THE WAR BETWEEN THE KINGDOMS

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

MARCH 8, 2009

If it even enters our mind, most of us probably don’t often think about the fact that back in eternity past our Creator planned, ordained, and then by speaking His world into existence, predestined you and I to find ourselves living during an era in which, figuratively speaking, we would each shine like tiny specks of light sprinkled throughout the Green Mountains of Vermont; the least churched state in the nation, a state which is almost engulfed in spiritual darkness. If we take the time to think about it we will probably conclude that among the small number of folks who do regularly attend a church, there doesn’t appear to be very many genuine Christians. This shouldn’t be surprising when you consider the preponderance of unorthodox biblical teaching and the phony versions of Christianity being spewed out of pulpits and gobbled up by all too many of the folks in the pews. The inescapable conclusion is that the actual number of true Christian churches and followers of Christ in them are relatively few in number. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting there aren’t some clusters of light here and there within our state, but there doesn’t seem to be very many of them.

Pure unadulterated evil lurks throughout our dark sin- infested world including within the beautiful state of Vermont. It’s manifested whenever its secret activates come to light. For instance, a prime example is the fact our State legislators are currently considering making a law which, if it’s enacted, will be a contemptuous slap across our Creators face. Murderers, rapists, drug dealers, kidnappers, child pornographers, and sexual predators are just some of the evils that surround us. Whenever these people are caught, tried and convicted in a court of law, and depending on the nature and severity of the crime; they are given sentences ranging from lifetime imprisonment without the possibility of parole, down to probation and/or a fine to protect society and hopefully deter future evils. On a global basis horrible acts committed by terrorists, dictators and the selling of young women and girls as sex slaves to name just a few, are clear-evidence that we human beings live in a world that’s a real mess. So much so, that since the “fall,” it could accurately be described as being in a continual state of chaos.

Regardless of how many of these evil people are in one way or another removed from living in society; evil in our world doesn’t appear as though it’s becoming eradicated as has diseases such as Polio and Small Pox. Another fact we must remember is that in our Creator’s eyes all sin without exception is evil. As we Christians mature in our faith and gradually become increasingly transformed into the image and likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29) we will start seeing every sin as He does and we will hate it passionately for the evil it truly is. That’s quite a contrast from the way you and I have all too often viewed sin, especially our own, isn’t it? Depending on the extent of God’s restraining providence; (Genesis 20:1-7; 35:5; Exodus 34: 23-24) the spiritual condition of those who are still enslaved by their sins will also mature. So much so, that they will manifest an increased resemblance to their spiritual father Satan. Unless these poor lost human beings acknowledge their guilt and accept the gift of forgiveness and deliverance from their sins through Christ’s atoning sacrifice; when they finally die and leave this world they will enter into their new home, a place called Hell which God has prepared for Satan and the demons (Matthew 25:41). Once there they will no longer be hindered by God’s restraining influence and will deliberately cause themselves to suffer torment as they experience the eternal frustration of never being able to satisfy their craving to sin (Romans 1:24;26). We will also come to love our fellow human beings so much that our principle desire for them will be that none of them will eternally perish (John 3:16)and we will be inclined to do everything we possibly can to lead them into God’s kingdom at every divinely ordained opportunity.

Most thinking people will acknowledge the fact that as far as evil is concerned, our world has been in a continual state of chaos throughout recorded history. And most will probably agree that it is man and his behavior that is the primary cause of all the world’s problems. For example, pop psychology claims we have to help him feel good about himself and then he will develop a positive self-image. After all, how can we expect someone to love and be nice to other people if they don’t even love themselves? Concerned people will advocate for programs to alleviate poverty which they see as being the root cause of crime, drug addiction, alcoholism and such. Millions of dollars are expended on programs created for the prevention and/or treatment of drug addiction and alcoholism. Attempts are made to bring warring factions together to try and negotiate a cease fire and eventual peace. And giant pharmaceutical companies invest millions of dollars annually in research in hopes of developing new drugs for a variety of health issues including the mental illness termed schizophrenia in order to improve the quality of life of the afflicted, and to reduce their drain on society.

