Published: August 17, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Pauline Studies 4 - The Church in the World - Part 5 | Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20
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are letters that aren't printed but they're letters that wormwood has written and screwtape is responding and one of them had to do with um whether or not wormwood should let his presence be
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known and screw tape's answer is that our policy for the present is to conceal ourselves
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and um the the larger quote is very much worth reading he says
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we are really faced with a cruel dilemma now again this is screw tape this is this is a demon speaking when the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of
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direct terrorism direct terrorism and we make no magicians on the other hand when they believe in us we cannot make them materialists and
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Skeptics now we're told in Scripture that first of all satan was the most subtle the most cunning of all God's creatures were also told by the Apostle Paul that Satan himself masquerades as
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an angel of Light um and so we are told something about the the personality or at least the the methodology of of the wicked realm but
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we're not told much in fact Paul does not give himself to spec speculation uh but he he also nowhere denies the reality of Spiritual
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Beings of both the good and an evil sort that's that's kind of ridiculous today in the
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West to believe in demons to believe in angels what not Psychology today had an article in 2015.
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so I guess in Psychology yesterday um but this this particular um uh psychologist or psychiatrist said how can people seriously believe in the
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devil the year is 2015 not 1315. and yet the fact remains that tens of millions of Americans continue to believe that there is a magical Wicked evil oh and smart
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being out there doing magical Wicked evil deeds and presiding over a fiery realm which of course he doesn't preside over anything where demons crawl and which is cackle oh wait no cackling just
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demons according to a 2013 yougov survey 57 of Americans believe in the devil and yes that's 57 percent of American adults not kindergarteners but hey it's probably the same
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percentage among that demographic too only a completely uninformed poorly educated mind with little knowledge of things like evidence could believe in the devil the devil oh wait scratch that actually top
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neurosurgeons talking about Ben Carson and Supreme Court Justices believe that's probably Antonin Scalia at the time and millions upon millions of other
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well-educated upstanding men and women too but there is no such thing as the devil just as there's no such thing as fairies imps or goblins the two largest religions in the world
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Christianity and Islam teach that there is a devil and they are wrong there is no evidence for such a thing not a shred what kind of evidence would you look for
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how about the incredible wickedness of mankind that defies any other rational explanation okay but no that's not evidence not to uh this this fellow
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it is simply something that germinated from the unscientific irrational minds of early humans who tried their best to explain why bad things happen to good people why good people sometimes do bad
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things and while there is so much needless suffering in the world of course he doesn't go on to offer any better explanation himself I mean this is the kind of arrogance and yet the the the pompous
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um condescending tone that we have come to expect as evangelicals as bible-believing Christians again that's a bit redundant
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um but but as people who take the word of God as the word of God and the portrayal of the cosmos that we find there as the actual reality in
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which we live but we're becoming a smaller and smaller minority and to talk about demons to talk about a spiritual realm
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of actual malevolent beings is scorned it's ridiculed which is perhaps the kind of like screw tape is saying
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perhaps that's the that's the modern tactic that Satan uh giving him far more credit than he deserves so forgive me but the idea that you know persecution didn't really work
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said the the blood of the martyrs is is the the seed of the church and actually during times of persecution the church tends to grow and also to
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deepen so that didn't work let's marginalize let's ridicule let's laugh let's make people feel that they are stupid superstitious unscientific
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and that has been very effective to the point where the majority of Christian denominations Christian denominations deny the reality of a devil or of a place called hell or Hades okay now
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those are the mainline denominations and their membership is of course declining rapidly because if there is no enemy there's no
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need to fight and so there's no need to get up on Sunday morning Sunday morning unless you have a business deal you want to try to to arrange at church but other
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than that than that you know these churches are are declining but declining but even among evangelicals there's very very little discussion of
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the powers and principalities that we read about in Paul and these days if you listen to any pretty much turn the radio on or blog or whatever any Evangelical preacher you'll
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you'll find out the enemy that we battle against as the Democrat or the liberal or the transgender okay never mind Paul's saying that we'd battle not
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against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities and rulers and Thrones and dominions we don't even think about that we talk about putting on the armor of God that's
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a great Sunday School in VBS you know put on the armor of God why there's no discussion about what it is that we are battling against so I it's it's really a missing element
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and Pauline studies and Pauline discussions one author makes the comment Newton banished God from nature Darwin banished
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him from life and now Freud has banished him from his last stronghold the soul now this man lived in in the he was contempt No he wasn't contemporary with
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Newton he couldn't be contemporary with all three all right he his name is Methuselah okay Methuselah okay um he was contemporary with Freud so he was speaking of Newton and and Darwin in
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past tense but he was contemporary with with Freud but the point being Newton in science Darwin in biology and then Freud in in Psychology have banished God now that
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has been ultimately done uh by the late Stephen Hawking who who announced to us pontificated that there is no need for God we've explained everything without the need to resort to a God okay he now
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knows how wrong he was but um it's too late you know because he's he's he's entered into the Judgment but this is what we're up against and and so the question I want
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to put before us tonight is is this really does this really matter is this really integral to Paul's teaching or is it secondary
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is it a figment of his ancient imagination was he simply a product of his time as the author in Psychology or Psychology today says you know ignorant
