For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places– Ephesians 6:12 200426

When the shutdowns began in March I immediately began receiving emails and messages containing countless conspiracy theories. Because I was bored and had little else to do, I went through most of the emails and videos that were sent to me. The conspiracies included (among other things) speculations regarding the origins of Coronavirus, and vaccines for coronavirus. There were theories concerning the strategy behind the national and global power grabs and plots connected to the coin shortage and how it’s being used to convert the world to a cashless society.

 I have been asked on occasion if I believe there is a group of people who have engineered the crisis to achieve a specific end.

 The answer is no.

  I certainly do not judge anyone who has decided we are living in the middle of some weird conspiracy cabal. There is without question sufficient evidence to tip the scale in favor of a sane person believing there is a secret society or group of creepy people pulling strings to move the human race towards their desired end. However, I simply do not believe human beings are smart enough, organized enough or secretive enough to pull off any plot that involves more than an infinitesimal group of people. Mostly because the average human struggles to keep a secret for longer than say five minutes. Most conspiracies intricate enough to make it into my email would involve literally hundreds of people and many layers of secrecy. There is practically zero chance that a single human being could keep literally hundreds of people from spilling the tea on any scheme interesting enough to make a video about it.

 However.

 This does not mean I don’t think SOME of the theories floating around these days are one-hundred-percent true. They are. I just think that it’s highly unlikely that a group of humans working alone could pull off those kinds of conspiracies without a little help from the enemy.

 Satan is always working behind the scenes to bring about the end he desires and he uses foolish, prideful, mostly oblivious humans to get the job done. Most of Satan’s schemes are focused on dehumanizing people and distracting them from spiritual truth. He uses popular mediums like music, television, books and movies to encourage people to participate in behaviors that enslave them to sin and destroy their desire for relationship with God. If for whatever reason a person is not down for wallowing around in sin he attempts to convince them of their own goodness and righteousness so they think they are too good to need a relationship with God (Mark 4:15, 1st Peter 5:8). Satan adores COVID-19 and is using it to spread fear and dissension.  Since the start of the Coronavirus lockdowns, Satan has worked through those in the media to spread fear that keeps people from thinking clearly about what should be done to manage Coronavirus. He has been working on those in positions of power to pass laws that limit human rights and restrict freedom of communication and movement all in the name of protecting public health. He has used the health dangers related to COVID to keep average citizens away from each other and to spread further dissent and conflict between people who once saw each other as being part of the same team.  The Bible is clear that there will come a day when basically the whole world and most of the people in it will be under Satan’s control (2nd Timothy 3:1-5). He will use one man to gain that control. (Daniel 7:21-22, Revelation 13). It is very likely the ground work is being laid for that right now (2nd Thessalonians (2:9).

 Another thing.

Satan doesn’t just use unbelievers. Sometimes he uses people who genuinely love Jesus to do his bidding and accomplish his purposes. Anytime a Christian refuses to examine their own behavior or analyze their beliefs in light of Scripture or prayerfully consider that they might be wrong about something they play into Satan’s hand and run the risk they will be used for evil purposes. We are living in a season of unprecedented deception where Satan has more power over more people including God’s people than he has had at any point since prior to the coming of Jesus (Matthew 24:4-13). In light of this reality, Christians should make self-examination a daily practice (2nd Corinthians 13:5, Jeremiah 17:9).  

 The final thing.

 It is imperative we remember that the people doing evil are not the ones in charge. They think they are but they aren’t. The enemy is and he does not have their best interests in mind. This is why we are commanded to pray for those who are doing the most damage to our country, our churches, our world and to us personally (Matthew 5:43-45, Luke 6:28, 1st Peter 3:12, 1st Timothy 2:1-3). When we pray for our enemies and the politicians who are doing evil it accomplishes several ends. First, we can be assured that God speaks to those people when we ask Him to. He would not command us to pray specifically for something if He did not intend to respond to those prayers (Matthew 5:44). Secondly, it changes our hearts towards those leaders when we pray. Instead of seeing them as the enemy we see them as puppets of an enemy who hates them and is using them, that change in attitude drives us to pray more. Finally, when we pray and the person repents we are blessed because we played a part in their change of heart.  

 The times we live in are unlike any we have experienced before. Life as we knew it may never return but we will grow spiritually stronger and be a part of the solution if we remember who is really at the heart of the conspiracies in our midst.