Why do the nations conspire
Psalm 2:1-2
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed!
I found a hidden key to knowledge. I stumbled across it by accident. This key opens a fount of illuminating wisdom that can change the way you see the world.
Let me set the stage: I was sitting across the table from my niece Tierra and her fiancé Kyler. They are getting married soon and we were discussing their upcoming wedding, honeymoon, and future plans. Tierra, who normally has a constant sunny disposition, looked a little downcast. So I asked her what the problem was, “Kyler signed up for the show Survivor, and they contacted him telling him he is one of the three finalists in Michigan to be put on the show. If he gets selected that means for our first couple months of marriage he will be spending it with 19 other people on some far away island, getting to know them, cuddling with them, bonding with them, and it scares me that he will become interested with some lady there.”
I turned to Kyler, and asked him, “Is that true?” He said it has been a dream of his for years to be on the show because he has always been a fan. And then he said, “Tierra doesn’t need to worry because Survivor isn’t like the Bachelor where people are hooking up, it is a game of winning challenges and outlasting the others to win the million. So she doesn’t need to worry, and plus a million dollars would help us a whole lot as a newly married couple.” He then asked me if I have ever seen the show?
I had not. So I decided to watch with my kids and we instantly were hooked. This is where I found the key. I wasn’t looking for it, but like a hidden immunity idol, there it was buried under the story-line of the show.
The game of Survivor is pretty simple, as Kyler said, it is about being the last one to remain in order to win a million dollars. It is full of physical and mental challenges, camping with strange people you just met, and it lasts for 39 days. Hopefully, you have played well enough and manipulated enough people so they won’t vote you off on your way to a million. It is fun to watch, but there is a “flaw” in the game. It is called the final tribal council.
What is the final tribal council you ask? It is a group of nine people who were previously voted off. At the very end of the show, they get to decide the winner. The only problem with this is that they often do not choose the winner based on performance or how well they played the game; most of the time they choose based on emotion and personal coalitions. Like the popular kids in high school, cool people stick together. The group decides if they like the person or not, and if they like them they will give them a positive vote, if not, tough luck!
In Cook Islands, season 13, there was a player named Ozzy who was unstoppable, no one could beat him in challenges, he provided food for everyone, fresh fish and coconuts, and he did it all without having an “immunity idol” to protect him. His game was flawless. If the game was really based on play he would have won, but at the final tribal council, the majority of the council was persuaded by a very smooth talking man named “Yule” that he was more strategic and therefore, should win.
Yes, Yule was a very good player, but compared to Ozzy, he couldn’t really hold a candle. But boy could he make a case for himself at the end of the show. So after they all made their cases, the council of nine voted, and Yule won 5 votes to 4. It was a close vote, but it was not the person who should have won.
Some of you who saw it may say to me, “Sure Yule should have won! He was a better strategist and persuader. Ozzy should have made a better case. And plus Chris, it is all a matter of your opinion!”
And there is the rub, that is the “flaw” in the show: “Judgement in that game is all a matter of majority opinion!” And that same flaw is in all of us when it comes to the final determination of your existence, we all think our destiny will be based on “Human Reasoning and the Majority Opinion.” People truly believe eternal rewards are determined by majority opinion. If someone is a culturally good person they deserve heaven. Ultimately ultimate things seem to be based on how well a person was seen by other people around them. Does the collective opinion vote in favor of you? If it does, people believe you are in, if not you probably are out…sucker!
In our world, it is quite easy to persuade the collective majority to vote in your favor. All you have to do is agree to every lifestyle choice, encourage every experiment of sexual fancy and gender trend that is popular, tolerate the confiscation of your property by the sophisticated elite, rejoice in the extermination of the human embryo in the womb, have no convictions about anything that matters (ie: politics and religion), fight for anyone that claims to be a victim even if they are not a victim, and have a casual relationship with Jesus without really believing a word he says (Except of course his discourse in Matthew 25 where he wants you to give a cup of cold water to the least of these). If you do all those things and you are constantly vigilant to make sure you are on the “right side of history” you will be warmly welcomed and voted “in favor of” by the collective opinion of the majority of the world. In other words, these days a person whose character can be described as “tolerant milk-toast” wins.
But if the jury ever finds you standing on principles, arguing for truth, declaring a very specific theological salvation belief (Jesus is the only way to heaven, and he wants you to stop sinning), you will be voted out. Don’t you dare make moral judgments of others, nor look down on anyone who dresses any way they want at any time they want in any place they want. In other words, these days a person whose character can be described as “God-fearing and pure living” loses.
I think the show Survivor could really be improved if Jeff Probst was able to judge the players based on some sort of criteria: Challenges won, puzzles solved, cooperation around camp. And how they treated other players should come into play as well. But there should be some objective way to tell if a person played a good game. It would at least reward more of the truly ‘good’ players than the schmucks who coasted and simply got people to vote for them because they are great persuaders.
Did you know that in life there is another council that will be voting for your eternity? You can find it spelled out very specifically in the book of John 12:46-49:
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.
I want you to notice 2 things: (1) Jesus came into the world to show us how to play this game called life. He lived the rules, and how a person receives him and follows him is how they will be judged. (2) He has spoken the rules very clearly, and it will be those rules that will be used as a measuring stick on a person’s eternal destiny.
There is no majority opinion in this game! There is no collective agreement, there is only one standard. And by that standard, a person will stand or fall. In the book of John, one of the followers of Jesus wanted to clarify the rules, so he asked him in John 6:28-29, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Judgment is not based on how the other players feel about you. It is not even about how well you culturally behaved. The collective majority has a collective arrogance where they really believe they have the right to determine the worth of a person by their set of made up standards.
No, what matters is the opinion of the Only God. Listen to how Jesus puts it in John 5:41-44. “I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the Only God?”
Jesus is clearly saying the majority opinion is a bunch of hogwash! There is only one person he is trying to please, his Father! Whose opinion matters to you? The cultural elite’s that you watch on cable tv? The late-night comedians? The cool guy or girl that is drunk at the party? The majority opinion on a Facebook post? Or the God who created the game you are playing?
The flaw in the human psyche is simple to see: People really think their opinion matters more than the God who made them.
So you are probably wondering, “Is Kyler going to go on his honeymoon, or spend two months with stinky people on Survivor?” Don’t know, the jury is still out!
