DEMONIC POSSESSION OF CULTURES AND NATIONS

DEMONIC POSSESSION OF CULTURES AND NATIONS

And

The SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST

Sunday, October 2, 2022, the year of Our Lord

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

As a Christians, we have watched over the past 20 years an escalation of the spirit of antichrist attempting to seduce and intimidate not only the generations of the earth; but change times, laws, and even attempt to break God’s seal over marriage, gender, and climate change which comes under the seal of the seasons.

We can also say America began turning from God in the early 1960’s, and with it, the entrance of Baal and Ishtar, which brought in a sexual revolution.  The values of the sexual revolution were pagan values and the sexuality was pagan sexuality.  What was branded as the “new morality” was in actuality an old morality of the demon gods of Baal/Ashtoreth (Judges 10:6).

Fully acquainted with the luring power of sin, the antichrist will snare all those who prefer wickedness to the Truth of God.  Consequently, his offers will attract every heart that has refused to love the truth which could have saved them.  He will be given superhuman might; as signs they believe a lying spirit calling lies truth; as wonders, they will amaze men. 

The fainthearted--only those on the road to ruin will be deceived.  In all this the justice and sovereignty of God are vindicated.  Behind these verses lies the characteristic OT insight that all events, even the activities of the powers of evil, are ultimately in God’s control.  Men are doomed because they refused to love the truth.  In Romans 1, God ‘gives them over’, so here in His sovereignty, he allows them to be deceived, and they believe the lie as opposed to the truth.

The Antichrist is

1. Called the man of sin because he will be the embodiment of lawlessness and leader of the great apostasy. (Rev. 13: 1-18; 14:9-13; 15” 2-4’ 16: 2-12)
2. Called the son of perdition because of being destined to destruction by his rebellion, like Judas or any other man who sells himself to Satan.
3. He is to be revealed.
4. He will be the opposer of God.
5. Will exalt himself above God.
6. He will accept worship as God.
7. His worship will be carried on in the temple of God.
8. He will claim to be God.
9. He has a set time to be revealed.
10. God has set supernaturally a power which now holds back or hinders his revelation.
11. The spirit of lawlessness now works preparing for his revelation and has worked in the battle between good and evil.
12. The mystery of iniquity, or spirit of lawlessness cannot reveal him until the hinderer of lawlessness be taken out of the world.
13. When the hinderer of lawlessness is taken out of the world, then shall that wicked by revealed.
14. When the wicked one is revealed, he will live until the second advent of Christ, will head the armies at Armageddon, and will be destroyed by Christ.  (Rev. 19: 11-21, Dan. 7: 24-28; 8: 23-27; 9:27; 11: 36-45; 12: 1-7; Mt. 24: 15-31)
15. Satan will embody a man because he will be killed by Christ at Armageddon (Dan. 7:11; 8:25; Isa. 11:4; Rev. 19: 11-21)
16. He will be Satan’s agent and his last attempt to raise up a world dictator.

 (Dan. 8:24; 11: 37-39; Rev. 12:2)

17. He will have miraculous powers from Satan. (Dan. 8:24; 11:37-39; Rev: 13:2; 11-18; Mt. 24:24)
18. He will be a deceiver.
19. Those who are lost will follow him.
20.  The reason for men being deceived by him is that they have rejected truth, loved sin, and refused salvation.
21. He will be a great delusion and a lie.

I have started reading Jonathan Cahn’s new book, “The Return of the gods.”

 Through our studies at Eastgate of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament, we have uncovered many demonic powers hidden, but now being manifest.  Brother Cahn presents this with his unique gift of revelation and prophetic insight.

“It will address the most radical and controversial issues of our time, the front lines of cultural upheaval, the catalytic forces that are now transforming our society, civilization, history and life.”

