The Dark Spiritual Reality Behind Abortion

    If you have a couple of hours to spare, please watch this video by Nate Marino of Sound the Battle Cry Ministries. He does an excellent and very thorough job of documenting the history of child sacrifice and abortion since Biblical times, and its consistent association with paganism and witchcraft.

    I also highly recommend the following article by Chris Johnson:

Abortion: Paganism, Satanism, Sacrifices, and Witchcraft 

    What the video and article both clearly show is that abortion is not merely a political issue. It's not a simple question of "a woman's right to choose" (like anyone should have the right to murder their own baby!). Abortion is, in reality, a spiritual issue. To put it bluntly, abortion is the Devil's work. Satan and his army of devils are directly behind it. As John 8:44 makes clear, he has been a murderer from the beginning. He inspired Cain to murder Abel (see 1 John 3:12). That was the very first murder, and he has inspired every murder since then. So he is behind every murder of a child, including the murders that take place through abortion and child sacrifice:

    "Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood." (Psalm 106:37-38)

    "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." (1 Corinthians 10:20)

    God condemns such practices unequivocally:

    "For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart." (Jeremiah 7:30-31)

    "Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind" (Jeremiah 19:4-5)

     Abortion is thus the Devil's baby, so to speak. When people forsake God, they adopt the Devil's ways and philosophies pretty quickly. And just as many ancient lands were filled with the blood of innocents, abortion clinics are being filled with that same innocent blood today. (Don't think God won't judge all this killing either - something that Nate Marino clearly shows is that God has ALWAYS judged the large-scale murder of infants sooner or later.) But it's nothing new. This abhorrent practice has been going on for millennia, and the entire kingdom of darkness is heavily invested in it. In his video, Nate Marino gives examples from Bible times, Carthage, the Aztec civilisation, the ancient Celts and Germanic peoples, Renaissance France and the 20th Century, clearly showing how this practice has carried on through the centuries. People have been sacrificing their children to pagan gods for thousands of years in order to gain good fortune, power and so on. It's no different today. Now obviously, not every woman who has an abortion is consciously performing a sacrifice to a pagan deity (although there are witches today, and Satanists too, who do this very thing, and some particularly evil women even deliberately get pregnant in order to have a sacrificial abortion later, as both Mr Marino and Mr Johnson clearly show). But they are still very often sacrificing their children on the altar of convenience (because for them, having a child is just "too inconvenient"). They are frequently sacrificing them to save money too (because hey, kids cost money, what with their pesky need for food, clothing and suchlike). In other words, even if they are merely trying to "fix a problem", they are still really performing a sacrifice, and their motives are essentially the same as people who quite intentionally sacrifice children and babies to idols - a selfish desire for material gain or some other worldly advantage. Moreover, whether they want to admit it or not, the same spirit is inspiring them to have their babies murdered in abortion clinics that inspired other people in times past to sacrifice their children to idols.

    What Nate Marino's video in particular brings out is that there is an entire demonic spiritual thread that runs through the practices of abortion and child sacrifice (which are more directly linked than you might think) right through time. Not only that, but other practices like prostitution, sodomy (aka homosexuality) and other forms of fornication are closely linked to abortion, and thus part of the same demonic thread. Fertility cults (which still exist today among some pagans and witches) encouraged both sexual promiscuity and child sacrifice (indeed, sex and human sacrifice represent the two sides of the "Goddess" beloved by many feminists - her sensual side is used to lure people into worshipping her, but then she eventually demands blood sacrifices to keep her happy).

    The recent leak of a document from the US Supreme Court suggesting that the wicked Roe vs. Wade ruling of 1973 might be overturned (thereby giving power back to the states to make their own abortion laws) has sparked great anger among the supporters and promoters of murdering unborn children (because in reality, that is what these "pro-choice" people are - what they really want is the "right" to slaughter babies in the womb). There have already been some quite violent protests (not that the mainstream media shows the violence - although they'd be all over it if any pro-life marchers decided to turn violent). If the ruling is indeed overturned, expect more violence to follow. This is not normal anger that we're seeing among American abortion proponents right now. It is, in fact, demonic rage. As I said before, this is not a mere political issue. It's a spiritual issue - but more than that, this is an issue particularly dear to the Devil's wicked heart. A lot of his power in this world comes from human sacrifice - and in particular, the sacrifice of unborn babies or infants. There are few things that Satan likes better than the shedding of innocent blood - and what blood is more innocent than that of a baby? So you can be sure that he will fight this one tooth and nail, which is why we are likely to see a lot of ugly scenes in the coming months, and also deception on a grand scale, especially from the mainstream media and feminist movement (because as John 8:44 also teaches us, the Devil is the father of lies).

