Send Them Home

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Is it not a government's job to serve their people rather than make life harder for them? Our government, as well as previous governments, appear to not believe this is so. They appear to be very happy to drive your cost of living up to create the illusion of growth in the economy, even if that growth makes life harder for our people. 

Australia is in the midst of a housing cost crisis, both rents and the cost of buying are at phenomenal levels. And what is the plan of our government? To force you to compete with more potential renters and buyers, driving up rental costs and the cost of buying a house:

"International students drive rents into stratosphere...

...Record low rental vacancy rates.

The worst is yet to come, too, given the Albanese Government has committed to driving-up immigration to its highest ever level, including via:

Lifting the permanent non-humanitarian migrant intake to a record high 195,000 a year;

Turbo-charging temporary migration by expanding work rights for international students via:

- Uncapping the number of hours international students can work while studying for another year; and

- Extending the length of post-study work visas by two years."

This can only be described as wickedness, and short-sighted foolishness. There are businesses that want more cheap workers, and there are businesses that want to rely on employees who have been trained overseas, rather than training new employees at home in Australia. But solving these issues via immigration fixes one short term problem and creates many other long term issues, like sky-rocketing living costs. 

Australians are predicted to face increasing mortgage problems in the coming months: "There are fears many Australians will experience mortgage stress by Christmas as interest rates continue to rise." This is already happening to many families, and it will get worse, as interest rates are predicted to rise by quite a bit still going forward.

This will cause house prices to slump: 

"Australian house prices could fall by at least 15 per cent after an aggressive series of interest rate hikes, the Reserve Bank has said."

In April, the central bank suggested house prices could slump by about 15 per cent over a two-year period, should interest rates rise by 2 percentage points.

Since then it has rapidly increased rates from a historic low 0.1 per cent to 2.35 per cent." 

Now, while we do need house prices to go down, part of the reason they will drop in price is families will be forced to sell in the coming months. The last thing these families need is to be forced to sell, and then to compete with foreigners in the rental market. At the very least the government could do what it can not to cause this problem to get worse, like not allowing more people into an already competitive market. 

Send them home, and stop bringing in more people. It is already costing too much for Australians to live in our own country. And the downsides of cost of living increases, outweigh the small benefits of mild economic growth. 

Our government exists to serve our people, not give opportunities to other peoples. 

Unviable Technology

We live in a fascinating time where unviable technology is being sold for ideological reasons. Electric cars are not fit for purpose, as Hoovie demonstrates in this short video. Not only are they not fit for purpose they have other problems. They do not help the environment in anyway. They are also very expensive. For the price of a comfortable electric car, you can buy an old V8 and pay for fuel for years, and have money left over. 

Your electric car might be reasonably cheap to charge now, but once demand on electricity increases, and more infrastructure is built to service this demand, prices will go up. In fact, they already are: "The cost of charging an electric car using public charge points on a pay-as-you-go basis has risen by 42% in just four months, according to the RAC."

But for ideological reasons companies are getting rewarded by government to sell these energy inefficient vehicles, that in many cases cannot even fulfil their design purpose. In a sane society people would not go near such products. But we do not live in a sane society. We live in an increasingly ideological self-harming society. 

You see this throughout history, societies technologically or socially hamstringing themselves for religious/ideological reasons. Some of them realize their mistakes and survive, some disappear from the face of the earth. 

The Greenland Norse lived in a cold climate where food was hard to grow. They had abundant fish, but they refused to eat it. We don't know why. We just know that the Greenland Norse saw fish as taboo. In the face of starvation they stuck to this taboo, right up until their entire society just disappeared. Some societies don't come back from stupid, because the driving views of much of its culture is that even if a certain taboo hurts them, it is better to do it, then break their taboos. There are of course wise taboos, which strengthen a society, I am not challenging those. Some things should be avoided. But there are also foolish ones, like the apparent Greenland Norse taboo of not eating fish.  

Fossil fuels are the engine of civilisation, there is no current viable replacement. None. Nada. Zip. But the whole trajectory of our society is to reject them anyway. Which is crazy. Some western societies will wake up from this stupor. Some will go the way of the Greenland Norse.

Samwise The True Hero

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This will not come as news to most fans of Tolkein, many of whom saw Samwise as the noblest of the fellowship. But it is kind of cool to see that the man himself considered Samwise to be the true hero of the movie:

"It is perhaps for this reason that even J.R.R. Tolkien himself considered Samwise Gamgee to be the true hero of "The Lord of the Rings" (via The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien). Though Frodo Baggins selflessly takes on the task of bearing the One Ring to Mount Doom, he begins to falter over the course of his long journey, even deciding to take the ring for himself when it finally comes time to destroy it. Meanwhile, Sam's time with the ring sees him single-mindedly devoted to saving Frodo, and he never even considers keeping the accursed object for himself.

Furthermore, Sam overcomes his humble beginnings to face off against a gigantic spider and defeat it single-handedly. He also slays a tower full of Orcs to rescue Frodo and is so formidable an opponent that the Orcs believe him to be a legendary Elven warrior. Finally, when Frodo can no longer even walk, it is Sam who carries him up Mount Doom so that he can complete his task once and for all. Still, there's even more to Sam than this."

The Four Hobbits, as the true heroes, were honoured as nobler than Kings in The Return of the King. Tolkien masterfully weaved into his story the theme of "the least of these" shall be the greatest. His tiny heroes set to shame many other men in Middle Earth, because their stout hearts and grand courage enabled them to achieve things much mightier men could not. 

As the least of the Hobbits, Sam is by nature the less notable. But he is by action and character the most noble. The moment where he carries Frodo up the mountain is a powerful example of his noble stature. When he says, "Come, Mr. Frodo!' he cried. 'I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well." The power of his loyalty shines through. Whether you are reading the book or watching the movie, this is one of the most powerful moments, where all of Tolkien's themes of friendship, sacrifice, love and heroism reach their pinnacle, but in a simpler form than Aragorn's military bravery, or Legolas' skill. We see greatness in Sam, in the devotion a friend and servant has for his master and his master's cause

Sam is not just the hero of the movie. He is the hero we need. Simple men, devoted to their duty, who are willing to sacrifice what they must to see theur duty fulfilled. These are the heroes that make the world work for good. These less notable men, who prove to have a nobility even the great men should marvel at. 

