Questions & Answers 3069

Announcer: Scripture says that we're to test every spirit to see if it comes from God. But what does that mean? Well, stay with us today and we'll find out together. Welcome to the question and answer program with our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. This program is a ministry of the Thru the Bible radio network. Now let's get to those questions. Our first one comes to us from a listener in Los Angeles who writes: "In studying Titus chapter 2, verse 11, I came to the understanding that the verse was saying that all men would have the opportunity to be exposed to salvation through the gospel. What is your opinion on this verse?"
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, I personally believe that the verse means something just a little different than that. But let's read the verse first. And that's verse 11 of chapter 2 of the little epistle to Titus. It reads, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." And this actually has to do with the appearance of the Lord Jesus as a little baby at Bethlehem and then yonder in the carpenter shop and then as he was yonder in the temple asking and answering questions of the scribes of that day. And later on, he was to have a real encounter with that group, and then his coming at 30 years of age to begin his ministry, then his arrest, his trial, which was a mockery, and his death upon the cross. And then three days later, his resurrection from the dead. And that is what Paul means, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared." It means as appeared to all men. Now God is not just appearing to the nation Israel. He's not just using them as his witness. Now God has a salvation that appeared for all men, the historical Jesus who came into the world 1900 years ago, wrought out a salvation for all men. Now it's your business and my business to get this word out to all men. And there never has been a time that all men have heard it, and I say that to the condemnation of the church because we are guilty. We have not obeyed the Lord Jesus in this matter. And until every person on top side of this earth hears the word of God, you and I can't say that we are obedient to Christ. I get a little weary today of all of this talk about "I'm totally dedicated to Christ, my life is yielded to him." Well, then why don't you get busy? Why don't you start getting the word of God out? What are you doing, just sitting there? A great many people that are singing "Standing on the Promises" are actually sitting on the premises. They're not doing anything. And we need to recognize that that is our business. This is for all men. Now that's the way that I understand this, and I understand it to mean that here is a salvation that is not for Israel only. You see that the problem that Paul was up against is not a problem that we're up against. There were men like Simon Peter that felt that their ministry was just to the nation Israel, just to their own people. And Simon Peter couldn't actually understand why God would want to save a Roman centurion like Cornelius, although he was apparently to all outward appearances a good man. But he couldn't have been a Roman centurion and been that good. Roman centurions were generally very brutal soldiers; they wouldn't have got that position. And why would God want to save him? Simon Peter had trouble with that. Paul had no trouble with that at all. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. But Paul had that problem to get a young man by the name of Titus, a young Jewish convert who now wants to witness for Jesus, to see that the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men and that that grace of God now is for all men. And that is what you and I are to do today is to try to get this word out to all men. And I believe that that is actually our primary business.
Announcer: Our next question comes to us from a listener in Columbia, Pennsylvania, who says, "Could you please explain how Christians are to test the spirits whether they are of God, as indicated in 1 John 4, verse 1?"
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And we're told very definitely, "Beloved, believe not every spirit." And just because a thing today is religious and uses a Bible doesn't mean that that is a work of God. We're told here, "but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Now right here in California, all kinds of cults and isms arise out here. This climate is good for oranges and it's good for lemons and it's great for flowers, and it's also good for nuts—a lot of religious nuts, by the way. And they grow and thrive in this area. And this is really a place where you need to try the spirits. Now I think that a great many gullible people have been taken in by these cults. Now what is it that characterize these people that went into a cult? Now I disagree today with the psychologist that has got the word out that all of us today are vulnerable. All are not vulnerable. No Christian, no child of God is vulnerable to this sort of thing. Even when Antichrist appears, the Lord Jesus Christ says that he'll be a miracle worker, and he says if it is possible to deceive the elect, he'd be able to deceive the elect, but it's not possible. Now you can fool them for a while, but they'll catch on. We have seen that over the years here. Right now, there have come to us letters relative to a certain cult. Now I can't mention these things on radio, but these people have come out of this cult. And I have one letter from a man that's quite interesting to read. He says, "I do not know how I was fooled for these many years." What was the thing that fooled him? Well, of course, the cult gave him false propaganda. But the interesting thing that characterizes these folk today is ignorance of the word of God. Here are people who've been exposed to the word of God; they seem to have no spiritual understanding of the Bible at all. They do not study it. Oh, they read a verse every now and then and may have a little devotion, but they really don't get down to the word of God. Actually, today we are seeing a great deal of so-called Bible teaching right now. Instead of giving the water of life, it's vapor. And somebody says, "Why, they use the Bible and they teach about Jesus, his deity." I know they do that. Vapor's water, but it's vapor, and it's not really the water of life. And those people never get grounded in the word of God. I do not believe a person who's grounded in the word of God can be lured by these charlatans that appear from time to time and lead off a great many people. And they're generally people that are church-oriented. That is, they've been going to church, but they never seem to get anywhere as far as the Bible is concerned. Now sometimes that's the fault of the church, that they do not teach the word of God to their people. And when they do not, then they're open prey for the first leader that comes along and promises them something for nothing and uses a little magic, and they go after him. My friends, if you are built up in the word of God solidly, you're not going to be able to do that. That's the way to try the spirits, by the word of God. You have to use that. And I would say that if anybody comes along and begins to put an emphasis on material things and promises you a great many material things—and it's nice to have them, and it's nice to have that kind of security—but you better beware of that if they've turned from the spiritual to the physical. And there is a great deal today of promising people magic and material things. And that's dangerous. That leads to a charismatic leader, and we just don't need him right now because the devil's got one that's coming along a little later on, and I just don't like the appearance of so many Antichrists in our day.
