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GIDEON’S 300: WHY A SMALL GROUP OF REAL CHRISTIANS IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN 32,000 PRETENDERS [Part 4: Destroying Spiritual Strongholds]
Now on the same night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it…” [Judges 6:25]
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The official United States population as of today is approximately 332.67 million. According to the Gideon paradigm, in which Gideon’s prospective army to be used against the Midianites starts out at 32,000 but is reduced by God to 300, the reduction in percentage terms is over 99%. Imagine that. God reduces a sizable force of 32,000 warriors to a microscopic 300.
Thus, the actual percentage of the people who made the team—Gideon’s 300—is less than 1%. Technically, it is only .9375%. In terms of the United States population, this greatly reduced force would be equivalent to roughly 3.1 million people (3,118,781.25). In other words, if the Lord wanted to perform another Gideon power play to rout the forces of invading evil, and if He started with the entire U.S. population, He would make such a drastic reduction to arrive at those who qualified for His team that He would only have the equivalent of a mere 3.1 million Americans remaining.
This makes one wonder, of course, what the remainder would be if He started with only those who qualified at the onset as warriors. In other words, after eliminating children, the too young, the too old, and all the others who do not qualify for various reasons, He might start with only a fraction of the U.S. population. Americans between the ages of 20 and 40 are approximately 25% of the populace. If, let’s say, only 75% of these qualify, the Lord would start with about 62 million. Reduced according to the Gideon paradigm, the final fighting force would be only about 600,000. This represents less than a fifth of 1%. Could a minuscule 600,000 Americans perform the necessary work to do what Gideon did?
WICKED EXCEEDINGLY
This reminds me of Abraham’s prayer regarding Sodom and Gomorrah. When the Lord told Abraham that judgment might certainly befall the dwellers of those cities Abraham asked Him, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:23).
“What if fifty righteous people dwell in Sodom?”
“I will spare it.”
“What about forty-five?”
“I will spare it.”
“How about forty?”
“I will spare it.”
“Thirty?”
“I will spare it.”
“Twenty?”
“I will spare it.”
“What if only ten righteous people dwell there?”
“I will spare it.”
It is difficult to gauge what the population of Sodom was but ten people would have to be an extremely small percentage. As it was, God was able to rescue only four people and help them escape. No one else cared. Nobody else wanted to leave. One wonders if even those four wanted to leave. It is safe, to say, therefore, that Sodom had reached a point of total depravity with absolutely no hope of redemption. If the four that escaped represented 1%, then the population of Sodom was 400. If the four represented a fifth of 1%, the total population was 2,000. Of course, it was likely larger than this, maybe much larger. But God never would have destroyed Sodom if only ten righteous people lived there. He would never release His wrath on His own people. He would make a way for them to escape before judgment fell.
These two Biblical accounts tell us two things: (1) Righteous people have a much bigger impact on society than is otherwise supposed or acknowledged. (2) The Lord can do great things with only a few.
AMERICA 2021
Christians have been predicting great judgment upon America for a very long time. It is not any different today. Is it true, however, to say that the country is more depraved now that at other times in the past? Not necessarily. The real history of America involves massive amounts of unreported sin, much of it in very high places. It is often the case that gross sin is legitimized or even recategorized as not sin at all. Sometimes people at the top make decisions that negatively affect millions of people because they have a different agenda that benefits them and no one else. They must thus use excellent propaganda to eliminate suspicion. This is sin of the worst kind but if people don’t recognize it as such the perpetrators go unpunished and are never stopped. The Lord sees it all, however. That’s why He raises up spiritual Gideons.
Much of the sin at various points in history was not seen as sin at the time. Much of past sin is still not seen that way. In reality, God could have judged America many times already. Maybe He has in part. But those calling for outright destruction due to sins of the present are not only out of their tree, they are not considering God’s mercy and compassion, His abundant grace, and the fact that large numbers of righteous people have always lived here and still live here today.
If we define the righteous as those who do the will of God, who can be used of God, who strive to please the Lord, who have 100% trust and confidence in the Lord, and who are spiritually effective in making a positive difference for the better, then it is probably a small number of people percentage wise. But what if it was, as I mentioned previously, only 600,000? Could a mere 600,000 righteous people make a big difference in a nation of 332.67 million?
To answer that we need only look at what Gideon’s 300 did. We can look at the extremely powerful impact Abraham had both in his time and that of his descendants. These men and those comprising the ongoing remnant of Israel were righteous. They acted as the salt of society, as a preservative, and an antiseptic force that enabled a flowing distribution of righteousness throughout society against ubiquitous rot. If not for the righteous it would have been all over when the last of the righteous died off, but Israel never reached that point. No matter how far the nation strayed into sin there was always a faithful portion that stayed true to God. It was because God always found someone to stand up for Him to do the hard thing—the difficult but victorious task—against the forces of evil that always caused evil to be checked and allowed righteousness to make a comeback.
Consider what the young obscure Gideon did in the following passage. Get inspired.
Now on the same night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it; and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night. When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was torn down, and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built. They said to one another, “Who did this thing?” And when they searched about and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash did this thing.” Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which was beside it.” [Judges 6:25-30] [1]
© 2021 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued]
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
WHEN YOUR BELIEFS ARE WRONG BUT YOU INSIST ON THEM ANYWAY
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Can you say cult?
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OBLIVIOUS OF ORIGINS
It is a strange phenomenon. People become convinced of certain things they think are correct and true. They never look at where such beliefs came from or where they originated. To them, the beliefs they espouse are just there. They were always there. They have no creation point. Apparently, somewhere in the distant past (as ascertained in their limited understanding, but likely relatively recent), a particular belief came to be in some otherworldly strange manner and slowly began spreading among a small populace somewhere like an unseen cloud and began entering minds, as a foundational fact, as intangible truth, and took hold on brain cells like a burr on a sock.
No defense was offered against it. No defense was apparently possible. A person had set beliefs, was going about his business one day, and then—boom—a new thought. A new belief. Did they even acknowledge it at the time? No. The person suddenly stopped in his tracks for a second, knowing something happened but not sure what, stared straight ahead at nothing, eyes slightly gazed, with maybe even a slight quizzical look and a cock of the head, and almost as quickly went right back to whatever he was doing, blissfully unaware of what just happened and totally apathetic to the process.
Is that how it happened? Is that how some ridiculous lie got planted in his brain? And how do we know it’s a ridiculous lie? For starters, long before we ever get into testing it against Scripture, and such an approach would not work anyway, because an increasing number of people are becoming all the more illiterate regarding Scripture on the one hand and absolutely hostile to it on the other, the better approach is to compare it against nature. But it appears that won’t work either because so many of these people are disconnected from nature and have no inkling of what nature is and how it works. But if one is able to do this one will see that nature itself often rejects such so-called truth. It doesn’t work there, or likely even exists there. If one applies it there it will either have little or no effect or cause harm, and sometimes great harm. Nature will tell us what works and what doesn’t, though only on a rudimentary natural level.
MENTAL STRONGHOLDS DELETION TREATMENT
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. [2Corinthians 10:3-6]
Humans must eventually grow beyond the law of the jungle and low life living and aspire to higher concepts. But any such higher concept must be beneficial to all or else it is simply a Trojan Horse benefiting a few. Once one puts the brain cells together to figure this out, that there is one standard for a few and another standard for everyone else, then one should be able to eventually comprehend the concept that whatever beliefs become attached within one’s not so bright willing minds which causes one to accept such beliefs as true without question, and act on them continually though the results are either always bad or never work as stated, then one will see that such deceptive beliefs, which start as tiny seeds, arrived surreptitiously straight from the bad guys in control who live according to a standard that always benefits them but hurts, uses, confines, and deceives everyone else.
Whoever can finally see this and get it realizes they must immediately stop believing and acting on such false beliefs with bad or fruitless results, do their best to get all the garbage out of their minds, and start looking for beliefs that are beneficial, good, sound, and loving—beliefs that actually propose we treat other people well, as we would like to be treated—and open our eyes to see the positive benefit of such for all. Unless a person is really messed up he or she will always appreciate being treated with love. Loving is not a means to a specific end necessarily but an action for any moment without an agenda other than blessing another person and helping them in a positive way.
Therefore, a good result that is beneficial to all proves a good belief. Rather than believing stuff that either doesn’t work and never has, is it not far better to believe and act on beliefs that prove beneficial for all, both for individuals and also for communities of individuals? No one can argue against this if they possess a sound coherent mind.
