The Mystery of Iniquity: Is It Time for the West to Admit There’s a Satan?
An article appeared in the Daily Caller on July 20, 2010 that revealed a conspiracy in the mainstream press to protect Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign. The evidence indicated that there were hundreds of journalists in the United States who were not interested in the truth about the man–they simply held a bias and wanted him elected.
I’ve been thinking about that bias for a year. Where did it come from? Why was it so strong and uniform so as to overlook the lack of experience, socialist policies, and radical associations of the man who now serves as our U.S. President?
We are now nearly three years into his term. By all accounts, he has been a failure on reviving the US economy, on addressing the great moral issues of our day, and in strengthening America’s position in the world.
Yet those same media outlets are lining up for the 2012 presidential run to both denigrate the eventual Republican nominee and help raise one billion dollars for Barack Obama’s re-election effort. Something seems wrong–even conspiratorial. But it’s not what you think.
There’s a “mystery of iniquity” at work in the world. It’s time for the West to admit there is a Satan. Acknowledging that fact causes many things to make sense.
I admit that the term “mystery of iniquity” is a vague concept in the Bible. The phrase appears in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 where Paul says “For the mystery of iniquity is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way.” These verses are in the context of a time of rebellion on earth, where a strong anti-Christian leader emerges.
My point is not to equate Barack Obama or any other specific leader with the biblical Anti-Christ. I believe there have been many anti-Christ figures in history with more to come. But I’m fascinated with the general idea that when human beings rebel against God and lawlessness is increased, then evil advances in a “mysterious” way.
Why?
Because there is one true conspiracy that the Western World hates to admit: There is a Satan. There are legions of demons in the unseen world. And this Satanic terrorism network can mysteriously blind the minds of human beings to act like mobs that believe crazy things, vote for crazy things, and do very evil things that hurt human begins.
The skeptical Western mind needs to wake up to this reality.
Yes, there is a God. Fear Him and love Him.
And yes, there is a Satan. Hate him and do not give in to his deceptions.
Interestingly, the number one book this week on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list is about God. It’s called Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo. At number seven is Ann Coulter’s new bestseller called Demonic which I picked up for some interesting summer reading. Ann’s book begins with the story of the man who was possessed by a legion of demons (from Mark 5:2-9) and how human, mob behavior has demonic origins.
The popularity of these two books shows that some of the American people get it. They know there’s a God and also that there is a demonic conspiracy at work in this world.
But many do not–especially the media and intellectual elites. They make fun of the devil. He’s red with a pitch-fork. He’s a figment of our imagination. He’s a fairy tale figure that Western man can laugh at and ignore.
But he’s not–and this is where much of the world is smarter than we are. Most Africans, Pacific Islanders, Asians, and Middle Easterners believe in the reality of Satan and evil. They have different twists on this truth and perform different rituals to deal with it. But their daily lives attest there is a demonic conspiracy that is alive and active in this world–headed up by a cruel and malevolent being known as Lucifer or Satan.
The Bible says this true source of terror is able to “blind the eyes of the unbelieving” (2 Corinthians 4:4). And the greatest mass of unbelievers (in the supernatural world) live in the West. Our modern, unperceptive civilization is led by intellectual and media elites who laugh at the idea of Satan and his demons.
I think he laughs too–at our unbelieving ignorance.
And thus “the mystery of iniquity”–the mysterious advance of evil–moves forward swiftly and destructively in our societies. What an amazing tragedy.
Admitting there is a Satan, who is able to blind peoples’ eyes and destroy millions of lives, is a vital key to understanding so much of what is happening in the 21st century.
- The war against terror. How can human beings fly airplanes into buildings, strap bombs to their bodies, or the most recent terrorist attack in Afghanistan–blowing up a medical clinic with women and children that collapsed the roof and took scores of lives? Doesn’t that type of evil seem pre-posterous, inhuman, and totally illogical? Only the mystery of iniquity of the demonic world makes any sense of the carnage.
