The Divine Defensive Mode
By John Gavazzoni
The gospel is constantly moving forward, and as such, we might think of that as the administration of God in its offensive mode. For instance, God is commanding all men everywhere to repent (Acts: 17:30). Jonathan Mitchell's Translation has the verse as God passing on the announcement for all men to be progressively changing their minds/taking on a new mindset. That's God on the offense. There's really no defense against the divine offensive mode. But the Lord does at times lead his people to be defensive. What comes to mind as most representative of that truth is when the angel (Greek: agent) of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream to take Mary and the child, Jesus, and flee into Egypt for Herod had determined to kill the child.
Paul received word that a group of assassins had taken an oath to kill him, so some of the brethren defensively lowered Paul over the wall of the city in a basket, and he escaped. On one occasion when a crowd pushed Jesus out of the city of Nazareth intent on throwing Him over the edge of a cliff, He walked through the midst of them. He escaped defensively. There was that time when an angry Jewish mob was intent on doing Paul harm, and no amount of reasoning on Paul's part could calm their wrath, so to the Roman centurion who was trying to maintain control of the situation, Paul, as a Roman citizen, claimed his right to appeal to Caesar. The centurion, fearing lest he be held accountable for not respecting that right, with the soldiers at hand, led Paul to safety.
Peter admonished believers to be sober, be vigilant, for our adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Then there's Paul's instruction to put on the whole armor of God that we might stand in the evil day. That armor provides for defense as well as offense: the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, along with God's assurances of His care, we are cautioned by Him to not, in effect, substitute presumption for faith. Our day certainly qualifies as an evil day. Living in this world in this day, we are being targeted by lies all day long. For every ounce of fact they dole out (for instance, re: the covid-19 "pandemic") we're having bushels of deception dumped on us in ways that fit the description of the serpent as more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God has made.
In the City of Thousand Oaks, CA where we live, we have many beautiful parks, some of acreage size. For variety, I take our German Shepherd, Samson, for his daily walks in many different parks. I'm amazed at the gullibility of folks, when I see someone walking in a park where no one will get anywhere near six feet of them (as the medical Mafia insists we avoid), and there they are, wearing their masks, obedient sheeple, being trained to do whatever Big Brother tells them. Do some really thorough research and you'll find out that the masks don't provide the protection claimed after all. Even many believers have a knee-jerk sheeple response to what amounts to us being tested to see just how much limitation of our freedom we'll accept in the name of keeping us safe. Good grief, they even wear those masks when they're driving alone in their cars.
Think, dear brethren. When was the last time your doctor wrote out a prescription for you to supplement your diet with vitamin C, vitamin D3, and zinc, so that your immune system will easily fend off those nasty viruses? No, instead he peddles his pills that ends up weakening your immune system and exacerbating the effects of attacking viruses. Pill pushers, most of them, obediently serving their Big Pharma masters. When you believe what the world tells you, that indicates a certain respect of the world, and the inherent love within that respect. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
In the same way John, the apostle, wrote, "Keep yourself in the love of God," I'm admonishing you to keep your minds free. Sometimes, wisdom dictates that we not foolishly rebel against the powers that be. Choose your fights, says the smart fighter. But, when our minds are kept free from the deception, no matter what, we are truly a free people. Freedom is essentially an inner state of being. Don't be a sucker for sociopaths. Mark Twain said, "Suppose you're an idiot, and suppose you're a member of congress; but I repeat myself." But we believe those idiots. They may be idiotically incompetent, or idiotically ignorant, or of that class of the cleverly malevolent kind, who even if they may have a higher than average IQ, they're functionally idiots.
Someone says, "All the glaciers are disappearing," and you believe them. No they're not. In some places ice is receding, in other places it's increasing, as it has for thousands of years. "The polar bears are dying off." No they're not, the polar bear population is actually thriving. "The earth's climate is changing." Hey, dumbdumb, that's the nature of weather, it changes. "If we don't do something about global warming the world will end in twelve days." Good grief, the woman who said that actually wanted her party's nomination to run for president. Did you grant even a little credibility to those idiots? Come on, now, be honest. If so, you need a healthy injection of mind-freeing truth.
The real crisis is upon us, the crisis of old: whether Caesar is Lord, or Jesus. "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable (intelligent) service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Did you get that? "Reasonable/intelligent service." The world's people are being dumbed down to conform to the dictates of psychopaths. Don't be among them. Be wise; be a people of understanding and insight. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." May the grace of God instill in you that quality of healthy skepticism which belongs to a mature faith.