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superstitious people trying to explain why bad things happen to good people well first of all Paul didn't think there were any good people so he wasn't all that surprised a Bad Thing Happened
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okay so he he wasn't resorting to the Demonic realm because he couldn't understand The Misfortune that was falling on man he didn't blame the devil
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for Adam's fall he blamed the corruption of the of the of the cosmos on Adam man so the idea that Paul was simply
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grasping for some explanation of what he couldn't otherwise explain or understand it's just a it's a false Trail because it's clear from his writings nowhere does he know where does he
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associate the devil with Adam's fall now we know from the history of Genesis that the devil was involved but Paul put the responsibility squarely
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upon Adam upon Adam which did not mean that he then neglected or relegated to the Dustbin of superstition the idea of a devil he
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speaks about Satan he even says in Romans 16 that God will soon Crush Satan under your feet a very enigmatic statement he talks about the prince of
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the power of the air or the God of this so you know these beings are there but Paul does not again he does not delve into
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speculation about them he doesn't talk about their about their um their nature except it is a nature of opposition to God and therefore to God's people that that's really the
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fundamental summary and even exhaustive commentary on what Paul has to say in specific about the powers and principalities and the Thrones and the dominions is that
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they are in opposition to Christ and to his people his people so as we we talk about this it is the question is is valid is this really
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important was it important to Paul well I would say definitely that it was very important to Paul because when he talks about the church in the
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world what he's talking about is the powers and principalities that are our enemies we battle not against we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against
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the principalities and the powers so evidently in Paul's mind this real realm of Spiritual Beings and the realm of Christ's body
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right they're not just oh yeah they're out there let's have a cute Sunday school lesson about it and put all our armor on all made of cardboard and we'll you know no it he mentions it far too frequently
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the Galatians for example are warned against going back to the elements of the world and we're going to talk specifically about the stoichaya
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that word that we get Stoichiometry from in chemistry the word that means elements but elements but clearly Paul is talking of them as beings as having personality and purpose
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will and um um a desire to thwart the plan of God and so we see it in Romans we see it in Galatians we see it in Corinthians we
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see it in Ephesians we see it in Colossians because it's in Colossians that the rulers and the principalities are defeated by Christ in the cross so we learned that Jesus didn't just
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come to die for my sins he came to defeat the power of the evil one which is what the writer of Hebrews tells us
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tells us it's a man the one who had the power of death and we lived in fear of that Christ came to defeat him okay and then of course Jesus talks about the devil
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and that he is coming but he has nothing in me so when we look at the New Testament the the reality of a realm of Spiritual Beings is undeniable
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and and really in the Old Testament as well it's not much in the Old Testament but we are we do remember that that uh God sent an evil spirit upon King Saul right so they were they were there and
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we also see the Angelic beings and the son of man or the you know the the angel that came and appeared for before
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no they want they like what Jesus taught and this is you know this is all a product of the moralization of Jesus the historic Jesus and which means the D theologizing of Christianity
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because we don't want theology what we want is the nice moral teaching of Jesus
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no no no no that's exactly right I mean they take up stones to Stone him so um you're getting you're getting his teaching from these documents that also record the reaction of those who first heard him
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heard him and he wasn't voted most likely to succeed you know he he was not the the most popular of the class uh he was among some but you know after after feeding the 5 000 and then
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teaching about his his flesh being true meat and his blood being too true wine they all deserted him okay so uh he ended his ministry as far
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as we can tell from the gospels with one disciple standing at the foot of the cross John cross John and another disciple the head of the whole troop denying him three times so
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it's not a success story that any uh any that he's not going to get published by anybody that's for sure in a church uh growth sense but
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several comments on comments on what has been going on in the church and and these are from Men Who Lived about 100 years ago well not really uh one of
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them died in 1971 one of them in 1990 so their 20th century and one of them says speaking of um the
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enlightened theologians the theologians of the 18th and 19th and early 20th century who have convinced us they have spoken in great earnestness that
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the the demonology is is not a major part an integral part of Christianity we can yield that to modern science see this is what happened
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throughout the 19th century from the enlightenment on is that within the church theologians were looking for what they could throw overboard and still keep the ship afloat
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Darwin comes along Newton's already come along Kant with his and then and then later on we have Freud and so what's happening is theologians are saying well how can we incorporate Evolution into
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Christian anthropology Christian anthropology and and how can we um how can we get rid of these embarrassing miracles embarrassing miracles and the evidence Superstition of a
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belief in Spiritual Beings like the devil because science is proving that none of this can possibly be real okay so that's what's going on and this particular author says they have
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misunderstood as secondary and extraneous elements in the Primitive Christian Proclamation that in fact are integral and basic components of the
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so believing in these things or at least accepting their reality I'm not I don't want to confuse terms we don't believe in them as we believe in Jesus Christ but is this
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integral to the gospel
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believing that there's a devil believing that when Paul talks about our battle against principalities and Powers when he talks about the stoichaya the elements is he just the product of his time and
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we can ignore those passages because we know better know better and really how does that affect the gospel because what is the gospel the gospel is Jesus loves you and if you believe in him when you die
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you'll go to heaven right so what is what does the devil have to do with any of that again I'm being facetious this is but this is the mentality that is that has
