Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. Then the Lord said to Jacob, “GO BACK to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”…If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you. –Genesis 31:2-3, 42 (NIV)–
Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice…Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”…That night DAVID MADE GOOD HIS ESCAPE…When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. –1 Samuel 18:10-11; 19:1-3, 10, 18 (NIV)–
Dr. Susan Forward, Toxic Parents (Bantam Books, 1989), ch. 3.
Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments (Banner of Truth, 1965), 2.5.
William Gouge, Building a Godly Home, vol. 1 (RHB, 2013), chs. 11-12.
Part 1 refers to Charles Finney’s LecturesonSystematicTheology. Part 3 refers to Leonard Ravenhill’s WhyRevivalTarries. Part 4 preaches against the overly simplified FourSpiritualLaws tract by Campus Crusade for Christ (8:00). He refers to Watchman Nee’s TheNormalChristianLife.
Hell walks the earth His name is pain I swear to God I’ve seen him He’s no stranger to me I know him well
I’ll write your name into the stars We all have Hell at our backs ready to take us Salvation for these many scars We all have dreams at night we’re scared to speak of
They say everything happens for a reason and we all have purpose here Can you tell me what this all means and why God am I here? We are all the same We fight the same fight with different faces in different places Demons by other names, they haunt us at night with different faces in different places
If all roads lead home, then home is pain I swear to God I’ve been there This place gets stranger by the day Am I in Hell?
You’ve taken this a step too far We all have Hell at our backs ready to take us We need you staying where you are We all have dreams at night we’re scared to speak of
They say everything happens for a reason and we all have purpose here Can you tell me what this all means and why God am I here? We are all the same We fight the same fight with different faces in different places Demons by other names, they haunt us at night with different faces in different places
If all roads lead home, then home is pain I swear to God I’ve been there This place gets stranger by the day Am I in Hell?
We all fight for peace of mind We all fight for peace of mind
–A Plea for Purging, “A Fight for Peace”–
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THE FIVE ARTICLES OF REMONSTRANCE.
FIRST ARTICLE.
Conditional Predestination.—God has immutably decreed, from eternity, to save those men who, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, believe in Jesus Christ, and by the same grace persevere in the obedience of faith to the end; and, on the other hand, to condemn the unbelievers and unconverted (John 3:36). Election and condemnation are thus conditioned by foreknowledge, and made dependent on the foreseen faith or unbelief of men.
SECOND ARTICLE.
Universal Atonement.—Christ, the Saviour of the world, died for all men and for every man, and his grace is extended to all. His atoning sacrifice is in and of itself sufficient for the redemption of the whole world, and is intended for all by God the Father. But its inherent sufficiency does not necessarily imply its actual efficiency. The grace of God may be resisted, and only those who accept it by faith are actually saved. He who is lost, is lost by his own guilt (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2).
The Arminians agree with the orthodox in holding the doctrine of a vicarious or expiatory atonement, in opposition to the Socinians; but they soften it down, and represent its direct effect to be to enable God, consistently with his justice and veracity, to enter into a new covenant with men, under which pardon is conveyed to all men on condition of repentance and faith. The immediate effect of Christ’s death was not the salvation, but only the salvability of sinners by the removal of the legal obstacles, and opening the door for pardon and reconciliation. They reject the doctrine of a limited atonement, which is connected with the supralapsarian view of predestination, but is disowned by moderate Calvinists, who differ from the Arminians in all other points. Calvin himself says that Christ died sufficienter pro omnibus, efficaciter pro electis.
THIRD ARTICLE.
Saving Faith.—Man in his fallen state is unable to accomplish any thing really and truly good, and therefore also unable to attain to saving faith, unless he be regenerated and renewed by God in Christ through the Holy Spirit (John 15:5).
FOURTH ARTICLE.
Resistible Grace.—Grace is the beginning, continuation, and end of our spiritual life, so that man can neither think nor do any good or resist sin without prevening, co-operating, and assisting grace. But as for the manner of co-operation, this grace is not irresistible, for many resist the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51).
FIFTH ARTICLE.
The Uncertainty of Perseverance.—Although grace is sufficient and abundant to preserve the faithful through all trials and temptations for life everlasting, it has not yet been proved from the Scriptures that grace, once given, can never be lost. On this point the disciples of Arminius went further, and taught the possibility of a total and final fall of believers from grace. They appealed to such passages where believers are warned against this very danger, and to such examples as Solomon and Judas. They moreover denied, with the Roman Catholics, that any body can have a certainty of salvation except by special revelation.