Everyone needs a Sam in their life. 

No Housing Supply Issue

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One of the most repeated comments made by fiscal conservatives about the housing price increases is that really it's a supply issue. Just get rid of red tape, and allow for more houses to be built. But have they driven through the outer suburbs of any major city lately? There's housing developments everywhere. Indeed, Australia wide there is a surplus of houses. There is no housing supply issue, that is a mistake that some people make, and a lie that others make who should know better. 

There are about 1 million empty homes in Australia. Think about that.  

Houses are not limited by supply, they are limited by investment ownership. Some of those houses are empty because people are about to move between homes. Some houses are vacant because they are part of deceased estates. So, some of these homes are vacant for unavoidable reasons. But others are empty because some are being kept to be sold in better conditions, and others are empty because they are second, third or even fourth homes, and many of these vacant homes are investment homes, owned by moderate, to very wealthy people, and some are even holiday homes of the reasonably well off. 

But for whatever reason they are vacant, 1 million empty homes shows there is no supply problem. There is a logistics problem. We have a problem getting the homes to those who really need them. Many are being hoarded creating excess demand. 

In an economy where wealthy investors have the most money to buy, releasing a lot more land and lowering building costs will not solve many housing issues, because those with investment capital will just by more homes. Plus, there are excess homes already and the housing costs are still increasing. What needs to happen is that governments need to make laws which disincentivize people from investing in homes. As long as there are good incentives to invest, house prices will remain artificially high. Taking the incentive to invest away is the only real solution. Though making it hard to borrow large amounts of money to help people invest would also help. 

You know who doesn't want someone saying that? Investors, which includes many of the people in government positions and positions of influence. That's why so many of them are freaking out about the Queensland government's tiny move to get more tax from investors with houses on other states. House investors have been a privileged class who have ridden off the backs of the poorer people for too long. They do not like their gravy train being challenged even if ordinary families suffer as a result of their hoarding of homes. 

#isaiah5verse8 God told us this first, that a land where some people buy up all the land is a cursed land. We are in the process of finding out, again, why God is right. 

Breaking the hold of investors on properties and getting rid of the constant pressure of immigration on house prices, would make owning a home more affordable for the average Aussie family. This should be a priority if governments in Australia. 

Climate Grift

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What will it take to convince you that the Climate Change movement is largely a gift? 

How about this?

"A United Nations committee has found the Australian government has failed to adequately protect Torres Strait islanders, and violated their right to enjoy their culture and lives, by failing to act on the climate crisis.

The landmark decision found they should be compensated...

...In what the committee described as a groundbreaking decision, it found the government had “violated their rights to enjoy their culture and be free from arbitrary interferences with their private life, family and home”...

...The islanders’ complaint claimed that changes in weather patterns linked to an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations had direct harmful consequences on their livelihood, their culture and traditional way of life..."

Now people are suing first world governments because of the weather!! There is nothing the Morrison government (now not in power), or any Australian government, could have ever done, or could ever possibly do, to change the global climate. Even if you accepted every single assertion of the climate change movement as true (which you shouldn't), and if Australia took every element of its carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere that it produces, this would not move the needle on global temperatures at all. It's just not possible for our small nation to make a global difference. There is no scientific basis for saying that our country could ever be responsible. This is even if you accept anthropocentric climate change in the first place. Medieval Greenland was decimated by a cooling climate several centuries ago, should the Norse have sued the Mongols? This is ridiculous.  

So, we can see that climate propaganda is, at least in part, a ploy to shift wealth from successful nations to developing nations. But it is not just that: 

"This decision marks a significant development, as the committee has created a pathway for individuals to assert claims where national systems have failed to take appropriate measures to protect those most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of their human rights," committee member Hélène Tigroudja said."

In other words, Climate action is also another shroud for the globalist push for the removal of national sovereignty and boundaries. It is a means of seeking to overrule national systems and replace them with international or globalist systems. There has to be a global crisis, because globalist elites need this to justify their encroachment on national boundaries. Blaming wealthy nations for the plight of marginal societies in developing countries helps drive this process forward.  

This tactic of empowering poorer peoples to sue wealthier peoples is very clever. Because often people will allow the promise of money to blind them to what is actually good for their peoples. The grift is clear, but naive aid giving do-gooders and militant climate radicals will ride this one as far as they can. 

Fake Wealth

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In many ways Aussie prosperity is a mirage. It is a true bubble that one day will burst. Aussies look wealthy when you look at their homes, cars and appliances, but really the bank, in most cases, owns it all. Australian wealth is really fake, it is a debt bubble. 

Finally, we can hear business making the same point:

"Aussies bask in fake housing wealth

Is having so much wealth locked up in expensive homes really beneficial to Australian?

Everyone needs somewhere to live and expensive housing serve little purpose to the overwhelming majority of owner-occupiers, who typically must sell and buy into the same market.

Expensive housing also punishes recent entrants or those locked-out of the market. The former is required to take-out mega-mortgages and serve a life of debt slavery, whereas the latter are forced to rent.

Would Australia really be worse-off if the median dwelling price was $370,000 instead of $740,000, aggregate mortgage debt was 70% of disposable incomes instead of 140%, and the banking sector was smaller and less profitable?

The answer is clearly no. Having lower debt loads to service would make Australian households better-off, whereas the broader economy would benefit from the productivity-boosting effects of lower land prices, increased business lending (investment), and a more balanced economy overall."

House prices need to fall, significantly, for Australians to be able to service their debts in a sustainable manner. Aussies aren't wealthy, most are debt slaves. This is just reality. House prices need to fall even more for people to be able to save to buy homes outright. That should be a societal goal. 

Homes should come to be viewed as places where families are nourished. Not places where investment portfolios are stored. Until we change this mind set the average home will continue to get out of reach of the average family.

Alzheimers As Auto-Immune Disease?

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Deception and investigation bias can cause many problems in our world, and science is not immune, in fact these problems are rampant in modern science. As The Conversation notes: 

"In July 2022, Science magazine reported that a key 2006 research paper, published in the prestigious journal Nature, which identified a subtype of brain protein called beta-amyloid as the cause of Alzheimer’s, may have been based on fabricated data."

You may or may not be aware of the reproducibility crisis in science. That is that many scientific papers cannot be reproduced. This problem can have real world detrimental effects, because it can cause researchers to either follow the wrong trail or ignore other genuine paths of inquiry that could help people. This is exactly what has happened with Alzheimer's: 

"Regrettably, this dedication to studying the abnormal protein clumps has not translated into a useful drug or therapy. The need for a new “out-of-the-clump” way of thinking about Alzheimer’s is emerging as a top priority in brain science.

My laboratory at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network in Toronto, is devising a new theory of Alzheimer’s disease. Based on our past 30 years of research, we no longer think of Alzheimer’s as primarily a disease of the brain. Rather, we believe that Alzheimer’s is principally a disorder of the immune system within the brain.

The immune system, found in every organ in the body, is a collection of cells and molecules that work in harmony to help repair injuries and protect from foreign invaders. When a person trips and falls, the immune system helps to mend the damaged tissues. When someone experiences a viral or bacterial infection, the immune system helps in the fight against these microbial invaders.

The exact same processes are present in the brain. When there is head trauma, the brain’s immune system kicks into gear to help repair. When bacteria are present in the brain, the immune system is there to fight back.

Alzheimer’s as autoimmune disease

We believe that beta-amyloid is not an abnormally produced protein, but rather is a normally occurring molecule that is part of the brain’s immune system. It is supposed to be there. When brain trauma occurs or when bacteria are present in the brain, beta-amyloid is a key contributor to the brain’s comprehensive immune response. And this is where the problem begins.

Because of striking similarities between the fat molecules that make up both the membranes of bacteria and the membranes of brain cells, beta-amyloid cannot tell the difference between invading bacteria and host brain cells, and mistakenly attacks the very brain cells it is supposed to be protecting.

This leads to a chronic, progressive loss of brain cell function, which ultimately culminates in dementia — all because our body’s immune system cannot differentiate between bacteria and brain cells."

This is an interesting theory, that is worthy of pursuing. But if it turns out to be correct, this would add dementia to the ever-increasing instances of auto immune disease that are already being observed:

"According to a new study the prevalence and incidence of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, celiac disease, and type 1 diabetes, is on the rise and researchers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are unsure why...

...“With the rapid increase in autoimmune diseases, it clearly suggests that environmental factors are at play due to the significant increase in these diseases. Genes do not change in such a short period of time.”

Something about modern life is wrecking people's immune systems, turning them into auto-harm systems. What is doing this? 

I am not a doctor, but the first question I would ask is this: have we been interfering in immune systems in large numbers in artificial ways? Is it possible this is having an effect on people's built in immune systems? There is still so much that we do not know about the human body and how it works, and the immune system, as one of my Doctor friends tells me, is one of the biggest mysteries. Yet we play with it, like we know what we are doing.  

Doctors are sure that environmental effects are at play with this increase in auto immune disease. By this they do not mean climate-change. They mean something humans are doing is causing this. What is it? Why is it getting worse, and what human activities correlate to this trend? 

Is it:

- Immune manipulation (vaccines)? 

- Preservatives in diet?

- Increasing uses of anti-biotics? 

- Chemicals in pesticides?

- Reliance on more and more medications? 

- Less connection to nature?

- Large consumption of fast foods? 

- Growing levels of obesity?

- A combination of all or some of these factors? 

More can be suggested. But if doctors are not sure why, then the question I want to ask is this: Are there biases against investigating any of these things? Because if there are, this could hurt a lot of people unnecessarily. When you can't find the answer, that's usually a sign you are not looking in the right place. And the fact that biases exist about investigating particular aspects of medicine is going to cause vast problems for human flourishing. 

Occam's razor would suggest that if auto immune issues are increasing, and we are manipulating immune systems, then this is likely having side effects? Correct? It's at least worth investigating. Of course, who is going to fund this? 

Circumcision Is Not For Gentiles

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One of the strangest modern trends is the gentile adoption of an ancient semitic practice, circumcision. For much of history Europeans, and even European Christians looked on circumcision as an abhorrent practice, a peculiarity of semitic peoples.

The Bible is very pro-circumcision and very anti-circumcision, depending on the context and the Testament. In this message I explained why circumcision is not for Gentiles. 

The Circumcision Party – We start with the circumcision party. Now if you are coming in cold to this sermon right about here online, this might seem like the most horrifying kind of party you could imagine. “Let’s all go to a circumcision party” are words you never want to hear in your life, especially if you are a man. You might think Christians were even stranger than you thought. But thankfully the context of our passage gives a different spin on these words, “10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.” Who is this circumcision party that Paul is talking about? They are Judaizers, Jews who were seeking to place the early church under the law of circumcision and Moses.

We read about some of these fellows in Acts 15, “1 But some men came from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

These Judaizers were a constant thorn in the flesh of Paul and the other Apostle’s. They were determined to seek to make law practitioners of the new Gentile Christians. The question I want to ask is why? Why were these Jesus confessing Pharisees so determined to place the Gentiles under their traditions?

Was it because they liked the idea of a circumcision party? Probably not, but Paul does call them mutilators of the flesh, “2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh” (Phil. 3:2).

Paul indicates here that these Judaizers had an undue obsession with circumcision.

But I think when you preach on circumcision, it is important to be sharp and to the point. So why were they so fixated on this?