    So what can Christians do as the battle over abortion heats up once again in America (and maybe in other parts of the world)? Well, it's important to remember this:

    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12)

    Our battle is not against the Left (though it is primarily the Left that promotes abortion), or the feminist movement, or the doctors who practise abortion, or any other flesh-and-blood people (an important point brought out in Chris Johnson's article). This is a fight directly against the forces of darkness. In fact, Christians battle these exact same forces every day over all kinds of things. For example, every time you face a temptation and overcome it with God's help, you're fighting a spiritual battle. When you preach the Gospel to someone, or even just give them a tract, that's a form of spiritual warfare too. However, the abortion fight is a particularly heavy-duty one, and it's important to use the right weapons:

    "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)" (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)

    Going on protest marches and waving picket signs is carnal warfare and will accomplish little. In spiritual warfare, you need to use spiritual weapons, and two in particular are key:

    "And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29)

    When Jesus says "this kind", He is referring to particularly powerful evil spirits, and some of the most wicked and powerful devils at Satan's disposal are involved in the modern abortion movement. However, they can still be defeated by Christians who humble themselves before God, submit to Him and pray against the wickedness of abortion. When you fast, or how much you do it, is up to you, but if you really want to see some progress made against abortion, you should do it at some stage. But this is also undoubtedly an issue for which you need to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Remember that we can do nothing without Christ (who has authority over all creatures, good and bad). Try to win this battle in your own strength, and you'll fail spectacularly. So remember:

    "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5)

    The other side of that:

    "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13)

    A final thought: those who forsake God tend to favour, if not directly practise, abortion (and sooner or later, child sacrifice as part of pagan worship). However, those who fear God will always respect the sanctity of life, even if the government itself tells them to murder children. So if you call yourself a Christian and support abortion, you should do some serious examination of your heart and ask yourself whose side you're really on. I'll leave you with this account of two midwives who refused to participate in what some are now calling "after-birth abortion" (but in reality, it's just infanticide):

"And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive." (Exodus 1:15-17) And note Verse 20 as well: "Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty." Fear God and stand against the wickedness of abortion!

UPDATE (19/10/22): While I stand by everything I wrote above, something I neglected to say, but which I think is important to add, is that abortion does a great deal of harm (especially emotional and spiritual harm, but sometimes physical harm as well) to women. It is natural for those of us who take a pro-life position to focus on the innocent and defenseless baby in the womb. In doing so, however, we can sometimes forget about the mothers of aborted babies. It is also important to say that not every woman who has an abortion is a callous feminist lacking natural affection. Many women who have had abortions actually wanted to keep their babies, but were coerced or severely pressured by their parents, boyfriends or other adults. So they ended up having an abortion to placate the people who were putting so much pressure on them. (Such people will also face severe judgement from God someday.) Now, there was still sin involved in that these women gave in to the fear of man. But most of them probably weren't Christians at the time in any case. Other women weren't necessarily pressured, but were still manipulated in some way. This is not to negate those women's responsibility for their sin, because it was still ultimately their decision, but nevertheless I want to make it clear that a lot of abortions happen in these sorts of circumstances. To pressure or coerce a woman into having an abortion is a very wicked thing to do. There is always an evil motive - covering up sin, laziness, fear of what others think and so on. In short, the people who pressure a woman into having an abortion are not concerned for that woman (who may be a fairly young girl in some cases), but themselves. They are acting out of complete self-interest.

    Recently I have been watching a series of videos on YouTube called "I Regret My Abortion", in which various women share their experience of abortion, the evil consequences it had in their lives and the deep regret they have over it now. As far as I can tell, they are all Christians (or profess to be). So they have come to repentance over their past sin. But even before they became Christians, many of them felt a very deep grief over what they had done. Abortion affected their lives far more than they ever thought that it would. All of them suffered considerable emotional pain. Many of them were pressured into it, although there were some who had wanted to "solve a problem" at the time. All in all, these videos are quite eye-opening. Some of them are extremely moving. But they very clearly show the kind of evil fruit that abortion produces in the lives of the women who have it. I think that most women, unless their conscience is completely seared and they are past feeling, would have similar post-abortion outcomes to the women in these videos. So not only is abortion responsible for the senseless slaughter of innocent babies in the womb, but it is causing untold damage to most women who have it. And this really shows what a lie the feminists are telling when they claim that it's "liberating"!

