Dominionism on Crosstalk

Here is an excellent radio program which serves as an example of some of the troubling error that has crept into the church. It is an episode of Crosstalk featuring Sarah Leslie with Discernment Ministries (also see her blog, Herescope). She communicates this much better than I can.

You can listen or download here.

The Occult, part 1: What is the Occult?

part 2

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. (10) There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, (11) Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (12) For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

The terms in this passage probably seem archaic and quaint to most people today. One may think of them as being practiced today only by the most isolated indigenous people. So it might come as a surprise when I say that not only do these practices continue today in modern society, they are on the rise, and many times they are renamed to sound more acceptable to the modern, scientific ear.

The word occult comes from the Latin words occultus and occulere, which mean hidden, to hide. Although it has become synonymous with a variety of seemingly diverse groups and techniques, it will become apparent that they all come from the same source.

"The word has come to denote that which is hidden from the uninitiated, which is imperceptible by normal senses, and thus refers to various magical and divinatory beliefs and practices, beginning with astrology, tarot, palmistry, numerology and other divinatory arts and especially including various forms of spirit contact— Spiritualism (and the various forms of mediumship), magic, and witchcraft. It also applies to specific practices such as the prediction of the future, exploring past lives (reincarnation), casting spells, and psychokinesis (mind over matter)."
(from the Occultism and Parapsychology Encyclopedia (OPE), found at Answers.com)

If we examine this list and compare it to Deuteronomy 18, we can see that they are generally speaking of the same things. Eric Barger highlights the nine forbidden practices of the occult found in Deut. 18 and expounds on them in his article by the same name:

1) Human Sacrifice (making children pass through the fire) – We call that abortion today!

2) Divination – The Heart of the occult. Manipulation from demonic sources.

3) Astrology (observer of times) – We either trust God or the Zodiac but not both!

4) Enchanter – Someone satanically endowed to produce seductive spells.

5) Witchcraft and Witches – Includes its modern, organized counterpart, Wicca.

6) Charmer – One who manipulates objects or beings via demonic power.

7) Consulter with Familiar Spirits – One who gleans knowledge from demonic contact.

8) Wizards – Practitioners of magical arts

9) Necromancers – Those who claim to be in contact with the dead.

Does the Bible Mention the Occult?

First I want to go back to the word occult itself. It means "something hidden." We can specify that definition to be "hidden knowledge only available to those who are initiated into certain elite groups by various secret techniques." The OPE notes that occult is "the opposite of apocalypse, that which is revealed." The Bible does mention “secret things” and “hidden things.” Some of these things, the Lord has chosen to reveal to us in His Word. Others have remained hidden for good reason.

Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

2 Corinthians 4:1-2 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; (2) But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

In these three verses, the Greek word used for “hidden things” in 1 and 2 Corinthians is kruptos. It is the same word used in the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint) for “secret things” in Deuteronomy 18. The intention of those involved in the occult is to manipulate this hidden knowledge for whatever reason. This actually goes all the way back to the garden of Eden where the serpent deceived Eve into believing that God had hidden from her the fact of her own divinity.

Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (2) And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: (3) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (4) And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

These occult practices lead people into the same lie; in fact the goal of many of them is to realize our own divinity! This is exactly what Oprah Winfrey and many of her guests (such as Marianne Williamson and Eckhart Tolle) have been teaching. The Lord willing, I plan to post more on this subject and go into more detail. I also want to give examples of how many church leaders are promoting some of these unbiblical practices...

Exodus 20:1-3 And God spake all these words, saying, (2) I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

part 2

Jesus Paid it All

Here's another great hymn that points us to the cross and Jesus' finished work of atonement. More info here.

Jesus Paid it All

I hear the Savior say,
"Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all."

Refrain

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I'll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calvary's Lamb.

Refrain

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered 'neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Refrain

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper's spots
And melt the heart of stone.

Refrain

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
"Jesus paid it all,"
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

Refrain

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I'll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus' feet.

Refrain

Opposition Follows Faith

Ezra 4:1-2 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; (2) Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.

In Ezra chapter 3, we see that the Israelites who returned to their land upon permission of Cyrus, king of Persia, first built the altar (3:2) and then laid the foundation of the temple (3:10). Notice that the priority was the altar. The altar is where sin was dealt with. It was a foreshadowing of the final sacrifice on the altar of the cross.

Immediately after the people wept and shouted over the laying of the foundation, their enemies overheard and came to start trouble. But notice that the did not begin with a direct and obvious assault. Instead they said, "Let us build with you." They even claimed to seek the same God and even to sacrifice to Him*. Satan still uses the same strategies. He often tries to marry the Church and the world. Concerning "false apostles" and "deceitful workers" Paul said:

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

But praise God for the discerning leadership He had given Israel at that time. They said, "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel..." (4:3) Let that be a lesson to us. All too often we would welcome help from almost any source, and it is hard to refuse. But there is a clear command in Scripture to "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you..." (2 Corinthians 6:17) As well we are told not to be "unequally yoked together with unbelievers..." (2 Corinthians 6:14) What is really interesting is what is recorded between these two verses:

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Following this type, we can see in Ezra that the temple cannot be restored until the altar is built. And as soon as we build that altar (make Jesus Christ and Him crucified the object of our faith), we will experience opposition from the enemy. So let us not despair, because this is "situation normal." Just remember that Satan couldn't touch Job without God's permission.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

*2 Kings 17 gives the account of the peoples of various nations who were brought in by the Assyrians to assimilate the people of the northern kingdom; this is where the Samaritans came from. The account states that the people "feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence." (2 Kings 17:33) So by serving their own gods, they could not possibly worship the only true God since "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." (Matthew 12:30) Thus the attitude of the leaders of those who returned from captivity.

Red Letter Christians (part 1)

Go to part 2

What is a Red Letter Christian?

"Red Letter Christians" is a modern movement within Evangelicalism (the definition of which has become very vague) which believes we have become too focused on issues such as abortion and homosexuality at the neglect of issues such as eliminating poverty, caring for the environment, building strong families, and creating world peace. The movement's most prominent proponents are Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis (Sojourners Magazine). Campolo says in his book, Red Letter Christians, that they are "committed to living out the things that Jesus taught." They take their name from the fact that some Bibles place the words spoken by Jesus Christ in red letters. The idea is that they would have us focus more on what Jesus spoke verbally while He walked this earth rather than focus on those black letters which Campolo says the Christian right uses to "force their agenda on others." The problem with that line of thinking is that if you know who Christ is, you will understand that the entire Bible should be in red letters, because Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are two persons of the same Godhead. I think that the error here lies in a misunderstanding of all that Jesus taught coupled with a lack of understanding of the whole "counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).

Campolo's View

Tony Campolo describes what he believes is the problem and how we should interpret those red letters on Beliefnet:

"We are evangelicals who are troubled by what is happening to poor people in America; who are disturbed over environmental policies that are contributing to global warming; who are dismayed over the increasing arrogance of power shown in our country’s militarism; who are outraged because government funding is being reduced for schools where students, often from impoverished and dysfunctional homes, are testing poorly; who are upset with the fact that of the 22 industrialized nations America is next to last in the proportion of its national budget (less than two-tenths of 1 percent) that is designated to help the poor of third-world countries; and who are broken-hearted over discrimination against women, people of color, and those who suffer because of their sexual orientation."

"In those red letters, He calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary American consciousness. He calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn't kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that meeting the needs of the poor is a primary responsibility for His followers."

While I recognize that Campolo did identify some legitimate issues, I think they are vague and given without a Biblical view of the root of the problem. This is another case of a popular mindset among professing Christians which recognizes the love of God and ignores His justice. But the fact is that it is impossible to separate the two; they are two sides of the same coin. We must recognize that all the problems in the world are a result of sin, and sin demands God's justice. Furthermore it seems that the RLCs have an agenda which lines right up with the political left, although they wouldn't accept my saying that. They sincerely believe that Jesus is against war and for environmentalism among other concerns:

"You got us RLCs right again when you suggested we were anti-war, pro-environment, and deeply committed to ending poverty primarily because we believe Jesus is anti-war, pro-environment, and deeply committed to ending poverty. The only mistake you made was to imply that thinking this way—or trying to influence our government according to these values—makes us the Religious Left..." (from a response by Tony Campolo to an editorial in Christianity Today)

I hope to explore some of these views in later posts and look more closely at what Jesus did teach. I also want to look into what else they are teaching and evaluate whether a Christian who wants to remain true to the Word of God should be feeding on their teachings. And let me just say that I don't intend to attack Campolo or Wallis or any others personally; I just think that we should not immerse ourselves in ideas that are not in accordance with the Bible.

Go to part 2