ISRAEL IN BIBLE PROPHECY | home
Demons in the Church | Publisher's Note | Dedication | Contents | Proverbs 24:11-12 | Introduction | The Battleground | First Encounter | Old Testament Typology | Battle Doctrine | Who Says It's Legalistic? | Hazardous Theology | Spirits In My House | Lying Spirits | Magic Show | Witchcraft | Mediums & Psychics | Deceiving Spirits | Satanic Visions | Facing Reality | Epilogue
Demons in the Church
Spirits In My House
CHAPTER SEVEN
Spirits In My House
Conservative Christians today hear many arguments about the
evils of false gifts, but no matter how well this evidence is pre-
sented, somehow it lacks the convicting power of the Holy
Spirit. Why? Because most of the men who write those cri-
tiques neither teach, nor obey, the submission ordinance or the
associated commands. So how can those who interpret away
part of the Bible expect the Holy Spirit to empower what they
say? No obedience means no power! Strange as it may seem,
there appears to be a relationship between head-covering and
true spiritual insight. Numerous saints report that after the
submission ordinance is observed, most gross heresies become
clearly obvious to them. Here is the account of one family who
decided to obey the Word, and to whom error became immedi-
ately evident:
"We are Pentecostals, but someone gave us a copy of Sunset
of the Western Church anyway. We were not sure it was
right; but we really love the Lord, so my wife started covering
her head. On the following Sunday, while the pastor was
preaching, I became aware that there was a demon standing
right behind him. I am a business man, not a dreamer, so
this came as quite a shock. I had never sensed anything like
that before in my life.
So we left that church, and went to another Assembly of
the same denomination. During one part of the service,
many in this Assembly started praying in tongues. I was
74 Demons in the Church
instantly aware that the air above us was filled with evil
spirits. I was very frightened and upset, and looked over to
make sure my wife's head was covered.
After the service, we waited outside to talk to the pastor.
I opened the Bible, and the pastor suddenly said to me,
"Have you come to trouble us?" I heard that spirit! It
sounded so close to what the demoniac of Gadarenes said to
Jesus, that we left that church, and have not been back
since.50
I know the gift of discernment of spirits is biblical; but I
fear it, and am afraid of being deceived. So I always
command this spirit to confess Jesus (1JO 4:1-3), which He
does. But having this ability is a very humbling thing, and
I don't tell very many people about it."
Demons are in the church, and a few brothers with the rare
gift of discernment are aware of them. Many charismatics
claim to have this gift, but I know of no one without a head-
covering wife who really does. In fact, most of the families
where head-covering is observed for the first time, declare that
they either have a better understanding of the Word, or a new
sensitivity to false doctrine. Others have become aware of
demonic influences around them, as was true for this brother
in north Florida:
I was a deacon at the 1st Baptist Church of__, Florida.
I read your Sunset of the Western Church, and asked my wife
to please start covering her head, which she did. A couple of
Sundays later I tried to give a copy of Sunset to one of my
best friends, a fellow deacon. He refused to take it. So I
offered the book to his wife.
She refused to touch it, and said, "That's bondage!" My
jaw dropped. To my knowledge, neither of them had ever
seen the book before. I looked up at the woman's face, and
saw a gray halo around her head. So then I understood
what kind of spirit would be in bondage if she obeyed God's
Word.
___________________________
50 MAT 8:29 And behold, they cried out, saying, "What do we have to
do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the
time?"(NASB)
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Spirits In My House 75
Shortly after that, I sensed that there were evil spirits in
my house. I saw them as grey shadows in the comers of
some of the rooms. I commanded all the evil spirits to leave
in Jesus' name, and have not been aware of any around here
for quite some time now.
In the name of Jesus, that deacon commanded the evil spirits
to leave, and they did. Where did his authorization to do this
come from? Remember when we were saved, how the Holy
Spirit opened the Word to us, so that each day new spiritual
truths just seemed to pop off the pages of the Bible? When we
come under the submission ordinance, the same wonderful
thing happens. We walk up another step on the staircase of
our Christian growth. Suddenly, passages of Scripture which
were obscure to us become clear as a mountain stream. Verses
such as:
MAT 18:19 Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in
Heaven. (NASB)
JOH 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any...they have been forgiven.
If you retain the sins of any they have been retained.
We learn that these verses can become true in our lives, that
we rule with Christ, as Scripture says, not in abstract theory,
but in actuality, over a real spiritual kingdom that exists
today!51 We learn about spiritual authority...what it is, and
how the Lord delegates it. We learn that the Lord does not
give spiritual authority to anyone who is not totally submitted
to His will, any more than an earthly government would give
a nuclear sub to a rebel (the weapons that would be under his
control are far too dangerous). It is also far too dangerous to
give spiritual authority to anyone unless it is the Lord, and
only the Lord who is calling the shots. Here is an example of
real spiritual authority as quoted from the records of the
Anabaptists:
In AD 1556, or thereabouts, there was in Beverwijk, Holland,
a brother named Augustine, a baker by trade, who had
forsaken the world, and been baptized upon his faith, ac-
cording to the ordinance of Christ, which the papists could
not endure. There was at that time a burgomaster who was
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51 1PE 2:5-9, REV 1:6, 5:10.
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76 Demons in the Church
very bitter, and filled with perverted zeal, who sometimes
said that he would furnish the peat and wood to burn Augus-
tine. The bailiff had said that he should not apprehend
Augustine without previously warning him; but he did not
keep his word, for he came upon a time when Augustine was
at his work, kneading dough. Perceiving him, Augustine at-
tempted to flee, but was instantly seized by his pursuers,
and cast into prison.
As he was a man who was much beloved, it greatly grieved
the bailiff's wife, who said to her husband: "O you murderer,
what have you done!" but all in vain, he had to follow his
Lord Jesus as a lamb is led to the slaughter. As he stead-
fastly adhered to his faith, they passed a cruel sentence on
him, namely that he should be tied to a ladder, and thus cast
alive into the fire, and burnt.
On his way to death, he saw one of his acquaintances, to
whom he said: "Farewell, Joost Cornelissen."
The latter, prompted by his good opinion of him, replied in
a friendly manner: "I hope that we shall hereafter be together
forever."
Whereupon said burgomaster replied out of a heartjudging
with partiality: "He will not get to the place whither you will
go; but he goes from this fire to the eternal."
Thereupon Augustine said to the burgomaster: "I cite you
to appear within three days before the judgment seat of
God."
As soon as the execution was over, the burgomaster was
instantly smitten with a raging sickness, and continually
cried with a guilty conscience: "Peat and wood, peat and
wood!" so that it was terrible to hear; and before the three
days had expired, he died; which was a great sign of the all-
seeing eye of God, who would not suffer such cruelty to go
unpunished, as an example to all those who from perverse
blindness should commit such deeds.52
Awesome. The hand of God. By the Word of the Lord, as
spoken through His servant Augustine, that Burgomaster was
condemned to death. Who could display such power while
walking in the flesh? Brother Augustine passed the scriptural
test of the true prophet:
_______________________________
52 Thieleman J. van Braght, Martyrs Mirror (Scottdale, PA: Herald
Press 1950), p553
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Spirits In My House 77
DEU 18:22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the
thing does not come about or come true... The prophet has spoken it
presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (NASB)
A vast gulf separates the true from the counterfeit. Look at
the difference between the judgment on that Burgomaster, and
the so-called spiritual gifts seen today. Augustine was 100%
accurate, and the Lord got the glory. Augustine the baker was
not some puffed-up egocentric crowing about his "anointing."
He wasn't some wild-eyed ecstatic, writhing on the floor, while
muttering in some kind of unintelligible secret language, ISA
8:19-20. A ludicrous comparison. When the God of Heaven
shows His power, mountains tremble.