These five points the Remonstrants declare to be in harmony with the Word of God, edifying and, as far as they go, sufficient for salvation. They protest against the charge of changing the Christian Reformed religion, and claim toleration and legal protection for their doctrine.
Shut up! Don’t say another word! I know what you are And I know what you do
Lying is the name of the game in process Lying is the name of the game you play Lying is the name of the game in process Lying is the name of the game
You fraud I can see right trough you Liar I won’t fall into your trap
The game is over I win and you lose The game is over I win and you lose this time
Can’t believe a word you say Not a word you say is true Can’t believe a word you say, you liar Not a word you say is true, you fraud
The game is over now You liar I won’t believe in your lies
–Selfmindead, “Liar”–
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Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and UNSTABLE PEOPLE TWIST TO THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION, as they do also the rest of THE SCRIPTURES.
–2 PETER 3:15-16 (NKJV)–
THE fearful, and UNBELIEVING, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, SHALL HAVE THEIR PART IN THE LAKE WHICH BURNETH WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE: which is the second death.
–REVELATION 21:8 (KJV)–
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and THE DEAD WERE JUDGED OUT OF THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN THE BOOKS, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and THEY WERE JUDGED EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. 14 AND DEATH AND HELL WERE CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE. This is the second death. 15 AND WHOSOEVER WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE WAS CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE.
–REVELATION 20:11-15 (KJV)–
The utter destruction of the devil’s kingdom very properly leads to an account of the day of judgment, which will determine every man’s everlasting state; and we may be assured there will be a judgment when we see the prince of this world is judged, John 16:11. This will be a great day, the great day, when all shall appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. The Lord help us firmly to believe this doctrine of the judgment to come. It is a doctrine that made Felix tremble. Here we have a description of it, where observe, 1. We behold the throne, and tribunal of judgment, great and white, very glorious and perfectly just and righteous. The throne of iniquity, that establishes wickedness by a law, has no fellowship with this righteous throne and tribunal. 2. The appearance of the Judge, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who then puts on such majesty and terror that the earth and the heaven flee from his face, and there is no place found for them; there is a dissolution of the whole frame of nature, 2 Peter 3:10. 3. The persons to be judged (Revelation 20:12): The dead, small and great; that is, young and old, low and high, poor and rich. None are so mean but they have some talents to account for, and none so great as to avoid the jurisdiction of this court; not only those that are found alive at the coming of Christ, but all who have died before; the grave shall surrender the bodies of men, hell shall surrender the souls of the wicked, the sea shall surrender the many who seemed to have been lost in it. 4. The rule of judgment settled: The books were opened. What books? The books of God’s omniscience, who is greater than our consciences, and knows all things (there is a book of remembrance with him both for good and bad); and the book of the sinner’s conscience, which, though formerly secret, will now be opened. And another book shall be opened–the book of the scriptures, the statute-book of heaven, the rule of life. This book is opened as containing the law, the touchstone by which the hearts and lives of men are to be tried. This book determines matter of right; the other books give evidence of matters of fact. Some, by the other book, called the book of life, understand the book of God’s eternal counsels; but that does not seem to belong to the affair of judgment: in eternal election God does not act judicially, but with absolute sovereign freedom. 5. The cause to be tried; and that is, the works of men, what they have done and whether it be good or evil. By their works men shall be justified or condemned; for though God knows their state and their principles, and looks chiefly at these, yet, being to approve himself to angels and men as a righteous God, he will try their principles by their practices, and so will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges. 6. The issue of the trial and judgment; and this will be according to the evidence of fact, and rule of judgment. All those who have made a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell, shall then be condemned with their infernal confederates, cast with them into the lake of fire, as not being entitled to eternal life, according to the rules of life laid down in the scripture; but those whose names are written in that book (that is, those that are justified and acquitted by the gospel) shall then be justified and acquitted by the Judge, and shall enter into eternal life, having nothing more to fear from death, or hell, or wicked men; for these are all destroyed together. Let it be our great concern to see on what terms we stand with our Bibles, whether they justify us or condemn us now; for the Judge of all will proceed by that rule. Christ shall judge the secrets of all men according to the gospel. Happy are those who have so ordered and stated their cause according to the gospel as to know beforehand that they shall be justified in the great day of the Lord!
–MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY ON REVELATION 20:11-15–
Death himself is now abolished, and the place for separate spirits no longer needful. All dead bodies and separated souls being rejoined, and no more separation of bodies and souls by death to take place, consequently the existence of these things is no farther necessary. The first death consisted in the separation of the soul from the body for a season; the second death in the separation of body and soul from God for ever. The first death is that from which there may be a resurrection; the second death is that from which there can be no recovery. By the first the body is destroyed during time; by the second, body and soul are destroyed through eternity. Only those who had continued faithful unto death were taken to heaven. All whose names were not found in the public registers, who either were not citizens, or whose names had been erased from those registers because of crimes against the state, could claim none of those emoluments or privileges which belong to the citizens; so those who either did not belong to the new and spiritual Jerusalem, or who had forfeited their rights and privileges by sin, and had died in that state, were cast into the lake of fire. This is the way in which God, at the day of judgment, will proceed with sinners and apostates. Reader, see that thy name be written in the sacred register; and, if written in, see that it never be blotted out.
–ADAM CLARKE’S COMMENTARY ON REVELATION 20:14-15–
This Was Your Life by Jack Chick
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Compare the faith-based Bible commentaries above with the UNBELIEVER BIBLE COMMENTARY below (“Did God really say?” Genesis 3:1), the secular, academic, and liberal questioning remarks of the International Critical Commentary (T&T Clark, 1895-1920s), which was the first series to come out of the late 19th century higher criticism movement, and can still be found in state university libraries today, along with other unbeliever Bible commentaries, such as the Anchor Bible Commentary (Doubleday, 1965-Present), Hermeneia (Fortress Press, 1972-Present), and Interpretation (Westminster John Knox Press, 1982-Present). While I’ll admit that The Anchor Bible might be useful for researching the historical background of the Bible, I’d still say that it’s definitely harmful in the spiritual sense. But here’s what the ICC says about Revelation 20:11-15:
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R. A. Torrey, ed. The Fundamentals. 4 vols. (Baker Books, 2000).
F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (InterVarsity Press, 1988).
Drs. Peterson and Morgan, eds. Hell Under Fire (Zondervan, 2004).
Dr. John R. Rice, Evolution or the Bible–Which? (Sword of the Lord, 1963).
—. Hell: What the Bible Says About It (Sword of the Lord, 1945).
—. Our God-Breathed Book–The Bible (Sword of the Lord, 1969).
Dr. Hugh Pyle, The Truth About the Homosexuals (Sword of the Lord, 2000).
Dr. Shelton Smith, Liberal Choices: Losing Causes (Sword of the Lord, 1997).
Carl Woodbury, How a Modernist Preacher Was Saved (Sword of the Lord, 1960).
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (2009). HAS AUDIO BOOK.
Roger Olson, Against Liberal Theology (Zondervan, 2022). HAS AUDIO BOOK.
I tell you the truth No one can enter the kingdom Unless he is born again Unless he is born again (John 3:3) How can this be (John 3:4)
People give life to their Children but only God’s Spirit can make you Into a child of God (John 3:6) Don’t be surprised (John 3:7)
Take me underneath the water Take me on under there (Matthew 3:15, John 3:5) Take me underneath the water Take me on under there Take me underneath the water
No one has gone up Except the Son of Man Who came down from the heavens Who came down from heaven (John 3:13) Only believe (John 3:15-16)
Just as the snake was lifted up People who looked were healed Jesus the Son was lifted up So we all could be healed (John 3:14) Don’t be surprised
Take me underneath the water Take me on under there Take me underneath the water Take me on under there Take me underneath the water I will die to me by being baptized (Matthew 20:22) All things new old things gone I have realized (2 Corinthians 5:17) Let’s get wet take me under that water
God loved the world so much That He gave His only Son So that all the ones He made Could believe and be saved (John 3:16)
Take me underneath the water Take me on under there Take me underneath the water Take me on under there Take me underneath the water I will die to me by being baptized (Matthew 20:22) All things new old things gone I have realized (2 Corinthians 5:17) Let’s get wet take me under that water
Like a foolish dreamer, trying to build a highway to the sky All my hopes Would come tumbling down, and I never knew just why Until today, when You pulled away the clouds That hung like curtains on my eyes Well, I’ve been blind All these wasted years and I thought I was so wise But then You took me by surprise
Like waking up from the longest dream How real it seemed Until Your love broke through I’ve been lost in a fantasy That blinded me Until Your love broke through
All my life I’ve been searching for that crazy missing part And with one touch You just rolled away the stone that held my heart And now I see that the answer was as easy As just asking You in And I am so sure I could never doubt Your gentle touch again It’s like the power of the wind
Like waking up from the longest dream How real it seemed Until Your love broke through I’ve been lost in a fantasy That blinded me Until Your love, Your love broke through Like waking up from the longest dream How real it seemed Until Your love broke through Until Your love broke through
–Keith Green, “Your Love Broke Through”–
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William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour, 3 vols (Banner of Truth, 1989).
