Hi all,
I had been seeking the Father for discernment because of the sense in my spirit that American and world culture was being affected by more than mere ideas and differences in the political and moral realm. I had been praying in the Spirit and thinking on these things, asking, probing, to see and understand.
The Father directed me to I Timothy 4: 1-3, then asked me a question:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving (seducing) spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
Believing these things is part of a seduction process: gradual, a process of deception.
The first thing the Father said was: “Notice he wrote of doctrines of demons. Demons can teach.”
That arrested my attention.
I had read those words many times but had never considered what it says – that demons teach. Demons teach. Wow! Suddenly, there was a series of cascading revelations going on inside me – demons teach! That’s why some differences politically or when talking to someone who doesn’t walk with the Lord feel more difficult, more cemented in to their thinking.
It’s why some Christians who have departed from sound doctrine become so off-balance when they accept ‘Christian’ teachings that are so obviously not scriptural nor logical, nor like our Lord at all. It explains why, in some cases, they become furious if you don’t agree with them, as they have been deceived into thinking they have a higher revelation than anyone else. They have believed not just error, but in some cases, doctrines of demons, seduced away to accept another Jesus, another gospel, another Spirit.
It wasn’t mere ideas; there are people who have heard and believed the teachings of demons. But the idea that out there in our society, in the popular culture, demons are teaching, was a reality I had never considered.
As I moved on from that, I noticed the two examples Paul gave:
Celibacy as a commandment, and commanding not to eat certain foods.
I rolled those two around in my mind, asking the Father what they had in common to be labeled as teachings of demons. He immediately replied: “They are both a perversion of nature.” WOW, that was it! Immediately, I remembered how the Lord in a previous visitation told me this: “If you can receive this, for the most part we function by invitation in the earth, though we retain our rights as Creator.”
I have long taught that this is why miracles in the Bible are miracles involving nature: God choosing nature, Noah’s flood, to judge mankind. The plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Sea, water from a rock. Later with Joshua and Isaiah, the sun standing still and the shadow moving backwards. With Jesus, the calming of wind and waves, walking on water, the two comet or asteroid hits mentioned in The Revelation – all have to do with the Creator showing by creation that He is, in fact, God.
He continued: “Celibacy and commanding to abstain from certain foods are category heads, with many demonic teachings flowing from those core doctrines.” That was it, that’s all He said. But my mind swirled with revelation.
Under the category of celibacy
The first thing most people think about concerning commanding celibacy is, of course, the Roman Catholic church. But that is a category head: Flowing from that ‘big’ demon teaching flow lesser demons teaching things that include all kinds of sexual perversion, specifically that which is against nature.
We know this about demons, however, they entice, but the desire for sin is within man’s flesh. James 1: 14-15 says: “Every person is drawn away of their own lust, and enticed. (demons entice). Then, when lust and enticement conceive desire, it births sin. And when sin is fully mature, it produces death.”
(Notice: There is a ‘gestation period’ where lust (desire for sin) and demons growing within a person. Paul wrote in Romans 13:14: Put on Jesus and don’t think ahead of time how to fulfill the lust of the flesh.)
Any one of us could commit any number of sins, for our earthly bodies are so inclined. And there are sins we commit that do not involve demons at all – we just choose to sin. We could say it this way: Non-believers sin because it is their nature*; Christians sin by choice. *Ephesians 2: 3
But Satan did tempt Jesus in the 3 categories we are given; spirit (worship me), soul (throw yourself down and prove who you are), and body (turn stones to bread). Demons play a huge role in enticing people to sin.
But in 1 Timothy 4, 1 5 we see another level of enticing, the teachings of demons. From this category of celibacy flow teachings involving gender confusion, we see in popular culture around the world. When people believe wrong teachings, combined with having given themselves over to their lusts, that demonic teaching becomes a stronghold marked by anger and a drive for acceptance- because Satan is angry and wants to be accepted as god of this world, and worshipped. Those demons want to be proven right and want all to acknowledge them as right.
Doctrines of demons and food
In Paul’s day, the pagan temples had more meat and wine than they knew what to do with as a result of the offerings the people gave. Their practice was to sell that meat and wine to restaurants and shops adjacent to the temple complex.
I’ve been to Corinth and have seen that the ruins of the central temple are lined on 2 sides like an L with the ruins of restaurants and shops, many of which used to sell excess food from the pagan temple. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in I Corinthians 8 and 10, and also in Romans 14, about the issue of Christians eating food that had previously been sacrificed in the pagan temples.
In each letter, Paul wrote that a person has to decide for themselves whether to eat and drink those things. Some are bothered by pagan roots, like some today are bothered by pagan roots to Christmas and Easter, and some are not. Paul told the Romans: Let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind, and don’t try to force your beliefs on others. Romans 14: 1-13 for example.
Free choice to follow one’s conscience about diet is very different from a teaching of a demon …which demands people not to eat meat, or demanding people be vegetarian. From the demonic teaching commanding to abstain from meat comes the teaching that animals are people too, elevating them to the level of children. They are not. They are animals.
Most translations of I Timothy 4: 1-5 use the word ‘doctrine’ though it can be translated as ‘teaching’. Both are accurate, but by using ‘doctrine’ it reflects a deeper foundational teaching upon which other lesser teachings are built. It means the strongest demons lay out the main core, and lesser demons build on it.
The two doctrines of demons Paul outlines for us, and upon which lesser demons build their teachings, provide the understanding that indeed there is more at work in popular culture than mere differences of opinion. But God is the source of right doctrines, and we will cover those next, including some you may not have considered or even heard taught before. After that, we will close with the doctrines of man.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn