Ekklēsia Nikaō, Part V: Bad, Mad & Unwise in the Eras of a Swiftly Decomposing World

Why Cultural Hypnosis is Killing the Church, and How Divine Discernment Leads Us to the True, Good, & Beautiful

Do you enjoy being proven right?

Rewind to the last disagreement with a friend, co-worker, family member. Remember that surge of reassurance when your predictions came true at home, or work, or with the guys in your fantasy football league?

With your spouse (especially if you’re a husband), these are treacherous waters where one must exercise extreme caution. In his poem “A Word to Husbands”, American poet Ogden Nash chimed:¹

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.

Take it from me — that’s no joke. A phenomenon nearly monopolized in the institution of marriage is the unparalleled power of the I-told-you-so.

Thanks, Gene.

Especially from your wife. (I’m not hurt. You’re hurt. Leave me alone.)

Granted, this doesn’t pair well with spiritual virtues like humility and self-sacrifice, but can be lighthearted, playful, mostly harmless. Biblically, the I-told-you-so moments found in the stories of God’s People are often delivered through His mouthpieces: the prophets.

I. Wild Men+Wars+Tricks+Traps

In the Name of Yahweh, these nevi'im — literally “spokespersons” in Hebrew — of Israel and Judah were engaged in a supernatural struggle to faithfully communicate His messages in the midst of a usually perverse culture. Prophets were set apart, marked, chosen; they were witnesses of the glory of God in the Heaven-space and invited to participate as human representatives of God’s administration.²³

Some notable prophetic episodes include:

— Moses’ cycle declaring the plagues in Egypt (Exodus 7-14)

— Nathan’s bold confrontation of King David (2 Samuel 12)

— Elijah delivering the cosmic smackdown to the prophets of Ba’al (1 Kings 18)

— Ezekiel acting out the judgment of Judah at the hands of Babylon (Ezekiel… well, pretty much most of Ezekiel)

Prophets are wild.

In short, their God-given vision of reality made them able to see the transcendental values of truth, goodness and beauty with divine clarity.⁴ Morally, they function as spiritual snipers, identifying what’s out of line with society in light of Yahweh’s express desires, and boldly speaking truth to the power of perverted kings, witch queens, and demonic generals, saying:

“No.”

“You are wrong.”

“This is foolishness.”

“What you’re doing is evil.”

“Yahweh sees. He will judge.”

“Repent.”

Occasionally, people heed the warnings. But it’s rare.

Against a backdrop of carnality and human pride, the prophetic voice of God’s People — the overcoming Church, the Ekklēsia Nikaō — stands in stark contrast, pointing to God’s ways and wisdom in a world of endless foolishness. But shaking someone from the sleep of deception isn’t easy. How do you convince someone they’ve been duped?

That the cultural values are not God’s values?

That major networks, the entertainment industry and popular brands don’t care about holiness?

That Taylor Swift is not their friend?

(I hear the hair bristling up the back of your neck, Swifties. Deal with it — I’m coming for ya.)

Caustic as ever, Mr. Clemens offered this insight:

“How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again!”⁵

Odds are, you have believed something untrue. It’s likely you do right now. Well-meaning? Of course you are. Good intentions for days. Just like Adam and Eve in Eden at the dawn of history.

Then came the nâchâsh, the old serpent, and all this dear earth was left in shambles (more on him next time).

For our purposes now, I’d like to unpack the dire circumstances of the hour in which we live and our desperate need for divine, unearthly wisdom. The West is decomposing,⁶ permeated with demonic lies, tricks and traps round every turn. It is imperative for the Church to wake up to its prophetic inheritance and operate in the profound wisdom of God in these crooked days. To answer the challenge of “upholding truth in a world filled with lies.”

Understand: You are in a war.

And according to history, “All warfare is based on deception.”⁷

II. Tentacles, Torture & Tay-Tay

Relaxation for me can mean many things, but one of those is a good animal documentary. My family, friends and students will (laughingly) attest to this. Run me to a zoo and you’ll have David Attenborough-lite on your hands. I have a problem. It’s quite annoying.

Nature is tremendously captivating to me.

Also? Scary.

Endless blue-black watery chasms, with massive, unknown things rising from the deep? Wordsworth may have called the ocean “a mighty harmonist,”⁸ but all its wonder doesn’t keep it from being downright creepy at times.

Exhibit A: cephalopods.⁹

Camouflaging themselves among the listless anemones. Opaquely outlined tentacles nearly imperceptible beneath blankets of sand and coral. Blending in and maneuvering with a silent cunning capable of recognizing individual humans and solving challenging puzzles.