    A final point I would like to address in this little update is that sometimes men who get involved with a woman who had an abortion at an earlier stage of her life will have to face this at some point in the relationship. If you're a Christian man who has strong pro-life views, and a woman you care deeply about reveals that she once had an abortion, how do you handle that? Well, the most important thing to look for when this revelation is made is REPENTANCE. Is the woman repentant over her past sin? Does she now have godly sorrow for it? If she does indeed have that, and she has confessed her sin to God, then He has forgiven her. And if God has forgiven her, then you had better not hold it against her. If you condemn her and cast her aside when God has forgiven her sin, then you are acting wickedly. You are pridefully saying that you know better than God, and that you have more authority to judge the matter than He does. God forgives us when we repent, and we should also forgive others when they repent. So the right approach to take to a woman who is repentant over her abortion is to have COMPASSION. That doesn't mean that you have to condone her sin. God forgives us, but He never condones any of our sins. It's OK to acknowledge the plain truth that the abortion was a sin. The fact is though, she will probably still be facing struggles (like emotional pain), so you need to treat her gently and help her through that. Show her the same grace and mercy that God showed you when you repented. I might add that you should also do this with any other serious past sin that a woman you love might confess to you.

    On the other hand, if the woman is NOT repentant, and is making excuses trying to justify her sin, it may just be time to end the relationship. At the very least, some rebuke and reproof would be warranted. That doesn't mean you have to behave like a jerk, though. Don't get all puffed up and self-righteous. You should still treat her with as much charity as possible under the circumstances. But if you are pro-life and she is unapologetically pro-abortion, with no regret or remorse over her own past sin, she is very probably not saved and you are facing an unequal yoke. While it would of course be painful to break up in such a situation, especially if you have been seeing her for a while, you will save yourself (and her) much worse pain later on. Sometimes, the pain of such a breakup might lead the lady to repentance as God honours your obedience in avoiding that unequal yoke. It's not guaranteed, but it can happen. (Should you be married to the woman in question though, I certainly don't recommend that you divorce her! You should still make your position clear, and if she decides to divorce you because of it, well OK. That's her call. But otherwise, you should battle through as best you can.) In conclusion, never condone the sin of abortion, but forgive it if there is clear repentance. To a greater or lesser degree, women may suffer the consequences of an abortion all their lives, and you don't need to add any more to their already deep pain.

New Name for This Blog

     After four quite solid months of working on this blog, I have rather shamefully neglected it for some nine months. I've been busy with a lot of translation work that the Lord has blessed me with, and also been quite heavily involved in the Creation Liberty Evangelism forum and church. My personal life has also got a little interesting lately. Anyway, one of the things I have never been happy about when starting the blog was its name. The name of the blog was simply a Scripture reference. However, I have now hit upon a new and hopefully more memorable name. After doing some research to ensure I wasn't inadvertently copying anyone else's blog name, I have decided to rename this blog to Not Conformed.

    The verse that has inspired the new name is Romans 12:2, which states: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

    Christians are not meant to conform to the world. A couple of other passages show us that God and the world don't mix:

     "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4)

    "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17)

     The closer I get to God, the more I find that I am not conforming to the world. Indeed, there is much already in this blog that does not conform to the world. For example, the world says that homosexuals are "born that way" and that we should give them some sort of special treatment because of that. I agree with what the Bible says: that it is sin, that people who commit the sin choose it (so it's not inherent), and that it is against God's natural design for the body. Therefore, I do not conform to the world's position, but God's.

    The world also wants us to believe that men who think they're women really are women, and that women believing themselves to be men actually are men. It would have us believe that men can get pregnant (a "pregnant man" is still a biological woman). I agree with the Bible that people dressing in the clothing of the opposite gender are an abomination to God (Deuteronomy 22:5) and that God has created everyone male and female. Once a man, always a man. Once a woman, always a woman - no matter how you want to dress or what weird things you want to do to your body to make yourself appear more like the opposite gender. Once again, I do not conform to the world on this point.

     The world says that women should have the right to choose whether to let their unborn children live. A baby in the womb is supposedly a mere "foetus" and bunch of cells. But I believe that life begins at conception, and that an unborn child is just that: a CHILD. (This isn't just in the Bible either - millions of ultrasound scans now serve as additional witnesses to the truth of an unborn baby's humanity.) As such, to kill it in an abortion is murder, for that is the shedding of innocent blood. Even if a woman is raped (undoubtedly a horrible crime), it's not acceptable to kill an innocent baby for the crime that its father committed. (How about executing the rapist instead? The feminists ought to get right behind that one.) In my absolute conviction that abortion is murder and one of the most wicked things anyone can do, and that moreover God judges it severely in due time, I do not conform to the world.

    The world says we should believe in evolution, whereby everything magically evolved over millions of years after some mysterious "big bang". I believe the Bible when it says that God created the entire world in six literal days and nights. So when it comes to the origins of life, I do not conform to the world. 

     The world claims that there are many paths that lead to God, whereas I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. The world also says that truth is relative, whereas I believe that truth is absolute, and that God's Word is truth (John 17:17). Here too then, I do not conform to this world. 

