Are there other malevolent spirit beings besides demons/devils?

This post doesn't relate specifically to the end times, but demons and devils seem to get discussed here more than on my other blogs so that's why it's here.

I've always thought of "demons" as the generic term for fallen angels or malevolent spiritual beings. Or "devils" as the King James has it. These are merely the terms already established in a particular language before the Bible was written in that language -- "devils" being the term in English and "demons" or "daemons" in Greek. Apparently the revisers of 1881 didn't much like the English language (see my blog The Great Bible Hoax) and foisted as many Hebrew and Greek terms on English-speaking people through their revision as they could get away with, at the great cost of unnecessary mystification for the average English-speaking Bible reader, on the supposition that the English terms were somehow inadequate. So they preferred the Greek "Hades" and the Hebrew "Sheol" to the English "Hell," as being somehow closer to the reality of the abode of punishment-- based on what inside knowledge is anyone's guess, but Westcott and Hort's whole theory of textual history was spun from mental cobwebs as it was, so there's not a whole lot to trust in anything they did.

The Bible isn't very explicit in defining either Hell OR the nature of devils, but there's no reason to think that the Hebrew or the Greek concepts have anything on the English concept. ALL the cultural concepts would no doubt have to be modified to fit the actual reality which can be known only through the Holy Spirit, all the cultural sources being ultimately untrustworthy even if they contain some truth. And Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension have changed all that anyway, in ways that are also not spelled out. The cultural terms describe a pre-Christian holding place insofar as they are accurate at all, holding until the completion of the work of the Messiah Jesus, so the specific differences from culture to culture which of course preexist His coming do not matter.

But I digress (have to complain about Westcott and Hort at every opportunity you know). To reiterate more briefly, the point I wanted to make was that all cultures have terms for devils and for Hell that preceded the Biblical revelation, and reasonable translators have always used the term of the culture to convey the Biblical meaning for that culture. Since the Bible doesn't give much of a picture of the nature of devils or of Hell the cultural recognition of such things is all we need anyway until the fulfillment of all things.

Sometimes a culture recognizes many different spiritual entities, and many different hells as well. Buddhism has at least six hells as I recall (from my pre-Christian days of spiritual seeking) each one designed to punish a particular sin, and as many paradises too I think, to reward degrees or kinds of righteousness. It's all temporary, however, a waystation preceding the return to another life on earth.

Until I became aware of all these things I had never given Hell much thought, but the discovery that such a place is acknowledged by most (all?) cultures was revelatory in itself. I suppose I'd had some vague idea that it was a peculiarly Christian concept. Demons or devils too. Seeing its universality gave it even more of a claim to authentic reality than I was already prepared to give it having apprehended that the Bible was truly God's word.

The main topic I had in mind for this post is whether demons or devils are the only evil spiritual beings. Occasionally one hears a Christian contend that there are others. It's true that the Bible pictures quite a variety of spiritual creatures, in the context of the throne of heaven particularly, but not malevolent or evil ones.

Different cultures may recognize a variety of spiritual beings, only some of which they regard as malevolent and call devils. These are the "gods" they worship. It's only through the Biblical revelation that we know that ALL of them are malevolent, under the leadership of Satan, intent on deceiving people just as Satan did back in Eden and attracting worship to themselves. Some 300 such "gods" are recognized in India for instance. Only the clearly hostile ones are called devils.

Again, from the Biblical perspective they are ALL devils, all fallen angels who oppose God and seek to draw humanity away from God.

They may appear in various forms, some partly animal for instance, some as "fairies" or "gnomes" and the like, everything from petty mischief-makers to ferocious monsters, such as those images often found in Asia and India with bloody skulls draped around them. Some appear as beautiful shining angels, and some even as half devil and half angel.

I've usually thought of all these spiritual entities as Satan's horde of angels that fell with him as described in Ezekiel and Isaiah, before the world was created, but the Bible also suggests -- in Genesis 6 -- that some angels fell by being attracted to women after the Creation, and "married" them and had offspring by them. I don't know whether this is to be regarded as a separate instance of angels falling, but they WERE angels (that's what "sons of God" means) so they weren't some other kind of spiritual being. Their offspring were giants, or Nephilim, part human, part angel, not described in any detail in the Bible but quite a bit in the Book of Enoch, an "apocryphal" book that (most of) the early Church fathers regarded as inspired, though it lost that status later.

The Nephilim seem to have a lot in common with the Greek and Roman gods who had both gods and humans for parents, the "mighty men of old" as the Bible puts it, such as Hercules. There are part human and part animal creatures too in some religions. Some suggest that these were the result of experiments by fallen angels in an attempt to destroy the human seed that God intends to save, and that this sort of tampering is still going on through the agency of "extraterrestrials" (demons in disguise of course) who abduct people to their "UFOs" where supposedly they perform many experiments with the human reproductive system. I've never investigated any of this myself but the existence of strange creatures in the lore of many cultures along with the hints in the Bible make it seem plausible enough to me.

And perhaps in some cultures these creatures are thought of as spiritual entities, and perhaps they are partly so, but all the Bible says is that angels fell, no other kind of creature.

