By Richard Allen – November 22, 2021
While busy traveling last week, I managed to consume a bit of the national news, as well as reading several online news sites. As I read and watched the news, I was sadly reminded, that partaking of the National News had become an exercise in futility - leading to desperation. And I couldn’t help but think, how depressing – it’s almost like all of the “talking heads” on all of the news outlets were trying to promote fear and panic! It was then that a scripture verse came to mind:
“Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:26)
To rightly understand this verse from Luke, we need to remember that it is a part of scripture that is often called “The Olivet Discourse,” as Jesus was answering questions from His disciples regarding the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and His coming at the end of the age – while talking to them on the Mount of Olives. There is legitimate debate over the scope of this discourse, specifically whether it covers the end times only, or the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. as well. Most bible commentators from a variety of perspectives agree that this particular verse probably references the end of the age, when cataclysmic events will “come upon the earth – as the powers of heaven will be shaken.” So we shouldn’t be surprised that the response of Men would be: “Hearts failing them for fear!”
While I am not clairvoyant, nor do I claim to have prophetic understanding of future events, it’s pretty obvious that we are in the middle of an age of fear and trepidation! By saying this, I don’t want to intimate that this is the end. Men have undergone other times and seasons of great fear and panic. Just in the last century alone, two World Wars and a variety of other Global Pandemics (i.e. the Spanish Flu of 1918) ravaged mankind with disease and death. And even prior to that, Europe faced numerous wars and rumors of wars throughout the Christian Era AD, including the Bubonic Plague ( i.e. the Black Death), that killed off at least 75 Million of the world’s populations during the Dark Ages. I guess the most ironic thing to me is: “Men’s hearts can fail them through fears of things real, or imagined!”
As a baby boomer who grew up in the 1960’s Nuclear Age, I can remember visiting a model fall-out shelter as my father contemplated paying thousands of dollars to have one installed, so that our family could survive a nuclear war. I also remember being funneled out of classrooms at Sunnyside Elementary School and into the corridors to sit cross-legged in front of our lockers. We were told: “When you see the flash, Duck & Cover!” We even had cartoons with a duck showing us this exercise – all to keep us safe? Now as an adult, I realize the sad fact: “If you can see the flash, chances are that ducking your head between your legs and covering up your neck, is going to have very little effect on your survival during a nuclear blast! But I also realized years later the sheer amount of money made from building bomb shelters, made a potential nuclear holocaust a fantastic financial opportunity! Fear is a great Marketing tool!
Don’t get me wrong, a nuclear strike would be devastating – just like the deadly pandemic that killed up to 100 million people during the Spanish Flu in 1918. But it has occurred to me that beyond the mere potentiality of mass death and destruction, these events do have benefits more than just making a buck, and that would be “To Control the Masses!” I’m reminded of a line from Actor / Comedian W.C. Fields back in the 1930’s:
“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.”
The point of his quote being – if you want to coerce people to drink the Whiskey (antidote), you’ll need to create the threat of Snake Bite so that people need and willingly cry for the whiskey! And to make this even clearer, to get people to buy a $5,000 Bomb Shelter, you’ll need to scare them to death with the possibility of Nuclear Bombs being dropped! Or to bring it home, THE ANTIDOTE THEY WANT YOU TO WILLINGLY ACCEPT TODAY is to give up your First Amendment Rights of Free Speech, and be forced to receive a dangerous, unproven experimental DNA Altering Jab to cure a disease that is only slightly more lethal than the “Seasonal Flue.” They also want to take away your parental rights, and give them to the State – ALL TO PROTECT YOU & YOUR FAMILY from the WORST PANDEMIC IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND (not really)! THEY NEED YOU AFRAID OF THE COVID SNAKE BITE SO YOU’LL TAKE THEIR VACCINE ANTIDOTE!
So, there you have it, the Fear of a thing (not the actual thing itself) is used to drive and even alter people’s behavior! If you can understand this concept, it’s easy to grasp what these modern Bolsheviks are doing to bring about a “PSEUDO-MARXIST REVOLTION!” It doesn’t matter what “Woke Issue” you bring up, they all have “one-and-the-same-antidote” – A BIGGER AND EVER EXPANDING GOVERNEMENT WITH TOTAL CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE FROM CRADLE TO THE GRAVE!
To just look at a few more Snakebites, LGBT Super-Rights, Man-Made-Climate-Change, and Critical Race Theory. These conditions are less than a “blip” on most middle-class Voter’s radar, yet they are made out to be the WORST THREATS TO HUMAN SURVIVAL SINCE A METEOR SUPPOSEDLY HIT THE EARTH AND WIPED OUT THE DINOSAURS! You’d think people would notice that they always have the same Antidote(more & more State control) as the cure for all modern ills. Truth be told, none of these “snake-bites” are worth our worry, or their national antidotes!
