Those conspiracy theories

Conspiracy - An evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons. (dictionary.com)

What, as Christians, should we make of conspiracy theories? What light does the bible shed on such a seemingly unrelated topic? This is what I want to examine here, but before we go any further, let’s take a moment to dispel some types of argument on both sides that don’t really mean anything.

Argument. XYZ conspiracy is a proven fact, therefore “they” are all out to get us.
Comment. I don’t think anyone believes that there has never been a conspiracy in the history of the world, however proving one conspiracy isn’t sufficient evidence to conclude that all conspiracy theories are automatically true. Doing so introduces the “crank” factor.

Argument. A complete crank I know believes in XYZ conspiracy, therefore all suggestions of conspiracy must be rubbish.
Comment. There are quite a few crazy people around who believe that Jesus was the Christ. Crazy talk about God tends to discredit Christianity, but it doesn’t make it false.

Argument. “I know nothing about it therefore it doesn’t exist”.
Comment. Only God can use this line of reasoning.

In reality neither side of the argument can be wiped out in a single blow, so let’s refine our argument to examining the likelihood of significant large-scale conspiracies existing in the world today.

Let’s start with the bible. Now, however we view the connection between biblical insights and the geopolitical events in the world today, the bible does actually tell us that there is a monumental worldwide conspiracy that exists, at least in the spirit world.

Most of us know this if we stop and think about it. Satan wanted to be like the most high (Isaiah 14:14). He sought power, dominion and glory. He rebelled against God and many of the angels followed him (Jude 1:6). Paul called him ‘the God of this world’ (II Cor 4:4) and ‘the prince of the power of the air’ (Eph 2:2)¹. Now Satan has a plan, a plan to raise up anti-Christ (II Thes 2:9). He has a plan to take military control of the world, to control every citizen in the world, and to make everyone worship him (Rev 13). This, in fact, is the ultimate conspiracy. The question is, will this all just be something that pops out of the blue one day or has Satan been working at it for hundreds, even thousands of years? Why did God tell Daniel at the time of the Babylonian kingdom that he would ultimately destroy all the kingdoms of man? What is so wrong about mans kingdoms that it incurs such judgment? Could it be because Satan is the power behind them, just as the bible records him being the power behind the king of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:11-15).

That this is indeed the case seems clearly demonstrated during the temptation of Jesus:

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Then the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish”. (Luke 4:5-6)

Now already we are starting to see a possible link between the conspiracies of the spirit world and our world of political and economic power. But how far should we take this thought?

Let’s take a moment to ask some questions:

1. How many well known and proven conspiracies are recorded in history?

2. For the most part, are the people of the world well acquainted with truth, or largely deceived?

3. How does Satan outwork his plans concerning the world?

We tend to think of Satan as influencing the course of the world in some kind of nebulous, indirect way. This is no doubt true in as much as Satan and his demons try to work on the individual minds of men and woman everywhere. What we are often less inclined to think about though is just what Satan meant when he said that the kingdoms of the world are his and that he gives them to whoever he chooses.

It is not a conspiracy theory but an undisputed fact that a number of secret societies exist in the world, the members of which are typically from the most exclusive parts of society. Most of these societies have the common thread of using occult rituals. At the least they would be called “New Age", and in their most extreme forms they could only be described as Satanic². Could it be that the working of Satan and his agents sometimes takes a more direct form? Are their people who are more closely associated with him than others, perhaps even direct executors of his will?

If this is the case it doesn’t prove any given conspiracy, but it does suggest that conspiratorial activity is more likely than not to go on in the world. Logically then, there seems good reason to at least look at the evidence and make a case by case judgment on the likelihood of various conspiracy theories being true.

One of the worst mistakes of the “crank” conspiracy theorist is to believe that everyone in government, big business, etc is “in on it”. This is certainly not true. Nor is it true to think that “they” have total control. What we don’t give enough credit though is that, just as a very large ship can be controlled by a small rudder, so a very small group of people who collectively have overwhelming monetary and political influence can make a very great deal of difference to the course of this world.

It may surprise you to discover that some of these so called ‘conspiracy theories’ are these days almost an open conspiracy. What I mean is that in some cases it’s only a matter of assembling information that is on public record, including quite a bit of information actually disclosed by those involved. Consider the following quotes just as a small starter:

“We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” –James Paul Warburg 1950 to the U.S.Senate

“The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists” –J. Edgar Hoover

“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nation will accept the New World Order.” –David Rockefeller

Food for thought isn’t it. As someone who has had an interest in the subject over several years I would like to say two things about looking into this.
First, Christians need to be aware of what’s going on or they can end up compromised by their involvement in aspects of it.
Second, when looking into it you need to keep refreshing yourself with prayer, the word of God and breaks from the subject. I make this latter point because I've noticed that some of the key Christian researchers in this field, while they have provided a lot of valuable information, appear in some instances to have become unbalanced by it. It is disturbing when those who once gave great insights start to develop "crank" behaviors such as believing in every theory that comes along without proper critique, or heaping irrational abuse on those who disagree with them.

Conspiracy theories are in the end an area where we need to retain healthy skepticism, not just concerning official sources of information, but also about the theories themselves.