“The demonic gods cannot rule over the modern world as they did over the ancient, not in the same way.  They will not return to the high places and groves or their ancient shrines and temples.  They are now inhabiting the new seats of power by which the modern world is led and making them their thrones.  They have moved upon the movers and influence-rs of modern culture and made them their instruments…   

If a culture or kingdom worships demonic spirits as gods, then the culture and kingdom are joined to the spirits, subject to them, and under their dominion.  Beyond the signs of individual possession are other signs and symptoms of a much larger phenomenon.  In pagan culture, it was not uncommon for people to offer up other people as sacrifices to the gods.  In some pagan cultures, people even murdered their own children in sacrifice to the gods.  They did so as an act of worship.”

I interject here that young children having sex change surgeries is a worship of Ishtar, a sorceress.  “She was known for her powers to alter people’s affections, passions, thoughts, and at times, their essence.  Her nature was to alter nature and most specifically the nature of male and female, man and woman.  She had the ability to turn male into female and female into male, to blur and merge and invert the two.”

“Possession involves more than an individual.  It may involve and entire culture, nation, kingdom, or civilization.  It is this phenomenon, that of collective, mass, or civilizational possession that the spirit of antichrist and his daimonions are attempting to take over our nation with a one-world government.

The Good News, after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Apostles Peter and Paul traveled across the Roman Empire spreading the Christian doctrine.  The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ touched the ways of the pagan world.  The Word of God now touched the realm of mythology.  The Spirit of God now moved through the world of spirits.  There was an intense conflict between the two worlds.  The Book of Acts records several of those first clashes.  In the city of Philippi, a woman possessed with the “spirit of divination” stalked the apostle Paul and Silas for days.  Luke calls the spirit a python.  The python spirit possessed the woman.  It is the same word used to identify the Oracle of Delphi and the spirit that possessed her. 

After seven days of being followed, or stalked, the apostle Paul cast the spirit out of the woman.  It was that casting out of the spirit that led to a violent backlash.  The crowds went into an uproar.  The two disciples were arrested, beaten and imprisoned.  God sent an earthquake and opened the prison doors. 

In the city of Ephesus, where the disciples proclaimed the Word, performed miracles of healing, and cast out the spirits, the conflict between the gospel and the gods led to a dangerous confrontation.  The idol makers of Ephesus stirred up the multitude into a fury against the word and faith that was being proclaimed.  The violent rage was centered on the city’s patron goddess, whom they believed was threatened by the new message and faith.

The rage of the pagan world against the gospel would grow so fierce that, in time, believers would be imprisoned, crucified, burned and sent into the arenas to be killed as entertainment before cheering spectators. 

The persecution was intended to bring about the end of faith in Jesus and the termination of His followers.

In the end, it was not the gods that prevailed, or the might of the Roman Empire.  Against all odds, the overwhelmingly powerless followers of the crucified Redeemer overcame the fire of persecution.  The message of the gospel of God’s love and forgiveness overcame the reign of the demon gods.  The polytheism and pantheism of the Greco-Roman world gave way to the belief in one God.  The mythological consciousness of ancient paganism yielded to the word of God and to a salvation that had manifested in time and space. 

The spell of the daimonian-gods was broken.  The skies were no longer filled with their thrones, and the earth was no longer their haunting ground.  The signs of possession dissipated.  The frenzied spirit possessions of the pagan priests, priestesses, oracles and worshipers became an increasingly rare phenomenon.  The carnal and licentious acts of pagan worship and rituals were banned from the public sphere.  Human sacrifice became a distant memory. 

Though both Peter and Paul were executed in 68a.d.   Christianity became permanently intertwined with Rome by 313ad. Christianity became a legal religious practice.  In 389ad, it became the state religion making Italy a Christian nation.

Every realm of society was affected.  Sexuality was now to be treated as a sacred gift from God, to be honored and kept in the equally sacred vessel of marriage.  As for little children, they were no longer to be abused or mistreated.  Emperors, rulers, governments and kingdoms could no longer claim the authority of godhood.  They, too, were subject to God’s laws and standards, as was everyone.  Not only the Roman Empire, but Western civilization was transformed. 

The driving out of gods and spirits that took place in the Roman Empire took place beyond its borders.  It would happen in every place in which the gospel was received.  Each time it happened, the signs of possession, individual and civilization-al, would begin to disappear.  The phenomenon was unique to Western civilization.  It would radically alter the course of that civilization and that of the world itself.

