Derek Prince once said, “The greatest enemy of the gospel is not atheism, but religion”. Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism account for 45% of the world’s population and are all demonic. So, it should not surprise us that some of the doctrines within the church are demonic. In this study, we will cover two doctrines that Paul specifically defines as “doctrines of demons”. Here they are:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
1 Tim. 4:1-3
Paul’s context is the “latter times”, but we can still use this verse to establish that these apparently pious practices are in fact demonic. To do this is quite useful. The fact that we are probably in the latter times right now only encourages us to consider this point.
The first doctrine that Paul introduces is that of “forbidding to marry”, and together with the second doctrine, is “speaking lies in hypocrisy and having one’s own conscience seared with a hot iron”. Pretty heavy condemnation of something that appears so pious.
For the doctrine that forbids marriage, we have before us the living and breathing example of the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and the extensive destruction that this doctrine has brought on that church and the abused children in its fold. The amount of destruction that this doctrine has caused the poor Roman Catholic altar boys around the world is unfathomable. They have had to deal with their beloved priest tell them that when they put the priest’s penis in his mouth, he is putting God in his mouth. Thousands upon thousands of boys have lived entire lives of inner turmoil and trouble from which most are never able to recover no matter how old they get. Any soul that cannot classify this doctrine as demonic is deaf, dumb and blind. And no matter how many hundreds of millions of dollars this horrid church puts out to settle the thousands of claims against them, the demonic hold on this “church” is so strong that they refuse to abandon a doctrine which is so clearly demonic, just like Paul said. (It is worth noting that in this verse, Paul associates this heresy with the end-times, just as he associated the great apostacy with the end-times in 2 Thes. 2:3. The Roman Catholic Church, the leading proponent of this heresy, is also the leading participant in the apostacy.)
The church holds that one may voluntarily choose to be celibate, and the priesthood is voluntary, therefore the vow of celibacy is voluntary. But the fact remains that it is a church doctrine. Is it a doctrine or not? If it is a doctrine, then it is demonic. And it is a doctrine.
Paul wrote an entire chapter explaining his views on marriage and celibacy (1Cor. 7). He makes it clear that the choice is yours. No one could say that it is a doctrine forbidding marriage. When it jumps from being a voluntary choice to a denominational requirement for priesthood, clergy or office, then it is a command and demonic. The vast destruction that this doctrine has left in its path is further proof.
The second doctrine of demons is one “commanding to abstain from foods”. This one is subtler, but demonic nevertheless. Again, Paul distinguishes between a voluntary choice and a doctrine. And again, he wrote extensively on the subject in Romans Chapter 14. Apparently, it has always been an urge or desire in man to discover the best foods to eat and what foods to avoid. It is rare to meet anyone who does not have a personal opinion about what is healthy to eat and what is not. These opinions range from extreme vegan to anything you want. It is not surprising then that the Bible has something to say about it.
I did a google search of “biblical diet” and too many choices came up to count. Most sites claimed that theirs is the true biblical diet. One must wonder how so many different diets can all be the correct biblical one.
I attended a Seventh Day Adventist Church meeting. I am not a member of that church and never would be, but was invited by a friend, so I went. The speaker was a medical doctor who was pushing his belief that being a vegetarian was the way to go. He used a verse describing life in the Garden of Eden as his proof. To me, it was absolutely ludicrous. The last time I looked, we were no longer in the Garden of Eden. There is no shortage of diet crackpots in the church.
Mark Twain said,
“Be careful about reading health books; you may die of a misprint.”
(www.bookbrowse.com)
When I was a young man, I struck up a conversation with an older Christian man at the grocery store. He asked me if I was married and when I said “No”, he asked me if I wanted to meet his four daughters. I said “Yes”. Why not? When we arrived at his house, he lined them up for me to look at. Their ages ranged from 16 to about 24. The 16-year-old looked good, her complexion smooth and clear. But as you proceeded to the next and the next, up to the eldest, their complexions got progressively worse. The 24-year-old woman looked just terrible. Her face was a train wreck. I was standing there wondering what happened to these otherwise pretty, young girls, when he answered my question without me asking. But he did not tell me as an explanation of the girl’s plight. But with enormous pride and excitement, he told about his family’s personal diet . He said that he and his whole family believed in a strict vegetarian biblical diet. As I listened to him, I just stared at his poor daughters who were the victims of this man’s religious, but obviously misguided, zeal.
One of my childhood friends was a college football star and married the most beautiful woman whom I had ever seen. She was not just beautiful, she also had a magnificent body. Then she started looking sickly. Her appearance got progressively worse until she looked like a prisoner of war. I finally asked my friend about her and he said that she had started some strange diet that was supposed to be very healthy.
It appears to be even worse with the 20-something generation, who are more prone to being vegetarian and also being more opposed to our faith. I have drawn a direct correlation between how strange one’s dietary beliefs are and how strange their religious beliefs are.
I eat anything and everything that I want, without any religious or other restrictions. (Rom. 14:1-6) I am not so stupid as to eat lots of fat, sugar or chemicals, but I feel free to eat what I want, and I am very healthy. I never get sick. I believe that my good health has a lot more to do with my faith and a good confession than my diet.
There is the law of Moses with lots of dietary rules, but the law of Moses is obsolete. We covered that at considerable length when we discussed Israel. We also covered the Jerusalem conference which decided which parts of the Old Testament remained applicable to the New Testament believer. There are four laws that were carried over from the Old to the New Covenant and three of them are dietary: don’t eat anything that was sacrificed to idols, don’t eat an animal that was strangled and don’t eat blood. (Acts 15:20) For most modern-day Christians, these restrictions are rarely, if ever, a consideration.
Paul attended that Conference in Jerusalem and was well aware of its decision and was delighted by it. When he wrote that a “command to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” is a doctrine of demons, he was obviously not referring to the commands issued by the Jerusalem Conference.
Paul was referring to a religious command to abstain from any normal food such as meat. If one chooses to abstain from meat for personal reasons, that is ok. But for a religious organization or authority to issue a command that eating meat is wrong, then they have crossed the line and created a doctrine of demons. The same would be true if it commanded its followers to abstain from any food “which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth”. All believers should be careful not to instruct anyone to abstain from any specific food or foods. Any individual can restrict his diet only to red peppers grown in Sardinia and harvested on September 1st if he wants, but he cannot tell anyone that they must do the same. If he does, he has crossed a dangerous line. Any doctrine that commands abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth is a doctrine of demons.
Next: How should a Christian feel about the Jews and Israel?