SATAN'S GREATEST RUSE

Satan's greatest ruse is to first create a problem, and then offer the solution; the poison is not so much in the problem as it is in the solution.

For the past forty years, the United States has been sliding into a kind of cultural chaos which has been tearing away at the fabric of our society - the breakdown of the family, the rise of militant feminism, the recognition of homosexuality as an "alternate life-style," the acceptance of "abortion on demand," the spread of pornography, the prohibition of prayer in the schools and at public events, the proscription against the public use of Christian symbols during Christmas and Easter, etc. - all these are symptoms of what's been happening.

The chaos which all this has created is leading to a reaction in this country's larger white, European, Christian-based majority which is building into a rage - a rage that is slowly, but very deliberately, being translated into revolutionary right-wing political activity. Convinced that "secular-humanism" is the greatest menace ever to beset mankind, and reinforced in that belief by demonic stereotypes, countless numbers of conservative, white Christians who have espoused the use of political power "to take the nation back for Christ" apparently now feel somehow authorized to embrace as allies Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, Central and South American "Death Squad" leaders, racists, religious cultists, etc. - and all the while finding license to commit any number of other heinous actions in order to counter the menace. In doing so, conservative Christians may in the end - and in the name of God - perpetrate greater human miseries and dangers than the ones they had at first sought to eradicate, becoming thereby the very evil they had at first professed to combat. Without realizing it, what they are in danger of doing is repeating the mistake German Christians made sixty years ago with Hitler.

PAST AS PROLOGUE TO THE FUTURE

Germany's defeat during the First World War had led to the rise of a liberal-left, anti-Christian, anti-right parliamentary coalition which seemed to hold in contempt all the values of "Old Germany." Indeed, wherever German Christians looked in the 1920s and early '30s, they found little to comfort them: the cherished national values of hard work, self-discipline, and patriotism embodied in the conservative Lutheran and Catholic value systems of the "Old Reich" were being openly undermined and ridiculed; pacifist and feminist novels which seemed to deride manhood - and men in general - abounded; on the stage, incest, pederasty or - at the very least - marital infidelity were glorified. Illustrated magazines featured nude dancers and international gangsters, frequently shown in company with each other; movies like the Blue Angel (Marlene Dietrich) and entertainers like Josephine Baker, who could be found cavorting naked on the stage in Berlin as often as she could be seen in Paris, corrupted the younger generation by glamorizing sadism and rape. Prostitutes and their pimps were the main heroes of the day - indeed, it appeared as if only criminals, the blasphemous, and homosexuals were of any interest to modern culture. It seemed as though Berlin had taken over from Paris as the world capital of lasciviousness and obscenity.

A kind of left-wing, liberal excess - the Kabarett Kultur - dominated the media, a liberalism which glorified sexual and cultural indulgence and which consigned the values of "ordinary folk" - which the liberal intelligentsia claimed were either stupid or barbaric, "das platte, all zu platte Volk" - to the rubbish heap. The literati were in command! - enemies of order, the profiteers of chaos! Like tubercular bacilli, they affected all the weak cells in the body politic. Rootless themselves, they bitterly attacked any manifestation of manly patriotism and healthy morality. They had no shame or modesty, they were the apostles of sensationalism forever in search of new trends and fashions, however worthless.

German Christians regarded the left-wing intellects as a noxious and cancerous element - more dangerous than gangsters. Why? - because ordinary criminals were merely engaged in offenses against property and persons, whereas the left-wing intelligentsia was helping to bring about the spiritual murder of an entire nation.

In assessing the moral and cultural decay which surrounded them, most German Christians had come to believe that this pathology of rot and decadence was by no means accidental - it was a concerted and centrally planned process - a deliberate conspiracy by socialists and left-wing, avant-guard radicals to undermine everything that was still healthy in Germany so that the country could never again recover and rise to greatness.1 Their stranglehold had to be broken to make a cultural recovery possible. But in attempting to set things right, in attempting to end the left's stranglehold on Germany, German Christians helped to create a nightmare which ultimately not only consumed them, but Germany and German Christianity as well. In the end, the solution was far, far worse than the problem which had at first seemed to necessitate it.

EVANGELICAL MISCONCEPTIONS RE. GERMAN CHRISTIANITY

Today, it is commonly believed in evangelical circles in America that Hitler was a "New Age" theosophist and that the reason German Christians had been seduced by him is because they had earlier abandoned the "fundamentals" of their faith - largely as a result of the "Higher Criticism of the Bible" which was then in vogue throughout fashionable and intellectual sections of German society. But that simply is not true! The so-called "Higher Criticism" had no more taken hold on the great majority of German Christians then it had on the great mass of American Christians. Average German Christians - as opposed to some church intellectuals - had remained as "fundamental" in their faith as they had ever been - and Hitler, while he may in deed have been a theosophist in his "inner most being" - and shown himself as such to his inner circle of friends and associates - he was extremely careful to present himself as a traditional "Christian conservative" to the German people (see Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944 and Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler: The Missing Years).

The fact of the matter is, the public persona which Hitler constantly cultivated was that of a "Christian Savior" commissioned by God to save the nation from the liberal rot which had overtaken it. Indeed, Hitler - in his first radio address to the German people after coming to power - announced,

"The national government ... will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality."2

Hardly the words of an outspoken theosophist!

Two weeks later, on February 16, 1933, Hitler went even further in affirming his devotion to Christianity. In a speech at Stuttgart, Hitler asserted,

"Today Christians ... stand at the head of Germany ... I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity ... We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit ... We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press - in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past ... (few) years."3

Thus, while it may be true that - despite the rhetoric and the persona - Hitler was no Christian, and that evangelicals may be correct in pointing this fact out, evangelicals are still wrong - very wrong - in believing that German Christians themselves were anything but sincere and "fundamental" in their faith - and the fact is, they are being very self-serving in assuming otherwise. Why? - because it obscures the real reason German Christians were seduced by Hitler - why they didn't really investigate what actually lay beneath Hitler's public persona; after all, it wouldn't have been difficult to do; the evidence - despite Hitler's effort to hide it - was easy to find. The obvious reason is, they didn't want to!

They wanted to believe Hitler! - and anything which got in the way was swept aside! Their perceived need to be rescued from a liberalism which they believed had run amuck had so blinded them that they purposefully ignored any evidence which suggested that Hitler might be something else than what he had presented himself as - and they denounced all those who attempted to uncover the real truth as "unchristian" and "unpatriotic!"

In light of all this, the question that fairly begs to be asked is this: Are American evangelicals making the same mistake German Christians made sixty years ago with Hitler? In refusing to examine the motives behind their secular allies in the political and economic right, by condemning Christians who attempt to do so as being "unloving and uncaring," by denigrating those who question the spiritual wisdom - as opposed to the political wisdom - of a Catholic / evangelical alliance, etc. aren't American evangelicals going down the same road taken by German Christians sixty years ago? The answer, obviously, is yes!

The road that leads to Hell is not transversed with one giant step - but rather with innumerable small ones, each insignificant in itself, but when combined with countless others leads inevitably to the final destination. So also with the little compromises evangelicals are making today. Each compromise in itself is not much, and if left to itself would probably not count for anything - little steps, like when Chuck Swindall, president of Dallas Theological Seminary, agrees to participate in the activities of the "Promise Keepers" - never mind the fact that the organization encompasses within its membership people who are connected to groups inimical to the wider interests of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and when one of its chief spokesmen, Robert Hicks, refers to Jesus as "a phallic kind of guy" [the phallus is the erect male sexual organ, i.e., the erect penis (Hicks, The Six Stages of Manhood, pg. 24), and it should be noted in this connection that despite the fact that Promise Keepers no longer passes out the book at their assemblies and conferences, they continue to promote it to all their devotees, and it still forms the basis around which their small home gatherings are arranged - and Swindall should know this, and if he doesn't, it's because he has purposefully chosen not to]; when Tim LaHaye accepts money from the Moonies - never mind the fact that the Moonies claim that Christ had sex with the women who followed Him; when Paul Crouch, President of TBN, says that he is going to "shoot" those who stand in the way of a Catholic / evangelical rapprochement - never mind the fact that Catholics have done nothing to renounce the heresies which impelled the Reformers to break with them in the first place; when prominent evangelical pastors throughout the country allow Death Squad leaders like Mario and Adolfo Calero to speak at their churches - never mind the fact that the Caleros are connected to some of the most notorious Death Squads in South and Central America. All these are little steps in and of themselves - but when combined, take us as evangelicals down a path, the destination of which is a dark and very evil place.

How did all this happen? - it started as a result of our changed attitude towards the world!

THE BIBLICAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE WORLD

In that great passage on faith (Hebrews, chapter 11), Paul describes in unmistakable terms the attitude towards the world which all those who wish to serve God must have if they are to please Him; there's no ambiguity here; no equivocation; no avoidance; no attempt at evasion. Paul declares that all those who wish to serve God must consider the world as alien territory, and they themselves as only "sojourners" in it - people who are merely transiting through it on their way to another land - a heavenly country whose "builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10); and that while here on earth, there is a necessity laid upon them to continually remind themselves of their "alien status" by -

"confessing (both in word and in the way they live) that they are strangers (foreigners) and pilgrims (travelers, wanderers, wayfarers) on the earth ..." (Heb. 11:13);

- that they must not only accept this fact, they must "embrace" it; that they must be "persuaded" (convinced) by it, and by doing so to demonstrate that they are actively -

"... seeking another country ... a better country, that is, an heavenly (one)." (Heb. 11:14) ... wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them (a heavenly) city." (Heb. 11:16)

OUR HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP

And down through the centuries, this plain, aboveboard exhibition - this open demonstration - of our heavenly citizenship has been one of the great hallmarks of evangelicalism. Our songs have declared it:

Our leaders have proclaimed it:

"Essentially, the great work of the church consists only in saving souls from the unavoidable wreck (of the world) which is sure to come."

     - D.L. Moody

And our enemies have derided us for it:

"The evangelical scorns all efforts made in the name of religion to correct the ills of society ... (Evangelicals believe) that the essential function of the church is to insure a way of escape from the ultimate wrack and ruin to which the world is destined."4

     S.J. Case University of Chicago, 1918

"We have those among us (the evangelicals) who say that the church has nothing to do with society. Its only business is to preach the gospel, exhibit holy and unspotted lives, and thus bear witness to the grace of God." 5

     George P. Eckman, 1917

WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY?

But evangelicals have never been dissuaded by what their detractors have had to say; their only concern has been, "What do the Scriptures say?" And to most evangelicals, the Scriptures have been very plain:

"My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight ... but ... my kingdom (is) not from hence." (John 18:36)

"Do not love the world, or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world ... comes not from the Father ..." (1 John 2:15-16)

"The whole world lieth in the evil one." (1 John 5:19)

To evangelicals - to Biblical literalists - the teaching of the Bible on the matter of the world has always been very clear: the Bible instructs us that the world - which must of necessity include the United States - is under Satan's control, and he is its ruler; he controls the world. Satan controls the entire world:

As God's children, we have been called out of the world for there is nothing that we can do to make it any better. The church is a calling out from the world (John 15:19; 17:14-16; Gal. 6:14; James 4:4) - she is called out to witness that she is not of this world, but of heaven; that she is united to a glorified Christ in heaven (Eph. 1:18-23; Eph 2:6), and not of this world, even as He is not of this world (John 18:36).

The world - including, as a simple extension of logic, the United States - is like some great passenger ship which has struck an iceberg; it is sinking; the damage is of such a nature that the ship is beyond repair and doomed. As Christians, we have not been called to busy ourselves in the hopeless effort of repairing the damage, but instead we have been called to get as many people off the ship as is possible before it sinks. The ship itself is doomed! We are to jump into the lifeboats and get as far away from the sinking ship as is possible, lest we ourselves get caught in its undertow as it sinks.

