THE FALLACIES OF APPEASEMENT

"Appeasement is just feeding the crocodile in hopes that it will eat you last. You have to stand up." Winston Churchill One of the fallacies man has is that anyone, including the enemy, will accept you as a friend if you just will be a friend. This sounds good, smells good, and feels good; but, it is a "fake news stunt" that will get you killed or hold you hostage to a lie as long as you give into the enemy's malicious, misguided, maligned, and narcissistic actions.

As a Christian, I am aware of the loving God concept. I believe God is love...it says it in the Word. However, God's love does not approve of a "Quid Pro Quo" in order to appease the enemy. What am I saying? God does not approve of any compromises, any "give to get" actions, or any type of appeasement with Satan (our most notorious, most active, and most vicious enemy) to help us get through a crisis situation. Satan doesn't stop his efforts of condemning you and planning for your destruction just because you lied, misrepresented God's truth, or watered down His Word to get him to pat you on the back and tell you to go on passed his barricade of constant attacks on your will and emotions. Remember...Remember! He has, is and always will be public enemy #1. As a Christian, we ought to know Satan's tactics and therefore understand our most aggressive enemy is against us and not for us.

"Appeasement" (according to Webster's Dictionary) is the act or action of appeasing someone or something. Especially: a policy of appeasing an enemy or potential aggressor by making concessions. Basically, conceding anything to an avid enemy or destructive entity as Satan is against God's moral laws. God has never conceded anything to his arch enemy Satan (Lucifer). He has allowed Satan to think he has outwitted the God of Creation; but, God has never compromised nor authoritatively given-in to Satan's demands or schemes.

Like many active criminals, Satan believes he can beat the system. Satan, however, is a narcissist and an avid believer in himself.

The narcissist has a personality disorder characterized by:

1. A long-term pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance,
2. An excessive need for admiration, and
3. A lack of empathy toward other people.

The narcissist often spends much time thinking about achieving power and success, or on his/her appearance.


As seen in the definition of a narcissist, Satan has had a long-term pattern of exaggerated feelings of self importance. How long? Even before the world was created by the Triune God, Satan has had extremely exaggerated feelings of self-importance. He fell from grace with his Creator due to PRIDE (narcissistic characteristic). He felt he deserved a higher position than what God had given him. He felt like he was better than all the other angels and he needed to be elevated to a much higher status than what God had given him. He wanted to be admired by others to the point of rebelling against the One who created him. Satan even turned against God's authority; causing mutiny in the heavens. One third of the angels agreed with Satan's state of believing he could be greater than God, the Creator of the world, worlds, the universe, the heavens and all that is therein. This narcissistic attitude placed him as a traitor in God's army. Satan and his army of defectors lost their bid to overthrow the Kingdom of God. God's punishment was permanent abandonment from God's spiritual created order...God's place of abode...God's Kingdom. Satan and his followers were cast out of heaven to the earth where Satan has, is and will be for a period of time as the ruler of the dark kingdom on earth.

Does this mean that God gave-in or compromised His authority by letting Satan get by with his commands and evil schemes? No...however, at first look, it seems Satan out-witted God and received a reward from God by letting him (Satan) enter into the thoughts and minds of his creation. But, in this case, God used some real wisdom that is being misaligned and practiced by some evil and ungodly men and women today. God's thoughts are much higher than man's. God really understands the godly use of "the end justifies the means." In fact, God thought of this practice many years before man even thought about it.

God, in His undeniably greatest of all wisdom, knew that He would save mankind from extinction and man's soul and spirit sentenced to hell, by planning an exit strategy from Satan's evil schemes. Jesus, God's Son, crushed the enemy's head (Satan) and will, in the end, sentence him to the pit of hell. In the meantime, Jesus will bring home millions of saints who have placed their faith and trust in the One who died for all.

Bringing this story to heart...and carrying this introspective conclusion to a positive lesson for the Christian reader, I yield to the following line of thought.

One of the most frightening moments in my life has been experienced in the last four months of my 79 years on planet earth. I have seen an enormous amount of wholesome, good, strong minded, faith-based people cower down and give in to Satan's cowardly acts. I know... "Cower" sounds like a strong word for what I am about to say. However, cower's definition is "to shrink away or crouch especially for shelter from something that menaces, domineers, or dismays."

