Since We Are Sons of God

"He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."  John 8:44

This entire world system wheezes and struggles to draw even the most faint of breaths, for it languishes in the iron, merciless grip of a diabolical, sinister, blackhearted tyrant who lives only to accuse and steal, kill, and destroy.  This enemy has hatefully and joyously endorsed all of man's would-be saviors, all of humandkind's supposed super-men who through any means sought to bring their own utopia on this planet.  Every Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Hitler, Mao, Amin-- all of them combined-- in ferocity and brutality and viciousness all pale in comparison to man's common, unsleeping enemy.  I speak not metaphorically of cancer, AIDS, or some other seemingly undefatigable plague; I speak not in general terms of man's inhumanity to man, nor of geopolitical corruption.  No, I speak of a foe man has no hope of even gaining a single advantage, no chance of winning one battle in the war against him.  I speak of none other than Satan himself.  And no, I refer not to some frail buffoon in a ridiculously shiny, skin-tight red suit with an inanimate styrofoam tail attached, who awkwardly brandishes a plastic pitchfork.  I speak not of a mythical finger-tall imp who sits on the left shoulder of us all whispering mishievous schemes for us to perform.  I speak emphatically, based on the Word of God of an enemy who is like a ravenous, powerful lion which stalks from the brush unsuspecting prey.  (And actually, the lion knows its power and needs not disguise its plans, and fears no creature of the wild.)  This enemy's tongue is lethal and seductive.  This enemy is a great, red, fearsome dragon.  Satan, my friend, is more powerful than all man's alleged wisdom, technological capability, creativity, etc., because when we're done with that list, all of man's ammunition is ultimately chained to the reality of the physical.  Add to that that man is by nature depraved and loves his hedonistic, selfish world of his wicked flesh and does much of Satan's work for him.  Satan operates in the spiritual realm, powerfully impacting the physical universe.  Alone against him, man is woefully, miserably lost.  

Satan's sole purpose can be summed up in one word: corruption.  He lives to corrupt man himself, his resources, whichever he needs or chooses, his mind, but most of all his relationship or status with Almighty God, keeping him spiritually dead.  Satan eagerly wishes to keep man in opposition to God, and while he is powerless against the Holy Spirit's use of God's word to convict man of sin, righteousness, and judgment, he uses every tool at his and man's desposal to keep man's mind on the things of the flesh.  Again, he is powerless against God's Word and even more, (and to many Christians this may sound shocking but) Satan knows the Scriptures better than most of us do.  Let us be clear on this.  Satan has no ability to respond to the gospel message and he cannot be saved from his final fate.  He does, however, have an intellectual knowledge of God's Word.  He has a memory and mind that is not subject to common human frailties like disease, dementia, fatigue, or age.  He (and his minions) are present when God's Word is discussed, talked about, read aloud.  Besides all of that, he has had to know what is in the Scriptures as he has worked tirelessly to produce powerfully deceptive counterfeits.  When one wants to defraud a currency one must study it harder than even the printers of the currency.  Satan is not original, saints.  What we do in sin has its origin with him.  Satan knows, therefore, his fate and how the depths of hell shall mock and scorn him as the lost say “is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; is this the man that made the nations tremble” (Isaiah 14:16)?  Satan is bent on bringing as many down into the pit with him as possible.  Furthermore, let us dispense with then terribly incorrect and unscriptural notion that Satan is ruling his kingdom based in fiery hell.  The Bible is clear that Satan is free and mobile in the world of men as he “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8) and fears no man.  We must therefore, have access, and that unlimited, to weaponry that to him is completely irresistible.  We need the Holy Spirit.  

In this fast paced American society, our attentiveness to the cultivation of our relationship with Jesus Christ can sometimes suffer as our business with things that aren't necessarily sinful or harmful consume ever more increasing portions of our time and energy.  We, in our foolish thinking believe that “we'll be okay,” not even remembering that Satan desires to sift us as wheat.  The satanic bombardment is constant in our society.  Mindless television shows and movies, pointless athletic contests, pornography and reality shows clawing away at our decency all wear away at us, along with the normal toil of work and family responsibility.  We would do well to study closely how the Lord Jesus Christ approached the labor of his ministry and temptation.  