Thus, while it's true that God has anointed the church to be a shining example of righteousness and holiness in the world, He has not called upon it to participate in its political activities - which activities are controlled by Satan. We are to be examples of righteousness and holiness, and by doing so to contrast the light of the church with the darkness of this world. It is this - and not the church's involvement in the political process - which has acted as a preservative of righteousness in the world. The power and influence of a good and righteous example - humbly portrayed - is far more effective than the force of any political process. Men will never be convicted of their sin by the church taking sides with the state and placing guns to the heads of those who refuse to conform; but countless sinners have renounced their sin and turned to Christ because of the living example of humble and holy men and women of God. We are, therefore, commanded by God to abstain from the affairs of this world; to not get involved with them. True, we are to "occupy" until He comes (Luke 19:13); but this means only that we are to vocationally sustain ourselves and not be a burden on others while we pass through - and that's all it means. In no way can this verse be construed to mean anything else. Moreover, not only are we not to involve ourselves with the world, we are not even to be "friendly" with it. The Bible says:

"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." (James 4:4)

CHRISTIAN POLITICAL ACTIVISM IN VIEW OF THE SCRIPTURES

We have today, however, the spectacle of a whole group of Christian men and women - many of whom are counted among Christianity's most learned and spiritual leaders - who are calling upon Christians to "take America back for Christ and the church:" leaders like Tim LaHaye, Pat Robertson, Charles Stanley, Lou Sheldon, Bennie Hinn, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, James Kennedy - the list reads like a Who's Who in American Christendom. And these men aren't just talking spiritually, they're talking politically as well. For example, the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, retorting angrily to the apparent hostility of liberals and multiculturalists towards America's older, European-based, Christian culture says:

"We (i.e., Christians) were here first. You don't take our shared common (Christian) values and say they are biased and bigoted ... We are the keepers of what is right and what is wrong." 6

Oliver North, the darling of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, agrees; he says,

"This is our government. They (the secular-humanists) stole it. And we're coming to take it back." 7

And make no mistake about it, they mean to do it - and liberals - and even "moderate Republicans" - are terrified at the prospect!

For example, in a lecture in Burlingame, California (October, 1994), liberal Sara Diamond,8 speaking to a group of "left-wing" activists brought together by People for the American Way, said that the movement these men (i.e., Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, etc.) represent is massive, broad-based and has no counterpart on the left. She further indicated that - despite a media hype to the contrary - it's now close to taking over the Republican Party, or - failing that - creating a powerful "third force" in American politics.

Sydney Blumenthal, writing in the New Yorker, agrees; he says,

"The upsurge of the religious right at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston startled many, but the shifts in the G.O.P. that came into stark public view then are now flaring into open combat nationwide. In the 1992 presidential election, Evangelicals ... became the single largest constituency within the Republican Party ... [and their hold on the party was only strengthened by the results of the 1994 elections]. Since 1992, the conservative movement has steadily folded itself into its one concentrated point of energy - the religious right." 9

Moreover, the efforts by liberals to prevent the religious right from "... making God a wedge issue" 10 have largely failed. For example, when Vic Fazio of California, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, held a news conference at which he claimed "Republicans are being forced to the fringes by the aggressive political tactics of the religious right," forty-four Republican senators rushed to the religious right's defense by sending a letter to President Clinton demanding that he "repudiate" the "orchestrated attack on religious conservatives" as "bigotry." Christians are ecstatic. They celebrate the victories they have been winning throughout the country in ousting moderate Republicans and in dictating political platforms in county and state Republican Party central committees. And not only that, prayer networks supporting religious right political candidates have sprung up in churches throughout the country. For example, at the Virginia Republican Convention held in Richmond in the Summer of 1994, one booth sought recruits for the "Ollie North Prayer Network." 11 And this kind of talk was not unique to the North campaign. Take another example, the "Reclaiming America Conference" held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in January of 1994 where 2,000 Christian activists stood to their feet and pledged allegiance to the "Coming Christian Kingdom" (meaning, of course, America): "I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe"12 - and one might do well to ask, what about those who don't believe?

