Earlier this month, the religious-right organization Capitol Ministries announced the resumption of its Bible studies for members of the Trump administration and its cabinet.
The purpose of Capitol Ministries is to transform public officials in “disciples” who will turn founder Ralph Drollinger’s very conservative interpretation of scripture into public policy, such as his belief that the Bible mandates support for right-wing economic, social, environmental, immigration, and criminal justice policies. Drollinger teaches that the government’s primary job is to “quell evil” and punish sin and teaches that entitlement programs lack “any basis of biblical authority" and believes that elections are “first and foremost a spiritual battle.”
Last week, Drollinger penned an article that, as he revealed on his weekly podcast, he'll be using in his Bible study with members of the Senate, House, and Cabinet this week. In it, Drollinger set out to explain "How to Best Understand America’s Deep Divide," and the answer was not particularly surprising: Everyone who disagrees with Drollinger's agenda is under the control of Satan.
Drollinger said that it is imperative that Christians develop the "spiritual maturity" necessary to allow them to "stand firm against the schemes of the devil."
The schemes of the devil, we will see, are spiritual in nature but are manifest on earth through his pawns—non-believers—who are sometimes referred to as “tares” in Scripture. Notice in this regard Ephesians 6:12 which further elaborates on this perspectival truth: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Understanding this foundational biblical truth is fundamental to spiritual maturity, my friend! This passage is a mainstay in the study of the doctrine of demons, aka demonology, but suffice it here to say, per this passage, that
The actual battles believers face in office over certain biblically based policy issues are not necessarily with adverse human beings but with Satan’s influence over them.
"There is no reason for discerning believers to be duped by Satan’s schemes but unfortunately many are," Drollinger wrote. "And as a result, Satan is having a heyday with America at present."
It saddens my heart when people who name the name of Christ in the Capitol have little, if any, desire to be trained in the Word through regular participation and intentional interaction in Bible study (be in a solid church at home that actually teaches the Bible, or here in the Capitol) in order to gain an increasing understanding and ability to stand firm. Instead, likened to the above passage, many are seduced, flattered, deceived, and misled and consequently remain ineffective in the ultimate battles. Too often babes in Christ end up on the wrong side of biblically clear matters, again, battles that are underlyingly spiritual in nature. Satan has them where he wants them because they don’t realize his deceitful scheming, the methodia of the devil. If saved, they remain babes, walking in their own strength versus the strength of His might. Adding more to this previous point in our outline, the idea behind the strength of His might then is not “let go and let God,” it is rather “get in and get trained!” Are you a babe or a mature believer?
What then specifically are the schemes of the devil? One should know what they are and be conscious of them in order to be armed and properly equipped to fight his deviant methods. It follows and is appropriate that identifying them should dominate the remainder of this study.
A Bible teacher can’t teach on a passage that deals with the devil’s scheming and not identify his schemes!
It is all too easy to be deceived and seduced if you know nothing of your enemy’s multiple fronts in the spiritual war in which you find yourself engaged. Whether you like it or not, as a believer in the Capitol per Ephesians chapter 1, you have a high calling and dutiful responsibility to fulfill for God’s glory and for your inevitable bema seat judgment where one day all believers will give accounts to Jesus Christ, the One who saved them by dying in their place on a cross.
"The ultimate struggles in the Capitol are not political but spiritual," Drollinger declared. "Herein is the basis of the divide in our country. It therefore follows that there are really only two combatants behind all the scenes that play out on the Hill: Christ vs. Satan. Regardless of political affiliation, everyone, including the media, works to some degree for one side or the other: Christ or Satan."
The way to tell who is on what side is easy, Drollinger asserted: "Satan’s surrogates always battle against those who represent God’s precepts."
Drollinger then laid out "some of the common schemes of the devil found in the world today": Marriage equality, homosexuality, abortion, feminism, Islam, liberal Christianity, and Communism.
