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.