By Bill Randles
Used with permission.
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (Luke 22:31-32)
I have no doubt that the warning Jesus gave to Peter is applicable to us here in America in light of the recent slaying of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. “Satan desires to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. . . .”
The traumatic events playing out in America will definitely have this effect, forcing out into the open things we have hidden in our hearts—for all to see, whether they be good or evil.
First of all, Satan is definitely in this. Of course, Satan didn’t directly kill George Floyd; the Minneapolis Police department did, particularly Officer Chauvin, when He pinned the handcuffed man to the sidewalk, putting his knees on the helpless man’s neck as Floyd begged and pleaded for his life, as did the people passing by the scene of horror. Floyd died under Chauvin’s knee.
Just a few years ago, that same police department (Minneapolis) fast tracked a Somali immigrant so they could showcase “Diversity.” (Diversity is one of the highest ideals of the “New Religion”). Early in his career, Mohamed Noor, the newly minted Somali Muslim police officer shot to death an Australian-American lady who was merely trying to report a crime. But, there were no riots or race-based condemnations of entire people groups. Neither was the media dominated by reports and condemnations of the nation. The Somali and Muslim communities were not harassed and hounded—for everyone understood that they didn’t do the crime. The officer did.1
Not everything that happens is about race, until the leftists try to make it about race in order to divide and conquer us.
Satan doesn’t directly kill people; what he does is harden their hearts, sows hatred and prejudice into men’s hearts (of all hues), and then sets up situations for them to hate and kill each other. He sends out a flood of words and images, non-stop propaganda of hate, prejudice, and corporate guilt to build up pressure, creating a tense and explosive environment.
The nightmare video of the atrocity of the slaying of George Floyd shocked and outraged all Americans, at least anyone at all of decency, good will, and a sense of humanity. There has been a national sense of outrage over this; it is not limited to the socially “woke” people of the left but all of mainstream America is shocked and disgusted at this turn of events.
Here is where Satan has jumped in to test us all, The Question is, “What evil lies in our hearts that this nightmare exposes?”
The Prophet Jeremiah warns us all:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
All of the racism, self-righteousness, violence, avarice and greed, rebellion, self-pity (victim status), and a host of other sordid vices hidden in our hearts as individuals is being forced out into the open. This test is designed to reveal all of it, in everybody.
Satan has been cultivating hatred and bias very carefully in this nation for a long time. He has conditioned many of us to think only in terms of identity blocks and not of each of us as individuals.
Satan has concocted a new civil religion in America in which there is no individual sin, only group sin. He has divided humanity into different groups, warring against each other. Some of those groups are virtuous, and others are guilty just by virtue of being in the group and partaking of the group “privileges.” Satan’s control of the media and education has helped to foster and entrench this New Religion.
According to the tenets of the New Religion, America itself is guilty; She is systemically “racist,” and there can be no forgiveness, only constant repayment for the past transgressions of the “privileged group.”
The ones who, for the most part, are truly exempt from this new civil religion are those who recognize it as a counterfeit Christianity. We have an account of the Fall of man, and it didn’t happen in 1619; it happened in the beginning, in Genesis 3. The fall is universal, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”; it doesn’t just apply to one group and not others. Furthermore, in Christ, we have forgiveness of our sins; we cannot be shamefaced or controlled, therefore, by tyrants who selectively apply history to our situation. The Truth sets us free.
But as the Bible says, not all men have faith. That very faithlessness is being revealed on many levels now.
It is going to be revealed when people attempt to justify or mitigate what appears to be a murder on a public street as well as when people attempt to pin blame and fault on an entire group of people or a nation for what a single man did. Anyone who hates blacks or whites is “demonically inspired” by definition.
The burning of property, assaulting, and looting reveals the greed and lust in the hearts of many who would make use of this tragedy to commit mayhem. What hate, lust, and murder are being revealed in this day! We remember what the previous mayor of Chicago, Rahm Immanuel, once quoted about the leftist approach to tragedy, “we never let a crisis go to waste.”
There are some at the very top of the society who are truly doing Satan’s work to further an Agenda. If only we would quit looking at the Red cape and instead see these “matadors” who seek to destroy what is remaining of western civilization by magnifying and exploiting our historic faults.
