Volume 48 | Number 5 | September–October 2000

Inglés Español

Conspiracy in History (Reprint)


By Dr. H. T. Spence

We believe we are living amidst End-time conspiratorial powers that are seeking to prepare the people of this world for the coming of Antichrist. The following article, originally written in 2003, appears to us pertinent at this critical time in November 2020.

One of history’s great conspiracies is found in the story of the birth of Christ. In Matthew 2 when the Magi came to Jerusalem, they had an audience with Herod, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews. They inquired of where the Christ-child should be born. When the Sanhedrin gave the prophecy of Micah to him, Herod proceeded to speak kindly to the Magi saying, “Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also” (Matt. 2:8). Herod claimed a desire to worship the baby born king, convincing the Magi that his motive was sincere. Because of his guile, they knew not the conspiracy he cleverly had plotted against the Christ-child. They did not read his evil heart. Nevertheless, through a dream God warned the Magi to go home another way.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men (Matt. 2:16).

Bethlehem’s children became the first martyrs for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Conspiracies in Recent History

A conspiracy is the secret planning to do something wrong against the government or a public person. It is an agreement by two or more persons to act unlawfully and then to conceal the matter.

“Rumors” of a number of conspiracies have filled the conversations of the last century in our world. Perhaps more than people are aware, conspiracies have been a major part of human history in its promotion of evil. Even so, there must be faith in the Sovereignty of God, knowing that He is overruling the affairs of men amidst the conspiracies of men.

One popular conspiracy still very much alive involves the connections among Aristotle Onassis, Howard Hughes, Jackie Kennedy, and the assassination of J. F. Kennedy. The Gemstone File, a document circulated in the 1970s, claimed to reveal the identity of the JFK assassination conspirators, placing Onassis and Hughes fully in the mix. In 1994 the claims made in the Gemstone File were cross-referenced by Gerald Carroll in his book Project Seek. Howard Hughes’ disappearance during the spring and summer of 1957 has led to great speculation among researchers. Photos of the moment of JFK’s assassination have led some writers to speculate that three shots came from three different geographies. Even today, mysteries surround his hospitalization in Dallas, the events on the plane returning to Washington, D.C., and the man in the wheelchair, with a covered face, at the Kennedy-Onassis wedding. Perhaps only eternity will reveal the truth of these matters.

Another popular conspiracy concerns the shooting of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. After shooting John Lennon with four devastating hollow-point bullets, Chapman did not make an easy nighttime escape. Instead he waited patiently for the New York City police to arrive, calmly reading The Catcher in the Rye. No commission ever investigated this murder; it was not filmed or photographed. And the alleged assassin avoided a trial by pleading guilty. Consequently, there is little available evidence. But a London lawyer Fenton Bresler in his book Who Killed John Lennon seemed to give convincing evidence of a conspiracy.

The unique death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Bobby Kennedy’s secretary, in the Chappaquiddick River continues to bring speculation in regard to the political attacks of the third Kennedy brother Ted. New England assassinologist R. B. Cutler places this incident as a CIA ambush rather than an accident. Although the evidence states that Miss Kopechne was beaten before being placed in the car and pushed into the river, there was no evidence that Ted Kennedy was in the car when it went into the river. A number of hours passed before the matter was reported. There was no autopsy, the family was paid handsomely for not pursuing the matter in court, and there was no indictment of Ted Kennedy. Was there a conspiracy in this matter?

Other conspiracies that still are topics of discussion surround the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Bobby Kennedy, and even the poisoning of Pope John Paul I. Each of these deaths was followed by a quick cover-up and no investigation.

Conspiracies in Scripture

Numerous conspiracies presented in the Bible are perpetrated by the wicked against the godly. Their subtle tactics of plotting against those whom they hate are often carried out in the most exquisite fashion of innocency and sincerity.

