Spiritual Warfare
The Secular Take-over of America
Last week I submitted a 300-page manuscript for my doctoral thesis. Its working title for future book publication is The River, and it details the five worldviews about God, why four of them are false, and how they all came from a common source.
One of the five philosophies that is battling for global supremacy is secularism. I analyzed atheism/secularism/humanism in depth for the thesis–and my studies were very enlightening. First of all, I didn’t realize there were Asian and Western versions of atheism. More on that at a later date.
The western form of secularism is in mortal combat with the Judeo-Christian worldview in the United States. This battle has been escalating for about fifty years.
However, the principalities of evil behind the lie of secularism went for the “jugular” last week when President Obama became the first president in history to endorse homosexual marriage.
This was a desperate attempt to complete the secular takeover of America. Here’s why.
First, a little history of secularism.
Man-centered atheism/secularism comprises one of the five worldviews that go back to ancient times. Yet, there has been a substantial surge in global atheism in the past four decades. What is atheism? An “atheist” says there is sufficient evidence to show that God does not exist. An “agnostic” says there is insufficient evidence to know whether God exists or not. A “practical atheist” is a person who lives as if God does exist.
I use the word “secularist,” (worldly; supreme attention to the things of this life), as synonymous with “atheist.” The term secularism was first coined by in 1846 by George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906). If you combine the numbers for both “atheists” and the “non-religious,” the total number of secularists is about 20% of the world’s population.
Atheism developed as a fourth false tributary of the river of God’s original truth. Human beings were becoming more civilized (less dependent on God’s protection), educated (philosophical about life), industrial (more prosperous), technological (more creative), and scientific (understanding how the world works).
This growth in human development brought a mystical humanism to the East and rational secularism to the West. Both exalted man. Some replaced God with the State.
Atheism or secularism is one of the newer “religions” in the history of man–though there have been people in all ages who denied the reality of God. In the past three hundred years, we have seen the following Western forms:
- The violent French Revolution which came out of the European Enlightenment.
- Nazism under Adolph Hitler and Fascism under Mussolini.
- The various communist expressions including the Bolshevik Revolution in Russian and Mao Zedong in China.
- The social democracies of Europe (a further expression of the Enlightenment).
For much of this period, America resisted secular impulses due to its rich Christian heritage, three powerful spiritual awakenings, and active church involvement in the social issues of the day (such as the issue of slavery in the 19th century).
However, in the 20th century, the Church’s presence began to shrink from the public square and by the 1960s, due to secular indoctrination in the schools, universities and society at large, the Baby boom generation cast off the biblical worldview via the sexual revolution and its many anti-authority expressions.
Atheism/secular was gaining strength and flexing its muscles.
The acceptance of Darwinian evolution as the only theory of origins allowed to be taught in the schools gave secularists a hands up on the new generation who accepted the immoral standards of their parents and took them even further.
As Christian morals crumbled, so did the American family.
Now in the beginning of the 21st century, the map of America has changed. Many say we are now a 50-50 nation. What they mean is that half of the country still believes in America’s traditional Judeo-Christian roots and the other half leans more toward the secular view of life. They argue this is the source of political and social gridlock that we now regularly experience.
Here’s what’s really happened. For America’s first two hundred years, probably 80% of the population were either committed Christians or accepted the biblical worldview as best for society. Another 7-10% were atheists (either in philosophy or practice) and the rest were “other.” But both of these groups accepted the majority worldview and the blessings that it brought to the nation.
Today, however, 80% of Americans still profess to believe in God, but philosophical atheism has grown to about 15% of the population, and other religions have been added to the mix. Instead of the secularists appreciating the blessings of Christian culture, there has been a deliberate attempt by a powerful minority to devolve the United States into a secular majority nation–following the path of Europe.
The growing secular minority is bigger, bolder, more organized, and being led by demonic forces who passionately desire to completely destroy the biblical foundations of America’s Christian liberty.
On a human level, the secularists want to forcefully take over America.
Ignace Lepp, author of Atheism in our Time, tells us how things have changed:
“Contemporary atheism, at least in the developed countries of Christian civilization is distinguished from the atheism of other times and other civilizations above all by its extension. It is no longer a phenomenon of a few individuals protesting the taboos of society, nor the privilege of a minority who consider themselves especially ‘enlightened’ in the manner of the eighteenth century rationalists.”
“It is the common lot of at least a considerable portion, if not of the majority, of our contemporaries and is well on its way to becoming the common norm of society. The intellectuals were the first to break with traditional faith; the bourgeois followed them; then came the masses, and, finally the peasants.”
Secularism has become so brazen that in 2012, for the first time in American history, there are even rallies to promote disbelief.
On Saturday, March 24, 2012, some 20,000 atheists demonstrated in Washington, D.C. for a “Reason Rally” protesting religion. British scientist and leading proponent of atheism, Richard Dawkins, was the headliner. He didn’t appear until five hours into the event, but when he strode to the podium, the crowd cheered wildly.
He announced: “We’re never antagonistic toward religious believers; we’re antagonistic toward religious belief. There is no good, honest reason to believe in a god or gods of any kind, or indeed in anything supernatural. The only reason to believe something is that you have evidence for it.”
The crowd whistled and cheered for his familiar lines such as: “I don’t despise religious people. I despise what they stand for.” And, “Evolution is not just true, it’s beautiful.” Then Dawkins called on the crowd not only to challenge religious people but to “ridicule and show contempt” for their doctrines and sacraments, including the Eucharist.
Outrage was the parlance of the day. Television host Adam Savage told the masses: “There really is someone who loves and protects me and watches over my actions — It’s me!”
Friedrich Nietzsche is probably the greatest philosophical proponent of secularism. Here is the goal that he expressed many years ago:
“We have killed God. The most sacred and powerful force the world has hitherto possessed now bleeds beneath our knife…The grandeur of this act is too great for us. Is it not necessary that, as a result of this act, we become gods ourselves?”
Now you know the meaning of the rise of the “secular state” under Barack Obama and a few presidents that preceded him. Man is now god and the state is his fulcrum of power.
Obamacare was a major secular “grab” to control the American economy. If it remains law, it will destroy America’s ability to prosper and be a blessing to the nations of the world.
Homosexual marriage is the latest “grab” in the secular takeover of America. If inaugurated on a federal scale, it will completely destroy the religious and social foundations that Americans have enjoyed for centuries.
The spiritual powers that have deceived our current leaders showed their true colors this week by motivating Barack Obama to become the first president in history to support homosexual marriage. Yes, he did it because he’s a secularist at heart and it helps with fund-raising. But overall, it was a desperation move because he could badly lose the coming election–as well as the Supreme Court ruling on healthcare this summer.
Both of these defeats would greatly retard, if not stop the secular march to control America. So the spiritual enemy of America got mad and threw all the dice on the table. You can hear the demonic echo: Let’s stop our quiet deception and go for the jugular. We can destroy America only through belittling its faith, squashing its economy, and dismantling the family. Let’s go for it!
There is no sainthood in this decision. It’s purpose is to destroy. And I really don’t ultimately blame the president–but the spiritual forces of wickedness behind him.
Make no mistake. There’s only one group that desires to “take-over” America–and it’s not right-wing Christians. It is a powerful minority of secular radicals–inspired by spiritual darkness–who want to force a man-centered version of civilization down the throats of the Judeo-Christian majority that is barely hanging on for dear life.
Will they succeed in this generation? God only knows. We are called to humble ourselves, pray, vote for wise and godly leaders, and to resist evil.
And hope that a fourth great awakening may yet halt the tide of the secular takeover of America.
The Mystery of Iniquity: Is It Time for the West to Admit There’s a Satan?
An article appeared in the Daily Caller on July 20, 2010 that revealed a conspiracy in the mainstream press to protect Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign. The evidence indicated that there were hundreds of journalists in the United States who were not interested in the truth about the man–they simply held a bias and wanted him elected.
I’ve been thinking about that bias for a year. Where did it come from? Why was it so strong and uniform so as to overlook the lack of experience, socialist policies, and radical associations of the man who now serves as our U.S. President?
We are now nearly three years into his term. By all accounts, he has been a failure on reviving the US economy, on addressing the great moral issues of our day, and in strengthening America’s position in the world.
Yet those same media outlets are lining up for the 2012 presidential run to both denigrate the eventual Republican nominee and help raise one billion dollars for Barack Obama’s re-election effort. Something seems wrong–even conspiratorial. But it’s not what you think.
There’s a “mystery of iniquity” at work in the world. It’s time for the West to admit there is a Satan. Acknowledging that fact causes many things to make sense.
I admit that the term “mystery of iniquity” is a vague concept in the Bible. The phrase appears in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 where Paul says “For the mystery of iniquity is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way.” These verses are in the context of a time of rebellion on earth, where a strong anti-Christian leader emerges.
My point is not to equate Barack Obama or any other specific leader with the biblical Anti-Christ. I believe there have been many anti-Christ figures in history with more to come. But I’m fascinated with the general idea that when human beings rebel against God and lawlessness is increased, then evil advances in a “mysterious” way.
Why?
Because there is one true conspiracy that the Western World hates to admit: There is a Satan. There are legions of demons in the unseen world. And this Satanic terrorism network can mysteriously blind the minds of human beings to act like mobs that believe crazy things, vote for crazy things, and do very evil things that hurt human begins.
The skeptical Western mind needs to wake up to this reality.
Yes, there is a God. Fear Him and love Him.
And yes, there is a Satan. Hate him and do not give in to his deceptions.
Interestingly, the number one book this week on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list is about God. It’s called Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo. At number seven is Ann Coulter’s new bestseller called Demonic which I picked up for some interesting summer reading. Ann’s book begins with the story of the man who was possessed by a legion of demons (from Mark 5:2-9) and how human, mob behavior has demonic origins.
The popularity of these two books shows that some of the American people get it. They know there’s a God and also that there is a demonic conspiracy at work in this world.
But many do not–especially the media and intellectual elites. They make fun of the devil. He’s red with a pitch-fork. He’s a figment of our imagination. He’s a fairy tale figure that Western man can laugh at and ignore.
