PHASE TWO --- ATTACK THE MESSAGER The greatest desire Satan and his principalities have in their war upon Christians is to see them being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. They are elated to see us confused and not knowing the truth of what God is doing. They rejoice over seeing Christians corrupted, both in their understanding and in their conduct, by that which they have instigated. Though it is their greatest desire, and attacking the message is their first and foremost line of attack, it is not always successful. It wasnt successful, for example, with Paul, or with Timothy, or with the assemblies of saints in Philippi or Thessalonica. These all head the contrary doctrines, and encountered the deceptive and beguiling wiles used to seduce and deceive, but they were not taken in by them. Instead, they stood fast in the Lord and were not moved away from the truth. In fact, they contended for the truth in the face of the contrary corruptive doctrines, both fighting against them and exposing them. As such, though the police of evil never stopped trying to produce doctrinal corruption with them, it needed to bring upon them another line of attack designed specifically to deal with them and their steadfastness. It began to attack them personally as the capable messengers of the truth that they were, and through such attacks worked at intimidating them into silence. This is Phase Two of the policy of evil. To put it simply and briefly, if the policy of evil cant corrupt the truth in a Christians mind, then it will move to silence that Christian so that he wont be involved in making it known. If DECEIVE could be described as the battle-cry of Phase One, then INTIMIDATE is the battle-cry of Phase Two. Intimidating into silence those Christians who know the truth and have stood for it, is the goal of Phase Two of the policy of evil. When one is intimidated he is made to back down from boldly assertion something or pursuing something because of fear of the consequences. He has convictions about something and knows that it is right and ought to be defended, but because of what such a stand may cost him in terms of unpopularity, backlash, well-being, social standing, financial security, friendships, or whatever, he is afraid to take such a stand for his conviction. He clams up when he ought to boldly speak. He is fearful of speaking boldly about what he knows is right because he doesnt want to suffer the unpleasant consequences that will come from doing so. He faints in his mind at the prospect and occasion of standing for the truth in the face of error. Timidity grips him, and he becomes silent about those things he knows he ought to be bold about. Intimidation is a powerful negative motivating factor, and it is just what Satan and his principalities and powers want to see produced and operating in Christians who know the truth for this dispensation of grace and have not been doctrinally moved away from it. By intimidating Christians whom Satan has not been able to doctrinally corrupt, he effectively silences them and out of fear they do not make known the fellowship of the mystery to the glory of God. As such, therefore, Satan still achieves his goal. The impact to Gods glory in the heavenly places is not made. However, this time the impact is not made because Christians who could make it are caused to back down. In older to produce such intimidation, with its refusal to open ones mouth to proclaim or defend the mystery of the gospel, the policy of evil employs a set of wiles and tactics especially designed to meet the need. Since intimidation arises from the fear of the consequences to being bold, the wiles of the devil in this phase of his policy of evil work to bring about such unpleasant consequences. These unpleasant consequences can range from the repercussions of verbal abuse, to the loss of friendships and associations, and on the loss of financial security, or even physical persecution and perils. Anything that can be employed as an unpleasant consequence to being bold for the truth will be employed to produce the desired intimidation. It is in the example of the apostle Paul himself, along with that of faithful ministers like Timothy, and faithful saints like the Philippians, that we are taught about this phase of the policy of evil. Because of their faithful stand for the revelation of the mystery they suffered under this attack. They experienced the various wiles used to get them to become cowards, instead of bold proclaimers and defenders of the truth. We will now look at some of the things we are taught about this line of attack, by looking at their examples.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 19:10:42 +0000
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