Arguably one of the most beloved science fictional movie sagas of all times is Star Wars. From the mind of writer and director George Lucas, came this science fiction saga that transpired in a fictional galaxy far, far away, in which you had two opposing, good versus evil forces at war with each other. The dark side which was ruled by the evil Emperor, who created and controlled the evil and ruthless Galactic Empire, versus the good side that was led by a small band of freedom fighters led by young Jedi apprentice named Luke Skywalker, who were struggling to defeat the tyrannical evil empire and “restore peace and justice in the galaxy.”
Years later, in a stroke of fiction movie producing brilliance, Lucas decided to do another trilogy in which he would tell the fictional back story or the “big picture storyline” of just how the events of the beloved original three-part saga unfolded to become such a popular series. In doing so, Lucas answered the many questions that millions of fans of the original Star Wars saga had pondered down through the years, such as: How did the Clone War begin? How did the evil Empire come to be? Who was the Emperor and how did he come to power? And what is the story behind the creation of Darth Vader, who arguably could be the evilest villain in science fiction movie history.
In a nutshell, the saga’s beginnings centered around Chancellor Palpatine, who unknown to everyone including the Jedi, was in reality Darth Sidious the dark lord of the Sith, whose entire life was in fact the culmination of a thousand-year plan to overthrow the Republic and the Jedi Order from within. As the perceived benign Chancellor of the Republic, Palpatine through cunning, subtle and clandestine manipulation, was not only able get the previous Chancellor removed and himself named Chancellor in his place, but at the same time was able to secretly and covertly orchestrate the outbreak of the devastating Clone Wars ten years after the Naboo Crises which involved the refusal of Queen Padmé Amidala, Queen of Naboo to sign a treaty with the Trade Federation, which by the way, unbeknownst to the leaders of the Republic, was the fact that all of these events were all being secretly and clandestinely orchestrated behind the scene by the evil Darth Sidious himself in the guise of Chancellor Palpatine.
Amazingly, Sidious was able to accomplish all of this, while keeping his evil activities completely unknown to the Jedi who were the “defenders of peace and justice in the galaxy.” In other words, right under the nose of the Jedi, Sidious as Palpatine, headed both the Galactic Republic, while at the same time, secretly head the Confederacy of Independent Star Systems which later became the evil Galactic Empire.
In other words, unknowingly to members of either side of the conflict, it was actually Palpatine who was clandestinely manipulating and orchestrating the events that led up to the Clone Wars, all while the Jedi order was completely oblivious to forces that was working behind the scenes. And by the time he was finally revealed, it was too late to stop his master plan.
In summary, according to Luca’s famous fictional narrative, during Palpatine’s years of subtle, covert and clandestine behind the scenes orchestration of events, he was able to manipulate all of this the drama from multiple fronts at the same time:
Palpatine manipulated the Senate in order to be named Supreme Chancellor. Palpatine, who was really Darth Sidious the dark lord of the Sith, by manipulating the members of the Trade Federation, Sidious engineered the Invasion of Naboo and used the political crisis as a pretext to becoming elected Supreme Chancellor by the Galactic Senate.
Sidious who as we later learned, was the unassuming Senator Palpatine of Naboo, a position he gained through clandestine manipulation, used to secretly, subtly and covertly manipulate and orchestrate galactic events to his own design.
Then over at least a ten-year period, he secretly formed a clone army that he had ready to unleash once the war began and his true nature and plan was exposed.
At the same time, by playing on his emotions and ignorance, Palpatine secretly influenced the mind and the heart of the Young Jedi (who later became the father of Luke Skywalker) Anakin Skywalker into eventually turning to the dark side and became the evil Darth Vader.
Finally, the Empire expanded across the galaxy, including the building of the Death Star to maintain order and act as a symbol of fear.
Ultimately, by keeping his true Sith identity a secret from the public eye while playing the role of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Sidious took it upon himself to execute the Sith’s long-infiltrating plan to supplant the Old Republic with a new Sith Empire and destroy the Jedi Order.
Now while the Star Wars saga is obviously nothing more than an entertaining fictional fantasy created in the mind of George Lucas, the storyline yet represents in principle, precisely not only what Satan is subtly doing in our world today but also what he has been doing throughout human history since the fall of Adam. In other words, Satan surreptitiously manipulated Adam and Eve and convinced them to disobey God, causing God to place a curse on all mankind and on the serpent. God then began to orchestrate His plan that would ultimately restore man back to Him. But at the same time, Satan has been secretly (and not so secretly) orchestrating and manipulating events with the purpose of disrupting and deposing God’s plan for man.
