Hello again, Matthew, I do acknowledge you are far more learnèd in theology than I, and are a godly man, yet you have – in the providence of God – been spared the experience of many – especially in these days – of sorcerous drug use, and what that entails.
The Lord put to use my experience in that realm to turn me into a knowledgeable and vigorous opponent of such. Though you say to me, “It appears you hold to a doctrine concerning devils that is trying to imitate Christ as Deliverer”. I have made my view – and my doctrine – quite clear in the above, but to briefly reiterate it:
We are not to be hermetically sealed off from activity in the demonic realm – yes, I am fully aware that the preaching of the Gospel is the most potent weapon in our aggressive warfare against the dark powers! – and yet it is not the only weapon, as Scripture makes clear. Nor do we “try to imitate Christ as Deliverer”, for He has given us a charge, as He said to His Father concerning us, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world”, and how did the Father send Him? “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8),
We certainly cannot destroy the devil’s works as the Lord did in His substitutionary penal atonement, yet He has spoken to us of just how we should continue to destroy his evil activities. In Col 1:29 we see Paul giving these principles, “I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily”. And, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).
And he fleshes this warfare out in Eph 6:10, 11 and following, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
The spiritual weaponry is not only comprised of righteousness and faith, but aggressive weaponry against strongholds, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and “all prayer”.
In 2 Cor 10:3,4,5 we see this further: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds,) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”. These “strong holds” are not merely human constructs, but demon-fortified and energized, doctrines of devils.
Going back to the realm of sorcery you were blessed
not to enter, like those who were ravaged or destroyed, there is in our own days of 2025 and 2026 an even greater mass of souls caught up in this demonic realm through the use of so-called “recreational sorcery”.
In my book,
A Great and Terrible Love II: Heading into Armageddon on Apocalypse Field, Global Arena of Consciousness, there is a section, “Survival For Christians Involved In Sorcery”, which seeks to help those in that number, with counsel and Scripture.
I plead, respectfully, in the words of our Nobel Poet,
“don’t criticize what you can’t understand” (
The Times They Are A-Changin’). The holocaust of deserved judgment is upon multitudes today, and yet there are some elect in that throng – to whom I would reach out.
Stephen Charnock had a saying, “A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant”, even if it be only in a very limited application of that insight, to the sorcery-infected crowd. (
The Works of the Late Rev. Stephen Charnock ... With a Prefatory Dedication and Memoir, 1815) p. 653.
