Doctrines of Demons

 

I’ve just heard an excellent speech by Ron Matsen called “Doctrines of Demons.”  He has been a pastor of Calvary Chapel Portsmouth for 30 years, and loves Expository (verse-by-verse) preaching.  This sermon, made three years ago, is very relevant today.

He begins by telling us Jesus’ opening remarks about the End Times. Our Lord is making us aware, in Matthew 24, that many of us will be deceived by false prophets, so we need to “take heed” to Satan’s cunning ways that he operates through his human servants:

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you….Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many…

What does deception do? Deception is a powerful weapon in helping to defeat your enemy’s goals.  Think of the great efforts the Allies did pretending to land the D-Day troops at Calais in France.  Nazis were deceived, and put many troops there, so they were not available to hold off the Allies at the actual landing strip, Normandy.  Deception throws your sight off the real truth, and exchanges it for pseudo (partial) truth. 

Satan used deception to throw off Eve from truth in Genesis 3. God said not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, or else they would die. Satan, who appeared to her as an attractive figure (God reduced him to a serpent on his stomach after this), blatantly accused God of lying. Satan told her “You will not surely die”, but then he focused her attention on a “lust of the flesh” deception (you will be like God, knowing good and evil).  That deception caused her to ignore the issue of whether it was possible for God to lie, or whether this creature was more credible than God—and transferred her attention to what could feel good (“knowing things like good and evil is desirable to me”). So he got her to sin based on pseudo-truth. He told her a truth—she did obtain knowledge of good and evil, by experiencing the evil guilt of disobedience; and he told her a lie, since her body immediately began to reproduce cells in accordance with mortality, and she experienced spiritual death—separation from God--with full death later (she and Adam were probably initially intended to be with God forever, as immortals). 

I have to take a rabbit trail and give you a current batch of deceptions. Wikipedia is not a believer in the inspiration of Scripture.  So in our question about Scripture, they divert us with “facts”—but those facts are chosen by “scholars’ theories” instead of Scripture. Those theories sound good, but they steer us away from considering God’s Word as final truth. Nor do they tell us where these “facts” come from.  Check out what they say about Eve’s sin:

Genesis 2 narrates that God places the man, Adam, in a garden with trees of whose fruits he may eat, but forbids him to eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." God forms woman, Eve, after this command is given (underline is mine).

What are they saying?  They are implying that Eve was possibly not responsible for sin—since she did not receive the command from the lips of God as Adam did. She got it from her husband, who was not a perfectly reliable source for accuracy—since he was human.  Since we have opened the door for his possible mistake in relaying that information, perhaps she did not sin in her act. Well, I have a number of complaints about that—but let’s just go with the obvious:  God believed she sinned.  She was cursed (Genesis 3:16) right along with Adam, which effectively said that that was her punishment for her sin. 

Wikipedia, in giving their “alternative” explanation, wants women to feel oppressed by the masculine characters around her, who seem ever willing to blame her, when (they say), possibly she doesn’t deserve any of that blame.

Wikipedia is good at this cleverness.  From a previous blog I did, check out when they think the Book of Daniel was written:

The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BCE biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BCE setting. Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel.

(P.S: The abbreviation “BCE” (Before the Common Era) is a favorite term they like to use to substitute for BC, Before Christ. That way they can avoid glorifying the importance of Christ in human history.)

The problem for Wiki is that the Book of Daniel names an upcoming king, Cyrus, who will rule Israel in the future—which was a miraculous prophecy, since the Book was written even before Cyrus was an adult.  So Wiki has to discount this prophecy somehow, since prophecies being that specific are supernatural, and that means God inspired the Bible authors. So they cooked up the “alternative explanation” for events that eliminates the supernatural. They are saying, in their first sentence above, it was written in the 2^nd century BC, by an author who was pretending (“ostensibly”) that he was Daniel, writing 400 years previously.  So since the “prophesied” events had already happened when the imposter wrote, the “prophecy” wasn’t a prophecy at all. They’re also saying, by the way, that the writer of Daniel was a liar, and by today’s standards, a felon as well.

Well, archeology and the Book of II Chronicles agrees with Scripture—the Book of Daniel was written before Cyrus, and written by Daniel, and since it mentioned Cyrus as a future ruler, it was indeed a supernatural prophecy. What is also noteworthy is, Cyrus is also mentioned in Isaiah 44 and 45.  But the Book of Isaiah, written by Isaiah, had to be written before Isaiah’s death, estimated by archaeologists to be close to 686 BC. Thus, his mention of Cyrus was also a miraculous prophecy too—since Isaiah had to write it before he died, which was at least a full 146 years before Cyrus came along as ruler of Israel in 539 BC.  Of course, “scholars” covered their butts on this one by saying, conveniently, Isaiah wasn’t written by Isaiah; that we don’t know who wrote it, or when. Likewise the Book of Deuteronomy wasn’t written by Moses, they say (heck, let’s clear out the whole crew). Check this Wiki quote about what they call the author of Isaiah: 

The unknown second prophet (See Deutero-Isaiah) 

We conclude that Wikipedia allowed writers who were agnostic to challenge Biblical inerrancy without telling us; so Wiki is using deception, and is not to be trusted for research on fundamental (i.e., miraculous) Christianity. 

