4. Seducing spirits & Doctrines of Demons
1Tim. 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
This is one of the most alarming problems of the Modern Church. The Scriptures state clearly that in the last days some individual Christians, some Preachers, some entire denominations will depart from the truth of the “Faith.” We are having major problems with this in our churches.
Understand that the concept of seduction is very gradual and subtle. Just like the story of the crab that thought it was just taking a warm bath but didn’t realize that it was in a pot with the heat being gradually turned up until it was boiling. This is what has happened in the church. There has been a slow seduction of the Church so that most buildings that Call themselves churches need to change the sign on the outside. If I owned and operated a toy factory the only way that I could legally and ethically call it a toy factory is that my factory produces toys. If my factory ceases to produce toys then I must change the name of the business to whatever I produce. This rule also applies to the Church. Toy factories produce toys, Bakeries produce cakes and pies, movie studios produce movies ---and churches should produce Christians. How is that defined? Shouldn’t a church produce Christian young girls and boys who are virgins until marriage? Shouldn’t the church produce the strongest marriages in the country? Shouldn’t our people walk in the strongest integrity and honesty? Are these things even close to what you find in our churches today? No—you find just the opposite the most debase conduct and activity ever known to man. Why is this? Because of three lies that that these seducing spirits have led the Church to teach and preach as doctrine.
i.The Church is for sinners
How many times have you heard someone say that the church is a hospital for sinners? Now this sounds good and very spiritual but it is not true. The Church is not a hospital for sinners. The Church itself is the congregation of like believers/saints. The word church means “the called out ones.” Called out of what? Sin, the world, and demonic life-styes and influences. So the Church itself is the gathering of the Called out ones. The job of the Church is to evangelize sinners, but they only come into the Church after they have made a decisions to follow Jesus. This is a definitive decision it is not vague or gradual. The first Church in Acts didn’t have known unbelievers meeting with them with the Church. When they had their prayer meetings and was hiding Paul they didn’t have the Pharisees in the meeting or the Roman soldiers in the meeting –saying yes this is a hospital for all sinners. The Pharisees were enemies and so were the Romans they would have killed Paul and the other believers. This is exactly what has happened in the modern-day church the enemies of Jesus have crept into the church and killed the lambs. People who have not made a definitive and proven decision for Christ shouldn’t allowed to be considered members of a church. So how are sinners to be helped? Well we should follow the pattern of Jesus and the first church. Should the Church be a closed club? No. We are to go out among the sinners and evangelize. Out into the streets and out into the neighborhoods, out into the work place and compel men to come to Christ. We should conduct formal meetings like Crusades for sinners. This is what Billy Graham did. When you go to Billy Graham crusade you don’t say come on we’re going to church! An unlearned sinner may say that, but a beleiver doesn’t. Billy Graham crusades are not for the Believer although Believers can and should participate in them. The Crusades are geared toward sinners making a conversion decision. We may have special services at our church building geared toward the unsaved. But the messages that are preached should be totally dedicated to seeing them converted. To say that the church is a hospital for sinners can only be correct if it is referring to it being a maternity ward. The only involvement with sinners inside of the Church should be bringing newborn Christians into the world. Now outside of the congregation we are to do good to sinners, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the prisons, heal the sick, and even cast of demons. What if you find that someone who is supposed to be a Christian is living a life of blatant sin. You go to them in private, see if they will repent, make restitution, and be restored. If not then 1 Cor 5 tells us clearly to put them out of the Church. Why? Because that sinful, worldly attitude will infest the church. This is what has happened.
ii. The Church should be Seeker-Friendly
This is a relatively an new development in modern Christianity. It comes from the premise that there are a large amount of people outside of the church seeking God. This is Contrary to what the Bible teaches:
Rom. 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (No seekers seeking)
The only way a person comes to Christ is that God finds them and draws them. The Bible teaches that men are drawn to God, snatched out of Hell, rescued from sin. Listen to what Jesus says :
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
But lets say, hypothetically, that there are one million seekers out there (even though the Bible says there not). How could we be a friend to the ones who are seeking Christ? The seeker friendly philosophy says, don’t tell them about hell, repentance, or judgment even though that is what we in the Church believe—if you share this information with the seekers you will scare them away. Is that being a friend? Isn’t that being an enemy when you don’t warn them of the impending danger of remaining in their sinful condition. Let’s say a blind man is walking towards a 1000 foot cliff and sharp jagged rocks below it. If a person who can clearly see that there is a cliff ahead and walks up and gives this blind man a hug and affirms that he is doing great and that he is loved and accepted exactly the way he is going---is that person a friend or enemy?
What was the love shown to the blind man? The Blind man was made to feel loved and accepted while on the path to his destruction. This removed any sense of urgency to change direction, or sense of danger to be cautious.
Prov. 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
If I am a Pastor of the Seekers and my intention is to gradually, share the gospel through the relationship approach and the seeker dies without making an accurate definitive decision for Jesus, that seeker dies and goes to hell and his Blood is required at my hands.
