The Scoffer's Pit • John Ahava

One of the fastest growing trends, today, is the sport of mocking other people. If the news covered the state of humanity like it does with weather or the stock market, I could see a reporter saying something like, “Patience is at an all time low, but disrespect is higher than ever!”

Most of us would probably agree, social media has certainly not helped things.

Although it’s easy to see this happening around us — if we’re honest — we can often be blinded to this trait in ourselves or in those who are “on our side”. When we find the bravery to take a look in the mirror, however, we begin to see just how easy it can be to explain away or even justify scorning others. It is especially easy if the target of our scorn is on the wrong “team”. The reality is, though, regardless of team, this phenomenon is happening at an alarming rate on both sides of the political aisle and across all religious beliefs.

So, why is this? Is there a justified use of scorn? If so, how can we know the difference?

Today, we’re going to take a look at some examples and teachings from the Bible which were written specifically to help us navigate this difficult (and even unique!) time period in history.

Jesus, when speaking of this final age, says in the Book of Matthew, “In the last days, people’s hearts will grow cold.”

He goes on to explain that this happens when society becomes so consumed with themselves that their very nature changes. This generation of people, he says, begin to elevate their own ideas and self-importance above everything else. Social conventions like respect and common kindness become despised. Even the physical laws of the land are viewed as unimportant and not applicable to the people. The literal word used to describe this state of the world is “lawlessness”.

Both Peter and Jude also warn us of this same generation, curiously identifying the dominating spirit of the age as that of The Scoffer.

With that said, because the Bible spends so much time trying to warn us of these things, it’s very important that we study them. By doing so, we can learn to identify the carefully laid traps that have been foretold for millennia, which are described as capturing nearly all who walk the earth during this time. And, by understanding these warnings, we can avoid being one of the ones who falls into them!

It is certainly undeniable that “lawlessness abounds” in our day, and this becomes more obvious each day. Considering this, it also becomes all the more important that we not allow ourselves to lose our Love, like those of whom Jesus speaks. This is especially challenging, because while we do not want to become bitter, we also do not want to become weak and lose our strength to stand against evil.

So where do we draw the line? And, how do we stand strong without allowing ourselves to be swallowed up by the spirit of the age?

I want to thank you for joining me, today, on this chapter-sized study as we look into these things and discover, together, how we can come out victorious, even in the midst of this difficult, prophetic age!

Handle With Care

Before we talk about the trap of scoffing, it’s also important to first point out that satirizing and even making a mockery of foolish ideologies can be a very powerful and effective tool. With that said, it can also be very dangerous if used unwisely.

Much like a welder’s torch that can cut through thick metal or a jackhammer that can uproot a sidewalk, mockery can do very difficult work in a short amount of time. That being said, any expert in the field will tell you that these tools must be treated with extreme care and respect. They also know that such tools aren’t appropriate for most jobs. When Grandma invites you over to help her dig up her flower bed, you probably don’t roll up with a Cat 320 Hydraulic Excavator.

That said, however, heavy jobs take heavy equipment; and, heavy equipment, takes sober, trained operators.

In the case of mocking, the most important aspects to consider are the intended target and the spirit behind it. If you’re feeling powerful or smug after delivering a zinger, chances are you’ve handled things improperly. If you notice that kind of spirit in yourself, it’s usually best to simply put down the tool until you’ve properly learned how and when to wield it. This is something I’m working on, as well.

A good Biblical example of this tool being used effectively is found in the story of Elijah, who made a mockery of the false god Baal before a whole crowd of people.

As the story goes, Elijah publicly challenged the resident prophets of Baal to a showdown. The challenge — prove whose God had the real power. Whichever one could send fire down from the sky to light an offering on fire was the real deal.

I imagine the atmosphere was tense. A large crowd of townspeople had formed and continued to grow as the hours passed, each one watching intently as the prophets of Baal wore out the daylight with their chanting, incanting, and conjuring. The prophets tried every trick in the book, but nothing was working. They eventually became so desperate that they started cutting themselves and bleeding all over the place! Despite all that, still no fire to be seen.

After what was likely hours of silence, Elijah started to call out to them, teasing. “Where is Baal? Perhaps he went on a trip! Maybe he’s using the bathroom!”

If this happened today, this is the point in the story that the videos on social media would freeze the frame and zoom into Elijah’s face. Pixelated sunglasses and a gold chain would descend onto Elijah’s visage, with the words “Thug Life” superimposed at the bottom of the screen. Within a few days, “Elijah trolls prophets” would be a viral sensation with millions of views and shares. Another win for our team to revel in!

