Tag: Seduction

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Satan’s City?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.” Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Satan has a city? Well, not exactly. Where is Pergamum? Today it’s in Turkey, and it’s just tourist ruins now. But back in the first century it was the height of Rome’s idol worship with massive statues and temples. The “seat of Satan” was a reference to the center of idolatry, as Pergamos practiced sun worship, which originated from Babylonian idolatry. It is a symbolic way of describing the city’s spiritual atmosphere and the strong influence of paganism and emperor worship, which made it a place where Satan’s power was particularly evident.

Who would want to be known as Satan’s city? It’s not exactly what you’d put on the city’s welcome brochure. We think of our own cities and wonder what idols, what kind of worship takes place there. Cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York or New Jersey, maybe even Portlandia remind us of pockets of power, money, lawlessness or even anarchy! It seems as if Satan has plenty of thrones scattered around the Divided States of America. There are plenty of religious statues in the U.S., and some of them are touch points back to ancient idols – the Hindu goddess, Kali, Baal, Athena, and Saraswati.

There are far more human behaviors that are unashamedly displayed proudly in parades and festivals all across the county – most of which are sexual, occult, or just pure demonic. There are plenty of Americans that are quite proud of their wayward “sinful” ways. John records that the evil IN the city wasn’t God’s only concern. There were assistant deceivers like Balaam – using women (daughters of Moab) to entice the Israelite men to knowingly eat meat sacrificed to idols combined with some manner of sexual infidelity. These men had proactively corrupted others, encouraging them to sin, relishing in the fact that they were destroying human souls, their families and their relationship with God!

People tend to make light of playing with evil, experimenting and exploiting others. It is no laughing matter when one opens a door to sin, only later finding out it can never be closed! The very real Satan, the liar, deceiver and accuser will continue to take advantage of that small, maybe even innocent opening to our soul. His aim is to drag all of us away from the Father and down to the pit of despair where he will exist forever. Jesus, in the final book – the end of all things says, ”Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭16‬. Repent before God cuts us off and out of his presence for good!

So, it’s not so much LIVING in Satan’s city, which many of us probably do. It’s deciding that we will not be conned or enticed to join in the revelry of self-serving sin or play on the fences of evil. We should however run, like Joseph did or repent like King David did.

Prayer

​Dad,
It seems that so many cities come with so many opportunities to seduce our soul! I know now that temptations are customized for each individual. There are commonalities, but each lure, each decoy, is nuanced, fitting to our own desires. Each offer comes with its own impatience, its own unique promise to fulfill what only you can satisfy perfectly. You give us grace, but you have also given us the power to resist, and the strength to run. With each temptation you will show us the way of escape – if we would only take it. Help us O Lord. Forgive us for our willingness to be ensnared and fulfill our desires with sin.

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Seduced by another love.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.” 2 John‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

John, the elder, writes these letters decades after walking, talking and experiencing Christ, the son of man, son of God on earth. How interesting that he describes the Church as the eklektos: selected, elected, by implication – favorite LADY as well as her children. It explains the reason John adds this comment in verse 4. He was ecstatic to meet the children of the great lady, the Church!

One commentator put it this way, John “has reason to know that certain others of her children are not walking in truth. Through the elect lady’s too indiscriminate hospitality, some of her children have been seduced by the deceivers who have come to her bringing another doctrine than that of Christ being fully God and fully man.”

It was that word “seduced,” that caught my attention. This is the most effective tool of deception. It’s not just a lie. It’s a carefully constructed process that lures people, wanting to believe something so badly, they are carried away with it – thus seduced.

When generational transitions happen in this transfer of truth, some will believe and live it – others will not. Even with this extremely powerful word called love operating in our soul – it can happen. We can wander. We can be seduced by another. John uses the word “love” to make the point of what truth translates into… love. Then he gives a definition, “Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.” John defines an aspect of love as obedience to what God has commanded. One of those commandments came from Jesus himself – “love one another.” Love wasn’t spelled out specifically in the big 10 commandments list.

Back to truth and seduction. What happens when truth and real love is just not sexy enough to hold our attention? What if someone, something comes along and subtly suggests that God is not telling us everything, you know, keeping a few things from us? And this deceit comes along, convincing us and carrying us away with a “better” truth, somehow a more appealing kind of love. This deception is so smooth, so deep that it can even persuade the most spiritual person who for one moment takes their eyes off Jesus and turns to find out what this “real” truth, this other love looks like.

John gives us the very difficult and sad news, children of the great lady (the church) can be deceived. So John adds this, “Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.” John uses a very strong word to describe this word lose. It’s the word “apollumi” – to utterly destroy. People wander. They can be seduced. And, they can lose what they had worked hard to achieve. I don’t know if this refers specifically to “salvation” he speaks of losing, because it wasn’t earned or worked for. What is he referring to? Spiritual maturity? Growth in Christ? That seems more likely. The truth traded in this example is that Jesus wasn’t really a human. But, there are other truths that we wander or are seduced away from. Currently, people have been seduced by other definitions of love, life, sexuality and even gender, even to the point of twisting God’s own Word and character.

Prayer

Dad,
These deceptions and seductions are no longer just prevalent in culture, which is to be expected. They are divisively, insidiously supplanted in the “Great Lady’s” gathering – the Church. Now we are finding ourselves fighting a spiritual war over the definition of love within and without the community of faith. This is far above our ability or understanding to resolve. We need you to supernaturally intervene with your mercy, grace and power. This is my prayer. Visit us once again. Pour out your spirit on our country, our communities.