Matthew 12: 43-45: When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.  Then he says, “I will return to my house from which I came.’ When he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.  Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.  So shall it also be with this wicked generation.

The man is possessed by an unclean spirit.  The man is delivered of that spirit.  The spirit then wanders through dry places, presumably the desert or wilderness, but finds no place to rest.  It then decides to return to its “house,” the formerly possessed man. 

When it returns, it finds the man is empty, swept clean, and set in order.  The cleansed state of the vessel leads the spirit to go and bring back seven other spirits eviler than itself.  So, the man is now possessed by seven other spirits in addition to the original one.  He is now in a worse condition at the end than he was at the beginning.

This parable can be applied to an individual, but Brother Cahn opens it up as an analogy used to reveal a spiritual principle and give a prophetic warning.  The key comes in the last words of the parable.  Jesus adds, “So, shall it also be with this wicked generation.”  Thus, the parable is not just about individual possession, but collective, the possession of a generation, a culture, a civilization.

You have heard me say, “every generation has to overcome their own demons.”

“The parable’s immediate application appears to be the generation that lived in first-century Judea.  The Jews rejected Jesus Christ and had him crucified.  But as in all of the Holy Writ, Jesus’ words extend far beyond the age and borders of that nation and generation.  They apply to Western civilization as a whole and span the entire age into the modern world.” 

If we do not believe the whole Word of God is a living, life-giving Word, then we cannot pick and choose.  It is either all the Word of God, or none of it.

Two thousand years ago the Roman Empire and Western civilization comprised a house of spirits, a civilization possessed of gods and spirits.  But into that house came the word of God, the Spirit of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Western civilization was thus set free from the demon spirits and became, as in the parable, a house set in order, a civilization cleansed.

The demon spirits still exist, but now dwell outside the house.  So, in the case of Western civilization, the spirits that once possessed it still existed but now dwelled outside the borders of their civilization.  They roamed the dry places, the desolate lands; they dwelled in the shadows, they dwelled in exile.

The demon spirit of the parable finds no rest.  So, it seeks to return to its “house” to repossess it. 

When Jesus was about to cast the spirits out of the possessed man known as the demoniac, it is recorded that the spirits pleaded with Him to be cast into a nearby herd of pigs.  The spirits are parasitic.  They need a host to possess.

Thus, the spirits cast out of Western civilization, if they find no rest, if they find no comparable civilization to possess, will seek to return to what they believe is their house.

How could the spirit return to the house from which it has been dispossessed?

It could only do so if the house has become unoccupied, empty, and the door has been left open.  No one is now living there.  The house was left empty.  Thus, it is open to being reoccupied. 

The house that is cleansed and put in order but remains empty will be repossessed.  What happens if we apply this to an entire civilization?

The spirits are cast out by the Word and Power of God and in the name and authority of Jesus.  The Roman Empire and Western civilization were delivered by the Word and Power of God and by the name and authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

How could the spirits and gods return to Western civilization?  Only one way---if that civilization should ever turn away from God, from the Word, from the gospel, from Christianity, from Jesus.  If it should do so, then that which drove out the spirits will no longer be present to protect it against their return.  The civilization that had been delivered of the spirits will become repossessed by them.  The gods will return. 

We cannot be so naïve to hide our head in the sand and deny the wickedness and evil which the daimonian are attempting to over-ride the church as well as our entire civilization.  We are in a war with very real demonic principalities.  The authority of The Word of God, the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus Christ and the power of His blood has been given to His Church.  We are to be the triumphant over-coming church. 

As this end-time conflict accelerates, we have a choice, we can be like the wicked generation of Jesus’ time who was judged, or we can stand in battle unafraid declaring the Word of God in the face of the daimonian.

1 John 4:3: Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now is already in the world.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX.

www.eastgateministries.com

Scripture from N.K.J.V. I entered into the labors of Jonathan Cahn, “The Return of the gods.”; sermon preached by Carolyn Sissom, 10/20/16, The Spirit of the Antichrist; Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible;