Twilight on the Land

I have been working on an article for the February WNP. The story deals with the fascination America has with the occult. Below is an excerpt:

Confusion on a People

What happens when a nation and a people allow the occult to make inroads into its culture? An example from ancient Israel is instructive.

1 Kings 22 tells of a council of war between the kings of Israel and Judah. Ahab and Jehoshaphat were planning war against Syria to regain land that Israel had lost. Ahab had allowed the worst of the cult of Baal to come into the nation through his wife, Jezebel. The remaining vestiges of the true worship of God had been driven underground. This was the time of Elijah’s great witness against the land for its abandonment of the God of Abraham.

At the council Jeshoshaphat asked whether there was “a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of him?” (verse 8). When finally the prophet Micaiah was brought before the two kings he revealed an amzing vision from the throne of God that showed the depth of confusion within the nation.

Micaiah saw God sitting on His throne and the spiritual hosts of heaven around Him. The extant to which God had given King Ahab and his people over to deception is shown in this dialogue. God was allowing Ahab to be persuaded into a battle he could not win. “Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord , and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’” (verse 21, 22).

The depth of spiritual confusion was so great in Israel that it impacted the decisions made at the highest level. A lying spirit could work through a false prophet to persuade the king to an action that resulted in his death and defeat in battle. There was a twilight upon the land. This “spiritual twilight”, where the people wavered between opposing ideas of right and wrong, righteousness and unrighteousness and good and evil, mirrors our land today.

When the influence of evil spirits is pervasive in the ideas and imagination of a culture you see a nation in serious decline. I currently look at America in a time of transition and crisis. The continuing economic problems defy the traditional solutions typically used by government. A new president with a team of brilliant advisors will work very hard at correcting the economic slide.

Is there a connection between spiritual deception– a fascination with the occult and other ideas of the spirit world and what lies behind the world we see–and political confusion that leads to decline? I look at the land and read the Bible and hold deep concern for the future.