“Conspiracy theory."
When someone says that phrase what does it bring to your mind? Nut jobs with crack-pot ideas? Low-IQ interpretations of the world and how it works? A paranoid view of mankind?
Do you know the Bible talks a lot about conspiracies?
"Conspire" is made up of the Latin prefix "con" which means "with," and the root "spirare" which means "breathe." So to conspire means to agree with a plot being breathed out, devised against something or someone. It usually involves secrecy and deception.
And Scripture is filled from Genesis to Revelation with examples of this.
- Joseph's brothers conspired among themselves to get rid of him (Genesis 37:18-20).
- Servants of Joash formed a conspiracy to kill him (2 Kings 12:20).
- The princes of Babylon conspired against Daniel (Daniel 6).
- Men "made a conspiracy" against king Amaziah and slew him (2 Kings 14:19).
- The Jews made a conspiracy to lie in wait for Paul and kill him (Acts 23:12-15).
- Pekah conspired against king Pekahiah and killed him in his palace (2 Kings 15:23-25).
- Queen Jezebel conspired to have false witnesses accuse an innocent man of a crime so she could seize his property and give it to her husband (1 Kings 21:8-13).
- Jehu conspired against Joram (2 Kings 9:14-26).
- Delilah and the Philistines conspired against Samson (Judges 16).
- Mordecai discovered a plot to kill the king and warned him (Esther 2).
- Baasha conspired against king Nadab and killed him (1 Kings 15:25-28).
- Zimri conspired against and killed king Elah while he was drinking himself drunk (1 Kings 16:8-10).
- Gedaliah was warned that men were plotting a conspiracy against him and he was like, "Ah, get outta here with your conspiracy theories." He wound up dead. (Book of Jeremiah 11:9)
- Absalom conspired against his own father--king David--to steal the kingdom from him. 2 Samuel 15:12 records that "the conspiracy was strong." One of David's most trusted advisors also became part of this conspiracy (15:31).
- God told Jeremiah He had found a conspiracy among the men of Judah (Book of Jeremiah 11:9).
- Even the religious leaders formed plots and carried out evil deeds. "There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof" (Ezekiel 22:25).
- The Jews' enemies plotted to hinder the rebuilding of Jerusalem and "conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it" (see Book of Nehemiah 4).
- The prophecies in Daniel and Revelation (and other books) are filled with warnings of plots, conspiracies, lies, and deception.
- David begged God to hide him "from the secret counsel [conspiracy] of the wicked" (Psalm 64:2). Such men "shoot in secret at the perfect" (v. 4), encourage themselves in evil matters (v. 5), talk about secretly laying traps for people (v. 5), and are deluded enough to believe they can get away with it (v. 5).
- God's prophets were frequently conspired against (see Book of Jeremiah 11:19 for one such example).
- The Pharisees plotted secretly to get rid of Christ (Matthew 12:14, 21:38-41, 26:3-4).
These are all conspiracy facts, not theories. But the ultimate conspiracy is recorded in Psalm 2: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."
The ultimate conspiracy, indulged in by world leaders according to this passage, is to resist God, destroy His people, and overturn His very order for the world. Satan is of course the ultimate conspirator behind this, but he moves and works through human hands--and he is very much alive and working right now.
There is nothing new under the sun. From kings, to lowly servants, to respected religious leaders, the history of man is filled from beginning to end with plots, conspiracies, intrigue, lies, and deception.
If you do not believe in the reality of present conspiracies, you take a much rosier view of human depravity than Scripture does: Man is sinful. Man fights to get what he wants even if it hurts others. Man will use lies and deception to accomplish his ends. Man is in rebellion to God and plots against the people of God.
No group of people or time in history is above or immune to this. To think that we have moved beyond a point in history in which world leaders conspire against God and humanity is terribly, terribly mistaken--and anti-biblical. To assume that all bad guys carry pitchforks and spout hateful things is naive in the extreme. Satan is more clever than that, and so too are his followers. He comes disguised as an angel of light. They come disguised as friends of humanity, pretending to be concerned about human welfare. They're "here to help."
Naivety is not listed as a Christian virtue. We are told to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Not everything government does is "for the good of humanity!" They often have ulterior motives and dark secrets. Blind trust is not commendable or "Christian."
This point is driven home when we consider that a very large number of political influencers and politicians of both the Left and the Right have now been indicted for child porn, pedophilia, and rape. All that is needed is some reading to compile a lengthy list of such names. Sickening. Many of the people caught in sex trafficking rings, child porn busts, and convicted of rape and pedophilia are teachers, doctors, nurses, religious leaders, politicians--all people in positions of public trust.
If you think that our own government is above “conspiracy”, the government has already done this very thing. In one of these plots, our government conspired against its own citizens. They planned to kill some of us, then blame it on Cuba so we could have a pretext to go to war. This was revealed in the declassified document "Operation Northwoods ," which I would strongly encourage you to download and read in its entirety.
Now what exactly am I getting at? Am I saying we should believe every crazy rumor out there? Certainly not.
I'm saying that the picture of man's nature we're presented with in Scripture is not a pretty one, and people do not automatically deserve trust just because of their position of influence. There is, according to the Bible, a great conspiracy against God and man, and the war is not always waged "fairly" in the open. Sometimes dark deeds of deception and intrigue come in the form of pretty promises and sweet speeches and claims to want to "help" humanity. To be aware is to avoid being deceived. Right now, the governments of this world are wanting to overturn the present system of things and to usher in a New World Order. Do you think they're above using lies and deception to get what they want?
There is some good news: God is not deceived and not surprised. In fact, He sits in the heavens and laughs at the conspirators (Psalm 2). He mocks them. Though they conspire against the people of God (Psalm 83, 21:11), it will come to nothing. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. We know how the story ends.
But church, we need to recognize the tactics and methods of the Enemy...and those he uses on earth to accomplish his ultimate conspiracy against the Most High. The conspirator places his helpers in strategic positions of power, and even places of trust like churches. "Angels" of "light" who are wolves in sheep's clothing. Watch carefully.
Endnotes:
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