Satan’s Own
Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Revelation 20:4 NASB
Beheaded – The news is grim. The world is filled with violence. Os Guinness gave us just a glimpse in his book Unspeakable. There has been more genocide, more sadistic atrocities, more expression of evil in our lifetimes than all the rest of human history combined. Man is not progressing toward the utopia of liberal dreams. He is racing toward the mouth of the pit at breakneck speed.
“All the different forms of sadism which we can observe go back to one essential impulse, namely, to have complete mastery over another person, to make of him a hopeless object of our will, to become the absolute ruler over him, to become his God, to do with him as one pleases. To humiliate him, to enslave him are means to this end and the most radical aim is to make him suffer, since there is no greater power over another person than that of inflicting pain on him, to force him to undergo suffering without his being able to defend himself. The pleasure in the complete domination over another person . . . is the very essence of the sadistic drive.”[1]
Abraham Heschel observed that history is a nightmare. These days it seems that the nightmare finds its way into every aspect of our daily lives. If fact, if you simply took one step back from the culture and observed its actions, you might conclude that we love sadism. We just can’t get enough. The media bleeds violence. Hollywood is on a feeding frenzy over cruelty and inhuman behaviors. HBO is notorious for relishing the worst of human degradation. And we tune in. We watch. We stare. We are fascinated by what animals we have become. We are being nurtured on a steady diet of evil so that we become desensitized to any atrocity. We live in a world of unreality. We pretend it makes no difference.
Pepelekismenon. That’s the word. “Who had been beheaded” as martyrs because they witnessed of the Messiah. Here the verb is in the perfect tense. An action that occurred in the past but has continuing consequences for the present and future. God does not forget. The world will pay—dearly. The martyrs will be avenged. Justice will come. After the nightmare.
You and I may not be able to bring justice today, but we can starve the beast. We can refuse to watch. This is not head-in-the-sand rejection. It is protest. It is demonstration. It is vigorous dissent. It is willing to be beheaded to defeat the grip of evil on a culture in collapse. Composer John Corigliano noted:
“The Circus Maximus of ancient Rome was a real place. The largest arena in the world, it entertained over 300,000 spectators daily for nearly a thousand years. Chariot races, hunts and battles satisfied the Roman public’s need for grander and wilder amusements as the Empire declined. The parallels between the high decadence of Rome and our present time are obvious. Entertainment dominates our culture, and ever-more-extreme ‘reality’ shows dominate our entertainment. Many of us have become as bemused by the violence and humiliation that flood the 500-plus channels of our television screens as those mobs of imperial Rome who considered the devouring of human beings by starving lions just another Sunday show.”[2]
Who are you? A spectator of the Circus in the comfort of your living room? A victim in the arena? Or a witness for the Messiah?
Topical Index: beheaded, sadism, evil, Circus Maximus, Revelation 20:4
[1] Erich Fromm, The Fear of Freedom, p. 135.
[2] http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559601
It always amazes me, how we in this country, who have such a incredible amount of freedom, have this need to make it seem that we’re just so darn evil and bad. So much so that we really work overtime to make ourselves pay or work so hard at self-loathing.
Is there bad and evil in the world? Of course, there has been since the garden. Is there bad and evil in the USA? Of course, there has been since it was formed. Is it really any worse today then in was 200 years ago? I seriously don’t think so. I mean just the fact that we have 100’s of times the population, would logically mean we have more evil and sinful behavior.
I’m not responsible for what each and every person does. And I shouldn’t take on the quilt or condemnation because the majority of this nation sees fit to revel in they’re lusts. My duty, as I see it, is to honor the God that afforded me salvation. And to do my level best to honor His name, keep His commandments and proclaim His kingship and sovereignty over the entire creation. And to share the good news of the fact that our messiah and Great God has humbled Himself and clothed Himself in the likeness of mankind to redeem His people.
And I know this, I’m able to gather with our local community anytime and as often as we want, too keep His Sabbaths, feasts and Holy days. At this time we are still free and able to serve Him and proclaim His greatness without repercussions. How long that will last, who knows. But, I’m not going to act like I should be beating myself up for having that freedom, to serve Him. Nor will I hesitate to lay down my life for my faith or my brother.
No, I will continue to praise His Name, celebrate His appointed times, help the helpless, cloth the naked, feed the hungry and help the widow and enjoy what I’m able too of the greatness that this country and creation still allows. Until the Creator of heaven and earth sees fit to return, or to take away those freedoms from us. As well as pray for Israel and any and all the suffer throughout the world on a daily basis.
Mark, with due respects, I beg to differ with your statement:
” Is it really any worse today then in was 200 years ago? I seriously don’t think so. I mean just the fact that we have 100’s of times the population, would logically mean we have more evil and sinful behavior.”
I cannot see how what you say could possibly be true! I wish that you were corrrect, Mark, but you are not even close in your sumption.
While some groups are still celebrating Yom Kippur today, I heard in NPR this morning that the Supreme court of USA just refused to hear the case brought by 5 States to maintain the right to refuse to have homosexual marriage jammed down the throats of their citizens. Just only twenty years ago such considerations would not even been at issue. Some States even had serious laws against the act of sodomy.What YHVH labelled an abomination in Leviticus, today our society calls “normal” behavior. Have we slipped as a society? You bet we have!
Until after world war 2 I think we all agree that marriage was held mostly in high esteem. Even secular people got married to avoid the stigma of being labeled: “living in sin”. Today the taboo is long broken and most everyone is very comfortable with casual sex and “shakking up” together. Having children out of wedlock is normalized too. Many children are now raised by a single parent. Have we slipped as a society? you bet?
Some of you older folks ;-)) will remember when Clark Gable uttered ” I do not give a damn” in a movie and the furor it caused – I think that happened in the 1950’s? Well today the F word is used ad naseum on our cable channels and in the theater. Full nudity, even porn is becoming normal with even 11 year old girls giggling while watching porn on their tablets in classrooms at school. Then school medical staffs are hardly shocked anymore when some of these girls show up for perscriptions for their venereal diseases. Have we slipped as a society over the last 200 years? I think so!
Of course, let us not forget that all of this degradation was accelerated by the kicking of God and His Bible out of our schools to be replaced by the unproveable theory of evolution. Have we slipped because of that? You bet?
Have our national and state politicians degenerated? Their sexual peccadilloes, their lies, their taking of bribes are documented regularly in the news. And the citizenry do not seem to care? Has the character of our politicians slipped ?You bet!
What about planet earth – the lovely orb God gave us to take care of? is it deteriorating at an accelerating rate? You have only to look at the list of wiped out species and the hundreds on endangered lists. Our fish stocks continue to decline and many are now too toxic to eat? Was that true 100 years ago? It was not?
What about the destruction of our seed stocks by Monsanto and others? Is it resulting in the “betterment” of our planet? I think not. The honey bee is disappearing, the Topsoil is disappearing at an alarming rate compared to 100 years ago. We are well on our way to a catastrophic world food situation. Most agree, right?
And that’s just a snippet of the mess we are in.
Sorry Mark, Skip is correct on this one:
“The news is grim. The world is filled with violence. Os Guinness gave us just a glimpse in his book Unspeakable. There has been more genocide, more sadistic atrocities, more expression of evil in our lifetimes than all the rest of human history combined. Man is not progressing toward the utopia of liberal dreams. He is racing toward the mouth of the pit at breakneck speed..
But ultimately the news is good. The Word tells us that God will undo the mess we have caused. But He also tells us that we face a very painful self created time of judgment and punishment to get to where He wants His children to be.
.
Yes I hear what your saying and what Skip is saying but, I’m saying, we’re looking at it from 21st century eyes. I would be willingly to bet that every single generation in history has thought the very same thing.
I agree with how things changed when God was tossed out of public schools (but was He really?) Can anyone at anytime ever toss God out of anything? I think not. I also know this, because of that, theres been a huge push toward homeschooling. Which is where it should have been done in the first place. I personally attend a fellowship where almost 5 generations of children and young adults have never even seen a public school. And they’re critical thinking skills as well as their holding to biblical principles in their lives and relationships is amazing to say the least. Honestly, I think sending our children to public schools, at all in any time, has been a major reason for the break down of morals and biblical principles in this country.
And at the same time, no, I do not think the evil of mankind is anymore lustful and evil now then it ever has been. There’s nothing new under the sun.
Blessings and Shalom to you and your home John.
“There but for the grace of God, go I” should give us pause, I think. The studies that we have attempted to conduct on what turns an ‘average’ person into someone who can choose to inflict pain on another have been so scary we had to terminate them. Perhaps we are feeding the little Hitler in ourselves when we view violence and abuse of another’s heaven-bestowed right to be free, as entertainment? Perhaps we embrace sports as training for the sin of competitiveness (a form of coveteousness, is it not?) for ITS OWN SAKE, as a warm-up for the idea that our advancement can only occur at the expense of another. We can blame ‘nature’ for this attribute, but go look HARD in nature, and you will not find it. Everything in God’s Little Handbook exists for the benefit of all around it; exists for win-win. It is only the selfish heart of man that lives unto itself.
Violence and control of another are what I think we do when we feel disconnected from the benefits of community. We seek re-connection; the connection that nurtures us and gives us success, but as we have no way in the flesh to re-establish true community, true connection, maybe connection-by-force is the best the yetzer ha-ra can do? The need for connection is hard-wired. Perhaps ‘control’ is just the best we can hope for on the other side of the sin that separates us?
We are all, still, after all, just looking for love (the desire of the yetzer ha-ra), and the ones that are looking in all the wrong places are the ones that do not know how to look in the other places. “The sin of the world’s impenitence lies at the door of the church” is our indictment. The sinner has no way to move toward love. We who have reached a measure of the yetzer ha-tov, of the COMPLETION (or perfection) of that desire for love, have been burdened with the mandate of the Shepherd; to seek and save those who are still lost from that. I think to just bewail their lostness from the sidelines is not righteousness for us who carry the other half of His yoke; we are called to see, to share with, their lostness as IF IT WERE OUR OWN. Surely this is the other half of the above saying. For me, as a Christ-called one, I think it perhaps needs to sound more like “There, by the grace of God, should go I”. And then get going! And pray for forgiveness of my sin of not being effective enough on that front line as being even GREATER than the sin of the lost on that line, until I get there! So help me, God! I know that until the sin of the lost is cured, I must confront my share of that sin daily as being the greater half, and pray intercessory for the both of us until we can all pray for ourselves. The lost are just as much a part of my flesh and blood as the saved. I know that because the blood and flesh of my Saviour was shed and shredded for us both at the same time, and for the same reason. That, if nothing else, makes us even more connected! So help us, God, until we come into the fullness of the unity of the faith!
Ephesians 3 :9-12 is now coming to completion. The manifold wisdom of God is being demonstrated to all of creation. The worlds wisdom of “looking out for number one” is being stripped and laid bare and shown for what it truly is. Gods wisdom of Love, self sacrificing service, and even “loving not your own life unto the death” will soon be vindicated and shown to be the only wisdom that can be allowed in our Fathers creation. The Father WILL have His way; all of creation living by his wisdom and life.
Amen, marty and laurita. The verse that says, “come out of her my people, lest you share in her judgment….is constantly ringing in my ears as of late.It doesn’t seem to be a statement of ceasing an activity as much as it is about doing the right activity.
YHWH bless you and keep you………..