Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why Exorcists are Animals

exorcismChristians seldom talk about “blaspheming angels.” But they should be familiar with the practice because Jude closely associates the action with false teaching. To keep the church pure, those who have walked up the hill of calvary believing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ must contend with those who “blaspheme the glorious ones.” To ensure his readers grasp the point he is making, Jude goes onto recount the battle between Michael and Satan over body of Moses.

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” – Jude 9

New Testament scholars believe Jude lifted this story form the book of Moses, The other historical mention of Moses’s death occurs in Deuteronomy 34:6; the passage does not include this story. Sadly, the section of the Book of Moses that contained this heavenly battle has been destroyed by arid conditions and the unlovingly sands of time. Though we do not have the original text from which this story came, we can be confident of its trustworthiness for it has found its way into the Bible. In addition to drawing from their own experiences, biblical writes frequently pulled from other historical sources and documents. Examine the books of Luke, Acts, and the Old Testament books such as 1 and 2 Samuel.

What does all this crazy story mean?

Jude includes the story to illustrate the folly of the false teachers of his day. When Satan comes for the body of Moses accusing the great prophet of his heinous sins of murder and rebellion against God, the archangel, Michael comes charging to Moses’s defense. Michael had every right to battle Satan for God had appointed him commander over his angels armies, instructing him to defend the nation of Israel (Dan 12:1; Enoc 20:5). But despite his high ranking, Michael did not presume to battle Satan in his own power. He appealed to Jesus saying, “The Lord rebuke you.”

The false teachers blasphemed angles when they assumed they had the internal power to rebuke the spiritual world.

Christians should not fear the demonic. Colossians 1:13-14 reports that we have been freed from Satan’s power:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Christians do not have to walk in fear. And they do not have to fear spiritual encounters with the demonic for they have access to the power of Christ. They can evangelize demon controlled persons, trusting in the unwavering power of Jesus to conquer sin. Paul modeled such dependence upon Christ when he confronted a demon saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” The text goes on to report, “And it came out that very hour (Acts16:18b).”Christians should not fear the demons and angels.

But they should not presume they can control them. Those who prance about rebuking demons in their own authority run afoul of God. They offend God when they assert that they can cast out demons who cause sickness, who dwell in houses, and who control people’s minds. Jude labels the exorcism practices that dominate much of Christendom as being nothing more than the unholy “blaspheming of angels.”

The idea of man-based exorcism does not descend from heaven. It ascends from the dark depths of human nature. Peter reminds us, “They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption.” Those who claim to be the most spiritual among us are truly the earthliest among us. Jude concludes,

But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Those who claim power over the demonic reveal themselves to be spiritual charlatans, peddling spiritual elixirs from their broken theological wagons. Lacking wisdom, they run madly about like deer in heat slapping people with crosses and Bible. They know nothing of the life changing power of Christ. The power they do know is the power from within which feeds the flesh’s passion for greed, pride, and sensuality. Ultimately,  the fate of these exorcists parallels the fate of the dumb deer unrestrained by reason; the false teachers become spiritual roadkill. They are destroyed by what they understand, their sin.

To experience the divine, men and women do not need to look within for the power to overcome demons. They need to look without to the hill of Calvary and to the cross of Jesus Christ which rolls away sin. Have you looked without?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Identifying Fake Christians: Teachers of Dreams