Announcer: Our final question today comes from a listener in Nowata, Oklahoma. She says, "As a nurse, I have seen a number of delusional people who have thought they were Jesus or that they were burning in hell. Many had an aversion to God. Could you please explain what part demon possession might play in their responses and attitudes?"
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I think first of all that we should say that we run in cycles in this country on certain subjects. We Americans have that tendency to do that. We are great faddists; we go for a certain fad, a certain thing, and then it disappears and something new comes along. Well, Christians are certainly guilty of that. We have been through this matter of the tongues or, as it started out, glossolalia, and then it became charismatic. And then we've had a great emphasis that has been placed on demonology. And during that period, it was amazing how many Christians were around casting out demons. You'd think they were doing it so fast it was sort of like swatting flies. And then we switched from that over to the subject of angels. And we went through a period and books appeared on the subject of angels. Now the thing right at present is death. And I don't know what'll come up after death, but apparently there'll be something that will be coming along. I felt death was on the way, but I couldn't think of what would happen after that, but I'm sure that we will be in something else. Now as a result, there was a great deal of false information given relative what the Bible teaches about demonology, about demons. Well, to begin with, and I want to be as brief as I can, actually in the gospel record we have really only four notable instances where the Lord Jesus cast out demons, and the encounter was of course quite real. You have that at the very beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, one of his first miracles actually, and it took place at Capernaum where he'd moved his headquarters. And I will turn to the record Mark gives of this, and Luke also has the record, but I turn to chapter 1, verse 21 of Mark, and I'd like to just read this. They went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, "Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him." And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." Now apparently in our Lord's day, there was a manifestation of what we call demonology, that is, of the working of demons and people possessed with demons. Although again I say there's actually only four notable instances. We do not have time to deal with each one of them. But there's certain inferences that we draw from these records. One is, where did they come from? And we assume, as we dealt with that not long ago, that they are what are known as fallen angels. They were with Satan when he led the rebellion against God. They are in gradation; some of them have great power. Daniel reveals that they were even able to block his pathway. We do not recognize the power and the influence of them. We're told that we're to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, he dealt with that in a very definite way, in such a way that very candidly we notice that they do affect the Christian's life down here. For he says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities"—that's one gradation of these demons. "Against powers"—that's a lower one. "Against the rulers of the darkness of this world." And if we want to use a military term, there are the generals, and there are the colonels, and then there are the majors, they are the captains, they are the lieutenants, and then there are the buck privates. And this is spiritual wickedness in high places. And these minions of evil are carrying out the commands and wishes of Satan down here. They'll do everything that they can do to block men from hearing the gospel. Satan's blinded these people that are unsaved and blinded them with light, by the way, not with darkness necessarily, but with light. All of this cult business today—they carry a Bible, they talk about God, and then proceed to get as far from him in the word of God as they possibly can. But you see, all of that has the outward trappings of being Christian or being a church when in reality it's not that at all. And that is definitely the work of demons, by the way. You don't have to be possessed of a demon to be led off into these things today because after all they work through these organizations, they work through others, and can affect the lives of men and women down here on this earth. And Paul says that you and I are to be very much aware of the fact that we're wrestling. There is a warfare going on, and it's against these powers of darkness. So that demons are quite a real thing. Now we come to demon possession. Is it possible for Christians to cast out demons? Well, I think that that is possible. But we went through this fad not too long ago, and I'm afraid a great many people got the idea they were casting out demons and they were not doing it at all. They thought they were. And it is so easy to say certain ones are possessed with demons when actually they are not. Now let's come down to this question that this party has of people in mental