Doctrines of Demons-Another Spirit

Friday, 31 December 2010 10:12

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;

The first verse speaks of the Holy Spirit as contrasted with the spirit which will animate the coming days: which is a seducing spirit. The Holy Spirit is giving a loud warning that the devil has assembled a team that will be difficult to beat. In fact, the Spirit of God is saying that this team will succeed in causing people to depart from the faith.

There are a category of demonic spirits today who are passing themselves off as the Holy Spirit, but are not. Just as there is a false Christ, a false Jesus who is a demonic substitute of the real Christ, a Christ who disregards the bible, just as there is a false Christ, there is a false spirit and this deceiving spirit is the power which animates this demonic team.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. NKJV

John says essentially the same thing as Paul: that there were many false teachers in the world that were empowered by the spirit of Antichrist. He warns that Christians not blindly accept anyone who claims that he is preaching or teaching by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is exactly the opposite of what believers are doing today. Anyone with a nice suit and a choir can claim that he has the Spirit of God and folks will believe him. Furthermore, the test of the False prophet/ False Spirit team is not merely the proclaimation that Jesus lived on the earth. This verse is saying that Jesus the Christ, in other words, Jesus the Messiah, the one who is the God/Man, the prophesied one who died as a substitute for sins and rose from the dead, the one without whom there is no salvation-that Jesus-is the one that must be acknowledged. This is the very Jesus that so many preachers and teachers today are unwilling to acknowledge.

Contrasting the Holy Spirit and the Seducing Spirit of 1Tim 4:1

The True Holy Spirit wrote the Word of God, which is why we call it the Holy Bible. The writers of Scripture were holy men who spake by the Spirit of God

2 Peter 1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. NKJV

On the other hand, this other spirit, lets call him the seducing spirit, this other Spirit feels no obligation to the scriptures whatsoever. His actions require no scriptural justification: the mere fact that he can cause an event or an experience validates him. The person under the influence of the seducing spirit doesn’t need a bible, the experience he provides is reality enough. Whoever is possessed by the seducing will reject the bible in a second if it conflicts with their experience that they received from him. But the seducing spirit does not only use experience: this spirit invalidates scripture on nearly any basis, such as changes in society and culture or simply because the bible is old fashioned and out of date. The seducing spirit sees no need to agree with scripture at all.

The true Spirit of God always glorifies Christ, His purpose is not to draw attention to Himself, his job is to reveal and to magnify Jesus Christ.

John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. NKJV

But the seducing spirit, he draws attention to himself, glorifies himself. The seducing spirit becomes the center of attention, his power is the center of the believers life, receiving him becomes the measure of spirituality, the abilities he provides are coveted by believers.

The true Spirit encourages faith, the counterfeit spirit produces a reliance upon feelings and emotions. The seducing spirit oversees the construction of a system of worship that is based upon emotion as the motivating factor.

The seducing spirit manufactures a doctrine that redefines faith as a strong desire, rather than confident trust in the character and the promises of God.

Acts 6:5b And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit NKJV

Acts 11:24 For he [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. NKJV

Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. NKJV

In the end, those seduced by this spirit identifies him with emotion, the “spirit” is literally a feeling which they seek in their worship and in their devotions, rather than a Person to whom they relate by faith.

The real Holy Spirit convicts of sin, clarifies the gospel to the soul of the unbeliever, illuminates doctrine to the growing saint, empowers for ministry in the church and the world. The Holy Spirit does not sin therefore He does not use sinful methods to advance the Plan of God.

The seducing spirit, by his very name given in scripture, violates the law of God in his methods of leading men. Seducing (4108) as found in 1Tim 4.1 means "imposter, misleader, deceiver, seducing".
To understand the character of the seducer lets look at another verse using the same word:

2 John 7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. KJV

These are human deceivers, but the idea is the same, someone representing himself as one who is a Christian, who in fact is opposed to the Gospel. The seducing spirit pretends to be the Spirit of God but is actually an imposter, a demonic spirit who is impersonating the Holy Spirit. He cannot lead via the word of God so he deceives and seduces men to do what he wants.

In English, seduction means the following: 1 : to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty 2: to lead astray usually by persuasion or false promises (Merriam Webster Free Dictionary) The seducer has as his objective the corruption of another person. Lies are his method, beginning with the impersonation of a trustworthy individual. The seducing spirit promises something that someone wants and uses that promise to get what he wants:

Gen 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. NKJV

Lucifer offered Eve something that she wanted (unauthorized authority), in order to get what he wanted, which was to defeat the plan of God. This is seduction. The seducing spirit promises power over circumstances, emotional uplift, the appearance of spirituality. He promises spiritual maturity without discipleship, like the tv commercials that promise weight loss without proper nutrition and exercise.

How does he seduce? By the doctrines of demons. Thru a demonic systematic theology, the seducing spirit imitating the Holy Spirit creates a version of the church that looks like the real thing, but that produces negative spiritual outcomes. In fact, since the seducing spirit is sent by Lucifer, the church that he creates actually produces a negative spiritual chain reaction in the community by reversing the processes of discipleship or spiritual development. The seducing spirit thereby neutralizes the church which is the immune system of the community. The weakening of the church results automatically in the accelerated corruption of the community with its institutions-its marriages, families and government.

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