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worked its way into evangelicalism now especially through the Armenian Phineas event evangelism is it what really matters is making that decision for
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Christ so that you are secure when you die and you'll go to heaven you don't have to you can be a good solid Western scientist and still be a Christian because those two Realms don't really
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overlap um it doesn't show up in what he describes what he describes to the Corinthians is what I delivered to your first importance however he does speak so much about it when writing two
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Believers right so what I wonder is is it a is it integral to the gospel the gospel we pray
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how the knowledge of Christ that we pursue and grow in the Nets yes I I it's a fair statement I'm not sure though that it it's giving full
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uh range to what Paul considers integral and what was the problem with the Galatians the problem with the Galatians is that they were about to lose their faith okay and what they were doing you
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know we think oh it's because the Galatians were returning to the law no they were returning to the elementary principles the stoichaya
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okay they were returning to a bondage that primordial okay and spiritual because to Paul there's only two kingdoms Kingdom of the prince of the
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power of the air the kingdom of Jesus Christ so and then in Colossians Colossians when he's talking about what Christ did on the cross he says that is where he defeated
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the principalities and Powers now if Christ's crucifixion is not an integral part of the Gospel then I don't know what is and yet see so I I think you're right
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and I would say however that Paul would probably disagree if if we were to say well that's really just for the discipleship of believers no I think he preached it
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I think he just preached it he preached the whole thing now he was he was living in a world that was immersed publicly immersed in paganism polytheism
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paganism polytheism and the worship of Idols we're not in that kind of a world but that doesn't mean that I mentioned this last week through faith we can see what the world
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cannot see cannot see and part of that seeing is a realm that is physically unseen but we see it through the revelation of scripture in the eyes of faith we know
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it's there it's there and so when we see things going on in the world politically socially whatever we see behind it as Paul did
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the devil the Pharisees yeah yeah it's very good you are of your father the devil okay he he could see behind he see behind Peter too get behind me Satan okay so there's something going on
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behind all this not to the point that we are absolved of personal responsibility personal responsibility but to the point that we must realize especially in our dealing with fellow
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human beings human beings that they're not the enemy there is an enemy it's an unredeemable enemy Jenny
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as far as you know could be anywhere don't stop being visually right
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there's no there's there's no monster in your closet oh now there is
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yeah there are no fairies you know is it integral to the gospel to believe in the devil what depends on what you mean by the devil if you mean modern humanology no I don't believe in
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that hi there so you know even people who believe in the devil what they're believing in is often right and he actually points out that the the standard belief in the devil is that he
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is in charge of hell yeah he's not in charge of anything I mean he's completely under the sovereignty of God he's not going to be in charge of the cartoons that have people showing up at
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the gates of hell and you know and there's somebody with a you know red horns and a tail and whatnot now that is not that I I personally believe the fires of hell are the
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Holiness of God without any intervening Grace that we don't understand the horror that will be
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in the image of God being in the presence of his Holiness without the intervention of Grace Aaron and then
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it's an appendix in one of his books the Demonic angelology of demon and his being thrust in that is
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underscores when I compared that with what Paul preached to thee Arab August he's saying yeah I can see you've got all this religion and that starts to make sense now
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empowers us way overblown and very superstitious and everything and then gentiles have Idols to them all over the place it's not really substantially no it's not and and what is amazing is how much Paul lumps the law
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in with the powers and principalities and the elements
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so then the question then is to what effect does Satan have then
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where do I believe yes I I know what you're saying what what power does the realm of the devil have against Believers against the church can you know that that goes the similar
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question that people ask can a Christian be demon-possessed you know it can I don't believe so um I don't think the devil has really any power
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any power okay except over the realm that he usurped through the first Adam that will this is exactly what your question is exactly what we're going to
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be talking about but what I want to do is as we move on into the idea of the church in the world in in specific applications for example politics
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or family life or uh you know those different economic life what I want to try to establish is there is
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there is a force of opposition in the universe in the world that we are coming up against and that we don't come up against that
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immediately we come up against it immediately because the powers and the principalities and the Thrones and the dominions work through human agents
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so when we come up against a hostile government as Believers in the world still do and as we may okay we need to realize that that's not the problem
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Jesus said to pilate you would have no authority over me unless it was given to you from above and after that pilate's like let let's let him go okay where's
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the bowl the bowl he understood he understood pilate didn't understand much but what he understood that he was talking with somebody who was above him
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right and so that perspective Paul also had it so um he he did not wrestle against flesh and blood but
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Flesh and Blood wrestled against him you know and he was persecuted and he was eventually according to tradition martyred
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tradition martyred okay but his enemy wasn't Caesar it was the power behind Caesar as far as we know every human being we encounter is redeemable
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not one single Fallen Angelic spiritual being that we encounter is redeemable that's the difference we encounter human beings no matter how Wicked they may be
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they are redeemable now that doesn't mean we don't fight we'll get into that we'll get into war serving in the military I mean that's all part of of Believers and the church in the world
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the problem is that we have adopted the Enlightenment and Epicurean philosophy that the realm of the spirit if it even exists is hermetically sealed from the
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realm of the physical and we dwell in the realm of the physical and so we just ignore the realm of of that superstitious spiritual stuff and the churches imbibed that so that
