Exposing the sinister ideology behind the West’s current cultural “madness” – and how to respond
Into the Lion’s Den: Reaching a World Gone Mad
By Steve Maltz
Saffron Planet Publishing
ISBN 978-0-9931910-7-7
When a prolific author such as Steve Maltz claims that his latest book is his “most important ever”, it is worth considering why.
The title alludes, of course, to Daniel being tested in the lion’s den, but for Christians today, Western culture can be seen as equally threatening.
In this eye-opening book, Maltz examines Satan’s chosen method to devour the West – the unseen force behind the current explosion of political correctness, identity politics and blame culture – which goes by the name of Cultural Marxism.
Presented in Maltz’s usual readable style, parts one and two reveal how Cultural Marxism repackaged the failed ideas of economic and political Marxism in subtler, cultural terms.
To investigate this “covert cultural infiltration, hidden in plain sight”, Maltz starts with theosophist Alice Bailey’s ten-point plan, first formulated in 1948, to wrench society from its Christian roots. The creation of the Frankfurt School in 1923 had already given rise to Critical Theory in which everything is to be deconstructed. Then philosopher Herbert Marcuse and sociologist Theodor Adorno built upon Bailey’s views, publishing influential books in the 1950s.
In Cultural Marxist thinking, points of previous stability such as the family, or the notion of two genders, are re-interpreted as inherently oppressing arbitrary ‘victim groups’. The idea of objective truth is also considered tyrannical.
Opposing these victim groups warrants derisive, shut-down treatment (eg labels such as ‘homophobic’, ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘fascist’). Only Christians can never be considered as victims – after all, they are the oppressors, who have held the upper hand for so long!
We now have a whole range of potential ‘micro-aggressions’, ranging from casual comments to displaying biblical texts, wearing a cross or offering to pray for someone.
But perhaps God has allowed all this to shake us out of complacency and force us to re-evaluate our effectiveness?
In part three Maltz offers strategies to engage with this new culture for the sake of the Gospel. His starting point is that “we are not called to fix the Kingdom of the World, instead our role should be… helping to rescue people from this Kingdom by guiding them into the Kingdom of God”.
By exploring the possibility of a more Hebraic, ‘first century’ Christianity and how to achieve it, ‘Into the Lion’s Den’ is an exciting book, nota depressing one.
Maltz asserts that “our best weapon” against Cultural Marxism is understanding the difference between function and form. If we can’t talk about or quote Jesus without being criminalised, we must function as living examples of God’s Word, not just have the outward form of Christianity.
The author says that “Reaching a world gone mad is going to require more godly wisdom, rather than relying on our own powers of articulation or knowledge or experience”.
To illustrate this he gives examples of Christians’ responses when being grilled about their beliefs in TV interviews: will any of us do any better?
How important the book will be only time will tell, but it deserves to be widely read and discussed.
Paul Luckraft
This review was abridged with permission from Paul Luckraft’s full review which first appeared in Prophecy Today: www.prophecytoday.uk