Fish are oblivious. Everything seems fine.

The creature shape-shifts and, in a sense, becomes the rock or reef. On the surface, at least, all appears safe… until it’s too late. The beast hypnotizes its victims with a lie that looks so innocent and unassuming. The Bard of Victorian England, the Queen’s Poet, Tennyson, observed a bitter mystery in human morality:

“A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.”¹⁰

No arguments here.

Reaching a fever pitch is a modern cultural hypnosis that results in the mindless mob-mentality of idol-worshipers. One of the most obvious recipients of this would be the current queen of Spotify herself, Taylor Swift.

“Woah,” you say. “Stop right there.”

“I mean, come on guys; it’s Tay-Tay. T-Swizzle. America’s girl. She started with nothing but a guitar and a journal full of heartbreak. She’s one of us. We can trust her. Plus, she loves Jesus!”

“So, don’t you dare talk bad about her. Mostly because I love her latest album and spent $973 on tickets to see her next week.”

You’re right. God forbid there be anything we suspect of being off or unhealthy with the culture. People might think we’re odd, strange, superstitious, weird, judgmental. And we can’t have that, right?

Everything is mostly harmless and innocent; humans are basically morally good.

Yep. Seems like sound theological premises to me. Very Biblical.

[Hopefully you’re sniffing the sarcasm, ‘cause I’m slatherin’ it on, folks.]

To be clear, my goal is not to just “talk bad” about Taylor Swift. We should pray for her to experience a dynamic encounter with the Holy Spirit, because by golly, she needs it. But the cultural phenomenon that is Taylor is a spiritual beachhead for us to keep our eyes on as the Church — a beachhead of the influence of worldly celebrities and values on our cities.

The proclivities of young people in the Church that drive them into the tentacl—I mean, arms—of pop stars like Swift serve as a prime example of motivated reasoning. When something sounds or looks good, we want to like it. We want it to be okay, just like Eve in the Garden (“the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye” in Genesis 3:6; see also 1 John 2:16). Honestly, we’d be disappointed to learn the object is not healthy because it would seem like we’re missing out on a smattering of joy. Objectively speaking, our moral faculties are biased; we are actively looking for reasons to wave away notions that Thing A may in fact be dangerous.

Taylor is exemplary in this … ahem… Department (excuse the pun).

Pop stars are molded, propped up and scrubbed down to look and sound safe, innocent — like one of us. Even righteous. While it isn’t only Swift that poses a problem (it’s sadly most of them), she nonetheless gives us opportunity to take a hard look in our ecclesial mirror regarding what we venerate and value. Take some lyrics from her song “Guilty as Sin?” where she waxes tortured poet-ic on breaking free of the “boredom” of her relationship by thinking of another man:

I dream of cracking locks
Throwing my life to the wolves
Or the ocean rocks
Crashing into him tonight
He's a paradox
I'm seeing visions, am I bad?
Or mad? Or wise?

Kay. Bit dramatic, little macabre. Is it that bad, though?

You tell me. She yodels on about imaginary “trysts” with this secret love, assuring us her fantasies are perfectly justified — since it’s all just in her head, so it’s gotta’ be harmless:

My bedsheets are ablaze
I've screamed his name
Building up like waves
Crashing over my grave
Without ever touching his skin
How can I be guilty as sin?

Then there’s the delightfully playful and obviously innocent Christian allusions topping things off in the bridge:

What if I roll the stone away?
They're gonna crucify me anyway
What if the way you hold me
Is actually what's holy?
If long suffering propriety
Is what they want from me
They don't know how you've haunted me
So stunningly
I choose you and me
... Religiously

Totally sounds like stuff Jesus would approve of. Hundred percent.

*sigh.*

Can I tell you what makes me sick?

I’m guessing half of the high school girls in the youth group I pastor adore her. That grieves me.

The sacrilege we gladly consume in the name of artistic license these days grieves me (and I say this as an artist).

“Sacrilege? Guys, seriously. There’s nothing to see here. A lot of artists have songs with sexual content. You’re overreacting; she’s just a singer. Move on.”

Truthfully, she is just a singer. She also is not just a singer. Like countless other idols in the West, she’s a cephalopod; shifting, changing, lurking. No, this isn’t just about Swift or what’s happening in the physical realm. Right now, she happens to be a unique case study on how the Church interacts with fallen society; of how willingly we embrace lesser loves regardless of motive or spirituality; of how easily we are convinced of things without processing them through the refinery of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.

III. Wisdom

For eons, people have been on a hunt. A search for something esoteric, nebulous; beyond our skies and closer than skin. The essential virtue of wisdom.

