Seven Threats of Our Time

[We have] seen as we’ve gone through these [seven threats] more and more evidence of each of these threats [as] they’re playing out around us. But [today/tonight] what we thought we would do would go through these a little bit differently. I want to talk about some of the common threads that we see through each of these threats and how those threats are being [expressed] in our time.

Remember, we began, [by] trying to help us have the context, the proper context of all of [these threats], we didn’t want to get caught up in the knees knocking and our hearts melting and hindering in the "Woe is Us" in the midst of all of this. We wanted to make sure we kept in the context here of who we are and where we are. That we are pilgrims in a fallen world and God has chosen to allow us to remain in that fallen world until the time that he is going to restore all things. And so we looked at [a] passage from Chronicles [about] the sons of Issachar.

And we wanted to make sure they were commended because they understood, they had this binah, the Hebrew word for understood, which meant that they had a wisdom and a discernment, a cause and effect understanding, [this understanding] of the times in which they lived. And because of that understanding they then knew, properly knew, I think that’s what the scripture’s implying here, they, therefore, knew rightly, what Israel should do. What the people [of] God should do in those times.

And so, we need to remember and recognize that oftentimes the wisdom that the people of God apply to the times in which they live, rightly so, may not be wise when the times change. And so we need to understand that sometimes Christian traditions, and they may have been perfectly right and wise in the times in which brothers and sisters in those times began to do certain things. Those things can become a tradition that may not be wise in the times in which we live. And so we have to revisit and understand and call upon God to give us that kind of discernment and wisdom that we might understand the times in which we live. So that we might know what we should do.

[Dell says], one of my favorite passages associated with our interaction and responsibility with those around us and [in] particular those who are outsiders, as the scripture calls them, [is from Colossians, chapter 4].

Now we are to conduct ourselves with wisdom toward outsiders…​

And so we must:

And in my confession, I would say that I never followed that kind of biblical wisdom because I always dealt with people according to my agenda and my plan and my questions and, really, was not listening to them, really not interested, quite frankly, at all what they thought, other than to hear enough to know what my next response to be.

So we’re driven here when we look at all of these threats that are converging upon our culture at this time. And they’re serious threats. These are not minor threats but we don’t look at those in order to cause us, therefore, to be hopeless or cause us to do things which are unwise, but we look at them in the context of what to know and for God to help us understand with His wisdom what we should do in the times in which we live.

And so we looked at each of these seven threats. We ended last [time] with the attack on the biblical family, which to some extent and you look at each one of these and they’re all serious, but the attack on the biblical family is one of the most critical, but there are some common threads that run through each of these.

There are three of them that I want us to look at [the first this morning and the other two tonight]. And these common threads are found in almost all of those threats. And that’s why I thought it was important for us to think about these common threads which in reality then form a common threat that becomes evident and [apparent] in each of those individual threats.

So let’s look first of all at

These are the six social systems, as I see them, biblically.

[1. The relationship of God & man, 2. the family, 3. the church, 4.the community, 5. the State, and 6. Labor].

We have the design for each one of these, the blueprint, provided for us in the scripture. For those who’ve been through the Truth Project, we spent several tours looking at these. In fact, we spent time [on] each one of these.

And it is this design for social order that is, in conjunction with what I believe, is God’s modus operandi: That God creates His creatures and He equips them and empowers them, He delegates authority to them, so that they have the opportunity and the responsibility to bring forth fruit. This is the modus operandi of God. And that fruit then brings glory to God and so fundamentally, as remember Jesus said it, "by this is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit." And this, the fruitfulness of God’s creatures, then brings glory to God. And all of this was to take place within these Divine relationships, [and under His social order], that God made.

I think this is reflective of the Triune nature of God, that He created a universe that is filled with relationships. In fact, everything exists in some sort of relationship and everything exists within a relationship [of] diverse pieces and parts that come together in order to produce fruit. My God created the male and female in the beginning, the animals and humanity, and so forth. And all of that, I am [convinced], is found underneath the blueprints of the social order of this socially complex God. The Triune God, Who created a universe, all in relationships. And [He] created the design for us in His purposes for man to come together in these social institutions. And those social institutions, all of them, were to bring forth greater fruit.

