The Great Con

About eighteen years ago, I read a very exciting book entitled This Present Darkness, a work of Christian fiction / fantasy by the prolific author Frank Peretti. One reviewer describes the book in the following way.

The residents of the sleepy college town of Ashton, comfortable in their middle American lifestyle, had no idea that their community was about to play a significant role in the ages-old battle between the forces of good versus evil. A malevolent storm was brewing in the nether regions, a storm that would challenge the mightiest of God’s angels in their task to preserve the earth from satanic conquest. And the people of Ashton were to play the major role in equipping His angels with the power they would need to meet that challenge.

Author Frank E. Peretti weaves a tale of suspense tempered with humor in his book, This Present Darkness, which, just of late, seems to have surged into popularity since its original release in 1986. Already in its eighth printing since its debut, This Present Darkness is causing Christians to buzz with excitement at the prospect that they may have learned something new and of great importance to help them in their own struggles against the spiritual darkness that pervades the earth.

The premise of Peretti’s book is the power of prayer to influence the forces in the spiritual world. When the novel’s chief protagonist, a godly pastor by the name of Hank Busche, discovers a sinister plot to turn Ashton’s college into a bulwark of New Age philosophy, he finds that human effort alone will not stop the advance of this evil. A novice at prayer, Hank and his wife Mary learn quickly that, unless God intervenes, their very lives are at stake.

Facing discouragement at every turn, set up for a sexual scandal intended to discredit Hank, threatened with death or worse, the Busches find that they are not alone in the fight. God has other prayer warriors they know nothing about until the chips are down and the eleventh hour has passed in the plot to turn Whitmore College over to a political machine steeped in witchcraft.

Behind the political machine is one Alexander Kaseph, holder of interests in multi-billion dollar corporations working to establish a new world order. Kaseph allows himself to be possessed by “the Strongman,” chief of all demons.

Employed in Kaseph’s service is professor of psychology Juleen Langstrat, known to dabble in witchcraft, and a channeler for one of the Strongman’s princes, Ba’al Rafar. Through her wiles, she controls the local sheriff, Alf Brummel, and other lesser characters embroiled in their sinister plot.

But Kaseph, Langstrat, et al., do not reckon on the power of God to move the hearts of men toward good. Besides the Busches, Marshall Hogan, editor of the Ashton Clarion, discovers through some top-notch investigative work that all is not kosher in his quiet little town. With the help of an assistant, Bernice Krueger, he gathers enough evidence to indict the conspirators, provided he can overcome the superior game-playing that he is up against. And provided he doesn’t get murdered as have others before him who got too nosy.

Peretti’s tale braids the story of Ashton’s human struggle with the “real” struggle behind the scenes: the spiritual warfare that controls the destinies of men. Demon spirits, dark, sinister, fierce in their antagonism against God and man, gather in a brooding cloud of evil, discernible only to other spirits in their realm: God’s angels strategically planted to offset this attack here, that countermove there.

Flailing with swords against forces vastly superior in number, God’s angels take their share of blows. A broken wing, a deep gash in the body, pain from countless injuries incurred during moments of lull in the humans’ prayer lives. But with every prayer comes a new surge of strength, equipping the angels with the ability to stand against the strongest demons.

On the other side, lesser demons are terrorized by their superiors, kicked into submission, ridiculed, and abased by every means available to spirit entities. Tiny demons disappear into puffs of smoke, if not at the hands of God’s angels, then at the behest of their superiors displeased with their lack of performance. And it seems that, no matter how powerful a demon, there is always one more powerful than he to keep him in place. Jealousy results in a treasonous act by one demon of high status who is rankled over the impending victory by his hated and abusive superior.

In the end, the Christians of Ashton — The “Remnant” — win the day along with a lot of souls, and keep Whitmore College free of control by the Strongman.[1]

When I read This Present Darkness, it was so pivotal to my spiritual life at the time! My friends and I felt very inspired to pray after reading it, because it really made it seem like the victory won by God was dependent on the prayers of His people. I could help make a difference in whether God or Satan triumphed! What a heady and amazing thought!