Since the days of the fall of Adam, man has conspired to cover up evil. Adam and Eve conspired to cover up their wrong by shifting blame. This principle of conspiracy rose to another level when Cain conspired to kill his brother. But how would this act of violence be done? Getting Abel into the field in order to commit the crime would be no easy task. Does 1 John 3 give us an insight of how the conspiracy was accomplished? Did he use the guise of “brotherly love” to get Abel into the field (1 John 3:11, 12)? Once the task of getting him alone was fulfilled, he violently killed his brother and then endeavored to cover up the body by burying it in the ground. Yet the blood of Abel cried unto the Lord, and the conspiracy became known. It is evident that even Cain’s parents learned Abel had been murdered through fratricide (Gen. 4:25).

Genesis 37 presents the conspiracy against young Joseph by his brothers. Genesis 37:18 states, “And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.” They then took him and placed him in a pit, and later sold him to Midianites, going down into Egypt. There is no evidence that they told Reuben what they had done with Joseph (37:30). But we read of their cover-up:

And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days (37:31–34).

They did not have to verbally lie to their father; they allowed the conspiracy to deceptively speak. Jacob naturally came to a conclusion that his son had been killed.

The Old Testament further gives a number of conspiracies such as the following: the conspiracy of Absalom against his father David (2 Sam. 15:12, 31); the conspiracy of Joash’s servants to kill him (2 Kings 12:20); the conspiracy to kill Amaziah (2 Kings 14:19); the conspiracy against Shallum (2 Kings 15:13–15); the conspiracy against Amon by his servants (2 Chron. 33:24, 25); a conspiracy against the Lord (Jer. 11:9); the list continues with at least sixteen other conspiracies mentioned in the Old Testament.

We read in Ezekiel 22:25 of the priests, princes, and the false prophets:

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

Conspiracies take place within the very temple of God against God and against His people. Nehemiah 4:8, 9 speaks of Tobiah and Sanballet:

And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.

Naboth’s refusal to sell his birthright to Ahab marks one of the notorious conspiracies of the Old Testament (1 Kings 21). The conspiracy began when Jezebel “wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth” (21:8). A fast was proclaimed, Naboth was set on high among the people, two sons of Belial bore false witness against him saying, “Thou didst blaspheme God and the king” (21:10). “Then they carried him [Naboth] forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died” (21:13), and his sons also. Thus, the vineyard was confiscated by the State (Ahab). Although this conspiracy was completed, God brought the blood of Naboth back on Ahab, Jezebel, and their entire house.

The Old Testament also indicates a universal conspiracy against God and His people. Note David’s words in Psalm 2:

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

But God knows of these conspiracies: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”

The Conspiracy of Christ’s Death

In the last of the four gospels, John gave us insight into the growing conspiracy against Christ by the Jewish leaders. Note the volume of words John the Beloved gives to this behind-the-scenes plotting, scheming, and manipulation of circumstances to put Christ to death: John 6:15; 7:11, 19, 25, 30, 44; 8:20, 37, 40, 59; 10:31, 32, 39; 11:8, 53, 56; 12:10; and 13:21.

Luke 22:1–6 presents the conspiracy that took place on Tuesday of Passion Week with Judas and the Sanhedrin Court. Later in that same chapter the conspiracy unfolds in the garden with Judas and the soldiers. Six court trials were orchestrated against Him:

Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses (Matt. 26:59, 60).

Then came the crucifixion, and His death, after which Christ was laid in a tomb. But we once again read of a cover-up when Christ was resurrected from the dead:

Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matt. 28:11–15).

This great conspiracy was against the Christ from His infancy until His death; yet, God triumphed over the conspiracy of man:

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done (Acts 4:25–28).

Conspiracies Against God’s People

Throughout the Book of Acts, conspiracies against God’s saints continue from the stoning of Stephen to the incarceration of Paul. The conspiracies in early church history were perpetrated to destroy and discredit the Christians. During the ten Imperial persecutions, Satan conspired with the leaders of Rome to destroy the Christians, the early church, and the Scriptures. When Nero wanted to build a new Rome, he endeavored to burn the empire capital and blame it on the Christians, inciting riot against them. During the days of Bloody Mary in England (1553–1558), John Foxe escaped with his life and was moved of God to write what became known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. He wanted to show the great inquisitions against God’s people, preserving their stories for posterity. Groups like the Huguenots and the Lollards, men like Huss, Luther, Jerome of Prague, and myriad others were always found being plotted against in the conspiracies of the Roman Catholic Church and its influential powers over the State.

The End-Time Conspiracy

We are presently in the end time of the Laodicean Institutional Church Age; we believe a rapture awaits the saints. Yet we are facing the final conspiracy of this world to destroy God’s saints before their catching away. These are days when God’s people cannot afford to be spiritually asleep or paralyzed by apathy. We must “be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

Revelation 12 shows the Dragon poised over the woman “which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born” (Rev. 12:4). There are those who dispensationally believe the woman is Israel and that the man-child is Christ. Although that may be an Old Testament perspective, the word Israel is not mentioned in the chapter. The woman in the New Testament is the Church, and the man-child could be the saints who will rule with a rod of iron (Rev. 2:27, though of Christ in 19:15). There is both a conspiracy in the Laodicean church, that is in pain to be delivered of this man-child, and a conspiracy in the world system through the Devil to destroy him. This conspiracy has the ingredients of Matthew 10:16–42.

The End Time of the Church Age is also in the conspiracy of deception and the powers to thwart the righteous living of the saints (Luke 21:8–19). This continuing conspiracy, which has included the death of many saints (Heb. 11:34–38), is coming to a great climax in the End Time. The hatred contained in this conspiracy against the saints will turn to the sword for its fulfillment; it will even include family member against family member. The rise of the aggressive evil of the sodomites is part of this conspiracy to turn against and to destroy the Elect of God. The evil that is being planned is so dark and devastating that if God would pull back the cloak of this conspiracy, it may cause our heart to fail because of fear.

Yet, we must understand that these will be days that God will give over to the final preparation of the foolish shepherd to rule the earth (Zech. 11:15). The child of God will outwardly begin to lose more and more before the world. It will become more evident, “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom. 8:36). But the words of Romans 8:31–39 will become more of an anchor to the soul in these days when God will become more silent in the earth:

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? . . . Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? . . . Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . In all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life . . . nor principalities, nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We must ready our hearts for these days of a great conspiracy against God and His people. And we must be ever looking upward for His call home to glory. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

Appended Conclusion

Amidst the most corrupt hour in our nation’s history, the election of 2020 is proving that the Deep State (which Donald Trump has uncovered) is endeavoring to bring about a coup d’état. We may be witnessing its apex in these coming days of wholesale deception, corruption, fraud, and unfathomable wickedness. The hatred for Trump by the Deep State and the swamp of Washington is antithetical to the love that has been poured out upon him during these weeks leading up to the election. We have never witnessed such an unnatural and malicious hatred against a man by the Deep State, and simultaneously we have never witnessed the manifested love expressed by the people for a president as this one. But the Democratic Party is committed in its anathema against Donald Trump’s re-election. They are willing to commit any crime needed to make sure he does not return. They hate everything he stands for and all who supported him; they will not rest until this man is ousted, defamed, disgraced, denounced, shamed, and brought to absolute ruin. Getting him out of office will not be enough for them; their hatred is so intense they will endeavor to bring him to utter humiliation and damnation. They believe he must be defeated in effigy so that his memory will never be memorialized in history. We are now confronting the greatest political iniquity and sabotage of character and reputation that has been known in our history. These evil politicians, in league with the Devil, will do all they can, legally and illegally, to overthrow the country’s desire to get back to some semblance of righteousness and moral integrity.

Despite all the Liberals’ solemn claims of devotion to the U.S. Constitution, what we are really witnessing in the year 2020 is their wholesale defiance of it. To them the Constitution is just a piece of paper under glass at the National Museum in Washington, D.C.

Our hope is in a greater writing—the writing of God’s Word; though heaven and earth may pass away, the sacred Word of God will endure forever. We look to the hope of Isaiah 26:12–14:

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

And as they shall rise in their boast and pride (as Lucifer of old), God will declare these words to such ungodly men and women:

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man [or woman] that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? (Isa. 14:15–17).
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [nations] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him (Ps. 2:4–12).