Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
My approach on the End Time Prophetic Vision website is to focus on what God is doing and not what the enemy is up to. That’s why you will find little if any material on the identity of the anti-christ, or the mark of the beast. The same goes for the conspiracies: the new world order and the Illuminati and such. We also avoid occult topics and weird supernatural goings on like UFO's and the nephilim.
We feel that all this stuff is just the 'words of the strongman' who wants to put people in fear. Whose report will you believe? Believe not the 'evil report'. We will believe the report of the Lord, and he says Fear Not! Did you know that the exact phrase fear not is found is 63 verses in the KJV bible. And besides when we study the conspiracies to gain understanding of how to pray, isn’t this leaning on our own understanding?
Now let's look at what can happen to those who follow after the evil report.
Numbers 13:30-32
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Deuteronomy 1:27-30
27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
Now the evil report may well seem to be true, but the report of the Lord is that He can make a way where there is no way, and we will trust in Him!
The Conspiracy Theory
A conspiracy theory takes the other approach and if you fall for it, your confession may well turn out to be: our brethren have discouraged our heart!
The Wikipedia says this:
A conspiracy theory usually attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually political, social, pop cultural or historical events), or the concealment of such causes from public knowledge, to a secret, and often deceptive plot by a group of powerful or influential people or organizations. Many conspiracy theories imply that major events in history have been dominated by conspirators who manipulate political happenings from behind the scenes.
A Look At The Conspiracy Artist
The conspiracy artist preaches to those who want to believe in the conspiracy, so he is relieved of the burden of proof. He can make any outrageous claim he feels like, and it is never questioned by his dedicated audience.
He operates in a spirit of pride, pride in knowing. Also he uses an appeal to the pride of his readers or listeners, letting them feel that the average person is just an ignorant or apathetic boob, while we who are aware of this conspiracy are really the only ones in the know. Implying that we are better than the average Joe. We have inside knowledge. We are special.
The bible warns us about pride that comes from knowing things, or from thinking we know things.
1 Corinthians 8:1 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
The conspiracy artist has a wide range of tools to use in his craft. For example, appeals to pride, and arrogance. He makes full use of: accusations, slander, exaggeration, innuendos or derogatory insinuations; rumors, misquotations, half truths, dubious statistics and outright lies. Logical fallacies such as invalid conclusions, jumping to conclusions and wild generalizations are his stock in trade. A common tactic is the 'argument from authority'. This is where you are told to accept someone's opinion because just they are an expert in some area. This is a way of bypassing the need to prove what you claim.
They will make long lists of items with even the remotest connection to their subject. The longer the better, so the reader is overwhelmed by what they claim to be a body of evidence. And if the reader thinks about checking the facts, it's hard to tell where to start, even if there were an easy way to verify what is being claimed. Great use is made of words with negative connotations: alleged, supposed, so-called and so on are used to imply falsehood. They ignore any contradictory data. Some of what they say will be true, but the level of mixture is usually pretty high.
Blaming It All On Them
Another tactic of the conspiracy artist is placing blame on some whipping boy, or large organization, or secret society. The oil companies are to blame for high energy costs for example. Frequently these boogie men are also accused of attempted secrecy. The conspiracy artist will make himself look and his readers are assured that he is presenting facts that 'they don't want you to know.' Or they will tell you that the government or news media is lying about something. But the last person they will blame is the devil.
All Eyes On Man
To get your eyes away from Jesus, every freak event in nature is somehow caused by man. One of the recent disaster movies made plain statement that 'Global Warming is not an act of God, it's caused by man!' They will find a way to blame even seismic events on man. Astronomical events are of course blamed on Planet X! God is never taken into consideration.
Finally, as you look into a number of conspiracy sites on the web, you will find a fair number of them are anti-semitic, blaming the conspiracy on the Jews. Here is what the Wikipedia says on this point.
Anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories
The contemporary form of anti-Semitism is identified in Britannica 1911 as a conspiracy theory serving the self-understanding of the European aristocracy, whose social power waned with the rise of bourgeois society.
Antisemitic conspiracy theories have been conceived throughout history. According to Kenneth S. Stern,
"Historically, Jews have not fared well around conspiracy theories. Such ideas fuel anti-Semitism. The myths that Jews killed Christ, or poisoned wells, or killed Christian children to bake matzo, or "made up" the Holocaust, or plot to control the world, do not succeed each other; rather, the list of anti-Semitic canards gets longer. The militia movement today believes in the conspiracy theory of the Protocols, even if some call it something else and never mention Jews. From the perspective of history, we know that this is the type of climate in which anti-Semitism can grow."
Some justify involvement with conspiracy theories by claiming that we need to know what is really going on in the world. But what is really going on in the world doesn't matter! What we really need to know is found in these verses:
Matthew 8:24-26
24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Philippians 4:7-9
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
Romans 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Ephesians 5:12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
Isaiah 8:11-13 “For the Lord spoke this to me with a strong hand, and he instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people saying, “Do not say, “A conspiracy”, to all them to whom this people shall say, “A conspiracy”; neither fear you their fears, nor be afraid.” Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”