- The holocaust of abortion. In America have systematically killed 50 million babies the past forty years and not called it murder. A person who supports abortion says they are pro-choice. You ask them what is the choice, and they dance and swim around the subject. Of course, the choice is to kill a baby–plain and simple. But our minds are blinded to that fact. If we want to keep the child, it’s a “baby” in the womb. If we want to kill it, it’s a “fetus.” Our words determine what it is! Is that insane or what? No, it’s a cruel trick of the mystery of iniquity.
- The 2008 Election. He was the most unqualified man ever to run as president of the United States. He had no executive experience. He was a radical community organizer who sat under the teaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and held very strong socialist views on income re-distribution and social justice. Sure, he was a good speaker–but that can only take you so far. Yet, the mainstream media mysteriously backed him without question or normal scrutiny. It was as if their eyes were blinded to to his weaknesses and faults.
- 53% of America voting for a novice over an experienced war hero. I spoke to a number of people about their voting for Barack Obama in 2008. Many had no substantial reasons for pulling the lever for him. Somehow, they were mysteriously blinded to who he was and what he was going to do as president. Now they know. But are they able to see it?
- The “lamestream media” bias. It was amazingly lop-sided in 2008 and appears to be growing in strength in 2012. Is there any good reason to vote for Barack Obama in 2012? The Misery Index is at an all-time level. Unemployment is over 9%. We appear on the verge of a double dip recession or even a catastrophic depression. Nothing is being done to create jobs. Government debt is exploding and the party in power is doing absolutely nothing to stop it. Yet, the main stream media is fully in the tank for the re-election of the president. There’s something very mysterious about the level of myopia they possess.
- The advance of homosexual marriage. I’m grieved at the New York legislature’s approval last week of homosexual marriage. I wonder if it is a cultural tipping point that will speed up the necessary judgment of God on our nation. Imagine the deception of homosexuals “marrying.” To marry is to join together–both spiritually and physically to produce children. Same sex relationships can do neither. But they say “It’s not about gender. It’s about the person you love.” Really? If I love my sister can I marry her? Or if I love my child, or how about my dog? What if I love five women? Do you see the stupidity of this argument. There are many necessary God-given barriers for sexual relationships. Marriage between a man and a woman is the five thousand year standard. Yet, the mystery of iniquity is leading us to commit cultural suicide on this–the great moral issue of the 21st century.
This list goes on and on–from the acceptance of Keynesian economics, to the laughingstock of man-made global warming, to the West’s fascination with entertainment (giving their lives and time to something that is not real), the diabolical mystery of iniquity is the ONLY explanation that makes sense of our idiotic world.
Why we’ve believed Satan’s lies is the greatest mystery.
Theologians call it a fallen nature. It includes the brain.
I believe that the existence of Satan and his demonic conspiracy needs to be shouted from the house-tops of the Western nations. He exists, he’s destroying the planet, and we need to repent and come to Jesus Christ so that he can “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
As we raise awareness of Satan, there are just three qualifications to keep in mind:
1. Let’s be careful in exposing his deeds. He is an angel, an invisible being, whom we cannot see directly. Like wind or electricity, we simply see the effects of his actions. So we musn’t unthinkingly attribute his presence to just anything. We don’t’ want to see a “devil under every bush.”
2. On the other hand, we must learn to discern his actions, strategies and tactics. The Apostle Paul was seasoned enough spiritually and grounded in a proper worldview to recognize the direct hand of Satan in a number of circumstances in his life–and he mentioned them by name (e.g. 1 Thessalonians 2:18).
3. We also don’t want to blame Satan for everything. He is the influencer (deceiver) of men who then make bad or evil choices by following his lead. The “devil made me do it” is bad theology.
However, it’s time for the West to admit that Satan is at the heart of all of our problems.
Iniquity is a mysterious thing–until you understand its source.
It’s Not the ATMs, Mr. President!
I was tempted to use a different head-line on this one:
“It’s Not the ATMs, Stupid!”
That would be a take-off on Bill Clinton’s famous slogan against President George H.W. Bush during the 1988 presidential campaign when he remarked, “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” while trying to frame the most important issue of that presidential campaign cycle.
