In my last blog, I shared that I was reading Jonathan Cahn’s latest book, The Return of the Gods. Very simply, his point is that when a person or culture has been demonized and then set free and the void is not filled by the presence of God, that spirit will return and bring other more wicked spirits with him. Ancient western cultures were filled with false gods which, according to scripture, represented actual demons until the dawn of the gospel changed that. As the gospel was preached and gained traction in the 3rd and 4th centuries, idol worship, human sacrifice, widespread sexual immorality of all kinds, and the great temples to those false Gods were destroyed and removed from western culture for nearly 2000 years.

However, beginning in the second half of the 20th century, these demonic principalities began to push their way back into western cultures through influential individuals and began to systematically remove God from our public schools, universities, stadiums, court rooms, and public morals. In the last seventy five years, we have redefined marriage and gender. We have aborted over 60 million children in America alone. We have declared what once was evil to be good and what once was was good to be evil. Truth has become a subjective concept rather than an objective reality and a clear war on Christianity has been launched by many segments of our society. All these changes were made in the name of social tolerance, but now anyone who does not agree with the “new morality” will no longer be tolerated.

In essence, Cahn argues that as we have rejected God in our culture, the old demonic principalities or “gods” of western cultures have once again established themselves and America has not become post-Christian as much as neo-pagan. If this continues, we can expect very dark days for those who follow Jesus or who hold to any traditional values. The question becomes, “What can we do and is it too late to do anything.?”

There are a couple of things that give us hope. First of all, the reversal by the Supreme Court of Roe vs. Wade exposed a subtle shift in the tide. This reversal did not make abortion illegal but left it up to states to determine what should be done about it. That is, at least, a step in the right direction. Another thing that gives me hope is that throughout the Old Testament history of Israel, wicked kings ruled generation after generation, but out of nowhere, God would raise up a righteous king who would rid the land of idolatry once again for a generation. Asa ruled over Judah for 41 years and brought revival (1 Kings 15). His son Jehoshaphat continued the revival for twenty five years. In 2 Kings 12, Joash became king and “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” for forty one years. Along the way, kings like Hezekiah and Josiah would spring up out of a culture of wickedness and lead the nation back to seasons of righteousness and blessing. In the darkest of hours, God would raise uo a young king whose father had been wicked and light would shine in Israel once again. God did this as an act of mercy towards a nation he stilled loved and because of his promises to the patriarchs and his servant David. I believe God still loves America.

Historically, God intervened from time to time to raise up a righteous generation out of the ashes of wickedness. He might do the same for us. But for this to happen, we cannot be passive or depend on others to pray for us. We must be engaged in the spiritual battle as the church, the called out, and as individual followers of Jesus. Chan rightly points our that the same power that drove the gods from the ancient world still sits on the throne in heaven. His name is Jesus. He still has all authority in heaven and on earth. But like many things, he waits for us to join him in the battle. Gd could have drive the tribes out of Canaan before Israel even arrived on the scene. Instead, he ordained that they had to engage in the battle. He would with them, but they had to bear armor. The question becomes, how badly do we want righteousness restored to America and to our personal lives? How badly do we want America to continue as a nation? What future do we want for our children and grandchildren? A casual or ocassional commitment to the cause will not do.

This must begin with our own commitment to Jesus. Cahn writes, ” How then is one to live in the days when civilization around us has become a house of spirits? How can one stand against the darkness of the house, resist its intimidations, refuse its temptations, defy its powers? How can one stand against the gods? One cannot stand against the gods by serving them at the same time…And if we serve any of the gods we cannot stand against them. We must renounce any and all gods and any hold they have on our lives…We must take no part in their ways, have no communion with their spirits, leave no gap for their entrance, and pay no heed to their commandments.”

These are the days when we must all be Daniels, Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos. We must live in the culture but no be part of the culture and be willing to risk everything to be faithful to the true and living God. We cannot entrust out children to this culture for their education and moral upbringing because it will, in most cases, being anti-Christian and anti-biblical. We can no longer let our children indulge in the cultural media of America and hope it has no or little effect on them We can no longer be silent. Even Disney is pushing the culture of demons on our children.

Edmond Burke is often attributed with the words, ” All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Those are probably not his exact words but the sentiment is self-evident. If we withdraw from the battle, if we sit quietly at home, if we silo in our small groups, if we fail to speak up or vote, then evil will triumph. It is never too late with God, but he waits on us. Perhaps, in our 2023 resolutions this year, we should resolve to engage in the battle…not with violence or name calling, but with love, prayer, the word of God, courage, and personal holiness. This could be a great year for America or it can be one of her last. The fate of America is ultimately not up to Congress or the White House or the Supreme court, but up to the church and each of us who follow Jesus as our King. We live in such a time as this and God has given our generation stewardship of a nation. What will we do with it?

Jonathan Cahn’s most recent book, The Return of the Gods, is an interesting read and, I think, one I would recommend for your consideration. The book rests on a parable Jesus told in the Gospel of Matthew.