spy blogSatanic spies have infiltrated the church, intent on wrecking the peace, unity, and doctrines of God’s people. While Bunyan’s Christian saw Formalist and Hypocrisy jump over the wall of salvation onto the narrow way, the average Christian seldom encounters such open hostility to the kingdom of God. Those who enter the church without passing through the hill of calvary at first appear to be as devoted to God as those who entered by the narrow gate.
Aware of this troubling reality, Jude tells Christians how to discern between true and disingenuous faith. Those who serve Satan reveal their true character by appealing to dreams to encourage sexual immorality, to deny the authority of Jesus, and to blaspheme angels.
Though most modern Christian would look crossed at anyone who said they slept with their Bible under their pillow and awoke the next morning with a special message from God, dreams remained a valid means of divine communication in the biblical era. God communicated to Joseph and the wisemen through dreams. Daniel and Joseph also received communications from God while sleeping. The satanic spies of Jude’s day did not dance off into imaginary land when they spoke of dreams. They erred not in claiming to have access to God’s word. They erred because they misrepresented God’s word. They took God’s clear commands about purity and obedience and twisted them into stating the opposite. Sexual sin was now licensed, encouraged, and permitted. The deity of Jesus was doubted. Feelings, human experience, and internal emotion became the defining marks of the false teachers. They prefaced their statements with, “Thus said the Lord” and then proceed to devote to deny the clear revelation of the Scriptures. Jeremiah laments

How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. (Jer. 23:26-27).

Not all who claim to know God’s word truly know it. Not ever pastor, parachurch leader, and professor who proclaims to speak for Jesus speaks for Jesus. Many claim to be speaking for him while allowing young men and women to engage in sexual sin. They say God would not give us urges if he did not want us to exercise them. They give license to divorce, abortion, and homosexuality as well. The false teachers must license and encourage sexual sin for “sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality” are the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19). They lack the power of God found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to overcome their own sin. Thus, they indulge in sexual sin and encourage others to do so for they know nothing else.
When they deny God’s sexual ethic, they also undermine the whole gospel. Jesus restricted sexual expression to the marriage bed stating,

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Matt 19:4-6).

If Jesus misunderstood God’s sexual ethic, humanity has little reason to trust Jesus salvific teachings. He ceases to be the God, man who holds the universe together. He becomes a inspiring but somewhat antiquated religious sage. The false teachers destroy the authority of the Gospel, proclaiming God to be evolving.
Such denials feed upon logical insecurity. The Christian faith does not evolve from age to age. Jude encourages men and women to contend for the faith because it was “once for all delivered to the saints.” Any message from God will align with all of the earlier messages from God. John 15:26-27 reminds its readers that,

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

God works in unison with himself. The Father, the Son, and Spirit all promote the same message. To pit one against the other in the name of relevance, culture revolution, or love is to defame the very word of God. Those who say “Thus says the Lord” and then proceed to deny the content of the Bible have never walked up the hill of Calvary and repented of their sins.

Have you entered by the narrow gate? What comes after, “Thus says the Lord?”

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

The Coronavirus: A Parable For the Church

Virus Blog

The Coronavirus has captured the world’s attention. It reminds us that everyone from the young to the old, from the blue collar worker to the college professor, and from the minimum wage earner to the CEO can be dropped into the grave by the tiniest of organisms. Death scares us.

But the world has focused upon the Coronavirus for another reason. The virus has tested China’s ability to handle a major health crisis. The nation claimed to have learned the lessons extracted from the SARS epidemic and the Bird Flu. Yet despite China’s promises to do better and her ability to wield the massive amounts of resources needed to create a hospital in 10 days, the Western press has found the nation’s management of the coronavirus to be less than inspiring.

The New York Post reported that China had discovered the germs in December and then hid the outbreak from the international community. According to CNN, the news of the virus reached the world because Dr. Li innocently and then boldly talked about the virus with other doctors and the press in an effort to protect humanity. The Wuhan police charged Dr. Li and several others with low level crimes for “spreading rumors online.” China also placed a gag order on the researchers who first identified the virus. on As late as January 8, 2020, China’s government continued to withhold vital information from the U.S. Center of Disease Control that revealed the virus had become more contagious. Though the nation possessed the resources, manpower, and technology to address the crisis, China still lacked the transparency, the ethics, and the humility needed to effectively address this latest medical challenge. According to the international community, China had not internalized the lessons of the past. Though the nation knew another epidemic would come, she was not prepared for it.

As China, the church also knows that viruses will come, testing their spiritual preparedness. Jude encouraged his readers to

Remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit (17b-19).