But he’s not–and this is where much of the world is smarter than we are. Most Africans, Pacific Islanders, Asians, and Middle Easterners believe in the reality of Satan and evil. They have different twists on this truth and perform different rituals to deal with it. But their daily lives attest there is a demonic conspiracy that is alive and active in this world–headed up by a cruel and malevolent being known as Lucifer or Satan.
The Bible says this true source of terror is able to “blind the eyes of the unbelieving” (2 Corinthians 4:4). And the greatest mass of unbelievers (in the supernatural world) live in the West. Our modern, unperceptive civilization is led by intellectual and media elites who laugh at the idea of Satan and his demons.
I think he laughs too–at our unbelieving ignorance.
And thus “the mystery of iniquity”–the mysterious advance of evil–moves forward swiftly and destructively in our societies. What an amazing tragedy.
Admitting there is a Satan, who is able to blind peoples’ eyes and destroy millions of lives, is a vital key to understanding so much of what is happening in the 21st century.
- The war against terror. How can human beings fly airplanes into buildings, strap bombs to their bodies, or the most recent terrorist attack in Afghanistan–blowing up a medical clinic with women and children that collapsed the roof and took scores of lives? Doesn’t that type of evil seem pre-posterous, inhuman, and totally illogical? Only the mystery of iniquity of the demonic world makes any sense of the carnage.
- The holocaust of abortion. In America have systematically killed 50 million babies the past forty years and not called it murder. A person who supports abortion says they are pro-choice. You ask them what is the choice, and they dance and swim around the subject. Of course, the choice is to kill a baby–plain and simple. But our minds are blinded to that fact. If we want to keep the child, it’s a “baby” in the womb. If we want to kill it, it’s a “fetus.” Our words determine what it is! Is that insane or what? No, it’s a cruel trick of the mystery of iniquity.
- The 2008 Election. He was the most unqualified man ever to run as president of the United States. He had no executive experience. He was a radical community organizer who sat under the teaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and held very strong socialist views on income re-distribution and social justice. Sure, he was a good speaker–but that can only take you so far. Yet, the mainstream media mysteriously backed him without question or normal scrutiny. It was as if their eyes were blinded to to his weaknesses and faults.
- 53% of America voting for a novice over an experienced war hero. I spoke to a number of people about their voting for Barack Obama in 2008. Many had no substantial reasons for pulling the lever for him. Somehow, they were mysteriously blinded to who he was and what he was going to do as president. Now they know. But are they able to see it?
- The “lamestream media” bias. It was amazingly lop-sided in 2008 and appears to be growing in strength in 2012. Is there any good reason to vote for Barack Obama in 2012? The Misery Index is at an all-time level. Unemployment is over 9%. We appear on the verge of a double dip recession or even a catastrophic depression. Nothing is being done to create jobs. Government debt is exploding and the party in power is doing absolutely nothing to stop it. Yet, the main stream media is fully in the tank for the re-election of the president. There’s something very mysterious about the level of myopia they possess.
- The advance of homosexual marriage. I’m grieved at the New York legislature’s approval last week of homosexual marriage. I wonder if it is a cultural tipping point that will speed up the necessary judgment of God on our nation. Imagine the deception of homosexuals “marrying.” To marry is to join together–both spiritually and physically to produce children. Same sex relationships can do neither. But they say “It’s not about gender. It’s about the person you love.” Really? If I love my sister can I marry her? Or if I love my child, or how about my dog? What if I love five women? Do you see the stupidity of this argument. There are many necessary God-given barriers for sexual relationships. Marriage between a man and a woman is the five thousand year standard. Yet, the mystery of iniquity is leading us to commit cultural suicide on this–the great moral issue of the 21st century.
This list goes on and on–from the acceptance of Keynesian economics, to the laughingstock of man-made global warming, to the West’s fascination with entertainment (giving their lives and time to something that is not real), the diabolical mystery of iniquity is the ONLY explanation that makes sense of our idiotic world.
Why we’ve believed Satan’s lies is the greatest mystery.
Theologians call it a fallen nature. It includes the brain.
I believe that the existence of Satan and his demonic conspiracy needs to be shouted from the house-tops of the Western nations. He exists, he’s destroying the planet, and we need to repent and come to Jesus Christ so that he can “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
As we raise awareness of Satan, there are just three qualifications to keep in mind:
1. Let’s be careful in exposing his deeds. He is an angel, an invisible being, whom we cannot see directly. Like wind or electricity, we simply see the effects of his actions. So we musn’t unthinkingly attribute his presence to just anything. We don’t’ want to see a “devil under every bush.”
2. On the other hand, we must learn to discern his actions, strategies and tactics. The Apostle Paul was seasoned enough spiritually and grounded in a proper worldview to recognize the direct hand of Satan in a number of circumstances in his life–and he mentioned them by name (e.g. 1 Thessalonians 2:18).
3. We also don’t want to blame Satan for everything. He is the influencer (deceiver) of men who then make bad or evil choices by following his lead. The “devil made me do it” is bad theology.
However, it’s time for the West to admit that Satan is at the heart of all of our problems.
Iniquity is a mysterious thing–until you understand its source.