Too many people on all sides of the cultural divide are carelessly throwing around the word “enemy” and they need to stop. If we don’t know who the enemy truly is, from what direction he arrives, and in what strength he comes, then we are all too easily defeated, or at least subject to his blast effects. Today, let’s see from what direction he comes.
Are there enemies—foreign and domestic? It’s easy to conceptualize a foreign enemy of our nation. I have not a problem when it comes to defending our nation against someone we’ve identified as an “enemy” of our sovereignty, who wants to defeat us on the battlefield, occupy our land, and bend our people to his will. These are the purposes of war. It’s nasty stuff. And while we are admonished in scripture not to engage in worldly war as Christians, Satan certainly engages us in war. The Bible tells us we need to “stand firm” against him.
We know Satan has help. We know that there are dark world rulers, authorities, powers, principalities and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Just who are these other agents? I can envision a couple. You can, too.
Debate with me, if you will, on the use of the word “enemy.” If we know of those who want to defeat us and our way of life in the courts or halls of government, who want to occupy our churches, schools, homes, families, marriages, businesses, and professions; and who want to bend us to their will, then call them opponents if you want, but they identify themselves with the things of the world other than God’s. They identify themselves and in what direction they arrive.
I don’t believe we have flesh and blood enemies. But we have many opponents. A few of these opponents have every reason to see the decline of the American culture and the Constitution that protects it from the tyranny of liberty turned into license. A few of these opponents care only for themselves and have concluded that the ultimate end of their efforts will occur after they have died. What does it matter to them that the Constitution, the country and the culture dissolve? They won’t be around to see it.
So, they grab as much of the culture as they know it—sex, drugs, wealth, power—before they die. This is life to them. And for these, life concludes at death. They don’t want me to pray for them. They probably don’t understand why I fail to respect them. They are self-important, and want to be their own god and have consigned me to a crowd they don’t respect. You don’t need to debate me on this. You know who these people are.
Let’s take the entertainment industry, for example. The currency of the entertainment industry is fiction. It is façade. Once, the industry held fiction subservient to truth, even supportive of truth. Then, it only mattered that the “good guys” won. But, no more.
Truth is relative now. Truth depends on what the meaning of “is” is. The decline of the culture’s heart, soul, and mind feed the industry’s machine. The top executives know this and have every reason to take the culture to the brink, as long as this stimulates the culture to feed their machine. Who feeds their machine? We do.
To be sure, there are good people in the entertainment industry. Not all are involved in pornography, hedonism, and humanism. But, if I was involved in the entertainment industry, I would be constantly assessing my future with “the company.” Those who control the industry “strings” have become vulnerable to the things of this world and our enemy who “pushes” it upon them. When good people are unmasked in the industry, often it doesn’t work out well for them.
Cloaked in the Constitution, entertainment elites who have abandoned God know that the culture could eventually fall off the cliff, which will bring an end to their industry’s run. They’ve calculated, though, that they won’t be around to see it. They will have lived the relativist’s dream of utopia on earth. Why shouldn’t every relativist worship at their feet? They have become as gods with, by their own pronouncements, “a huge influence on the culture.”
Who do you see today that wants to defeat you, occupy your homes, families and businesses, and bend you to their will? These are the forces of those “which war against your soul.” This is the direction from which they arrive.
As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, we haven’t had cable television of any kind in our home since 2002. Why would we allow anything or anyone to occupy our homes, living rooms, and minds? We carefully choose which movies we attend. Our most recent? Cars 3. And it grieves me to see a selfish culture dominate our country that cares so little about its future for my children and grandchildren, and theirs.
It grieves me more to see my Christian brothers and sisters allowing Satan and his agents to occupy their homes and computer screens with pornography, greed, lust, and sin. As we said last week, if we do not acknowledge the enemy in the field, we become subject to him just as we would by ignoring an advancing army. Even now the enemy has found a way of infiltrating our defenses on the hand-held devices in our own pockets.
Satan is real and he is the enemy. He is an idea, an argument, a pretension that sets himself up against the knowledge of God. He wants you. He wants you to break relationship with God, and then he wants you dead. If you are a believer, he wants to rob you of the joy of your life, the strength of your faith, and the assurance of your hope.
And, make no mistake, Satan is at war with you. Do you feel defeated sometimes? Do you feel as if your home is occupied? Lately, I’ve sure felt like others are trying to bend me to their sinful will. How about you?
If you continue to cede ground to him willingly (in most of our culture, Christians willingly give ground to him in their homes, marriages, families, and businesses), then it really doesn’t matter from what direction he comes. He has already arrived and you have given him authority over areas of your life that rightly belong to the one true God. God calls this truth exchanged for a lie, worshipping and serving “created things rather than the Creator.” He calls it sin.
Deal with truth before truth deals with your joy, your faith, and your hope. You already know what to do. So, do it.
Next Week: How strong is our great enemy?