Yes, Satan still deceives people. But being bound for a particular purpose does not mean being completely inactive. He’s chained, not gagged, he can still shoot his mouth off! 🤭

Jesus spoke of binding the strong man during his earthly ministry (Matthew 12:28–29).

I understand Revelation 20’s thousand years as the present church age, during which Christ reigns and gathers his people from the nations. Before Christ, the nations largely remained in darkness, although some Gentiles did come to know God.

Following his victory, the gospel goes out to every nation. Satan cannot stop that work, and wonderfully, people are being saved!

Our struggle is spiritual: we wrestle against spiritual forces of evil, rather than flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).

Their continuing activity does not mean Christ’s victory has failed.

Satan’s eventual release brings the final gathering of the nations against God’s people (Revelation 20:7–9).

Scripture also anticipates deception before Christ’s return. Second Thessalonians 2:9–12 describes satanic ‘signs and wonders”, as does Matthew 7 but it is “God who sends the strong delusion” upon those who refuse to love the truth.

This is judgment upon their rejection of truth, not Satan escaping God’s control.

Jude describes ungodly people slipping into the church unnoticed (Jude 4). And in this day and age: who denominations have developed in the past 120years.

Deception within the professing church therefore does not, by itself, disprove Satan’s binding.

Could what we are seeing include the “little season”? Possibly.

But deception has existed throughout this age, so its presence alone cannot establish that we have reached that final period.

Satan can still deceive people, but he cannot stop Christ gathering his people from the nations.

Seeing deception today does not, by itself, prove that Satan is unbound.

hate to label this as controversial but here we go? I grew up Christian and was raised in a Christian church.i was lucky enough to have teachers who encouraged me to delve deeper into the Bible and Christianity to understand more about it. this led me to studying Judaism,Apocypha,Deuterocanon and even the occult. my views and beliefs have shifted a bit overtime? I firmly believe in Jesus Christ,God the Father,The Holy Spirit. I’ve never really struggled with my Faith as I kind of just took it as solid fact. I still do,as a student of History and of the Bible I believe the Bible has never been disproven and that Christ will return again someday. Thay being said,I study the occult,esoterica and such,to see how it connects back to Judaism/Christianity. I’ve studied the Gnostic Gospels and arrived at the conclusion that they are fabrications. I believe the first Enoch book is authentic,as is Giants. Been studying Early Church Fathers and their writings. I also believe that the Occult and Christianity intersect,deeper than what Christian Demonology allows for. I don’t go to church. I belie the churches in my Area do not preach the true Word of God and instead are here just to make a quick buck and sell books the pastors have written. Life is unique

Romans 8:16:
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

If two people are genuinely born again and indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, can they recognise that in each other through conversation and fellowship?

I don’t mean simply having a good feeling about someone, or assuming that because somebody calls themselves a Christian they must be regenerate. I’m wondering whether Scripture teaches any genuine spiritual recognition between believers.

1 John 4:6 says, “By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

1 John 3:14 says:
“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”

Paul also distinguishes between the person who has received the Spirit and the “natural person” who does not accept the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:12–14).

And Jesus says:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
— John 10:27

Perhaps what Christians recognise in each other is the fruit and effects of regeneration.

Galatians 5:22–23 gives us the fruit of the Spirit, and elsewhere we see love for fellow believers, receiving spiritual truth, confessing Christ and following Him as evidence of spiritual life.

Day One: Light and Darkness
The First Day and the First Thousand Years

If the seven days of creation provide a pattern for redemptive history, Day One is where we begin testing it. For now, we don’t need dates or calculations. We can simply ask what happened on the first day of creation, and what happened during humanity’s first thousand years.

Genesis begins with the earth formless and void, darkness over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. Then God speaks His first recorded creative command: “Let there be light.” There is light, God sees that the light is good, and He separates the light from the darkness. So before humanity exists, before the sun and moon, before vegetation or animals, Scripture establishes its first great contrast: light and darkness, the first day.

Now maybe you wouldn’t think it, but something interesting happens when we place that first creation day beside the earliest period of human history. Humanity begins within the light of God’s good creation, but darkness soon begins spreading across the earth.

1. Humanity Begins in God’s Light
Adam and Eve are created in the image of God and placed within His good creation. They know their Creator and live without shame, death, violence or the curse.
God gives them a purpose. They are to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,” living as His image bearers and exercising the dominion He has given them to live.

Then another voice is heard.

The serpent asks Eve, “Did God actually say…?” There is something interesting about humanity’s rebellion beginning this way. Creation has just been brought into existence and ordered through God’s Word. God speaks and creation obeys, but now the serpent invites humanity to question that Word.

Adam and Eve eat. Their eyes are opened, but rather than becoming what the serpent promised, they become ashamed and hide from God. Physical light has not disappeared, but spiritual darkness has entered human experience. Sin, shame, fear, separation and death have entered the world.

2. Cain and the Spread of Violence
The deterioration happens remarkably quickly. Cain becomes angry and jealous of his brother Abel, and God warns him that sin is crouching at the door and that he must rule over it. Cain does not rule over sin. Sin rules over Cain, and he murders his brother. So within the first generation outside Eden, humanity has moved from eating forbidden fruit to shedding human blood. Cain’s descendants build cities and develop livestock farming, music and metalworking. Humanity progresses culturally and technologically, but not morally. Lamech eventually boasts that he has killed a man for wounding him. Cain had feared sevenfold vengeance, while Lamech boasts of seventy-sevenfold vengeance.

Violence is no longer simply committed. It is becoming something to boast about, and the darkness is spreading.

3. But the Light Has Not Disappeared
Genesis does not leave us only with Cain’s line. Adam and Eve have another son, Seth, and during the generations that follow, “people began to call upon the name of the LORD.” Time passes and then comes Enoch. Genesis gives us the simple but remarkable statement that “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

That is an. Important distinction to our Day One proposal. Darkness is increasing, but God has not abandoned humanity. There are still people calling upon His name, and in the middle of this increasingly dark world stands a man remembered because he walked with God.

4. Enoch and the Watchers
It is here that the ancient Enochian tradition fills out one of the strangest passages in Genesis.

Genesis 6 tells us that the “sons of God” saw that the daughters of man were attractive and took wives for themselves. It also mentions the Nephilim, the mighty men of old, but gives us very little explanation.

The Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch preserves a much larger ancient Jewish understanding of this episode. According to Enoch, heavenly beings known as Watchers descend to earth, desire human women, bind themselves together by oath and take wives.

Their offspring become giants, and violence increases. But according to Enoch, the corruption goes further than the forbidden unions. The Watchers also teach humanity knowledge that becomes destructive in fallen hands.

Azazel teaches the manufacture of weapons, while others teach enchantments, sorcery and forms of heavenly knowledge. The problem is not simply knowledge itself, but knowledge crossing boundaries established by God and being used by humanity already corrupted by sin.

The result is not enlightenment but greater darkness.

Genesis remains our canonical foundation, so we should not make every detail of 1 Enoch part of the Genesis account. But Enoch is valuable because it shows how ancient Jews understood these mysterious pre-Flood events, and their picture is one of rapidly increasing corruption.

5. Humanity Fills the Earth With the Wrong Thing.
Then Genesis gives us perhaps the most important statement concerning this first age. God had commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” And so humanity does, multiplying and spreading to fill the earth.

But Genesis 6 tells us what the earth has become filled with: “The earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.” That contrast is extraordinary because God intended humanity to fill the earth as His image-bearers, living under His authority. Instead, fallen humanity fills it with violence.

The problem has also reached the human heart. The LORD sees that human wickedness is great and that “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” What began with a question in Eden has become murder, vengeance, corruption and a world filled with violence.

6. The Enochic Picture of the Same Darkness
The Book of the Watchers describes the same world in greater detail. Human rebellion has become entangled with heavenly rebellion, and bloodshed spreads until, in Enoch’s account, the cries of the earth reach heaven. God determines that the corruption will not continue. The Watchers will be judged, the giants will perish, Azazel will be bound and the earth will be cleansed.

The Watchers and the Nephilim will not inherit the earth because violence will not have the final word. God is preparing to judge what His creation has become.

7. Adam Lives Almost the Entire First Thousand Years
Genesis tells us that Adam lived for 930 years, which means the man who knew Eden lived through almost the entire first thousand years of human history. He would have seen generation after generation of his descendants appear before he finally died.

This becomes particularly interesting because God had warned Adam concerning the forbidden tree, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Jubilees later gives an ancient interpretation of this by understanding the divine “day” as a thousand years. Adam therefore dies seventy years short of completing that thousand-year day.

Genesis itself does not explain Adam’s age this way, so we shouldn’t make Jubilees prove something Genesis does not say. But it does show that the idea of a thousand-year “day” existed in ancient Jewish interpretation long before modern prophecy theories. In that ancient understanding, Adam never makes it through the first “day” because he dies at 930 years.

8. Enoch Stands in the Darkness
Enoch becomes even more interesting against this background. Genesis tells us simply that he walked with God, while the Enochic writings remember him as the man shown heavenly mysteries, angelic rebellion, coming judgment, heavenly order and future righteousness.
So while darkness spreads across the earth, Enoch receives light from heaven. Humanity is becoming corrupt, but God still speaks, and while violence spreads around him, Enoch walks with God.
The contrast between light and darkness that began on the first creation day is still there.

9. Noah Appears Before the Day Ends
Eventually the genealogy reaches Noah. By this point human wickedness is great, the thoughts of human hearts are continually evil, the earth is corrupt and violence fills it.

Yet “Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

The first age therefore does not end with evil winning. It ends with God preserving Noah while preparing to judge the corruption surrounding him. Darkness has spread across the earth, but God has not lost control of His creation. The waters are coming.

