THE DEVIL has devised a clever diabolical scheme to subvert the people of our time. This scheme involves what might be termed reverse psychology. This generation, because of its educational background, is largely a Godless generation. In fact, most of those who compose it are completely ignorant of God and His Word. They hold it in revulsion. There is, however, a swing toward religion. But this swing is to an intangible, mystical belief, a vague belief in an airy, indefinite, all-pervading, mystical entity that exists every where and in all things and beings this they conceive of as God.
Under these circumstances the younger generation, viewing the mess the world is in, has laid the blame squarely at the foot of the establishment the "system" as they call it. They see greed, corruption, injustice, and from their viewpoint have formed a sup posed judgment of the cause in their minds. They are antigovernment to varying degrees because they view it as unapproachable and unreachable and feel helpless and frustrated. Because of this they have struck out blindly and in desperation in recent years, either protesting or acting apathetically toward authority. They view government as a monstrosity, a machine out of hand and so the inward cry is, shut it off, or get rid of it. This of course is the extreme view. Nevertheless, it is the thread that runs through the whole element.
Many young people view the corporate system, or structure, as the enemy of mankind. They see it as a giant beyond anyone's control, a robot type of business structure that is preprogrammed to grab and grab and grow and grow until it is the master of all the human race. They see it as impersonal, unfeeling; unjust, crooked, yes, corrupt. Against the corporate structure there is intense hatred and there is a rejection of the American or, as some call it, the Protestant work ethic. Now remember that churches are also corporate structures and so some of this feeling exists against the church, even among the youth within its walls. The feeling is We cannot correct it, No one will listen, We cannot do anything about it, Let's shut it down, stop the machine, or at least get along without it.
Since government and the system are largely based upon the Judeo-Christian cultural heritage, its laws in their minds the restrictions of the Ten Commandments and everything associated with religious taboos are part of a Victorian, out-moded, preposterous, and hypocritical system commonly identified as the establishment. They don't seem to realize that, though the world truly is in a mess, the facts are that the world has always been in a mess and the grand mess that we see culminating in our time is only the final outworking of sin and rebellion against God. They fail to realize that there always has been injustice, corruption, and other things, that greed has always been the motivating force, and that history is but a repetition of times and degrees of betterment followed by periods of extreme tyranny. They fail to recognize that governments and systems are no better than their rulers and the people who live under them.
Well, this is the devil's plot. This is the scheme. And it has been swallowed by many of the earth's inhabitants to the place where the air is filled with the talk of revolution and upheaval. But what shall we do and how shall we view this we who believe that this is the remnant church and that Christ is coming and that His principles and laws are eternal and that we are recipients of a last warning message for the world?
I wonder whether we are really thinking, whether we really under stand what is occurring that Satan has first discredited the Scriptures in the minds of men generally and has done this largely through education. He began several generations ago. He undermined God's law, took away all standards, and has made integrity a rare commodity. Then when the obvious results occur he tries to pin the blame on the very source that if it had been followed, would have prevented the mess we see today. The law of God was given for the very pur pose of keeping men from the very anarchy that they attribute to such law today.
There are those who say, "The system must go." They contend, "We must have a new basis." They talk of new moral freedoms, yet are willing to consider the rights of the individual as foolishness, if, as they see it, the individual's rights stand in the way of the "good" of society as a whole. Then those who do turn to religion (and that is the reverse trend) think of it as an emotional, ecstatic experience based upon feeling. Those who only so lately espoused cold, hard science and it's logic now become extremely credulous and lean upon feeling and the spectacular. They study the mystical Eastern beliefs, parapsychology, psychic phenomena, witchcraft, and all the rest. In this way the world is certainly preparing for one grand delusion of spiritualism. Do we have some thing vastly superior to this? I think we do. We have the information that can set these things in proper perspective. But this we are not doing. We are not meeting the issues head on. We are even hazy about the issues our selves. We allow ourselves to be affected by these forces. We have even borrowed from them.
I wonder about many of the terms we hear today such as "relevant," "confrontation," and phrases such as "it must have meaning for me," "I must find my self," "1 must have identity with my culture." Take the commonly used and supposedly harmless term "relevant." There is a legitimate use of the term. But as generally used and currently over worked its use gives a distorted picture. For example: We hear, "Make the church or gospel relevant to this culture or our times." What does this mean? Think about it a bit. How does one make God relevant? This implies God must change so He will be acceptable. Abandon the high standards, not mere man's standards but God's standards, bring in rock music, amusements, plays, and a thousand other things---all in the name of making the church relevant to the likes of the culture. This is no new idea at all. It occurred in the second and third centuries in the Christian church. They were using the same reasoning "make the church relevant." If you have for gotten, go back and read how the Christian church became the apostate church. We have it all wrong. God is not to become relevant or to change to our ways. We have fallen, we are to become relevant to Him. We are to change to His ways.
