Theocracy Under Attack, Part 3

When I was in California, I knew a lady who had been a Christian for a few years, and was very, very involved in advancing the cause of Christ in culture. In many ways I appreciated her stand, and she was doing phenomenal work. But she was so busy in serving the Lord in culture that she lost her family. What especially broke her heart was that her daughter really wanted to talk to her about a problem that she had. The mother didn't know at the time that it was a teenage pregnancy. But she was so busy that she put it off, and put it off. When she finally got around to talking to her daughter, she had already had an abortion, not knowing what else to do. The mother's life was given to the pro-life cause, and she lost her child on exactly that issue because there wasn't a home life. She fought vigorously against the problems in the government schools and failed to note some of those same problems at home.

And I give that story to show how subtle Satan is in his attacks on the family. She was fighting the outward, obvious attacks against the family, and Satan was using her business in ministry to keep her away from the family. And that is what was so sad about the case with Jehoiakim. His dad, Josiah had a tremendous ministry. Listen to the summary of Josiah's life given in 2 Kings 23:25. It says, "Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him." In the area of kingship he was a model; spotless, superb. Yet his children Shallum and Jehoiakim turned out to stand for quite opposite principles. In fact, the difference between Josiah and Jehoiakim is so great that it is baffling.

Satan's Strategy For Victory In America

Step 1: Paganize Politics

National paganization (v. 1a)

Israel was besieged by Babylon spiritually long before Bablyon actually besieged them physically

International paganization (v. 1b)

Satan has always gone after the power centers (cf. Psalm 2)

Step 2: Neutralize the Church

Moral and religious compromise from within (v. 2a)

State control of religion (v. 2b)

Religious pluralism (v. 2c-d)

Step 3: Control the family

Seek to minimize godly parental influence (Jehoiakim is a prime example, vv. 1-2)

Scripture indicates that it does not have to be that way. God promises us, "raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." So how did it happen? If a godly man like Josiah could lose his children, who are we to think it can't happen to us? It can, and it will if we don't take precautions. I have had to do some self-evaluation even in this past week concerning the amount of time that I spend with my family. I have seen pastors lose their families. They have become so busy in serving the Lord in other areas that they neglect the education and nurturing of their children. It is a tragedy of huge proportions to see the number of covenant children who have abandoned Christianity altogether. This was the problem during the revivals in Israel. One generation would be thoroughly transformed, but they were so wrapped up in conquest or in other important work that they didn't pass it on. We must remember that God has no grandchildren; only children. We must make sure that we introduce our children to God as their personal father. The parents of Daniel and the parents of his three friends had obviously done an incredible job of training them. If we succeed with our children, we will multiply our work many times over. But if we do not succeed, our efforts could easily die with our generation. We must think for the long haul.

But point 1 shows the subtlety of Satan's attacks. If he can't keep us from being salt and light in society, he will make us so imbalanced and preoccuped with his external attacks against the family, that we fail to notice the internal ones.. Neglect is the chief culprit. We allow our time away from family to succeed where external attacks would never succeed. Satan's smart.

Remove the children from the home influence (v. 3f).

But let's not neglect the external attacks either. Satan will use various means of physically removing children from the godly home influence. Look at verse 3: "Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of the eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles." This is taking children into state custody. Jehoiakim was 28 years old at this point, and his children who were taken to boarding school for reeducation were quite young. It also mentions the children of Israel. Children are the key to a countries future, and pagan emperors have usually been astute enough to realize that. Hitler felt it was imperative to get the children young. Stalin did the same, as did Mao Tse tung. The underlying assumption of these pagan governments is that our children belong to the state. Now we are very on guard about that philosophy in China and other communist countries. What many people do not realize is that this has been the philosophy of American government education from the beginning. Horace Mann, the architect of government schools said in the early 1800's, "Society, in its collective capacity, is a real, not a nominal sponsor and godfather for all its children." He felt that children belonged to the state as parent and that it was important for the state to step in and educate the children.

The goals 2000 stuff is designed to perfect what Mann, Dewey and others started. There are leading educators today who say that they do not want parents messing things up, so they start the education early. Let me read you the attitude that one NEA person expressed on this subject. Dr. Pierce of Harvard University was warning 2000 educators in Colorado that parents are doing too much teaching and that schools need to begin for earlier years. He said,

"Every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with allegiance ... toward our founding fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government, patriotism, nationalism, sovereignty ... All of that proves the children are sick, because the truly well individual is one who has rejected all of those things and is what I would call the true international child of the future."¹

Governments around the world have either already implmented cradel to grave care or are making proposals along those lines. Day care for infants, education for three year olds, involvment of social workers in the raising of the family are indicators of how important the state thinks our children are. They are key to our culture.

