SATANIC WORKINGS THROUGH THE AGES John A. MacMillan I AM REVEALED B. Childress Feb 05 2012 The Old Testament introduces us to a multiplicity of gods. We find mankind from the earliest times adoring its deities and yielding itself in varieties of methods to worship. The philosophies underlying these forms of worship were sometimes noble and lofty in theory, but in practice the trend was to become unspeakably vile. Among the more cultured nations of antiquity, such as the Greeks and the Romans, the Eleusinian and the Bacchanalian mysteries were such that the apostle to the Gentiles says of them, "Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness," and again, "For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret" in the bosom of their societies (Ephesians 4:19; 5:12). And, in the latter part of the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans, he exemplifies his statement by outlining the descent from the knowledge of the true God to the indescribable abominations which characterize most of the heathen religions. He speaks of three great steps downward: 1. We have the worship of idols, in which they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" (Romans 1:23). "Wherefore God also gave them up" (1:24) to become like the idols they sought after, for that is ever the result and the curse of idolatry. 2. God gave them up (1:26) to descend below the level of the animals in the abominable crimes of sodomy and prostitution, bringing on themselves "that recompense of their error which was meet" (1:27) - the corruption of their moral natures combined with the evil diseases which follow immorality and cause the deterioration of their physical beings. 3. God gave them up (1:28 RV) "to a reprobate mind," a morally hopeless state, where the whole mind and nature become corrupted and depraved. Such is the downward path of heathenism wherever it exists, its devotees being devoid of moral truth and spiritual life. At times a desire for higher things may be traced, but there is not inward or inherent power to obey the upward impulse. It is only, however, when we hear the same apostle declaring, "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God" (I Corinthians 10:20) that we realize the true source of the corruption. Behind every heathen idol lurks an evil spirit, and the foulness connected with idolatry springs from this root. The heathen themselves know this to be the truth. They will confess readily that they worship not the image of wood or stone or metal, but the spirit which indwells it. Few indeed are the idols to which benevolent impulses are ascribed; the majority are feared and hated by those who worship. Often the gods are given hideous appearances that they may inspire greater dread in the fearful worshiper as to their nature. Such is the Chinese god of war, and the Hindu goddess Kali, the deity of destruction and death, with her protruding fangs and her necklace of skulls. The worship of evil spirits, called generally animism, is frequently separated from visible and material representations of the objects of devotion. Demons may take as their abode huge old trees, rocks, caves, streams, etc., and cause the people to worship them there. What missionary has not come across altars reared at the foot of some ancient banyan tree, upon which sheaves of incense, renewed as one traveler after another seeks to propitiate the demon of the stream that he may be allowed to cross unmolested. Great is the fear of these water demons. We recall the case of an English sailor who fell into the West River at the city of Wuchow. No foreigner was near, and as the unfortunate man swam from sampan to sampan, trying to get help, he was pushed back into the water by superstitious natives until at last his strength was exhausted, and he sank to his death in the swift current of the river. To the heathen the presence of evil spirits is a terrible reality. The fear of the supernatural rests like a pall over the day and night. Someone has compared the native to a restive horse, ready to shy immediately at whatever unusual occurs about him. He lives in continual dread, overcome by the belief that multitudes of demons are ever at hand to do him harm. In the most real sense his existence is under "the shadow of death." One African chief asked a missionary, "Bwana (white man), what do you think I look for each morning when I wake? It is, 'Who will try to kill me today?' I am always on the watch for someone who might do me harm." The devil is a murderer (John 8:44), and those under his dominion live ever in the dread of the unknown. The fetishes that are common to many tribes and individuals are not gods but rather charms to protect them from the evils they fear. These fetishes are also, without doubt, indwelt by demon power. Some of them have the function of assisting the native in hunting or in trade or in securing a wife. A striking example is the "life fetish," compounded by the medicine man or witch doctor from the hair and fingernails of the individuals, combined with other substances. When made up, it is taken by the compounder and hidden away, perhaps in the dark jungle or at the bottom of a deep river. Thus the life of the owner is guaranteed, for