4 Preparing to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit comes to live in us when we receive Jesus, and are born again of the Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the pouring out of the Spirit. We cannot very well expect Him to pour out through us until He is living in us, so before we ask to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, we must first be sure that we have indeed received the Lord Jesus as Savior, and invited Him to five in us by His Spirit.
Jesus is the Way to God. There isn't any other. He is the only Way by which we can know God or receive His life. Jesus Christ is fully and truly God and fully and truly Man. This is the meaning of the Incarnation—God really and truly became Man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thus Jesus is the Meeting-Point of God and Man.
There are other philosophies and religions that attempt to tell about God, and some of the things they say are true, but if you want God Himself to come to you and live in you, you can meet Him only through Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, do not pray to be "baptized in the Holy Spirit" unless you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior personally, or you may get into serious spiritual confusion.
Someone will usually say at this point:
"But what about people who have never heard of Jesus?
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What about the members of other cultures and other religions? Will they all be lost just because they have never heard?" We can only reply:
1. No one will be in the Kingdom of Heaven except through Jesus Christ.
2. For those born since Jesus Christ came to this world, the decision is made in this present life. There is no opportunity to accept Christ after death (Heb. 9:27).
3. God has ways of reaching people in this life that we know nothing about. We can hope that God is able in some way to offer the opportunity to know Jesus to all who would accept Him if they did meet Him. We know that God wants everyone to come to Him, and takes no "pleasure in the death of a sinner" (Ezek. 33:11). God, however, although He is all-powerful and all-knowing, has limited Himself in His dealings with men, by really giving us free will.
4. The real answer to the person who feels it would be terrible for any human being not to have the opportunity to know Jesus, is that Jesus was concerned about this, too, and gave the answer: "Go all over the world and tell everybody!" (Mark 16:5).
Christians have so sadly failed to do this (one responsible survey recently showed that ninety-five percent of all Christians have never told anyone else about the Savior) that many intelligent and spiritually hungry people are looking for answers in the wrong places. Many have become involved with the beliefs usually called the "cults," while others are investigating the "occult."
In general, the term "cult" is used of religious groups that teach some other way to God than Jesus Christ, and/or whose teachings add to, subtract from, or contradict those of the Holy Scriptures. Most cults teach that Jesus Christ is something less than personally God. Some cults have been around for a long time, and have acquired a lot of status, often being regarded as "churches," but that does not change their situation; it just makes them more dangerous.
We are not going to try to deal with the cults by name; it is wrong teachings we are concerned about, not personalities, names, or titles. Adherents of the cults many times are fine and well-meaning people, devoted zealously to their cause, for which they are ready to make real sacrifices. Their human attitudes and behavior are sometimes better than those of many who claim to be orthodox believers.
The first such erroneous teaching we will name is that of several of the best-known cults; we may call it "mind-science." This teaches that God is "universal mind," that "mind" is the only reality, and that we will be "saved" by getting our thinking straightened out. Thoughts and ideas are the only real things, they say; matter is not real; sickness is not real; sin is not real; these things are just "error of mortal mind." Jesus of Nazareth, they say, was not a divine Person; He was a human being Who was greatly filled with the "Christ Spirit." We, too, can be filled with the "Christ Spirit" and be like Jesus. (The "Christ Spirit" turns out to be a kind of generalized spirit of love and goodwill between persons.) Jesus is called the "Way-Shower," instead of the Way. Obviously there is no need for forgiveness of sins, just corrected thinking. There is no need for healing, since sickness is not real, and will disappear as soon as the wrong thoughts are corrected.1
One of the strongest of these "mind-science" groups, that puts out a great deal of prayer literature, and has a strong following among church people, also teaches reincarnation. This false teaching is also being popularized very widely by another recent cult organized around the doings of a skillful clairvoyant, who claimed a strong ability to diagnose disease by psychic means. Reincarnation is the belief that we are born over and over again in other bodies on this earth to continue our spiritual growth, and to expiate our sins. Untold thousands are being deceived by this teaching, again many of them being from the
11 The question is often asked whether the "healings" that allegedly take place as a result of this philosophy are "Christian" healings. The answer is obvious. Christians accept the fact that people get sick. Sickness is the work of Satan.
Jesus Christ cures sickness. That is Christian healing, and it leads people to
Jesus as Savior, not only of their bodies, but of their souls and spirits. The "mind-science" groups, on the other hand, believe the person is not sick at all, but just has wrong thoughts. Once these thoughts are corrected, the apparent illness disappears. This has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus Christ. There was no disease, so there could have been no healing. There certainly was not witness to the Saviorhood of Jesus, nor are people led to acceptance of Jesus as Lord.
"old-line" churches.
There is no place for a belief in reincarnation among
Christians. It is totally unbiblical and anti-Christian. The Scripture says: "It is given to all men once to die, and after that the judgment (Heb. 9:27).
The teaching of the Scripture is that in God's Kingdom we shall meet and know one another, happy forever in a fellowship never again to be broken. For instance, when I meet my mother in heaven, is it to be as someone else, after fifty or so "reincarnations"? How ridiculous!
The teaching of reincarnation is usually accompanied by the so-called law of karma, which says we must be born over and over again to expiate our sins, and to work out our own salvation. It says our troubles in this life are caused by our sins of past lives; sin can be eliminated only by our living over again and receiving punishment for it. This is a million miles from the good news that Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins.
Another powerful cult, often accepted as a true variety of Christianity, claims to be the only true "church," that all others are false. It teaches that God the Father was, and is, a man, a being of "flesh and bone," who became an "almighty god." It also teaches that men, if they will keep the teachings of the cult, can become "almighty gods," and have their own planets to rule, which they will people with their "spirit children" that they have begotten by their many "spirit wives"! Rather obviously, one of the first requirements for full salvation in this cult is that you get married! Jesus died on the cross, this group tell us, to bring all men to the point where they could save themselves by keeping the teachings of this particular cult. This group, like others, teaches that the Bible is not sufficient to show the way of salvation; it must be supplemented by other books and writings. In fact, the most important teachings of this cult are not drawn from the Bible at all, but from their special books—one of which was supposedly discovered written on "golden plates" and buried, and others written by "prophets" through the years. Many people are drawn to this cult because of a strong social welfare emphasis.
Yet another of the strongest cults, one that distributes its literature on the street corners, and assiduously calls at homes offering "Bible study," denies the threefold nature of God (the Trinity), saying that Jesus was not God come in the flesh, but a kind of "in-between" being, a god. This group, like others, has its own translation of the Scriptures, slanted to support its own peculiar doctrines.
Most cults deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus. They say His "resurrection" was the appearance of His "spirit" only. This, of course, is in flat contradiction to Jesus' own statement on the evening of the resurrection when He appeared to His friends: "Touch Me and see that it is I Myself! A spirit doesn't have flesh and bones, as you see that I do!" (Luke 24:39).
The cults would naturally deny the real, physical "second coming" of Jesus to the earth.
Another kind of cult is the "eclectic." This teaches that we must accept the "good" in all religions; that Jesus of Nazareth was just one among many "great teachers." Along with this often goes the claim that another "great teacher" has arisen to take Jesus' place! The basic error here is the idea that religion is a "search for truth," and that Jesus was just one among many "teachers of truth." (This is the teaching of most "comparative religion" courses in our colleges and universities.) Christianity, however, is not a search for abstract and metaphysical "truth," but an entering into a new relationship with God: new life. Christianity teaches that God is reaching down to man: "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).
You can easily see, from what we have said so far, that the cults either deny that Jesus is divine at all (except in the sense that "all men are divine," and Jesus may be a little ahead of the rest!), or they deny that He is unique—there are other saviors, too. They deny His resurrection, or spiritualize it. They emphasize His role as a "great teacher." They certainly will have nothing to say about the Blood of Jesus washing away our sins.9 No matter how ethical or moral the teaching may be, no matter how loving and beautiful and attractive, no matter how logical, if it does not present Jesus as the divine Son of God become flesh, dying on the cross and shedding His Blood for the forgiveness of sins, rising again physically from the dead, you may be sure that you are dealing with a false cult. If you find much emphasis on the teachings of Jesus, but little on His Person, you may be sure you are dealing with a false cult.
Christianity is not founded on the teachings of Jesus, but on the Person of Jesus. It isn't what He taught, but Who He is, that matters most. To quote a popular proverb: "It isn't what you know, but whom you know, that makes the difference"! Also, if Jesus is hailed as just a "great teacher," what can we do with His own claims to be God, and the Son of God?10 If His claim is false, He is either not telling the truth, or He is mistaken . . . neither would be in keeping with the role of a "great teacher"!
Usually a cult centers around a strong leader, for whom often is claimed a supernatural authority and power. Sometimes this leader is asserted to be a "messiah" or "avatar of the divine," and sometimes to be literally and personally "god."
Many of the cults draw ideas directly from the pagan religions—Buddhism, and Hinduism, for example. We have mentioned reincarnation, which is in the very fiber of these religions, but there is also the idea of "pantheism"—that God is everything: the creation is God. God is the good and the bad, the high and the low, the male and the female, love and hate, life and death, the rose and the rattlesnake.11 There can be no real differentiation between good and evil, for God not only creates both, they say, but He is both. The "fulfillment" for these religions is not a personal fulfillment in God, but an utter loss of the person into the "all," or into the nothingness of "Nirvana."12These pagan religions themselves have been experiencing a revival, not only in the Orient, but in the United States. Even the militant faith of Mohammad is being adopted, in a somewhat modified form, by the adherents of some of the "militant" groups.
Some people who are not involved in any particular cult will tell you that they are interested in "metaphysics," and that they are "seekers after truth." Metaphysics is that branch of philosophy which is man's attempt to reach into the unknown. It is understandable that a person who has not yet met God would want to use his inquiring mind to speculate about what's "out there," but this kind of speculation often leads the person directly into some cultic or strange teaching. The metaphysician confuses the soul and the spirit, thinking that the spiritual is an aspect of the psychological, and that the spirit is really the "deep unconscious," or something of that sort.6 "Canst thou by searching find out God?" ask the Scriptures, and the answer is
"No, not by intellectual and philosophical searching can you find God." You can only seek God by your "heart," that is, by your inner hunger to meet Him, the personal God, not a set of abstract principles. People say: "I'm seeking the truth," but Jesus says: "I am the Truth!"
Metaphysics, the attempt of the mind to come into contact
to have fellowship and communion with Him, to be His children, to enjoy Him, even to be His friends. All this must mean not loss of identity, but a heightening of identity in Christ. The oriental religions solve the problem of the self by getting rid of it; they solve the problem of life by getting out of it. Christianity directs us to get rid of the false self, the "old man," in order that our true nature, the new creature in Christ, can come to fulfillment.
6 Even men of undoubtedly orthodox belief get into trouble when they try to be "metaphysical" and appeal to the so-called intellectual. The before-mentioned identification of the soul with the conscious mind, and the spirit with the "unconscious" or "subliminal" mind, is a good example of this. This" identification is quite false, and yet it appeals to the metaphysician, because he desires to make everything understandable and accountable to the intellect, so that all must ultimately be some aspect of "mind," and thus controllable by man's mind and will. Typically, the metaphysically minded person, confronted by God answering prayer, or healing the sick, will say:
"This is taking place in obedience to a 'higher law.'" The implication of this is that some day man will understand and use that "higher law." Christian healing and answered prayer is not the result of obedience to an imagined "higher law," but the work of a sovereign and omnipotent God, Who is subject to no law except His own. All so-called law is simply a description of the way God chooses to do things, in accord with His own Nature.
with God directly, instead of through the spirit, may easily lead a person into the most dangerous area of all, the area of the psychic or occult. When Satan moved in and took over this world after the fall of man, he created a counterfeit spiritual realm, and any human being who tries to find God, or to come into contact with God, or to influence God, by his own psychological efforts, by thinking, willing, or feeling, is likely to come into contact with Satan's "spiritual" world which is more accurately termed the "psychic" world. Today, psychic and occult ideas and practices are flooding the scene, and being accepted by untold thousands of people, many of whom are "good members" of churches. In fact those very people who are the most determined to "find out" about God, in this way are the very ones most likely to be victimized.
We may sum up the "occult" or "psychic" beliefs as follows:
1. Precognition or "fortune-telling." The idea that a human being can validly foretell the future by means of visions, crystal balls, playing cards, palm reading, Ouija boards,13 meditations, drugs, etc. Lurking behind this concept of "precognition" is the idea of a fixed "fate," an unchanging future that is already laid out and cannot be changed. This is in itself a totally unscriptural notion. Christians don't believe in "fate" or "destiny," but in a living God, Who guides all things. God is "the Eternal"— meaning the "ageless" or timeless—outside of time. Time is His creation. God knows the future, not because He foresees it, but because He sees it; He is already there, just as He is in the present and the past. He gave His Name to Moses as "I AM." The future is dependent on the free actions of free beings, and of God. If Satan is able to deceive people into thinking they can know the future, he can also make them believe that "what will be, will be," and adopt a fatalistic attitude toward life. The strange contradiction is that actually people want to know the future in order to try to change it; yet if the future were a fixed "fate," it would be useless to try to change or avoid it!
Fortune-telling or precognition is often confused with Biblical prophecy. One of the most popular fortune-tellers of our day, a woman whose life is the subject of a best-selling book, has been consulted for guidance by high government officials. Her skill with a crystal ball and the other paraphernalia of fortunetelling has made headlines, and she is hailed even by some presumably Christian leaders as a "prophet in the Old Testament tradition," in spite of the obviously occult nature of her activities. The fact is that fortune-telling is strongly condemned and forbidden in the Bible (Deut. 18:10-13). Biblical prophecy is not foretelling, but forthtelling. The fortune-teller says: "I have the power to peer into the future, and I will tell you what I see!" The Biblical prophet says: "I was talking to God, and He told me to tell you . . . !" If a prophet of God foretells the future, he does so because God has chosen to share with him something that He, God, is going to do. There is usually a condition: "If you don't do such-and-such, I will do such-and-such." The scriptural prophet claims no special powers of precognition; he claims that God has spoken to him.
2. Extrasensory perception: telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Telepathy or mind reading is the idea that a human being can detect and read the thoughts of another person, or can project his own thoughts to another person.
Not long ago, in Montreal, Canada, Dennis chatted with a young lady who was very active in Christian work—a
"fundamental" believer.
"I'm studying telepathy," she said, a little defiantly. "Why do
you say it's wrong? There's nothing about it in the Bible!" "You mean you're learning to read minds?" he inquired.
She nodded her head.
"Tell me," he said. "After you have learned to read minds, how long will your marriage last?" She looked startled, and he followed his advantage: "How many friends will you have, when they know you can read their minds?"
"I see what you mean," she said slowly.
Telepathy or mind reading is one of the psychic practices that is forbidden by God. Nothing could more quickly destroy human community and fellowship than the supposed ability to read another person's thoughts.
Clairvoyance is the idea that a human being can obtain information from beyond his physical senses by "occult" or psychic means.
As we mentioned above, clairvoyance has gained a good deal of publicity lately through the rise of a new cult that centers around the life and doings of a famous clairvoyant. This man claimed to be able to diagnose diseases and prescribe cures by means of his occult powers.
So-called water witching, or dowsing, must be included in this category. This refers to the use of a forked stick, or similar device, that allegedly bends down to indicate the presence of water, or of other things. (There is a report that men in the armed forces overseas are being taught the technique of "dowsing" for the location of land mines!) Those who do this are rarely trying to engage in psychic or occult practices, but think of it as the utilizing of some obscure "scientific" principle, e.g., "rays." It is, however, a subtle form of clairvoyance, and like other psychic practices, will bring oppression to the people who do it. Some well-diggers or drillers will not work on a "witched" well, experience having taught them that trouble usually follows when water is located in this way. The very nickname "water witching" shows recognition of the true nature of this practice.
Another popular parlor game, that is really clairvoyance, is the "pendulum," in which an object on a string or chain is hung over a person's hand, and questions are asked. The swinging of the pendulum allegedly indicates the answers. This could also be categorized a fortune-telling device. It should be let alone, and if you have engaged in any such practice, pray to renounce it, and cast out any spirit of oppression associated with it.
Satan, our spiritual enemy, would love to have us try to learn to do these things. Actually, it is likely that there is no such power, but that all so-called extrasensory perception (ESP) is the direct action of the powers of darkness—Satan and his angels and demons—bringing the information to the person who is foolish enough to seek it. If you attempt to read someone's mind, or to foresee the future, or to gain information from a distance by clairvoyance, Satan is overjoyed. He has access to the information that you are seeking, and he can bring it to your mind, knowing that you will think that you have acquired the power to do it yourself. This way he accomplishes several things: (a) He causes you to become more proud and self-centered, and even though you may be "doing good" with your supposed abilities, you yourself are becoming more and more selfimportant; (b) He is setting you, and all who are believing you, up for a mighty letdown. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Banquo says, referring to Macbeth's experience with the three witches:
"Tis strange, yet oftentimes the instruments of darkness tell us truths. Win us with honest trifles, to betray us in the deepest consequence!"14
3 Astrology. The belief that the stars, planets, sun, and moon have a mysterious influence over human beings, establishing their personalities and characteristics, and affecting the events of their lives. The advertising market today is flooded with "astrological" gobbledygook. One soda-pop company is actually offering "computerized" horoscopes! The popular singers croon about the "Age of Aquarius." Young people are encouraged to select their wives or husbands by their astrological sign, and there are actual cases of marriages breaking up and the parties marrying other people whose horoscopes are more favorable! Many people regard astrology as a kind of game, and read their daily horoscope "just for fun." It is far from a laughing matter, however, for astrology is really a carefully concealed form of idol worship—what the Bible calls the "worship of the hosts of heaven." It ascribes personality and power to the heavenly bodies, often under the very names of the ancient gods and goddesses who were and are themselves fallen angels who have been working for the destruction of mankind for millennia. You can read your horoscope day after day and treat it as a joke, but the day will come when it will get your attention by coming true, or working out, causing you to take it a little more seriously. It will not be long—if you are as unfortunate as many have been— before you are reduced to almost total dependence on the little column in the paper, being terrified to leave the house until the daily newspaper arrives! Leave astrology alone!
The Bible says that God put the stars and the other celestial bodies in the sky for "signs," and sometimes this will be quoted to you as an excuse for believing in astrology. But astrology does not claim that these things are just "signs"—which they are—but that they have power to influence human lives.15
4. Techniques of so-called mind expansion by drugs, hypnotism, transcendental meditation, etc. The idea here is that the mind can be opened to receive a wider understanding of the nature of things by these methods. What actually happens is that the mind is rendered passive and vulnerable to the enemy, who is only too glad to provide pretty lights while he is taking the opportunity to implant his own evil influences. It is no coincidence that the so-called hippie culture, based on drug use, is directly associated with occult practices of all kinds, and is also associated with many kinds of degrading and degenerate activity, especially sexual promiscuity and perversity. Satan loves to mock and ridicule mankind, and surely nothing could be more of a mockery of the beauty and fittingness of man as God made him, or woman as God made her, than the ridiculous outfit of the typical "hippie"—the effort on the part of the male to look grotesque, and often effeminate; the similar attempt on the part of the girls to appear ugly, bedraggled, and dirty; the confusion of the sexes in dress and behavior.
Hypnotism is particularly dangerous, because it is thought of as a valid form of therapy in psychology and psychiatry, or as an alternative to anesthesia in medicine and dentistry. The fact is that hypnotism, too, by placing the soul in a passively receptive state, even when the hypnotist has no such intention, opens the door to morbid spiritual influences that may bring oppression that lasts for years, until the person is delivered through prayer and exorcism.
At a recent conference, a Christian leader who works with disturbed young people told of dealing with a teen-age girl, the daughter of a Methodist minister, who had been hypnotized, at the age of eleven, at a Christmas program in her father's church. This was just a "for fun" thing—an amateur hypnotist at a party —and certainly no harm was intended. The girl, however, behaved abnormally from that point. Her whole personality changed; her parents were unable to reach her. She became involved in some serious misbehavior, including car theft. At the age of fourteen, she was ministered to for deliverance, and was set free from the spirit that had moved into her personality when she innocently submitted to hypnotism.
Do not allow yourself to be hypnotized for any reason whatsoever.
5. Sorcery or witchcraft. In one sense, everything we are talking about in this part of the book is a form of sorcery or witchcraft, for we may define sorcery or witchcraft (also called "magic") as the effort to gain power and control in the "spiritual" world so as to get information, influence other people, get wealth and power, or other material advantages. Much so-called religion is really magic. If the main purpose in your "religion" is to learn to control God, your religion is really a form of "white magic," even if it is good things you are seeking for yourself and others. The purpose of the believer is to get to know and love God. Fortunately for us, God desires to bless us in every way, and therefore we find, as we get to know Him, that He wants us to ask and claim good things for ourselves and others. He delights to give them, as we believe for them, but He Himself is always the greatest Good and the greatest Gift. "Seek first the Kingdom (Kingship ) of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you . . ." (Matt. 6:33).
In the narrower sense, sorcery and witchcraft comprise such things as "hexing," or influencing or harassing others by psychic and occult means. The newsstands are now blossoming out in an evil cluster of books on how to hex your enemies. Even "witchcraft do-it-yourself kits" are being sold, with complete instructions on how to make a wax doll to stick pins into!
6. Certain physical phenomena: telekinesis, levitation, astral projection. Telekinesis is the attempt to control the movement of matter by thought, e.g., the throw of dice, or the fall of cards. Levitation is the attempt to neutralize gravity by psychic means, so as to lift objects off the ground, tip tables, or raise oneself from the ground. Astral projection is the attempt to project the so-called "astral body" to a distance by psychic means. These things actually can happen, and the power behind them is demonic.
7. Spiritism or spiritualism.16 This is the attempt of human beings to get into contact with the "spirit world," and especially with their departed relatives and friends, through the help of "spirit guides" and mediums. This is the cruelest of all Satan's deceptions, and the one that is peculiarly abominable to God. Human spirits do not remain in this world after death, but are either with God in His Kingdom, or are in Hell awaiting judgment. The person who seeks to get in touch with a dead friend or relative by spiritualism, if he or she contacts a genuine medium, will be put in touch, not with the human spirit of that relative or friend, but with a demonic spirit masquerading as the human person. The details of dress, physical appearance, and other information, are available to the enemy. A person will say: "But I know it must have been my grandfather, for he spoke of things that only he and I knew about . He called me by a pet name that only he and I used. . . ." But Satan and his helpers know about these things. Spiritualism may make its way into the life of Christian believers in very subtle ways. You should not accept as true any story of a person who has died appearing spiritually on this earth, whether it be the blessed mother of Jesus, one of the great saints, or some person in your own family whom you love, and who is with the Lord.17 You should not address prayers to them. The "communion of saints" means that all believers are in Jesus Christ, but any kind of direct communication between those living on this earth and the faithful departed is strictly forbidden, and whenever it seems to occur, you may be sure that Satan is up to his tricks.
No seeming visitation of a departed person to this earth should be accepted as valid, no matter in what guise it may be presented.18
This detailed warning about the psychic and occult is desperately needed today, because the world is being flooded with this kind of thing. Serious-minded but misguided scientists are investigating these phenomena. One leading scientific laboratory has been investigating telepathy as a serious means of communication for years. Word now comes that Russian scientists have been studying these psychic "powers" with the purpose of using them in espionage. In almost all our colleges and universities throughout the nation there are classes in "parapsychology," which are studying such things as psychic phenomena, hauntings, witchcraft, reincarnation, etc.
People often say, and perhaps you may be saying at this point:
"But in this and other books about the work of the Holy Spirit we are reading of wonderful Spiritual gifts and experiences, and now you seem to be telling us that they are wrong!"
No, we are telling you that there are two kinds of experiences, those that come from God, and those that the devil sends as counterfeits, and that it is of the utmost importance for you to be able to tell the difference! The great difficulty today is to distinguish the work of God from the work of Satan. The problem is that many do not believe in spiritual evil at all, but think that anything that seems "spiritual" must naturally be "good." This is why we have such a flood of weird doings. Our only safe guide is the Word of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 24:24; II Cor. 11:14).
9 The cults will sometimes talk about the "Blood of Jesus," but not as a remedy for sin. They will pick up such phrases as "power in the Blood," but to them it means an occult power that can do things for them.
The "power of the Blood of Jesus" is not a generalized spiritual "power," but the power to wash away sin. Since the cults do not usually believe in sin, they are not likely to be interested in this!
10 For example: Mark 14:61-64; John 5:18, 23, 26, 39; 6:33-35, 38, 46-51; 8:58; 20:28-29.
11 The devil delights in confusion. In general whenever you have a confusion of thinking or definition, you should suspect that the enemy is at work somewhere. Where light is called darkness, up is called down, male confused with female, etc., you may well suspect that you are dealing with false doctrine. For example, some of the cults speak of the "father-mother god." Several of the false teachers today are saying that Adam, the original human being, was both male and female, and that these two aspects became separated. This usually goes on into a doctrine of "soul mating": everyone has a male or female somewhere who is his or her "other half." This kind of thinking opens the door wide to all kinds of abuses, tragedies, and perversities.
