It isn't often that I take a pause from my position in the trenches of ideological warfare and hang up my flamethrower for a well-deserved break. The struggle against the powers of this present darkness is real, and it's accelerating by the day.
Yet there are times to be still and sit in the realization that for the Christian, the battle is already won. When Jesus said "it is finished," I think He meant it.
When he said the gates of hell would not overcome His Church, it implied that hell would try, but it isn't my effort or your own that will stop the "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
No, that work was done by Christ and Christ alone. More than 2 billion Christians believe that God became flesh, dwelt among us, and died for our evil deeds so that we could have eternal life. This Easter Sunday, we will celebrate en masse the belief that a dead man came back from the dead and provided the promise of something beyond understanding: adoption as sons and daughters of the God who made those billions of galaxies above our heads.
It sounds like sci-fi, and yet no other sci-fi story has even come close to the power and hope of the Resurrection – probably because we intuitively know that we'll create a dystopian armageddon if left to our own human devices.
When this good news first began spreading over the Roman world, people thought it was crazy. Just like they do today!
Along the way, people created deviations of what the Bible and Jesus taught. They began tacking on additional requirements other than to believe with your heart and profess with your mouth, teaching that there was secret knowledge to be attained ("do the work"), specific qualifications that needed to be met ("become an ally"), rituals that needed to be followed ("state your pronouns and make an indigenous land acknowledgement"), and that God's character was actually different than you think ("Breastfeeding God Of Many Breasts").
Maybe you see where I'm going with this:
Most Western churches today have zero clue where heresy is stemming from in their churches. Sure, they denounce licentiousness and greed, and they'll be sure to preach about why social media and Christian nationalism are bad – they might even try to relate to the kids with a sermon on the dangers of "toxic masculinity" – but they have no idea that it's woke paganism that is destroying their members one Sunday at a time. This is why some of the largest church publications, like Christianity Today, are busy attacking conservatives who think their nation's laws should be built upon the Word of God instead of the cultists that want to chop off children's genitals and treat them differently based on skin color.
Yet woke paganism was the standard of the day back in ancient Rome. Have you ever seen a Roman fresco? Make sure to cover your kids' eyes before you do. Rome was about loving who you wanted to love, killing who you wanted to kill, and silencing who you wanted to silence – all in the name of the Pax Romana, the "peace."
As the historian Tacitus said of the Empire:
These plunderers of the world, after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean: stimulated by avarice, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor; unsatiated by the East and by the West: the only people who behold wealth and indigence with equal avidity. To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.
Modern Wokeism is no different than the paganism of old. It's just a new variety of world religions (where Christianity is the exception).
For but the briefest of moments where Christianity was followed in Europe and America and created insane human flourishing and scientific advancement, the world has been ruled by such thought.
We live again in such an age.
- The Romans wanted sex to be everywhere and expressed in every way. We've done that, and then some! Caligula himself would blush.
- The Romans wanted to kill who they wanted to kill. We do that every time we jump on board with the #CurrentThing, vilifying our enemies as Nazis and cheering in many cases when they die. In some cases, such as the situation of the preborn child, we're allowed to legally shed more human blood than the gladiators or crucifixion teams could have ever imagined.
- The Romans wanted to silence who they want to silence. The mainstream media and Big Tech have that practice down pat.
Because our situation is rapidly regressing to the first century A.D., it's worth noting that the Apostle Paul and other early church leaders addressed the exact same kind of things we're dealing with today. No, they weren't writing to the Corinthians to stop holding pride parades and they didn't have to tell the Ephesians to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions, but the same problems with relationships, sex, entertainment, work, and worship were all there.
One letter in particular, Paul's epistle to the Colossians, truly stands out as a letter for our moment in history. Paul dedicates the entirety of the letter to instructing the young church in Colossians how to behave and combat the false ideologies that were infiltrating their houses of worship.
In the first chapter, Paul makes this statement to the Colossians:
Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.
What does it mean to "not shift away" and "remain grounded and steadfast in the faith"?
Look at the churches celebrating transgender pastors and their sermons on "whiteness" and you might have a clue.
In the second chapter, Paul makes the reason for writing his letter clear:
I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.
So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
Paul wanted Christians to be firm in their understanding of God's Word, listening to the sound teaching of grounded teachers who won't lead them astray. The Roman world had plenty of philosophers and a million gods to choose from: This idea of Jesus Christ was revolutionary then, as it still is now.
Paul warns believers that this woke paganism will try to enforce "human commands and doctrines" on them, even though they have been freed in Christ.
Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
If you need evidence that Critical Race Theory, the LGBT movement, climate worship, or abortion are rooted deeply in religious thought, look no further.
How then are we to live among the pagans?
In chapter 3, Paul lays out multiple commands for life in such a time:
- Put to death your sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, for God's wrath is coming.
- Do not lie or use foul language.
- Put on compassion, gentleness, and patience.
- Forgive one another.
- Put on love.
- Let the peace of Jesus rule you.
And then, he caps it with this:
Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
There is to be order in this way of living. Wives are to obey their husbands (gasp!), husbands are to love their wives (gasp!), children are to obey their parents over their gender-queer teachers (gasp!), and fathers are not to exasperate their children (what?!).
Those who are in service or enslaved to someone must work hard, as if working for God, and those bosses or masters that rule over them are to understand that God shows no favoritism.
In his closing chapter, Paul gets to this idea: The one that the liberal church is always throwing in the face of the conservative right:
Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
The woke church leaders love this one.
Be nice! Love thy neighbor!
But notice something about the order in Paul's letter. He spent a significant time dedicated to warnings and instruction about following correct theology – or better put, loving God by actually obeying Him.
It is only after a lengthy exposition on remaining firm in the true faith that he reminds them to have "seasoning" in their conversations with others.
If only 95% of churches today would get that in the correct order.
Dear Christian, there are a million things out there competing for your soul. This Easter, as you remember what Christ did for us, know that there are many of us who still heed God's Word without twisting it. The powers behind the darkness that wants to engulf this world are growing, as was promised, but they will not win. Rage, rage against the dying of the light, and join us here in the trenches with your armor and the flamethrower of the Spirit.
Soli Deo Gloria.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
