They Are Only the Tool of Judgment
But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile…to this day. “” 1 Chronicles 5:25″“26a (NASB)
“As I live,” declares the LORD, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. “” Jeremiah 22:24″“25 (NASB)
I have crossed some sort of emotional line recently. I don’t know whether to weep and mourn or scream and kick. There is a group of self-described “watchmen” and/or “discernment” ministries which are just driving me to distraction not because what they are saying is crazy and nonsensical, but because their following is growing. Yes, I understand the occasional visit to the carnival freak show, but when the whole venue comes to be filled with nothing but frauds and hoaxes put on display? That is what we are getting with a group of individuals whose popularity is increasing who say that they are End Times watchmen sounding an alarm to the Church whose chief weapon of so-called insight is nothing more than conspiracy theories. Why is it that non-believers can so easily laugh and dismiss them and saved Christians cannot?
I copied the following from one such website as an example of what I am talking about. In just these few paragraphs, observe how many overlapping conspiracy theories are presented in this modest space.
“First, the present financial crisis is a manufactured crisis that utilizes the Cloward-Piven Strategy developed by two Communist professors at Columbia University. They designed a strategy to create a Communist Revolution by overwhelming the government system that creates chaos and riots in the streets. You overwhelm unemployment, immigration, healthcare, Social Security, government benefits and government programs in order to create anarchy which leads to Communist Revolution. That is why none of the Government economic stimulus programs work. They are not supposed to work. The stimulus programs are designed to destroy the economy so revolution can happen. President Obama and his advisors are not stupid. They are very smart and what they are doing is intentional. This goes all the way back to when the secret occult society, the Illuminati, instigated the French Revolution, which killed millions, caused open orgies in the churches and destroyed France. The Illuminati slogan was and is “Order Out of Chaos!”
“The purpose of the financial chaos in America is planned. It is designed to destroy the American Middle Class and the Middle Class of many nations around the world. Using the United Nations, whose goal is World Communist Government, the plan of the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations and the environmental groups, is to transfer trillions of dollars from the Middle Class into Third World Nations. Their goal is to create a scientific elite who will rule the brainwashed masses through mind control technology like the microchip implant, biochip, transhumanism, drugs, EMF and brainwashing through the educational system and the media. America and the Middle Class nations, in the near future, will not have a Middle Class. There will only be the slaves or serfs and the elite.
“The root cause of the America’s and other nations financial collapse is not just the Federal Reserve bankers and elite who can create depressions, recessions and inflation scientifically, but the fundamental problem is the rejection of the Judeo-Christian God or the Personal Living God of the Universe from every sector of society. In short, we have rebelled from God and His Laws and we are under a curse that affects every dimension of life.
“For example, God’s Word say’s that we are to have dominion over Planet Earth and to be fruitful and multiply. Instead of listening to God’s Word, even the Church has chosen to listen to atheistic philosophers like Malthus, who in the late 1800″²s claimed that the root of all of mankind’s problems is excessive population growth. Malthus and his modern day philosophers like Dr. Paul Erlich, who wrote the book “Zero Population Growth,” promote the idea that reducing the earth’s population by billions of people will solve our problems. The elite bankers and the scientific elite are using various techniques to reduce the population globally.”
Alright”¦I know that just these few paragraphs are overwhelming, and don’t worry, I am not going to respond to each of these suppositions. After all, when arguing with the irrational who embrace such notions their response is always, “What proof do you have that Colonel Sanders IS NOT secretly controlling the world through his distribution of eleven herbs and spices?” To such people’s way of thinking the burden of proof is on you to prove them wrong, not on them to prove their theories true to you. So I will go one better: I will agree that everything this guy is saying is absolutely true.
Seriously. When you have the opportunity to engage in dialog a Christian conspiracy theorist, start with the response, “OK, I believe everything you say. You are absolutely correct about each and every one of these things. Now what do I do?”
The Communist conspiracy is taking over the world. What should I do? The Illuminati are pulling the puppet strings of every government in the world. What should I do? The United Nations, the Federal Reserve, and Barak Obama are all working in concert to destroy our way of life. What should I do? The craziest of all the things which come from conspiracy theorists is there does not appear to be an appropriate redress of the problem. If the Illuminati have been controlling mankind since the French Revolution, what kind of plan of action can little ol’ me employ to either mitigate their influence or finally defeat them once and for all? (Don your fedora and play Indiana Jones music in the background to get motivated.)
But allow me to suggest to all my Christian conspiracy theorist brothers and sisters in the Lord a biblical consideration. Even if all of these things are true, WHY are they allowed to happen? Do you not understand by whose authority they are operating? Do you not know that God raises up such things as a tool of His judgment? And if you actually study the whole of Scripture instead of just lifting out parts here and there, you will discover that time and time and time again God Himself raised up such things as a tool of HIS judgment on HIS OWN PEOPLE! If you are right, my friend, you are actually struggling with God.
