Spiritual Warfare: A Battle of Two Worldviews part 1

this is our third time having one of these conferences and we're trying to address important issues that are facing the church and we've covered several different issues over the years now right now currently in the world there are three major movements all claiming to be a new Reformation and one of them is the Purpose Driven movement and we've dealt with that in past faiths at risk conferences and I wrote a book about that there's this peace plan that's going to reform the church by cooperating with business and government in churches and other religions to solve the world's problems that's called a Reformation another Reformation that's going on is the emerging church they consider themselves a Reformation movement and today I'm going to address a person's claims who seems to have his feet in just about anything that's going on in the church and it's a guy by the name of C peter Wagner see Peter Wagner formerly was one of the head people in the church growth movement back in 70s and 80s he was at Fuller in charge of their missions department in their church growth ideas then he got in to the Apostolic movement and the spiritual warfare movement is so now they're claiming a new Reformation is going to be based on Latter day apostles and prophets this morning I'm going to address a worldview I'm going to take this from the big perspective of a worldview and we're going to see that there are two worldviews that are clashing one of them is the warfare worldview that claims that future history is determined by the interaction of humans and spirits and the other one is the providential worldview that says that God is in charge of his own creation and that God is going to bring things forward according to how he's told us he would in the Bible so let's begin by looking at the definition of the warfare worldview I'm quoting here Greg Boyd he's a pastor over in st. Paul he wrote a book called God at war that proposes this warfare worldview let me quote Boyd stated most broadly this worldview is that perspective on reality which centers on the conviction that good and evil fortunate or unfortunate aspects of life are to be interpreted largely as the result of good and evil friendly or hostile spirits warring against each other and against us so life is seen as the interaction of spirits with each other and spirits with us and so we have to according to this idea we have to find out what's going on with the spirits and find a means of dealing with them or things are going to go badly in our life now in case you didn't know it if you look at this this is effectively a pagan worldview this is how the pagans have viewed reality all the way back in history they believed that there were multiple gods or deities or spirit beings and that their fate or destiny was in the hands of these beings and that they had to have some sort of a religious process to appease the deities and they believed in territorial deities and so on so I'm saying that this is essentially a pagan worldview we'll see more about that as we go on now look at what the Bible says in psalm 119 90 and 91 your faithfulness continues throughout all generations you establish the earth and it stands they stand this day according to your ordinances for all things are your servants so according to the biblical worldview God is in charge of his own creation though God allows evil evil is not ultimately going to overrule God's purposes God even uses Satan so the Bible says all things are your servants now let's look at this warfare worldview and unpack it a little bit here's Bob Larson who's become famous by casting demons out of people on TV and on the radio and these very wild manifestations get people's attention and he could hold a meeting at a Christian Church with Christians in the meeting and people start manifesting these demons and then he proceeds to cast these demons out but notice what he says here Bob Larson says curses are exacting legal arrangements of the spirit world just like human contracts might contain fine print and carefully crafted language satanic curses are often filled with minutiae they're required detailed voiding now I need to tell you something I used to be in this other world view I know firsthand was what this is about from 1975 until 1980 I was involved with breaking curses casting out demons I saw the manifestations I saw the reality of all this material all these things that happen so I'm not saying all this stuff doesn't exist I'm saying that I believe it's a deception from Satan to get us away from the finished work of Christ or the gospel and as in as making us think that our well being is ultimately in the hands of Satan and that we have to find out some secret information now the problem with this what's the problem well if there's some carefully contrasted curse that has to have detailed voiding we don't know what it is because this is all hidden in the secret spirit world and so I'm going to show you by quoting these these men and these teachers that if you adopt this worldview you can come to no other conclusion but that you're cursed and demonize and it's likely a hopeless situation they say it's not because they're gonna solve your problem so let's look at some more of these there's a legal system according to see Peter Wagner here confronting the powers is the name of this particular book here's what he says they a veteran spiritual warfare experts agreed that strongholds provide the forces of darkness as a legal basis for doing their evil deeds both in individual people on the ground level in cities or nations on a strategic level now let me explain what Wagner means by this ground level and strategic level distinction ground level would be casting demons out of persons alright or breaking curses that that they perceive to be over persons whether they be Christian or not strategic level is based on the idea that there are territorial spirits and that these territorial spirits are ruling over the