Sheer godless, demonic rebellion is on display also; as for example, the current mayor of Chicago disparaged President Trump in the vilest of terms. Hate is now out in the open; violence and even murder cannot be too much further away now.
Things are going to get ugly now as the hearts of men are revealed. Only Christ can save us; the “religion” of Jesus is the only way men can love each other and live together in peace.
Like the vast majority of others, I am horrified and grieved by what happened to George Floyd. It doesn’t matter what color he was—murder is murder; as a human being, the man was made in the image of God, and that image was destroyed right there! He was known in Houston, Texas (where he was from) as a “person of peace” who worked in Christian ministry in a high-risk neighborhood. He left people behind, brokenhearted and grieving.
The only silver lining I see in this test is that perhaps people will come to see their need of Jesus Christ, His forgiveness, and the transformation which He can make in the heart of any who open up to Him. Remember the last phrase of the verse I opened with, where Jesus tells us, “But I have prayed for you that your faith not fail.”
Chas,
Point well taken. But just want to point out that we said, “in good conscience” meaning that when a born again believer sins, he is convicted by the Holy Spirit. We did not mean to imply that a born again Christian cannot sin for as you stated, we still have to deal with our carnal nature. But when believers DO sin (such as hating or showing cruelty to someone because he is of a different skin color), we are convicted by the Lord that we have done wrong.
Actually, that blockquote was from LHT’s June 2 response to CW, not from the article by Randles. Sorry for the confusion.
From the article…
Eeehhhh… at the risk of stepping on a few toes, I must point out something; Scripture teaches that the “truly born again believer” still has the old nature dwelling within. That old nature is quite capable of hatred and cruelty for any reason and sadly, believers often tend to let the old nature take control. The notion that “a truly born again believer could never [fill-in-the-blank]” is a Calvinist error; and a hallmark of lordship “salvation”. The fleshly nature is still within the most mature believer, ready to rear its ugly head when given the opportunity.
As for 1 John 4: 7 and 8, that passage differentiates the new nature–“born of God”–which cannot sin from the old nature which can do nothing but sin. It is not a formula for deciding who is or isn’t a believer.
Though we can examine and judge the biblical validity of their stated beliefs, we can’t know with certainty whether professing Christians who advocated slavery were “truly Christian” or not; only God knows the heart. We do know that–as CW pointed out–the notion of racial “superiority/inferiority” is an tenet of evolutionism, a system of mis-information which even today seduces many well-meaning Christians.
There is black on black murder daily in Chicago and Dems do not care. Chicago never improves. Most of the babies aborted at Planned Parenthood are black. Dems do not care. Margaret Sanger, who started Planned Parenthood, or is championed by them was an extreme racist, saying that there were superior races and other races should be sterilized, something she actually did to those she deemed unfit for procreation.
“Much of what has happened has nothing to do with George Floyd.”
Everything you said is true, including this. I have not seen even One Person defending the actions of that police officer. Instead, everyone is condemning what he did.
Why is there not such an outcry when black people kill other black people? Is anyone rioting over the death of the black police officer who was killed?
Not very long ago, I saw a statistic which revealed that 75% of all aborted babies are black! That broke my heart. Do Black Lives Matter, or don’t they?
Where is all this racism happening? I get along with everyone, including Blacks. I don’t understand what you are talking about. You are free to go to college, raise a family, get a good job, vote liberal or conservative, etc. etc. I am not responsible when a white cop kills a black person. Funny that this mostly happens in Democrat cities under black leadership.
Fixing a typo: Why was he even on the force ANYmore?
The word slave comes from the word Slavic because hundreds of yrs. ago Muslims would kidnap women in the slavic northern countries to put into Arabic harems. The Hebrews were slaves for hundreds of yrs. in Egypt. Hebrews owned slaves but had to free them every 7 years if they desired to be free. The slave trade still continues in Africa when Muslims kidnap non-Muslims and force them to become Muslims. The first anti-slavery movement in the West started with Evangelical preachers and evangelists in Great Britain; this movement went west and continued with Evangelical preachers in America. Abraham Lincoln, a Republican freed the slaves. The Dems started the KKK Party which continued for many yrs. and may still exist today. A person should not be judged by the color of his/her skin but on the content of character. God does not see the color of our skin but only our heart. Racial division was encouraged by the Obama administration and friends. Before Obama there were rarely any racial riots or problems. Everyone was getting along pretty well. The brother of George Floyd is extremely saddened by the violence and riots that have followed. His brother would not have condoned the horror that has come, which is political and funded to some degree by G. Soros. Some are paid rioters. Much of what has happened has nothing to do with George Floyd. Even the Fairfax District in L.A. was vandalized–a Jewish area.
