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Wednesday Update

What we want to continue doing in some of these Wednesday Updates is to look at major events in the news in their larger historical context.... And maybe even how some things will be viewed in 50 years, 100 years or even 500 or 1000 years...

Subject: Demons, Prayer, false Religions, Ideologies and Strongholds

(Wed., June 16, 2010)

(approx. 5265 words, 10 pp.)

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Casting down every argument that would exalt itself against a knowledge of the Lord (2 Cor. 10:5)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 for mankind on earth... Well, here we are... Who really knows what it means, and why we are here, and how things are going to work out, or how we even got here in the first place for that matter...

Without question, there is a battle going on in America and the world more generally in the realm of the spirit and in the realm of ideas for truth and good for mankind on earth in the whole cosmological story of things as we understand it, and to one degree or another some people "see" things more clearly than others, who do not and seemingly cannot "see" things at all?

My simple position is that we should be praying for all people to "see" things about life and God more clearly, not complicated, and that would be a very nice, loving and thoughtful thing to be doing, and, again, not complicated?  But what is the truth for mankind on earth, and how do we know it? What profound and potentially difficult questions these are. We have no idea who we are in the vast scope of things, nor any idea of how we got here on this planet flying through space, given the current state of our somewhat, if not extremely, primitive so-called "modern science" on earth?

I rarely, if at all, directly mix the video Programs with other aspects of this website because it is too complicated to do so, however in this case it seems unavoidable, and I personally do not wish to digress any further into the complexities and dynamics of prayer and so-called "spiritual warfare" in the video series, and how this all may or may not relate to literal evil, deceiving, blinding demonic beings.

This website does a variety of things, but mostly philosophical analysis and history as well as social and political commentary and that sort of thing, not complicated. I personally have a passion for looking at the major philosophical positions and the pros and cons of the major positions and which arguments work and which ones don’t (as Cicero versus the Epicureans, for example), again very simple not complicated, and I have a certain gift for doing this, be that what it is, but the fact is some people simply cannot "see" certain things that tend to be very basic and even self-evident to the average person, or to so-called "common sense," and this blindness and inability to see things is generally not a matter of intelligence.

So, in such cases of inability to "see" things I, personally, pray that the "light" will come on in these people’s minds and that things will make sense to them. The Bible says one of two things can be going on in such cases. The light of the truth or argument or explanation just isn’t registering, for whatever the reason (though sometimes because of sin in their lives) or they are literally being somehow blinded by satanic spirits, and usually this manifests itself (in my personal opinion and experience and that of numerous others) in people having really stupid and un-Godly and really irrational ideas in place of the truth and even the obvious truth of God and his Good, Right, and True.

The point here is both of these possibilities are subject to prayer that God would have people "see" things clearly, and whether it is the light coming on or demons being removed is not really our problem, as a general statement in my opinion, though clearly in some specific case or situation if one truly feels the issue is demons, one could pray they would be removed I would say, if one is so led.

The Gospel, specifically, is fairly obviously true, desirable, and rational...

In any case, to the point at hand, upon serious investigation the Gospel, specifically, is pretty obviously true and desirable, but a lot of people just cannot "see" it nor its rationality, in which case about all you can do is pray for them; about the only exception here might be the Jewish people, whom God Himself has blinded (the Bible says) to the obvious truth of the Gospel for the most part until the end of the Church Age.

In fact, Messianic Judaism is a sign of the end time as much as the re-establishment of Israel I would say, but regardless Gentiles are said to be blinded to the obvious truth and rationality of the Gospel, and specifically blinded by darkness, deception, and irrationality often if not always of demons.

My favorite example here on blindness and "seeing" is the way we started The New Testament in The Great Books video series, and it is Paul on Mars’ Hill where he goes almost through the entire cosmology from the Creation to the Final Judgment (though he excludes the fall of Satan from heaven and of man in the Garden), and Paul says this cosmology is all verified by the bodily Resurrection of Christ. Is this true, and rational? Yes, it is both.

