CHRIST-APP by philtierneyblog

COULD IT BE … SATAN?

People involved in the New Apostolic Reformation, Dominionist and Seven Mountains Mandate movements believe that the institutions of American government and society are under the influences of demonic forces. They believe that people, who disagree with them are influenced or possessed by demons. They believe that God has called them to use a political figure to overwhelm them.

They seem to fail to notice that the people that Jesus was described as casting demons from had the signs of severe mental illness. He didn’t say that the Pharisees and Sadducees or scribes were possessed or influenced by demons. He didn’t seek to exorcise them. He didn’t claim that the Roman authorities were possessed by demonic forces. He regarded them as driven by power, not demons.

Such American Christian “prophets” cite St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,  and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6: 10-17)

There, Paul was refocusing the attention of the Christians in Ephesus on the nature of the spiritual struggles they were encountering. He wasn’t saying that the Roman authorities were a front for the devil or that they were possessed by demons. He was directing their attention to their internal struggles as battles with spiritual adversities that could be overcome with faith, righteousness, assurance of their salvation, the Spirit of God and the Scriptures. In this, he used the image of soldiers outfitted for battle within themselves. He wasn’t giving a hidden message for spiritual warfare with governments.

This is, after all, the same apostle who wrote, “Let everyone be subject to (obey) the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Romans 13: 1-2) How could St. Paul simultaneously command followers of Jesus to obey the government of Rome, which wasn’t particularly friendly to Christians, and also tell Christians that they were under the influence of evil spirits, let alone to fight against them? Those are completely contradictory and, therefore a misinterpretation of Ephesians. That misinterpretation is driven by political ideology, not sound biblical hermaneutics or Christian spirituality.

Explanation of the Term

As I’ve said from the outset, it certainly is not my intention to encourage anyone to believe in the devil.  That said, many Christians do believe that such a malign spiritual creature exists and is active in the world, if not a controlling influence.

In the biblical writings that entity has most often been identified with the word, “Satan.” The Hebrew word most often used was שָׂטָן, Ha Satan. It meant adversary (of God) and accuser (of humans). In Greek, the word was Σατανᾶς, Satanas. That word also meant adversary. In both languages it was not used as a name, but as a descriptor. The term described what that spiritual force did. It was that spiritual entity, which consistently sought to adversely affect God or God’s purposes, to subvert or undermine the Creator of all that is.  

Other words used in reference to the Adversary described how that force operated to oppose or undermine God. Keep in mind the other meaning of the term satan – accuser.  Elsewhere in the Bible, Isaiah called it, “Lucifer”, light-bearer or son of the morning (Isaiah 14:12).  Jesus called him “a liar and “father of lies” (John 8:44).  In Genesis 3 and in the first chapter of Job he is referred to as the devil. The word for devil in Hebrew was שָׂעִיר, saiyr.  It concretely referred to a hairy male goat, but picking up on the sounds male goats made, euphemistically referred to sounds akin to slandering. It meant one who slanders. Another word used in association with that entity in the Greek New Testament writings was πειράζω, peiradso, which meant to tempt.

So, taken together in English, the Adversary of God follows these characteristic approaches. It tempts humans in the guise of light. It uses lies about what appears to be good to deceive people. Then it accuses and slanders people so as to prosecute them.   

The Goal

The preponderance of American Christians, these days, firmly believes that the singular effects of the satan are manifested in immorality. More specifically, American Christians are almost exclusively focused on sex and sexuality. That’s made the majority of American Christians singularly focused on creating laws that will suppress or prohibit activities associated with sex.

Which Laws Should Reshape American Juris Prudence and Who Decides?

That’s what has impassioned so many American Christians to want to make America a Christian nation by instituting biblical laws. Of course, that immediately raises the question of which biblical laws. There are 613 laws in the Bible. Some have to do with dietary laws, and attire. Some deal with rituals and prescribed sacrifices. Some concern themselves customs and practices. Some are about economics, business dealings and charity for the poor. Some regulate agricultural practices and husbandry. Some are related to crimes against others or against God. And some are moral codes.

