Underground Exiles

Okay…I freely admit that I’m a bit of a doctrine nazi.  I take doctrine seriously, so I have a bit of a hard time when I hear someone spout bad doctrine.

I hear bad doctrine pretty regularly.  There is a dearth of biblical literacy in the American church, so bad doctrine is all over the place.  All you have to do is turn around and you trip over it.

A good example is the image I’m using in this post.  You have a copy of the AV 1611, otherwise known as the King James Version, nailed to a cross.  The image comes from the homepage of Peter Ruckman, another full blown heretic, who believes that the KJV is the only inspired version of the Bible.  Ruckman belongs in a looney bin, or at the least needs to be tossed out of the ministry.

Tonight I was invited by my girlfriend to attend the Open Heaven’s Conference at her church.  I have some qualms about some of the doctrine I’ve heard there, but overall, it seems to be a pretty safe place.  Then tonight, this wacko worship leader drones on for about 20 minutes before he starts playing; now, I can overlook some of what he said.  Mistaking Asaph (a person) for an instrument, for example.  But then the idiot says this:

“You’ve said You will not share Your glory with another, God; but we are not another!”

One of the most basic understandings we have from studying the Bible is that God is wholly other.  He is entirely other, and while we are made in God’s image and likeness, God is not like us.  And God’s glory is something that we don’t share in.  God’s glory is uniquely His; we aren’t partners in His glory.

Now, even my four-year-old neice understands that when God says He’ll not share His glory with another, it means exactly that.  How is it that an adult can manage to screw that up?

FOXNews.com - Priest’s ‘Jesus Wasn’t God’ Book on Sale — in Church - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News.

Here’s more warmed-over theological liberalism, this time from an Australian catholic priest who happens to sound just like an ECUSA minister. I love the title of his book. “God Is Big. Real Big.” Rev. Dresser, “you are wrong. Very wrong.”

Just another example of a shepherd who has embraced heresy, endangered his flock, and disqualified himself from the office of overseer.

Giotto di Bondone - St. Francis Releases the Heretic

Throughout the Christian era, from the days of the Apostles themselves, new sects and isms have arisen to trouble the purity and peace of the Church.  As he prepared to leave the Ephesian elders at Miletus, Paul warned that “fierce wolves” would enter in among them, “not sparing the flock” and that even from their own select group would “arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”¹  With prophetic sweep, the Apostle scanned the centuries and saw the rise of innumerable sects in Christendom, and particularly the great apostasy and the multitudinous cults of the latter days which, as we’ve seen, he brands as “doctrines of demons”².  Peter, in similar prophetic vision, beheld them as “destructive heresies.”³  Jude boldly inveighs against the wickedness of their human promulgators⁴.  John sketches a historical tableau of their progress and development, and the interminable confusion they cause in the professing Church⁵.

Read more…

1. Acts 20.29-30 [↩]
2. 1 Timothy 4.1 [↩]
3. 2 Peter 2.1 [↩]
4. Jude vs. 12-13 [↩]
5. Revelation 2.3 [↩]

Augustine Confronting Heresy

The Apostle Paul, in a pivotal prophetic passage, traces all doctrinal aberration to its deeper cause and its ultimate source in the invisible demonic agents behind visible human actors.  He presents the perversion of truth and godliness as the direct work of Satan’s minions, the demons.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons”¹

The “deceitful spirits” are the deceiving “demons” who are ceaselessly diligent in perverting the truth and in leading God’s people away from sound doctrine.

As the Church is guided “into all truth” by the “Spirit of truth”², who is the foundation of all true inspiration, so He is opposed in His benevolent work by Satan, “the spirit of error”³, the arch-enemy of truth and the great deceiver, who, with his demonic helpers, is the source of all false inspiration.  But since Satan is a mere creature, and unlike the Holy Spirit, neither infinite nor omnipresent, he requires the aid of an innumerable host of wicked, deluding spirits to carry on effectively his vast program of doctrinal corruption and deception.  As the “Spirit of truth” inspires the genuine prophets and teachers of God⁴, so the “spirit of error” and his spiritual satellites, energize the “many false prophets” who “are gone out into the world”⁵.  Hence the Apostle John, like the Apostle Paul, traces error to its real source in satanic and demonic activity, rather than in the human agent.

Read more…

1. 1 Timothy 4.1 [↩]
2. John 16.13 [↩]
3. 1 John 4.6 [↩]
4. 1 Corinthians 12.3 [↩]
5. 1 John 4.1 [↩]

Augustine Refuting A Heretic

Since I’ve been on the subject of heresy in the last few days, I thought I’d dig a little deeper - to explain where heresy originates.  In order to do that, I’m going to have to cover some basics to start out.

The entire body of revealed truth, as contained in the Bible, which is inspired and God-given, is the great bulwark against all wicked power and evil supernaturalism.  Implicit faith in its teachings and approval of its precepts constitute the only, but all-sufficient, guarantee against Satanic subtlety and demonic cunning.  As long as Scriptural truth is accepted and followed, Satan and his minions are stripped of their power to harm or lead the child of God astray.  It is only when revealed truth is neglected or rejected, either in whole or in part, that the powers of darkness have opportunity to inflict damage and work havoc upon the Christian.

It’s not surprising, with that in mind, to find that Satanic and demonic assault is directed particularly and relentlessly against the Word of God, nor is it amazing to discover that attack against the veritable citadel of revealed truth is perhaps the most conspicuous and potent role played by demons.

There are two great mistakes that are made by the majority of Christians.  The first is to refuse to believe that there is any such thing as demons; for me, it brings to mind the great quote from The Usual Suspects “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”  Satan and demons are real, and that must be kept in mind.  The other great mistake is to go the route of the extreme charismatics, and blame everything on demons and the Devil.  Hence the reason I’ve put “biblical demonology” in the title; our goal is to be biblical in how we view the work of Satan and demons.  Which brings us back to our subject.

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