DIABOLIS

 "And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth to gather them for battle".  Revelation 20:7.

"We should not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices*".

2 Corinthians 2:11.

Back in the 1970s, the Banner of Truth - a prestigious publisher of reformed literature - printed a work entitled 'Satan Cast Out - A study in Biblical Demonology' by Professor Frederick Leahy. The work had been generated by the observation by missionaries in many parts of the world of an increase in demonic activity and possessions. Around the same period, Psychiatrists and Doctors working in the West also began to notice a growth in patients coming to them with extremely elevated anxiety due to suffering from a phenomena known as night terrors (please note - the link is to a highly disturbing Channel 4 documentary that shows very real examples of this phenomena).

All of this is stated as a prelude to express one very disturbing truth. Since the rise of modernism in the 1700s through the diabolical ideologies that fuelled the French Revolution and, later, the rise of the Nazi and Communist states, we have witnessed the opening of a fresh gateway amongst human cultures of access to what is, clearly, an ascendance of evil (See Dr Francis Schaefer's classic study, The God Who is There).

Modernism has sought to eradicate the Christian narrative from the mainstream culture. The secular approach to value and identity has been driven forward through employing the twin engines of "Science" (actually, Scientism - the belief that a particular approach to life through a form of thinking consumed with materialism will satisfy and prove sufficient entirely without any other points of reference) and Technology, seeking to reduce all that we are and all that truly matters to what we 'know' in the here and now (here's an example of such thinking, giving by leading atheist scientist, Sam Harris). The method of overthrow of the classical understanding of humanity (See C S Lewis' The Discarded Image) has been Education. In previous generations, robust discussion and debate was possible in respects to the themes of presuppositions (see Schaefer), but the 20th century witnessed the dissolution of such approaches in learning as first a modernal and then a post-modernist ideology was embedded and then flourished in the contemporary world. As Nietzsche had predicted, once such ideas held the high ground, the horizon (theology) would be wiped from our view.

The changes that have occurred as a result over the past sixty years, especially to Western culture have been total. Where what we sought to do and why we did this was once based upon the Christian suppositions in respect of love for God and Neighbour, the contemporary value of everything, particularly human life, is now evaluated only in respect to utilitarian considerations. We are fast approaching the point where such considerations may well be removed from ourselves (human decision making) entirely, based instead on a set of "humanistic" values pre-set and fixed as the Algorithms used by Artificial Intelligence systems (and by the way, such A I is already being employed in many of the databases that provide us with everyday technology that we use for everything from food shopping, to health records, to paying our bills - technology is now becoming so commonplace that it connects your home appliances to such data collection systems).

What are the consequences of all of this?

Dr John Lennox, building upon the terrifying vision provided by C S Lewis in 'That Hideous Strength', provided a chilling examination of this brave new world a few years ago.

This all, clearly, has immense bearing upon the present world crisis.

Unlike previous periods where a virus has caused disruption in modern times (especially in the post World War years), we have witnessed a process on this occasion of governance into every realm and aspect of individual life, seeking to conform society on a global level to particular forms of behaviour and wholesale subscription to a singular remedy to the problem. This has all been derived from a singular ideology in respect to the power of science employed in technology, driving and directing what has unfolded as "our" solving of such matters with reference only to our own resources.

The scriptures are so clear in respect to the results of such delusion.

When a 'king' arises who seeks to set his own 'sound' agenda for his subjects and the environment, like Ahab, resourcing the methods and means devised by the priestess Jezebel, then the Lord will plague the peoples and their lands, using judgement as the means to drive them to repentance.

The truth of where our present evil has lead is now beginning to emerge, and it is most disturbing.

When a people make policy to undermine the truth nature of what is essential to both identity and eternity, then judgement must follow.

The days are indeed growing darker, so may the "two witnesses" (the testaments, Old and New) be raised in our streets once more, that Wisdom may speak her health amongst us and bring life to those who are dead.

The need of the hour, is the GOOD NEWS.

Whatever the manner of trouble or distress, this truth is our one true remedy - the "armour" that we are told to wear in this hour (Ephesians 6).

* A worthwhile read on this matter is Warren W Wiersbe's book, The Strategy of Satan. Professor Leahy's study is also highly recommended.