What is worthy of our IMMEDIATE ATTENTION is what Jesus stated in Luke 21:27 as this is the most serious threat to mankind’s ongoing existence:
“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:25-28)
This is a prophetic vision of the Son of Man, yes Jesus the Messiah coming in a cloud with power and great glory to judge unbelieving mankind, and redeem His saints! Believe it or not, it’s Fear of God’s judgement that is really behind all of the guilt and fear that modern man mistakenly believes is guilt for not being Woke-Enough!
Just look at Man-Made-Climate-Change as an example of how Fear from Woke-Guilt manifests itself in the modern psyche. Note, Man-Made-Climate-Change is a psychological determination, and not a scientific one. It’s different from THE WEATHER, which can be studied, and uses “fact-based” science to detail its behavior, and trends. Then these so-called “saviors of mankind” use computer models that are skewed to suit their globalist agenda, to predict “climate catastrophe” in 30-50 years if we don’t . . . . . and this is where it gets complicated. They don’t actually claim that what they ask us to do will fix climate change! They freely admit that restrictive government control over human behavior will only make a slight difference(if any) in stemming an environmental apocalypse, always 30 to 50 years away. As a result, they’re never held accountable for phony-science, false claims, or errant predictions, but they still cry, “We have to try!” So, the Religion of Man-Made-Climate-Change produces Fear, Shame, Guilt – and finally smug relief knowing that they really care, and they’re doing something to save mother-earth! This ends up giving our modern “unchurched masses” the perfect belief system they need to assuage their guilt and fear, and have SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN!
The Woke Antidote of giving up our freedoms and yielding complete control to the government is ready made for tyrannical manipulation. It also provides an all-encompassing faith system, complete with the needed religious tenets:
God(s): That is, Mother Earth, Nature, the Benevolent State, Obama, or the Hollywood and Media Elites trying to save us! You can worship them individually, or all in one big collective! They are our Betters, our Redeemers and Saviors!
Devil(s): Conservatives, Climate-Change deniers, Deplorable, White, Middle-Class, Male, Christians (and the mindless Females who are too stupid to know they are enslaved by them). These people are the source of all evil, and oppose the Environmental Utopia that Woke, LGBT, Socialist, One World Government types are trying to set up.
Sin(s): “Opposing any part of the “Climate-Zealots Agenda,” that is opposing Big Government saving us all from the Deplorable Devils that threaten to destroy the planet with their SUV’s, Guns, Red Meat, and Child Breeding!
Guilt for Sin: Not being “Woke” or contrite enough in opposing the Deplorables and their “Male-Dominated” order.
A Religious Zeal: Activism for any “Woke-Cause” that opposes the Devil-Deplorable-Christians & their rights!
Fear of Condemnation: Guilt for not being woke enough, not caring enough about their issue of the moment.
Penance: The cost of admission for those who become “woke” to the horrible injustices wrought by America, is to hate the mostly white Men(and their women) who have privilege - AS THEY ARE THE SOURCE OF ALL EVIL IN THE WORLD! Penance is usually in the form of: Apologies, Paying Reparations, or Disenfranchising them!
So there you have it, Woke Religion is the perfect Faith for the modern unchurched masses, whom even though they deny the Holy God of the Bible – Still Desperately Need a belief system TO ASUAGE THEIR GUILT AND FEAR! And it’s also a great tool to stampede and control the “fearful” into the compliant behavior that Big Brother desires. These same tenets (above) can be duplicated for any of the PC Issues that “Woke-Religion” holds, including: White people are all Racist, Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual -Transgendered people are persecuted and should be celebrated, Socialist Free Stuff Economics, Government Funded & Controlled Education, Bullying by the Woke Mob is Actually Kindness, Destroying an unborn blob of protoplasm is OK (we used to call them Babies), Police are Evil Tools of the White Privileged! I could go on, as the Denominations and Tenets of Woke Religion add to their list of beliefs daily.
Notwithstanding attempts to assuage their guilt & fear for “Him who is seated on the throne,” before whom they will all stand accountable; I can tell them ahead of time, it won’t work. Revelation 6:15-17 tells us who they’re really afraid of:
"Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Only Repentance towards God, and Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21) will bring them into a relationship of Forgiveness and Peace with a Holy God! To Love God, & be Loved by Him - will alone “cast out all fear!” (I John 4:18).