The Doctrines of Demons of the Last Days (No. 48)

People do not really understand the intent of the development of the doctrines of demons. Paul wrote the Scriptures at the direction of the Holy Spirit so that we would understand what the doctrines of demons were and how they would manifest themselves in the last days. We need to understand that fact.

Paul says in 1Timothy 4:1-5

Now the Spirit expressly (in words ('retoos)) says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretension of liars whose consciences are seared (perhaps also meaning in the hypocrisy of the false testimony (pseudologoon) which brands the idea on the conscience (kekausteriasmenoon ten idian suneidesin)), who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

The Holy Spirit was emphatic and stated in words to Paul that in the last days two significant doctrines of demons would emerge that had to be resisted and exposed by the elect who know the truth.

The demons did not decide to introduce these doctrines idly. They are not insignificant. They strike at the very heart of the intent of God in the plan of salvation and the adequacy to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. These doctrines are two specific errors, which seek to undermine the rational intent of the creation.

The first doctrine of demons is the teaching that one should abstain from marriage. The doctrine is of Spiritism, which seeks for spiritual union or affinity. The intent of this doctrine of demons is to strike at the very basis of the teaching unit that God has chosen to deal with as an example of His system. That unit is the family. By destroying the stability of the family, the demons destroy the basic building block of our society. We are watching this society crumble before our eyes because people are starting to live together outside of marriage. It is fundamental to our understanding and our relationship with Jesus Christ and our worship of God that the family unit is understood. The breakdown of the family and national systems then goes into the perversion of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The process of this doctrine is accompanied by the idolatry. This is developed by Paul in Romans 1:1-32. These verses relate to the whole question of worship and the cause of adultery in the society. It is the same basis as spiritual adultery in our relationship with God, which is idolatry and witchcraft.

Romans 1:1-32:

¹ Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God

It is God’s gospel and it was given to Jesus Christ. All of us are set apart for that purpose.

² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴ and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Christ was a son of God, one of the multiple sons of the Host, before his incarnation. He laid all that aside and became an human being. We cannot say Christ retained any part of himself in the Godhead or outside of himself. Paul quite clearly says here that Christ was designated son of God in power according to the Holy Spirit, by his resurrection from the dead. He laid aside his sonship to become a human in order that he might become the first son of God of the human species. That’s what the intent was. Nothing of Jesus Christ remained outside of his human existence. That is the doctrine of Antichrist. The doctrine of Antichrist teaches that Christ has some part of himself separate to his entity as a human being and somehow he retained some part of his divinity external to his physical existence. He did not.

⁵ through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

The faith was then extended into the nations. It was the structure of the obedience of faith. Our faith is obedience to God and the acknowledgment that only God is True God. Our requirement for the inheriting of eternal life from John 17:3 is the knowledge of the One True God and of his son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not the One True God. The Bible is emphatic on that. It is quite clear that the obedience of the faith to the One True God, that is God the Father, God Most High, is the requirement for the receipt of the sonship on the redemption of our bodies, from Romans 8:29ff. That includes all who are called to belong to Jesus Christ from verse 6.

⁶ including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; ⁷ To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus we establish the Godhead in the first seven verses and the understanding of the faith of the One True God, and that Christ laid aside his sonship and became a human and received his sonship again from the redemption of his body at his resurrection. There is no existence of Jesus Christ outside of his humanity until his resurrection. To assert that as a fact denies the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and denies the totality of his resurrection, and is a doctrine of demons. The trinity is itself a doctrine of demons and from it two other doctrines flow.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world^{. 9} For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers,

There is no doubt in Paul’s mind that he served God in the gospel, in the way it was laid down by his master Jesus Christ. There is no conflict in Paul’s mind about there being two gods or that Christ was true god. None whatsoever.

¹⁰ asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

Why did he need to do that? The Church was in Rome, the centre of the empire of iron, which followed the bronze empire, which we see symbolised in the statue in Daniel (Dan. 2:1-49). The empire of iron tore down and destroyed everything and its seat was the centre of idolatry. The saints there needed strengthening and understanding.

¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. The weapon of the adversary is discouragement. ¹³ I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

Notice the verses are broken up into sequence. There are seven verses to establish the godhead, then another five. We are dealing with seven and five to twelve. Dealing with the function of the numbers of grace and the spirit. These relate to the parables also.

¹⁴I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish: ¹⁵ so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. ¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live."

Here we see the requirements of faith and the requirements of mutual encouragement and the fact that faith leads to righteousness. However, faith itself does not lead to righteousness. It is faith that God gives, faith that the word of God is true and that God has given His word for the education of the saints. That faith gives us the capacity then to be righteous, through obedience to the law under the grace of Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth.

That text is also translated “withhold the truth in unrighteousness”. The concept Paul is getting at is that people who do not tell the truth, withhold information. Paul is quite clear that whoever withholds the truth in unrighteousness will receive the wrath of heaven. That is a promise God makes through Paul.

¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;

We now turn from the structure of the Godhead (stemming from the One True God) and the faith, to the observation of the Godhead and the proof from the creation. As our knowledge increases, we are now actually demonstrating the existence of God. Evolution is being progressively discarded. It is fundamentally disjointed and dysfunctional. The scientists are putting it into a box of myth. We are finding that the universe shows a power of God. The only thing arguable among the scientists is what the nature of God is.

²¹ for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.

That change doesn’t happen as a direct transposition. It is a progressive thing and it took a long while to achieve. They went from the acknowledgment of God as God, and within Christianity they then elevated Jesus Christ to God and began worshipping him. Having done that they then elevated the saints to the same status and began worshipping them. Then finally they began praying to images of Mary and other such idols, losing sight completely of the understanding of resurrection. Mariam, wrongly called Mary, is dead! (cf. the paper The Virgin Mariam and the Family of Jesus Christ (No. 232)). Mariam, called Mary, will be resurrected along with the rest of the saints in the first resurrection. Jesus Christ is the only person who has been resurrected to heaven (Jn. 3:13).

The consequence then of this idolatry is a progressive deterioration in the thinking of the people involved. Their minds become less and less clear.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

This is what happens when we get to the steps in verse 24 and verse 25. Once we get to the deterioration of idolatry, we are given up to unnatural lusts. This then goes into adultery and then into perversions, and it will get worse and worse. People do not understand the sequence of the progression of the deterioration.

The doctrine of demons establishes at the start in the attack of the Godhead and then progresses. Then God gives the people up to their own lusts. We are seeing that now in this society where people became godless, but they did not do it without penalty. Their society broke down. They became fundamentally perverted. The society has to repent of perversion. One has to restore one’s relationship with God to overcome it and we cannot overcome these problems until we acknowledge God and we repent and restore our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If we worship Jesus Christ we are doing exactly the same thing as if we were worshipping any other one of the elohim, other than God the Father. We are attributing to Christ the same sin as we attribute to Satan.

²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. ²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. ²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.

In one sentence it tells us what it is all about. The breach of the understanding of the Godhead results in the perversions and the baseness of this society.

²⁹ They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

All of these things follow from the breaching of our relationship with God. All of these things deal with the relationships to the family unit and to the social unit and they are the end result of the problems of the Godhead.

³² Though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them. (RSV)

It is now getting to the stage where people call good bad and bad good. People who denounce these practices are themselves denounced.

We see from this argument that the process of idolatry is developed into that of unnatural lusts. Those processes become full blown as the process degenerates. The doctrine of celibacy of priests is a further adjunct to this decay. Celibacy itself is not the doctrine referred to as a doctrine of demons from 1Timothy 4. Celibacy is just another side issue to this doctrine of demons. It is a function of the doctrine of demons, but the celibacy of priests is not itself the primary doctrine. However, celibacy of priests and monasticism are doctrines of demons. Paul says: “You do better not to marry then to marry but if you burn marry.” The fact that it becomes a doctrine requiring abstinence from marriage is itself a doctrine of demons. All are developments of the doctrines of demons.

The Bible is clear that the doctrine is not entirely successful as people are still said to be undertaking marriage at the return of Messiah (Mat. 24:38-39). However, it is a major doctrine that is cause for extreme concern in the last days. Marriage is a holy institution ordained by God to represent the relationship of mankind to Jesus Christ and the unification of the nations under the Father. What this doctrine of demons seeks to do is to destroy the understanding of that process, to impugn God by saying the system He set up is not to be kept and it causes confusion in the society. It throws into utter chaos any concepts of genealogy, of inheritance, of order, and of stability. It creates a complete lack of loyalty and trust of anybody in the mind of the person.

The reason the Spartan society failed is because they dispensed with the family unit. Sparta was a military state. All men were trained for the army. It was the most ruthless military state the world has ever seen. It destroyed itself because it did away with the family unit.

The next process is that of the doctrine of the abstaining from meats that were created to be received with thanksgiving. Those meats are clearly identified by the Bible in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

This process of purification is older than Christianity. It was part of the Pythagorean system of the Greeks and is evident in Buddhism. The process is now termed vegetarianism (see the paper Vegetarianism and the Bible (No. 183)).

This process is deficient in essential nutrients for the proper activity of the brain. Be that as it may, the doctrine strikes at the very system that God set up from the beginning with Adam. It is clearly noted there that Cain was a tiller of the soil and that Abel was a pastoralist. Abel's offering was more acceptable to God than Cain's offering. That is the reason for Cain's wrath and the reason why he killed Abel (Gen. 4:1-16).

The intent of this selective approval is to point to the sacrifice of Messiah. The whole pastoral system was set up reflecting the blood sacrifice of Messiah and reflecting the structure of the foods that were meant to be taken and eaten. The process of vegetarianism calls into question the veracity and wisdom of the process of salvation and the entire system of Temple sacrifice and expiation set up by God. What it effectively says to God is: “You got it wrong, you are cruel. The requirement for a blood sacrifice is unnecessary.” Or, “We deny that it is necessary to eat meat or that it is even good for us to eat meat. In other words God, “You got the whole structure wrong and we cannot reach the perfection of the plan of salvation following your rules.” That’s what vegetarianism imputes to God.

A vegetarian sets himself up as judge of God, denies the totality of the system of the food laws and denies the wisdom of the creation and the capacity of the human body to exercise and deal with the foods that are given to be received with thanksgiving. It says that God did not understand the structure and that the body will in fact break down following the rules of God. The arguments put forward are completely fallacious. It seeks to undermine the restoration of the last days and calls into question the ability of Messiah to institute just systems. The prophecies are clear that Messiah will establish a system and there will be meat eaten in the Millennium, and the restoration will take place, and that Messiah will restore the sacrifice. All of this doctrine calls into question the activities and the wisdom of Messiah and the plan of God. It accuses both God and Messiah and is totally anti-Christian.

The question of the ability to eat all kinds of meats from the Bible texts is incorrect. Acts 10 and 11 show the cleansing of the Gentiles for acceptance into the Kingdom of God. The text has nothing to do with food as is plainly evident from Acts 11. It is quite clear the vision given to Peter cleansed the gentiles and not the food. The whole question of the acceptability of food revolved around the fact that a great deal of meat was sacrificed to idols before it was sold or eaten. The Bible injunctions were made so that the elect could eat meat without worrying as to whether or not it had been sacrificed to a deity.

Romans 14:1-4 As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. ² One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. ³ Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand. (RSV)

Now this text does not specifically refer to the weakness of vegetarianism. The Bible labels vegetarianism specifically as a doctrine of demons. What this text refers to is the fact that the weakness comes not from the consumption of the vegetables but from the fact that the member had insufficient faith not to be excessively concerned as to whether or not the meat had been sacrificed to idols.

Thus the intent is that the meat is to be consumed with thanksgiving within the regulations laid down by the food laws. The procedures adopted by Judaism in the sacrifices and the butchering process were not laid on the Gentiles. Paul laid the simple statement on them to abstain from blood and that which is strangled or sacrificed to idols (Acts 15:20,29; 21:25). Thus we are dealing with two concepts concerning the consumption of meat sacrificed to idols. If it is known, and a matter of public concern and likely to cause stumbling of the brethren or to be seen as endorsement of a pagan religious practice, then it is to be rejected and abstention is required. If it is uncertain as to the process, it is to be regarded as irrelevant and of no significance. The food is to be eaten in faith for, if it is not eaten in faith, then the adherent is condemned.

Thus vegetarianism is seen as weakness in the question of the selection of food involving meats within a pagan system. It is, on the other hand, a clear doctrine of demons when it is preached as abstinence for purity or biblical or health reasons. The assertion that God did not institute a process of meat consumption from the beginning, and continue that process over through the flood, is biblical error or heresy (Gen. 7:2). The assertion that God would institute an unhealthy system is again an imputation against His nature.