Blinded by the god of this age
December 3rd, 2008 | By Rich Shipe | Posted in Blog, From RichI was chatting with some guys last night about Mormonism and other cults. What struck me is how intellectually blinded people are that are trapped in Mormonism and other cults. In the case of Mormonism there is plenty of information available about its sordid past and its founding on deception and sin. That information is not hard to find with a little research. Here is one example on Mormonism about how the “Book of Abraham” came to be. How could anyone base their faith on that?!
But it isn’t just Mormons… read on.
This past summer the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of a large survey nationally on religion. Among the other details the Washington Post wrote:
A belief in God or a higher spirit is pervasive. Even Americans who describe themselves as atheist or agnostic have a robust sense of a higher power: Twenty-one percent of those who describe themselves as atheists expressed a belief in God or a universal spirit, and more than half of those who call themselves agnostic expressed a similar conviction.
So more than a fifth of atheists and agnostics believe in the existence of a “higher power.” How does that make sense? The simple answer is that it doesn’t make sense.
So why is that? Why do people believe such weird things? How is it possible to deny the existence of God yet believe in a higher power? How is it possible to buy into Joseph Smith’s teachings? This way of thinking (or not thinking) isn’t limited to just Mormons and the atheists of this study, it is throughout the world.
So why are they so blind? And what should our response be? Scripture answers both of these questions in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6:
Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy, we do not become discouraged. But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ.
So why are they so blind? Their minds have been blinded by the “god of this age,” Satan.
And what is our response? To openly proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Are you proclaiming him as Lord through your actions and words? Our lives should be a reflection of his Lordship.
