Be More

I enjoy watching NFL Football as much as the next red-blooded American male, and as usual I was able to catch at least some of the recent Super Bowl featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on television here in Taiwan on Super Sunday.

Er, make that Super Monday Morning.

Being a native Chicago Bears fan and a transplanted Seattle Seahawks fan, I admit I didn't have a dog in this fight. But since I have always been a quasi-fan of Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady (I may not always approve of his behavior, but at least I respect and appreciate his *Christian testimony), I caught myself pulling for the Bucs.

(*I hadn't heard about the witchcraft thing...I swear!)

As far as the game itself is concerned, I was aware that the Kansas City Chiefs were the clear favorites. So, as the Bucs cruised to a 31–9 victory, I—along with many Kansas City fans, no doubt—couldn't help but wonder...

Who are these snakebitten bozos that showed up in place of the Chiefs?

Seriously. As I'm sure you know, however, one of the traditional highlights of any Super Bowl is the new commercials that get aired throughout the game—which points me in the direction of the topic of this article.

One of the commercials this year was an ad for none other than Scientology, and from what I gather it generated no small response (both positive and negative). The Super Bowl version was a 30-second excerpt from the full two-minute version, and is entitled "Be More." It is a compelling and superbly crafted ad, and I can certainly understand why it resonates with many people.

Be more. The message is crystal clear:

There is something powerful that we can tap into to help us rise above the problems the world throws at us—something that can help us break out of the spiritually and emotionally crushing boxes that current world crises such as the coronavirus pandemic are shoving us into. And that something lies within us. We can be more. All we have to do is learn to tap into what is already within us. It's there, waiting.

Be more. That's the secret. Learn to access and utilize the power that lies within you to overcome all things—to be all the things you have the potential to be...and more.

I hope I don't have to tell you that the great majority of people consider Scientology a semi-religious cult, and that's precisely what it is by any definition of the word. It was founded in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, a WWII naval officer of little repute who went on to become a science fiction writer of *little repute, and who had a history of psychiatric problems that was conjoined with a venomous contempt for the field of psychiatry.

(*If you've ever read that L. Ron Hubbard was a "bestselling" author, you might be interested in this 1990 article from the Los Angeles Times that describes how coordinated, multi-million dollar book-buying sprees by Scientology followers and employees launched Hubbard to that status and manage to keep him there in order to create a semblance of credibility for the cult he founded.)

I won't waste your time with a lot of information about what Scientologists believe and teach, because...straight up—it's the stuff of a cheesy, 1950s sci-fi flick, complete with Martians decked out in aluminum foil. But here's a blurb from Wikipedia in case you're curious:

"Thetans." Whatever. Oh, I'm sorry...did I say "semi-religious cult"? That's being w-a-y too polite. In spite of the influence of Hollywood glitterati like Tom "Top Gun" Cruise and John "Stayin' Alive" Travolta, Scientology is satanic to the core, pure and simple. To get a taste of why I say that, take a look at this excerpt from one of Hubbard's teaching series. That ought to shed some light on his sentiments toward Christianity and the Bible:

What struck me in regard to this ad, however, was the fact that it sparked some degree of interest in Scientology at all. I mean, yeah, it's actually an extremely effective ad, but...but...

But Scientology? How could people be so...

At that point my spirit began to stir, the wheels began to turn, and a couple of things began to occur to me and come into focus.

One kickin' commercial

I want to take a few moments to scratch below the surface of this commercial a bit, because the content is telling.

The first section of the ad weaves together themes of fear, loneliness, despair, and uncertainty—themes that characterize a world caught in the throes of a global pandemic. Images of deserted airports. Silent stadiums. Empty classrooms. Exhausted medical staff. Troubling headlines. A faltering economy. Civil unrest. An old man sits staring out the window. A young woman sobs alone. Over this comes the somber, measured tone of the narrator:

In the wake of the unimaginable.
In the shadow of uncertainty.
In the face of fear.
It's time.