Because God commanded the seal of circumcision as a condition of inclusion into the people of Israel. The Old Testament is unequivocal about this, Leviticus 12:1-3 – “1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”

A lot of passages show God took this very seriously, here is a clear example, “24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision” (Ex. 4:24-26).

So, these Judaizers were seeking to be biblical. The Old Testament is not unclear about circumcision. But this is not the only reason they wanted to make Greeks Christians get circumcised. The Jews knew the Greeks did not circumcise. They were not bothered by Greeks being Greeks, so why were they so agitated by Greek Christians not being circumcised?

Because Paul and the Apostles were telling the early Church that Gentiles could join the people of God, Israel, without being circumcised, and without following the law. This is what angered them. Many early Jews had no problem with Jesus being the Messiah, or salvation being through Jesus, his resurrection and the power the Apostle’s had won some of them over. But they despised the idea of Gentiles being able to join God's people without becoming Jews. Let me demonstrate this, Paul never stopped preaching the hope of Israel, that was always his message, the whole New Testament is about this: the hope of Israel is found in Jesus, and Gentiles can now join without the restriction of the law, let’s see what Paul says: Acts 26:12-23 – “12 “In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. 14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ 19 “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. 21 For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. 22 To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: 23 that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

Paul was abundantly clear that he was only and always preaching about the hope of the Israelites, Acts 23:6 – “6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

The resurrection of the dead, that Jesus offers, was the hope of the Pharisees. This is why we read of Pharisees converting to Christianity. They had little problem with a Jewish Messiah who could defeat death and the grave, this was cool. This was what they were looking forward to.

But to include the Gentiles, without making them become Jews first, was anathema, which is why Paul can talk all the theology he wants, but when he mentions including the Gentiles this happened, Acts 22:17-22 – “17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” 22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

“Up to this word they listened to him.” What word? Gentiles. When he said that he needed to take the message of God to the Gentiles, they went Middle Eastern on him. They wanted him strung up, probably crucified, at least stoned. To them such a wicked man did not deserve to live? But why? Because they hated Gentiles?

Well to a large degree, yes. The Jews did in some measure hate the Greeks, because a Greek King, Antiochus Epiphanies, had committed the abomination of desolation by sacrificing a pig on the altar. The Seleucid Greek kings had also viscously persecuted the Jews while they were under their rule.

The Greeks were determined to make the Jews Greeks, they even banned circumcision. The Jews were determined to remain Jews. This ended in war. A big war, the Jews eventually won it.

The Greeks were able to easily identify the Jews via their circumcision. The Jews had not only stuck to their national traditions, in large measure, they had stuck to their distinctive identifying mark.

This was not an easy thing for them to let go. To be part of God’s people, to have a right to participate in the Passover you were supposed to be circumcised. To partake of the Passover was the right only of Israelites, Exodus 12:47-49 – “47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

But what Paul, Peter and the other Apostles were doing, was telling people that Jesus is the true Passover lamb, and to partake of him all you had to do was come to him with empty hands and trust in him. 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

Paul, Peter and the other Apostle’s were telling Gentiles, they could become part of the people of God, Israel, without getting circumcised, all they needed was faith. They could take part in communion, without being circumcised, they could be accounted as full citizens of the “commonwealth of Israel” (Eph 2:12), without being circumcised.

You can understand why the Jews found this hard to deal with. This upturned their whole way of thinking about the people of God.

Many Jews could not accept that there was only one people of God, and you could just join it by trusting in Christ. To this day, many Christians have been led astray by false teachings which say there are two different peoples of God. Israel and the Church. If Paul had been saying this, the Pharisees never would have cared, they already had such a system: Jews and Gentile God-fearers, which were Gentiles believed in God but who chose not to be circumcised. Paul went further, he added the Gentiles to Israel. 

This is why the Jews hated him so much.

Paul’s view of these trouble-makers was that they should be silenced, “10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.”

We don’t have to guess at all about what was going on here. Because the book of Acts and a lot of Paul’s letters gives us a lot of information about how these Judaizers were causing him problems.

This was true across the first century and beyond as Jewish converts and false teachers sought to upend the early Christian church.

Paul’s response to this was to make sure all the churches he was influencing had the right teachings and the right kind of leaders. He didn’t always get it right, some of the leaders he chose turned on him. But he worked hard to establish the right teachers in the churches, to protect them from disturbances.

But he also challenged the false teachers 

This is an excerpt from a sermon titled ‘Beware The Judaizers’, which you can listen to here.

  

A People Reasserting Themselves

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A suppressed nation is beginning to reassert itself, as Indigenous Australians increasingly assert their identity:

"Australia's Indigenous population has reached almost one million people, according to new census data.

Population figures released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population had increased by nearly a quarter in the past five years.

In the five years to June 2021, the Indigenous population grew 23.2 per cent from 798,000 to 984,000.

The population represents about 3.8 per cent of the total Australian population."

As the article notes, this is not organic population growth through births, but people reclaiming their link to their Aboriginal past. I have observed people doing this more and more myself. Where as in the past Australians would suppress their Indigenous acenstry, today they will look into their family lineage to seek it out, and happily make it part of their known identity. 

This is happening, because being Indigenous in Australia can afford certain benefits, and is encouraged by modern cultural attitudes. So it makes sense that more and more people would identify as Indigenous. 

This presents an interesting challenge for Australia as a nation. Because we are a land of rapidly growing diversity. Our addiction to multicultural immigration is bringing in vast numbers of foreigners, especially from Asia. Our obsession with diversity is increasingly causing a push for each people group to have its distinct identity acknowledged, celebrated, and protected. All of which makes it harder to claim Australia is a united people with a shared vision for the future. 

There is no unfied Australian identity anymore. Less people identify with the Australian flag and institutions, precisely because less people in Australia are linked to our British heritage. And Indigenous self identification is itself outpaced by foreign self-identification of immigrant groups. 

There are interesting times ahead for all Australians. Especially those of British descent, as the reality of our isolation far from our British brethren settles in over the coming years.The Anglo-American empire is receding and nationalism is increasing. Peoples of all sorts are asserting their national identities again. Indigenous Australians have every right to reassert their national identity. As do people of other nations. But this will cause increasing divisions. And what is worse is a lot of people cannot even see the challenges coming. 

Australia's multicultural experiment is seen as a great success by most of our citizens. But until now we have lived in a land of plenty, with wealth to go around. What happens to our vastly expanding divisions when this shared prosperity comes to an end? How will Australia as a nation-state juggle all of these competing diversities then? 

The Weaker Sex

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I saw someone ask on social media the other day: why is it always, "What is a woman?" that is being asked at the moment, and never, "What is a man?"

The answer is simple: society does not care as much about the suffering of men as it does about the suffering of women. This is baked into the way our world is, and it is probably true to say that society does not even have the capacity to care about men as much as women. It never has and never will. And it never should. There is also no point complaining about this, because it will never change. In fact, men who complain about this situation will just find that life gets even harder for them.   

The reason this is so, is because women are the weaker vessel (1 Pet. 3:7) and because of this they need much more concern than men. Much more. This is how it should be. Society should have concern more for the protection of women than men, and the modern West is weirdly bipolar on this issue and women suffer as a result. One one hand it says men and women are the same in the workforce and can do all of the same things. On the other hand it says we must change workforce rules to suit women's differences and frailties. Many examples in other areas of life could be given. 

This bipolar approach to women hurts them. Women are not the same as men, and hence we should not treat them the same or pretend to. A lot of people still have this instinct hence it recoils at men beating up women in sport, or comporting themselves as women. God's design for the sexes is still at work in a suppressed and broken way. 

Society will never care about men's suicide, men's cancer, or men's psychological struggles like its does for women, and so be it. Don't try to change this, you'll be fighting against gravity itself. 

Men and women are different, they should be raised differently and cared for at different levels, such is how the stronger should serve the weaker.

Breaking News The Media Is Catching Up

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Deaths rates are at high levels across the West. Many people have written about it, done videos about, and shared the government statistics online. But still a lot of people are not aware of what is happening because the mainstream media has been avoiding this big elephant in the funeral home. 

But finally the light is cracking through, because it is becoming impossible to deny what is happening now:

"Undertakers are experiencing a rush of business with Australians dying in abnormally high numbers in a 'worrying' trend doctors can't explain.

Martin Masson, who is managing director of Tribute Funeral Services in the western Melbourne suburb of Ravenhall, said there is no shortage of work for him and others in the industry as official figures confirm Aussies are dying at a higher rate in 2022.

'We’ve been consistently busy now since the first of this year,' Mr Masson told Daily Mail Australia. 

'We have certainly seen an increase in the need for our services as have done a lot of other directors.'

Mr Masson believed more working age Australians are dying but doesn't have specific statistics to back this.  

'We certainly have seen a distinct shift back to people in their 60s, 50s and even late or mid 40s and even younger,' he said...

...'There has been excess mortality recorded in 2022 across all months, with both the number of deaths and the rate of death generally higher than historical averages,' an ABS spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'In May, there were 16,124 deaths, which is 13.5 per cent higher than the average of deaths we would normally see occurring in May (14,202).'

Covid was a substantial proportion of those deaths with 862 deaths 'directly attributable to the virus in May'.

However, there were also more than the expected number of deaths from dementia, diabetes and ischaemic heart diseases."

Two massive experiments were done on the people; lockdowns and experimental vaccines. If you are not willing to acknowledge these experiments have caused a massive toll on people's health and lives, you have no right to say you follow the science. Just cancelling doctors appointments itself would have killed many people, from delayed diagnosis'. But then there is alsi the experimental medication people were coerced to take. 

Humans can't make a new car, phone or gaming console without making some that are faulty. Sometimes the whole initial batch is faulty in some way. That's why we have recalls, warranties and return policies: people can never make anything perfectly, because human are not perfect. 

The increasing death toll is a clarion call that the pandemic response failed. At best deaths were delayed, the current death rates show that we are not in a best case scenario, but a rather an increasingly bad scenario. People are dying at rates that should not be happening. 

So, is that doctors can't explain it? Or that they don't want to face the obvious? Because even the media is seeing something is off now. 

Decolonisation Is On Track

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Decolonisation is on track. If you have read my blog for some time, you will have noted that I am anti-imperialism. By that I mean that I believe it is inherently wrong for one nation to rule over another nation. I think this is taught scripturally and history and current experience shows why the Bible is right. Imperialism leads to a lot of problems, including the suffering and degradation of the imperial nation in control. Nations which engage in empire eventually are conquered by those they subjugated and dominated. It's as close to a law of history as you can get. 

That being said, there is no doubt that European, and especially British, Colonisation improved the world in remarkable ways. After all if you have a choice to live in a third world country or a third-world country with roads and indoor plumbing, which do you choose? Roads and indoor plumbing every time. Colonisation brought these things and many others. 

It is the double edge sword of empires that they raise subjugated peoples to new heights of civilisation. But they also dominate and exploit those peoples resources and efforts to achieve those ends. This was as true of Rome as it was of modern European Colonisation. But modern Colonisation brought the world to never before seen heights of expansive civilisation. 

After all what other nation in history used its imperial power to stamp out slavery in its own realm, and to attack the pirating slave ships of other nations? None, before the English. British Colonisation may have been achieved with the edge of the sword, just as any other empire was, but it did genuinely tame a fair proportion of a very dangerous world. 

Now that Anglo-American Colonial or imperial power is waning, much of that dangerous world is returning to its natural state:

"Forced marriages, modern slavery on rise

About 50 million people globally are living in modern slavery and a growing number of women are in forced marriages, new Australian-led research shows.

A study, spearheaded by philanthropic foundation Walk Free, found widespread socioeconomic instability linked to climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic had contributed to increasing poverty and forced migration.

