Irreconcilable Differences: the Demonic Doctrine of Division and the Fall of America

How often have you heard about a couple filing for divorce and citing the cause as “irreconcilable differences?”  That term is intentionally vague and broad, allowing for a wide range of reasons a marriage can be considered legally failed.  Cornwell Law School defines irreconcilable differences as “when spouses are unable to get along or work together to maintain their marriage.” It could be based on “a lack of communication, differing political views, lack of sexual intimacy, disagreements over finances, or other various factors.”  Irreconcilable differences are

commonly used as grounds for a no-fault divorce, where neither partner has done anything necessarily wrong; they just can’t get along with their disparities.  Courts rarely inquire about the specific differences that led to the divorce, and according to Divorce.com, approximately 60% of divorces in the United States cite irreconcilable differences as the reason.

These couples reach what I have come to call an “irrevocable impassé.”  They have grown so far apart and struggled for so long with their differences that one or both of them has reached a point of polarized emotional detachment in their marriage.  Once that threshold is reached, there is little to no motivation for turning it around.  They are deadlocked in their differences, neither is willing to concede or compromise, and the decision to dissolve the marriage is resolved in their thoughts and intentions.

In discussing “difficult” (meaning violent & alarming) conditions that will characterize “the last days” (referring to the closing days of the current Church Age just before the Rapture occurs and the Tribulation Period begins), Paul declared - For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:2-5).

Included in this alarming and revealing list is the Greek word ASPONDOS, translated here as “irreconcilable.”  The root word in the Greek refers to libation.  In ancient times, when a treaty or covenant was enacted, the parties would perform a libation, referring to some form of sacrifice performed to seal the deal.  It was similar to the more modern “blood brothers” oath, where two persons make a small cut on the finger or the palm of their hands and press the wounds together, so that the blood of one flows into the blood of the other, demonstrating the sincerity, firmness, and unity of their agreement (a dangerous and unhealthy practice, by the way).  The “alpha” prefix in ASPONDOS negates the treaty so that the meaning is “without libation.”  In other words, the parties are unable or unwilling to reach mutually acceptable terms or an agreement.  They are irreconcilable in their perspectives and persuasions, and the positions they hold against each other are irrevocable.

In my book series, I address this condition several times as part of the system of darkness that is permeating our culture, particularly in Volume Two, where I define the demonic Doctrine of Division.  It has caused widespread fracturing in various sectors of our society, including government, politics, the judiciary, news media, entertainment, education, and the corporate sector.  It is so deeply entrenched that hatred, hostility, and even violence accompany much of its manifestation in our nation and world.

One example of this kind of cultural dissidence is recorded in three of the Gospels, an account in which a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?" But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons." And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?”

(Matthew 12:22-26).  The disparity between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders of His day was a classic case of irreconcilable differences.  They were unwilling to accept Jesus as God’s promised Messiah, an irrevocable impassé, which served their insatiable quest to discredit and disparage Him among the people.  Their hostility and violent rejection of Jesus eventually led to their national execution of Him on the cross.

In this account, we find a man whose demonic possession was manifested through blindness and the inability to speak.  That does not mean all blindness and speech impediments are indications of demonic possession, as some religious sensationalists like to suggest.  This case actually was, and Jesus acknowledged that immediately and delivered the man instantly.  What a grand demonstration of divine authentication and authority!  But the religious enemies of Jesus refused to acknowledge such deity and accused Him of casting out a demon through the power of demons.  Think about the ridiculous nature of that suggestion!  Jesus effectively countered their accusation by pointing out – If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself (Matthew 12:26).  Even Satan is more brilliant than that!  It would be like firefighters trying to put out a fire by throwing gasoline into the flames rather than retardant!

Jesus provides an alarming consequence to divisive conditions in general, when He states – Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. (Matthew 12:25).  America better sit up straight and heed carefully that revealing insight!  Irreconcilable differences, manifested in such stark and violent division, lead to the collapse and destruction of any marriage, home, church, business, and especially any country or nationality.  It is a tragic certainty!  Satan knows this because his three-fold mission, as I outline in the first volume of my book series, is to kill, steal, and destroy. (John 10:10).  Destitution, destruction, and death are the fundamental objectives that rage in hell’s relentless war room, and irreconcilable differences among people and nations are a proven method for bringing lasting success to those sinister ambitions.