In other words, in the same way as the fictional enemy in the Star Wars saga Darth Sidious was able to secretly and covertly orchestrate the takeover of the Galaxy in the fictional Star Wars universe, Satan has been similarly employing a clandestine, subtle and covert manipulations throughout history with the ultimate objective of deposing God’s plan for the ultimate restoration of man. The plan that involved the virgin birth, sacrificial death, resurrection and second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, just as in the fictional Star Wars universe, where the Jedi were supposed to be the “light” of the universe and defenders of peace and justice in the galaxy, were completely oblivious and blindsided by what the enemy was doing, in that same way, many Christian believers including a large portion of Christian leaders, seem to be completely unconscious to the subtle manipulations of the enemy in today’s culture.
To be more specific, while we are being inundated with negative news, social protest, and unprecedented political polarization, many believers in Christ either lack discernment or seem to have lost perspective on the bigger picture which is the spiritual warfare component that is behind much of what is happening in the world today. To that end, over these next several articles, I will examine this thesis based on the supposition that “the root cause of all the social degeneracy that we face today is not race, politics, economics or the police, but rather the direct result of a subtle, deliberate, purposeful, clandestine, well-conceived, and strategically orchestrated plan of Satan”. In other words, ever since Lucifer was cast out of heaven for attempting to exalt himself above The Most-High God, Satan has been on a mission to defeat the plans and purposes of God. In fact, it can be said that Satan has two primary objectives: To defeat God’s plan and to deceive God’s people.
In addition, in these last days, the enemy has been concentrating his attacks on three fundamental battle fronts. He has been focusing his assaults on our minds (or our believe systems and worldviews), the family and the church. In other words, the enemy has targeted this symbiotic relationship between the family and the church, because he understands that this relationship happens to be the two most fundamental institutions in any our civilization. And if you can bring dysfunction to the traditional family unit, then it will have a reverberating impact on the church. Similarly, if the church loses its impact and influence in a culture, then it will have an impact on the health of families in the communities. And when families are dysfunctional and the church loses its impact and influence, then communities will be affected, as well as, society at large.
In other words, as believers, rather than our modern preoccupation with the latest media narratives, or focusing on questioning the personalities of our politicians and leaders, who by the way are all fallen individuals in need of a savior just like all of us; a much more important questions that we should contemplate is, “How has the state of the culture contributed to the polarization of the country in the first place?” Or to put it another way, how did we get to our current cultural dysfunctions in the first place? Or, what happens to any society when the culture changes? And what have been some cultural indicators that we have missed that has contributed to this polarization?
Sadly, when asked these types of questions in today’s polarized environment, many people, including many Christians’ default setting is to automatically view these questions through a black and white lines. In other words, the issue of race has become the predominant preoccupation in the minds of most people including many believers in Christ. In contrast however, I hope to draw attention to previously mentioned three areas in which Satan has simultaneously attacked in order to bring us to where we are now. And just to reiterate, these three areas of attack or battlefronts are: The battle for mind, the battle for the family and the battle for the church.
Therefore, what I will be examining over the next several articles, is just how and why did America get to the point where secularism has become the dominant philosophy? In addition, I will be developing the fact that there is a much bigger picture that most Americans are completely missing. And while most Americans are being distracted by this preoccupation with the media narratives of race and culture, the real war is covertly being waged in the spirit realm. And this spiritual manipulation is simultaneously occurring on multiple fronts, including our minds (how we think and what we believe), families and our churches. Therefore, in this series of articles, I will explore how by manipulating how and what we think, impacts our families, our churches, our communities and society as a whole has subsequently become increasingly more either completely unaware or have simply become desensitized to the whiles of Satan. Furthermore, I will endeavor to examine the idea that while the issue of race has become such a central preoccupation within our culture, the central battle front of our cultural and societal battles, is not taking place in our skin colors but in our minds.
To that end, I will examine this thesis based on the supposition that similarly to the fictional portrayal in the Star Wars saga, “the root cause of all the social degeneracy that we face today is not race, politics, economics or the police, but rather the direct result of a subtle, deliberate, purposeful, clandestine, well-conceived, and strategically orchestrated plan of Satan”. In other words, ever since Lucifer was cast out of heaven for attempting to exalt himself above The Most-High God, Satan has been on a mission to defeat the plans and purposes of God. In fact, it can be said that Satan has two primary objectives: To defeat God’s plan and to deceive God’s people.
In other words, there is a spiritual component that has been overlooked which reveals that there is much more going on, or a much bigger picture that is happening in America and in the world than race, or any of our other individual existential issues or ideological perspectives on these and other questions may be. And recognizing and understanding this bigger picture is imperative in order for the Church to fulfill the Great Commission and maximize our ministry impact in the culture.
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