Posted on 01/14/2011 2:47:12 AM PST by Scanian
One of the first books that made me thirst for God was, ironically, about His polar opposite. The book is Andrew Delbanco's The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil,
The author describes the disastrous results of Americans rejecting the concept of evil. When Satan was alive and well, citizens practiced the Ten Commandments, atoned for their sins, and worried about eternal damnation. But today, inhabitants eschew the devil as an anachronism of days gone by.
And what has been the result of the Death of Satan? More bloodshed than ever before in the history of humankind. In the 20th century alone, hundreds of millions of people were murdered by genocidal regimes.
And yet, why would banishing Satan result in a less civilized society? Because without an understanding about how good and evil work, people are stripped of Divine intelligence.
The number one rule in warfare is this: Know thy enemy, whether it's Radical Islam or evil. Yet, most Americans, with heads firmly buried in the sand, have no idea how to cope when darkness rears its ugly head.
Their default is to find scapegoats, projecting all badness outwards. Liberals routinely scapegoat conservatives. Yet, by smearing an entire group of people, liberals become part of the evil themselves. Scapegoating is the quintessential feature of evil, says M. Scott Peck, in his seminal book, People of the Lie.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Once God was banished from the public square, the politically correct religion of moral relativism, diversity and tolerance rushed in to fill the void. Men think they are God.
That mugshot of the AZ shooter, which showed by his eyes how “demonic possessed” he is.
AMEN, second it.
When we the people allow the Congress— the Courts-and the Executive to pretend the First amendment says what the clear meaning of the terms used as understood when the Amendment was adopted we opened the door to the present darkness. When a Memorial cross erected in 1934 on Sunrise Rock by Veterans of
WWI.when that memorial is now construed as some violation of the Establishment clause— either the courts or the written constitution are WRONG. And the Devil comes in. T’anks for the invite to what appears another excellent read-worth looking into.
Jesus spoke of the devil as real and cast out demons but about half of the people who call themselves Christian have no idea that supernatural evil exists.
Ever here on FR the Liberalism is dumb crowd outnumber the ones who rightly see it as evil. It’s interesting that the left has no qualms with admit to the existence of evil. Only they identify godliness as evil, hence the visceral hatred of Palin.
The struggle of good versus evil is more significant than anything political. An election alone can’t deter us from the headlong rush to Gomorrah.
What we are seeing are the beginning steps to the silencing of dissent and even the eradication of certain voices especially the Christian. REV 13:12
I wonder if any of you reading this particular thread know of the seminal book on evil, called “Hostage to the Devil?” It was written by the late priest Malachi Martin, and it’s quite the authoritative work, I think, on knowing about evil and the devil.
Excellent piece by Robin of Berkeley. I have a special affinity for her, having myself been a Berkeley radical, now turned passionate Conservative and Christian, and studying to be a counselor. She gets it. This is fundamentally about what happens when you don’t belief in the concept of evil. Then you don’t have a clear understanding of yourself and your own fallen human nature and have no humility. It’s a dangerous combination. Then you MUST demonize your enemies, because having to look at yourself is too painful. Thanks for posting this - a keeper- as was her piece yesterday about how women are abused by the same leftists - male and female - who purport to defend them. They don’t care about women - it’s socialism - Marxism - that they worship...it’s their religion. I’m reading “Witness” right now by Whittaker Chambers. Those fervent commies of the 1930s who infiltrated our government easily because they were the children of the very privileged they hated, straight out of Harvard and Yale- communism was their god. Not unlike Obama and the rest of the hard Left today - without the real God, you can justify anything. They really are the people of the Lie.
And if you're the enemy one way you help enforce that rule is to keep your opponent off-balance by obfuscating your true goal and intentions. Look at how much effort the adherents to Islam make to come across not as the enemy, but as misunderstood worshipers of a religion and god of peace.
Or how much communists have invested in hiding their goals in the language of liberalism and progressives.
Satan has a lot of names in the Bible, but the one that best describes him is almost certainly the one that identifies him as the Father of Lies. His favorite trick to to convince those whom he would beguile that he is their friend, and has only their good in mind. It started with Eve, when he convinced her God had given the instructions regarding the forbidden fruit, not for her benefit, but because of His selfishness, wanting to keep its power for Himself. IMHO it's pretty telling that Satan still depends on the very first ruse he's recorded using, projection, and it still works so well.
Again, IMHO, if you believe in, and trust God, and you don't perceive Satan as as certainly a source of evil in your life as you view God a source of good, then you're cuisin’ for a bruisin’! And these are bruises that can last forever.
“Ever here on FR the Liberalism is dumb crowd outnumber the ones who rightly see it as evil”
I believe liberalism at it’s core is evil.
Not the scary monster horror movie type, but the insidious one, with false premises of good intentions.
Where morals and any standards are compromised and whittled away in never ending shades of gray to the point that there is no point.
Where we are taught good is bad, ignorance and weakness is strength, God/religion/spirituality is evil, truth is lie, and lies are truth if yelled loud and frequent enough or enforced through the use of tyrannical force.
George Orwell (1984) and Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) have painted the best pictures of hell since Dante’s Inferno.
Great post
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