    The world reckons that climate change will cause its end. I agree with the Bible that there will always be summer and winter, and cold and heat for as long as the world exists, and that when it DOES end, it will be in the manner prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Moreover, I am firmly of the view that man-made climate change is largely, if not entirely, a hoax. So on this matter too, I do not conform to this world.

    And while the Bible does not specifically prohibit vaccines, the world sure seems to love them, especially this newfangled COVID-19 vaccine. So much so that they want to force people to have them against their will in some places. I do not agree with such coercion. Nor am I convinced that the COVID-19 vaccine is much good at all. So in my position on vaccines, especially the COVID-19 ones, I do not conform to this world.

    The reason I do not conform to this world on this and other matters is because I seek to obey the Bible, which is my final authority for all faith and practice. The world hates the Bible, so in my very love for God's Word, I once more do not conform to it. The Bible is renewing my mind from years of brainwashing by the mainstream media and other forms of popular entertainment. And it is transforming me - into someone who is, in the eyes of the world, a nonconformist. The more obedient you are to God and His Word, the more you too will become someone who, like me and like this blog, is "Not Conformed" to this world - its values, customs and teachings. In my first new post after this one, I will elaborate more on what true Biblical nonconformity is, especially where it concerns government mandates and the like. So keep an eye out for that soon.

Pride Month Day 13: Pride Brings Down Kings

     For today's Pride Month post, I am going to do something slightly different and use two passages, albeit from the same book of the Bible (specifically, the Book of Daniel). The Bible reveals that the pride of great leaders like kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and so on can bring them down. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the great kings of ancient Babylon, the fall that resulted from his pride was spectacular indeed. He lost his sanity for a while, although it was then restored to him. When you witness the lunacy that is now part and parcel of daily life (such as people being censured for stating basic biological facts or using standard phrases like "Ladies and gentlemen"), it seems like the pride of people today is being judged in a somewhat similar fashion. Anyway, the first passage I am going to quote is an observation by Nebuchadnezzar after he got his sanity back, then some follow-up remarks by Daniel when he was addressing Belshazzar, the successor to Nebuchadnezzar.

    "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase." (Daniel 4:37)

    "O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will." (Daniel 5:18-21)

     Let's have a look at what Nebuchadnezzar said. Notice that he speaks of "those who walk in pride". When the Bible talks of "walking in" something, it means doing it habitually. If you are literally walking, you are moving along steadily in a particular direction. You may not be moving very fast, but you're progressing steadily all the same. There are a number of Scriptures that command us to walk in God's ways or His statutes. Conversely, the lost are said to "leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness" (Proverbs 2:13). Somebody walking in pride is just constantly proud, and pride governs everything they do - their hopes and dreams, how they interact with others, how they view God, how they see their sin (or more often, don't see it) and so on. They think very highly of themselves, and often have a low opinion of those around them (including those they flatter). Nebuchadnezzar was certainly someone who used to walk in pride. So much so that he had a large statue built (of himself I think) and made it a law of the land that everyone should worship it! But God humbled him by causing him to lose his sanity for a period of time, and when he recovered again, he was a changed man. The same God who could humble a king as powerful and arrogant and Nebuchadnezzar can humble anyone who "gets too big for their boots". Indeed, there were other proud people in the Bible who were humbled by God in a variety of ways, and some of them (like Haman, Jezebel and one of the Herods) died humiliating deaths.When you are ruled by your pride rather than by God's Spirit, you are heading for a very great fall.

    The second passage makes it clear that pride, like other sins, stems from the heart. Nebuchadnezzar's heart was "lifted up". James says, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:10) But people who walk in pride lift themselves up in their hearts. See also how pride is a sin of the mind. Proud people tend to have their minds full of high and lofty thoughts. Indeed, let's have a look at the state of Nebuchadnezzar's mind when it was hardened in pride: "The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30) See how Nebuchadnezzar's focus was entirely on himself. This is how it is with proud people. As Christians, however, we learn not to entertain such lofty thoughts: "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5) But those who walk in pride do not want to cast down lofty imaginations that exalt themselves against God. On the contrary, they entertain them and act upon them. But take note, the God who can humble kings, presidents or other great leaders who become excessively proud can also humble you. However, because He is gracious, he gives you some time to repent. But you don't know how long it might be before He decides to humble you, or when your appointed time to die comes. Right now, in your pride, you may think you are invincible, but it is often those who feel the most untouchable who are ripe for the hardest falls. So before God humbles you (and one way or another, it will happen someday), humble yourself before Him in repentance and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. You may still say, "Never!", but the day will come when the knees of even the most unrepentant proud people will bow to Christ and confess Him as Lord. So make wise use of the time God has given you now to get right with him, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Pride Month Day 12: Pride Leads to Shame

