The Cult of Darkness. or How to Defeat the Enemy While on your Knees

   I stopped by some friends house tonight on my way home. They were comparing the mentality behind the the attack on the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin to the way there neighbors treat them. The term they were using was "It's like there is a cult of darkness in the world". I was drawn to tell them about my recent study in The book of Romans where Paul is addressing the oppression that the believers in that city, and pretty much the world of the first century were being confronted by was a "cult of darkness". And yes it continues to this day
   Romans 1...
²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

   The thing is; the point of much of Paul's words in "Romans" is that we are all a part of that "cult of darkness" if we are without Jesus, THE Christ. He is the only way to peace in our souls and subsequently in the world. So many fight against this because we are taught by our culture to be self reliant; that our intelligence is our salvation; that we are "the captain of our own ship". The "My way or the highway" mentality will lead a person to hell.
   It is not until we relinquish our lives; our person, to God that we can be free of the "cult of darkness".

   Romans 8...
⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh (read: "cult of darkness") but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.

Paul continues with this encouragement


³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son,but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   So as concerning the "cult of darkness", would not a life given over to Jesus; The Lord; the Savior of the world; the Righteous One; the Lamb of God, be the the way to stand toe to toe with the wickedness in the world; the "cult of darkness". But more importantly would not a life given over to Christ show the world and lead it to the most beautiful Way.