Anti-intellectualism is a Discernment Killer!

people become very suggestible in certain environments I've been in meetings where for example the person on the stage this is something that actually happened to me the person on the stage blew on the crowd and there was already an atmosphere of people letting their guard down being manipulated by long worship times with music you're kind of tired you're suggestible and he blew on the crowd and I was in the back row on the aisle and one by one row after row after row was quote unquote slain in the spirit they they were falling down and

I remember back then this was I was a young adult and I said Lord if this is of you I want this if you want to touch me in the way that you're touching people I'm open and I I want to but I'm not going to fake it and so one by one the row went and then my entire row fell down and I was the only person standing I say that because if something seems to work it could be working because people are highly suggestable and [Music] manipulatable well hey everyone welcome to the show

this is the Alisa Childers podcast I'm Alisa Childers and it's my goal here to equip Christians to identify the core beliefs of historic Christianity discern its counterfeits and proclaim the gospel with Clarity kindness and truth and today's episode is all about discernment it's about uh the way that we evaluate certain beliefs or even teachings that we might encounter online videos that we might see on YouTube and what I see in the church which is an attitude of anti-intellectualism which is I think ravaging the church because it's really preventing us from being able to discern properly

and so even in the name of discernment in the name of wanting to stay on track with Doctrine I see a lot of people sliding off of cliffs because they're following the wrong sorts of uh standards that they're supposed to be using to evaluate teaching and they're uh evaluating things erroneously in an unbiblical way and I don't even know if they realize it so I have a heavy burden I think with this particular episode and I want to give some context around where this is all coming from so if you've been following along with the

podcast you know we're in the middle of a series about Deliverance Ministry and what we're attempting to do is take a step back and evaluate the whole category of Deliverance Ministry and some of the core teachings and practices and evaluate those in the light of what the Bible has to say about these things now when we talk about Deliverance If you're sort of unfamiliar with what we're talking about there's really two different things going on here of course biblically speaking we know God delivers and praise God for that right we have been delivered out of

the kingdom of darkness we've been transferred into the Kingdom of Light the concept of Deliverance is all over the Psalms I just pulled up a couple to read to you Psalm 344 says I sought the Lord and he answered me he delivered me from all my fears Psalm 34:17 says the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them he delivers them from all their troubles the Lord is close to the Brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit uh I love Galatians 51 that says it is for Freedom that Christ has set us free

stand firm this is this is the advice to Christians this is the command to Christians stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery and the Bible has language in the New Testament that we were slaves of sin but now we are slaves to righteousness we are Bond Servants of Christ so there's a lot of language in the Bible that would indicate that God delivers and so in evaluating Deliverance Ministry of course I'm not denying that God delivered and heals and that you might pray for something that has

been plaguing you for a really long time and the Lord might supernaturally intervene and heal you of that thing and there are lots of of course testimonies of that sort of thing happening so the other question and the one that we're really addressing on the podcast series is this whole category of Deliverance Ministry as it's practiced in churches and typically what comes along with that is uh certain practices and teachings like teaching that if you commit a sin you give Satan some sort of a legal right to enter you or oppress you this is unbiblical

this is not something that's taught in scripture there's the idea of generational curses that maybe somebody who it was an ancestor of yours who committed a particular sin or practiced witchcraft or something that that somehow is attached to you and that even as a Christian you would have to do Deliverance to get that evil spirit to leave or to go typically and I that is also unbiblical that is not what the Bible teaches we're we're going through all of those teachings on the podcast series and uh but typically the Deliverance Ministry would operate from the

fundamental understanding and belief that Christians can be demonized now this is a Greek word that people translate into English as demonized the Greek word is uh dimi and it is used about 13 times in the gospels and never once ever is it applied to somebody who is a believer in Christ who has been filled with the Holy Spirit not once ever in scripture there's no example of anyone in the New Testament doing Deliverance on another Christian so in other words somebody who has already been saved indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit there is absolutely

no evidence that we are supposed to be trying to cast demons out of Christians or delivering Christians from uh demonic however the wording might be part based on the particular Del delance Ministry now we have a lot of instruction in scripture and we're going to be doing episodes on that as well about how to engage with the Demonic but the assumption that a Christian can be somehow indwell or controlled in any way by a demon is unbiblical and that is just not what the Bible teaches so we're questioning the modern category of Deliverance Ministry now

this is a spectrum between I mean it can go all the way from just somebody who is practicing Deliverance in a church from a really good motivation to try to get people to be free and I I understand that but all the way up to the other end of the spectrum you have people who are on YouTube making a lot of money with these really sensationalistic Deliverance videos these these things get millions of views some of these people have a million followers almost one example is someone who calls herself an apostle and that is Katherine

Crick and I released a a response video to her a couple of weeks ago and some of the comments from her followers have literally broken my heart because there is such a lack of understanding on how to discern and so that is sort of the context from which I'm coming today and it's you even if you're not interested in the Deliverance Ministry series I really think today's episode is going to be relevant to you because it has to do with methodology of discerning and how we are supposed to take so seriously Jesus warning that there

will be wolves and false prophets and false christs that will come and we need to be sure that we are evaluating people's teaching based on how the Bible tells us to evaluate these things and so some of the comments that I saw were people saying kathern Crick always gives glory to Jesus so you shouldn't oppose her you shouldn't criticize her because God is using her and the primary way people are saying that they are judging whether or not her quote unquote Miracles and deliverances are true are based on the fruit and so we're going to

get to that because Katherine Crick there are many other people who have done long form videos about her false teaching she is an absolute Mark and avoid false teacher I don't have any hesitation seeing that U but she has these videos that are very compelling to people and so I think it's very confusing to people and then at the end of this episode I'm actually going to read you one of the comments that somebody left under one of our deliverance episodes uh just just to give give you a picture of where I think so much

confusion is coming in so hang with me because I think this is going to be an episode that I pray and I hope is going to be really beneficial to the body of Christ and the first thing I want to talk about is anti-intellectualism this is something that I see it's a pit that I think Christians keep falling in where maybe there's a teacher or somebody on YouTube or a pastor or whoever it might be that performs these you great feats of what appear to be really genuine deliverances healings whatever they might be now I

I would question a lot of those I think a lot of those are some trickery going on but I don't even need to get specific to say that we are still have a certain way we're supposed to judge and we're not supposed to judge based on how a teaching makes us feel or even the perceived benefit of the particular maybe Deliverance session or healing session and this I think is fueled by an anti-intellectualism and I think that when we fall for anti-intellectualism we put the emphasis on emotion and that can make us extremely vulnerable to

cult leaders listen friends if you think that you are not in some way vulnerable to a cult leader I would say we need to all do some serious heart searching I know that I am you are we all are we are emotional relatable beings and can be very difficult when there is a person who is giving you attention or maybe giving you something your soul feels like it needs somebody who's amazing speaker somebody who seems to be operating in power it can be a very seductive force that can can cause even the smartest and most

intellectual people deny what their heads and their minds and their their intellect is telling them and follow something that their heart feels moved by and I think this is an extreme danger because when the Bible talks about discernment it's really never asking us to evaluate how a certain teaching makes us feel so I want to make uh a few points about anti-intellectualism and anti-intellectualism would just be defined as maybe feeling like too much analysis or too much thinking can hinder the emotion or the spirit realm and um and that can lead people to almost shun

study and it can cause people to think well I don't want to get two in my head uh and and kind of pit the head against the heart and that sort of thing so one of the points I want to make and I'll dig into these is anti-intellectualism is actually a modern concept this is not the history of anti-intellectualism is not reflected in the history the 2,000 year history of the church this is kind of a new thing we're going to dig into that number two anti-intellectualism gives rise to Cults I believe that with all

my heart number three anti-intellectual ISM will keep you from understanding your Bible and living a vibrant Christian Life I'm going to I'm going to talk more about that one in just a moment and finally the fourth thing is that anti-intellectualism can make you incredibly vulnerable to really deep deception okay so let's dig into these points number one anti-intellectualism is a modern concept for Christians uh many of you remember RC Sproul uh calvinist Bible teacher and and he wrote a book called burning or maybe this was an article it was burning hearts are not nourished by

empty heads and here's a quote from that he said we live in what might be what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of Western Civilization secular culture has embraced a kind of impressionism that threatens to turn all our brains into mush and the Evangelical world has followed suit developing an allergy to all things intellectual and I agree with him I think this is where we're at in our moment in church history right now is that people's brains have just been turned to Mush but it's not always been that way if you look

back over the course of history Christians founded ivy league universities like Harvard and Princeton they pioneered the Scientific Revolution the intellectual Mark that Christians have made on the history of the world is absolutely incal cble it it it just cannot be overated how the rich intellectual tradition of Christianity goes far back I mean think about how intellectual even Jesus was he was operating with all of these um arguments from logic he was so smart in the way that he would ask questions and kind of get to the core of what someone was asking and even

avoid getting trapped by the Pharisees and Sadducees who were always trying to intellectually trap him I mean this goes all the way way back to Jesus we also know the Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength mind is the intellectual Center of you you're supposed to love God with all your mind and I think it's an act of worship to study the word of God to to study and show yourself approved as the scripture says so this is sort of a modern thing and I see people

falling into error because they are shunning the intellectual side of their faith so number two my point was that anti-intellectualism gives rise to Cults so a book that I thought was really helpful on this was by JP Morland and it's called love your I think it's love your God with all your mind something like that you can Google it um but you know if you think about the Puritans right back then ministers were the ones who were considered to be the authorities on spiritual matters but also not just spiritual matters but also intellectual matters and

then we had a series of revivals that broke out in the mid- 1800s now most people if you grew up in a similar stream as me these revivals are remembered with great almost longing to see it happen again and certainly much good came out out of them people got saved I I think it was really good that there was an emphasis on personal conversion to Christ and an emotionally engaged Faith right we are emotional beings we want to be emotionally engaged with our faith it can't just be head knowledge um but there are some downsides

to these revivals and one of the downsides is that the experiential and the emotional things that people were experiencing began to take the place of maybe thoughtful reflection quiet consideration and a desire to have a deep grasp of Christian teachings and doctrines and to think these things through very thoroughly so we had thousands of people who heard revivalist preachers and they became Christians but many of these new converts they didn't have the intellectual understanding of essential doctrinal issues now here's what we see happen because of that we saw a huge rise in Cults so you

saw this is when Mormonism and Jehovah's Witness Witnesses really gained momentum and really went on to have a really big impact on the beliefs of millions of people around the globe quick break to tell you about our first sponsor of the day which is Adele natural Cosmetics I Love Adele natural Cosmetics I use a ton of their products they're a natural Cosmetics company that is family run holistic handcrafted toxin-free everything's made in the USA I love it so much because they are run by Christians and they are AR and make all their cosmetics in small

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cosmetics.com use my code Alisa for 25% off a firsttime purchase again Adel natural cosmetics.com use my code Alisa and so combined that with a continued theological and biblical illiteracy this really weakened the church's ability to respond to the intellectual attacks that came in the late 1800s you had the era of Enlightenment there was a lot of skepticism you had German higher criticism and from that is where we get liberal theology we had the development of darwinian evolution and this led many Christians rather to than engaging headon with these things it kind of caused them to

mistrust intellectual Pursuits and really thought that the problem was intellectual rather than motivating them to study and and answer these claims and I will tell testify just in my own personal life that when my faith was in crisis 15 years ago at the beginning of that I was convinced that the problem was intellectualism I remember thinking man the the people are going to lose their faith if they start thinking this thing this stuff through too much but the problem was is I was already so far down the road that I was on the path to

losing my faith anyway and I just was thinking I have to study I have to figure out if the claims that have been made are true and so that led me on an intellectual pursuit of doctrine of church history of philosophy of archaeology science Faith anything I could get my hands on and it was really that intellectual Pursuit that God used to rebuild my faith and ultimately then connect my head with my heart because I think I was all heart before that so by the early 1900s this is when liberalism began to really influence Mainline

denominations and this caused a lot of the fundamentalists to retreat from the Public Square so this is what's referred to as the modernist fundamentalist split and they sort of isolated Christian ideas off from the rest of the world and that's why we see the main lines of course went very liberal they are continuing to be in Decline but they agreed with a lot of the cultural stuff because the Christians couldn't or didn't answer those things and so ultimately we've seen this happened in history before is my point is that if we are getting caught up

in emotionalism and experientialism we are providing the seedbed for cult leaders and cult likee movements to emerge because it will just be based on experience and we can't just let our faith be informed by experience experience is important it has a place I'm certainly not saying that we should deny our emotions or exp erience or not seek experiences or emotions but we can't let them lead they have to be subject to the revealed word of God our emotions our experiences have to be interpreted through the lens of scripture because you can have a very strong

mystical experience and because it's real you might think it's good or you might think it's from God but there's a chance that you did have a real mystical experience but it might be from a different Spirit it might not be from God and the only objective standard by which we can judge these things is scripture and I'm seeing so many Christians in comments warning even against getting too much scripture in your heart in your life because it will dry you out emotionally and this friends is a Lie from the pit of Hell that knowing too

much Bible and getting too much Bible in you is going to lead you astray if anything getting too much Bible in you is what is going to expose the false movement the false teaching around you and that's the only way to know for sure how to judge whatever experience that you might be having the third point is that anti-intellectualism will keep you from understanding your Bible and from living a vibrant Christian Life and I want to refer to a very particular passage that a lot of times people will pull out when they want to be

a little bit anti-intellectual and so that is 1 Corinthians 81 that says knowledge puffs up but love builds up now we've talked on the podcast before about using principles of hermeneutics how to interpret your Bible properly and the one thing that you never want to do is form an entire theology based on one Bible verse where you haven't considered its broader context where you haven't asked questions like who wrote this who did they write it to what was the historical context what was the cultural context what was happening what was going on in that time

in place what kind of a book is this how did the original audience interpret this we can't base theology on something that sounds one way to us without investigating its deeper context so let's take that verse 1 Corinthians 81 knowledge puffs up but love builts up so right before that phrase knowledge puffs up this is the Apostle Paul he wrote this now about food sacrificed to Idols so the context of him saying knowledge puffs up had to do with food sacrificed to idols and what he goes on to explain is that some Christians knew that

Idols weren't real and others didn't know that and so they believed that eating food sacrificed to Idols made it ceremoni ceremonially unclean and so what Paul's point was here was he was exhorting the Believers who had the greater knowledge and understanding that Idols weren't real to show love to those who had a weaker conscience and to refrain from eating food sacrific to Idols in front of them so it wouldn't stumble them and his point was that you don't know something just so you can Lord over somebody but so that you can you can know that

but you can exercise that knowledge in love um and build other believers up and not our own arrogance and the other principle that we talk about a lot is to let scripture interpret scripture you never want to form your theology based on just one verse of scripture so let me read a few other passages from the Bible that talk about knowledge Proverbs 122 says that fools hate knowledge Proverbs 15 says a wise man will hear and increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel Hosea 4 says that God's people perish for

lack of knowledge regarding the law and second Peter 2 1 tells us to add to our faith goodness and to goodness knowledge in Philippians 1:9 Paul prayed that Your Love Will Keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment in fact Paul even Praises knowledge as a part of spiritual warfare and again we're going to do a whole episode on the Theology of spiritual warfare but primarily when the Bible talks about doing spiritual warfare as a Christian it's talking about battles in the realm of ideas it's about truth it's about Tre speaking truth into

lies and so in 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says we demolish notice all the words here I want you to think about the words and how they have to do not with power encounters with demons but actual knowledge and Truth propositions so here's what it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 we demolish argu ments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God isn't that powerful spiritual warfare is demolishing arguments pretensions anything that raises itself up against the knowledge things you know of God Proverbs 15:4 says the Discerning heart acquires knowledge Proverbs 129 warns

of the destruction that follows a hatred hatred of knowledge so over and over in scripture we're commanded to seek out knowledge and over and over again we're warned of the consequences if we don't and I mentioned earlier that Jesus himself said love the Lord your God with all your mind he was saying we have to love God with all of our intellectual capacity so anti-intellectualism if you have that as your presupposition you will not understand the Bible because you won't dig deep enough to use good tools of hermeneutics to be hungry for the knowledge that

you find in scripture and frankly here's another thing that I notice and it just makes me wonder but there are people and I think we probably all need to search our hearts on this one but there are people who want God to give them instant relief from whatever is afflicting them or maybe they want information about their future and they want God to show up with these power encounters they want God to answer all of their questions about the future and relieve their offering but they don't want to crack open his word that he's already

