One of my granddaughter’s favorite TV programs involves a small group of Australian school kids who formed an agency to solve mysteries and other puzzles.  In an episode she watched recently, one of the boys entered a race during a field day event that he felt confident he could win.  In fact, his friends also figured that he was a shoo-in for winning the race because he was the school’s best distance runner, and his closest competition was a sprinter who didn’t quite have the endurance needed to go the distance to win.

Kyle lost his temper when he lost the race to the other boy.  Not a good response, but it initiated an investigation into what could have happened that day.  Come to find out, the boy who won the race, the sprinter, was also the one who marked the course and determined the placement of the finish line.  He knew what he could handle, so he set the distance accordingly.  He cheated, so that he could win and get the medal.

Some verses come to mind:

“Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.” (Proverbs 22:28)

In the physical sense, this verse is referring to property boundaries—removing them to enlarge one person’s land while defrauding another’s.  Chuck Smith, in his commentary on this verse, explains how this works in the spiritual realm:

“The landmark is the guidelines, and in a spiritual sense, unfortunately, we are living in the day when many men have sought to remove the spiritual type of landmarks or the foundational truths of the Word of God. And what confusion has ensued when men start playing around with the foundational truths of Christianity. Questioning the authority of the Word of God. Questioning the deity of Jesus Christ. And men starting to remove these landmarks. Confusion results.”

Along those same lines:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20-21)

And…

“Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? …For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and weakness of God is stronger than men.”  (1 Corinthians 1:20, 25)

I think that it is both interesting and sad that politicians, the leaders of some churches, and other influencers are quick to elaborate on what defines Christianity—how we should act and what we should believe.  It is interesting that people who have very little knowledge of the Bible and are not familiar with what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, promote themselves as authorities as to what is “Christian” and what is not.  And yes, there are churches whose leaders have decided to “move the ancient landmarks.”

Apart from the Holy Spirit breathing life into our reading of the Bible, our best attempt to understand God’s Word will be colored by our opinions, our biases, and legalism.  For instance, many people recognize these verses:

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love…. So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  (1 John 4:8, 16)

Without the Holy Spirit, one could cite those verses to mean that it is just fine and dandy with God to live in a manner that scripture identifies as immoral, unjust, or unrighteous because He is love and that is all that matters.

The Holy Spirit, through scripture, rounds out the perspective of God’s character:

“The Lord test the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”  (Psalm 11:5)

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devices wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”  (Proverbs 6:16-19)

I am amazed that some who profess to be Christians support abortion—because God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.”  This is just one of the issues where demons masquerading in costumes of compassion or justice have convinced not only the culture in general, but also religious people, ones who are not intimately acquainted with God and His Word, to lend their voices in support of abortion.

Other landmarks set by God in scripture that many are attempting to move include sexual morality (or immorality, as it has become), gender confusion and identity (instead of recognizing that a person’s gender is determined by biology), and marriage as God established it in the Garden of Eden—one man with one woman for a lifetime.

As easy as it is to blame a politician, a political party, a culture, or a demographic, it is nothing less than the satanic, the demon realm that seeks to misconstrue truth as the Holy Spirit presents it in the Bible.  It is much easier to see people as the enemy rather than as pawns in the enemy’s hand—which they are because: 

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 6:12)

And Jesus proclaimed when He was talking to the religious leaders about demons:

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  (Matthew 12:30)

So, we pray.  …with faith, and trusting our sovereign God, our heavenly Father.  And we stand firm and armored-up with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.