We Are Not Unaware Of His Schemes (How The Evil One Works Series Part 2)

 

Watch sermon video here 

Introduction –

In 2018 there were 16,743 abortions in QLD, that is 16,744 too many. But what is even worse is that after that terrible abortion legislation was passed in 2018, in 2019 we had 26,583 abortions. That is a 58% increase in one year.[i] 26,583 children murdered. I have good friends who lost a child in the last year, to natural causes. They did everything to save her life. Everything they could. It was the first funeral I have ever been to where the coffin was that small. They would have loved this little girl. Wicked people have aborted 26,583 young Queenslanders, for whatever reasons they wished, while good people mourn the loss of their children every day. Evil rules our society, no question.  

We began a theology of the evil one last week. Theology can sound ‘theoretical’ but this is not theoretical. It is not just words on a page, or thoughts spoken out loud. Evil is real, and pervasive, and it rules our world, and indeed our society, at least right now. Hebrews 2:14 does say that Jesus died on the cross so “that through his death he destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil…” but Hebrews 2:8 says this, “8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Hebrews 2:8). The Devil is defeated, his destruction is guaranteed. But he can steal, kill and destroy still today. And it appears nothing delights him more than destroying young life. Hence 26,583 young people fell to his schemes in 2019, and that’s just in QLD.

So, when I say we are building a theology of evil, this is no ivory tower exercise. This is God revealed information, from his Word, that we need to understand so as to be aware of the Devil’s schemes in this world.

We established last week that the evil one got power over death by usurping the man and woman’s roles, he is now at war with the descendants of the woman and he likes to attack through women in a unique way. As difficult a topic as this is for the modern mind it is not in the least bit controversial from the Bible’s perspective. We are just not supposed to notice what the Bible says, and last week we noticed it, and we will continue, by the grace of God, to notice what the Bible says on gendered issues, and on everything really.

And this morning we are going to look at some of the great evil he wreaks on humanity through men, and if we have time, we will then turn to some of his other strategies. So, let’s continue to trace how the Devil works, let’s make ourselves even more aware of his schemes.

1.     The Devil Specializes In Corrupting Men – I want us to launch off today with something we looked at last week, but looking at if from a different angle. I mentioned last week how the Devil attacked man through woman and I said this, “This worked because…and no one will be offended by this…this worked because man’s greatest weakness is woman. And here was Adam standing before the most perfect and beautiful women ever, naked, offering him a bit of forbidden fruit…more men have fallen before that, than have stood.”

1.1  And this is what we read in Genesis 3:6 – “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” What did she do? She took the “wisdom” the “divine mysteries” that the Devil had taught her and passed them on to her husband, encouraging him to eat. This is a direct act of pagan priesthood. And this is exactly how it was viewed by the ancients, and by the ancient Church.

1.1.1       But what did the man do? He left the Devil unopposed, and he fell before the naked beautiful women. We see here two more strategies of the Devil. Firstly,  

2.     Getting men to check out – “and he ate” - I can’t help but notice here that Adam checked out. There is only one way to accurately describe how he acts in this situation: passive. He literally allows his wife and the evil one through her to walk all over him. This is both the least masculine thing he could have done, and one of the most common things that men do. Many men just check out, they go passive.  

2.1  Maybe because it is all just too hard. Maybe it is because their wife pushes too much. Maybe because they are just worn out. Or maybe it is because they were raised by domineering mothers, and passive fathers. For whatever reason, men checking out and being walked all over by their wives and by society is so common, and here we see it happening with the first man.

2.1.1       Overly domineering men is a real problem in society, it exists and it is bad. But passive men, especially in the West, are a much more common issue.

2.2  There are guys out there who are terrified of their mothers, because their fathers are terrified of their wives, and their lack of leadership wreaks havoc through the whole family. Passivity is a plague amongst men.

2.2.1       I have seen what having a passive father does to their sons, it is devastating.

2.3  Why would a man, who has been commanded by God to “name” his wife, which means lead her - the women being named by the husband means the women is coming into the frame, or authority, of her husband – why would a man who knows this choose to be so passive?

2.3.1       Because it is easier, “It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife” (Proverbs 21:9). I don’t think Solomon is saying this is a good situation, I think he is just pointing out the approach many men take.

2.3.1.1 Many men find it easier to just check out. It is the path of least resistance. Just avoid their wife and seek peace where it comes. Many men take this approach is various aspects of their lives.

2.3.2       We read this about Hezekiah in his day, “5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: 6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days” (Isaiah 39:5-8).

2.3.2.1 How wicked, and passive is this thought of Hezekiah? Hezekiah is told about all the evil that is coming on his descendants and he is ok with what is coming, because he won’t see it. This sums up the passive man, happy to push his responsibilities down the line.  

2.3.3       So, we can add to our theology of how the evil works, that he likes to get men to just check out, take a backseat. And probably his most successful strategy of getting men to check out is…    

3.     Slaying men with porneia – Here was Adam standing before the most beautiful and most perfect woman ever, designed by God himself, and like Samson, like David, like many after him, he leaped at the chance to fall before the beautiful woman.

3.1  Look how this sin eventually brings down the whole world in Genesis 6:1-4 – “6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”

3.1.1       This situation is unique because it is talking about the fallen angels, the Watchers, laying with human women (daughters of man). But it shows us 1) the power of the evil one to use sexual temptation to corrupt, 2) the damage that it can wreak on the world. If these angels could fall before it, how much more could mortal men?

3.1.2       Ergo, how much more should we be on our guard, being far less holy and set apart than heavenly messengers (at least before their fall). We basically need to assume that if we allow this sin a door of entry that it can bring us down. And many men do leave that door open.  

