Demons and the believer

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Amanah

The flip side is we tend to see only the spiritual application of many of the scriptures we have discussed, when the context is contending with earthly principalities, Assyrian, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, ect.

The Old Testament prophets lived in conflict with the culture around them, fighting injustice, idolatry, and violations of the law. Nathan confronting David, Elijah confronting Ahab for example.

The NT Apostles turned their world upside down, covering the then known world on foot, donkey, boat, ect, preaching the gospel from Asia to Greece to Rome.

Amen. We cannot deny the immediate and earthly meaning that was relevant to the writer... even if subsequent revelation exposes a deeper reality that may or may not have been realized by the writer.

In the OT the prophets did confront the culture around them. And God was focused on a specific earthly nation, with specific codified earthly moral, civil, and ceremonial laws. And so, it was a very real calling to unify the nation politically/spiritually and conquer the cultures around them, or prevent those cultures from influencing them with things that opposed the Law, with a specific focus on the line of Abraham.

In the NT, prophets and preachers also confront the culture around them. However, the focus isn't an earthly nation. Nor are there any codified civil and/or ceremonial laws. Moral laws remain, yet they are not enforced through threat of earthly penalty (like stoning), they are enforced through admonition to holiness/wholeness and the warning of the penalty (judgment) to come. The calling is to unify a body comprised of all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues in one spiritual Kingdom that penetrates and pervades every earthly nation of this age. Prayer, medication, and teaching are to conquer the godless cultural influences in the life of the individual, and the life of the local assembly. The agenda isn't to "Christianize" the diseased systems of earthly government. It is to keep the church focused on her identity in Christ. And instead of focus being on the line of Abraham, the focus is on a unity of Spirit in Christ Jesus regardless of earthly national or political associations.

The NT church is truly the first real universal faith. A faith that can flourish in any culture or nation. The only two ordinances of Scripture are water baptism and the Lord's Supper. There are no set feast days, holy days, holidays, dietary standards, calendars, sacred language (like church being done in Hebrew or Latin), ceremonial dress codes, etc. It is truly a faith for all peoples. And with this new universally applicable faith, the early church flipped the Roman world upside down... without a single act of political activism, revolt, or revolution. It was done by simply being a Christian who remained on their knees. And the power that flowed through the church healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, and saved the soul. They flipped the world upside down by... simply being the church. No politics, weapons, wars, revolutions, etc., necessary.

The Kingdom cometh not with observation. Because the Kingdom is within those who are a part of it. And success isn't predicated upon numbers attained, cultural influence, legislation, or party in power. It is an eternal spiritual Kingdom that transcends all of these things.