territories where they exist and that there are certain things that either have happened in the past or are happening now in these territories that are giving these spirits or principalities and powers a legal right to do evil in that territory so the idea is that you have to find out what's going on or you're going to be the victim of evil curses and you'll have no way to solve these problems and they go so far as to claim that the lost will not be saved unless we do this strategic level spiritual warfare first and so now we have a circumstance where if we're going to go out on the streets and preach the gospel we can't expect that God is going to use that to save very many people because some spirit has a legal right to keep them lost I think the ramifications are very scary to be thinking this way now this is not a new idea I'm going to refer to a person who deceived me more that more than any other person I was deceived by watchman Nee and I spent years trying to get the demons out of people because of my idea the watchman Nee really did get this material by revelation he was teaching this in 1928 and he claimed that he had personal revelations from God that told him how the spirit world worked and according to me the spirits would take over anybody if their willpower wasn't strong enough and his main theory was that the passive will whether in a Christian or non-christian would allow the spirits to get into their lives and to negatively affect them and I used to believe that and I spent five years trying to help people get over their passive wills but the problem was that this assumption is that if you're having these experiences or symptoms or whether it was a sin or a sickness or a mental condition whatever it was you had the idea was a demon is causing it and then there was this system that let the demon keep coming back in at least so we thought and and it was awful because and I and I it was a terrible failing on my part that I was involved with that for five years because the same people come back and they always had the same problems and they're always the thought it's my fault my wills not strong enough so our hope was shifted away from the finished work of Christ to our own willpower and then some of us are very strong and willful and you know I never had those problems but I figured because I had a good strong will Satan couldn't get me but but the poor people are coming for counseling they kept getting back into this now look at what knee says in his book the spiritual man for each and everything God has created there's a law hence evil spirits also operate according to definite laws one of which is that certain causes will produce certain effects now should anyone fulfill the conditions for the working of the evil spirits whether he fulfills them willingly such as the witch or unwillingly such as the Christian then he has definitely given ground to them to work on him now the view that we're getting here the world view is that there are spiritual laws that govern this world of the demons the spirits the territorial spirits the individual spirits that inhabit Christians and non-christians and we have to find out what those laws are and we need to do something about them in order to become free and the big problem is these laws are published in a legal book right you can't go down to the library and read up on it the only way you can read about it is through the writings of shamans and witches and people that work in this territory or Christians who claim to know how it works let's look at Wagner I'll show you that this is a consistent theme in this warfare worldview he says this see peter Wagner one of the reasons the evil spirits succeed in returning is that strongholds on which they had base their legal rights to control that area and his people have not been thoroughly removed through accurate and sensitive spiritual mapping we can identify strongholds rooted in unremitted sins of past generations now if you haven't heard about this before this is a new thing that's going on and there's a new Apostolic Reformation they're doing spiritual mapping now imagine the difficulty we can't see spirits which is a good thing I believe by the way I believe the spirits are there and I believe that there's principalities and powers we're not debating the existence of sense of these entities we're debating what the Lord wants us to do about it okay we're debating what sort of a world we live in do we do we live in a world where the fate of born-again Christians is in the hands of demons like Greg Boyd says or do we have a God who's in charge of his own universe and it was graciously forgiven us and promised that all things work together for good for them for those who love God and are called according to his purpose that's our debate now command you in this we're going to create a spiritual map you know we can make get maps of the world especially now with the technology with the satellites you can get a Jeep yes in your car and I can tell you where to turn right but how are you going to map the spiritual world and I'll show you it's gonna be shocking the answers that these guys give frankly it's absolutely shocking but notice the unremitted sins the past generations they believe that our destiny is being cursed because somebody in a in the past sinned whether it was one of our own ancestors or whether it was somebody in government or some societal sin and those have to be learned about and somehow broken in order to escape this tangle of being under spirits and the spirits have legal rights so it says now I'm gonna show you a dialogue in a book by Bob Larson called in the name of Satan and he speaks to these demons that are inhabiting people that he's casting out and d'Alene's information from them all right so the demon says who taught you the rules Bob Larson what do you mean by that the demon the spiritual rules that determine what we can and can't do someone from our side must have taught you okay so he's claiming to have information from