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Unlocking Secret Knowledge

UNLOCKING SECRET KNOWLEDGE

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

APRIL 30, 2006

Last week we looked at Satan’s response to the devastating blow inflicted upon him by Christ’s resurrection. As a result he stepped up his assault on the early Christians. Satan fanned the spirits of hatred which had already successfully imbedded themselves into the hearts and minds of the Jewish religious leaders (Eph. 2:2). So much so, that, through these men, He unleashed a hellhole of persecution upon Christ’s Church.

Satan also infiltrated the early church with false prophets and teachers. These wolves in sheep’s clothing did everything they could to pervert the Gospel (Galatians 1:8-9) and deny the resurrection. They were determined to entice Christ’s followers into leading ungodly lives and to undermine their faith (1 Timothy 2:16-17; 2 Timothy 2:18). We saw last week that the epistles are full of warnings about this kind of satanic activity and how those early Christians should respond to it.

Needless to say, Christians today are also enticed to embrace spiritual untruths. I’m sorry to say that some folks close to me have succumbed to this temptation. At lunch a few weeks ago a friend told me he has come to the conclusion that dogs have a soul. He believes that because his dog is so smart it has to have a soul. Furthermore, the man insists that no on can convince him other wise. This man is an evangelical pastor.

Another Christian friend of mine has a fourteen year old dog that is showing signs it’s nearing the end of its life. Those of you who are animal lovers know she is faced with making a tough decision. The woman wants to do what is right and has been praying that the Lord would give her wisdom.

Finally a friend of hers suggested she just ask the dog what it would like. The friend knows a woman who has the ability to speak with dogs. She doesn’t even have to see the dog and charge very much. Why not consult her? Then my friend can have peace of mind. In other words, she is being invited to delve into the occult and unlock secret knowledge. I’m pleased to say my friend isn’t buying into this stuff. I’ll return to this issue in a little while.

Some fellow Christian’s today are suffering brutal persecution which is just as horrendous as it was for those early followers of Jesus. Any thinking person can’t help wondering why God allows persecution in the first place. He’s all powerful and could prevent it from happening. Nevertheless, He didn’t stop it two thousand years ago any more than He does in our own day. And we wonder why.

Matthew 18:7 (AMP) 7 Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!

Matthew 18:7 (NIV) 7 “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!

Jesus said it was necessary for those early Christians and you and me today to face all kinds of trials? They must come our way. But why? What good can possible come from us having to suffer such trials?

James 1:2-4 (NIV) 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

God is using these kinds of trials to transform His children into beautiful Christ like people. But that isn’t the only reason.

1 Peter 1:7 (NIV) 7 These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

As my friend Bob from Harvest Time is so fond of reminding us on Wednesday’s: “God allows what He hates to accomplish that which He loves.” The most beautiful illustration of this teaching is God allowing His only begotten Son to suffer and die an agonizing death in order to save His adopted children from suffering an eternity of torment separated from Him.

How a Christian stands up in the midst of persecution is evidence as to whether or not he or she is a true follower of Jesus. The way a Christian fights against false teaching, exposing the demonic works of darkness and not being indifferent towards heresy, also unveils who His true followers are.

But why does God allow us to be in a position where we are tempted to believe untruth? Why did He allow the Galatians to be enticed by men who were teaching another Gospel? (Galatians 1:8-9). Why did He subject the early Christians to the teachings of false prophets and teachers? (2 Peter 2:1).  He provides the answer in a verse nestled in a paragraph concerning participating in the ordinance of the Lords Supper, Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (ESV) 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

Paul had gotten wind of the fact that these guys were coming together in a house of worship as opposed to a fellowship of believers in each others homes. However, they did so for all the wrong reasons.

1 Corinthians 11:18-19 (ESV) 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

What he had heard concerning the divisions among them wasn’t a rumor. The heresies that sprang up because of these things were the “proof of the pudding,” so to speak. But that wasn’t the only reason it happened. Paul also said there must be factions [divisions] such as “I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ.”