Though scholars have failed to discover the specific prophecy Jude has referenced, we know Jude has accurately represented the teaching of the apostles. Paul often warned the church about future spiritual virus in his pastoral letters (1 Tim 4:3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5). Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29-31 summarized his view. Paul said, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” The apostle John concurred writing, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” The apostles new wolves, antichrist, and virus would come into the church. The church must prepare accordingly, remembering that no amount of growth, goodwill, or resources can keep germs away. They will come. Will we be ready?

To prepare for the next spiritual virus that will descend upon our church, we must capitalize on the times of peace. Jude provided his readers with direction for such preparation. He wrote, “keep yourselves in the love of God.” While such terminology sounds comforting, it still begged the question of how. How do we keep ourselves in God’s love? Jude gave us three phrases that will guide our preparation.

First, Jude told his audience to “build yourselves up in your most holy faith.” The phrase “build yourselves up” means to build on another’s foundation. More specifically, we are to build our faith on the teaching and testimony of the prophets and the apostles who delivered to us the faith once delivered for all (Eph 2:19-21). To prepare for the next spiritual virus, Christian need to be regularly studying the word and listening to the word preached. Believers who neglect the preaching of the gospel will not know truth and can easily be infected by false teaching. The best antidote for error is a gross familiarity with the Scriptures. For this reason, congregations must stand ready to remove pastors who fail to preach the Scriptures well.  The careless pastor destroys the church’s immune system and prepares the church for spiritual doom. Likewise the believer who neglects the preaching of the Bible and personal study cannot help but be destroyed when error infects his blood stream. Those who survive the spiritual pandemics of their age build their lives upon the faith once delivered for all.

Second, those who are prepared for the next round of spiritual error pray: “praying in the Holy Spirit.” The author E.M. Bounds noted, “Prayer and devotion are united as soul and body are united as life and the heart are united. There is no real prayer without devotion, no devotion without prayer.”  Many Christians lack joy, hope, peace, and love simply because they do not pray. James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” James does not advocate for the health and wealth gospel, telling us that if we ask hard enough we will get everything we want. He notes that “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions (4:3).” Prayers can be selfish and ungodly. Thus, John tells that we must ask for things “according to his will (1 John 1:14).” We must ask for God to grow our faith, to increase our patience, to provide for our health and material needs, knowing that God promises to care for us. Indeed prayer is a powerful and essential tool in the believer’s tool belt. James reminds us that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

God works through prayer. He has ordained all that is to come to pass. He knows what he will do before we pray. Yet, he still works through prayer. I do not fully understand this paradigm. But God saves the Israelites because Moses prayed. He takes Jonah from the belly of the fish because he prayed. He saves Hezekiah because he prayed (2 Kings 2:20). God either answers our requests or he changes our heart, providing us with the peace of God as Jesus experienced in the garden of Gethsemane. Though prayer God blesses us and changes us and transforms our church into his image.

If we want to be ready to stand firm when viruses hit, friends be praying. Set aside time at night, in your car, or in the morning to pray. Create lists, use apps, keep a notebook. The method does not matter. The praying matters. Prayer is no trivial thing. It essential to the Christian life. John Bunyan powerfully said, “You then are not a Christian if you are not a praying person (57).”

And if we do not pray we evidence a sickly dependence upon ourselves or a lack of faith. Those who know God is there life source as revealed in Scripture pray.

Lastly, we must look to the future. Jude wrote that believers wait “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” To expose virus takes courage as Dr. Li exemplified. He spoke when few others would, understanding the implications of covering up the coronavirus. Christians who are prepared for the next spiritual virus also understand the future. They know Christ will come back and that nothing in this world with devils filled can undo them. They do not fear correcting error, standing for unpopular truth, and the hate of their neighbors. The believer knows the outcome of the future. Nothing a false teacher or government does can separate him or her from the loving power of Christ. Their eternal destiny remains firm.

The coronavirus exposed the weaknesses of the China. What will the next spiritual virus reveal about your heart and about your church? Are you studying the word, praying, and gazing towards the future? Are you ready for the next spiritual virus?