So...love for Satan is on the rise. Literally.
I know, I know, this sounds like fundies from 60 years ago or my parents during the "satanic panic."
But this year it has become increasingly en vogue to celebrate Satan. For instance, after-school Satan clubs and Satanic Temple altars in public such as at the Iowa State Capitol building show us how blatant the attack against Christianity has become.
As if this isn't perverse enough, rapper Lil Nas X created a line of "Satan shoes," and in his music video Lil Nas slides down a pole into hell where he gives Satan a lap dance.
Singer Sam Smith dressed as Satan and performed a stripper-esque routine at the 2023 Grammy awards.
You may note that these celebrations of Satan are intertwined with sexual liberation. This is not new.
As Dr. Michael Brown wrote in Jezebel's War With America, this is the spirit of Jezebel being played out in the modern era. (Not that it's Jezebel's spirit, but the same kind of demonic evil that drove her.)
Jezebel wasn't only interested in creating a culture where sexual immorality was celebrated. She wanted (1) to implement the public celebration of sexual immorality by the power of the State, and (2) believed that her sexual idolatry wasn't idolatry at all, but rather was true worship.
In other words, she saw Israel's God, Yahweh, as a false, evil, oppressive God who must be toppled so that true love and justice would reign. Does this sound familiar? We are simply repeating history.
Last week, a Virginia school board member was sworn into office by placing his hand on a Bible...oh, sorry, that wasn't a Bible. It was a stack of gay porn.
Some Christians reading this may think I'm alarmist, or cherry picking the most bizarre events out of "fear."
Let me ask you a question—can you think of anything more illustrative of the war between God and Jezebel than this?
As I wrote in my new book "Wimpy, Weak, and Woke," this is nothing new.
This is "an age-old war between gods. It's a winner-takes-all battle between the living God and the false god of Man."
In America, we place our hand on the Bible to swear in testimony or someone into office because it represents the highest authority that exists.
There is a Supreme Ruler that supersedes all of our laws, powers, and authorities.
I realize that everyday there are atheists and people who don't follow Jesus who place their hand on Bibles.
It doesn't make them Christians, but it is a vestige of the belief that God should be honored.
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That sign of God's authority was mocked and displaced by a rival god: the god of the sexual revolution.
This is, of course, the spirit of Jezebel reanimated.
This act was done to make the statement that "The God of the Bible is not supreme, He does not supersede the god of the sexual revolution, He will not rule over me, and in fact, here in the halls of power I will lift up a rival god who is to be celebrated in the public and in the political realm.
Moreover, this god—the god of Jezebel's sexual revolution—is a more loving and more just god than the God of the Bible."
And how will the church respond to this blasphemy? Probably as she usually does.
The prophets will sigh and groan and rebuke evil, and then the people of God will tell the prophets to be quiet.
Or possibly even worse, as Steven the martyr reminded his to-be executioners. "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?" (Acts 7:52a)
Brother and sisters, this is not a time for silence.
This isn't a time for making peace.
This is the time for us to play the prophet. We speak the words of God without apology.
Our message is "Repent! And be born again!"
We must say it without flinching.
And in the words of Joseph Parker, we must "pledge our heads to heaven" before entering into this battle.
If you want to go up against the god of the age, you better understand that it will cost you your life.
But, is that not the call of the gospel?
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it," (Matt. 16:25).
The other option is to continue doing what we've been doing. Lock ourselves inside our churches and sing worship songs, lamenting the satanic filth that our children are bombarded with; praying evermore fervently for the Lord to intervene in spite of our unwillingness to lose our heads by taking on Jezebel.
Certainly, we should be singing, pleading and praying!
But we cannot continue to justify our inaction by believing that our silence and peace-making help us "win the world."
No, my friends... the world is winning us.
No more being wimpy and weak.
Let us come awake to the call of God, realizing that souls are being lost by the millions. Lives are being destroyed by the gods of Jezebel who promise liberation but bring enslavement.
And let us remember that though we are called to be peacemakers, making peace with evil is an evil peace.
It is time to be strong and courageous, knowing that if our God is for us, who cares if Jezebel is against us.
"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap," (Gal. 6:7).
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John Cooper is lead-singer of 17x platinum rock band Skillet, and author of the recent new book, "Wimpy, Weak and Woke."
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