Paul is telling them and you and me today that these kinds of things, not only will happen, but they must happen. In infinite wisdom our Sovereign Lord has foreordained that each and every one of them would happen in the course of human history exactly as He had planned from before the creation of His world (Eph. 1:11). Furthermore, the reason is always for His own glory as well as the ultimate good of each of His adopted children (Romans 8:28).

Now the true Christians were able to see clearly which of those church people who the followers of Christ really were. In other words they now knew what the truth of the matter was. It was reflected in their daily walk. They become well grounded in their faith and didn’t allow themselves to be tossed around by every wind of doctrine.

Eventually the Church was forced to define the challenged beliefs. Men called by God to be teachers rose to the occasion. The most learned among them met together over a period of time. It complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit they concisely defined Biblical truth. For instance, one such creed dates a half century or so from the last writings of the New Testament. We know it today as:

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church[1], the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

It goes without saying that, in one way or another, Satan deceived some fallible men into introducing a mixture of falsehood into some of the creeds. He followed this up by convincing other men to lobby to get rid of all the man made creeds. Sad to say, many churches did just that and Satan reintroduced confusion throughout the churches.

That set the stage for cults such as the Jehovah Witnesses to attack and plunder the Christian Church of many of the non-Christians who were members. But they also snagged some Biblically anemic baby Christians. Those Christians didn’t loose their faith. That’s impossible. They just took an unpleasant eye opening detour along the way to their eternal home.

Continuing with Satan’s unrelenting assault on the Church Jesus died for, at this point I would like to return to the Christian woman faced with the dilemma of making the right decision concerning her old dog. Should she consult a medium? The price is right and the medium comes highly recommended. What harm can come from it? What would you tell her?

Leviticus 19:31 (ESV) 31 “Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 20:27 (ESV) 27 “A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 (ESV) 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a wizard or a necromancer, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

The Hollman Bible Dictionary defined divination as an attempt to contact supernatural powers to determine answers to questions hidden to humans and usually involving the future.[2] Does anyone believe those supernatural powers are of God? On the contrary, they are of the ‘occult’ which is a word derived from the Latin that means ‘secret’ or ‘hidden’ and which is not something God wants us to know.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV) 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

We need to be constantly on our guard and not allow ourselves to get snookered into this kind of satanic stuff. Believe me; the temptation is all around us. For instance, last night I found these demonic suggestions in my own kitchen on these paper towels of all places. The first one says: “Discover the magic within yourself.”

Another one says: “Let your dreams [and not God’s Holy Word] guide your steps.” Cute and harmless? Not according to the Word of God. And don’t fool yourself into thinking there aren’t Christians attempting to unlock secret knowledge by way of their dreams.

There are some greatly deceived folks around today that Satan is using to infect Christ’s Church with abominable untruths. I believe these are probably the most dangerous. So much so, that if most Christians followed them, the visible Church as we know it today would cease to exist. Satan first threw these kinds of people at the early church over two thousand years ago.

They are known as Gnostic’s. Today some of them call themselves ‘Bible teachers.’ These are people whom Satan has convinced that they have received esoteric knowledge; information which God has given only to them. He communicates it to these “enlightened” folks by means of a special progressive revelation.

God’s intent is that this secret knowledge is to be revealed to and understood only by these spiritually mature people. In His infinite wisdom He keeps the rest of His children in the dark. Of course they can prayerfully hope that one day, in His own way and time He will bless the rest of us by revealing this hidden truth. Meanwhile, just trust these gifted people and everything will be cool.

Needless to say, God’s Word has much to say about these false teachers.

1 Timothy 6:20-21 (ESV) 20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.

Some Christians may think they are diligently searching the Sacred Scriptures for truth. However, Satan has deceived them into believing that deeper spiritual truth exists just beyond the surface. In other words, the real truth is right before their eyes and always hidden in plain sight.

Such demonically misguided folks have programmed themselves into ignoring the plain literal meaning of a bible verse. Instead, they devote their time and energy in the futile pursuit of what Satan has convinced them is “unlocking secret knowledge.”

Lord willing, in a couple of weeks….


[1] The word “catholic” refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2] Holman Bible Dictionary, copyright 1991 Holman Bible Publishers, p371.

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