Therefore it seems possible that "angels" come in many different forms so that there are many different kinds of demons or devils as well, they being merely fallen angels.

The point is that the Bible speaks ONLY of fallen "angels," not any other kind of malevolent spiritual being, and hints at no "fall" of spiritual beings other than angels, but any other kinds of malevolent spiritual beings that may exist would have to have fallen as all were originally created to obey God. They'd all have to have been "angels" originally, and now "fallen angels" or "demons" or "devils" even if they exist in a great variety of forms.

It must be obvious from this musing that I haven't spent much time reading up on demonology as all this is off the top of my head.

Ex-Disciple of Sai Baba: The Deception of "Higher Consciousness"

I can't afford books these days, but sometimes the ads for them carry enough information to be useful.

Tal Brooke who is President of Spiritual Counterfeits Project in Berkeley, California, spent a few years in India in the late sixties or early seventies as a disciple of the guru Sai Baba who recently died. While in India he was converted to Christ and then came back to the US where he joined the SCP and wrote a book about his experiences in Sai Baba's ashram (Avatar of Night), as well as other books about the spread of a dark deceptive spirituality that has been growing through the influence of eastern religions and New Age teachings.

Here is the blurb for a recent book from the SCP website:

RIDERS OF THE COSMIC CIRCUIT
by Tal Brooke

A Rider of the Cosmic Circuit is one who emerges from that rare explosion into superconsciousness called enlightenment, an exalted state attained by a mere fraction down the ages. Family and friends do not recognize him, for the Rider has changed on a fundamental level. Claiming Godhood, the Rider operates behind an unreadable face, manipulating the buttons of human reaction within those who believe his claim to deity. But his outer form masks an unknowable intelligence. Who is he really?

To the ordinary mind, enlightenment is like a black hole in deep space whose event horizon descends into unknowable blackness. What measuring stick can the normal mind use to judge those who claim to be enlightened and One with God. How can you judge one who claims to be as beyond ordinary human consciousness as it surpasses that of the ant?

The author, Tal Brooke spent years in India and came right up to the mouth of the flame. He himself was being [pr]epared for a leap into superconsciousness by India's premier godman, Sai Baba. Then he spotted a crack in the cosmic puzzle (the full story is in his intimate account, Avatar of Night.).

RIDERS OFTHE COSMIC CIRCUIT explores this deepest of conundrums and asks: Is there a dark side to superconsciousness? Does it have motives beyond the reach of most people? Is it capable of deception and evil? And is there any kind of pattern or map we can use to interpret this alien terrain of the metapsychology of cosmic consciousness? Indeed, is so-called superconsciousness in reality a state of perfect possession? And what is it that possesses the human host who has willfully abandoned the controls of his soul and mind in this all-or-none quest for Godhood?

I have to admit that sometimes Tal Brooke's writing (I assume this is his) is as mystifying as the descriptions of such things by the practitioners themselves. "Changed on a fundamental level" means what in simple descriptive terms? And I do have to ask: What exactly is this superconsciousness conscious OF? Puhleeze, this whole black hole darkness metaphor conveys exactly nothing. Is it really impossible for someone who has this experience to say something coherent about it?

But in response to his last paragraph I just wanted to say that a believer in the Bible should have no doubt: any supposed superconsciousness is imparted by demon spirits that possess the mind of the practitioner. Demon spirits or fallen angels no doubt do possess a higher, or at least different, mind than we do, and they are capable of much illusion and deception. There is simply no other explanation if you believe the Bible.

People who have become involved in these practices need to be set free, and only Jesus Christ is capable of setting them free.

"All who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved."

Spirit Channelers: Doctrines of Devils

Recently I've been catching up on some of the New Age deceptions, specifically the channelers -- the current word for "medium" -- who are direct conduits for the devil's propaganda against God.

Why should this sort of thing bother me any more than any of the millions of other ways God is blasphemed and people are being led down the primrose path to their doom? I'm not really sure it does bother me more, exactly, but it has definitely been getting to me. Maybe there's something about the directness of the lies in this case, and seeing how some people eat them up. Partly it is seeing how pervasive such lies are becoming -- much of it is basic Postmodernism, which has already been undermining the fabric of society for decades. The channelers and their followers think undermining society is a very good thing of course -- "society" is specifically targeted by them as what is wrong with all of us, having "conditioned" us away from our true selves or something like that, into lies and "limitations." It's a major theme among them. Another VERY depressing thing is their aiming the lies at children in particular (oh that does make me cry) as the channelers think it's such a good thing if children aren't being "suppressed" -- which is their jaundiced view of social training.

It makes me feel my weakness as a Christian -- again (so what else is new?) Why can't the church get its act together to seek the Lord with such zeal He might bring us revival in His power -- which is the only thing that could affect all this? Blogging isn't going to do it, the usual intellectualized sermons in the churches are certainly not going to do it, all the fair speeches in the world aren't going to do it, only the power of God can do it, and what a bunch of flabby sickly self-preoccupied Christians who have the "name but not the power" we are!! Not to mention that huge segments of what is popularly considered to be "the Church" aren't really the Church at all anyway, but are frankly apostate or so contaminated with this same postmodern influence they are useless.