In two previous vacation adventures in the Rocky Mountain regions of our country, Carol and I have had the opportunity to crisscross the Western Continental Divide at several places throughout Colorado and Yellowstone National Park.  In short, “a continental divide is an area of raised terrain that separates a continent’s river systems that feed into different basins.” (National Geographic).  Water doesn’t travel uphill, so the divide serves as the impassé that permanently separates water flow away from that barrier.  This geological wonder symbolizes the growing condition we see characterizing our nation.

I have a working theory to propose that may provide insight for this societal phenomenon unfolding in America – “the Evolution of an Impassé.”  Since we are a nation of people who interact and relate with one another in many ways, we can illustrate this evolution through the average couple.

The First Phase:  Mild Distinctions

We all have baggage.  We began packing it when we were born, accumulating all the items we acquired during our growing-up years in our family, from our parents and siblings, to the things we collected as we ventured out into young adulthood, including experiences with peers, courtship, educational pursuits, and job experiences.  Emerging from this baggage are many of our needs, desires, and expectations about life.  When we meet the one we fall in love with and decide to spend the rest of our lives together in marriage, we combine all our baggage with theirs, intermingling their needs, desires, and life expectations with ours.  Any sensible-thinking person would readily admit that in such an amalgamation, certain clashes in needs and expectations will inevitably arise, but young love and respect keep those relational distinctions at a relatively mild level of tolerance and negotiation.  When that fails, and often even when it doesn’t, managing those distinctions can easily advance to the next level in the evolutionary development.

The Second Phase:  Moderate Discord

Distinctions that intensify and increase over time can evolve from a mild form of tolerance to a more moderate form of discord.  What used to be a minor state of inconvenience can become a mutating source of irritation.  The clash in needs, desires, and expectations becomes more frequent and challenging to negotiate.  With that progression also comes mounting emotional conflict, as resentment, bitterness, and a sense of distancing begin to emerge.  When the individuals fail to find amicable ways to negotiate these differences, a widening distance and deepening divide begin to characterize their relationship.  This discord can escalate to a more widespread stage of discrepancies.  They begin to notice more distinctions and regard them with greater severity, spreading the discord between them like a growing malignancy.

The Third Phase:  Malignant Disparity

Let’s take a brief educational sideroad and think for a moment about malignancy.  We all have trillions of cells in our bodies, each with its unique genetic structure. Yet, they all contain the same DNA that we received at conception, which distinguishes us as individuals from everyone else.  The normal behavior of these cells is to grow and multiply into new cells as our body needs them.  As cells age or become damaged, they die, and new cells replace them.

The National Cancer Institute explains, “Sometimes this orderly process breaks down, and abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply when they shouldn’t.”  These cells may form lumps of tissue called tumors, which can be cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign).  Malignant tumors spread to nearby tissues and can travel to other parts of the body, forming new tumors (metastasis).

So, cancer is a genetic disease.  It is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially with regard to growth and division.  Cancer-causing genetic changes can happen as a result of errors in cell division, damage to the DNA caused by harmful substances in the environment, such as tobacco and alcohol abuse, ultraviolet rays from the sun, and genetics inherited from our parents.  The body normally eliminates damaged cells before they turn cancerous, but as we age, our body’s ability to do so reduces, making us more at risk of cancer later in life.

The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center defines four stages of cancer development: Stage 0 is for abnormal cells that haven’t spread and are not considered cancer, though they could become cancerous in the future.  Stages I-III are for cancers that haven’t spread beyond the primary tumor site or have only spread to nearby tissue.  The higher the stage number, the larger the tumor and the more it has spread.  Stage IV cancer has spread to distant areas of the body, such as the bone, brain, lungs, and liver.  It is the most severe stage of cancer with the highest mortality rate.  While Stage IV is not always terminal, it does usually require more aggressive forms of treatment.  Terminal cancer is that which is deemed incurable, treatment options are limited, and eventually results in death.