3.2  Pornography today has gone crazy, rampant and viral. But you have to understand it does not just exist, it didn’t just develop naturally. Pornography was pushed by people who think like this: “Some porn stars viewed themselves as frontline fighters in the spiritual battle between Christian America and secular humanism…Pornography thus becomes a way of defiling Christian culture and, as it penetrates to the very heart of the American mainstream (and is no doubt consumed by those very same WASPs), its subversive character becomes more charged. Porn is no longer of the “what the Butler saw” voyeuristic type; instead, it is driven to new extremes of portrayal that stretch the boundaries of the porn aesthetic. As new sexual positions are portrayed, the desire to shock (as well as entertain) seems clear.”[ii]

3.2.1       In other words, porn was pushed in the USA to help destroy Christian society. I know we don’t live in America, but Hollywood, and its underground offshoot, the Porn Industry, have had a massive effect on Australian culture – the exact same effect.  

3.2.2       But note this: these people are against Christ. As one famous pornographer Al Goldstein says, “…We think that Christ sucks. Catholicism [aka Christianity] sucks. We don’t believe in authoritarianism.”[iii] He conflates Christianity with authoritarianism, because Christianity says obey your government, pay your taxes, only practice sex in a marriage between a man and woman, teach your kids to be respectful, and good citizens, among other things.

3.2.2.1 To the wicked, these things are totalitarian and must be subverted. Porn was designed to help tear down our successful Christianised culture, and it has worked. Now you can be angry at the purveyors of this stuff, and you should be, but they could not succeed if people did not buy or watch their product. At risk of making myself sound absurd here, to quote Obi Wan Kenobi, “Who is the more foolish, the fool? Or the fool who follows him?”

3.3  I know that some women watch porn, this number is increasing, and the industry could not exist without women, some of whom join it willingly, though many don’t. The sex industry overlaps with slave trafficking. But let’s put all this to one side for now, and hear this: Men, porn is not just something that is bad for you, it is something designed to destroy you, which presents itself as freedom but is actually slavery.

3.3.1       Proverbs tells us this, “23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; 26 for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. 27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? 28 Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? 29 So is he who goes in to his neighbour's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished. 30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, 31 but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house. 32 He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself” (Proverbs 6:23-32).

3.3.2       I know this is talking about the actual act of adultery, but didn’t Jesus say that those who look at a woman with lust have committed this sin? It’s not right to say the Devil made you do it. But it is correct to say that he has successfully used porn to turn the western man largely into a passive, pusillanimous, masturbater who has allowed civilization to begin to collapse on his watch. The kind of men who are ok with children being aborted are the same kinds of men who are ok with spilling their seed to screens instead of real flesh and blood women.

3.3.3       And be warned, a society given over to this sin will see no boundaries of sexual depravity, “7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire…10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.” (Jude 1:7,10).

3.3.3.1 Porn is designed to twist you sexually and to push you to further and further depths of depravity. Our society is clearly enslaved by it. Why join in on the Devil’s schemes?

3.4  In fact, Paul tells us directly that this is an area the Devil watches over people ready to attack, 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 – “1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

3.4.1       This is not rocket science, the antidote to sexual temptation is for each man to have a wife, and each wife to have a husband, and for them to have regular sex.

3.4.2       It’s interesting how the Devil has not really changed how he has worked for all of history. He has no new tricks. He just plays them over and over again. He stepped in between the man and the woman and twisted their relationship, corrupting their marriage, and he does the same thing to marriages today, if you give him the opportunity.

3.5  So, we can add to our theology of evil so far that the Devil specializes in corrupting men, and especially slaying them with porneia. Let me ask you a simple question here married couples? Does Satan rule this area of your life? Or does God? Because it matters.

4.     It matters for society as a whole – Proverbs 6:32 – “He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.” And if society is given over to sexual sin, it tends to destruction. Both porn and abortion are population control measures. This has been known for a long time. Abortion is easy to understand, it directly takes viable children out of the population. Pornography’s connection to population decline, is less obvious, but clear once you look at its effects.

4.1  Porn makes it harder for men to engage with women.[iv] Researchers have known this for a while now. “Increased and consistent porn use in heterosexual men will cause the following to occur: 1. Reduced interest in sex and physical intimacy with long-term spouse/partner.”[v] Less sex, means less opportunities for children, less children for Christian families makes the Devil’s job far easier in this world.

4.2  What was God’s first blessing/command for all of humanity? Genesis 1:26 – “26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

4.2.1       People debate over whether this is a command or blessing. I think this is a silly debate because great blessing is found in following the commands of God. And the first blessing/command God gave us is: be fruitful and multiply. Why? Because God wants us to fill this world with little image bearers of him. By this he means believers of him, seeking to live out his will in this world. The Devil wants to stop as many image bearers of God from coming into being as possible.

4.2.2       Whether it is porn, abortion, abortive birth control or other methods the Devil’s schemes have done a lot of damage.

4.3  The Devil has enabled many men and women, through his schemes, to destroy themselves, and in turn our whole society. Western civilisation is running on steam right now, and this is not good. Because the West, despite all its flaws, was mighty for the kingdom of God for so long.

4.3.1       Is it not good to want the West to be a missions power house again? If yes, then let’s stop allowing him to run amuck in our lives.

4.4  Jesus died on the cross to take the penalty for our sins. He also died on the cross to defeat the evil one. Why would we give the Devil a foothold again through sexual immorality? And we have only talked about one aspect of it today. Whenever you look at porn you join hands with the Devil to help him defeat yourself and your society.  

