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

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