28. Understanding the World

The world is the system of relationships by which people separated from God in the darkness of their minds relate with one another. The world is that set of arbitrary rules by which people place themselves in relationships with, over, or under other people. The world is rooted entirely in the imagination of the mind. It is 100% a confidence game, that is, a con. The world is the practice of mask wearing. . . The world is 100% false; it is simply not real. It’s hold is imaginary on the one hand, yet imposed by pain and custom on the other hand.

 

The New Testament portrays three enemies arrayed against the church: the devil and his angels, the world (the beast, the mystery of iniquity), and death. Jesus said, “I have defeated the world.” John said that it is our faith that defeats the world. In his vision on Patmos, John sees those who have defeated the world.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are very interested in defeating the world. It is part of what we do, an essential element of the Christ who lives in our hearts. The unveiling of Jesus Christ, the manifestation of the sons of God, includes the final defeat and elimination from this planet of “the world.”

If our mission, if our Father’s business, includes defeating the world and casting it off of this earth, then we must know what the world is and how it works.

First, the world is not individual people. No matter how involved in the practice of shared evil an individual person might be, the atonement covers that individual and he or she is loved of God. Second, the world is not the earth. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. NOTHING of the earth is a hindrance to us. The earth suffers under the curse as well, groaning to be set free.

The world is the system of relationships by which people separated from God in the darkness of their minds relate with one another. All relationships between humans take place inside a spirit. No connection can happen except through a spirit. Earth and heaven are intertwined and woven together; they cannot be separated except as death. The spirit through which all separated human interactions occur is the spirit of disobedience. That spirit is not one omnipresent spirit, but rather a hierarchy of billions of fallen spirits joined together by fear and lust. 

The world is that set of arbitrary rules by which people place themselves in relationships with, over, or under other people. The world is rooted entirely in the imagination of the mind. It is 100% a confidence game, that is, a con. The world is the practice of mask wearing by which people attempt to pretend they are what they think other people expect them to be. Or by which cunning people pretend to be something other than what they are for self gain.

The world is 100% false; it is simply not real. It’s hold is imaginary on the one hand, yet imposed by pain and custom on the other hand. Although the world is imagination, it is very powerful and holds sway over almost all people who live on the earth. A picture of the world and its hold over people is found in the movie, The Matrix. The world is an illusion, yet those who are caught in its grip will fight to the death to keep their place in it, including most Christians.

The world has four facets. All four are facades, masks of pretending hiding the truth – that everything is rotten to the core and utterly worthless. When Christians see what the men they vote for do in private, they will vomit – ‘nough said.

The first facet of the world is the identity every person draws from their place in the world, from their interactive connections with other people. It is this false identity coveted by every individual living separated from God in their minds that wicked men use to manipulate and control.

The second facet is what is visible. That is, the apparent governmental, financial, educational, industrial, cultural systems that we see all around us all the time. These systems hold a measure of “reality.” If you are caught speeding, you will pay a fine. If you do your job at work, you take home a pay check. That pain or that pleasure convinces you that the system is, in fact, “real.”

The third facet of the world is the various cadres of wicked men operating behind the scenes who are the actual human powers in this world. Sometimes these various groups of wicked men work together, and sometimes they work against each other. Sometimes the general population knows who they are, but most of the time no one has heard of them. The fourth facet is the hierarchy of demon spirits that anoint and inhabit, direct and torture every element of interaction between separated humans.

All four facets are operating at all times and in every situation. To attempt to look at one facet without considering the others is to miss-define reality.

Now, the world flows out of the curse God pronounced upon separated man. No part of the world is “the will of God.” All of it is hostile to God’s will, and all of it will be removed at the turning of the ages. The system of interaction that takes place between people on this earth a few years from now will be utterly different than anything we know when we look across the earth today.

Let’s start with the false identity called “the pride of life,” which works on every person. Everyone gains a self-identity, who and what we think we are, from outside of ourselves. We humans are vessels. A rock is a rock; it is what it is. People may stumble over it, something heavier may crush it, but it gains no sense of self from that; it is just a rock. Humans are vessels. We were created to contain another, God. We were formed psychologically to gain our identity only as expressions of Him.

By seeking a self-identity, mankind lost its only true identity. The result is a powerful urge inside of everyone to seek an identity from some source. There are two choices only for every individual born of Adam from which to draw an identity – Christ or the world. We draw our identity from Christ only through full acceptance of the finality of the cross and our personal union with Jesus. Relating to others through a Christ-identity is called love. It is the normal operation by which individual members of the body of Christ relate with one another.

But all non-Christians draw their identity entirely from the world. And most Christians do the same. Most Christians see themselves separate in some way from Christ. Therefore, they must identify themselves by their group. Thus, “I am a Baptist,” or “I am a Catholic,” and so on.

Drawing one’s identity from any cause or group is the pride of life.  Certainly, people get their identities from the church they are a part of, or the country club they frequent, their place of employment, or the school they attend.  People gain identity by being part of some cause or crusade, some effort to “save the world.”

