Revelations 18:2b-4 and 17:5b.

Transcription

1 Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! Mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. Revelations 18:2b-4 and 17:5b.

2 2 For me to convey my understanding of the spiritual realm I think it is necessary for me to begin with explaining my understanding of God s intent for His creation. This in turn implies certain understandings about the nature of God (that God is good) and the nature of ourselves (that what we are is a result of our choices the result of knowing good and evil, and choosing). We may see the stories of Genesis as literal fact or simply see them as a vehicle to convey a spiritual message. If we do either I think it is plain from the sequence of Bible verses below that God s original intent was for humanity to be good stewards of the world that He entrusted to us. The Biblical message is that it was never God s plan for us to destroy our environment, or for humankind to kill and exploit others, or for women to be dominated by men. I believe that the sequence of verses below convey the understanding that the reason that we do these things is in fact as a consequence of our human choices to disobey God. The spiritual message is that we invoke these things, and death itself, as curses upon ourselves. We can also then see that through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that the spiritual power of all the curses that condemned us to these actions to exploit our world and each other are now broken, if we choose it to be so. 1. Did God give humans authority to rule the earth? And did He feel good about it? So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and He said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that lives on the earth. And it was so. God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. (Gen1:27-31) 2. But then what happened? And the LORD God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.. But the Lord called to the man and said to him, Where are you? The man said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. The Lord replied, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent tricked me, and I ate. (Gen 2:16-17 and 3:9-13) 3. What was the consequences of what happened for women, for humankind generally, and for the land? The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals. To the woman He said, I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to the man he said. cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life until you return to the ground, for out of the ground you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Gen 3:14-19) Then, Cain said to his brother Abel, Let us go out to the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? He said, I do not know; am I my brother s keeper? And the Lord said, What have you done? Listen; your brothers blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother s blood from your hand. (Gen 4:8-11)

3 3 4. And then how did God feel about His creation? When people began to multiply on the face of the ground.the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was (now) sorry that He had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Gen 6:5-8) 5. What ultimately did God do to remedy what had happened? For just as through the disobedience of one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one man (Jesus) the many will be made righteous (Rom 5:19). Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. (Gal 3:13) This is my outline of how I understand things came to be in the spiritual realm behind the physical world in which we currently exist. In explaining my basic theological worldview I am not trying to put anything on others. I am also not saying my outline is perfect. I do not pretend to understand the location or time or nature or even the truth of the story of Adam and Eve. What I do understand is that the reason why Jesus called Satan the Father of Lies is that the destruction of humanity and the world somehow began with Satan s first lie to Eve, You will not surely die (Genesis 2:3:4). Whatever the nature of this event, this original deception led to humankind s choice to disobey God that then resulted in humankind s corruption into sin. This corruption into unholiness (unwholeness) caused humankind to become separated from the holy and loving God, who is the source of all life. I thus understand that to become separated from God is to be in a place of spiritual death and hell - a place where our spirits want to die the Second Death (Rev 20:14-15). Because God had placed humanity in dominion over creation, Adam and Eve s disobedience led to corruption and death flowing into all of creation. God had given humanity dominion over the earth but sin then gave Satan with his demonic forces dominion over humanity. Satan thus became Lord of the Earth (Rev 11:4). This led to Cain murdering Able and innumerable other evil acts by humanity. Thus, Mother Earth became corrupted to become The Mother of Prostitutes and the Abominations of the Earth (Rev 17:5). In this way, physical Death and Hell entered the physical world and became known as the First Death, the death of the flesh. Eternal separation of the spirit from God also awaited in the spiritual realm and became known as the Second Death, the death of the spirit, Eternal Hell. Out of this came Satan s rule of fear, for ultimately fear of Death and Hell is the root of all fears. Separation from God destroyed humanity s certain knowledge of Eternal Life in Heaven, and without this knowledge, fear of Death and Hell prevailed in the human spirit.