In many ways, wisdom can be reduced simply to the proper understanding and application of truth, goodness and beauty in God’s world from His perspective. These transcendentals are core concepts in the anthropic saga which help us discover meaning beyond material. And wisdom is the mechanism for unearthing these gifts.

One of the funny things about writing this is wisdom can be quite an intimidating concept to dip into. Turning the microscope on my own life prompts insecurities: who the heck am I to talk about God’s wisdom? What can I hope to offer on the subject of transcendent understanding the Church has desperately (sometimes not so desperately) chased through the ages? People out there with letters after their name and entire bibliographies can’t tackle this.

Immediately what comes to mind is this little Hebrew saying, one that’s roughed the elements of the humanistic cultural zeitgeist for millennia:

For those who failed Semitic languages in seminary, you’re likely more familiar with it in these terms:

“The beginning of wisdom — the fear of Yahweh,

And the knowledge of the Holy One — understanding.”

This Proverb (9:10) describes Biblical prudence, discernment and wisdom as direct corollaries of holy fear of God. Wisdom’s antithesis, folly, is usually introduced as the ugly lovechild of a different fear: the fear of man. Keep that in mind.

But back up: what is wisdom, really? Get a shovel handy; let’s dig at this a little.

Mythologies worldwide have stories of sages, gods and mystics possessing otherworldly understanding. Pantheons of the Ancient Near East typically had a god or goddess who was the patron of wisdom, such as the ibis-headed Thṓth of Egypt¹¹¹² or the scribbling Nabû of the Babylonians.¹³ Further east you would find depictions of four-armed elephant gods like Gaṇeśa of India. Wisdom as a concept included moral elements, but often was more centered around prudent measures for survival and flourishing in agrarian societies dependent on success in war, agriculture, and civil life.

Later, both Greek sophists and the founders of Western philosophy tackled issues of courage in battle, the pursuit of virtues, and obligations to the gods — as well as arguing whether or not the gods existed at all.¹⁴ Influential thinkers like Socrates of Athens poked holes in faulty logic using a tenacious dialectic, questioning notions and definitions of reality. Epistemology — the study of the nature of knowledge — became a mainstay of Greek thought in the blossoming Western world. Wisdom was considered, in some sense, admitting your lack of knowledge. Take this bit from Plato’s Apology of Socrates: “Although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows. I neither know nor think I know.”¹⁵

[Husbands everywhere: that’s for us.]

Much of higher education in the Early Middle Ages was funneled through the Church, as young men cloistered to monasteries for learning. Though wisdom was inextricably tied to biblical ideas of good judgement during this time, the search for the transcendentals was on shaky ground in the West. Writing shortly after Charlemagne’s reign and the fallout of the Carolingian Renaissance, Strabo lamented the lack of wisdom as an intellectual pursuit: “In our own time the thirst for knowledge is disappearing again: the light of wisdom is less and less sought after and is now becoming rare again in most men's minds.”¹⁶

Thomas Aquinas

Man’s search for wisdom was paramount in the eyes of later medieval philosophers, like theological juggernaut Thomas Aquinas. In his estimation, “of all human pursuits, that of wisdom is the most perfect.”¹⁷ “Moral virtue cannot be without prudence,” he continued, “because it is a habit of choosing, i.e., making us choose well.”¹⁸

Pragmatists would call wisdom “common sense in an uncommon degree.”¹⁹ The Oxford English Dictionary defined wisdom as the “capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct” (aka, the opposite of the dudes making these wacky sports statues out there).

Generally speaking, wisdom seems to approximate to a cultural soup du jour of vague ideas about being prepared, working hard, avoiding disaster, handling responsibilities, appropriate interpersonal conduct, or success in business and political endeavors. For our ultramodern, lightspeed sensibilities, the urge to be wise has morphed into a saggy conglomerate of Thursday night TV grandpas making their sagely, scheduled, mildly sarcastic speech at the 26-minute mark about “doing the right thing” and working on that science project your classmates are counting on tomorrow instead of sneaking out the window to hit the rave at Eddie Baladjanian’s parent-less house (which is tough, ‘cause Eddie is the captain of the football team, after all. And man, that hair!). For Westerners, our society’s understanding of wisdom has become a hodgepodge of random social mores with no anchoring substance, what Paul warned was “the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion” springing from empty humanism (Colossians 2:23).²⁰

But in the Scriptures, God shows wisdom is so much more.

