Dark Freedom
The Rise of Western Lawlessness
by
C.W. Steinle
Copyright
2015 by C.W. Steinle
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Introduction
A dark freedom has invaded
western culture. A sinister freedom
appealing to the rebellious soul like the seductress of Proverbs. She whispers, "’Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Hell." - Prov. 9:17-18 Today's
freedom represents neither the Old Testament concept of freedom from ungodly
peoples, nor the New Testament freedom from the enemies of sin, death, and
eternal separation from God. The new
face of freedom is the liberty of self expression - a personal freedom that perceives
as its adversary every form of restriction.
Ungodliness has been raised up
as a victory banner for the cause of individual rights. Even the Classical Greek philosophers equated
virtue with wisdom, integrity, and goodness.
"If it feels good, do
it," was the mantra of the Hippie Movement. Today any kind of strong feeling will
do. The thrill of transgressing the
ancient boundaries of moral decency has been reclassified as a good and
acceptable feeling. Outrageousness,
rebelliousness, and ungodliness are applauded by social and mainstream media as
if they were the highest virtues. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good
evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter!" - Isaiah 5:20.
For more than two decades
disrespect for parents and disregard for authority have been ingrained into the
minds of preschoolers through cartoons, television and video games. "Choices" and relativism are
drummed into their core with the intent that, at some point early in life, they
might have their own born-again experience - a confession of faith in a god of
random possibilities, a god who never judges, a god who accepts all ideals and
chooses all people, a god who is in all ways the antithesis of the God of the
Bible.
Proverbs 22:6 holds true, for
better or worse; "Train up a child
in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Most publically educated and television
trained children will truly believe in the god of lawlessness by the time they
reach the age of accountability. And
when some of these young citizens of the lawless kingdom come into the
Christian church, they will naturally heap up for themselves teachers adept at
avoiding the issues of law, sin, judgment, and Hell. The relevance of these Biblical realities has
been relegated to chat room discussions by the Emergent Church
The grey area of relativism has
turned out to be the perfect soil for lawlessness. That murky grey cesspool was created
specifically by clever litigators to blur the distinction between right and
wrong. Nothing is true, nothing is
certain, nothing is pure. All that was
once sacred and beautiful has been thrown into the depths of the nebulous of
sea grey.
A recent example can be found in
the incredible popularity of a book by E. L. James entitled Fifty Shades of Grey.2 One commentator in the New York Post marveled that a book which only two years ago was
placed in a paper bag by a bookstore cashier because people were too
embarrassed to be seen in public with it, has now become a blockbuster movie,
and there is even a teddy bear that is being sold with "accessories"!
According to the news article, "Target
has a new line tied to the movie - from blindfolds to massage oils to sex toys.
It was set up right next to kids’ toothbrushes, but under pressure the store
moved it. Usually when we talk about cultural shifts we are referring to
changes that happen over 30 or 40 or 50 years, but this is a change that has
happened virtually overnight, while we were all supposedly paying attention.
So, let’s just take a step back
and consider what we’ve lost in shedding just one more taboo. The movie is rated R, so many teenagers (even
those under 17) will probably get in. As child psychiatrist Miriam Grossman
wrote on her blog recently, "Fifty Shades of Grey" teaches your
daughter that pain and humiliation are erotic, and your son that girls want a
guy who controls, intimidates and threatens.
"In short, the film
portrays emotional and physical abuse as sexually arousing to both parties."
And then there are the adults. Educated people used to say they didn’t care
what other people did "in the privacy of their own bedroom." (Note
how quickly the gray turned to black among so-called "educated people"
in this commentary.)
But we have clearly left that
standard behind. There is nothing
private about the way that people are enjoying "Fifty Shades" and
yes, frankly, that is creepy. Especially the bear."3
If all of this hasn’t made you
sick yet, the author’s blasphemous use of "Anastasia" for the female
character, which is the Greek word for "resurrection," and "Christian"
for the male character, will certainly sum up the cesspool of evil and
lawlessness that our culture currently embraces.
The ominous feeling that
something has gone terribly wrong is grounded in fact. Something has indeed changed. It is the sudden rise of Atheism - a religion
that has seldom before been widely accepted, believed, or practiced. Throughout history and throughout the world
people have typically believed in some sort of god. Even during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment
most philosophers were at least Deists.
