Introduction
On 4/3/1965, Paul Harvey's “If I Were The Devil” aired on the ABC Radio Network. He was almost age 47. I was almost age five. The second section, below, has an apparently valid link, to his 4/3/1965 radio broadcast. I also include his 10/13/1964 and 7/1/1996 newspaper articles. Paul Harvey passed away, at age 90, thirteen years ago.
My 7/22/2022 podcast – "If I Were the Devil” – Inspired by Paul Harvey (published 7-22-2022; podcast #3) – is linked in the first section below. I attained age 62, on 7/17/2022, Sunday. The first section includes the transcript of my 7/22/2022 podcast. Paul Harvey's broadcast, which I have heard many times, inspired my podcast.
M. Fearghail (7/17/1960 - ), “If I Were The Devil,” 7/22/2022
Podcast
My 7/22/2022 podcast is on Appalachian Irishman - Podcasts (YouTube), at "If I Were the Devil" – Inspired by Paul Harvey (published 7-22-2022; podcast #3).
I wish that my voice carried the same eloquence as Paul Harvey. Read and listen to the words. The words are what matters.
Transcript
“If I Were the Devil,” by M. Fearghail, on Friday, July 22nd, 2022, as inspired by Paul Harvey.
If I were the devil, I would lie that God does not exist, that the universe was created from nothing – and it evolved, that there is no life after death, and that the Bible is myth. I would lie that I am a myth.
If I were the devil, I would focus hearts and minds on the here and now. They would think that 70, 80, 90, or even 100 years is a long time – that there is no everlasting joy – or torment.
If I were the devil, I would lie that society decides what is right and wrong. What is right may become wrong, and what is wrong may become right. There are no absolutes – except that nothing is absolute.
If I were the devil, I'd teach the majority to worship the creation, or the government, or both – not the Creator. I would deceive them to economic then national destruction – to “save the planet.” They would worship the sun – not the Son.
If I were the devil, I would destroy the traditional family. I've been doing a good job. Children would turn in their parents, or their grandparents, to the authorities. Grandparents would have to raise their grandchildren. I already have most of the parents.
If I were the devil, I'd confuse male and female. How a man or woman, or a boy or girl, “feels” is his or her gender. I would change the definition of marriage, to be anything I wanted it to be.
If I were the devil, I would keep inflation hot. I'd print worthless money and increase national debt. I'd give out handouts. I'd keep exports low and imports high. I would make a rich nation a beggar – for money, for oil, for products – to a rising nation. I've already made Mandarin a hard language to learn.
If I were the devil, I would open the border wider – for all illegals to cross. Bring in all, who yearn for handouts, bus rides, cell phones, and places to live! Bring in terrorists, stalkers, rapists, criminals, murderers!
If I were the devil, I would demand the “right to choose” on abortion, but I would deny the “right to choose” on education. Unborn babies must be murdered, and children must be brain washed.
[Page two]
If I were the devil, the man of lawlessness, I would destroy civil society. My evil children would commit all kinds of wickedness, to honor me. The blind would blame the vehicle, the gun, the knife, or the weapon of choice – instead of how my disciples use those tools.
If I were the devil, I would ridicule the founding fathers and their documented principles. I would ridicule them – not for their principles -- but due to their vices. After all, a man with vices can do nothing virtuous! I would re-write the nation's history and indoctrinate the children in socialist schools. I would “cancel” anyone, who stood against me.
If I were the devil, I'd continue to grow the socialist government – of the government, by the government, for the government – as one divided nation, under socialism, with liberty and justice for the politically correct. Pesky patriots would go to re-education camps or “to the devil” – me.
If I were the devil, I'd just keep doing what he's doing – to take the majority to Hell with him.
Wake up (not woke up), America! Do not go to the devil! Turn to the Lord! I have spoken.
Paul Harvey Aurandt “Paul Harvey” (9/4/1918 – 2/28/2009), “If I Were The Devil”
One apparently valid link to Paul Harvey's 4/3/1965 radio broadcast and transcript, "If I Were The Devil," is via Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, at '"If I Were The Devil' by Paul Harvey | Illinois Fraternal Order Of Police.” That link also includes their 3/25/2021 YouTube link, to the same 4/3/1965 broadcast. (Note: the link could be Paul Harvey's modified rebroadcast of his original broadcast. A search of “Paul Harvey, If I Were The Devil, 4/3/1965” provides other links.)