However, one of the most famous atheists who ever lived, David Hume, says (in effect in so many words) that Christ cannot walk out of the grave because it would be a supernatural event proving there is a God, and hence one would then have to say or add the whole cosmology is true. Hume’s argument is, Christ cannot walk out of the grave if there is no (supernatural) God, but if he did so walk, it proves there is a God, and from this we can say that we know by overwhelming historical investigation (says even the atheist Will Durant) that Christ did so walk, so there is a God and the Christian cosmology is true, just as Paul said on Mars’ Hill.

Now, is Hume stupid? No, he is generally considered to be one of the smartest atheists who ever lived, but he is totally (spiritually) blind to the utter folly and foolishness of his own position, and in the end his argument not only does not disprove God but actually proves God’s existence! Hume is coming up with an argument about God’s non-existence that does not work at all, which he thinks is brilliant. "Christ cannot walk out of the grave because that would be a supernatural event!" Bingo! That is the whole point, you silly foolish atheist!

Hume is actually making an a priori or analytic circular argument that he thinks is substantive or synthetic or historical, etc., and that is why it fails, and in the end it actually agrees with Paul! Hume is certainly deceived and irrational, and presumably demonically so. You cannot reason with such people, about all you can do is pray for them that they would come to see the truth, whatever it might be, or be delivered from their irrational foolishness, demons or no demons.

Similarly, the atheist Karl Marx came up with a theory of "dialectical materialism" and class conflict, etc., to explain everything in life, history, politics, law, religion, economics, social structure etc., etc., and as fellow atheist Bertrand Russell points out "dialectical materialism" does really explain very much of any of this stuff, and further "dialectic" is not even property of "matter" in order to even start the theory!

Was Marx stupid? No, he was just blind to the folly of his own theory, again, an un-Godly spiritual blindness and deception, demons or no demons, but Marxism is such a nutty, un-Godly theory (kill all the capitalists and all will be fine) presumably demons were somehow involved. Such obvious nonsense is, of course, not limited to Marxism. The bottom-line on French Revolution? Cut off the heads of the aristocracy and dethrone if not close outright the Roman Catholic Church and utopian Republicanism will emerge! What could be more obvious nonsense, which a whole nation bought into!

Still, one would pray that the Marxist, in particular, would be delivered from the folly of his thinking regardless, demonic or otherwise, which the Marxist holds to be the height of "scientific" rationality, when it is actually almost complete nonsense and certainly irrational! And, presumably, in answer to prayer God will or can deal with the situation as necessary, demons or no demons. This is very real stuff.

The Soviet Union was an entire society based on Marxist-Leninism as an ideological worldview and world-conquering theory, but today almost the only hard-core Marxists left in the entire world are not in Russia but rather they are confined to two-cent Latin American dictators, liberation theology ministers, and a few nutty American university professors. If Russia wages war in the future, it will be as a nation state, and not as an ideological Communist conquest. The significance of this cannot be overstated?

My personal opinion is Communism was simply prayed out of existence. It really was not done primarily by "rational" argument, because Marxism was never very rational in the first place, and the irrationality of Marxism simply did not register with the Marxist. I recall sitting in a Sunday School class at the fall of the Soviet Empire, and someone said wasn’t the fall of the Soviet Union "surprising" or something similar, and a quiet lady who rarely spoke said some like, "Not really, many of us have been praying for this for years." This is so crazy that in the early months of the Obama administration, as I recall, Putin actually gave Obama a lecture on not nationalizing American industry! What in the world is going on here in the realm of the spirit?!

