This will be the first of a series of posts regarding the Secret Doctrines of the Christian Church. These are doctrines and teachings that you don’t hear a lot about these days but are a part of the historical beliefs of the Christian Church.

Here is the first.

The Existence of An Independent Evil

Is there an independent evil that exists and is that evil working In our world today?

This post tries to deal with those questions.  Many people may question whether there is a God and what the nature of God might be.  They are less likely to question the existence of evil.

Most people do not dispute the fact that there is evil but they might define evil in different ways.  Some might see evil as being manifested in people who are unaccepting of homosexuality or people who have racial biases or who otherwise who reject the modern virtue of all-accepting diversity.  Others might see evil as people who do not follow Biblical precepts or the precepts found in their spiritual book of choice be it the Bible, Koran, Torah, I-Ching, Sutras, etc.   Yet regardless of how one defines evil, most are in agreement that there exists evil out there.

That evil may concentrate itself or manifest itself in false totalitarian states which mandate that people worship and follow them and be subservient to the state.  This might include totalitarian regimes such as the Third Reich, Fascism under Mussolini, Communism in its many manifestations, and Korean Totalitarianism.  Going back further in time, they might include regimes under Napoleon, Frederick II, Attila the Hun and certain Roman Emperors such as Nero and Commodius.  Going back even further into history, they might also include such ancient characters as Herod, Antiochus Epiphanes and various Pharaohs and other rulers who have oppressed and tried to eradicate the people of God.

Likewise, there has been a long list of spiritual leaders who have been subject to the influences of evil, including inquisitors, bad popes, and false religious leaders including a number claiming to be Christ, to be above Christ or claiming to be alternatives to Christ.  Individual religious leaders who have run amuck and used faith might be considered to be people like Daniel Koresh or Jim Jones or a host of others who have used religion to enrich themselves and to fleece the widows and the orphans.  Other religious leaders have claimed to alternatives or successors to Christ and have drawn the masses to themselves often prohibiting the spread of the good news of the Kingdom of God in lands under their control.

Both political and religious wars have illustrated that evil lives.  The Crusades, the 30 Years War, World War I, World War II, Korean War and a host of other wars indicate that evil is still present with us.

Poverty, drug use, sex slavery, abortion, purges, starvation of peoples, slavery, the Killing Fields of Cambodia,  the concentration camps, the killing of the Jews, the Russian Gulags and the many concentration camps of the communist countries testify to the evil that is in the heart of man.

Even the rapacious greed found in the capitalistic system and the unconscionable use of women and children as slave labor testify to evil.  Likewise, crime and the toleration of criminal and drug empires evidence the presence of evil.

Sin is defined as “missing the mark” and we seem to miss the mark constantly in measuring up to the high levels of doing what is right and just.  Evil and sin are closely associated.  Man has a propensity to sin and that sin enhances the spread of evil.

And so although we can debate about God and his characteristics, the evidence of evil is around us constantly and it is difficult for any of us to ignore.

The earliest religious books of the Jews describe the work of evil.  They describe evil as coming from a spiritual force outside of man which was not equal to God.  That spiritual force was called Satan, which means one who is an adversary to man or who resists man.  In essence, there is an underlying resentment that man was made in God’s image and man had a future in God’s plan for the universe.  The refrain that you hear in Scripture is that man is not worthy of God’s favor.  The initial work of evil as to disrupt mans’ relationship with God through disobeying God’s word.  (Gen. 2:15-17; 3:1-7).

A few examples will suffice to illustrate the work of Satan in the Old Testament.  We first meet the accuser in Genesis.  There he tempts man and plants the seeds of doubt about  God’s word in minds of Eve and Adam stating “Did God really say…” in Gen. 3:1.  Later the snake or Satan contravenes God’s words and says to Eve, “You will surely not die…”  And so we see Satan working against man by lying, deceiving and contradicting the word of God.  Lying and deceit are characteristics found in the essential nature of evil.

Satan next, through anger, seeks to destroy the future development of mankind by having one of Adam’s two cons, Cain, kill his brother, Abel.  The result is that the good son is dead and the other son is a murderer.

Later we find Satan accusing man.  He accuses Job of following God only because God blesses him.   He doesn’t deny that Job is good but he questions Job’s motives.  According to Satan, Job is only good when things go well for him and when he is blessed by God.

In Zechariah, we see Satan accusing Joshua the High Priest.  In a future time, there would be another High Priest, Jesus Christ.  Interestingly the name Joshua is essentially the equivalent in Hebrew of the Greek name of Jesus in the New Testament.  A prophecy is given that in the future “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.”  (Zech. 3:9).  The removal of mans’ sin is something that Satan hates because he hates and envies mankind.

In the New Testament every effort is made to frustrate Jesus and God’s plan to redeem man from the control of evil and death.  Attempts are made upon the life of Jesus as a baby with Herod the Great  ordering the murder of children under two in the Bethlehem  area (Matt. 2:16-18).

Satan attempts to tempt Jesus even offering him the  right to rule the kingdoms of this earth if only Jesus will worship Satan (Matt. 4:8-9).

Jesus came to overthrow the work and lies of the Evil One.  He teaches his followers to pray: “Deliver us from the Evil One.”  He destroys the works of Satan.  He heals diseases; he teaches forgiveness; he delivers people from Satan’s bondage and finally he breaks the ability of death to hold mankind in bondage through their fear of death.

Satan next works to have Jesus murdered.  He subverts one of the twelve apostles and enters into Judas Iscariot who betrays Jesus with a kiss (Luke 22:3; John 13:27)

Finally, evil appears to be victorious with the death of Jesus.  However, evil is defeated when Jesus rises from the dead.  Neither death nor evil could bind Jesus and with the resurrection of Jesus, a way is made for mankind to be restored to a right relationship to God.  The Apostle John says that through the cross Jesus drove out ”the prince of this world” who kept the world under control by the fear of death (John 12:31).  John states that the Son of God, Jesus, came  to destroy the wicked works of the Evil One. 

(1 John 3:8)

Satan not only hates Jesus and God’s plan to redeem and restore man, but he hates the children of God be they Jews or the Church of Jesus Christ.  It is his plan and purpose to persecute them and destroy them if at all possible.

Even though the people of God may shed their blood,  they will be saved.  Even persecution leading to death cannot defeat the people of God thanks to the resurrection of Jesus and our promised resurrection with him.

As we review the activities of Evil in both the Old and New Testaments we will see some patterns which are common.  Some of those patterns are as follows:

• Evil is personal.  It has a face.  It has its own identify and is not just an impersonal force.
• Evil can affect a person’s actions.  However, it can also take control of them causing them to instruments controlled by Satan.
• Evil hates the fact that God has a plan for man.  You will find an envy, disdain and hatred for man and for the plan of God for man’s benefit.
• Evil hates anything regarding the salvation or the redemption of mankind from sin.
• Evil resists anything relating to the salvation of man through Jesus Christ and opposes the work of Jesus Christ.
• Evil hates the people of God including both the Jewish people and the Church.
• Evil does not want good things for you.  It wants you to be a slave and not have choice.
• Evil rejoices in killing, deceiving, stealing and destroying.
• Evil controls this world for the present and it resists the reign of the Kingdom of God.
• Evil will someday be judged, imprisoned and destroyed through the coming of Jesus Christ.
• Evil uses fear, lies, and deceit to accomplish its purposes.
• Evil is adept at using counterfeits to accomplish its purposes.  It rejoices to use false leaders and false religious prophets and religions to accomplish its plans.
• Evil does not want you to recognize it.  It does not want you to know that it is at war with you and your family. 
• Evil wants you to serve its kingdom and do its work rather than to be a part of the Kingdom of God.

Unity

“May they (believers) be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”—John 17:23

Jesus prayed for the believers who would come to know him in the future through the messages and teachings of the Apostles.  That prayer was for us today.  If you have believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, have received his offer of salvation, and have chosen to follow and obey him, then you are the object of this prayer.  Jesus prayed that we, the believers, be in unity.  And by our complete unity the world would know that God sent Jesus and that God loves us as adopted children of God just as he loved his only and unique son, Jesus Christ.