But, with that said, there are a few key takeaways from our story so far, that are important to understanding why Elijah used mockery and how he even did it wisely!

He was under orders by God to change the minds of the people
As a prophet, Elijah served a judicial role. He spoke what he was told to speak and did what he was told to do.
He targeted the idea, not the people
His goal was to prove foolishness to be a lie so that the people could see it compared to Truth.
The target was worthy of heavy machinery
The people’s wrong belief was leading to their destruction. Like a surgeon who carefully cuts out a cancerous tumor, Elijah was tasked to quickly and completely excise the deadly lies instilled by the false prophets.
The goal was to elevate Truth, not himself
This one is key. Elijah didn’t set out to show that he was smarter than everyone else. He didn’t use the platform to elevate his political party or crank out any “dank memes” of the false prophets faces photoshopped with clown makeup. His whole goal was to turn the hearts of the people back toward Truth, so that their renewed relationship with God could restore them, both as a nation and individually.

Put simply, Elijah’s use of mockery was for one purpose — to tear down the lie, so the truth had a place to be built.

Building after Breaking

Elijah knew that mockery, itself, wasn’t the ultimate point. Rather, he knew that it only did the initial work of breaking up the bad foundation that was cemented in the people’s hearts. The most important work was to build their faith on Truth, which happened in the epic conclusion to the story.

After the prophets had finished all their huffing, puffing, and bleeding, Elijah began to build an altar for the Lord out of stones. No doubt, every eye was fixed on him by this point. Baal had taken his shot, yet nothing happened. Now, it was Yahweh’s turn.

What Elijah did next, I’m sure shocked many in the crowd. Instead of rituals or incantations, he directed the people to pour water on the altar. He continued pouring until everything was soaked. Even the ground around it was wet! When he was satisfied, Elijah prayed a simple prayer. And, no sooner had he finished than fire fell from the sky. Not only did that fire consume what was on the altar, but it burned so hot that even the rocks that made up the altar turned to dust.

In this moment, the “lulz” from the prophets’ embarrassment was likely the furthest thing from the peoples’ mind. If you’ll allow me to draw out the metaphor to its conclusion, though the moment of mockery helped knock down and clear out the old, unsteady foundation, the true event of the evening was the construction of a Tower of Faith, established on the Foundation of Truth.

Now, there are a lot of people who might suggest that I’m advocating for “weakness” by saying we should not mock people. Generally, this is the argument used when people want to defend their own sour spirit. They don’t want to be called out for bitterness or pride. Many defend their actions as “fighting back against evil”, and some even call it “ministry”.

With that said, it’s very important to also look at the conclusion to our story. After Truth was established and God was shown to be true, the prophets were dealt with, severely. This was done in a way which was both judicial and legal. As you might imagine, this means that their fate was far worse than memes or clown emojis. According to the law, these prophets were to lose their lives, and that’s exactly what happened!

It is very important to point out, however, that this wasn’t done because of the whims of the people. It also wasn’t executed by the hands of civilians. The reality is, vengeance and judgment belong to God, and one of His means of carrying out Justice is through the hands of people He’s placed in positions of legal authority.

One of the most important things for us to learn from this story and others like it is this — God didn’t execute judgment on the evil authorities until His own people first turned from their own sin.

It was only after His people turned from their own rebellion that true justice could prevail. We see this same pattern so often throughout Biblical History. Though few Christians today may realize it, society becomes corrupt from the bottom up, and it finds deliverance in the same manner.

I would go so far as to say, it is often times in His Mercy that the sword of Justice is stayed for a time. This is because if it were to come, it would have to take the lives of both the wicked leadership and the rebellious people!

To put it more simply — the solution to corrupt leadership begins with a penitent people.

The Appeal of Scoffing

You might wonder, why is it that so many people are drawn to scoffing in these days? You may even, like me, find yourself often wrestling with the temptation toward bitterness or scoffing. What is the appeal, and is it proof that we are in the final days?

Most of us would agree that the “lawlessness” that Jesus spoke of has taken ahold of our generation. Utter foolishness has become the standard. Every day we hear something else so unbelievably astonishing in its nature, we’re left wondering how any sane or even marginally rational person could consider it to be true.

The former ideological imperatives of “logic” and “rationalism”, once held sacred by the generation before the present, have all but been devoured by the black hole of modern day relativism. Like a plague, this irrational ideology has swept over the entire world, swallowing up everything in its path. Not only are our history books being rewritten, but even our text books, once having held the culmination of history’s scientific discoveries, are now being “deconstructed” and “reimagined”. Former notions like the scientific method or even basic math are met with paradoxically unrelated condemnations.

