Powers and Principalities

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Eph. 6:12.

A lot of people dismiss these words as indecipherable religious jargon,
with no basis in reality. A lot of believers, on the other hand, hold the
words to be true, but pertaining to things that cannot be seen or understood,
a metaphysical reality that transcends our sensory experience and therefore
abrogates our obligations to engage in such spiritual battles. A lot of us
are caught up in a diabolical disorientation, knowing full well that the
state if the world, as it currently stands, is in a sorry state, and can
see that spiritual forces are moving people in various and often conflicting
directions, but lack the ability to discern the spirits, and therefore to
avoid falling under their influences as well.
We do not war against flesh and blood but the powers that influence
and guide our brethren of flesh and blood. A lot of people will balk if
you point out that they and their beliefs are under the control of various
deceiving spirits, but the scriptures say exactly that, "that the whole
world lies under the sway of the wicked one." 1 John 5:19
The spiritual sphere influences and acts upon the temporal sphere.
The enemy comes to kill, steal, and to destroy being that can be destroyed-
not immortal angels. The battle is raging in 'heavenly places'- maybe
beyond sense perception- but the effects here in the world in
which we live.
Our Lord created us with the ability to discern the spirits and powers
that cannot be seen with naked sense perception. He endowed us with reason
to extend our understanding to things that cannot be seen, heard, or touched.
(cf. Wis 13:5 ; Rom 1:20) Even Aristotle remarked upon this ability
when he claimed that "the things that are pretty well the most difficult
for men to get to know, since they are the furthest removed from the senses."
(Metaphysics 1:2). We have been given the ability to understand the powers
and principalities that we war against and to engage and destroy them in
a logical manner.
We've all experienced the deceptions and manipulations of friends or
loved ones. It's an aspect of our fallen nature- common, in varying degrees
to all mankind. We know that people trick us into acting in ways that serve
their own interests at times. A lot of people are alas now becoming disgruntled
with mainstream media outlets and government leaders, as they become
more and more aware of the deceptions and manipulations coming from these
sources as well. Groups of like minded individuals use such tactics to move
people into serving their common wills. But so do non-human powers. They
also deceive and manipulate us into serving their various and apparently
conflicting interests as they serve theirs leader, the "Father of Lies."
But what are these powers that transcend flesh and blood, that live
on long after the flesh and blood vessels they initially inhabited wear out
and die? How can we pinpoint and identify such spirits and the effects
they produce in the hearts of the men they inhabit? Our Lord told us that
"out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." And we, too, can
see that when some people hold in their hearts, obvious, known falsehoods,
to be true, these errors cause them to act and move in ways that often
betray the words of their mouths.
Our Lady of fatima warned us of "the errors of Russia". Intelligent
and devout brethren have identified a few of these powers as Communism,
Zionism, and Freemasonry. Each of these powers, in turn, have various
principles and authorities working in unison under them, breaking down the
overall objectives of these powers into more specific, task oriented
moving principles. The overall goal of Zionism may be advancing on one level,
the goals of the Israeli Lobby, on another, by groups such as the Anti
Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, on another, by pseudo Christian front
groups (such as the Philadelphia Church of God) who consistently use
deception to slander and attack the Church and it's teaching of Revealed
Truth.
I've studied Communism, it is an intelligent deception. Some may
say a super-human deception that had a higher, spiritual origin other
than Karl Marx and his 'Communist Manifesto' or work 'Das Capital". It
has a fair amount of truth mixed in with the errors to make it believable
and embraceable. This is the tactic of the serpent- the deceiver. He's
a great liar. Revelation describes him as leading the armies of 'the
deceived'against the armies of God in the last days. (Rev. 19:19-20; 20:
7-10). For the soul unenlightened with Divine Grace, the delusion becomes
almost indistinguishable from reality and truth.
A lot of our fellow creatures of flesh and blood under the influence
of these powers are not inherently or irredeemably wicked. They are
just deceived. But like all deceptions, the 'errors of Russia' can and
must be, refuted with the truth- given to us as members of the Body of
Christ. Darkness cannot stand in the presence of the Light. Nor can
falsehoods be believed that have been thoroughly and consistently
exposed as wrong. Their followers may indeed continue to engage in what
they now know to be wrong, and may in fact, intentionally deceive others
into doing the same, but the delusion of the justness of their cause will
forever remain shattered.
We war not against flesh and blood, but that the eyes of our flesh
and blood brethren may be opened to the truth. That they may be released
from the delusions of the wicked one. That the controlling spirits at
work within them may be cast out. Our warfare may indeed be a spiritual
one, but it's waged on the battlefield of the hearts of men, and the only
way to reach the hearts of men is through the senses God gave us to
interact with one another.
"Our natural knowledge takes its beginning from sense.Therefore
it can extend only so far as it can be brought by (reflection on) the
things of the sense." St. Thomas Aquinas- Summa Teologica la, 12, 12.
If we intend to make known the truth we know to be true- we'll have to
show it and make it to be understood in a way that can be comprehended
by them.
Again, there will be those, of course, who, after the truth has been
presented to them, and they know it to be true, will reject the light
of truth, because their deeds are dark and they love the darkness. These
will willingly remain in the deceptive embrace of demonic falsehoods.
In fact, these may, knowingly and intentionally, seek to lead the ignorant,
the naive, the weak, and the gullible to be influenced and controlled
by the same deceptive ideologies that they believe in. These will have
to be resisted with force at some point, with armed struggle. While the
ultimate war will always be of a spiritual nature, sometimes it will
become necessary to destroy the vessels those spiritual powers inhabit,
especially when those flesh and blood vessels knowingly consecrate
themselves to the work of the deceiver. For this reason, Our Lord
instructed his Apostles in the garden of Gethsemane, "Let he who is
without a sword, sell his cloak and buy one." (Lk. 22:36).