     For today's Pride Month study, I am going back to the Old Testament, and specifically, the Book of Proverbs (which is my favourite book of the Bible - I just love all the pearls of wisdom it contains. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole Bible, but Proverbs is a book I am particularly fond of). Here it comes:

    "When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." (Proverbs 11:2)

     A major reason why shame tends to follow pride is that pride tends to make people do stupid and foolish things. For example, a person's pride may make them think that they can drive recklessly without consequences - until they crash and injure or kill themselves. Or perhaps they might fall for a con because in their pride, they thought they couldn't be deceived (con artists can sometimes play up to vanity as well). Another way in which pride may cause shame is if somebody boasts about something and then the opposite happens. For example, in the 1970s English cricket captain Tony Grieg (who later became a commentator on Australia's Channel 9) bragged that he would make the touring West Indian team "grovel". The West Indies went on to win every Test of the series. By the last game, Grieg himself was "grovelling" to the West Indian supporters in the crowd! So at least he took his embarrassment with good grace, but the fact remains that in his pride, he made a fool of himself and was comprehensively humbled. Many false preachers, especially in the Charismatic movement, have made decidedly boastful "prophecies" and then been exposed as charlatans when they did not come to pass. Another example of pride preceding shame is when a person talks up their righteousness and then gets exposed as an adulterer or some such. For example, a few years ago in New Zealand we had a party called the Christian Heritage Party. It went through a few leaders, but its last leader before it broke up was Graham Capill. He was a great moral campaigner and once stirred up popular anger by calling homosexuals perverts. While this description was actually correct, Capill was subsequently exposed as a child abuser and convicted on several counts. So he was a pervert himself, just a different kind. Before his fall, there was a self-righteous air about him that was evidence of pride in his heart, and that pride certainly resulted in great shame for him.

    One way in which pride has come before shame in my own life is that sometimes, I have had a tendency to be a "sore loser" in competitive situations. Instead of being gracious in defeat, sometimes I have behave petulantly. The core reason for this was pride, and specifically, wounded pride. And often on such occasions, I would be reprimanded (rightly so!), and thereby would feel ashamed and come down off my high horse. The point is though that pride motivated that disagreeable behaviour on my part and led to shame when people got angry with me (with complete justification). There have been times too when I have corrected somebody only to discover that I had misunderstood them or misread their comment. In my pride, I thought they just weren't very bright and needed my "wisdom", but I ended up looking the fool I was acting like.

    Speaking of wisdom, notice who has it in this verse. Not the proud, but the LOWLY. The "lowly" are quite simply those who are humble in spirit. When people are humble (which comes after repentance of sins towards God), He graciously grants them wisdom. The lowly know what their limits are, and when to keep quiet. If they do speak up, they know how to speak with grace, even though some of what they say may be seasoned with salt. The lowly may sometimes be mocked by the proud, but they will never experience the shame that always follows pride sooner or later. The world might set great store by pride, but the wisdom that the lowly can obtain is of far greater value. In fact, in God's eyes, pride has no value at all. Solomon understood the value of true godly wisdom, and I'll close this post with his counsel about it: 

    "Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." (Proverbs 4:5-9)

Pride Month Day 11: Pride Is One of the Building Blocks of the World System

     When the Bible talks about "the world", or "this world", it usually means the world system that is part and parcel of the world we currently live in. The spiritual head of this world system is the Devil, who is called "the prince of this world" three times in the Gospel of John. The world, in this sense, is not the same as the earth, although there are other contexts in which "world" and "earth" would be synonymous (e.g. going on a journey "around the world" means travelling around the earth). God created the earth we all inhabit, and it belongs to Him. "For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." (1 Corinthians 10:26) However, the Word of God makes it very clear that God and the world (as in the system ruled by Satan) are diametrically opposed. For example, James says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) The opposition between God and the world is such that to be friends with the world (which basically means conforming to its customs and values) is to be enemies with God. That is how opposed they are.

    Another passage that shows the sharp distinction between God and the world is the one we're going to look at for Day 11 of this blog's Pride Month series. This passage comprises two verses, and the second verses lays out the "building blocks" of the world system. It shows the main spiritual foundations of the world. And guess what? One of those foundations is pride.

    "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:15-16)

     James tells us not to be friends with the world. John goes a step further and tells us not to love the world. Whereas James says that friendship with the world puts you at enmity with God, John says that if you love the world, you don't have the love of the Father in you (and if that is the case, you're not saved, which puts you in the enemy camp). Then John gives us those three key building blocks. Firstly, the lust of the flesh (such as illicit sexual desire, or cravings for food, alcohol, drugs and so on). Then comes the lust of the eyes (coveting beautiful things, or ogling a seductively-dressed woman and suchlike). Last but most assuredly not least, we have the pride of life. And that is what we're going to delve into a little more closely now. But the first important thing to note about it is that like the other two "building blocks", it is not of God, but of the world.