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation (Matthew 12:43-45).

The gist of this parable is that a man was demonized by an evil spirit and the spirit was cast out. After a season, the spirit returned to see if it could regain entrance to the man. Because the man had not filled the vacancy in his soul with the Holy Spirit and the things of God, the unclean spirit moved in again with seven other spirits more wicked than before. The man was then worse off at the end than he had been in the beginning.

The interesting twist in the parable is that Jesus concludes the condition of the man in the parable actually describes the condition of the generation that was about to reject Jesus. Chan’s conclusion is that evil spirits can possess or demonize not only individuals but entire nations or cultures. That seems to be confirmed by scripture when all of Israel, as well as other nations, would worship the same idols (evil spirits) for generations. In the ancient world, idols were worshipped in every home, under every spreading tree, and in temples, large and small, throughout the known world. Scripture says that behind each of these idols is a demonic spirit drawing worship away from God and unto itself. Behind each idol is a demon whose ultimate goal is to kill, steal and destroy a person or a nation. Any study of ancient history clearly reveals that entire cultures – religion, politics, art, architecture, and science were organized around the pagan beliefs, rituals, and sacrifices related to these demonic spirits.

The cultural norms in these ancient nations included gross sexual immorality promoted even by state religions. These were the fertility gods (Baal and Ashteroth) whose temples were funded by temple prostitutes (male and female) and public taxes, along with parades displaying public and rampant homosexuality, transsexuality and public orgies (Ashteroth or Ishtar) . In addition, the norms included child sacrifice to Molech or his equivalent, witchcraft, sorcery, violence, political corruption, and more. By the 3rd and 4th centuries, the gospel had pushed these practices out of western civilizations and with them the ancient gods were driven out or greatly weakened as well.

Now fast forward. The thing that kept these demonic principalities at bay for 2000 years was Christianity – its value for life, its concern for the poor and the vulnerable, and its righteousness. I’m not saying that western Europe and America were fully holy nations, but there was enough of God’s standards woven into the culture that these demonic principalities had little comparative power over the nations.

However, in the 1960’s, the “sexual revolution” took place in the west and in America. Sex outside of marriage had once been shameful or even illegal, but in the last 40 years of the 20th century, it became not only tolerated but celebrated. At the same time, prayer was removed from public schools, the Ten Commandments were removed from the public square, marriage and sexuality was redefined, and 60 million children were sacrificed in the back rooms of abortion clinics so that men and women would not be inconvenienced by the burden of raising a child. In the last half of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st century, those things that were once called evil have now been declared good and those things that were considered good are denigrated as evil.

Cahn’s point is that when a culture has once been free from the demonic, but then pushes God out of society, the demons come back and bring many others with them that are even more wicked than before. The culture then becomes possessed and paganize once again. Demonic spirits begin to rule and direct the culture. In that context, Christianity can expect to be persecuted, witchcraft will flourish, sexuality and sexual morality will be turned on its head, and life will be devalued. The unborn, the elderly, and the infirm will be discarded as a drag on society as they were in pagan cultures before the gospel. Those things that replaced God will become idols with a demon behind each one and the nation will become a target of God’s judgment as was true in ancient Israel. In the 21st century, public idols may or may not be erected in the public square but science. government, sex, power, media, and pop culture will become cultural god’s that dictate truth rather than the revelation of God.

America has been called post-Christian. What it is becoming is simply a high-tech pagan nation that will be possessed or repossessed by demons. That is why we see things in our culture, in our schools, in politics, and in the media push an ungodly agenda and push it on children who cannot reason their way through the values being sold to them. That is why, even now we keep shaking our heads in unbelief at what we see and hear every day on the news and the accelerating demise of Christian culture in America..

Cahn makes a case that the dark trinity of Baal, Molech, and Ashtoreth (Ishtar) have returned to America and have reestablished their principalities in the heavenly realms. As Paul declared, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph.6:12). Since this is true, America will not be saved by politicians, technology, or science because this is a spiritual battle. It must be won by the church through prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the re-evangelization of America. The gospel that drove these spirits from nations in the first place and is the only thing that can do so again.

I think Cahn’s book is a worthwhile read, even if you don’t agree with everything in it. We have seen the results of the demonization of a nation in Nazi Germany, North Korea, Iran, Stalinist Russia, The Cultural Revolution of China, and even in America. We cannot win this war for our nation and our children with the weapons of the world, but only with divine weapons (2 Cor. 10:4-5). First of all, we need to be convinced that we are in a war and, secondly, that it is a spiritual war which can only be won when we give no quarter to the enemy. We must speak out in the public square, push back against ungodly cultural trends, and share the gospel with a pagan nation again. We must pray and we must embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in our churches and the truth that there is no other name by which men can be saved but Jesus. We cannot outsource our prayer and evangelism to a few pastors but this must become the business of every member of the bride of Christ. Lord…make is all warriors in the kingdom of heaven.

Blessings in Him who has all authority in heaven and on earth.