We all remember the stories about King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. We know that King Ahab was considered by some to be to be one of the worst and most evil kings to have ever ruled. We know that his wife Jezebel had set up a very large group of false prophets who were operating a false prophetic system. They were highly organized and essentially had control over the spiritual atmosphere of the day.

Let’s revisit the story of the time when King Ahab met with King Jehoshaphat and discussed the idea of going to war together to defeat a common enemy – I Kings 22. Remember in this story how King Jehoshaphat, after hearing all of the false prophets giving their false prophecies, turned to King Ahab and asked “Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of him?”.

And, remember King Ahab’s response which was “There is still one man Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil”.

Let’s look at King Ahab’s response very closely. Note what is implicit in his words. King Ahab says that “he does not prophesy good concerning me”. What this clearly indicates is that Micaiah had prophesied to King Ahab before. It is obvious that a relationship had developed between King Ahab and the prophet Micaiah, albeit a troublesome one. What this means is that Micaiah had given prophecies to King Ahab in times past and they were not favorable to King Ahab. And, we can reasonably conclude that because Micaiah was a true prophet of the Lord, that the prophecies of Micaiah had come to pass. In other words, King Ahab knew that Micaiah was a true prophet and that his words were the words of the Lord. This is very significant.

So, we see that King Ahab recognized that Micaiah was a true prophet. Some may, at this point in the analysis, come to the mistaken conclusion that because King Ahab was evil, that he somehow couldn’t recognize the truth or that he was unable to discern true prophecy. Not so. King Ahab was a king. King Ahab lived during a very spiritually charged time. He knew the things of the spiritual realm. The point I am making is that King Ahab did NOT make the decisions he made that day because he was spiritually unaware. No, but rather, King Ahab chose between good and evil, and he chose evil.

To make an accurate and comprehensive analysis of King Ahab’s decision, one needs to step back and look at the context of his decision. There was a false prophetic system which had been organized and set up by his wife Jezebel. And, this false prophetic system had a very large group of false prophets operating within its ranks. And, they were espousing a river of false prophecies. But, King Jehoshaphat, also being a spiritual person, had discernment to know that what he was hearing from the false prophets was inaccurate and bad information. So, King Jehoshaphat pursues the truth.

So, the question is, why would King Ahab, knowing that the false prophets would give false prophecies, be reluctant to call upon the true prophet from whom he knew he would hear the true world of the Lord? I will tell you why. The false prophetic system that his wife had set up didn’t simply happen overnight. It was very large and very influential. It had slowly gained control in the kingdom of Ahab over the years, to the point that it had become quite large and had infiltrated the entire society. Now, in the analysis of all this, one has to see that with such a large contingent of false prophets involved, there would also be a lot of money involved. Also, the false prophets had devoted their very lives and careers to this false prophetic system. So, understanding this, one can see why the false prophets would want the King to go along with their false prophecies. Also, the King himself would probably be somewhat hesitant to go against such a formidable and well established religious system. After all, he didn’t want a bunch of false prophets angry with him.
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This post will be one of the more comprehensive articles I have written for the website, so, it will be quite lengthy. It deals with an issue that I believe is extremely important to the church today. I will lay out in detail what I see happening in the area of prophecy and the church.

We read in Isaiah 5:13 “Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge, their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst”. I believe this describes many within the Body of Christ today. And, one of the reasons I believe the Body of Christ finds itself in this state is due to a powerful and pervasive false prophetic system that can be found within the church today.

The above scripture helps us to see the importance of having a sound theological system. For we see clearly, that if we, as Christians, find ourselves misinformed or uninformed, then we can experience great loss or setback in the spiritual realm. The phrase in this verse which says “their honorable men are famished” means that “their glory is diminished”. So, we could say that if the Body of Christ (or camps within the Body of Christ) adopt bad doctrine or find themselves operating from a faulty belief system, then that group will have “diminished glory”. And, frankly, that is what we see in the Body of Christ today.

In my last article I made mention of a false prophetic system. To lay a framework for this concept I want to use a phrase from psychology which is termed “delusional system”. In a psychological or psychiatric exam you will sometimes see the phrase “he has a well developed delusional system”. This is very serious and is often seen in people with schizophrenia. It is more than an occasional hallucination. Hallucinations can occur for a variety of reasons such as lack of sleep, fatigue, type of medication you took, fear, etc. Or, hallucinations can be a symptom of something far more serious called a delusional system.