Now I am not suggesting that peace conferences, social programs and mind stabilizing medicine don’t often do a lot of good because they most certainly do. Nor am I being critical of the often selfless dedication of folks in the helping professions. These women and men work hard to assist needy people and to improve our society. I have a deep appreciation and respect for them. Please don’t misunderstand the next point I’m about to make either. Man’s sinfulness certainly plays a significant role in all the misery and suffering in the world and man is completely responsible for his behavior. However, man himself is not the ultimate problem. He is not the root cause of our world being in a constant state of chaos. That’s an erroneous assessment of the situation. For example, over the counter pain killers won’t get rid of a really bad tooth ache and will eventually force the sufferer to seek help from a dentist. After an examination the doctor knows the cause of the pain and how best to treat it. No sane dentist will continue prescribing stronger pain killers when the tooth must be extracted, will they?

A so called cure to rid our world of certain evil’s has always been and always will remain an effort in futility because non-Christians are not able to correctly evaluate the problem. They are clueless as to what they are actually dealing with. The only ones who are aware of the real cause of the chaotic condition of our world are Bible believing Christians. They know what human beings are contending with and are competent to offer council as to how to combat this monumental problem. A failure to heed sound biblical advice guarantees the continuance of global evil’s such as what we are experiencing with the current financial meltdown. Gross evil will continue just as it has been for thousands of years. The only difference is that as the years roll by there will be a different cast of extremely evil characters on the scene, and more sophisticated forms of evil. A Christian sharing the truth of the matter will all too often be dismissed as a self-deluded, unenlightened relic from the Dark Ages. To suggest that human beings are involved in a fierce unrelenting invisible war between two conflicting spiritual kingdoms; the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Satan verses a kingdom of God, is to acknowledge the existence of the supernatural; a reality most of the scientific and mental health community refuse to even consider. Be that as it may; the fact remains that the problem extends back in time to an event which occurred before time began and prior to the creation of Adam and the world as we know it today. The Bible tells us that everything started with God; “In the beginning God. In the beginning it pleased the Triune God to create our world and everyone and everything in it and do so in the space of six days. And all that He created He declared as being very good. In this act of creation God glorified His eternal power, together with His inscrutable wisdom and perfect goodness, (Genesis 1:31; Job 26:13; John 1:2-3; Romans 1:20; Col. 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). But as I mentioned a moment ago, there was an event which occurred before He spoke our world as we know it today and Adam into existence. That event was His first creation and it was that of angelic beings, those heavenly hosts whom He created to serve Himself. God created them as perfect beings and thoroughly equipped them with everything necessary to accomplish all that He had planned for them to do. It’s with this first act of creation that we must start with if we want to understand the problem of evil or as the Bible describes it; sin. Among those angelic beings was one the Bible refers to as the devil.

¹² How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! ¹³ For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: ¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. ¹⁵ Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. ¹⁶ They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; ¹⁷ That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? Isaiah 14:12-17 (KJV)

Another example is found in the first nineteen verses of the twenty eight chapter of Ezekiel, and also in the Book of Job where we learn that “there was a day when the sons (the angels) of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and accuser) also came among them. Job 1:6 (AMP) Lloyd-Jones explains: “the phrase, ‘the sons of God,’ in the Old Testament generally stands for the angels, and here we are told that a day came when the angels presented themselves before God and amongst these sons of God, was Satan, the devil. In the same way Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 compel us to come to the same conclusion. ‘Lucifer, son of the morning!’ These descriptions, though primarily, perhaps, meant to apply to Tyre and to Babylon, are generally agreed to have a much wider meaning. That is something which is quiet customary in prophecy. You start with the immediate, but it is also a foreshadowing of something bigger to come. This happens with regard to good as well as evil. There are many prophecies in the Psalms which appear to relate to King David alone, but obviously they go beyond David and point to the Messiah. They are prophecies made to the Children of Israel which primarily refer clearly to their coming back from the captivity of Babylon; but they are too big for that alone, they are at the same time pictures of the Christian salvation and the salvation of the soul. That is why they are quoted so frequently in the New Testament, to show the fulfillment of prophecy.” (1)And that’s why I said earlier that only Bible believing Christians know the real cause of the world’s problem and ought to be able to give advice on the only way our fellow human beings can adequately deal with it. If people don’t know the problem they are up against and how to combat it, then despite our best efforts; our world will remain as it has been for thousands of years.

