Seven Threats of Our Time

I’m not going to go back over these in any detail at all, except first, to talk about how important it is to understand all of these [threats] because it is the convergence of these that is making a larger threat than just a single threat itself.

So, if it is true that God is turning us over, as we read in Romans 1, now, to a depraved mind, having rejected God for as long as we have, doesn’t mean that [the depraved] can no longer balance a checkbook. They can still follow general logical things, but when it comes to the depraved mind as God talked about giving a people over to that. It’s a depraved mind that no longer walks in any sense of rationality associated with right and wrong. That passage in Romans 1 even ends with something that sounds, that sounds crazy or a little illogical because God says that even people who know these things lead to death, not only do them, they continue to do them, but they heartily agree and draw other people into it.

So we need to recognize and understand that the world we live in is most likely, as we see evidence of that around us, that God has been giving us over to a depraved mind. And we talked about the ramifications of that, the consequences of that, but it’s important as we begin to speak of things today to keep that in mind.

The second threat that we looked at [we] called

and how that has even affected Christianity, [which we called Meo-Christianity], where we have increasingly, after having for years and years, trying to [impress] each other that it’s all about me, it’s all about my scripts, it’s all about my story, that that has risen now to almost a divine level, Homo Deus, where the individual considers themself almost divine.

And so, as we’ve said before, if someone declares that they are a woman, that is understood as a divine proclamation and if you speak against that then you are blaspheming. And you will be subject to the blasphemy laws of our culture. Which means you will be canceled, you will be called all kinds of evil names and so forth.

So this is a continual issue that we see over and over again in our culture. And it’s driving a lot of things that we’ve been talking about.

And indeed this third threat that we talked about last time,

the way that God has made her. And The Rise of Malevolent Compassion. And that then led us to look at both, how God had made the male and female. And we illustrated that the male appears to have been given two engines that drive him. The first engine is an engine that seeks truth and righteousness and wisdom. But there is an engine behind that as well, an engine of grace and compassion. The female has those same [two] engines but they are in the reversed order. So she leads with grace and compassion, but that grace and compassion is bridled by truth and wisdom and righteousness.

So, in the culture that we live in when we attempt to do away with the meta-narrative [or the self-referential-narrative] of God, the truth of God, then the male no longer has anything for which he protects and defends beyond himself. And he descends into either the buffoon or the brute that we see in many cultures as well, and the buffoon that we see on TV and in much of our entertainment today. But the loss of the Noble Male, if we don’t want truth and we don’t want that kind of nobility then the only way that the male can be significant and the way that culture now tells the male, the only way you can be significant in this culture, is if you are more feminine. In other words, if you reverse your engines, do away with the engine that seeks truth and righteousness, and lead with compassion, then you will be significant in this culture.

We talked about what happen[ed] when we pursue compassion without the bridling of truth and righteousness and wisdom.

It means that not all compassion is right and good. And it’s something that we need to kind of school ourselves in because we have a tendency to believe that anytime someone talks about being compassionate we automatically think that that is good and righteous. Well, it may not be. As we looked at passages earlier and God says, "if a man won’t work then he won’t eat." That today would be considered to be hateful and uncompassionate and so forth, but from God’s perspective it is compassionate to have that kind of approach to someone. Why, because they need that toughness. They need the balance of grace and compassion with truth and righteousness, understanding how God has designed things.

So, this malevolent compassion, the reason I call it that is, because compassion can be [evil]. Star Parker has written often how she was trapped, an African American woman, was trapped by malevolent compassion that found its way into policy, welfare policies, that she would say has destroyed the black family. All of that is done under the guise of being compassionate.

And so, that is where [we were] going, there last time together. And then we ended with this statement that I did with a little bit of fear and trembling, that we’ll talk some more about it [tonight], and that is that malevolent compassion, I believe, is the modern day harlot, drawing from the words [and imagery] that we see in Revelation about the harlot that rides the beast.

Del Tackett — September 28, 2021 (modified with livestream added)
And again I should say, as we now turn our attention [today] to the fourth threat,

as I call it [, ie. His mode of operation]. And to do that we’re going to go back and lay a little bit of ground work here.

And talk about (first of all) how God is the one who has not only created man, as we talked about last time, both male and female in the image of God. But He then created an entire universe as well as human beings and living creatures in systems. And we call, for human beings, we call those [systems] Social Order or social systems. God is the One who has designed those. That’s what we read in Romans 13, right from the beginning that God is the One who instituted the civil government. He has instituted it. He is the one who has instituted marriage, not us. We are not the ones who can define what marriage looks like. We’re not the ones who can actually define what the church looks like. God has designed [those] institution[s].

So all of this social order that God has designed is important for us to understand, because it is that design that we need to continually move towards. That’s the benchmark for how we [should] live our lives. Well, in that social order that God has created, each of those spheres, each of those social systems, carry the notion of Authority, carry the notion of submission, carry the notion of roles associated with who you are in that social order. So, for example, in the State, we’re going to look at that [today], citizens are to be subject to the civil magistrate. We are to submit to them.

The civil magistrate has been granted authority, as we read again, in Romans 13, he has the authority to punish evil.

And so, there are roles that are described for these. If we looked at the family, and I know that is extremely controversial today, but if we look at how God has designed the family, there are authority roles, there are submission roles, children are to submit to their parents, the wives are to submit to their husbands, the husband has authority. He needs to love his wife as Christ loves the church, he has a role to play in carrying out that authority. And he and she both have a role to play as they carry out their authority as parents over their children.

So everyone of these social systems has been created by God to carry the notions of authority and submission and roles, but there are limits upon that authority and limits upon the submission as well and there are limits upon those roles according to God’s word.

