Using the Power of Words to Win the Culture War

We all recognize the power of words, either to lift up and encourage, or to deflate and destroy.

When a young person is told during childhood that they are “worthless” those words can have a profound effect on their future. On the other hand, when we tell our children often that we love them and believe in them, those positive words can motivate them toward a life of fruitfulness.

God created the universe with spoken words (Genesis 1:1)–an incomprehensible concept to our feeble minds. He solved the problem of sin by sending His Son to die in our place. John 1:1 calls Jesus the “Word” of God.

And civilizations have known for centuries that “the pen (writing words) is mightier than the sword (using force).

So how can we use words in the 21st century to win the culture war?

Before I make three suggestions, it might be helpful to point out that in the invisible world where demonic forces are present (Ephesians 6:12), there must be an infamous satanic agency that is responsible for most of the lies that we hear and pass around on earth.

Let’s call this Luciferian newsroom “The Department of Deception.”

I don’t know how it works, or how they communicate with each other, but the following scenario appears to be the primary way the devil holds great sway over the hearts and minds of people.

• Satan, and his legions desire to deceive and destroy human beings by separating them from their Creator and Savior (John 10:10).
• These evil beings deceive us (Revelation 20:3) by presenting false ideas to our minds that sound good, but are none-the-less untrue.
• The satanic propaganda is promoted on earth using words in articles, books, speeches, and visual forms to trap human beings into believing lies (Colossians 2:8).
• Human beings take these deceptive words and use them in campaigns and conflicts to manipulate and control other people.

Let’s illustrate this phenomenon with one example with which we will all agree.

Adolf Hitler and The Nazis

Adolf Hitler rejected God at an early age and entered into a very dark world of hatred and personal ambition–obviously inspired by the demonic realm.  He wrote his rambling “Mein Kampf” (My Cause) while sitting in a Landsberg, Germany prison just a few miles from where I did my missionary training five decades later.

This is a close-to-home contrast for me of the power of deceitful words and liberating ones. In 1924, Hitler spent 264 days in the Landsberg prison putting satanic ideas on paper that would lead to the rise of the Third Reich.  Exactly fifty years later, I would spend over 100 days in the small village of Hurlach, only a few kilometers from Landsberg, hearing the life-giving words of men and women of God that would launch me into missions.

Hitler’s words from hell brought death to millions and caused the world’s worst world war. God’s heavenly words changed my life for good and that of thousands of others who have advanced God’s  Kingdom in many nations.

Words are the most powerful  weapon we own–either for good or evil. How can we use them more wisely to preserve and transform our nations?

I will mention three areas of the culture war where we must change the words to win the debate for the hearts and minds of people.

Abortion

This is one of the most clever and diabolical deceptions that has ever been foisted on the human race. It is also the greatest holocaust of all time, probably causing the unjust death of over one-to-two billion people over the past one hundred years.

Yes, you read that right.

One to two billion.

Adolf Hitler and those who followed his words were responsible for unjustly taking the lives of some 6-8 million people from 1941-45. We rightly call this “The Holocaust”–and it should be remembered in infamy as such. Wrong ideas about Aryan superiority couched in innocuous phrases such as “The Final Solution” damaged the conscience of German soldiers who callously killed millions of people.

But modern-day abortion goes way beyond that atrocity. Pro-abortionists with false ideas and words, have deceived hundreds of millions of people who have killed billions of innocent children.

Satan’s “Department of Deception” has used one particular phrase to make abortion sound palatable and almost noble.

Pro-choice.

You’ve heard it thousands of times and seen it on countless posters. It’s a very clever play on words. “Pro: usually means you’re “for” something–and that’s a positive. “Choice” is usually a good thing where free beings are allowed a variety of options.

These two little words, straight from hell, have inoculated us to the absolute evil of the abortion holocaust. Even the arrest and conviction of Dr. Ernest Gosnell in Philadelphia and the exposure of his house of horrors did not awaken us from our stupor.

We’ve been duped by the words “pro-choice.” Who could be against that?

But here’s the reality test: What’s the choice? There are only two–life for a human being or death to a human being.

Cultural warriors of the world–we need to change the words to reflect the truth and alter the debate. It’s this simple: You are either pro-life or you are pro-death.

Period.

If the pro-abortionist insists on saying they are “pro-choice”, then simply ask them the question: What are the choices? They will have to admit that one brings life and the other brings death.

We must win the argument by changing the language. The tide is already in our favor as for the first time in decades a majority of Americans call themselves pro-life.

Let’s achieve the overturning of Roe. v. Wade in our lifetime by using words powerfully and truthfully.

Pro-life or pro-death.

Let’s have the guts to label abortion what it really is.

Marriage

This is the other pillar of society that the “Department of Deception” has been recently successful in framing to their advantage. Under such nice sounding terms as “it’s all about love,” or “gender doesn’t matter,” and especially the over-riding term of “gay marriage,” in a matter of a few years, Western society has opened itself to the destruction of an institution that has stood strong and blessed the world for five thousand years.

Here are my suggestions for helping others understand the truth. First of all, it’s probably best to stop using the word “gay” when describing sex acts between same sex partners. From God’s point of view, there’s nothing “gay” about it (see Romans 1:26,27). The Bible uses the terms homosexual and homosexuality–and so should we. Defaulting to biblical words is always wise to keep definitions clear.

Next, we made a huge mistake in allowing the “Department of Deception” to hijack the word marriage. Marriage doesn’t apply to homosexuals. The word itself means to “join together” as only a man and woman can to produce offspring. Thus, homosexual marriage is a misnomer and impossibility.

Homosexuals can’t “join together” for God’s purposes.

We must change the language to reflect reality. A homosexual marriage is a counterfeit marriage–it’s not the real thing. And many other “counterfeit marriages” are just around the corner that might include bigamy, group marriage, pedophilia and bestiality. They’re all counterfeits.

In fact, the reason we are in this sad demise of God’s family institution is the mess we heterosexuals have made of the real thing including fornication, adultery, easy divorce, and emotional and physical abuse. Marriages that include the above are also counterfeit marriages–even if the gender roles are right.

So we have no real authority to look down on the homosexual distortion. Still, we must repent before God and re-establish the real sanctity of a man and woman in holy matrimony.

And we must truthfully call everything else counterfeit marriage.

Political Correctness (PC)

Political correctness is another large cultural trend that has been in the news lately. Some recent examples of PC abuses:

• Condolezza Rice not being allowed to give the commencement address at Rutgers because of her involvement in the Iraq War.
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of radical Islam’s treatment of women, being denied an honorary degree at Brandeis University.
• Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty being chastised by the A&E Channel for his biblical convictions on life and marriage.
• And most recently, the Benham brothers proposed reality show being dropped by HGTV because of their Christian faith.
  

Political correctness is a very deceptive term. The demonic spinmeisters were very clever on this one. “Political” relates to partisan politics as practiced by either the Democratic or Republican Party. It  sounds like it should include both groups. “Correct” usually means “the right answer.”

So “political correctness” should really mean “what each party considers right” on a given issue.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Political correctness is nothing less than secular intolerance. It is one party or philosophy (the Democrats, liberals, Progressives etc.) shutting down all opposing views–especially anything Christian or traditional to Western culture. It is the secular worldview trying to destroy every vestige of the Christian faith and its principles that are still found in America and throughout the world.

What you ever heard of a politically correct position that was biblical?

Never.

Political correctness is one-party tyranny pure and simple. And its spirit of force or control tells you where it came from–the devil and his “Department of Deception.”

Never use the term political correctness or PC again. That’s helping to perpetrate a lie.   

Let’s call it what it is–secular intolerance of all other ideas–especially biblical ones. And I have a suggestion as to how we can abbreviate it for short, just like PC. Here it is:

S In.

Sin.

That pretty much describes the control mentality, doesn’t it?

If we are to withstand the the forces of evil in our day, we must see through their verbal deceptions, and with much prayer and courage, rise up and use the power of words to change the hearts and minds of people.

Our words need to be authoritative, full of grace and truth, and clear.

Let’s speak God’s words of truth to our culture–and watch the demons tremble and scatter.