Agendas - Part I
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Throughout history there have been various organizational and governmental agendas. When an agenda is designed for evil, or when a noble one becomes corrupt, it becomes a conspiracy. When an agenda begins, or moves from a plan to accomplish good things to an outcome of detestable results, it is a plot. God has a Plan. God wrote his Plan for mankind in the Bible. God’s Redemption Plan for man included reconciliation with God because sin separated man from God. His Plan included the destruction of what harms mankind, sin (rebellion). His Plan was summed up in the Cross of Christ (perfect obedience; His Death to pay the sin debt). Hitler had a plan for himself and how he would rule mankind and had it written down in “Mein Kampf.” It was a plan designed to destroy mankind by exalting sin. In this series of articles, I will begin to assess a variety of agendas and conspiracies. For the sake of simplicity, I will give the conclusion at the beginning: Any plan of man without God is a conspiracy led by Satan and his demonic forces to usurp God’s Plan for man. If I stopped here, you would be able to apply this conclusion to any agenda or conspiracy and know if it was part of the Plan of God or a conspiracy led by Satan. Due to the multiplicity of conspiracies and agendas, it would be impossible for me to touch on everyone of them in these short articles. Needless to say, within the larger conspiracies there are many moving parts and within each component there are many smaller conspiracies. I will address governmental and religious agendas and conspiracies in this series. At times, I will touch on smaller pieces of the puzzles to better explain the bigger picture. For example, many today discuss the Illuminati. When we address the Illuminati, we’ll have to look at the various parts to understand the whole. This can also be said of Communism and Islam. I hope this brief synopsis will help you with your discernment in evaluating conspiracies.
LUCIFER’S REBELLION
Is there a modern conspiracy to unite man together without God? Are there secret organizations, religions, and governments that are intricately working with businesses, politics, and education to accomplish their goal of a one world order? To better answer this, we must look at the first rebellion against God. Lucifer desired to rule as God and exalt himself as God.
Isaiah 14:13-14 – “For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.”
What would cause Lucifer to desire the very throne of God? Pride! While today’s English meaning has more to do with self-respect, the word pride dealt more with arrogance and self-exaltation in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word picture for pride can best be seen as a fist being held up in the air. In Lucifer, and in all others who oppose God, it is a fist held up against the Face of God.
Ezekiel 28:12-15, 17 – “. . . Thus says the Lord GOD; You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden the Garden of God; every precious stone was your covering . . . the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. You are the anointed Cherub who covers; and I have set you so: you were upon the Holy Mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, and have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness. . . .”
The author of all rebellion against God is Lucifer; Satan. The self-exaltation and self-deception we see from Lucifer is also used by men in exalted positions of authority; that rule men by decree with force. Deception is a tool used by the ungodly to subvert truth and manipulate the masses into thinking that there is another way besides God’s Way. Deception is the process used by Satan to first dissimulate from truth, then disassociate from truth, and then disseminate his lie. Jesus made it very clear that we were not to be deceived.
Deuteronomy 11:16, Luke 21:8, Matthew 24:4 – “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them.
“And He said, Take heed that you be not deceived: for many shall come in My Name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draws near: go you not therefore after them.
“. . . Take heed that no man deceive you.”
Deceive: to (properly cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue). Go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way.
Lucifer was successful in gaining a significant following through deception. Lucifer was able to persuade one-third of the Angels to follow his rebellion and even fight against God to overtake His Kingdom.
Revelation 12:4, 7-9 -- “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of Heaven, and did cast them to the earth. . . .
“And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his Angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in Heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his Angels were cast out with him.”
DISCERNMENT
Every plan, agenda, or movement, that strives to gather men to work in cooperation with each other without God, results in disaster. Satan can be called the first community organizer. Believers in Jesus Christ are admonished to “try (test) the spirits whether they are of God.” When we study rebellions in the Bible, it becomes apparent that “man” organizing without God subjugates men under man’s rules, without obedience to God. God’s Ways and Laws are abrogated and man’s ways and laws are promoted. Humanism: A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth. Man-made methodology replaces God’s Spirit. Works are extolled and personal recognition based on man’s prescribed works are promoted. An example of this can be seen in the times of Nimrod; his name in the Hebrew means, “to rebel.” Like Satan gathering Angels for his rebellion against God, Nimrod sought to gather people to support his rebellion. He was a “mighty hunter” seeking to gather men by tyrannical force. Josephus says that Nimrod persuaded people to ascribe their happiness to him rather than God. What became the goal of this rebellion? After the Flood, man “journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar (Babylon), and dwelt there.” Their rebellion sought to disobey God’s Command to replenish the Earth and instead organized to “. . . build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the whole Earth.”
Notice a pattern in rebellions?
1. A leader gathers the people: Community organizing;
2. Dissatisfaction with God is presented and an alternative plan is instituted: Deception;
3. The leader becomes the object of worship and has the answers to solve the people’s dissatisfaction. New object of faith and hope;
4. The people are prescribed community service and work to build upon the goals of the leader. Unity; and,
5. Reputation and recognition for performance of assigned work or duty: Pride.
God would squash the rebellion at the Tower of Babel to prevent man from succeeding in unifying themselves without God.
Genesis 11:6 – “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one (in unity), and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”
The gathering of men like this in an organized rebellion against God portrays the tactics that Satan used to exalt himself to be like God. Satan used that strategy on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden:
Community organizing: Satan appears to Eve in the Garden.
Dissatisfaction: “And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die.”
Deception: “For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened.”
New Object of Faith: “And you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Unity: “And when the woman saw that the Tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a Tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Pride: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
As we discuss agendas and conspiracies in this series, we will use this approach to expose deception and error so Believers can assess what is of God and what is not.
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