There are several questions that must be asked. What bearing do the 613 laws in the Bible have of making America a Christian nation?  The previously mentioned American Christians want the Bible to be the final judge when it comes to the Constitution, criminal and civil laws. But which biblical laws ought to replace existing laws in America?

There are many biblical laws that seem to be rejected out of hand and without rationale. None seem to believe that dietary laws, attire, Jewish ritual and sacrifices, customs, agricultural, economic or business laws should be instituted. Apart from Sabbath laws, they don’t seem to want spiritual laws, like lust, honoring parents, lying, or coveting to be enshrined in law. That leaves out most of the Ten Commandments, except for murder and adultery.

What biblical laws do they want to be enshrined into American law? Who gets to decide? What gives them the authority to decide? It seems that the most prominent representatives of the Theonymist, Dominionist, New Apostolic Reformers, Catholic Integralists, and other fundamentalist American Christian movements are the ones to decide. They believe that God has given them the authority to decide, but they seek a sovereign American leader to give them the temporal powers to impose the legal changes.

The problem is that they are as prone to subjectivity as anyone else. Their personal experiences, psychological make-up, individual aversions and proclivities will drive their decision-making. Those will determine which biblical laws and prohibitions they will choose to replace the Constitution and laws of the country.

Sex, Sex and More Sex

Which laws have they made it known they will change?  Except for witchcraft, virtually all of them relate to sex and sexuality. Certainly abortion, homosexual involvement and marriage, but also perhaps birth control, adultery, divorce, in vitro fertilization, pornography, sex change procedures and other related activities having to do with sex and reproduction. Of course, some of those aren’t mentioned in the Bible at all. And some were actually permitted, including divorce and voluntary castration.

The Irony of Christian Legalism

There is an irony to this urge for Christians to impose laws. There are a few, in fact. It’s ironic that Jesus didn’t emphasize legal matters, whatsoever. It’s also ironic that He emphasized forgiveness and spent time with sinners. It’s even more ironic that St. Paul said that due to Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, we have been set free from the Law. Why would those who have been set free from the Law be so eager to impose selective parts of the Law or even make up laws to impose on others?

During the time of the Apostles there were Christians living in various provinces of the Roman Empire. The people in those places had different customs, practices and moral codes. The Roman government tolerated the customs of those provinces. Moral laws enshrined in Roman law were few and far between. The New Testament writings didn’t urge those who were not Christians to follow the way of life taught by Jesus. However, St. Paul and the other Apostles did urge Christians to avoid certain practices that they considered to be immoral. Nevertheless, they didn’t seek to impose them on others in local or Roman laws.

What’s Driving American Christian Influencers?

Why, then, do so many Christian influencers want to do what Jesus and the Apostles never did?

It may be the lust for power. Some people are more driven to achieve power and the position it confers than others. That craving is not from God. The opposite is true. Humility and service are attributes that Jesus called us to attain with God’s help. I hope it isn’t merely the drive to gain power.

It may be impatience with God and the drive to take God’s place in accomplishing what people believe God wants. At the core of the understanding of grace in the Bible is that God will convict people of the behaviors and impulses that God wants people to reform. Integral to that process is the work of the Holy Spirit. It has been called “prevenient grace.” It’s the grace, the unearned merit and help from God, that comes before grace. It’s what inclines people to wonder about God. It’s what enables people to believe.  It’s what enables people to commit themselves to following Jesus. It’s what inclines and incentivizes people to make positive changes in their lives.

Also integral to the process of the desire for people to make changes is input from others. Christians in a society with freedom of speech are able to advocate what they believe and what they ‘re convinced God wants people’s behavior to be. Christians can share their convictions about such things as sex or astrology or yoga or dancing or gambling whatever they are persuaded God wants other people to know. There is, however, a big difference between personal persuasion and legal prohibition.

More often than not, prohibition has the reverse effects. It engenders resistance to the prohibition, but also to the origin of it. If God, if Jesus, is identified as the source of legal prohibitions, then God will be resisted and that is not in service of God’s best interests.  I hope it isn’t inspired by a compulsion to play God.