What do I mean? Here is what I mean! I have seen practically every person from every walk of life, from doctors, lawyers, CEOs, teachers, parents, ex-military personnel, and...even preachers, bow to the "invisible enemy"... COVID-19 virus. It is controlling us and is exposing our weaknesses and vulnerabilities as a nation and as a people of faith.

The enemy has come home to roost at our door step. It has "hunkered us down in our foxholes" and caused us to fear coming out of those foxholes until the enemy's ammunition runs out. The problem, the ammunition might not run out in our lifetime. We are waiting for the vaccine (the ultimate weapon) to help us beat the "invisible enemy."

I know I will get a lot of flak over this, but hear me out. I don't want our vulnerable, already physically impaired, and elderly citizens to feel they have to come out of the foxholes. I am not advocating annihilation of our most susceptible and vulnerable population to be offered as sacrifices to this enemy. Nor am I saying that these precious ones who have those problems have minimal, wavering, or unsustained faith by their "staying at home" decisions until the "storm passes by" actions. I am saying that it is time that the strong, the physically fit, the God-fearing people of God get on with the business at hand. Come out, sing praises to the God who created us, help those in need and get on with our lives to defeat the enemy who is an illegal alien in our land (God's land).

Now for the closing of a devotion on APPEASEMENT.

1. Our nation (America) should never offer appeasement for peace with our enemy.
We have seen it in the past. Giving millions of American's hard-earned money (taxes) to a terrorist country (Iran) and other countries interested in achieving and seeing America's downfall in order to appease or keep the tyrants from working on our destruction has been a terrible decision by our leaders. The enemy has used those appeasement dollars to continue to work on nuclear weapons and other military artillery; weapons that have been used and are continuing to be used to kill our soldiers and our allies. Appeasement in war should not be an option for the United States. Compromising with the enemy only post-pones their (the enemy's) plan to destroy our country and its people. It never cancels or eliminates the idea of destroying our America and our strong ally, Israel.

"In this century, when evil men plot chemical, biological and nuclear terror, a policy of appeasement could bring destruction of a kind never before seen on this earth. Terrorists and terrorist states do not reveal these threats with fair notice in formal declarations. And responding to such enemies only after they have struck first is not self defense. It is suicide." George W. Bush

2. Our churches should never try to appease those entities who are trying to control who we worship, how we worship, and when we worship.
The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifically protects our "freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly and the right to petition the government."

Giving orders to shut-down church services, to shut-down our worship of singing praises to our Lord, to require minimal fellowship between families of our churches, and to hold us accountable to government dictates that are against our constitutional rights even to giving penalties for such actions on our part, is against our basic rights of the Constitution of the United States. I do believe that we are to render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's (biblical). Any change to our rights, however, should be dealt with by the votes of the citizens of our great country.

"The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can't really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture." -Elisabeth Elliot

"Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness." -Helen Keller

3. As Christians we should never appease the enemy by compromising the Word of God.
There are some specific Scriptures that are "hard to swallow" ...so to speak. However, it is Scripture. Therefore, it is our responsibility to ask the Holy Spirit what the meanings of those Scriptures we are having a hard time with. In every case, the Holy Spirit reveals (probably not in an audible voice) the meaning of the Scriptures in order to deal with our personal needs at the time we need them. I know that there will be some explanations by the Holy Spirit in which we must wait patiently for answers. The answers, however, are always revealed by the Word itself; Scriptures answering Scriptures...and that is specifically given to us by our study of the Word of God. Meditating on the Scriptures, praying with an earnest desire to understand the Scriptures, and actually doing what the Scriptures reveal will satisfy our hearts with those Scriptures we just don't first understand. James stated, "Be doers of the Word and not hearers only." Therefore, our actions should always be performed with a "spirit of excellence;" never capitulating to the desires of our old self.

Romans 12:1-2, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."

In closing our study on appeasement, I think it is worthwhile to read a quotable quote from a notable American.

"Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand." -Mark Twain