1 Timothy 4: 1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Continuing from where I left off in my last post: I've been listening to the video Tuning In: Spirit Channelers in America, and as usual finding a certain predictable collection of ideas that the spirits seem intent on propagating among people. It doesn't matter much what the particular demon source is, what spokesman promotes it, or what UFO it first came in on, they all have pretty much the same message they want to get across.

As I've been letting this stuff roll on it began to dawn on me that the focus of all of it is relentlessly on YOU YOU YOU, or ME ME ME. ALL the teaching is about how YOU YOU YOU can learn to make the most of your nature, in a sense, by tuning into what they call your "higher self." I tell you, it is absolutely relentless. I've listened to an awful lot of this by now and I haven't heard the mention of one single MORAL concern. The idea of a "higher self" kind of suggests maybe that higher self would be preoccupied with, oh, I don't know, doing good in the world perhaps. And I'm sure this is not neglected among those who follow such teachings, although I also am sure that the actualization of the higher self itself is supposed to do good in the world. But the fact is that in these teachings I've been hearing there hasn't been a single reference in that direction, just exhortations to follow your own desires, feelings, enthusiasms, excitements or similar terms as all this supposedly comes from your higher self and will eventually establish you IN that higher self. And this explicitly means ignoring and suppressing all concerns about repercussions -- indeed any MORAL concerns -- you might have about following your own inclinations.

The entire substance of all of it is how to be a better you, and this means getting rid of everything you've ever learned, all that stuff "society" has supposedly crammed down your throat -- it's all bad, don't you know, it's all, well -- LIMITING -- you must rid yourself of "limitations" if you want to learn to live from your higher self or something like that. Society has merely "conditioned" you in "limitations," restrictions and lies.

I shudder at the implications of this, the destructiveness that MUST be the result of this, in individual lives, in society as a whole. This is nothing but fallen human nature being given the green light to the max. Never in history that I know of has such a thing ever been promoted, and that means in ANY society, in ANY religion. Yes, a lot of this is taken from the Eastern religions, specifically Hinduism (and the miserable condition of that society ought to be a clue to its fruit) but this goes further even than those religions do.

Jer 17:9 ¶ The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

And religion, oh, well, "religion" is the worst of all, just a pack of lies you were indoctrinated into.

Seems to me that so few people have been raised in Christianity in the West for so many decades this focus on debunking religion is pretty much irrelevant. Even I didn't get indoctrinated although I was sent to church as a child -- What little I'd learned I lost in my teens for a thirty-year stint as an atheist before God finally got hold of me. I didn't have a clue about the gospel until my mid-forties. But it does serve to point up how energetically the demons want to be sure no shred of the truth of God remains in anyone's head.

Oh, some of them want you to know that the old religions (they sometimes carefully include other religions but we know they really mean Christianity because none of the other religions is a threat to them, being part of the delusion they are promoting) --some, I say, want you to know that the old "religions" had SOME truth in them, but whatever bits of truth they contained are now being more fully revealed by these channeled beings, and so on and so forth.

For instance, God isn't a being, he's really your higher self, the higher self of all human beings, even in some versions all living things. So if you cultivate your higher self you will be in touch with God.

Pretty diabolical.

Propagandizing the human race is apparently their primary Mission, at least at this stage -- it's of course to be expected that they have an agenda for the future that requires many such propagandized people to make it possible. At one point in the video Tuning In, in which five or six channelers speak the demonic lies they are receiving, one of them raises the question how many "aware" ones are needed in order to have a general impact on the world consciousness with these teachings. I'd say we're already awash in this polluted "awareness" myself and it's only getting worse as the propagandized promote what is ultimately going to turn out to be a hideous anti-human agenda, an agenda the channelers and their followers couldn't possibly anticipate but will work blindly and enthusiastically to usher in once they are thoroughly indoctrinated in the sweetness-and-light propaganda.

As I said in the previous post, this video shows channelers treating their "work" as quite commonplace, with none of the old hocus pocus about it. They get these messages from demonic spirits and accept them utterly uncritically, apparently just because they come from spirits, blind to any danger to themselves or any possibility that they are being deceived. The fact that the messages from each all build on one another in general agreement must of course add to the illusion of truth they've all bought into. (Never seems to occur to people who are into this stuff that demons do their job on orders from the top and make an effort to be all on the same page in their separate missions with individual people. They most likely don't even have to be too careful since they have such a gullible uncritical audience).

For this to have become so commonplace is no doubt due to the groundwork laid over the centuries with individual after individual channeler, medium, seer, "prophet," avatar, guru, theosophist, witch or warlock, and of course the general breakdown of a stable society, as it does appear that they DO have to get permission, as they themselves admit, and the more people they succeed in deluding the more they get that permission -- granted by God, of course, whom they deny -- and the more permission they get the more of them can come in and the more people they can possess and the more the culture becomes polluted with their doctrines.

Are you an Extra-Terrestrial waking up to your Mission?

