I am doing a series of messages called BlackOut - Understanding The End Of The Age and this is Part 5. It’s important to listen to the whole series so if you have not listened to or read Part 1, 2 , 3 and 4 then I encourage you to do that before you start Part 5. I’m calling this series of messages BlackOut and basing it on a scripture in Isaiah chapter 60 verse 2 which says: “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you”. The scripture describes a darkness over the earth and a thick darkness upon its inhabitants. However, in the midst of great darkness we have the promise that the glory of God will be seen upon us.
What I am hoping to do through this series of messages is to help give you a framework for understanding our times in light of the word of God. It’s a view that has helped me navigate some complex topics throughout the years up to the present. Deception has become so widespread that it affects all of us today. It’s what compels me to do this series of messages because this series of messages titled “Blackout” is about deception. In a world of confusion, distortion of facts, extremism and outright falsehood the church is supposed to be a place of sound truth. Paul in I Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 called the church “a pillar and foundation of the truth”.
I hope these messages will help you give a clear focus on how to walk in these times and grow closer to God. I ended the last lesson saying that the journey of faith is learning to live a life in union with God. It’s not a one-time process or a transaction like going to the car dealership to buy a new car or going to the front of some church and saying a prayer or taking communion. Faith and our salvation is a walk, it’s a process and a lifetime commitment of learning how to grow into who we have become in Christ.
The Journey of Salvation: From Justification to Sanctification to Glorification
You become a new person when you accept Christ into your heart, but we grow from faith to faith progressing in our salvation. However, the growth only happens as we learn to yield our lives to the river of God’s grace. It’s learning to become a habitation of God’s Spirit in the midst of a world that is walking in an opposite direction. We are saved by acknowledging Christ's redemptive work on our behalf which means we have been justified in Christ. We are daily taking up our crosses and growing in the knowledge of Christ which means we are being sanctified. One day we will take off this mortal body and put on immortality which means we will be glorified with a new resurrection body like his.
We are in this world, but we live by a different Spirit.
We are to live by the Spirit flowing from the throne of grace. It’s learning to daily yield to the grace of God by faith working through love. It’s only by our complete surrender to the cruciform way of life that we can be overcomers instead of being overcome by the trials of this life. Jesus nor his apostles taught us to have an attitude of escapism. We are not to seek to escape this material creation, but Jesus taught us to pray that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven.
The scriptures don’t teach we are all going away to some spiritual intangible place called heaven. Yes, to be absent from this body or to die means you are present with the Lord as taught by Paul in II Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8. However, the scriptures teach that the very tangible kingdom of heaven came to earth through the man Christ Jesus and it is going to fully consume this creation when he returns. Until Christ returns we are merely getting a taste of the age to come in this present creation and as Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 11 that we are “sojourners and exiles” in this present evil age.
Jesus himself said that we can come to him and drink in the living waters of the Spirit now in this age and it is a result of his first coming as God in human flesh. God stepped into time to redeem and to reconcile. He initiated the restoration of all things spoken of through the Hebrew prophets. In Christ we are able to partake of His resurrection power now. Yes it’s just a down payment, it's just a taste and simply a glimpse of what’s to come, but it's the first fruit of a glory that will transform this present creation.
The Good Fight of Faith: Embracing the Process of Redemption
It doesn’t mean the road is always a smooth road or that there are no struggles, pain and sacrifice. It’s called the good fight of faith for a reason. Faith is about putting into practice and living out the redemptive work of Christ enduring to the end. Redemption is a process, just like God delivered the children of Israel from Pharaoh's armies and Egypt’s power; he has delivered us from the 'god of this age' and his worldly system. The children of Israel didn’t inherit everything all at once. They had to go through the wilderness and then eventually conquer the promised land of their inheritance.
In Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2 it says that the Lord led Israel into the wilderness for forty years so that he might humble them and test them, so they could see their hearts allowing God to change them. The wilderness is the training ground for genuine discipleship and spiritual growth.
The pattern Son Jesus had to go through the wilderness and be tested. It is a place where God will show you that he is the Lord who provides, guides, saves, heals and delivers us along life’s journey. It doesn’t mean we will always be free from pain, suffering, heartache and have everything we want. It’s a place where your faith grows as you learn to lean on the compassionate salvation that God has provided through Christ Jesus.
Salvation is a journey and a process of restoring our spirit, souls and ultimately our bodies into the image and likeness of Christ. We have been delivered by the cross, but we are also being changed by the grace poured out through the cross. The walk of faith is 24/7; there is no part time gospel. The gospel consumes our lives like the sacrifice upon the altar and we must give our whole hearts to God. As we lay our hearts open before God, Paul said in Romans chapter 1 verse 6 that within the gospel is the "power of God for salvation to everyone who believes". So, within ‘the word of the cross’ is the power to be justified, reconciled, forgiven, sanctified and to have eternal life. Paul said that from the cross flows the wisdom and power to live in this life as a child of God.
As I’ve already said, salvation is both instant and also progressive. What I mean is that just as a baby is born into the world through birth, so the believer is brought into the kingdom of God through new birth. We are born into the family, but we must mature in our faith. I John chapter 2 verse 12 talks about children, young men and fathers. John says, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.”
If you look at this text you see a progression that we go through in our faith. Children understand forgiveness of sins. It is the foundation of our faith and our feet must be securely established in the cross. Young men learn to overcome through the word of God abiding strongly in their hearts. Fathers are those who have matured in their faith because they are firmly grounded in their identity of forgiveness through Christ and have learned to consistently overcome the evil one. Fathers are not trying to be something because they know him, who is from the beginning and have come to the place where they are helping others learn how to practice their faith.
The Holistic Nature of Salvation: Nurturing The Inner Man Of The Heart
Salvation is holistic which includes the whole man. Man like God is a triune being. We are made up of spirit, soul and body. God has us on a path of restoration so that we can walk in a partnership with Him. We are born into the family, but we must mature in our faith. The soul and spirit are the eternal part of man. It is what we call the inner man of the heart. It’s why Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23 tells us to keep our hearts with all vigilance for from it springs the issues of life.
The inner part of man is the spirit and soul, which is the eternal part of man. To be born from above is when we surrender to the redeeming work of Christ body and blood; at that moment the Holy Spirit fills our inner man. Jesus called this being born again, Paul said we become a new creation, Peter said we become partakers of the divine nature and John said we become children of God. Our inner man through new birth is filled with the very same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. The soul and spirit are so intricately connected that Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says its only the word of God, which is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” that “can pierce the division of soul and spirit”.
The soul is what people experience from your life through your emotions, your intellect and your determination or your will. It’s your personality and what makes you uniquely you. The soul is what I call the interface of the spiritual man. If the eyes are the window to the soul then I would say what’s in your heart is filtered through your soul before it becomes an expression that others can see and experience.
It’s important to decipher between the intricately connected spirit and soul as a means of clarification so that we can understand ourselves. I’m going to say that the soul is our psychological makeup consisting of our mind, will and emotions. The spirit and the soul in scripture are referred to as the inner man of the heart. Understanding the distinction helps us to explain the struggle that happens within our hearts. If we don’t understand this struggle then sin can deceive us and we can deceive ourselves living in the works of the flesh.
The flesh is simply man living independent of God. It is the pride of man deceiving himself into thinking; that he is his own god doing whatever is right in his own eyes.
The Phillips Translation calls the flesh the unspiritual nature. The Weust translation calls the flesh the sinful nature. I like the way the Weymouth translation interprets the word flesh. He refers to the flesh as the 'lower nature' when referring to man living independent of Christ. Romans chapter 7 is one of those debatable portions of scripture and is not easy to dissect. In this chapter Paul talks of our struggle with the Mosaic Law, sin and the flesh.
In separating our soul and spirit it gives us some insight into the struggle within our hearts as children who have been born of the Spirit of God. The soul is sandwiched between the spirit born in the image of God, filled with the Spirit and our unredeemed bodies made of the dust of the ground.
If our lives are not wholly dedicated and surrendered to the Spirit which is being consecrated to God then we will gravitate to the lower nature living our lives independent of Christ.
It’s why Jesus taught us to pray that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. It’s why he told us that we must daily take up our cross and follow him. Yes he is ultimately going to restore this present creation with fire, but until then we are the earth he wants to restore. Man was made from the dust of the ground and our bodies are merely clay jars. The walk of faith in this life is about daily surrendering to the grace of God in humility. It’s about learning to live the cruciform life.
Paul clearly articulates the struggle in Romans chapter 7 and then in Galatians chapter 5 where he contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. As believers we are not powerless, but we do have to make daily choices. Paul in Romans chapter 8 verses 4 thru 8 gives us the solution saying: “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Our souls can be damaged as we walk along life’s journey groping around in this present darkness.
The soul is where most of us have emotional wounds. Yes all of us have been affected by Adam’s sin, the sin inflicted upon us by others and our own sinful desires which all result in emotional wounds. If we don’t bring these wounds to the cross then the wounds of the soul can affect our daily walk of faith, keeping the Holy Spirit from fully flowing through our hearts.
The soul is what I call the interface of our spirit. Computers are something that most of us understand in today’s culture so let me explain the interface to you because I think it will help you understand. The definition of interface is where two systems interact and come together. Let me use your cell phone as an example because it is a computer where you get information from, but if you’re like me then you’ve probably dropped your cell phone before and if you don’t have a cover you broke your screen. The screen is the interface that the computer is connected to and outputs information for you. If the screen is cracked, then it’s hard to get that information and that’s what happens to our souls.
The soul is like our phone screen it’s an interface that displays to the world what’s in our hearts. When you are born from above, all of the power is within your heart, but your souls are still damaged. The Spirit of Christ lives in you, but your soul needs repair or restoration. The soul gets clogged up with garbage through life’s journey and it can block the flow of the river of God’s grace from freely flowing in your hearts.
It’s the living powerful word of God anointed with the Spirit that can clean, heal and restore our soul’s. We need this daily restoration so that the soul can interface correctly with our spirits, made in the image of God so that the outflow of grace can be displayed to this world. It’s why we need to daily seek God’s heart through prayer and study of the scriptures. We need to daily reflect on the word of God which the Bible calls meditation and confession. It’s as we allow God’s word and Spirit to have a place in our hearts that we experience its power to produce faith which restores our souls.
It's why it's so important to daily take up our cross humbly submitting to the washing of the word. We must daily seek to be filled with the Spirit to repair damage to our souls and allow him to restore the interface of our hearts. It’s why the Psalmist prayed, “create in me a clean heart, O God”. I find this is the main reason so many believers are still dominated by the lower nature and living duplicitous lives being self deceived. It is because they refuse to allow God to repair and restore the soulish areas of the heart so therefore they live in the works of the flesh.
If you don’t daily humbly submit then you will be taken down paths of darkness being easily deceived.
It's what James was saying in chapter 4 verse 5 thru 8 of his epistle: “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
If you don’t learn to daily take up your cross and in humility surrender to God’s grace then the damaged areas of your soul will cause you to turn away from God just like Adam and Eve did after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s because of our pride and refusal to simply be humble enough to repent by yielding to the grace of God that we live duplicitous lives of deception.
The Holy Spirit convicts us trying to draw us back to the humility of the cross, but many times we reject his loving call to repentance. It’s because we have begun to deceive ourselves by refusing to live in the light of what God says so in essence we become our own god living in the shadows of idolatry.
Paul in I Timothy chapter 2 verse 4 says God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
I want to focus on this word knowledge. In this scripture the Greek word used for knowledge in this text is epignosis. According to the Vine's Expository Dictionary the word is not used in the gospels or the book of Acts. However, Paul uses this word 15 times, Peter uses the word 4 times and it's used once in the book of Hebrews. We are going to be taking a look at some of these texts which will give us a fuller understanding so that we can live in the ‘knowledge of the truth’ staying free from self deception.
