(Marsha West – Christian Research Network) It has become clear to discerning Christians that the Spiritual Forces of Darkness engineered America’s shift to the far left. And anyone who chooses not to toe the line, anyone who won’t buy into the “woke” narrative or dares voice their disagreement with the totalitarian Left finds themselves “cancelled” (smeared, maligned, demeaned). This is especially true for followers of Jesus Christ.
Americans are no longer surprised to hear that conservatives who are invited to speak at a college campus are shouted down and pelted with food and water bottles. Fearing for their lives, many of them are forced to flee when the opposition literally gets in their face, shouts obscenities and threatens bodily harm. Liberals are never interested in having a dialogue with those who disagree with them principally because this dialogue would only serve to highlight the ridiculous nature of their positions. Rather, they prefer to intimidate by using tactics that could at best be described as destructive and unhinged.
Sadly, thanks to our public education system, our younger generation is so lacking in critical thinking skills that if they get into a debate they know they cannot win, especially when it involves politics and religion, they resort to bullying and even violence as the world witnessed during the BLM “peaceful protests”. Portland Oregon, where riots—oops—peaceful protests went on nightly for several months will never be the same after the BLM/antifa targeted areas of that once beautiful thriving city for destruction.
Sandy Simpson of Deception in the Church wrote that “This is all because [the Left] delusionally believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong and they shouldn’t have to have a dialogue about anything. If you try to talk to them you find out rather quickly that they apparently have lost the ability to employ common sense or logical processes and have given themselves over to emotionalism. They consider themselves to be free thinkers but in actuality, they are the most conformist generation we have seen in recent history.” (Source)
Who or what is the force that drives the left to terrorize conservatives, especially religious conservatives? I suggest that when one looks at the malicious intent behind these actions, the blame must ultimately be laid squarely on cosmic powers. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The Apostle Paul warned that Satan is the real enemy. Men and women are simply the tools he uses to carry out his evil plans. According the 1 Peter 5:8 “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Satan and his minions reside in the “heavenlies,” but that doesn’t mean these entities aren’t prowling around our neighborhoods so to speak. Anything beyond what the Bible reveals about the fallen angels is pure speculation, so it is unwise to go beyond what the scriptures reveal — no one should! What is important for Bible believers to understand is that the Left’s marching orders come from a diabolical invisible army led by ”Brigadier General” Satan. So, let’s be clear that Satan is the mastermind behind this corrupt world system.
Paul understood this. That’s why he gave Christians fair warning to arm themselves: “Put on the full armor of God.” And he never tells us that it is safe to remove our armor as long as we reside on this planet. So for your own protection, stay armed!
Returning to the Left’s desire to cancel anyone, including their own, who challenges them. If you oppose their social agenda expect to be labeled a bigot, racist, homophobe, transphobe, mean spirited, hateful, and if you were born with white skin and voted for Donald Trump, a “White Supremacist” or their new favorite slur “White Nationalist.”
Cancel Culture
Baptist Press reports that a university boasts of being ‘discrimination free’ on its website…but this is patently false. The truth is that the university discriminated against the free speech rights of Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis when his talk was cancelled:
UCOSA President Stockton Duvall also tweeted that he takes responsibility for the cancellation–but was pressured by “a very vocal group on campus that has little tolerance for opposing viewpoints.”
Ham noted in a press release that UCOSA reluctantly canceled his date.
“A small but vocal group on campus put up a fuss about my talk and the university caved in, tearing up the contract and contradicting its policies of promoting ‘free inquiry’ and ‘inclusiveness’ on campus,’” Ham said. “Free speech in America is under increasing attack by some very intolerant people.” (Source)
When it was discovered that Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, inventor of Javascript and co-founder of Mozilla, made a $1,000 donation to opponents of gay marriage the Left demanded his firing. So Eich was forced to resign.
Entertainment And The Cancel Culture
Fox Business reports that Disney plans to place an “offensive content” warning ahead of selected episodes of The Muppet Show. You read that correctly– The Muppet Show!
[A] total of 18 episodes throughout the show’s five seasons, including those guest hosted by Jim Nabors, Joel Grey, Steve Martin, Peter Sellers, Cleo Laine, James Coco, Spike Milligan, Crystal Gayle, Kenny Rogers, Beverly Sills, Jonathan Winters, Alan Arkin, James Coburn, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Debbie Harry, Wally Boag and Marty Feldman. The disclaimer appears at the beginning of these episodes for 12 seconds.
The label has been added to each video for a different reason. For example, during Cash’s episode, the legendary music star sings in front of a Confederate flag.
According to a statement from Disney’s Stories Matter initiative, the company is ‘in the process of reviewing our library and adding advisories to content that includes negative depictions or mistreatment of people or cultures’ as part of an ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The article concludes with other examples where Disney+ viewers can see the content warnings: The Aristocrats, Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Swiss Family Robinson.” (Source)
Good grief! Peter Pan?