4.5  So, another aspect of the Devil’s strategy we can see here is that in anyway he can, he wants to lay waste the peoples and sexual sin is a powerful tool that he uses.

5.     Conclusion – I said last week the Devil likes to attack through women in a unique way. But as true as this may be, he specializes in corrupting men, and corrupt men have wrought untold damage in this world to men and women. Men don’t allow yourselves to be allied with the Devil. Don’t let him rule your sexual affections. Don’t be passive before him. And if in anyway you feel trapped in this snare of evil, remember that Jesus has defeated the one who has power over death, that is the Devil. He has crushed him, and his schemes cannot lay hold of you if you walk truly in the forgiveness and grace of the cross. You can stop it, you can assert back control in that area of your life, by the power of God, if you choose not to be passive.

List of References

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[i] Life Choice Australia 2021, “58% Increase In Qld Abortions Since Abortion-to-Birth Legalisation”, LifeChoice, accessed 14/05/2020, https://lifechoice.org.au/58-increase-in-qld-abortions-since-abortion-to-birth-legalisation/

[ii] Vinther, Kenneth 2021, “Oppresion by Orgasm”, The Unz Review, accessed 14/05/2020, https://www.unz.com/article/oppression-by-orgasm/

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Postmedia News 2021, “Young men would give up sex for video games, says U.S. study”, Toronto Sun, accessed 14/05/2021, https://torontosun.com/news/world/young-men-would-give-up-sex-for-video-games-says-u-s-study

[v] Weiss, Robert 2011, “Does Watching Porn Affect Intimate Relationships? (Part One: men)”, PsychCentral, accessed 14/05/2021, https://psychcentral.com/blog/sex/2011/05/does-watching-porn-affect-intimate-relationships-part-one-men#1

Mea Culpa On Free Speech

‘cognitive dissonance’

NOUN

psychology

‘the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change.’

You probably don’t support free speech, even though you say you do, and I want to prove it. How? Well let me explain by showing what happened to my thinking on this topic.

I used to be a free speech absolutist, with qualifications of course – which begs the question doesn’t it? Qualifications like you cannot make a death threat, you cannot shout fire in a crowded theatre, etc, etc. The standard conservative fair. But for virtually all other speech I believed there should be freedom for people to speak their conscience.

My position on free speech was formed by a large dose of having grown up in secular Australia, a peaceful, stable and prosperous society, which was influenced heavily by the USA, also a peaceful, stable and even more prosperous society, alongside of a Protestant understanding of the Catholic Church’s punishments of heretics, dissenters and unauthorized Bible translators. My appreciation of Anabaptist and Baptist history especially encouraged my views on free speech. There was also, in the past, an unrecognized influence of Hollywood propaganda on the issue. How much of what we think is really just regurgitated Hollywood propaganda?

You might wonder why Anabaptist and Baptist history fed into my views on free speech. It is simple, they were ground breakers on the issue of freedom of conscience. Well, really, the Dutch and German Anabaptists were the ground breakers in the 16^th century and the English Baptists were their ideological heirs in the 17^th century, even if they tried to distance themselves from their European cousins.  

Perhaps the greatest example of this position, was Balthasar Hubmaier, who wrote a brilliant tract in 1524 called, Concerning Heretics and Those Who Burn Them, in which he argued against persecuting heretics, and makes a powerful case:

8. This is the will of Christ who said, “Let both grow together till the harvest, lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them” (Matt. 13:29). “For there must also be heresies among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19)..

…14. For Christ did not come to butcher, destroy, and burn, but that those that live might live more abundantly (John 10:10)…

…15. We should pray and hope for repentance, as long as man lives in this misery…

…16. A Turk or a heretic is not convinced by our act, either with the sword or with fire, but only with patience and prayer; and so we should await with patience the judgment of God…[1]

Hubmaier was arguing for an early version of freedom of conscience and freedom of thought, and against burning heretics at the stake. You will never guess how he was executed for his radical views? Yep, burnt at the stake.[2]

Having grown up in a strong culture of Aussie freedom, I took great delight in seeing first the Anabaptists, and then the Baptists and other free-thinking Christians, like the Collegiants and Dutch Arminians, make the early case for freedom of conscience and expression. Especially considering this idea appeared to have done much good in the Western world. It is enshrined in the American Constitution, as the first amendment, and while free speech is not explicitly supported in the Australian Constitution, it is still implied in regards to politics and religion.[3] Section 116 of the Constitution makes it clear that under Australian law we have freedom to preach Christianity,

116. Commonwealth not to legislate in respect of religion

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.[4]

Christ, who is our ultimate authority, said to preach the word of God, and as the Commonwealth is not free to prohibit this, it follows that we have, at the very least, an implied legal right to religious free speech. The open and trusting Christian society Australia has always been, along with the relatively free religious culture this law allowed to flourish in Australia, is probably a large reason why Aussies thought we did have a right to free speech here, and of course because we Aussies watch so much Yankee TV. I was delighted to be able to show links to this freedom all the way back to the type of Protestant Christianity that I upheld to this day, Baptist. I saw it as my duty to uphold this principle, because to love our neighbour we need to be willing to hear them out, just as Hubmaier and many Anabaptists and Baptists argued we should.  

Therefore, as a Christian, while I did not believe I had to right to say whatever I wanted, because I was to be bound by conscience and truth, I believed my neighbour had this right, because they were to be guided by their conscience, and their understanding of what is true.  

But then I sought to make this case on Vox Popoli, Vox Day’s blog, when they were discussing something regarding free speech. It was there that I heard the first truly persuasive argument against free speech: the case of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Like me at the time, you probably have never heard of this book. And really, it is not a book worth reading. But there is one reason why you should know about this book: it helped pave the way for the degraded, porn addicted, culture that the West is in bondage to today.