Time fails us to do justice to a full treatment of the Bible’s high value of wisdom, but allow me a few examples. After Joseph interprets Pharoah’s dream by the Spirit of God, the Egyptian king says there is “no one so discerning and châkâm” (“skillful,” “wise,” “shrewd”)²¹ as Joseph in all the land, leading to his promotion (Genesis 41:39). You have Moses’ father-in-law, Yītrō/Jethro offering him yāʿaṣ (“counsel”)²² on how to administrate justice for the Israelites, lest Moses “wear out” with the task (Exodus 18:13-27). Contrasts between the wise and foolish are prosaically penned in the Hebrew Proverbs by figures like the famed King Solomon. And he should know.

Prominently positioned in the Old Testament is the request of a young King Solomon for God’s wisdom and understanding early in his reign. Dramatically, the son of David humbles himself before Yahweh during a dream visitation and asks for divine direction and help in leading the nation. This pleases God a great deal (1 Kings 3). Solomon goes on to write about wisdom personified (for effect) to underscore how vital it really is, with Wisdom saying things like:

²² “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
²³ “From everlasting I was established,
From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

— Proverbs 8:22-23

A supernatural endowment of understanding rested on Solomon, so that the people saw “the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice” (1 Kings 3:28). He acknowledged that Yahweh is the giver of wisdom (Proverbs 2:6), which doesn’t exist outside of or against Him (Proverbs 21:30-31).

In Ecclesiastes, he concludes his search regarding wisdom with the following:

¹³ The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments.

— Ecclesiastes 12:13

There it is again: fear God.

As an ancient Israelite, you would have been down with it.

Per the Biblical authors, God is the One possessing ultimate wisdom. It’s kind of His thing: Getting things right. Rejoicing with truth. Making things good. Celebrating the beautiful. It isn’t mere intellect or cunning. There’s a supernatural dimension to true wisdom that Yahweh holds the keys to access.

Extrabiblical sources concur. The ancient Jews were big on this subject and held a high regard for wisdom literature. The 2nd-century BC Book of Sirach begins with the following prelude:

¹ All wisdom is from the Lord,
and with him it remains forever.

⁴ Wisdom was created before all things
and prudent understanding from eternity.

⁸ There is but one who is wise, greatly to be feared,
seated upon his throne: the Lord.
⁹ It is he who created her;
he saw her and took her measure;
he poured her out upon all his works.

— Sirach 1:1, 4, 8-9

Later Rabbinic writings, such as the Pirkei Avot of the 3rd century AD (“pirqē aḇoṯ ” — “Chapters of the Fathers”), echo the divine locus of wisdom: “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; if there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom” (Pirkei Avot 3:17). Teachings like this from Rabbi Elazar b. Azaryah — a contemporary with the grandson of the Apostle Paul’s brilliant tutor, Rabban Gamaliel I — demonstrate the ancient Jewish pulse on what wisdom really was and from Whom it in fact generated.

Knowledge possessed by mortal men goes only so far.

Intellect is only so valuable.

Cunning and skill and wit can fail. But wisdom, real wisdom, is otherworldly.

You’re doing great; just a couple shovelfuls more.

Do you remember Eve being tempted by the nâchâsh, when she saw “that the tree was desirable to make one wise” and she and Adam ate the fruit? All was lost. We became less than what the Creator intended.

Then, God promised a Dragon-Killer would come.

Millenia later, a court prophet — a nāḇî' — received another promise from God. It goes like this:

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
³ And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
⁴ But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth.

— Isaiah 11:1-4

Someone with God’s Spirit. His counsel, His wisdom. His ability to judge rightly. Most importantly, One Who will walk in the fear of the Lord. What if those promises are talking about the same person?

Someone Who will restore the fear of the Lord for mankind?

Folly reduces us to animals. Wisdom restores our humanity.

*clank*

You hear that? We made it.

Bedrock.

IV. From Lógos to Legos

“Here is wisdom.” [Revelation 13:18; 17:9]

What is so impressive about the way Jesus handles Himself in the Gospel accounts is His unmatched ability to outmaneuver evil and deception. Case in point: Matthew 22.

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. ¹⁶ And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. ¹⁷ Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” ¹⁸ But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. ²⁰ And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” ²¹ They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” ²² And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.

— Matthew 22:15-22

Or when facing the Dragon one-on-one:

⁵ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

— Luke 4:5-8

Countless more display the simple truth:

Jesus knew how to spot and avoid a trap.

Christ utilized all of the vision at the Holy Spirit’s disposal. He wasn’t anxious or distracted. He saw through the papier-mâché monuments of the world value system and dissected situations to get down to the core issues. Nothing was too tempting nor deceiving for Him. He transcended it all. Embodied wisdom. Incarnate as a human, the Divine Lógos (λόγος) walked the earth.

