An archaic definition of the word reckoning is that it is a bill, an account, or the settlement of the same. A reckoning can come due, like any other bill we may be familiar with. At least in the United States, we are living through a reckoning. As the Internet likes to say: “We had a generation of ‘fuck around’, and now we’re in the century of ‘find out’.” What does this mean, though? What fooling around are we reaping the repercussions of?
Lying.
Everyone lies. You might fib to save someone’s emotions or reflexively lie to keep yourself out of trouble. Depending on the severity of these lies, you’ve likely been fine or perhaps damaged a relationship or a job prospect. You’ve probably never lied with such intent that it might be the end of the world, though.
John 8:44 tells us that the devil “is a liar and the father of lies.”
JOur first lie is this: climate change doesn’t exist, or if it does, humans couldn’t have possibly had any part in it. Climate change, and specifically the rising of temperatures, was discovered in 1938 by a man named Guy Callendar (Source). Callendar collected records from 147 global weather stations and calculated that the temperature of the planet had already risen 0.3 degrees Celsius.
Climate change became a public issue in 1988, but ExxonMobile (at the time just Exxon) knew about the phenomenon 11 years prior (Source). Like the tobacco industry before it, the oil and gas industry knew, if the information got out and was believed by the people, that their profits would take a nose dive. Choosing profits over the wellbeing of the people they sell their product to, ExxonMobile dug its heels in and claimed its own research was still controversial during a congressional hearing in 1988. They went a step further and founded the Global Climate Coalition, a think tank with the goal of running confusing the average person with bunk science.
The devil deals in lies. In world-ending lies. Do you think ExxonMobile is on the side of God, using lies like this?
Our second lie is one that is admittedly American-centric. The lie that the 2020 election was stolen. According to the Pew Research Center 66% of adults in the US cast a ballot, leading to Joe Biden defeating Donald Trump in the Electoral College 306-232 and by 4% of the popular vote (Source). This was recorded. This was reported upon. This was a result that came from the participation of the bulk of the American populace.
If this lie is so easy to refute, then why does it seem to be such a sticking point? Because to the liar, to the devil, us truth-tellers are not real. The devil would only use kind words to manipulate. The devil would only perform good deeds in exchange for something else. The devil and his servants fundamentally cannot understand why anyone would do anything if there was nothing in it for themselves. Because the demon-haunted would lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top if given the opportunity, they can only project that mindset on to others.
I do not believe that a demon crawls into a person’s soul all at once. There is a slow insidiousness to the possession, where the demon crawls in through the wounds of a million little paper cuts. Build up enough trauma, eventually a person will start to try to fill the void left by it and this is an inflection point. Will the person choose to learn from their injuries, refuse to replicate that harm and injustice, letting the kindness displayed by Jesus fill their heart instead? Or will they allow Satan in and perpetrate the same, or worse?
I wish for you to choose the path of light. The path of help, of aid, of love. I wish for those of you that have lost friends and family to the hateful darkness that is spreading among us to be able to get those people back. They may not be the same, for the devil leaves a dark stain, but a stain does not mean permanently soiled. I pray that they are saved.
Sincerely,
Lady Sun