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we're all about getting rich and getting our party into the power you know we're all about the mundane we're and our battles that we fight are definitely against flesh and blood
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I can remember um the person who attended our church years ago years ago she has since passed away but I remember her saying that under no
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circumstance would she pray for President Obama President Obama well that's in direct violation of what scripture tells you to do and frankly when when Peter wrote that
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as far as we can tell the emperor at the time was Nero now I I don't know what you think of Obama but Nero like come on we haven't
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had a president that bad but no under no circumstance would she pray for the president see Club is wrong you know something is
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wrong in the mentality of evangelicalism when we will disobey direct commands of scripture because of our assessment of an
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individual who isn't even the power that we're up against there's a power behind him and that's the one that Jesus came to
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defeat okay defeat okay but again as I said we think that Jesus came to save sinners either by saving them actually if we're good reformed theologians or by making
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salvation possible if we're Armenian but the point being is that that's that's why he came because God felt so bad for helpless Sinners that he sent his son
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well again let me read the passage from Hebrews and again many people attribute this to Paul I don't but um uh chapter
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since then the children share in Flesh and Blood this is chapter two starting in verse 14. he himself likewise also partook of the same that through death he might render powerless him who had
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the power of death that is the devil and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives their lives this is the purpose of Christ's coming
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Jesus himself said how can you plunder a strong man's house unless you first bind the strong man have you ever asked yourself who's the strong man
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or is this just a metaphor that we don't really understand really understand what does it have to do it's in the context of him casting out demons and
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the Pharisees saying well he's doing it by Mel zobab he's he's casting out demons by the prince of demons and so that's the context so who is the strong man well
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it's Beelzebub it's Beelzebub it's the prince of the power of the air it's the God of this age what Jesus has done what he came to do was to bind him was to defeat him and
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then plunder his house and that's what he's been doing okay
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no The Magicians did duplicate many of the right it and that's the way we should read that Egypt represented you see these places were real places but they also represented something okay
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Babylon was representative okay but Egypt was too Egypt was representative of the of the Paradigm of human
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paganism Egypt had a very very involved and Powerful priesthood Powerful priesthood okay even Joseph marrying the daughter of the high priest is significant and then what what Moses was battling
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against was not pharaoh but the gods behind pharaoh and and so it is paradigmatic yeah the The Exodus is incredibly uh a powerful framework of
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divine Redemptive history so when we read Exodus and we read the Psalms that often Echo Exodus you know we should we should hear in Romans as
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well Romans 8 is written in an exodus framework okay so okay so um so what we're talking about here this is not just secondary it's not something
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that we can jettison it's not ballast that we Enlighten the load and make ourselves a little bit more respectable in the modern enlightened world no
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what we're doing is we're throwing away major portions of Christ's work which is the gospel the gospel and what we're left with is really
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nothing more nothing more than a an empty hope of life beyond the grave but we really can't
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we can't even promise that because what is the greatest enemy death so we've just neutered all the other
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enemies we've just said well they're just no they're all in League and I'm not saying that death is a person death is not a person but it's a
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force like sin is a force and Paul speaks of it that way he speaks to death oh death where is your Victory oh death where is your Stig
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and he says the sting of death is the law okay and yet he calls Galatians he calls the law one of the elementary principles of the cosmos
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so it's all wrapped up Paul's understanding that's why you know I said in in the opening prayer just kind of the greatness of the Revelation given to Paul and it was part of that Revelation that
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Paul would tell us about it that it was a great revelation hopefully to get us to listen more carefully okay so when we when we look
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at this um the presence the presence of an invisible yet powerful Spiritual Beings behind the events of this life
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not least the events of Jesus's life I mean we we look at the gospels right and we say well yeah you know it was in Jesus's day and he cast out demons and he and and whatnot and so yeah we we
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accept that don't we but for some reason beyond that and into our own day well we don't see it so we don't we don't really accept it we don't really think about it and that's a very
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valid question that I want to talk about do we see so little visible manifestations
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visible manifestations of a demonic Realm like demon possession okay it seems awfully prevalent in Jesus's day but even in Paul's letters
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we don't see it there's only one well are there any others there's the servant girl what is that on William Crete
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William Crete was it Malta no it's earlier than that I think um where he huh oh there was two okay the one that was the prophesying and making her you know her owners a lot
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of money uh okay and um yeah that's right Ephesus so we we see that so we we do see evidence but Paul doesn't talk about it and he certainly doesn't go
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around casting out demons as much as Jesus did Jesus did so the question is raised even among New Testament Scholars is why why is this it
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is is think have things changed for between Jesus and Paul or were the gospels even more superstitious than Paul
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see Paul's treatment of this realm is much more philosophical you might say or metaphysical he doesn't say that they're not real but we don't see him interacting like you do
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Jesus interacting
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to have an example of his power over both our Realm and the supernatural Realm
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well I would say that that is why these things have been recorded we have been informed of what Jesus did so that we can see the literal historical truth of what
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Paul says in Colossians about defeating the principalities and powers in the cross we see Jesus defeating commanding and we see them cowering before him
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okay but that doesn't necessarily explain historically why why there seems to be a heightened visible manifestation of demonic activity during the ministry