How is it possible for people to come to believe that human beings were originally extra-terrestrials? I've just found another version of this rather popular New Age idea. There seem to be many versions but they share many similarities. One version has "ancient astronauts" having come to this planet in ancient times to "seed" it with life including human beings, coming back in recent times to see how we're doing and offer us their superior wisdom for dealing with our problems.

This one I just became aware of addresses people as if they believe that they were originally extra-terrestrials themselves. Now the planet is "evolving" away from its problems and the awakening or awakened ones are being addressed by "Mission Control" concerning their mission, which supposedly they signed up for back when, although they've forgotten that as well as everything else about their origins. The mission involves "birthing" the planet "into the light," and "becoming your own Messiah."

The mission isn't all that clear to me, kind of rambles around a number of vaguely related concepts, nor am I able to digest the implication that ALL human beings are unawakened extra-terrestrials although only some are "evolving" or awakening to their mission. Not that it matters really. The whole thing is a fiction designed to lure vulnerable souls into some sort of demonic trap. There are always those who are flattered as the ones "in the know" in such a scenario as opposed to those outside, poor stupid unevolved unenlightened unawakened things, like Muggles. Obviously anyone who is attracted to this kind of story is someone they want to reach for purposes of deepening the indoctrination, the rest aren't accessible to them anyway.

Here is a video that apparently presents the gist of a book titled ET 101 that purports to be an instruction manual for people who have discovered they are really extra-terrestrials on a mission. It's written by Diana Luppi with an "entity" called Zoev Jho, who on one website I found she says is really just herself under another name, and "Mission Control." The book is described as having a lot of humor, which is unusual for this kind of thing. There is a bit of this in the video, but there are of course people who will find the whole thing laughable anyway.

Toward the end of the video there is a picture, with no explanation given, of a typical New-Age sort of mandala thing with a spiral in the middle, reminiscent both of the yin-yang symbol and two sixes intertwined (instead of the usual three), which reminds me of the Seoul Korea figure among other things. At the end of the video the reader is whimsically told to prepare for the Second Coming, because "you're it," and "you are the Second Coming." News to me of course and any of the rest of us who are waiting for Christ's soon return (or the Rapture, followed by the short-lived reign of the Antichrist whom the deluded will accept as the Christ).

Then goes on to say:

Mission Control does not wish to stay on this topic very long because we are aware of the charge that surrounds it due to 2,000 years of organized denial.

Hm. "Organized denial." Righto, poison the well any way you can. Wouldn't want to stay on this topic TOO long because the truth might penetrate the misty clouds in the head of some wannabe ET that Jesus Christ is coming back and blow the delusion to bits. The only "organized denial" here is this statement that implies our expectation of 2,000 years is false. Denial, anyway, whether "organized" or not.

For this reason we will give you only one more helpful hint: Become your own Messiah -- why wait?

Yeah, that's going to do you a LOT of good, to usurp the position of the true Messiah who alone has the power to save you from this very sort of lying demonic seduction with its sweet-sounding music and its pretty images.

Here's the website for ET 101. And here's its self-identifying statement:

“The Old World's systems are in collapse. Those who wish to continue in those systems will be graciously asked to leave, because their motivator, fear, is being relocated to another planet where its subdivisions are still welcome.

In fulfillment of Native American prophecies, intergalactic and interdimensional forces have gathered on this planet at this time to liberate her in the name of Spirit.

The Earth has elected to evolve beyond limitation; however, anyone who opts to explore that process further is free to do so — just not on this planet. Such people will be allowed to continue their experiments with limitation on some other piece of planetary property that is at a less advanced stage in its evolution.

This is the most critical moment of change in this planet's history, and your assistance in that change is vital.”

Get right to the point, don't they? If we don't agree with them, off with us! Who's in charge here? THEM! Whoever they are. THEY want to "liberate" "this planet" from US, it looks like to me. "The Earth has elected..." to evolve beyond "limitation." The Earth itself can "elect" something? Of course those of us who are addicted to "limitation," whatever that is -- us poor unevolved Muggle sorts you know -- and those of us who experience fear (of what? Them perhaps?) are no longer welcome here. But we are merely being "graciously asked" to leave, not forced -- so I recommend a rebellion. Prayer for starters.

Of course Christians in particular are targeted by such a devil-inspired message -- clearly there is no God in this scenario, just wise ones from outer space -- but there are countless others who aren't interested in their program either. Christians MIGHT be taken away in the Rapture -- I'm still not convinced one way or the other about this -- and that would require all these demonic entities and their human followers to have an explanation. So they could explain our disappearance as a necessary -- graciously requested -- relocation due to the fact that we are so much less "evolved" than this planet deserves.

There seem to be quite a few of these demon-inspired notions of taking some people off the planet going around these days, mostly in connection with this sort of New Age or UFO-inspired drama. Suggests that perhaps THEY believe in the Rapture, or are at least hedging their bets just in case. But what about the nonChristians who don't accept this demonic nonsense but won't be raptured? If anything like this scenario does start unfolding THEY are going to have plenty of fear, but they'll still be here although fear is supposed to be a disqualifier. (How clever of them to smear their opponents with the accusation of "fear.")