Are "Marco-Evolutionists" stupid?  No, but this situation is more complicated than Marx or Hume. Why? When Darwin first proposed his theory and wrote his book, which would be better titled The Origin of the Variation within Species rather than The Origin of Species, the idea of a simple cell, if not outright spontaneous generation, to start the process off was not particularly "unscientific" nor was the idea that mutation and natural selection could account for not just micro-evolution but macro-evolution, and at that time we had yet to not discover any significant fossil records of transitional species, let alone thousands or even millions of them, as would be the case in the coming years.

So, why does the spontaneous-generation macro-evolutionist not bail out on the theory today? Is he stupid? I think not. As a leading atheist (from Harvard) once said to me, if we tell the kids there are major problems with "evolution" as we now understand it, they may think there is a God, and we do not want that to happen, now do we? So, his view was we tell the children there are no major problems while we work furiously to come up with a theory of evolution that works well without any major problems.

His primary goal in teaching science was to maintain the religious position of atheism, even if he had to change the scientific facts around, as it were. At least he understood what he was doing and was honest about it, off the record anyway. Was his motivation to deceive the children demonically inspired? Possibly I would say, maybe even presumably some would say? My view on education is we tell the children the truth in general and in science in particular, and then let the chips fall where they may on God. The larger point for here, however, is clearly we are dealing with something in the realm of the spirit with this and not simply the realm of the intellect, again literal demons or no demons.

Or, what of the cases of religion in Greek and Roman antiquity, or even Liberalism?

Or, another spiritual not mere intellectual case in point, what happened to the pagan gods of Greek and Roman antiquity? They were demons, Paul says, and today no one worships them anymore, but previously virtually everyone did! Or, what of the case of Christian Liberalism (no God of Genesis 1:1, no salvation, no sin problem, no Atonement, no Resurrection, etc.)? Christian Liberalism is utter foolishness and demonic as the dickens (in my opinion), but the people and "scholars" holding to it think it is brilliant!

Clearly the people holding to Christian Liberalism need to be "delivered" from their religious foolishness, blindness, deception, etc., demons or no demons, and we should be praying for them, again in my opinion, but more than that Paul says we are to pray for "all the saints," let alone the outright deceived into truly nutty, foolish, un-Godly and irrational political ideologies, scientific theories, or religions, Christian or otherwise, and again demons or no demons, though Jesus identifies the leaven of the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herodians with the devil, as Paul also identifies false Christian teachings in the essentials with demons as well, let alone non-Bible religions outright.

In any case, historically from its beginning Christian Liberalism defined itself over and against Bible Christianity, itself, no less. Clearly, Christian Liberalism is off track in sprit and in truth from a Bible perspective, demons or no demons. Further, not all false thinking is "of the devil," of course, but C. S. Lewis says certain types of thought have Satan’s fingerprints on them, as it were.

In politics and in life, for example, Lewis says the Christian and I would say rational moral theist generally ask two questions: 1.) Is a given plan, idea or policy moral? And 2.) Is it practical?  However, Lewis says other concerns and questions can be "of the devil" or fallen nature, such as does something serve my ends apart from moral concerns, or is something the latest way of thinking, that is, I would say is it, in effect, "progressive" (whatever that is), or similar things? Democrats almost always ask is something or some policy "progressive" (not moral or practical)?  Lewis says don’t go there, it's of the devil! It is a foolish deceived way to think about things.

Further, in fact, Solomon, Socrates, and Cicero said the exact same thing in their search for "wisdom," namely, what is the practical? And, what is the moral? And for Solomon, Socrates, and Cicero these two intersect, and if they don’t, you are not thinking straight. Where possible literal demonic deceptions and faulty thinking leave off and one’s fallen nature picks up seems to me personally to be pretty complicated and more so than various writers on these subjects seem to think at times. Still, notoriously, a devil can put all sorts of ideas into one’s head and convince you they are brilliant!

Further, we live in a secular age, where most people are often not "religious" at all, and we have substituted humanist philosophies and faulty political ideologies for traditional religion, and most of these humanist philosophies and faulty political ideologies are very foolish, irrational and often un-Godly and ultimately just as "spiritual" as false religions, and generally you cannot talk people out of them, try as you might. Again, such people are generally deceived, not stupid.

