The Enemy of Family

“Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there. … The institution of marriage is going to change and it should change. … I don’t think it should exist.”

—Masha Gessen

“Jesus saves from sin,” the man’s sign read on one side, and on the other, “Repent or else!!!” He had decided to attend “Seattle Pridefest 2013” to deliver this message. He and another man, wearing a shirt that said “Trust Jesus,” surely knew they wouldn’t be well received at the “gay pride” event.

But they got more than they bargained for. Attendees began angrily shouting obscenities at them, pushing them, and demanding that they leave. “Is it your (expletive) job to judge?“ screamed one woman with her finger in the first man’s face. People began trying to snatch the sign from his hand. One succeeded, taking him to the ground, and the crowd cheered and laughed. Another man ran over and repeatedly punched him in the head; another kicked him several times.

The event, caught on video, is one of an increasing number of incidents where homosexuals have acted with rage—sometimes violent—against anyone who would suggest that their actions are wrong. Even in public forums and discussion broadcast on news programs, there often arises a venomous hostility toward anything associated with beliefs, attitudes and traditions rooted in the Bible.

There is a reason for this animosity that we must look at squarely.

Angels and Demons

In Ephesians 2:2, the Apostle Paul made an important, thought-provoking statement. He described “the course of this world” as being dominated by “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Who is this “spirit,” this “prince of the power of the air”? Paul said that he works in people—he prods them into “disobedience.”

How much do you understand about evil spirits? Do you believe in Satan the devil? Do you believe demons are real?

Many people, perhaps most, don’t think much of them, or consider them to be myths. But if you look around, there is a lot of evidence of terrifying evil that is very difficult to explain otherwise.

God’s inspired Word reveals the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing God—who is invisible and cannot be discerned purely with the five senses (1 Timothy 1:17). It also unveils the presence of an angelic realm, composed of probably many millions of specially created spirit beings, also generally imperceptible to us. The majority of these beings serve as God’s ministering spirits (Hebrews 1:14), obediently carrying out His will in a variety of ways.

But a minority of these spirits turned away from God. They were led by the most impressive of all the angels, Lucifer, in whom the spirit of rebellion first emerged. They succumbed to his magnetism, they believed his seductive slander, and they followed him when he rose up against God in revolt. The great archangel Lucifer became God’s adversary, Satan. This history is explained thoroughly in the second chapter of Herbert W. Armstrong’s book Mystery of the Ages, “Mystery of Angels and Evil Spirits.”

Prove the existence of the spirit world for yourself. Request Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert Armstrong, or read it online now: thetrumpet.com/go/moa.

Read Revelation 12. It describes a stunning spiritual reality. It names the supreme evil spirit being as “the great dragon … that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (verse 9).

The whole world is cloaked in deception about this being. He “is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

How much do you recognize evil spirit influence in the world around you? Popular culture today is saturated with it. Many people are fascinated by and addicted to increasingly overt forms of rank evil and perversion—yet naively believe it is harmless or even healthy. Millions are soaking their minds in books, television programs, movies, music, video games, websites and other media with explicitly demonic messages. No doubt there are demons influencing or even possessing people in order to write books and screenplays, to direct videos and films, that consumers are lapping up.

Added to these are several other demonic influences: the widespread use of mind-altering drugs; the spread of mental and emotional imbalances and loss of control; the increasing commonality of various perversions of mind and body; open blasphemy and hostility to God. In arena after arena, our society is opening doorways to sinister spiritual influences and creating a hospitable playground for evil spirits to have their way.

The Bible makes clear that ignorance about these powerful beings leaves us dangerously vulnerable to them.

The God of This World

Satan is a highly intelligent and talented, but now twisted and perverse, being. He is the father of lies and a murderer (John 8:44). He authored the first recorded lie, telling Eve that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would not lead to her death, but would open her eyes, expand her thinking and make her wise (Genesis 3:1-6). He has been working his deceptions on mankind ever since, and Revelation 12:9 reveals the full extent of his success: He has deceived “the whole world”!

It is difficult to acknowledge the full truth of that statement, but it is corroborated by many other scriptures. For example, Jesus called the devil “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30). The Apostle Paul called him “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Apostle John also acknowledged that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” under Satan’s sway (1 John 5:19).

Even many modern Christians deny that Satan the devil is a real being. But the apostles and Jesus Christ Himself didn’t!

When you look at our civilization, can you perceive this reality? This is not God’s world. Man’s systems of government, law, education, economics, scientific discovery, business and labor, entertainment and even religion have been built largely on a foundation that rejects God’s revelation—and that is swayed and influenced by a different god, “the god of this world”! This “prince of the power of the air” broadcasts attitudes of hatred, hostility and rebellion—he stirs people’s emotions and twists them. He “works in” people in the world around us!

Yet people do not recognize it. When we are deceived, we do not know it. God must “remove the scales from our eyes” to see it. Having been born into and lived our entire lives in what Paul termed “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4), even with God’s help we struggle to fully grasp just how pervasive, how universal, Satan’s impact really is. But this is the defining reality of our world.