Ezek. 3:18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Making sinners feel as if they are already a part of God’s family, and making them feel comfortable about their sin is not being friendly its being fiendish. The church benefits from their tithes and offerings, benefits from their service and involvement, but they don’t get the benefit of eternal life! The Seeker-friendly approach is really designed to grow the congregation and grow the church budget and it is working. Mega-churches all over the U. S. are full of unregenerate congregants who have never understood and responded to the gospel. Unsaved sinners fill the Choir stand and sing about a God they don’t even know. Unsaved sinners are fill our Church volunteer staff to help us lead people to the Jesus that they have never known themselves. Even our pulpits are full of men that have never been born again (this is incredible, but true).
iii The Church Should Return to the Papacy of Roman Catholicism.
The Neo- Penoscostal Movement has definitely made a shift towards Catholicism. Remember the Baptist and Methodist were called Protestants because John Wesley and Martin Luther protested Catholicism and started a reformation. Through the Full Gospel Baptist Church movement headed by Bishop Paul S. Morton, we have gone back to Catholicism. The Bishoprick, the Catholic apparel and Pagentry. The pastors and ministers wear clergy collars and the Bishops wear the vestige and the little funny beanie hats, and the Bishop’s ring and cross. Why is this important? Because it is the Garb and practice of Catholism. The order of the Lords Supper is now done in the likeness of a Catholic Mass. Why has this shift been made? To give more power to the pastors and Bishops; to elevate the office of the Senior Leader and create great distance between the Bishop and the members. This insinuates that the Bishop has higher knowledge and greater access to God than the regular lay member. This also denies the Priesthood of every believer. The church is being taught that the Pastor is the members connection to God. One pastor said, “if you can’t touch God, then just touch some one who touches God.” If you stay connected to the pastor then you he will tell you what God is saying for you. This sounds like a high priest to me or a mediator between God and Man.
1Tim. 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Pastors and Bishops have exalted themselves to demigod status. Bishops (especially in the black church) need somebody to carry their bag, somebody to carry their Bible and somebody to wipe their sweat before they can serve the Church of the living God. This is outrageous, but they have allowed seducing spirits to create devilish doctrines. They openly and purposely defy scripture. How do you know someone who is walking in the spirit of Anti-christ? They purposely do Anti what God has said.
For instance the modern day fads of:
a.calling someone your spiritual father – this openly defies what Christ says. (If it is against Christ it is Anti-Christ.)
Matt. 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
JESUS SAID THIS DIRECTLY. SO WHY IS BISHOP EDDIE LONG CALLING BISHOP T.D. JAKES HIS FATHER. WHY DO SO MANY BISHOPS CALL PAUL S. MORTON HIS FATHER? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THE CATHOLIC PRIEST AND BISHOPS ARE CALLED. THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF ANTI-CHRIST BECAUSE IT GOES AGAINST THE WORDS OF CHRIST.
b.ARMOR BEARERS, AGITANTS, AND SERVANTS
I recently Ministered at a church with 17000 members. During one Sunday when I was there, I rode with the Senior Pastor from one location to their 3rd location about 10 miles from where we were. I was surprised to see that No Armor Bearers had to drive him, Nobody carried his Bible or wiped the sweat from his partially bald head. There was literally no hoopla at all. Although he was respected as the Senior Pastor when we drove to the 3rd location, no one opened his door, He grabbed his Bible and went in and preached. Now anyone with any Bible sense knows that there is no where in the five-fold ministry that is even close to the Armor Bearers position. Many call this the gift of helps. Yet gifts don’t usually lend itself to offices. For instance there is a gift of tongues, yet there is no office tongues. I will not dignify this awful practice with an elaborate explanation. The modern-day armor-bearer no more than a glorified “flunky” or at best a “body guard” . The armor-bearer is necessary to promote the “king-ship” of the Bishop or pastor among the people. Kings have attendants, kings have “royal washers” and some Kings have even had “royal- butt-wipers” . There is no difference with these Bishops now. I know of one Bishop that after he preaches a lady (not his wife) comes in, helps him get undress, and wipes him down with alchohol. Sounds like a “royal –butt-wiper” to me. If a man can’t wipe his own sweat, carry his own 2- pound Bible, or get in and out of the Car himself, he doesn’t need to be pastoring,, he needs to be in a convalescent home. A Pastor may need help carrying equipment in or carrying luggage into a hotel don’t get me wrong. However, this catering to a mans every need or wiping his sweat is ridiculous. (Eddie Long wipes T.D. Jakes sweaty head while he preaches - this is nasty)
Jesus said
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Once again we see that this practice is the spirit of the Anti-Christ because it is anti- what Jesus taught.
Think of how many people would be converted to Christ if all the armor-bearers were taught to witness and evangelize sinners with the same fervor as they “serves the Bishops.” How many of the elderly in our churches would be better off if the Bishops released his attendants to attend to the seniors in his congregation that really needed help. No the celebrity pastors need all of this hoopla to feel good about themselves. If Bishops and pastors need all of these Armor –Bearers to bear Arms why isn’t anybody going to battle? This whole thing is a sham and a shame!