Do you believe 2+2 = 4? Bad news. You’re a racist.

While you might think I’m having a bit of fun, that comes from an actual Mathematics professor in New York City, who very recently said that 2+2 = 4 “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.”

Furthering that idea, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has begun using its influence to perpetuate what they call “equitable math”, which states that math courses should not focus on “getting the right answer.” (Again, this is for math!)

So why is the notion of mathematics having knowable answers evil? Well — racism again. Why not?

Astonishingly, people have now also found it easy to hold two contradicting beliefs at the same time. Most surprising is the great ease with which they’re able to adopt these opposing views, even being able to switch back and forth between them in the middle of a conversation, defending both positions. All this, without having the faintest notion that their positions are not logically cohesive. Worse yet, one position could often be used to argue against the other.

As these things progress, I see more and more liberal, atheist professors left dumbfounded and helpless as they watch the quintessential pillars of logic and science crumble around them. Many are afraid to speak out, and those who do are punished, blacklisted, fired, or worse… They’re labeled far-right.

To my surprise, I’ve even heard several say, “We miss the Christians.” Some go so far as to say that, while they don’t agree with the beliefs, the moral impact resulting from true, moral Christianity has been critical to the formation, preservation, intellectual development, and even the financial prosperity of civilized society, both in recent times and throughout history. (Surprising as it may sound, I’m not making that up!)

But, regardless of where you may fall on the political spectrum, if you’re paying attention, the grim reality is easy to see. The world is rapidly descending into madness.

Unfortunately, it is because of these things that the appeal of the Scoffer’s Pit becomes so great. For all of these reasons, it really is quite easy to allow anger to take hold. The problem with this is that when anger begins to lead you, each mile marker on the journey carries with it the cost of more and more truth. At every toll stop along the highway, you exchange another hard earned “dollar” for a receipt labeled “pride”. As the miles go on, your wallet gets emptier and the receipts pile up.

However slowly at first, eventually an idea begins to form:

“I am right, and anyone who disagrees with me is a blind fool.”

The Start

When looking at this phenomenon, it helps to trace out the progression of how it all goes wrong. The most sinister aspect of the Scoffer’s Pit is that it often starts out innocently and with a genuine stand for what is true and good.

Undeniably, it is good to love truth and to value it highly. This makes it all the more surprising when something that starts out so good eventually becomes so unhealthy.

Initially, when a person sees the world rapidly changing its entire frameworks for morality and even fundamentals like science, it feels like the world is turning upside down. After some time, that person begins to question everything and everyone, even him or herself.

Take the average Western father, for example. All of the sudden, people he doesn’t even know are all saying terrible things about him. Bizarrely, he learns this is because he was born with a “normal” gender and sexuality. Half of the words he’s used for years are being redefined or replaced by new terminology that is “less problematic”. To make matters worse, his children come home from school one day and begin to tell him what they’ve been learning — namely, that he and his wife are monsters and evil oppressors! (In math class, no doubt)

Most distressing of all is that none of these condemnations are based on any of his own actions. Instead, he’s told that these are immutable traits. They are born into him and they cannot be expunged. Despite this fact, however, he also learns that he is required to “do the work”, in effort to fix what cannot be fixed and to change what is unchangeable. It’s not hard to see how this can be frustrating, and this is just a small slice of the difficulty surrounding our present era.

When confronted with the immense pressure that comes with these new rules of thought, many capitulate out of fear. Those who do, whether they realize it or not, are making the choice to commit the rest of their lives to play a game whose rules contradict one another and change daily.

The reality is, there is only one truly concrete rule in this nightmarish game — you can’t win.

The Descent

For those who don’t succumb to fear, however, it isn’t difficult to imagine how anger starts to take hold.

Unfortunately, when that anger takes root, it generally causes the person to band together with other angry people. As it inevitably does, what starts as discussion turns to scoffing and mocking “the others”. And, as it also goes, the angriest voices speak the loudest.

In time, these groups grow larger and become camps. The camps form doctrine, and the doctrine becomes sacred. Mockery and scoffing those of opposing doctrines becomes a group sport. Eventually, unbeknownst to its members, the group ends up looking just like what they fought against. The only difference is the doctrine. But if it isn’t truth, does it matter?

More succinctly put — little by little, what began as a hatred for insanity, turns into its own brand of insanity. Guided by anger and mistrust of the establishment, the love of Truth becomes the love of lies — albeit different lies.

In many such cases, the person ends up trapped. Their family and friends gradually stop speaking to them. This only serves to free up more time to increase their descent — as they continue scrolling endlessly through mockery memes, reading telegram “drops”, and watching rant videos and silly cartoons which mock their enemies.