A person with a well developed delusional system will often be very verbose and can even, at times, sound convincing to the untrained ear. An example of a delusional system is as follows: “I know things about the terrorist attacks on 9/11 that other people don’t know. I know certain secrets about the plans of the government and there are other people involved and I know who they are. The CIA is after me because of what I know. I was invited to a party of a friend when I was in London a couple years ago. At this party I was tricked by a woman who took me to a room where there were CIA agents who put an antenna in my brain so they could read my thoughts. There were also other foreign spies who were there and they are working with the CIA but, people don’t realize this. Then, there was a gun battle between the agents over me and what I know. I was seriously wounded but I survived. I would show you my scars but, they may be looking. They are trying to read my thoughts and get the information I know. Sometimes, they can even read the thoughts of the people I am talking to. They want to kill me because of what I know. But, they won’t kill me because they don’t want the foreign agents to know that I have these secrets.” And, on and on and on it can go.

You may be saying this all sounds very crazy. Well, yes, it is exactly that. That is why it is called a delusional system. The person who has such a problem, as described above, will actually live their life and go about their daily activities based on what they are perceiving from/about their delusional system on that particular day. This person can go years living their life in the context of the delusion. In essence, this person is captive to the delusional system. Or, you could say that this person is in a prison of delusion. They cannot get out. They are held captive in captivity.

I remember years ago, while working as a student intern in city government for a medium-sized town in the Eastern U.S., a fellow who was around 60 years old walked into the office where I was having a meeting with an assistant to the city planner. This fellow was calm, articulate and seemed OK at first, until he started talking. Then, in short order, he was matter-of-factly going on with a very similar story like I described above, except his story (delusion) included Marilyn Monroe. I also recall, from my previous secular occupation in which my responsibilities included reading many psychological exams, that there were those who had similar types of delusional systems. Read the rest of this entry »

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Demons exist. And, demons are not some idiosyncratic emotion about a traumatic experience from a person’s past. I believe the euphemistic phrase is “he or she is struggling with personal demons”. That phrase may sound chic and sophisticated but, it is theologically bankrupt.

A serious student of the Bible can quickly and clearly see that a large portion of Jesus’ ministry was devoted to dealing with and casting out demon spirits. In fact, Jesus would have conversations with demons and they knew who He was. The demons, in fact, addressed Jesus in such a way that clearly showed they knew Him from a previous age and, they knew and understood Jesus’ spiritual authority.

Any pastor, who is serious, cannot escape the issue of demon spirits and demon-possession. It is all very real. To say that one believes in Jesus, but not in demon spirits is evasion of the highest magnitude. We read in I John 3:8 “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”. So, clearly, by principles of interpretation, if a person says they believe in Jesus, then in fact, they have no choice but to believe in devils.

To say one believes in Jesus, but not in demons is to present a theological oxy-moron. It would be like saying “Yes, of course I believe in the supernatural and the spiritual realm, but just not demons”. On this point, I find it very peculiar that when you listen to a witch being interviewed, she will never say or use the words demon or devil (even though they are the source from which someone who practices witchcraft gets his or her power). This omission, on the part of the interviewee, is not so subtle.

Then there are the smug, pseudo-intellectuals and so-called “intelligentsia” who say that any belief in devils or demons is medievalism or something that only an “uneducated” person would profess. Huh, that’s interesting, Jesus cast out lots of devils, so, I wonder how educated or intelligent one would consider Jesus, the Son of God?

The fundamental and primary reason the world does not want to acknowledge the reality of demon spirits is that, if you acknowledge that demons are real, then in fact, you likewise have to acknowledge the existence of Hell and the judgment to come.

As a Christian, we are to do the works of Jesus. And, part of that duty is to cast out devils. I know many ministers cringe at the thought, but Sir, it is your responsibility. And, the biblical record is clear. You cannot dismiss certain realities just because you may have difficulty with them. To do so is being totally irresponsible. What gives any man the authority to decide that certain portions of the Bible are not true? By what authority can a person say that demons don’t exist? If a person is going to say that demons don’t exist, then that person would also have to say that Jesus doesn’t exist. And, if Jesus doesn’t exist, then where is our hope?

 Publish Date: April 26, 2007

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