We draw identity outside of Christ as us by one overpowering emotional and psychological concern. Because we interact with other people, what we think they think about us impacts our hearts and minds powerfully.

When I am around other people, especially people who have some role of authority over me, I am gripped by what I think they think about me. That is, the story I concoct in my own mind about what I assume other people think about me and how I think they will react if I do this or if I do that. And so very often, I put on a mask, I wear the image that I think they expect from me – especially those who have the power to do me harm, such as an employer, etc.

Inside this false identity are two powerful intertwined emotions. The first is shame; its counterpart is pride. The trees and fig leaves Adam and Eve wove around themselves were this false identity: shame manifesting as pride.

The greatest force of identity in this world is “love of country.” Every other form of identity pales in comparison with this largest element in the pride of life. “Love of country” is the greatest fig leaf, the greatest false identity, the greatest anti-Christ that exists for people to hide their shame behind.

Love of country has nothing to do with love of people or love of the land. Both the Civil War and the Revolution in America proved that people can “love their country” while hating half the people in it. Love of country gives people the excuse they need to kill their neighbor and burn down his home. It is exactly how Cain justified the murder of Abel to his own mind.

Leo Tolstoy wrote his masterpiece, War and Peace, largely in order to present before the world one of the most terrible questions of history. It is the same question put before the human race by God just after the fall of man. Why did Cain kill Abel? Am I my brother’s keeper (and not his killer)?

Tolstoy showcased how a time of human insanity, the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812, impacted the lives of ordinary people in the path of destruction. Here is the question he placed before the human race.

“On the twelfth of June, 1812, the forces of Western Europe crossed the Russian frontier and war began, that is, an event took place opposed to human reason and to human nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money, burglaries, incendiearisms, and murders as in whole centuries are not recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes. What produced this extraordinary event?”

Through the story, Tolstoy presents a convincing argument that this crime was not caused by any one man or any few series of events; rather, it was the accumulated personal decision of every individual involved. He goes on to say:

“To us it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and tortured each other either because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander was firm, or . . . We cannot grasp what connection such circumstances have with the actual fact of slaughter and violence: why because the Duke was wronged, thousands of men from the other side of Europe killed and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow and were killed by them.”

The god of this world has a simple trick by which he persuades humans to murder one another. He gets them to wave their little flag, which inspires them to rush out and commit horrendous criminal acts against their brother, or to give their full prayers and support to those who do commit those acts in their name.

When I see someone wave an American flag, I see next a little Arab or Pushtun girl burned to death in her bed. The one who waves the flag is the one who pours fuel over the little girl and lights the match – all to celebrate “American freedom.” The one who waves the flag may deny such responsibility, but such a denial will not stand before the truth.

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes, Cain, you are – but you murdered your brother because he offended you.

Every crime is a crime when an individual commits the crime, but the moment a “country” commits the crime, people think it is now a virtue and they thank God for it. This is always how group identity works. Why? What does anyone gain by the surface, thoughtless sentiment of loving their identification with a particular country or group in this world?

Loving the identification with the group, whatever that group might be, but especially that group called a “country,” is the highest form of self loving self that there is in this world. There is not one ounce of honesty or of Christ in any of it.

Christ does not know boundaries. The earth does not know boundaries. The countries of this world are figments of people’s imaginations maintained by violence and by self-delusion. It is the opposite of Christ. It is an identification of self drawn from the vanity and emptiness of this world. It is flesh. It is passing away.

Every part of the darkness gathers itself together to wage war against the Lamb. The governments and countries of the world lead that darkness. We dare not draw our identities from them.

The unveiling of Jesus Christ is a cataclysm. It is an earth-shattering and nation-toppling event. It is the Apocalypse.

I see evidence, almost every day, that the evil powers, both human and demonic, that rule this world, are using the church of Jesus Christ as one of their primary avenues to full victory and power simply by teaching them to wave their flags. This is not a “philosophy.” I see the direct connection between “God bless America” and the triumph of evil in this world on a regular, evidential basis.

Why would we think it would be any different? Why would anyone think that the Christian exaltation of one of the kingdoms of this world, the most powerful and overbearing in all history, would be anything other than anti-Christ?

That’s what all the stories teach us. The anti-hero, reaching for what is “good,” in order to protect himself from what is “evil,” ends up destroying the “good” by his own hand and becoming the very evil he imagined he was shielding against.

Elijah fled for his life because he spoke against the evil of the government of Israel. Jeremiah was thrown into the pit because he spoke against the evil of the government of Israel and against the temple of God. Zechariah was stoned before the altar because he spoke against the evil of the government of Israel.

John the Baptist was beheaded because he spoke against the evil of the government of Israel. Jesus was crucified because he spoke against the evil of the government of Israel.