People often try to find their own wisdom, figuring stuff out based on circumstance, personality, and good ol’ trial and error. Unfortunately:

¹² There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

— Proverbs 14:12

This is why Jesus spoke of His role as the Shepherd (John 10). He speaks, He guides. We are to have our ears perked up, trained in on the special timbre of His voice to keep us from the way of death. We need His divine understanding — the lógos of The Lógos — to help us make daily decisions as His disciples because it’s actually really tricky to human out here.

No better example can I think to offer than this bit from The Lego Movie 2 (Yeah. I’m a dad):

In the film, the characters come to the world of Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi,²³ a shapeshifter who (you guessed it) appears with tentacles (that’s promising). As sovereign of the Systar System, she rolls out the welcome-wagon by incessantly assuring the heroes of her good intentions.

As in, she reeeally goes out of her way to assure them she’s “so not a villain” and has “zero evil plans” by going into an all-out pop song (and it’s kind of a stone-cold bop, to be honest):

Hilarious lines that I also found disturbingly true-to-life include:

“I never cheat, 
I never bribe
I never scheme, I never lie
And that wasn't a lie when
I said just now that I never lie
'Cause I never lie”

Hmm. If that isn’t just about exactly how the devil tends to operate, I don’t know what is.

Demonic entities want to trick you. Fallen spiritual beings completely hate your guts, people. They don’t fight fair. Their aim is to distract, deceive, and systematically destroy your life from the inside out. They start by marinating your soul in lies.

“Gender is just a social construct.”

“Take care of your own happiness first.”

“The Bible doesn’t say that’s a sin.”

“Just a drink or two will make me feel better.”

“There are no moral absolutes; truth is relative.”

“You’re not bad, follow your heart; goodness is universal.”

“Do whatever you want with your body; beauty is subjective.”

Biblical ideas of the true, good and beautiful get squelched and misshapen into a perversion of God’s intended reality as humans get picked off, one-by-one. The darkness usually presents itself as light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Innocent. Selfless. Gift-giving. The serpent just wants to help launch you into your potential — the wonderful creation God made you to be, right?

Christians, we must get to a place where we STOP filling our bodies, minds and souls with the things of the world while expecting earth-shaking righteousness to come out of us. This is the nature of discipleship; learning from Jesus and becoming like Him. Dallas Willard checked in with these wise words: “A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice – a practitioner… Disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of the Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth.”²⁴ In short, our lives must align with Jesus’ wisdom in practical ways. We have to stop certain practices that align with the world because the world is embroiled in spiritual darkness. Being influenced by the kingdom of darkness is foolishness!

And you say, “Yeah, I know.”

But do you?

May I please submit to you the following: your decisions — what your eyes see, the way you talk about people, what you value, how you spend your money, your thought patterns, the places you visit and support, your habits, influencers you follow — it all flows downstream of your proximity to Christ, the ever-flowing fount of wisdom. And frankly, some of those decisions are out of line with His desires for your life. There’s some blockage in the flow of the river.

To completely screw up my own analogy and reapply it (which is literary sacrilege), as apprentices to Jesus, we don’t drift along with the currents of the culture. We swim upstream, against the waves of the world. Conforming is not our call, but the opposite (Romans 12:1-2, 1 John 2:15). As Paul said, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). And our Master, Jesus, leads us in distinguishing truth from lies; a mission that proves daunting in our time.

V. Cultural Discernment

So what does it look like to use wisdom in a perverse culture?

Well, for starters, it’s probably not chanting lines like “you’re the new god we’re worshipping…” (thanks, Tay).²⁵

I believe what we consume is not trivial. Our intake terraforms our opinions, language, sensibilities. If we follow Jesus, we have to make hard decisions about what that looks like. And at ground level, this doesn’t need to be complicated.

Let me say some unpopular things. Artists that write songs which venerate social mores of lust, unfaithfulness, hedonism, revenge, bitterness, fear and depression are not our friends. And even if they don’t know it, they’re being wielded as pawns on the spiritual chessboard.

If your playlist is dominated by a woman who objectifies herself and others, includes Satanic imagery in music videos and performs occult rituals in her live shows, you’re actively in the process of being deceived. What we take in as Christ-followers isn’t merely “no big deal” or arbitrary. Gatekeeping our own mortal souls in the illustrious passage to finding God’s truth, goodness and beauty means everything actually matters.

My wife and I have personally experienced this. There are products we no longer purchase. Television shows and films our kids are no longer allowed to watch. Phrases, ideas and language we no longer use. Businesses and locations we no longer give patronage. At times the Holy Spirit has told us to stop doing things and start doing others. It isn’t always easy, but you will never be missing out or lacking anything when following Jesus’ call to abandon everything.

Unequivocally, objectively, Biblically, there is no wisdom in artists like Taylor Swift having influence in your life. That’s based on the fruit hanging from the trees of their lives; Christ tells us we will recognize people spiritually by what they produce (Matthew 7:16-20). Sexually inappropriate lyrics, provocative image-bearing, aligning with agendas that are in direct opposition to the truth of Scripture, mocking of Christ and His Church, occult activity and demonic propaganda and imagery should make this extraordinarily simple. The question has always been this:

Who do you fear more?

Honestly. Do you fear God, or men?

Why are we afraid to call out wickedness for what it is? Whether it’s Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, or the Pope, the Ekklēsia as God’s Church has a prophetic heritage and responsibility to snap out of its hypnosis with the world and stand witness to God’s wise ways of living in a hostile environment, whatever the cost. I love what David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock zero in on regarding wisdom for our late modern, hyperdigital world: “At the broadest level, the pursuit of wisdom—what we are calling cultural discernment—is the godly answer to rising complexity and its symptom, anxiety.”²⁶

Come on! Here we go.

Discerning a culture which goes at a frenetic pace is no easy trick. That’s because, contrary to what fuels the self-help market (shout-out to ya’lls out here in Internets Land), wisdom is not a trick. It isn’t a cheat code for you to benefit from or watch your crypto soar in 6 weeks or less. It doesn’t exist merely to help you make friends and influence people. Wisdom is God’s antidote for the soul-sickening fog enveloping our society. A lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psalm 119:105). And it is primarily focused on pleasing God for the sake of His Name. In everything.

Our wisdom Teacher, Jesus, made this bold claim about His relationship to the Father, resounding like firecrackers in the ears of His haters: “He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29).

What does it mean to please God in everything?

It turns out, a lot. And that’s where His divine wisdom comes in:

• It will change what relationships you invest in.

• It will change where you go and hobbies you have.

• It will change your playlist and your search history.

• It will change your online presence and social media activity.

• It will change what you say and how your bank account lines up.

• It will change your opinions about tv and sex and food and ethics in the workplace.

• It will change how you present yourself and clothes you wear.

Now, don’t freak out: wisdom isn’t gained overnight. Well, for Solomon it was, but you know what I mean.

Our discipleship is a process, one where God is working in us as we are being “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Willard also said this regarding discipleship: “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.”²⁷ Friends, some lines in the sand are required. It will get harder as we go along; you might want to start laying down your life daily right now. The Lamb is calling.

VI. Resilience

Transparently, I’m not sure how to land this cargo plane. In wrapping up this entry, let me set up our next foray via Søren Kierkegaard’s insight: “Indeed, one can be deceived in many ways; one can be deceived in believing what is untrue, but on the other hand, one is also deceived in not believing what is true.”²⁸

Wisdom is so needed because deception is so thick; the sheep need to be more wise because the Dragon is so cunning. You and I can be deceived to believe false narratives and fairytales; we can also be deceived into not believing God’s truth. This is where the Church must step in and shake things up. Per Kinnaman and Matlock again on the power of “anti-foolishness”:

“We need to teach critical thinking, how to evaluate and understand propaganda, fake and real, truth and post-truth, worldview and theology, and so much more.”²⁹

As a youth pastor I say A-MEN. I get a front row seat to seeing young people put their hands and minds to foolishness. The Church has got to do better in being different from the world. Pew-sitters do stupid things and live like the world and take advantage of grace and say careless words and embrace foolish values and foster the demonic in our homes, and then we wonder why our witness suffers and our lives don’t have power to change our cities. Face yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to inspect your life. Be willing to change.

We need the wisdom of God, now more than ever.

The wisdom of the world pales in comparison to that of Yahweh; we should embrace His. It’s not just opinion or conjecture — it carries power.

“ ⁴ …my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

1 Corinthians 2:4-5

There is power in God’s wisdom. Power to overcome. Revelation chapters 2-3 encourage Christians to be faithful and steadfast in the midst of a pagan and vitriolic civilization. Only those acting on God’s wisdom are overcomers from the perspective of the Biblical authors. Exercising cultural discernment is hard, but it comes with a guarantee. In John’s vision of the New Creation, those who overcome receive these promises:

• “I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7b)

• “…will not be hurt by the second death.” (2:11b)

• “I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.” (2:17b)

• “I will give him authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are shattered, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” (2:26-28)

• “…will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” (3:5)

• “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” (3:12)

• “I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.” (3:21)

While some of these are poetic symbols of our future glory, you were nonetheless made to overcome as your Master, Jesus, did. But that relationship must be exclusive and committed with eyes set above to God’s ways and feet set to act upon them. No one can do it for you. In the words of Michel de Montaigne, “We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.”³⁰

QUESTION: are you willing to at least consider that there is an area of your life that needs to be touched by God’s wisdom?

