I WAS very much struck by the conclusion to Jenny Gratwick’s TCW article ‘Will nobody think of the children?’ which I think bears repeating:
‘The only piece still missing from the puzzle is the identity of the driving force behind all this progress. Who is it that wants all this to happen, and why? Where does the power come from to blindside rational opposition and steamroller on?
‘I’m no conspiracy theorist in the commonest sense of the term. I don’t believe that the BBC, or globalists, or George Soros, or the presiding spirits of social media or BLM, any or all, are sinister geniuses with an evil masterplan to destroy Western civilisation through its young. Who knows what their wishes may be, but their incompetence is certain.
‘I do, though, believe that the Father of Lies is just such an evil genius, with just such a masterplan, and unless God intervenes, he has all the competence to see it through. Also, the world is full of useful idiots, with or without good intentions.
‘God help us, and let us keep praying.’
As we see the pillars of our national life crumbling, how many of us have asked ourselves that question: who or what is orchestrating all this?
I am coming round to thinking Jenny is right: there is an evil intelligence at work. Belief in the existence of the Devil, let alone hell, has been fairly marginal to my Christian faith over the decades, a bit of a grey, no-go area. And yet, a Christian as intelligent as C S Lewis – by no means a biblical fundamentalist – clearly had no doubts about the reality of ‘Our Father Below’, and Lewis’s Screwtape Letters is a masterly psychological account of his machinations.
One of the areas in which Satan specialises is demoralisation, the area I want to explore today – demoralisation on several levels.
First the personal. It is not uncommon for me, in a half-awake state in the early morning, to have a dream in which, for instance, a client has written me a critical – and surprisingly detailed and plausible – email about a recent piece of translation work. I am tempted to go along with the criticism and feel bad about it, and it takes quite an effort to say: This is not true; this is only a dream; in effect ‘Get behind me, Satan’. Emotionally, we are always under attack, the enemy trying to undermine our self-confidence. I wonder if you have similar experiences?
The same is going on at a more corporate level. I used to work as an interpreter for the police. How many police officers must feel thoroughly demoralised at the barrage of hatred directed at them during demonstrations, called pigs and worse, some sadly cowed into that horrible gesture of submission, ‘taking the knee’. This is beginning to be on a par with the reign of browbeating and terror unleashed by Mao’s Red Guards.
Then there is the national level. For many years, I have done translation work relating to Switzerland, particularly Swiss cultural affairs. Switzerland is a country I greatly admire – fiercely independent, politically neutral, democratic, disciplined, conservative, proud of its history (though I think many people unfairly dislike the Swiss out of a kind of envy). Over the years, however, I have seen a pattern emerge, aided and abetted by a fifth column: Switzerland is too small to go it alone, we must join the EU; we are guilty of not having done more for the Jews; we are intolerant bigots because we don’t want minarets changing our traditional cityscapes; William Tell never really existed, it’s all a silly myth (as if countries do not need high ideals and founding myths to live up to!). Drip, drip, drip. The aim is to demoralise the Swiss and undermine their country’s self-belief and uniqueness.
And, of course, we are seeing the same happening here, amply documented on this website. Why? Because independent nation states are the only entities strong enough to resist the emergence of some form of satanic global tyranny. Undermine them and the game is won. Hence the enormous opposition to Britain regaining its national independence.
Yes, the Father of Lies seeks to pervert, corrupt and destroy everything good and sacred. Just as God is using every person he can as much as he can, so is Satan.
I am surprised I have written so forthright an article. I realise that not everyone who visits this site looks at the world from a Christian perspective. Nevertheless, I would urge you to consider and, if you can, join the spiritual battle that is surely raging.