Tragically, this often even happens to believers. Many, for example, started by standing for truth and ended up becoming evangelists for Q-anon. Some have abandoned the faith entirely, where others abandon its foundational beliefs but still call themselves Christian.

Just a few days ago, I spoke with a man who began talking about a few corporations that own a massive share of the businesses in the world. His information was correct. He started light, and much of what he said was true. However, three and a half hours later, I had still done very little speaking. Instead, I primarily listened as he took me down the proverbial rabbit hole, “educating me” on the hidden truths of the world. Sadly, it was like getting a guided tour of his own progression into madness that occurred over the last few years.

Out of respect for him, I will not say too much, but some general points are worth making, as it is a common pattern, and it’s truly very easy for it to happen to any of us. It also happens slowly.

It seems that he’d started out frustrated by the nonsense narratives of the day, as so many of us are. However, as time went on he joined more and more social media sites. Eventually, he got into interpreting the “Q-Anon” messages, and the spiral intensified. By the end of the conversation, I’d learned that aliens are among us, and they control everything. They also use us as food. I also learned that in the near future, humans will physically “become the blockchain”, allowing us to be bought and traded, presumably by the aliens. According to him, this is technologically possible because of superconductive metal added to our food.

I should point out that this was not a homeless man or a psychiatric patient. (Though, I don’t say that to make fun. Mental illness is a complex and incredibly difficult thing.)

Rather, this man is a successful business owner doing very well for himself. Even more tragically, he knew about Jesus. He knew much of the Bible and indicated being raised in a church setting. I imagine he would readily claim to be Christian. Yet, as time went on, he painted the picture of his journey for “truth”.

Dismayed by obvious lies in the media, his quest for truth led to his entertaining what seems like any and all conspiracy theories, without discrimination or discernment. Ultimately, he got into new age teaching by way of conspiracy groups. He came to believe that Christ was a man who achieved divinity through adjusting His consciousness, implying that we can do the same. This all “clicked” for him as he began to understand the supposed truth about aliens and the rest of what he’d read.

At the end of the conversation, I was exhausted and felt drained. This was a man who was entrepreneurial, intelligent, and successful. He even started out with a kernel of truth. Incredibly, however, by going into the Scoffer’s Pit, he ended up exchanging what truth He started out with for a greater lie. Though he may have found a small amount of new, valid knowledge along the journey, regarding who’s pulling the strings or who owns what in the world, he ultimately lost the knowledge he’d grown up with, which was infinitely more valuable.

When he told me that he’d learned Christ “aligned his consciousness and shed his physical body in order to achieve his light body”, I quietly responded, “That’s the premise of Gnosticism.”

He paused a moment and said, “Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Not so surprisingly, many of these allegedly new spiritual revelations being taught, today, are just the same old lies that the Apostles spent so much of their lives refuting in the early church, not to mention the prophets in the days before.

The Disease and the Cure

The big question with all of this is how and why is it happening?

How does one start out with truth and end up with lies? Why do many who choose resistance on the grounds of Truth end up descending into another sort of madness?

The old saying comes to mind, “Out of the frying pan, and into the fire!”

Is there a reason that this happens? More importantly, can we prevent it from happening to us? Or, is it like an unstoppable airborne virus, wherein we’re forced to recognize that it’s only a matter of time before we’re all infected?

Fortunately, we find the answer to this in many places in the Bible, and it tells us that there is a way to remain safe!

The name of the cure — Wisdom.

In the Book of Proverbs, we find a verse that is so subtle and understated, I actually don’t even know how to express the depth or importance it holds. In this verse, God reveals a Law of Nature that both explains this phenomenon and how to avoid it.

See what it says about what happens to a scoffer.

A scoffer seeks Wisdom and does not find it. But Knowledge is easy to him who understands.
Prov 14:6 (NASB)

At first glance, it can be easy to read this verse and miss the law. I’ve read it many times without really considering what it is saying.

But, when we slow down and look a little closer, the principle becomes clear — when we become a scoffer, we become blind to Wisdom.

This is a terrifying thought! If it doesn’t strike fear in you, allow me to humbly suggest that it should. Reading the rest of Proverbs helps make clear just how critical Wisdom is to our own survival and success. Much like oxygen or water, Wisdom is the last thing you want to be caught without in this life!

When I was reading the Bible, today, this verse struck me, which is what led to my writing this piece. As I read it, the man I spoke with came to mind. For nearly four long hours, I got a glimpse of his journey into the pit. Metaphorically speaking, I could see the light of truth at the opening of the pit grow dimmer and dimmer, the deeper we went.