given us like God has given us his word which is his self-revelation it's how we know how we're supposed to live as Christians how we're supposed to conduct ourselves in church and and together with other believers how we're supposed to live the things that we're supposed to leave behind and repent from and turn from how we can assess Doctrine and decide if somebody is a false teacher or a true teacher if someone is a wolf or a a sheep we have to know the word of God and not just cherry-picked to match what we already

wanted to say but to dig deep into what God has already revealed so that I think is a question for all of us if we might be falling into some of this anti-intellectualism is to say am I just wanting the relief from this thing but I don't want to bother cracking open the scriptures to get to know God myself because he has revealed himself in scripture and finally anti-intellectual ISM uh can make you incredibly vulnerable to deep deception and so that's where we talk about how we discern and the test in scripture for Doctrine or

for truth I'm sorry is Doctrine it's not signs and wonders now this might surprise some people because a lot of people will come into comments and say well I saw a legitimate healing happen or I had I was a Christian but I had demons cast out of me well the test for these things in scripture is what is being being taught not the benefits not even a legitimate healing or a legitimate Miracle do you have kids in your life anywhere from the ages of 16 to 22 I want to recommend Summit Ministries you know we're

talking about discernment today well your kids can't make their faith their own someday it's got to be now and we really have to teach them the tools of discernment and this is where Summit Ministries comes in they have 11-day experiences this summer at Lookout Mountain Georgia or in Manitou Springs Colorado I love getting to go to Summit as a faculty member a couple times a year and I get to teach kids what I teach you on the podcast we talk about historic Christianity and we talk about Progressive Christianity and deconstruction and we analyze those things

through a Biblical lens and so I'd love to meet your student out in manitu Springs but again you can also go to Lookout Mountain Georgia there's lots of different experiences to choose from and if you want to register right now you've still got some time to get that early birth with $200 off by going to summit.org Alisa but if you use my code alisa2 you're going to get2 200 more off for a total of $400 off so if you register before March 31st you'll get that full discount so go to summit.org Alisa use my code

alisa2 again summit.org Alisa code alisa2 I want to read a passage from Matthew 24: 24 this is Jesus talking he says for false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect Jesus himself is predicting that false christs false prophets are actually going to perform signs and wonders now there's some debate between theologians whether or not these signs are legitimate miraculous signs or if they're deceptive signs in other words things done in the natural to appear Supernatural I don't have a dog in

that fight but the point is that these false teachers will perform signs and wonders so somebody coming along in YouTube or even at a church you're at that even performs a miracle that's not the test for whether or not they are true or false the test is as we'll see we're to judge them by their fruit but we're to judge them by what they're teaching now in Matthew 7:15 Jesus said this beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves you will recognize them by their fruits are grapes

gathered from Thorn bushes or figs from thistles so every healthy tree Bears good fruit but the diseased tree Bears Bad fruit a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire thus you will recognize them by their fruits now interestingly in many of the comments under my response to Katherine Crick people were saying judge by the fruit and what they meant was Miracles but as we know that's not what this means in fact Jesus was

very clear that there will be false prophets who will perform Miracles and deceive if possible even the elect so what does it mean to judge by the fruit well in Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says this not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day many will say to me Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast demons out in your name and do many mighty works in your name and then I will

declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness now there's a lot going on here because in the comments people would say well so and so gives glory to Jesus so they're doing it in jesus' name but even Jesus is saying they're going to say didn't I prophesy didn't I even cast out demons in your name I did Mighty works in your name and Jesus says away from me I didn't know you again that's not the test the Miracles aren't the test in fact Jesus says away from me you workers

of lawlessness that's law Breakers that has to do with sin that has to do with teaching uh false doctrine that goes against the gospel leading people into sin in Matthew 7 7 and 10 I believe this is John the Baptist talking he says you brood of vipers who warned you to flee the Wrath to come now notice what he says about fruit here bear fruit in keeping with repentance every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so fruit bear fruit in keeping with repentance bearing fruit fruit

means OB being obedient to Christ good fruit obedience bad fruit Disobedience or sin in Matthew uh sorry John 15 8-10 Jesus said by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the father has loved me so I have loved you abide in my love if you keep my Commandments you abide in my love it doesn't say if you perform Miracles you will abide in my love if you can cast out demons you will abide in my love Jesus is saying obedience so good fruit biblically is

