Special Effects
One of the most important lessons we can learn is that the adversary has no self-manifested power. His power comes from what already exists in the form of deception and illusion, and therefore it is mostly only perceived power. With no ability to create, he must pervert, subvert, distort, and destroy things that were already created in order to engineer the outcome so that he appears to be seated on the throne, rather than God.
If you’ve ever read The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you’re familiar with the wizard, Saruman. The movies touch on this aspect of Saruman a little bit, but the books provide much more detail about what his real power is. When Saruman speaks, he is so cunning and deceptive, that his tongue charms people into doing what he says. His name, in the Anglo-Saxon, literally means, “man of skill or cunning”. While we tend to think of Sauron as the allegorical equivalent of Satan, Tolkien admitted that he didn’t write his books as an allegory and that there’s no one-to-one ratio between the characters in his book and the reality in which we live. Rather, there are elements of the good and evil that we experience in our reality found in several of the characters. There are multiple Christ-like figures and multiple satanic figures.
That is to say that the dragon, our adversary, is represented in the ultimate evil of Sauron and the silver tongue of Saruman. He is a deceiver, and the originator of lies. He is the original master of special effects.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44
The Plot
The goal of the enemy is to destroy humanity, and thereby hurt God. He hates God. He hates that God is creator and that he was not endowed with that ability. He hates that God created mankind in his own image and gave us the same characteristics as himself…including creativity. He hates that we have free will, and therefore, the ability to love and be loved.
He can never be God.
He can never be loved.
He can never love.
He can never create.
Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
Yet, he saw in our free will, something that he could exploit, for if we can choose to love God, we can also choose to reject him.
We all know the story of paradise lost.
Here’s where the plot gets exposed. Spoilers ahead!
Satan doesn’t merely want to destroy us (humanity), he wants to pervert our humanity first – to strip us of any dignity, any creativity, any higher thought, and have us grovel in the mud like pigs. He wants us to devolve into something animalistic – to act instinctually and emotionally, rather than through love, logic, moral reasoning, and creativity. He wants us to react to stimuli through our amygdala (fight or flight) rather than to process information through our pre-frontal cortex (our conscious mind).
The evidence is all around us…or did you not notice? Have you ever turned your device off, looked around a restaurant, and observed everyone else with their heads down, eyes glued to their phones? Have you noticed people in your city laying on the horn and flipping the bird to any person that dares cause them any inconvenience as they hurry around to wherever it is they’re going? Have you not sensed the massive cultural push to identify people by their skin color, gender (or non-gender), and sexuality? Many young people these days will respond to the question, “tell me a little about yourself”, by first describing their sexual preference or gender identity, as if that had anything to do with who they are.
The loveless life is a life lived on the level of animals with a concern only for oneself, no matter what the cost to other people.
– Leon Morris
Have you noticed the lack of original art, music, writing, and even movies and tv shows? Everything these days is a rehash of something that was created in a previous generation…often with some tilt toward brain-numbing stupidity. None of this is accidental. It is the plan of an invisible enemy to strip mankind of it’s image-bearing characteristics and to have them constantly divided, raging at each other over superficial things, with no higher-level thought, self-awareness, or self control.
It would appear that he is winning.
Instruments of Control
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
– Aung San Suu Kyi
It’s easy to blame all of the evil in the world on governments, terrorists, or some ultra-radicalized group, but the truth is that there are forces behind the scenes that pull the levers of power for these groups. They are the puppet masters, and while they claim they are making decisions for the betterment of the earth and mankind, these self-proclaimed “elites” have placed themselves on the throne instead of God. The puppet masters use outlets of influence to trick, coerce, and manipulate people into giving up their freedom and sovereignty of thought. They are entrenched in media, governments and government agencies, agriculture, education, and even religious institutions to keep people in a state of dull-mindedness and utter apathy.
Fear is the instrument they use to convince mankind to go along with their plots, deception is the instrument they use to keep us fooled that our enslavement is for our own good, and apathy is the instrument they use to keep mankind controlled. An awake people is a dangerous threat to the purveyors of lies. A people of wisdom and understanding cannot and will not be fooled or enslaved.
The fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 are not just a list of good things that act as evidence in a person’s life when they follow God, they are the required characteristics of a free and sovereign people. A people that demonstrate these qualities and act with integrity consistently, can be trusted to govern themselves and their households. The enemy knows this, which is why there has been such a concentrated effort to degrade the moral and intellectual integrity of families for generations. A unified country of people with the character of someone like John Adams would be unstoppable and uncontrollable.
Fear must be used to interrupt conscious thought patterns and evoke an emotional response to negative stimuli. That person can then be easily persuaded to agree to a proposed solution that would have them give up their freedom for security (deception). This is the job of the media organizations – news, entertainment, and social media. The system of systems holds the power to these information distribution centers and dictates what we can watch, read, and listen to. The news and social media arm of the system of systems distribute fear and deception as a retailer would it’s products. Once the purchase has been made, instruments of apathy are brought in to lull people into a deep sleep of comfort, pleasure, and ignorance through the entertainment arm.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
– Benjamin Franklin
These tactics have been at work ever since mankind formed organized governance. There is nothing new under the sun. Technology has just made the people easier to control now. But it is the duty of the people to recognize the enemy for who he is, to be vigilant, and to work to maintain high integrity and character in everything they do. This system of a wicked and perverse people – this whore of Babylon – can be toppled quite easily, if the people are awake and willing to live as free people who fear only God.