This is not the time to be prideful (there’s never a time). Our bent egos and the cracked façades of our reputation must come under the renovation of the Truth. “Pride must die in you,” Andrew Murray declared, “or nothing of heaven can live in you.”³¹ Sin and spiritual gunk has just got to go, friends. The beautiful thing is these can be replaced by the spiritual disciplines.

Be spiritually awake and aware; be committed to the Body of Christ in selfless community; learn to consume God’s Word and let it consume you; develop an unwavering prayer life and don’t give up.

Don’t allow anything to take the throne of your heart above Jesus. Develop a resilient, vibrant faith today because the future of the Church depends on overcomers like you. God help and strengthen us.

Here are some simple action steps you can put into practice for 2025 to avoid deception:

[ACTION STEPS]

1. Ask God to reveal Himself to you through His Word

2. Make a decision to be on the side of truth, whatever it says

3. Pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal lies you’ve agreed with and dangerous influences

4. Stay alert for moments of deception

5. When faced with lies, actively stand for truth

6. Be willing to unfollow, delete music, get a dummy-phone, take a different route home, get a new job — whatever it takes to follow Jesus’ call of wisdom and align with His righteousness

It started in Genesis, at the dawn of our story, failing the temptation at the words of a deceiver. Our world is now under siege. Deception is everywhere.

And here.

Here is wisdom.

The Book of Revelation unfolds this apocalyptic trope of divine wisdom being required to understand the mysteries of the dark powers (the Beast, the Dragon, etc.). There was a Dragon at the beginning; he is there at the end. Our marching orders are to be “the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” as the faithful Church who overcomes our enemy by the blood of our Savior and our testimony — the lógos.

Jesus knew how to spot and avoid a trap. Do you?

Wisdom is crucial because our adversary is so active. Understanding our enemy, the devil, and the forces of darkness is where we’ll turn our attention to next.

It’s the last day of the year, December 31st. Christians, brothers, sisters, friends: we are going to all need a supernatural filling of God’s Spirit and His wisdom in fresh measure for 2025.

Ready for a fight?

Ekklēsia Nikaō, Part I: The Hidden in Plain Sight Message of Revelation

Ekklēsia Nikaō, Part II: Sex Scandals, Demons & Bonfires

Ekklēsia Nikaō, Part III: The Greatest Failure of the Church

Ekklēsia Nikaō, Part IV: The Body Politic

1. Nash, O. (1964). Marriage lines: Notes of a Student Husband. Boston : Little, Brown. p. 79.

2. Prophetic initiation in the OT often involved witnessing revelatory visions of Yahweh in His heavenly court. The prophet would get to sit in as a human member of the council of God. In this regard, Mullen observes: “The prophet serves as more than a messenger. He is the herald and courier of the council.” See Mullen, E. T., Jr. (2019). The Divine Council in Canaanite and early Hebrew literature. BRILL. p. 219. Along these lines, per Stuart, “The prophets got some of their oracles by being allowed by God to overhear heavenly deliberations or to be told directly by God the content of his plans (cf. 1 Kgs. 17:1; 22:19; Je. 23:22; Am. 3:7). The prophets as auditors of the heavenly sōd (‘council’ and/or ‘counsel’) understand themselves to have knowledge not otherwise available to humans.” See Stuart, D. (2020, February 16). The Old Testament Prophets’ self understanding of their prophecy: Volume 6 - Issue 1. The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved December 25, 2024, from https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/the-old-testament-prophets-self-understanding-of-their-prophecy/.

3. I love what Dan Block says in his book on Ancient Near East national theology: “When the nation forgot the fundamental instructions given through Moses, Yahweh repeatedly engaged official spokespersons, prophets, to call the people back to their covenant relationship.” Block, D. I. (2013). The Gods of the nations: A Study in Ancient Near Eastern National Theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 152.