So, for those of you who have been through the Truth Project, you’ll recognize that I believe there are six social institutions that God has created for man, yea seven, the last [institution] you’ll see is about the prime social system and that is God Himself. He is the God who is socially complex. He is the triune, [three in one], God. And it should not surprise us, therefore, that the triune God, who is socially complex, created a universe of systems. Of diverse pieces and parts that all work together for some higher good. That comes from the triune God.

And so, in studying the scripture, these are the six that, I believe, God has instituted: The Family, State, Church, (the sphere of) Labor (,we would understand as business), (the social order of) God & Man ([which is] our relationship to God, and there are clear biblical expressions of the authority in that social system. The submission and roles that we play), (and then the final one is the sphere of) Community (, that is, how we are supposed to be engaging our neighbor).

So this is, kind of, the base leading up to this God’s Modus Operandi, [in] that it appears that

He delegates authority and responsibilities to His creatures to operate within those social systems so that even the smallest creature might flourish and bear fruit. And that fruit brings glory to God.

We see this also in the inanimate part of the creation. Psalm 19 says that, "the heavens declare the glory of God." That means, that the sun, when it shines, the sun is being fruitful and that fruit brings glory to God. The stars twinkle and when they twinkle, they bring glory to God. The stars also provide for us, and the sun and the moon provide for us, seasons. When they do that they are operating according to God’s design and that fruit brings glory to God.

Jesus also talked about how we glorify the Father. The only time that Jesus told us how we glorify the Father [is] in John 15:8, and He says, that we glorify the Father by bearing fruit, bearing much fruit. So this is the Modus Operandi of God, where He delegates authority so that the smallest creature might bring forth fruit and that brings glory to God.

One of the most fascinating aspects of God’s nature is that He delegates authority and power. We see this from the very beginning of creation when He grants to plants and animals and human beings the authority and responsibility to reproduce, to be fruitful, to multiply and fill the earth. He even delegates to man the privilege to ask God’s Hand to move, such that, if he does not ask, he will not have, as Jesus said [Matt 7:7-11, see also, James (4:2), "you do not have, because you do not ask"]. Even the inanimate creation has been delegated the power to operate according to the capabilities God has granted them. Electrons orbit, heat transfers, Earth rotates, gravity pulls, clouds rain, tides ebb and flow. The whole of creation has been equipped, empowered and delegated authority and responsibility granted by God to fulfill its divine purposes.

I have increasingly come to believe that this is the modus operandi of God because it is a deep reflection of His true love and grace, seeking the fruitfulness of His creatures, fruit that, in turn, brings glory to God.

But, alas, in a fallen world, true love and delegation of authority is not always executed with righteousness. Electrons and tides obey God, but man does not. One of the most consistent acts of evil is when man defies God and consolidates power to himself well beyond what God had designed. Saul did so and lost his throne; Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his excessive power and found himself in a pasture eating grass like a cow; king Uzziah tried to assume authority beyond his bounds and ended up with leprosy.

down to the lowest level so that the smallest creature might flourish and bring Him glory;

Satan consolidates power at the top, increasingly enslaving people, making them dependent and destroying their desire and incentives to be fruitful.

I do this in the Engagement Project and I do it again here, I’m going to repeat this because it is important for us to understand what’s going on around us. And not only just today, but what has been going on around us for a long, long time.

God creates His creatures, He then equips them, empowers them and then He delegates authority to them down to the smallest creature, so that the smallest creature might flourish and bring forth fruit. And that fruit brings glory to God.

Satan consolidates power at the top making them dependent and destroying their fruitfulness. Satan hates the glory of God and this is one of the prime ways in which he attempts to destroy the glory of God by destroying the fruitfulness of creatures. And he has done that often times through the consolidation of power.

So, let’s now talk about this,

and talk about God’s design. Again, for those of you who’ve been in "The Truth Project" this will all be very familiar to you. But very clearly in the scriptures when God talks about the State, God, Himself, is a member of that system. And He delegates authority to the king, but the king is in submission to God. The citizens have a dual submission, they are to submit to the king but they are also to submit to God in such a way that if the king requires them to do that which is disobedient towards God, we are to obey God first.

And so, that social system that God has created, when it is done properly, when it is done right, there is a fruitfulness that comes to the citizenry of the State. When it is not done well and it is not done right, there are consequences that come both to the citizens and to the authorities. I have used [the phrase], the king in the State, that just simply represents the governmental form. That can be any governmental form, but it’s a lot easier to just write [use] the word king.

So the first example, [of the State], that you are familiar with in God’s design from man’s perspective is

And there are many, many examples of this in scripture, I just like this one because there’s a lot of visuals associated with it. So, Nebuchadnezzar got a little too big for his britches and he was on the roof of his palace talking about how he is the one that has put all of Babylon and everything [in] the empire together by his might and by his power. Well, God immediately taught Nebuchadnezzar a lesson. And [Nebuchadnezzar] found himself out in the pasture eating grass like a cow, without his senses. And the scripture says he remained there until he came to his senses. And then he acknowledged that God is the one who is sovereign over all the nations. And [God] gives power to whomever He wishes.

It’s a great declaration by Nebuchadnezzar and I often have wished that God would do that today to those who have attempted to usurp the authority of God…​ but in due time I guess.

Well, the other two examples [of kings usurping God’s authority that Dell presents are…​]

[these two examples] require us to then talk about the design for the church. Because both king Saul and king Uzziah usurp the authority of the priests. They overstep the limits that God placed on the king, the government.

So, at this time, the invitation is being extended to anyone who is subject to it. Come as together we stand and sing.

https://www.deltackett.com/resources/35468/7-threats-in-our-times-4-the-consolidation-of-earthly-power