Bo Wagner | Historical past’s greatest rip-off artist

Most rip-off makes an attempt are fairly clear; this one was higher than most. A girl in our church bought an electronic mail from somebody saying that her account was being charged $399 for a Microsoft safety program, and if she didn’t authorize that, to please name them so they may reverse the cost. She referred to as, they answered the cellphone professionally, and she or he defined the state of affairs to them. They transferred her to the “refund division,” and the consultant saved her on maintain for a couple of moments. They verified that she mustn’t have been charged after which requested for her account quantity so they may difficulty a refund.

Clearly, that ought to have been a pink flag; however they’d been so excellent {and professional} as much as that time that she gave it to them. Then they supposedly issued her the refund. However then got here, “Oh no! I tousled! I simply put $20,000 into your account as a substitute of the $399. I’m going to lose my job except you’re taking the rest out and ship it to me by way of Bitcoin.”

By that time, the girl knew she was being scammed. So she shrewdly saved the particular person on the road whereas she drove to the financial institution. She muted the decision momentarily, defined to the teller what was occurring, after which whereas she resumed speaking to him, the financial institution girl locked the scammer out of her account on the very second he was on the opposite finish attempting to withdraw funds.

Then the teller bought on the road with the scammer and rightfully referred to as him out as a thief. This pricey girl almost misplaced every part to a low-life, degenerate, nugatory scum of a sub-human being.

However this column is a few completely different form of scammer. A greater one. The most effective ever, in reality.

Jesus didn’t draw back from utilizing harsh names and descriptives when warranted. And when it got here to Devil, he mentioned in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, however for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” He referred to as the satan a thief. However not like most thieves who solely want to take property, this thief is so vile that he intends to steal from you, kill you, after which destroy you eternally. And he does it not like an old-western financial institution robber, on the level of a gun shouting, “It is a stick up!” He does it as he at all times has, as a rip-off artist.

In Eden, historical past’s greatest rip-off artist promised that in the event that they purchased the road he was promoting, they might find yourself as gods. They did, they usually ended up realizing and ashamed of their nakedness, kicked out of paradise, and dying. They later suffered the agony of getting a son murdered by the hands of one other son, who was then cursed and banished. To say that issues didn’t work out as Devil promised could be the understatement of the century.

The Rip-off Artist has not modified his methodology by the ages, nor have the outcomes gotten any extra favorable. And it’s in our supposedly fashionable, enlightened day that he’s each extra energetic and extra profitable than ever, and with disastrous outcomes.

A younger girl I knew fairly properly, a really level-headed type, was fully radicalized by 4 years in a college. She did ultimately get married, however she determined that there wanted to be fewer people on the planet to fight international warming, so she and her husband took steps to ensure they might by no means have youngsters. She is going to by no means know the enjoyment of feeling a life rising within her, she and her husband won’t ever rock their infants to sleep, they are going to by no means have their youngsters crawling up on their laps to snuggle with them, the daddy won’t ever stroll a daughter down the aisle, and they’ll have nobody there for them as they age and get lonely. The thief did his job properly.

I’m following the tales of a number of younger individuals who underwent that which is known as gender transition surgical procedure. The accounts are gut-wrenching. They by no means knew the ache, scarring, disfigurement, and long-term injury they had been having inflicted on them. They by no means knew that, after they got here to remorse what they’d carried out, they may by no means have again what was now misplaced and that they’d endlessly given up many very treasured potentialities that got to them as a present by their Creator. The thief did his job properly.

One other girl I knew purchased into your entire “all males are scum, and we don’t want them” rip-off. She went by life indignant and bitter and lonely. The thief did his job properly.

We minister to homeless women and men – ninety % of whom grew to become homeless due to medication and alcohol. The shiny ads promised events and glamor; they ended up with poverty and squalor. The thief did his job properly.

I’ve watched younger folks by the years go away house and transfer in with some nugatory boy or lady who was solely excited about taking their purity, leaving broken-hearted mother and father, a ruined repute, and reeling siblings. All of them anticipated paradise; all of them discovered that they’d misplaced paradise as a substitute. The thief did his job properly.

A person not too removed from us walked away from his spouse and kids to pursue his personal sick passions. His spouse remarried, his youngsters grew up with out him and wish nothing to do with him, and he has grandkids who won’t ever know he exists. He’s older now, his well being is wrecked, he’s lonely and damaged, and he needs issues had been completely different, however that water is properly beneath the bridge and out to sea. The thief did his job properly.

The Rip-off Artist, the thief, is profitable when he will get folks targeted on their needs moderately than on the main points. He’s particularly profitable if he can instill resentment in his prey towards another supposed enemy (God, the patriarchy, church, too-strict mother and father, and so on.), thus retaining all consideration off of the horrible outcomes he has produced for hundreds of years now.