4. In Western philosophy, a silver thread of transcendent “properties of being” weaved through thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and others. Though there have been more than these three, in Christian thinking — especially from Catholic theologians — truth (verum), goodness (bonum), and beauty (pulchrum) emerged as the primary qualities reflecting the Divine. Interesting to note: three of the most potent appeals in rhetoric, lógos, ēthos, and páthos, telegraph quite nicely. See O’Hara, D. L. (2009). C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness and Beauty – Edited by David Baggett, Gary R. Habermas, and Jerry L. Walls. Religious Studies Review, 35(3), 154. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2009.01359_1.x; also see Samples, K. (2021b, April 22). The 3 Transcendentals: Truth, Goodness, & beauty. Reasons to Believe. https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/reflections/the-3-transcendentals-truth-goodness-beauty.

5. "Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2". Book by Mark Twain (p. 302), 2013.

6. Per Malcolm Muggeridge: “What is called Western Civilization is in an advanced state of decomposition, and another Dark Ages will soon be upon us, if, indeed, it has not already begun. With the Media, especially television, governing all our lives, as they indubitably do, it is easily imaginable that this might happen without our noticing...by accustoming us to the gradual deterioration of our values.” By the way, this was in 1974. Five decades ago. Prophetic is an understatement. See Muggeridge, M. (1974, August 16). Living through an Apocalypse: An address given at the International Congress on World Evangelization. Christianity Today. Retrieved December 16, 2024, from https://www.christianitytoday.com/1974/08/living-through-apocalypse.

7. Tzu, S. (2002). The art of war. Courier Corporation. p. 42.

8. From his poem “On the Power of Sound”. See Wordsworth, W. (1869). The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. United Kingdom: E. Moxon. p. 183.

9. What Google says: “an active predatory mollusk of the large class Cephalopoda, such as an octopus or squid.” So weird!

10. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Illustrated)”. p.1248. Delphi Classics.

11. Assmann, J. (2001). The Search for God in Ancient Egypt. Cornell University Press. pp. 80-81.

12. Thoth – Baboon and Ibis God of the moon - The Hunt Museum. (2022, June 13). The Hunt Museum. https://www.huntmuseum.com/stories/objects-in-focus/thoth-baboon-and-ibis-god-of-the-moon/

13. Bertman, S. (2005). Handbook to life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 122.

14. Philosophy comes from the Greek words “philos” (love) and “sophia” (wisdom).

15. Plato. (1903). Socrates: Plato’s apology of Socrates and Crito, with a part of his Phaedo. (B. Jowett, Trans.). Century Company. p. 17.

16. Lewis Thorpe, tr., Einhard and Notker the Stammerer. Two Lives of Charlemagne. 1969:49f.

17. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles I, c. 2.

18. Aquinas, Summa Theologiæ I-II, q. 58, a. 4, co.

19. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1838). “The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Preface. Formula fidei de ss. Trinitate. Nightly prayer. Notes on the book of common prayer; Hooker; Field; Donne; Henry More; Heinrichs; Hacket; Jeremy Taylor; The pilgrim's progress; John Smith. Letter to a godchild.” p.186.

20. The topic of our world’s understandings and applications of wisdom is too vast to cover appropriately for an essay, let alone a monograph. This is just a flyover of some of the prevailing secular evolutions and influences. What follows is a Biblical rebuttal and re-approach to wisdom via the Scriptures.

21. Strong’s #2450 - חָכָם - Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary - StudyLight.org. (n.d.). StudyLight.org. https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/eng/hebrew/2450.html

22. This Hebrew word is “frequently associated with wise and godly counsel, as well as the decisions of leaders and prophets…The wisdom literature of the Bible, such as Proverbs, emphasizes the importance of seeking wise counsel and the dangers of ignoring it.” See Strong’s Hebrew: 3289. יָעַץ (yaats) -- To advise, counsel, consult, determine. (n.d.). https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3289.htm.

23. As in “whatever-I-wanna’-be.” Yay for woke-coolness! How droll (movie and soundtrack are mad underrated though, to be fair).

24. Willard, Dallas (2009). The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship. Harper Collins. p.9.

25. Apparently these are lyrics from a Swift tune entitled “Clara Bow.” Classy.

26. Kinnaman, D., Matlock, M., & Hawkins, A. (2019). Faith for exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon. Baker Books. p. 81.

27. Willard, D. (n.d.). How Does the Disciple Live? Radix Magazine, Vol. 34.3.

28. Kierkegaard, S., Hong, H. V., & Hong, E. H. (1962). Works of love : some Christian reflections in the form of discourses. Harper Perennial. p. 23. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA04195517

29. Kinnaman, D., Matlock, M., & Hawkins, A. (2019). Faith for exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon. Baker Books. p. 81-93.

30. Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book I, Ch. 25, 1595.

31. Murray, Andrew (2016). Humility: The Beauty of Holiness. Aneko Press. p. 45