The Spirit of the Age

At any point in history, there have been things believed by masses of people that originated in the mind of Satan… the teaching mentioned by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” Paul expands on this in Ephesians 4: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” Even without demonic influence, the heart that is hardened towards God results in a darkened mind. But the combination of hard heart, darkened mind and widespread demonic influence is effectively intractable. It should be apparent on the surface that any attempt to deconstruct such teachings and such thought patterns using reason alone will be an exercise in futility. The spirit of the age will trump reason any day, no matter how unreasonable the demonic idea is. What should the Christian do?

Keep speaking the truth in love of course. Keep pressing on with the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. It is in regeneration – actual, real new life – that the mind is renewed, and the spiritual organs that were once dead are made alive. Of course, not everyone will believe. The road to destruction is a very broad one. But truth still lights the darkness, and since many will believe and be made alive, we must press on. “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:14). Jesus was probably onto something.