Suddenly the mood begins to shift. There is an explosion of light. The music picks up. Things burst to life. Now it's a dizzying montage of happiness and excitement. Smiles. Laughter. Love. Hugs. Energy. Parents playing with kids. People having fun. People helping other people. Artists creating art. Musicians playing music. Dancers dancing. Athletes playing sports. Scientists making new discoveries. Nothing can stop us! The narrator continues:

To rediscover. Your hope. Your purpose.
Your passion. Your potential.

You.

Because no matter what we may face,
nothing is stronger than the human spirit.

Interspersed with this are energetic, uplifting background lyrics:

We live, we love, we hope, we rise
To be more, be more
We dream, we fly, we change, we arrive
To be more, be more

We live, we love, we hope, we rise
To be more, be more
We dream, we fly, we change, we arrive
To be more, be more

State your name, show your light
Raise your head, raise it high
Don't look back, reach inside
There is more to this life

We live, we love, we hope, we rise
To be more, be more
We dream, we fly, we change, we arrive
To be more, be more

We live, we love, we hope, we rise
To be more, be more
We dream, we fly, we change, we arrive
To be more, be more

We can be more
We can be more
We can be more
We can be more

In the closing seconds comes the invitation:

Curious? scientology.tv

I admit this commercial is powerful stuff—so much so that every time I view the ad, I can feel its pull. I can sense the same ache many people who view the ad sense. The visceral ache for the clouds to roll away. For the sun to shine again. For things to get back to normal. For things to get better. To no longer have to live in the shadow of fear and uncertainty. To be able to travel, go to ballgames, go to work, go to school, go to restaurants, go to church, etc. freely and without heavy-handed, ill-informed government restrictions being shoved down our throats.

Note that the central figure in the ad is you. It's time to rediscover your hope, your purpose, your passion, your potential.

It's time to rediscover you.

Because you have the power within to change things and manifest all the fantastic potential that lies inside you. You can be more.

If any of this is starting sound vaguely familiar, then congratulations are in order—that tells me you just may be someone who has made it past the first two chapters of the Bible:

You shall be as gods. That's how Satan expressed the compelling, uplifting message of this ad, and it is the same old lie from the same old liar that Adam and Eve fell for in the Garden of Eden. And the positive response this ad has received shows that nothing has changed. Satan has been hitting mankind with countless variations of this line since the dawn of Creation, and people have been falling for it hook, line, and sinker ever since.

The somewhat surprising response to this ad for Scientology, however, served to remind me that there is a growing ache in the world today that makes people increasingly inclined to respond to Satan’s sweet, seductive lies—to make people yearn for what Satan claims to offer.

And the day is rapidly approaching when that ache will be such that the world will roll over and passively acquiesce to the earth-shattering changes that are coming sooner than many realize.

Out with the old, in with the new

This Scientology ad provokes a response from many people because it touches a nerve. And the fact that it touches that nerve reveals something about the growing condition of the population:

People the world over are becoming increasingly
frightened and uncertain about the future.
And they are becoming increasingly desperate for
something (or someone) to make things better.

They are aching for things to get back to normal—for their lives to return to the way they were BC (Before Coronavirus). That ache is gradually growing stronger and more profound, and I am convinced that the world will continue to wax worse and that ache will continue to grow until a global system begins to come on the scene and coalesce that appears to have the potential to solve all the world's problems.

As that system comes into being, a number of tectonic societal shifts will take place. The nations of the earth will begin to surrender their sovereignty to a global government. An economic reset will occur, and a global currency and global economic system will begin to be established. A tolerant and inclusive one-world religion will come to the fore (tolerant and inclusive of every religious belief except biblical Christianity, which will ultimately be relegated to a capital crime). Note that these changes won't necessarily happen all at once, or in any certain order. And they likely won't get ramped up to full-throttle until after the Rapture.

But these changes are coming—you have God's Word on it.

Conquering and to conquer: We know that the confirmation of the treaty of Daniel 9:27 will launch the Tribulation proper; and as the Tribulation cranks up, we see the man who will become the Antichrist going forth "conquering, and to conquer" (Rev. 6:2). Later, he is "resurrected" and revealed as the Antichrist at the midpoint of the Tribulation, which is when his three-and-a-half year reign in his new kingdom is officially launched.