History.com[5] explains,

On November 2, 1960, a landmark obscenity case over Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence, ends in the acquittal of Penguin Books. The publisher had been sued for obscenity in publishing an unexpurgated version of Lawrence’s novel, which deals with the affair between the wife of a wealthy, paralyzed landowner and his estate’s gamekeeper. The book had been published in a limited English-language edition in Florence in 1928 and Paris the following year. An expurgated version was published in England in 1932. In 1959, the full text was published in New York, then in London the following year.

This is not just an interesting footnote in the history of a book, this is pointing us to a landmark case which influenced the direction our culture has moved. As the Guardian tells us, “Sixty years on from the obscenity trial of Penguin Books, Lady Chatterley’s Lover remains a symbol for freedom of expression.”[6] This obscenity trial helped to pave the way for the absolute degradation of our modern culture, because it opened the door for the free publication of that which past generations would have seen as deplorable to be published for wide distribution in English. This is not my interpretation of the situation, this is what I was schooled on in that discussion on Vox Popoli, and it is just what happened. The case of Lady Chatterly’s Lover,  

…is credited as being a crucial step in liberalising the country’s cultural landscape, encouraging frank public discussion of sexual behaviour that meant sex was no longer a taboo in art and entertainment. It also shifted views on major human rights issues including the legalisation of homosexuality and abortion, the abolition of the death penalty and divorce reform.[7]

How are more of us not aware of this landmark case? It utterly changed the English speaking world.

Freedom of expression means freedom of expression, and this entails allowing things to be freely expressed that many Christians, and people of other faiths and even no faith, find reprehensive. Chatterly’s Lover is essentially porn in literary form, and while this may be a normal thing for the West today, this was not always the case. There was a time when public morality was much stricter. I, foolishly, until that discussion, had not really considered the damage that porn written in words could do to a society. As a Christian we can easily see that damage other forms of it have done. These more explicit and visual varieties are just the same bad thing, in a different medium. But it was Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which paved the way for much of the degradation we have today,

Philippe Sands QC, the writer, human rights barrister and president of English Pen, says that Lawrence is “unique in the annals of English literary history” and that the book “was at the heart of the struggle for freedom of expression” in the courts and beyond. Calling for support to keep the book in the UK, he says it is “a symbol of the continuing struggle to protect the rights of writers and readers at home and abroad”.[8]

This is not just because of the story it tells, but how explicitly it tells that story. Apparently, the book goes into graphic sexual detail, presents adultery in a favourable light, which is sadly common place today, and was freer with its language than was acceptable at that time.[9] This is all stuff people don’t bat an eyelid to anymore, but in that day and age many were shocked at. 

Effectively, this case helped progressives do what they love doing best: transgressing boundaries. Indeed, you could argue that this is the definitional pillar of progressivism, to smash every possible boundary and recreate humanity into the image of the boundaryless divinity, Baphomet. I do not think that every progressive is aware that this is what they are doing, but this IS what they are doing.

Herein, lies the reason I suspect that even though you might say you believe in freedom of expression, you very likely do not believe in free speech, especially if you are a Christian. Because I know you do not believe that porn should be disseminated freely or widely, but rather that it should be either banned outright (the best position) or heavily limited to who can watch it when (the current approach our TV stations take, but not strictly enough). And I know that pretty much every thinking Christian is genuinely concerned about the hyper-sexualisation of our culture that happens in the media, and especially how it effects many from too young an age. 

Once you realize that porn is too dangerous to be free and accessible, a position which many people, not just Christians, agree with, you realize that you cannot continue in a state of cognitive dissonance that believing this and believing in freedom of expression puts you in. You cannot both agree that expression should be free and heavily restricted. Once you realize that this, you can freely move to the correct position: free speech is not good for humanity, or really good in pretty much any context. There should always be limits on what can be said when and where, and this is just wisdom. Clean speech is a far superior position, and makes for a better way of life, and a better way for society.

I have to credit Vox, and many contributors to his blog, for opening my eyes up to this argument and what I see now is a very clear position. I also have to credit him for the insights from J B Bury's book, which I'll share in a moment.

Nothing I have said here is particularly radical for the average believer, as I said at the beginning, “You probably don’t support free speech, even though you say you do, and I want to prove it.” The question is not, “Should we be absolutely free to speak?” The question is really, “Who should be the censors, and what should be censored?” We understand this intuitively, but the mantra of free speech propaganda often causes us to miss this.  

There are always blasphemy laws in any culture, even a libertine culture, where it is blasphemy to say, “That is immoral”, or “Maybe you should have self-control,” or, “Do you really need another cookie?”. We Christians and conservatives in the West fell into the trap of believing that neutrality could exist in a nation. That is, we thought a society based on a secular public sphere, allowing a freely expressed marketplace of ideas was possible. But this was always a lie, and this is why such a society didn’t last very long.

Really, those who sought to break the boundaries of what could and could not be said, were just using that as a means of usurping the Christian nature of the West, and taking power for themselves, so they could then enforce their version of blasphemy laws. Have you noticed how todays almost exclusively leftist cultural elite are not even slightly interested in encouraging the free market of ideas any more? They want no part of free speech. Why is this? Their goal of taking power has been achieved. There is no desire for the anti-establishment to let people freely continue to criticize the establishment, once they become the establishment. No, it actually becomes a threat to their systemic control.

This is not my opinion of what has happened, either, elements of society have been agitating for the disestablishment of the church for some time, and they have been utterly successful. Here in Australia, it is not uncommon to see the media go after politicians who are open in their Christian faith, even if their advocated policies are not all that Christian. The eminent historian and Medievalist, J B Bury, told us that progressives viewed free speech as a means of achieving this goal of destabilizing the Christian West.

First tradition had to be undermined, “It is only recently that men have been abandoning the belief that the welfare of a state depends on rigid stability and on the preservation of its traditions and institutions unchanged.”[10] The process of dismantling tradition was encouraged by the effective and continued challenging of Western heritage, by the very elites who were supposed to preserve it. “DURING the last three hundred years reason has been slowly but steadily destroying Christian mythology and exposing the pretensions of supernatural revelation.”[11]

This was not the dispassionate scientific process that it is often presented as being in the movies. Humanity did not just wake up one day in a state of “enlightenment” and determine based on scientific reason that all tradition must be rejected. It was guided in that direction, by ideologues and freedom of expression was the tool used to achieve this end. As Bury says, “…nothing should be left undone to impress upon the young that freedom of thought is an axiom of human progress.”[12] By “human progress” Bury, and many other enlightenment thinkers really mean less Christian. Indeed, this is explicit in Bury’s A History of the Freedom of Thought, for example: “In this sense it might be said that ‘distrust thy father and mother’ is the first commandment with promise.”[13] This is an explicitly anti-biblical command. This brings to mind Richard Dawkins misguided attempt to create a new 10 Commandments in his book The God Delusion, to replace the real ones.

These attempts to create new commandments are always foolish, because if mankind sees very little reason to follow God’s commands, why would he care about some enlightenment professors list?   

It is important to understand that freedom of expression was only ever a tool for the enlightenment anti-Church thought leaders, to replace the authority of the Church, with their own values and Dogma, and authority,

Once the principle of liberty of thought is accepted as a supreme condition of social progress, it passes from the sphere of ordinary expediency into the sphere of higher expediency which we call justice. In other words it becomes a right on which every man should be able to count. The fact that this right is ultimately based on utility does not justify a government in curtailing it, on the ground of utility, in particular cases”[14] (emphasis mine).

Previous generations of enlightenment thinkers argued for, and even genuinely defended the principles of free speech. But once they had completely replaced the authority of scripture and the Church in guiding society, the doors began to close on anti-establishment sentiment, which Bury conceived as possible,

It is by no means inconceivable that in lands where opinion is now free coercion might be introduced. If a revolutionary social movement prevailed, led by men inspired by faith in formulas (like the men of the French Revolution) and resolved to impose their creed, experience shows that coercion would almost inevitably be resorted to.[15]

In other words, if socialists were to come to power, or people of a similar ideology, freedom of thought would likely be smothered and thoroughly. Which is precisely what is happening and, this is significant, was always going to happen. The enlightenment thinkers and those of us in the Church who foolishly sought to create a secular culture really just created a power vacuum, and that vacuum attracted the most power hungry to fill it. They now guard their power with supreme jealousy.  

So here is my mea culpa on free speech, I was wrong to ever defend it. To summarize, free speech is neither possible, desirable, or sustainable. It is not possible, because as I said at the start, no one should be able to threaten someone, among other things. It is not desirable, because there should not be the freedom to degrade with porn, and other degradations, as there now is. And it is not sustainable, because it was simply a means to an end, which has been achieved, and it is now being shelved, as it always was going to be, because power vacuums attract the powerful.

Indeed, this last point is so important. Because we Christians have been defending a tool which has been consistently used to undermine and degrade the Christian West. How the Devil must be laughing at us, for all the ways we have been fooled.

List Of References:

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[1] Tanks To Tractors Blog, accessed 9/05/2021, https://tankstotractors.blogspot.com/2012/07/concerning-heretics-and-those-that-burn.html#:~:text=%20Concerning%20Heretics%20and%20Those%20That%20Burn%20Them,burning%20without%20the%20Word%20of%20God.%20More  

[2] Encyclopedia Brittanica, Batlhsar Hubmaier, accessed 9/05/2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Balthasar-Hubmaier

[3] Yeo, Amanda 2021, “Reminder: Australia Does Not Have Freedom Of Speech”, LifeHacker, accessed 9/05/2021, https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2021/01/australia-does-not-have-freedom-of-speech/#:~:text=While%20Australia%20does%20not%20have%20explicit%20freedom%20of,finding%20this%20right%20was%20implied%20in%20Australia%E2%80%99s%20Constitution.

[4] Australian Constitution, Chapter Five: The States https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/~/link.aspx?_id=6ED2CAE61E7742A1B2C42F95D4C05252&_z=z#chapter-05_116

[5]“Lady Chatterly’s Lover” Obscenity Trial Ends”, History.com, accessed 9/05/2021,  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lady-chatterleys-lover-obscenity-trial-ends#:~:text=On%20November%202%2C%201960%2C%20a%20landmark%20obscenity%20case,a%20wealthy%2C%20paralyzed%20landowner%20and%20his%20estate%E2%80%99s%20gamekeeper.

[6] Baski, Catherine 2019, “Lady Chatterly’s legal case: how the book changed the meaning of obscene”, The Guardian, accessed 9/05/2021, https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/aug/01/lady-chatterleys-legal-case-how-the-book-changed-the-meaning-of-obscene.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Bury, J. B. 2004, A History of Freedom of Thought, Project Gutenberg (Kindle Edition, chapter one)

[11] Ibid. Chapter six.

[12] Ibid. Chapter eight.

[13] Ibid, Chapter eight.

[14] Ibid. Chapter eight.

[15] Ibid. Chapter eight. 

The One Who Has The Power Of Death, Hebrews 2:14 (How The Evil One Works Part One)

The One Who Has The Power Of Death (Hebrews 2:14) How The Evil One Works Part One

(Sermon video here)

Introduction

Did you go hungry at any time this week? Did you even miss a meal or two? Were you exposed to a bloody and degrading pagan ritual including sex, animal or human sacrifice, and other horrible activities? These might sound like strange questions to be asked alongside of each other, but the answers point to an important truth. We have had it very good here in Australia, and really in the whole West for quite some time now. And we have certainly never suffered as badly as Meghan and Harry.

Aussies are more likely to be overfed than go hungry, by a wide margin… And the Medieval Church did such an effective job of rooting out the pagan religions from the Western Nations, that even in this time of great apostasy and degradation, still the idolatrous worship and sacrifices before the gods of old have not fully caught on again yet…in the open that is.

We spoke last week about how evil has been defeated, and that it will be judged on the final day. The Devil has been defeated, his angels have been defeated, and his people, all who align themselves with him in rejecting Jesus, will be thoroughly crushed in the final judgement. But I don’t want to swipe away the presence of evil or downplay it. In fact, I am genuinely convinced that most Western Christians are not really fully aware of the level of evil in this world, even in our own nation, and just how dominant and all pervasive it is.

Paul said this to the Corinthians – “…so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Paul made sure his people were aware of the Devil’s designs. The modern Church has probably not done this very well. Likely because some of this teaching is uncomfortable for those who have lived comfortable lives to face. Partially because some of this information overlaps with stuff that conspiracy theorists like to dabble in. And partially because this sort of teaching in majored on by the kind of super-spiritual Christians that make most of us “normal” Christians uncomfortable. But also because we are just way too trusting in the West.

We Aussies are high trust, high functioning people. It is partially a product of our prosperity, and partly a product of our history. We have created a society here where everyone is given the benefit of the doubt. We like to think the best of people. We Westerners even tend to come up with silly ideas like this: that people are generally good, political leaders are generally decent, selfless, people wanting to serve, and we have long thought that most of society thinks us Christians are nice, but a little weird. But the Bible says people are corrupt, leaders are corrupt and that the world is against God’s people. We are too trusting and because of our prosperous and comfortable lifestyle, we tend to forget that the Devil really does move around like a roaring line, looking for people to devour. We forget that his servants are both spiritual and flesh and blood, and we forget that he never stops seeking to destroy and diminish good in the world. The fight against evil doesn’t end, until the end.

It is correct to know he is beaten. It is foolish for us to not be aware of the damage he can and does do, on his way down to the pit. The Bible tells us a lot about both of these things, and this is what we are going to be speaking about over the next few weeks. Launching off from Hebrews 2:14 what I want to do is a complete theology on how the Devil works, and how his evil is manifested in this world, with the Bible as our foundation and history as our aid. Someone once stated “that the Devil has convinced the world of two lies, that he does not exist, and that he is all powerful.” We don’t want to make either mistake. He has a power of a sort, and it is set against the people of God in various ways, let’s make ourselves fully aware of his schemes.

1.     The One Who Has Power Over Death – Our writers says in Hebrews 2:14, “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…” I am almost certain that most Christians don’t think of Satan in these terms, as the one who has power over death. We even like to say things like this: “trust in God and the Devil cannot harm you…” But the Bible speaks differently.

1.1  Jesus said, “16 Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves…26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:16, 26-28).

1.1.1       Jesus told us that those who oppose him, and his message, and therefore us, are like wolves and can kill the body. And who do these opponents work for? Ultimately the Devil. In Matthew 10 here the Devil’s servants who will persecute the Apostles are both Jewish and Gentile.  

1.1.2       People like to say that all Jews are the people of God, but this is not true. Those who believed are God’s people. Those who opposed Jesus, Jesus told us were of the Devil. Why? Because all people who oppose Jesus are of the Devil, no matter their genealogy or origins or race.

1.1.2.1  Whether you are descended from Jacob, Esau, Japheth or Nimrod, if you reject Jesus you are on the devil’s team, and if you trust in God through Jesus you are on the Lord’s team. There are only two teams.

1.1.2.2  One of the Devil’s greatest con jobs is convincing people there are more than two teams.

1.2  The Devil has sway over his people and he also has great power over death. He appears to be limited in how he can attack people. Most of the time he attacks through his lackeys on earth, people who do the Devil’s will knowingly or not.

1.2.1       But there are times when he attacks more directly. For example, the Devil was given authority to make Job sick, and cause bad weather. But even most of his attacks on Job came through other people.

1.2.2       The most important thing we learn from Job is that the Devil cannot touch you, unless God allows it. And if God is allowing it, it is to test us, or sift us as Jesus said to Peter. Luke 22:31-32 – “31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

1.3  So, what I want to do over the next couple of weeks is answer how did a created being, powerful, but puny compared to God, get the power over death, even in a limited way? And also look at how does the Devil go about his work? We will answer that as best we can.  

1.3.1       I want to qualify this right now, not every aspect of the answers are given to us in scripture, so I don’t want to overstate my case, but the Bible does give us heaps of insight. This is where we launch into our theology of evil and the evil one.

2.     Overruled By The Beast (Genesis 3) – Again like I do often, we need to turn to Genesis 3. There are those who would say that Genesis 3 is not to be taken as literal truth, or as revealed history. But virtually every doctrine of the Bible is dependent on Genesis 1-3, and the doctrine of evil especially. We read there – Genesis 3:1 - “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.” We see here the serpent, the Devil, the dragon, being referred to as a crafty beast of the field. Why is this significant?

2.1  Because mankind was supposed to rule over beasts of the field – Genesis 1:26 – “26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

2.1.1       Adam was supposed to put the beast in its place. This was his job in the hierarchy, and his wife’s role was to help him do it.

2.2  In this case the Devil is working through a dragon, which the word translated serpent here actually means, and which Revelation 12:9 confirms for us – “9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” It is likely that some dinosaurs were very crafty and dangerous opponents of mankind, hence why they have all been hunted to virtual extinction. As grand as dinosaurs, or dragons were, they were still beasts, even possessed by the Devil. But here instead of ruling over this beast, Adam let his wife be deceived by it, and it defeated them both, taking humanity’s place as supreme in the earth, under God. 

2.3  What did the Devil do? He subverted humanity’s authority, corrupted it with evil, and usurped their place. And there is now war between humanity and the evil one – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

2.3.1       This is the state of our world. This is the base reality. Our world is a place where the Devil has taken control of the world system, and he is at war with the offspring of the women (mankind) perpetually, up to and including the Son of God, who will finally crush his head, as prophesied in this passage.

2.3.2       I saw an article the other day, written by a clueless Christian minister saying that some Christians don’t want to be part of any “culture war”. But the foolishness of this position is we don’t get a vote. The Devil is against this world, and we are supposed to be against the Devil. He has his culture, and we have kingdom culture. They are by nature at war. We can choose whether or not to fight but not whether or not to be at war with evil, because it is at war with us, we have no choice.

2.4  So, we can start our theology of the Devil and how he works with these two points: The Devil got power over death by dominating mankind in the garden where he became the “god of this age”, and he is at war with humanity, especially the righteous descendants of Eve. But there is more we can learn from Genesis 3, if we want to.  

3.     He Likes To Attack Through Women In A Unique Way (Genesis 3:1) – Now before I go any further I have to qualify what I am going to say here. This is going to sound sexist compared to our modern perspectives on gender equality, because our world has twisted gender standards. But we should not base our standards on the world’s destructive standards, we should base them on God’s and adjust accordingly. Also I must state clearly, this is not saying that women are more sinful than men. The ancient Greeks taught that, some other cultures believed that. I think that idea is ridiculous. Men and women are both sinful in similar measure. Some men are worse, some women are worse, for every Jezebel there is an Ahab. But we are all corrupted by sin, regardless of gender. There are examples in the Bible of women representing wickedness, and examples of men representing wickedness. The beast of revelation, the man of lawlessness, and the woman who rides the beast are just two examples. But here is the key point, if we subscribe to certain wicked teachings of this world, i.e. feminism or egalitarianism, or even just being overly nice, this can cause us to miss important aspects of how the evil one works, which empowers him even more. He wants people to miss how he works and making it uncomfortable or taboo to talk about aspects of how he works, empowers his ability to work. So, this being said, let’s notice something, we are not supposed to notice:

3.1  What does verse 1 say, “3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Moses, significantly, tells us that the Devil is “more crafty”. He’s a smart sucker. He’s a crafty, intelligent, general.

3.1.1       Now don’t shoot me for asking this, but where does a crafty general, or a crafty opponent attack? In the most vulnerable place. The Devil saw Eve as more vulnerable, and so he launched his attack there. And he successfully took down the man and the woman, through this strategy.

3.1.2       This worked because…and no one will be offended by this…this worked because man’s greatest weakness is woman. And here was Adam standing before the most perfect and beautiful women ever, naked, offering him a bit of forbidden fruit…more men have fallen before that, than have stood.

3.1.2.1  For every Joseph there are a thousand Adam’s, a thousand David’s, and a thousand Samson’s helpless before Delilah. This no one objects to today, or really ever.

3.1.3       The first part, though, that the Devil likes to attack through women is not allowed to be said. But I seem to have been born without the gene which stops people from breaking silly cultural norms. And this needs to be said, this is a key part of how he wreaks havoc in the world.

3.2  In fact, this teaching is fundamental to understanding the scriptures, and it frames the entire approach to gender post-the-fall that God would have mankind take. To summarize it simply: every man has a duty, since the fall, to protect the women in his life from the evil one’s deception, in a way that Adam did not. And frankly men suck at this.

3.2.1       The weakness in Adam that caused him to crumble before this amazing woman, is found in men to this day, and it is devastating. It is precisely this dynamic that the Lord was referring to when he said, “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16).

3.2.2       The fall put men at odds with women, and the Devil exploits that like a master manipulator.

3.3  We see over and over in the Bible how the Devil likes to attack through certain women, for example Numbers 25:1-3 – “25 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.” Numbers 31 tells us that these Moabite women were encouraged to do this by Balaam the false, weird prophet guy “Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor…” (Numbers 31:16).

3.3.1       Balaam, a wicked man, knew this strategy would work, because as an agent of the Devil, he knew how to bring down the Israelite men: licentious, idolatrous women.

3.3.2       It’s a strategy literally almost as old as time itself.  

3.4  Then there are the Queens and Queen Mothers. If you read Kings and Chronicles, you will see that they note that bad queens or queen mothers had terrible idolatrous effects on the kings, of course the opposite is true as well, good women had good effects for example Amaziah’s godly mother in 2 Chronicles 25:1-2 – “25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” The most famous of all the wicked queens was Jezebel, but she was just one of many. The Devil did much damage to Israel through women just like Jezebel, for example 1 Kings 14:21-22 – “21 Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite. 22 And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.”

3.4.1       Why does it note that she was an Ammonite? Because the Ammonites were one of the idolatrous Canaanite peoples of the Promise Land. In other word’s this is the Moabite women issue all over again.

3.4.2       Another example – “15 Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. 2 He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. 3 And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 15:1-3). The good thing is that this woman’s other son deposed her, “9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah, 10 and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. 11 And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done. 12 He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13 He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron” (1 Kings 15:9-13).

3.5  This is a consistent theme in scripture, the Proverbs talk about it, the historical books note examples, the prophets speak out against it. The Devil has since the beginning attacked through women in a unique way. Of course, he does damage through men in other ways. But this is a favourite strategy of his and it has a particular effect on western men, because ours is the culture that invented chivalry, ours is the culture that gave women unprecedented rights, ours is the culture where defence of women is more important than anything else.

3.5.1       Hence ours is the culture where men are most easily made afraid to speak out on this clear strategy of the Devil…to do so risks being viewed as un-chivalrous.

3.5.2       But Paul based his theology of Church leadership and teaching on this understanding of Genesis 3 – 1 Timothy 2:12-14 – “2 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”

3.5.3       When people say Paul didn't allow women to teach because the culture of the day didn't allow it, they are ignorant, or liars, because that was not the culture of the day, this is from a history of feminism, written by feminists:

3.5.3.1  "In Rome she had not only secured remarkable personal and property rights, but she officiated as priestess in the most holy offices of religion. Not only as Vestal Virgin did she guard the Sacred Fire, upon whose preservation the welfare of Rome was held to depend, but at the end of every consular period women officiated in private worship and sacrifice to the Bono Dea, with mystic ceremonies which no man's presence was suffered to profane…All Pagandom recognized a female priesthood, some making their national safety to depend upon them, like Rome; sybils wrote the Books of Fate, and oracles where women presided were consulted by many nations."[i] Paul didn't allow women to teach in Church, because it was pagan, and tracked back to Eve receiving the “divine mysteries” from Lucifer and passing them to the Adam.

3.5.4       Why did Paul base his view of church leadership and authority on such a view of the woman being the one who was deceived, while many churches and all of society pretty much ignore this? Because Paul was not unaware of the Devil’s schemes. Our modern culture is completely blind to it, most of the Church is blind to it, and indeed they try to silence those who are not blind to it. 

3.6  There is a reason that progressives targeted women’s shows, books and magazines to gain support for their movement. Just as men are weaker before sexual sin, women are weaker before sinful spiritualities.  

3.6.1       There is a weird view that women are generally more spiritual than men. But this cannot be true. Both men and women are created in the image of God, they both bear his stamp. Plus, remember in the Bible physical work, physically labour, tilling the ground, working to produce, is a spiritual act. Men are just geared to express their spirituality differently.

3.6.2       But think about this, the fact that to corrupt women the Devil inspired horoscopes in women’s mags, and stories about gay men with an amazing sense of fashion, and to corrupt men he just put women in men’s mags kind of proves the point doesn’t? Which is Paul’s point, the Bible’s point and the traditional Christian view in the Church up until about 1850sh.

3.7  “3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” The Devil is a crafty bugger, the craftiest. And Genesis 3 tells us some important stuff about how he works. The next thing we can add to our theology is that he likes to attack through women in a unique way.

4.     Our theology so far – Now men, before you go thinking I have let you off lightly today, know this, I am not finished, I am just starting to explore this theology of the evil one, and evil, and we will pick it up again next week. All we have had time this morning to do, is look at a handful of verses from Genesis 3, and explore three pillars of our theology of evil:

4.1  The Devil dominates the world – and because of this usurped the power over death.

4.2  He is at war with the descendants of Eve, that is all humanity, and especially the righteous.

4.3  He likes to attack through women in a unique way, and it is highly successful.

4.4  Now, as I said, we have just started this theology and we will carry on with it next week, and likely the week after. If you are in disagreement with this teaching come talk to me. If you are offended by it, remember this: one of the Devil’s greatest modern strategies has been to create a whole new morality, and make those who criticize that morality the bad guy.

5.     Application – Now even though I haven’t finished this theology of the evil one yet, I want to give some application of what we have learnt so far.

5.1  Firstly, we can’t avoid the culture wars. We might like to we might want to live quiet and peaceful lives, but the Devil doesn’t give us a choice. Eventually the culture will confront you, better we engage, peacefully, now.

5.1.1       You engage in the culture war, when you speak God’s truth publicly, love your neighbour radically, advocate for policies that are in line with God’s kingdom, stop financially supporting TV shows, companies, or sporting organizations that hate you.

5.1.2       Also support those Christians who speak out publicly, pray for them, encourage them, even if you think they are a bit radical. They are advocating for a society where your children will be read to from the bible rather than story-time by drag queens. 

5.2  Secondly, we can undermine the Devil’s strategy by structuring our families and our church around God’s vision for men and women, and rejecting the world’s vision. Because the church’s tradition on godly male leadership geared towards sheltering and protecting women existed for a reason, a good reason, it hindered the Devil’s strategies.

5.2.1       Feminism has harmed women more than anyone else. You’ve heard me teach on this before. If you don’t believe that this is true, then why are the women who are the most angry at men, the women of Hollywood who spend most of their time around the most progressive and liberal of men? Think about it.

5.2.2       Husbands our job is to protect our wives from being in a situation where the Devil can whisper to her, without our vocal opposition to his efforts. The job of a church eldership is the same. These are just two ways, in the power of Jesus and strength of Christ, that we can push back against the Devil’s schemes.

6.     Conclusion – We will continue with this theology of the evil one next week, especially looking at the Bible through the lens of Hebrews 2:8 “putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” We walk in the victory of Christ, no matter how much it looks like we don’t. But part of living out this victory is know how the Devil works, so we don’t fall for his traps. Let’s pray.

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[i] A Complete History of The Suffragette Movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton et. al.