Derangement Syndrome. What is it? How can it be explained? I am going to propose what I maintain is the answer to those questions. Why the hatred and violence, intense hatred and violence, toward President Trump, Elon Musk, and really anyone standing for MAGA?

First, let’s begin by considering the symptoms. The first and most obvious trait is its irrationality. By this, I mean that even if we study it carefully, we really cannot come up with an explanation of the thing. Or of an apparent cause. The thing has no logic. It is filled with contradictions, which is still another of its qualities.

Physical disease can be studied and explained. Chickenpox is caused by a herpes virus. Pneumonia is a sickness produced by bacteria or a virus that inflames the lungs and causes them to fill with fluid. Science can study many things, find the cause, and proceed to devise a cure. Even some mental disorders can be explained and treated.

But who can explain this derangement syndrome? I do not know who named it, but the word is very appropriate. Deranged. It is a word that derives from Old French which means moved from orderly rows. It is literally a disorder. A kind of mental illness, you might say. The mind becomes disordered and ceases to function properly. Those are largely my descriptions of the thing. I doubt that the psychiatric world has thoroughly analyzed the thing yet. (No doubt many psychiatrists and psychologists are infected with it!)

Recently, I heard an interview with Elon Musk, and he was asked if he had come to a conclusion as to the cause of the rage and terror being targeted against him and Tesla. He said he had no explanation. The thing is entirely irrational. People who once demanded electric vehicles are now burning them! And then Elon said something that I am not sure even he has grasped the significance of. I will just paraphrase him: “I cannot explain it. It must be some kind of mental disease. It is as if someone is orchestrating and organizing it.” Terror, as J.D. Vance recently noted, costs money. Someone is financing these attacks and riots.

I agree with Elon that someone is organizing, initiating, and energizing these attacks. Humanly speaking, there must be someone and/or some organization that is funding these arsonists and planning the riots and demonstrations. But I maintain that the someone behind these evil things is not a human being. He is a spirit. A person, but not of this world. He is, I have no doubt, Satan.

You cannot believe the Bible without acknowledging that there is a kingdom of darkness headed up by the devil and his demon servants. To deny this is to reject the plain teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil appears from Genesis to Revelation and we know really quite a lot about him. He accuses the righteous and opposes all that is right. He is the destroyer, bent on destroying all things good. He was right there working through that evil king Herod when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, doing all he could to kill the One whom he knew full well was sent by God the Father to destroy him and his kingdom. All of the Apostles – Paul, Peter, John, and all the rest – wrote of this prince of darkness, called the “god of this world,” and wised us up to Satan’s tactics. For example:

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Satan is behind it all. He always has been. Wars are insane and irrational. Who stirs up kingdom against kingdom? The devil. His constant and consistent motivation is to destroy Christ’s kingdom and every good thing God has created. He is a liar and murderer, and evil people serve him:

John 8:44b [The Devil] was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Man is sinful. All of us are born into this world in sin, enslaved to the devil, enemies of God. No exceptions. It is only Christ who can set a person free from that evil tyranny – we all must be born again, made new creations, by faith alone in Christ alone. But Satan actively manipulates the sinner.

And that, I conclude, is the only explanation of derangement syndrome. How is it that anyone can hate Elon Musk for auditing the government bureaucracies to stop the waste and corrupt use of our tax dollars? Or how is it that the lying left democrats would refuse to stand for a boy who survived brain cancer? Why is the rage of these deranged people directed against Tesla cars and those who own or sell them? Why do the Democrats oppose all of the good things President Trump is doing? Why do they refuse to support him and thank him for working to end the war in Ukraine? It would seem that Someone WANTS that war to continue.

Or how do you explain the whole open border, import millions, including gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists….and then give them money for hotel rooms!? How do you explain why the left wants to put a stop to the deportation of these dangerous, evil people? You can only conclude that such people hate America and are trying to destroy it.

And yet…

These people appear to be so delusional that they fail to understand that if, for example, corruption and waste of American tax dollars aren’t stopped, America will go bankrupt sooner rather than later. They don’t seem to “get it” that if you let criminals violate the law without consequence and if you cut back radically on the police forces, our cities and, ultimately, our nation will implode. And yet, such is the mindset of the lying left.

Satan is able to blind people’s minds. He is able to cast a delusion – a kind of darkness – over them. The Apostle Paul wrote about this. He called these delusions strongholds:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. (4) For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (5) We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…

Understand? Satan controls those who are enslaved to him by enslaving their minds, their thinking, and their opinions. And this is most certainly the explanation of derangement syndrome which is an example of what Paul wrote of here. Strongholds. A demonically established fortress. Arguments and opinions are set firmly in spiritual stone to oppose the knowledge and truth of God.

This battle that is raging in America right now is fundamentally a spiritual battle. It is righteousness against unrighteousness. It is Christ and his people versus Satan and his people. The City of God vs the City of this World as St. Augustine wrote. And what we are seeing in our own nation is a manifestation of that battle.

Therefore, we must pray fervently for our President and his administration because Satan is pulling out all stops to destroy all good that is being done. Let me end with one final point:

The Bible, as I mentioned above, plainly teaches us that ever since Adam and Eve fell, all humanity is fallen in sin. Alienated from God. We enter this world under the dominion of Satan; our minds are held captive and blinded so that we cannot see the glory of Christ and His truth. What is the remedy? It is simply this – we must be born again by hearing and believing what we call the gospel – the good news. Here it is, set out plainly for us by the Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, (2) and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (3) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, (4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

There it is. God’s power is in this Word. As Paul told the Romans, it is the power of God to salvation.

Image: AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough