For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.Ephesians 6:12
Some Christians have been taught that spiritual warfare is against spiritual forces only. They think that people are not involved at all. Their reasoning is that the verse above states that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against heavenly or supernatural entities. This is misplaced and requires correcting.
Our struggle is indeed against rulers (arche; Strongs 746), powers (exousia; Strongs 1849), world forces of this darkness (kosmokrator; Strongs 2888), spiritual forces of wickedness (pneumatikos; Strongs 4152). What all of this means is that behind the evil and wicked behavior that people exhibit are demons (daimonion; Strongs 114.
What we must understand is that the wicked, evil, and violent behavior that people exhibit is empowered and motivated by demons. That does not excuse the man or woman who is being manipulated by evil spiritual entities. God will most certainly judge them for their wickedness and for allowing themselves to be controlled by demons.
My point is simply this: Christians must oppose people and their wicked behavior while recognizing that they are merely pawns of our enemy, the devil. Using passages such as this as an excuse to refuse to fight evil because “our war is not against flesh and blood” is naïve and clearly misguided.
Pastor Mike
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America, you are being corrupted by the racist Critical Race Theory propaganda machine and other lies that insist racism is systemic. DO NOT DRINK FROM THAT CONTAINER. IT IS POISON TO YOUR SOUL.
BLM and Antifa are front groups for Marxists and their plan is the destruction of America. Americans better wake up to the real threat to our nation before it is too late.
IF Black lives matter there would be ongoing protests in Chicago and many other major cities every day over the dozens of black on black murders that occur there. Are there? No.
IF Black lives matter then BLM and Antifa thugs would be protesting outside of every abortion clinic in America where thousands of black lives are systematically ended every single day, many by white abortionists. Are they? No.
IF black lives matter then blacks would stop voting for any politician who continues to use them for nothing but their vote for a political office while simultaneously voting against everything that would actually help their communities. I’m looking at you, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and the king of Marxist subterfuge, Barack Obama. Do blacks continue to elect these criminals? Yes.
IF black lives matter you would not support the murder of innocent people, the destruction of the property and business of innocent people, and the continued rioting, looting, and devastation while shouting it’s all about justice. THIS IS NOT JUSTICE. Yet, many of these criminals think they are justified in their behavior. Are they? Absolutely not!
Finally, if black lives matter, law enforcement officials across this nation would not all be painted with the broadest of brush strokes as being evil and racist, as many of them are in fact black, and the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officials are not racist and do their jobs very well. Yet, BLM and Antifa call for violence against all Law Enforcement Officials. Is this just? It is not just.
All lives matter and the family of George Floyd has been very vocal in saying they do not support what is happening and it is dishonoring to George’s memory.
Many people claim to want to have a conversation about race but few people want to start with the truth. You cannot have a conversation about race when one side thinks the other is inherently racist because of the color of their skin. That is a satanic lie clothed in Critical Race Theory propaganda. It has replaced the old satanic lie that blacks are somehow inherently inferior because of the color of their skin. Both of these views originated in the pits of hell. We are one race with many different colors. It is the enemy of our souls that seeks to divide us. Don’t let Satan win.
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:6
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a rabid postmodernism. As you will recall, postmodernism stresses the importance of the individual, his or her “lived experiences,” meaning his or her own reality, regardless of whether or not it is true. In fact, the perception of the individual is an unassailable mountain of truth through which all other experiences must pass through. In other words, according to CRT, truth, as evidenced by reality, is a western construct used to hold back people of color, therefore everyone’s truth is true for them. If this sounds like a different shade of relativism you are correct.
The difficulty we encounter today is that the viewpoints of racists utilizing and hiding behind CRT in order to propagate their racism and hatred are nearly incontestable. Running roughshod over other people’s rights, while maintaining the privilege to do so is utter lunacy. Lunacy codified into law is tyranny.
We are living in a time of revealing. Christians, Conservatives, Libertarians, Patriots, and other freedom and liberty-minded people, should take the time to rejoice. There are many reasons to rejoice today but here is one that some may be missing – we should rejoice because the God-haters, the America-haters, the freedom-haters, the liberty-haters, in short, the satanic, demonic, Leftists among us are finally being exposed on a scale and at a depth never before seen in American history.
Leftists, Marxists, Communists, Democrats, America-haters, and God-haters, all have one thing in common – they serve a demonic master who has completely destroyed their innate ability to reason for the common good. I and many others have said for many years that Leftist politics, whether Marxist or Globalist, is a mental disorder. We are seeing that truth verified like never before.
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In one of the apostle Paul’s last letters — the one he wrote to Timothy — he gave some vitally important words of caution and warning. 2nd Timothy 4, starting at verse 2: “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.”
Then, he added, “But watch thou, in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
I have been working in full time ministry for nearly 20 years now. I remember when I began, I was astonished at the many churches that were no longer enduring sound doctrine. The “seeker friendly” movement, which morphed into the “Emergent Church” movement was on a “fast track.” Mega churches were springing up with massive buildings. So large, in fact, they call them “campuses.” And many of these mega-churches have MULTIPLE campuses in various areas of their cities, because one building will not hold all those who want the feel-good, false “love gospel” message that is preached there.
I was saddened in
those early days of this work, to see so many formerly rock solid, Bible-based,
Scripturally sound churches DEvolve into nothing more than “happy fun
time.” A “feel-good experience,” where
one could go and see a show, lift their hands in mock reverence to God, dance
and sway, while being promised all manner of prosperity, health, wealth, and a
life of abundance. “Your BEST life
NOW.” This is just SO contradictory to
everything God’s Word says about the Christian life. Sin is no longer a word allowed to be spoken
of in many churches, and if it IS spoken of, it’s only to say that once we
simply say a prayer or walk an aisle (or worse yet, just raise our hand “with
all eyes closed and all heads bowed”); we are “good” with God.
We can then go
about our normal lives as usual. Except
now, we are told, we are assured of heaven… just because we repeated a few
words and sheepishly raised our hand while no one was looking. COME ON folks! Talk about biblical illiteracy. Talk about wolves in sheep’s clothing….
HIRELINGS lulling fat and happy fools into a false sense of eternal
security. This is so sad.
But you know, we
cannot put all the blame on the pastors.
They’re just giving the people what they want. Look again at the Scripture from 2nd
Timothy: it says THE PEOPLE will not
put up with sound doctrine any longer, and so THE PEOPLE heap up for themselves
teachers to tell them what they want to hear, to soothe their itching ears.
It is the great
apostasy, the great “falling away.” And
I have watched it begin as a tiny sprout many years ago, and I’ve watched it
grow, blossom, flower and then re-seed itself many times over the years… Today it is so prevalent in Christendom that
one is hard-pressed to find a faithful congregation of true believers
anywhere. I guess that’s why God’s Word
says there will only be a small “remnant” that stand firm to the end.
During my time in
ministry, I have seen the old timers, the pastors who were faithful in teaching
the WHOLE counsel of God’s Word grow older and retire from the ministry… or
in many cases, be FORCED OUT of their ministry by church boards and elders —
only to be replaced by somebody younger, more “hip,” more “in step” with the
culture and times we are living in. In
other words, a more CARNAL “pastor.”
These “cool” new pastors often use Hollywood films on their big
projection TV screens to illustrate their sermons… they make off-color jokes
from the pulpits. They wear t shirts and
ripped blue jeans as they speak, to appeal to the average “Joe six-pack” in the
audience. They have a “hot” worship
team, complete with electric guitars, drums, smoke and mirrors and in some
cases even laser light shows. “It’s all about the EXPERIENCE,” they
say.
Friends, I’m not
some old fashioned stick in the mud.
I’ve been around. And I can tell
you, this ain’t “church.” At least not a
biblical church. It MAY be a “synagogue
of Satan.” But it’s not church, and it
most certainly is not God-honoring.
There is NO reverence for Him; no fear of God there at all. I have seen youth leaders take their group
of kids to R-rated movies as their Youth Group “activity” for the week; I have seen pastors hold community events
called a “car smash,” which apparently the kids love… they get an old car,
put it in the middle of their parking lot, and let the kids destroy it with
baseball bats, spray paint, and tire irons.
This is their “entertainment” for the evening — a way to get kids to
“come to church.”
I’ve seen pastors
dress up like Hollywood movie characters, or the Easter Bunny or Santa
Claus. I’ve seen the bounce houses and
carnival games and rock concerts… nowadays, they will do ANYTHING to get kids
— AND ADULTS — to come to church, and KEEP coming to church… KEEP RIGHT ON
filling those collection plates. Just
don’t DARE tell them what the Bible REALLY says…. are you KIDDING? That’s MUCH too harsh. That’s no fun. Who would want to hear THAT?!
So when it comes to
doing things of any real significance; when it comes to being SALT AND LIGHT
and IMPACTING our society and culture with what our society and culture is
in DESPERATE NEED OF — the TRUTH, for heaven’s sake — they are all
AWOL… oh NO! They CAN’T “go there!” People don’t want to hear about sin and evil,
or the consequences of sin and evil in their lives. They don’t want to be CONVICTED in their
hearts. They want to be COMFORTED and
entertained. And they call this “going
to church.” Preach the WORD? Are you kidding? Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all LONGSUFFERING
and DOCTRINE? WHO in the world wants
THAT?! Endure afflictions for the sake
of the Gospel? “NO, thank you. I’ll take a
large coffee, please, and if it’s not too much trouble, please make sure the
service is over with by noon, because we need to get home to watch the game.”
If you want to know
why our world is the way it is, it’s because professing Christians have given
up. It began at least a generation or
two ago — and maybe longer. But at some
point, we stopped taking God and His Word seriously. And the Great falling away began. Instead of serving CHRIST and HIS KINGDOM, we
began seeking after things we perceived to be “good, fun, enjoyable,
entertaining.” Instead of afflicting the
comfortable and comforting the afflicted, we BECAME the comfortable,
…and we like it that way. So as for
those old time preachers who just want to preach the “hard stuff,” “hit the road, Jack, we’ve decided to go a
different direction.” Yes, indeed,
they have.