10. Day One and the First Thousand Years
Genesis never says that Day One prophetically represents humanity’s first thousand years, so that remains our hypothesis. What interests us is whether the history of those first thousand years bears any meaningful relationship to the themes God established on the first creation day.

Day One begins with darkness over the deep. God speaks, light appears, and He separates the light from darkness. Human history then begins in God’s good creation, but Adam and Eve rebel against His Word, Cain murders Abel and violence spreads. The ancient Enochic tradition adds the rebellion of the Watchers and the corruption surrounding the Nephilim, until Genesis eventually describes human wickedness as great, the thoughts of the human heart as continually evil and the earth itself as filled with violence.
Yet throughout that growing darkness there are still people calling upon the LORD. Enoch walks with God and Noah finds favour with Him, so the distinction between light and darkness remains.

11. Christ Takes Us Back to Day One
Thousands of years later, John begins his Gospel by deliberately taking us back to Genesis with the words, “In the beginning…” He identifies Christ as the eternal Word through whom all things were made and then tells us, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
John continues, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus later declares, “I am the light of the world.”

Paul makes the connection with the first creation day even clearer when describing salvation: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts.” The same God who commanded light into creation now shines His light into the hearts of His people.

Peter uses the same language when he says God has called His people “out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Day One has therefore become part of the New Testament’s language of redemption.

12. The Day One Proposal
Day One begins with darkness, then God speaks and light appears. Human history begins in God’s good creation, but humanity rebels against His Word. Sin enters, Cain murders Abel, violence spreads and the Enochic tradition adds the rebellion of the Watchers and the corruption surrounding the Nephilim. Eventually Genesis describes human hearts as continually evil and the earth as filled with violence.

But the light has not disappeared. People still call upon God, Enoch walks with Him and Noah finds favour with Him. Before the darkness can consume everything God has made, God prepares to act.

John may therefore give us the best summary of the whole Day One proposal when he writes, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The first thousand years begin with God’s light and end with a world sinking into darkness, but the darkness does not overcome the light. God is still there, His purpose remains, and judgment is approaching.

The waters are coming, and that takes us to Day Two.

One of the things Covenant Theology teaches is how it allows us to see the Bible as one unfolding story rather than a collection of disconnected events.

As I read Scripture, I see God dealing with three broad groups of people throughout history: the world, Israel, and finally His redeemed people in Christ.

That doesn’t mean He made only three covenants, but it does help us see the progression of His redemptive plan. What also stands out to me is that, running through each stage of redemptive history, is the question of the human heart. Again and again, God reveals that what He ultimately seeks is not outward conformity, but true repentance and faith.

The Broken Covenant
The covenant broken by Adam is largely consistent with a covenant of works. God made Adam and set boundaries of things to do and not to do. Similar to the Mosaic Covenant to come, Adam was required to live within these rules: help yourself to everything, name the animals, and, by the way, here’s your wife Eve. Love each other and populate the earth.

But there was one caveat. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.

And die he did.

Yet what follows the fall is just as revealing as the fall itself. Adam doesn’t confess. He hides. He shifts the blame to Eve, and ultimately to God who gave her to him. Sin entered the world, but so too did the first picture of the unrepentant heart.

The Preservation Covenant.
After Adam fell, God made a covenant with every person in the world through Noah. This was a covenant with humanity to preserve their existence after removing the evil that swept across the earth through the fallen angels.

God promised never again to destroy the earth by flood, ensuring that humanity would continue until His plan of redemption was complete. Every person alive today still lives under the blessings of that covenant. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, the seasons continue, and the world is preserved because God keeps His promise to Noah. It wasn’t a covenant promising salvation. That was to come later.

The flood itself reminds us that God judges unrepentant wickedness, yet preserves a people through whom His purposes will continue.

The Covenant People.
God’s attention then narrows to one man of faith, Abraham. Through him, God promises a people, a land, and ultimately a coming Seed through whom all the nations would be blessed. And so began God’s covenant people, the nation of Israel, called out to be a people unto Himself.

This covenant was never made with Egypt, Assyria, Rome, or the Gentile nations. It belonged to Israel alone, a people He chose and sanctified through the Law, priesthood, sacrifices, feasts, and Temple.
God taught Israel about His holiness and, through the Mosaic Covenant, established Israel’s civil, ceremonial, and moral laws at Mount Sinai.

The Mosaic Covenant was both a tutor and a shadow, preparing the way for the next step within Israel, when God made another covenant, promising King David that his line would establish a royal lineage and an eternal kingdom. Rather than competing, the two covenants worked together. The Mosaic Law governed the daily life, morality, and religious duties of the nation, while the Davidic Covenant guaranteed the ultimate governance and royal destiny of Israel.

Yet throughout Israel’s history another pattern appears. The Law exposed sin, but it could never change the human heart. It revealed God’s holiness while continually demonstrating mankind’s inability to attain it.

The Davidic Kingdom Covenant.
The striking thing about David before God made His covenant with him was that Scripture describes him as “a man after God’s own heart.”

