The Beast of Secularism

Church Family: Every day that we continue to live and breathe we are confronted more and more with Satan making war on us, the followers of Christ, the “offspring of the woman” (Rev. 12:17).  In America we are feeling this attack become more intense through the institutional world-wide power called Secularism.  This is just one way throughout history that the Beast of Revelation 13:1, manifests itself against the Church.  And today in America is seems to be the primary influence Satan uses.  The Beast is actively seeking to destroy the Church by attacking individual believers.  He seeks to lead us away from being perfectly satisfied in Jesus Christ while leading us to be satisfied with a life without Him.

What is the Beast’s underlying goal with secularism?  The secularists want everybody to embrace a life of Godlessness.  They want us to see ourselves as undesigned, unintended beings who arose from evolution.  They want us to only submit to an ethical system that is judged by results only not by a divine authority who has predetermined right and wrong through commands.  In other words, if burning down a city creates racial reconciliation then that is acceptable or if aborting a baby makes your family more successful and happy then you are free to do that as well.  As you can see, the secularist reasoning rejects God.  It says that it does not need God nor His laws in any area of life.  Secularism says, get God out of education, history, the economy, the courts, the legislature, the womb, genders, the hospitals, everywhere.  Secularism says, get rid of God, yet Secularism is itself a religion.  Secularism has ideas, virtues and morals and the secularist demands everybody to adhere to them.
 
And what happens if you do not submit to secularism’s religious bullying and virtue signaling?  You get punished.  You get shamed.  You are discriminated against.  And this is where the second Beast, the false prophet, does the work.  The second Beast is the spiritual power that points everybody to the first Beast (Rev. 13:11-18).  The second Beast simply says, hey everybody the first Beast is true, and virtuous, and powerful and right and for your good, follow the first Beast!   So, with secularism being a form of the first Beast, empowered by Satan, the second Beast is the spirit of secularism that pervades our culture that demands conformity.  It acts as an “unholy spirit” of the first Beast.  You can feel it everywhere these days.  The unholy spirit of the second Beast is what cancels you if you don’t conform.  It strips you of funding, it takes away contracts, credentials, jobs, access to social platforms.  It mutes your voice.  It pressures you to conform with the threat of great suffering and persecution.  It has become clear that those who stand on Christ and against secularism will find that they cannot “buy or sell” (Rev. 13:17).  The believers during the time of John's Revelation in the fist century were suffering in this way.  We are seeing clearly today that standing against the Beastly world power of secularism will result in suffering.  

So, what do we do as believers against these clear attacks from Satan through the Beast of secularism?  Know the truth of God’s authoritative Word so that you can be discerning against the heresy of secularism.  Know Jesus Christ and be the manifestation of His love to a lost word that is blindly following the Beast.  Love the body of Christ, the church, to be encouraged and be empowered by brothers and sisters in Christ who are in this battle without you.  Speak God’s sufficient truth boldly no matter what may come.  Last, be willing to suffer, it is promised.

Revelation 13:18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

I look forward to worshipping the Lion and the Lamb, Jesus Christ, with you Sunday. - Steve