Click to accept

The fine print

Let me ask you a question…  How many of you would take the time, a few minutes, to actually read the terms and conditions before proceeding?  This blog is all about giving consent.

“Consent” is a hot topic these days.  In much of our world, we willingly and unknowingly give our consent every day.  Consent has become easier in the online world.  All we have to do is “click to continue.”  All we have to do is to “accept” the terms and conditions if we don’t want to be troubled by pages and pages of small print.  But what are you giving your consent to?

The right to say “no”

More times than not I have never read the fine print and the terms and conditions because I have just wanted to get to the end so that I can continue in my impatient life.  How about you?  Consent is becoming easier but there has been some kickback recently especially when it comes to the area between men and women and sexual consent.  People have begun to ask the question of what really constitutes consent.  It is no wonder the lines have become blurred because we all want to click to continue and it is my view that the devil is delighted with how the world has proceeded in this area.  It’s a real worry because I think that choice, consent, or free will is extremely important.  It is often the only thing standing in the way of the devil and will be especially in the last 3 ½ years when all citizens of the world will have to make an informed choice not to take the devil’s mark.  Hold onto your precious right to refuse and say “no” whatever the choice is that you are faced with.

Our rights are being slowly eroded because we are being conditioned to click “ok to continue” on our screens.  According to Edward Snowden, perhaps the world’s most famous whistle-blower, this has accelerated because we have spent our lives locked up this last year in isolation looking at screens far more than we have ever before.

What will cause you to comply when you don’t want to?

Our lives are a series of choices and we are accountable for those choices.  From the time we are born to the time we die we make choices and we say yes or no.  From the time we get up in the morning until the time we fall asleep we make choices such as what we will wear, what we will eat, what directions we will take, how we will react, and what we say or don’t say.  Choices, choices, choices.  Adults make an average of 35,000 decisions a day–no wonder we are fatigued.  Consent may be just acceding to a persistent request that just won’t go away or maybe by consenting we are just making our busy lives just that little bit easier.  Reminds me of the “parable of the persistent widow.”¹  The judge gave in to a persistent widow who demanded justice, not because of his compassion for her but because she kept bothering him.  He could see that she just wouldn’t give up pestering him so he gave his consent and helped her.  It’s not that he didn’t say no because it says that for some time he refused.²  It’s not that he agreed but pragmatism caused him to say “yes.”  The persistence of the widow made him say “yes.”  What will cause us to say, “yes,” even though we don’t really agree?  Will you say, “yes” to a persistent boyfriend/girlfriend who asks for an immoral picture just because they have been persistent even though you really don’t want to?  Will you say “yes” to marrying someone who really says they love you even though you are just not that keen but because you are lonely or due to some other pragmatic reason you say yes?  What about right now with all of the issues we are faced with?  We are being “nudged” by the government in making certain decisions and we will be surely nudged by the Antichrist in the final days too to take his mark.  It will just be easier to give in rather than the alternative which may include being beheaded if we don’t comply.

Clicking is easier

I can see that consent is going to be a much larger issue for everyone from now on.  We are losing our freedom to make choices because we are traveling further and further along the road of totalitarianism even in our modern liberal democratic countries.  We are being encouraged to “click to continue” out of convenience.  It is too hard to read all the terms and conditions, so to save time we might as well just click–that’s what we have been conditioned to get used to with social media in the last 10 years or so.  Clicking is easier.  Saying yes is easier.  And that my friends, is what the devil is counting on.  One day you will have to say no if you value your life.  But when you do so, society frowns upon you–that is the cost of discipleship.  As Christians, we should be used to going against the flow and saying no to the world’s paradigm.

Persistent widow parable

The whole point of the persistent widow parable is stated in Luke 18:1 when Jesus says that he told the parable to show the disciples (and us) that we should not give up and that we should always pray.  In other words, we should rely on God that He will show us the way and give us the strength to say yes or no depending on the decision to be made.  Sounds like to me that that means walking in relationship by faith with God day by day.  We also should not give up like the judge.  We need to be firm in our yeses or nos.  Let your yes be yes and your no be no.³  The devil is counting on you to be worn down when the crunch comes.  The citizens in Nazi Germany were worn down and consented to arguably the worst crimes against humanity ever in human history.  Yes, they were probably at least initially deceived but they consented also.  Deception plus consent is a dangerous and powerful combination and pleading ignorance before a holy God will not cut it or be excused in the final judgment.  That’s what the goats plead in the judgment of the sheep and the goats–ignorance.  What does Jesus then say?  Ignorance is no reason and they then go away to eternal punishment.⁴  Deception was no excuse for Eve in the garden of Eden when she consented to the temptations of the devil.

Finally, there is one interesting verse in Luke 18:8 right at the end of the persistent widow parable which asks the question, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  This last question seems to be out of place in this parable does it not?  I thought we were talking about consent in the face of persistence and not giving up, but now Jesus wraps up by talking about the end times!  It hit me that this last question is entirely appropriate because I believe that Jesus is giving a veiled warning to His disciples not to relent and consent to the devil in the final days of this age because the pressure will be enormous to consent to his mark.  When a person, whether a Christian or not, in those days gives consent and just clicks to continue and accepts the Antichrist’s terms and conditions to make their lives easier they are effectively consenting to eternal punishment.  And the consequence will be that they will lose their faith so Jesus basically says that not many will be able to say no–will He even find anyone of faith at that time.  The expected answer to this question is no!

Flee to the wilderness in time

Why would God put us in this situation if it will be almost impossible not to give our consent?  The point of this whole ministry is to inform you that you don’t have to put yourself in that position if you heed the warning signs and flee to the wilderness in time.  Be ready now to flee–I would rather be 10 years early than 1 second late.  Start making decisions now that will make that big decision easier when it’s crunch time.   That crunch time will come at the halfway point of the last 7 years just before the Antichrist appears on the scene.  I wouldn’t be relying on my ability to say no because I think we have all been conditioned by the world we live in to click to accept.