the demons that gives him the power to control the demons so he got this from the demons now just on a surface do you see a problem with that do you think demons are a reliable source of information now I've told I've told people this before yeah and I've heard others say this these beings do exist they've been around a lot longer than we have they've been in their spirit realm that's their natural place of abode they know their way around the spirit world we don't and they have our dis interest in mind and if we try to do business in their realm they hold all the cards because we can't see them and we can't know if they're telling us the truth or not I would assume they're lying and let's proven otherwise and what the exorcists believe they can do is force the spirits to tell the truth by threatening to throw them into pet if they don't but it begs the question whether exorcists have the power to actually put demons in the pit and the demons are worried about it they based a lot of this on some things that happen in the gospel but those gospel accounts were showing that Jesus is God incarnate with power over nature demons sickness and death and it demonstrates who Jesus is and Jesus can deal with them and know and do these things because he's the creator but what what are we supposed to be doing let's look at this look at the Waggoner again see Peter Wagner so we need the information we needed a spiritual mapping we need to know what the demons are doing and we need to know what the rules are and what their legal rights are or we're not going to win the battle so he says this nevertheless that evil spirits deceive certain people such as shamans witch doctors practitioners of Eastern religions New Age gurus or professors of the occult on university faculties are examples of the kind of people who may have much more extensive knowledge of the spirit world than most Christians have some of the information they furnish is accurate so to do our spiritual mapping we consult the occult we go and interview the shaman well how do these spirits work and where do they come from and what are they like and what are their names and so some of this is accurate well how do we know which parts of this is accurate and there's a bigger problem and that is that trying to gain this information is divination ok now I'm not going to go deeply into the topic of divination at this faith at risk because I did it I think faith at risk too and probably one I dealt with the issue of divination but nevertheless that's where you're going with this look at this one Wagner again confronting powers some non-christians weather animus shamans gurus Lamas philosophers or whatever may be able to communicate to us some information about the reality of the spirit world in which they have gained considerable expertise so we consult demons and we consult new agers and shamans and whoever might know something about this because we need this information now we're getting sucked deeper into a world that we don't belong in we're getting sucked deeper into this occult world because we think that the key to our spiritual well-being and the salvation of the loss is laying lying in the hands of Satan and demons and then if we don't discover secret information about this world we shall surely be curse or fail in our mission now wagner's big concern about this is that he wants to fulfill the Great Commission and he feels like we can't do that without this information but I would argue that all the information we need to fulfill the Great Commission was given to us by the Lord he says he says we should go out and make disciples and and teaching them to observe whatsoever I've commanded you that's the information we need we don't need to know the laws of the spirit world that are not reveal look at what Larson says this is what he does in the personal level Wagner is more concerned about the strategic level the spirits over the cities Larson spirits in persons here's what he says someone should be designated to keep a log of the information received while interrogating the demons as the internal structure of the victims demonic system is revealed lists the spirits according to their ranking site their right and occasion of entry and note their legal ground for remaining I'll tell you I'll tell you what I've seen this sort of thing I've seen spirits speak through people I've seen people ride on the floor under the power of demons I've seen hair-raising the my activity back when I used to be in this here's what I'm telling you you don't want to interact with these spirits it is is harmful it's harmful to go there and I'll tell you what else there's a reason why this happens okay once Bob Larson has his meeting and some manifestation start happening then the interaction starts the more you interact with spirits the more manifestations you get and the manifestations are self-perpetuating in the sense that the more you see them the more you think you're doing some good I remember in exorcisms people saying the bloody wood would try to get a rise out of the demonized person by shouting at them and and and if they said something that got a really strong negative reaction then we thought okay that's working somebody say the blood the blood the blood the person would scream no no anything but the blood oh that's where we need to go the blood is working but the problem was that the people that were subjects of this ministry never yet free and they they get more and more into this world where the reality of the evil spirits and their interactions are just where they are and it happens more and more and more and so this is a horrible road it's interesting this must be coming back around because it was in the 70s when I was involved with this and in the last two months and I get many many emails dozens a day the number one topic that I've been getting emailed about his spiritual warfare and people are in bondage to it I got an email just this last week a lady said that she was under this deliverance ministry