But however that global system comes about, it won't be long until it is taken over by a miracle-working man who apparently rose from the dead and is spouting a mesmerizing New Age spiel about Mother Earth cleansing herself, spiritual ascension, a coming period of earth changes, and so on. This man will ultimately require everyone to be a part of his system because the fate of the human race will appear to be at stake—so anyone who refuses to participate will be hunted down and executed for the good of mankind. There will be no other way.

In my opinion, however, the Antichrist doesn't actually form the pillars of his kingdom by himself, but rather positions himself to take the reins of a newly established global system. I believe that's what we see him doing during the seal judgments in Revelation 6 during the first half of the Tribulation—working his way into such a position by going forth "conquering, and to conquer."

In the midst of God's judgment that has begun to be poured out, people all over the world will line up to take the required mark and be part of this global system. They will worship this man as if he were divine and hail him as their long-awaited savior.

Of course, we know this man as the Antichrist, and the people of the world will be deluded by God Himself into worshiping him in a way they staunchly refused to worship the real Christ. And when the time comes, they will flock to take the requisite mark to be part of the Antichrist's kingdom, rather than believe the gospel today and be part of Christ's kingdom.

It is important to understand one thing, however: Establishing the pillars of the Antichrist's kingdom will involve global upheaval—there's no way around it. The things I mentioned are global sea changes. It will require a time of tearing down the old to prepare the way for the new—and that "new" will necessitate the people of the world coming to grips with some radical new paradigms. But here's the thing:

These are paradigms that the vast majority of people would resist and rebel against under ordinary circumstances.

Take America for example. Imagine American society functioning like it was just a little over a year ago, before the coronavirus. Imagine us with our economy clicking along with unemployment at record lows. Imagine us being adored by our allies and feared by our foes, and imagine us looking forward to that continuing for the next four years under the same president that helped give shape to it. Imagine things looking up and just getting better and better.

Pop quiz:

Q. Under those circumstances, how do you think most Americans would respond to being told they had to give up their national sovereignty to some global organization and surrender many of the freedoms and liberties they have come to know and cherish and have fought and died to keep?

A. That's what I thought.

Are you kidding?! No way, José. With the possible exception of a handful of Democrats whose names I won't sully the pages of this article with, America would never stand for this in a thousand years. It's beyond inconceivable.

And the same could be said for other powerful nations around the world. Do you really think England would submit to this? Absolutely not! Would Germany? Absolut nicht! What about France? Bien sûr que non!

And that's precisely why it can't happen this way.

Satan is fully aware of what I just told you. He may be evil, but he's not stupid and he's not without a plan. He knows he needs to stack the deck in his favor. He knows he needs to bring the people of the world to the point where they willingly accept the changes needed to establish his kingdom on earth—a kingdom that will be ruled by his man the Antichrist.

But what's the key? What does Satan need to do to get the people of the world in a state where they will accept the changes needed to bring his kingdom into existence, rather than utterly reject them and fight tooth and nail to stop them?

What's Satan's ace in the hole?

The second most powerful emotion

As I mentioned earlier, I believe the ache for a return to normalcy will only grow stronger as the world waxes worse over the next few years. The thing about such an ache—such a desire for a return to the way things were—is that it guides and influences people's behavior. As things get worse and this ache intensifies, it will make the majority of people increasingly willing to do or sacrifice anything to have that ache assuaged.

And as I watched the compelling images of this ad and contemplated the coming kingdom of the Antichrist, things began to come into focus.

It should surprise no one that Satan is orchestrating this pandemic, along with the panicked, pell-mell reaction to it by governments around the world. He has manipulated a willing liberal left to impose draconian restrictions on people's lives—restrictions that have been proven to have little or no effect on slowing down the spread of the virus, and do nothing but crush the life out of once thriving economies.

