The market place is a environment on which Satan desperately wishes to maintain his grasp. Thus far, as a master of illusion, he has succeeded in glorious fashion. His deceptions have enabled him to escape exposure and destruction, even when the Church was moving with great authority. With this in mind we need to approach the market place with great wisdom and discernment. Jesus admonished us to count the cost saying ‘an army does not go to war without knowing something of the adversary it will face’(Luke 14:31). This admonition is particularly relevant to this battle. For if we hope to impact the business community we must consider the strongholds underlying the whole of our western society. It would be foolish to charge onto a battlefield without knowing where our enemy is postured, ie. ‘what are his strengths, position and strategies.’ The most serious mistake we could make is to find ourselves flanked and fighting a battle on two sides. Unfortunately this has been happening repeatedly and we are now just beginning to discern the origin of these assaults.
Half Measures
The mistake which has been repeatedly made by us is one of half measures. The situation is not unlike a scene from the Jurassic Park movie where the park warden hunts an escaped raptor. He thought himself familiar enough with the raptor’s nature, only to realize he had underestimated it’s keenness. And while he focused on the one, another quietly waited on the side for the opportune moment to strike. Once the hunter was committed in his focus, the trap was sprung.
Likewise we find ourselves hunting malevolent forces, insidiously postured to resist righteousness at every turn. While we focus on our most obvious enemy, another foe, covertly hidden, waits to attack our flank. But what or who is this enemy? Our thoughts might immediately turn to images of homosexuality, abortion, or rampant lawlessness. But while these are obviously important issues for believers, they make up only a part of the problem. In fact, a key component of the enemy’s scheme lures us into thinking that obvious sin constitutes the whole of our objective. It is part of an elaborate illusion designed to occupy and distract us from a more complete victory. Meanwhile the enemy’s “Trojan Horse” is passed over and sometimes openly accepted into our camp.
Historically, the gospel has been used to target what we could call the symptoms of death, of which there are two sides. Unfortunately, the root cause and source is left to thrive again and again. While we focus on the evil men do, her twin sister waits quietly on the side preparing to foil our assault. The name of that twin sister is ‘the good men do’. The greatest challenge we face is not obvious evil but hidden wickedness – the Bible calls it the knowledge of good. It consists of all the right things men do to measure up to a superficial notion of righteousness. So long as believers remain sentimentally attached to mankind’s feeble efforts at goodness, the cycle of death will continue.
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
Death was introduced to the creation when Adam and Eve ate of the tree God forbade them to eat. The error was not only in disobeying, but the fact that the tree contained death. They were warned against eating at the cost of death, “And you shall surely die...”(Genesis 3) Even so, the name of the tree was not the tree of death – though perhaps that might have been suitable. It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! It was not just the knowledge of evil, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Rick Joyner’s book, ‘There Were Two Trees’, deals thoroughly with this issue revealing the nature of our daily spiritual conflict. It is not a struggle between good and evil but a struggle between life and death.
Good and evil are actually two sides of the same coin – that coin is death. The good side of the coin is a distraction which causes us to reason away its danger. Eve looked on it and ate because it was ‘good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and able to make one wise’(Genesis 3:6). We have continued to do the same thing in the church, tolerating death because it is in some way pleasant or sounds like wisdom. The key to overcoming it is realizing that the good and the evil are in reality one and same. Distinguishing between them is a total waste of time and energy.
The oneness of good and evil is illustrated in the Star Wars series. The ‘force’, an invisible impersonal power, which seems to have volition without personality, is said to have two expressions. Those caught on the dark side war against those on the good side. In reality, this is our present situation. But there is another force outside of the force. It is found in the dimension and expression of God and His kingdom. Creation is embroiled and enslaved by death(the force), fighting with itself under mistaken notions of good and evil; men in conflict with one another and each consider themselves good and their adversaries evil. The truth is neither of them are superior to the other. While these two expressions may seem different to man, they are actually one in the same.
For the church to become effective it must be free from either side. It must come to market place with Life, the very Word spoken by God. Not even our interpretation of what God wants is sufficient, but as Jesus said, speaking Truth and Life(John 6:63). Becoming effective in our war against death means being able to make the distinction between life and death.
When we presume to fight for God by eliminating the knowledge of evil and leaving the good, we are only dealing with half of the tree. This is an awful lot like dealing with half of a weed – it is bound to spread its roots and grow back. Defeating this enemy requires we deal with the entire root. Furthermore, we need to know the remedy for death which is, of course, Life.
The Knowledge of God
Death in the form of good and evil came as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. This death was not immediate but inevitable, that is, they set in motion the principle of death. They unleashed a force which would produce more than actual physical dying. It was a spiritual force able to empower everything contrary to God, for God by definition is Life. The initial and immediate result was a corruption which enslaved the whole of creation. So comprehensive was this death that nothing escaped it’s defiling power. Since that moment the creation itself has longed to be free.
“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation, was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of the corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” (Romans 8:19-22)
The creation longs for the moment when it can taste the redemption which we have already received. It cannot be found in the knowledge of good or evil but in the knowledge of God. Somehow then, the creation is aware of the constraints of death and yearns for Life. It desires the manifestation of Christ(1 John 3:8) that it might partake of our freedom. The fullness of which will come when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. It seeks a time when, like the sons of God, it can experience the knowledge of God. It anticipates the promised moment when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea(Habakkuk 2:14). The only remedy for the knowledge of good and evil is the knowledge of God.
It is in this light that we can see the deceptive power of the knowledge of good. It acts as a substitute or diversion from the knowledge of God. As long as the knowledge of the Lord remains hidden, the world cannot see the false for what it really is... death. Only the revelation of God, who Himself is the ultimate definition of actual good, can strip away the veneer of what can be called the ‘beautiful side of evil’. The goal of the church is not to manifest the knowledge of good but Christ Himself. This is where redemption always begins.
For the individual the born again experience is the knowledge of God(John 17:3) entering man to reverse the effect of death. Then, it becomes the aim of each believer to do what Jesus did, which was to reveal the Father. This is the most basic description of our strategy and the only means to make meaningful change in the business community. The power of the knowledge of God reverses the effects of the knowledge of good and evil(Ephesians 2:17-19, Colossians 1:9-11).
The implications of this fact are many. Most significant in this is man’s inability to produce anything but the ‘knowledge of good and evil’, which is death. This is the heart of the gospel which the ‘good’ people of Christ’s day rejected. No matter how sincere we might be, the best we can manufacture is something which looks good, but is entirely void of life. Meaning the good which comes from the knowledge of good is no better than the evil. They are in fact one and the same.
Until the believing community fully realizes this, our influence will be marginal. So long as we tolerate the knowledge of good we are actually building what we are meant to remove. You cannot rid the garden of weeds by removing the clover and leaving the dandelions.
If the church does effectively deal with the human good, it cannot deal with human evil. Jesus said, ‘Satan cannot cast out Satan’, which is the underlying problem in our society. What is needed is a massive outpouring of the knowledge of God which cuts through the fabric of society, making a clear distinction, not between good and evil, but between life and death. So long as we continue to toil in the arena of good and evil, it will be two steps forward and three steps back.
This may be a hard pill to swallow but it is the cornerstone of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the reason Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born again and the reason Paul wrote that ‘all have fallen short of the glory of God’(Romans 3:23).
Sin as a Disease
Through Adam and Eve we have all inherited a deadly disease from which there is no escape. Without exception each and every offspring contracts the disease. The only difference from one to the other is the ability to hide the disease. The sum total of human righteousness is concealment, which is no righteousness at all. For while some are able to conceal the symptoms of the disease, no one is less infected than any other. This is the current condition of the world we live in.