Paul Harvey's wisdom still speaks. Please click the link, above, and listen to his ageless eloquence, in his distinct voice.
Paul Harvey's 10/13/1964 newspaper column, “If I Were the Devil I Would Pray, Our Father Who Art in Washington,” is in The Gadsden Times, in Gadsden, Alabama. The link to his column is at Google News Archive Search, The Gadsden Times, 10/13/1964, page 4. (It is easier to read.) The following is my download of that link.
Paul Harvey's 7/1/1996 newspaper column, “If I were the devil,” is in the Reading Eagle (Reading, PA). The link to his column is at Google News Archive Search, Reading Eagle, 7/1/1996, Opinion B4. (It is easier to read.) The following is my download of that link.
Paul Harvey revised his original newspaper column. He adapted his original column in his radio broadcast. Paul Harvey's wisdom still speaks. His wisdom inspired my written and verbal words, with the same title.
Conclusion
The inspired apostle Paul wrote the following, to the Christians at Thessalonica, at Colossae, and at Rome. I emboldened certain phrases and sentences, for emphasis.
To the Thessalonians
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us – whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter – asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. (2 Thess. 2:1-17, the entire chapter, NIV)
To the Collossians
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:6-8, NIV)
To the Romans
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2, NIV)
The majority, in the world and in this once great nation, are choosing to follow Satan, the devil, to his everlasting torment. A few are choosing wisely. I hope that you, dear reader, are choosing to follow the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If not, choose wisely.
Wake up, America – before it's too late!
Posts
3 comments:
As of 9/10/2022, Saturday, analytics shows 298 views of this article, so far. Folks are reading but not commenting. My written, and spoken, “If I Were the Devil” remarks are being heard. I wonder if folks are listening. I hope so. I have tried!
Yes, you have! I'am broken, it's to late. Please Lord show me" the way".Please give the strength to always walk up right. It's so hard, I'am stumbling regularly. Psalms 22: 1-3.
Dear Anonymous, greetings, by means of this comment section. (I saw, read, and approved your comment today.) Almost a year has passed, since the publication of this timeless article and podcast, of 7/22/2022. Thank you for your comment.
Your honest emotion and appeal to the Lord have moved me deeply! Thank you for sharing your story. Although brief, your comment speaks volumes. I have expressed the same emotion and appeal to the Lord, during my times of stumbling. The article -- “I’m Still Alive – Why? (published 8/26/2016)” -- is one of the eight articles, in the section “Articles of Note - A Select Few,” for a reason. I was stumbling, crying out to God, and hearing no answer (unless the answer was “wait”).
Thank you for noting Psalms 22:1-3! The text is: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises” (Psalms 22:1-3, NIV). It is a Messianic Psalm. Jesus asked that first question, while suffering on the cross (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Jesus knows how you and I feel. He felt the same way, on the cross.
In Psalm 37, king David wrote: “The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand” (Psalms 37:23-24, NIV). Psalm 37, in its entirety, encourages, comforts, and assures the faithful, so that we may stand firmly with God -- despite the devil's advocates that tempt us to stumble.
I hope, dear Anonymous, that you have Christian family and friends, who are helping you. I trust that your reading of scripture is helping you. I hope that you, as a member of a local and spiritual family of God (or church), are comforted by your brothers and sisters.
The article of 8/26/2016 shared a low and stumbling point in my walk with the Lord. I still endure the temporal struggles of life. By his grace, the Lord lifted me out of that low point, as He's done many times. For decades, the apostle Paul's words, in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, have amazed and encouraged me: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (NIV). How could Paul describe the persecution that he endured as “light and momentary?” It amazes me! Paul had, as I call it, the everlasting perspective. Placing temporal struggles into that perspective, daily, helps me. I hope that it helps you, dear Anonymous.
You are welcome to use the “Contact Form,” if you would like to communicate further, by confidential and private email. May God bless you richly, by His grace, dear Anonymous! He will help you, in your struggles, so that you will not fall. I know. He has helped and is still helping me. I'm just standing and waiting, somewhat patiently, on the “eternal glory!” In everlasting glory, looking back on the stumbling trials of temporal life will seem light and only a moment.
Post a Comment