An estimated 28 million people are in forced labour and 22 million are trapped in forced marriages.

The number of people in modern slavery has risen by more than nine million over the past five years, the report by Walk Free and the UN's International Labour Organisation and International Organisation for Migration found."

Though they attempt to blame the rise of slavery on Covid and Climate Change, this growing trend has correlated to the decline of western power for some time. It was British ships that were used to put a halt to much of the West African slave trade. It was American marines that put an end to the Barbary pirates. The dominance of European fleets in the Mediterranean made it very hard for Muslim powers to continue their ancient reliance on African and European slavery. Since Europe has receded all of these things are increasing again.

You can hate Colonisation all you want, but you are about to find out why many people preferred it to the natural state of things. We can demonstrate this from history. For instance this statement by Sir Charles James Napier (then Commander-in-Chief of British forces in India, 1843–1847) to a Hindu priest's objection to the prohibition of Sati:

“Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs."

Napier enforced a new morality on the Hindu peoples, a superior morality, saying widows shall not be burned. Can you disagree? That is objectively better. 

He did more than that, as well:

"As governor, Napier established a model police force, encouraged trade, and began work on a breakwater and water-supply facilities for Karachi. He also repulsed marauding hill tribes on the northern Sindi border."

These are all good things. Clean water is the most important thing a city needs to be clean, disease free and liveable. 

No one can deny that there were great evils committed by colonists and imperialists. As I have written extensively, empire is itself inherently wrong because no people should ever rule over a foreign people. This will bring conflict, suffering and other troubles. But most of these things are in the ancient past. They are irreversible. 

However, the gains made by the anti-slavery, pro-clean water colonisers are not irreversible. They are being reversed in our day, and so I am warning you: be careful what you wish for. Because though there were undeniable evils of European Colinialism, there are far great kinds of evils that humans can suffer, and not many other nations or peoples, outside of the European peoples, sought to extinguish such evils. Once that reforming energy is removed from much of the world, it is likely many people will see in modern times why the Colonizers carried guns and swords everywhere they went; the world was a far more dangerous place before their efforts than it was after them. 

Desperate For Approval

Christians are far too desperate for celebrity approval. #Luke16verse8

The way Christians lapped up Kayne's Album. The way many Christians fall over and fawn whenever a celebrity mentions God (always ask yourself, which God?). The way Christians pursue the latest Christian fad, is all quite sad. 

Evangelicals are the worst for this. And celebrities know it. Publishers know it. Salespeople know it. 

We follow a Lord who shunned fame at every opportunity. To pursue fame, or the acceptance of the famous, is the opposite of what Jesus did.

What The Bible Says About Conspiracy Part Two

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The Bible Is Replete With References To Conspiracy

Introduction 

The Bible is filled with references to conspiracy, which I am going to prove to you in this piece and the next one. In this piece we are going to deal with the regular usage of the term conspiracy in the Bible, and in one further piece we will look at how the Bible has a detailed theology of conspiracy overlapping with its theology of evil; the two realities are intricately interwoven. The sum of this whole argument will show that it is not those who say that we should avoid all talk of conspiracy that are wise, it is those who recognize that our world is filled with conspiracies that are wise. Because we are dealing with the world the way it is according to the Lord himself. 

Those that refuse to acknowledge that our world is ruled by people making wicked decisions in the dark, decisions which directly are designed to undermine God, are walking around either naively, or wilfully, ignorant. Their blind trust in the power structures of our world can get them hurt, as well as those they influence. God does not put anything in His Word for no reason. Those things which He spends much time explaining in His Word are there for our profit, reproof and sanctification, so we are foolish to ignore what He says.  

This is Part Two in a continuing series, and in Part One we established an important fact, often Isaiah 8:12 is read backwards. Many read that verse to be saying that we should not be discussing or calling things conspiracy, we should simply accept what the powerful say at face value. However, the context of Isaiah shows very clearly that this is not the case. As we demonstrated in the last article: 

“This verse is not rebuking those who entertain what some call conspiracies, it is rebuking those who say anything they don’t want to hear is a conspiracy. Throughout this whole passage, Ahaz, and the people of Judah collectively, are rejecting God’s word, therefore denigrating the prophet’s message. What the people likely fear is that Isaiah’s message is true, and they are likely afraid to contradict the king who calls Isaiah's message false. In other words, Isaiah is being written off as a conspiracy theorist here, or a man conspiring against the people. It is remarkable, because some people then take this verse, invert it, and use it to rebuke those who entertain things that the mainstream calls conspiracies. Isaiah is doing the very opposite of that.”   

This is important to establish. Because it is common for those in power to lie. It is common for sceptical people to call out their lies. It is common for those in power to brush aside those calling them out as conspiracy theorists. And it is common for ordinary people who want to believe their leaders have the best intentions towards them, and who want to shun knowledge which is not popular in the mainstream, to turn around and accuse their fellow citizens of being conspiracy theorists along with those political leaders. 

This is one of the most consistent patterns of behaviour in any group of people, and Isaiah himself was experiencing this. His warnings were being brushed aside as conspiracy or he was being accused of engaging in a conspiracy, by a non-believing public which could not accept that God would turn against Israel/Judah, or that their king was the bad guy. This pattern is experienced by whistle blowers who try to call out corruption in a company, which could damage the popular leader in the company. This pattern is experienced by congregants in churches which try to tell people the famous pastor (or not so famous pastor) is an adulterer or abuser or something else. And this pattern is common in the mainstream discourse of society in general. 

It is common for any group of people led by wicked rulers, to create a culture of secrecy around themselves, coupled with a culture of approved topics of discussion, followed by policing of those who threaten the power structures. To deny this is to deny one of the most basic realities of living in this fallen world, and to not understand how corruption and power work in this world. Which is precisely where most people sit. Having never been exposed to the circles of power many people are not aware of how they work. Which is why the Bible spends so much time explaining this. Jesus wants us to be as wise as serpents (Matt. 10:16), and the Bible is partially designed to help us be this way. 

