Conspiracy Theory

Let me just say at the outset, "No! This is not about voter fraud or election rigging or vaccines aimed at giving you the mark of the beast. Let's move along."

Every society changes with time. It's just the way it is. But I've been noticing something interesting in observing our cultural shifts over the decades of my life.

One i've written about at length is marriage. It has been a long time coming, from the sexual revolution of the '60's to "no fault" divorce of the '70's, we finally, in the 21st century, self-consciously decided to redefine marriage from the union of a man and a woman for purposes of mutual support and procreation to ... well, it's undefined now. But it isn't "a man and a woman" and it isn't "for mutual support" or "procreation." None of that is in the definition or the picture. And, of course, with a demise of a purpose or definition, it's understandable that marriage is in decline -- at the lowest rate ever -- and children are born without father and mother family units in growing numbers and ... well, it's not looking good. That is the situation. Behind the situation, though, is an interesting fact. The longstanding, traditional definition of marriage was marked in Scripture as a depiction of the "marriage" of Christ and the Church (Eph 5:31-32). So today, if we try to point to marriage as an illustration of that blessed union, we've got nothing to show for it.

The Bible speaks often of love. Like us, there are lots of terms and/or connotations, but there is always one in Scripture that was elevated, special, different. It wasn't emotion; it was choice, attitude, and action. It wasn't dependent on the one who is loved; it was offered solely by the one doing it. The Greek word associated with this version is agape, and this version of the word transcends all the other concepts of love. This version is outwardly focused, intent on the best interests of others. It never fails. Today, of course, we've managed to redefine it. Badly. Now it is warm affection, a sort of chemistry, something that, generally, pleases us. It is often automatically connected to sex. But it is, very rarely, anything remotely resembling that biblical concept. So now when we read, "Love God with all your heart," we think, "Feel warmly toward God." When we read, "Love your neighbor as yourself," we think, "The greatest love of all is loving yourself." When we read, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35), we assume it's a warm feeling of affection for some vague "one another." We no longer have a word for agape. And, thus, we no longer have any mental connection to biblical love.

With the shift away from "marriage" as something meaningful (and descriptive) and the discarding of love as something selfless and sacrificial, but rather a passion and, oh, of course, sex, we've discarded any sense of sex as anything more than personal gratification. The notion of "I'm saving myself for marriage" is not honored, but ridiculed. The suggestion that sex has much more meaning than two bodies engaged in pleasure is considered silly. Sex just in marriage? Don't be stupid! But the Bible references marriage as "the two shall become one" (Gen 2:24) and sex as an image of our union with Christ (1 Cor 6:15). I suspect most Christians these days aren't aware of that. So our cultural shift to "free sex" (because we no longer know what "love" is) is a shift away from God's image of Christ and His body.

I don't know if you're seeing the pattern or not. It seems as if much of the cultural shifting of our modern society is directly away from ... God's primary concerns. He designed and described the world in patriarchal terms and we've decided patriarchy is an evil and, by implication, so is God. He indicated that in the same way that Christ is the head of a man, a husband is the head of his wife, and we have definitely thrown out that concept ... jettisoning His Lordship with it. Marriage as an image of the union of Christ and the Church, love as a clear picture of God's relationship with us (and that's not some warm, chemical emotion, let alone sex), sex as a picture of the union of believers with Christ's body, and now all this is down the drain. And this seems to be happening all over society where it correlates with God's Word. If God said it, we're going to controvert it. We'll deny it or mitigate it or change it into our own image. It isn't new, of course. The "Enlightenment" set out to show how we don't need God anymore; we have science. So they discarded miracles including the Resurrection and, as an obvious consequence, God's Word as meaningless. Modernism followed up with "We don't need God anymore; we have reason." Post-modernism followed up with "We don't need God anymore; we don't need to make sense of things at all." Darwin famously challenged Genesis (and, in that, God) and, although Darwinian evolution is largely discarded now, his challenge remains to this day. Prevalent cultures have made constant attacks on the Gospel, mitigating Christ, sin, redemption, hell, judgment, righteousness, everything that God intended to convey. It begins to look like a conspiracy.

And, I'm pretty sure, it is. Satan's conspiracy. Of course, "the prince of the power of the air," "the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience" (Eph 2:2), "the god of this world" (2 Cor 4:4), the "father of lies" (John 8:44) will certainly enlist his followers. Unfortunately, too many of Christ's followers are getting swept along with it, completely unaware. That's what I find most disturbing. But Jesus said, "I will build My church" (Matt 16:18) and Paul said, "In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Rom 8:37), and in that I can find peace.