institutions today. I think very candidly that a great many people have probably had an opportunity to hear the gospel. They've heard the word of God. They may have heard it in a very wrong fashion. But nevertheless, they've heard it. And they are mentally defective in some way. They have some form of abnormality. And there are many forms of abnormality, by the way. I almost went into this field when I was in college. My psychology professor, he let me assist him and gave me certain chores to do. I used to give tests and that sort of thing. And he offered me a scholarship to pursue this and get a master's and become a psychiatrist. Well, I've always thanked God I didn't go that direction, but it certainly was tempting to me as a young man at the time. And I do know that there are many forms of abnormality. And at that time, I was very much puzzled, and I'm not saying that I'm not exactly clear today, that there's a fine line between an abnormality and demon possession. And I think that a great many people just have an abnormality. Maybe it's a mental deficiency in some sort. It may be some hang-up in some area. But it's not necessarily demon possession. I think we need to be very careful of that because it was during a certain period even here in our country that if a woman was just a little off, you know, mentally, she was declared to be a witch, and they were out witch hunting in those days. And there are a lot of peculiar people in this world, you see, so you can come up with that. That's a dangerous procedure, I would say. It's very easy for us to think that the other fellow's peculiar, but maybe we're not peculiar. It's like the old Scottish elder that said to his wife, he says, "I think everybody in this world is peculiar except you and me, and sometimes I think you be a little peculiar." Well, the thing is that it's so easy for us to attach this to someone else. And then I'd like to let you in on something: all of us have some form of abnormality. Now you say, "Wait a minute." No, I'm not going to wait a minute. I remember in studying abnormal psychology, I went in to talk to this professor—I had access to him—and I went in one day, and I said, "Doctor, I want to talk to you about a very personal matter." And he laughed and he says, "And I know what it is." And I said, "Well, what is it?" He said, "You are going to tell me that you've discovered that in studying the etiology of some forms of abnormality that you have some of the symptoms." I said, "Yeah, that's right. I find that I've got some of the symptoms." He says, "Did you know every member of the class comes in sooner or later to talk about that?" We all have some form, and after all, what is normal today? Normal is where most of us are. And yet the whole human race is way out in left field as far as the relationship to God's concerned. But we call that normal today, you see, and that's the way the psychologist works. At one end is the subnormal, and the other end, of course, is the supernormal. There are a lot of people that are geniuses, and some of them are a little strange, you know. And then the subnormal down at the other extreme of the human family. And I think it's very dangerous to attach that to it. But I want to come back and say this: that when these people go off like that claiming to be a prophet or claiming some supernatural power, that sort of thing, it's a sort of a hysteria. And that type of thing is not necessarily a demon possession. It means that they have a background probably of having heard the gospel and maybe when they were at better times in their life that they maybe have rejected the gospel. I've always felt that that is the thing that is back of a great deal of this sort of thing. And therefore, you and I today need to be very careful about saying that abnormal people are demon possessed. Because I don't think that that is true, certainly not always. And it's not the rule even. I think that demon possession could be one of the most subtle things that is possible. And I actually believe that there are certain people that are demon possessed. And we've had many strange characters that have come along. And I think that that's the type individual today that is more dangerous than that slobbering fellow that's walking around claiming to be John the Baptist or something else. I think we're looking in the wrong place for demons today. And I do not subscribe to the fact that these people that are abnormal are necessarily demon possessed. They're not the same thing. And I think that you can put too much attention on this type of thing. Instead of all of this interest in Satan and interest in demons, let's put our interest over on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when we're to run the Christian race, we're looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith. It doesn't say to look unto the subject of demons or look unto Satan, find out all you can about him. I think we ought not to be ignorant of his devices, but to make this the main thrust is a grave danger. So I would say that I would not treat these people that are mentally ill necessarily as being demon possessed. Certainly some of them could be.
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