Many Church leaders act as if the Bible encourages us to ignore the idea of conspiracy altogether. But it does nothing of the sort. In fact, the push to deny conspiracy really comes from our culture and from worldly forces. Wickedness reigns in our society and secrecy is necessary for wickedness; and those in power need to maintain the appearance of being genuine; to do this, people who shed light on these conspiracies need to be shunned. This is a major theme in the Bible and there are many examples of direct references to conspiracy in the Scriptures. Let me show you. 

We are going to look at this in some detail because this will help us build towards our theology of conspiracy. In this piece, we will look at direct uses of the word conspiracy in the King James Version and English Standard Version. The first being in the book of the Prophets. 

2 Samuel 15:11

The first use of the actual word conspiracy is, appropriately, at the beginning of the reign of the Kings, in the time of David. We read in 2 Samuel 15 that Absalom began to plot against his father, and he did this by winning the ears of the people. As all populist usurpers do, he used the people’s pleas for help to build himself a power base. After he had achieved this, we read: 

“7 And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord, in Hebron. 8 For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. 9 And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose, and went to Hebron. 10 But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. 11 And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing. 12 And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counsellor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom. 13 And there came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom” (2 Samuel 15:7-13, KJV).

This is not the first conspiracy in Israel, as we shall see when we explore other examples in our next piece. But this first use of the actual word is a powerful one, because in this account a son is conspiring against his father. Absalom had a grievance against David, and it is possible David did not even realize this until it was too late. Such is the devious way that the conspirator operates. They lay in the quiet, awaiting their moment to strike. Absalom was obviously highly intelligent and capable, as his premeditated gathering of support shows. Highly capable and highly dangerous. 

So, the first thing we learn about conspiracy is that if you offend the wrong person they can become a highly dangerous and highly capable threat to you and your position. In this case, the danger comes from a son, but this could easily be anyone else.  

2 Kings 12:20

You would think that it would be good to be king. You have almost complete power at your fingertips. You have the ability to attract almost any woman you want, gather incredible wealth, or achieve your policy dreams, good or ill, for your people. You can stamp your legacy on your nation, and change its direction, and so much more because you hold a lot of power. But to be king, to be the chief alpha, of a nation is to also make yourself the centre, not just of power, but also of attention, and you will draw good and bad attention because of that. Like Joash/Jehoash:

“19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. 21 It was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son reigned in his place” (2 Kings 12:19-21). 

The writer of 2 Kings does not tell us exactly why Joash was killed, only that it was a conspiracy of his servants. The context of the chapter tends to hint that he may have drawn the ire of his servants because he redirected a lot of money from the pockets of the priests into the actual work of the temple for which it was originally intended. But this is not made explicit. It could also have been an act of revenge because he paid off the Syrian king Hazael with all the wealth in the temple, as tribute to stop him from invading. We are not explicitly told the reason, but the context shows why he would have made enemies.

This is something that all kings, and leaders, have had to deal with throughout history, whether they seek to reign righteously or not. They will make enemies, and in this case two of this man’s own servants turned on him, “20 His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla.” This happens a lot in the Bible and in history. The man with the most power is also the man with the biggest target on his back. But these servants did not get away with their crimes. Joash’s son, Amaziah struck them down the moment his power was secure enough for him to get it done. 

We learn something important for our theology of conspiracy here; if you hold a position of power you will make enemies, even among those who are your own servants, or in today’s world, loyal workers. Especially if you seek to make reforms.   

2 Kings 14:19

As Judah and Israel got more corrupt the conspiracies became more constant and more common. Amaziah suffered a similar fate to this own father:

“17 Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. 18 Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 19 And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there. 20 And they brought him on horses; and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. 21 And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 22 He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.”

This time it appears that the king was conspired against because he was perceived as either weak, brash or a combination of both. In an act of overconfidence, he started a war with a larger power and his foolish act got his nation defeated in battle by that far larger kingdom, Samaria (northern Israel). The next thing we are told about him is that his people turned on him. Amaziah almost managed to get away from the conspirators on this occasion, but they caught up with him. Likely because there was a large amount of the people involved, as is implied by the statement, “And they made a conspiracy…” against him. 

Alphas that show weakness are prone to conspiratorial attacks, because the man in charge has to consistently show that he should remain the man in charge. He cannot coast, he cannot display high levels of weakness or vulnerability, and he needs to minimize failures. Otherwise, he will inspire all kinds of attacks, whether from competing nations, businesses, organizations, or internal challenges. Many leaders do not survive these attacks with their power intact. This is another important lesson for our theology of conspiracy.    

2 Kings 15

These conspiracies were not just contained to the nation of Judah either. Israel had its fair share of conspirators. As with Judah so we also see with Israel that as it became more corrupt conspiracies became not just common, but the norm.  

Zechariah the son of Jeroboam was taken down by Shallum the son of Jabesh who, “conspired against him and struck him down at Ibleam and put him to death and reigned in his place” (v.10). Then Shallum was taken down by Menahem the son of Gadi who, “came up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and put him to death and reigned in his place” (v.14). Menahem managed to hold onto the throne and die of natural causes, but he was recorded as a usurper and therefore he was also a conspirator. Menahem’s son Pekahiah took the throne, but he did not last long, “25 And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him with fifty men of the people of Gilead, and struck him down in Samaria, in the citadel of the king's house with Argob and Arieh; he put him to death and reigned in his place” (v.25). Pekah reaped what he sowed, “Then Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him down and put him to death and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah” (v.30). 

Consistently in 2 Kings 15 we hear how evil these kings were. Zechariah did evil and he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam (v.9). Shallum did evil in conspiring against his king (v.10). Menahem did evil and did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam (v.18). Pekahiah did the same evil as his father (v.24). And so did Pehak after him (v.28). All of these final backstabbing kings of Israel are described in very similar ways, right up until the final king of Israel, King Hoshea. He is described thus, “And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him” (2 kings 17:2). Hoshea was still an evil man, in God’s eyes, but he was not evil in the same way. We are not told here whether he was more or less evil, but he was still bad. And he was still taken down by conspiratorial ways, but in a very different way: 

“3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:3-6). 