The other thing I found intriguing was that the book shone a spotlight on the supernatural. It made me feel like I could really see what was going on behind the scenes in this epic “Great Controversy between God and Satan.” I found it easier to visualize what was going on in supernatural places because the book had made it all seem so real.

What I did not realize at the time was that there are some significant problems with this particular point of view; one of which is that it portrays God and Satan in a very dualistic manner.[2] In some ways, the concept is similar to American politics. There is always a continuous struggle between Democrats and Republicans, and the votes (in dualism, the prayers) of the people actually determine the outcome. It’s in the hands of the people!

Adventism takes a lot of direction regarding this great dualistic struggle from Ellen White’s epic book, “The Great Controversy”. In fact, this “war in heaven” perspective shapes Adventist doctrine. The SDA Church is always seeking new ways to make this “Great Controversy” viewpoint fresh and relevant for the times. One example of this attempt at relevancy is a particularly disturbing Signs Of The Times cover from September 2004 which showed “Jesus”, in requisite white robe and sandals, with a light saber in his hand, duking it out with Satan in a very “Han Solo battles Darth Vader” kind of manner. Relevant to the times? Yes. In good taste? Doubtful. And unfortunately, this cover tended to support the dualistic “struggle between God and Satan” dogma that was being promoted.

After years of study, I came to realize that a created being who is a mere speck compared to its Creator and who draws its actual life from that same Creator can not in any way be a major player in any so-called controversy! The concept does not even compute! Yet so much of today’s Christianity, as illustrated earlier by Peretti’s fictitious novel based on fantasy, focuses on “The Enemy” – his great power, influence, authority, and so on. We are bombarded with stories about this “struggle between the powers of good and darkness.”

Unfortunately, Almighty God’s vast authority and power is lost in the wreckage of this dualistic nonsense. Instead of standing in awe of a powerful Creator and Ruler who bows to no one and is in no way threatened by us or by anything, we have created a god who has been dumbed down to the point of lunacy; stripped and emasculated of all power, held hostage by a pitchfork wielding “Enemy” who is the “god of this world” or “god of this age”.[3]We remove any responsibility for obedience from our message, and we state vehemently that if any bad thing happens, it is because “The Enemy” is out to get us. (Ironically, we also figure that if “The Enemy” is not out to get us, then we are doing something spiritually wrong because we are “no longer a threat”!)

The story of Job is often quoted to support this “Great Controversy”. (Yes, I have quoted it myself in the past.) Yet when considering this story, we never seem to focus on the fact that for EVERY action Satan made, he had God’s express consent. As we have earlier discussed, there are records in Scripture of GOD sending evil spirits on people, to lie to people and persecute them. GOD Almighty! Yet Christianity has to support such a sanitized version of a namby-pamby God that we cannot wrap our heads around the fact that our “God” will sometimes send evil spirits to do His bidding – and furthermore, they obey; because they draw their life from Him as you and I do.

In addition, we insist that the God of the Universe has something to prove to us in this whole “Great Controversy”. We never consider that the Creator of all does not have to prove a single thing to those He created. He does not have to explain Himself or His actions. In reality, we would not in our limited finite understandings be able to comprehend why He is doing what He is doing because His understandings are so far above ours.

In our efforts to understand a God who is too far above us to even comprehend, all that we have managed to do is remake God into the image of someone we are more comfortable with – while stripping the AWE and power from the One who gives us life.

A Facebook friend recently posted,

“It is hard to understand why Satan does cruel things and then points at God as the culprit. Cripple and maim… then blame God. Cause a divorce—tell them that God should have stopped it.  If you really want to see what God desires for you, read Jeremiah 29:11. Have a blessed day.”[4]

There was a chorus of agreement for my friend’s post. No one seemed to want to look at the fact that God sometimes does things that are – shall we say, unpopular and even unfair – to His people. Unwilling to let things stand as they were in this Utopian Happyville where God was essentially wrapped up with a pretty “God only brings good things” bow, I posted,

“If someone asks you if they can hurt someone; you can approve or disapprove and you give them permission, are you responsible? See the book of Job for an example.