There are, of course, some who might contend that the surprising strength of Bill Clinton and the Democrats in the 1996 Presidential and Congressional races seems to indicate that the Religious Right and conservatism in general have peaked - and that liberalism is bouncing back. But that would be a great mistake! The overall trend of American politics is rightward, and will continue to be so into the foreseeable future. The seeming weakness of the Right at present has more to do with a split in the movement between social conservatism and populists on the one hand, and economic conservatism and the country club patricians of the so-called "Eastern Establishment" on the other than it has to do with the popularity of Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party and liberalism in general. Once the fighting and factionalism in the Right is sorted out, the march of the nation towards a right wing populism based on the Religious Right and the anger of white, middle class voters who feel betrayed by affirmative action, unrestricted immigration, corporate elitism, etc. will continue. In the long run, the battle of "moderates" to mitigate the anger of these voters will be to no avail, regardless of the day-to-day setbacks the new populism might suffer from time to time.

CHRISTIAN POLITICAL ACTIVITY; WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

These are the kinds of things which are animating Christians throughout the country - energizing them in a vast crusade to take the country back from the "secular-humanists," and millions upon millions of Christians are lining up to enlist.

But how does such a crusade square with the teaching of Scripture? Clearly, it doesn't! - and if it doesn't, one must ask himself whether such a crusade is really the result of God's leading or the consequence of Satanic deception.

This is an important question, because how one answers it will determine one's future in no small measure - the road to Hell, after all, is paved with good intentions.

DECEPTION

If all that the Bible contains on the subject of evil could be exhaustively dealt with, we should find that more knowledge is given on the technique - the methodology - of Satan than many have realized, and at the heart of his technique is deception. From Genesis to Revelation the work of Satan as a deceiver can be traced, until the climax is reached in the "Great Deception" of the "very elect" in the "Latter Days."

Deception is truly a sinister and clandestine craft, and its work today in what passes for "evangelical Christianity" has become so lethal and toxic that the faith of countless numbers of heretofore sound Bible-believing Christians is being poisoned; yet it is so subtle and delicate in its intrigue that those who have been entangled in its web of fraud and trickery hardly realize that their faith has been thus corrupted.

We find recorded in Genesis Satan's first work as deceiver, and the subtle form of his method of deception. We see him here working upon man's highest and purest desires, and cloaking his own purpose of ruin under the guise of seeking to lead men and women into a closer relationship with God. We see him using good to bring about evil; suggesting evil to bring about good. Caught with the bait of being "wise" and "like God," man is blinded to the principle of obedience, and is deceived13 - and in the end, the desire to be "good" has counted for little. Indeed, the cleverest way in which the devil deceives is when he comes in the likeness of somebody or something which apparently causes a person to "be more like God" and/or to be "good." But the Bible somberly warns us:

"There is a way which seemeth right (i.e., good) unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12)

THE GREAT DECEPTION OF THE "LATTER DAYS"

In various places and in diverse ways the Scriptures warn about the dangers which will encompass the saints of God at the end of the age - so much so that the "very elect" shall be "deceived" (Mat. 24:24);14 but I Tim. 4:1-2 is the only passage in the Bible which explicitly shows the special cause of the peril to the church in the closing days of this era, and how Satan will break in upon her members, and by deception beguile many:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

"Speaking lies15 in hypocrisy;16 having their conscience seared with a hot iron ..." (I Tim. 4:1-2)

The word hypocrisy here means to present a lie as the truth.

"THINGS AREN'T WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE" 17

The peril to the church at the close of the age, then, is from people who present a lie as the truth; from hypocrites who claim to be one thing, but who in reality are something else altogether; people who pass themselves off as Christians, but who are, nonetheless, unalterably opposed to God - much as Judas was.

The peril from such men concerns every true Christian in the "Latter Days." The prophecy declares that (1) some Christians shall fall away from the faith; and (2) the reason for their fall will be that they have given heed to a deception - a teaching which outwardly appears to lead to God and to bring about "good," but which in reality leads to disgrace and dishonor.