I hope this analogy to our discussion is coming clear.  When a relationship is long-term, it is interesting to see how what is uniquely one and what is uniquely the other becomes what is uniquely them.  Neither loses their individual uniqueness, but together they define who they are becoming as a married couple, for instance.

The more they negotiate their baggage, the more clearly who they are together presents itself.  When distinctions evolve into discord, and growing, gnawing discrepancies turn malignant in their relationship, the greater the suffering, and the more surmountable the challenge becomes to fix things.  Stage 0 evolves into varying degrees of Stages I-III, and left unattended or unresolved, will quickly progress into Stage IV, accompanied by the growing pains of anger, hostilities, and resentment, with little hope for a cure.  When the relationship reaches terminal status, separation and divorce become the only option.  They have reached the impasse, an irrevocable outcome of their irreconcilable differences.

I believe we can observe a similar evolution in our American society.  Never in the history of our nation, since I have been living at least, have we been more divided.  Yes, we have always had our differences with other nations around the world and within our own people, but it seems we were better at getting along in the 1950s and 1960s when I was growing up.  We had a deeper respect for our fellow man than we seem to have now, which motivated us to see our differences as less threatening and find ways to work effectively together despite them.

However, at some point in our country's evolution, we became more polarized and dogmatic about our perspectives and viewpoints.  We are not as tolerant of our differences as we once were.  We have become stubborn in our mindset and immovable in our positions, so that we cannot effectively negotiate the discord of our clashes.  The anger, violence, and hostilities being hurled at one side by the other are growing in both frequency and intensity.  We are reaching the critical point of an irrevocable impassé as a society.

What dynamics fuel this evolution?  One that I think is evident in our society is traditions and the loyalties upheld to those traditions.  Some people align themselves with a political party, for instance, simply because it is the party their family has always supported.  Little thought is given to what the party stands for; you are blue or red simply because your dad was, your grandpa was, and your great-grandpa was.  Just mere blind allegiance guided by one’s loyalty to the family tradition.  People often remain part of a church denomination not necessarily because that's what they have come to believe is Biblically approved, but simply because that’s where the family has always traditionally attended.  A man once told me, “It would hurt my momma’s feelings if I moved my membership from the old home church.”  He lived 200 miles from his hometown and hadn’t darkened the door of the old home church in 20 years!

Another polarizing dynamic is values and the ideologies those values feed.  Values define one’s moral code, spiritual compass, and the principles and precepts that shape their worldview and lives.  Accordingly, they support causes and policies that reflect and uphold those values and ideologies.

Cultural norms evolve from loyalty to tradition, which is fueled by an accepted value system and its associated ideologies.  What we believe dictates what we do and the lifestyles we accept and accommodate.  We live in a day where whatever the culture deems legitimate, our government tends to legalize through legislation.  That codification evolves out of the values and ideologies embraced by the governing branches.

One of the most profound dynamics that mark the difference between the 20th and 21st centuries in our nation is the advancements in technology, especially in communication.  With the advent of the internet in January 1983, the ability to promote and communicate one’s political, cultural, religious, and philosophical viewpoints has become international in scope, instantaneous in speed, and economically inexpensive.  That holds true for almost anyone, anywhere with access to the electronic devices necessary to do so.  Social media, mainstream news, podcasts, livestreaming platforms, and technologies that did not exist even a few decades ago have given a persuasive and influential voice to free speech in our nation.  Unfortunately, cyber-bullying has accompanied this technological phenomenon as it provides a passive platform for hurling insults and hostilities at anyone who disagrees with any post or position.  We see it on Facebook, Instagram, X(Twitter), and other social media platforms every day.

Of all the dynamics that fuel this growing discord, moving our differences into more malignant and mortal disparity is Biblical truth.  Some would think it doesn’t, and many insist that it shouldn’t, but in honest assessment, it does.  Religious progressivism in many of our nation’s religious institutions insists that all people and all lifestyles should be accepted, approved, and accommodated in the name of love, without judgment or condemnation.  Biblical truth simply cannot do that on issues and lifestyles that are clearly and strictly condemned in Scripture.  Loving people and loving their values, ideologies, lifestyle choices and behaviors is not the same thing, a truth that progressives often fail to acknowledge and understand.

These dynamics fueled the clash between Jesus and the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and other religious and often political leaders of His time.  They had amassed volumes of additional traditions, rules, and regulations beyond the laws given to Moses, and compiled them in vast libraries, including the Talmud and Torah.  They were more committed to those traditions than they were to the Law as given by God.  They hated Jesus because He called them to God’s higher standard of holiness.  After Jesus ascended to Heaven, they hurled these same hostilities against the early Apostles for teaching Biblical truth – “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching”…but Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than man.” (Acts 5:28-29).

The hostilities between the Biblical standard and the cultural values & ideologies of the day produced a hatred and hostility that eventually led to the national execution of our Savior.  Jesus warned those early apostles - If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. (John 15:18-20).  Accordingly, we know that most of those early leaders of the New Testament church sacrificed their lives in martyrdom because of the irrevocable impassé between the values & ideologies of their world and the righteous standard of God’s Word they had surrendered their lives to represent and proclaim.  Their choice was clear, and so must ours – We must obey God rather than men, because we are instructed in Scripture – Do not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2).

We are called to love and compassionately tolerate others without compromising God’s righteous standard.  In that very challenge, however, comes the obvious: an irrevocable impassé, because as the Apostle Paul clarified - Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (II Corinthians 6:14)… “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord (6:17).  We may still be compassionate, patient, and loving toward persons on the opposite spiritual spectrum from us without embracing, supporting, and accommodating their unrighteous beliefs and practices, but we will always be at odds with those irreconcilable differences as we proclaim God’s truth in face of the culture in which we live.

Many students of Biblical prophecy note that America is missing from the pages of future prophecy, raising the question, “What has happened to the world’s current superpower that has caused her extinction from future events?”  Will this irrevocable impassé eventually be our demise?  I would propose that it is inevitable, simply because the very nature of good -vs- evil dictates it so.

Luke presents the differences between the rich man and Lazarus on earth, in consequential contrast to their disparity in eternity, where Lazarus was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:21), but the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torment (in Hades). (16:23).  The Scripture tells us that he had to look up because Abraham and Lazarus were far away, and between them was a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. (16:26).  We bear evidence that this great chasm is already affixed in our nation and world between those who live according to God’s Word, will, and ways, and those who choose to ignore God’s righteous standard and live according to their own values, ideologies, and agendas.

My book series is based on the revelation of the Apostle Paul – But the Spirit explicitly says, that in the later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (I Timothy 4:1).  That falling away is part of the separation process already underway, and this irrevocable impassé we nurture so feverishly serves effectively to facilitate it.

It will eventually culminate - When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:31-34)…Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” (25:41)…then these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (25:46).  This spiritual and eternal continental divide will be the final and ultimate irrevocable impassé from which no person will escape.

We live in a day when “fifty shades of gray” holds precedence over the black-and-white clarities of Scripture because secular liberality better serves the permissive and promiscuous nature of progressivism rampant in our culture.  Any challenge to those liberties and lifestyles is met with militant hostility, belligerent insult, and aggressive disdain from its participants and proponents.  It gets you blocked and unfriended on social media, or a string of posts that label you an unloving and judgmental hatemonger by the opposing side.  It comes with the turf of spiritual disparity, so get used to it.

We are compelled and mandated to continue proclaiming Biblical truth, but we must accept the often ugly rejection the world hurls at both it and us in these closing days of God’s Age of Grace.  There are just some things that cannot be compromised, and the absolute truth of God’s authoritative Word reigns at the top of the list.  When we do, however, we stand in stark contrast to the world – an irrevocable impassé which cannot be bridged outside of a faith commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, where both opposing views find agreeable & mutually-acceptable ground at the foot of the cross.

Hoping I Find You There,

I’m Rick M. Smith