The Lord performs miracles every day. It's a miracle when
a heart is changed. Miraculous "coincidences," including the
appearance of angels, have been recorded throughout the
Christian Era. But the Lord's spiritual power is not usually
exhibited today by notable miracles such as the one cited
above. The author has not found more than a dozen or so
verifiable spectacular miracles (recorded by reputable Chris-
tian historians) which have taken place during the whole
Christian Era. Instead, as Scripture declares, we see God's
power through the "foolishness of preaching," as spoken by
some humble man of God... usually followed by a quickening of
the Holy Spirit, which leads the lost to Jesus or a church to
repentance.
True Authority
God's Word is the authority, and Christians are commanded
to submit to it, and almost as important, to "submit to one
another in love," EPH 5:21. This also goes for pastors, priests,
teachers, elders, and deacons. No one is above these rules.
God does indeed set offices in the church, but not to "lord it
over the brethren," 1PE 5:3. All Christians are equal before
the Throne of Grace. If the least member of the body perceives
a truth from God's Word, all must submit to that truth. Again,
the Word is the authority. If a brother needs to be corrected
or disciplined, it is the authority of God through His Word that
must do so. Moses knew this, and did not correct Karah
himself, NUM 16. He let God do so. Moses understood that he
had no authority within himself. The only time he exhibited
his own authority was when he struck the rock twice, an act he
lived to regret, DEU 32:48-52.
78 Demons in the Church
When a servant of God quotes the Word, he is speaking with
absolute authority. His authority is diminished by whatever
degree he dilutes God's Words with his own. True spiritual
authority is a litmus test of our willingness to make Jesus the
Lord of our life, and it cannot be separated from a servant's
humility. Moses probably had more spiritual authority
imputed to him by God than any other man who ever lived
(except Jesus). He was also the meekest, NUM 12:3. If we
lack spiritual power in our Christian service, it is because we
are not totally broken before the Lord.
True spiritual authority is delegated in direct proportion to
our submission, and visible to all through our walk. God's
servants are obedient to the Bible. The more submitted a true
servant of the Lord becomes, the less willing he is to depart
from scriptural truth, and the more he fears to presumptuously
exceed his authority:
DEU 18:20 But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously
in My name which I have not commanded him to speak... that
prophet shall die. (NASB)
Today, there are charismatic churches that encourage people
to speak prophetically; trusting, I suppose, that the Lord would
give someone a prophecy upon request. God's true prophets
did not prophesy because they "sought the gift," but because
God commanded them to prophesy, AMO 7:15, and they were
unfailingly, 100% accurate. There is a whole gaggle of
inaccurate "prophets" in Kansas City who claim divine
inspiration, but the account of the 400 friends of Zedekiah the
son of Chenaanah (2CH 18:8-27) and others, would lead us to
believe otherwise. The biblical test for a true prophet is his
100% accuracy, DEU 18:22. The Kansas City seers "prophesy"
correctly only a little better than half the time (60% or there-
abouts), so they fail God's 100% test.53 The Bible itself shows
them to be false prophets, and it's no light thing to speak in
the name of the Lord, when the Lord has not spoken:
JER 28:15 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet
"Listen now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have
made this people trust in a lie." Therefore thus says the Lord,
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53 John McArthur, Charismatic Chaos, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan
1992) pp67-68.
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Spirits In My House 79
'Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This
year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion
against the Lord.'" So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year
in the seventh month. (NASB)
God will not grant spiritual authority, nor place His stamp
of approval on anyone who is not in submission to His Word.
If power is being displayed by someone in open disobedience to
the Bible, the power he is wielding is not the Lord's power.54
It is the enemy's, through violent men attempting to "take the
kingdom of God by force," MAT 11:12. The church is overrun
with these aggressive and willful seekers of power, these
latter-day Korahs, NUM 16:1-35.
Spiritual authority is really God's own authority that He
delegates to His servant. Christians are God's messengers to
the world, and true messengers do not tarnish the pure
message of the Gospel with agendas of their own. Nor do they
place personal experiences or feelings above the inspired
Scripture.
