Crocodiles, by nature, have one goal: TO FEED!

They are hungry predators and in thier hunt they quietly glide through the waters, blending in the background, waiting. And then, “Chomp!” The jaws snap and the prey is caught. Soon the belly is full.

There are also human crocodiles, lurking, gliding, hunting. They too want to feed. Morality and goodness does not drive them, hunger and dominance does. They feed on the destruction of others. Winston Churchill, leader of the British Empire during the NAZI reign understood this. After watching the continent of Europe being caught in the jaws of Hitler’s machine, he coined this very famous quote:

“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last”. 

His general point was this: Appeasing the agressors and agitators, (crocodiles), doesn’t prevent conflicts; it only delays the inevitable and makes the aggressor stronger, ultimately leading to everyone’s downfall. During WW2, Hitler subtly and deviously convinced world leaders and press writers that he was a man of peace. He opined how he and all Germans were mistreated by the Treaty of Versailles, and convinced the bleeding hearts to buy into his projected victim status. “Poor Adolph, people keep making fun of his funny-looking stash.” Meanwhile, like a crocodile, behind a peaceful facade was hidden a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

Culturally, the crocs in our day behave in the same way. They have learned that the art of “dividing & conquering” is what works best. Proverbs 6:12-15, 19 calls it “sowing discord.” What the crocodile has learned is that if he can paint someone as the “hater”, the “judgmental critic,” “uncaring and cold-hearted leader” first, he will then be able to take the attention off of his large mouth that is always ready to bite.

From my experience: Crocodiles like church flesh the best!

He loves to cause chaos in the community of believers. He knows if he can pull people away from real fellowship that is connected through prayer and love, and get people to lose trust and leave, he has got them where he wants them – – facing the cold and cruel world on their own. It is then that the saying becomes true about the enemy’s teeth in Little Red Riding Hood – – “Better to eat you with my dear.”

When crocodiles are hungry, they don’t like to be resisted. They also don’t like to be identified. So if a crocodile can convince his prey – the vulnerable and naive – that the “good man standing on convictions” is nothing but a “bad man standing in judgment,” his trap is set.

Did you know it is very difficult to stand your ground on traditional moral issues these days? It is like swimming against the current. When you wrestle with scripture to form convictions and then out of loyalty to a Holy God choose to stand on those convictions, you will be the immediate target of negative accusations. “If they hated me they will hate you.” Many of these “arrows shot from the shadows being aimed at the upright in heart (Psalm 11:2)” find their origins from the whisperings of the crocodile.

I have seen him use the same familiar steps to snare people:

(1) He attacks the church through mocking traditional morality, and blames the person or persons who the community respects and follows for teaching dangerous fascist propoganda. Usually the person he attacks is holding tight to moral absolutes and principles of behavior because he knows, it is this teaching that is good for the health of the whole community. Crocodiles know it is very difficult to take down a leader that is confident and has earned the respect of the majority of the people. So he takes his time and plays the long game by targeting the fringe people to question the leader’s character and behavior.

(2) If the crocodile cannot dredge up actual dirt and evidence of foul-play against the leadership, which he usually can’t, he will cast dispersion on the leaders through ad hominem attacks and vague inuendos. Often the accusations will be saturated in Marxist cultural buzzwords like “patriarchy,” “mysogyny,” “cis-gendered priviledge,” “on the wrong side of history,” or “colonialists” with the hope of throwing thick progressive mud to forever stain the reputation of the leadership.

(3) The type of people he most easily convinces are those who don’t believe that crocodiles are actually hungry and dangerous. They are cute. The theological teaching of “depravity of man”, where all of us have hearts that are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), is portrayed as a silly anachronistic teaching that was made up long-ago by the superstitious Salem Witch Hunters who saw an evil shadow behind every tree. These people actually begin to believe that “World Peace” is possible through sugary sweet smiles and saying over and over again “Coexit,” and “Live, Laugh, Love,” while singing “Imagine” by John Lennon. Sounds so nice, doesn’t it? What they don’t see is the hungry crocodile who is now slowly gliding near the surface of the cultural lake.

(4) The tables really turn in the crocodile’s favor when a large enough group of “sentimental sympathizers” has formed and they are given political, educational, and media power to persuade the gullible society at large. The average person is now unable to recognize what a crocodile even looks like.

The trap has been set, dinner is prepared, and the crocodile begins to feast on the group he was able to lure away from the safety of God’s community. I have learned over the years that the crocodile never considers eating the leaders and strong believers who have firm convictions – – he was always and only after the vulnerable that have no fear of God. They are always ripe for picking.

To confirm my conclusion, I needed to see if scripture taught this anywhere, and here is what I found. 1 John 2:18-19 and 4:4-6 says…

“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us…You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

So what is the final lesson here: Love the bretheren first!