Over the years I
have known countless faithful men of God who have been run out of town by these
congregations that no longer wish to hear the truth. I, myself, have been “disinvited” from more
churches than I can count. But let me
tell you about a friend of mine who has recently experienced this at his church
in California. His name is Pastor Justin
Hoke, and he is a faithful truth-teller, a watchman on the wall. He doesn’t allow political correctness to
dictate his message. He speaks the WHOLE
counsel of God’s Word — out of love for the lost, and to inform those who
profess Christ of the spiritual culture war we are SUPPOSED to be fighting
— as we stand our ground against the enemy and his demons.
He recently put a
message on his church sign stating common sense, simply TRUTH. The sign read: “Bruce Jenner is still a man.
Homosexuality is still sin. The
culture may change. The Bible does not.” According to a news story by
PulpitAndPen.org, LGBT activists swarmed the church recently, claiming the sign
was “hateful.” They later vandalized the
sign. And less than a week later, Pastor
Hoke made the following announcement on his Facebook page:
“As of today, I am no longer the pastor of
Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church. After
much prayer and counsel, I have decided that it is best to briefly communicate
what has taken place. 1) I was informed by our other elder that he
felt he could no longer follow my lead as pastor. 2) I
was informed that essentially all but one couple in membership would leave the
church if I continued as pastor. 3) Our
other elder and the couple felt that those who left would likely return if
I would leave.”
Pulpit And Pen
commented, “Apparently, the public
outrage was enough to cause discontent within the local congregation, which
appears to value the opinion of men more than the Word of God. May it not be said of us.” I should note that this came after the pastor
gave one of the most powerful sermons I’ve heard in a long time, entitled “Love Warns.” In his sermon, Pastor Hoke noted that to
“accept and affirm” what the culture embraces, but which God’s Word calls
abomination is NOT to love those trapped in sin; but rather WARNING the
wicked of their need for repentance and forgiveness by the shed blood of Christ
is the definition of truly LOVING your neighbor. It was an incredibly powerful message he
gave. And then he was immediately
tossed out of his role as pastor. For
simply telling the TRUTH, straight from God’s Word.
I’m reminded of the
prophet Jeremiah, known as the “weeping prophet,” because he wept for the
nation of Israel. God sent him to
declare His Word and Truth to the people, and sound the warning regarding all
their iniquities. But the people did NOT
want to hear. Instead they demanded, “Jeremiah, tell us something GOOD for once…
tell us what we want to hear!”
Let’s read just a
little bit from chapter 7 as God explains things to Jeremiah: “But
this command I gave them: ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall
be My people. And walk in all the ways
that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear,
but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and
went backward and not forward. From the
day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have
persistently sent all My servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline
their ear, but stiffened their necks. They did worse than their fathers.”
And so God
continued, “So you shall speak all these
words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but
they will not answer you. And you shall
say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their
God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from
their lips.”
Does that not sound
like America today? Truth has
perished. It’s DEAD! Evil is called “good” and good is called
“evil” and we LIKE it that way.
And anyone who DARES defy the celebration of sodomy or speak TRUTH on
this matter is virtually crucified by all — even those you would THINK would be
on your side — the “church” people.
Indeed, we are at a place and time now where even those who profess to
be people of God will no longer endure sound doctrine. Instead, they heap up for themselves teachers
who tell them what they prefer to hear.
I can tell you,
from PERSONAL experience, being a watchman on the wall puts a target on your
back — for Satan to aim at, AND, sadly today, for many church-goers to aim at
as well. You WILL be persecuted for
speaking truth. It is SO SAD realizing
just how many — I dare say, the VAST MAJORITY of regular church-goers today —
have NO IDEA what the Scriptures actually say; nor do they have any intention
of finding out, of “studying to show themselves approved.” They would rather just attend the weekly
meetings at their local “Religious Service Provider” … as long as it’s a
message that makes them feel good about THEMSELVES.
In the Gospel of
John, Jesus said, “IF YOU HOLD TO MY
TEACHING, you are really My disciples.
THEN you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” You see,
every church-goer claims to want to follow Jesus — until they find out
where He’s taking them. If the truth be
told, they don’t really want Jesus, nor do they want His TRUTH. They just want the benefits. They just want to feel good. But apart from Jesus you can’t even know the truth… and unless you HOLD to His teaching,
you are not His disciples at all. So if
you’re not serious about being His disciple, then by calling yourself a
“Christian” — you are actually taking the Lord’s name in vain. So stop it.
America is in the midst of serious judgment. We are a nation of depraved minds. God has sent strong delusion upon our people
because we refused to hear and heed His Word.
If you want to know WHY the world is in such a mess, I can tell you. We have deserted our Heavenly Father, and shunned His Son. America will never be great again, unless we turn back to God, — who promises if we do, THEN He will heal our hearts and our minds, and our land. America needs Jesus. And men and women of true faith and courage, willing to preach the Word — in season and out. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering and SOUND doctrine. Unfortunately, in our world today, TRUTH sounds like HATE, because our people hate the truth…
