The word perversion is not as prevalent in today’s culture as it has been in the past. Most often, the term is used in conjunction with sexual perversion, and rightly so. But it is so much more than that.
Satan has been trying to pervert, or alter, God’s design of creation since the Garden of Eden. This insatiable hatred that the fallen angel has for God leads him to target things that God both loves and holds sacred.
Being born into a sinful world, humans are cursed the moment we make our grand entrance into it. We are also marked with a target on our backs for Satan and his ilk to further corrupt us, to pervert us from God’s desired plan for our lives. To be clear, we cannot place on the devil times when we knowingly and willfully sin. While there are times sin is committed in ignorance, once a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we have a duty to combat the pull of the flesh which seeks to pervert our newfound life in Christ.
Satan tries to continue the corruption and perverting of human lives, society and culture in a host of different ways, and we will look at a few of them here.
Sexuality
This is the most thought of form of perversion when people hear the word, and Satan is a master at pushing this form of perversion on humanity. The very way humans can create life has been taken and twisted, corrupted and diminished into an act of degradation and self-pleasure. In the form of biblical marriage, this should be an act of worship to God. Instead, it now floods the internet and shocks young minds who are unable to handle what they are seeing before them.
Satan has been able to infiltrate sexual perversion in every medium of human life: television, movies, comic books, literature, sports, the internet, culture, fashion and the list goes on and on.
The human body was not designed to be a dirty or perverse thing, but once Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (Gen. 3) that innocence was gone and, in its place, Satan created such abominable sexual perversions, God saw fit to destroy the earth (Gen. 6).
That is how serious and abominable sexual perversion is to God. If it were not for the righteousness of Noah and his family, humanity would have ended right then and there at the flood.
This form of perversion has a strong allure and pull to it as well. Many are the pastors and faith leaders who have been felled by sexual sin and perversion. It takes a firm, determined and intentional believer in Christ to recognize when the flesh begins pulling one that direction and stop those thoughts in their tracks. Because if not, it is a slippery slope that has caught many unsuspecting Christians in its web.
Gender
The hot-button issue of the world in current times is the “gender revolution.” This is Satan’s attempt at perverting God’s greatest creation: man. By infiltrating the human mind with the idea that God made a mistake, and humans can in fact not only be born in the wrong body but change their gender on a whim, Satan has sown confusion on a massive scale.
Entire generations are taught that the gender binary is in fact a spectrum, contradicting the very words of God in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
That’s it. Male and female. Binary.
Yet schools, businesses and government all are deceived into believing a spectrum is the correct view of gender and God got it wrong. This dangerous premise removes the inerrancy of which God’s Word and His very perfection as the divine Creator of all things, the Alpha and Omega, is based upon.
The theological cornerstone of Christianity is the perfection of God. He does not make mistakes; His perfect plan of redemption is set in motion and culminates in the day of judgment. It is this very perfection that sets Him up as the righteous judge who is worthy of casting judgment over His creation. The resulting practices of those who have embraced the lie that they know which gender they are supposed to be, not God, has led to the mutilation and chemical castration of children across the world.
Even as many are waking up to this evil, it is still growing in prominence and practice while radically altering the course of people’s lives who fall for this deception, often in ways that are irreversible.
Government
Over the course of history, governments and empires have failed on spectacular levels that have tarnished the name of God. For this discussion we are focusing on the government of the United States of America. While never perfect, the constitutional republic (not democracy) that was established by the Founding Fathers fought for a freedom of its citizens that was based on Judeo-Christian values. God was honored in all things, including the founding documents of this country.
Throughout her history, America fought time and again toward a more perfect unioin, and God was always praised and honored through those tumultuous years. Now, Satan has driven God almost completely from the halls of Congress and the bureaucratic establishment. The White House has openly praised pagan gods and goddesses while making the declaration that America is a “nation of Pride.”
What happens to a nation that so egregiously grieves the heart of God after once honoring Him as the reason for its very existence? Look no further than the nation of ancient Israel, God’s own chosen people. They turned their backs on God and His Word, forsaking communion with Him for the Baal’s and the Ashtoreth’s of their pagan neighbors. Children were sacrificed in the name of obtaining wealth and blessings, a practice abominable to God. Witchcraft was practiced and idols were worshipped, and eventually the Lord removed His hand of protection from the nation that He loved and allowed her to be destroyed and her people scattered to the four corners of the earth.
America is following in those very footsteps without having the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant. The government of America has stopped supporting biblical marriage, has glorified the act of abortion while promising to fight the Roe v. Wade reversal, betrayed the citizens of the land through deception on numerous occasions, abandoned the Word of God as the source of righteousness from which morality is derived and so much more. How is anything but judgment in the future of a government perverted by the moral system of Satan?
There is hope for such a nation however, as God always sent prophets to tell the land that the way to redemption is through repentance. Humble hearts and sincere repentance could very well steer American leadership back on the path of righteousness. But it will take righteous leaders to accomplish this goal. Without them, the Lord will eventually withdraw His hand of protection from the nation and allow its eventual judgment (see Matt. 23-24).
Faith
This is the most dangerous arena for Satan to pervert, and it is without question at the top of his list. Frequently the church has fallen short of fulfilling the commandments given by the Word of God and Jesus Christ, but in today’s world the end times apostate church is beginning to take form.
We are witnessing a perversion of the Word of God on a level never previously seen in history. The false leaders, teachers and prophets warned about in 1 John 4:1, 2 Corinthians 11, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 and so many other verses in the Bible are becoming more visible by the month. With the perverting of the church and entire denominations rejecting the truth held within the pages of the Bible, Satan and his forces have neutralized these churches entirely. Without the unadulterated truth of the Word of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, these churches become agents of evil and falsehoods.
The ignorant begin hearing how a relationship with Jesus Christ is not the transformative experience that it truly is and wrap their own ideologies in the guise of the Bible. Satan uses this opportunity to further deceive them and opens their minds, hearts and souls up to deceptions and perversions.
A corrupting of faith also has led to many who endured seasons of trial and confusion to “deconstruct” their faith in unhealthy manners that would eventually see them abandon biblical doctrine. In reality, nothing could be more harmful to the health and well-being of their soul.
While this all may seem quite negative, and it is, much like a doctor, the symptoms of spiritual cancers like Satan’s perversions must be diagnosed if they are to be excised. Knowing what the enemy is doing, where he is doing it and how he is implementing his strategies into reality is a necessity. Having this knowledge equips the saints with a target in which to engage in spiritual warfare, lifting up in prayer and fasting to the throne of heaven.
These areas do not just need a Christian presence warring against the principalities seeking to further pervert God’s original design, they require it. We are Jesus Christ’s representatives on the earth and called out into the whole of it. We are to engage and war with the enemy while preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ and His victory over sin and death.
The antidote for and correct path away from these perversions is found in the Word of God. It is in the pages of His Word that the path to righteousness is revealed and the cure for Satan spreading through societies across the globe.
But there must also be an army of disciples willing to take that message out and offer this remedy that was bought with the precious blood of Jesus, until the second coming of the Lamb of God.
James Lasher is staff writer and copy editor at Charisma Media.
