When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? —Psalm 11:3

Thirty-seven years ago, I wrote my first book, Winning the Battle for the Minds of Men, to assure Christians that we could and would block the attacks coming against the church through the proper application of God’s principles. I wanted to turn our battle strategies from living and thinking defensively to thinking and strategizing on the offense. I hoped to mobilize and unify the leaders of our common quest to advance Christ’s Kingdom in both the church and the global culture. However noble those motives, the global culture has now dropped severely into a far darker set of problems than we were looking at in the book’s initial release in 1985 or its subsequent editions in 2000 and 2014. We are now being pushed to bet everything into the game, holding nothing back in reserve. We must become “all in.”

The All-In Game: Does Our Culture Need to Die, or Can it Be Revived?

To destroy a culture and a nation, it must become so corrupt, odious, and shameful, that most of its citizens think it worthy of death. The enemies of Christian-based Western civilization have launched a well-planned strategy to do just that. It has been executed for the last half-century in our premiere universities by those such as the Frankfort Group and dozens of other cultural executioners. The West is accused of systemic levels of class warfare, racist victimization, women-hating suppression, poisonous pathological arrogance, and false religious enemies of mankind’s most natural sexual and psychological needs. Was all this in play in 1985? Yes indeed, and I noted it freely in the original manuscript. How about in 2000? Yes, but it was carefully downplayed by the larger shadow of the dot-com world. How about in 2014? Yes, we were all still in cautious healing from the 2008-2012 economic meltdown that portended the failure of a debt-based world with no apparent fear of limitless currency creation and its intended incurable inflation. The list could go on and on.

In compressed time, the last eight years have surfaced the volcanic destruction of the Marxist view of history which has never been defanged in the global dialogue. This pent-up hatred for Western Christian values has “cooked” for the last fifty years in a context with little preparation by conservatives. Meanwhile, we see a growing suppression against Christian influence in culture enhanced by reckless secular consumption, sexual liberty, and the stupendous dumbing down of our national and global secular school systems.

Enter the Dragon

The tipping point arrived in late 2019. Who expected a plague likely created by insane scientists called COVID-19? Its destructive timing strategically embellished by the so-called “progressive” Left was the match to light the steroid-driven rebellion against Western values. The “tiger” was finally invited to dinner to eat the host and their invitees. President Trump, the populist pragmatic, had become a lightning rod for social-political division unlike any seen since President Lincoln and the Civil War that began in 1860. This war had been inevitable since two separate Americas had been founded in the 1600s—one by God-fearing Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the other with the arrival of slavery in the South.

We are again at a watershed moment with two conflicting Americas. This raises the question, “How can we have an intelligent discussion when more than half our population knows little to nothing about American history, let alone the essential responsibilities of an effective citizen?” Alas, our public I.Q. may be insufficient to heal itself. Two cheers for the U.S. education collapse.

Now, masks and inoculation mandates issued with uncertainty and confusion have baffled the general population. Beyond this, our nation’s leaders demonstrate they know too little about our Constitution to ensure the safety of our citizens, let alone how to create a compelling and honest core-values conversation. With these obstacles to surmount, it is easy to understand why the political effectiveness of both the Left and the Right is no longer the leading issue. The ultimate question for many is now, “Is this mess worth fixing?” This is precisely the question the revolutionists within our midst have worked diligently to manifest over the last fifty years to divide the masses. The strategy is quite simple: Condemn the culture, control the universities and major media systems, corrupt the moral disciplines, and focus on short-term tactics driven by short-term pleasures and preposterous policies of debt creation economics. No sweat: it’s been easy to do all this.

God Lets Some Problems Stink Before He Acts

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. . . . If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” . . . So from that day on they plotted to take his life. —John 11:38-46, 48, 53

The message is clear: What looks like a huge, unnecessary mess to us can be something God has allowed to achieve His greater purposes. Our current situation mirrors what Jesus did as He raised Lazarus from the dead. He glorified God and highlighted the Father’s power, served those that He loved, and strategically set the stage for His crucifixion and the empowerment of us all. As we read further in John 11:47-53, the resurrection of Lazarus triggered the death of Jesus at the hands of the religious community. The current situation is similar. God is aware and will strategically use the stench and pending resurrection to glorify Himself through His people to prepare us for eternity. Some things must die and stink before change will come.

What I am very clear on is this: Pandemic hysteria, massive divisions of public opinion to the point of demonic intervention, absurd levels of debt, inflation, crime, violence, and international chaos are all part of God’s permissive design to create a crisis that leaves no options but to reexamine all that undergirds global culture and spiritually driven political economics. Moreover, it forces the church to begin to operate as a functioning Ekklesia! The absolute truth and principles in my book, extracted and compiled from His Book, can help us if properly applied. Under God’s careful orchestration, it is a huge opportunity to advance His Kingdom. By the power of Christ’s royal blood, may this historic moment yield to God the preparation of His people for their tasks in eternity. Buried within this massive crisis rest God’s ultimate strategy and purposes. Things smell really bad, but the resurrection of a vital church on earth is destined to exist before Christ’s return. Victory for God’s people is preparation for their future in eternity, the real task we are all preparing for. And THAT is…

THE BOTTOM LINE.

Winning the Battle for the Minds of Men, by Dennis Peacocke, is an instructive commentary on the basics of cultural analysis from a Christian point of view. Christianity once turned the world upside down, but is now considered irrelevant by most people today. As both individuals and the Church, we need to become vitally relevant! We cannot afford to look at the world through splintered lenses, mixing and matching Christian principles with principles of the world. This book provides the answers and is designed to teach you biblical principles in understanding and shaping social, political and economic events. Paperback, 180 pages. BUY NOW!