Conspiracy Theory

Unbelievable!  The President of the United States shot dead on a hot autumn day in an American city.  They arrest a man, but some say that he wasn’t the only one with a gun firing at the President.  No, they say there was another shooter firing from a different location that day.  They say it’s obvious that there was more than one lone wolf and the bullet taken from the President at the autopsy proves it.  Something is wrong with the ballistic evidence, they say.

It’s not only that.  They say that witnesses to the assassination disagree as to how many shots were fired. Reports conflict.  They also say something else—forces sinister, powerful, and hidden were at work that day.  Powerful people carried out the assassination using a patsy and someone else to kill the President.

But we’re not talking about JFK, Dallas, TX, and November 22, 1963.  We’re talking about President McKinley, Buffalo, NY, and September 6, 1901.  Back then, they shouted the same mantra as we keep hearing about the assassination of President Kennedy:  Conspiracy.  Conspiracy.  Conspiracy.” Back then, they said powerful people were in on the plot to kill McKinley. They say that William Jennings Bryan was in on it, and even Mark Twain, of all people, who (they say) confessed to the crime by writing in code (which they, of course, decoded) “I killed McKinley.”

For some, everything is a conspiracy.  The Lincoln assassination. (Some have Secretary of War Stanton in on it.)  Pearl Harbor (“Roosevelt was in on it.”).  September 11th. (“Bush was in on it.”)  It’s the same old same old.  It never stops.  Solomon said it: “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

All those proposed conspiracies aside, there is one which is real. Paul wrote about it in II Cor. 4:4 and Jesus talked about in Luke 8.  Paul wrote: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

A powerful person is behind this conspiracy; Satan, the “god of this age” who “blinds the minds of men” so they can’t see the gospel light. Jesus mentioned the conspiracy in Luke 8: “The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

The conspiracy operates wherever you find religion because religion is a conspiracy of works.  The conspiracy swings into operation when we present the gospel to someone.  As simple as the gospel is, the conspirators are standing close by to deny it (“You mean just believe?  It can’t be that easy!”).  The conspirators are there to change it by adding to it.  (“Absolute surrender.” “Complete obedience.”  “Abandon your sins.”  None of which is possible.)

Do the conspirators know of the conspiracy?  Only when they come out of it, do they realize they’ve been in it.  Satan knows of the conspiracy; he's the mastermind of it all.  Satan initiated it because he knows that if any one believes the gospel, that person is saved immediately.  Therefore, the devil is at work "so that they may not believe and be saved."  (Luke 9)

Witnessing for Christ is not easy and is nerve-wracking for us. Why?  Because when we witness, we’re coming face to face with the conspiracy.  But the Holy Spirit enables us to face something that is far bigger than we are, but not more powerful because “the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.”

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor
County Line Church