You can pray for them to be delivered from their irrational foolishness, but after that there is not a whole lot you can do? Or, the Congressional Black Caucus goes to Castro’s Cuba, a widely acknowledged hell-hole, and they come back to the U.S. and announce they have found a virtual heaven on earth in Cuba! Are they stupid? No, they are spiritually deceived, clearly I would say, but of course they think not. That is the whole point.

C. S. Lewis and Nancy Leigh DeMoss say when you have a foolish, irrational, and un-Godly idea that you think is wise, rational and Godly, it may be of a demon because that is held to be where some foolish, irrational, and un-Godly ideas come from in many Christian writers. Is that correct? I suppose, who knows really. Or, where did the idea of the German "master race" come from? Again, demonic as the dickens, I would say, but about all you can do with such nutty, irrational, and un-Godly people is pray for them, unless they start shooting at you, in which case you must be prepared to shoot back!

In all of these cases one is praying for specific persons or even people groups to come to see the truth, desirability, rationality and light of the Gospel, and to be delivered from their obvious deceptions, demonic or otherwise.

So, again the demonic, as such, is really a bit secondary, and God presumably will deal with that as necessary? Similarly, in my opinion, Muslims are in spiritual bondage to Islam, and we can and probably should pray that they come to see the truth, desirability, rationality and light of the Gospel, whether they are in some spiritual bondage, or not, that is, if we think the Gospel is true.

Some years ago I did a piece on 10 basic spiritual regions of the world that need our prayers to "see" the truth, reality, desirability and rationality of the Gospel for new life in Christ personally and ultimately politically for the nations within these groups, and to be delivered from the Evil One. Almost the whole world and all of the nations in it (with some exceptions and perhaps complex exceptions) is composed of:

1.) Secular Western Europe (needs prayer big time to see the truth, reality, desirability and rationality of the Gospel). This region clearly represents a particular spirituality and mind set.

2.) Eastern Europe and Russia have a detached, generally irrelevant Greek Orthodoxy, and otherwise secular mindset and spirituality though, praise God, not overtly Communistic anymore. But, again, this region clearly represents a particular spirituality and mind set.

3. & 4.) The UK Commonwealth as well as America (with some major differences no doubt but not relevant for us here) have both gone so Liberal spiritually and politically as to be almost beyond comment, and even at times outright secular with a small but strong Libertarian backlash strain as well as a traditional conservative "Laws of Nature and Nature’s God" group usually with a traditional Gospel Christianity. Each of these groups within the UK and America tend to have a spirit and mindset and/or worldview associated with them.

5.) Latin America is almost totally secular if not into a somewhat unique, if not at times bizarre Hispanic Roman Catholicism, all again with a certain spirit and way of thinking about things, almost all in need of the light and truth of the Gospel, and all in need of someone’s prayers, every bit as much as the other major regions or the old Soviet Union?

6.) Africa is almost stuck in pagan animism, social commentators say anyway. Prayer needed big time here?

7.) Islam is almost beyond comment, and if not in need of prayer, who in the world is?

And of course 8., 9., & 10 ) Hinduism of India, Buddhism of Southeast Asia, Taoism and Marxism of China, all 3 pretty much overtly demonic? Why? When one is off track as a religion, and you yourself claim to be religious and spiritual, and not of God, demons or your imagination are about the only two possibilities that are left?

This 10 region world model has various problems, of course. How does, say, the great nation of Japan fit into it? I do not know, they seem to be a so-called "sui generis case" that is, case unto themselves. Or, how does Roman Catholicism, as such, fit into it? I’m not sure. They are not a Bible Christianity, nor do they claim to be, nor are they a nation state, as such, and after Vatican II no one is really sure what they believe, but they are definitely not secular.