“IMO, man’s ultimate struggle is not with Satan but with God, as Satan cannot do anything without God’s approval.”

Herein lies the crux of the difference between Christianity’s God and Judaism’s God. Because of this “Great Controversy” dualism, Christianity’s God has no shades of gray. Christianity’s God would never bring calamity, is incapable of lying, would never send an evil spirit to do anything, and does not know the end from the beginning.  Christianity’s God learns from his actions; in fact, he also changes his mind (or his covenant) if he figures out that what he is doing is not successful. He is so fickle that he changes “chosen people” at the drop of a hat, blessing his second “chosen people” for doing the very thing that he rejected his first “chosen people” for doing.[5]

Judaism’s God, on the other hand, is a bit harder to stereotype. There seem to be more shades of gray, more things that cannot be understood, and above all, less certainty that you KNOW this Being. Despite the fact that He doesn’t need or want sacrifice to forgive, Judaism’s God seems more dangerous somehow, mainly because He is unpredictable and will do drastic things in an effort to get His point across.

Ancient Jews realized that God was the only one that mattered. They did not worry about an “Enemy” that was the “god of this world” that was out to get them; their epic struggle was with God Himself, as the entire book of Job and Jacob’s night-time struggle both aptly illustrate. At the end of the day, they accepted that they might never know the answers to why bad things happened to them. They were content in the knowledge that God was in control, it was God’s world, and they needed to trust that God had their best interests at heart.

Despite Christianity’s watered down “no-responsibility” message, there are still people out there of all religious persuasions who seem to really get the fact that God is a mystery that is far beyond what our feeble minds can comprehend. One Episcopalian priest friend of mine rather eloquently described God by explaining,

“The most profound verse written in the Bible (is) Exodus 3:14. “I am that I am.” Why do you think God describes himself that way to Moses? God spoke these words because he understands we haven’t the capacity to comprehend him in our infinitely limited, three-dimensional world with our linear thinking.

“One of the many profound quotes from Albert Einstein, with which I whole-heartedly agree: ‘My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals Himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.’

“Trying to comprehend God is like trying to explain the view from an airplane by looking out of a window that is only open by a millimeter. That’s all our windows are allowed to open. I dare not compartmentalize God or pretend to understand Him when my capacity to do so is so unbelievably limited. I pray and do what God asks me to do… I am endlessly and tirelessly hammering home the Golden Rule – which so many of us have forsaken.” [6]

This is an amazing description of God. This God is wild, untamed and unpredictable. This type of viewpoint of the Divine helps explain the Old Testament’s frequent use of the Hebrew word “yirah” which is used to describe “fear of God, reverence, piety”. Yirah is used in this capacity more than 40 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. This usage has pretty much been removed in our current more popular paraphrases, because the concept of “fearing God” doesn’t bring in believers in today’s seeker-sensitive world. Rather, being buddies with him is what sells in today’s mega-churches. For example,  “Come my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of AHYH” has been changed to “Come children, listen closely, I’ll give you a lesson in God worship.”[7]

Since discovering this information about God, I have had a startling shift in thinking. In my “This Present Darkness” days when I would feel an “attack of the enemy” occurring, I would rebuke the devil; as is the Christian custom. Now, realizing that nothing happens that is not approved by God, I go straight to the Source. “Father, what is the problem here? What are you trying to tell me?” I plead. Interestingly, I can’t tell you the last time I had one of those “attacks” by “the enemy” – they have all but disappeared.

It turns out that “The Great Controversy” is in fact just “The Great Con.” Man’s struggle is not in fact with some nameless, faceless enemy but with the God who created him.[8] GOD is the one in power, and God is the one we should worry about being right with. We have utterly lost sight of the Authoritative Creator that Job actually discovered; the Ruler who challenged, “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”[9]

I truly believe that God is big enough for the questions. God is big enough for the struggle. And God can handle your anger – He made you, gave you life, and knows your innermost desires of your heart. When you search for God with all your heart, you WILL find Him.[10] He may just look a little different than you are expecting!