And people are sick and tired of it, to say the least. People are sick and tired of living under the thumb of clueless, hypocritical government officials who wield with abandon the power to destroy their lives based on the so-called "science" of their choosing and the lies of the mainstream media.

That begs the $64,000 question:

Q. Why do so many people willingly go along with this?

A. The second most powerful emotion: fear.

Second only to love. And to a lesser extent, the simple desire to avoid being hassled over breaking rules, no matter how petty and pointless those rules may be. But to an ever increasing degree, it is fear. Fear that is generated by governments around the world and continually stoked by a complicit mainstream media to keep people sufficiently scared of a terrifying bogeyman that they are willing to go along with those restrictions. And now are willing to take a criminally under-tested vaccine that alters their DNA and which, according to a handful of outspoken experts who are facing the inevitable mainstream media censorship, may pose a greater potential threat to people's health than the virus itself.

That's Satan's ace in the hole: fear.

And as a weary world stumbles headlong toward the Tribulation, that fear is only going to increase. Satan is counting on it.

Peace and security

I want to take a few moments to comment on a verse that ties right in to this idea of the growing fear and uncertainty that will characterize the run-up to the Tribulation as well as the Tribulation itself, and that is a well-known verse in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians:

Many prophecy teachers believe this brief period of relative calm that Paul is referring to is the period following the battle of Ezekiel 38–39, and the "sudden destruction" alludes to the start of the Tribulation, when the seal judgments begin to unfold and things start spiraling out of control in a big hurry.

Perhaps influenced by this interpretation (which I generally agree with), for many years I automatically attached a strictly military meaning to the phrase "peace and safety" or "peace and security," regarding it as describing a period characterized by a brief respite from armed conflict.

Which, of course, could certainly be part of it. But as I worked on this article, I got around to digging a bit deeper into this verse, and what I found led me in a somewhat different direction.

The word translated "peace" in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 is a form of the Greek word eirene (peace, peace of mind, quiet, rest; a general sense of health and welfare). Forms of this word appear a total of 92 times in the New Testament; and as I scanned over them, something caught my attention:

At most eight or nine of those 92 usages could be interpreted in a manner that includes "peace" as in the absence of war (i.e. taking peace from the earth, bringing peace to the earth, there being peace in some region, and so on).

In other words, only a handful of these could be interpreted as conveying a war-related meaning, and when they do the context usually makes it clear.

Similarly, the word translated "safety" or "security" is a form of asphaleia (safety, security, certainty, reliability, firmness). Besides this verse, forms of this word appear in only two other places in the New Testament (Luke 1:4; Acts 5:23), and in neither of those does this word convey a war-related meaning.

My point is that when Paul says "peace and safety" in verse 3, he isn't necessarily focusing on the military angle. In other words, I believe it is a mistake to assume he is only emphasizing the absence of armed conflict. On closer inspection, I believe Paul is saying that when the frazzled people of the world reach the point where they are convinced everything is going to be OK—that the intolerable level of fear and uncertainty that has been hounding them is finally going to dissipate, it won't be long before the bottom falls out the next thing you know the seal judgments will start to be unleashed and the world will be knee-deep in the Tribulation.

I believe that shortly prior to the beginning of the Tribulation, probably after the battle of Ezekiel 38–39, the basic elements of the Antichrist's kingdom will be coming together. The Rapture will have already occurred and shaken the world to its core (I believe it must occur prior to the conclusion of Ezekiel 38–39), and as a result the fear and uncertainty that has been intensifying for several years will be kicked up to a satanically induced crescendo. The people of the world will finally be fully primed to willingly accept the structural foundations of the Antichrist's kingdom, and they will be convinced this is their only chance to make things better—to finally alleviate their fear and satisfy their overpowering ache for security and stability in a world turned upside down and coming apart at the seams.

The New World Order that has been spoken of in hushed tones for decades will finally appear to be ready to be implemented, and it will seem to be the only answer to the world's crippling problems.

At least according to the charismatic world leader who is pushing it.