In Matthew chapter 4, Christ shows His people how to properly resist and overcome Satan and his tried and true methods to corrupt.  But first, we must have a truly proper understanding of all that was at stake here.  Satan knew exactly who Jesus was.  He was there when He was born; he was in the near background throughout Christ's childhood, biding his time, waiting for the optimum opportunity to corrupt his mortal enemy.  I believe that Satan knew from the Scriptures that the Messiah would one day come, hence his voracious, hateful pogroms against Israel throughout history, and I believe that he also knew that one of, if not the most essential missions on the agenda of the Messiah would be to wrest man out of his bondage.  He knew who Jesus was.  As Lucifer, Satan stood in the very presence of the Triune God and led the hosts of Heaven in worship; he knew.  And just as the underdog team in a playoff series dares to dream of pulling off the great upset of the highest-seeded team with the best players and record, I believe that Satan, in his inconceivable pride and folly actually thought that defeating Christ in the wilderness was actually possible.  After all, hadn't he corrupted man at Eden?  Hadn't he spurred man into such sin that Jehovah's judgment in the flood destroyed man, save eight?  Hadn't he oppressed and slaughtered the children of Israel over the centuries?  Hadn't he slithered his way into the very fabric of Jewish society with Baal, Asherah, and Moloch worship?  I believe Satan, just as the underdog when making a slew of critical, momentum-changing plays during the championship game, believed that he had a legitimate shot at unseating God from His Heavenly throne during those critical forty days.  

Close examination of the Scriptures shows us clearly as crystal that nothing-- absolutely nothing-- can take God by surprise.  God sees every outcome, every possibility, every impossibility all at once and not only does He know all, sees all, He has all power to act with no one in existence able to stay His mighty hand.  Jesus Christ was and is the only God-man, and while walking the roads of Judea those many years ago He divested Himself of the right to freely excercise His divine power as King of the universe, humbling Himself by becoming a servant-- the servant we could never be.  Christ limited Himself in His humanity but He never stopped being God incarnate.  He limited His own knowledge of certain things, choosing to trust the Father.  We know this from Mark 13:32, when the Lord says that not even He knew the day in which He would return to the earth.  In the humility of His earthly mission, He submitted to the Father's will exclusively.  This is important because in the most critical times of His life, aside from the crucifixion, Christ would be at His weakest physically, and in total isolation from the world.  Christ knew that He had to be tested.  His communion with the Father most assuredly revealed that, but never had Christ been subject to the unfettered temptation of Satan like He had been during His forty day fast in the wilderness.  All that has been said of Satan in the previous paragraphs, God knows to an infinite degree; He knew exactly what Christ was about to encounter yet the Holy Spirit didn't just lead Him into the wilderness, the Holy Spirit drove Him there, head-on against the sworn nemesis of all that is holy and righteous and good.  

Satan truly believed, I think, that this was the time when He could corrupt Jesus Christ.  Satan saw the physical weakness of the fast and he knew full well what fasting did to men.  Therefore, he attacked Jesus with what he knew appealed to selfish needs, motives, and desires.  While fasting is not the topic of this essay, this period of fasting fully crystalized the mission and focus of our Lord.  The key was His dependence on the guidance of the Holy Spirit even though the Holy Spirit brought Him to the furnace of trial.  Christ was ready though.  

The Lord said to His disciples of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 14, verse 26 that He would bring everything that He had said to them to their rememberance as part of the Spirit's work in their lives.  How would they know?  They had been immersed in Christ's teaching for three and a half years and it would be those things the Spirit would bring back as needed.  Why is this important?  It's important because the Holy Spirit did it for Jesus as well.  What was Jesus doing until age 30?  The Holy Spirit was preparing Him for these forty days.  Christ was studying God's Word, feasting on it, meditating on it, doing all the things He commanded His disciples to do with it.  If Christ Himself had to depend on the Holy Spirit and God's Word, how much more do we!  I believe that the temptation was a declaration of war on the kingdom of Satan and that his days were then numbered.

Christ, full of the Holy Spirit, having studied the Scriptures for decades was ready to both keep His desire for food in subjection and to place Satan into subjection.  Each temptation appealed to some aspect of selfish desire.  