Thank you for sharing this CW. It’s sad that “Christians” get blamed by so many for racism when Darwin’s evolutionary ideologies that have permeated our schools and society have done much much more damage. And as you stated, not everyone who says they are Christian are actually that. A truly born again believer with Christ living inside could not, in good conscience, hate or show cruelty to someone who is of a different skin color. This is not compatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ. But many have claimed to be Christian then in His name do atrocities. The Lord will say, I never knew you.
PDF, you are right that racism is a condition of the heart. Very rightly so. The cruelty done to Jews and African Americans over the centuries is worse than tragic.
1 John 4: 7 and 8 are verses that say much truth: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
I agree and disagree. 🙂
A few points: 1) Not all slaves were stolen. Many were sold by their brothers. Alex Haley (author of Roots) talked about this, and there is historical evidence for it. 2) White churches did indeed speak up against slavery and also put their lives on the line to get slaves to safety. The Underground Railroad was manned by Christian families whose homes were used as stops and they delivered “packages” (their code word) to safe places. Slave hunters were hunting for them too. 3) Americans and church denominations have indeed apologized for actions which they themselves did not commit, but for the actions of people who lived in the past.
Christ Jesus made it very clear that not all who profess to be His really are His children. We should not paint all white churches and all Christians with a broad brush by blaming them all for the actions of people and churches whose actions were disobedient to the Lord.
One issue which many people miss or don’t know about (and I’ve known some who studiously ignored it) is that Charles Darwin’s seminal book about evolution Origin of the Species promotes racism. Its subtitle is “For the Preservation of the Races” and its premise is that some races are superior to others.
This is totally contrary to God’s Word which teaches us that “God has made of One Blood all men” (caps for emphasis). The teaching of evolution in our schools has led to much corruption in our nation, including this.
Christians of all races have barely spoken up against the culture promoted now which is destroying the family unit. Crime is rampant among the many fatherless among us, regardless of color. Sin is rampant and unchecked now. May true Christians not succumb to hearts that wax cold because of the abounding iniquity, as Jesus spoke about.
A lot of issues have been about race ever since African Americans were stolen by white so-called Christians and brought to America as slaves. The white church did nothing to combat slavery except for a few white Godly abolitionists. They were true Christians. The white church did nothing to combat the evils of Jim Crow. The only changes that really occurred were through peaceful protests that changed laws.
The white church especially the evangelical church (not all white Christians) has not really stood up against racism. There is a stance against abortion, which it should be, but my question is when will the white church fully stand up against racism? America has never apologized or really dealt with the evils committed to African Americans and the results are what we see today. African Americans are tired of being mistreated and devalued. I do not condone rioting and looting but understand it even though it is wrong. The left CANNOT be blamed for division…our country has always been divided!
Racism is a condition of the heart until the heart changes racism will continue. This is why the gospel needs to be preached and at the same time, the white church needs to speak out and fight against the evils of racism. I believe that if so-called Christians would have fought racism in the past and not had been purveyors of it, we would not see what we see today.
I did not know about the Mohammed Noor incident; that is a clear example of the huge double standard/atrocity which causes so many major problems in our nation, including the riots which have been going on for days/nights now.
From all I’ve heard and read, Officer Chauvin in Minneapolis should not have been on the police force. He had had multiple incidents of misusing his authority. Why was he even on the force even more? Those who condoned his ill behavior by keeping him on the force should also be held to account for his wrongful actions.
The title of this article is so true, and the Lord has been emphasizing Ephesians 6 to me for quite some time (“For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places; therefore, take unto yourselves the whole armor of God …”.
ALL true Christians need to be interceding for this issue and every other evil issue afflicting our nation, right now. The LORD is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we can ask or think! Ephesians 3