and she says you know they told me I kept going back and I kept having the demons return and they kept telling me that it was because of my sin the do demons kept coming back and she says the more I went the more I was convinced I must be a wicked sinner and I couldn't I can't get free I got two problems I'm a sinner and the demons have me and I have to but sinning whatever sin that may have been or I can't get free from the demons and then it's a self-perpetuating cycle and did you know this let me tell you something that I wish somebody would have just pointed out to me at one point when I was a young man there's not a single incident in the entire New Testament where somebody had a spirit of a sin there's no spirit of anger no spirit of lust no spirit of homosexuality nothing like that ever mentioned in the Bible there are spirits that cause sicknesses and they were spirits that they made people deranged like the gadarene but never once was it said that somebody had a spirit that needed to be cast out in order to get over a sin and so they they attribute the cause of the sin to a spirit and they cast it out and then they and then when it comes back they said well you must have sinned again and you can't get free let me show you something here that should call all of this up short real quick doing around me 29:29 the secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law notice the parallelism the things that belong to the Lord are the things that are revealed are the words of this law what is revealed is a scripture what we know to be true about the world of the spirits is in a scripture we anything beyond that is not revealed and can't be accessed by any legitimate means and it's therefore occult and that would include words from demons that would include teachings from shamans that includes teachings from New Agers whether they're former and wagers or not that is not the issue we're not supposed to bring knowledge from the spirit world into the church now look at here I'll give it I'm going to make this real clear there's three possible means of knowledge if you look at that okay sources of knowledge and I'm going to say that only two of these are gentlemen general revelation general revelation is what we can understand about the world God put us in using our five senses and reason you can learn farming you can learn gardening you can learn engineering you can learn fishing you can learn anything about the world that we put in is not illegitimate you can get degrees and you can study and you can test the knowledge to see if it's valid that's general revelation but that doesn't give us knowledge of the spirit world does it because that our senses aren't designed to operate in the spirit world second is special revelation special revelation is God's inerrant word this is the special revelation that we have it's contained in the Canon of Scripture and I'm arguing against Wagner who by the way says that you have new revelations from prophets okay he opens the door to any kind of knowledge you can have knowledge as I quoted in before you have you can have a prophet from God tell you what's going on in the spirit world I reject all of that the only normative revelation about unseen things is given to us in the word the other area of knowledge is occult knowledge the word occult means secret it's information from or about the spirit world not revealed by God the Bible forbids this now let's just see how shocking is this if it's not shocking that I have we become jaded because of what's going on in the church this appears here's a man who's counseling us to go into the spirit world to get information so we could do spiritual mapping a professor at fuller seminary when he wrote this book a leader in the church growth movement a man who's he's a kindly old gentleman he's a nice pitcher there see kind little grandfather he doesn't look very sinister does he I'm sure he's a very nice guy I affect a friend of mine studied under him out at fuller and had him for an advisor it's a very nice guy and he's consoling the church to gain forbidden knowledge in order to spiritually map the world and fulfill the Great Commission and I don't hear a whole lot of protest why isn't anybody standing up and saying wait wait wait wait this is you can't teach these things in the church you can't counsel people to go get occult knowledge and shockingly he's claiming these willing to reform the church in other words make us better than we are now by bringing about an Apostolic Reformation I think that we have some problems let's let's see where this all goes here's C peter Wagner our criteria for evaluating this material should not be limited to the five senses and what we have come to regard as scientific laws now in other words we're not limited to two general revelation spiritual discernment certainly constitute at least some dimension of the image of God in which all human beings Christian or non-christian have been created if this is correct the human beings can and often do possess valid information about the spirit world so non-christians have valid information about the spirit world through some sense what sense extrasensory perception what is this it's y'all cult is what it is and it's forbidden it's clearly forbidden in the Bible he talks about spiritual technology he has a section in here on spiritual technology and it's an experiment and is in this book I am NOT claiming biblical proof of strategic-level spiritual warfare spiritual mapping or identification Ulrich's remind me to tell you about that okay we do have sufficient biblical evidence to warrant a working hypothesis we can field test a significant relatively new spiritual technology g-got has and so we're gaining information shamans gurus new agers some non-existent sense of that's in us about what the spirit world is like and gaining this information which the Bible forbids we're going to feel tested we're gonna go out and try things to see if they work now what kind of things do they try well