These hypocrites are believed because outwardly they appear to be "good," to be "spiritual." The so-called "good life" or "spiritual life" of these hypocrites is taken as a sufficient guarantee for their teaching.

But goodness is no guarantee of the truth: all teaching must be judged against the Written Word. Nothing else will suffice. To think that goodness and "good intentions" are adequate warrants for the truth is to take the first step down the road to deception. Such thinking has its foundation in the prevalent idea that everything that Satan does is manifestly evil, the truth not being realized that he works under cover of light. (2 Cor. 11:14)

We repeat, there is only one principle for testing the source of all doctrine - and that is not "good intentions," but the Written Word, the Bible.

APOSTASY: THE "FALLING AWAY"

But how is it possible that so many evangelicals - including a vast portion of our leadership - could have allowed themselves to be so dulled spiritually that they have become such easy targets for these hypocrites? The answer is apostasy! Apostasy is not necessarily false doctrine and/or sin - though it can be this, and there can be no question that these things inevitably follow in the wake of apostasy - but rather it is, in the first instance, the falling away of Christians from a view of themselves as citizens of Christ's heavenly kingdom to a view of themselves as citizens of the kingdom of this world. The Bible says:

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (i.e., the day of the rapture and resurrection) shall not come, except there come a falling away (i.e., apostasy) first ..." (2 Thess. 2:3)

If we truly are aliens to this world, as the Scriptures so plainly declare we are, what should we have to do with its politics? - nothing of course. Why should we as aliens seek to involve ourselves in the politics of a foreign country? To do so diverts us from the single mission which we have been Scripturally commissioned to accomplish - to convince as many people as possible as we journey through to join us in seeking that better land - that "heavenly country" whose builder and maker is God.

To get involved politically in the land we say we are leaving is to reveal ourselves as nothing more than frauds - people who don't really intend to leave - and unbelievers have a stubborn and pernicious way of noticing such inconsistencies; and then we have the chutzpah and temerity to wonder why we are so ineffectual in leading people to Christ?

THE BAIT WHICH LEADS TO APOSTASY: THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH

It's wealth - or, as is more often the case, the desire for wealth (for most people never really get it) - which blinds us to the transitory nature of our connection to this world and which leads us into apostasy. Apostasy inevitably develops when Christians - because of their worldly comfort and wealth, or simply their desire for material things - refuse to acknowledge in word, deed, or action the fact that they are merely "pilgrims and strangers" - aliens - to this world and this present life.

It is the desire for material things which diverts Christians from their journey - from seeing this world as merely a "way station" on their path towards a better world. Paul wasn't just kidding when He said,

"For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

"And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

"For they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (II Tim. 6:7-10)

Dom Helder Camara of Brazil has been much maligned because of his connection with Liberation Theology - a theology which attempts to involve Christians in left-wing (as opposed to right-wing) political causes. But Camara was right at least on one point when he wrote:

"I used to think, when I was a child, that Christ might have been exaggerating when He warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how ... (impossible) it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money (or the desire for money) has a dangerous way of putting scales on one's eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people's hands, eyes, lips and hearts." 18

Jesus said,

"Lay not up for yourself treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also ... No man can serve two masters (or two kingdoms): for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve (both) God and mammon (i.e., you cannot serve heaven and this world at the same time)." [Mat. 6:19-24]

Speaking of those who have given up on viewing themselves as citizens of heaven, and have reverted back to seeing themselves as citizens of this world, Paul said,

"For I have told you often before, and I say it again now with tears in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who have become the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their future is ... loss ... (for) all they think about is this life here on earth." [Phil. 3:18-19 (Amp.)]

Apostasy - i.e., that condition of thinking which leads us to perceive ourselves more as citizens of this world than of heaven - results when our attachment to the things or "treasures" of this life - our cars, our houses, our careers, etc. - overwhelm us and cause us to think of ourselves not as aliens to this world, but as "permanent residents." Once we as Christians have acquiesced in this way of thinking we have created the conditions necessary to open us up to Satanic Deception.