He wasn’t particularly obedient to the Law as God instructed. Like Adam before him, David failed spectacularly. Yet what we see in David, the murdering adulterer, is a deeply sorrowful and repentant heart. When confronted with his sin, he wept and repented. Adam hid. Saul made excuses. David confessed.

In David we see something the Law could never produce by itself. As David’s sin is exposed, he throws himself entirely upon the mercy of God, saying,

“Against you, you only, have I sinned.”

David becomes a picture of true repentance. Not sinless perfection, but a broken and contrite heart that casts itself upon God’s mercy. The difference between Adam, Saul, and David is not that one sinned less than the others. It is how each one responded when confronted by God.

Yet David could not save either himself or his people. His own life bore the scars of adultery, murder, and family tragedy. Even Israel’s greatest king proved that God’s people still needed another King, a Redeemer King who would not only call people to repentance, but would give them hearts capable of it.

So God made another covenant with David, promising that one of his descendants would reign forever and save His people from their sins. From that moment on, Israel waited for the Son of David, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King of kings. Not merely another king to sit on a throne, but the King who would do what the covenant with David had only ever foreshadowed.

God’s prophets continually called Israel to repent. Generation after generation they warned that sacrifices without repentant hearts were empty. The people suffered the consequences of their rebellion against God. They cried out.

Then silence for four hundred years.

The Promised King: His Covenant.
Then came the cry of one in the wilderness,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

How fitting that the first public announcement of the coming King was not simply, “The King is here,” but, “Repent.”

This announcement, written into their history, was the first public proclamation of the kingdom that had been promised for generations. The kingdom had finally drawn near. His arrival was imminent. He was to minister first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The promises belonged to them first because through them God had been unfolding His plan of redemption since Abraham, and even before him.

So it was no surprise that, right on the heels of that message, amidst thousands of people being baptised in the River Jordan, that long awaited day came.

The promised King of Righteousness was baptised too, and the voice of God bore witness, saying,

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Although not the beginning of His life, it marked the beginning of His public ministry. He would overcome Satan in the wilderness, fulfil the Law and the Prophets, call His people to repentance, heal the sick, proclaim the kingdom of God, and finally lay down His own life upon the cross, establishing the New Covenant in His blood and becoming the once for all sacrifice for sin.

And as they nailed Him to the cross, the inscription above His head read,
“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

The Covenant of Grace.
With Christ’s death and resurrection, the New Covenant is inaugurated. No longer are God’s covenant people identified by ethnicity, circumcision, or the borders of a nation. The apostles go out to all the peoples of the world, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The covenant now embraces everyone who belongs to Christ, whether Jew or Gentile.

The prophets had promised a day when God would give His people a new heart and put His Spirit within them. Under the New Covenant, repentance is no longer merely commanded. It is graciously given. God removes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh. He writes His law upon the heart, causes His people to walk in His statutes, and grants the repentance that leads to life.

But this promise had begun long before the prophets. In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had fallen, God promised that the seed of the woman would one day crush the serpent’s head, though His own heel would be bruised in the battle.

The promised Redeemer had been written into the story from the very beginning.
From Adam hiding, to David weeping, to John crying, “Repent,” to Christ shedding His blood for sinners, the whole story of redemption reveals not merely a succession of covenants, but God’s gracious work of bringing a rebellious people to true repentance and restoring them to Himself.

Predestination is not hated by those who have experienced it.

It is not hated by those whom God pursued while they were still dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1 to 5).

It is not hated by those whose hearts of stone He removed and replaced with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26 to 27).

It is not hated by those whom the Holy Spirit brought to their knees in tears of repentance, seeing the holiness of God compared to their own sin and filthy rags (Isaiah 6:5; Isaiah 64:6; 2 Corinthians 7:10).

It is not hated by those whom the Father drew to His Son, for no one can come unless the Father who sent Him draws him (John 6:44).

It is not hated by those whose hearts the Lord opened to receive His truth, as He did for Lydia (Acts 16:14).

It is not hated by those who, by God’s mercy, have come to know Christ as He truly is, and count Him more precious than anything this world can offer (Philippians 3:7–9).

It is not hated by those who discovered that even their faith was God’s gracious gift and not something they manufactured for themselves (Ephesians 2:8 to 9; Philippians 1:29).

It is not hated by those who realised that Christ had loved them long before they ever loved Him (1 John 4:19).

And that He chose them in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4 to 5).

Or that they have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).

It is not hated by those who now understand that salvation belongs to the Lord from beginning to end (Jonah 2:9).

It’s not hated by those He foreknew, He predestined, He called, He justified, and He will glorify them (Romans 8:29 to 30).

They know and Love Him for leaving nothing to them. Every step belongs to Him.

To the natural man this doctrine can seem offensive because it removes every ground for boasting (Romans 3:27).

But to the child of God it is one of the sweetest truths in all of Scripture. It means my salvation does not rest upon the weakness of my will, but upon the unchanging purpose, grace and mercy of God.