If one is brainwashed, however, or overcome with some false belief that does harm masquerading in the guise of being beneficial, one will never relent until their brainwashing is cured and they are set free from its effect. If they are not actually brainwashed at all but have latched on to a bad belief system and engage in evil behavior of some form to some degree for money, then there’s your second answer regarding why they do it. Sellouts are as seemingly ubiquitous as the willingly deceived.
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” [Luke 16:13]
To summarize: (1) False beliefs are sent from controlling evil ones into unsuspecting minds possessing no appropriate defense in order to get them to believe a lie and act on it because it primarily benefits the evil ones, and (2) False beliefs are sold to people for money. The first benefits the bad guys and the second benefits the bad guys and the sold-out lackeys under their control. So whether one sells out to evil by accepting, believing in, and acting on false beliefs which produce bad results because one is too fearful to stand against them and would rather weakly follow the herd as social lemmings over a cliff, or one accepts false beliefs and acts on them because he gets paid for it and in a few instances some are greatly enriched, the same result happens against those who refuse to abide by or buy into either one.
It used to be that a greater number of people were both smart enough and strong enough to test any strange belief before accepting and acting on it. They wanted to know whether such a belief was good for themselves and their families. Many already know what has always worked and they knew treating people right, being honest, and engaging in good productive work always worked to bring good ends. But over the last few decades an entirely new mass of people have come upon the scene that have foregone their natural intelligence and strength and replaced positive, wholesome, and nurturing foundational beliefs with ridiculous nonsense philosophies spawning corrupt, immoral, and depraved outcomes. Many are too young to see the long term bad results, likely involving exponential growth, which will arrive later more so than at present, though immediate consequences are right before them. They see the bad consequences of the actions, however, not so much as directly tied to the beliefs they espouse and act on, such as their own hate, negative emotional outbursts, and manic attacks against those who oppose them, but the result of resistance by those who refuse such beliefs, which causes the young ones to fight all the more.
Not so long ago, we used to call young people ideologically naïve because they desired a good world where everyone got along. They did their best to practice love and peace as they knew it. This present generation, however, contains a large element engaging in the very opposite. This element engages in collective hate, destruction, evil, extremely foul language, the inability to control their impulses, and an apparent desire to stop at nothing toward the furtherance of their cause. They are much more concerned with strictly adhering to their negative beliefs and cultish practices which refuse any compromise, and attempting to destroy any and all unlike them, rather than engage in positive acts toward their fellow man such as assisting and loving other people.
For example, rather than attempting to right the wrongs of society by, let’s say, doing something good somewhere for one individual, they would rather lash out in evil against a mythical collective group which is causing, in their minds, all the harm. But they never seem to connect that mythical group with the actual group lurking behind the scenes. Instead they take out their wrath on regular people being subjected to the same evil from the high hats running the world. They also accept payment from intermediaries, unable to perceive their upward connections, and sell themselves to do evil. It should be clear that many of these people are suffering from severe cognitive dissonance. They are expending their rage on the wrong people.
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
Imagine all the completely unknown and essentially invisible people who never make the headlines that spend their lives doing little acts of love here and there to help others. This group actually comprises the majority. The evil group of wealthy controllers is actually exceptionally miniscule with regard to the earth’s overall population. Those who do evil at their behest, whether they know it or not, for money or not, are still a small percentage regarding the world’s population.
The great majority of the world’s population are simply obscure people trying to survive and do well who mean no harm and actually help one another, though for many it may be understated and maybe not so hands-on. How do we know this? Because this world is still being held together. If the evil people doing all the destruction of the present comprised the majority it would be the end the world. It would likely mean the end of humanity. This has come relatively close to happening before in ancient history. But the cause was not necessarily natural events but man’s inhumanity to man, which was driven by hate and followed with destruction. There is a perfect example of this in modern times when an American president gave the go ahead to use atomic weapons to obliterate 130,000 defenseless Japanese civilians comprised mostly of women, children, and old men who presented no wartime threat. Due to radiation sickness and many of the injured dying later, deaths doubled by the end of that year. Many of the survivors suffered greatly the rest of their lives. It was pure barbarism on a massive scale. These unfortunate people were seen as evil and worthy of destruction. Anyone venture to guess where the real evil resided?