THE PROBLEM & THE SOLUTION
(THE BAIT AND THE TRAP)

Let's now pause and think about all this, particularly as it pertains to the Religious Right - remembering all the while that what follows could have only occurred to a people who have given up on seeing themselves as subjects of an heavenly kingdom, and have instead grown accustomed to thinking of themselves as citizens of this present world.

A very wise person once said, "Satan's greatest ruse is to first create a problem, and then offer the solution." The problem created is the bait; the poison is in the "solution." In the case of the Religious Right, the problem which Satan has created consists largely in what is perceived (and perhaps rightfully so) as a fundamental moral collapse of the society at large over the last three to four decades: specifically, the breakdown of the traditional family, the concomitant upsurge of single parent families, the growth of militant feminism, the acceptance of homosexuality as an "alternate life-style," Congressional and judicial acquiescence to the insane concept of women in combat, the increase in crime of all sorts, the rise of sexual permissiveness, the acceptance of "abortion on demand" - the list seems endless. When all this is combined with the new multicultural chic and "political correctness" currently in vogue - a style of thinking which arrogantly and disdainfully denigrates the nation's older European-based, Christian civilization - it's enough to create a cultural firestorm - an enormous rage which has emotionally seized control of countless numbers of evangelicals and blinded them to their own eschatology (or doctrine of "end times").

The problem Satan has created seems compelling, persuasive, convincing; it demands action. The bait is set.

The solution? - evangelicals must "enter the lists" (or arena); they must involve themselves and their churches politically to "stop the madness." The trap is sprung!

THE TWO BABYLONS

And what a shrewd and clever trap it is! Consider! - most evangelical scholars agree that two Babylons are spoken of in the Book of Revelation: "Religious Babylon" and "Civil or Commercial Babylon."

Dwight Pentecost of Dallas Theological Seminary agrees; he writes,

"Turning ... to the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, we see the whole stage filled with two personalities only (in the 'end of days'): a 'Beast' and a 'Woman' ... These two ... picture ... the future prophetic earth ... There can be no argument or discussion as to this speaking of both the civil (political, economic, and military) and ecclesiastical (religious) conditions that will rule and characterize that part of the earth that is within the limits or boundaries of Prophecy. The whole of it will be filled with what shall answer to this 'Beast' and this 'Woman'. The two [the 'Beast' (which answers to the civil power) and the 'Woman' (which answers to the religious power)] are thus indissolubly co-related ... the civil power supporting the church, as the 'Beast' in the picture supports the 'Woman', and the 'Woman' is supported by the Beast ..."19

In other words, what Pentecost is describing here is a situation in which a vast and terribly evil latter-day "New World Order" is prophesied as coming into being as the result of a convergence of two turbulent and violent streams of energy - one which has as its source religion, and the other which has as its source civil power - creating thereby a union of church and state with "ragingly" dangerous social and political ramifications - a brutal, savage and uncontrollable energy which the Bible says will ultimately corrupt and pervert everything it touches.

And, again, how will all this come about? - clearly, as the result of the union of religion and politics! But isn't this exactly what the Religious Right is all about? Take the Christian Coalition, for example; isn't this what Pat Robertson means when he says that the coalition is

"... launching an effort ... to become acquainted with registered voters in every precinct (in the country) ... (to) ... build a significant database to use to communicate with ... registered voters ... (to) mobilize (them) ... (to) rebuild the foundations of ... America from the grassroots (up), precinct by precinct, city by city, state by state?"20

And if so, what are we doing getting involved in it? Could it be that we have been so blinded by our emotions, by our hatred of the "secular-humanist" agenda, that we are now to be found madly participating in the fabrication of the very system of things which the Bible predicts will someday turn on us and destroy us?

GOOD INTENTIONS WILL COUNT FOR NOTHING ON "THAT DAY"

You say that you are becoming involved in Religious Right political activity because people you admire - "good people," "honest people," people who are motivated by "good intentions" - have urged you to do so. But is this a good enough reason? This is exactly how deception begins - the substitution of "good intentions" for the Written Word of God. This is exactly the kind of thinking that got us into so much trouble in the first place! When God told Eve not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, He wasn't just kidding around - and Eve's "good intentions" counted for nothing when she was at last expelled from the Garden as a result of her disobedience.

