Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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From a conversation with Preacher Clark in the 1970’s.
My father mentioned to me once that “Every demon is insane.” It took some time, but I finally began having experiences that proved his judgment to be true. The following is just one such experience.
David taught Solomon that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. I teach that the beginning of sin is wrong thoughts about God. The Devil put wrong thoughts about God into Eve’s mind in the Garden of Eden, and believing his lie, she transgressed God’s clear commandment. Wrong thoughts about God are the root of every evil. While still in heaven, Satan somehow formulated wrong thoughts about God and purposed to make himself equal with his Creator. That was an insane thought, but then, when taken to their end, every wrong thought about God will prove to be insane. And the behavior of those who follow wrong thoughts about God always follows that course.
One time, I was challenged by some dear children of God at a home prayer meeting to defend what I taught about salvation. They were angry and aggressive. They had heard that I taught that salvation is God’s future reward for saints who are faithful to Him. They claimed, with millions of other Christians, that they already possessed salvation, that salvation and conversion are the same thing. And now, when I and another brother, Earl Pittman, were cornered in their house by the few people who had lingered after the prayer meeting that night, they demanded I explain myself and repent for my teaching.
I showed them many Scriptures that demonstrated clearly that Paul believed salvation to be something to which we draw nearer every day (Rom. 13:11), and that salvation is something that we must patiently wait for (Rom:8:24-26), and that we must be faithful to the truth to receive salvation (1Tim. 4:16), and that salvation will only be given to those who do good deeds in this life (Rom. 2:6-10), but the insanity to which wrong thoughts about God can lead us then prompted one Brother named Asa to burst out, “I don’t care if Paul did say it! I know I’m saved!” To which outburst, a woman sitting across from me angrily added, “Paul! Paul! Paul! Why don’t you ever say anything about Jesus?!” To which I responded, “Well, Jesus said, ‘He who endures to the end, the same shall be saved.’ ”
We were never invited again to that home to attend a meeting, as I recall.
Now, I do not believe that brother Asa and the lady sitting across would have normally shown such contempt for Paul the apostle. But an insane spirit does not allow us to remain normal if we cling to it instead of to the Spirit of truth from God. If you and I have wrong ideas about God that we love more than God, we, too, will certainly find ourselves speaking evil of holy things. We will have no choice. We all, eventually, will live according to the spirit that has taught us, whether it be the Spirit of God or one of the many insane spirits that followed Satan and his wrong ideas.