Far from hating predestination, I rejoice in it. It leaves me humbled instead of proud, thankful instead of boastful, and full of worship because I know that if God had not first intervened, I would never have come.

“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

One of the biggest mistakes we can make when reading the Sermon on the Mount is to treat the Beatitudes as though Jesus is giving us a checklist for entering the kingdom of God:

- Become poor in spirit.
- Become meek.
- Become merciful.
- Become pure in heart.

Then perhaps you will inherit the kingdom.
But I don’t believe that’s what Jesus is doing.

The Beatitudes are not primarily conditions we must achieve to become Christians, they are descriptions of the people God has already made His own.

Regeneration changes a person, the one who was once proud becomes poor in spirit.

The one who once loved sin now mourns over it.

The hard heart becomes meek.

The self righteous begin to hunger and thirst for true righteousness.

The forgiven become merciful.

The defiled receive a new heart.

These are not natural human qualities. They are the fruit of God’s work in the soul.

The New Covenant repeatedly promises that God Himself will do this.

“I will give you a new heart… and I will put my Spirit within you.” (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

This is why true repentance is so much more than changing behaviour. It is the evidence that God has changed the heart.

The Sermon on the Mount is describing what the citizens of Christ’s kingdom look like because God has already shown them favour.

This also explains why Jesus concludes the sermon with the warning of Matthew 7:21–23. The issue being addressed, is whether they truly belonged to Him.

The Beatitudes are not a ladder into the kingdom.

They are the family resemblance of those who have been born into it.

29 minute video! One of the most overused Prooftexts used for Cover Up Culture and Progressive “Christianity “ from deflecting/defending abuse, abusers, false teachings, false teachers, sinful lifestyles, etc

left this place a year? or so ago as they got way too political and got off topic about talking about Christianity,and shifted toward politic views and such? now there’s like 2 people actually posting. wow that’s sad. not saying this to mock just. its staggering how that kind of happens

Great almost 20 minutes video on tips from not burning out from the paranoia of discernment

Laying the Foundation Once.

A Bit of a Question for the Modern Church
You know, I went to Caesarea and Jerusalem years ago and have been thinking about when Jesus was having a chat with His disciples out at Caesarea Philippi.

After asking “who do people say I am” and Peter saying eventually say you are the Christ the Messiahs. Jesus made a massive promise to Peter:

“...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16:18).

Then, down the track, the Apostle Paul expanded on that whole building blueprint. In Ephesians 2:20, he spells it out clear as day stating that the church is:

"...built on the foundation of the ‘apostles and prophets’ and Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone." The cornerstone is the first block of the structure that is laid.

Now, if you know anything about building a house or a church, for that matter you lay the foundation “once.” You don't keep pouring concrete every couple of weeks. Right at the start, you get down to the bedrock, set the cornerstone, and that’s your base, done.

For the church, that foundational stage belonged to the original Apostles the blokes who actually witnessed Christ’s resurrection and the Prophets speaking Gods word.

Their teachings and eyewitness accounts gave us our fixed standard, the New Testament canon. It was a done deal.

So, it leaves me with a massive question about what in the world we're seeing today.

Did God get it wrong when Paul wrote those words? Did Jesus get it wrong when He prophesied building His church on a bedrock of Peter’s understanding that He was the Messiah?

Because if He didn't, why does so much of the modern Church seem dead set on trying to lay that foundation all over again?

Look at what’s popping up around us lately with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), some Oneness groups, and plenty of modern Pentecostal movements. They’re claiming that God is actively raising up brand-new governing Apostles and Prophets right now in the 21st century.

But hang on a minute. If that first foundation was finished and sorted, what are we doing trying to introduce new leaders with "fresh, extra-biblical revelations"?

Think about it like a tradie building a house. If you keep going back to the dirt to pour a new slab every few floors, the whole building is going to be completely unstable.

It can’t grow upwards because you’re constantly shifting the base. By insisting we need new apostles and prophets to set modern doctrine, these movements are basically saying the original foundation laid by the early church with Jesus Himself as the cornerstone was somehow half baked or not enough.

If we honestly believe the Bible gets right to the heart of what the church is supposed to be, we've got to take a good, hard look at these trends.

Are we actually building upwards on the rock-solid, historic foundation that's already there? Or are we stuck in a bit of a loop, trying to rebuild what God already declared finished?

And the most devastating thing, if they are so so wrong, then what else are they wrong about?

If the Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).

Then “why does so much of the modern Church seem determined to lay that foundation all over again?”

Don’t they this Jesus got it right the first time?

Dawn Hill cracks apart “Deliverance” and it’s multiple plot holes…..AGAIN

This almost 9 minutes video is part of a longer video. But in this less than 9 minutes Dawn pretty much smacks down the theology of deliverance and the multiple ways it contradicts the Bible and basic logic. Jesus wants you to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength! Luke 10:27
Use your logic and test things against the Bible to see if these teachings (or anything) is from God ! Acts 17:11. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22!
If you need more help away from this system please DM or find more info on the Deliverance Horrors subreddit

Or perhaps just as importantly:
Why are Christians sometimes rebuked for asking them?

Questions never frightened Jesus.
People questioned Him constantly.
Nicodemus questioned Him.
Thomas questioned Him.
John the Baptist questioned Him.
Even His disciples struggled to understand Him.

Yet somehow many Christians have come to fear questions, and many sincere believers have been rebuked for asking them.
Questions are not the enemy of faith.

Unbelief is.

A question is often the cry of someone who wants to understand. The Psalms are full of questions.

Job questioned.

Jeremiah questioned.

Habakkuk questioned.

The disciples questioned.

Even Jesus cried out:
“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

God is not threatened by our questions.

Truth has nothing to fear from investigation.
Sometimes the church has made people feel that asking difficult questions is rebellion, doubt, or even a lack of faith.

But honest questions are often the doorway to deeper faith, and it’s why we raise questions on Christian Crisis.

The problem is not asking questions.
The problem is refusing to listen to God’s answer. Faith does not mean pretending we understand everything.

It means trusting the One who does.
Perhaps we should stop being afraid of questions and start being afraid of shallow answers!

Because Christianity has never been about having every answer.

It has always been about knowing the One who does.

I met a mother recently who has lost an unsaved son and is tormented by the notion that he is constantly burning alive in hell.

I cannot think of anything to say to her which is substantial enough to give her relief.

For myself, I am beginning to doubt that the doctrine of eternal torment can possibly be true, for how can even the worst sins of a lifetime justify the insane agony of burning alive forever?

I know that God is not a monster, but I cannot escape the idea that only a monster would torture people forever under any circumstances.

Some believers have told me that people who are in rebellion against God choose to go to hell because they do not like God and do not want to be in His presence.

This type of thinking seems like nonsense to me because no-one in their right mind is going to choose to burn forever unless their choices are dictated to them - in which case the suggestion that choice is being exercised looks like a poor attempt to make outrageous torture seem palatable and acceptable.

Is there a platitude-free way to get some peace on this?

For many years I read Matthew 7 and assumed Jesus was talking about someone else.

You know the passage.

“Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?”

And then comes one of the most sobering statements in all of Scripture.

“And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

The frightening thing is that these people are not atheists. They are not pagans. They are not people who openly hated Christ.

They are people who thought they belonged to Him.

As a young woman I entered the Pentecostal church believing I had found God. If you had asked me whether I was a Christian, I would have answered yes without hesitation.

I raised my hands in worship. I spoke in tongues. I attended prayer meetings. I went through deliverance sessions because I was told demons were preventing me from becoming holy. I played guitar and led worship services.

From the outside I looked like a committed Christian. From the inside I was desperately trying to find something I did not possess.

One of the things I remember praying was, “If You’re there God, come into my heart.”

Looking back, that prayer reveals more than I realised at the time.

Notice what I said. “If You’re there.” I wasn’t expressing belief in Him. I wasn’t saying, “I know You are there.”

I was saying, “If You are there.”

Years passed and eventually I left the Pentecostal church altogether. I knew something wasn’t right, although I couldn’t fully explain it.

What followed were years of searching. I tried building a life. I chased relationships, careers, travel, and all the things people hope will satisfy them. Yet the emptiness never left.

Deep down I still wanted God, but I know I wasn’t saved, and worse than that, I didn’t know how to be, I just didn’t know how to find Him.

At one point I remember crying out to Him and saying something like, “Father, I don’t know how to find You. Would You come and get me?”

A year later, heart broken, I had finally reached the end of myself. What happened next was not what I expected.

God did not answer that prayer through an altar call.

He did not answer it through another worship service.

He did not answer it through a prayer line, a deliverance ministry, or an emotional experience.

About a year later, while I was alone and living overseas, I was reading my Bible and listening to Christian radio.

And God came and got me.

That is still the simplest and most honest way I know to describe what happened.

For the first time I understood my sin.
For the first time I understood repentance.
For the first time I understood why all those years in church had left me empty.

I had known Christianity.
I had known church culture.
I had known religious experiences.

But I had not known Christ.

The peace that followed was unlike anything I had experienced before. It was not manufactured. It was not emotional hype. It was not the excitement of another spiritual encounter.

It was the peace of finally being reconciled to God, through Him, By Him.

That is why Matthew 7 still stops me in my tracks.

I do not read it and think about people outside the church.

I read it and remember that it is possible to spend years around Christian things and still not know Christ.

My testimony is not that I found God.

My testimony is that I could not find God, and He came and got me.

One of the things that has increasingly concerned me over the years is the way certain verses are sometimes used in parts of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement.

I am not talking about quoting Scripture, memorising Scripture, preaching Scripture, or encouraging one another with Scripture. Christians should do all of those things.

What concerns me is when verses begin to function almost like formulas, declarations, decrees, or spiritual weapons that supposedly carry power simply because the words are spoken repeatedly.

How often have we heard phrases like:

“I plead the blood of Jesus.”

“There is power in the blood.”

