Brainwashed by “Caesar”

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By Contributing Writer, Leah Smith

In my new book Diapers, Dishes and Dominion, I lay out some practical steps to changing the world as we are called to in the Great Commission. It all begins with the battlefield of our mind. Someone has already won–the question is--who. Here is another excerpt from the book where I’m talking about our perspective on parenting and how we can’t be warriors for Jesus when we still think like unbelievers.

Note: I often refer to the demonic world system as “Caesar”. It’s a good depiction, because in Roman times Caesar required full allegiance and acknowledgement that he was “God” – which was why his face was all over the Roman coins. We live in a very similar culture today, only “God” is whatever you want it to be–though I would argue the State is most competitive for this status. As well, the State requires our full allegiance–or else. Either way, we have a serious battle ahead of us…

What is the ultimate goal of parenting?

Your answer to this question will alter your corner of history. What you think determines your actions. Is it our job as parents to simply love our kids? Is it to raise “responsible, courteous citizens”? Is it to do our very best and hope they don’t get pregnant, fall into drug activity or worse? Is it to hope that they take on the religion of their parents so they can be like us? We just touched on the point that God commands us to multiply and launch arrows.

Our family is a weapon God will use against the enemy. Every warrior or soldier goes through crucial training for the battlefield. They learn discipline, strategy, emergency response, combat, adaptation and more. They develop mental capacity and physical skill. Mental training is a very big aspect of being a warrior. Having wimps on the battlefield could mean losing the war.

In the case of raising a new army for Christ, the training begins at birth and ends, for the most part, when they leave our home to be married. We have approximately eighteen to twenty years to make such an impact on these little people that it will alter the course of history in one way or another. It all begins with how we mold their worldview, which I will explain.

If you get one thing out of this book, I hope it is this: There is no such thing as neutral.

God is not neutral. Satan is not neutral. The world is not neutral.

We have all heard the saying, “Ideas have consequences.” It is vital that we understand why that is true if we’re going to change the world. The basic premise is that ideas shape the world because ideas shape people. This concept will be a theme throughout the rest of this book.

We constantly interpret facts and information based on the system of thought we have adopted–whether we know it or not. There is a constant clash of God’s system versus the world’s system. The world is run by a certain ideology. God has His own. The world’s system is in active opposition to God’s system of thought, and it imposes its own system of thought under the name “neutrality.”

Satan wants us to believe that when we watch the news, “it is neutral.” When we read the newspaper, “it is neutral.” When we send our kids to public school, “it is neutral.”

This is a complete lie!

It is the ultimate wolf parading around in sheep’s clothing. The only way to combat Satan’s counterfeit system of thought is to make sure we are interpreting facts and information God’s way—through God’s world order or system of thought. This is a Christian worldview—to have the mind of Christ.

The Bible says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 2:12). We cannot discern what the will of God is if our minds operate like the world.

How shocking to think that we have saved souls, but pagan brains!

Many of us have become “moralists.” We are converted but change only our behavior. We stop doing bad things, sure, but many of us who were taught by the world’s system (we’ll call it “Caesar”) still think like Caesar and not like Christ! We are mistaken if we think that our change of lifestyle is enough to change the world.

Pastor Dennis Peacock pointed out this very thing:

If you think that because Christians don’t drink, or drink moderately, that it’s somehow going to be a witness to the world, give yourself a break. We cannot compete with Islam relative to abstinence from alcohol. If you think sexual purity is going to convince the world, then you don’t understand Hinduism. If you think treating our families right is going to convert the world, you don’t understand Mormonism. Whatever thing we think is going to convert or convince the world, largely the world could care less because they’ve seen all that in one form or another.

Moralism or good behavior, as Christian as it might be, is not enough to change the world. We have to change our entire strategy! We need to change the way we interpret every single piece of information that comes into our brains and spirits.

We need to realize that if we grew up in the world’s school system, Caesar taught us our history. Caesar taught us math, art, music, and logic. Behind the “facts” was an entire biased system of thought. Without even knowing it, we adopted Caesar’s whole system of thought.

We were being conformed to the pattern of Caesar, ever so subtly. History is not what Caesar says it is. Music, art, and literature are not what Caesar says they are. To understand history, music, and art the way God says it really is, we must transform our minds to the image of Christ.

This does not happen automatically when we become Christians. God calls us to personal responsibility through obedience. When we begin to undo the work of the enemy by becoming obedient to Christ—taking every thought captive to Him—we are now a total threat to the enemy and world system.

We have officially taken the red pill and jumped out of “the Matrix” of false neutrality. No longer are we dancing to the tune of Satan’s system. We are dancing to the Almighty’s tune and it is taking us to a completely new level of authority and dominion.

***I hope you enjoyed that small snippet. Let’s pray that God would conform us and transform our hearts and minds to His.