Yet the world does not seem to recognize that God sent Jesus or that God loves us just like he loves His son.  And no wonder.  History has demonstrated anything but unity among believers.  Jewish believers wrestled with Gentile believers, finally reaching a compromise struck by the mother church in Jerusalem.  Later there would be wars between the orthodox believers and various Christian “heresies” including Arianism, Gnosticism, Nestorianism and others.  The church worked diligently to come up with various statements of faith which would be a ground of unity upon which all “true” believers would agree.  Some of these Statements of Faith are The Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, which are still used in our churches today.  Those not subscribing to the Statements would be considered to be outside the faith and to be heretics. Unity was tattered and it was only going to get worse.

The Bishops of various churches began to fight over topics including which bishop had primacy.  Eventually the church at Rome became preeminent in the east and the church at Constantinople became preeminent in the east.  In time there would be a decisive break between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.  The Orthodox Church for various historical reasons became various churches including the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.  Other churches associated with neither Catholic nor Orthodox.   There were Egyptian churches, churches in India, churches in China and in many other areas of the world.

The Roman and Orthodox churches found it difficult to remain in unity with various heresies appearing such as the Paulicians in the East and Alibigenses in the West.  Gradually, many other groups began to splinter off from both churches.  The answer of the Catholic Church in the West included religious wars and inquisitions to root out heretics.  Even with the arrival of Islam in the Eighth Century, some Christians in the East felt more comfortable under Islamic rule than they did under the authority of the Church at Constantinople.

Next came the Reformation.  Fragmentation picked up speed.  Martin Luther and John Calvin and others fragmented the Roman church into Protestant and Catholic.  At the same time there were other smaller groups such as the Anabaptists which did not consider themselves either Protestant or Catholic.  In addition, Henry VIII pried loose the church in England transforming much of it into what we know today as the Church of England.

Protestants themselves fragmented into a host of denominations which we see today.  Today we see a host of historical well-known denominations, such as Baptists, Assemblies of God, Presbyterian, Methodist, Church of Christ, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Episcopal ad nauseum.

Even  simple denominations fragment.  For instance, Baptist divided between Northern Baptist and Southern Baptist.  Later there would be a host of Baptist denominations dividing sometimes on race, sometimes on doctrine.  The point is not to review every denomination but simply to point out there where two or three are gathered together, one of the three will probably differ from others and start a new church.  Where there is one denomination, there are a multitude of churches often disagreeing upon belief or church polity or even on the color of the carpet. 

In the 20^th Century churches again began to split over such items as Charismatic-Non-Charismatic.  However, even Charismatic and Pentecostal churches could not maintain unity and the splits and new denominations continued unabated.

So the history of Christianity is characterized by anything other than unity.  Instead its defining character has not been unity or love but instead division and often that division is angry and acrimonious .

So how then can we ever expect the church to experience unity.  A new statement of faith is not the answer.  The merger of denominations is not the answer either.

The seeds of the answer are something which my wife experienced many years ago in Houston, Texas.`  My wife and I began to attend a number of services and seminars at various churches regarding the move of the Holy Spirit.  Over time we noticed that we would see the same people over and over again.  The people came from various denominations.  Some were from independent churches and some were from a local Chinese language church.  Others came from the Catholic and Episcopal churches.  There were a scattering of Methodists, Baptists and people from the Assemblies of God.  Gradually we got to know each other.  God had impressed all of our hearts to draw near to him and to learn more about the working and move of the Holy Spirit.  Despite our divergent denominational backgrounds we found that we had a unity in Christ which was deeper than our denominational commitments.  Further, we could both worship and fellowship with ease and all exterior barriers were removed.  We were one in the Spirit.  Where the Holy Spirit moves, the walls of division fall down.  Those walls may be denominational walls, racial walls or economic and cultural walls.  As we conform to Christ, inevitably we grow closer together.

Another factor in breaking down the walls of division, is persecution.  Soldiers in a fox hole fighting for their very lives against a common enemy do not waste their time on debating about trivia or even discussing important matters.  Instead they are in a life or death situation and they do not need to know much more than they have a common commander and a common enemy.  Our common commander is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our common enemy is Satan and his demonic forces.  These days we, our families and our homes are in a life and death struggle against Satan .  His weapons are guilt, doubt, anger, lusts, drugs and a host of other terrible weapons.  Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy and he takes no prisoners.  There are no devices that he will not use.  He will use drugs, poverty, ignorance , hatred, crime, or war to harm and enslave you and your family.   One of his greatest weapons is deception to convince you are not in a war or that if you comprise with him you will remain safe.  He is the master of propaganda and one of his great abilities is the use of lies and deceit.  He used “fake news” so to speak long before that term was ever coined.  He sows seeds of doubt, confusion and distrust.  He rejoices in the killing of the young and in setting family member against family member.

Once you recognize that you are in a war, and you identify the enemy coming to hurt and attack you, your family, your church and your friends, you join with others in resisting the attack.  As you resist the attack of the enemy, the walls of separation come down.  You appreciate those who are joined in fighting our common enemy and the walls of separation naturally fall.

We are in a struggle today.  However, we are not the first generation which has fought the onslaught of the enemy.  These enemies include totalitarian regimes, false religions and racial and ethnic attempts at “cleansing.”  Denominations under totalitarian regimes often find that they cooperate and come together whereas in peace they maintain their walls of separateness.  I believe the greater the pressure from without, the more likely we will achieve unity within.

Like most brothers close in age, my brother and I spent our fair share of time fighting.  Yet when my parents came down on both us, we could always patch up our unity because we then had a common enemy.  We even went on a hunger strike as kids so that we could have motorcycle jackets.   We achieved unity because we had a common goal and common people (mom and dad) trying to prevent us from achieving that goal.  Although we often did not get our way, in this instance our unity and commitment impressed even our parents and one day my brother and I sported new motorcycle jackets which we loved to wear to church to my parents’ chagrin.  Unity can be strong and is enhanced as we seek to achieve a goal which is important to us.

Persecution can drive us to reconciliation.  In third century Rome, differences in belief resulted in there being two popes.  One was Pope Pontian who was bishop of Rome from 230-235 A.D.  The other Pope, who was considered to be an “Anti-Pope” was Hippolytus.  Hippolytus was not only a great spiritual leader but a historian and author.  During the reign of Roman Emperor Maximus Trax persecution of Christians resumed.  Both Pontian and Hippolytus were separately tried and sentenced to slavery for life in the mines of Sardinia.  Sardinia had become a Roman Province in 226 A.D. and was where the Romans mined lead and silver.  A life sentence to the mines of Sardinia was considered a death sentence because prisoners were worked to death.  It is reported and believed that Hippolytus and Pontian made their peace and came into unity with one another at the mines before their death.  Pontian was beaten to death by sticks at the mines in 235 and the particulars of the death of Hippolytus are not reported.  After the persecution ceased, their bodies were located and given Christian burials and they both are commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on the same day, August 13.

Christians surrounded by hardship and by those with pagan life styles bind together and find unity.  Missionaries on foreign mission fields find areas of commonality and often find unity due to being surrounded by pagans. 

As a young man and a committed Christian, I worked offshore on the oil rigs with a hard- drinking rough group of men.  Over time, I found another person working for the same company who was a committed Christian.  I was the youngest man working for the company.  The other man was the one who had worked for the company the longest with over 20 years of service. Because of Christ, the youngest employee of the company and oldest employee of the company became fast friends despite their ages and backgrounds and had a unity that others could not reach because we were one in Christ.

How do we get into unity with one another?  The short answer is that we don’t.  Instead of trying to reach agreement upon essentials, we focus our efforts both as individual Christians and as local churches into coming into conformity with Jesus Christ.  Our focus is Jesus not statements of faith or denominational mergers.  As we each come into conformity with Christ we move closer to conformity with one another.  Christ is our standard.  He is our tuning fork.  He is the true note to which each of us must conform.  As we conform to the image of Christ, each of us will begin to look to be more in conformity.   Like stones in a building, we will begin to fit together.  Yet, despite this conformity to Christ, there is a wonderful diversity.  We are not all the same.  We become an orchestra with many different instruments playing a hymn of praise to God.  He has called to himself a new creation made up of many tribes, many peoples, many nations and many races.  Wondrously different, but still we reach a unity in Christ.  If we get in tune with Christ, we will get in tune one with another.

