ENDURING TO THE END - Part 5 - by Jackie Alnor

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, It may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody. - Bob Dylan

Knowing the Enemy

When we became new believers, we stepped out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of Light. We changed loyalties. We didn’t know we were serving the devil in our former life, but when we ended our allegiance to his infernal majesty, we made an enemy. A powerful enemy.

The protagonist in Pilgrim’s Progress found this out early on his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial Kingdom. Apollyon confronted Christian as he was on the Kings Highway leaving his realm. The dark lord of the place did not want to see him go. When he couldn’t persuade Christian to return by promising him material gain, he ridiculed him for stumbling on his new path. Accusing Christian like that did not work, so he attacked him head on and hurled missiles at the pilgrim, hurting him badly. Christian had to use his spiritual armor to overcome this voracious enemy. He grabbed his offensive weapon, the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, to overcome his enemy and escape his clutches.

The Bible instructs the followers of Jesus not to turn back once they’ve escaped the world and its lusts. Jesus warned, “Remember Lot’s wife,” in context of telling about the time before His return. During the judgment of Sodom in the book of Genesis, Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Jesus also said, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke 9:62

Christian and his friends on the Kings Highway learned that lesson the hard way. When they strayed from the way Evangelist sent them and listened to people like Worldly Wiseman, they were set back by many trails and temptations. So the first lesson a believer must learn is to bury their past passions, leaving them at the cross. So many pilgrims start out well, but slowly begin to re-embrace old sinful habits. All are tempted, but not all are overcomers.

And yet, the old life is no longer friendly to the newly born-again believer. It’s as if an invisible bully has posted a sign on the convert’s back that reads “kick me,” reminiscent of a scene from the movie, Back to the Future. To the world, Christians are outsiders. They do not fit in any more than George McFly. Christians – at least the world-rejecting ones -- all have targets on their back.

The Apollyon character was not Satan, but what a former pastor would call a “buck sergeant demon.” One thing that must be understood about the devil: he is not omnipresent. Certainly he wants to be god, but he does not have such divine attributes as omniscience, foreknowledge, omnipotence, etc. When you hear Christians praying a prayer and rebuking Satan – even by name – you know they are speaking to the devil in ignorance, thinking he is as powerful as God and can hear their rebuke. This is based on an Eastern view of a god that is both good and evil - yin and yang – a superstitious, not a biblical, concept.

Satan is a fallen angel – a real diabolical entity – not just a personification of evil as some see good angels as personifying good. So much superstition and folklore about the invisible world is permeable in our culture. Every Christian needs to dismiss any assumptions they had before conversion about God and angels and only believe what can be found in God’s Word concerning them. As author CS Lewis noted in his classic book, “The Screwtape Letters:”

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

We cannot be ignorant of the ways of the enemy of our souls, nor can we be overly concerned with his doings. The Bible tells us to “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) That does not mean we look for him or one of his minions under every bush. The best way to resist the devil is to recognize his temptations when they present themselves and don’t fall for it. They may come to you as ideas or impulses or from other people, but the best response is to just say ‘no.’

One of the most comprehensive places in all of Scripture to apply to one’s life regarding spiritual warfare is found in the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians. The section begins with this statement that puts it in perspective:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." – Eph 6:12

What follows is a spiritual inventory of the armor that we have at our disposal as children of the living God. It has been pointed out by several commentaries that all the weapons listed were typical of the first century Roman soldier. Only one weapon is an offensive weapon; the others are defensive.

The offensive weapon is the Sword of the Spirit, identified as the Word of God. It is interesting to note that Jesus used the Word of God to resist the devil on the Mount of Temptation in the Gospels. The devil would misquote the Word and Jesus would respond quoting it accurately. In the Book of Revelation, those who resist the antichrist do so by “the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Rom 12:11

The blood of the Lamb is what these future saints stand on to declare Christ’s righteousness as their own. This is the “breastplate of righteousness.” The word of their testimony – or the confession of their faith – would be represented as the “shield of faith” “with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” (vs. 16) The “belt of truth” guards our hearts and minds from being deceived, the “helmet of salvation” reminds us whose we are in Christ, and the “feet shod with the gospel of peace” is the assurance that we have peace with God no matter what happens around us. No man can take that from us. In fact:

“I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8:38-39

Devil-Proof Your House

Paul told the Ephesians not to give the enemy a foothold in their lives (Eph. 4:27). The rest of the chapter spells out the various sins a Christian can fall into that would do just that such as ”bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Eph. 4:31). Speaking the truth to one another, containing one’s temper, and showing compassion to one another gives no place to the devil.

Another lesson we can learn in giving no place to the devil is to follow the example of the new converts of the apostles in the book of Acts.

“Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.” Acts 19:19

During the Feast of Passover, Jewish wives to this day remove any product from their kitchen that contains any leavening agent such as yeast. They do a thorough search of the whole house to make sure all leaven is removed. Leaven is a type of sin and false doctrine in biblical typology. It wouldn’t hurt for Christians to search for such spiritual leaven that is contained in their library or DVD collection by way of false teaching or magic or spiritism.

Most of the books promoted by Oprah Winfrey would probably qualify as leaven. Books by false teachers such as Joel Osteen, Robert Schuller, Pat Robertson, etc., should not line your shelves unless they are for research and exposure purposes. Even then, they should be isolated from unleavened books.

Many people do not see any harm in having art – paintings, sculpture, icons – of false gods such as Buddha or Vishnu. These could be attractions to the evil spirits that dominate the religions they represent and should be eliminated – not sold to defile someone else’s house.

Even icons and statues that try and represent the God of the Bible or that become objects of devotion in the Catholic tradition are forbidden by the commandment not to make any graven images, a commandment conveniently removed from the list of the Catholic Church. Many Catholics kiss these objects, particularly the crucifix at the end of their rosaries – This is pure idolatry and there is nothing pure about it. Discard such items if you have held onto them from your pre-Christian life, or what I like to call B.C. (before Christ).

Notice that the people with their magic books – astrology, mind-power, incantations, -- burned the books. They did not just give them away. Many Christians keep books that promote things like yoga, new age spirituality, horoscopes, positive confession, etc., not even recognizing that these things grieve the Holy Spirit in their lives.

These are just little things believers can do to keep themselves unpolluted by the things this world considers spiritual. For a new convert to biblical Christianity, It is the best policy to reject all of the traditions of the religions of the world, even the preconceived notions about Christianity, and study the Scriptures until s/he knows enough to test all things and reject anything that contradicts God’s Word.

Modern Man’s Mythology

Our civilization is fascinated with the metaphysical world. You can’t channel surf on TV today without running into programs about mythological beasts, haunted houses, UFO sightings, or celebrity ghost tales. The viewer’s take their cue from Hollywood for their understanding of the unseen world and they can’t seem to get enough of the goose-flesh producing entertainment.

My generation grew up watching shows like The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and One Step Beyond. Early television of the 1960s was mild by today’s standards of paranormal programming. The stars of today use instruments to capture phantom apparitions on camera and even tape the sounds of the netherworld heard in white noise. Most of these materials are staged dramatizations meant to captivate the imagination of the audience, but sometimes actual unexplained phenomena are captured on tape.

Today’s parapsychologists have their own unwritten creed to explain the unseen world. In fact, the study of parapsychology is now offered as a ‘science’ degree in several universities. They even have their own scholarly conferences where the experts present their research into all facets of the spirit world. One such conference met in England in 2009 and featured “experts” from all over the world. The theme that year was "Things that Go Bump in the Brain: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Paranormal and Anomalous Experiences." The location of the event was chosen with the topic in mind: “Muncaster Castle in the English Lake district is an atmospheric and historic site where much research has been done into reports of hauntings.” [http://www.publicparapsychology.org]

The topics at these conferences reveal the types of subjects these new scientists are exploring. Here are some of the titles of the presentations:

• The Psychology of Anomalous Experiences

• The Haunted Brain: Towards a Cognitive Neuroscience of Anomalous Cognition

• A Neuroscientist looks at the paranormal

• Psi as Unconscious: A review of some recent research developments in parapsychology

• The Ministry of Defense X-files

• The Social Psychology of Conspiracy beliefs

• Interpreting the anomalous: finding meaning in out-of-body and near-death experiences

• A Matter of Life and Death: A Skeptical Look at Spiritualism

• Between the Worlds: Mediumship in the 21st Century

• The Lure of the Dark side: Sex, death and the paranormal in cult movies

There is an apparent merger in academic circles of psychology and spiritism. Things have come full circle from the medieval times before science and superstition went their separate ways to the modernism of the 20th century. The trend in our post-modern world is to once again unify medicine with alchemy, astronomy with astrology, science with superstition. As the saying goes, what goes around comes around. Or as the Bible says, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

If the new “scientists” had a creed to describe their view of the visible and invisible world it might go something like this:

“I believe in the Force, the Energy that is the life of all things in the stars and on earth, and in the divinity of man, the highest known form of intelligence whose life force is one with the One. I believe in the oneness of humanity, the evolutionary path toward spiritual perfection as we unlock the secrets of the universe. I believe in the Collective Consciousness that includes the thoughts and memories of those who have gone on before and that glimpses of these immortals speak to us when we tune our minds into their frequency. I believe that when we achieve the Critical Mass of enlightened ones on earth, we will take an evolutionary leap to become the new breed capable of linking up with the ascended masters who oversee our development. I believe in the excising of the old order before the new order will be established and a new age of peace will reign over earth in alliance with the other worlds in the universe.”

