Satan Smiles Today

Satan smiles most broadly because he knows that by now we should know better. It was about twenty five years ago that the first post-Roe v. Wade "Christian" President came along. He was a Southern Baptist preacher who wore blue jeans and spoke with a soft homey twang and invited Bob Dylan to come over for supper. Jimmy Carter taught me the meaning of the word charmed the first time I was in his presence and he smiled directly at me. As a young Christian, I knew this nation was in deep trouble but Jimmy Carter made me feel like his election proved the Lord was in control and shortly would be glorified in this nation as He deserved. Today I am shocked by my naivete in those days. At that time I did not define the history of this nation as pre and post-Roe v. Wade. I knew that truly awful things were happening in the nation but I could not focus on them clearly enough to see the historical milestones in the road. As a young Christian, I simply did not understand the priorities defined by the Lord Jesus Christ in Holy Scripture. The mesmerizing smile of Jimmy Carter was all it took to keep me ever hopeful, and perky, perky, perky for the Lord.

Jimmy Carter did nothing to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and was replaced by Ronald Reagan and I went to seminary. One day in Hebrew Class we were translating Psalm 106, and while we were reading the following words a terrifying sense of sin fell upon me: 34 They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, 35 but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. 36 They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. 38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. 39 They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. 40 Therefore the LORD was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. 41 He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them.
That day long ago, I left the classroom and alone with the Lord realized that I was participating in a replay of the situation described in Psalms 106: I was living in a nation that was actually sacrificing "their sons and their daughters to demons."

I went to my Christian leaders and they told me they understood the dire and deadly times we lived in but that Ronald Reagan was going to solve the problem by appointing Justices to the Supreme Court that would stop the human sacrifice going on in our midst. Can you imagine the relief I felt to know that God's leaders had the situation under control and were implementing a strategy that would allay the wrath of God I saw hovering over this nation?

That was twenty years ago.

Now we have a new Republican administration. We are being led by our Christian leaders to believe that hope is on the horizon because the new administration proves that a response is being made by Christians in this nation that will give the Lord Jesus Christ the glory He deserves. While those words sound hopeful and comforting to a new generation of Christians, I am hearing exactly the same sounds I heard those twenty years ago, sounds that were long ago proven to be lies.

Twenty years ago I had no personal experience that would let me know how much Christian leaders are willing to lie to protect their power base and their cash flow. Twenty years ago I had no experience in discerning the difference between Christian leaders who are self-serving and those who are God-serving. Today I have much experience in those matters. I would be a liar if I said I didn't.

I find it confusing that more Christians do not express the skepticism I feel today. Have twenty years taught us nothing? Where is empirical evidence that would support a hopeful forecast for this nation? Are we still so naive that we think just because a President prays to a god and says the name of the Lord Jesus Christ without making it a cuss word that the will of God is about to be done?

Confusion is what a Christian President like George W. Bush brings, and God is not the author of confusion. Bush confuses people because he makes people think that he is carrying out the will of God as he goes about executing the laws that make up the federal government of the United States of America. Each day that passes with George Bush as President will see this confusion grow.

George W. Bush will be most confusing because his actions will utterly distort what the Bible teaches about God's priorities. Every day that passes George W. Bush will make people believe that God cares more about the laws passed by the government of the United States of America than He does about the lives of the people God has created to live in this nation. In other words, George W. Bush will personify the idea that God cares more about laws than he does about people.

How will George W. Bush create this confusion? Simply by enforcing the law.

In a nation that passes laws that turn the priorities defined in Holy Scripture upside down, every time those laws are enforced, one very important question is thrust out into space. Is there a God here with the power to overthrow nations that rise up against Him? In the ebb and flow of history, the God who is judges such rebellious nations and removes them from authority on earth. Such nations do not necessarily create confusion because they are never seen to be godly nations. But when God's people come to rule over such nations and go about enforcing what are clearly laws that go against the Will of God, then confusion is unleashed. Wait a minute! people think. If the laws are against the Will of God, how can one who claims to want to do the Will of God enforce such laws without himself violating the Will of God? Christians in such a position, who go ahead and enforce such ungodly laws, answer such questions by proving by their actions that they believe God sees the consequences of not enforcing the laws to be a greater threat to His will than the consequences of enforcing the laws. In other words, in such a position, the Christian law enforcement officers demonstrate that they believe God is a pragmatic God who has a hierarchy of values--priorities--that He looks at in judging what to do in real-world situations. Every day that passes, George W. Bush, and all those he appoints to his cabinet, will demonstrate to the American people and the world, that God believes the consequences of George W. Bush not enforcing the laws that George W. Bush has defined to be contrary to the Will of God will be greater than the consequences of actually enforcing those laws.

Look at the consequences that will actually occur tomorrow as George W. Bush and his administration goes about their business and you will see the confusion that is being wrought. George W. Bush has said he thinks abortion is murder. That means he says he knows that the approximately four thousand people who will be killed on Monday, and every day following throughout the course of his administration, are human beings conceived by Almighty God to live in this nation. As George W. Bush enforces the abortion laws he makes as clear a statement as can be made on earth that he thinks the consequences of his not enforcing that particular law are such that God wants him to enforce the law.

Now let us take a look at the god George W. Bush is revealing. It is simply logically impossible to deny that this is a god who cares so much about you and I and our present peace and prosperity that this god is unwilling to risk disturbing our peace even though four thousand other people already conceived by him have to be destroyed--murdered George W. Bush says--each day that passes.

The confusion I am talking about begins to come into focus when the following question is asked: is the god that George W. Bush is revealing through his actions actually God? Does the true and living God actually care more for you than He does for other people? Does He care so much for you that He is willing to see thousands of His children destroyed each day rather than take any chance with your present peace and prosperity?

But wait a minute. Perhaps I'm being unfair to George W. Bush. Perhaps he knows something that I don't. Since after all he is President of the USA and his daddy was President and head of the CIA to boot, maybe he knows for a fact that horrible things would happen that would be so bad that he simply could not risk bringing this nation into a Constitutional crisis by refusing to enforce ungodly laws. Perhaps he knows something that makes him know for a fact that many more people would be lost than the approximately forty million who have already had abortion committed on them in this nation.

If George W. Bush wants to stop sowing confusion and wants to knock that cocky grin off Satan's face, he needs to tell us what he knows that makes him certain his refusal to enforce ungodly laws would violate God's priorities more than God's priorities are presently being violated. If George W. Bush does not bother to answer that question and goes about his business of continuing to sow the confusion he is presently sowing, then you and I should at least have the grace to know that when George W. Bush mouths the word god, he is not talking about the same God Jesus Christ called Father.