Brian C. Joondeph reports on some of the movies and tv shows that have been cancelled due to “racial insensitivity” in his piece entitled “Cancel Culture — What Happens When Everything Gets Cancelled?” Below are a couple of the explanations he provided:
Gone with the Wind, a multi-Academy Award winning classic movie was cancelled from HBO due to “racial insensitivity.” Several Netflix shows were cancelled due to an Australian comedian’s use of blackface. Yet Northam and Trudeau haven’t been cancelled out of government.
Police shows have also been cancelled, at least the ones not portraying a multigendered police force concerned more about their carbon footprints than catching the bad guys. (Source)
The Enlightened Ones
What needs to be understood, brethren, is that liberal elites believe they’re the Enlightened Ones (EO’s). Therefore, the average Joe who refuses to get on board with the Left’s utopian vision for the world are unenlightened. In other words, those who reject their view are thought of as troglodytes. If you have the misfortune of getting on the wrong side of the EO’s be prepared to pay a very high price. You’re going to get shamed, shunned, silenced and, worse, the EO’s will see to it that you can’t find employment. You will be “cancelled.” And when you find yourself cancelled, no one will support you in any way shape or form. You’ll be ostracized! Banished!
“This modern form of banishment,” says firearms instructor John Lovell, “attacks a person’s digital identity by humiliating and twisting the meaning of someone’s words to portray an image of what culture hates the most at the moment. … Meanwhile, the Left continues to degrade traditional values, champion fringe agendas, and label people as ‘fascists’ while enacting fascist policies.”
Clearly the Left’s aim is to terrify Americans into submission.
Stand Up To Bullies
Recently Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, addressed the cancel culture and urged people to stand up to the bullies:
I just want to tell people out there, I know that it’s really frustrating, this cancel culture, but we have to stand up to it. We have to take a stand and don’t be afraid. If you have something to say, say it. Post it on social media. Do not be afraid to voice your opinion. They want you to be scared. They don’t want any of us to have free thought anymore. It is to scare Americans, to scare you into submission, and we’re not going to do it. We are not going to take this lying down. When everybody is told you have to conform your thinking, you have to conform everything you do to this way, otherwise you don’t have a place here, that’s a communist mentality, plain and simple. (Source)
Canceling people is not exclusive to our culture, it is also going on in the visible Church under the guise of Social Justice “Christianity.” SJC is a topic for another time. The important thing to note is that woke evangelicals who espouse a radical social justice gospel are attempting to cancel those who refuse to go along with them. According to Bible scholar Peter Jones, who is one of the unwoke, “Truth is framed by the social and religious Left as cutting-edge, late-breaking, progressive thinking for ‘freedom’ and ‘equality.’ Biblical notions are dismissed as ‘repressive,’ ‘backward-looking,’ ‘old-school.’”
Dr. Jones is spot on!
Whether the bullying is in the world or in the Church the need to stand up and confront the cancellation effort is essential.
This Stinks To High Heaven
What we must keep in the forefront of our minds during these trying times is that Satan and his band of marauders were defeated the moment the Lord Jesus breathed his last breath while nailed to a cross on Calvary. But the “god of this world” the “father of lies” still has some fight left in him, at least for the time being. While he remains on this planet, be assured that he’s going to pull out all the stops to try to separate human souls from their Maker. But he is not the victor, for a time is coming when the Lord Jesus will return to Earth. “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7). Upon His return He will judge the world. “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
Although we don’t know the day or the time, the Lord Jesus will return, brethren. Count on it!
And what will become of Satan and his minions? The King of kings will send every single rebellious angel spiraling into the abyss for all eternity.
The question to ask yourself dear reader is this: What if there actually is an all-out spiritual battle going on in the heavenlies as I argue above? I invite those of you who doubt me to do what the noble Bereans did to Paul – they went to the scriptures to see if what he was saying was true. (Acts 17:11)
What you’ll discover is that an all out spiritual battle in the heavenlies is no wild speculation on my part. The fact of the matter is that there actually is a spiritual battle taking place all around us. Got Questions reveals that “… ‘our warfare’ as Christians is spiritual. We are not fighting a physical battle or a human battle. It is on a spiritual level—its enemies, its prerogatives, its fortresses, and its weapons are all spiritual. If we attempt to fight the spiritual with human weapons, we will fail and the enemy will be victorious.” Keeping this in mind, you must cover yourself from head to foot in the full Armor of God and never remove it, as I stated above.
Christ’s chosen ones should always be ready “to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). The most lethal weapon in your arsenal is the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God. When you go up against those who hate you because you bear the Name of Christ, draw your sword!
I’ll close with a warning from the Lord Jesus:
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19).
Helpful Resources
Are All Angels Safe? By Marsha West
Angels, Demons & Spiritual Warfare
Copyright by Marsha West, 3/10/21