Satan’s Strategy to Legitimize and Normalize Perversion

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bible forewarns us that every society that refuses to acknowledge and worship God will sink into the abyss of sexual perversion. (Romans 1:21-27) The definition of perversion is the turning away from what is right, proper, or good. Any time we stray from God’s intended purpose for anything in creation, it is a perversion and turns into something that dishonors God and hurts us. This is especially true regarding sex. What God intended for great good has been used to bring incredible harm.

Satan’s strategy in the garden of Eden was first to bring into question the truthfulness of God’s words. That remains one of his chief weapons of mass destruction.

He began by asking Eve a seemingly innocuous question.

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” Genesis 3:1 (NLT) 

The serpent couched an accusation inside his question. The Bible calls the devil the “accuser of the brethren” for good reason. (Revelation 12:10) In fact, God generously permitted his first people to eat from any tree of the garden, except one. Satan twisted that into God’s saying they could not eat from any of the trees, which put Eve on the defensive immediately. The penalty for eating that fruit would be death. Eve quickly revealed that she did not fully understand God’s command, which was perhaps the purpose of the probing question. She thought the prohibition also included not touching the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Perhaps Adam added that extra bit when he passed on the commandment to Eve, thinking it would strengthen what God said and make the fruit seem even more “off limits”. Whatever the case, we can safely say that it is never a good idea to add to God’s words. That is where most legalism starts.

Next Satan escalated his attack by flatly contradicting God’s warning.

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5  “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6  The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7  At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Genesis 3:4-7 (NLT) 

What so quickly convinced Eve that God was a liar? Why did she so soon turn against her Creator and doubt his good intentions toward her and Adam? If we learn nothing else from this account, it is that humans are extremely susceptible to deception and more quickly accept lies than truth.

Humanity took a nose dive that day. God’s beautiful creation was perverted at its core, setting the course of history into a downward spiral which continues to this day. Only God can and will save us. In fact, that is just what he did when he sent his Son to live, die, and rise again. Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection set in motion God’s great reclamation project which will culminate at Christ’s Second Coming, which will include the generation of a new heaven and earth. In the interim, we, the church, are engaged in a worldwide operation called the Great Commission by which God is offering to forgive us for our participation in the satanic rebellion. Those who accept his offer and put their trust and allegiance in Christ become part of God’s ever growing eternal family, those who will reign with Christ eternally.

For all practical purposes, the war was won and the final outcome determined when Jesus rose from the dead some 2000 years ago. Nevertheless, skirmishes and battles continue as human history moves toward the glorious return of God’s Son.

The Lord is working to increase his family through preaching the gospel and making disciples. Satan is likewise advocating a false gospel of humanism and  developing his own followers who will take his lie globally.

Yuval Noah Harari is often referred to as “the prophet.” He is an openly gay pro-transhumanist who is obsessed with rejecting the God of his fathers and turning humans into gods. He is the lead advisor to Klaus Schwab and has been praised by Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Silicon Valley, the New York Times, TED, Stanford, Harvard, and the World Economic Forum. He made the following statement.

“History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods.”

Let’s examine this lie. History did not begin when humans invented God. Rather, it started when God created humans. However, the last part may indeed be true. God may bring history to a close when men make their final attempt to throw off God’s rule by proclaiming themselves to be God. (Psalm 2) In the interim, Satan seeks to inflict as much damage to God’s creation as possible, dragging as many souls with him into the lake of fire as he can. One way he does this is by continually calling into question God’s Word. When we reject the Bible’s truth we have nothing upon which to stand.

In the realm of sexuality, he is especially active. The Bible says that God made us “male and female.”

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NLT) 

For most of human history this has been a “no brainer,” but no longer. A great number of people once again have fallen for the serpent’s lie.

Now, contrary to thousands of years of historical precedent, male and female are no longer an absolute thing.

One can declare oneself whatever one wishes and even use surgery and hormone therapy to make the change look somewhat real. However, the truth is that we can never alter our DNA. Men have X and Y chromosomes, and women possess a double X. As much as we may wish and as hard as we may try, how God made us is irreversible. Some things we must simply accept and play the hand we were dealt.

Behind the push to deny and pervert how God created us is an implacable rebellion against the sovereign choice of the Creator.

Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? 2  The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one. 3  “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.” Psalm 2:1-3 (NLT) 

Sexuality goes to the core of our identity. Today we see Satan’s hand at work in bringing confusion to gender and sexual identity. What was formerly obvious has now become complicated. The government, in an attempt to play God, increasingly demands that everyone accept and affirm the new politically correct order of things, even as we observe the obvious negative consequences. Little girls are put at risk when males self-identifying as females enter the women’s bathroom. Women are unfairly losing to men identifying as women in athletic competitions. Common people understand the insanity of these things, but governmental elites are forcing them down our collective throat.

This is a clear sign of the devil’s activity and his determination to corrupt God’s creation, demoralize the nation, and include as many as he can in his rebellion against the Creator.

Today this rebellion has escalated into a push for more laws to legitimize and normalize sexual and gender perversion and to punish those who will not accept and affirm the new order of things. Freedom be damned in the tyrannical push for new societal norms. As Larry Fink, the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm with $10 trillion in assets, a firm that has at least a partial ownership of almost every major corporation in the world, including the big media and Big Tech companies, has said:

“Behaviors are going to have to change and this is one thing we are asking companies, you have to force behaviors and at BlackRock, we are forcing behaviors.”

Fink believes the government has the responsibility to force compliance with mandated thinking and behaviors with businesses assisting in the process.

This is a form of fascism, an anti-God tyranny of the mind and soul which we see playing out everyday at one level or another, whether it is in the realm of medicine, sexual identity, gender, or politics.

In addition, the education establishment now is actively grooming young people to accept and adopt such thinking and behavior, often against the knowledge and wishes of parents. This is why Florida recently passed an anti-grooming law, which prohibits schools from engaging in this sort of activity. None of this should surprise us, in light of biblical prophecy.

Bob Chapek, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, opposes the new law, calling it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. (The Left always tries to capture the vocabulary and frame the argument to its advantage.) Here are his remarks.

“I called Gov. DeSantis this morning to express our disappointment and concern that if legislation becomes law it could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, nonbinary and transgender kids and families,” Chapek said. “The governor heard our concerns and agreed to meet with me and LGBTQ+ members of our senior team in Florida to discuss ways to address that… We are committed to support the community going forward.”

Satan always twists things. Rather than protecting God’s created order, the bill is framed as targeting people who do not accept or embrace God’s order for his creation.

The Left’s push is to affirm and normalize deviance from God’s intended purpose and function and to shame anyone who does not accept and affirm this perversion.

It is interesting that what formerly was called the LGBT community now has expanded to LGBTQIA+. A quick search for how many genders we currently recognize reveals that “experts” cannot agree. There are anywhere from 15 to 76, instead of just two. Where will this insanity eventually lead us?

Sin has twisted humanity. Yes, there is such a thing as gender dysphoria. Yes, plenty of people are confused regarding sexual identity and gender, but this does not mean that we abandon God’s original intention for his creation and affirm the confusion as being normal. We can affirm that we love people no matter what they think about sex or gender, but that does not include affirming their behavior.

When a society rejects God, it eventually descends into the kind of rebellion that actively recruits and encourages sinful behavior in others.

They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:32 (NLT) 

It is vital that we who know the truth stand up for what is right. We cannot afford to bow before the anti-God forces at work all around us.

We must teach our children to stand for truth and resist the efforts to enfold them into cultural acceptance of the current rebellion against God’s created order. If necessary, we must remove them from any school system, church, or other institution that works to groom adults and children to accept these blatant attacks against God’s truth. Let’s demonstrate to our children and others who may be watching how to make a stand for truth before it is too late. God wants us to openly and unashamedly declare our allegiance to our Lord Jesus and to the truth contained in the Bible.

Taking this stand will likely be costly, but if we are not willing to make a stand, who will? If we lose freedom of speech, which has already happened to a great extent, we will find out who is still courageous enough to speak anyway.

Loyalty to Jesus includes standing for biblical truth in the marketplace, not just when giving a gospel presentation in a church meeting.

petebeck3

Pete Beck III has ministered in Burlington for over 34 years. He is married to Martha, with whom he has four children, ten beautiful grandchildren, and four amazing great grandchildren. He ministers locally and travels from LifeNet as a Bible teacher and minister. He has published two books - Seeing God's Smile and Promise of the Father - as well as a wide variety of Bible-related articles which he has compiled into books in PDF form. Currently he is working on a large Bible Teaching Manual.

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