This is the first in a series called the “Nuclear Option”.

In my book about thinking in the Old Testament, I began with an imaginative scene: a strategic planning session of Satan’s chief lieutenants. After commending themselves for their diabolical harassment of the church, the leader announced a bold new challenge: “But now, the Master wants a nuclear option. We’re looking for a way to stunt the growth of the enemy’s sect once and for all!”

 Below is an excerpt of the ensuing debate. One precocious demon articulated a three-part plan that captured the leader’s imagination:

First, we’ll lead them to redefine spirituality. No longer will they believe that their so-called gospel—what we know to be heresy—applies to all of life. They must come to believe that spirituality is private and subjective. It will be something they feel, but never anything they think. We can teach them that spirituality exists to promote self-fulfillment. We must train them, also, to think that their so-called salvation concerns only their souls, so that their gospel has nothing to do with the world they live in.

Part two consists of injecting dualism into their thought and conduct. We should introduce the concept of the sacred and secular dimensions. Since their new spirituality will be egoistic, the church will progressively neglect all exterior dimensions, such as society and ideas, because these are secular. And they’ll come to view Sunday as religious, but Monday through Saturday as secular. As a result, slowly, they’ll develop two modes of thinking and behaving: one set for spiritual times and actions, the other set for secular times and actions.

Third, we will erode confidence in their book of lies, what they call “scripture.” We will undermine its credibility and its false claims so that it will become less and less plausible. Over time, the infamous sect will lose its intellectual foundation, and its members will become far less discerning. In this way, they will learn not to listen to the great impostor Jesus anymore. We can even train them to focus on how and when thinking, and never on why or what thinking. In other words, we’ll make them stupid and irrelevant!

And meanwhile, practically speaking, they’ll cede the world to us! We’ll do the thinking! In fact, we’ll make we’ll make them afraid to think!

And all the while, the kettle will get hotter and the little Christian frogs will cook even faster.

Later in my book, I suggested that Ephesians 2:1–3 depicts an intellectual context that echoes the devil’s strategy in the Old Testament, particularly the book of Job. Several months later, I produced a fifteen-minute video called “Our Intellectual Matrix,” which is an overview of that passage. I invite you to watch it.

Consider how the devil fosters anti-intellectualism and ignorance, even among the followers of Jesus Christ. His goal is to render believers “stupid and irrelevant.”

(Check out other videos based on my book in my channel.)