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"If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!" (John 8:31-32,36)

The Evil Wind of Delusion

December 9, 2014 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“And for this reason God will send upon them a strong delusion so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Thessalonians 2:11-12)

The words of Paul to the Thessalonians are as applicable to us as they were to the 1st Century believers in Asia Minor. An evil wind is blowing. It is a wind of strong delusion.

Nations and peoples who turn their backs and hearts from God incur the righteous judgment of God. Having grown up in California in the post WW-II and Korean War era, I did not envision our nation turning so far away from the beliefs of our founding fathers. It is evident from our national political turmoil and our financial indebtedness that a thinking person should at least consider the possibility of God’s judgment upon us.

As we continue to see the erosion of our Judeo-Christian heritage and the evident embrace of the spiritual bankruptcy of multiculturalism and secular humanism, we must ask ourselves, “Has God given to our people a “strong delusion”? – a deluding influence that they should believe lies? Is America to slide down into the pit of unbelief, as nations in the past?

The evil wind of unbelief blows stronger with ever year I spend in this “Land of the Free.” Unbelief breeds deeper delusion in the world of myth, lies, and heresy. Moral and spiritual poverty follow this delusion. The worst judgment of God upon us is not our national debt of 18 Trillion Dollars. Forbes “Opinion” reports,

“The federal unfunded liabilities are catastrophic for future taxpayers and economic growth. At usdebtclock.org, federal unfunded liabilities are estimated at near $127 trillion, which is roughly $1.1 million per taxpayer and nearly double 2012’s total world output” (1/17/14).

That ought to be enough to scare any Christian into their prayer closet, if they have one!

It is the damnation of our “pleasure in unrighteousness” that spells our demise as a great nation. It is our personal and national sin that invites our judgment and doom.

We who believe in the Christ who rules the Universe and will judge the world, have a three-fold responsibility to God and our nation, as Paul discusses in the context of the verses of my text.

First, we must constantly give thanks that “God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2:13-14).

Second, we must “stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us” (2:15). The pagan beliefs of the ancient world and the skepticism of our atheistic age will go to hell, where those will dwell who believe their teachings.

Third, we must desire and then allow “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen our hearts in ever good work and word” (2:16).

We must realize we have been converted – turned from the “broad road of destruction” to the “narrow road of life.” By our words and actions we have been called by God to stay the strong delusion of unbelief, which appears to be God’s judgment upon our land. We would do well to quote those words of John Bunyan from Bedford Jail,

“The hill, though high, I covet to ascent,
The difficulty will not me offend;
For I perceive the way of truth lies here.
Come, pluck up heart, let’s neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”

Culture, Evil, Judgement, Sin Tagged: culture, evil, Judgement, sin

Nightmare at Newtown

January 1, 2013 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in Thy sight. Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.”  (Psalm 9:17-20)     

 Those are harsh words. We live in harsh times. With all of our affluence and entertainment, our rush to meet the coming Christmas Holiday, tragedy strikes and we are again shocked at the inhumanity of man. On December 14, 2012 the nation was stricken with grief at the horrible murder of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Bret Baier of Fox News said, “We can’t make sense of this…it doesn’t seem real.” In an interview with former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani declared, “There’s no simple solution…it’s an incomprehensible act.” The news media crews were “hungry for the details of the slayings,” according to one individual. Broadcasters were eager to grasp an explanation of what had happened.  They stumbled to produce an understanding of why it happened.

In simple words Daniel Malloy, the Governor of Connecticut said, “Evil visited this community today.” In spite of many celebrating the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace, our attention was turned again to evil and the sin of blatant, indescribable murder.

To find some semblance of an answer I think we need to ask some very pointed answers.

  • Who are we as a nation? Our founding fathers were believers in God. Fifty-three of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were professing Christians. Today many of our political leaders are atheists, agnostics, and humanistic elitists who band together to push God out of our public places and the conscience of Americans. We tout multiculturalism, preaching tolerance for the beliefs of pagans who flood our shores, bringing their value systems and belief in gods who do not exist. As a nation, we have forgotten God and the Bible that He gave us to provide the building blocks of a government established on His providence.
  • What was Adam Lanza’s worldview? What were his personal beliefs? The national abandonment of our Judeo/Christian heritage and supplanting it with a philosophy of secular humanism has spawned a generation of individuals who have swallowed the lie of evolution that says we are simply an advanced primate and it’s up to ourselves to set our own values and concepts of truth.
  • What was Lanza’s home life like? A broken home..a missing father..and a culture that ridicules the concept of the Biblical family and glamorizes an immoral lifestyle. Another young life struggling for some form of identity without a father’s influence and a culture saying, “Do it your own way…the hell with tradition!”
  • What was the mental and emotional health of this troubled young man? Who were his heroes? What did he read? With whom was he associating and texting? Did he prescribe to the Goth subculture – to gothic rock, deathrock, post-punk, and darkwave? Did he struggle with concepts of eternity and loneliness? Had he “lost his connection” with the real world? Was he a “gamer,” spending hours immersing himself in the myriads of horror, war, and violent video games? When a nation kicks the Bible and it’s moral code – the Ten Commandments – out of its classrooms, what else will a troubled youth look to?

To attribute this tragedy to evil is to attribute this murderer’s act to his rebellion against the Law of God. His evil acts were sin, which is condemned by God’s Law. What transpired was an expression of the depravity of man. The taking of innocent life is the most heinous of all crimes of violence. Secular humanism, the foundational philosophy of American education, will continue to produce individuals who have no real grasp on reality. They will be guilty sinners in a culture that has turned its back on God.

The future of this nation rests in the hands of God. Without a return to the Christian Religion, this country has no hope of escaping the ravages of evil men. Without men with conviction to speak like this, we have no hope of survival as a civilized people:

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” (Patrick Henry)

I urge you to pray for a revival of the true Christian Religion in the hearts and minds of ministers who appear too weak and insipid to proclaim the whole counsel of the Word of God. And I would encourage you to consistently pray for your Christian friends who struggle to rear their children in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

Culture, Evil, Hell, Life Struggles, Sin, Worldview Tagged: Christianity, eternity, evil, multiculturalism, murder, sin

Beryl Smith

AvatarBeryl has a great love for studying the Bible and Christian theology. Beryl is a 12th generation descendant of Ralph Blaisdell, an English Puritan who came to America from Bristol, England in August, 1635 on the sailing ship “The Angel Gabriel.”
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