In any case, the bottom-line here is apart from what any particular people group is involved in, one can and I think should pray that they would come to see the truth and light of the Gospel, and it is not necessarily the case that one has to worry too much about what their specific problems or confusions are, again, demons or no demons.

However, it is my personal opinion that massive edifices of false religion, corrupted Christianity, and faulty and un-Godly political ideologies are, in fact, what is known as "powers and principalities in high places." These are actually called demonic "strongholds" of false thought (2 Corinthians 10:4) and these spiritualities with their accompanying false theories, religions, or ideologies either oppose outright or are simply unreceptive to the Gospel, hence, keeping the light and truth of the Gospel message from breaking through to the people in those groups.

However, when the light and truth of the Gospel breaks through to all people groups these "powers and principalities in high places" and their "strongholds" will presumably all be cast down, implode, fade away as faulty, irrational, undesirable, etc., much as Communism did in the old Soviet Union or the pagan Greek and Roman pantheon did with the rise of Christianity in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries. Not very complicated really? As I see it praying for specific groups, people, situations, etc. is all "prayer warrior" stuff, with the ultimate question, for everyone, being the Gospel itself. And some people feel much more called to these type prayer concerns than others, but regardless this is going a step beyond praying for one’s own personal needs, desires, problems, etc., or for the concerns of those in one’s own immediate family, church, or congregation, obviously.

We are talking about taking the whole planet for Christ and its being delivered from demonic deception and darkness! In fact, Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer says exactly the same thing! He told us to pray for the whole earth and all the people on it! Talk about praying for a big group of people! And that we should pray to be delivered from "the Evil One," and for "the Kingdom to come" and for God’s will to be done "on earth as it is in heaven"! Not really very complicated?

In any case, as a general statement people around the world in various groups and whatever spiritual darkness or deception they may be caught in are often not thinking too straight about God, life, good, etc., and they, as a general statement, do not believe the Gospel is true or desirable or rational nor certainly that it is the central important question of life for us humans on planet earth.

However, if you really want to understand what is going on with demons in particular and not simply with matters of deception, it is important to keep in mind that demons are malicious beings, who hate God and all that is good, and they hate Christians and Jews in particular, and they otherwise just enjoy tormenting and controlling and ruining the lives of human beings generally.

Almost all of this writing has been about deceptive thinking in having irrational, un-true, un-Godly, etc., thoughts or ideas or ideologies, etc., but the nature of the demonic being is one of a horrible spirit such as malice, envy, lust, rancor, revenge, bitterness, etc., which are spirits we all clearly want to be delivered from and which can get a foothold in our lives in ways we do not understand since we are ourselves spirit beings and in ways that we do not really understand whether connected with literal demons or not.

In any case, in my opinion we may or may not be delivered from "the Evil One" (as Jesus told us to so pray) and from his nutty and un-Godly ideas and the accompanying or underlying spirits of malice, envy, lust, rancor, revenge, bitterness, etc., if we so pray to be delivered in the name of Jesus, but without such prayer for ourselves and others, there is in my opinion not much of a chance that we will be delivered, and the history of mankind on earth, so far at least, tends to prove this throughout recorded story of time with its endless wars and corrupt governments and tyrannies and cruelties and ridiculously false pagan/ demonic religions, etc., and in modern times with just outright foolish atheism, no less, which itself can also be something of a demonic deception, no?

I do not mean to be overly critical here, but as best I can tell almost no one, whether Protestant, Catholic or Jewish is praying seriously for "the Kingdom to come" on earth, nor for us to be "delivered from the Evil One" as a condition of planet earth, and of course this is where things can get kind of dicey because it is only in the power of Christ and his redemptive work that Christians and even God have legal right to this planet.