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, 2 vols. (Baker, 1979).
Jonathan Edwards On Revival (Banner of Truth, 1984).
Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on Soulwinning (Kregel, 1995).
Jonathan Edwards, The Wrath of Almighty God (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
Rosell and Dupuis, eds. The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney (Zondervan, 1989).
The Catholic Church had corrupt popes in medieval times, but they also had St. Francis of Assisi; the Lutheran Church started off on fire for God until Luther turned antisemitic; Richard Baxter had a fruitful Puritan publishing ministry while strangely enough remaining a licensed Anglican priest, and the same could be said of John Wesley; believe it or not Charles Finney was never defrocked from the Presbyterian Church even though he preached like a Wesleyan lawyer; and David Wilkerson maintained his Assembly of God credentials for 90% of his life, just so it would continue to open doors for evangelistic ministry bookings at churches and conferences. Even through the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart sex scandals, he still kept his AG preachers’ license because of the doors that it opened. But he didn’t use it for pastoral ministry until he planted Times Square Church in the ’80s, which is when he started to feel the AG squeeze. That’s when he decided not to renew his AG credentials. –J.B.
We also speak of these things, not in words taught or supplied by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual thoughts with spiritual words [for those being guided by the Holy Spirit]. But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters]. –1 Corinthians 2:13-14 (AMP)–
When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the wizards who chirp and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! Surely for this word which they speak there is no dawn. –Isaiah 8:19-20 (RSV Catholic Edition)–
He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. –Isaiah 53:12 (KJV)–
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. –Luke 1:75 (KJV)–
So many things I think about When I look far away Things I know, things I wonder Things I’d like to say The more we think we know about The greater the unknown We suspend our disbelief And we are not alone
Mystic rhythms Capture my thoughts Carry them away Mysteries of night Escape the light of day Mystic rhythms Under northern lights Or the African sun Primitive things stir The hearts of everyone
We sometimes catch a window A glimpse of what’s beyond Was it just imagination Stringing us along? More things than are dreamed about Unseen and unexplained We suspend our disbelief And we are entertained
Mystic rhythms Capture my thoughts Carry them away Nature seems to spin A supernatural way Mystic rhythms Under city lights Or a canopy of stars We feel the powers and wonder what they are
Mystic rhythms Capture my thoughts Carry them away Mysteries of night Escape the light of day Mystic rhythms Under northern lights Or a canopy of stars We feel the push and pull of restless rhythms from afar
–Rush, “Mystic Rhythms”–
In the 1950s, a TV show came out called OneStepBeyond, which proposed to present episodes that were based on case studies of people that experienced real psychic phenomena. The host of this show sort of created this setup that was later on copied by people like Rod Serling, who created TheTwilightZone, which was more exaggerated and fiction based, and more aimed at dramatization. But OneStepBeyond was supposed to be based on true stories of real people that had spiritual and supernatural experiences, which was similar to how UnsolvedMysteries sometimes was in the ’80s and ’90s. These true paranormal stories would occasionally have a Christian or Catholic element in them. But a lot of other times they would deal with hauntings or demonic experiences that happened to people who played around with the occult. As a result of their occult involvement, people would often have tormenting demonic experiences. A lot of people shy away from thinking about this sort of stuff for at least three reasons. 1. They’reafraidofthedevil and would rather not think about it. Because if they thought about it too much, they figure, then they too might have demonic experiences. 2. Thescientificcommunity’sideas are often piped in through our public schools and state universities, to indoctrinate people into an anti-supernatural worldview, and to trust the word of scientists in every single thing that they ever say about the past, present, and future. This ideology is called Scientism, which is literally the idolatry of science. This doesn’t only mean having an evolutionary worldview or a STEM or engineering career. It also indoctrinates people to think with a confirmation bias against the existence of angels, demons, the Holy Spirit, the soul, Heaven, and Hell. Everything that we would consider to be the spirit world in the Bible. 3. Also, there’s a rationalistic, deistic form of cessationistCalvinism that you find in Presbyterian and Baptistic Christianity, where there’s almost a bias towards agreeing with empirical science and philosophical thinking, even at the expense of Biblical truth about the spirit world. Thankfully, Lee Strobel’s SeeingtheSupernatural has recently poked a whole lot of holes in that bias that exists among American evangelicals.
