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In the battle for the souls of men, the notion has been advanced that God is not able or not willing to save us from the suffering and destruction we are experiencing. This concept arises from the false belief that the present world order is in accordance with God’s will. In fact, the present world order is the product of the satanic dominion, which has been allowed rulership over the earth for the time being. This concept is perhaps difficult to accept, but is plainly stated in the scriptures:

19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

1 John 5:19

30 Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

John 12:30-31

The bible makes it clear that at this time, the world is not being run according to God’s principles but according to Satan the devil. This explains the state of the world, and this point is crucial in understanding why religious people are not able to make an impact against the government policies destroying our nation.

For example, in the matter of homosexuality, it is clear that the government is intent on promoting the homosexual agenda no matter how unpopular it may be with religious people. The System is trying to re-engineer truth. The standards of morality in which we believe are now being overturned because the government tells us it is OK to sin. In doing so, they are putting themselves in place of God.

Let us review some of the basic points that have been discussed so far:

A satanic agenda is behind the present political and economic system. The "Image of the Beast" prophesied in the book of revelation is our modern media, and is being used to deceive mankind into following human governments and institutions instead of God. The most sinister goal of the media is to brainwash people into the belief that religious convictions are foolish and out-dated, so that when Jesus Christ returns (the second coming) the media will deceive people into believing that this is simply an aberration of natural phenomenon. A religious explanation is required in order to understand the present world, and the present system is destined to fail because it is inherently flawed. All of our technological systems will fail and the economy will collapse. Christ will return from heaven to de-throne Satan, and Christ will rule the earth for a thousand years.

The "Beast" prophesied in the book of Revelation is not limited to any one government or human organization, but is the entire system which controls the world. This system consists of governments, banks, and large corporations, but is not limited to these organizations. These organizations all work together for a common goal, and this goal is the satanically inspired destruction of humanity. While some people even of high rank in the system may have a sincere agenda, the overall system nevertheless serves Satan. This is clear from the results which the system produces. In this book, the term "the system" is used interchangeably with "the Beast", and refers simply to the present world order under Satan the devil, who, as the bible reveals, is the god of this age.

The system is trying to narrow our thinking. The underlying, unspoken message of conformism which the media projects, is intended to make us believe that there are only certain avenues of thought which are possible and acceptable. Only mass media has such power over people’s minds. But someone may argue that prior to the mass media, people’s imaginations were more limited because they were not exposed to a wide range of thoughts. It could be argued that the technology which enables the whole world to communicate thus "enriches" everyone with a wider range of possibilities. The author suggests that the media has in fact accomplished the exact opposite of this, and that it is instead used to impose a single interpretation of reality upon all of mankind.

This argument should be considered based on an observation of man’s previous achievements. If we recall the past thousands of years of cultural and technological development prior to the existence of the mass media, it is obvious that mankind was not impeded by a lack of media, since the media does not add to human communication but rather distorts it, by altering it from intelligent two-way discussion between two or more people, into a one-way discourse in which those who control the media "broadcast" their propaganda into the minds of all people. Therefore the concept that the media, including the internet, is enhancing human communications, is false. The author contends that while the electronic medium has increased the volume of communications which is occurring, it has actually reduced the quality and meaning of human relationships.

A recent study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University found that the use of the internet and email causes depression (Calgary Herald Aug 29, 1998). Apparently the natural human relationships which are displaced by the use of the internet has a negative effect on the human psyche. If this study had been funded by a group of anti-technology people you would have reason to doubt the findings, since we all know that various groups can generate studies for their own purposes. The convincing aspect of the study is that it was funded by technology companies, who were expecting the opposite result!

The negative aspects of electronic media are wide ranging. This can be seen in obvious examples such as shock television talk shows, in which perverted people fight over complicated personal depravities: "My lesbian lover left me for my dog." These examples are not subtle and therefore are dismissed as fringe. We do not consider them to be a symptom of media itself but rather a product of greedy television producers who will do anything for better ratings. But there is more than greed involved in such developments. While simple greed may indeed be the motive of individuals, the system itself is served by this trend. The result of massive numbers of people being exposed to such evil lifestyles is that there will be more people who will themselves turn to a depraved lifestyle, especially unsupervised children who watch these shows. But other examples which are not as obvious should also be considered. Many children and teenagers spend their time in internet chat rooms. We should question the value of a society where children are not engaged in fulfilling conversation with their parents and relatives and thus turn to anonymous discussion with strangers. I suggest this is a symptom of something very wrong.

