Chapters 8 to 9 - Christ’s Teachings and Today’s Christianity

- 45 - a spirit of God Timothy had been commissioned by Paul, through the laying on of hands, to teach the gospel of Salvation and had been sent forth on that mission. Because of the many difficulties he encountered in the performance of his mission as a teacher, however, he had become discouraged and despondent. If you compare the workings of the spirits in the early days of the Christian era with what you teach about the subject today, you will see how far you have strayed from the truth also in this matter. • The spirit of God will not submit to being used by mortals at their will. It comes to those whose inner lives have rendered them worthy of it and who desire it with heart and soul – without the intervention of bishops and their anointing ritual. T h e s p i r i t o f G o d ‘ b l o w s w h e r e i t w a n t s ’ a n d n o t w h e r e h u m a n s w a n t i t t o . Before Christ brought Redemption, the spirit of darkness pervaded all mankind, exerting thereon its sinister influence. This you can see from the many cases of possession mentioned in the Scriptures when they speak of the healings performed by Christ. In other cases, the victims suffered severe physical injuries at the hands of the evil spirits; thus, you read in the gospels of people who had been struck dumb, deaf, blind, or epileptic under their influence. At times it was a single demon that fell upon its victim, at other times a host of demons. ‘Our numbers are legion,’ was the admission of one of them. Even if the majority of the people were not so palpably affected by the Powers of Evil as were those who suffered bodily torments at the hands of demons, nevertheless even in their case the influence of evil was such as to prevent them from seeing the truth and the path of righteousness and to harden their hearts. However, not even the Redemption has wrought any change in the influence of the evil spirits upon those people who by reason of their lack of faith continue, voluntarily, to be slaves to such influence. Satan exerts his power, now as then, upon all who belong to him at heart. • There are many cases of persons possessed by demons also today. You call them mentally deranged (Schizophrenic), but in all cases where madness is not due to a diseased brain, they are possessed. For those, however, who return to faith in God and obedience to His word, the power of evil over them was broken by the Redemption. Of course, even they must continue to fight and require, as Paul says, the ‘armour of God’, that they may prevail against the cunning assaults of the Devil. Ephesians 6: 11-12: ‘For they do not battle against flesh and blood, but against supernatural powers and forces, against the rulers of darkness, against the hosts of evil spirits in the universe.’

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