Fighting the Four Evils

The modern Church has made marriage and family an idol. People of conservative Christian circles keep trying to scare young people, especially young women into getting married young, in their early 20s, most of whom are hardly mature enough to look after themselves, let alone look after another person. They love to spread the narrative that a woman who is unmarried and pursued a vocation will be in a nursing home, all lonely and sad in her sixties.  Do not fall for their lies and scare tactics of these marriage-idolators. If you are serving God and seeking His Kingdom, be it by serving Him in ministry or in a secular profession, He will provide all you need all the days of your life.  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?   Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in...

It is easy for a true follower of Christ to simply acknowledge that God will provide one's needs, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:30-34:   Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. But, how many in the modern (true) Church really truly believe in this passage and heed it? You may dismiss those who fail to heed this passage, and for ...

Many people generally think that a poor person could not be materialistic, greedy and prepared to commit all kinds of evil in the quest to satisfy their desires for earthly comfort. Nothing could be further from the truth. A poor person can be as mammonised as a rich person. Both can be equally mammonised, let's get that fair and square.  It is all too easy to feel sympathy for the poor, just because they are poor. This is exactly why the Bible has to tell us to not show partiality the poor:  Do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit (Exodus 23:3). Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly (Leviticus 19:15)  Feeling sympathy for the poor because they are poor is not righteousness or kindness at all. It is partiality. Such sympathy is humanistic sympathy, sympathy of the flesh, because it sympathises with the poor because it is thinking of how one's own earthly security might b...

Debt. We are constantly bombarded by the debt problem we hear in the news. We hear secular commentators comment about how insidious the problem is. They are right: debt is a problem. However, what the secular commentators do not understand is the spiritual and moral side of debt which only a true follower of Christ can have the capacity to understand: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). The spiritual and moral side of debt can only be understood by spiritual wisdom and revelation from God, not earthly, worldly wisdom. As 1 Corinthians 2:13 says: " Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual ". No secular commentary or secular movement, can fight what debt truly is: materialism, greed, pride, a disregard for fello...

The modern world talks about people, all people, getting their 'basic needs' as basic f undamental hu man 'right' , assuming that all people are entitled to such needs. Such needs are not debated about. They are assumed to be a "right". This is not an indication of the world becoming more and more compassionate, kind or loving, or even, more equitable and fair. No, not all at. It is all a manifestation of the world becoming more humanistic, individualistic, earthly, proud, arrogant and materialistic. The whole idea of people needing to have their 'basic needs' is a deception. It is an extremely subtle one, one that is true enough to be regarded as true in the large part, but of a very dangerous twist. That twist is that this demonic idea not only implies that people need to pursue their 'basic needs' for themselves to survive, which itself is utter lack of faith in God, and thus the serving of mammon. It is much more than that.  It is perv...

Many in the modern Church are scared of offending those who feed their belly, whether it be their employer, or those who donate money to them, such as in the case of campus ministry workers who rely on donations given by those they minister to. They are also scared of offending those in their respective local churches who have money, those who are able to contribute much money to their church's activities. The modern Church is full of such people, full of fear of people, not just an ordinary fear, but a controlling fear, fearful of making even an unsaved person think they are unpleasant. The fear people for all kinds of reasons, one of the main reasons being that they cannot offend those who feed their belly. That is exactly what is means to be under the spirit of mammon. Even many p astors, true pastors, who are o r thodox, evangelical and conservative are fearful of of fe ndin g those in the ir church who c ontribute much money, for th at is how they are paid. T hey just can...

A person who does not want to serve mammon, but God, may still fall into trying to serve both God and mammon by not fully trusting and obeying God; trusting that He will provide (Matthew 6:24-34) and obeying God fully out of fear of God (Proverbs 8:13, 9:10; Matthew 10:28). As a result of failing to fully trust and serve God and His alone, he gives into his flesh which is still seeking to dominate him. The flesh loves nothing by sin, and seeks only to serve its appetite for the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).  Mammon seeks to tempt the true Christian by weakening his trust in God, so that he will not, nor cannot fully trust God, and therefore not fully obey God. As such, he will, not might, or possibly, but will be seeking to do things in his own strength. To still doubt about G od and His Word is itself to not trust Him, and therefore is evil. It is itself to desire to be independent of God, seeking on e's own wants and one's own w...

One professing Christian from Australia, who is the more theological and serious type, who searches the Scriptures once rudely and derisively in response to an article expose what it means to be of the spirit of mammon, asked "if we don't have resources, how can we help people?". This evil deceptive ruse of her is based on the idea that one must have one's own material things to help others. That is precisely what the problem is, to think that one must be self-sufficient materially to help others. This woman is not an isolated case. There are many in the modern western Church who share this thinking. That is probably why they cannot understand and appreciate a more profound spiritual and theological understanding of John 6:1-14: After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he...

The world trusts only what it can see. It lives by sight, not by faith for it is unrighteous and knows not God. It is the righteous live by faith, that is, the true Church (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). However, the Church, who is the body of true followers of Christ, can fall into sin, including the sin of unbelief, which is a lack of trust in God.  Matthew 14:29-31 gives one such example. In Matthew 14:29-31, Peter was fearful of walking on water even when Jesus told him to, because he lacked faith:  And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.   But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Many in the modern Church are truly under the spirit of mammon. What this means is not that they have no fa...

 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:11). Many in the modern Church, the body of Christ, fear those people who have the ability to provide more finance to their local church. They fear offending such people because of a fear that they will not provide money to the church. This is to trust in the ways of people and the arms of the flesh, instead of trusting fully in God to provide. Many missionaries in parachurch ministries, such as university campus ministries are also full of the fear of offending those they are under a duty to care for. They fear offending them because those people who they are under a duty to care for provide them donations, that which they need to feed their bellies. It is precisely a manifestation of the spirit of mammon in many in the modern Church. Such people, by fearing those who provide them money, including to do...

It is all too easy for a person to think that his needs is "his". Such is possessiveness which is the height of all pride. While it is true that a person has physical needs, it does not belong to him, for all things belong to God (Psalm 24:1).  Many in the modern Church may accept that while it is wrong to fight for one's "rights", it is legitimate to fight for one's needs.  They think that they are righteous by not believing in one's rights, if that is even the case at all that they are humble enough to accept that there is no such thing as a right, whether it be their own or that of others.  Even one's legitimate needs do not belong to oneself. So, what do I mean? That one has needs, does not in any way confer ownership over one's needs. This is because no human owns anything all all, whatever the world may say, or whatever a local church, pastor, or individual true Christian might think. All things belong to God as Psalm 24:1 makes very cl...

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6:29-34). Many people do not understand how the mammonised system enslaves, including the ones who should know, that is, the Church. However, even many people in the modern Church does not understand. They think it is not to ...