What about email? Do not people benefit from it by being able to communicate with relatives? I suggest that we only need such communications because our corporate culture has displaced us from our relatives in the first place: this is an example of how technology first creates a problem and then appears to solve it with more technology. In previous times people were able to spend their whole lives in the same place where they were born and raised, and there was no need for email in the first place, for you could simply walk to your relatives house and talk face to face. Now that we have a culture where our corporate employers move us at their whim from one city to another, a culture in which our economic dependence on corporations requires us to leave our families and move far away just to stay employed, now we of course need communications technology so that we can maintain contact with our relatives.

Over the course of time we have "advanced" to the point where we need more and more technology to make up for the problems caused by previous technology. Therefore the argument that the internet is a marvelous communication tool which unites the world into a "global village" is foolish: why did we not just stay in our village in the first place?

But this concept of creating problems for ourselves and then coming up with ingenious complicated solutions is not restricted to communications technology. What about our modern fixation with exercise, which has become necessary only because of the labour saving technologies which now prevent us from exerting any physical effort in daily life?

We drive everywhere in our cars, and then we go to the health club and spend an hour on a treadmill. Does this make any sense?

Airline travel is also a very questionable technology. For thousands of years we survived without it, but now we need airplanes. Once again we are deluded into thinking of the technology (air travel) as a benefit because we fail to remember the circumstances which make it necessary in the first place: the displacement of human beings away from family and relatives, which is itself a result of the corporate economy.

Prior to the corporate economy, there was no need for people to leave their homes and relatives to seek work in the cities, and so there was no need for mechanized high speed travel for these displaced people to visit their relatives. Technology not only expands to solve the problems created by previous technologies, but even individual technologies compound upon their own problems. Air travel has now evolved to the point where it is no longer considered a luxury but a necessity, and as a result the volume of traffic increases so that we need bigger airports, more air-traffic controllers, and more anti-terrorist measures in the airports - and, tragically, more airplane crashes. After a while, we always end up serving the technologies which were supposedly invented to serve us.

Our debts are expanding exponentially, and our taxes are increasingly required to pay just the interest on these debts, and this is largely because we keep inventing expensive new technologies which, once created, are deemed necessary and yet they cannot be afforded, so we go into debt to pay for them.

Medical advancements are a good example. In previous times, sick people either recovered or died, and we accepted this as an act of God. Today we have so many expensive and complex medical technologies available - which fewer and fewer people can afford - that the prospect of losing a dying relative is no longer a matter of accepting the will of God but a matter of how much medical insurance is available. In this manner, technology has become a trap from which we cannot escape, because it provides benefits which are both indispensable and at the same time unaffordable and impossibly complex. In the realm of medicine, the lure of technology is most powerful because it holds the promise to extend life and alleviate suffering. But ironically, we are not able to reduce suffering on the planet no matter how much medical advances we are able to make. For example, if doctors work to eradicate one disease, another takes it’s place. And worse, war and crime have not been reduced by technology, and therefore no matter how much we advance the state of medical technology we still suffer and die. I am not suggesting we should give up the practice of medicine, but rather I am pointing out the futility of our condition. Now that we have the power to extend life with medical technology we have to deal with the question of when and how far this effort should be extended. In the end result, I suggest we have not made any real advance, for the simple reason that we have tried to bypass the simple instructions of the bible. We have tried to use technology to alleviate problems which have a spiritual cause. God promised that if we simply follow His laws, we would not have any of our present problems in the first place:

12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. 13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land - your grain, new wine and oil - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. 14 You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. 15 The LORD will keep you free from every disease.

Deut 7:12-15

3 "`If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

6 "`I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.

Lev 26:3-6

In our modern world, we cannot bring ourselves to believe that physically perceptible problems such as famine, disease or war could have a spiritual cause. We have been brainwashed into believing that science and technology are the answer to our problems, when in fact our problems are a result of not living in harmony with God. Technology cannot take away the consequences of sin, which is the true reason for our problems.