But what is ironic is that Christians do not realize the powerful influence that a child's mere presence in a bad environment can have. They willingly give up their kids to day care center so that they can enjoy the good life now. These kids are being moulded. They learn far more by watching their care takers than by listening to words. And we must be careful about willingly removing our children from the home. Scripture warns us: "Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits."" Do you know who your kids play with? Do you approve of the ethics, the habits and the character of those that they spend most of their time with? If not, remove them. Their absence from the parents can make a huge difference.

Re-educate these youth in government schools (v. 4)

But it is not just their removal from the homes that is at stake, but also what is taught in the government schools. Babylon was seeking to re-educate them in a new world and life view. Verse 4 says that they were "young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace, and" [notice this phrase] "whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans." Key to the success of Satan is government run schools. Government run schools have been the cleverest means of removing parental influence from the children. What is ironic is that so many Christians defend the right of government to do that, and willingly send their children to government schools. This is jurisdictional compromise. We looked last at the jurisdictional compromise in the church. But this is at the family level. The governor of Omaha does not have the right to come into my home and spank my kids. Most parents recognize that. Yet they don't see a problem with the same government forcing kids into government schools. God does not authorize the state to intrude into education. Daniel couldn't help it. He was a captive in a foreign land. But it is reprehensible when parents willingly send their children to the Babylonians or Canaanites to be immersed in pagan thinking. It is reprehensible. Deuteronomy 6 mandates that our children's education be a consistently Christian world and life view. Every subject must be taught from a different perspective than the world teaches it.

Now most of you are convinced of that, but let me address how the world view of the Chaldeans can creep into any of our homes. Homeschoolers have often hired ungodly tutors in the form of textbooks and computer games. I have seen homeschool parents excited about some of the interactive educational material that is available on computer and totally unaware of the corruption their children were receiving. Some of it is great, but beware. There is a lot of politically correct brainwashing that is going on under the guise of education. For example, several of you have Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Not only are many of the articles slanted; some are filled with lies. It is obvious that homosexuals and leftists had a part in putting it together. Their revisionism of the War between the States is nothing short of dishonest, as is their treatment of the War for Independance. But just to give you a feel for how slanted they are, let me read to you part of their essay on the perverted emperor Nero. They say,

"He has won the reputation of being a demented and depraved tyrant, the ruler who 'fiddled while Rome burned' and who instigated the first persecution of Christians; however, Nero's unsavory reputation is almost wholly undeserved. He was certainly not the bloody dictator that Roman and Christian historians have depicted.

How do they know? The only evidence they can cite are things that first century Christians and Roman historians say occured in his first years that were actually only present because of the restraint of his uncle and the philosophers Senneca and Burrus. When his uncle was removed, he threw off this facade and reinstituded the very things that had been changed.

In contrast, Compton's encyclopedia says,

"Nero became emperor in 54, and for the first five years his reign was exemplary. He stopped contests in the circus that involved bloodshed, banned capital punishment, reduced taxes, increased the independance of the Roman Senate, and gave permission for slaves to bring complaints against their masters. He promoted competitions in poetry, theatre, and athletics. In everything he seemed to be pursuing the goal his teacher Seneca thought impossible - to remain innocent of all crime."

The author denies that there was a persecution of Christians by Nero, even though several enemies of Christians wrote that they thought Nero's cruelty to Christians was a little bit too much to stomach. This is nothing short of deceitful. Historian Miriam Griffin rightly says,

Commenting on the unanimity of opinion about the Emperor Nero that prevails among ancient authorities, the historian Charles Merivale wrote, "With some allowance only for extravagance of colouring, we must accept in the main the verisimilitude of the picture they have left us of this arch-tyrant, the last and the most detestable of the Caesarean family... Nero was the first Princeps to be declared a public enemy by the Senate... Certainly no serious historian has been tempted to whitewash the tyrant." (Gentry, p. 45.)

Yet the sodomite lobby has sought to do exactly that. They have sought to identify every hero they can and claim that he is a homosexual. And this garbage is in the hands of Christians homeschoolers.

