A Strong Delusion - Capitalism and Democracy

Capitalist democracy is driven by the fallen nature of human beings. Think deeply upon that. Fallen sinners, with a light sprinkling of saints, ruling themselves through other elected fallen humans with a very light sprinkling of professing believers. Is this the kind of government God would create and endorse? Are we actually saying God desires fallen sinners to rule in His form of government? And in reality, we are a representative republic which governs through the sinners other sinners elect. And that convoluted mess is what God wants for His church?

Sin begets sin. And even if all the “founding fathers” were raging evangelical believers, which is absurd, the governmental structure they created is by design a format for sin. Capitalism is an instrument for greed, compromise, and the thirst for money and things. It is very difficult to understand how the western church has embraced such a system that is antithetical to Christ and His teachings. But the love of money along with the obsession over temporal things is an extremely strong deception. And like a black hole, when anyone embraces and participates in such fallen systems they are soon captured by its lies and many times they begin to champion those same lies. Get too close and you become a part.

But one of the most diabolical deceptions is this notion that we are free people. Now if you mean that we are free to make money, save money, spend money, create disgusting entertainment, watch pornography, get drunk, go to war, say blasphemies, worship idols and demons, then yes, we are free in that sense. But if you are speaking in terms of spiritual freedom, then no, we are not free. In fact, we are in deep bondage. And if you believe that the pitiful and redundant expression of Christianity exhibited by the western church is spiritual freedom then your definition of freedom is fallen.

Does God encourage, and in fact protect, the worship of idols? The first amendment guarantees all idol worshipers, including Satan worshipers, the freedom to do so and the governmental punishment to anyone who would restrict such a practice. That does not sound like the kingdom of God. Does God set up a system that protects sin? He doesn’t. Far from being free, the western culture is Orwellian at its core.

What really rules this culture? Sin, of course. But what vehicle actually manipulates it? Information fed through all sorts of mediums. Television, radio, internet, work conversations, newspapers, magazines, and others means by which information is manipulated and fed to the masses. A myriad of different factions capture the minds of listeners and reinforce all sorts of untruths and half truths. While proclaiming itself to be the zenith of earthly freedom, democracy is a bondage bully.

It actually brings forth the most vociferous and committed factions and provides an open forum which is almost always contingent on one basic variable. Wherever the most money is spent is usually equal to the most number of minds that are captured. And the maxim continues: You believe what you hear and you become what you believe. And energetic forces vie for the leverage to change minds. And in fact, democracy has indeed changed hearts and minds until most factions operate within that system very nicely, including the church.

It is impossible to remain faithful to the practice of God’s Word while being involved with a system that is at odds with God’s Word. You may retain an orthodox statement of faith, but you cannot exhibit the teachings of Jesus while exhibiting the teachings of the flesh. They are incompatible. And the more you are operating within such a system, the more you become blind to its negative effects on your spirit, and in fact, the more that system changes your very view of the faith.

And this kind of sophisticated bondage is extremely clandestine and hides within evangelicalism. You may hear men of God decry the compromises and heresies of Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Robert Schueller, or Rob Bell, and yet those same men will stand shoulder to shoulder with those false teachers and pledge their allegiance together to a fallen system. Do they not see the blatant inconsistency? Is it not obvious that something is very wrong?

But this is how democracy works. It erodes Biblical convictions and it blinds us to the kingdom of God. We are consumed with national interests and economic concerns, and in so doing we severely compromise our convictions to God’s Word and God’s kingdom. And the evil one saw how he could not be effective in seducing us to openly embrace our fallen nature and its effects, so he seduced us into embracing a system wherein those effects could flourish. And so they have, and so they have.

In Orwell’s novel, “1984”, he describes a culture that is manipulated by a consistent diet of information contrived by the government and meant to control. The people worship the entity named “Big Brother” and they believe all kinds of absurd mantras suggested by this Big Brother. “War is peace” and “Ignorance is strength” are but a few. But when we assess Orwell’s overarching theme, we can see that we in the west have become pawns to what information we believe.

But what about the church? We are not of this world.

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

The church has slowly but surely gotten herself all entangled with the affairs and systems of this world, and to relieve the obvious tension she has embraced them as God’s will. Nothing could be further from the truth and nothing is as obviously in conflict with the life and teachings of the Author of our faith. Capitalism and democracy may seem logical and reasonable when assessed through a comparative prism of all other systems, however that can never be the prism through which we as believers assess anything.

This deception it is ever so subtle. If we let down our guard and begin to see things through earthly eyes, the process of compromise has begun. And being reinforced by other believers, we are on our way to a full blown compromise that actually obscures, and in some cases fully changes, the gospel. It is inevitable. And without notice our spiritual allegiance to Christ and His Word morphs into a nationalistic allegiance with some moral accoutrements. That, my friends, is not the faith once delivered to the saints.

What seems right is in reality wrong. What seems wrong is many times right. There can be only one allegiance and that is to Christ. And our hearts and minds must be continually washed through His Word and we must do sentry duty to avoid the incursion of the spirits of antichrist which seek to dilute our commitment to Christ. And these incursions are very subtle and come in through such Trojan Horses like morality, nationalism, money issues, ethnic hatred, political agendas, and other subtleties. It’s not that we desire to stray from Christ, but it’s the nature of deception.

I commend all of us to reexamine and thoroughly digest the entire New Testament once again. In 2004 I challenged 100 Sunday School attendees to read from Matthew through Jude in two weeks. And while they read I asked them to see what the theme of the Scriptures was as it pertained to money. Many people did read that portion in two weeks. And those that did were actually amazed and disturbed by what they read. They came to the conclusion that the teachings of the New Testament were at odds with what they hade been told about money, material things, national interests, and democracy as a whole.

Again, these are no small issues since they actually do affect how we see our Lord, how we serve our Lord, and how we worship our Lord. And in these last days it is imperative that we return to a sacrificial exhibition of discipleship to our Master. Away with all these nationalistic allegiances and these worthless political wranglings. Away with all the hatred toward lost sinners and the constant clamoring for more economic benefits. Away with these unholy alliances with the children of darkness and the embracing of violence as God’s way.

Our kingdom is a theocracy, and the Risen Christ will not share His glory with any person or system of this world. Bow before Him and place all your views, perspectives, and all the things you were were taught and surrender to the purity of His Holy Word. We cannot serve two masters. If Christ is Lord of all, then serve Him and Him alone. Forever.