it is hid in the fetish, and nobody knows its whereabouts. But how much safer is the refuge of the Christian believer, whose life "is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3), safe for time and for eternity. When we turn to the Bible, we find it acknowledging the supernatural character of demonism in a number of passages. The Mosaic Law pronounced death against wizards and witches, not because their art was a mere pretense or imposture, but because it was a voluntary and real intercourse with evil spirits. The language of Scripture is too plain on this matter to be misunderstood. "There shall not be found among you any one...that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 19:31). "The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people" (Leviticus 20:6). The case of King Saul is set forth as a solemn warning to all who would traffic in any manner with the supernatural (I Samuel 28:3-25). We need not go into the sad story of the declension of the first king of Israel; he broke the commandments quoted above, with fatal results. It is recorded finally of him, "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; And inquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse" (I Chronicles 10:13-14). And Isaiah repeats the warning centuries afterward to the nation: "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:19-20). These direct statements and prohibitions of Scripture indicate that such practices and such practitioners were known to exist among the nations surrounding Israel, and that the chosen people were in danger of becoming contaminated by them. The spiritism of our day does not differ materially from that of ancient times. The priest of heathendom are often expert mediums, skilled in intercourse with the spirits whom they serve. Their paraphernalia differs only in variety from that of the medium of civilized lands, and practically identical results are obtained from its use. Similar deceptions are seen in heathen "fortunetelling" to those which occur in Western spiritism. But it must never be forgotten that there is a body of genuine manifestations which have been borne witness to by reliable authorities in both West and East. Since the advent of Christianity, the testimony of the early Church fathers proves conclusively that demonism continued to exist in the countries of the Roman Empire. Possession, apparently so common in the time of our Lord and His apostles, continued afterward, as is evidenced by the presence in the early Church of a special class of laborers called "exorcists," whose duty it was to heal, instruct and prepare for admission to membership candidates for baptism who had been afflicted by "demons" or "evil spirits." There is an interesting question as to the cause of the surprise and astonishment of the Jews at beholding our Lord cast out demons. It is held by some that this was inconsistent with their familiarity with the practice of exorcism and with the words of Christ Himself: "By whom do your children cast them out?" (Matthew 12:27). If, however, we examine carefully the Gospel narrative, the explanation of this seeming inconsistency will become apparent. For instance, we read in another place (Mark 1:27-28), "And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about" (ASV). Similar language is recorded in other Gospels. We read also in Matthew 9:33, "The multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel." There can be little doubt that the wonder of the people was excited, not so much by the fact of the Master casting out demons, as by the manner of His doing so. It was "by authority," by "a word," or in the language of our Savior Himself, "with the finger of God" (Matthew 12:28). What amazed the Jews was the great contrast between the dread and apprehension with which their exorcists addressed the demons, together with their frequent failures, and the calm dignity and authority with which our Lord always spoke to them, an authority which was in every case at once acknowledged and obeyed. There is another important passage of Scripture relating to this subject. The Revised Version renders the last petition of the Lord's Prayer, before the final ascription of praise, "deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13, Luke 11:4 margin). The same desire appears in Christ's final prayer for His disciples: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). This rendering seems, from a careful study of the original, to give the correct meaning of our Lord's words. It reveals moreover the Savior's recognition of our present position and its danger. It makes most real the existence of those enemies whose attacks on us we are warned to resist (Ephesians 6:11). The "evil one" - through his hosts of malignant but intelligent agents - carries on a warfare in which there is "no discharge," but one in which we as reasonable beings are responsible to cast ourselves in earnest petition upon the care and the power of the Father in heaven for His keeping. Apart from such petition can we depend on being kept? Source: THE AUTHORITY OF THE BELIEVER, by John A. MacMillan, Copyright 2007, WingSpread Publishers. |
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