Holy Angels, Fallen Angels
Those are the rules, here is the application: During our lives
here on earth, we are constantly surrounded by unseen spirit
beings. Which kind we relate to, and how we interact with
them is determined for us by Scripture. There are holy angels
and fallen angels. God's angels protect us from demonic
attack, PSA 91:11, JUD 9. When we obey "Let a woman have
a symbol of authority on her head," 1CO 11:10, we do so
"BECAUSE, OF THE ANGELS." Can the fallen angels be
prevented from attacking us, or can the holy angels legally con-
tinue to protect us if we ignore this ordinance? Of course, is
our initial response, but let's look at what the Bible says in the
same context:
1CO 14:37-38 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him
recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's
commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not
recognized. (NASB)
That is sobering. Not recognized by whom? Context implies
that we will be unrecognized by Him who gave the command...
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54 JOB 7:11, ISA 14:18-15, 16:14, JON 1, NUM 16.
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80 Demons in the Church
that is the Lord! Consequently, this would include our
guardian angels, because we are not showing to them that we
are under the headship of Christ. This is the law as the angels
see it, and Christ either confesses us before the angels, or He
does not.55 Read 1CO 11:10 and 1CO 14:37-38 again and
again, until the Holy Spirit makes those verses real to your
heart. Difficult as it may be to accept, "he himself will be
ignored" (as the NIV translates 1CO 14:38) appears to state
that the Lord will ignore our prayers if we disdain His ordi-
nances! It is one thing to be ignorant of Scripture, it is
something else to disobey it openly:
NUM 15:30-31 But the person who does anything defiantly, whether
he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that
person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has
despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment,
that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be on him.
(NASB)
Satan has deceived us into believing that a little bending of
God's Word is OK, as long as everyone else is doing it. We all
use "Well, there isn't any perfect church," as an excuse for
accepting disobedience, or a lie.
But really look at where we are now! If we take our eyes off
Satan's toys long enough to look around at the spiritual
realities today, we will see that the whole world is convulsed
in a titanic spiritual battle involving the awesome forces of
principalities and powers in heavenly places. Satan's time is
short, and he has gone forth with great fury to destroy, REV
12:12-17. If we allow ourselves to come out from under the
protection of the forces of God, we find ourselves spiritually
undefended right in the middle of the enemy's spiritual field of
fire. Only one angel, "the Destroyer" of EXO 12:23, slew all
the first-born of Egypt. What human can stand before that
kind of malevolent power without holy angelic help? This is of
extreme gravity. What has the Lord directed Christians to do
to protect themselves from this possibility?
______________________________
55 LUK 12:8-9 And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before
men, the Son of Man shall confess him also before the angels of God;
but he who denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of
God. (NASB)
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Spirits In My House 81
We, too, must show spiritually that we are behind the blood
on the doorposts, EXO 12:7-13. We too must display that we
are behind the Lord's protecting hand. We dare not go out.
This is no game. Jackie of St. Petersburg tells of some things
that happened at her house:
Thank you for baptizing my sister and me, and teaching my
whole family about the covering. A few days after I started
covering my head, I began to hear loud moaning sounds
coming out of our bathroom. They seemed to be coming right
out of the air, about as high as my head. The lights in the
room would flash on and off, and the doorknobs rattled. This
happened several nights in a row. It scared my husband so
bad, he called the police; but they couldn't find anything. We
just bought the house, and didn't know who owned it before
us. But I knew if the earlier owners were doing the occult or
satanism, that things like this could happen.
Somehow, I was not afraid at all. I went around to every
room, and told the demons to leave in Jesus' name. I did the
same thing around the yard. Then I anointed the lintels and
sides of the windows and doors in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All that stuff stopped right
away.
Most Christians are unaware of these demonic presences. No
spiritual insight. The enemy would much rather have you
believe that he's not there, to conceal his attempts to influence
your mind. The "I don't really exist," lie is part of his deception.
He wants you to think that the besetting sin which
haunts your mind all the time is your own idea. We buy the
lie, go off into sin; and the enemy wins a bout. A saint
walking in sin is just another human he has fooled. Just
another spiritual incompetent, he has gotten out of the fight.
