Isaiah the Conspiracy Theorist?

 

Did you know Isaiah was accused of being a conspiracy theorist? This is from something I am writing:

“The first verse that comes to mind for many Christians when people talk about conspiracy is Isaiah 8:12, “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.” I have seen many Christians and Christian leaders use this verse to say, “Avoid talk about conspiracies, because it is unfruitful and unrighteous, Isaiah warns the Israelites to avoid such talk, so should you.” This verse is used like a club to beat people over the head to make them avoid associating in any way with conspiracies. For example:

“Are some conspiracy theories in the world be true? Possibly. But what does it matter? Read the Scripture again: “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.” Isaiah 8:12 What is the benefit of believing theories? Nothing. They are a waste of time. Even if they could be true.”217

This person believes Isaiah is saying that we should not discuss conspiracies, or at least avoid them as much as possible. This is essentially how John N. Oswalt reads it in his commentary of Isaiah.218 In this reading, Isaiah is telling faithful believers to ignore conspiracies and just trust in God. A positive message for sure, in some ways. It is good to be told to not fear what conspiring men can do, but instead to fear God alone. But there is a big problem with this reading: it gets the verse backwards, and as Oswalt notes, this sets the verse at odds with its context.219

So, let us now evaluate what the verse says. First observe that it does not say, ‘do not ever listen to or entertain conspiracies.’ Yet, this appears to be how some people hear it, or apply it, but it does not say that. It simply says two things: 1) do not call something a conspiracy just because some people say it is a conspiracy, and 2) do not fear what those same people are afraid of, nor live in dread. So how do we understand this verse then?

In light of the context, and the context makes it clear that Isaiah is not warning the Israelites to avoid conspiracies here, he is saying don’t believe people when they say (likely flippantly), “Oh, that’s just a conspiracy.” Don’t call a conspiracy what this people calls a conspiracy, most naturally reads as: don’t let people label something as a conspiracy theory when it is clearly not. This is how Allan Harman reads it in his commentary, noting that Isaiah and his compatriots are being accused of promoting conspiracies,220 when they are actually speaking the truth. According to this reading, the verse is saying don’t define conspiracy how the people define conspiracy, and don’t be afraid of people saying such things (v.12). Rather, fear God and let him be your standard of separation from the culture; aka holiness (v.13). If you trust him, he will be your solid foundation and he will also be a stumbling block to all who just call these things conspiracies (v.14). Many will fall for this line and be broken because of that (v.15). Don’t fall for it, define things according to God’s standard.

In other words, Isaiah is saying here to not be afraid of how people will respond to you if you say something is happening, or about to happen, and they just brush you aside. Trust in God, let him be your foundation and stronghold and let him be their opponent. This verse makes much more sense if you read it in context and see what God is encouraging the Israelites with. So, let’s now look at that wider context of the passage…

…Fools will just brush aside knowledge that they don’t want to hear as conspiracy theories. This is foolish, because sometimes prophets of God like Isaiah, or just insightful but ordinary believers who steep themselves in understanding the scriptures and culture, see things coming that others are blind to. This is foolish because we live in a world that has literally been usurped by a being called the ‘father of lies’ and therefore our world is filled with liars in allegiance with this fake king, and many of those people have power and influence. This is foolish because the Bible actually teaches us a lot about conspiracies. The beauty of this reading of Isaiah 8:12 is that it fits with the immediate context, and it also fits with everything else that the Bible says about the topic of conspiracy. Now that we have removed this roadblock to our examination let’s go deeper into what the scriptures say about this topic.”

The Bible has a lot to teach us on the topic of conspiracy. A lot. It goes out of its way to warn us that conspiracy is a big problem in this world. So, teachers that take this verse out of context to try and tell us that we should not entertain the idea of conspiracy are not just wrong, they are actually doing harm to the Bible’s intention for us on this topic. God wants us to know that there is great evil working in the world, and it is often working in secret. Once you realize this you cannot look at this world the same way again. 

More to come soon...