Another popular current term is "confrontation." Just what does this term mean? Has not confrontation occurred between the counterculture and the establishment? Has it been peaceful? Has it not been a bit angry in tone, even violent? Is this not the source of the current use of the term? Does one confront Christ in angry tones or does one demand? Does "confrontation" involve one humbly falling upon his knees, broken-hearted, full of repentance? Again, I believe this is a serious misuse and a distortion of the true situation between God and man. God has what we need. He has offered it to us. We can accept it on His terms and He is glad to give it to us. This is not confrontation.
We hear much discussion about the terminology "meaning." We often hear, "I don't want it unless it has meaning for me." This is just one step away from the counter culture phrase, "It's right for me if it has meaning for me." This reasoning makes an individual virtually a law unto himself. When we do something because God says that we should, we believe Him and trust Him, then it will have true meaning for us.
The identity longing is the saddest trap of all. It has done the most damage of all to the people of God in every age of history. It has pulled God's people at times completely away from Him into absolute apostasy. The record is that Israel desired to be like the nations around them. Satan has always wrapped up his rattle snakes in pretty packages, but they still bite, and sting, and poison, and kill. If we copy and borrow, and our youth desire to look like, dress like, talk like, act like, if they even think and feel like the culture around them, then what does this tell us? Does it indicate that God's way is superior or inferior? Are we to be the head or the tail? Are we to be originators or copiers? Are we to be different, separate, a peculiar people, or not?
Why did God want Israel to be different and why were they not to take up the customs of others? Were they not to have their own unique culture? Why do not oil and water generally mix? "Be cause they are not compatible," you say. Well, God is not compatible with Satan either. He is not compatible with evil. He does not want those who follow Him to be compatible with those who fol low Satan, for if they do they will become compatible with evil. They will cease to be His and follow the enemy instead.
There is a longing, a hungering to be like, to imitate, to copy. Who? Not Christ as we claim, but the people around us, the fashions, the customs, the attitudes. Think a moment. Is this harmless? No, it is not. It is the very thing God has forbidden, the thing that got Israel into trouble. We are to be different, a peculiar people.
I am not saying that there is any virtue in status quo, but consider for a moment some of the idols of the current culture or counterculture. What do they expound? For one thing they hold up the so-called new freedoms, the freedom even within marriage for extra-marital sexual expression with whomever the fancy pleases. They condemn any rigid standard of moral codes. They repeat, "It's right for me if it has meaning for me." Most of them deny the existence of the Deity except as a possible intangible entity. They deny His authority. They deny the authority of parents. They are in rebellion against anything established. Their attitude toward mu sic, looks, speech, dress, and manners are all symbolic of this rebellion. It is not done unconsciously, not at all. It is deliberate and planned. Is this something to copy? Is this not basically anti- Christ? It isn't, for example, that there is any fundamental merit in the length of a person's hair. But long hair has become one symbol (among other things) of acceptance. It says that you are one of us but we are not one of them! "But," you say, "it is so common, everyone is doing it." Yes, a lot of people are committing adultery too, but does that make it acceptable?
This is not to infer that there can be no change, but when our people, even ministers, run to copy every new fad, fashion, and custom, I ask you, What does this indicate? Remember, we are supposed to have something better. We are supposed to be originators the head and not the tail. Are we not to pattern after the one and only One, Jesus Christ? Of course, this identity problem is not limited to the present generation. Nearly every generation of the church was characterized to some extent by a longing to copy the then-current culture, its customs, its language, and its fashions.
Satan has devised a very clever scheme of subversion and has had a lot of practice putting it to work. Sad to say, it has worked very well for him and continues to work well. Its spirit has spilled over into the church. Shall we let it continue?
Do we not have a last warning message? Young people would call this phrase a cliche, a pious-sounding platitude, and I would agree with them. That is, as we generally use it. But why are some of these phrases cliches? Only be cause we have used them glibly without comprehension and with out action. We have used them as a vague blanket definition. But we do have a last warning message and it is to call a people out, not to copy, imitate, and be like, but to be different, as different from the world as God is from Satan. We are not to hunger and long to identify with this rebellious culture. "Love not the world," the Scriptures say. We are to long and hunger for a better country.
Don't you think it's about time to stand up and set the record straight? Satan has laid the blame on the rigid moral code. He has labeled it outmoded ethics. He talks of new freedoms. He has wrapped all of these devilish philosophies up in pretty packages, but inside is a pit of hell. We are here to unmask him for what he is and his plans for what they are. He has sold a large portion of the world and even has some in the church interested. Is it not time for action?
Our youth are not entirely to blame. It is we who have failed to set the record straight, who have attempted to bribe and bait them into staying in the church. It is we who have tried to spoon feed them and sugarcoat the gospel. Shall we sleep on as the Bible says, as "dumb dogs" that "can not bark." We cannot continue to borrow and borrow and copy and copy. Go back to the Record and let the Record interpret the Record and let us hear the straight truth. Let it cut. Let us have it unadulterated, without philosophy.
Can God bless what He has cursed? I ask it in all sincerity, can He?