Allow me to explain. I’ve been referring to the devil and the fall of some angels before God created Adam and Eve and the world as we know it today. Satan and his cohorts are the ultimate cause of the world’s problems. Sinful man is the result of their incredible influence in our world. Lloyd-Jones offers a very interesting theory concerning an awful thing that happened before the beginning of human history which I would like to share. “There are those who believe that this great cataclysmic event which took place in that pre cosmic fall, involved also an original material creation. This, they argue, is the key to the understanding of the second verse in the Bible. The first two verses of Genesis read: ^“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV). The word ‘deep’ there really means ‘the chaos.’ It is a description of a state of chaos. The idea, the speculation is that before this cosmos that you and I are aware of, there was an original creation. That first verse in Genesis, it claims is really a reference to the great original creation. It is a general statement that God made everything. But it may include the idea that God made a world, a cosmos, in which these angelic principalities and powers lived and functioned and dwelt. But when some of them fell in their rebellion and pride and disobedience, God punished their universe also, and it was reduced to a state of chaos. So that what is described in Genesis 1, verse 2 onwards, is the restoration, the re-creation of this original creation which had got into a state of chaos and of darkness.”

“This is a matter about which we cannot be certain; it is more or less a speculation; but there is something to be said for it. I cannot imagine God’s act of creation passing through a chaotic stage at any point at all. I cannot believe that creation as a work carried out by God was at any stage an abyss, a void, a chaos. That does not fit in with God’s work. Everything in creation, in nature, everywhere, at every step and stage, is characterized by the same perfection and form. Inchoate perhaps, under-developed, not yet perfect, but right at its particular stage. It is never chaotic. The most rudimentary form, the most embryonic form is never chaotic; there is never this sense of void. But we are told that the Spirit ‘brooded’ upon [hovered over] this chaos, this deep. So that theory may well be true. And if it is true, it provides an answer to those who say they do not believe the account of creation in Genesis because of the findings of the geologists who, looking at nature and the material universe, say that there is evidence there that rocks or various formations have existed for long ages. “…granting that they are right, the answer may be that all they are discovering is the result of a great original catastrophe which happened when, with the fall of the angels and of the devil, punishment was meted out upon the whole universe, leading up to the creation that resulted. I do not emphasize this; I put it forward for consideration. However, what we must be clear about is that before the cosmos as we know it now, there was a tremendous event, the fall of the devil and certain angels, and that the powers and forces of evil result from that fall.” (2)

The great Apostle Paul reminded the early Christians and you and I through his letter to them of an invisible spiritual war; a war that has been raging for thousands of years between the kingdoms of Satan and of God,”…we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere, Ephesians 6:12 (AMP).In his first letter, the Apostle Peter cautions Christians to ”Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour, 1 Peter 5:8 (AMP). Elsewhere the Apostle Paul reminds all followers of the Risen Savior about the devils primary target in this war. ”But even if our Gospel (the glad tidings) also be hidden (obscured and covered up with a veil that hinders the knowledge of God), it is hidden [only] to those who are perishing and obscured [only] to those who are spiritually dying and veiled [only] to those who are lost. ⁴ For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (AMP. Among the things he tells us we should do to repulse this attack is to:” In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; Ephesians 6:16 (ESV). And, as I have been emphasizing for quite some time; unless we take up our shield of faith and extinguish them, regardless if they are aimed at our mind from the demons themselves or indirectly spewed out of the mouth of a fellow human being whom they have powerfully inclined to hurl them at us; those flaming darts will materialize in our mind as all sorts of distractions and/or temptations; especially if they are fired at us out of the mouth of a cunningly manipulative person and are accompanied by the most calculating gestures the person has been able to come up with. It’s so sad that as highly educated and well meaning as many non-Christians no doubt are, they are clueless that this demonic activity is happening behind the scenes in the lives of all human beings including their own.

