DOCTRINES OF DEMONS

 

All around us in our society, we hear the most bizarre teachings. Things we know are right are proclaimed wrong. Up is down; simple, understandable truth is taught as error.

Behind these teachings and beliefs, we find that many of the supposed “teachers” live lives of great debauchery and sin. Their lives as “spiritual teachers” do not match what we should expect from those who should lead us to a higher godliness and morality. In fact, just the opposite.

DEMONIC DOCTRINES.

The Apostle Paul warned of such days and seasons.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron (1 Ti 4:1–2).

What they are teaching and the lives of those who teach indicate that this is a clear departure from the truth of God. Paul has just given a glorious, clear summary of the gospel in the verses before (1 Timothy 3:16). Now, he addresses those who are perverting those truths.

THE DOCTRINE

… is straight from hell as a source. Behind it are “deceitful spirits” who are teaching “doctrines of demons.” Think of how clearly he states this. “This is what you’re listening to,” Paul says. “It is coming from demons and is what they believe and teach. It is being promoted to you and those around you by spirits who are completely deceitful. It is coming from an enemy who sole desire is to steal, kill, and destroy.”

THEIR CHARACTER

… is also described by Paul. It is promoted by people who are “liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” To be “seared” means that they have so ignored God’s warnings through continual sin that their “conscience” (which is our inner knowing, that which automatically should tell us something is wrong) is gone. There is no consciousness left there, for it has been violated so often that it has become scarred and unfeeling. They can lie and live directly opposed to God’s truth with no conscience. Things that once bothered them disturb them no more.

This is also clearly predicted by Paul in Romans, Chapter 1, as he reminds us that those who exchange the truth of God for lies will be given up by God to a “depraved mind” (a mind that has lost the ability to make moral judgments) and morally depraved behaviors (which we see all around us).

I see evidence as never before in my lifetime in American society. The worst types of moral depravity are practiced and taught as acceptable behavior. Even taught to our children.

THE ANTIDOTE

Paul gives us both a warning and a help for us. The antidote is to “point this out to the brethren” and stay “nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which (we) have been following (Vs. 6). We must stay alert and sober to this demonic invasion through solid Biblical teaching and living according to the grace of God and the power of His Spirit.

Be careful. A demonic spirit with their demonic doctrines will come in many forms—teaching, literature, movies, art, social media, etc., seeking to capture our minds and hearts, and particularly those of our children. And remember that the Bible tells us that Satan parades as an "angel of light."

It is nothing to play with.