They have a handy Census Form so you can identify yourself according to your extraterrestrial level or something like that:

ET CENSUS FORM - English
1a. I AM:

An Extraterrestrial Master
A member of the Angelic Hosts
A Council, Federation, Alliance and/or Command member
An Interdimensional Adept, Master or Lord
A member of the Special Forces
A Group Soul posing as many human beings
All of the above
All of the above except
Other (please specify below)

Do note: They invite the person to identify as "I AM" in all caps, the name of God Himself. This is also a popular blasphemy these days. There is no God, it's just us -- and Them, whoever they are, but we know they are on our side, they are really the source of all the God ideas, but stupid people misidentified them, you know, us Muggle types, unevolved types, unawakened, unenlightened, whatever.

If you read on you will find a section of humorous comments on the claims of this website, apparently submitted by various readers, that they allow you to check -- in case you are of that turn of mind, meaning you aren't one of Them, who are the only ones they want to reach anyway:

Feel free to beam me up. There really isn’t any intelligent life down here.

This planet is in no shape for an evolutionary leap. It couldn’t even withstand an evolutionary hop, and I advise immediate reconsideration of the entire plan.

I don’t remember signing up for this mission. If I did, is there any such thing as a discharge? Dishonorable is fine with me.

I believe I have struck upon a better planetary transition plan which does not require my direct participation. Can we talk?

I live in Wilton, Connecticut and have mistaken my portfolio for my identity. Is there any possibility of me and my portfolio being restationed at this point?

It's very tempting to dismiss this sort of thing with humorous remarks (and they are cute, aren't they?), as just another crackpot delusion, but I have to say that there's enough of this out there now, and enough people who take it seriously, as well as Christian exposes on versions of it, that it's foolish just to dismiss it as a delusion. It IS a delusion but it's a demon-orchestrated delusion and demons are very real.

So all this must be part of the End Times drama the devil is setting up behind the scenes these days, trying out this and that perhaps, seeing what will float. The purpose has to be among other things to bring his demonic hordes onto the planet in huge numbers.

People ARE asleep about these things, including Christians who ought to know better.

The video says that "they" aren't permitted to invade, they must earn their right to alter this planet. Apparently they are succeeding. Simply gaining the consent of people they've deceived acts as an invitation and the conferring of the right they seek.

I have to assume that people can still be saved out of this kind of demonic delusion. Sometimes I just pray that people learn that "Whosoever calls on the Name of the LORD shall be saved." Of course they have to believe in that Name.

======================
Mon 4/18: Another New Age concept related to the above is the "walk-in." This is a term I encountered as far back as the 80s or maybe even 70s as people advertised themselves by it in New Age tabloids. After I became a Christian in the mid-eighties I recognized that there was only one way to understand it: demon-possessed people -- IF of course they weren't just pretending to be something they weren't.

I looked it up this morning and found a Wikipedia article on it that traces it to the Seth books that became cult favorites in the 70s, books that were "channeled" by spirits through Jane Roberts, and goes on to discuss many popular versions of the idea.

The whole thing is about demon possession, the channeling of the concept, the concept itself.

How did America get demon-possessed? There were always such phenomena in the West, though in isolated pockets for the most part, and the Wikipedia article mentions earlier versions of it. There was a rather large movement in the 19th century in the theosophists and other spiritualists which seem to have come out of the degeneration of Christianity in formerly Puritan New England, with their seances and sometimes a sort of Christianized spirit talk. Henry James' novel, The Bostonians, has such phenomena as the background for the feminist movement -- in the character of a girl whose "faith healer" father induces a trance in her and invites the "spirit" to come to her in order for her to speak her feminist message. James also wrote The Turn of the Screw which is frankly about demonic manifestations (only people who refuse to believe in such things could interpret it any other way) and was generally fascinated with this sort of theme.

I had an aunt who dabbled in versions of spiritualism, for a while very involved in the teachings of Edgar Cayce who was known as a healer -- no doubt in my mind that he heard from spirits; she was also interested in the earlier gurus who came to America, Swami Vivekananda for instance, Paramahansa Yogananda for instance, later got very involved in a spiritualist movement called Subud. She also loved the Antichrist poet, Khalil Gibran. She eventually became a born-again Christian. So I had some awareness of this sort of thing from her before I encountered it in other forms later.

It all seems to have multiplied enormously in the 70s. There was a massive influx of Eastern religions during that time, and religions with a shamanistic background which invites demon possession. Various channeled teachings became popular. Carlos Castaneda's Teachings of Don Juan became big then. The earlier Beatniks had embraced Buddhism and that was continuing to grow in popularity -- a friend of mine began to practice Zen during the 70s and went on to become a priestess. The Beatles had brought in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his pseudo-scientific Transcendental Meditation, and two couples of my acquaintance went on to become TM adepts and leaders. Various other Hindu gurus had their followings.

This no doubt deserves a post of its own when I can get around to it.

Later: Adding This link for further pondering.

And one on earlier Hindu influences in America.

And here's Christian researcher Caryl Matrisciana on Eastern religions and the New Age. And here's another part of the same interview..

