{"id":289,"date":"2009-02-26T18:32:11","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T22:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/Correspondence\/?p=289"},"modified":"2009-02-26T18:32:11","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T22:32:11","slug":"they-didnt-know-it-was-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/289\/they-didnt-know-it-was-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"They Didn’t Know It Was Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

Way back in Greek, Roman etc. times…….times of old, when people worshipped “the gods”, they\u00a0didn’t know that what they were doing and following was wrong or evil.\u00a0 They thought it was good.\u00a0 They didn’t know such power and miracles could possibly be evil.\u00a0\u00a0It looked and seemed good to them. \u00a0They didn’t know the source of that power, Lucifer, was ‘evil’.\u00a0 Lucifer deceived (‘wowed’ them) all on earth, appearing good – just as he did with the angels in heaven that were ‘wowed’ by him, before he and they, were thrown out of heaven.\u00a0 They (humans)\u00a0 thought the spirits that were guiding, and doing miracles\u00a0 for them,\u00a0were good spirits because they didn’t know that there could possibly be evil spirits doing such things. \u00a0They appeared godly!<\/span><\/p>\n

Am I getting this right? \u00a0It seems so much bigger (and more) than what I’m writing down.\u00a0 I’m feeling something, and it’s not coming out fully or as awesome as I’m feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n

John the connection between then and now —\u00a0it’s the same isn’t it? \u00a0People, or perhaps I should be saying God’s children, wander after what they see as good, thinking it is from God, but they don’t know that it’s actually evil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:……..have we already been taught this and I’m just now getting it?<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s wonderful that you’re back home!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

Love you,<\/span>
\n Kay.<\/span><\/p>\n

PS\u00a0 I had a wonderful time in the Lord praising His name all the way home this morning. \u00a0Sarah kept laughing because I was speaking in tongues and coughing at the same time.\u00a0 I praised the Lord for a long time at\u00a0home too, and my ears popped! \u00a0I’ve had fluid on them for some time now – praise Jesus! \u00a0We were suppose to be doing school.\u00a0 Whoo hoo!!!\u00a0 Good lesson for Sarah.\u00a0 I’m sick, can’t do much, but I sure can make this body, in what ever little way I can, praise the Lord!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

================<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Kay:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I can tell that a light has come on for you.\u00a0 That is a wonderful experience.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Moses said, David too, and Paul, that the “gods” worshiped by people\u00a0in\u00a0the ancient world were in fact,\u00a0demons.\u00a0 But if you had told\u00a0that to those ancient peoples, it would not have been news to them, nor would it have\u00a0dismayed any of them.\u00a0 Demons were simply seen as lower deities, whose aid\u00a0was\u00a0desirable and, so,\u00a0whose favor was to be sought through whatever rituals they were told would work to that end.\u00a0 The greater deities were\u00a0the more well-known gods such as those who were supposed to dwell\u00a0on Mt. Olympus (Zeus (Jove), Ares (Mars), Athena (Minerva) etc.), whose favor was seen as\u00a0needful and whose rituals were most emphatically to be observed.\u00a0 These greater deities were demons, too, just some of the more powerful ones.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That is a quick and broad-stroked description of ancient attitudes and facts, but the\u00a0critical point, Kay, is that the goodness or evil of those demons was irrelevant.\u00a0 Some of the gods were unlikeable and known to be evil-hearted, just as some others were likable and known to be kind, but they all were seen as beings that must be pleased in order not to have unnecessary trouble in one’s life.\u00a0 To insult any of the gods, especially the\u00a0most powerful ones, by neglecting their sacrifices was seen as foolishly asking for trouble.\u00a0 >From this, you might be able to tell what an opprerssed life poor people must have lived.\u00a0 Should they eat and survive?\u00a0 Or should they sacrifice their food to keep the gods appeased?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, it appears that\u00a0the common view of life\u00a0in the ancient world was\u00a0terribly oppressive, even for the rich in many cases.\u00a0 One had to constantly be aware of the expectations of individual gods and wonder if\u00a0you had inadvertently provoked one of them.\u00a0 For instance, in a hunt, King Agamemnon innocently shot and killed a deer — but that\u00a0particluar deer, he was told by a priest,\u00a0just happened to be sacred to the goddess of\u00a0hunting, and the king was forced by a\u00a0priest of that goddess to slaughter and sacrifice\u00a0his own young daughter as compensation for the slain\u00a0animal.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One also had to wonder if\u00a0someone among your enemies had offered to a god an especially pleasing\u00a0sacrifice or built an especially beautiful altar, etc., so that the god’s mind was turned against you?\u00a0 You can see that there must have been fierce competition for the favor of the most powerful gods.\u00a0 And so, fear of\u00a0unpredictable behavior from the gods was the norm in all of life because the gods were seen, basically, as great big people, having the same flaws and weaknesses as humans.\u00a0\u00a0 Zeus, for example, was a notorious adulterer, and his wife was\u00a0very crafty and manipulative.\u00a0 Moreover,\u00a0the\u00a0gods could be\u00a0won over by flattery and\u00a0gifts (sacrifices and other forms of worship).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So, the goodness or wickedness of a god in the ancient world was not a major concern of\u00a0ancient people.\u00a0 What mattered was power.\u00a0 The gods had the power; therefore, they were to be feared and honored.\u00a0 The life of people in the ancient world\u00a0really was a life to which the saying applies:\u00a0“Might makes right.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For those oppressed by such a religious system, the gospel must have been an astonishingly refreshing\u00a0message:\u00a0 One God, who is always perfect in all His ways, and\u00a0always good.\u00a0 One simple way to worship.\u00a0\u00a0And the knowledge that demons, whether seemingly nice or not, were evil, and their powers, though real, were delusive and unpredictable.\u00a0 And of course, the revelation of the Son that brought such a new and exciting knowledge of\u00a0truth about everything!\u00a0 The glory of the gospel can hardly be expressed.\u00a0 All that it contained for those ancient people, and for us, cannot be written.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A few centuries after Christ,\u00a0when the Roman Empire morphed into Christianity, the names of the gods were changed;\u00a0and some of them became the “patron saints” of Christians, and the oppression began again.\u00a0 The Middle Ages in Europe was undoubtably the most horrific time for humans to live.\u00a0 Fear, cruelty, superstition, oppression, diseases,\u00a0etc.\u00a0 There has never been a worse time to live, as far as I have been able to tell.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The story of the\u00a0reviving of the Roman Empire as Christianity is a\u00a0long and sordid story, Kay, and one that I hope to be able to write\u00a0about in the future, but that is in the hands of God.\u00a0 Let’s just rejoice that He has shown us mercy and called us out of Christianity to serve Him in spirit and in truth.\u00a0 Oh, how God’s people need to learn these things and be set free!\u00a0 But who can Jesus count on to give up their own ambitions to prepare this food for them? <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

God, help your people!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

jdc<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

PS\u00a0 And yes, you have already been told this, and yes, you are just now getting it.\u00a0 I think that’s wonderful!\u00a0 Do you want a list of the names of people who have also been told these things, and have never gotten it at all?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, Way back in Greek, Roman etc. times…….times of old, when people worshipped “the gods”, they\u00a0didn’t know that what they were doing and following was wrong or evil.\u00a0 They thought it was good.\u00a0 They didn’t know such power and miracles could possibly be evil.\u00a0\u00a0It looked and seemed good to them. \u00a0They didn’t know the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}