4 4 From this personal Biblical understanding and my own experiences in life, I have come to believe that Satan uses three spiritual strongmen to bring about his destruction to the world. The psychological names I use to try to describe these three evil spirits are Fear, Violence and Lies. I describe these three spirits as the three frogs (Rev 16:13) that come from the Dragon, Anti-Christ and False Prophet. These evil spirits operate at the level of the individual, group and nation (eg. the powers, authorities and rulers as in Eph 6:12). The process that these three evil spirits follow is the same as that which led to our Fall in the beginning. First there is a lie (Deception) leading to a hurt (Violence), then there is Fear. This then leads to another lie and another hurt and another fear, and on it goes. Sin, the disease that started with one lie, continues to travel throughout all mankind, corrupting the whole of creation. As time goes on, the layers of lies and fears and violence build up in each person s heart and across the whole of human society. Lies breed violence, violence breeds fear. Fear breeds violence, violence breeds lies, and so on. Without truth there is not love, without love there is not life. This is the plan of Satan to rule the earth, to bring forth his kingdom of Death and Hell. I have attempted to describe examples of this sin process below. When someone is separated from God they are vulnerable to Satan s work. Believing a lie from Satan leads to violence. Violence is either a direct response of aggression, or passivity that eventually results in an explosion. Either way there is some form of deprivation of life and this creates fear of death. When someone is hurt (especially as a child) they often make false assumptions or conclusions as a result of their hurts. They may say, I am not good enough or People of that colour who hurt me are all evil. In time, these false assumptions become hardened and entrenched as deep-seated beliefs lies in the soul giving rise to things like low self-esteem or racism, and so forth. These deep-seated lies then result in various forms of violent behaviour that hurts others (such as apartheid and anti-semitism). These others who are hurt then form their own false assumptions and beliefs (more lies), which in turn results in further hurts (more violence) to yet more people. An example of this sin process at an individual level, might be a woman who is sexually abused as a child. The hurt of this experience may cause the woman to take on subconscious lies that she has low value and all men are abusers. The woman may appear happy and accomplished on the surface until she gets married. Sexual relations with her husband then evoke the memories of her hurt and she recalls the lies that she is degraded and all men are beasts. She fears her husband and her hideous feelings of degradation. As a consequence, the marriage fails and both are left hurt. From this failure both the woman and the husband take on new lies. The woman believes she is no good at marriage and jumps from one partner to the next. The man goes into his next marriage believing that he is somehow inadequate. As a consequence of his insecurity (fear) his next marriage fails too and so the process of destruction continues. Another example might be a man who was a boy at boarding school. The absence of big people who care for him and the put downs of students and teachers give him the hideous feeling that he is inadequate and so he fears his world. To defend himself he develops a violent personality. He takes on the lie that he is inadequate and that the way to overcome his feelings of inadequacy is to exert power over others with violence. He seeks to control his world. He distrusts anything he cannot control. When he later gets married and his wife does things that challenge his authority or evokes his feelings of inadequacy he resorts to his childhood defence of violence. As a consequence his marriage fails and he loses custody of his children. His children are then hurt and take on the lie that their father doesn t love them and they lack worth. They become delinquents and one goes to prison for burglary and another becomes a struggling single parent in and out of relationships. And so the sin process continues like a contagious, deadly disease.

5 5 The Disease of the Heart Missing love is selfishness, the evil exactly opposite to love. Where one hard heart hurts another, who in turn hardens their heart to hurt another. Hurting people who have not forgiven take their hurts out on others, banging into others, spreading damage from one person to the next.. The hurts that are unforgiven become evil layers of stone that cover hearts of flesh. And stone smashes flesh, the heart is no longer pure, love has a wall of stone over it. Truth is hidden behind the wall and hardness prevails. Thus, missing love is selfishness, the disease that spreads throughout mankind. This disease is concerned about profit and gain, loss and cost. It is spread by the mind of deceit and hand of violence from one person to another, poisoning the heart and killing the spirit as it goes. Hence the mark of the beast is on the forehead or the right hand. It is the mark of gain, the trade of evil in worldly matters. This understanding of how Satan works against God begins with the parallel lists below which show that for every entity of God there is an opposing imitation from Satan. Satan himself opposes the Father. Death and Hell opposes Eternal Life and Heaven. The Anti-Christ opposes Christ. The False Prophet and Harlot Babylon (spirit of the earth/world) oppose the Holy Spirit of Truth in the Bride (the Church). Godly Entities Father Heaven Life & Eternal Life Christ Holy Spirit Spirit of Truth The Bride of Christ (The Church) Satanic Opposites Satan Hell Death & The Second Death Anti-Christ Unholy Babylon Spirit (Wickedness & The Mother of Abominations) The False Prophet (Deception) The Earth Mother - Harlot Babylon The Whore (The World) I understand these opposing entities of God manifest into the three frogs (Rev:16:13) of Lies, Violence and Fear, as follows: Godly Entities Satanic Opposites The Three Evil Spirits Holy Spirit of Truth in the False Prophet in the Unholy Harlot Lies Deception & Corruption (Frog 1) Bride (Church) Babylon (World) Son - Lord Jesus Christ Anti-Christ Violence (Frog 2) Father in Heaven (with Eternal Life) Satan (the Dragon) in Hell (with Eternal Death) Fear of Death & Hell (Frog 3) The original lie to Eve was the beginning of Satan s power. Satan s lies therefore make the nest to house his demons of violence and fear. Destroy the lies and Satan has no power. I therefore understand that the exorcism of evil spirits from individuals, churches and nations follows the order shown in Revelations First removed are the lies and corruption (Babylon and False Prophet), then follows violence and hurts (The Anti-Christ-Beast). Last removed is fear (The Devil s realm of Death and Hell), which exists solely because humanity believed the original lie and disobeyed God, leading to our separation from God, who is the source of all love and life.