Epignosis is a strengthened or intensified form of "gnosis" and conveys the thought of a knowledge which is fuller, larger and more thorough. It also conveys the idea of a more intimate and personal relationship than the simple term gnosis. Before we get into understanding epignosis let’s take a look at this word gnosis which is where the term Gnosticism comes from and the heretical teaching which many of the apostolic writers confronted.
The Diverse Origins of Gnosticism
You had a lot of variations of Gnosticism. It is a term invented by scholars to understand certain groups, who at the time were independent of each other, but wouldn’t have recognized the term. The term Gnosticism was first used by the English poet, philosopher and Theologian Henry More in 1669.
Gnosticism was not and is still not an organized religion or a coherent fixed set of beliefs. It was a complex mass of interrelated religious ideas. Gnosticism has no creed and each person seeks their own personal truth with many paths leading back to the One that the Greeks called Plêrôma. It was the philosophical ideas of Plato synthesized and mixed with the ancient mystery religions having a lot of streams flowing into it.
The Gnostic Heresy is more like a virus than an organized religious system. As a virus it latches on to its host and completely infects the host. It takes on the structure of the host mimicking the ideas and taking on the language. It’s the tree of the knowledge of good and evil producing a multitude of deceptions.
Gnosticism has had a much greater impact upon American culture than most realize. It was Carl Jung born in 1895 who mainstreamed Gnostic ideas couched in the pseudo science of modern Psychology. Carl Jung, one of the fathers of modern Psychology was greatly influenced and inspired by Gnostic ideas. The moral relativism that released upon us the sexual revolution is rooted in Carl Jung’s psychological work. Leaders of the 1960’s hippie movement like Timothy Leary, a Harvard Professor of Psychology were heavily influenced by his teaching.
One could say without overstatement that Carl Jung is the spiritual father of Neo-Gnosticism and the New Age Movement. Dr. Jeffery Satinover comments that “one of the most powerful modern forms of Gnosticism is without question Jungian psychology”.
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s New Age Religion became all the rage and made its way into mainstream American culture. It was originally looked on by most as a bunch of crazy loonie rich Hollywood elites. The actress Shirley McClain wrote a book which detailed her search for truth outside of organized religion and before you knew it the alternative path of postmodern religion took root in America.
Today Gnostic ideas have made their way into most American institutions and I will show you in later lessons how it has infected our culture through media, education, and politics. The ideas are prevalent in parts of the American Church. I find so much of what the American church focuses upon is concepts, ideas, programs, initiation into religious tradition or you have groups whose sole focus seems to be mystical experiences through dreams, visions and angelic visitations. It seems to me that Gnosticism has had a much greater impact upon the American church than any of us has realized.
Obviously the Progressive mainstream church has been completely captured and corrupted by this Postmodern heresy. We see a complete departure from the apostolic faith clearly laid forth in the New Testament. However, the Evangelical church which includes Pentecostals and Charismatics has been infected with this belief system. Let me share a few statistics with you to demonstrate the point I am making.
The Decline of Christian Beliefs and Practices in the US
In 1990 the Pew research center said the US population was 85% identifying as Christians, but today that number is around 60% and declining. To me the more troubling issue is what professing Christians actually believe and practice. George Barna the Christian sociologist did surveys in May of 2021 estimating that only around 6% of adult Christians believe the Bible to be accurate and reliable. Yes I said 6% and it is this same 6% who take their faith seriously enough, to where it affects their day to day lives. It makes sense because if you don’t believe the Bible is the word of God then it's not going to change your heart and way of life.
Our postmodern culture has been greatly influenced by the Gnostic heresy. It has infected large portions of the church. Yes we still have a lot of people who attend church meetings, but we must wake up to the fact that America is a post Christian nation. You still have the name Christian in the titles of organizations and on the buildings, but many have departed from the faith of the Bible and are living lives of apostasy.
I am going to give you a few statistics concerning the beliefs among those who call themselves Evangelicals, which is someone who says the word of God should be taken as the final authority of our faith.
Nearly 50% believe God learns and adapts to different circumstances, which means they believe God changes.
70% say that Jesus is created by God, which is a heresy denying the deity of Christ.
