Advent for Adults #22
December 22nd … 3 NIGHTS TIL CHRISTMAS
THE CAUSE OF ALL THE CONFLICT
“Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?” [Isaiah 14:17]
Christmas, for those who understand it, is like an island of peace in a sea of conflict. For a moment we can shut our eyes to the turmoil all around us and focus on the day that gives us genuine hope for the future. When we see all the fighting in the Middle East, and we hear of ISIS threatening to annihilate Israel and America, we are perplexed and astounded. It seems radical Muslims are determined to rid the world of Jews and Christians! Where did all this hatred come from all of a sudden? Why all this talk of war? Always there is talk of war somewhere. “And in despair I bowed my head,” wrote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas day in 1864, in the midst of the American civil war, “There is no peace on earth, I said/ For hate is strong and mocks the song/ Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Only the Bible tells us the true source of war. “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” [James 4:1] “Lusts” here means “desire for pleasure.” Because we humans are so dependent on a daily supply of food and drink, warmth and comfort, and all the perks and pleasures of life— we are prone to seize these things from others, by hook or by crook, ultimately to make sure we are taken care of— after all, it’s survival of the fittest, right? All of human history is a long litany of conquest— the strong taking from the weak. The bullies we dealt with in grade school now carry AK-47’s or are corporate head hunters cutting staff to increase company profits.
This side of human nature is often whitewashed to protect the guilty. We shy away from words like “greedy, selfish, liars, etc.” and turn them into business jargon— “driven, smart, sophisticated” —but however we disguise them from each other, there is One who understands us all better than we understand ourselves, and takes advantage of our fallen human nature.
And this is the main point I want to make today. There is One who manipulates and takes advantage, and Another who seeks to save us from ourselves, and unless we take these two into account, we will be forever running in circles. Hopefully what I say today will help you decide which One you will serve.
The reason HISTORY is nothing but a long litany of war is because of human nature, and the reason we do not thoroughly understand human nature (even in the 21st Century!) is because the truth about human beings is revealed ONLY in the Bible— and the BIBLE has been ignored, suppressed, criticized and condemned for generations! The Bible is the ONLY book that accurately reveals the cause of all the conflict— and that cause can be summed up in one sentence: we are all sinners, slaves to sin, and captives of Satan, who manipulates us to fight against God, and against each other.
There, I’ve said it! The enemy of the whole human race is Satan.
This ought to put things into better perspective. This ought to alert any wise man or woman out there as to why we Christians celebrate Christmas with such shameless joy and delight. For Christmas marks the birth of the only One who can ever free us from this monster. Once you are willing to allow that this person spoken of in the Bible is actually real, pieces of the puzzle will suddenly fall into place. In fact, here is a good place to remind you of what I’ve been saying all along: you need to follow the light you are given, and you need to follow through where it leads. If you refuse to believe that Satan exists, the rest of the Bible will make no sense. You can’t throw away a significant piece of the puzzle and expect to ever make sense of the big picture.
Remember what all good military men and women understand: war is basically deception. Satan’s entire platform is lies. He is the father of all lies. His main objective is to keep you convinced that he doesn’t exist. As long as he can keep you in the dark about your fallen human nature, he can keep you from salvation— from being “born again”— because salvation is the only solution. Once you are saved, you are safe from his ultimate weapon—the fear of death. That’s what the Bible says Christ has come to do: “… deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” [Hebrews 2:15]
That’s why Satan works so hard to keep us from the Bible. He only needs to keep us from the truth while we are alive: once we are dead, if we die without the truth, we are lost forever. He knows that if he can keep us confused, we will not follow the light to the source and become an opponent. His biggest ally is human ignorance, and his biggest asset is WAR. If he can keep us killing each other, we are solving two of his biggest problems— how to send people to hell, and how to keep us from keeping others from going to hell.
Silly human race! We fight and kill each other . When we go out on the battlefield, we have already lost the war— you see, we cannot KILL the real enemy, he is a spirit…all we can kill is his PUPPETS, his hapless victims. Have you ever thought about this?
Satan is a spirit. He can’t be dissolved or disintegrated — no human chains can hold him. Only God’s chains can hold him—“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day. [Jude 1:6] At that “great day” our enemy will be cast into hell, the bottomless pit from which even a spirit cannot escape. This pit was meant for HIM, not for YOU. “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” [Matthew 25:41]
Pretty heavy stuff, for a Christmas devotional!
But that’s what this little child in this manger in Bethlehem has come to do. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” [1John 3:8] And “the works of the devil” amounts to 6000 years of deception, destruction, discouragement, despair and death! It’s time you understood this! One day EVERYBODY will understand this. Problem is, for many it will be too late.
What will people say in that day, when the devil is finally exposed? The whole world will finally see who was the cause of all the conflict, and men will say to one another in amazement, “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? [Isaiah 14:17,18] This is the monster who sent millions to their death?
And in even greater amazement all men will suddenly realise what Christ has done for us all. For when we look back in history and think of all the brave men who have ever stood up against evil… (I think of Eliot Ness standing up to the thugs on the streets of Chicago…I think of Buford Pusser* in WALKING TALL— I think of Wyatt Earp standing on the streets of Dodge City… I think all the way back to David, standing up against Goliath…) but none of these can hold a candle to the bravest man who ever lived: “This little babe so few days old / Is come to rifle Satan’s fold / And in this weak, disarméd wise / The gates of hell he will surprise.”**
NEXT: THE VIRGIN BIRTH THE FULLNESS OF ISRAEL
GO TO START: ADVENT FOR ADULTS #1
* Buford Hayse Pusser (December 12, 1937 – August 21, 1974) was the Sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1970. Pusser is known for his virtual one-man war on moonshining, prostitution, gambling, and other vices along the Mississippi–Tennessee state line. ( WIKIPAEDIA)
** Benjamin Britten, THIS LITTLE BABE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42C42i0TGfM