6 6 I understand some of the spiritual names (as opposed to psychological names) of the strongman of Lies- Deception-Corruption are: The False Prophet & Beast of the Earth (Rev 13:11 & 19:20), Mystery Babylon the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth (Rev 17:5 & 18:2-3) and The Lord of the Earth (Rev 11:4). The guises of this demon are the Babylonian earth-mother and fertility goddess Ishtar, which later became the Phoenician Astarte or Asherah, consort of Baal that was worshipped by Jezebel (another name for this spirit). A woman identified as Jezebel was named as a false prophetess in Revelations (Rev 2:20). However, the original Jezebel was the evil daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon who sought to lead the Israelites away from the worship of God (1 Kings 16:31). In Ezekiel 28 there is a description of the King of Tyre that many people take to be a description of Satan. Worship of Ishtar, Astarte and Baal also involved practices such as temple prostitution, orgies and child sacrifice to obtain fertility, worldly wealth and pleasure. These false gods are also linked to the biblical Queen of Heaven, Egyptian Isis, Greek Aphrodite, Roman Venus, and other earth-mother fertility goddesses and mystery religions. From this analysis I therefore understand that the children of The False Prophet - Babylon are all forms or deception and corruption that substitute for God and seek to oppose the Holy Spirit of Truth and the Church. This includes all false religions and occult practices, all forms of sexual immorality, addictions, idolatry and anything else that that is placed above God. I believe the worst children of this strongman are all forms of Religion, including Christian Religion. Religion, in the form of the Pharisees and proponents of circumcision in the Early Church, received harsh criticism from Jesus and the Apostle Paul. I believe the spirit of religion in the Church is the most deceptive and corruptive manifestation of the Harlot False Prophet because it purports to be the Gospel of Christ, when really it is the murderer of Christ. The strongman of Violence is also known as: The Anti-Christ (1Jn 2:18), Man of Sin, Son of Perdition, Lawless One (2Thes 2:9) and Beast of the Sea (Rev 13:1). Just as Christ was came as a man of peace and refused to take up force to overcome His oppressors and the oppression of the Jews (eg. Mat 26:52-56), so the Anti-Christ is the opposite. I understand the Anti-Christ will come as a man in the imitation of Christ but the spiritual power of the Anti-Christ is violence and force sourced in lies, and manifest through aggression or passivity (violence is either the direct response of aggression or a passivity that eventually results in an explosion). The Anti-Christ s spiritual children are demons such as anger, hatred, rebellion, vengeance, resentment and bitterness. The power of Christ is to assert choice in the face of these things, just as Christ did when He chose to obey His Father in going to the Cross, instead of calling on 12 Legions of Angels (Mat 26:53). The power of Christ is to choose to assert the truth, to choose to be righteous, to choose to forgive seventy times seven times and to choose to love one s enemy. The power of Christ is found in the assertation of choice to follow Christ s way no matter what the circumstances. Ultimately, in some mysterious way, this power overcomes violence and defeats empires. This was what happened after the Cross, when the Roman Empire became Christian. This was the power of Mahatma Gandhi when confronting the British Empire and also the power of Martin Luther King when confronting the racist South. The following quote by Victor Frankl also illustrates this power, in my view: We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from us but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one s way.

7 7 I understand the spiritual children of the strongman of Fear of Death and Hell are the demons behind suicide and many curses, sicknesses and accidental deaths. These are defeated by faith that brings trust that brings hope. At the end of the Bible, Death and Hell are thrown into the Lake of Fire, also called The Second Death, after the Anti-Christ, False Prophet and Satan (in Rev 20:10&14). From this we understand Death and Hell is a spiritual strongman like the others. The fear that comes from Death and Hell, is always the fear of losing something of our life in some way, the deprivation of our happiness, the dwindling of our self, the experience of suffering. Thus, ultimately, all fears are the fear of death. When someone hurts us physically or emotionally or financially, there is loss in our life. Ultimately, when the loss is very great we may spiritually and physically die. I believe that to die spiritually before dying physically is to be in a state of committing suicide in a personal hell on earth that we seek to escape by suicide. To die spiritually is to be separated from God and all love (all relationships of love), which is Hell. Thus, to die spiritually after dying physically is to suffer The Second Death, which is eternal death in hell, a place of our spirit desiring suicide eternally (Revelations 20:14-15). I understand that all the lies and violence within all of us are ultimately motivated and sourced in our fears of Death and Hell. Thus, I also understand that lies and violence can only be defeated by the certain faith that Death and Hell are defeated in the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. The grace of God shown to us in this act of our loving God is what overcomes the original lie. Christ died, suffering our penalty for our sins. Christ rose and death was defeated by the power of God. When Death no longer has any power over us because we know Heaven is our eternal destiny, Where then is thy sting O Death? (1 Cor 15:55). The power to choose no matter what one s circumstances, is found through faith in the vindicator God who puts all things right in the end. Thus, the power of the Resurrection is the power of the Cross. Trust in the God of Eternal Life in Heaven who loves, heals and dispenses justice in the end, who gives the hope that enables the defeat of fear, so that we are then free to choose the foolish Cross. The following table summarises my understanding of how the two witnesses of Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of Truth defeat the work of Satan: Two Witnesses Power Satanic Entity Defeated 1. Christ The Cross Defeats Violence (The Anti- The Resurrection Christ) Defeats Fear (of Death & Hell) 2. Spirit Truth Defeats Deception/Lies (The Holiness False Prophet) Defeats Corruption (Babylon) How? By asserting choice in the face of violence. By showing faith that death and hell is defeated By exposing lies and revealing truth By the process of sanctification towards holiness