Ai yi yi yi yi: I wonder how many are involved in this sort of thing already? Here's a video of what seems to be a little club of channelers of messages from the spirit world, treating it as quite commonplace, none of the old spooky stuff or hocus pocus about it. They get these messages from demonic spirits and accept them utterly uncritically, apparently just because they come from spirits, blind to any danger to themselves or any possibility that they are being deceived. The Delusion just keeps growing and spreading.

Open Letter to Evangelicals again: The State of Israel in the end times

An Open Letter to Evangelicals and Other Interested Parties:
The People of God, the Land of Israel, and the Impartiality of the Gospel.

This came up in conversation again recently, so although I already did a two-part blog on it last year I would like to try to say it again more briefly. This Open Letter aims to answer a statement from some evangelical leaders urging American support of Israel on the basis of scripture. According to the Open Letter, apparently some are teaching that

God's alleged favor toward Israel today is based upon ethnic descent rather than upon the grace of Christ alone, as proclaimed in the Gospel.

and others are teaching

that the Bible's promises concerning the land are fulfilled in a special political region or "Holy Land," perpetually set apart by God for one ethnic group alone.

And this is what the Open Letter seeks to answer.

The Open Letter goes on to present the Gospel of salvation as universal in answer to claims for any ethnic group. There is only one way of salvation for all.

4. Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, came into the world to save sinners. In his death upon the cross, Jesus was the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, of Jew and of Gentile alike. The death of Jesus forever fulfilled and eternally ended the sacrifices of the Jewish temple. All who would worship God, whether Jew or Gentile, must now come to him in spirit and truth through Jesus Christ alone. The worship of God is no longer identified with any specific earthly sanctuary. He receives worship only through Jesus Christ, the eternal and heavenly Temple ...

7. Jesus taught that his resurrection was the raising of the True Temple of Israel. He has replaced the priesthood, sacrifices, and sanctuary of Israel by fulfilling them in his own glorious priestly ministry and by offering, once and for all, his sacrifice for the world, that is, for both Jew and Gentile. Believers from all nations are now being built up through him into this Third Temple, the church that Jesus promised to build. ...

9. The entitlement of any one ethnic or religious group to territory in the Middle East called the "Holy Land" cannot be supported by Scripture. In fact, the land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua. The New Testament speaks clearly and prophetically about the destruction of the second temple in A.D. 70. No New Testament writer foresees a regathering of ethnic Israel in the land, as did the prophets of the Old Testament after the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C. Moreover, the land promises of the Old Covenant are consistently and deliberately expanded in the New Testament to show the universal dominion of Jesus, who reigns from heaven upon the throne of David, inviting all the nations through the Gospel of Grace to partake of his universal and everlasting dominion.

The promised Messianic kingdom of Jesus Christ has been inaugurated. Its advent marks the focal point of human history. This kingdom of the Messiah is continuing to realize its fullness as believing Jews and Gentiles are added to the community of the redeemed in every generation. The same kingdom will be manifested in its final and eternal form with the return of Christ the King in all his glory. ...

The present secular state of Israel, however, is not an authentic or prophetic realization of the Messianic kingdom of Jesus Christ.

I agree, and to the extent that some see the gospel as coming to fruition through the state of Israel I disagree with them. On the other hand, while Israel is not a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy it does look like a fulfillment of some literal prophecies about the flowering of that land again, the return of the Jews to that land at the end and so on.

While the state of Israel does not fulfill MESSIANIC prophecy (except as the final stage before Jesus' second advent) I can see it as a fulfillment of prophecy of the playing out of the claims of fallen human nature under the Antichrist just before the return of Jesus. Religious Jews are still expecting their Messiah, blinded to the fact that they rejected the true Messiah 2000 years ago, and who would that be but the Antichrist?

I do see God behind all this, however. I've found some speculation on the web that Satan is behind it. That can't be so -- his part seems to be mostly against Israel. There have been miraculous events protecting Israel from its Arab enemies and that has to be God. Those who deny that Israel has a right to be on the land also see the Palestinians as the victims of Israel, but I see it the other way around. Whatever Israel's rights to the land from a biblical perspective, they acquired it fairly and the land was pretty much barren when they started the process -- see Mark Twain's description of the area as a wilderness when he was there in the 19th century. The Palestinian people did not exist at that time, there was no people with that name at all and the current "Palestinians" are not of one tribe but from many different Arab backgrounds. They were Arabs from the surrounding nations who came to work for the Israelis in building up the land, who left Israel in a mass exodus before one of the Arab attacks on Israel, having been warned of the attack BY the Arabs. They became a refugee camp that then took on the false identity of a Palestinian nation. Meanwhile Israel absorbed many Jewish refugees from those same Arab lands. The Arab nations should have absorbed back the Arab refugees but they found it more useful to leave them there with the implication that their sufferings were all the fault of Israel.

The prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 found a literal fulfillment in a historically documented period of 69 times 7 years from a specific point in history to the revelation of Jesus Christ as King as He rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. The prophecy was literal and was exactly and literally fulfilled in the first advent of the Messiah. There is a "seventieth week" left in that prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled and must also be fulfilled in the same literal historical way the first 69 "weeks" were fulfilled. This is a last "week of years" or seven years that it seems to me can't just be palmed off with an allegorical interpretation but must be a literal time yet to come. There are many indications that this is to be a time in which not Christ but the usurper, Christ's imitator the Antichrist, possessed by the devil, will take the reins of world government in Christ's name, at the end of which time the true King will return. Some Jews will receive this fake as their Messiah. For this purpose a reinstated temple in Jerusalem would make perfect sense.

The complaints of the Open Letter that those who are looking to a literal physical Israel are misrepresenting the gospel of Christ may be true of many, and of course if so they are wrong -- literal physical Israel isn't really about the gospel, it's about the playing out of the end times drama of pure evil as all the powers of the devil and fallen human nature come together to rule the world, bringing the whole fallen creation to its fullest possible expression and final defeat. Not all prophecies are Messianic prophecies. The four empires prophesied by Daniel embody the doings of fallen humanity, and the Messiah comes into it only as He is prophesied to overthrow the fourth and last empire and usher in the Kingdom that will last forever. We are now living in the dispensation in which Christ has come and yet the fallen world continues alongside. It makes sense to me to think that the fallen world has yet to come to its own "perfection" as it were -- a "perfection" of error and evil -- before the Lord returns for good.

Israel is STILL the geographic location where God chose to place His name. It's still a type, it's not the gospel, but this earth hasn't yet fled away and while it's here that piece of geography is still where God put His name. For it to function as a magnet for all the forces of evil to come together at the very end to try to defeat God makes perfect sense. Yes, the gospel is fulfilled in the HEAVENLY Jerusalem not the earthly Jerusalem but we are still living on this planet and this planet is where the Antichrist is going to appear and rule, and the Mount of Olives is literally where the Lord Jesus is going to appear Himself as well, at the very end when he returns to take possession of His people and His entire creation.

So I'm claiming that there is still a history to be played out in the original land given to the Jews by God, although all that is now fulfilled in Christ. Scripture apparently prophesies that the Israelis will suffer terribly in that land before the final day, but that God will be their ultimate protector and defender, even fighting for them against their enemies, and that a great number of them will finally be saved.

The purpose of this is not so much about the gospel as it is about God's ownership of Planet Earth. God has always had the purpose to save through the gospel a people for Himself, but He has also always had this other purpose as well -- to demonstrate His glory and His reign over the earth to ALL people, in fact to the entire Creation in heaven and in earth. EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW to the King of Kings when He comes to claim His possession, EVERY KNEE, not just the knees of believers. The unsaved, the unregenerate, the damned and the doomed and every other living thing will bow to the true King of Creation in the end, and ALL will see Him with their physical eyes when He returns.

Evil must have its day and then the wicked will be shown their error as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords returns to claim His inheritance, His believing people but also the physical world He created.

Furthermore, a day should not be anticipated in which Christ's kingdom will manifest Jewish distinctives, whether by its location in "the land," by its constituency, or by its ceremonial institutions and practices.

However, there do seem to be prophecies about these very distinctives, but the mistake, it seems to me, is to think of any of this as manifesting CHRIST'S KINGDOM. Rather it will be the manifestation of ANTICHRIST's kingdom. The Book of Revelation calls Jerusalem Sodom after all.

Instead, this present age will come to a climactic conclusion with the arrival of the final, eternal phase of the kingdom of the Messiah. At that time, all eyes, even of those who pierced him, will see the King in his glory. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.

Quite. But HOW things are going to arrive at this point looks to me like it's going to include physical Israel -- apostate Israel, yes, but an Israel in which multitudes of Jews will come to see the truth and be saved even out of the most horrifying tribulation. And THEN will come the "climactic conclusion with the arrival of the final, eternal phase of the kingdom of the Messiah."

I could be wrong about this -- and probably am wrong about SOME of it in any case -- but I'm more and more committed to something along these lines. I think BOTH sides of this argument are partly right and partly wrong. There is a both/and here. To the extent that the pro-Israel evangelicals confuse God's purposes in Israel with His purposes in the gospel they are wrong or at least have the cart before the horse, but they have something right in their reading of prophecy nevertheless, which the Reformed camp behind the Open Letter is overlooking.

Rick Warren's Daniel Plan Health Program -- major wing of the Apostate Church of the Last Days?

Something to listen to from Jan Markell's Olive Tree Views. This is her Understanding the Times radio program and her guest is the well-known exposer of occultic influences in the culture and the church, Caryl Matrisciana. They are discussing Rick Warren's new health plan with its influences from Eastern religions, such as Reiki and Transcendental Meditation. Get some understanding of what Rick Warren is bringing into the church, and get some historical background on some Eastern religious practices. Scroll down to January 22, 2011 - Hour 1:

January 22, 2011 - Hour 1
Caryl Matrisciana and Jan look into "The Daniel Plan" being kicked off by Saddleback Church and Rick Warren. Jan and Caryl expose the real danger behind this effort featuring three doctors who specialize in all things Eastern. Why is "America's Pastor" featuring a "Daniel Plan" that includes meditation, Reiki, Transcendental Meditation, and more? The health seminar was kicked off January 15, and continues every weekend for the new year. Teachers Dr. Oz, Dr. Hyman, and Dr. Amen come with a lot of baggage but that seems to bother no one because it's a Rick Warren idea. Caryl grew up in India and is in tune with the dangers of Eastern seduction which is on overdrive at Saddleback Church in 2011. www.caryltv.com Caryl's book Out of India can be found here.