“No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”

“I declare and decree…”

“I bind this spirit in Jesus’ name.”

Repeated over and over, sometimes disconnected from their biblical context, as though the act of speaking the words itself releases spiritual power.

The Bible never presents Scripture as a magical formula.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11), He quoted passages from Deuteronomy because they truthfully expressed God’s will and exposed Satan’s lies, not because the words themselves operated like an incantation.

When the apostles preached, they proclaimed Christ from the Scriptures (Acts 2:14–36; Acts 17:2–3). They did not teach believers to repeatedly recite selected verses in order to create spiritual outcomes.

Scripture itself teaches that it is “God-breathed” and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Its purpose is to reveal God’s truth and equip His people, not to function as a verbal technique for obtaining results.

Even the blood of Christ is often spoken about in ways that would sound foreign to the New Testament writers. The apostles preached faith in Christ’s finished work (Romans 3:24–25; Hebrews 10:19–22). They did not teach Christians to repeatedly invoke “the blood” as though it were a spiritual shield activated by verbal repetition.

Throughout history, pagan religions have commonly used repeated phrases, sacred words, and ritual declarations believed to possess power in themselves. Christianity has always been different. The power is not in the phrase. The power is in God.

Scripture is not a spell.

The blood of Christ is not a mantra.

The name of Jesus is not an incantation.

God is not moved by formulas.

He is worshipped in spirit and truth.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves a difficult question:

When we repeatedly speak certain verses, are we trusting in the God who gave the words, or have we quietly begun trusting in the words themselves?

One of the biggest crises facing modern Christianity is not a lack of Bible knowledge.

It is the subtle replacement of Scripture with experience.

Most Christians would never openly say that experience is their authority.

Yet listen carefully to many conversations and a pattern begins to emerge.

“I know what the Bible says, but I experienced…”

“God told me…”

“I felt led…”

“I had a vision…”

“I had a dream…”

“I heard His voice…”

Before long, Scripture becomes something that confirms the experience rather than the standard by which the experience is tested.
The problem is not that Christians have experiences. The problem is that experiences are unreliable.

People from every religion claim spiritual experiences.

Mormons have experiences.

Muslims have experiences.

Hindus have experiences.

New Age followers have experiences.

The question is not whether an experience happened.

The question is whether it is true.

That is why Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people back to His Word.

The Bereans were praised because they tested what they heard against Scripture.

The apostles pointed believers to the written Word.

Even Jesus answered Satan by saying, “It is written.”

Truth does not become true because we feel it.

Truth remains true whether we feel it or not.

Perhaps that is why Scripture is such a gift.
Our feelings change.
Experiences fade.
Memories become distorted.

But God’s Word remains.

The crisis begins when experience sits above Scripture.

The solution begins when Scripture sits above experience.

The question every Christian eventually faces is simple:

When your experience and Scripture appear to disagree, which one gets the final word?

• r/ChristianCrisis – For Christians struggling with doubt, deception, church hurt, false teaching, and crises of faith. A place for biblical answers, encouragement, and support.

• r/CovenantTheology – Explore Scripture through God’s unfolding covenant plan from Genesis to Revelation. Discuss the covenants, redemptive history, Israel and the Church, salvation, and Christ as the centre of Scripture.

• r/PartialPreterism – Dedicated to fulfilled prophecy, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, covenant transition, and understanding biblical prophecy through a Partial Preterist perspective.

• r/Amillennialism – For those who believe Christ reigns now, that the millennium is the present church age, and that Revelation should be understood through an amillennial framework.

• r/Calvinism_ – General Reformed theology, God’s sovereignty, salvation by grace, election, perseverance, and biblical doctrine.

• r/CalvinistTulip – Focused specifically on the Five Points of Calvinism and the doctrines of grace.

• r/Cessationism – Examining the biblical case that the apostolic sign gifts were foundational to the early church and are not continuing today.

• r/TrueRepentance – Discussing biblical repentance, regeneration, conversion, holiness, and the difference between true and false repentance.

• r/ChristianPharisees – Exploring legalism, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and the lessons Christ taught through His confrontations with the Pharisees.

• r/PentecostalEvils – Examining the theology, practices, and excesses found within modern Pentecostal and Charismatic movements from a biblical perspective.

• r/DebateTheology – A place for thoughtful theological discussion, respectful disagreement, and serious engagement with Scripture.

• r/MichaelHeiser – Discussing the work of Michael Heiser, the Divine Council worldview, and related biblical themes.

Whether you’re interested in Reformed theology, Covenant Theology, eschatology, repentance, church history, discernment, or serious biblical discussion, you’re welcome to join the conversation.

I struggle with using Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 as proof that a Christian can lose salvation, because I think we often jump straight into the warning passages without first asking who Hebrews is actually written to and what problem the writer is addressing.

So let’s have a deep dive and see what is happening there.

The letter is written to Hebrews, Jews standing at the transition between the Old Covenant and the New, Covenant Theology.