Each temptation was to try to get Jesus to operate outside of God's will as Adam had done.  The first temptation appealed to His human need for the nourishment and satiating effects of food; the second temptation twisted God's word; the third temptation used the allure of power and the kingdoms of the world (which were Christ's by divine right).  All of them had one thing in common in that they all sought to motivate the Lord Jesus into making decisions outside the parameters set by His Father, the limits that He bound Himself to operate within.  Eating bread isn't evil; breaking a Holy Spirit-ordered fast is.  Trusting in God to protect (from injury and enemies) is actually a command; acting foolishly by intentionally placing oneself into danger is just that- foolish.  Ambition and desiring to possess that which belongs to you isn't wicked; taking possession of those things before God says so is.  It cannot be overstated the response of the Lord Jesus against our enemy.  Led by the Holy Spirit, He wielded God's Truth.  Satan wielded God's Truth, but he was not led by the Holy Spirit, nor could he be.  

In each temptation, the Word of God says that Satan said each time, “If you are,” “If you are,” “If you are.”  That's important as we come to the main point of this essay.  It was mentioned earlier that Satan knew exactly who Jesus was.  Jesus saw Satan expelled like lightning from Heaven at his rebellion.  Satan knew he could force Jesus to do nothing, so his only hope was to try to find weakness in the humanity of Christ; there was, of course none.  However, when Satan said “If” that could actually be “Since.”  He knew the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, but his being ultimately foolhardy led him to think that God had not planned for every contingency, reinforced every front of attack, foresaw all tactics he would use to attempt to gain an advantage.  I attest that the temptation of Christ was not to see if Jesus could stand against the power of Satan, but to prove that not only could He resist him, but that the power of God is unfathomably greater than the devil's little might and that there was absolutely no sin in Christ that could be used against Him.  For those of us who are blood-washed by Christ Jesus, the opening statements are the same by Satan and his demonic forces against us.  What God has wrought, he has no hope of undoing.  For those born-again, the Holy Spirit resides within us and his ability to corrupt us is limited by God's permissive will.  Furthermore, the Book of Job leads us to believe that Satan needs permission to attack the saints of God.  We are free from the bondage of sin and he cannot force us to do anything.

That leads us to the title of this piece.  Let us not behave as if we are sons of God, but let us behave righteously since we are sons of God; let us go boldly to the throne of grace since we are sons of God; let us love, worship, and serve Jehovah our God since we belong to Him.  Too much and too long have be behaved so un-Christlike, as if we're unsure of who and what we are in Christ.  Too many times we go outside the instruction of the Holy Spirit Who lives inside of us, grieving Him, placing ourselves in the jeopardy of divine chastisement.  Men-!  Since we are sons of God, let us pray like it, study God's Truth like it, stand without compromise in this last hour like it!

Satan knows who we are in Christ.  The problem, too often, is that we don't...

Until Jesus comes!

The War on Children Part One: "Malcolm"

"...somewhere, Herod was killing babies." The Beast, by Walter Dean Myers

I firmly believe that there is a merciless, sinister barrage waged against children in America, and one that shames the infamous onslaught of the Nazi Blitzkrieg against England during World War II.  The shelling with invisible artillery has all too visible destructive effects, for on the landscape of ideas and spirit lay strewn about the dim glowing-like-cooling-embers souls of our youth.  The mowing down of America's young people is taking place irregardless of social station, of ethnic affiliation, or of address; yet I must stipulate that the attacks are, in some places, more accelerated, more exact, more vicious.  (We call those places Englewood in Chicago; Compton in Los Angeles; the Bronx, in New York City, and there are countless others.)  One can look at the news, especially in Chicago and daily- literally daily- watch and listen to ghastly reports of cold, calculated acts of violence, of depraved, dark deeds of perversion against children.  Gang violence, like a determined legion of cancerous tumors within a healthy body marches through our nation's neighborhoods devouring the young in scores in the flower of youth.  The most frightening thing is that the multiple waves of vehemence are all intentional, all carefully planned.