A few were skeptics or pantheists, but very few rejected the notion of a
Creator who was the sustainer of life and the judge of mortal affairs.
We all knew something was
happening but we thought it was just another passing youthful craze. After all, haven't kids always been
rebellious? We should have felt the
world beginning to tip upside down when calling someone "straight"
became a derogatory expression. It began
with drugs and free love, and the acceptance of unmarried partners living
together. Through the progressive
breakdown of personal integrity a nation of compromised Christians
emerged. They considered themselves to
be disqualified - unfit to take a stand on the side of righteousness because of
their own moral failures. Soon the Moral
Majority became the demoralized majority, which then further degenerated into
the present immoral majority.
Longstanding laws of the land
have either been changed or reinterpreted by the courts to accommodate
sin. The progressive liberals have
successfully removed prayer and the Bible from public institutions, and they
have removed every Judeo-Christian symbol that can be easily moved from the
public square. The Atheists' attack on
our school system has been so effective that most people under forty are
convinced that, if there is a God, His government would be harmful, repressive,
and retard mankind's quest of reaching its highest potential. Thus, in today's America , God, who is good, is
deemed to be evil.
The propensity of the flesh to
press inward toward its own self-interest and to resist outward authority has
certainly propelled fallen man toward lawlessness. Once alienated from his Creator, the
rebellious spirit became part of man's nature.
The spirit of rebellion compels the independent soul to war against his
Maker. To lose the battle of selfishness
would mean surrendering to the authority of God. Lawlessness, on the other hand, is just what
fallen man has always wanted.
Lawlessness creates an environment in which the sinner can fulfill his
wildest dreams. No rules. No fear. No consequences. Most of America 's youth have already bought
the T-shirt.
Dark freedom means freedom to
experiment, freedom to sin, freedom from conscience, and freedom from God. Meanwhile, the remnant who still cling to
Judeo-Christian ethics look on in dismay as the citizens of the Western nations
surrender all of their other rights for the right to sin. The irresistible lure and promise of
lawlessness is that man might be set free to live as if there were no God. For this reason, pure lawlessness is Atheism. Lawlessness is next to godlessness.
Due to the failure of the
institutional Church to follow in the path of Christ and His Apostles, the
world has lashed back by constructing its own versions of religion. In many ways the rise of lawlessness can be explained
by the historically reliable principle of action-reaction. Mankind's reversion to the Humanities, and
the creation of alternate forms of government and religion, can be directly
attributed to the Roman Church's attempt to dominate the western world. The Renaissance of the Humanities was merely
a renewed attempt by philosophers to solve the complex issues of human
existence.
Fallen men around the world have
formed many gods; some of metal, wood, and stone. But others have been constructed in the
imagination of philosophers. Man has
attempted to make these philosophical gods stand by propping them up with human
reason. From the time of the Classical
Greek philosophers, man has tried to unravel the complexity of his body, soul,
and spirit, coming up with many conjectures, none of which have stood the test
of time and reason. But these are not
gods; they are lifeless abstractions - a "god in a box."
God, His law, and civil
government are inextricably related.
This is why the ancient philosophers' interests were primarily focused
on the existence of God, morality, and the study of political systems. Variations in man's perspective regarding
civil and divine authority must always result in changes affecting both the
social and the religious systems.
The Western Church
"But their idols
are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
They have mouths, but
cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but
cannot hear,
noses, but cannot
smell.
They have hands, but
cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk,
nor can they utter a
sound with their throats.
Those who make them
will be like them,
And those who make them will be
like them! That is, the worshipers of
the abstract god will be without discernment, without knowledge, and without
judgment. Likewise, those who imitate
this god believe that it is wrong to distinguish differences, that it is wrong
to claim truth, and wrong to judge anyone.
But our God is the living God; the Father God; the Lord God who is the
judge of heaven and earth - the judge of the living and the dead. Thus, this dark freedom called lawlessness
has one great and dreaded enemy - the reality of the true and living God.
If you've ever wanted to know
what went wrong with western culture and why morality has been cast to the winds,
this book is for you. We will walk
through the last three thousand years of Western World History, isolating those
destabilizing errors of philosophy and religion which have slowly but surely
led the world into darkness. Each area
of history and philosophy is developed so the reader can easily grasp their
contribution to the overall progress of lawlessness.