Well, that was enlightening; that’s our current lesson in deceptive pseudo-truths. Let’s get back to our main theme, the problem of deception pulling us away from God in the End Times. Paul said that some people will be deceived, like Eve was; then he calls the authors of deception “spirits;” and further, “Doctrines of Demons.” This is based on I Timothy 4:1:

Now the (Holy) Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons

What are “doctrines of demons?”  Dr. Matsen calls them very good at “deception through disinformation.”  That word is not the same as misinformation, which leaves an opening that it was accidental.  Disinformation is bad information that follows an agenda.  (Ed. Note: If you are familiar with the term as applied currently, the Deep State will tell us lies that sound good, but they are just “gaslighting” us as they await their chance for a crisis to make us fearful enough, by their disinformation, to abandon important portions of the Constitution in the name of “protecting our security.” That’s their agenda).

 Without a doubt, the agenda that Satan would like to fulfill most, of course, would be to spread deceptions on Jesus Himself, to tear down His Godhood. The truth part of his pseudo-truth is the hook, to lead weak Christians in. Then he spreads his lies.  

Let me first speak briefly to those who say that Jesus “never claimed to be God.”

In John 8:58, Jesus claims a name that is reserved for God:

 'I solemnly declare it: before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

This was the name God gave Himself when he first communicated with Moses.  In Exodus 3:14 “God replied, 'I am who am. ' 'This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”

In John 14:9 Jesus says:

 “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

John 4:25-26:

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

These are but a few of many. Jesus also calls Himself Son of Man.  That title, in the Old Testament, means Deity.  The Pharisees and scribes knew what He was claiming. They accused Him of blasphemy.  But they couldn’t get around His healing, His raising people from the dead (including Himself).

Let’s get back to our main theme.  Satan’s followers, in tearing down Jesus, may dream up an “alternative creed” to “correct the errors of the past,” for instance.  Everybody likes modern things; they’re assumed to be improvements, right?  Here’s one such example:  Joseph Smith, the Mormon founder, declared that Christianity became corrupt and apostate over the centuries—it was, he said, an abomination to God. Smith was there to save us with his alternative version, the Book of Mormon. He wrote it around 1835, and since the Bible was finished nearly 2000  years ago, his book can be considered a modern arrival. They say it corrects the past.

The mixture of truth and deception will appear truthful to those who do not know their Scripture well, or have let their worldly feelings and lusts rule their decisions. With this tactic, unless we know our Bible, we become easier marks for Satan. 

I have an important sad fact to mention:  Our ignorance of Biblical doctrines may have a disastrous result when we die. Denying Jesus as God is a damnable event (I John 2:23).  Belonging to a false church which preaches that, and if we ignorantly or willfully don’t challenge it, that means we accept it and are thus guilty of it, and we find ourselves in hell after the Judgment at the resurrection. God says some have believed in “another gospel” (II Corinthians 11:4 and Galatians 1:7), and thus we could be on Satan’s side, not Christ’s side, when Judgment Day comes. Jesus did say that a lot of people would be totally shocked when Jesus rejects them from heaven. See Matthew 7:22-23:

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

I cannot but stress it enough the importance of Bible reading to learn correct doctrine. Paul told Timothy, a young pastor, that he must preach  good doctrine; that’s an important reason for teaching, or studying, the Bible. II Timothy 3:16 says:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness

Here’s the truth:  Christian orthodox doctrine (formalized expressions of a foundational belief, from the context of Scripture) maintains that Jesus was both Man and God while on earth. He experienced pain and hunger, but He also knew exactly what people were thinking, knew exact things ahead of time; and could walk on water or through walls, could miraculously heal at will, and could appear and disappear at will. (I haven’t the space to list even a part of all the precise events—guess you’ll have to read the Gospels.)  

You may not be desirous of raising the banner to His human side, and declare that the only thing important is that He was God.  I disagree. First of all, God is a spirit, and is not visible with human flesh. Jesus could not have His influence as an invisible spirit. Further,  Hebrews tells us He was made “perfect through suffering,” and, as Hebrews 2:9 says:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone

Jesus had to be a Man, “a little lower than the angels,” for a time; He had to taste death and torture to pay for our sin. We are unable to pay for our sin. He had to be tempted through trials of hunger and pain, to show that we can also defeat sin and temptation no matter the circumstances.  All that made perfect His appearance on earth.   And we can identify with Him when we suffer persecution. So let us thank God for His Incarnation.  We cannot identify with a non-feeling spirit-ghost-person, or even worse as a mysterious, uninterpretable aura of Christ-likeness, whatever that is. 

Satan is satisfied with tearing down either side of that Human/God concept.  You’ll see details of what I mean next week, as we delve into the deceptions that might take us into perdition, if we are not aware of Satan’s craftiness. We will take a close look at various “doctrines of demons.”   

There are three deceptions Satan uses, outlined in II Corinthians 11:4:

For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted…

 

You’ll recognize “another Jesus” in the spurious doctrines below and next week. I John 2:22-23 tells us how important it is not to reinterpret Jesus:

 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ (ie, Anointed One)? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

Reading that, you first of all see how the Son (Jesus) is equated to the Father.  Also, you get the idea that how people interpret Jesus is serious enough for God to consider it a litmus test, a line in the sand. Believe in Jesus as God, and act accordingly; then you’ve got an important doctrine on the path that leads to heaven. Don’t believe that; that path is on the way to hell.

More detail on the “Christian” cults next week.