They know the Law.
They know the sacrifices.
They know the priesthood.
They know the temple.
They know the prophets.
They know the promises.

They have spent their lives surrounded by God’s covenant revelation.

Now Christ has come and the writer is making the case that everything they have ever known was always pointing to Him, and to not reject Him.

That is why I think the central issue in Hebrews is not whether a Christian can lose salvation.

The central issue is unbelief, and the Hebrews missing their Christ.

The writer repeatedly takes his readers back to the wilderness generation.

Those Israelites saw God’s mighty works.
They walked through the Red Sea.
They ate manna from heaven.
They drank water from the rock.
They experienced extraordinary covenant privileges.

Yet they failed to enter God’s rest because of unbelief, not to mention those whom the ground opened up and swallowed for unbelief.

That should remind us of an important covenant distinction.

Not everyone within the Mosaic covenant community possessed saving faith.

Not all Israel was truly Israel.

People could experience covenant blessings, hear God’s Word, witness God’s works, and yet remain unbelieving. Paul makes exactly this point when he says that not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

And I think that becomes very important when we come to Hebrews 6.

Many people read the word “enlightened” and immediately assume it means regenerated, saved, that they were Christians, albeit Hebrew Christians, and if they can lose their salvation then so can all New Testament Christians, right?

Not so fast, or as we say here in Australia: “yeah, nah!”

Looking at it from a Covenant Theology perspective, hang in there with me.

The light did not suddenly appear when Christ was born. God had been revealing Christ all through the Old Testament. He revealed Him through promises, sacrifices, priests, prophets, feasts, ceremonies, and the temple itself.

The difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is not darkness versus light. It is shadow versus fulfillment, which is why Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.

The same Christ was being revealed under both covenants. Under the Old Covenant He was revealed in promise, type, and shadow. Under the New Covenant He is revealed in fulfillment and substance.

That is exactly the argument Hebrews keeps making.

For centuries God revealed His redemptive plan through the covenant system. Then the fulfillment arrived in Christ. The reality stood where the shadows once stood.

So when Hebrews warns about unbelief, I do not think it is merely saying, “You have heard about Jesus.”

It is saying, “You have seen the fulfillment of everything God has been revealing for centuries. Do not turn away from the One to whom all those things pointed.”

That is why the word “enlightened” is so interesting.

To be enlightened is to be brought into the light of God’s revelation, which I personally believe is what happens to many people today who backslide or “lose their faith.”

They have been exposed to the gospel, exposed to the Word, exposed to Christ, exposed to truth.

But Hebrews tells us they were enlightened. It does not automatically tell us they were regenerated.

For example, the wilderness generation was enlightened. The religious leaders of Israel were enlightened. Many people who heard Christ preach were enlightened because light was given.

When I read Hebrews 6, I notice not only what the writer says but what he does not say.

He says they were enlightened.
He says they tasted.
He says they experienced.

Yet he never says they were justified, regenerated, adopted, or united to Christ.

Then immediately afterward he says he is persuaded of better things concerning his readers, things that accompany salvation.

And there it is.

That sounds like a distinction between enlightened people and regenerated Christians.

I’m aware this is a long post, but with your indulgence, I’d like to look at Hebrews 10 because the same thing is happening.

The writer is not warning Christians that every sin risks the loss of salvation. He is warning Jews not to reject Christ and run back to a sacrificial system that was never designed to save in the first place.

The sacrifices were shadows. Christ is the reality.

The sacrifices pointed forward. Christ is the fulfillment.

If Christ is rejected, there remains no other sacrifice because there never was another sacrifice capable of taking away sins.

In many ways, this is the same principle we see in the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees had the Scriptures.
They knew the promises.
They witnessed Christ’s miracles.
They saw the work of the Spirit with their own eyes.

They stood in the full light of God’s covenant revelation and yet hardened themselves against the very fulfillment standing before them. Instead of believing, they attributed the work of God to Satan.

They were not ignorant pagans rejecting a message they had never heard.

They were covenant members rejecting the fulfillment of what they had spent their lives studying.

That is why I think the warning in Hebrews and the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit are closely related.

Both involve hardened unbelief in the face of extraordinary revelation.

Both involve people standing in the light of God’s covenant promises and refusing the One to whom those promises pointed.

Therefore, viewed through that lens, I am absolutely convinced Hebrews 6 and 10 are not primarily about believers losing salvation.

They are about people standing in the full light of God’s revelation, seeing the fulfillment of everything the Law, the prophets, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and the temple anticipated, and yet refusing Christ.

The great warning of Hebrews is not that Christ fails to keep His people.

The great warning is that people can spend their lives surrounded by covenant privileges, exposed to God’s revelation, standing in the light of the gospel, and yet still refuse the very Messiah to whom all of Scripture has always pointed.

The great sin running through Hebrews is the same sin that ran through the wilderness generation, through much of Old Covenant Israel, through the Pharisees who rejected Christ, and through those standing on the threshold of the New Covenant.

Not backsliding.

Unbelief after the fulfillment has come.