adult with friends or siblings.<\/p>\n
You look around and, increasingly, everyday life and its components disgust you. You are bothered, troubled, worried, alarmed. You see the trash and lies being taught in schools \u2013 things that were anathema to uncountable generations throughout history; and recently unspeakable within families. What to do? An answer might be Christian schools or home-schooling.<\/p>\n
Ah, but outside that cocoon, it is almost impossible for kids to avoid contemporary music. And when you hear ubiquitous songs and lyrics, if you can understand them, the words and concepts often are filthy. Well, there\u2019s Christian radio\u2026<\/p>\n
On the other hand, you can\u2019t escape the awful music in malls and elsewhere, invading everyone\u2019s space. Double-down on reality \u2013 current events, news, burning issues. But. The news media on TV, in magazines and papers, on the web, it\u2019s all so distorted, one-sided.<\/p>\n
TV has entertainment shows, distractions. But… are there normal lives, wholesome situations, depicted any more? Sexual references, gutter morality, blasphemy and cursing, homosexuality\u2026 What shows to watch; how to be warned; and can kids avoid TV at all?<\/p>\n
Yes, and maybe by edict, but\u2026 these same worldly and offensive challenges are everywhere we turn these days, is my point. Standards of morality, politics, \u201ceducation,\u201d sports, documentaries, the celebrity culture: we are hostages to a suicidal culture of death, its malignant worldview pressed down upon us from every side.<\/p>\n
There is an exquisite detail about the nature of this poisonous post-Christianity. I will say what I do not<\/em> believe. The guilty parties who foment these attacks and serve them up so attractively do not conspire. I don\u2019t believe that twice a year, or whatever, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey, Tim Cook, and Bob Iger secretly congregate and plot the subversion of our culture, or coordinate the attacks on traditional values.<\/p>\n But that is not to say there is not a conspiracy. The Bible foretells the time we now live in. End times? Perhaps; nevertheless times of rebellion and apostasy. It could get worse, and when it does, the noxious \u201cvalues\u201d that are replacing Biblical morality and rejecting our virtuous heritage will surely precede the fall. Like now.<\/p>\n The second chapter of Ephesians is a letter that talks about the dual nature of the threats we face \u2013 the enemies, not enemy.<\/p>\n You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.<\/em><\/p>\n The \u201cprince of the power of the air\u201d is Satan. He is in fact lord of the earthly world, roaming about seeking whom to kill and destroy. It is the devil and his influence \u2013 his myriad temptations \u2013 against whom we do battle. He is the enemy of our souls.<\/p>\n Yet he is one being. His influence is everywhere but his presence is not: there are demons, just as there are angels; and they oppress and attack and tempt. Their work is more manifest.<\/p>\n …the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience [sinners and the unsaved] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind\u2026 were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, those in high positions have low standards of morality. They exhibit evil intentions for our democracy and our traditions, and \u2013 frankly \u2013 hate us. They do not have to get together over pizza and plot our destruction. No need to hand out assignments \u2013 who will censor this; who will corrupt that; who will cancel what.<\/p>\n How, then, do these people arrive at the same place, share the same perverse goals? They (and of course other millions of deluded souls) have given themselves over to the \u201cworld.\u201d The \u201cspirit of the age.\u201d False values, heresies, corruption. And then we see, clearly, that such error descends downward from media moguls to celebrities to members of your school boards.<\/p>\n These challenges to our homes and families are as old as the Garden \u2013 heresies and denial of God\u2019s love and guidance; prideful people who \u201cknow better\u201d than God. And the challenges are as new as headlines of this past week!<\/p>\n Item: Amazon removes the faith-based biography of Justice Clarence Thomas;<\/em><\/p>\n Item: The television services of D James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, are removed from the cable channel Lifetime.<\/em><\/p>\n Item: The House passes the \u201cEquality Act\u201d that calls the Bible \u201cbigoted\u201d;<\/em><\/p>\n Item: A man who altered himself in an attempt to be a woman (yet has a \u201cwife\u201d) is nominated to a cabinet position by Biden and refuses to condemn counseling three-year-olds to change their sex.<\/em><\/p>\n There is no \u201cconspiracy\u201d when pigs wallow in the same mud; it\u2019s what they do. The spirit of the age now rages with the fury of a hurricane.<\/p>\n Our resistance is more necessary, and the stakes are higher, than ever. But Kristi Noem, a Pentecostal and the Governor of South Dakota, said this weekend: \u201cThey want to be our shepherds. But that requires that we see ourselves as sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n We are not only more than sheep. We are \u201cmore than conquerors,\u201d the Bible says. And Luke 10:19 reminds us that followers of Christ have authority over all demonic forces. It was never more important than now that we exercise that authority.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n