Our False War With The devil

The battle between good and evil is ours, not God’s.

Whenever a society succumbs to decay, the prophets of doomsday pit our Earthly despair as a battle between God and the angle cast out of heaven. Inevitably, through our self-induced misery, we lament that God is losing the fight and the dark forces of Lucifer are prevailing. A cursory review of various medias certainly gives credence to some concluding the God is tiring and Lucifer is finally winning the day. In fact, many deem the battle already lost and are hedging their soul by offering Sympathy For The (d)evil.

We have reduced good and evil to represent teams on the gridiron. We cheer for our side and boo our opponents. In this scenario, the purple and gold of the Minnesota Vikings are the good guys and that other team whose home is the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field are the evil ones. We make this same distinction with brands that we support. If one is a fan of Apple products, the very endorsement of the brand necessarily makes it good, and any Android device is evil. 

The same goes for our politicians. We say in no uncertain terms, “All politicians are manipulative and cunning snakes in the grass.” That is, except for my representative, who I dutifully reelected to a tenth term! By mere casting of a ballot, we declare our politician good and their opponent evil. Thus is the rule in a society devoid of a Universal concept of Goodness. Relativism now rules the day, ergo evil in a relative world appears to have the upper hand by the mere fact that 7 billion people can declare what they subjectively dislike as pure evil.

That unholy declaration would seemingly give Lucifer the upper hand in the battle for good and evil. But what these relative declarations of good and evil bring forth is not true disciples of either camp, but superficial sycophants. On one side, we have useful idiots making the case for grooming 6-year-olds in public schools wearing the uniform of a modern radical. And on the other side, we have social media influencers promoting sports bras and energy drinks and throwing long bombs for Jesus wearing their own self-righteous over-priced virtue-singling jerseys. It is as if both sides have emerged from a 20-year slumber, and they are attempting to ascertain which team won while they slept. This picking of sides conjures this classic scene from Austin Powers "go Capitalism." Like Austin Powers’ re-awakening, we are far more interested in aligning ourselves with the side that is winning rather than the side that is good.

There is no greater cheerleader for the relative good versus evil teams than our modern churches, at least churches of the urban variety. Instead of being on team God Almighty, our casual khaki-wearing, hip seminarian graduates ascend to the pulpit praising the secular over the divine. When a hot-button issue, like pro-life is raised by concerned parishioners, our hipster-ordained minister retorts, “we cannot talk about pro-life issues because some of our members have had abortions and it makes them feel bad.” The modern churches’ refusal to minister to salvation of the pro-choice women in the pews and proactively silence the word of the Lord is as misguided and hurtful as the pre-Roe vs. Wade church shunning the unwed mother as some kind of "damaged" goods. This is not the ministry of the Divine affiliation but the result "team" affiliation.

When it comes to money, do the churches “burn the boats on the shore” and march full steam ahead with the gospel and God as their standard bearer? Or, do they acquiesce to the majority political persuasion of their largest offering plate providers? Having sat on a church financial committee, I have seen firsthand the influence large donors have on the mission of a church. It matters not whether the church is a left-leaning urban church or a right leaning suburban evangelical house of worship, the direction the leadership moves their members still falls into the relative world of picking their “good” team over the metaphorical evil “green and gold” team.

In the cosmic world of good and evil, there is no contest. God is undefeated, unwavering, and untiring. Lord nefarious, in that Universal world, stands no chance of winning and quite frankly never attempts an insurrection. If Las Vegas was taking bets on the outcome of that cosmic battle the lock is on “team” God. For anyone betting on the long-shot, team Lucifer, will most certainly regret their decision in the morning. That, plus nursing a tremendous hangover tends to make one rethink their priorities and the quality of their decision making while inebriated.

Therein lies the true battle between good and evil. It is in the individual's moments of self-doubt, self-flagellation, or plain selfishness that the forces of evil gain a foothold. It is also in the moments of personal joy, individual accomplishment, or hard-fought triumph that, through vanity, evil also stakes a claim. To be sure, this battle for our soul is not ethereal, it is Earthly, and it is real. So, if we are feeling a collective sensation of evil permeating our society, it is not because God is losing the battle, it is because individually and societally, we are losing the battle for good. Utilizing our individual constitution of free will, we succumb to pain brought on by poor decision making and we call it evil. In our moments of success, we mistake God's grace for our own individual brilliance, and when that fails to bring fulfillment and happiness, we curse the Good as well. It is precisely in this frame of mind that one sees no Light and concludes that darkness prevails. This is when the intellectuals conclude that Nietzsche, the father of idealism, was right, and they proudly reaffirm, “God is dead.”

Pleased to meet you, don't you know my name?

That is a reoccurring lyric in Mick Jagger's demonic dabbling song, Sympathy for the (d)evil. It was written while Mick Jagger was contemplating the late 60’s occult scene. Subsequently, the Rolling Stones stopped performing that song live as some misfortunes always seemed to befall the band when it was performed. Most notably, at 1969 Altamont Festival, performing that song caused crowd unrest and led to the murder of Meredith Hunter by Hell’s Angels security guards during The Stones’ set. (see reference here) To quote Edward Wayne Brady from the movie, Nefarious, "It (was) probably just a coincidence." Make no mistake, as the movie Nefarious points out, there is a battle of two opposing world views permeating this earthy plain. Undoubtedly, it is a battle between good and evil. However, do not be confused, it is not a battle between God and Lucifer, for that score was settled long ago, before He uttered the words, “Let there be Light.”