We Are Trained to Lie

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride, arrogance, the evil way,
And the perverted mouth, I hate.
Advice is mine and sound wisdom;
I am understanding, power is mine.
By me kings reign,
And rulers decree justice.
By me princes rule, and nobles,
All who judge rightly.
 love those who love me;
And those who diligently seek me will find me.”
---Proverbs 8:13-17

We live in a hyperbolic world. Through learned response, nifty adjectives punctuate most sentences, and we embellish the truth. As a society, we are comforted by grandiose-sounding plans, and we endear ourselves to illusory visions of future comfort. We ignore simple universal truths at our peril and romance sin-filled concepts of heaven.
 
The advertising industry is partially to blame for this. The terms marketing and promotions happen to be a polite way of couching the words bell whistles and bullshit. Entire research teams study stimulus responses to key words and catch phrases, and then concoct formulas to wrestle hard-earned dollars from the hands of the public at large through aspirational visions. This is the essence of marketing and sales.
 
Adding a tenth of a teaspoon of a preservative or an artificial sweetener to a box of processed cereal does not make your product “new” or “improved”. The same holds true for most beauty products labeled “healthy”, “natural”, or “organic”. The fact that 80% your beauty cream’s chemical compounds were grown outside a laboratory does not nullify the fact that hundreds of animals were murdered or mutilated testing the safety of the product before manufacturing began. Illusory claims of purity, freshness and safety are commonplace in our society today.
 
Popular forms of entertainment also shoulder much of the blame for our illusory culture. Most films, television, video games, and popular music promote narcissistic tales ladled with sex, violence, drug use, and nihilistic themes. Pleasure for pleasure’s sake is glorified and idealized, and Christ’s Commandments are routinely mocked or scorned. Given the scope and reach of modern entertainment, it’s little wonder that crime, drug use, and out of wedlock pregnancies are skyrocketing.
 
The fact that temptation is everywhere is nothing new. It was that way before the flood as well. (Genesis 6:17) That said, more and more people are turning away from the lessons learned from the flood and rejecting Christ’s teachings. Hubris has replaced wisdom, and most people have concluded that they are the masters of their own destiny. In effect, they have given the middle finger to Christ.
 
Most people who believe there is a heaven fail to accept that hell is real. They deny the fact that Christ not only knows of their sins before they occur, but also that he felt the pains of their sins upon the cross. They are under the illusion that when they die, they can plead their case before Christ, and that they will naturally be accepted into heaven. In effect, they believe themselves to be greater and wiser that the One that created heaven and the Earth in the first place.

The overwhelming rejection throughout the world of all Christ offered has reached a tipping point. On Thanksgiving Day of 2018, Christ sounded the Clarion Call, giving an audible signal to His faithful and His true that demons were on the advance and that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were preparing to take wing. In a very real sense, Gabriel has blown his horn.
 
Deep-space sonar stations around the world received this signal weeks later. The signal defied physics and baffled the world’s top scientists and astronomers. Reports of the signal were largely, and deliberately, ignored by the media and by political leaders. Predators that long ago abandoned Christ’s commands buried the story so as not to alarm the public and carried on with their personal agendas. (Ezekiel 28:2-5)
 
Christ warned that the days ahead will offer an “Abomination of Desolation”. (Matthew 24:15). He warned that men and women that have succumbed to demons will attempt to deceive His faithful about His arrival: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him.” (Matthew 24:23) He also warned that His faithful and His true would suffer through tribulations unlike any before.
 
For sons and second sons of Israel, men and women of faith, it is more imperative than ever that we take stock of the influencing factors in our lives and close the door on the ones that offer nothing of virtue. Cleansing ourselves of sensory sins brings us closer to Christ. It enables us to effectively receive knowledge of His will for us and carry His message forward in our everyday lives.
 
Christ commands us to: “Love with all your heart and hate what is evil.” (Romans 12:9) This command is the epitome of a well-lived Christian life. Weening ourselves away from the trappings of popular culture enables us to better assess the true nature of the persons, places, and things that surround us and distance ourselves from cancerous influences.

“I hate the assembly of evildoers,
And I will not sit with the wicked.
I will wash my hands in innocence,
And I will go around Your altar, Lord,
That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving
And declare all Your wonders.”
---Proverbs 26:5-7

 
CHRIST RETURNITH. CHRIST TRANSLATES FROM BEAST TO YEAST.

Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting