IF I WERE THE DEVIL

What would you do to the current political debacle if you were the Devil? I would convince the United States that political parties are a new religion, that hatred of personality replaces public policy, that revenge and calumny substitutes for civility and cooperation, that the individual is always right because they have rights, and that free speech is acceptable as long as it agrees with my view. If you think there is no evil or Devil behind our fall from the rule of law (God’s law) and honor, then Satan has already won the arm-wrestling match with you.

Listen to what the late Paul Harvey has to say about the answer to “If I were the Devil.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9NoQHgjM_0

I won’t make any other comments other than to say, “When politics is substituted for the laws of God, the wages of sin is death.” I hope that I continue to struggle with the difference between what is easy and what is right. Eating the fruit of the tree of good and evil knowledge has never been easier and more convenient. When politics is my religion, then I have a fool for a god. The United States, or any political ideology, will implode upon itself if it is not based on what God says is true. With the Psalmist, I do not place my trust in princes, nor governors, nor congresses, nor principalities, for they all consume themselves with their own importance.

Read this Psalm through three times, very slowly and deliberately. The first time, read it for the words; the second time, read it for meaning with your mind; the third time, read it as the Psalmist with your heart.

1Hallelujah!2Praise the LORD, my soul;

I will praise the LORD all my life,

sing praise to my God while I live.^a

I

3Put no trust in princes,

in children of Adam powerless to save.^b4Who breathing his last, returns to the earth;

that day all his planning comes to nothing.^c

II

5Blessed the one whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the LORD, his God,6The maker of heaven and earth,

the seas and all that is in them,^d

Who keeps faith forever,7secures justice for the oppressed,^e

who gives bread to the hungry.

The LORD sets prisoners free;^f8the LORD gives sight to the blind.

The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;^g

the LORD loves the righteous.9The LORD protects the resident alien,

comes to the aid of the orphan and the widow,^h

but thwarts the way of the wicked.10The LORD shall reign forever,

your God, Zion, through all generations!ⁱ

Hallelujah!

* [Psalm 146] A hymn of someone who has learned there is no other source of strength except the merciful God. Only God, not mortal human beings (Ps 146:3–4), can help vulnerable and oppressed people (Ps 146:5–9). The first of the five hymns that conclude the Psalter.

a. [146:2] Ps 103:1; 104:33.

b. [146:3] Ps 118:8–9.

c. [146:4] Ps 90:3; 104:29; 1 Mc 2:63; Jb 34:14–15; Eccl 3:20; 12:7; Sir 40:11; Is 2:22.

d. [146:6] Ps 121:2; 124:8; Ex 20:11; Acts 14:15; Rev 14:7.

e. [146:7] Ps 103:6.

f. [146:7] Ps 68:7; Is 49:9; 61:1.

g. [146:8] Ps 145:14.

h. [146:9] Ps 68:6; Dt 10:18.

i. [146:10] Ps 145:13; Lam 5:19.

The Devil exists and tempts us to make God in our own image.

The Devil is not one of those divine beings as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, although he would like you to think of him that way and worship him.

The Devil is a creation of God that has no corporeal body , only reason and the ability to choose.

The Devil chose himself as God and wants nothing more than to seduce all Adams and Eves to his will.

The Devil is not equal to God, although he wants you to worship at the Abrahamic altar to sacrifice your free will and choice to him.

You will never find the Devil sacrificing himself for his cause on a cross, enduring the passion and death to show his redemptive love. He wants you to suffer and die for a false promise and then laugh in your face for being so spineless that you did not prefer the love of Christ to him.

Never doubt that we are in a battle over wills (God’s and yours).

Don’t be seduced into thinking that love means what you can get out of life for yourself. Rather, it is always about the sign of contradiction, the cross, that which you have tattooed on your soul, the cross. Read Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s book, The Life of Christ. https://sacredheartshrine.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Life-of-Christ-Fulton-J.-Sheen.pdf