When the Bible says that this world is not our home - and not to fight for it (John 18:36), it means it! It's not toying with us. Jesus said, "My kingdom comes not from hence (i.e., it has nothing to do with this world) ..." (John 18:36); "...everything in the world ... comes not from the Father ..." (1 John 2:15-16); "... The whole world lieth in the evil one" (1 John 5:19); "... Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (James 4:4). The Bible isn't fooling around here; it's not exaggerating; it's not embellishing; it's not elaborating; it's not overstating to make a point, it means it. And the attempt of your friends, the 700 Club, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, etc. - to say otherwise is foolish in the extreme. They are heaping up reproach and dishonor to themselves by doing so; and the trouble is, they're involving you in their foolishness - a thoughtlessness which clearly contravenes the Word of God; and when the reckoning finally comes - and it will - you'll have to face it alone. They won't be there to help you. And your efforts to say, "The 700 Club told me it was OK" won't wash! This is serious stuff! Eternity is in the balance here!

As evangelicals, we call ourselves "literalists," but we are failing to be literal when we shrug off the plain meaning of these verses [i.e., verses like Heb. 11:13; Heb. 11:14; Heb. 11:16; John 18:36; 1 John 2:15-16; 1 John 5:19; John 15:19; 17:14-16; Gal. 6:14; James 4:4; Eph. 1:18-23; Eph 2:6, etc.]! - by doing so we lose the right to call ourselves "evangelical."

JESUS WILL ULTIMATELY MAKE EVERYTHING RIGHT

Yes, someday Jesus will come again - maybe sooner than some of us expect. Then He will make everything right! Then He will restore the kingdom. But He's not going to need our help! - and it's a pretty sad state of affairs when our arrogance and pride have become so titanic as to believe otherwise. Until then, let us give ourselves to the Gospel, of rescuing - as D.L. Moody put it - as many people as possible from the shipwreck that is sure to come, and in doing so, to fulfill the only real commission which has ever been given us - not rescuing the world, but rescuing people out of the world!

1. Please also see Walter Lacquer, Weimar, A Cultural History (New York: Putnam & Sons, 1980).
2. The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London: Oxford University Press, 1942), pg. 871-872.
3. Ibid, pg. 871-872
4. S.J. Case, The Millennial Hope, publisher and city unknown, p. 235.
5. George P. Eckman, When Christ Comes Again (New York: Abingdom, 1917), pg. 233.
6. Christian Soldiers," in National Times, November, 1994, pg. 37.
7. Ibid., pg. 36.
8. Sara Diamond is author of Spiritual Warfare; she is an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley.
9. Op. Cit., "Christian Soldiers," pg. 34.
10. From a speech to Democratic Party activists by David Wilhelm, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Taken from "Christian Soldiers," in National Times, November, 1994, pg. 34.
11. Op. Cit., "Christian Soldiers," pg. 35-36.
12. Ibid., pg. 40.
13. This is the precise word used in I Tim 2:14 insofar as Eve's sin is concerned. Adam, of course, was not deceived, but he acquiesced in Eve's sin - thereby assenting to the results of that deception.
14. The original manuscripts omit the phrase "if it were possible."
15. The word "lies" is taken from the Greek word, pseudologos, and means "erroneous doctrine" [Strong's # 5573]; such men are pseudopropheters or "pretended foretellers," "religious impostors," or "false prophets." [Strong's # 5578]
16. The word "hypocrisy" as used here is taken from the Greek word hupkrisis and means "acting under a feigned part, i.e. (fig.) deceit [Strong's Concordance # 5272]; to dissemble, to conceal or hide the actual nature of or pretend [Strong's # 5271].
17. Absence of Malice.
18. Revolution Through Peace. (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), pg. 142.
19. F.C. Jennings, "The Boundaries of the Revived Roman Empire" in Our Hope, XVIII: 387-389, December, 1940; taken from Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958., pg. 411.
20. Pat Robertson, New World Order.

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