Whenever one sees such hatred for other people and great destruction in immense proportions, one must know that very evil forces are causing it and that includes those in overt positions of great power. These people know how to murder millions (and have) and cause destruction in the trillions (and have) but are also excellent propaganda artists who know exactly how to put a good face on their evil work and transform it into something noble and honorable in the minds of men. It is not. It is neither noble nor honorable and the only way they get away with it is by convincing good people to accept phony explanations, adopt evil beliefs disguised as culturally acceptable, and act on their behalf to do their bidding. It’s a confidence game. They are con men. Historically, they are always able to deceive and thereby convince the majority, largely through simple fear. It’s easy when one controls the major media. They will also use force, of course, on the few strong and freedom-loving willing to make an initial stand, but only enough to make their schemes work. It often does not take many threats to force compliance and the few stragglers are dealt with in the usual ways.
However, they would much rather indoctrinate people and get them to act on such deceptions on their own, and turn their evil enterprises into counterfeit noble causes seemingly benefitting all, when the implementing of such causes actually only benefits the ruling cult and its sycophants, and institutes an obliteration of freedom for everyone else.
Why are people so uninformed and fearful that they keep falling for this? Why do so many religious leaders, politicians, and academics ostensibly preach love and peace, and push all-encompassing plans to supposedly help the masses, but always end up supporting hate, destruction, and murder as a necessary component of such plans? How can they do both at the same time?
The answer is they can’t. In their duplicitous minds, any means justifies their end goals. They have become brainwashed that they are good, that they do good things, and that they support good causes, but in reality, though they may engage in such on the surface or within their small social circle, they also stand with the evil ones doing evil. The evil in their lives is thus far bigger and more real, though existing beyond a fake-out curtain which serves well to hide their true intent, than any hypothetical good they project, whether they are intelligent enough or honest enough to see it. What matters more, of course, is how many others see it. And what has now been made quite obvious, based on the great evil they not only get away with, but convince an apparent plurality to agree with and support, the majority never sees it. And not only that, the majority has been conditioned, primarily through fear, to never acknowledge it.
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
If one is going to actually believe in love and practice it, one will have to rid his mind of all hate. We know what hate is. It is easy to spot. We know it by hateful actions. Love is the same. We know love by the actions of love. One cannot hate and love at the same time. One must choose to do one or the other. There is no “I hate a little but mostly I love.” No. If one hates they have been consumed by it and it drives out the actual ability to love. One has to work at being loving. It is not easy, not because it doesn’t possibly come easy, but because the world is so filled with hate anyone who loves and strives for a loving world is seen as strange. It also make haters feel personally uncomfortable because they know they are not like that (loving) and don’t want to be made aware of it. It is personally convicting to such people when they see others doing good and striving for good outcomes. Love always starts with the individual.
But again, for those who are simply trying to make their lives work the right way, those who comprise the majority in this world, they show naturally that love is not so hard. Quick question: How many people do you know who do evil to others in order to get by in the world and how many do you know who are doing their best to live right without doing evil to others in order to get by? Most people can see that good people in the natural sphere are those who do the latter. This comprises the majority. This means it is only an evil few who live evil lives and use others for their wealth and power. They are liars, cheats, murderers, and thieves. In time they rise to higher positions of power and control in the world through these very means. They do it by stepping on others. As they rise they have less concern for others. Most people, however, are not like that so they never rise to such heights. Most people want no part of engaging in such evil practices just to gain high control and power and receive the monetary and material benefits thereof. They would rather try to do good. They would rather never give themselves over to such evil so they choose not to engage in such behavior. Their consciences are in good working order. Also, they seem to have eternity on their minds.
It should be clear then, that the unknown humans at the very top of this world in possession of most of the wealth, power, and control are evil. This explains the great evil in the world. This great evil does not come from regular people of sound mind who strive to do the right thing. It comes from only a few who have dedicated their lives to serving the devil.
They hate the Lord Jesus with all their heart.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [Revelation 21:1-8][1]
© 2020 by R.J. Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
STRONGHOLDS (Don’t Confuse Me With Facts!)
GREAT AWAKENING ALERT
In light of my most recent post, What Was In The Village? (link), many excellent comments were made in answering that question. For those who haven’t read it I encourage you to do so, and suggest you read the comments as well.
In the following two articles listed below, I further identify what was in the village of Bethsaida in the Lord’s time when He had to lead a blind man outside of town in order to heal him. There was something located in Bethsaida that made it not possible for the healing to take place there.