To believe any differently leads to confusion regarding the state of the unredeemed. It leads believers to question the notion of man’s need for redemption, which in turns nullifies his ability and passion to evangelize. Today many believer’s hesitate to consider neighbors and co-workers as deserving of hell simply because they appear to be civilized and morally conservative responsible citizens. But if this were the criteria for heaven why did the Father bother sending Jesus? No, the fact is our society has come under the influence of the tenets of another religion, which reveres the good of man. As it so happens, this is not vastly different from the atmosphere of Judea in the days of Christ. In that day there was no nation, humanly speaking, as morally superior as the Jews. Yet, in the mind of Jesus, they were desperately in need of redemption.
This was the message Jesus brought to the religious leaders of His day who were self disciplined and in control of themselves. He repudiated their goodness as being a veneer, which when under the right strains, would give way to violence and murder. He was not fooled by their ability to conceal hatred and envy. To him their appearance of godliness was an elaborate ruse, fabricated as part of a clever plan to gain dominion over others. His message was an utter condemnation of their religious hierarchy, which infuriated them into hysterical outbursts of rage.
The secret of His effectiveness was in the fact that He did not compete on their level. He was not trying to outdo their supposed ‘good’. Rather, His ministry was a revelation of the knowledge of God. A light shining in darkness which could not be overcome. Their outbursts were the human response exposed nakedness. Their hatred came from the realization that despite all their efforts, they could not raise themselves above the fray of the barbaric masses. Their fate would be identical to the worst of sinners, and to them, this knowledge was the unfathomable and unbearable. Their lives had been built on a lie they allowed themselves to believe. The lie said ‘being able to hide the disease was equivalent to not having the disease at all’. Unfortunately for them, they had too much invested and could not turn back from it.
Likewise, all mankind has become infected with a self centered ambition from which there is no escape. The name of the disease is the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The outcome is death! The primary condition of the disease is a compulsion to serve oneself. The ‘self’ of each and every human being has risen to the status of god and king. Escaping from this condition is simply not possible. The only question is one of expression. How will we subjugate others to our will? We can do that by being good or by being evil, or perhaps some combination of the two. And even if we manage to suppress the compulsion to have our own way, it is only that we may, like the Pharisee, feel superior to those who do not suppress it. Man is bound to serve self one way or another.
This disposition is by nature hostile to God who is life. It cannot exude anything but death because it cannot and will not yield to the one who is Life. It expresses itself through a religion in which man himself is god. It can flirt with the notion of a creator but ultimately will not yield the center. While we might possess some ability to exercise this ambition positively, that cannot change what it is. Whichever side of the coin that is facing up does not determine what the coin is made from.
Dealing with the Good
But why is this understanding critical to impacting the market place? Simply put, you cannot get rid of a weed by destroying only half of its roots. Anyone who has done any amount of gardening knows the resilient nature of weeds. Unless you completely eradicate all the roots the weed will return. Likewise, until the church begins dealing with the knowledge of good it cannot successfully confront the kingdom of darkness. The rule of Satan is not only empowered by what is obviously wicked, it is strengthened by anything which originates from man. For which reason Jesus would do nothing unless He saw the Father doing it.
Consequently, when we only target the knowledge of evil we actually facilitate another harvest of death via the knowledge of good. Jesus succeeded in that He did neither good or evil, but what the Father willed Him to do. The outcome was Life.
Today the kingdom of darkness is being expressed in both the knowledge of evil and the knowledge of good. An assault on the kingdom of darkness therefore demands an assault on good as well as evil. We must be able to identify both. As it is many believers struggle with the idea of the unsaved middle class going to hell. This may never be openly articulated but it is an issue which lurks beneath the surface of Christendom. In fact it could be one of the reasons for our lackluster approach to evangelism. We secretly wonder how God could condemn to hell entire families of people who are clearly ‘good’ parents, ‘good’ neighbors, and ‘good’ citizens. Possibly we expect there will be some clause excusing socially responsible people. Yet, the scripture is clear! “There is none righteous, no not one”(Romans 3:10).
Now it is quite likely most believers are unprepared to ignore the Word of God. But the fact that we flirt with such an idea suggests a distinct problem. It begs the question – how would we have dealt with the religious leaders of Christ’s day. These men who were so completely flawless pertaining to appearances but so thoroughly evil. Would we have been fooled or more importantly, are we being fooled today?
The enemy is the deceptive power in what appears to be good. The greatest challenge is not cultivating intolerance for obvious evil, but an intolerance for good. In a civilized society such as ours, there is a cultural bent toward being nice. As such, ‘niceness’ becomes equivalent to righteousness. Yet, the reality contained in the gospel of Christ we are called to convey, is that the ‘nice’ are no closer to righteousness than the prostitute on skid row or the terrorist on the news.
The Key Stronghold
Which brings us to the question, ‘What is the key stronghold of western society?’. It is human righteousness! All things evil which appear good. This is the underlying ideology which empowers death in our land. Even the eastern terrorist groups have learned this fact. The Hizbullah and other such organizations now go to great lengths to put on a human face. Because in religious terms humanism is the worship of man. At its root it consists of a belief in the innate goodness of mankind. So whenever evil wishes acceptance in the west it has merely to use the language of human righteousness.
As such the highest echelons of society are not dominated by the knowledge of evil but the knowledge of good. The business community, which holds the greatest concentration of social, political and economic power, is covered with a thin veneer of respectability which must be uncovered and confronted. And while in itself it is no more deadly than the knowledge of evil, it succeeds by virtue of its deceptive nature.
This is certainly evident in the arena of organized crime and is reflected in the history of some well known biker gangs. Recent news stories have brought to light the way they have changed. Whereas in the past they primarily consisted of low-life hoods, increased influence has birthed a degree of sophistication and a veneer of respectability. These changes in power have mirrored changes in image. This is not coincidence but a picture of the hidden hierarchy of darkness in the land.
Meaning, in this society, the greatest concentration of evil is not expressed in what appears to be the worst places. Rather, the primary root of darkness in the land hides behind the illusion of propriety, kindness and goodwill, found in political and financial structures. And while we all know business and politics to be ruthless environments, the reality of this darkness has largely escaped the notice of the church. Thus, the first strategy of the believing community must be to gain an increased ability to define the demonic kingdom in all its forms.
The foundation for doing this is found in the basic gospel and the truth that there is no righteousness aside from Christ. All that is in the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Anything which appears otherwise is a lie and a deception. This means we must be guarded against the evil disguised as good, more than evil in plain view. When it comes to classifying darkness, obvious darkness is the least dangerous and the least powerful. And even Satan himself can come as an angel of light.
In Summary
The issue at stake is this: If we are going to penetrate the influence of darkness, we are going to have to know what that darkness looks like. Satan cannot cast out Satan. It is useless for us to bring a higher form of the ‘knowledge of good’ to compete with evil. They are one and the same. It is the righteousness which comes by faith, and the obedience to His good Word which will heal the land and penetrate the strongholds of this present darkness. It is a believing community which is not caught up in the battle between good and evil, but which sees the actual combat as being between Life and Death.
The mindset of the Church must change. If we are to defeat death in all its forms we must not side with it, nor minimize its defiling power when it takes on a pleasant form. The knowledge of good must be taken as seriously as witchcraft and the occult. We must be able to see the hierarchy of demonic powers behind the corporate world. It is not simply propriety in business attire or the sophisticated system of exchange, it appears to be. The market places of the world are the veneer of guarded fortresses for the highest forms of spiritual darkness. While not necessarily evil in themselves, they are coveted seats of power for spiritual wickedness which wishes to ensnare and control. They wield financial power as well as carry political power and are therefore the object of envy and desire. The market place may look like a benign vacuum – spiritually speaking. In reality, it houses the gateway to the secret reservoirs of darkness, which must become the possession of the Lord.