Hoshea had taken on board the scheming ways of the other final kings of Israel. But rather than recognize that such ways were foolish, he turned them against a major power, and it cost him his throne, his freedom and the existence of his entire kingdom. 

We learn here another important lesson for our theology of conspiracy. We see that as wickedness increases in a nation it starts to lean on wicked means, such as conspiracy. This is to be expected because darkness loves to work in the shadows. Conspiracies multiply, and become the way of the people, and especially amongst those in power or those near power. Treachery, backbiting, betrayal of all kinds, undermining, subversion, even treason, all become the ways of a wicked nation in decline and given over to evil. The Bible itself makes this point to us in many ways. It is actually quite disturbing how little Christian teaching covers these major biblical themes.  

Jeremiah 11:9

Jeremiah directly connects conspiracy to a people being given over to evil: 

“6 And the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7 For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. 8 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”

9 Again the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers” (Jeremiah 11:6-10).

The tendency of the evil heart is towards acting in the shroud of darkness. The implication here in Jeremiah is that in their hearts and in their wickedness the people of Judah are conspiring against the Lord. The evil man is given over to conspiracy because this is a fruit of wickedness. Ezekiel agrees with Jeremiah here.  

Ezekiel 22:25

Evil people are given over to conspiracy: 

“23 And the word of the Lord came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain” (Ezekiel 22:23-27).

This could be a description of any number of modern nations, especially in the declining West. The wicked work from the dark to hurt and take advantage of the weak for self-gain and selfish ends. They steal wealth, they take from and crush the easily oppressed, they do violence to all that is good and just and right. The representatives of the law ignore it or apply it arbitrarily, in doing so they do violence to it. They disregard proper decorum and righteousness and taint all things with evil. They are conspiratorial to their core and this affects all that they do. As wickedness increases, so does the wicked doing conspiratorial things increase. Indeed, in many ways, wickedness requires conspiracy and conspiracy flourishes in wickedness. This is not just a concern of the Old Testament either. 

Acts 23:13

We read of an interesting and rather ridiculous conspiracy in the book of Acts. This is not the only reference to conspiracy in the New Testament, but it is the only example of the precise use of the word ‘conspiracy’. We read in Acts 23: 

“12 When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. 14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. 15 Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near” (Acts 23:12-15). 

The fate of these foolish men is not given to us, but we know that they failed in their quest to kill Paul, as, according to Church tradition, he died later in his life at the hands Nero. But we see that these men show all the classic signs of conspirators. They are wicked, violent men, who hate the just and righteous and who work out their plans behind closed doors and seek to take out their evil aims on the innocent. 

Of course, if we include the word conspired, which we really should, then we can note how the Pharisees themselves show all of these same wicked tendencies, “Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him” (Matt. 12:13-14). Jesus was everything that Satanic, wicked people hate. The Pharisees were everything that evil conspirators display; evil men, who rejected God, hate the light of his truth, are dedicated to keeping their power and are happy to seek to conspire against righteous people to achieve their ends. We will come back to this more in our next piece. 

A Developing Theology of Conspiracy

So, we can at this point say with assurance that those teachers and preachers who say that conspiracy should not be a concern of believers are flat out wrong. It is a major theme in the Bible, and this is important; we have only just begun to explore it by limiting ourselves to the uses of the word conspiracy and yet we have already built the beginnings of a solid theology: 

- Conspiracy is most common around centres of power. Kings, as leaders of tribal groups and nations are going to attract all sorts of attention, including threats to their power. David, as the centre of power had a lot of power, but he was also vulnerable to powerful actors striking from the dark. 

- Conspiracy is most likely to come from offended and/or wicked people. Generally, a combination of both. Absalom’s bitterness drove him to evil action. Rejection of God caused many of the kings and powerful members of Israel to be given over to evil. These evil people did all they could to oppose reforms, working in the dark to achieve their evil ends. 

- Conspiracy is a fruit of wickedness. Those who are given over to evil cannot help but work in darkness. We will explore this concept more fully in the next piece, but it is important to note where evil is there will be conspiracy. It’s not a maybe, it is a given. It is dangerous to think otherwise. 

- Where evil increases in a nation, conspiracy increases in a nation. As Israel became more corrupt it was given over to more and more conspiracy, until hardly could a king reign without ending his days with a knife in the back. Therefore, the more wickedness your nation or people tolerate in the open, the more certain you can be that there is evil happening in secret, including conspiracies. You would be foolish to think otherwise. 

- Conspiracy is evil and evil is inherently foolish and therefore those who engage in conspiracy will be inherently given over to ends which suit their foolishness. Like Hoshea believing he could conspire against the dominant world power of his day, which ended with him losing his throne, his kingdom and his freedom. Conspiracy gives influential people a false sense of power. Israel was decimated by such evil. Judah was decimated by such evil. Every fallen kingdom and people has been decimated by such evil. 

So, we have begun to build a solid and scripturally supported theology of conspiracy just from evaluating the usage of the word “conspiracy” in the Bible. We can see already that conspiracy is not something that the Bible wants people to ignore. It is as much a fruit of evil as sexual immorality, gluttony, and theft, and it is rightly given a lot of airtime in the Bible to highlight this. It is a behaviour of corrupt and evil human beings that we need to be aware of. It is also a behaviour which the righteous should shun. Righteousness needs to work in the light, righteousness needs to be open in wise and God honouring ways. This might seem like a disadvantage in this evil world, but to work in the darkness sets you against God and sets God against you. To work in the light puts him on your team.

But even though we have made a good start, our theology is still very incomplete, because it lacks an entire other dimension, and without that dimension our theology of conspiracy will be seriously lacking. We must bring in what the Bible says about evil to make our theology complete. This will be our task in Part Three.