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of Jesus that we don't read about in the Old Testament the inner Testament or the New Testament and Beyond
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yes I think what we were seeing is just as the power of God's Redemption had come to Earth we're going to see this in Revelation okay the paddle happened on Earth he became flesh and to fight
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him the Demonic host took up flesh and so demon possession was actually at a heightened State because there was war
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going on in heaven Jesus said when the when the disciples came back after their successful missionary journey he said I saw Satan saw Satan fall like Lightning Out of Heaven
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okay well that's neat nobody asked exactly not even Peter what what would that look like what does that mean you would be implying by that statement
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that he is not speaking of his defeat he is speaking of in in other words a an infusion of power of a sense or having marshaled himself he is
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Satan no no I would say that it's part of his defeat just as an I would say Revelation 12 is dealing with that as well
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maybe maybe that's as no it's not debatable
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pass it down I've always wondered why does he say weather stating and that meaning something different that rather than that say that Marshall his strength and was was on the Move no
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I don't think it's different I I think it is the first thing you said and that is the same way as um as Jesus said before Abraham was I am and Abraham yearned to see my day and saw it and
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rejoiced because I think what we're looking at is like I guess there's as like the prophetic present when when the gospel was going out during Jesus ministry even though it had
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not been validated yet by his death and Resurrection nonetheless he saw it as what it was in the plan of God and that is the defeat and dethronement of Satan
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binding of the strong man okay and so he said I see Satan that's the problem when we read biblical prophecy is that we're so bound up in linear time
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that we get confused because we seem to be reading the same thing in Matthew 12 and Revelation 12 and yet one of them seems to be happening at a time not
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quite right quite right he hasn't even died yet much less risen okay why is he saying that well he's saying that because it's as
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sure as if it had already been done and he was seeing it in the effect of the Gospel the preaching the Kingdom of Heaven is upon you through the disciples
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he was already seeing it even though it yet had to be consummated through his or validated I should say through his death and Resurrection so I think it's the same event I think The
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Binding of the strong man the falling of Satan the Revelation 12 and when he falls he knowing his time is short
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his anger and his his violence and his vengeance is heightened and and so you would think we would see more demon possession manifested but no he's a subtle Beast and I think Lewis got it right through
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screw tape screw tape that we yes the demons lose that that relish that momentary pleasure of human Terror when they come into contact with the
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Spiritual Beings but we would be much more faithful if we saw him regularly
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we would be much more Ardent Believers if we saw them regularly but not seeing them at all or a lot not very often we have become Skeptics we have become materialists and we have
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desensitized to what Paul was very sensitive toward
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I can only say that this is a demon position I'm not saying demon possession doesn't happen doesn't happen I'm not saying it doesn't happen I'm just saying when we read the Gospels it seems to be happening every day you know he's casting out demons and and yet it
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doesn't happen in the Old Testament it doesn't happen in the rest of the New Testament we don't see it all that much in even in the book of Acts we don't hear about it much in the Epistles that's all I'm saying
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we see things and say there's influence and the rest of the world says schizophrenia it's called schizophrenia bipolar uh yeah um and I'm not
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I've said before in my life I think I've encountered demon possession once something that I could not account for in any other way and I don't want to go around telling
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people that you're demon possessed and and I don't want to issue medical technology and science uh so it's it's not I'm not looking for
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demon possession in fact I think we we understand we Paul says we are aware of the devil's schemes and we can see in retrospect that
43:58
immunizing us against that is more effective than slapping us upside the head every day with visible manifestations of demon possession
44:10
but I think that goes a long way to explain why there is so much recorded in the gospels that's all we're talking about it's the is the biblical record not to say that there isn't demon
44:21
possession in the world I believe there is okay I believe there's a demon possession in in our own country certainly in in other countries we read about it they're missionaries talk about it there's no reason to doubt them
44:32
certainly there must be demon possession in Congress I mean you got it's out there we know it's out there
45:02
the scripture where God's presence with Israel and stuff and yet they still rejected and turned away even in the the clear and obvious miracles in front of them they still didn't believe so I mean
45:12
it even seems like the same and same in Jesus's case exactly you know you know you know that that's not quite the same
45:24
um as what Lewis is talking about
45:36
no it it was not what they believe and they're not going to believe in the truth but they are going to believe in Spiritual Beings Spiritual Beings which is going to bring them closer to the truth
45:46
the truth than they now are
46:12
Israel for the vast majority of the time there were no visible Miracles either so current miracles miracle in the desert and man up from Heaven I mean they were so grumbling and rejecting oh yeah yeah
46:24
I'm no the Miracles are not self-ific nor are the manifestations of demons that's not the point the point is that um the lack of Miracles as well as the
46:36
lack of visible demonic activity is more effective in dulling the senses of Spiritual Beings humans
46:46
Beings humans it's more effective that it doesn't mean it leads to Christ it leads to Salvation it's just it's it's apparently more effective in dulling us even within the
46:58
church to the that's what really the point is is that we're dulling the church but we're but that's only because the church is following the world the world is largely dulled to that as
47:10
well that the 57 percent of people who say they believe in Satan the vast majority of those people are going to profess to be Christians or Muslims you you if you're possibly get a a
47:23
sampling of people who deny any religion that number that percentage of denial is going to be way higher and yet if you ask them do you believe in in the spiritual realm they're going
47:34
to say yes but that realm is nothing more than our own imagination writ large that's what it's become it has no cohesiveness and nothing
47:46
occupies it but my own imagination and that's what the spiritual realm has become to the unbeliever but that's seeping into the church
47:57
through the denial of the reality of these principalities and powers of which Paul speaks Paul speaks who are our main enemy so from a military standpoint and I
48:08
mentioned before how Paul uses so much military terminology military terminology we have managed to completely remove from our minds effectively I
48:20
should say should say the real identity of our enemy how can we possibly if we are to fight a battle which the weapons of our Warfare and our wrestle is not apparently
48:31
there's a battle to be fought we don't even know who the enemy is anymore because the enemy that Paul puts in front of us we deny we say well that's not scientific that's