So, it isn’t surprising to us, we mentioned this last time, [that] Satan’s ultimate scheme, and we talk about this in the Engagement Project and spent a lot of time there, and the implications of all of that [is] that Satan’s ultimate scheme is, therefore, to destroy relationships. Because it is the relationships that bring forth the fruit in God’s design. If he can destroy relationships, he can, therefore, destroy the fruit of God’s creation and therefore cut off the glory that is due to God from those creatures. And he is doing all that. He’s attempting to counter God’s purposes, that modus operandi that we talked about. And just to remind ourselves that in God’s design it is the family that carries the deepest and most intimate relationships [in] all creation.

And those deep and intimate relationships are the cause of people, if you ask them, "What is the greatest joy that you can recall in your life", "What are the greatest tragedies in your life?", almost all the time they stem from the family. And Satan monkeys with the family, wants to destroy the family, because the biblical family is a heart of the culture. So if you can destroy the biblical family then you can destroy the culture.

So I want you to see [this] thread, [Satan’s attempt to destroy God’s Social Design & Order], as we go through several [threats.] [We’ll] just list some of these threats we’ve been looking at and understand the thread associated here with Satan’s attempt to destroy relationships to destroy these institutions that God has designed because it is the relationships and the relationships in those institutions that bring about this fruit that brings glory to God.

And so, [beginning with] this third threat we look[ed] at, a huge threat in our culture today, the Loss of the Noble Male and the loss of the Virtuous Female and therefore the rise of malevolent compassion. So, if you recall we were talking about what happens when the noble male, [and his purpose], driven primarily for truth and righteousness and wisdom and all of that is bridled by the second engine [driving] the noble male of grace and compassion. The female, has both of those engines, they’re just [in] reverse order. The engine that drives her primarily is an engine of grace and compassion, but she has the grace and compassion bridled [or controlled] by truth and righteousness and wisdom.

So in a culture that attempts to throw out God, to throw out absolute truth, any notion of righteousness and any notion of true wisdom. Then, of course, [what happens is] the male is left without his primary purpose in life. The male then, [left without his primary purpose in life], either becomes a buffoon or a brute. And the female then is led by a desire for compassion that is unbridled by truth. And what happened to our culture, as we talked about it, [our culture] is tipped then towards this feminine side of grace and compassion, but it’s an unbridled, [uncontrolled], grace and compassion. So it’s an un-biblical grace and compassion. It is a grace and compassion that ends up becoming malevolent, evil.

And so, those supposedly benevolent and compassionate actions and policies actually become malevolent and they destroy people. You may have heard of the very, very difficult and perilous situation [that] is occurring in Argentina as we speak, [Dell is referring to the situation in Argentina in 2022]. Argentina [is] caught up, I believe in what I would say, the malevolent compassion, as much of the world [is] caught up in that, western culture in particular, as the prime ethic. It [is the ethic that] drives almost all of our public policy today and it is the prime ethic under which everyone is judged.

And so, many men find themselves in this desire to show themselves most compassionate, but those public policies that we see in Argentina has for years and years, they have increasingly followed this malevolent compassionate for m where monies were taken and given to people, such that people didn’t have to work. Well now, [in 2022], Argentina has a 60% a year inflation rate. They don’t have the ability anymore to fund all of these programs, social programs.

The fifth threat that we looked at, the Rise of a Demonic Worldview is also involved in the destruction of these social systems that God has given to us and this, as we talked about, this demonic worldview that is rising in our culture today, is one that is pitting people against each other. It’s destroying any kind of a relationship within the culture. And so, people are pitted together, man against women, races against races, those with more against those with less, and it goes on and on. This is exactly what [the] demonic worldview is attempting to do in our culture. To try and pit us against each other and destroy any kind of fabric within the nation and bringing a split that we’ve never really seen before except maybe back in the Civil War. But you remember, there was a common worldview at that time. Yes, they had serious differences of opinion on things that brought them to arms, but there was a common worldview, not that everyone was perfect in that, [but there was a common worldview, that] we don’t have anymore. We are broken in our worldview.