In my opinion, a good example of how this often plays out is in the mental health profession. Here dedicated women and men, most of whom are completely oblivious to the fact that they are actually blind people attempting to lead other blind inhabitants of the kingdom of darkness out of the doldrums of a mental illness such as what has been diagnosed as Schizophrenia. Back in the eighties I spent five and a half years serving the homeless population in the Greater Burlington area. Approximately one third of them had been recently deinstitutionalized mentally ill people. I was able to develop a close rapport with some of them who were labeled Schizophrenics. The closer they allowed me to get to know them, the more convinced I became that their often bizarre behavior was something they learned and, quite frankly had perfected. In other words, it was sin. I shared my observation one day when I testified before the Mental Health Study Committee of state legislators. Obviously I used the word behavior instead of the word sin. The following day I received a phone call from a man who was in attendance that day. He explained he was an advocate for the mentally ill and would like to meet with me. Quite frankly, I was expecting to be chastised because of my view point but, when we met I was pleasantly surprised. The man agreed with everything I had said. Allow me to explain by sharing the following quotes I came across very recently. They jogged my memory as to my own personal observations and experience back in the 80’s with Schizophrenics.

The diagnosis of Schizophrenia according to the American Psychiatric Association is based on the patient’s self-reported experiences and observed behavior. No laboratory test for schizophrenia currently exists. (3)

“The claim that some people have a disease called schizophrenia (and that some, presumably do not) was based not on medical discovery but on medical authority, that it was in other words, the result not of empirical or scientific work, but of ethical and political decision making.” (4)

“We had a [schizophrenic] patient with whom it was impossible to carry on a sane conversation; he produced only a crazy mixture of delusional ideas and queer words. This man once went down with a serious physical illness, and I expected it would be very difficult to treat him. But not at all. He was entirely changed; he became friendly and obliging, and carried out all the doctor’s orders with patience and gratitude. His eyes lost their evil darting looks, and shone quietly and with understanding. One morning I came to his room with the usual greeting: “Good morning, how are you? But the patient forestalled me with his well known refrain: “Here comes another of the dog and monkey troop wanting to play the Savior.” Then I knew his physical trouble was over. From that moment the whole of his reason was as if blown away again.” (5)

“Schizophrenic symptoms are virtually whatever makes the family unbearably anxious about the independent behavior of one of its offspring.” (6)

“The symbol that most specifically characterizes psychiatrists as members of a distinct group of doctors is the concept schizophrenia; and the ritual that does so most clearly is their diagnosing this disease in persons who do not want to be their patients.” (7)

“Schizophrenia is a term psychiatrists hang on people who won’t knuckle under their authority.” (8)

These were some of the reasons the advocate for the mentally ill was so upset about. It was because of the prevailing course of treatment. It wasn’t only because he objected to the drugging of these people in an attempt to control their undesirable behavior, but rather that they were spinning their wheels and actually hurting these pitiful folks. Allow me to elaborate. In so many words the man firmly believed the mental health professionals were dehumanizing these people poor in their attempt to drug them into societal conformity rather than allowing them to experience the painful consequences of their behavior; such as homelessness, loneliness, depression, brawling, bitterness, self pity, accidents and incarceration

Hopefully this kind of self induced suffering might just bring them to their senses and they will knock off that asinine behavior JUST AS IT DID WITH THAT MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE SEVERAL YEARS PREVIOUSLY, and I might add, just as the person with the toothache got rid of the pain and stopped doing their own thing by finally going to a dentist.

”…the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (AMP)

“…we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. Ephesians 6:12 (AMP)

We must never forget to remember that in one way or another; until we draw our last breath, we will continue to be deeply involved in the war between the kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. May it please the Lord to constantly remind us where we are coming from, and powerfully incline and then give each of us the strength to consistently walk in the light with heart’s full of gratitude to the Risen Savior. And may it also please Him to make this message a blessing to those of you who just heard it preached and to all who may read it later.

Lord willing, next week …

1 Pages 70-71, An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 13, © 1976 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

2. Ibid, 74-75.

3. American Psychiatric Association (2000), “Schizophrenia”. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-89042-024-6, Cited in Wikipedia.

The following quotes are from: Random House Webster’s Quotationary, © 2001, 1999 by Leonard Roy Frank.

4. Thomas S. Szasz (1920-). Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry, 1, 1976

5. Carl G. Jung (1875-1961). “The Content of the Psychoses,” 1908, The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, tr. R. F. C.

6. David Cooper (1931-?). Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry, I, 1967

7. Thomas S. Szasz (1920-). Preface to Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry, 1, 1976

8. Anonymous