"If I were the Devil" by Paul Harvey - PROJECT: Faith Journey Quick Insight | Episode 32 - PROJECT: Faith Journey

PROJECT: Faith Journey

[podcast-subscribe]

Paul Harvey – 1966

Apparently it’s been debated online on when this came about, but below is an article written from a 1966 newspaper piece from the late-great, “Rest of the Story” author and cultural commentator, Paul Harvey.

If I were the prince of darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness.

I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — thee.

So, I would set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I’d subvert the churches first, and I would begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.”

To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince the children that man created God instead of the other way around. I’d confide that what’s bad is good and what’s good is square.

And the old, I would teach to pray after me, “Our Father, which are in Washington …”

Then, I’d get organized, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each, in its turn, was consumed.

And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellect but neglect to discipline emotions. I’d tell teachers to let those students run wild. And before you knew it, you’d have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

With a decade, I’d have prisons overflowing and judges promoting pornography. Soon, I would evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and them from the houses of Congress.

In his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I’d lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

What’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as The Way to get rich?

I’d convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun and that what you see on television is the way to be.

And thus, I could undress you in public and lure you into bed with diseases for which there are no cures.

In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.

Thoughts From Harvey’s Commentary

That was written by Paul Harvey about 5 decades, 50 years ago.

Whispers of “do as you please” today permeate the air and are now loud shouts to anyone that stand against it’s logic.

Today, you can easily search google for “The Bible is a myth,” and you will get more than 24.4 Million hits asking that question or proclaiming this as truth. Also a search of youtube will show thousands of videos of young and old being celebrated for their drunken acts of stupidness and rage.

Praying to Washington? Does that seem too far? I don’t know… America has a “Democratic Socialist” working his way to be the Democratic Nominee, and an opponent who seems to be modeling her views after his — with throngs of people chanting their rhetoric that the government will take care of all of society’s needs.

The media we consume is already 50 shades too vulgar for me to allow my children to watch a lot of daytime TV, openly, for fear that they might hear something they shouldn’t during the daytime talk shows or even the commercial breaks in between.

While people are consuming drugs — or rather is it consuming them? — Both illegal and hospitalized legal forms of drugs, some are slowly walking off the cliff of society, medicated all the way there, wondering why they feel so awful….

Our schools don’t want anyone to feel bad or hurt or neglected, and so they are stepping in make sure the children’s emotional needs are being taken care of… Let me say that I love that schools are looking out for our children —but there’s line. When did school become less about education and more about everything else, including reproductive rights? Did you know that Planned Parenthood is partnering with public schools in several states now?

Hmmm…

We’re drained by the sexual imagery surrounding us, yet God is being pushed out of every nook and cranny of our society that allows it… Religious holidays have become barely recognizable to what they were intended to be… Marriage and the nuclear family have become a sham, and Polyamorous, Legally Open Relationships are soon to be the next movement that society will be forced to accept the “loving model of what family should be.”

Has bitterness and racism that we are seeing more and more of in the media always been there, or is it possible that the bitterness has swelled with the more attention we place on it? Morgan Freeman was asked, “How do we stop racism?” “Stop talking about it.” He said, “I’m going to stop calling you a white man, and I’ve going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.” I hope this would be true. But, overall, we need focus less on our differences and more on our similarities.

People are flying new technologies and drones day to day, yet all while we become drones ourselves, in this life we’ve made. Life… It’s being drained away — slowly. And we, we’re are the ones bloodletting ourselves, letting the life trickle out, in hopes that we will get closer and closer to “better.”

The Truth is that there is only one whose blood was poured out in which we can find hope, and that is in Christ, our “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul,” of whom, we can “hold fast to the hope set before us.” (Excerpts Hebrews 6)

Seek the life that we can only have in Christ, and you will find hope for living today.

Did this help you?

If this show has encouraged you, Let Us Know and share it with others. While you’re in the helping mood, leave us a review on iTunes and you can leave ideas for future shows of Project Faith Journey. When you do this and subscribe to the program, other people begin hearing more of this about the changed life they can have in Christ. This is key and important. Help us reach others for Christ by sharing, subscribing and reviewing the show.

[comments-macleod]