64% say that all religious faiths are of equal value.
66% say that ‘having faith’ matters more than which faith you pursue.
57% believe in karma.
38% believe Jesus is a great teacher, but not God again denying the deity of Christ.
60% say the Holy Spirit is a force and a symbol of God’s power or presence, but is not a living entity, which is denying the Trinity.
27% think the Holy Spirit can tell them to do something that the Bible teaches against.
If those statistics are anywhere close to accurate it should be cause for great concern. It’s why Foundation Publications is dedicated to providing resources to make disciples who understand what the Bible teaches. If you have not gone through our free School of Discipleship visit www.foundationpub.org.
Sound doctrine is extremely important because it is the basis of our faith and conduct. The church is to be a pillar and foundation of the truth found in Christ clearly articulated by the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament and the apostolic writers of the New Testament. The dominant worldview in America today is not Biblical faith established in the sound truth of scripture. It is a blended belief system custom-made by each person and has a lot of resemblance to the ancient Gnostic heresy in which postmodern spirituality is inspired by and founded upon.
To those of us who believe the Bible to be an accurate account of God’s redemptive history in time we believe in the Genesis account of history:
We believe that God created man in the garden of Eden in his image.
We believe that man disobeyed and as a result was expelled.
We believe that man as a result of sin was corrupted and lost the eternal glory of God. He forfeited his close communion with God when he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil resulting in spiritual death which was followed by physical death.
We believe that man in his fallen state is corrupted and not essentially good, but all have sinned falling short of the glory of God. As man was dispelled from the garden his heart did not turn in humility and reliance back to the Creator. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 thru 6 says: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.”
We believe that God judged the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness and it was deluged with water causing every living thing to perish. However, God preserved the eight souls of Noah’s family through his obedience to the covenant keeping Creator of heaven and earth. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 says: “by faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
The Tower of Babel: A Glimpse into God's Redemptive History and the Origins of Gnosticism
The story of God’s redemptive history in time brings us to the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. The origins of Gnosticism are very hard to trace, but the ideas seem to have originated before recorded human history being a result of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Tower of Babel which was located in the center of what became ancient Babylon, is recorded in the Bible as an attempt to reach heaven through man’s collective self effort escaping the evil world, an aspiration of the Gnostic heresy.
I don’t want to extrapolate or assume too much about this portion of the Bible, but I do want to bring out a few key points. We see the origins of the city of Babylon in the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation talks of the city of Babylon which will affect all nations with its corruption prior to the second coming of Christ. A theme that runs from the beginning of the Bible to its end is a major theme and therefore it should not be looked at as insignificant. Genesis chapter 11 verse 6 says: “they are one people, they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” It doesn’t implicitly say, but it seems as if they were using the creative power they possessed as image-bearers of God to act against God. It was man attempting to control, dominate and transcend the spiritual apart from the God who created all things.
It sounds like the inspiration they had came from the serpent in the garden. Remember he said that by eating of the forbidden tree that the man and woman’s eyes would be opened so that they would be like God. Babel means ‘gate of god’ and the Tower of Babel was about transcending this present material creation through secret knowledge. It was about man being in control of his own destiny and being a god. It was about man escaping this material creation through secret knowledge and hidden wisdom to the heavenly spiritual world.
The prophet Isaiah talks of this Luciferic inspiration in chapter 14 verse 13 and 14 saying: “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” It was the height of man rebelling against the God of creation and attempting to be the master of his own destiny.
It was the collective pride of man coming together saying we will make our own way, forge our own path and create a world free from a God who rules over us.
Remember the earth was just destroyed and judged because of the wickedness of man’s heart. It was men saying, ‘we will live how we want’! We reject the restrictions and restraints placed upon the wickedness of our hearts. We will make our own pathway into the heavens. We will be free from the judgment of God by ascending and becoming gods controlling our own destiny. It sounds like the famous song ‘Imagine’ written by John Lennon because it came from the same Luciferic inspiration. One world, joined together, rejecting the God of creation, but united together through some mystical experience taking one to the spiritual world of Nirvana.
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