I've run into a fairly consistent doctrine on the Net regarding Satanic movements. Typical of anything Satan does, it's a diversion, something meant to get you chasing things that don't matter.

It goes like this: There is a semi-secret cultic movement of Satanism that has begun more openly manifesting in the West. Here in the US, it shows up in stuff that has been been published rather quietly up to now. It doesn't register in the MSM. These Satanists have said that Christians have abandoned institutional control over parts of our daily life as humans. Thus, the Satanists have organized to move in and take control of government, the arts, education, etc. They will control those things so that they promote Satanism and snuff out the Christian way of life on the earth. In particular, there's always this threat of snuffing out Western Civilization. Satanism will be the culture of the future.

It sounds true to a lot of folks. And it is consistent with what some folks who call themselves Satanists have said all along throughout history. But as I've noted already, this is not what matters to God. What matters to God is not that we worry much about this world and it's affairs. We pour our energy into leaving this world and all its concerns. What matters to God is that we denounce this world as permanently broken and impossible to redeem. It is the fallen mortal existence, and not what God made us for.

We do not conquer this world by seizing control. We conquer this world by making it inconsequential.

As you might expect me to say, I am especially unconcerned about preserving Western Civilization. One of the biggest lies Satan has told mainstream Christians is that the West is the product of God working through His people to construct a better world. Somehow, Western Civilization has become the sacred blessing of God on this earth, as if it were the earthly manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven. So these activists have fallen for this lie that Satan is trying to destroy the West and take away God's marvelous gift to humanity.

God help us -- what an awful lie. It's true that the institutional church of that time did more or less give birth to Western Civilization, by weaving together the remnants of the pagan Greco-Roman Civilization with the Germanic pagan culture to give birth to the Middle Ages. Oh, and let's not forget how that institutional church led the war to stop the Muslims taking over Europe and the rest of the world. That was what the church leadership did after they abandoned the ancient Hebraic viewpoint of Christ. The West is inherently anti-Christian.

So the biggest problem we have with Satanism today is that it has convinced mainstream Christians to chase this lie about what Satan actually wants to destroy. He's not after the West; the West is dying because God is pouring out His wrath on it. Satan wants to take credit for that, but to the degree he has the power to destroy the West, it's because God has commissioned him to do so as the agent of divine wrath. Meanwhile, a bunch of church folks are going to invest all kinds of resources into saving the West against God's plans.

There's no denying that Satan has seize control of Hollywood, along with government and much of Big Tech and Big Pharma. And it's true that Satan has his servants chasing all of that stuff, believing that they are rightfully predatory on American society. So much is published, if only obscurely. This is how Satan works in this world. But this has nothing to do with what God proclaims of interest to Him. Jesus was distinctly otherworldly when it comes to such concerns. The Bible says that human civilization and governments will come and go under His guidance without anyone involved in those things ever noticing His hands. That includes Islam. While the institutional church can take some credit for stopping the advance of Islam in Europe, they did so without any direct commission from God. They did so by leaving behind the Covenant of Christ and engaging in the things of this world.

And none of these worldly events matter much to His people, whose primary mission is to point out the path back to Eden, which was never in this world. The bulk of what God has for us in outside this world and this life. We leave in His hands what men do at large in this world; it's not our concern.

"We leave in His hands what men do at large in this world; it's not our concern."

Amen to that, dear Brother.  Seeking His Will, His Guidance and His Direction is the only way to live out whatever of our life in this world is left as He ordains for us.

What are your thoughts on earth as a school? Like we are here to learn and experience and the results come to bear when we graduate to heaven. I have thought the goal is heaven but our earth time is also necessary for like loving and creating. Maybe I don’t follow exactly. If you have any thoughts on this great.

I tend to think that school is a good symbol for what we do here. As some used to say, we are in "reigning training" -- we shall reign with Him after this. I suppose we will never really understand the whole picture of why we are here in this world, but there are numerous parables that indicate various aspects of the question. You can also view this life as a prison, and we have to serve our time, for example. It's not as if wonderful things don't happen here, but being here is far from the ideal of Eden. It's not what we were made for.

CS Lewis approached the question in his Narnia series. In one of the books, he proposes the parable of The Song. There is an audience out there that we can sense, but cannot grasp. Something happened in Heaven that went wrong, and God had to judge things. God Created the world as a demonstration/explanation for His judgment. That we fell was no surprise to Him, and He had a plan for that. How some of us come through and join Him in Heaven is the demonstration of His justice. Not the fact itself that we join Him, but how we pass through this life is the point.

There can be no orthodox answer to such a question.

(09-27-2021, 06:57 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: I tend to think that school is a good symbol for what we do here. As some used to say, we are in "reigning training" -- we shall reign with Him after this. I suppose we will never really understand the whole picture of why we are here in this world, but there are numerous parables that indicate various aspects of the question. You can also view this life as a prison, and we have to serve our time, for example. It's not as if wonderful things don't happen here, but being here is far from the ideal of Eden. It's not what we were made for.

CS Lewis approached the question in his Narnia series. In one of the books, he proposes the parable of The Song. There is an audience out there that we can sense, but cannot grasp. Something happened in Heaven that went wrong, and God had to judge things. God Created the world as a demonstration/explanation for His judgment. That we fell was no surprise to Him, and He had a plan for that. How some of us come through and join Him in Heaven is the demonstration of His justice. Not the fact itself that we join Him, but how we pass through this life is the point.

There can be no orthodox answer to such a question.

Beautifully said. I read CS Lewis The Song you mentioned here, it weaves toward the meaning.

Perhaps coincidentally, I bought the entire Narnia series over the weekend. My daughter and I both want to read it. I read The Lion... some long time ago but I have forgotten it since.

The question itself is rather interesting. I have an idea of what it means to me, but I would have to think about it more.