BEING AN EFFECTIVE WARRIOR FOR CHRIST IN THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE

UNTIL WE WAKE UP TO THE FACT that the greater part of the ‘visible church’ (i.e. that which the world sees as “the church”) is, under the permission of God, being run by Satan and overseen by his realm of darkness, and has been for countless centuries, we will not be effective warriors of spiritual warfare. Until we open our eyes to the strategies being used in the churches by that realm of darkness we will be aiding and abetting those strategies. That realm’s principal strategy is to get people to wallow in subjective experience rather than submit to biblical truth. It works every time: The tendency of unregenerate humans in both the world and in the churches to put themselves on a pedestal over and above the will and law of God.

All the demonic strategies within the church leading to its apostasy follow on from that tendency — whether it is alleged “Holy Spirit” shenanigans, so-called “deliverance ministry”, calling yourself an Apostle, speaking in gibberish ‘tongues’, gender-bending and perversions of human sexuality (‘gay’ Christianity), prosperity theology, ‘New Thought’ techniques masquerading as Christian practice (e.g. power of positive thinking, ‘Law of Attraction’, visualization meditations, etc.), phony faith-healing (involving psychology rather than miracles), so-called megachurches (stadium “Christianity”), false notions about ‘global revival’, Christian Zionism and bigging-up the modern Israeli state, nutty Endtime fantasies (e.g. Moses and Elijah returning as the ‘two witnesses’ of Revelation 11, the so-called ‘rapture’, the unbiblical claim that there will be no tribulation for Christians, the 1000-year reign of Christ on earth from Jerusalem, etc.), Popes and the Vatican, poncing around in weird hats and outfits in front of congregations in churches, burning people at the stake, Inquisitions and torture, ‘heavy shepherding’, creating phony ecclesiastical power structures, and many other insane bandwagons. All this was prophesied by the Holy Spirit through Paul the genuine Apostle when he said (literal translation), “But the Spirit expressly states that in later times some [i.e. certain ones] will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). When he says, “in later times”, this is not the same as “the last days” or the “Endtime”. As I have shown in a previous article, entitled “Are We Living in the Endtimes?” (which was drawn from my commentary on the Book of Revelation), the “last days” covers the entire period from the ascension of Christ to His return. The Endtime involves the immediate run-up to the return of Christ. However, Paul in this verse is not referring to those here. He is simply saying “at some time later than this”. In fact, we know very well that it all started to go awry in the visible church within decades of his writing and has continued to do so down to the present day, to greater or lesser degrees at different times.

Furthermore, that word “some” or “a certain number” does not merely refer to a few. As Albert Benson correctly wrote in the early 1800s: “For though it be said only some shall apostatize, yet by some in this place many are understood, which is the case also in many other passages of the Scriptures, as Bishop Newton has fully proved”. Indeed. For this verse is parallel to that in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, which speaks of a global apostasy that is vast and plainly ultimately has eschatological connotations. That apostasy began in the visible church not long after Paul’s life on this earth (initially through Gnosticism and what followed it), and the apostasy will plainly climax increasingly towards the time of the end of this age. It is not merely a church apostasy though. For in the world, the law of God and the truth of Christ will increasingly be spat upon publicly — with certain secular flashpoints serving to deepen the apostasy — e.g. the Renaissance (bigging up the “genius of man”), the Age of Enlightenment (giving rise to liberalism, socialism and rationalist philosophy), the Theory of Evolution (undermining the Divine creation and the Bible), the 1960s pseudo-counterculture, etc. This apostasy is a collective one, involving both the secular world and the visible church and will come to its fullness with the acceptance and revering in both of those spheres of the “Man of Lawlessness”, the Antichrist, and the global government which will have paved the way for him. It is all a part of the “mystery of lawlessness” which burgeons throughout this evil age and which Paul said is characterized by “deceitful spirits and teachings of demons”. This does not merely involve the Endtimes but began soon after Paul wrote about it.

That verse in 1 Timothy 4:1 follows on immediately after the verse in 1 Timothy 3:16 which speaks about the “mystery of godliness” which plainly refers to the coming of Christ, as the full text says: “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: Who was revealed in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory”. The “mystery of godliness” which issued in the revealing of the Christ (the pinnacle of Divine godliness) and the spread of His Gospel plainly has its counterpart in the “mystery of lawlessness” which will issue in the revealing of the Antichrist (the pinnacle of human godlessness, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10). These are the two parallel incidents which frame this present evil age — one emanating from the “mystery of godliness” and the other emanating from the “mystery of lawlessness”. Christ is the forerunner of the new creation to come. The Antichrist is the climax of the old creation which is doomed.

Remember that the Bible was not written with chapter divisions. These were a later addition in the 13th century (although some lesser divisions had occurred earlier). So that verse in 1 Timothy 4:1 (as we know it today) follows on directly from what we now call “1 Timothy 3:16”. So, having just written of the “mystery of godliness”, Paul then reveals a prophecy of the Holy Spirit: “But the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons”. So he is, in effect, saying “Yeah, sure, the ‘mystery of godliness’, the Christ, has been revealed, BUT the battle is by no means over yet, as there is going to be a global apostasy in both the visible church and the world which will be stage-managed by deceiving spirits and teachings from demons. This is why there can be no ‘global revival’. Human evil has to come to its head before Christ can return in judgement, as Paul specifically states (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). That is the reality, and no amount of Dominionist Theology, Theonomy or “Christian Reconstructionism” can alter that prophetic reality.

This is not a ‘negative’ thing. On the contrary! The worse that things become in the world (exactly as prophesied) the nearer the return of Christ and the new creation approach. That is a positive thing! One needs the greatest gift of discernment these days if one is going to not only “endure to the end” but also be an effective warrior for Christ in the midst of a doomed creation and what will come upon this earth. That is not capitulation to evil but an escalation of one’s warriorship and a jubilation in doing it. Our job is to “expose the works of darkness” and spread the fullness of Truth which finds its pinnacle in the Gospel of Christ. So, let’s do it! With joy!

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]