The Catholic Church has always given a place for people to think about the supernatural with theology, the Bible, their saints, and their priests. TAN Books, if you can look past the Mary worship, Purgatory, penance, and prayers to the dead, which is not as common in Catholic books as you might be inclined to think…are filledwithmiraclestories aimed at increasing people’s faith in divine intervention today. Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend (1260), Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1759), and Joan Carroll Cruz’s Mysteries Marvels Miracles (1997) are about as supernatural as it gets. And yet I agree with the Articles of Religion when they say, “The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God.” Outside of Catholicism, thinking about the supernatural has become more complicated. Protestants have had a whole lot of problems with it, but it basically has to do with how the Protestant Reformation was born at the same time as the Renaissance, and so a lot of the anti-supernatural rationalism and skepticism, got kind of mixed into Protestant theology, especially in John Calvin’s InstitutesoftheChristianReligion, which actually said, “Those miraculous powers and manifest operations, which were distributed by the laying on of hands, have ceased. They were only for a time” (4.19.6).
Anti-supernatural attitudes are deeply embedded in Puritanism, Calvinism, and Reformed theology, which I find to be really strange. Because eventually the Great Awakening came around with Jonathan Edwards who was a Calvinist, but his brand of Calvinism was actually descended from the Scottish Covenanters, which came down from John Knox, which was still very charismatic and very, very open to the supernatural world of the Bible, as is shown in John Howie’s Biographia Scoticana (1775). So the Great Awakening was kind of like a New England revival of the Scottish Covenanter type of spirituality, where the presence of God was expected to be poured out in the church. Believe it or not, Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley were born in the exact same year, 1703, and their Calvinist-Arminian influence coalesced at the same time period, the 1730s and 1740s. A merely random coincidence, I think not. Wesley created the Methodist Episcopal Church, which branched off the Church of England, and was not explicitly Calvinist, so there was still some theological room for this Catholic element of openness to the supernatural, as can be seen in Daniel Jennings’ Supernatural Occurrences collections from John Wesley’s and Charles Finney’s journals. There were plenty of charismatic Anglican preachers, and Wesley was definitely a supporter of continuing to have faith that miraculous gifts happened in Christians’ lives today. That is, if they were living for God, keeping their minds on Scripture, and the Holy Spirit. Assembly of God and Church of God (Cleveland) keep this tradition going, with miracle stories about Smith Wigglesworth being the touchstone.
The Descent of the Spirit by Gustave Dore.
On a popular level we’re talking about people that are coming out of public school systems, and state university systems, that are strongly anti-supernatural, atheistic, agnostic, evolutionary, and so the only exposure on the popular level most Americans are getting to any supernatural concepts are usually coming through thrill-seeking horror shows and movies or horror novels by Stephen King. Both King and George Lucas I’d say we’re backslidden United Methodists, so the supernaturalism that sort of exists in Methodism, kind of rubbed off on them, and also through American pop culture like comics, movies, and books in the sci-fi and horror genre. King was also a public school teacher at one point. Then these guys backslid and got into horror and fantasy screenwriting. And you ended up with these secularized, generic supernatural narratives like the Star Wars trilogy and It. When we’re talking about supernaturalism and popular culture, we’re going to be looking at horror and science fiction. Movies like Poltergeist and The Exorcist, hopefully only viewed through Clearplay, that’s where it finally breaks through and reaches into popular American culture. But truth be told, only the Bible can show us the truth about these matters. Popular culture horror concepts can point at some of the truth about demons at least, and sometimes these movies even point to the truth about Christ’s victory over the devil. But ultimately it’s the Bible that should have the ultimate say about spiritual things like souls, and angels, and demons, and the Holy Spirit, and Heaven, and Hell. It’s the Bible that shows us how the unseen realm of the spirit really is in actual fact.
But the text above in 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 shows us that there are certain people, who when presented with supernatural concepts, will deliberately harden their hearts and minds against them, and tend to lean on the naturalistic scientific community to determine such truths for them. This is a very dangerous thing in the spiritual sense, especially when it flagrantly conflicts with the plain teaching of the Word of God. A lot of these spirit world realities, which are often communicated in parapsychology, paranormal literature, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy are true in some way, and are real realities. That demonic spirits do exist, that holy angels exist, that the Holy Spirit exists, that Heaven and Hell exist, and that the human soul exists. If we take the Bible in our hands and allow it to unfold and reveal the realm of the spirit to us, then we’ll have a proper view of all these things. And our faith will not end up being overly academic in nature; just reduced to a whole bunch of propositional theological ideas that can be taught in a classroom by a teacher. Rather our worldview, our view of the world, our faith-based world, becomes one in which there are spirits that exist in the world, and that they do act upon, and influence the world around us. And that prayer in Jesus’ name has a whole lot to do with all of this.
WesleyGospel Ministries 