Fear not

We've been talking a lot about fear in this article; but from the perspective of born-again believers, I'm sure most of you are familiar with what God's Word has to say about fear. Here's a sampling.

We are reminded a number of times throughout the Old Testament that the righteous have no need to fear, for God is with them:

Jesus strikes a similar note in the Gospels:

Don't fear man—fear only God, because He's got everything under control. Not a sparrow falls to the ground that God fails to notice—and you're worth a whole lot more to God than a bird.

Jesus also hits the theme of fear at the Last Supper:

More in line with the point of this article, however, Jesus touches on the idea of fear in His celebrated discourse on the end-times:

Jesus is describing the birth pains that correspond to the seal judgments in the first half of the Tribulation, and so this applies to the Jewish remnant and to Tribulation saints rather than the Church. But the point is well made:

If the Lord is telling Israel to not be afraid during the outpouring of judgment during the Tribulation, how much less afraid should the body of Christ be before that Tribulation even gets cranked up?

My personal favorite, however, is Paul's admonition to Timothy:

Now, why do you suppose God has given us that spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind? Well, I'm guessing one reason might be so we can let our light shine before men and maintain a bold, unwavering witness that glorifies God, honors His Son, and points a lost and dying world to the cross of Christ, rather than cowering in the corner and whining along with that same world about how messed up things are getting.

Just my two shekels.

Be more

As I said, the message of this slick, compelling Scientology commercial is that we should look within ourselves, because we can tap into the power we have within us to manifest our full potential. Or at least we can learn to do that over the course of several decades and for several hundred thousand dollars' worth of books, courses, and interminable "auditing sessions."

And it is a lie. God's Word tells us a very different story:

Scripture tells us that we are hopelessly lost in sin and spiritually separated from a holy God. It tells us He loves us enough to send His Son into the world to die to atone for our sin and reconcile us to Him if we will but respond to the wooing of His Spirit and ask for His forgiveness and believe in faith in what Christ did for us on a cross at Calvary two thousand years ago.

God's Word doesn't call us to be more. On the contrary. If anything, it calls on us to be less by crucifying our flesh—our sin nature—and living by faith in Christ and walking in the Spirit:

To the extent we submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit, to that extent we manifest the fruit of the Spirit in our lives—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. As we obediently submit ourselves to His loving guidance, the Holy Spirit gradually manifests these qualities in us and our fleshly nature increasingly takes a back seat.

In other words:

If we want to be more in the Spirit,
we have to be less in the flesh.

There's no other way—that's how it works.

Contrary to fleshly, man-centered (if not outright satanic) philosophies and belief systems like Scientology, we need to look above, not within. When we look inside ourselves, the only thing we're likely to see is the sin that separates us from a holy God who loves us and sacrificed His one and only perfect Son to save us from that sin—sin that will separate us from Him for eternity unless we avail ourselves of the grace and mercy that He expressed to the world through Christ and believe the gospel in faith.

But if we let him, Satan will make us see ourselves in a different light. He will make us see ourselves as good—as deserving of better. He will make us see ourselves as strong and capable of rising above the problems we face through our own power. He will make us see ourselves as being capable of becoming as gods, and will whisper those tantalizing words in our ears:

You can be more!

But this was a lie in the Garden of Eden, and it's a lie today.

So as people fall victim to the fear and uncertainty that is increasingly pervading the world, and as a result are more inclined to respond to Satan's smooth-sounding lies to "be more," let us strive to walk in His Spirit and submit to the Spirit's leading. As we do so, we will manifest the fruit of the Spirit, our lives will be more pleasing to our Heavenly Father, and we will be more effective witnesses in the final drive to bring those last few precious souls into the kingdom before the curtain comes down on the Age of Grace.

Oh, and it certainly doesn't end with manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in our earthly lives—as if that weren't enough. It won't be long before we will be in our immortal, glorified bodies, ruling and reigning with Christ in the Millennial Kingdom while we dwell in unimaginable bliss and splendor in the New Jerusalem. Oh yeah.

Top that, Mr. Top Gun.

Greg Lauer — FEB '21

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