48:42
not 21st century you know that's that's so superstitious it's so 13 15. what does 1315 have to do with it I was trying to think what happened in 1315
48:54
let's see 12 15 that was was that Magna Carta but 1315. who I don't know I don't know where I mean
49:05
what it was a long time ago yeah and obviously in 1315 everybody was stupid and superstitious and superstitious apparently this guy knows something that we don't know so I I do think that Lewis
49:15
has a point now Lewis was by his own admission no Theologian and I would amend that having read Lewis I would say he's no Theologian but he did have a
49:26
very vivid imagination concerning the that realm of biblical Revelation and I think he has a point when he says
49:36
that that by concealing themselves they can they can subtly gently slowly
49:46
lull the human mind into disbelief of disbelief of the powers that are in fact behind their
49:58
destruction and that's what we see age after age and I think we're seeing it in in a major way in our own age so um moving on I want to talk about you
50:08
know the scripture the the actual Pauline passages because it's very easy to do what Paul refuses to do and that is to speculate Paul doesn't do that
50:19
he just says here they are you know he says in again in Ephesians 6 we wrestle against principalities and powers and rulers and dominions the powers of this present Darkness
50:35
he says such things throughout his letters and yet never elaborates he uses terms and and um Aaron mentioned about the Jewish demonology and angelology or whatever
50:47
that word is um what is interesting about Paul is that he uses terms that no one else was using
50:57
or used before him okay and and in the even in the apocalyptic writings which were the most graphic and
51:08
Vivid writings the most imaginative writings of the cosmic world they didn't use those terms they used
51:18
and us demons and angels he rarely uses those words in his letters but he uses principalities and Powers exusias authorities
51:30
exusias authorities dunami Powers okay uh thronos Thrones okay our costs or archon rulers or beginning ones
51:41
beginning ones and he uses these words in conjunction without providing any hierarchy that's going to have to wait for Thomas Aquinas okay to actually show us exactly who reported
51:53
to who and what their pay grade was Paul doesn't do any of that okay which I think is is very important because he does not want to lead us into
52:05
speculation what is important to Paul is really twofold number one these these beings exist and number two Jesus defeated them that's kind of in the story except they're still around just like
52:16
our sin our sin okay and this is one of the problems with ignoring it is that we become so introverted that we don't see the gospel and the
52:27
work of God and of the Holy Spirit the way Paul did it's a bigger picture we lose sight of the fact that Jesus came not only to redeem a man a family of mankind but to redeem the entire
52:39
creation so Romans 8 doesn't mean anything to us and then we don't understand that what we see in the world when you see earthquakes and hurricanes and whatnot what you're seeing is the earth groaning
52:51
yearning for the revelation of the sons of God of God oh yeah and so on scientific no I'm still into plate tectonics you know I understand that one plate is subducting under another one creating mountains and
53:03
earthquakes I don't have to throw away science to know that the reason for subduction is that this creation has been subjected to futility because of our sin
53:17
okay and there is only true hope if we hold the comprehensive Cosmic picture of what Jesus has done otherwise our hope is only that we're
53:29
going to go to heaven when we die which is not even the biblical hope so we're we're holding fast to a hope that isn't even biblical yes we will go to be with the Lord when
53:40
we die Paul says that but heaven isn't our home our home Peter says we are looking for What A New Earth in which righteousness dwells that's our home now Heaven and Earth will be United and God will dwell in the
53:53
midst of his people but we're not going to be floating around on clouds playing harps this is this was created as a temple of God and we are the image he puts in it
54:06
and that hasn't changed so that in the New Jerusalem there is no Temple because God and the lamb are the temple in the midst so again this Cosmic picture that it's
54:17
not just Paul it's echoed in the gospels it's echoed by Peter it's echoed in Revelation it's bigger than most modern evangelicalism and certainly most modern evangelism
54:36
yes yeah you're getting a little ahead of me that's okay
54:57
right yeah that's very important revelation Satan Satan's power is not false it is usurped
55:08
and it has been bound and its days are numbered but neither Jesus nor Paul treats it as an illusion
55:18
an illusion Jesus did not argue with Satan when Satan made that offer he probably knew that he was going to take those kingdoms anyhow
55:29
but that wasn't the point the point was that you will serve the Lord your God in him only okay the point wasn't oh no you just wait I'm going to kick your butt and take them from you no that is what's
55:40
going to happen but that's not the point one way he was going to do that is by not bowing the need to Satan and only doing what his father commanded that was that is how he was going to defeat the
55:52
usurper but we would be very naive and dangerously so to think that the power of Satan is an illusion it is
56:02
not an illusion it is real it the Warfare of which Paul speaks is not metaphorical it has no meaning when
56:14
it's treated simply as metaphor it only has meaning if it's treated as something that is real Okay so Okay so we look at this and I think we have to
56:26
uh I think to to understand Paul as fully as possible which means to understand the Holy Spirit and the Revelation that God has given through Paul we must accept that these Spiritual
56:39
Beings are very real and that they stand in opposition to God and to his people um the idea
56:50
the idea that the cross is nothing more than a manifestation of God's love now God is love you have to admit I think you've got to agree that that's kind of the
57:01
Mantra of modern professing Christianity God is love it's all about love well I'm going to quote again from James
57:12
Stewart the really the really tragic force of the Dilemma of history and of the human predicament is not answered by any theology which speaks of the Cross as a
57:23
revelation of love and mercy and goes no further see this is this is the key to understanding what what Paul understood
57:34
Jesus did not die just so that we can go to heaven to heaven that wouldn't have been enough that would have actually been a defeat rather than a victory for God
57:47
because that would leave the rest of God's creation under the power of the of the wicked one that's not going to happen when we understand how we are a part of
57:58
an overall comprehensive restoration of God's creation God's creation that I think can do nothing more than strengthen our hope that he's fixing the whole thing
58:10
and by his grace we're part of that in fact that's the purpose of the church is to be by his grace a part of that
58:20
restoration okay so this author goes on it spoke the the Primitive Proclamation went much further it's spoken of an objective transaction which had changed the human
58:32
situation and indeed the universe the cosmos itself it spoke of the decisive irrevocable defeat of the powers of
58:42
Darkness and I think we see this in the visible manifestations at the time of Christ's death
58:56
his disciples have fled but all of creation is reacting there's thunder lightning earthquakes Darkness right the whole created order
59:08
is reacting to the death of its maker that's that's powerful stuff we're simply cowering under the rocks
59:18
and yet we're the image bearers and we're the primary ones for whom Christ did all of this so the the powers and principalities let's look at some of the the the terms
59:30
that Paul uses I want to spend a little bit of time before we're out of time because you know we can as I said we can easily get into
59:56
okay I'm going to put the the words up there but I want to spend a special amount of time at the end for the word stoichaya because I think that one I really think that in Paul's thinking that's kind of the sum total of all of
1:00:07
them but let's look at some of the the terminology he uses and as I said
1:00:19
um not like any other author of his day or the near past of his time or or that we can find even an ancient Greek or contemporary Greek with Paul the
1:00:30
words that he's using are Greek but he's using them in a way that no one else is using them so for example he speaks of as I said the powers
1:00:49
these are together powers and principalities the Jewish idea of the Angelic hosts
1:01:02
was that there were a a Cadre of of angelic beings Good and Evil who were put in charge of Nations or of peoples so Jenny mentioned Daniel Daniel 7 I
1:01:14
think it is but or is it Daniel anyhow Daniel is is struggling in prayer and fasting over the the prophecy of
