Conspiracies

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

Get some people alone for a private talk and you just might find out that they believe something is going on behind the scenes, hidden from public view. They believe that there is a conspiracy, that a group of people are secretly manipulating events to achieve some sinister goal.

Conspiracy theories are the subject of books, documentaries, and all sorts of websites. Some believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting on orders from above when he assassinated President Kennedy. Some believe that the Apollo moon landings were staged in a hidden television studio for propaganda purposes. Most recently, some claim that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were aided and abetted by Americans who wanted to push the United States into invading the Middle East.

Fears of people working in secret are nothing new. The Masonic Lodge has long been the target of conspiracy theories. The ‘Red Scare’ stirred up by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s had Americans looking at each other with suspicion. And visible groups like the Ku Klux Clan gave credibility to fears that organized secret activity is going on all around us.

All conspiracy theories assume one vital truth—that large numbers of people can be depended on to keep things secret. But there is a truism that I came across recently--"A secret is something you only tell one person at a time." I know that some people are able to keep secrets. But human pride desires recognition; a successful criminal wants to get credit for how clever he is. The problem with conspiracy theories is that they assume a level of consistent secrecy that would be extremely hard to maintain; sooner or later, someone will want to brag about the secret things they are doing.

However, there is one conspiracy that is definitely real. Satan and his army of fallen angels are constantly plotting ways to make the world a darker place. And Satan gets away with his nefarious activities by using plausible deniability—most people don’t believe that the devil exists, that demonic possession can really happen, or that some things are truly evil. With no one watching for signs of his activity, Satan can organize all sorts of chaos without being detected. Thankfully, Jesus reveals the truth about what is going on—if you’re willing to believe Him.