From the Pasor’s Heart OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
For all the political instability that we are facing today, for all of the turmoil that we see in the streets, and for all the spread of the pandemic that we seem unable to control, we might conclude that something is extraordinarily out of kilter in the land.
If my grandmother were around, she would analyze it and conclude simply that the demons have taken over our whole culture. Pharaoh’s magicians would say, “This is the finger of God.” (Exodus 8:19).
William Butler Yeats’ poem, The Second Coming, filled with violent and mysterious symbolism, describes civilization’s collapse, ultimately leading to the rise of a new “rough beast.” Yeats said that this creature is “the Sphinx,” that would get angry about “the babe in the rocking cradle” that came to Bethlehem. The spiritual interpreter Ellen White came to the same conclusion over a century ago.
In reflecting on conditions before the first coming of Christ, she said the following:
“The fullness of the time” had come. Humanity, degraded through ages of sin, called for the coming of the Redeemer. Satan had been working to make the gulf between earth and heaven deep and impassable. He had made people bold in sin. He intended to wear out the patience of God so that He would abandon the world to Satan’s control.
Satan’s battle for supremacy seemed almost entirely successful. . . The dark shadow Satan cast over the world grew deeper and deeper.
All the agencies for corrupting human hearts had been put in operation. The Son of God looked on the world with compassion and saw how men and women had become victims of satanic cruelty. Bewildered and deceived, they were moving on in a gloomy march toward death in which there is no hope of life, toward night after which comes no morning.
The bodies of human beings had become the habitat of demons. Supernatural beings worked people’s senses, nerves, passions, and organs in indulging the most shameful lust. The stamp of demons was imprinted on human faces. What a spectacle for the world’s Redeemer to behold!
Sin had become a science, and vice a part of religion. Rebellion and hostility were violent against heaven. The unfallen worlds had expected to see God sweep away the inhabitants of earth. And if He had done this, Satan was ready to carry out his plan to gain the allegiance of heavenly beings. He had claimed that the principles of God’s government make forgiveness impossible. If the world had been destroyed, he would have blamed God and spread his rebellion to the worlds above. (Taken from Desire of Ages and put into Modern English in a book called Humble Hero, pp. 114-115).
Do I need to quote more contemporary observations to provide statistics to ask for your agreement that the forces behind our present conditions are demonic? Two of the above thoughts have kept me in deep contemplation, and I must repeat:
“All the agencies for corrupting human hearts had been put in operation.”
“The bodies of human beings had become the habitat of demons. Supernatural beings worked people’s senses, nerves, passions, and organs in indulging the most shameful lust. The stamp of demons was imprinted on human faces.”
Do I need to set forth a quiz by asking you to say True or False? When I taught college and university, I did not always admit what I am admitting now as I reflected on the conditions of the 60s and 70s. I talked about the raw emotions of the civil rights marches. I spoke of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedy brothers. I allowed my students to listen to Martin and Malcolm’s speeches and talked about how the one saw America as a land of dreams. In contrast, the other saw America as a nightmare. My reflections were deep, but as I see today’s occurrences, I have to use the line of James Weldon Johnson “Blacker than a hundred midnights,” reworked by Suzan Straight in her Novel, “Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights.”
Do not think that I am “a prophet of gloom and doom,” but I think we are unwilling to face the reality of the present world of demons as they are being manifested all around us. In our digito-technical culture, we have become so sophisticated that we fail to recognize the demonic presence and the mysterious powers bringing so much havoc in the land. If at all, we fail to admit the realities of the demons among ordinary people, we need to look at the socio-political administrations of our world.
· Why is there so much oppression?
· Why so many wars?
· Why so much money is being spent on ammunition when children are being left to die from starvation?
· Why so much conflict between people under the guise of race?
· Why so much fake reports and falsehood in the news?
· Why so much injustice in the court systems?
· Why is it that evil people are getting away with so much corruption?
Based on what has been laid out, shouldn’t we conclude that there are entities possessing people and tormenting them today? When Jesus was here on earth, he cast such entities – “evil spirits” out of many people. And I am concluding that we need such a Jesus intervention now. National Guards into our streets will not do it. Providing more guns is not the answer; such will only give greater force to demonic manifestations. Our political leaders have no power to cast out such demons. This is why we need to call upon those who understand the tragic darkness in which we are being caught to come together, ask God to let us seek his grace and pray for leadership that will not give way to the demonic. Pray that the God of heaven will take control of the present situation and that the demons might be destroyed forever. .