When the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity by the King of Assyria, did he do it completely on his own initiative? No, he was raised up by God as an instrument of judgment against God’s people who had become so backslidden that there was no other recourse. Read it for yourself:
But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile…to this day. “” 1 Chronicles 5:25″“26a (NASB)
And when the southern kingdom of Judah failed to learn the lesson their northern brothers paid so dearly for? God raised up the King of Babylon as an instrument of judgment against them as well.
“As I live,” declares the LORD, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. “” Jeremiah 22:24″“25 (NASB)
If you pay attention while reading Jeremiah and Ezekiel you will find that God raised up the King of Babylon as His instrument of judgment against a number of nations such as Egypt, Tyre, and so on. But the greater point is that judgment always begins with God’s House first. Even if every conspiracy theory is found to be absolutely true it is not a movie-of-the-week script, it is an indictment about the faithlessness of the Church! These would all be judgments which are happening at God’s behest because Christians are no longer salt and light to the world.
And even if all these things are found to be true, I again ask, “What should I do?” Because the fact is that it is GOD who raises them up from judgment and GOD who ultimately BRINGS them to final judgment.
“Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away. The first one who devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “˜Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. “” Jeremiah 50:17″“18 (NASB)
In case you did not notice, in the quote I pulled from this brother’s website there is an absolutely indisputable nugget of truth. As Jacob Prasch fondly quips when it comes to deception, “There’s always real cheese in the rat trap”.
“”¦the fundamental problem is the rejection of the Judeo-Christian God or the Personal Living God of the Universe from every sector of society. In short, we have rebelled from God and His Laws and we are under a curse that affects every dimension of life.”
Amen, brother! Amen! Consider the nail head not merely struck, but soundly driven all the way home. The root cause is a Church which instead of taking the Gospel into the world has allowed the world to come into the Gospel. And there are consequences to be experienced if that behavior does not radically change.
But the problem is that this morsel of truth gets trampled beyond recognition because of the message surrounding it. Non-believers reject the Gospel when it is presented by those they judge to have lost all basic common sense holding up as the cause of the world’s woes the secret ministrations of the Illuminati or Colonel Sanders. Most believers will dismiss the occasional insights of truth in the cacophony of the sensational. And those believers who do listen? Do they respond with repentance and mourning and a return to the cross?
I chose to quote this particular person because I attended a “prophecy conference” where this person spoke. I was also there to work at the table for Moriel Ministries selling materials relating to Jacob Prasch’s teachings because he was also on the speaking roster. I happened to work right next to this brother’s similar table manned by his own ministry staff and offering his materials to those interested. This is how I know firsthand what kind of response someone like this gets from believers who actually listen to him. Conspiracy theorist attracts conspiracy theorist.
Time and time again what I heard people discussing were their own theories. (It was amazing how no one’s theories were wrong but could actually be dovetailed into each other like missing pieces of a larger puzzle.) It may have occurred outside my hearing, but I never heard a discussion based on Scripture except when it was to “prove” a theory. The people working the table came up to us for extended periods when we had breaks from the crowds while someone was speaking at the conference. The politest I can be is to describe them as biblically illiterate, wholly consumed with their theories, and distressed that we at the Moriel table would repeatedly respond with Scripture instead of engaging in a dialog about the workings of these evil organizations. I offer this as a testament to the quality of their spiritual fruit.
They irreparably damage the testimony of the Church to unbelievers, retain little credibility with believers, and those whom they reach are just like them, far more interested in feeding the frenzy than building the Body of Christ or doing the work necessary to bring their life into exclusive submission to Christ alone. If they reach someone who actually takes what they say seriously, the listener turns out to be as addicted as they are.
The mark of an effective ministry of Christ is lives changed from the heart and daily pursuing that change, not a gaggle of same-minded people mulling over something that is not true to begin with, and not even able to scripturally handle it if it were true. At the very least this behavior provides an excuse to not address the greater issue of personal faithfulness which is actually the root problem to begin with!
If you are thinking that there is nothing harmful in this, that at least they are actually looking for events leading up to the Return of Christ, consider the impact of people who are focused on such things instead of the fulfillment of Scripture. Where does this actually come from?
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. “” 1 John 4:2″“3 (NASB)
Why are there so many figures in both history and Scripture who look and act like the Antichrist? It is an attempt to dull our discernment to the point we will not be able to recognize the real one when he arrives. That is the working of the spirit of antichrist. Why are there so many false prophets not just during every age of the Church but particularly during these final hours? So we will not be able recognize the final False Prophet when he arrives. That is the working of the spirit of antichrist. Why are there so many false teachers and well-intended believers who focus our attention on things which are actually outside the boundaries of Scripture? So we will not be able to recognize the working of the spirit of antichrist.
Yes, that is right”¦I am a conspiracy nut, too. I think Satan is behind it all. Of course, that is one of the few scripturally defensible conspiracy theories and one that has a remedy in Christ.
How do I know that we are living in the Last Days?
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, “” 2 Timothy 4:3 (NASB)
In His Love,