one of the things they did in this movement was they a guy named John Dawson who's implicated in his same false teaching is organizing Christians to go on a track to retrace the the Crusades in order to repent of this sin of the crew on behalf of the Catholic Church they're going to repent of the Crusades this is what's identification 'el repentance we're going to march down this route and we're gonna identify as the medieval Catholic Church and we're repenting now that that's there's no concept like that in the Bible in the new testament of repenting for somebody else's sins now you have some carpet solidarity idea and the Old Covenant for Israel where Daniel would repent for the fact that Israel had been rebellious down through the centuries but you don't have anything like that in a New Testament and we don't have to go repent for the sins of Europe or the sins of the Catholic Church or the sins of some dead persons but that's what they're doing and what their field-testing it so they go on their trek through Europe and they repent other gross aids and now we're supposed to have a revival break loose in Europe and everybody's gonna get saved well where's the revival I can only say their field test failed here's what he continues to say look at what he says here if this is the case what I just read refusing to use it what does spiritual technology refusing to use it on the part of some might be to run the risk of unfaithfulness to the master if you don't do what God never told you to do and what god forbids you to do which is gain secret information from Farra world and go out and field test it and try to bind the spears and try to go into this world that he wants us in you're failing Christ how can I be failing Christ by obeying what he said in here rather than what he didn't say in here okay did I make my point but what's shocking is this is just going on and gathering momentum and the guy that teaches this is hugely esteemed in the Christian world is one of the top missions experts in the entire world and it just comes right on into the church nobody even raises an eyebrow let's get into a little better world the Christian one where we have some comfort now Paul told Timothy what to do with people who had been taken captive by Satan the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome but be kind to all able to teach patient went wrong but gentle does cracking those who are in opposition if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will notice the issue here the issue is not what we do to the devil Paul didn't say okay there's some people they've been taken captive by the devil so go rebuke Satan What did he say teach them the truth and if they come to their senses if they repent they'll escape from the snare of Satan if they turn to Christ and believe the truth the issue is not between us and Satan is between us and God the only way to be under the power of Satan is to not be right with God because God is the ruler of the universe not Satan and spirits don't have legal rights by some law system that we know nothing about notice what Paul says and remember beloved that Paul went into the worst places where they had pagan temples and temple prostitution and they had magic and shamans and demons and he went in there with the gospel and God uses it to save the Lost he says this I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the righteous man shall live by faith the issue isn't where the demons are who the demons are what their name what they're doing what they're mapping is what their activities are we know what their activities aren't lying and they're lying to keep you away from the gospel they're opposed to the gospel that's the battle and I'm going to show you that but the fact is that I believe that the gospel has the power to save anyone and no matter how afflicted by Satan they are and when you escape from his snares to the gospel you have eternal life believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved put your trust in him and if you're a Christian don't believe these things don't believe the people that are telling you that the demons are going to curse you or do some terrible nefarious thing because you didn't know something about demons here's what Paul said for the Jews answer signs and Greek search for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Gentiles foolishness but to those who are the called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God in the wisdom of God and see the Corinthians are saying Paul you need you need to more sophisticated message the Sophists the the experts and rhetoric come to Corinth and they have more appealing messages and Paul this preaching of the cross the Jews are never gonna believe that a man who's cursed it can be their Messiah right curse it is he who hangs on a tree there that's an offense to them know the Jewish Messiah can't be this cursed guy who died in a tree and he'd already been mocked in Athens when he preached a resurrection and the Greeks are too sophisticated to believe these ideas so come up with a different message but Paul would not change his message based on the market out there he believed that the gospel will save people who believe and so he's going to preach it for what it is now let's talk about blessing and cursing I'm going to show you what the Bible says how do you know whether you're blessed or cursed according to the Bible blessing and cursing are a relational issue a relational issue Jeremiah 17:5 through 8 blessed is the man who trusts in God kirsta this man who trusts in man now is that a lot more simple than spiritual mapping see I like the Bible it's really simple that is that's all you need to know everything you need to know about blessing and cursing is if you trust God or you come to you about his terms your blast and nobody can change it if you don't if you trust man which is what this spiritual warfare worldview is trusting man you're cursed Galatia says in order that created in Christ Jesus the blessings of Abraham I come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith so if you're in right relationship with God you're blessed now let's go to someone you've probably heard of a man by the name of Derek Prince who wrote a book about blessings and cursings and I used to read his material bosepheus Lee when I was in this movement here's what he says now this is about generational curses have you heard that teaching yeah there may be your grandfather had a Ouija board and your curse no okay I wrote an article on that I think we've got someone downstairs if you want to get one here's what Prince taught conversely any one of the four generations preceding us I hadn't committed these sins could be the cause of a curse over us in our generation each of us has two parents four grandparents eight great-grandparents sixteen great-great grandparents this makes a total of thirty purses any one of whom may be the cause of a curse over our lives how many of us would be in a position how many of us would be in a position to guarantee that none of our 30 ancestors was ever involved with any form of idolatry or the occult all right who's gonna step up to the plate no not a single one of my 30 and festers error was involved in any sin like that well nobody can say that so what's the conclusion I'm cursed I have to be cursed and you know what's worse I don't even know who those people are that cursed me unless you have a really really good family tree and so where are you gonna get the information to get uncursed well you know what it is you need one of these prophets to get a revelation to find out where your curse came from now this is a print line calling us a pragmatic diagnosis in the warfare worldview its pragmatic test to see if you're cursed here's from the same book blessing or the curse man these are signs that you're cursed mental or emotional breakdown repeated or chronic sicknesses barrenness tendency to miscarry break down a marriage and family financial insufficiency accident-prone I had this last one I don't get how do you have a history of suicides and still be around I have to get uncursed well I think that that meant somebody that in your family must have done that now so how are you gonna know you're not cursed and I've even told you all the other stuff in the book somebody may have spoken a word against you in this curse to you you might have somebody putting a curse on you or you may accursed yourself because you said their own words if you said I hate I hate having to get up to go to work you just cursed yourself that's the way it goes let's see what the Bible says it's not better news okay the Bible gives us a relational diagnosis that the blessings and the Beatitudes are upon those for such is the kingdom of God this is what is true of the citizens of the kingdom blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed are those who are persecuted blessed are the insulted persecuted the recipients of evil because of Christ's and Lucas is blessed are the par so there princess if you if you pour your curse and Jesus says of your poor and a citizen of the kingdom your blast so who are we going to believe look at this in the Bible biblical worldview blessed are the mocked scores change in prisons stolen son and two attempted put to death of the sword destitute this is all from Hebrews 11 the great chapter about the heroes of faith they're blessed who they gained approval through their faith see they're blessed because of their relationship to God through faith not by some pragmatic examination of how life is going do you know dear ones that this idea that the problems in life are proof that were cursed comes right out of paganism I'm telling you that this warfare worldview is the pagan worldview dressed up in Christian clothes people of whom the world is not worthy look at Galatians 3:10 for as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse for it is written cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them so if your sins are not forgiven and you can't perfectly keep the whole law which you can't Paul's argument is you have to be cursed you can't possibly have kept everything written in the book of the law so you're cursed because you're in wrong relationship to God and that's true if you're rich that's true if you've been had a great family and great kids and you've had a wonderful wife and you've got everything going your way in life if you're of the works of the law you're cursed because you're in wrong relationship with God but what what about the blessing Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree in order that in Christ Jesus of the blessing of Abraham I come to the Gentiles right relationship with God is the way to be blessed look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 15 in verse 22 for as in Adam all died and I in a paper I wrote on this I pointed out though well there really is such a thing is incest real curse --is and the ancestor that's the problem is Adam okay right and so if you're in Adam you're cursed curse of sin and death if you're in Christ you're blessed so also in Christ all should be made live how does that work I'll tell you how it how it works how what do you have to do to be in Adam born yet reborn you're halfway there doll what do you have to do to be in Christ you gotta be born again amen if you're born again you're blessed trust in him notice what Paul said about his ministry acts 26:18 he says he was called to open their eyes that is the Gentiles so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the Dominion of Satan to God in order that they may be received forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me it's so basic it's so simple but beloved we are being taught by the top missions experts in the entire world that the gospel needs some thing added to do something added to it or people are just in darkness and this just isn't going to work we've got to do a strategic level spiritual warfare we've got to identify the territorial spirits and