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More about Rick Warren: Here's Brannon Howse filling in for Jan Markell at the same site, doing a very complete report on what Rick Warren is really all about: Scroll down to Hour 2, November 20. Although it's necessary to keep saying that perhaps Warren himself is deceived, when you hear these things it's hard to think he doesn't know exactly what he's doing against the church. And besides, all the antichrist forces are deceived, really, that doesn't exonerate them.

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I was very distressed to see that John Piper included Warren as his keynote speaker for one of his conferences last year, but I've been slow about getting information up on these things. The forms of deception that are coming into the church are multiplying at such a rate it's almost impossible to keep up with them. Whether Warren himself is fully cognizant of what he is doing in this direction or not is not as clear as some might think, and the radio discussion above touches on that, but whether he is or not he is certainly promoting deception in the church and that has to be recognized.

But then John Piper, one of the best of the best of our preachers these days, did the unthinkable and treated Warren as an orthodox Christian despite all the information that's come out about his beliefs, and that just about made my stomach drop to the floor. Talk about a sinking feeling. I saw a video of Piper explaining this decision, probably at You Tube, I don't know if it's still there, but all that does is confirm the horrible truth, that he too is deceived by these things.

I just found a blog that has been discussing this confusing lack of discernment by John Piper, and since he posts some helpful links I'm going to add this link to him.

Piper is definitely one of the best preachers out there, but one has to wonder how far one can go into a failure of discernment before one can't come back. Of course we can pray for him. Not everyone would agree with me about some other failures I find in his work, his active endorsement of the modern Bible versions on an occasion I reported somewhere on one of my blogs in the last year (sorry to be so vague but it's there somewhere), and his being publisher of the book in which Thomas Schreiner (apparently also otherwise a strong Reformed preacher of truth) wrote the very muddled false argument on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 that I discuss on the Hidden Glory blog. Few if any in the Reformed camp would agree with me about either of those things as a failure of discernment, but I even wonder if there's a progression involved here. In any case to my mind it's all of a piece with the failure to recognize that Warren is a wolf in sheep's clothing -- I'll even grant that possibly Warren is simply naive, it's possible, but he's functioning as a wolf in sheep's clothing nevertheless, and as Caryl Matrisciana says, he's another we can pray for.

Sigh.

It's only going to get worse, too, folks.

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Here's John MacArthur, another of today's greatest preachers (and another one who also accepts the modern Bible versions, although he has specifically criticized at least one of them, and another one whose views of the head covering of 1 Cor 11:2-16 I discussed on the Hidden Glory blog), on the inadequate gospel in Rick Warren's book, the Purpose-Driven Life:

Surveillance and Control of the Internet Next Phase of Antichrist Government?

This Phase of Antichrist Government getting underway as reported by Jan Markell:

We all know we are heading into a full-blown surveillance society. The U.K. probably heads the world in this effort, but the U.S. is nipping at its heels. The Obama administration is assuring that.

Newsmax online is reporting the fact that Obama is eyeing the Internet to ID all Americans. This was preceded by the Net Neutrality Act which was the first phase of the government monitoring the Internet. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt says, "This is the perfect spot in the U.S. government to centralize efforts toward creating an 'identity ecosystem' for the Internet." Privacy groups are alerting that this is an absolute infringement on Americans' rights. The Department of Homeland Security will also help implement this.

Keep in mind the power of the Internet and computer technology. The Stuxnet computer worm was reportedly more effective in setting back Iran's nuclear plans a couple years than anything else, including an air strike. Stuxnet's complexity has stunned the computer security industry. It was certainly affiliated with a government -- likely Israel, possibly with U.S. help. The worm had Iran's name on it and specifically their nuclear computers. Why have we not heard more about this? It may be the technological story of 2010. But is Stuxnet an argument for a supra-national government body to regulate cyberspace?

The Obama administration has back-up support from a U.N. office in Geneva where officials from 18 countries voted to staff a working group on the future of something called Internet Governance Forum. Since it's the U.N., there is already reason to be concerned. The plan was supported by China and, not without surprise, Iran. So, it has global impact, not just Obama impact.

For good or bad, technology is taking center stage. It has for 25 years or more. Time magazine's man of the year is Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook. This communication tool has taken the world by storm. Zuckerberg is worth about $50 billion as a result of a device that helps people communicate with one another. People are eager to make friends even if some of them could be suspect. It helps them feel connected and not isolated, something essential in our 21st century impersonal world.

Enter Antichrist. Is he waiting in the wings? Perhaps. Technology will drive the final generation. In a sense, it already is. Everything in Revelation 13 depends on technology: The electronic money system, electronic control of the media, electronic control of commerce and even electronic control of the one-world religion. When "Mr. Fix-it" enters the scene, the technology infrastructure must be in place. His empire is limited -- seven years.