Many of us can identify with this phenomenon. The hindrance is much closer than many of us realize. The following articles reveal this. I strongly suggest we read these articles both for the knowledge therein, but also to get free and set others free.
There is much the Lord Jesus wants to do and can do, but many think He has blown them off or won’t answer their prayers. In reality, Strongholds are present in places where we have grown comfortable and must be destroyed in order to first eliminate the deception regarding the Lord’s intentions (or perceived non-intentions), and secondly, eliminate the actual hindrance that keeps the Lord from working.
Once a particular Stronghold is identified, we can do battle against it, but it’s difficult to fight against an unseen enemy or one we do not even know exists.
In others words, if we want the miracles we seek, we’ll have to take the Lord by the hand, let Him lead us out of Bethsaida (in our blind condition), and go with Him to a spiritual location where He has full authority…
LINKS:
STRONGHOLDS (Don’t Confuse Me With Facts!) Part 1
STRONGHOLDS (Don’t Confuse Me With Facts!) Part 2
© 2015 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
STRONGHOLDS (Don’t Confuse Me With Facts!) Part 2
The fortifications of hell include the fortresses of false mindsets and lies that keep people in prison. Many are deceived by false ideas that become strongholds. These strongholds must be marched on, attacked, overwhelmed in battle, and destroyed to set people free. This can only be accomplished through spiritual means. The apostle Paul continued his narrative to the Corinthians as follows:
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. [2 Corinthians 10:5-6]
We can plainly see that Paul is speaking of false ideas that make up a false mindset or even a false religion, and that such things must be destroyed. Speculations (“Imaginations” in the KJV) comes from the Greek word logismos. It means, “a reckoning or reasoning” actually hostile to faith in the Lord Jesus, as with the self-explanatory lofty thing. Part of the apostle’s mission is taking every thought captive, to imprison every false idea, to destroy every false argument, and to punish all disobedience.
The point is to subject all thinking to Messiah. The mind of Christ is pure and correct. The minds of His disciples must be as well. His code is perfect. His teachings are complete and pure. However, because false ideas and lies masquerade as truth and people are brought under their power through deception, a war scenario fits perfectly. The Lord, for example, destroyed the devil’s arguments during His temptation in the wilderness by effectively using the Word of God. The devil was using the Word as well, but had deceptively corrupted it. He had amended it to include lies and a false application. He built strongholds into it.
This is what corrupt ministers do as well. They adulterate the pure Word of God. They do not teach or live out the pure Word as the Lord Jesus and the apostles did. We have a written record of the Lord’s teachings and actions, as well as those of the apostles and first-century Church. It is not that difficult to make comparisons between then and now. When the Lord spoke the Word, lies were exposed and strongholds came down. The real Word of God is completely pure and very, very powerful:
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. [Hebrews 4:12]
The mature believer is able to minister the Word of God properly in the tearing down of strongholds. The Word can penetrate not only thought processes but also intentions. The apostle Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, as were all the original early believers. It was not possible to spread the Gospel as far as they did and as fast as they did without the ability to war in the spirit in this way. By the power of God, and with the Lord working with them, everything within and among the enemy’s camp was revealed.
It is obvious that many people refused to relinquish their revealed falsehoods, however. Instead, being incensed, they would turn the spiritual battle into a purely physical event and beat or even murder the believers. By doing this, they reinforced their false belief systems and actually strengthened their road to hell.
Yet, those who subjected all their thoughts and ideas to God were made aware of their deception and strongholds. By an act of their will, they allowed the Light of God to shine upon and within them and it exposed their darkness. Their darkness was consequently chased away and they were cleansed. Without the Light of God, they were unaware of the false concepts and ideas implanted in their minds.
However, they allowed the Word of God to be spoken. They listened, they heard, they believed, and they embraced truth, confessing their salvation. This process can be summed up in the following verse:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. [Romans 10:17]
People who have not subjected themselves fully to the authority of the Lord Jesus have residing within themselves impure codes of living, false concepts, and lies masquerading as truth. These things are truly very strong fortresses. There are so many false belief systems in the world it is a wonder the planet is not even darker.
The devil has formulated lies and darkness into what appears to the deceived as truth.
It is only the Word of God that is able to cut to the heart of such false ideas. As warriors attacking a strong military fortress, real believers must continue to fight against all untruths, giving no quarter, and checking every section until all is secure. The deceived will be set free in no other way, and that, of course, includes all of us.
