Dependence on the System - Glenn Conjurske
Introduction: The Mystery of Iniquity
The mystery of iniquity has been at work for many centuries, slowly and surely, but modern travel and discovery, modern invention and technology, have given it a momentum which it never possessed in all the preceding millenniums. We need only take an occasional glance around us to see that the devil has brought his program, in our day, very near its ultimate success. That success will consist of one world religion and one world government, under the direct and acknowledged control of the devil himself.
The Revelation of the Beast and the Mark
We read in Revelation 13:1-4, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. … And all the world wondered after the beast, and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” And in the seventh verse, “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” This is the end toward which the devil works, and the means by which he will bring it to its ultimate success is found in verses 16-17. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
The Devil’s Plan for Control
Now it is perfectly plain to us, who live in the present age, how easily such a tactic will gain its end. Men cannot live without buying and selling. But then it is equally plain that never before in the history of the world has this been true. Men could live without buying and selling a century ago, two centuries ago, a millennium ago, and in every other era since the beginning of the world. The present state of things, in which men must buy and sell to live, has been brought about gradually over the centuries, by the working of “the mystery of iniquity,” under the direction of Satan. The devil’s end is that all the world should openly worship him. The means by which he sets the stage for this is “the mystery of iniquity,” working gradually behind the scenes, always with the same end in view, and always, of course, professing to be something other than what it is.
The Necessity of Commerce for Survival
Understand, for the devil to be able to successfully gain the avowed allegiance of the whole world, by forbidding them to buy or sell except on that condition, he must first bring about a state of society in which it is necessary for men to buy and sell—a state of society in which they cannot live without buying and selling. The success of his final stroke is absolutely dependent on this, and to bring this about he has been at work, behind the scenes, for many centuries. We have remarked often before that the devil had almost attained his ends at the tower of Babel, when all the world was of one speech, and all united together in a common “humanitarian” and anti-God enterprise. But God stepped in and confounded their tongues, and scattered them to the ends of the earth, and the devil’s program was set back five thousand years. It was not possible for the thirteenth chapter of Revelation to be fulfilled when the Europeans did not know that the Australians or the inhabitants of the Americas existed. The devil must bring the world together, by means of discovery and invention and travel and communication. All this proceeded slowly for centuries, but gained increasing momentum with each new advance in technology, till in the twentieth century, by means of rapid travel and electronic communications, the devil had reduced the world back down to size, and made it manageable for his purposes.
The Need for Dependency on Commerce
But something more than this was wanted. He must also see the whole world dependent upon commerce in order to live. If the antichrist had come upon the scene a century and a half ago, and demanded that men worship him or forfeit their right to buy and sell, the world could have snubbed him. Men did not need to buy or sell. The mystery of iniquity was making slow but sure progress even in that day. The steamships plied the seas, the iron horses thundered over the rails, the telegraph wires were humming, and international commerce and global consciousness were fast increasing. The world was shrinking in size, and at the same time becoming more and more of a controlling power in the lives of the people.
Yet they could live without it. Read the autobiography of Peter Cartwright. He says, “We killed our meat out of the woods, wild; and beat our meal and hominy with a pestle and mortar. We stretched a deer-skin over a hoop, burned holes in it with the prongs of a fork, sifted our meal, baked our bread, eat it, and it was first-rate eating too. We raised, or gathered out of the woods, our own tea. We had sage, bohea, cross-vine, spice, and sassafras teas, in abundance. As for coffee, I am not sure that I ever smelled it for ten years. We made our sugar out of the water of the maple-tree, and our molasses too. These were great luxuries in those days. “We raised our own cotton and flax. We water-rotted our flax, broke it by hand, scutched it; picked the seed out of the cotton with our fingers; our mothers and sisters carded, spun, and wove it into cloth, and they cut and made our garments and bed-clothes, etc. … “Let it be remembered, these were days when we had no stores of dry goods or groceries.”
Self-Sufficiency vs. Modern Dependence
They needed no stores. They were self-sufficient. And this vast land was filled with families as independent as Peter Cartwright’s. They could have scorned the devil’s advances. They had no need to buy or sell.
The same has been true with many in more recent times also. When I was preaching in Colorado in 1968, I had a salary of zero dollars per year, faithfully paid by the church, yet I could not live on zero dollars a year, for I had need to buy, if not to sell. I went out to a ranch, therefore, and spent a couple of days throwing bales of hay, in order to make a twenty-dollar bill. I learned that the original owners of that ranch, who had “homesteaded” there, went to Grand Junction, a trip of about seventy-five miles, once a year, and in that yearly trip they did all their buying and selling for the year. They doubtless could have lived well enough without buying or selling at all. Whatever was strictly necessary they could raise themselves, or make themselves. This was less than a century ago.
But the twentieth century has changed all that. Those days are gone forever. The civilized world can no longer live without buying and selling. The devil has secured this, by making all of us, saints and sinners alike, dependent upon the system. This he has brought about by technology and invention, and all the world has viewed it with great favor, for the devil is wise enough to lead the doomed ox to the slaughter by means of a little corn or hay. The sweat of our brows is unpopular. We must have tractors and machines and power tools and appliances, and for these the whole world has surrendered its independence, and surrendered it in fact to the powers of darkness. Every step in the clandestine working of the mystery of iniquity is called by the name of progress, and the world delights in all of it. It gives us ease, and luxury, and leisure—it gives us freedom, and pleasure, and wings—while it makes us ever more and more dependent upon the system, and brings us nearer and nearer to the final triumph of the devil’s program.
The System and the Devil’s Control
And mark it well, the system upon which we are dependent is the devil’s system. It is the world. The world is a system, a vast and all-embracing organization. The Greek word for “world” means “system,” or “organization,” and it is, of course, the devil’s system. He is the god of it. He is the ruler of it. His is the mind that conceived it, his are the purposes for its existence, and his is the working which has developed it. All its “progress” is progress away from God. It is the progress of the prodigal, in his route to the far country. It is the progress of the mystery of iniquity. And it is perfectly plain to me that any man who has a grain or two of discernment must abhor what the world calls “progress.” If you love “progress,” you love the world.
Modern Technology and the Dependence on the System
Those who know anything of the present state of society, and of the purpose and program of the devil, as it is delineated in the Bible, must plainly see that his purpose now goes forward at breakneck speed, and that precious little is wanting for its ultimate triumph. It is modern technology which has given the present momentum to the devil’s program, in numerous and various ways, but in nothing more conspicuously than in reducing the whole civilized world to dependence upon the system.
The Perils of Modern Dependency
But I must descend to particulars. The most pervasive element in the dependence of modern man upon the system is the use of electricity. Electricity plays a part in almost everything which is done today. I am entirely dependent upon electricity to produce this magazine. Most of the buying and selling in the world is done by electronic means. Scales and cash registers are all run by electricity. The large department stores can’t even open and close the doors without electricity, or light their windowless buildings. All our lighting is electric. Our refrigerators and freezers are all electric. Most people cannot heat their homes or cook their food without electricity. They may heat with gas or oil, but the stove will not run without electricity. Most of the world wouldn’t know how to make a slice of toast without electricity. Those who do know how do not choose to do so. It is not so easy or convenient as an electric toaster.
The water supply of everybody, in city and country, is dependent upon electric pumps. If our electricity were suddenly and permanently cut off, we would all be without water. Those who have their own wells could remove their electric pumps and put a hand pump in the yard, but they will not do so while the electricity flows, and could not do so if it ceased, for there are not enough hand pumps in existence to supply one percent of the population. We are all dependent upon electricity for the necessities of life. And all this electricity must be bought. We do not produce our own.
Oil Dependence and Its Impact
Another of the most pervasive elements of this dependence is reliance upon oil. The whole civilized world is addicted to running to and fro on the earth, and all this running is done by means of oil. Stop up the supply of oil and gasoline, and the world would be at an immediate stand-still. We have nothing to fall back on. We do not keep horses and buggies, and if we did, they could not replace the automobile. Business and commerce require us to travel too fast and too far to think of doing it with a horse, or a bicycle. Nothing will do but the self-propelled vehicle, and they all run by gasoline.
Conclusion: The Devil’s System and Our Dependence
The devil is no fool, and he knows how to bait the hook. He knows how to lure men to those steps which will advance his own program. His working very much resembles that of a certain panderer of which I once read. He courted a pretty girl, seduced her from morality of course, and then lavished money upon her till she was addicted to a life of luxury, and ensnared with commitments, neither of which she could afford. He then cut off her supplies. When she asked for money, he told her he had none, but he knew where she could get some—and took her to a house of prostitution. The devil operates in the same way. He has the race so addicted to luxury and ease that they will not live on the farms, and cannot live without electricity and gas and oil. All this brings them into dependence upon his system, and ultimately upon himself.
One of the first effects of the travel and exploration of the civilized races was to make the savages in the woods and jungles dependent upon the system. And the same lure was effectual with them as had been so with the civilized races. They wanted ease and luxury. They wanted factory-made fish hooks and knives, they wanted soft clothing and blankets, and for these luxuries they bartered their independence. For these luxuries the South Sea islanders made their coconut oil and gathered their spice wood. For these the American Indians gathered their furs, for these the Africans their ivory. The natives had lived without any factory-made goods for centuries, but as soon as these luxuries became known they became necessary. This process has gone forward in a thousand facets the whole world over, so that now the world is addicted to luxury, and can no more tell the difference between luxury and necessity.
Final Reflections: What Should We Do?
That dependence has grown to such proportions as to become almost absolute among ourselves, and particularly in everything which concerns buying and selling. We can no longer survive by means of trade and commerce with individuals like ourselves. We cannot live by doing business with our friends and neighbors. The village blacksmith, tailor, miller, turner, weaver, cartwright, wheelwright, waynewright, cooper, and cobbler have all ceased to exist, being all replaced with the factories in the distant cities. The factories and chain stores have put almost all the individual craftsmen out of business. Nobody can compete with a factory. While a man makes one item by hand, the factory makes a hundred or a thousand by machines and mass production, and who will pay a hundred times the price for what the individual can make? Almost everything we use is made by machines, and sold in the sprawling chain stores. It is useless to think of trading with a few neighbors. We must go to the system for everything. Modern industry has put all the craftsmen out of business, and whatever is left in the world of home-made goods consists almost entirely of machine-made materials processed and assembled at home, and this by means of factory-made tools and machines, so that all of us are dependent upon the system for everything.