As believers we are getting ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ is the bridegroom and we,  the church of Christ,  are the bride.  This is described in Revelation 19:7-8 which says, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.  Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear”  (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)”

Part of our getting ready is to cleanse ourselves from the things of the world.  We are to give up worldly attitudes and mind sets and be conformed to the image of Christ.  As we focus upon Christ and become like Christ we come into a natural state of unity through our conformity and our shedding of our ways, our thoughts and our prejudices.  We begin to see as He sees and do as He does.  We become like Christ.  As we become like Christ the world will notice our love one for another and will recognize the reality of Christ.

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”—John 13:35

WE HAVE JUST BEGUN

Many today question everything. Is there a God?  Does God care about us?  Can we know God?  Does God deal in everyday concerns.  For those of us who are Christians, the answer to all of these questions is YES!  God has made a way for us to know Him and a way that we might have life through Jesus Christ.  By looking at Jesus, we know what God is like.  And so this post is for my fellow Christians.

As Christians, not only do we believe that Christ demonstrates the essential characteristics of God, but also that he spoke the words of God, did the words of God and was in fact the Living Word of God. 

God did not just send Christ and leave us–but God through Christ still works with us today through the work of the Holy Spirit who conveys to us the mind and will of God among other things.

The work of Christ was to reconcile man to God.  In the life and death of Christ, that work is complete.  This work of redeeming man through the sacrifice made by Jesus for us was approved by God through the resurrection of Christ. That is an essential of our faith.

In another sense, the work of Christ continues throughout history, through you and me.  The work of the Holy Spirit on earth continues to draw men and women to Jesus so that they might have light instead of darkness and come into the very family of God.

You and I, with all of our failings and flaws, are privileged to participate in God’s continuing work of reconciling man to Himself.

As believers and followers of Christ, we are called to do the things that Jesus did.  Like Jesus prayed, we pray.  We help people be set free from the things which bind and imprison them.  We preach the good news of Jesus Christ, and we bring healing.

When Jesus was on the earth he was limited just as we are individually.  He was only at one place at a time.  He walked from place to place.  He had only 24 hours a day to work just like us.  And yet just before Jesus was crucified he promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to be with and to guide his people.

Further, Jesus gave us this promise:  “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father”.-John 14:12 (NIV)

We who are followers of Christ, the church universal, will do what Christ did.  Jesus did miracles.  We will do miracles.  Jesus prayed and saw healing.  We shall do the same.  We are Jesus people.  We do Jesus things.  And if we believe the words of Jesus, we shall even do more and greater things.

Jesus moved in faith and in might.  We too move in faith and might.  There are many evils in the world out there.  The church is just beginning to stand up in America and really be the church.  We are joining with our persecuted brothers and sisters in the rest of the world as our country races to dispose of its Christian heritage and join in the ranks of those countries which have become not only materialistic but godless.  Things are changing and they are changing very rapidly..  Where the church has slept and become debilitated, we are becoming strong through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Our future is bright.  Our fight has just begun.  Our strength is returning.  Once again we be a light in the darkness and a haven for those who seek rest, peace, salvation and the very presence of God.  Our future is good.

This is a post made yesterday by me on Facebook:

“As some of you know, my wife moves in the spiritual gift of prophecy. Neither of us equate prophecy with “preaching” but instead with discerning spiritual truths that edify the church which emanate from the heart of God through his Holy Spirit. Although that is not a common definition, it is the best which I can give at the moment. Sometimes there is an element relating to the future in it.

After church Sunday, Janene told me a prophecy which she had seen in the spirit and I want to share it with you. Janene said that God had shown her that a work of God was in the process of being birthed. She saw this movement of the Spirit of God emanating from a number of places in East Texas independently and spreading out to other parts of Texas including into North Texas (the Pan Handle). She saw it moving into places like Oklahoma, Arkansas and Southern Missouri. She saw it as a powerful and sovereign move of God coming directly from God and rising up in a number of places. She said that the movement had just begun.

I am posting this so that you can watch for these buds of revival. God is moving and He is moving in power. Janene can add anything else she saw which I have left out.

Open your eyes. God has begun to do this work.”

Comments

• Janene Loftis Jett Actually, what I saw was revival emanating like a fan from Tyler throughout East Texas into Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and becoming very strong in southwest Missouri. This revival joined other waves of revival emanating from places west and south and north–all over the country. The word that came to me as I saw this was, “It has started.”