But I don’t want to be be disrespectful to the president of the United States. I don’t believe he’s stupid and I greatly respect the office.
Yet, he sure said a dumb thing on the NBC Today Show on on June 15, 2011 that will come back to haunt him during the 2012 presidential campaign.
It also revealed a lack of understanding of basic economics.
Here’s what he said…
In a Today show interview with Ann Curry, President Obama talked about one of the reasons he thought employment numbers have been slow to rebound–self-service automation–specifically kiosks and ATMs.
In the interview, he said, “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate. All these things have created changes in the economy. “
According to the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein, ATM Industry Association CEO Mike Lee sent him an email response that said, in part, that “President Obama should never use ATMs as an example of how technology replaces human labor because ATMs today play a critical role in providing extensive employment in the ATM and cash-in-transit industries.”
Economics 101: Innovation multiplies jobs–it doesn’t shrink them.
No, it’s not the ATMs, Mr. President!
It’s bad economic policies. In the past three years we have done all the wrong things to try and create jobs. Government intervention and growth doesn’t do it.
And it’s pretty scary that at the highest levels of our current government, they just don’t seem to understand how wealth is created, how jobs are made, and what economic drivers are essential for prosperity.
Now I will be the first to admit that economic theory in its various forms can be hard to understand. That’s why so many people call it an imperfect science.
But for the past twenty-five years, Shirley and I have home-schooled our kids on the tenets of modern free enterprise capitalism. Those basics include:
- It is individuals, and the businesses they start, that create wealth. Government doesn’t create wealth. It only distributes it according to its goals and desires.
- Tools are essential to increasing productivity. The more-and-better tools that man creates (including ATMs), the more wealth (capital) can be generated.
- Over the past five hundred years, the creation of the middle class–which has grown exponentially worldwide–has been due to the wonderful development in technology which has increased jobs– never taken away opportunities to get ahead.
Yes, it is true, whenever man innovates, or new technologies are created, then older jobs and trades go away. Certain jobs are lost when new technologies are introduced.
For example, there are millions of people in America today named “Smith.” They wear that surname because many of their ancestors were “back smiths” who worked with metals that were essential to an agricultural society. They made horseshoes, plows, and other metal objects that were vital for industry for hundreds of years.
But machines eventually took their place–did a better job of making metal objects–and all the “smiths” of the world had to move on to other professions.
Did the “Smith Family” suffer from these changes in technology? Maybe for a time. But I can guarantee that there are more wealthy, employed and prosperous “Smiths” in America today than in any other historical period. Innovation didn’t create long-lasting job loss. It actually became a vehicle for greater wealth among the Smith clan.
There are two classic examples of economic change–producing more jobs not less jobs–in the past few hundred years. The first was the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the economic and cultural conditions of the times. It began in England, then subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world.
The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Most notably, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. In the two centuries following 1800, the world’s average per capita income increased over 10-fold, while the world’s population increased over 6-fold. In the words of Nobel Prize winner Robert E. Lucas, Jr., “For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth. … Nothing remotely like this economic behavior has happened before.”
In other words, using machines to do more for human beings did not decrease jobs or prosperity. It greatly multiplied job opportunities for billions of people. World population actually exploded because it was easier for people to live and work.
Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there was a transition in parts of Great Britain’s manual labour and animal–based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways.
The introduction of steam power produced dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialization. The impact of this change on society was enormous.
What are those impacts? More wealth, a higher standard of living, more jobs, and greater opportunities for all.
The Information Revolution
The second great quantum leap in job creation and increased prosperity has been the Information Revolution that has taken place in our lifetime–in the past thirty or forty years. Much of it took place through the invention of one tiny object: the micro-chip.
Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore and Peter Tanous share the amazing benefits of that little innovation in their groundbreaking book, The End Of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy If We Let It Happen:
“The dawning of the age of the microchip and all the attendant, fabulous technological advances have played a vital role in this wild and wonderful ride. Ingenious and daring entrepreneurs from Bill Gates to Fred Smith (there’s that name again!) to Larry Ellison to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page launched whole new industries and made billions of dollars for themselves and billions more for workers and society. More wealth was created in the United States in the past twenty-five years than in the previous two hundred. In 1967 only one in 25 families earned an income of $100,000, whereas now, almost one in four families do.”
And millions of new jobs were created as a result of the Information Revolution. The tiny machines didn’t take jobs away–they exploded the opportunities for people to create wealth.
I sometimes wonder what many men and women did a hundred years ago when there was no such thing as hardware and software–or electronics. Think how many “geeks” have come into their own because one little mechanical innovation allowed them to use some God-given abilites that the hoe and plow never offered.
The lesson is extremely clear: Improved technology grows jobs if you’re willing to look for the possibilities.
And here’s where we get down to the troubling aspect of President Obama’s comments. Producing jobs and prosperity is really the result of a worldview–a “faith” that is always dreaming of more opportunities and improvements in life, family, and human culture.
Because what is really multiplied when technology enhances human life, even taking away some short-term job occupations in the process, is that it gives human beings a greater opportunity to be creative–to think through how the latest innovation can be enhanced and expanded. Greater leisure through better tools produces more time for creative thinking–and that valuable activity greatly multiplies human activity (i.e. jobs).
Better tools–like ATM machines–give us the time to use our creative imaginations to explore new ideas, make new applications, and create more products. We’re not enslaved to the ancient technologies or limitations.
Machines multiply creativity–if we believe there’s a Creator to follow and a world to improve.
That’s where the worldview is crucial: God. Man made is His creative image. A mandate to improve the world. Faith to do so by his power and grace. Innovation. Improvement. Jobs. Prosperity.
We need to say to ourselves “It’s the worldview, stupid!”
Then have faith and imagination to keep improving that world for our benefit and his glory.
Why The Media Loathes Sarah Palin, and Will Soon Have Michelle Bachmann in Their Cross-Hairs
I admit that according to the current PC standards at CNN, I shouldn’t have used the term “cross hairs.” But it’s the only image that comes to mind when I ponder the the utter contempt and hatred that the media has shown for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for the past three years.
She’s not just in their “cross hairs.” They’ve editorially murdered her numerous times. I’ve never witnessed such hostile bias toward a candidate. The most recent bullseye they put on her back consisted of drooling over what they might find in some 24,000 government e-mails she sent while governor of Alaska.
All they revealed was that Sarah was a competent and likable governor who really loves her children. How humiliating.
Why does the secular media loathe Sarah Palin? And if she does not run for president of the United States, why will they soon train those same guns on Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann?
I can think of at least seven reasons why the secular press has done everything in their power to discredit and discourage Governor Palin from running for president of the United States:
1. Sara Palin is an out-spoken, evangelical Christian. The secular press in this nation–which includes The New Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, the Big Three television networks, and CNN and MSNNBC–have become fairly anti-faith in the past thirty years. They used to be more balanced in their approach to the news, but today they make no bones that they do not support the Judeo-Christian worldview which is at America’s core. They are secular, media outlets who do their best to ridicule and marginalize Christianity while peddling the principles and worldview of atheism.
The only exception was the “puffing” of born-again Christian Jimmy Carter. But that was for good reason. Carter may have been a Christian in heart, but his public policies were clearly secular or humanistic. He was a political liberal–something they share in common. So they overlooked his faith to promote his ideals. Those policies were disastrous for America in the 1970s.
The Big Media hate Sarah Palin because she is a person of faith both in heart and in mind. That makes her a major threat to their progressive agenda. They want to “progress” away from Christianity–not restore and encourage its blessings.
2. Sarah Palin is a principled conservative—and they loathe the views of conservatives. Why? Because conservative positions on most issues are the Christian expression of political ideas. In the same way that Christian faith is meant to “conserve culture”–Jesus said we were to be the “light of the world and the salt of the earth,”–biblical truths applied to government help conserve civilization. They strengthen families, promote justice, enhance freedom, and encourage right relationship to God and others.
Sarah Palin and other conservatives are fighting hard to point America back to God and his principles for just and free societies. The secular media is the opposing team.
3. Sarah Palin is articulate–sharing common sense solutions to America’s problems. If she wasn’t so good at it they wouldn’t pay attention to her. She may not be as smooth as other candidates, and she makes her share of mistakes as all politicians do, but on the whole she is refreshing because her perspective on the issues is wise and practical: Balance the budget, stop spending money you don’t have, encourage thrift and hard work, support the military who defend our shores, lower taxes, decrease government regulations, and Drill, Baby Drill (energy independence)!
The secular press disdains the wisdom of the past–the things that made America great. They’re into social experimentation and freedom without boundaries or restraints.
Somehow, some way, they need to make the Sarah Palins of the world look like country bumpkins.
4. Sarah Palin is feminine–even pretty–which is the anti-thesis of their unisexual ideal. The liberal left has spent more than one generation trying to permanently change the image of women. Feminism has made some positive contributions to modern society, but its great negative has been to blur the distinction between men and women–essentially encouraging women to look and behave like men. The goal is a uni-sexual culture that breaks down the God-given distinctions and giftings of the two sexes.
The clearest expression of this in the 20th century was Communist China where women and men all dressed in drab black suits and performed the same jobs. Atheism doesn’t like maleness and femaleness and the roles and responsibilities that go with it. It’s harder to control. And secularism–or liberalism–is all about control.
Have you noticed that the “ideal” liberal woman usually look and act like men? Think of Hillary Clinton in pant-suits and Geraldine Ferraro’s masculine haircut. Sarah Palin is the opposite. Yeah, she’s tough, and enjoys the Alaskan frontier–but in looks and demeanor she’s a female “Ten.” Not the image and policies that feminism (and its policies) want in the White House.
What kind of person does the New Times and its kind want to be the first female president? A feminist! Sarah Palin does not fit the bill.
5. She’s a common person, not a member of the elite. One thing we have come to learn about liberalism or secularism in the past few years is its love affair with experts or the societal elite. Ivy League schools are preferred and membership in the Tri-Lateral Commission. Secularists believe they are superior to the common folk. They know better. Thus, they must control the decisions and lives of everyday people. There is an arrogance that follows much of secular thought.
Sarah Palin is refreshingly a humble, common American. She has no pedigree, inherited wealth, or social privilege. Shirley and I really enjoyed Sarah Palin’s Alaska, her beautifully filmed reality series that show-cased the beauty of our forty-ninth state. The adventures of the Palin family were fun to watch. But the thing that struck me most was this: Sara Palin is one of us. She’s a plain, ordinary person to whom I can relate. She understands the problems and pains or the common man and shares their solutions.
How refreshing! The liberal elites just want to vomit.
6. Sarah Palin is patriotic–not an internationalist. Make no mistake that the forces that are driving us toward one-world government or control are those of communism, secularism or Islam–not Christianity. Secularism’s savior is government–and the bigger the better. That’s why most liberals are not extremely patriotic. They like the benefits of America but not the beliefs that made her great.
7. Sarah Palin is a female version of Ronald Reagan who would set back their cause back thirty or more years. They loathed the Gipper too, and did everything in their power to see him defeated. But Reagan rose from from humble beginnings to become one of the great conservative-minded presidents of the 20th century. Sarah Palin could just possibly do the same.
That’s why she must be chopped down to size by the libeal press so that her negatives are so high through biased reporting that she becomes unelectable.
The media has done a pretty good job of ruining the reputation of Sarah Palin over the past three years. So good that my guess is that she will not run for president in 2012.
But after last night’s Republican debate and announcement, there is another Sarah Palin waiting in the wings. Her name is Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. She too is an evangelical Christian, an articulate conservative, pretty, a common sense woman (she raised 23 foster children), who’s extremely patriotic, and very Reaganesque.
She annonced last night that she will be running for president in 2012.
I can already hear the sighs and curses in Big Media newsrooms. And I can imagine the vicious attack that will soon begin on a woman who could lead us back to God and greatness.
Let’s not let them succeed.
Let’s pray, get involved, and vote for those leaders who can help us restore the American Dream of “One Nation Under God.”