The very first, and most important institution under attack by dark cabals is the family.  In America, the family has been assaulted as never before.  Some of the weaponry used to destroy the family have been innocuous, like healthy ambition, comfort and prosperity.  Yet the "big guns" used against the traditional nuclear family have been selfish motives and irresponsible sexual activity by parents, increasingly common drug use and abuse, but in particular, the one that will be the focus in this writing from the life of an actual young man (that I will call "Malcolm") having been a victim of sexual abuse by his very own family member.

When I started my teaching career close to fifteen years ago, I fit the stereotypical profile of the "change the world" teacher, who, in his very first year sought to rid the world of all its ills through miraculous, enthusiastic, competent education.  Little did I know how my (outstanding) university had under-prepared me for the tremendously huge challenges reigning in the community that surrounded my school.  I quickly learned to adjust; my father had instilled in me a strong work ethic and to be mentally tougher than the toughness of my situation.

"Malcolm" I immediately liked.  He had considerable deficits in the areas of Reading and Mathematics and typically used negative behavior and attention as a shield.  It was difficult to earn his trust but when I did, he was a pleasure to have in class, all things considered.  Over time, even amid an entire group of hard neighborhood roughening, he opened up considerably and allowed me (and a select few of his peers) into what he explained had been a regularity in his early adolescent years.  Beneath the veneer of professionalism and calm I was appalled as he shared that he had been molested over a period of six years by an older male sibling.  He said that he learned to cope, learned what and what not to expect.  He learned to just endure and just try to survive.  For him, getting through some days were monumental struggles and inevitably, the deeply-seated pain erupted in sometimes violent fashion.


I did my duty and reported what I knew about "Malcolm's" situation, even though he said that it had not been then-presently occurring.  "Malcolm" graduated on time having made great strides, yet intrapersonally, still far behind.  Of course, multiple pages more could be written, but the point here is to focus on American children in the cross-hairs of dastardly foes.  How could anyone forcibly and repeatedly take the innocence of a child?  All over the world- generally speaking- young children are symbols of purity and innocence.  It takes a truly blackhearted individual to target a child and hunt them like they are only meat.


In this nation, as the family continues to suffer relentless attack, the children are heavy casualties.  The attacks are deliberate and carefully engineered as it is quite apparent that one cannot accidentally molest a child.


"Malcolm" didn't know that he was in the middle of a war- nor did I.  Now I know from the pages of the Holy Bible that all of us, especially young people, are under surveillance and assault by unseen forces bent on the absolute corruption and ultimate destruction of mankind.  These forces are under the command of none other than Satan, who the Bible says, is "the god of this world" and that
"the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (I John 5:19).  It must be noted however, that while Satan is powerfully active man, by himself will carry out every single wicked urge he conceives if given enough time and opportunity.  As mentioned earlier, one need only turn on the evening news to have bona fide evidence that man, at his core, is basically evil.  Not only that, but he's getting worse...

Man, always being spurred on by Satanic influences in the media, music, doctrine, and philosophy is a chief tool in advancing a brutal pogrom against children.  And there's something terribly broken, deep within the spirit of man that drives him to crush that which is pure, to find pleasure in tearing down rather than building, losing himself in hedonism rather than possessing peace with godly restraint.    Over the years, I have seen so many children wounded and battered in the midst of this bitter conflict and have heard stories and first-hand accounts fueled by copious amounts of drugs and seething eruptions of lasciviousness.

The family must once again become the strong, walled city it needs to be for the protection of children, for within the family children are nurtured, taught, and protected but this can only be done through supernatural means as supernatural devices are used against it.  The saving, regenerating power of Jesus Christ is more than sufficient to subdue the filth pulsating in the heart of man for this is what He came to do- He came to transform man from the inside out by giving him a new heart and a new mind through saving faith in His sacrificial, atoning work on the cross for sin.  That's the only hope.  I have not seen "Malcolm" in many years, but for the hundreds of children I have taught over the years, I continue to pray for them all.

Next in The War on Children will be Part Two: The Scourge

The Corruption of Atheism

“...and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory” (Revelation 16:9).

Something delicate, pure broke within man that beautiful, sun-filled day when first he decided to operate outside the confines of God's Law in the Garden known as Eden. That sublime Jehovah-wrought equilibrium was, until a time set by Himself, thrown into chaotic, brutal, totally corrupting disarray. Of course, I speak of the tragic fall of man- of the dire failure of all humankind yet within the loins of our first father, Adam. Yes, in him we all fell, and great was our descent into depravity, and the millenia-long war against our maker has been harsh and self-destructive on our end, the ubiquitous evidence of our single, greatest problem. In the fall, man wanted existence without divine rule and ever since that fateful day he has used all his energies, intelligence, God-given creativity to scour all reference of his creator from public view even though the prospect is utterly, completely impossible. And therein is the core desire, the central motivating aim of what we call today Atheism. That tragic day in God's garden, Self was born, and from it's unholy birth it has hated the Lord and served its own agenda above all else. Furthermore, Self loathes God because it knows that all its deeds shall one day be brought to bear and scrutinized by eyes that see all and are not hindered by any human weakness. Atheism is a philosophy that knows God exists but is bent on living as if He doesn't.

In the Scripture listed at the beginning of this essay aptly describes the very nature of man and while its context references future events during the Seventieth Week it still identifies the central aim of man even to his last unregenerated breath- life without Him. The Seventieth Week is the time when God's wrath is poured out on a rebellious world and His righteous judgment is certainly warranted as mankind cannot, during this special time more than any other deny the working and power of God in the sphere of mortal men. Man will still remain under the sway of Satan and Antichrist- by choice. Atheism is a personal philosophy, one's way of having his own way of living apart from the rule of God. The interesting allure of Atheism is that it is marketed as “a step up” from the earlier, even primitive stages of man being steeped in superstition and old wives' tales. Atheism is most certainly marketed to today's people.

Looking back at man's fall, and in particular the seductive words of Satan, he said to Eve, “you will be like God;” but man wanted His unlimited knowledge and self-autonomy, but none of His righteous character. Atheism is touted by so many prominent people, from scientists and physicists to acedemics and celebrities, displayed as the way of thinking for “thinkers,” for the sophisticated, for the learned. One of the smartest individuals in popular literary culture, Christopher Hitchens, wrote a much-circulated, New York Times best-selling book entitled, God is not Great. In fact, I own that book and have read it, and, by the way, read it aghast when he purports that parents' inculcating religion into the minds of their children is tantamount to child abuse. Child abuse! What's amazing is his use of language and depth of logic and reason as he defends his built-on-folly point of view. His main premise is that there can be no agreement between the overwhelming, seemingly unstoppable presence of evil in the world and the existence of a good, omnipotent God (especially the God of the Bible). There are countless others, from Professor Stephen Hawking to Bill Maher and while the number of atheists in the world is not the subject of this paper, the atheists mentioned portray themselves as learned, erudite- and course, sophisticated. Another centrality is that they eschew God and live in His universe, His sublime creation that declares His glory, intelligence, might, and wisdom as if Someone of great purpose had not made it. Astonishing.

The Bible says of these individuals, of the same kind who will look in the very face of holy recompense in the last hours of Man's Day and curse God, who will literally grit their collective teeth and force themselves not to repent. While not the first book of the Bible in traditional order, the Book of Job, which is the first book chronologically spoke_ of the nature of the Atheist in chapter 21, verses 14 and 15:

“Yet they say to God, 'Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?'”

The Atheists that the Word speaks of here seem most like apostates, those who know that God exists, has all power, but reject His rule over them, thereby living as if He does not exist. (By the way, Christians sometimes live this way when steeped in backsliding, living as if Christ will not hold them accountable.) Probably the most damning indictment of the mind and behavior of atheistic thinking is found in Romans chapter 1, summed up in verse 22 where the Holy Spirit says, “Professing to be wise, they became fools,” which let's us know that man, still since the Garden of Eden has not given up seeking to be like God while rejecting having a relationship with Him.

Elsewhere in Romans, the Apostle Paul lets us know that God has written the fact of His existence and Law on the heart of man and the very presence of the conscience as an internal code of law invalidates man's claims of His nonexistence. The word is clear that men literally “suppress the truth” by unrighteous living and vain philosophy. Atheism is illogical in that it denies the obvious order of the universe, the intentional structure of the human body down to the atoms and quarks of each individual cell. It has no basis and actually needs God to have any purpose in the world of men. If God did not exist, then, would Atheism?