     Pride is at the heart of so much that goes on in the world. Think about sports for instance. What do athletes feel when they win an Olympic gold medal? PRIDE. What do the people of that athlete's country feel about it? PROUD. There may be other emotions, but pride is the foundational one. When an actor or actress wins an Oscar, or Emmy, or BAFTA, or Logie, or some such prestigious award, their main emotion is pride. Likewise if a musician wins a Grammy. The people who make the most obscene amounts of money in the world are often ones who either entertain us (fulfilling the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes in the process) or who make us proud. In the case of many sports stars, they may both entertain AND make us proud. When you think about it, it's actually quite ridiculous that people can get paid millions of dollars just for throwing or kicking a ball around. Sure, some of them may be rather good at it, but at the end of the day, they're just playing a game. Yet they get paid these absurd sums to do so. But when they win that coveted trophy like the World Cup or Super Bowl, or a Grand Slam event, or whatever it might be, everyone gets a lovely big "pride fix". The fans of the victorious individual or team can bask in the reflected glory and get a huge feel-good dose of pride. (Of course, the fans of the losing team often feel sad and angry, and some even riot due to wounded pride.) And really, it is for their ability to provide this pride fix which people crave like a drug that these elite athletes earn their millions. The world worships such people. Why? It's not like a lot of them are even very good people. In fact, you don't have to look far to find all sorts of stories about wicked sins that elite athletes and entertainers have got up to. Well, the real reason the world loves these people so much is because of all the pride they generate when they succeed. Being able to feel proud matters an extraordinary amount to people in the world. The world is addicted to pride the way many people get addicted to drugs and alcohol. In many ways, pride IS the world's drug.

     Many of our hopes and dreams also have a basis in pride. I once entertained fantasies of being a best-selling author. Pride was at the root of that dream. I am sincerely glad nowadays that I did not succeed (because I did actually write a couple of books, and I genuinely enjoy writing). Had I achieved the fame I dreamed of, I shudder to think how puffed up that might have made me. Other people dream of being TV stars, or rock stars, or elite sportspeople, or company CEOs, or being elected Prime Minister or President. Some of these dreams are sincere, while others may be idle fantasies (I will admit that while I have no intention of running for office, I have entertained a few "What would I do if I were Prime Minister" daydreams.) Other dreams may be slightly less lofty, but there could still be a pride element to them. Even in our hobbies, there can often be pride involved. For example, people who collect things (looking in the mirror here) can become proud about the size of their collections or about rare items in their collections (guilty). Or when people play games, they often get into arguments, essentially because one person's pride is hurt due to losing. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that so much of what we dream about or actually do has pride at its very core. However, if you look at the true saints in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, what was their main desire in life? To SERVE GOD and DO HIS WILL. They were no longer motivated by their own pleasure or pride, but by pleasing God. This is one of the biggest points of difference between loving God and loving the world. When you love God, you seek His will and His glory. When you love the world, you seek your own will and your own glory, because in a lost state, your pride is the thing that matters most to you.

    One thing I have noticed about all the pride that's in the world is that people often care more about their image than about right or wrong. Or they care more about the image of their idol. From my recent reading of two books by Lady Colin Campbell, I have learned that the British aristocracy has a code that "it doesn't matter what you do, but what you are seen to be doing". In other words, to them it does not matter if you commit fornication or adultery, or some other sin, just don't let it become public knowledge. The Royal Family operates like this too. This wicked way of thinking is really rooted in pride. To be caught in a sin and have it publicly exposed means shame and humiliation. That hurts the pride. Rather than repent of their sins, these people prefer to cover them up and put up a front so they can keep looking good on the outside. Sadly, many professing Christians are like those aristocrats. They put up a holy and righteous front to appear good in front of others, but behind closed doors, they are as wicked as any unsaved person (because they're actually unsaved themselves). Jesus describes such people as follows: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." (Matthew 23:27) They are like that, essentially, because of their pride. They would rather put up an appearance of being righteous than actually be righteous. When they appear good, other people praise them. That in turn inflates their pride. Which is what they really want. They want to receive praise and glory from men.