Man’s lust for power, riches, and pleasure
The same temptations that Satan used on Jesus as described in Matthew 4, are the same temptations he has used on mankind since paradise was lost after the fall. Power, fame, wealth, pleasure, security…all the things that mankind is naturally attuned to are whispered to us day and night by every influence imagineable. Our hearts are prone to wander, and so we listen intently when the offer is made.
Give a man some power and money and he’ll thirst for more. Give him more and he’ll be wiling to kill to keep it. This is why those that belong to an established ruling class will stop at nothing to destroy anyone who tries to tear their empire down. They don’t believe in an afterlife, so if there’s nothing beyond this life, they must make themselves gods while they are here, and then pass their god-hood on to their bloodlines.
Most of those who have fallen prey to these temptations never realize that they have been imprisoned.
The legendary band, The Eagles, wrote a song about the emptiness of pursuing fame, riches, and pleasure and the ensuing self-destruction that inevitably occurs from the pursuit. Perhaps you’ve heard of the song, “Hotel California”? Growing up, I was told this song was about suicide. It turns out that it had nothing to do with suicide. Glenn Frey was inspired by a John Fowles novel called The Magus, which follows this familiar story arc. Don Henley agreed that it’s a cautionary tale about the self-destructive nature of chasing the carrot of fame and fortune and living a life of greed and hedonism.
Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on iceAnd she said, “We are all just prisoners here of our own device”And in the master’s chambers, they gathered for the feastThey stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beastLast thing I remember, I was running for the doorI had to find the passage back to the place I was before“Relax, ” said the night man, “We are programmed to receiveYou can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”
What they intrinsically felt and what they likely observed during their rise to fame, was that what we have all been sold – this dream of fame, power, and money – is actually a trap to enslave us. Those who have chased the rabbit down the hole have found an empty void, yet they can’t stop lusting for more.
The Denouement
Denouement (noun) – de·noue·ment: the final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a novel, play, film, etc.
The final outcome has been set. Satan, in all of his cunning and wickedness, is no match for the Almighty. He is fighting a losing battle, whether he knows it or not, but he is determined to take as many image-bearers out along the way as he can. The whore of Babylon, this woman behind the curtain, is his system of corruption and depravity, and the depraved of the earth not only fall for her siren call, but they use it themselves to charm the masses into voluntary slavery.
So, how does the whore of Babylon get overthrown and her plot exposed? The people must be awakened to what’s really going on in this world. They must refuse the life that Stephen R. Covey calls “pleasure centered” and return to a “principle centered” life. They must embrace the salvation that only Christ provides, reject what is evil, and cling to what is good. They must be freed from the chains of their past, their perceived limitations, and their reactionary tendencies. They must learn to think critically, to live as free people, to embody self-control, and to pursue wisdom and discernment.
More than anything, mankind must do what it was created to do – to be in close relationship with it’s Creator and to create from that closeness. We are image-bearers and when we are acting in our true image-bearing ways, we reflect many of God’s characteristics. The foundational aspect of God that all the other aspects are built on is that He is Creator (Piitís-Thæόs – in the Greek, means Creator-God). When we imagine, innovate, and create, we imitate Him as a child would imitate its father.
In the act of creating, the soul imitates God.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
When we are in alignment with God’s purposes and we create from a place of freedom and abundance, the results are staggering and world-changing.
George Washington Carver was shown 100 different uses for a sweet potato and over 300 uses for the peanut because of his natural curiosity, imagination, and his atunement with God’s voice.
Michael Faraday, an English physicist and chemist, was instrumental in the discovery of electromagnetic induction and electrical currents. If not for his work in the 19th century, we would not have electricity or many of the scientific breakthroughs we had in the 20th century.
In your mind’s eye, are you able to see the beauty and intricate detail of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by the master artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti? Is your mind able to play back the soaring chorus of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony? All good things and all beautiful things come from God. When He is able to use a man or woman to create using the gifts He has given them, whether in science, industry, art, music, writing, teaching, or something else, the outcome shakes the foundations of the kingdom that Satan had set up for himself.
The richest contributions to the benefit and advancement of mankind have been from men and women who have allowed God to use their gifts how He saw fit.
What Then Shall We Do?
Love casts out fear; but conversely fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth.
– Aldous Huxley
Satan’s tools are fear, deception, and apathy, remember? Well, fear can only criticize, tear down, and destroy.
Now, the opposite of fear is not courage. It’s LOVE. It’s out of love that we create good things, beautiful things, pure things, beneficial things. It’s out of love that our imaginations soar and our problem solving abilities come to the surface. It’s out of love that we innovate and make others’ lives richer.
What we need is a great awakening and a new renaissance. We need an outpouring of God’s spirit and then an overflow of imagination, innovation, and creativity that spills over onto the people around us.
It’s when we operate out of a place of love, freedom, and abundance, that fear is dispelled and the woman behind the curtain no longer holds power over us.
In your fair minds let this acceptance take
In John’s visions of Revelation, few images are as provocative and enigmatic as the Whore of Babylon. Clothed in scarlet and adorned with gold, she represents the seduction of corruption, the allure of power, and the devastation wrought by unchecked greed. Chapter 17 paints her as the ultimate symbol of humanity’s descent into selfishness and idolatry—a stark reminder of what happens when we stray from the path that God structured for us.
Yet, within this apocalyptic vision lies a profound truth: the antidote to her influence is not found in fear or force, but through love, and the relentless pursuit of all things good. Her defeat is written not through destruction but through the transformative power of grace through faith in Christ, compassion for our fellow man, and the building of a world rooted in our image-bearing qualities.