Bogus Heroes

The lunatic world of demonic warfare

eejoseph, , ,

You may not have heard it and hopefully you will not have to endure the sideshow but blaming every variation from our creature comforts on spirits.  Children behaving badly is because of a spirit.  Financial,  interpersonal, and interracial problems are the result of spirit activity.  If humans were something more than flesh (and  blood!) the analysis might hold water.  The decisive battles of human existence  and destiny are not being fought against evil spirits; demons.  Christ has so destroyed the devil’s works, there is no need to create the impression that Christ’s followers are enrolled in an “arrest and jail” operation against demons.

Angels and people

Demons are not flesh and blood creatures, and humans are not spirit beings.   Demons are angels, beings in essence more like God than humans.   They exist in three environments: heaven, earth, and tartarus (a kind of house arrest action for rebel angels, mentioned by Peter 2:24 ),  The idea that humans can send demons to a hell is not merely without foundation, it is lunacy. 

Demons, the engine for bogus discipleship

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…

1 Timothy 4:1

If you read what follows the first verse from 1st Timothy 4 you would have discovered that there is hypocrisy in the demonic influence and that the hypocrisy is the behavior of the departing believers.  They are the ones “speaking lies” (a once-used term, oral falsifying, ψευδολογος, pseudologos) in playacting.

A demon-influenced person can be expected to have a primary interest in the following:

  • forbidding marriage (total ban, interracial, international)
  • advocating for abstinence from foods (seasonal and  categories such as clean, unclean, vegan, animal)
  • denying God’s creation of all good things
  • showing their ingratitude for all things (and people)
  • opposing the sanctifying power of God’s word and prayer (1 Timothy 4:3-5, NASB)

There is no question that Catholicism is a hotbed of playacting doctrines.  Catholicism recommends seasonal food restrictions, celibacy regimes and perpetual virginity.  There are rules about who one can marry, there are prayers to saints, there is making Mary a mediator, and the veneration of objects.  This departure from the faith is seen in one or more particulars all over Christianity.

A notch below angels

A popular mantra, which does not deserve the label “doctrine” is  “man is a spiritual being”, because it stands opposite the facts.  God formed man “dust of the ground”, and refers to him as follows.

  • flesh and blood
  • flesh
  • all flesh

What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?  Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,  All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field…

Psalms 8:4-7

Good and bad service providers

Humans are at their best in this age as servants and have a date with angelic likeness. The great among us are those who serve.  Of the angels we read, “Are they not all ministering [[on-duty]] spirits, sent out to render service [[= doing “deacon” service]] for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14, NASB). 

In the likeness of angels

The Lord himself gives a picture of what the future eternal existence is like when he says, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons [[the products]] of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:34-36, NASB). 

Now we know that angels are not the way they are through resurrection, so let’s not take this saying out of its field.  It is a bogus Christian who claims to have no service commission.  It is equally bogus for citizens of any country to think that they have only the pursuit of liberty and happiness and no duty to serve their families and communities.

The possible and the inevitable

There is another narrative that talks about the eternal – unending – punishment of those who have not measured up to God’s call and standard. This narrative runs parallel to the one about how separate God is from sin without acknowledging God’s personal investment in paying the price for sin.  In a rush to make God a hardline law and order operative they have created a case in which the world would never be rid of rebellion and resistance as long as there are demons and people burning forever in torment.   At some point the universe will be rid of all such annoyances and Scripture is graphic about that as well. The lunatic fringe is on display everywhere dishonouring the name of Christ with political convictions, neo-Israel and mighty warrior delusions.

Poor rich renegade

eejoseph

The world is full of mercenaries and heroes who talk about their freedom and political convictions like foolishness is going out of style and they have to get their piece out.  Poverty of mind in low and high places is well documented in the Bible.  The twelve year old Yeshua from Nazareth visited the temple and amazed everyone, stumping “the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.” (Luke 2:46-47, NASB)  Leaders of every sector of society can easily talk and act without a shred of legitimacy.  In the age of accessible wealth and respect for authority we are plagued by poor rich heroes and renegades, extraordinary rebels and patriotic insurrectionists.

Who needs rebel patriotism?

Neighbours are what makes society strong, quite apart from whether or not we or they have a God or a stepgod.  I suppose neighbours are an alternate reality that depends on how the law separates people by citizenship and genealogy.  The Canadian Charter, like any well-intentioned law, cannot be expected to create an equal society,  except when upward mobility is the assumed goal of all residents.  Dogs will always eat dogs and competition always brings misery. Revolutionary individuals like George Washington and Toussaint L’Ouverture are not paradigms; not when bloodshed is rejected as a means for setting differences.

Not another insurrection,  revolution, book or prophet

The bold and ruthless men of any religious or political stripe are all cult leaders.  They often are misogynist and xenophobic, ready to forge alliances with disparate elements and force allegiance to themselves and their cause.  If you do not know what a religious  beast can do with civic or military power take quick stroll through the news, or fly through the eras covered in Bible for its witness to  how power was used.

Invasion and violence

The list of violent adventures and wannabe monarchs is longer than there is space here.

  • Egyptian colonies in Palestine
  • Jewish attempts to silence the Way
  • Mulsim invasion of Europe
  • Muslim invasion of India
  • Muslim states,  mostly Arab
  • Muslim invasions of Africa
  • Muslim complicit in the slave trade of Africans
  • European encroachment on Aboriginal lands all over the world

Only four powers were granted a license to govern huge swathes of humanity.   There is however in the modern era no shortage of heartless and unthinking emperors or whatever they like to call themselves.  Where do they think their mob mentality and bloody uprisings will end?

There are few Sauls becoming Pauls.  There are even fewer Ezras posing as passionate interpreters of the divine message.  Today’s zealots are as ignorant of Christian excellence as was Ezra of alien (Moabite, Jerichoan, Tyrian) inclusion in ancient Israel-Judah.

“This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled (quick to answer) in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he requested because the hand of the Lord his God was upon him.”

Ezra 7:6

“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;”

Acts 9:15

From riches to rags in a flash

There is one miraculous event that seems to escape the net of the triumph harvesters.  They forget that life, like a conversation, has give and take.  Wealth rarely comes overnight except by lottery  inheritance or theft.  There is no controversy that wealth and fame have disappeared like dry ground in a flash flood.  Christ’s disciples left all to follow him but today’s disciple want to have all as they follow, and insist that having abundance is a measure of covenant durability.  A little rain, a little greedy magnate can wake up stripped of his treasure.  The representatives of the people with their cushy benefits and privileges and the loud patriots show us exactly what the poor-rich hero looks like. When they wake up and find their riches are on the street as worthless bits of paper and metal.