1. Same Sex Marriage, Homosexuality, Gender Neutrality, and Abortion
In past Bible studies I have exposited much Scripture regarding these particular schemes. All are Satan’s perversion of God’s beautiful creation of human beings whom He created in His image, both and only as man and woman. In addition, God created holy matrimony and procreation for and between husbands and wives. The above satanic perversions all attempt to destroy God’s fundamental building blocks of society—the nuclear family. God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman; a family headed by a father and a mother is the ordained way to procreate and it is the best incubator for civility in the next generation. Running a close parallel to this deception is the satanically driven sudden neutering in January 2021 of biblical gender identification from all House bills! The LGBTQ movement is a satanic attack on core biblical truth. In Genesis 5:2 the Bible records that God fashioned two genders only: He created them male and female. Those surrogates of Satan associated with this movement reject the order of creation. But mark my words, the outcry from history is no society will continue to exist that rejects God’s order of creation. None ever has, and none ever will.
2. Women’s Liberation
Satan knows that if he can get women out of their intended complementary role to their husbands that he will own the next generation, and that is exactly what is happening in America today. Children desperately need their mom’s nurturing so that they are not hooked by Satan’s schemes of drugs, sex, and slothfulness in their formative years which then often destroy their later productive years. The women’s liberation movement largely disconnects from God’s plan for necessary child incubation, bonding, and catechism. Again, if he can destroy the family, he can destroy the nation. Women’s liberation, akin to male chauvinism, is a scheme of the devil.
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Islam
This religion is based in part on passages plagiarized from the Old Testament (OT)—plagiarisms that account for much of the orderly content of the Koran. To quickly illustrate this point, Muslims do not believe in the Trinity, yet the Koran contains this passage which is word-for-word Genesis 1:26, “Let Us make man in Our image.” This is a direct early OT reference to the Trinity. Muslim scholars have no response to or explanation for why this passage, which is directly opposite of what they believe, is in the Koran. Again, this is just one of many plagiaristic issues. Muslims deny the Trinitarian nature of God, so they should not have plagiarized this particular passage! This religion has historically spread through the sword and seeks nothing less than world conquest for Allah through violence. Allah was the moon god worshipped in the Middle Eastern part of the world long before Mohammed came on the scene to found his religion hundreds of years after the life of Christ and the writing of the OT from which he borrows. Salvation, per Islamic theology, is not attained via a loving, self-sacrificing act of God as per Christianity; it is attained by jihad, a sacrifice of self in combating the infidels. Whereas in biblical Christianity God gives His life for man, in Islam man must give his life for his false god.
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3. Liberal “Christianity”
....Liberal Theology’s contrary gospel is a scheme of the devil that plays in and through the arrogant, self-righteous intellectual faculties of man. It serves to elevate his ego and proves hostile and poisonous to biblical revelation and genuine, soul-saving Christianity. Theological Liberalism, aka the Social Gospel, is a huge scheme of the devil—a satanic manifestation of vast proportions rooted in D.C. today.
Make no mistake, even though Theological Liberalism wears the name “Christianity” it is far from what the Bible says is Christianity! It is a false religion masquerading—deceptively so—as Christianity. It is not in any way Christian as defined by the Bible!
POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
Not only does Satan deceive through secular movements and false religions, but he also uses political ideologies as well. Throughout history there have been many forms of human government, influenced by Satan, that have attempted to destroy God’s purposes. For instance, the Roman Empire would not tolerate Christianity until the time of Constantine. Today, Socialism/Communism, in its atheistic political ideology, is another such illustration. It persecutes the Church wherever and whenever it roots itself as do Islamic ideologues as they expand their religiously exclusive political/theocratic or else atheistic ideologies throughout the world. These are political schemes empowered by Satan that require godly political leadership to ascertain and defeat. America needs mature-in-Christ political leaders who can stand firm against such schemes of the devil! Ronald Reagan is a great example: he possessed spiritual discernment when he stood against Russian Communism during his presidency. Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo are two others who exposed the reality of the atheistic Christianity-hating, Church-persecuting Chinese Communist Party.
Don’t be misled: Socialism/Communism persecutes God’s called-out ones. Socialism/Communism is darkly satanic.
Drollinger concluded his Bible study by proclaiming that Christians in office must beware of the Devil's schemes in order to serve as "the soldier of the cross, the ambassador for Christ that God intended to make a difference for Him in this fallen world when He foreordained and adopted you for His purposes before the foundation of the world!"