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” [John 8:36] [1]
© 2012 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved [Part 2 of 2]
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
STRONGHOLDS (Don’t Confuse Me With Facts!) Part 1
Truth can be very offensive. People formulate their perception of the world by the choices they make or those made for them.
The New Testament talks about the concept of strongholds, and this concept is seldom more applicable than when it involves a person’s understanding of truth. Everyone has a code to live by, but of course, not every code is good. Of codes that do appear to be good, most are not pure. If an individual lives according to an impure code, the flaws within the code will eventually appear as flaws within his life.
Unreal Christianity is loaded with such flaws. To quote from my book:
WHERE HAVE ALL THE TEACHERS GONE? (LONG TIME MISSING)
Much church teaching is about things other than the pure Word of God. It involves specialized doctrine which is often in opposition to that of other churches and even Holy Writ, and is designed for gaining control and unity within a congregation. Such schooling will never result in the necessary graduation rates of spiritually mature believers required to fulfill our commission.
The task of the New Testament teacher is to impart that which the written Word of God contains. He does not pick and choose. He shows no partiality toward certain scriptures. The Lord did not place him in the body to express denominational slants or biased doctrinal positions based on improper understandings or traditional outlooks. Since it is obvious that Christianity is still filled to the gills with doctrinal error and silly statutes, it is evident that real teachers are not wanted at the party. Anytime God sends a person to divide truth from error, he or she usually gets run off or becomes an MIA. Truth becomes the victim and error is protected, just as it happened with the Lord and Barabbas. [1]
Some flaws are obvious. Most flaws are not. Anyone can be deceived or can deceive himself into living according to a flawed code, and thus not be aware of the inherent impurity. Yet, even if one becomes aware of a flaw within his personal or Christian code, it is often discounted or dismissed.
This could be due to cultural influence or familial allegiance. It could even be due to personal stubbornness, since many people will hold fast to false concepts or wrongheaded ideas after such things are pointed out, usually because such a thing is perceived as an attack on their character or intelligence.
Sometimes people might think or even know something within their code is wrong, but have no respect for the person or belief system that reveals it. Whatever the case might be, a mental or spiritual stronghold within an individual that is in opposition to truth is a detriment to said individual by limiting his freedom and clouding his understanding.
What follows is the one New Testament passage that reveals this truth. Since so many believers have been taught from the King James Version or derivatives, and since it is from the KJV that the word stronghold was initially derived, I will list it first, followed by the same passage from the NASV, and from which all other passages in this article are taken:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)… [2 Corinthians 10:3-4 KJV]
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. [2 Corinthians 10:3-4 NASV]
In modern English, the words strong holds become fortresses. These are from the Greek word ochuroma, which appears only once in the NT and derives from a root that means, “To fortify, through the idea of holding safely.” It is defined in the physical as a castle, a stronghold, or a fortress—hence, a strong military fortification.
However, in the sense that Paul uses, it is (1) anything on which one relies (1a) of the arguments and reasonings by which a disputant endeavors to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent.[2] In the Scriptural passage written by Paul, the teaching apostle uses the illustration of a powerful military fortification in referring to a false concept, idea, or false argument.
The Lord Jesus used a similar method when He stated,
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” [Matthew 16:18] [3]
Here we have, again, the illustration of gates, or bars, or a strong prison. It is the rock of revelation that the Lord Jesus is indeed the Messiah, and it is upon this rock that the Lord will build his community. In addition, the gates of Hades will not prevail against or overpower the Church. Death will not hold the Lord. He will die but will not stay dead and will break out of death, and subsequently lead all of those who recognize Him as Messiah out of death as well.
In this case, hell, or actually Hades, is a real place. It is the place of the dead, apparently in the very heart of this planet. However, Hades is also among us in the here and now, in that spiritual death among living human beings is rampant.
It is the community of the Lord Jesus, filled with and empowered by His very Spirit that moves against all strongholds and destroys them, especially the stronghold of death when an individual comes to salvation and freedom in the Lord.
© 2012 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [Part 1 of 2]
[1] Page 118 Real Christianity, The Nature of the Church © 2001 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[2] UBS Greek Dictionary; Louw-Nida Lexicon
[3] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
The devil has formulated lies and darkness into what appears to the deceived as truth. It is only the pure Word of God that is able to cut to the heart of such false ideas. [Excerpt from Part 2]