Why is the devil so hell-bent on causing problems for human beings? Because he hates what we represent.

The Bible reveals that it was after the angels sinned that God set in motion His inspiring plan for humans. What had once been the angels’ potential—to first help God beautify Earth and then to move on to other planets throughout the cosmos—now became the transcendent potential of mortal man. Only this time, there was a difference, and that was family. Unlike the angels, man was created in God’s image and likeness, with the potential to be born as a full God Family member.

The righteous angels are overjoyed at God’s plan for man and are excited to watch it unfold (e.g. 1 Peter 1:12). Those that rebelled, however, have a very different attitude. They feel cheated, bitter and angry. Their leader, Satan, is violently hateful toward the potential that God has given to human beings. He is an avowed enemy of humanity. He is bent on nothing less than the destruction of our race.

Satan has been working on this objective through the ages. He started immediately by infiltrating the Garden of Eden and deceiving Eve into turning against God. He has been active throughout human history. His efforts have intensified and come to a head in our day. God prophesied this would happen.

Cast Down

Revelation 12:9 reveals something else about Satan that has profound implications for us. It prophesies that the old serpent “was cast out into the earth, and his angels [the demons] were cast out with him.” So Satan and his demons—probably millions of them—are now confined to Earth. They are here, furiously working as never before in human history! “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (verse 12).

This was a prophecy to be fulfilled when there remains only a “short time” before Satan is banished even from Earth, imprisoned in a bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3). (That wonderful event will occur at Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, which many biblical verses prove is extremely soon!)

Has Satan been cast down? As improbable as it may sound, an overwhelming amount of evidence shows that this prophecy was fulfilled at a definite time in recent history. We urge you to request a free copy of our booklet America Under Attack for dramatic proof of this assertion.

Since that time, the devil’s anger has intensified as his time has grown shorter—and his power and wicked influence have grown far stronger! In so many ways, since Satan and the demons’ internment here, the world has grown much more dangerous, immoral and lawless.

Since family is so important to God, and is central to His plan for man, many of the devil’s most pointed attacks have been aimed squarely at that God-created institution. Satan started right at the beginning of human history with the first married couple in the Garden. There he worked on Eve, prying her away from the leadership of her husband, upending the family government structure in order to draw the first family into rejecting God. After that victory, Satan twisted their child rearing to the extent that their firstborn son murdered his own brother, then lied to God Himself and lived in outrage that he was punished for his sin. The devil’s sinister influence has been evident in human families ever since.

Since being cast down, Satan has measurably intensified his attack, and families are suffering as never before. With increasing success, Satan is discrediting and destroying marriage, weakening men’s sense of responsibility, destigmatizing unmarried cohabitation and unmarried pregnancy, flipping God-given roles upside down, promoting divorce and abortion, promulgating pornography, sexualizing youths, stripping parents of their authority, marginalizing the elderly and the influence of grandparents, and working every conceivable angle to destabilize the home.

Among all of these tactics, perhaps the most perverse—and stunningly successful—has been the aggressive promotion of deviant sexuality, including homosexuality, transvestism, bisexuality, and, more recently, same-sex “marriage.”

Satan Hates Family

If you don’t understand God’s exalted purpose in creating family, then you will never fully understand God’s perspective on homosexuality. God made marriage and family as one of the greatest blessings we could have. If practiced the right way, the human family is a God-plane relationship. The husband-wife relationship is a prophecy of Christ marrying the Church and expanding the God Family. When a father and mother practice godly child rearing, they raise strong, beautiful children. The family, the most sacred of all institutions, pictures the gospel of God, which is about the good news of the coming Family of God! It is man’s only hope.

Satan hates that! He was never given the creative power to reproduce himself. He was never offered the opportunity to enter God’s Family and be a son, and he hates God for it. (Mystery of the Ages explains this truth.) That is why the devil is doing everything he can to devastate that God-plane relationship! He has a passionate hatred of God’s rule, so he wants to destroy marriage and obliterate family forever!

Now, he knows his time is extremely short, so he is wrathfully striking at anybody who tries to follow God’s purpose and laws. Satan knows that if he destroys families, he can blind people to their brilliant, God-given potential. He is the true force motivating the anti-family front in our world.

Few understand the real cause of homosexuality. Homosexuality is the end result of the adversary’s multipronged attack on the family. It is a product of sin in marriages and families. It is a result of family breakdown. Its rapid acceptance exposes the fact that our modern families are in widespread decline. It has its roots in the spirit of fornication and immorality, which is the opposite of godly family and is devastating to family! It represents a surrender to the satanic spirit of lawlessness.

Homosexuality is the opposite of what God wants for mankind. It alienates people from God. It distorts the family structure. It destroys God’s purpose for marriage and sex. It rejects the father as the loving head of his wife and children. It ravages and perverts the very gospel of God! It is the antithesis of true hope.

You cannot understand the magnitude of this sin unless you understand God’s master plan for family.