More than that, Jesus called the Jews themselves liars and children of the evil one. He called the leaders of the church in His day open graves filled with rot. He spoke directly against the self-righteous pretending of the leaders of Israel. That is why they crucified Him.

And He told us that the people of this world would hate us for the same reasons. Jesus said to us that those who think of themselves as the people of God will kill us thinking they are serving God.

The dearest Christian saint turns into a murderer when you speak against the evil of their flag. What is a flag? A flag is that wonderful trick devised by Satan by which he fills men’s hearts with sufficient hatred so that they are able to overwhelm the natural revulsion against chopping apart or burning a living, breathing, fellow human being. Once that natural hesitance is removed by the flag, there is no evil they are not ready to commit in its name.

I just read this paragraph that I would like to include here.

“In his book People of the Lie, M. Scott Peck wrote that evil is not merely wrong-doing. Although most of us are not capable of murder, all of us do occasionally behave badly. It’s human to make mistakes, to lash out in pain, anger or frustration. This happens all the time in ordinary human relationships. But according to Peck what distinguishes evil people from ordinary flawed human beings, is the denial of responsibility. Even when their deeds are exposed and even when confronted with the immense suffering they are causing their victims, people capable of evil never admit that they are wrong and refuse to take responsibility for their actions.” Avigail Abarbanel

The writer… could be writing about the people of America just as well. “Even when their deeds are exposed and even when confronted with the immense suffering they are causing their victims, people capable of evil never admit that they are wrong and refuse to take responsibility for their actions.” These words directly apply to many Christians I know.

The revelation of Jesus Christ is the exposure of all that is evil in this world. The exposure of evil is the direct result of the appearance of the Lord Jesus in our midst. The exposure of evil is the direct result of the overwhelming love of God moving through us to redeem His creation. Yet, just as when Jesus appeared the first time, the manifest love of God moving through Him was rejected and called “demonic” by those to whom He had come.

It cannot be any different today. Jesus said it wouldn’t be any different.

“Love of country” is really nothing more than an irrelevant and meaningless human emotion. All believers are severed from it by the cross and so it actually and truly means nothing. Yet the power of evil is its ability to cause people to believe things that are not true and to give their lives defending that which is central to this fallen world and to the systems of relationships created by men from which they falsely draw their personal identity.

Now, the last thing I want to do is lay a religious charge of condemnation on anyone. No one can lay a charge against those who trust in Jesus; I don’t care how self-righteous they see themselves to be. And so I make all the dealings of God personal to me. God leads by the tenderness of example only, and He draws all with great compassion into the Lord Jesus Christ.

God does not know boundaries nor recognize modern political nations, neither does His Spirit nor His Church. The modern nation is less than 500 years old; it has arisen slowly at this end of the age. It is central to the nature of the Beast in our day. In fact this slow rise of the modern nation and modern political government from the 1650’s on IS the Beast rising out of the sea that John saw.

So what do you do with this great contradiction in God’s word? On the one hand He says that no charge can be laid against those who trust in Jesus. On the other hand He says that if you love this world, His love cannot be in you.

I hear my fellow believers blaspheme God as they exalt this bloody beast called “America.” They send their children without thought into the most evil and murderous cult in the world, the US military, where everything holy that has ever been planted in them will be ripped out and they will be trained to kill men, women, and children without conscience or remorse.

Then, these same precious brethren turn and in the next breath worship God. And the Spirit of God moves upon them and through them in tenderness and in love. How can this be?

For the same reason that the Holy Spirit continues to move in tenderness and love upon you and upon me. The blood of Jesus.

Do we then throw out this word that God speaks? Many do.

Do not love the world . . . if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

On the other hand, many would take this word in 1 John and use it to condemn their brethren, throwing out the other word God speaks —

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died … Romans 8:31-34

Is this confusing? You bet it is. I cannot find an answer to this contradiction of God in His word, though I have sought it. I cannot drop either word God speaks. But the purpose of this chapter is not to condemn anyone. My purpose is to unveil, the little bit that I can, the revelation of Jesus Christ, revealed now in us.

This truth portrayed in stories over and over is a universal understanding. When a people are in bondage or in slavery to something false, the hero comes to set them free. Only, they resist the hero because they prefer their slavery. In the end, the very people whom the hero came to free put their savior to death.

But in God’s story, the Hero rises out of death and brings salvation anyway by the power of His mighty love.

First Christians and then all mankind, enslaved by the life of this world, will see the glorious liberty of the sons of God as a threat against them personally.

Jesus Christ is revealed into this world as it is. He comes as LOVE and as SAVIOR. He comes through you and through me. All that He is we are. To set people free, you must strike their chains. But they will defend their chains, and we must be prepared for that.

To love, to strike the chains of deceit and darkness without self-righteousness or condemnation of others, to receive the blows that must come back against us with the open arms of forgiveness, and to love until all chains are gone and the glorious liberty of the sons of God fills all the earth.

This is our calling. This is the unveiling of Jesus Christ.