    Anyway, there is much more I could say, but I am trying to keep these Pride Month posts reasonably short. But the purpose of today's post has been to show how pride is actually one of the key building blocks of Satan's world system. It underscores an enormous amount of the world's most prized activities. Pride has no place in the Kingdom of God. A key building block of the latter is humility. The Lord Jesus Christ was humble during His time on earth, and we should follow His example. One of the key aspects of Christ's humility was that He sought His Father's will and not His own, and that is how we should also live as Christians. Instead of asking, "How will doing this make me look better before others?", we should ask, "What would the Lord have me do, and will this thing I want to do please Him?" Be clothed in humility instead of wearing pride like a loud and ostentatious shirt. I'll leave you with this from Peter: "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5)

Pride Month Day 10: Don't Hang Out with Proud People

     Psalm 101 is a kind of "resolution Psalm", because in it, David makes a whole lot of resolutions about how he is going to live his life as a man of God. Among other things, he resolves to sing of mercy and judgement to the Lord, behave wisely and walk in his house with a perfect heart, set no wicked thing before his eyes, not associate with wicked people, employ faithful people, not associate with liars and swiftly punish evildoers. (Remember that David was a king and so had lawful authority to do that last thing.) This Psalm gives Christians plenty of food for thought, especially Verse 3, which talks about not setting wicked things before our eyes. Also, the Psalm has several things to say about the kinds of people that Christians should avoid associating with. Now when I say that, I mean have close fellowship with. Obviously, you have to talk to people to witness to them, and you can't avoid doing business with unbelievers. However, merely going to a shop that happens to be owned by an unbeliever and buying something from them does not constitute fellowship. You might make a little small talk with them, especially if you are a regular customer, but that is still not fellowship as such. David gives an example of fellowship in Verse 7: "He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." (Psalm 101:7) When you fellowship with people and have close association with them, that often involves them coming to your house, or you going to theirs. You see them at close quarters on a regular basis, and in that sense, they tarry in your sight. In more modern parlance, they're people you "hang" with.

    The verse we're going to examine today provides another type of person that Christians should not "hang" (or "hang out") with. This is part of the Pride Month series, so you can probably already guess where this is going:

    "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer." (Psalm 101:5)

    Actually, there are two kinds of people mentioned there, but obviously, I want to focus on the second. Briefly on the first: people who privily (secretly) slander their neighbours are what the Bible calls talebearers. In more modern terms, they're gossips. But the kind of gossip they spread is both malicious and untrue. Now there are times when evil needs to be exposed in order to hold a perpetrator accountable and provide justice to those who have been wronged. There are also times when exposing particular evils is in the public interest. However, people who gossip are not interested in exposing evil. They don't care about justice or what is best for society. They just want to stir up trouble, and this is what the Bible condemns. The thing about slander is that it involves false accusation. Here is a simple example of the difference between legitimate exposure of evil and malicious slander. Legitimate exposure: "John's daughter has just come to me and told me that he beat her up. There are clear marks and bruises on her body and I think we need to call the police." In this hypothetical case, John has done an evil thing to his daughter. She has confided in a trusted neighbour, and that neighbour consults with another person about what to do next. In this case, the neighbour is not gossiping or slandering, but trying to do the right thing to protect an innocent girl from further harm. Now for an example of malicious slander: "Hey, guess what? I saw Jim getting pretty cosy with his daughter the other day. They were hugging and stuff. Very suss. Spread the word". In this case, Jim is a normal father expressing normal affection for his daughter. There is nothing untoward about what he is doing, but in the mouth of a slanderer, it could easily be turned into something it's not. The motive of this person is to make trouble for Jim and make an innocent person appear guilty of something they wouldn't dream of doing. A person who behaves like this is someone to steer well clear of. Besides, if they slander other people to you, one day they will slander you to other people as well.

     OK, now to examine the second kind of person to stay away from. David says that he will not suffer (allow or tolerate) people with a high look and a proud heart. A "high look" basically means a haughty or lofty expression. We have all seen people with what you might call smug facial expressions. They look like they're full of their own importance and consider themselves to be Very Important. It is this type of expression, which conveys smugness and arrogance, that could be termed a "high look". In this case, such a look reflects pride in the heart. And someone who has such a degree of pride in their heart that it's written all over their face is not someone that a Christian should be associating with.

     Why should Christians stay away from proud people? Well for one thing, the Bible is clear that God wants us to be humble. Even in our saved condition, humility does not tend to come naturally to us (because of the corrupt body we still inhabit), which is why the Bible regularly tells us to humble ourselves. But if you're always hanging out with proud people, it can be contagious. The Bible warns us, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33). In other words, if you have regular fellowship with someone who is proud, arrogant, boastful etc., it will rub off on you sooner or later. There is a well-known idiom, "Birds of a feather flock together". A saved Christian and an unsaved proud person are not "birds of a feather". So you won't be able to "flock together" for very along, unless you make yourself more like them. Which is often what happens. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we tend to copy the behaviours and attitudes of people we fellowship with to make them like us more. But if you copy someone's pride and arrogance, that is going to corrupt your Christian manners. It will adversely affect your testimony and displease God, resulting in chastening.

    We cannot avoid proud people altogether, but we should avoid fellowship with them. Not only unsaved ones either. Sometimes born-again Christians can get pride in their hearts, and until they repent of that, they are not good company to keep either.