There is coming a day when God will reveal this master plan to the whole of humanity, after Satan has been put away. (This fact is discussed in more detail in Chapter Six.) Right now, however, this deceived world does not understand that plan, and is unwittingly going along with and participating in Satan’s efforts to undermine God! The vast majority of those who commit this sin or support it do not grasp how evil it really is. Those pushing for homosexual “marriage” say they are merely interested in equal rights and individual justice. That is simply not true—whether they realize it or not! The real goal is far more broad and sinister.

The Real Goal

Satan has done a masterful job of dressing up his cause in noble-sounding language. It is a fight for equality, fairness, civil liberties, equal treatment under the law, and human rights. It is intended to bolster and strengthen the fundamentally conservative institution of marriage. It is meant to provide greater stability in the lives of the children brought into these committed relationships, by whatever artificial means. It is fundamentally about freedom—and about supporting every individual’s right to love. What could be more praiseworthy and wholesome?

The truth is revealed, however, by scratching just beneath the surface. It is visible in the unwillingness to accept or even acknowledge any sociological data that proves the benefits of traditional marriage and family. It is exposed in the convoluted, hair-splitting scholarly reasoning that finds biblical “proof” to justify immorality. It shows up in the movement’s embracing of the most extreme, unthinkable forms of promiscuity and sexual license. It is apparent in the brazen lawlessness—according to both man’s laws and God’s laws—behind the open, continual effort to get the laws changed. It appears in the demand for tolerance—and simultaneous intolerance of anyone who disagrees. It emerges in the vociferous accusations against Bible-believers for their “hate”—while openly demonstrating irrational, passionate hatred for them. It shows itself in the ugly use of coercion, of bullying, of intimidation, of brute peer pressure, and of the tyranny of the mob.

In so many ways, the “gay rights” crusade is exposed as a fundamentally spiritually poisonous cause, infused with the rebellious, lawless spirit of the devil.

Proponents of homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” argue against children growing up with their biological parents. They insist that virtually any arrangement of people is a wholly acceptable and wonderful “family.” Casting aside mountains of proof to the contrary, they argue that fathers and/or mothers are dispensable. For example, in 2010, when Judge Vaughn Walker struck down California’s Proposition 8, he based his decision in part on this line of reasoning. “Children do not need to be raised bya male parent and a female parent to be well adjusted, and having both a male and a female parent does not increase the likelihood that a child will be well adjusted,” he wrote in his opinion. “The gender of a child’s parent is not a factor in a child’s adjustment. The sexual orientation of an individual does not determine whether that individual can be a good parent. Children raised by gay or lesbian parents are as likely as children raised by heterosexual parents to be healthy, successful and well adjusted. The research supporting this conclusion is accepted beyond serious debate in the field of developmental psychology.”

This goes beyond simply ignoring God’s family design and the Bible as a standard for behavior; many people would say, erroneously, that this judge is duty-bound to do that because of the all-important “separation of church and state.” But this statement, in a stroke, throws away decades of social science proof, latches on to a thin reed of recent, inconclusive data that supports his predetermined position, and treats it as though it is indisputable, absolute truth—literally holy writ!

He is advocating a position that contradicts all of human experience, that overturns the most enduring and foundational institution that exists—yet he speaks as though anyone who would question his conclusions is an odd man out, stubbornly defying established fact, and whose position doesn’t even merit consideration in serious circles.

This is the modus operandi of the homosexual movement.

In this time of Satan being cast down, this cause is gaining incredible momentum. Even homosexuals have been stunned by their progress. Heterosexuals have also largely succumbed to this lawless spirit. They are contributing mightily to the decline of marriage, and are producing upside-down families and morally weak children. This feeds into the mushrooming problems of immorality and homosexuality.

That is why, even though its proponents are winning battle after battle, and homosexual rights are advancing at a breathless pace, they are far from content. They are only growing bolder and angrier. They will never be satisfied, because—although they are woefully ignorant of this fact—the true leader of the movement is driving as hard and as fast as he can toward the complete and utter destruction of the family as God created it!

This is the ultimate rebellion against God in this world!

In May 2012, author, activist and lesbian Masha Gessen gave an explosive speech at the Sydney Writers Festival revealing what traditional marriage supporters have suspected for years. You can find a video of Gessen’s speech on YouTube. “[I]t’s a no-brainer that we should have the right to marry,” she said. “But I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist.” This second statement received loud applause from the crowd. “Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there,” she continued. “You know, because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change. And that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change and it should change—and again, I don’t think it should exist,” she said, before going on to talk about her “three kids who have five parents, more or less.”

It’s very rare that “gay rights” advocates reveal their true intentions so nakedly. But this is what is behind the glossy veneer.

At its heart, this is a battle over the teachings of the Bible. Same-sex “marriage” is a fight to destroy the biblical definition of marriage—ultimately destroying marriage itself! Homosexual activists will not stop making demands until this goal is achieved.

They want you to think it’s all about inclusion and tolerance. But if you believe the Bible, they have no tolerance for you. They want you to think that what they do is their business and that it doesn’t affect you. But if you think that, they already have you where they want you.