If we get into the spiritual battle by doing what the Bible
says, demons sometimes make their disapproval known, and
try to frighten the saints. Jackie was walking in the Lord, and
trusted in the Lord Jesus to help her. She took a page from
the Old Testament; concluding that if Passover, and anointing
a house for leprosy were effectual for the Israelites, then
maybe, anointing her house symbolically, would be effective for
her. It appears to have been so.56 A demonic presence was
_____________________________
56 EXO 12:23, LEV 14:48-54
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82 Demons in the Church
not evident to Jackie until after she covered her head, so it
appears that head-covering stirs things up a bit in the enemy's
camp.
This is not an unusual report. After she covered her head,
Phoebe McGuire of North Dakota said that plaques and things
were flying off the wall in her house; and after covering her
head, Joan Donel saw demons in a church she attended. Head-
covering doesn't need the approval of your pastor, or your
elders, or Bible study group to work, and you're not likely to
get it. But who cares? It is effective regardless of man's
opinions.57 Roy Dourine who attended a Bible study where
head covering was being taught remembers a little spiritual
battle:
Despite the teacher's best efforts, the Bible study was in
disorder, with women angrily denouncing head-covering and
heatedly trying to discredit the Scripture on the subject. I
sat quietly as long as I could, and then stood and said, "Well,
I wasn't sure that what the brother was teaching was right,
but now that I see the fight the devil is putting up against
it, there isn't any question that it's right!"
When a woman wears a head-covering, and is silent in the
church, she, as a type of the church, EPH 5:32, is showing to
angelic majesties the salvation of her soul, and the church in
submission to the Lord Jesus, 1CO 11:10. If she does not cover
her head, speaks out in church, or teaches or holds authority
over a man, 1TI 2:11-12, she is showing those same angelic
majesties that the church is in rebellion to the Lord. We have
come out from behind our invulnerable armor. That may not
frighten some, but it scares me to death.
A woman may not teach a man, not for any shallow chauvin-
istic or cultural reason, but because the church is subject to
God the Father, through His Son; and the church has neither
the knowledge nor the authority to teach anything to the Lord
Jesus. If a woman teaches a man, it symbolically shows that
the church can teach the Lord. Ridiculous!
____________________________
57 Only a few of the new head-covering sisters who have written tell
of supernatural phenomena like the above. However, all tell of rich
spiritual blessings which have followed their obedience to this
ordinance. Some dysfunctional families have been healed. Conflicts
and stresses have lessened, and lost relatives have come to the Lord.
____________________________
Spirits In My House 83
A wife is submitted to her husband, not because he is any
better than she is (as Scripture plainly states), but to show
that the church is under the headship of Christ. Not to do so,
shows the church to be in rebellion against the Lord. Thus the
sin of Korah and associates is repeated.58
Since we are "an example unto all creation," rest assured
that the fallen angels have their eyes on the church. They are
aware of the spiritual significance of these things, and take
advantage of the commands we disregard. Ignoring God's
government opens the doors of the church to demonic attack.
We have given them access by our disobedience. Head-
covering is an archaic idea, but so are baptism and commu-
nion. All are 2,000 years old... the age of the church. If we
wish to abandon the submission ordinance on the basis of
antiquity (or the culture of the 1st century church) where shall
we stop: idolatry, adultery? Those laws are older by 1,400
more years, and creation law is older still, GEN 3:15-16.
This book is about obedience to truth. The covering just hap-
pens to be the truth which exposes the true spiritual condition
of the church to all creation. By the lack of a covering all can
SEE that the church is in rebellion to the Lord.59 This
spiritual condition is visible to the evil spirits, too, and they
have attacked us forthwith. Note the order of events; charis-
matic phenomena appear after a church becomes worldly, as a
bishop of a very conservative denomination reports:
"Occasionally, we too have a church which turns liberal. The
steps to separating from us go something like this: The first
thing which disappears is the veiling (their word for head-
covering). Next, the church becomes materialistic, and the
women start wearing worldly clothes. Jewelry and makeup
soon follow. After a while, they start having family problems,
with divorces and re-marriages; and later some of them
start speaking in tongues."60
It is in keeping with the holiness of God to "Spirit fill" and
give out gifts before the church becomes like the world, not
after. Real spiritual authority is delegated to God's servants
________________________________
58 1CO 11:11-12, GAL 3:28 and NUM 16:1-35
59 REV 3:15-17, 1JO 2:15-16.
60 William C. McGrath, a Mennonite Bishop of Minerva, OH.
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84 Demons in the Church
most submitted to Him; yet those churches that claim the
authority to exhibit the gifts of the Spirit, are the churches
that refuse to obey the commands that show to the fallen
angels that they are submitted to Jesus. The least submitted
churches are claiming the most authority! There just has to be
something wrong with that picture. If God were to honor a
church's disobedience, He would cease to be holy.
Simple little things, head-covering and silence, but try to get
women to obey them. They will not! Let's say that again...
they will not! Why? Because the spirit of rebellion by which
the church is being influenced will not let them. If you think
that is a joke, or some kind of a ritualistic fable... you try. Try
it with your wife, try it on your church. That is what that
young pastor at Bull Creek Church tried to do. Scripture is
plain, and regardless of the 17 excuses, if we believe the Bible
to be the Word of God, doctrine cannot be the problem. The
church is in open rebellion to the Lord, and is displaying that
condition to the fallen angels.
Only if the Christian husband has the spiritual authority of
the Lord through his personal submission to the Word, only if
his wife sees this condition (his heart submissive to the
headship of Jesus Christ in his own life), only then will she be
willing to come under her husband's headship in this thing.
Why? Because that is what this sign is all about. It is an
external sign of an inner spiritual condition: the submission of
the church to Jesus Christ.
Husbands, the wives have not turned away from the Bible on
their own. It has been with man's approval and consent, just
like the Israelite women who worshipped the queen of heaven.
JER 44:19 "And:" said the women, "when we were burning sacrifices
to the queen of heaven, and were pouring out libations to her, was it
without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her
image and poured out libations to her?" (NASB)
Men have abandoned their spiritual headship of the home,
and the chickens have come home to roost. Christian men
today, by and large, are a weak-willed lot, not meriting the
respect or submission of their wives.
Husbands: stand firm in the Lord, defending the authority of
God's Word to your wives, but with gentleness and kindness,
showing concern for their needs, as Abraham did with Sarah.
To do so in a proper spirit shows symbolically that Christ holds
His authority over the Church in love:
Spirits In My House 85
1PE 3:7 You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an under-
standing way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and
grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your
prayers may not be hindered. (NASB)
Some men believe their headship of the home entitles them
to lord it over their wives like some kind of feudal baron. Not
so. Men are to lead their family as a shepherd leads the sheep.
If men do not act as Christian husbands, in the full scriptural
sense of the word, their behavior will come back to haunt them
in the aversion, passive resistance, or open opposition of their
wives. This is the way the Lord set up the system, and it
works. Many brethren who observe these statutes can affirm
it. The interaction between a Christian husband and his wife
is a sign of the church's spiritual relationship to the Lord. Yet
despite our disregard of these symbols; tongues, words of
wisdom, and other phenomena are sweeping the church.
Proponents claim that this is the Holy Spirit combatting the
increased demonism and satanism in the world, but it is
becoming terribly apparent that just the opposite is true. It
appears that the enemy is introducing false gifts into the
church, and leading the brethren down a garden path that can
lead to the worship of angels and demons. Is that possible? If
we do not show that we are submitted to Jesus, we give Satan
access to do just that!
It is hard to determine the correct order for the next several
chapters. Disobedience has led to a faulty Christian walk...
Which has led to faulty doctrine... Which has led to further
disobedience... Which has led to a more faulty walk... Which
has led to more false doctrine... Which has led to further
disobedience... And round and round we go... but from what
vantage point should we view the merry-go-round that Lucifer
is leading the church to ride?