1:01:25
Jeremiah and this goes on for a long time until finally a messenger comes and he says that I was detained by the Prince of Persia who wrestled against me until Michael
1:01:37
came the prince of your people and delivered me so you have these two B three beings one of whom is just a messenger
1:01:49
one of whom is an Angelic being whose Dominion is apparently Persia and the other one Michael whom we call
1:01:59
an archangel an archangel well he was viewed by the Jews as the guardian angel of Israel and he comes and wrestles with the Prince of Persia and frees the messenger
1:02:12
to go to Daniel and deliver the revelation do we believe that really happened or is that just ancient imagination
1:02:29
but we have nothing in the text to indicate that we are to take it any otherwise than real events and the only reason we would do otherwise is if we a priori deny the
1:02:40
reality of these beings but that doesn't make sense historically even from the Viewpoint of human history what we see in human history
1:02:52
up until the time of Jesus Christ is nothing but unbelieving Darkness covering all of
1:03:05
the light doesn't shine in Babylon Persia Egypt Persia Egypt the Greek Empire the Roman Empire the northern Europe China whatever's going on here in the Americas you know no
1:03:16
there's no Revelation there's no light of Truth anywhere and there's also no Mission effort into those lands
1:03:28
those lands it would end it would seem to indicate that there is a power of Darkness that was dominant over the globe except
1:03:38
for a little pin prick of light called Israel and that little pin prick is going to shrink down until it is actually one
1:03:49
person the Messiah of Israel and he's going to die but what's going to happen after that well four thousand years of Darkness
1:04:02
four thousand plus have been replaced by 2 000 years of expanding light expanding light not to say that everybody in our day is a Christian
1:04:13
a Christian but to say that the World by and large is far far more civilized more gentle I know there are still Wars but it's far less barbaric human rights
1:04:26
are actually things that people not only talk about but actually possess slavery is not eradicated but it's greatly diminished
1:04:37
greatly diminished knowledge and education is almost universally spread universally spread the the the manifestations of humanity
1:04:47
are far greater now than they were in the Millennia prior to Jesus Christ that is that is Jesus binding the strong man and
1:04:59
plundering his house those powers that held the nations in bondage were defeated at the cross which allows the gospel now through Paul
1:05:11
and his successors to go out into those Nations and creating a people out of every tongue tribe and nation is essentially Jesus plundering the strong man's house
1:05:26
Timmy go back
1:05:38
is darker but what you're saying now is while it's not strictly a linear it's a
1:05:55
the influence in our thinking or is it just the just the reality of looking at the world around us that they in the past we always sugarcoat the past and there have been times in the past
1:06:06
that we wouldn't want to go back to 1970s frankly I wouldn't go back to them I mean come on polyester
1:06:18
everything about the 70s was abysmal including my life I wouldn't go I wouldn't trade the era that I live in for the era my father lived in or my grandfather or the founding fathers you know or Father
1:06:30
Abraham for that matter I think if you look at the trajectory if you read enough history you'll see the general trajectory of human civilization has been upward
1:06:43
certainly with with depressions reversals but still every bump was upward as the gospel progressed
1:06:54
gospel progressed longevity literacy the things whereby we measure what is the human nature okay they have improved even in places that
1:07:04
have not embraced Christianity the influence of Christianity I think has been acknowledged I mentioned uh the the British historian Tom Holland and his
1:07:16
book Dominion where he has come to the the the unforeseen because of his own atheism the unforeseen conclusion that Western Civilization owes far more to
1:07:27
Christianity than to Greco-Roman civilization and he points out for thing things like compassion benevolence compassion benevolence these are not virtues in either the the
1:07:38
Greek or the Roman world okay the the the the things that we take for granted now came to us through Christianity
1:07:49
and so the the the big picture shows that the strong man is indeed bound okay but he appears to still be on a
1:08:00
leash they have not been yet been consigned to the Lake of Fire they exist now these words powers and principalities are are not really the
1:08:11
best translations in the English uh the word that is often translated powers is exusias
1:08:27
which means Authority or authorities excusio and principalities is archon which it comes from the word that means
1:08:41
beginning the first two words in John's gospel nrk in the beginning but an archon is the first he's the he's
1:08:51
the principal person he's the first among everyone so the the word actually is most frequently
1:09:04
rulers okay but the idea of principality now that's not bad because the idea of principle has that root in it of the one the first the first the principle the princess
1:09:15
and so these are these are the the early Powers the but the the focus is not so much on their their age but on their
1:09:25
Dominion these are powers that have a realm and that ties more into the Jewish idea of the guardian angels of Nations
1:09:36
okay um so that's that's one of the sets of words that he uses um another one Let's uh
1:09:57
that's actually thrown us um dominions Associated often with Thrones
1:10:27
it comes from the word for Lord a Dominion is a lordship so here we have here we have and again parsing these is is speculative so I don't want to go too
1:10:37
much into it the one that I think that we have the best handle on is going to be the last one the elements but what if we look at this what we may be looking at here again somewhat like ranking
1:10:49
these are those who are over Nations these are those who are behind government officials government officials we might say and this is pure
1:10:59
speculation and not dogmatic at all we might say this is the demon behind Tiberius this is the demon behind Pontius Pilate
1:11:10
okay there does seem to be a subtle distinction though Paul's usage of him is so General and vague and vague that you can't go to the bank on that
1:11:21
but I do think you can say that as a whole we're talking about the powers behind powers behind that when when we
1:11:32
um when we look at passages like Romans 13 which we will at length and we look at the Magistrate the Magistrate who holds the sword
1:11:44
he has been put there by God by God which tells us that behind all of these beings we learn this in job you know we learn this in with with King Saul the
1:11:55
power behind all of these beings is God these are not independent operators however malevolent they may be in rebellious to God they will be held
1:12:06
account to God they're not um they're not independent of him by any means nor is Satan okay the the ruler of hell is God not Satan
1:12:18
so and yet what Paul wants us under to understand is understand is these beings are out there and they are malevolent
1:12:29
and when we encounter human resistance and human opposition understand that that's flesh and blood that's not your enemy
1:12:40
look behind it just as we're to fix Our Eyes Upon Jesus because that is the true reality of the current age in which we live and not fix our eyes on things on the
1:12:53
Earth the same way we're not to fix our eyes on flesh and blood as our enemies but to rather see what's behind the Flesh and Blood and then to understand that Jesus
1:13:04
defeated them defeated them he triumphed over them in the cross so that leaves our few remaining minutes
1:13:15
to the last one and um I spend a bit more time on this one in the notes and that is the word stoichaya
1:13:44
and that is why it was um you know in the modern scientific realm of chemistry the the part of chemistry where you are dealing with chemical reactions and the balancing of the
1:13:55
elements involved in a chemical reaction is called stoichiometry it is the measurement of elements so that's not a wicked thing
1:14:05
I hope not okay that we're not we're not teaching any type of um of dark arts to our chemistry students but that's what the word meant
1:14:16
Paul however personifies the elements the elements and that's what becomes interesting
1:14:26
the stoichaya
1:14:41
um several passages Galatians 4 he uses it twice in that chapter he says when we were children we were under bondage under the elements of the world but when
1:14:53
the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law the law now he's he's actually bringing together in this passage the law and the elements
1:15:05
of the world but the reason he sets up the famous passage Galatians 4 4 in the fullness of time God sent forth his son he's he introduces that by introducing
1:15:18
that under which we were in bondage the elements of the world a little bit later in the same chapter he says but then indeed when you did not
1:15:28
know God you served those by which which by Nature are not gods now he does not deny their existence he denies their deity
1:15:39
that's all same thing in Corinthians when he talks about idols he doesn't deny their existence he denies their deity okay that they are really nothing
1:15:52
because God is everything but he goes on he says um but now after you have known God or rather are known by God how is it that you turn again to the weekend beggarly
1:16:05
elements to which you desire again to be in bondage but what was the problem in galatia they were not being tempted back into
1:16:19
they were being tempted to come under the law right the judaizers the judaizers is that not right they were not being tempted to go back to Zeus and Apollos and and to Aphrodite
1:16:32
no they were attempted they were being tempted to go back to Moses you think well Paul they never were how could they go back
1:16:43
these are pagans these are gentiles because he says if you receive circumcision then Grace is it means nothing to you fallen from grace these are gentiles
1:16:53
are gentiles and yet he says you're going back to the law and he says that law that you want to go back to are the principle the elementary principles of the cosmos he understands the law in its
1:17:05
manifestation to Israel as nothing more than perhaps the highest form of Elementary principles Elementary principles and that even if the Galatians go back
1:17:16
to Moses it's like going back to the basic primordial elements
1:17:28
yes yeah in Galatians yeah the Angels were the mediators of the law so that's a good point thank you uh Colossians he um he mentions it as well he says see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in
1:17:40
accordance with human tradition in accordance with the elementary principles the stoichaya Cosmo the elementary principles of the cosmos
1:17:51
rather than in accordance with Christ for in him all the fullness the pleuroma now here he's he's dealing with the the the Gentile beliefs in a Pantheon
1:18:03
and they would speak of the pleroma of gods in the pantheon and he says no in Jesus is the pleuroma of God in him is the fullness of God
1:18:16
and you go back to these things you're going back to the elementary principles but again he personifies them if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world why as if you
1:18:27
were living to the world do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle do not taste do not touch so it uses the word elsewhere and you'll
1:18:38
see that in the notes but I want to I want to quickly point out how this word this is the one word for which we have a fairly consistent history within the ancient Greek world
1:18:51
and I think it's very interesting
1:19:13
is most frequently used within ancient Babylonian Egyptian and Greek astrology Greek astrology what we're dealing with here is kind of a three-fold
1:19:25
Realm one being the four elements
1:19:49
Earth Fire Water and Air then there was the seven visible including the Moon I think that's right
1:20:01
Mercury Venus Mars the moon Jupiter Saturn what a missing one and the sun the sun yeah our planetary system because uh Neptune and Uranus were not
1:20:14
yet seen yet seen and then finally the um the 12
1:20:26
of the Stars which we know as the zodiac throughout ancient history throughout modern paganism
1:20:37
modern paganism in fact it it seems to be almost a common denominator of human Rebellion the further man goes from God
1:20:50
the closer he comes to the stoichaya
1:21:01
these are all especially this one very popular today the idea of a horoscope what sign you were born under okay
1:21:11
um the visible planets it's interesting how that works into our vocabulary uh people are described as
1:21:23
jovial that's Jupiter that's jov or their or they're mercurial
1:21:37
okay yeah or a lunatic but only in the full moon yeah why did you come up with that one
1:21:59
this study in these terms that Paul uses the the proof that they are they are very real and still very real
1:22:10
is the pattern of unbelief that we can see throughout history that we call it paganism and now it's called neopaganism called neopaganism but it is essentially a return to the
1:22:22
stoichayo stoichaya cosmu the elements of the cosmos these are like the prime mortal demons it's almost as if if the Demon World
1:22:35
developed as the human world did these are the demon cavemen but as our ancestors were not ignorant
1:22:48
cavemen but rather Mighty Men of Valor okay men who would themselves become I think the models of the pantheon of Gods
1:23:00
that would be the After the flood the The Men Who live before the flood would terrify us if we encountered them today and in the same way there seems to be a
1:23:16
primordial demonic host that Paul refers to as the stoichaya if he's using the term the way it had been used been used and as I said the other terms that he
1:23:27
uses are used completely differently by the Contemporary Greek and the ancient Greek but not this one this one has the most background of any of these terms
1:23:38
and its background is almost entirely astral and pagan and pagan so as we witness our world moving away
1:23:48
into atheism into atheism denying Spiritual Beings but embracing the spirit the spirit what do we see well we see more and more
1:23:59
of this going on
1:24:10
does it tie back to he talked about the new creation that all of these things are created things to do the good things or they may have
1:24:20
now demonic Powers attached to them is not entirely clear but in any case they are part of the old creation and we need to move now into the new creation so
1:24:32
what is that okay the law he and that's something that that we're going to be moving into uh in Romans is obviously the law why why does he link the law with the stoichaya well I think for two
1:24:45
reasons first of all the law is nothing more than the highest form of Elementary principles and in its time it was holy and
1:24:57
righteous and good but nonetheless it was still Elementary because it was of the old age it was of the old creation
1:25:08
and its result was always the same and that is condemnation all the law could ever do was stimulate greater sin greater sin which kind of proves its
1:25:20
its belonging in this realm now God created the fire of the Earth the water the air the planets the stars and he put them in order and the zodiac is not just
1:25:32
used for for horoscopes it was used for navigation okay it was used for time keeping at night so it wasn't all all evil oh we
1:25:42
don't do that anymore no it had a purpose I mean we were given these things for days and seasons and okay the seasons were often the the days were marked by
1:25:53
the Sun but the seasons were marked Often by the constellations so okay it was good but there was a and is a power behind them that's what
1:26:05
Paul's saying Paul's saying and that power is of the old era the old aeon what is the law today it is
1:26:17
Wicked to go back under the law is to Fall From Grace and and people don't like to hear that especially reform people they want to hear how good the law is at
1:26:28
least the moral law we can get rid of the ceremonial law Paul knew no such distinction the law had its time and that time has
1:26:40
passed now very quickly Paul did not Advocate lawlessness or licentiousness but he could not see how a person
1:26:50
delivered from that domain could possibly end up in the realm of licentiousness and that is because of the spirit the spirit so the law of the spirit
1:27:03
sets us free from the law of sin and death the law of Moses now is the law of sin and death and to return to it which is
1:27:15
what the Galatians were being tempted to do was nothing more than returning to the ancient primordial powers that Ruled The Darkness
1:27:39
being put in place by Angels the light of yahweh's presence was constrained by the darkness surroundings and also going trying to go back to that time or that place
1:27:52
metaphysically without even Angelic support right support right and that's really what we're talking about we can't go back to it that is not the same of saying that same as saying
1:28:03
that it was evil then it wasn't and Paul doesn't say that it had its purpose that's what he says in especially in Galatians it had its purpose its purpose
1:28:13
is fulfilled you can't go back if you do go back you're not going to back to what was you're going to back to what really was
1:28:23
behind all of that you're going back into the darkness let's close in prayer father we do ask that you would help us to understand these things again not to
1:28:37
speculate not to go beyond that which is written but to realize as you gave Paul to realize what this Cosmos really is
1:28:48
so that we might better understand what our Lord really did when he died on that cross when he rose from that grave and I pray father that this realization
1:28:59
this Revelation would encourage us and bolster Our Hope and deepen our faith that we know that Jesus has won the
1:29:12
victory over all of these powers and principalities and even the elements we give you all the praise and glory through Jesus Christ amen