In my mind’s eye, I ended up seeing the Scoffer’s Pit. I had an understanding of what the journey is like and where it ends. Although it may be shocking and seem like it only describes a few “crazy” people, I hope you’ll stick with me one more short minute as I share the story of what I saw in the Scoffer’s Pit, as it applies to all and can take any of us.

The Pit

When you first enter the pit, everything seems fine. Light still shines through the opening, and it’s easy to breathe.
After some time, however, as you descend lower into the chasm, the light pouring in from opening grows smaller, and it becomes more difficult to see. You begin to notice the dwellers inside are eating the moss growing on the walls for sustenance.
“Sure, it sounds bad,” they tell you, “but the moss tastes great, and it feels even better!”
It turns out that they are right. And, the darkness isn’t so bad either. In fact, you quickly learn that the darker it is, the better it is to see the strange visions that the moss helps produce. You’ve already seen many wonderous and secret things, dancing marvelously on the backs of your eyelids! It’s an incredible experience.
“This must be what sight really is!” you think, scoffing at the fools who walk around in the daylight. “They have no idea what they’re missing.”
After awhile, you begin to stink. The friends and kind strangers who used to visit and provide buckets of water had to settle for dropping in a bottle here or there. At this depth, it isn’t possible to get buckets down, and without them, bathing is out of the question. It doesn’t much matter, though. Family members stopped visiting long ago. They said that the smell was too nauseating to be around.
“Good riddance! The blind fools! Who needs them?”
Eventually, you go so deep that you can no longer see the surface. The visions are all you see now. You’re never quite sure if you are dreaming or awake. It wouldn’t matter anyway, as it’s too dark to see with natural eyes at this depth. Sure, everyone reeks, but no one notices. When everyone smells the same, it no longer even registers.
“This is life. It’s just how it is,” you assert confidently to no one in particular.
It’s become hard to remember what life was like before the pit. But, it doesn’t really matter. There’s no time to think about such trivial things, anyway. The visions are important clues, and you can’t afford to miss one.
Unfortunately, the ultimate end for those who stay in the pit is the same.

Eventually, all die from lack of light, nutrients, and hydration. Sadly, by that point, many tend to welcome it. In their madness, many are convinced that death is the next step in their transcendence. They are, after all, like gods — wise ones in a world of fools. They’ve found the “hidden truths”.
“Darkness is light. Blindness is sight. Death is life.”
This is what lies at the bottom of The Scoffer’s Pit.

Conclusion

Make no mistake — though the bottom is grotesque, the mouth of the pit is enticing.

The sustenance of scoffing smells good. It tastes good. It even makes you feel good. Yet, it is like eating trace amounts of mercury every day. Over time, it poisons the body and the mind. In this example, the hidden poison is the element of pride.

It’s easy to hear these things and think, “I don’t see how mocking my political enemies has anything to do with this! I’m standing for the truth, and I don’t believe in aliens!”

The simple truth is this — the spirit of the scoffer is the spirit of pride.

The higher you lift yourself up in pride, the lower you go into the pit. You might not ever believe the lies the man I spoke about believes, but you also cannot simultaneously hold on to Truth and pride. Remember, it’s not a matter of which lies you believe, it’s a matter of the Truth you surrender. As with our example of the toll road, just remember that every mile robs your wallet and leaves you with a pile of receipts labeled “Pride”.

I hope I can encourage you to stay away from the Scoffer’s pits. When one calls out, “Come join me in mocking our enemies!” or even “Let’s wake people up to the truth!” do not answer him or her.

Even if they say something true, first examine the spirit for signs of pride. If you detect it, keep walking. That’s the odour of the strange moss on their breath.

Finally, hold to the Truth and love it, but remember to also hold on to Wisdom. Without Wisdom, Truth gets replaced by a lie, and madness quickly swallows up sanity.

Finally, please understand this regarding finding Wisdom.

Without first walking through the Door of Humility, you cannot enter into the Garden of Wisdom.

The Door is this:

God is good. I am not.
Yet, through faith and obedience to Christ, I am able to become what I am not. Thanks to Him, I will receive a reward that I do not deserve and escape the sentence that I do deserve.
His ways are right, and His thoughts are higher than mine. I will follow and obey, even when it hurts, and will spend my days pursuing Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding, knowing that my source of those things is His Word.
I will also strive, always, to walk in Righteousness and to speak the Truth. With every step and every word, I commit myself to never losing sight of Love, which is the shield that surrounds me, and of the Truth, which is the light that guides me.

The Scoffer’s Pit