Part I of this book explores
what the Apostle Paul meant by calling lawlessness a mystery. The second chapter introduces some of the
devil’s most effective spiritual programs for undermining the Christian
faith. The third chapter exposes these
strongholds of darkness with the light of the testimony of the living God. Part I concludes with an introduction to the
wisdom of man expressed by the Classical philosophers of Ancient Greece.
Part II looks into the Institutional Church
Each chapter of Part III
increases the reader's insight producing stunning revelations - epiphanies the
reader will never forget. Who is the God
of the Bible and what does His kingdom look like? He is the God of law and order. His government and His chain of authority on
earth are modeled after the Godhead.
Part III concludes by addressing the current confusion regarding God's
laws and His grace. Do the Mosaic laws
still apply? If so, how can Christians
know which ones to obey?
Part IV brings the knowledge
gleaned from all the previous chapters to a laser-sharp focus. This fourth section reveals the morbid
destiny reached by metaphysics when it is carried to its logical end. Most readers will be also be surprised to
learn of the demonic foundation of today's common law. The Humanists are determined to implement
their limited and issue-specific theories to create their own law and order -
but they can never be perfected without enslaving mankind.
Part V entertains some of the
more plausible conspiracy theories concerning the organizations which might be
employed by Satan to prepare the way for the Lawless One. Many Christians would hesitate to say that
the end of the age is at hand. But the
sudden swell in lawlessness and Satan's aggressive campaign against the Church
certainly support the suspicion that Satan knows that his time is short. How much of the present attack against
conservative Christians is directly from Satan, and how much is the work of
sinister societies? Without doubt, the
most obvious agency for breaking western conservatism is exposed by Anatoliy
Golitsyn in The Perestroika Deception.5
This book relies heavily on the
nineteenth century Church historian Philip Schaff. Schaff has been accused by Protestant critics
of having a bias toward Catholicism because of his presentation of evidence
that the practice of infant baptism, the reliance on interceding saints, and
the adoration of Mary were all embraced by Christianity before the Roman
Catholic Church took control of the West.
But the Protestant reader will become overwhelmingly convinced of
Schaff's objectivity by the passages included in this book.
Curiously though, his
representation of the spirit of Protestantism in nineteenth-century America
exhibits the crux of the problem that has hastened the progress of
lawlessness. Schaff states;
"Catholicism is legal Christianity which served to the barbarian nations
of the Middle Ages as a necessary school of discipline; Protestantism is evangelical
Christianity which answers the age of independent manhood. Catholicism is traditional, hierarchical,
ritualistic, conservative; Protestantism is biblical, democratic, spiritual,
progressive. The former is ruled by the
principle of authority, the latter by the principle of freedom. But the law, by awakening a sense of sin and
exciting a desire for redemption, leads to the gospel; parental authority is a
school of freedom; filial obedience looks to manly self-government."6
Schaff's statement sounds
positive and convincing. Certainly God's
Word should be heeded rather than the traditions of men. But is democracy a more conducive environment
for Christianity than the hierarchical model?
Is there a problem with ordained rituals? Is it a benefit for the faithful to be
progressive rather than conservative?
And lastly, is the principle of freedom more biblical than the principle
of authority? What is behind the spirit
of Western Christianity that would lead to such conclusions? When did the Church begin to adopt these
attitudes? And, even more importantly,
where will this progressivism lead the Church?
It is the author's intent to provide enough historical background and
philosophical query that the reader might find a basis for answering these
questions.
The present level of
indoctrination by the forces of darkness requires that some effort be made to
undo the brainwashing that has demoralized society and led the Church into
error. Several chapters contain material
that might seem to be off-point regarding the subject of lawlessness. These chapters are nevertheless necessary in
order to restore the objectivity of the reader.
The need to cleanse the mind will become evident as truth strips away
the veil of the world's propaganda.
The intent of this book is to
bring down the arguments that have exalted themselves against the knowledge of
Christ. The author's prayer is that by
the power of the Holy Spirit, this book might be used to expose spiritual
systems of wickedness, and to free Western Christians from their deception.
"For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is
fulfilled." - II Cor. 10:4-6
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