The future seen by these new scientists have been captured in various films and television series, particularly Star Trek. Notice that none of these futuristic fantasies include a belief in a personal Creator God. There is no doubt from a biblical perspective that the author behind the authors is none other than the devil in his role as the god of this age and the one who is preparing the world for his soon final stand in his rebellion against God the Father and His Son Christ Jesus.

Worlds in Collision

The Bible says we are not to be ignorant of the devil’s schemes. It is vital for every true child of God to differentiate between the world’s understanding of the unseen world and the Word of God’s true revelation of the invisible realm. The difference between the two is as striking as the difference between biblical theology and humanistic psychology. The two worldviews are mutually exclusive.

Paranormal investigators attribute the various workings of demons to a variety of causes. Ghosts are seen as spirits of dead people who need to be released from the earth realm but have unfinished business here. The movie “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze exemplifies that idea.

Space brothers often get the blame, or sometimes credit, for the messages of demons especially in cases of so-called spirit-channeling which in fact are cases of demonic possession. Messages received from so-called psychics by way of crystal-gazing, automatic writing, and other spiritistic practices are seen by the modern world as making contact with spiritual beings. Sadly, these demonic messages are taken at face value by the psychics as factual information as long as they appear to them as being benevolent.

Psychics get their understanding of good and bad spirits from folklore they’ve seen in films such as The Wizard of Oz. Remember that famous scene when Glenda, the witch of the North who asks Dorothy, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” Good witches are pretty and bad witches are ugly is the folklore we were all raised to believe.

The apostle warned of our day when he wrote to Timothy that, “they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Tim. 4:4

Some Bible translations use the word “mythology” instead of fables. Growing up in the modern age, had we read this passage even fifty years ago we could not have perceived how this could have become a reality in our enlightened age.

The modern culture and all of unregenerate humanity can only judge by appearances. They have not learned the lesson even from their own poets that “all that glitters is not gold.” They have no rule by which to measure truth and discern good from evil.

A recent visit to the world-renowned University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, demonstrated this shift in medical science. My daughter was suffering from dry eyes and I took her to the Ophthalmology Department. She described her symptoms to the eye doctor and he told her she was in luck because the new head of Ophthalmology was an expert in acupuncture. I sorta flipped my lid at him and he dismissed us without charging us for an office visit.

Our culture’s love affair with horror and things that go bump in the night will soon become a living nightmare. Hollywood will indeed have to face those demons it has been making a fortune off of as soon as the antichrist and false prophet enter the world stage. The old saying that the devil will have his due is about to become a reality.

Insurgence of Demonic Hosts

The Bible indicates that in the time leading up to the final Great Tribulation, there would be an increase in demonic activity. The Matthew 24 warnings of false christs and false teachers coming on the scene, deceiving many, is listed among the signs of the birth pangs that will increase in the end times. (We will look at that more closely in another chapter.) His footprints can be seen all over the globe as the attributes of the “man of lawlessness” manifest in the moral decline of western civilization.

The antichrist will deceive the world into thinking of him as a god. Perhaps he will be considered more enlightened and evolved than anyone else. He and the false prophet will deceive with the help of “lying signs and wonders.” It is interesting to note that Pharaoh’s magicians could duplicate the miracles God gave Moses and Aaron – but only to a point. The scene of Moses’ serpent swallowing up the other guys’ snakes is a memorable scene in the film, The Ten Commandments. Counterfeiting the power of God is one of the devil’s favorite schemes.” He masquerades as an “angel of light, the Bible tells us, and his messengers appear to be honorable and know how to present a false front. But beneath those smiling eyes lurk the powers of darkness.

Satan knows his time to shine is coming soon:

"Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." Rev 12:12

We get a glimpse at some of the demonic hoards that are already at work, preparing the people to follow after this coming world leader and his new world order, in the biblical story of the demonized men in the 8th chapter of Matthew. It reads:

“And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?’” Matt 8:28-29

And anyone who has read the Bible knows what happened next. The demons, calling themselves “Legion,” asked to be sent into a herd of swine instead of being cast into the abyss. Jesus obliged them and all 2,000 pigs ran off the cliff into the lake and drowned. It scared the townspeople so much that they asked Jesus to leave when they saw what happened and the once possessed men now in their right mind.

But notice what they said, “before the time.” What time were they referring to? There’s a clue in the book of Revelation that speaks of demons being released from the pit:

“Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” Rev 9:1-3

The only place of safety in the days ahead is in Christ Jesus. In Him we have refuge.