It may be zeal for righteousness. Zeal is overwhelming eagerness or enthusiasm to achieve a cause or goals. Zeal of trust in God and of following Jesus’s way is encouraged in the Bible. It’s once-removed-zeal that gets Christians in trouble. By that I mean, overwhelming enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause ascribed to God. First, someone’s passion for something attributed to God is inherently subjective. The cause, itself, has to be checked against Scripture. Second, such passionately felt causes are never God’s will if the end is used to justify the means. I’ll say it again. The ends never justify the means. Jesus taught that the means are the end – the love of God and others.

Been There, Done That

The core of Christian spirituality is to know the difference between God and ourselves, the difference between God’s will and our passions, no matter how deeply held. The Pharisees were convinced that it was God’s will to overthrow Alexander Jannaeus. He was convinced that it was God’s will to destroy the Pharisee leadership. The bishops of the 4^th through 9^th centuries Church firmly believed it was God’s will to root out heretics. St. Bernard absolutely believed it was God’s will to rally the Second Crusade. Catholic and Protestant leaders utterly believed it was God’s will to fight and defeat one another. The Spanish colonists believed it was God’s will to massacre the French Protestant civilians at Ft. Caroline. The Puritans in Massachusetts Bay Colony were convinced it was God’s will to hang Quakers and burn witches. The John Brown was sure it was God’s will to kill slave owners. Southern planters were convinced it was God’s will to own slaves to do their work for them. The prohibitionists were certain it was God’s will to prohibit the use of alcohol. Do you actually believe that you are better than they? Many American Christians are completely persuaded that it’s God’s will to make their version of American Christianity preeminent by political force.

The Chess Match… The Log-Rolling Contest

This is the reason I began with the question, “Could it be Satan?” The goal of that Adversary isn’t to stop good, but to undermine God, to adversely affect God’s purposes. It’s more of a chess match than a football game. That force doesn’t care whether good, even godly, intentions are used, but can even use the most sincere and zealous faith to accomplish the desired goal of undermining and discrediting God.

The tactics most often used by the adversary with Christians is to use their faith against them. It’s like a spiritual log-rolling contest. The tactics used are meant to throw Christians off balance and to somehow distract them from following Jesus or undermine them in the effectiveness of their credibility to onlookers.

This current mission to make America a Christian nation looks an awful lot like that. It tempts those who embrace that goal to make it such a singular focus as to replace God in their enthusiasm. It makes their goal into an idol to which they are willing to sacrifice Jesus’s reputation. It’s need for control seems to attest to their belief that God is not in control without them. It fails to differentiate between their passions and God’s will, offering no evidence other than their subjective convictions and claims to prophesy, without verification. It turns potential Christians into enemies. It unnecessarily adopts any means to achieve the ends they hope for.

Consider their means to the end of making America Christian. They have made a quid pro quo pact, not simply with a man who has no regard for the Creator of all that is, but with a man who considers Jesus and everything He taught as weak. Surely, you know this. They have embraced a career liar and slanderer. They have been called upon to give their loyalty to a man, who demands the utmost loyalty. They have come to lie for a man who breaths nothing but lies and threats.

Taking After his Father

Consider, again, the similarities between that man in whom they put their trust to make America Christian and the Adversary. Like the satan, he tempts humans in the guise of light, to achieve their hopes and dreams through him. Like the satan, he constantly lies to people to get them to do what he wants them to do. Like the satan he deceives people. Like the satan, he brings the worst out in people. Like the satan, he then accuses and slanders people so as to prosecute them and inflate himself.   

Knowing all this, these American Christian influencer believe their ends justify using him and being used by him as their means to a Christian America.

Again, as the people gathered in Jerusalem on the Feast of Pentecost cried out to Peter, American Christians should cry out and say, “What shall we do?”  Peter’s reply is sufficient to the occasion. He Said, “Repent.” And so should you.

The Point

Repent of Trump. If you do not, you will gain your heart’s desire and your very worst fears. And so, stop supporting that lawless man of lies. Do not vote for Trump. He is a tool of adversity.

May the Grace of God and the love of Jesus fill your hearts and minds.

Faithfully yours in Christ Jesus,

Phil