then bind them and then perhaps somebody might believe the gospel but that's limiting God in a terrible way Paul says that through the gospel they turn from darkness to light and from the Dominion of Satan to God and the whole world that says the first lieth and the power of the evil one and so the problem is worldwide and the problems Universal for the Adamic race and I'm proclaiming to you by the authority of God's Word that the gospel will deliver anyone who believes from that condition and that being delivered from it you're delivered from the power of Satan and that you're not cursed you're blessed let's look at some implications of the warfare worldview and then we'll see some implications of a biblical worldview let's assume we believe this and I have to say as I read Greg boy's book some years ago Oh God at war and you know he's an open theist so he doesn't even believe God knows everything what's gonna happen in the future so in his worldview God doesn't even have foreknowledge so we don't know anything could happen and Satan may win every battle and as I was reading I thought this is if I believe this this would be so depressing it's it would be hopeless I just don't think I can ever figure out what the spirits are doing well enough to fight them or this worldview is just hopeless implications a Christian can never be certain he is free from Satan's power that's the implication number two a Christian can never be certain he's blessed and not cursed and number three the Christians future well-being is never certain look at this I mean these are just implications from what I read in these books according to warfare worldview the unseen spirit world has rules that give demons entrance into the Christian now here's some things about these rules that the demons are following the rules are not revealed in the Bible they're just flat-out doubt they're the spears know the rules we do not the spheres know their realm we do not if the spheres have rights to us because of any sin or passive will our hope is in our own willpower and our ability to live sinlessly that's that what the Bible's teaching us our hope is in Christ not in our own abilities I I've talked to people and just even so very recently who have come under these teachings whether it's through Neal Anderson or this Bob Larson and and I've warned them if you believe what these men are teaching you are going to lose your confidence and your trust and your freedom in Christ you're gonna lose it even though they promised you freedom they're taking it away from you and here's why there's two things that we really don't know okay we don't know the spirit realm it's hidden from us it's there it's real but we don't know the rules we don't know what the spirits are and what their names are we just don't know the other thing we don't know is the human heart the Bible says it's desperately wicked who can know it so the Neal Anderson and company are going to take the intersection of two unknown things the spirit world in our heart and it's gonna try to go in there and untangle it for us and once we start that process of trying to figure out the spirit world at our heart it becomes desperate because we can't know we'll never ever have confidence we can never know we're free but the Bible says the Lord says I the Lord know the heart God is the heart nor God is the one assist us free and so that is a serious problem I think according to the warfare world you cursus fall upon critius for a variety of reasons sins of unknown ancestors words that Christians might say since that Christians might come in sins committed by previous persons on property Christians own no you know that's true there's a Marilyn Hickey wrote a book claiming out the people are cursed because of what somebody did in their property 50 years ago so anything going wrong is understood as evidence of being cursed if you adopt the pagan warfare worldview you will never ever have confidence that you're blessed because it's not possible you can't ever know and that's the way the pagans are literally they're always trying to appease some God that they can't see and they don't know so in our case who might be reviewing the spirits but we don't get free the Christians future well-being is never certain according to the warfare worldview future world history is determined by the interaction of humans and the spirit world if Christians fail to identify and bind territorial spirits their lands will be blighted and cursed if Christians lack spiritual technology they'll be unable to fulfill the Great Commission all future promises of God are contingent on the decisions of men and devils and that is now I'm not being overly dramatic that's exactly what Greg Boyd teaches in his warfare worldview now does that give you a lot of confidence that all future history is the interaction between men and devils well God has a role he's trying to feed us information about how to deal with the devils through prophets and revelations but we just aren't very good at getting it so it's a horrible quagmire and I don't think you want to go there let's look at a much more hopeful scenario enough of the pagan worldview let's look at the Christian worldview biblical I believe it's a biblical providential you know a boy's book he actually says that he absolutely rejects the providential blueprint world view out of hand rejection that God is the ruler over history number one Christians are delivered fishes are delivered from the authority of darkness through the gospel that's what the Bible claims every Christian is blessed not cursed why because you have faith in Christ's blessing is given to us because of being in Christ that because we earned it not because we're better than everybody now because we can trace our lineage back to five generations of Baptist preachers all right but because Christ has took us unworthy wretched sinners into his family and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus every Christian is securely in God's hand and has assured