But let's examine another area. You may think it is only the literature that needs to be evaluated, but a culture's language reflects its world-view and the language being taught to these youngsters was not neutral. If you compare a modern dictionary with the original Webster's Dictionary, you will notice a deliberate attempt in the last ten years to change our thinking by changing the meaning of words. The politically correct leftist social planners have been zealous crusaders in the last few years to make business men, newspaper journalists, T.V. anchors and others change their language to reflect a post-Christian, humanistic culture.

We need to realize that education is more than what happens in the classroom. It is what is tolerated or not tolerated on the job, what is read in the papers, what is heard on T.V. I've stopped calling homosexuals gay. I've started using the Biblical language of sodomites. I've stopped calling government schools public schools. The two terms are quite different. The NEA has produced books designed to redefine words to promote an agenda. George Orwell's book 1984 was not far off in its warning that language would be twisted and redefined to control people. Trystram Gylberd believes that "whoever controls the language controls the culture." George Grant, in his book, Grand Illusions, shows how effective Planned Parenthood has been in redefining terms. They have a major training manual devoted to exactly that. He says, "Allen Bloom, author of the phenomenal blockbuster The Closing of the American Mind, argues that we have begun to develop 'an entirely new language of good and evil, originating in an attempt to get beyond good and evil, and preventing us from talking with any conviction about good and evil." And he shows how Planned Parenthood redefines words like 'responsibility,' 'neutral,' 'immature,' 'fulfilled' and other terms to promote their agenda. The study of literature and language is important, but we must make sure that the language taught reflects the absolutes of Scripture.

Make them dependant upon the state (v. 5)

A fourth strategy in Satan's attack on the family has been to make the children dependant upon the state. Verse 5 says, "And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king." With government handouts come government strings. And yet there are many, many people who willingly make themselves dependant upon the government through welfare, health care, food stamps, school loans and in other ways. Satan will do his utmost to make independant thinking and actions impossible. Now Daniel and his buddies couldn't keep being dependant physically, but they obviously were not phsycologically. They were on guard.

Resocialize the youth and give them a new sense of identity (vv. 6-7)

A further step was to resocialize the youth and give them a new sense of identity. The king wanted to take away any remembrance of former times. Their god-fearing names were replaced with pagan names of gods so that even when they talked to each other they would be forced to think in new categories. Look at verses 6-7: "Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshech; and the Azariah, Abed-Nego." Each of these had a god of Babylon in his hand. Don't ever think of pagan government as neutral. It is a war of ideas; a war of religious ideas. And Satan, unless he is stopped, will seek to do his utmost to remove any traces of Christian thinking in the social arena. Already there have been people fired for wearing Christian pins and momentos. Already, the names of abominations have been changed. The power to name is the power to control. It is not by accident that government agencies will no longer allow you to speak with judgmental language like sodomy, adultery, fornication. It is sexual preference. They have tried to redefine marriage as domicile partners to avoid discriminating against sodomites. And the list of changed names could go on to the hundreds. It is an attempt to resocialize you at work and at home. And many of you have testified to me of how the sensitivity has been going on in your work. They are redefining culture - misdirecting you and making you accustomed to thinking differently.

Make them compromise their principles (v. 8)

And then finally, there will be all kinds of tests to make children compromise their principles. I want to deal with verses 8 and following in more depth next week, but I'll just mention here that if values are not clearly internalized from the earliest times, all of our investments can be robbed from us.

Learning From Our Mistakes: A Godly Long Term Plan For Restoring Theocracy In America

God's Rule In The State (v. 1)

Don't place undo confidence in politics

Don't give up on politics

Realize and capitalize upon the fact that pagan politics is always self-defeating

National (v. 1a)

International (v. 1b)

(Contrast this with the permanence of Christ's kingdom in 2:44; 7:14,18,27; etc.)

God's Rule In The Church

Restore church discipline or be disciplined by the Lord (v. 2)

Resist state control of the Christian faith (vv. 2b,8 with Dan. 6:10-11)

Remember that judgments are sometimes good for the church (v. 2a; cf. the "good figs" of Jer. 24)

Be confident that God will preserve those things that are important

the symbols of the church (v. 2b-d)

true believers (vv. 4-8)

Do not silence the preaching of men like Jeremiah, Ezekiel & Daniel who held even pagan government accountable

God's Rule In The Family (vv. 3ff)

Make children a priority (Satan knows what he is doing by attacking the youth)

The question that the second half of the outline answers is, "What can we do about it?" The onslaught is already here. What can we do about it? And the first thing I would say is that we must make our children a priority. Satan certainly makes them a priority in his attacks on the family. You may think you do not have enough time to spend with the kids, but if they were a priority, you would. Everyone has 24 hours in a day, and the amount of time you spend on things shows your priorities.