not good feelings good fruit is not even witnessing what could be a miracle it's not even feeling like maybe somebody cast demons out of somebody fruit has to do with sinful Behavior so in the New Testament when it says bad fruit that word bad is the word paneros there are other words that could have been used but this word paneros has a moral connotation and it literally means Wicked or evil so bad fruit biblically literally means Wicked fruit evil fruit so we are to judge by the doctrine and like I mentioned I don't have time

to get into kathern Crick but you can watch I know my friend Melissa dh's done a video on her Michael Moore the honest youth pastor has done videos breaking down what she's teaching and she teaches false Doctrine that's how we're supposed to judge not based on what appear to be signs and wonders or Deliverance or anything like that with that said I'd like to end with talking through a comment that somebody left that I thought really represents where a lot of this anti-intellectual mindset is coming from so I'm going to read you the comment and

then I'm going to respond to it so here's what the person said and this was in let me give you a little context you understand why they're saying this in the last episode of our deliverance Ministry series we talked about the concept of binding and loosing and binding demons many of you myself included grew up in environments where we were taught to bind Satan in Jesus name and it seems like that was just the way we knew how to pray and so we did a show showing that the verses that talk about binding and loosing

are not about that at all in fact they're completely about something else and so that's not any biblical justification to bind demons we're not supposed to be going around as Christians binding demons and so what this person said is this if we this is a quote if we are not supposed to bind demons why does it work if it's wrong the demons would know that and refuse to be bound as far as Christians practicing Deliverance is concerned read Mark 16: 15-18 our instructions are quite clear Alisa you obviously mean well but I think you are

in danger of overanalyzing this stuff it's a fine line we tread and the enemy can have a fi day with our minds if we try too hard to work everything out love God read the scriptures ask God to lead you and not allow you to be deceived trust him and let him do the rest these discussions are far too complex and protracted and will confuse some Christians who are young in their faith God bless well my overarching response to that is not challenging false Doctrine is what actually confuses Christians who are young in their faith

being shown these Fantastical videos of people seemingly being delivered or healed while the person is teaching false doctrine that is what confuses believers who are young in their faith you know what what is brings Clarity to young believers is teaching them good solid Biblical Doctrine so that they're able to test as the Bible says test all things hold fast to what is good but I want to directly address some of the claims that are made in this comment number one this person says if we're not supposed to bind demons why does it work and to

that I might just say if we're not supposed to do Transcendental Meditation why does it work if we're not supposed to numb our pain with alcohol why does it work if we're not supposed to practice the occult why does it work why if we're not really supposed to do the anagram why does it seem to work we can't judge the right whether or not something is right or wrong wrong true or false based on how it works I mean there are people who report lowered blood pressure from Transcendental Meditation that is not something a Christian

should take part in so just because something works or seems to work is not a test for whether or not it's right and so if somebody bind demons binds demons like as I did for most of my life I shared my whole story about that on episode two of our Deliverance Ministry I always felt like it worked maybe just one or two times it didn't feel like it worked and I think there's a lot going on you can get in environments and people become very suggestible in certain environments I've been in meetings where for example

the person on the stage is is something that actually happened to me the person on the stage blew on the crowd and there was already an atmosphere of people letting their guard down being manipulated by long music you know long worship times with music you're kind of tired you're suggestible and he blew on the crowd and I was in the back row on the aisle and one by one row after row after row was quote unquote slain in the spirit they they were falling down and I remember back then this was I was a young

adult and I said Lord if this is of you I want this if you want to touch me in the way that you're touching people I'm open and I I want to but I'm not going to fake it and so one by one the row went and then my entire row fell down and I was the only person standing and I say that because if something seems to work it could be working because people are highly suggestible and manipulatable you can see this in uh even atheists there are atheists who there's a guy named Darren

