As Americans are beginning to protest government control of their lives it's hard to ignore the reality that this plague has affected millions. We are now being warned of food shortages, and the drums of war are being hinted at. Let me see.... in just the last few months we have experienced a global plague. Famine is becoming a very real threat [and not just to third-world countries] -- meat is being rationed in our country, even as I write, and dairy cows have been slaughtered, along with millions of pigs and chickens. And wars and rumors of war are whispered among "those in the know". Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah, they are the beginnings of birth pangs that Jesus talks about in Matthew 24. These world events pretty much resemble the four horsemen of the apocalypse in Revelation 6, too -- the red horse symbolizing war and bloodshed; the black horse is famine; and the pale horse is pestilence and death.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that it feels like déja vu. I say that because beginning in 2014, I was writing about the undermining of our nation's Constitution, our republic, and our basic civil rights; that we were seriously eroding the truth that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." I remember having to memorize this paragraph from the Declaration of Independence in my elementary Social Studies classes, but now I see that "new Government" as being the Kingdom of God, with the faithful acting as the Ekklesia [governing body of Believers acting as representatives of the Heavenly government of the Father]. But there is a spiritual force that doesn't want to see that happen.
Back in 2014, I made mention of a political activist and theorist named Saul Alinsky. He wrote a book in 1971 titled Rules for Radicals in which he subscribed to 12 rules about how to successfully run a movement for change. That little book has greatly influenced our social and political climate for the last 50 years. And I find it most notable for the dedication of the book, in which Alinsky writes, "Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical ... the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer".
There you have it .... the allusion of the kingdom of darkness versus the Kingdom of God. And the rules which Alinsky promoted certainly mimic Satan's agenda and methodology. To begin with, there is rule #3, which states "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of your Enemy. Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety, and uncertainty". The way in which the so-called "experts" have disseminated [dis]information about this virus has resulted in the loss of freedoms that we have taken for granted. This falls right in line with Satan as the Father of Lies whose modus operandi is Deception and false accusations.
Another rule of the social and political radicals, as well as the first radical, Lucifer, is "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself". That's certainly true of the Covid-19 scare. The original estimation of deaths in America was 2.2 million or more. As of this date, the number is just shy of 64,000. Please understand that I am not making light of that number. Any death is significant, but you can see how this strategy parallels Satan's strategy of getting us to worry about things that haven't even happened yet, or that are far less devastating than he has given us to imagine. Satan's goal is to demoralize Christians into a state of passivity, resulting in his kingdom continuing to dominate the earth.
Rule #12 of Rules for Radicals is "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it". That's pretty much what Satan did to Job, isn't it? He cut off Job's support network, and isolated him from sympathy. He attempted to get Job to turn against the very One who believed in him and had blessed him, and would be there to restore him.
These are just a few of Alinsky's rules for instituting social change, and it's not hard to see them at work in our current situation, and see them as similar to Satan's tactics. But let's not forget another diabolical tactic known as the Hegelian Dialect. In short, here's how it works .... Step number one looks like this: Our Enemy knows that, instinctively, people won't go for restricted freedoms, so they cause a problem [that didn't naturally occur] which is step number two, which causes panic and conflict. Then they come up with step number three: a solution to solve the manufactured problem, which turns out to be their original goal [i.e., restricted freedoms]. The people will embrace it because they just want the panic and conflict to go away.
For example, we can see this scenario in the world ... a man-made virus being unleashed on the world, causing death, panic, destroyed economies, and loss of jobs. With the threat of an on-going pandemic, the masses will clamor for a solution and agree to mandatory vaccines. In the Spirit, we see that Satan desires men to doubt God in the midst of this pandemic; sending spirits of fear and abandonment to invade our isolation, and causing us to seek solutions in our own power instead of pressing into the power of God in us to help us endure. He wants us to trust ourselves, or human leaders, more than we trust our Father and Savior. It's all about perpetuating Satan's kingdom of darkness and stopping the advance of God's Kingdom on the earth.
But, we must cling to the truth that we exist in Christ, who is a safe realm that we can step into and be protected during this storm. And we need to walk in our identity in the Kingdom. Our authentic citizenship is in Heaven, seated next to Christ, the King of all Creation -- we are temporary [and secondarily] citizens of this world. We must not get distracted from anything that Satan aligns with in order to divert us from our purpose in this life. We have a destiny that surpasses whatever we may experience during our short lifetime in this realm called earth.
We were made for eternity, but we have a job to do while we're here in our temporary home. So, Satan and his minions can develop all the rules and radical ideas they can imagine. But they will never defeat God's sovereign plan for His people or this planet. He will rule and reign as King, and Satan's radicals will pay the price for their rebellion unless they choose to be redeemed. So, don't get discouraged! It may seem like dark days are ahead of us, and we wonder when this nightmare will end. But this is our opportunity to persevere for the Kingdom of God; spreading the Good News that the Light of Heaven has brought a promise of our deliverance into the realm of the Kingdom of God. Let us be about our Father's business until our Lord returns!
Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has Light shone.
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