But not only make them a priority in terms of time. We must see that our children are given all the help they can receive in standing on our shoulders and going further than we were able to go. I feel very limited with my education in many ways, and I want my kids to be able to have what I could not. I consider the money I spend on education to be a valuable investmet. Make your children a priority. You pass yourself on through your kids.

Sharpen the arrows of dominion (cf. Psalm 127) from the earliest times (vv. 4-8). Our youth are the key to the future.

Secondly, start sharpening the arrows of dominon from the earliest times. Training begins at birth, and if you doubt it I challenges you to listen to a set of tapes we have. Don't wait till they are teenagers. It is obvious that Daniel and his friends had been well trained before they got this Babylonian training. Verse 4 says they were gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and had ability to serve. Don't leave out the training in service.

Psalm 127 says that our children are arrows which will take dominion in the future. Each of these men had a profound impact upon the kingdom because they had already been prepared to hit their mark. They were well sharpened arrows. We must be thinking about what kind of an impact our children might have long term. Dream of conquest. Prepare for conquest. Pass on the money and heritage that will make it possible in the 2nd or 3rd generation.

Do not voluntarily give your children to the state (v. 3)

Third, do not voluntarily give your children to the state. That should be obvious, yet most Christians in Omaha send their kids to government school. There could be fabulous christian schools if all christians would pull them out. Use your influence to convince Christians that in faithfulness to God they should pull their kids out. Daniel did not choose to go here. He was forced. And God can bring good from such situations, but it is definitely not the ideal.

Help your youth internalize principled decision making (v. 8). Don't make all their decisions for them. Help them to think

Fourth, help your youth internalize principled decision making. If you want to know more about this, there are several tapes in Growing Kids God's Way that show the difference between controlling your children's outward behavior and reaching the heart. We want the principles of God's Word to be internalized. Otherwise those principles will be cast up when they grow up. Don't make all the decisions for your kids. As they grow, give them the ability to make wrong decisions. Put them into situations where the kind of purposing of heart that Daniel does in verse 8 is natural.

Remember that though tyrants can take away every physical thing you have, they cannot take away your education or touch your soul unless you let them

Fifth, remember that tyrants can take away every physical thing you have, but they cannot take away the important things. If you have trained your children well, that will never be eradicated. If their souls are prepared, there is nothing that can be done to the bodies that will keep our children from making an impact. We don't know how much longer we will have freedom to educate our youth. Take advantage of the time. Put in extra hours. Prepare your children just in case.

Have renewed faith and hope in God's promised victory

Don't ever give Satan more credit than he deserves (v. 2a)

Point D just has some quick pointers. The first is "Don't ever give Satan more credit than he deserves." The way some people talk about America's troubles you would think that Satan was the sovereign in charge. But notice that verse 2 says that God allowed the exile. And I believe God allowed it for the strengthening of the church. Satan is not alive and well on planet earth. He does not own the cattle on a thousand hills. His gates are not able to stand against the church. Stop treating him as more powerful than he really is. King Jesus rules. Have faith in that.

God places key men in positions of influence (vv. 4-8)

Secondly, God shows His wonderful skill at placing men and women into key positions of influence at just the right time. If you ever doubt this, read the book of Esther. God knows why he has put you where He has, when He has. Look for the opportunities to serve. Have confidence that God is orchestrating all of history for Satan's defeat. And you are a part of Satan's defeat. What happened in verses 4-8 may have seemed like such a sad thing. Yet God was in control and used those events for Satan's defeat.

God has given us an eschatology of hope in the book of Daniel

Thirdly, begin studyng and being encouraged by an eschatology of hope and victory. Daniel is full of hope and encouragement. We do not have a bleak future. God is on the throne, and He has promised great things for planet earth. Let's have faith in His promises, and not be discouraged by this past election.

Never compromise principle (v. 8). If you lose intergrity, you have lost everything.

And then lastly, never compromise principle. Dare to be a Daniel. If you lose integrity, you have lost everything. And there are too many politicians who have been willing to compromise with the attitude that the end justifies the means. It never has and never will. If you cannot win with integrity, it is not worth winning. Our job is to be faithful even if it means getting thrown in the lions den and to leave the results up to God.

And so, even though America looks almost as bad as the situation in these verses, we have much to praise the Lord for. And I encourage you to cast aside all discouragement and find your hope in God. Amen.