HOW SATAN WORKS

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John Cooper of the successful band Skillet described the man, who was an agent of Satan, as well as a music agent, a promoter and a businessman who was a “mover and shaker.” 

“And he said, ‘It’s your time, John, but you have got to disassociate from Christianity. You’ve got to stop talking about Jesus so much. … Don’t do Christian interviews. Don’t do Christian music festivals. If people ask you what your songs are about, I’m not telling you to lie. Just don’t offer up the information about Jesus,’” he continued.

“Then he said something else. And this is what got me, and this is what I think is interesting,” Cooper continued, he said, ‘But John, think about the good you could do for your faith. If you got rich and famous, think about what you could do for Jesus, if you stop talking about Jesus.’“

Cooper said that phrase was the “turning point” of his career.

“I went to the bus. I told my wife about the conversation. We prayed about it. And it was … almost instantaneous. I knew that that is not the Lord. It was from the enemy, Satan. He was trying … to get me to be quiet, and it had the opposite effect.”

A decade later, Skillet is now a Grammy Award-nominated, multi-platinum band. Cooper has a popular YouTube series in which he is very outspoken about his faith and shares his thoughts about current events.

In an episode of Abby Johnson’s podcast “Politely Rude” released in August, Cooper revealed the motivation behind his boldness. He said he was shocked to find that many people no longer believe in absolute truth and called the changes unfolding in culture “scary.” 

“We need to be extremely vigilant about the Word of God,” he emphasized. “We need to be extremely vigilant about what the Bible says because if we are not, then we will begin to read the Bible with that same sort of relativism. And when you do that, you’re not starting from a premise that the Word of God is absolute, that God’s Word is supreme.”

“What happens in relativism is you say, ‘No, I am supreme. My feelings are supreme. My experience is the brain. I can find truth in my heart,’” Cooper added. “Then I look through that filter at the Word of God, and then I shape the Word of God to meet my needs. So we need to be extremely vigilant about this because it is wrecking Christianity.

ABSOLUTE TRUTH – OTHERWISE LAWLESSNESS ABOUNDS

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Skillet frontman John Cooper is calling out what he described as the “woke ideology” permeating the church, arguing it’s “wrecking Christianity.”

He said, “You can’t believe in God and not believe in absolute truth, obviously, because one negates the other. Yet, that is what’s actually happening in Christianity.”

Cooper said he went through something of an awakening around 2016, recalling reading nearly 200 books in hopes of understanding the rapidly changing culture in which we live. Ultimately, Cooper explained, he came to the realization that people “don’t believe in absolute truth anymore.”

That conclusion led him to become “outspoken” about what he sees as a problematic cultural shift that is infiltrating Christian communities.

In his book, “Awake and Alive to Truth,” Cooper argues we “are living in a time that can best be described as a philosophical stew,” suggesting it’s highly influenced by postmodern thought. He relies on the following definition of postmodernism from Encyclopedia Britannica editor Brian Duigan:

A late 20th century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.

The data seems to bear out the presumption that society is trending toward moral relativism and postmodernism. A recent study from the Barna Group found that a majority of teens and young adults — 65% — agreed with the claim that “many religions can lead to eternal life.” In addition, 31% of the survey’s participants said they “strongly agree” that what is “morally right and wrong changes over time, based on society.” Forty-three percent said they “somewhat” agree with that claim.

Cooper urged Christians to “be extremely vigilant about the Word of God,” suggesting a relativistic worldview will encourage some to reinterpret Scripture based on a cultural understanding untethered from absolute truth.

Of course this is exactly what is happening and it is what the Bible prophesied would happen in the last days before Jesus returns, first to take the Saints to heaven, and then to pour out His wrath on an unbelieving world with the trumpet and bowl judgements.

When He (Jesus) opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:12-17

Sadly, Jesus tells us that prior to His return people will be like they were in Noah’s day when God judged the world and all but eight people perished in a worldwide flood, lawlessness will abound.

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:12