And then the fourth threat we looked at, the Consolidation of Massive Earthly Power, [a consolidation of power] in a way that is strange to much of the history of nation-states. Because most of the consolidation of power, [with] the exception of what happened in pre-reformation [times] where there is significant power that was consolidated in the Roman church. But [normally] that consolidation of power has most always been associated with the state. It bears the sword in a sinfulness and selfishness of man, has a tendency to grow that power until that nation [state] tumbles and falls.

We now find ourself in a culture and a day and a time where there are massive power structures that are external to the state. So we have these large international technical companies and entities that have the power to keep you from buying and selling. The power to cancel you. And all of the other powers that we listed when we looked at that threat. And then the harlot that rides over those is this malevolent compassion that has become the primary ethic that drives everything including even industries, who now want to signal, you know, that they’re all so ethical and following this malevolent compassion.

But it is a destruction and is a disorder, it is a pathology [against] the proper way that God has designed those institutions that they have gotten way out of the boundaries that God had made for them.

And, of course, maybe the most significant in all of the social orders, The Attack upon the Biblical Family. And that is in conjunction with the Loss of the Noble Male and the Loss of the Virtuous Female. We looked at a few of these things, but I want to remind you because it [is] just so critical for us, that naturalism, this rejection of God and His truth and the Rise of feminism, a radical feminism, an un-biblical feminism that is destroying both the virtuous female and the noble male.

And that has led into an attack upon human sexuality we’ve really never seen before in the history of man. There are three things that I want to talk about. One of these, again in light of these common roots that we’re talking about, what happens when we

And this then, you know, we talked about Helen Reddy and there are many, many songs and many things we could quote, but this one sticks in my mind at a time that became almost a tipping point for all of this, where all of a sudden we begin to declare that the essence of who I am is bound up in my sexuality. So human sexuality rather than that which was given to us by God as a purpose within the social systems and social order that God has given to us to bring forth fruit, yet now becomes something private to me. Its personal and it’s a fundamental aspect of my identity, has nothing to do with marriage or family or the social systems around us. It has everything to do with who I am. And this has become ubiquitous, all-pervasive, occurring everywhere. And our culture, as you all know, is driving all kinds of pathologies within our culture down to even the [grade] school level.

I don’t know if I mentioned this or not, I will again because it is so shocking to me. Not too long ago, I was speaking at a wonderful Christian Academy in Florida and had the opportunity to speak to each of the faculty groups. So, [the] high school group, the middle school, and then the grade school, elementary school faculty and asked pretty much the same questions [with] a little varying and so forth. But in the elementary faculty one of the questions I asked them is, "what is the number one issue that you are dealing with in your students" and it was almost a unanimous response, "gender identity." And I was just dumbfounded by that, because I mean, we’re talking about first and second and third graders who, you know, are still learning how to ride bikes and yeah, they have been so led by the culture around them that their biggest struggle is, who am I in terms of my sexual identity? Why? Because [our culture says,] my sexual identity is the essence of who I am.

So this severs oneself from first of all the Creator and it severs my human sexuality from the context and the design of God. The biblical worldview has no place for this kind of thinking, nowhere in the scripture are we led to believe that our sexuality is the essence of our identity. Yet, that is what the enemy has laid before us. And it is a major factor in a number of those threats.

I’m going to stop here this morning. In Part Two we will talk about the other two threads that we find in most of these seven threats: 1) The Rise of Homo Deus (Deified Man), which drives a Hunger for Significance. Talking about why we are so lonely and unsatisfied in our culture today. And the third thread, the Depraved Mind that leads us to Self-Destruction.

The Problem with breaking these sessions in two is you don’t get the solution until the end of Part Two. So Part One is left unresolved. And most people only get to hear Part One. I will leave you with the thought that there is a solution, a biblical solution, God’s solution to all the craziness we see in our world today and we well address that tonight.

But for now, we are extending the invitation, come if you are subject to it while we stand and sing.