Warped Reality

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

A warped sense of reality is often considered a psychotic disorder or episode when a person experiences a significantly altered or distorted perception of reality. Such distortions are often caused or triggered by hallucinations (false perceptions), delusions (false beliefs) and/or disrupted or disorganised thinking.

Take a trip down to the streets of most large cities and you’ll find people everywhere with a distorted sense of reality.

When I used to regularly walk the streets on Friday nights for the purpose of sharing the gospel, it wasn’t uncommon to witness someone standing in the middle of a street screaming, talking to some demonic entity, or just harassing passerby’s as they were walking along. It didn’t take long to realize how unfruitful a conversation about Jesus would be when people are living in this state. The evidence of mind altering drugs was quite clear among these people and the demons controlling their minds had a sinister way of trying to spread confusion among other people.

If you wonder whether spiritual warfare is still active, spend a day walking among the homeless, I’ve never seen a greater manifestation of evil than among those who live in the chaos of the streets.

Altered Reality

Ephesians 5:11 “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

“We risk being the first people in history to have been
able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive,
so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to
Pseudo-Events in America (1961)

We live in an era where people believe what they want to believe rather than correlate that belief to reality. Without a foundational element of truth, western society has digressed into an unhealthy skepticism of everything they see or hear in the news.

From a 2017 article in the Atlantic, a digression can be seen over time culminating into what we see today.

“Each of us is on a spectrum somewhere between the poles of rational and irrational. We all have hunches we can’t prove and superstitions that make no sense. Some of my best friends are very religious, and others believe in dubious conspiracy theories. What’s problematic is going overboard—letting the subjective entirely override the objective; thinking and acting as if opinions and feelings are just as true as facts. The American experiment, the original embodiment of the great Enlightenment idea of intellectual freedom, whereby every individual is welcome to believe anything she wishes, has metastasized out of control.”

My experience on the streets is not far removed from what we see in the office or in the home. The capital attack in January of 2021 was a culmination of misinformation, political conspiracies, and a sense that government has the answer to every trouble. That event was only a precursor to a much bigger problem that is developing in America.

The digression from being a christian nation into a secular one.

1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

The cascade effect of abandoning the moral foundation of God’s Word for the post-modern way of relating truth to what you make it only leads people to digress further into darkness. The further people digress into a lack of knowledge, the easier it will be to delude them with lies.

We are witnessing the effects of these lies through many of the cancel culture attacks on people who don’t support the ideology of society and it is spreading into mainstream America through a variety of warped policies blurring the lines of basic human traits, like gender.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

As people of God, we not only have the mandate to be ambassadors in this world of sin, but we must strive ever more to weave through a world that is growing more unstable by the day.

Fixed Reality

Psalm 119:160 “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”

If you were to stand on ship at sea while the storm around you caused the ship to toss and turn, your bearings would be skewed if your gaze was upon the ocean. Look out at the lighthouse on the shore and the light remains fixed, even though what you see may look like it’s moving, it’s actually your reality that is moving, not the light.

This is our reality when looking up at God.

The world is turning (figuratively), the moral compass of the world is as if it’s caught in a magnetic field and it spins wildly, and yet if we cast our gaze to the heavens, there remains God’s throne–fixed, unmovable, and unyielding to this world and it’s schemes.

John 8:31-32 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Do you want to be free from the world’s roller coaster ride of insanity?

You can be free if you will only change your position. Moving away from a worldly viewpoint to a godly viewpoint is not as far as some might assume. The Word of God has stood the test of time, it’s truths remain inerrant, proven, and sustainable.

The time has come to stop watching the news or reading the conspiracy reports, and remember the standard by which we have been called…in righteousness.

Expose the Darkness

Ephesians 5:11 “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

The church of God must become wise to the schemes of this world. Instead of trying to expose every form of twisted reality, let us instead draw nearer to God’s Truth.

The world isn’t the only imposters in Satan’s grande scheme, the massive prosperity gospel movement, false prophets, corrupt churches designed to excite the emotions of its members, false christian recording artists who make a few albums for the christian community and then denounce Christ publicly, corrupt authors who attempt to pull in worldly doctrine and mingle it with Biblical doctrine.

The people of God know what false doctrine looks like, they must have the boldness to call it out for what it is—lies from the enemy.

Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”

The list of detestable practices found in Proverbs only summarizes a myriad of corrupt practices we see evidenced today. Idolatry, deception, hatred, murder, corrupt morals, self serving, lacking love…turn on the news and these traits are abounding in every corner of the globe.

The lists of a reprobate world can leave the reader depressed, the somber reminder that our world is changing for the worse, never to return, and this can be a difficult pill to swallow.

Our Charge

What should our response be to a world spiraling into darkness?

• Flee from Sin. We must recognize the disease and remove ourselves from the situations that will lead to trouble. 1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
• Accept God’s Truth as our own. This might seem like a simple gesture but you’d be surprised how many people are abandoning the Word of God as the source of all Truth. 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
• Walk in Righteousness. It’s one thing to know the truth of God, it’s another to practice God’s Truth. Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

It is so vital that God’s people come out of the world and be separate. We should take a daily inventory of what we have allowed to slip into our midst and then practice holiness. The stakes are far too high, the time is too short, our God is far too Great to not take our charge seriously.

Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

It’s not only our souls that are at stake, it is the souls of those who watch you, you see your testimony, and wonder if Jesus is real.

This twisted world gives nothing of value, for those who partake of it the twisting warps the mind and hardens the heart.

We can’t let that hardness affect us, and it won’t if Jesus resides there.