“For the mystery of anomia doth already work” (2 Thess. 2:7).
Imagine that you are a police officer in the state of California. You are seeking to arrest a young man who was in the process of committing an armed robbery. You have disarmed him and are trying to put the cuffs on him. You have called for backup that hasn’t yet arrived.
But before you know what has happened, the man turns quickly. You find yourself gasping for breath. He has you in a chokehold. He is big. You are gagging. A crowd is forming. Watching. They seem to be enjoying your predicament. Why is this criminal being allowed to overpower you, and no one in the crowd is coming to your assistance?
The answer: The governor of the state of California, Gavin Newsom, has signed a bill allowing citizens to refuse to help a police officer. According to a FoxNews report, the law previously made it a misdemeanor that carried a fine of up to $1,000 for refusing to help a police officer who requested assistance during an arrest.
The Sacramento Bee reported that the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872 was applied in the early days. However, Senator Bob Herzberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who sponsored the new bill, called the old law a “vestige of a bygone era.” The law was infamously employed to catch runaway slaves.
There are no longer any runaway slaves, but there sure are lots of criminals—and also a lot of beleaguered men and women in law enforcement. Don’t citizens have any responsibility to maintain law and order? Do we have a new god in America—the god of lawlessness?
The Mystery of Iniquity
Second Thessalonians 2:7 reveals something about the present age: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.” The original-language word for iniquity is anomia, meaning lawlessness. The grammatical construction tells us that the reference is to a time when God’s law has been willfully cast aside, suggesting a period of lawlessness, a time of rebellion against godliness and God’s established order. It reminds us of Daniel 7:25: “And he”—the little horn of Daniel 7:8, the Antichrist—“shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws.”
Anomia (“lawlessness”) is a word that appears several times in the New Testament and describes those times of eschatological upheaval. In 2 Thessalonians 2, the Apostle speaks about a time of “a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (vs. 3), an expression used of Judas Iscariot in John 17:12. Verse 4 makes it clear that verse 3 is not speaking of Judas Iscariot, though it is speaking of a volitional being who is supremely evil: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
Those who exhibit anomia are arrogant. Pete Buttigieg, the openly homosexual Democrat who aspires to be president, defends abortion by claiming the Bible teaches that “life begins with breath” (National Review, 9/6/19). Sorry, Mayor Pete, human life began with the breath of God at creation (Gen. 2:7), but the status of the human conceptus following creation is fully human (Gen. 25:22; Job 3:3; Luke 1:41,44).
Lawless Lawmakers Seeding the World With Lawlessness
Can there be any reasonable doubt that the Democratic Party of 2019 is a party of lawlessness? At the beginning of this article we have given one example. Citizens don’t have to help a police officer. One day the Defender of God’s order will say, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity [anomia]” (Matt. 7:23).
In the eyes of lawless leaders, a.k.a. “Democrats,” those who are in law enforcement are the real criminals. While Christians readily agree that there is a Law-giver higher than any human magistrate, Christians also know that God has ordained men and women with the role of keeping law and order, peace and safety. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. … For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same” (Rom. 13:1, 3). Verse 4 puts it very plainly: The civil magistrate, or law enforcement officer, “is the minister of God to thee for good.” The word “minister” tells us that this individual has a sacred calling, and a sacred duty. When city officials and state officials disrespect law and order, and make the areas under their jurisdiction “sanctuary cities” and “sanctuary states” for law-breakers, they are trashing the order of God. This is anomia at its worst.
The Bible reminds us, however, that one day, there will be a cosmic purge. “The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity [anomia]; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:41–42). “Furnace of fire” is referenced in apocalyptic literature (see Rev. 19:20; 20:14). Obviously, God reserves a fearsome eternity for those who promote lawlessness. Jesus died “that he might redeem us from all iniquity” (anomia) (Titus 2:14). Sadly, no one has to go to Hell, though many will. Hell was prepared for “the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).
God Created a World With Borders
Nowhere is the lawlessness of the Democratic Party more egregious than in their refusal to provide border protection for American citizens, and for those who want to come to America. Believe it or not, no one profits from open borders—not even immigrants.
Pastor Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference—the world’s largest Hispanic Christian organization and pastor of New Seasons Christian Worship Center in Sacramento—was on FoxNews with Shannon Bream (7/3/19). He asked the White House if he could take a group of pastors to see for themselves the reported deplorable and inhumane conditions for illegal immigrants at an El Paso County, Texas, migrant detention center. “I must be living in a parallel universe somewhere. … I did not find soiled diapers. I did not find crying children. I did not find deplorable conditions,” Rodriguez told Bream. “I spoke to border patrol agents, the vast majority of which are Latino and many attend churches that are part of our network, and I asked, ‘Hey guys, did you stage this? Did you flip the script to accommodate people like me?’ And they went, ‘Pastor Sam, absolutely not. You are looking at the very thing that existed here for number of weeks. …’”
The charge that those who want to secure the borders are racists and hate brown-skinned people is ludicrous. It is calculated to sow discord by people who love to claim that America is a racist nation. If I am driving 50 mph in a 25 mph school zone and a black, female police officer tickets me, can I reasonably claim that I got the citation because the police officer hates white males? No—I was ticketed because I broke the law.
In a World of Lawlessness, Lawless People Hate Borders
In his soon-to-be released book, God, Trump, and the 2020 Election, author Steve Strang says we have to put things in the political arena into spiritual perspective. “It is light versus darkness, good versus evil. God’s plans and purposes versus the enemy’s deceitful agenda.” Despite what progressives say, we live in a binary world. It’s male and female, not male, female and 29 other possibilities. There is light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong, saved and lost. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Matt. 12:30).
God created borders around certain behaviors. They are off-limits. The Ten Commandments and other moral imperatives found in Scripture show us where those borders are. That’s why the Bible says that sin is a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). A sin is an act, or thought, committed by someone who has not observed those God-ordained borders.
This is not a popular message in a lawless culture where “anything goes—you name it and it is okay.” No borders. No moral fences. They are restrictive. They force us to put a brake on our sinful proclivities. No restrictions against perversion. Perversion is rebellion against borders. Our current problems at our southern border are rooted in the fact that people don’t like borders. It’s not racism. It’s not a mean spirit. It’s not class struggle. It’s not an economic issue. It’s “the mystery of iniquity” (anomia, lawlessness) which is working furiously in the Democratic Party.
First John 2:15 reminds us how absolutely binary our universe really is. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “World” does not mean the planet earth, but rather the world’s system of values, a system that completely leaves God out of the picture.
Concerning someone who sides with lawless progressives, it can be surely said, “The love of the Father is not in him.” So, go ahead, vote for a progressive. God already knows where your heart is.