Pride Month Day 9: God Will Silence All Proud Tongues Someday

     Two books in the Bible that have quite a lot to say about pride are Psalms and Proverbs (although there are plenty of other books in God's Word that deal with it as well). For today's Pride Month devotion, I am going to turn once again to the Book of Psalms. Here is the passage we'll be examining:

    "The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" (Psalm 12:3-4)

     A tongue that speaks proud things is essentially a tongue that boasts. Many people brag to glorify themselves. They don't always brag directly about themselves though. For instance, a mother who boasts about her child's proficiency in something is still glorifying herself indirectly, because the child's accomplishments reflect on her as a mother. So with her words she might say, "My son is the smartest boy in the school!" or "My daughter is the best dancer in her ballet school!", but behind that, her meaning is, "I'm such a great mother to have raised kids as brilliant as these". In fact, parents who push their children into certain things and drive them to win are doing to because they want the reflected glory of their child's achievements. Or when somebody boasts about their sports team, they are indirectly glorifying themselves by dint of being a supporter of that team. They want some of the team's glory to rub off on them. Why do people get so wildly excited when their team wins a major championship? Because as supporters, the team's glory rubs off on them, and they want to bask in that vicarious glory. Conversely, you see people getting angry when their team loses an important game because of wounded pride. Now the team's shame is also reflected on them to some extent, and that hurts their pride. Moreover, the supporters of the other team can now gloat over them. More injury to pride.

    However, plenty of people also do talk themselves up. The late boxer Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) uttered one of the most famous boasts of modern times when he said simply, "I'm the greatest!" When the Washington Redskins won the 1983 Super Bowl against the Miami Dolphins, running back John Riggins, that year's Super Bowl MVP, said in an interview after the game, "Ron (Reagan) may be President, but I'm the king". Donald Trump was renowned for his boasting while President of the United States. On Fox and Friends for instance, he said, "I would give myself an A+" when asked for an assessment of his presidency. Concerning COVID-19, he said in January 2020, "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. It's going to be just fine." (That one certainly didn't age well.) He had a rather high opinion of his intelligence too, saying on one occasion, "Sorry, losers. My IQ is the highest and you all know it." And that is just scratching the surface of all the boastful things Mr Trump has said about himself. You may chuckle reading some of these quotes, but God is not amused by such bragging, because all pride is offensive to Him.

    A more 21st-Century version of boasting is virtue signalling. For example, "I stopped eating meat because I really care about climate change". (The logic of that being, meat comes from cows, cows break wind, this contributes to the "carbon footprint", and basically we're all going to die in a few years because all those cows passing wind are going to cause catastrophic changes to the climate. Never mind that cows have been around for over 6,000 years now, and the earth has remarkably managed to survive their flatulence all this time.) Or the trend of "taking a knee", which is a way of saying "I'm against racism". However, it is also a way of saying "What a good person I am - please admire me for my stand against racism". Virtue signalling is not only a form of boasting, but very often involves hypocrisy. But in any case, the aim is to make oneself appear righteous before men and thereby receive their applause. While the term virtue signalling is not in the Bible, the concept certainly is. "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward." (Matthew 6:1-2) Verse 2 is where we get the term "blowing your own trumpet", which is exactly what virtue signalling is. Pride underscores every act of virtue signalling. It's all about putting up a front of righteousness in front of men: "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15) Virtue signallers, you might be able to impress other people (although many can see through it), but God knows the true state of your hearts and what your real motives are.

    There will come a time, however, when God is going to silence all tongues that speak proud things. Also note what is said about "flattering lips". Just as the Bible does not have one good word to say about pride, it also has nothing good to say about flattery. The thing about flattery is that it is insincere. "They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." (Psalm 12:2) People who flatter say one thing, but in their hearts they have another agenda altogether. "A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet." (Proverbs 29:5) One of the things flattery does is inflate pride. A person who has their pride inflated by flattery will tend to like the flatterer as a result. Consequently, they will be more inclined to trust the flatterer, and then the flatterer will have that person where they want them. In reality, flattery is bait to lead you into a trap. And what makes you take that deadly bait? PRIDE. Don't fall for it.

    Notice that proud people believe their words alone will give them some sort of victory, and sadly they are often right. Why do people believe so many lies today? Because of the WORDS spoken by proud people who say, "Who is lord over us"? Such people answer to no one but themselves. In the end however, they will answer to God for all their bragging, and flattering, and evil words. When they stand before the Great White Throne to give account for everything they have said and done, their boasting mouths will be stopped. All their bragging that has so impressed men will count for nothing when they stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a person with a tongue that speaks proud things, repent and believe on Christ today. Turn your boasting into cries for mercy. Use your tongue to praise God instead of yourself. Humble yourself before God while there is still time, because one day, regardless of how much bragging you do, your time will be up. Which is now also the case with this post.