“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against your magic charms by which you hunt souls there like birds.” (Ezek 13:20)
Our discussion of yesterday started touching upon deception in the outer court, which occurs “between the porch and the altar” (Ezek 8:16). It is there that innocent believers are sometimes tied to false horns and spiritual altars, by people who wish to confuse them and “pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal 1:7).
If 1 John 2:18 stipulates: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour”, it is important for us to realizes that the prefix anti does not indicate something which opposes Christ, but instead something which replaces Him (2 Thes 2:4). When someone enters the outer court of faith, it is thus possible that he be deceived by the “deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1) to accept “a different gospel” (2 Cor 11:4; Gal 1:6) and because of this end up serving a wrong altar. In this Scripture Paul goes so far as to consider an individual to be preaching “a different Christ”.
In the Old Testament this very dangerous situation is illustrated in Ezek 8. God shows the prophet how “seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel” (verse 11), in other words the spiritual leaders of the people, bring sacrifices, but to “an unknown god” (Acts 17:23). “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery?” (Ezek 8:12, EST). In verse 16 He brings Ezekiel to the inner court of the house of the Lord, “and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.” (In the next teaching we will examine the specific significance of this, but it also connotes the wider sense of false worship that is found in the church.) The point of pertinent importance – “But there were also false prophets among the people … who will secretly bring in destructive heresies” (2 Pet 2:1).
- Sela: Ask the Holy Spirit to cast some light on your initial entry into the kingdom of God.
- Read: 2 Sam 9; Prov 13; Heb 7.
- Memorise: Heb 7:9-10.
- For a deeper understanding: Read Henk Hanegraaf’s book Christianity in crisis, but pray for discernment as you do so, and guard against a spirit of criticism.