The preoccupation with science has led us to a belief system which writes sin out of the picture completely. We are being misled into believing that we can forget about the eternal consequences of defying God because technology will save us from His wrath. This is a false concept, as the book of Revelation makes frightfully clear:

8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

Rev 21:8

No amount of technology can save us from the wrath of God. The only thing that can save us is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Technology and science has become a false God in our culture. It has misled us into the idea that spiritual beliefs are only adhered to by those who are too stupid to understand science and technology. We should remember that belief in spiritual cause and effect is not limited to the uneducated. Many great scientists do believe in God and realize that their scientific pursuits are only an exploration of God’s creation. Such an attitude towards God and science - one which sees science simply as one facet of God’s creation - does not lead to a mistaken idea of science as savior. Unfortunately, when God is "written out" of the equation, we tend to think that we have become smarter than God and that we no longer need to listen to Him. This is a very dangerous idea. No matter how smart we become or how far we advance, we still need God. We cannot save ourselves. The technological industrial world we have created is faulty and is about to collapse like a house of cards, because we have assumed that we can invent our way out of spiritual problems with scientific solutions. But physical, scientific solutions are not adequate to address problems which are spiritual in origin.

Take sickness for example. We assume that the scourge of disease which has plagued mankind is simply the result of bacteria or viruses - physical organisms which can be studied and understood by looking through microscopes. But while the existence of these bacteria can be verified "scientifically", we should not conclude that the problem of disease itself can be overcome scientifically.

The present state of consumer culture in the Western world is not a natural outcome of the free market, as the system wants us to believe, but is instead a manufactured culture which is designed to create conformity to a lifestyle which makes people easier to control as servants of the system. The underlying motive behind the entire plan is to destroy human beings not only physically but spiritually - to destroy all hope and to remove from them any tendency to seek God.

We suffer from a diminished perception of God and a corresponding undue faith in technology. An extreme case of this tendency is the modern idea that we should plan to intercept asteroids which may otherwise collide with earth. Do we really believe we can avert such cosmic catastrophes as asteroid impacts, when we are not even able to accurately predict the weather? We cannot stop floods or predict earthquakes, and we are going to stop asteroids from hitting the earth? In December of 1997, a large meteor struck Greenland. The story appeared in the Globe and Mail but was quickly hushed up, because it was an embarrassment to the scientific community that they were not aware it would happen in advance.

We have become so reliant on complex man made systems and machines that we do not want to admit how totally incapable they are of saving us. Anyone familiar with the bible knows that many ancient advanced cultures were destroyed because they became arrogant against God. But we are deceived into believing that the answer to catastrophes is to turn to technology for safety. While many people see a warning from God in present day disasters, this natural and healthy response is diverted by the media, who never concede that there is divine significance to anything. Have you ever heard a CNN reporter conclude a report of an earthquake with a reference to God? The media does not acknowledge God because the media is the "Image of the Beast" from the book of Revelation, and it’s objective is to deceive people into worshipping the "beast" which is the system of governments, banks and corporations which run the world. The media’s goal is to keep the public’s attention away from spiritual matters and to focus them on money, the stock market, science, technology, and entertainment. The media is both a distraction mechanism and a human re-engineering machine. By endless repetition of certain key themes, the media brainwashes people into accepting the notion that all of our problems can be resolved by human institutions, human laws and human technology.

But this is a false doctrine, and it is misleading people into the biggest con in history. The ultimate result of this deception is that many people will reject Christ at his return, because they will be deceived into believing that the Second Coming is an alien invasion.

All modern institutions play a role in the anti-God agenda of the system. The education system, the medical profession, the Hollywood movie industry, and the financial industry. All of these are coordinated to present a false view of reality which is designed to cause people to reject God and worship the system.

Even though we consider ourselves to be living in a time of unprecedented "progress", this saying applies: "The more things change the more they stay the same."

The most basic problem of humanity is the same today as it was in the garden of Eden. It is the issue of humans’ relationship with their creator, and their unwillingness to accept that they do not have life apart from God. Every other "modern" problem which may arise is simply a variation on this question: "Do we accept God’s direction or do we go our own way?"

The system has convinced most of us that the problems we face today are of a material scientific nature, and have nothing to do with religion. When religion is discussed in the media it is usually in the context of fanaticism or "extremism". The modern media has so skillfully manipulated modern language that the very word religion is now connected in many people’s minds with negative notions. The media has purposefully worked towards discrediting religion in the eyes of the public and has offered instead the false religion of science and human politics. The media continually reinforces the idea that the solutions to our problems can be found in technology and skillful political action. Just as Nimrod presented himself as a "mighty hunter before the Lord", modern politicians are portrayed by the media as though they hold our future in their hands. If there is a problem with the environment, or the economy or anything else, we are supposed to believe that either new legislation or job creation or a new computer system will solve the problem.

The author presents an alternate view: The problems we face do not hinge upon better legislation or faster computers or lower unemployment, or lower inflation or interest rates, but rather on a much more fundamental point: are we living in harmony with God? The difficulty for the average person in accepting this idea is that the system has so powerfully convinced everyone that modern problems bear no relation to spiritual issues.

If people do not have jobs, we are told, it is because the economy is slow and the solution is for the governments to manipulate the economy or create jobs. The media has done a masterful job of reducing every issue into a simplistic material problem, for which a direct "scientific" cause and effect relationship can be established. For example: Low interest rates = booming economy = low unemployment. Once we are mesmerized into watching this equation day after day on the news, we lose sight of the fact that the real problems we face are far more serious than the manipulation of a paper money supply. For example, the natural disasters which are becoming more frequent. Floods, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes. Diseases such as AIDS. Growing crime and violence. Family breakups. War and nuclear bombs. These are real problems against which the supply of paper money means nothing. But the media are artists at distraction. The term "smoke and mirrors" applies to the way the media is used to divert attention from real problems and keep us focused on artificial problems. But wait; you may say that the media does report the "real issues" such as disasters and war. Of course they report these stories, but it is not the facts being reported that direct public opinion, it is the cause and effect which the media applies to these stories. Natural disasters are reported as being a result of "El Ninio", a weather effect which is simply a cyclical part of earth’s climate. There is never any discussion of the relationship between disasters and man’s relationship with God. The media creates a false cause-and-effect belief system which is designed to convince us that such disasters are related strictly to the physical scientific realm and have purely scientific explanations. By promoting this false belief, the media achieves its goal of discouraging people from turning to God. All these disasters should be causing people to ponder their own fate and thus turn to God. But that would mean no longer looking to the system as savior.

The author suggests that the media is the "Image of the Beast". The media is that arm of the system charged with the task of manipulating the world’s belief system. The aim of the media is to keep people’s minds from turning to God as the end time approaches. It is important to make the distinction between the "Beast" and the "Image of the Beast." The book of Revelation tells us that the "Image of the Beast" causes people to worship the Beast, which is a world ruling system.

This is a serious accusation. The author is suggesting that the news organizations of the world are coordinated in their efforts to deceive and manipulate people for the specific purpose of alienating them from God.

Satan is the God of this age. Biblical scripture makes this very plain:

19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

1 John 5:19

2 ..... the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Eph 2:2

4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers...

2 Cor 4:4

Notice that the bible refers to Satan as the "god of this age", and the "ruler of the kingdom of the air." 1 John 5:19 makes it clear that the whole world is under Satan’s control.

The Bible also makes it clear that anyone who likes the way the present world operates is not in harmony with God:

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

James 4:4

The bottom line is that our present civilization is inherently evil and destined for destruction, and we cannot put any hope in it. Our only hope can be in the return of Christ to de-throne Satan. This event is prophesied in the book of Revelation:

11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."

19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

Rev 19:11 - 20:2

When I say that our civilization is destined for destruction, this is not to say that the entire earth will be destroyed. It is the system of today’s government and media manipulated culture which will be destroyed, because this system leads people away from God. To understand why this will happen, we have to realize that the present world is organized in a way which is designed to destroy humanity. This planned destruction of humanity is orchestrated by Satan the devil. But the satanic agenda is not just to physically kill people, since physical death does not prevent a believer’s salvation, but rather to destroy the spiritual life of man by leading him away from God.

The corporate economy has stolen the meaningfulness of work from people. Trades which were once carried out by skilled craftsmen who poured their souls into their craft are now carried out by unskilled workers in factories. The aim of the modern system is to make everything into a quantifiable process which can be tracked and evaluated with computers and accounting programs, and to reduce the contribution of humans to little more than robots.

This whole sham (automation and computerization) was sold to us under the lie that it would bring utopia and less work and more leisure time, but in fact it has made life more stressful and less pleasurable. People need meaningful work which they can consider theirs alone in order to gain satisfaction from their lives.

The media has conditioned us to believe that the glamorous and desirable jobs are those in corporate employment. Yet such jobs only serve the overall corporate and government agendas. People who work in the corporate environment realize that their work is not meaningful because it is not their own work - it is only used to further the vast profit motives of the financial moguls who control everything. But even though we realize this deep down inside, we are conditioned to accept it, by the media, which is used to calm our concern. The method is quite simple and it relies on the human emotional response. When people are concerned about something, they subconsciously want to have their fears soothed more than they want the actual problem to be resolved. This goes back to our earliest childhood experiences with mom. When we hurt ourselves mom was not able to make the pain go away, but she was able to hold us and say soothing things. So we learned early to accept the idea that pain (or problems) will never really go away, but we can obtain some relief by having someone say soothing things to us while we are hurting The media, which is the master of using childhood psychology to control us, uses this same principle. When opinion polls indicate that people are becoming discontented, the media will respond by talking about it. Simply by publishing articles which appear to address "both sides of the issue" (as if there are only two options) people are subtly convinced that everything which can be done is being done. Once people become tired of hearing about the problem and the discussion becomes routine, offering no new angles, then people will conclude that the issue is dead and they will no longer worry about it.

In this manner, the media has trained us that if we don’t like things the way they are, we are allowed to cry about it for awhile, and then we must get back to work.

Your comments are welcomed. Mr. Lucas has been invited to respond to them as well. God bless.

Next blog - The Complexity Syndrome

Mr. Lucas' book can be purchased by clicking this link - PURCHASE BOOK

What are the defining characteristics of our present age? What forces are really driving world events?

This book suggests that there is an overall system with an overall agenda. The agenda is cleverly hidden behind a veil of purposely engineered economic, social and technological problems, such that we become preoccupied with these issues to the complete exclusion of spiritual and religious matters.

Issues such as homosexual rights and abortion are presented to us by the media as if they were single issues and as though they warranted single-issue focus, when in fact there is a larger more sinister agenda to which these sub-agendas belong. This book seeks to address the modern "battle of morals" by focusing the attention on the ultimate spiritual forces behind the scenes, rather than on simply arguing each issue on its own. It is the author’s conviction that the crisis we are facing cannot be understood or addressed unless it is viewed from a spiritual perspective, rather than the narrow social, political and scientific perspectives to which the media seeks to confine our discussion. It is a mistake to argue over social, moral and spiritual matters from the standpoint of a "Left vs. Right" political debate, since the real issues at hand are far wider in scope than political orientation. In fact, the very delineation of modern debate along the lines of political ideology is a clever fabrication of the modern media, and is used to confuse us into the belief that all our discussions must take place along pre-defined, media sanctioned "battle lines". One goal of the media is to make our discussion process very narrow and to fix the outcome of every debate, by re-engineering our language and by pre-defining the mood of public discussion. When one player in the game has the means to set the rules, to decide how and when the play will occur, then he will surely use that advantage to make the game go his way. That is what is occurring in the media today. While there is a vast religious population which is tormented by the flow of our culture towards perversion and homosexuality, nevertheless the system seems to be winning, and the conservative religious population cannot seem to prevent the slide. Why is this? It is because we are playing a game by someone else’s rules. We are trying to counter a force which is more powerful than we are, and on top of that we are continually drawn into modes of battle which are completely impossible for us to win. We can only get out of this losing scenario by stepping back and taking a look at the problem from the "Big Picture" rather than being confined to fight each issue within the narrow and restrictive confines which the media is imposing on us. This is the aim of my book - to broaden the view of the reader so that he or she may see what is happening above and beyond the confusing array of media issues which are engineered to distract us.

In order to present such an overall picture I must from the outset declare the terms which are now defining our world and the battle raging in it. We should not believe that there is a battle between men and women, or Muslim and Christian, or Iraq and the US or Conservatives and Liberals. These are distractions which are designed to keep us busy fighting each other while the enemy advances on all of us.

The purpose of the media driven debates over subjects like gun control is to polarize people into two opposing camps. The old divide and conquer technique. We are supposed to be so busy fighting with each other that we ignore the system which profits from our fighting. A familiar theme indeed. Just as war is used to impoverish and oppress us and to justify taxes, so too these engineered "social debates" are used to create conflict and confusion.

The real enemy is Satan the devil, who seeks to destroy all humans whether they are male, female, Muslim, Christian, American or Arab, Liberal or Conservative. Through the news media, Satan the devil has tricked us into believing that the enemy is some human ideological group, perhaps feminists or environmentalists. We are not supposed to view the battle in the spiritual terms which the bible reveals, for that would expose the true master plan which plots our destruction:

4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

2 Cor 10:4

8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

Your comments are welcomed. Mr. Lucas has been invited to respond to them as well. God bless.

Next blog - The Biggest Lie of All

Mr. Lucas' book can be purchased by clicking this link - PURCHASE BOOK

Perception has replaced utility as the measure of worth. This is due to the abnormal attention which is focused on television and movies, which now have the power to distort human thought so that people are believing they need certain things, and need to be doing certain things, which in themselves have no value. Take for example the compulsive cell-phone user. Does he or she really need to be talking constantly on this gadget - even to the exclusion of those around him - or is this simply a modern image which the media portrays as glamorous and desirable? The same is true for computer usage, which is now perceived as "the thing to do" to the exclusion of simpler and more natural pursuits which used to involve the family. Current marketing efforts are targeting teenagers to try and convince them that they need to carry around pagers to be hip and cool. This is a distortion of human needs and priorities. It is taking a great toll on us. Not only are we constantly pressured to buy our children more expensive and utterly needless accessories, but our children are directly targeted by advertising and are led to believe that their self worth and acceptance by their friends is dependent on whether they have all the latest clothes and gadgets.

Advertising is the culprit in this problem, since it allows those with money and power to influence the population in any direction which they deem profitable. If a car manufacturer is willing to spend enough money marketing a new car model there is no limit to the popularity which can be attributed to the vehicle, no matter how un-spectacular the new car may be. A mass hysteria can be created in consumer demand, simply by unrelenting repetition of media images which portray the new product as desirable and fashionable.

This distortion in human perspective is creating a great deal of harm in our society. Parents are compelled to purchase for their children all sorts of expensive electronic gadgets, designer clothes and shoes, just to prevent the child from feeling inferior to his peers who have all these items. Few of us, as parents, have the resolve to instead teach our children to reject unreasonable trends, and to teach them the value of thinking carefully about the value of the item before deciding they must have it. But this problem is compounded greatly by the damaged self esteem of many in our society, who feel that they of themselves have no value and try desperately to clothe themselves with whatever is perceived to be fashionable, in an attempt to gain some measure of acceptance in society. I believe that if we were giving our children unconditional love and adequate attention, it would be far easier to teach them to reject foolish trends which are designed simply to enrich the corporations who sell the items. It is only when children do not receive love and validation from their parents that they seek to gain it by conforming to the public "model of perfection" which is portrayed by the media. In this manner, the media and advertising industry in particular, together with the corporations who promote products, are guilty of harming society and especially children, because their greed for profit is so extreme that they knowingly deceive children into believing they must have all the latest toys and clothes and products. In our commercialized culture, we consider it a right of all such companies to pursue profit in this unholy manner, and we regard our children’s’ welfare as secondary to the corporate well-being. We do this because we have been trapped into a Faustian relationship with the system and the corporations, so that our own financial well-being depends on the success of these corporations, either because they employ us or because we hold shares of these companies, or both. The entire corporate industrial world has created a society in which individual self esteem is controlled by those who sell us products.

So it appears we are trapped and doomed to trundle along behind the system, since to reject it means to reject our own standard of living. This is the impossible dilemma we are in, and I suggest there is no way for us, by our own hand, to extricate ourselves from it. It will only change through great pain and trouble when the system we have built finally collapses in upon itself, and the entire infrastructure we have built is destroyed, (and this will occur by God’s hand) only then will there be any hope for a return to a simpler and more natural existence without the corporate industrial system which presently dominates our lives.

Now am I justified in saying that this system will be destroyed by God’s hand? Let the reader interpret for himself the following scripture:

"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. 3 For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. 6 Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup.

7 Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, `I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.’ 8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

9 "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. 10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’

11 "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more - 12 cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; 13 cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.

14 "They will say, `The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ 15 The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn 16 and cry out: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! 17 In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’ "Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. 18 When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, `Was there ever a city like this great city?’ 19 They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin! 20 Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.’"

Rev 18:2-20

The system will fall. This system has made profit for the elite of the world by trading in the "bodies and souls of men" (Rev 18:13). This means that those who are rich have become rich by exploiting the lives of human beings. The system of this world is evil and it will be crushed, and this will be followed by the Millennial rule of Christ:

11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Rev 19:11-16

Our materialistic lifestyle provides too many distractions and thereby makes God seem obsolete. Does this mean that God can only survive if He no longer has to compete with technology? No, but it is we who cannot survive if we have to choose between God and this modern lifestyle, for we are incapable of balancing our spiritual lives in the presence of the modern distractions. As it is written:

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matt 6:24

So then, the above argument should not be taken to imply that God is threatened by our modern lifestyle, for He is in charge of the entire universe, but rather it is we who suffer from it because we lose our perspective and forget our origins and our limitations, and so we are in danger of being deceived into the belief that we no longer need God. Technology should therefore not be viewed as a liberating force which "frees" us from dependence on God, but a dangerous peril which deceives us into arrogance toward our Creator. Therefore the fall of man, in which Adam and Eve desired the knowledge of good and evil despite God’s warning, can be interpreted as man’s insistence on obtaining "scientific" knowledge before he was spiritually ready for it.

We must not forget what the bible reveals will be the ultimate outcome of all this:

11 Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."

12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

14 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Rev 22:11-15

Despite the hard lessons we have learned from our present problems, we will prevail and be returned to the garden and the tree of life if we adhere to God’s way and if we reject the false allure of Satan’s system. This is not to say that it is evil for us to use technology or to live in the modern world, but rather that we must be careful not to let a preoccupation with modern trends make us forget that in the end, our lives depend on the grace of God, and we must be willing to relegate material progress into its rightful place, as a mere temporary chapter in the human experience, which can serve to teach us the futility of life apart from God, and the futility of trying to live by our own standards, for in fact it is not our clever inventions which can save us, but only God.

But we should pause for a moment from the religious aspect of the discussion, just to make the point that even if we analyze our present lifestyle in purely "scientific" terms, it is apparent that the industrial lifestyle cannot be sustained. It is totally destructive and consumes everything until it exhausts all resources, and therefore it is doomed to fail one way or another. The bible indicates that it will be brought down, mercifully, by the hand of God before it can escalate to the point of destroying the entire earth. So we should not think that God will destroy the present system because he wants to deny us this "wonderful" technological progress we have accomplished, but the opposite is true: that the system we have created is so vile and creates such misery, that it will be destroyed for our own good and replaced with a better, more natural and healthier system under God’s leadership.

Therefore the way to look at scientific knowledge in our age is this: Without spiritual maturity scientific knowledge is corrupted and destructive for us, in the same way that if you give a small child a book of matches he will burn down the whole house - only a mature person can be entrusted with fire. So it is with the "knowledge of good and evil" which we obtained illegitimately in the garden. We obtained it before we were ready for it and our present circumstances today are the result. The book of matches - like nuclear fusion - was stolen by an immature child, and we are burning down our own house.

Your comments are welcomed. Mr. Lucas has been invited to respond to them as well. God bless.

Next blog - Introduction To Section 2

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