Brown very interesting atheist who taught this actor how to do Faith healings and it's very interesting there's a documentary you can watch about that but he shows how suggestible people are to this sort of thing when they're in a particular environment so why does it work well maybe because we are manipulatable and we're susceptible to mob mentality we're Su we don't want to be left out of things there's amazing psychological experiment showing what people will do when they're under the power of suggestion and things like that just psychologically so that would be one way that

it might be working number two if it's wrong demons would know and refuse to be bound this commenter said and to that I I would say well would they really remember demons have been around since creation they have had thousands and thousands of years to observe human behavior they're very smart they know the Bible better than we do they know all the tricks and they know how people are are deceived after observing human behavior I would and they're and they're they're uh Liars the Bible says that Satan is the father of of Lies a liar

from the beginning so they're brilliant at Deception so if it's wrong I could see them actually pretending to be bound and leaving you alone for a while making you think oh this is working and then that keeps your eyes on them and not on the Lord so that's one possibility I don't think they necessarily would refuse to be bound I could see them going along with it as long as your attention is on them that's one thought maybe now the third point that this commenter made was they said read Mark 16:15 through1 18 so I'm

going to read that to you and then make a couple comments it says and he said to them go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned and these signs will accompany those who believe in my name they will cast out demons they will speak in new tongues they will pick up serpents with their hands and if they drink deadly poison it will not hurt them they will lay their hands on the sick and they will

recover now this is what is referred to as the long ending of Mark and without getting too technical about this there's a science called textual criticism that we use to put together uh the wording of ancient documents when we no longer have the originals textual criticism is a science that if you've ever read Plato or Aristotle even Shakespeare the Gettys ber address that has been assembled by textual criticism because we don't have the original documents anymore and same goes for the Bible in the New Testament even the most conservative biblical Scholars everybody agrees that this

was not original to mark that this even in your study Bible there's a footnote that will tell you this was not in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts so the majority of Scholars do not believe that this is scripture this this is actually something that was added later it's but like I said it's footnoted in your Bible we know about this but I'll I'll say this even if this is scripture let's just say for argument sake this is actually scripture it still doesn't approve Deliverance Ministry it says these signs will accompany those who believe in

my name they'll cast out demons they will speak new tongues but notice the question we're asking about Deliverance Ministry is can Christians be demonized do we need to be going around doing Deliverance on other Christians well even the context for this would be uh casting out demons laying their hands on the sick and they're recovering that wasn't within the context of the church this was in the context of going into the world and proclaiming the gospel to the to the whole creation so even if it was scripture it still doesn't give any biblical warrant precedent

or mandate to be doing Deliverance on Christians uh the fourth thing that uh I want to point out that this commenter said is that you can become in the danger of overanalyzing and they said the enemy can have a field day with our minds if we try to work everything out I actually think that's a lie from the enemy I think the enemy would love for us to think there's a danger of overanalyzing I think he would love for for just to say oh don't think about it too hard just feel it feels good right

looks good just don't don't think too hard don't overanalyze don't don't dig too deep into those scriptures or the context and you know it's okay if you think it means this thing that maybe somebody else doesn't think it means that and if you know if you feel good about it and you see fruit that they're defining as Miracles or whatever don't don't think too much that that'll just get you in trouble I think that's actually a brilliant deception because the enemy knows that if we dig into our bibles if we get to know the character

of God if we learn the scriptures in their context we can refute false Doctrine in fact if you think about when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness what blows my mind is that when the devil came to tempt Jesus if you're really the son of God turn the stone to bread and Jesus as God incarnate could have spoken on his own authority telling the devil to get lost or whatever cast him out he didn't do that he appealed to the written word and all three times he said it is written it is written it is

written and he would quote from the written word of God in context it was the devil that kept trying to take it out of cont context right the devil would quote scripture back to Jesus but it he was trying to twist the meaning Jesus knew the word of God and appealed to the authority of the word of God to fight Temptation in the wilderness so don't fall for the lie that you're in danger of overstudying or anything like that and then finally the point is that the discussions are too complex they're going to confuse Believers

the only reason that in these Deliverance Ministry videos that we have to become so nuanced and complex is because we're trying to undo the errors that people are teaching and I think it was maybe GK Chesterton who said a lie travels Halfway Around the World while the truth is still putting on its shoes it's so easy to say something like make a claim that's not in the Bible and it takes time and effort and careful thought to unpack that and show that the scripture isn't teaching that and in fact it's teaching something else and so

I think that is also maybe a a real master deception of the enemy so a few thoughts as I close out here my concern is that people want relief from their symptoms but they don't really actually want God and I think that is what I see reflected in some comments and God is not an a magic eightball or a vending machine where you can kind of turn the ball and try to figure out your fortune that's that's not how he works in fact the Christian Life is a life where we're called to suffer we're called

to be persecuted Jesus said you will be hated we're not always going to experience relief from our symptoms of course Paul the Apostle himself had a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan and he didn't cast it out he prayed he asked the Lord to take it from him and the Lord decided that he needed to keep that thorn in the flesh because he needed to know that God's grace was sufficient for him even in his weakness and I think we see all through scripture that even God will use the devil of course on

a leash within limitations God is completely Sovereign over Satan but he will use him in our lives even to bring greater levels of sanctification and suffering and that doesn't mean we don't pray that the Lord will heal us or Deliver Us from Evil of course we do but sometimes God allows us to continue in that uncomfortable situation for the refinement of our character so that we will depend more on him so I am concerned that people want their symptoms relieved but they don't really want God and I think we see this in scripture one example

is in Acts 8 we have Simon the Sorcerer who was doing sorcery and he was you know had a following and then he believed and was baptized and when the apostles laid hands on people and uh they received the Holy Spirit Simon wanted that same power and he offered them money he wanted to pay to have the power to do that and Paul rebuked him and told him to repent now hopefully he repented and went on to grow in his faith but that attitude of wanting the cool exciting thing even to the point of paying

for it rather than wanting to dig in and study and get to know God repent and grow in faith I think we see that with him uh there's Cain of course we all know the story of Cain killing his brother Abel in Genesis 4 but Cain was not repentant he just wanted relief from him his symptoms when the Lord found him and said what have you done the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground and now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your blood

brother's blood from your hand when you work the ground it shall no longer yield to you its strength you shall be a fugitive and a Wanderer on the earth and then Cain didn't respond to the Lord like oh Wretched Man that I am save me no he said my punishment is greater than I can bear behold you have driven me today away from the ground and from your face I shall be hidden I'll be a fugitive and a wander on the earth and whoever Finds Me will kill me and he's basically complaining about his circumstance

but he's not repentant and of course God marks him and all of that happens but but he's not repentant he just wants relief from the punishment for the sin that he committed and then there's a story Jesus tells in Luke 16 I'm going just going to read this as we close out there was a rich man who was clothed in purple in fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day and at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus Lazarus Co covered with sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's

table moreover even the dogs came and licked his sores the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side the rich man also died and was buried and in Hades being in torment he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side and he called out Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame now what's interesting about that to me is he doesn't see them and say

oh save me I'm so I I've sinned against God Wretched Man that I am no he's just like man can you relieve these symptoms like this is but he's not even really trying to escape there's a lot of theological stuff in here that we don't have time to get into but the point is is that some people they want the effects of God but they don't want God they don't want to repent lay down their lives pick up their cross daily and follow Christ they still want to be their own boss they don't want to

feel the consequences of those things they want the the new shiny thing the the the the big event or whatever it might be and I'm not certainly saying that's everybody who follows these things but reflected in some of these comments my exhortation to us as a body of Christ is to make sure that we are testing by the Bible that we go to scripture and and if we're wanting some sort of experience but we don't want to bother taking 10 minutes to read out of the scriptures every day there's something very imbalanced and wrong and

we're not going to be able to discern properly when we are faced with very sophisticated deceptions that really appear to be beautiful the Bible says the Devil Comes as an angel of Light he's not going to come with the you know like a Harry Potter dementor or like the Grim Reaper with a sickle he's going to come as something more beautiful than you can imagine an angel of Light that looks so attractive and the seduction of Christians into false ideologies because of that perceived beauty is something I think we're seeing a lot right now so

my closing thought friends and anti-intellectualism is a huge pit Christians are falling into we have to be Discerning and the only way we can know God's voice is how he's revealed it to us in scripture so let's stay in our Bibles let's read the word of God and certainly not avoid experiences let's not disconnect from our emotions but I have found that the deeper I get into my knowledge of the scriptures the more stable I be become emotionally the deeper My Worship is the more awe I have for God the more I can get to

know him the more in awe and in love with him I am and I get to know him through his word that he's revealed so with that said thank you so much for listening today and as we pursue Christ let's keep a sharp mind a soft heart and a thick skin so pray for me and I will pray for for you no turning right or left will make it through the road that's narrow and the gate that's small don't give up it's going to be it all [Music]