Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Conspiracy, Conspiracy Theories and The Bible

Recently I've read a few good articles about conspiracies, their theories and the theorists that live off of them. A few were written by Gary North at Lew Rockwell, Andrew Sandlin and James Leroy Wilson.

I've likened conspiracies (especially government conspiracies) and conspiracy theories to what Jesus termed wars and rumors of wars. Conspiracies happen, and the theories try to connect hidden dots to explain what happened. Or they can plainly be fabricated nonsense. But one thing has always interested me is how people react to conspiracy theories. Some think anybody who listens to them are fringe wackos, rejecting all theories outright, some think anybody who doesn't listen to them are brainwashed proles who only help the cause of the conspirators.

I have a circle of friends who are former conspiracy theory nuts and former members of various patriot groups on an endless search for the "silver bullet" that will slay the government beast. I firmly believe that there are many government conspiracies - and their coverups - that occur all the time. Most of them we never hear about.

For me, knowing what they are isn't the most important thing. But as a "bible-believing Christian", I must believe in government conspiracies. Why? Because the bible is chock full of them; and so is history and our newspapers. Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill newborn sons. The Egyptians feared the multiplying Hebrews and conspired to make their slavery a serious hardship. Daniel and his friends were targets of two government conspiracies. In one, some lesser government workers deceitfully petitioned the king to pass laws that they already knew God's people wouldn't obey. The wicked Haman did the same thing to rid the world of Mordecai and the Jews in the book of Esther. David's own son conspired to take the throne. Ahab and Jezebel took Naboth's vineyard in a diabolical eminent domain story. Herod plotted to kill the newborn king. The religious leaders of Jesus' time conspired with Roman involvement to have him killed. Nero burned Rome down and blamed it on the Christians. Psalm 2 is a divinely inspired testament to government conspiracies.

One of my friends formerly committed his life to chasing conspiracies. His insight has been very helpful. He chased paper trails and came up with evidences to various conspiracies. Some were simple. But some were not. When everything lined up, he would pull back the cover to reveal the central conspiracy... only to find another cover. He eventually saw many conspiracies as "onion skin" in composition. Pull back the thin veil only to find another one. He saw that facts quite often fit together, but that the complexity to how they fit was of such a degree that he had to conclude that many "conspiracies" could not have been human in origin. They were spiritual in origin and developed in the heavenly places.

And this brings me to the greatest "conspiracy" of all in the bible. This is recorded in the book of Job. Satan accused God of protecting Job in order to call him a righteous man and dared God to loosen up his hedge around him. God gave Satan authority to plague Job, but not to kill him. One day Job had his world fall apart on five fronts, and messengers brought him the news one after another. The Sabean assault, fire from heaven, the Chaldean assault, a wind storm and boils on his body. If this happened today, the conspiracy theorists would have a field day with the earthly appearances and blame God's providence on mere men. One thing I do know; even if I don't know what is behind the veil or how wickedly men act, God is in control and nobody will get away with anything in the end.

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