that no evil power in the universe can Ford God's purpose says in Colossians 1:13 and 14 before he delivered us from the domain the greek word EXO Xia Authority he delivered us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of sins the Bible so straightforward is so clear it's simple it's understandable and then Colisee they were afraid of faith there were the stokke of the elemental spirits that they thought controlled people's destinies and they had these magical sayings and an angel names and things that they were trying to do to be free from the spirits that were giving them bad fate and people were bringing that into the church and Poirot clashes to correct it how did he correct it by telling them that they've been transferred out of that realm of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son and that in Christ he's canceled out a certificate of death disarmed their rulers and authorities and they did not have to live their lives in fear and superstition visions 1:3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ now something that you may not have known depending on what theology you've studied but in both Colossians and Ephesians there's discussion about principalities and powers that's these territorial spirits that awake you're talking about and the reason for the discussion in Ephesians in clashes is because in Asia Minor they feared these things and believed that their fate was in the hands of the spirits and Paul was telling them that in Christ they're seated far above all principalities and powers they're not under the spirits they're above the spirits and he's as seen yes so that they say okay now we can enter without were above them we can bind them and talk to them and tell them to go to somebody else's country the spirits are not controlled by Christians gods in charge of the spirit world and he lets them do certain things for for a short time until history runs out okay now so if you're in Christ you don't have to fear being cursed or having bad fate because you're above the principalities and powers that's why these teachings are in these epistles look at this there's a man named Balaam who was a professor professional guy at making curses he was so good at cursing people that he was paid big bucks because of his ability to do it and Balak paid him to curse Israel and you know the story the donkey told him not to go and he wanted to keep going and he ended up blessing Israel even though he was paid to curse them but here's what actually Balaam this false prophet said in this case it was the truth because he couldn't do anything more than what God would let him here's what he said God is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent as he said and will he not do it or has he spoken and will he not make it good behold I received a command to bless when he is blessed I cannot revoke it so the most well paid shaman the most well paid person who could put a curse on anybody was unable to revoke God's blessing on God's people so why are we fearing curses all right back Balaam actually if you read in the book of Revelation he actually came up with a plan that worked I have just a little bit of time let me tell you what Balaam yet according to the New Testament Balaam finally counseled Balak to throw a stumbling blocks in front of Israel because he said you know I can't curse them because they're blessing they have a right relationship with God but if you get them to commit idolatry and and fornication spiritual evil that God will curse him you'll need me at all in other words get them to rebel against their covenant with God and that was his counsel and there were people like that in the church according the book of Revelation Romans 8:28 famous verse but we should really believe it we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose now the good here is defined as being conformed to the image of Christ but if Gregg Boyd is right this verse can't be true and he hates this first I've heard him preaching about how he just hates when Christians quoted well because the verse disproves his whole worldview that's why now if if all things are working together for good and God's the cause then God must have authority over all things right alright let's go on this see the very end here romans 8 after this long discussion about god's work in his own people here's what paul said for i'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities and are things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor death or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord here's what you need to know if you believe upon Jesus Christ who is God incarnate came to earth was born of a virgin lived a sinless life died on the cross shed his blood to avert God's wrath against her sin and was raised on the third day and bodily ascended into heaven this Jesus if you repent turn from religion and sin and works and whatever you're trusting in now and put your trust in Jesus you will be saved and this statement will be true about you nothing will separate you from the love of God let's close with prayer if we father thank you for the mercy we've been shown through our Lord Jesus Christ thank you for pouring your love in our hearts and we pray for our brothers and sisters that scattered around the world for becoming prey to teachings that are telling them that they're cursed that their destiny is in the hands of spirits and that they need information that they can't even get there so harmed by these things our hearts go out for them to them and let me pray that somehow this message could get out so that they could find the true hope that they have in you and not be troubled by these teachings so we

Channel: Critical Issues Commentary

Views: 4,789

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Keywords: Bob DeWaay, CIC, Critical Issues Commentary, Faith at Risk 3, Spiritual Warfare, Christian Worldview

Id: urhnxhZPelk

Length: 58min 20sec (3500 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 17 2016