“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains (Matthew 24:6-13).”
If Satan wanted to kill more people and damn them to hell, how would he do it?
War.
This is by far the most effective means of mass destruction on this planet. An asteroid is not on this planet (Rob). What else compares in scope and degree of human suffering, havoc, and annihilation?
War movies are some of the best films ever made. Braveheart, The Last of the Mohicans, The Patriot, Saving Private Ryan, and Band of Brothers are powerful narratives of courage and bravery in the face of grave danger and evil.
One movie that does not rank in that list is Wonder Woman (2017). It is a simple story with pure comic book violence and fictional historical revision. But, it contains a thematic element that packs a punch that makes it worth watching.
In the movie, the god of war Ares has designs to bring about the destruction of mankind through World War I. This plays off our ancient knowledge that pagan demon gods seek to harm humanity out of jealousy, pride, and rage. Spiritual warfare takes place in physical reality. According to the movie, Diana (Wonder Woman) is destined and trained to save mankind whom she loathes for their averice and fury. Her lover Steve, a downed American pilot, helps her thwart Germany's plan to unleash a deadly gas.
Steve courageously leads throughout the movie even in the face of a dominating woman partner with superpowers. Characters like Wonder Woman annoy me more than male superheroes. Supposedly a beautiful female Amazonian goddess can fight better than any man, even without testosterone. Superman is an extension of what every man wants to be. Diana is a beautiful soldier, inaccessible to men and women. Wonder Woman targets General Ludendorff because she believes he is Ares in disguise. But she later learns that the British official Sir Patrick, a member of the British War Cabinet, is truly Ares the deceiver who represents Satan. Wonder Woman eventually realizes that humans have both good and evil inside them when Steve's sacrifice serves to end the war.
Think about the way that wars serve to advance evil against the cause of freedom. Our wars were fought reluctantly, we did not invite them or instigate conflict. We do everything we can to avoid them. Before the Reformation and after Constantine wars were fought between Christians and pagan heathens and barbarians or Muslims. The Crusades were an offensive war engaged for defensive purposes. Islamic Caliphates had taken over large portions of Spain and were continually encroaching on the borders of Christendom over land and sea. “Dues Vult” was the battle cry of godly men on the brink of losing the buffer that lands and empire once provided them.
Mohammedan invaders galvanized Christians, who tended to vie for power between themselves, as a weapon to attack a common foe. The Byzantine Empire had isolated itself from Roman influence and ravaged threats from goths. But, when the call went out for help, and Pope Urban preached the necessity of Christian brotherhood the landed gentry of Europe stood together and marched to Jerusalem. Even with massive losses, leaders such as Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar “El Cid” (1043–1099), Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199), Godfrey of Bouillon (1061-1100), Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), and Louis VII (1120-1180) pushed back Saladin and other Muslin warlords. This period set the table for the greatest expansion of liberty and knowledge the world has ever seen, as travel and trade increased from Europe through the Middle East.
If I were Satan I would look at the 17th and 18th centuries and wonder what went wrong. From hell’s perspective the gates were shook. It is no coincidence that after the Protesetant Reformation the kingdoms of Europe launched the Age of Discovery. During the 1600s Christian nations explored the earth and expanded the influence of the church. Missions converted godless tribes from Japan to South America. Despite the corruption and betrayal that Satan instigated in the church itself men still served the One True God and praised Jesus as Lord.
The Devil’s attempt to undermine this advancement of Christendom was through warfare and worldly philosophy. The Hundred Years War fomented strife and backstabbing in the continent of Europe. And the French Enlightenment justified anti-Christian rhetoric on the premise of liberty. Eventually, the American Revolution was a clear rebuke of tyranny and monarchy in the face of religious persecution and economic servitude. But, these demonic forces would not abate their hatred of God and his people.
By the 19th and 20th centuries, Satan had Christians fighting Christians to the death. The Napoleonic Wars resulted in the restructuring of traditional European society. As the corruption within hollow Christian institutions collapsed staving people sought comfort in empire through war. In American, theological, geographic, and economic divisions in the Civil War set brother against brother, splitting the nation assunder. Rather than a unified church acting as one, the faith of the nation founded under God was tested and tried. This lack of justice, comity, and goodwill is laid at the feet of Christians who gave into their base instincts and fed the dogs of war.
Prominently in World War I and World War II the death gasps of dying churches gave up the ghost. Europe was wrent in two as antheistic Satanic Communist Revolutions carved the continent up. Radical terrorists murdered priests. Gas weapons and machine guns spread death like a plauge. Spain was divided into roving bands of communist republican mauraders and armies of nationalist federal powers. Catholic Italy and Protestant/Catholic Germany dictatorships opposed the once Catholic and Protestant France and Anglican Monachy in England. Nazi Germany rampaged Polish Catholic and Eastern European states slaughtering Jews and any resistance. Japan had rejected Catholism, established a Shinto Empire and then attacked the largest Christian power in the world, the United States. Dropping the devastating atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagisaki was necessary and justified, but it ended this era of war in such a horrific fashion that fighting the next war was off the table…
Cold War replaced the heat of world war. Our nation, even at the peak of its power, never recovered its godly form. The loss of the greatest generation was too great to bear. Simmering embers from the philosophies that gave way to these wars carved up the US polity, and conflated ideologies into anti-Christ movements. Resistance could not be mustered because we were war weary and exhausted.
If Satan had a plan to inflict the maximum death and destruction on this planet, this would be it. Now, he is not done, but it sounds like “The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation (Revelation 13:7)…” Escatology impacts our view of the future. This argument may end up being a post-millenial case for reconstituting Christendom after the fall of these United States. Or it is a pre-millenial case that the end is neigh, still. In either case, Satan uses war to divide us, destroy us, devastate our land, and deny the truth of Christ’s authority and reign over all. Endless war simply feeds the beast.