War does not begin in a moment of time with a sudden blast and an all-out attack. A nation goes to war with another nation only after a great deal of preparation has taken place behind a smokescreen of normal social intercourse. This preparatory activity will have been going on for quite some time before the actual attack takes place. A good example of this strategy can be found by examining the activities of the Allies prior to the invasion of Normandy in WWII.

Months before the actual invasion Allied secret agents were working throughout Europe, contacting  native supporters and working with the underground forces by supplying them with information, weapons and expertise to use once the invasion began. One of their main objectives was the recruitment  of secret agents who would infiltrate the enemy’s forces for the purpose of weakening them from within. This done, the “softening up” phase began with relentless shelling and bombing designed to weaken the Nazi defenses in the area where the actual physical assault would take place. Only after these two phases had been completed did the invasion itself take place. This was the grind-it-out, up-close-and-personal, hand-to-hand phase of warfare which eventually led to an Allied victory over the Axis powers.

Spiritual warfare is conducted in much the same way. Satan’s strategy for victory over the world, specifically God’s church, began with the seeding the world with his secret agents–false prophets whose job was to gain supporters who would weaken the church from within by spreading false doctrines, gathering supporters, etc. An open-minded study of the epistles, especially those of Paul, John and Peter, reveals that Satan has been conducting an underground war against God’s people since shortly after the founding of His church some 2000 years ago. With phase one completed, phase two began. Students of the Bible recognize that the second phase of attack–heavy bombardment–has been taking place over the past decade or so with increasing intensity and diversity of weaponry.

One will notice that modern t.v. shows, movies, video games, books, magazines, etc. are becoming more and more other-worldly, violent, anti-god, anti-rule, anti-authority, etc. What were in times past the stuff of nightmares and daydreams are now showing up on screens and in print with predictable regularity. Today it is hard to find any offering by the entertainment industry that reflects the normal life of most people. Why is this?

Having worked stealthily within the church system for some two thousand years, recruiting followers to undermine the work of the Lord by substituting a perverted gospel (Gal. 1:6-9) for God’s gospel, Satan has instigated the “softening up” phase of spiritual warfare. Using his “big guns” he is slowly but surely changing the nature of normality for an ever-increasing segment of the population. Through the use of the various media, specifically television, movies and the internet, he is acclimating the human mind to accept the formerly impossible as not only possible, but normal. Having grown up on a steady diet of other-worldly, half-human, half-creature entities that/who can do with ease what was once considered impossible, even unthinkable, modern young people have become bored with normal life and reject it outright. Anything that does not titillate the senses is considered passe’ and meaningless. Staring into a screen has replaced facing reality. Anything beats life as usual. Enter Satan.

Having successfully soured the past two generations, and therefore all future generations, on the real world, he is persuading them to accept his imaginary, mind-enslaving world as the real thing. To be continued. L.J.