Jews may in fact in the realm of the spirit have some given legal right to their land, as such, but they have no legal authority over demonic forces, as such. Big problem for Kingdom-come prayers in the realm of the spirit? Still, three undeniable truths of life: There is a God in heaven, don’t mess with Texas, and definitely don’t mess with Israel, at least when they are in God’s favor, and in truth probably the same could be said for Texas. Further, for Catholicism, the Saints and Mary also have no legal authority on these matters so at best it is a waste of time to pray to them about these things, and at worst the Saints and the supposed ever-Virgin Mary are simply one’s own imagination or almost unthinkable and worse still demons, not a pretty picture rationally speaking as Protestants have been pointing out for 500 years now? In fact, the Bible forbids praying to any dead person, Saint or otherwise, no?

In any case, the crucial bottom-line point here is that the Bible is pretty clear (most hold anyway) that demons have every right to be here on earth unless and until we (as Christians) pray for them to leave (in the name, power, blood, etc. of Jesus). And, rather obviously, there will be and can be no Kingdom state on earth so long as people and generally even the nations as a whole are caught up in spiritual darkness and/ or deception, either of which can be demonic at times, though not always obviously so.

So, how does everything get so screwed up in the society besides personal moral sin? Well, we get some nutty, irrational un-Godly idea in our heads, such as FDR’s Second Bill of Rights, which only makes sense politically if we have first gone off track spiritually with a false spirit of religious Liberalism (no real sin problem, etc.), and then we go off on some political crusade to do "good" politically, but in "truth" we are not really doing "good" nor seeing the "truth" clearly, and often we are being just foolish and misguided and even self-serving, believe it or not. "No kidding?" No kidding.

Sister Nancy and Brother Lewis say this type stuff all has to do, or often has to do, with literal demons. Does it? Beats me. I think they make a pretty good case for it. However, there are outright unquestionable examples of demonic deception and darkness, in my personal opinion.

The fact is there are in life and history a lot of unexplained things that go on, and demons truly seem to close the loop on the otherwise unexplainable. How, for example, did the Nazis thing happen? In my view, it was overtly demonic. If you try to factor out the possibility and reality of the demonic, there are, of course, possible causes for the rise of the Nazis, such as the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles, the failed secular Liberal Weimar Republic, and the serious Communist Revolution threat, which most people forget about.

Still, in my view these things are insufficient to explain the Nazis reality. In fact these problems and traumas are actually what seem to have opened the door to let demonic forces pervade the culture and society, as seemingly "normal" and "good," and clearly if Hitler in particular did not have "issues," nobody ever did? However such extreme cases more show the clear possible reality of the demonic more than how demons can get into our thought and lives and even nations in a more everyday sense, which is primarily what we have looked at in this piece, here.

The point of Ephesians 6? The devil does not knock on the door of our mind with a really stupid un-Godly idea and say, "I am a demon, may I come in?" However, when we have really stupid un-Godly ideas or thoughts, we shouldn’t see what we can do with them or "entertain them," etc., demons or no demons. As Kay Arthur says (I paraphrase), "We may not be able to stop the birds from flying over our heads, but we do not have to let them build a nest in our hair." And, of course, there are spiritual state attacks, such as doubt, discouragement, temptation, despair, malice, envy, lust, rancor, revenge, bitterness, etc., etc., etc., which are not deceptive "thoughts" as such but undesirable and un-Godly "spirits."  In short, we are subject to both false "truth" and undesirable "spirit" attacks. Who is not familiar with both of these spirit and truth attacks?

And, hence, we need "the whole armor of God" or certainly its components in our lives correctly understood and applied. We need the shoes of coming in peace, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God), the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith for our own personal walk, and then there is, further, the demonic deception of the nations, and the ultimate resolution of that matter in all history for planet earth, which, by contrast to Ephesians 6, is what the book of the Revelation is all about, trust me on this one... and which I hope to look at shortly in the video series after we finish looking at the Commands and Exhortations to new spiritual life for individuals (not the nations) in the Holy Spirit as seen in the closing charges of so many New Testament letters.