“They who are called devils (demons; fallen powers) attempt…to seduce men from God who made them, and from Christ His first-begotten.” Justin Martyr, 2nd century A.D., Apology 58. (Crucial Questions About Spiritual Warfare, Clinton E. Arnold, p. 40)

“The devils put forward Marcion of Pontus (a Gnostic teacher), who (teaches) men to deny God is the maker of all things in heaven and on earth, and that the Christ predicted by the prophets is His Son and preaches another god…and likewise another son.” Justin Martyr, 2nd century A.D., Apology 58

The small but vastly important book, “Christ and the Powers,” by Hendrik Berkhof, unleashed a wave of studies on “the powers” spoken of in the New Testament. It profoundly influenced William Stringfellow, Jacques Ellul, Marva Dawn, Walter Wink, G.B. Caird, and many others.

In Chapter 5, “The Church and the Powers,” Berkhof writes:

“…it is given to the church as a privilege—and therefore as a duty—to take toward the Powers, restrained as they are by God, a definite stance. This stance is grounded in the fact that, by virtue of their fellowship with the Lord of all Powers, believers have been enabled to see through their anti-Christian dimension…. This involves especially the discerning of the Powers which hold the hearts and actions of men under their sway.” “When Paul lists (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) the various gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon the church, he names among them ‘discernment of spirits..a special gift of the Spirit, which not everyone possesses, at least not in the same measure…. The Spirit distributes the gifts in a special way to each person, as He wills. p. 47-48

GB Caird was Dean Ireland’s Professor of Exegesis of Holy Scripture at Oxford. In his book “Principalities and Powers,” he expands upon the extent of the Powers' hold over the hearts and actions of men:

“There can be little doubt that ‘principalities and powers’ included powers of state…the Jewish religion (modern godless Bolshevism; Leftism), and…the whole natural order, under...demonic reign…”. Domination includes “the pagan world order….” p. 16

Evil Powers are bound up with ”the enigmatic fact of sin, whereby not only men have turned from God but the invisible side of the cosmos functions in diametric opposition to its divinely fixed purpose….”The nature of the Powers is “to keep us from love.” In fact, “they have become gods (Galatians 4:8), behaving as though they were the ultimate ground of being, and demanding from men an appropriate worship. This is the demonic reversal which has taken place on the invisible side of creation…. They stand as a roadblock between the Creator and His creation.” (Berkhof, p. 30)

In our own time, evil Powers dominate the minds of Luciferian Western and American Globalists and wicked government leaders on the national level through the modern pagan world order that controls their hearts and actions.

“See to it no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human traditions, according to the stoicheia (powers; elemental spirits) and not according to Christ....” (Colossian 2)

The modern pagan world order separates men from God and includes but is not limited to:

Perennial Philosophy, Naturalism, Darwinism, atheism, environmentalism; postmodernism; Teilhard’s pantheist evolutionary conception; population reduction schemes; Gaia, modern ideologies, Secular Humanism; Transhumanism; the Singularity; Evolutionary Materialism; cosmic pantheism; the New World Order concept; Green Religion; higher and lower Biblical criticism; Biblical deconstruction; demystification of the Bible; evolutionary theism; Illumined Masonry; the Third Eye; nihilism; Satanism; death wishing, reincarnation, evolution, karma, yoga, transcendental meditation; centering prayer; Mindfulness meditation; spiritism; human sacrifice; occultism, Enneagram; ancient and modern Mystery Religions; Luciferianism; monism; the Void; serpent power; Ouroboros; chaos magic; Extraterrestrials, Space Brothers, Hathor of the UFO of God; Baphomet; Gnosticism; Death of God theology; Progressivism; Leftism; Communism, Socialism, and the scientific neutrality principle:

“The origin of the neutrality principle is the Garden of Eden. Its father is the Evil One who tempted Eve to approach the question of eating from the forbidden tree in a neutral, unbiased fashion. He slyly suggested she adopt a neutral position in order to decide who was right, God or the snake. Like modernists of our own age Eve doubted and therefore rejected God’s Word as authoritative and conclusive. As a true neutralist, she determined for herself which choice to take.” Gen. 3:4-6. (Modernist Christians in a Man-Centered Universe: Scientific Neutrality and Biblical Deconstruction, Linda Kimball)

Then there is: “A Course in Miracles, Alchemy, American Indian Quest, Ancient Mythology, Arkashic Record, Aryuvedic Medicine, Astrology, Bahai’i Unity, Buddhism, Buddhist/Christian Dialogue, Chakras, Channeling, Christian Monastic Mysticism, Crystals, Divination, Dream work, Druidism, Eastern Meditation, Eckankar (soul travel), Ecofeminism, Enneagram, EST, Feng Shui, Gnosticism (ancient and modern), Goddess worship, Hare Krishna, Hermeticism, Higher Self, Hinduism, Holism, Human Potential Movement, Hypnosis, I Ching, Iridology, Jungian Transpersonal Psychology, Kabbalah, Karma, Mandalas, Mantras, Mind-altering drugs, Parapsychology, Past Life Regressions, Reiki, Re-incarnation, Religious syncretism, Rolfing, Sacred Technologies, Santeria, Scientology, Shamanism, Sufism, T’ai Chi, Tantrism, Tarot Cards, Teilhardism, Therapeutic Touch, Tikkun, Transcendental Meditation, Ufology, Urantia Book, Visualization, Wicca, Yoga, Zen.” (One or Two? Dr. Peter Jones, pp. 40-41)

The Crucifixion is the one-time event that not only exposed and made manifest the enmity of evil Powers toward the Lord of Glory but was their definitive defeat when the Crucified Christ rose from the dead and unmasked them, revealing that they were not gods and goddesses but created creatures…fallen angels:

“He disarmed the principalities and powers, who had made themselves the gods of the world, and made a public example of them, triumphing over them thereby. “Colossians 2: 13-15

Berkhof makes clear that only when the Powers are unmasked by the faithful church in the name and power of the Crucified Risen Christ will they lose their dominion over men’s souls. p. 48

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Linda writes on worldview, the occult, and similar subjects.

Further Resources by Linda Kimball:

Revisiting naturalism and evolutionism: The dying West’s science of magic and madness

The West’s greatest threat: doctrines of demons and the modern pagan and pantheist antithesis of the word of God

Evil spirits, death of God, Satanic inversion: Pagan America’s reality of madness, demonic bondage, and non-self

The worldview of evil spirits: Revolution, evolution, materialism, nihilism, New World Order, and more

Revisiting the fall of mankind, the religion of evolution, and the antichrist

Isaiah 57 revisited: America’s pagan oligarchy, Aztec gods, and human sacrifice

Trotsky’s permanent revolution from hell in America

The Divine Androgyne, pandemonium, and the battle for our souls