12 Jesus' command that a man should "deny himself" has often been identified with this Hindu-Buddhist concept of self-loss. The whole content of the Holy Scripture is against this interpretation. The Scriptures tell us that God desires us
13 We feel led to give special "dishonorable mention" to the Ouija board. This little gadget is a polished board with the alphabet imprinted on it, and numbers from one to ten, with the words "yes" and "no." Over this board slides a little heart-shaped piece of wood, with a felt backing, called a "planchette." The person or persons using the board place their hands on the planchette, and it moves to spell out messages by indicating the letters of the alphabet. Again, this device is treated like a game, but it is not a game. It works, and can bring the users under deep bondage and oppression of the enemy. Sadly, it is sold every year by the millions as a game for children. If you have a Ouija board in your home, burn it immediately, claim the protection of the Blood of Jesus, and ask the Holy Spirit to drive out whatever evil has been let in by the use of the board. Be very careful where and what your children are involved in when they visit other homes.
Many young people's and even children's parties these days involve some kind of occult or psychic game or activity. Many a "slumber party" ends up as an amateur seance, or with the Ouija board being brought out. We have heard of cases where teachers encourage their students to bring a Ouija board to class with them and use it. We have even heard of cases where a Sunday-school teacher did the same thing! Explain these things to your children, so that they will be intelligently warned. Remember that their best protection, of course, is that they have met the Lord Jesus and accepted Him as their own Savior, and have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Until they have received the Holy Spirit, most Christians are unaware of the danger of such things, which makes your task more awkward, but God will give you wisdom.
14 Macbeth, Act I, scene 3.
15 Do not confuse astrology with astronomy. Astronomy is the scientific study of the heavens, naming and identifying objects in outer space, and trying to understand their nature.
Another confusion arises from the fact that the Bible clearly says that God put these objects in the heavens for "signs" (Gen. 1:14). It is not wrong, therefore, to believe that God may use unusual activity or manifestations in the heavens to convey a message to man. The Wise Men who came to visit the Child Jesus were not necessarily astrologers. They were "Magi," the nearest thing to scientists in that day. They detected from their study of the heavens that God was about to perform some great Action upon the earth. This is not astrology. The Star of Bethlehem did not cause the birth of the Savior, nor have any influence on His life. It was a sign only. Daniel the Prophet was considered by the Persians to be a "Mage," or Wise Man (Dan. 2:10-13; 5:11). We have no indication, however, that he practiced astrology.
Notice that the Bible is saying that God may, for His purposes, cause there to be a correlation between events in the heavens and events upon the earth. Astrology is erroneously saying that the activity in the heavens influences and causes the events upon the earth.
16 Spiritism is the general name for the practice of attempting to contact the departed. Spiritualism generally is used of the religion built around this belief. Spiritualists have "churches," and often claim to be Christian. Spiritists, however, are sometimes atheists—believing in the existence of the "spirit world," but not in God. The Bible term for Spiritism is "necromancy," or "having familiar spirits."
17 There are three seeming exceptions to this in the Scriptures. The first is the return of Samuel's spirit, in I Samuel 28. This is, however, a special act of God, and Saul is specifically condemned for instigating it. The other two are the appearances of Elijah and Moses in the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:lff., Mark 9:2ff., Luke 9:28ff). But Elijah had never died, but was taken directly up into heaven (II Kings 2:11); and although it is said of Moses that he died (Deut. 34:5), there was something unusual about it, for we are told that the Lord
Himself buried him, and that his sepulcher was unknown (Deut. 34:6), and in
Jude 9, we have a mysterious reference to some kind of altercation between Michael and the Devil over the body of Moses. It would seem that Moses' body was in some way preserved, in order that he and Elijah might appear physically, not spiritually, with Jesus, in the Transfiguration. There is, of course, no prohibition against the appearance of a revived physical person, such as Lazarus, on the earth after his death, nor a resurrected person, such as Jesus after His death and rising again, or those saints that were raised with Him (Matt. 27:52-3). The injunction is against the manifestation of spirits of the departed.
18 Note that we are speaking of real visitations, not dreams, or visions. God may permit you to dream about a departed person in order to bring something to your remembrance. He may give you a vision of that person in Heaven, in order to reassure you of his happiness. It is the alleged return of the departed to this world that is to be rejected.
Dennis Bennett, The Holy Spirit and You, n.d.
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