The Seriousness of Sentimentalism: Three Ways of Seeing the World, Part 1

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

I want to do a 3-part series on how to view the world: sentimentalism, cynicism, and gratitude—the last of which is, though it is not a comprehensive response to these other two, it is a good beginning to seeing the world through biblical spectacles.

We are ‘Glorious Ruins’ as Francis Schaeffer so aptly put it; glorious because we are made in God’s image, and ruins because of the Fall and our rebellion against our Creator. In this 3-part series I am going to look at two enemies of the Christian faith: sentimentalism and cynicism. Sentimentalists, as we’ll see, fixate on the ‘glorious’ aspect, and cynics the ‘ruin’ part. Or Jesus said that we should be ‘wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (Matt 10); again, sentimentalism focuses on the second part and cynicism focuses on the wise as serpents. They are both destructive of biblical Christianity, and on a spectrum they are polar opposites, they pull in opposite directions. However, the cure is to not to mix one with a bit of the other. In that case, we no longer have a one-headed monster but a two-headed monster! (cynical sentimentalist or reverse!)

We all have laughingly groaned about some overly sentimental cards we may have received, but that barely scratches the surface of what we are looking at. It goes much, much deeper than shallow cards.

Sentimentalism may sound sweet, nice and innocuous, but in its strong form, it truly is destructive of our faith because it renders Christ's death unnecessary, as we’ll see. I believe that sentimentalism is incredibly huge in America/UK and is having an enormously corrosive effect on our culture and the truth—but very few see it for what it is because it is so NICE. (reminds me of the beautiful side of evil) It is massive in scope and I’m convinced that it is thoroughly under-evaluated, under-analyzed, and under-appreciated for the negative impact it is having on culture and the church. Why? Again, because on the surface, it appears and sounds so sweet and nice, especially compared to some foes of the faith that are more militant—like paganism or atheism. Strident atheistic critics of our faith are much more easy to spot and to respond to.

Both sentimentalism and cynicism are like glasses through which we view all of reality; they are worldview glasses. Some of you wear glasses but you are not aware that you are looking through them when you wear them. You may take them off to clean them or go to the optometrist to make sure that you are seeing clearly. And that is what we need to do—clean our worldview glasses; take a long, hard look at how these ‘glasses’ of sentimentalism effects how we see everything. It effects how we see ourselves, our inner life and emotions, reality, God, His redemption, our relationships, ect. Remember that sentimentalism has become ubiquitous and can be seen in every aspect of American culture; art, media, politics, entertainment, relationships, etc. Its devastation is all the more insidious and dangerous because it sounds so lovely on the surface. I won’t have the time to dissect how it has effected culture in all respects because it is enormous, and because some of it depends on human taste and subjectivity (e.g. art).

 First, let me say very strongly that I am NOT coming down on emotions or sentiments. We need emotions to be human and they are a lovely part of life. Nor am I criticizing strong expressions of strong emotions/sentiments—just think of the emotional life of our Lord and how He showed deep emotion or sentiment (e.g. tomb of Lazarus). So, the issue is not emotions/sentiments per se, but a selfish or twisted use of them.

Let me define sentimentalism, and then you will see the need for concern. (I need to give credit to Dick Keyes from L’Abri who helped in this study) In it’s strong form it consists of three things: first, there is a denial of evil, sin, ugliness, dirtiness, brokenness and complexity; second, emotions are self-referential—emotions turned in on themselves (I’ll explain this shortly); and lastly, emotions do not lead to action, especially if it is self-sacrificial or costly in any way.

There is an inner coherence or twisted logic that holds these three together, though they may be experienced individually at times.

Let’s look at each one and then show how they collide with biblical Christianity. The first aspect of sentimentalism is the denial of evil, sin, suffering, ugliness and complexity. What it wants and sees instead is: goodness, niceness, sweetness, peace, and simplicity. In fact, it’s watchword is ‘niceness.’ It does not want to face the ugly side of life. It refuses to see it. It will do all in its power to mask, trivialize, or downplay the harsh realities of life in a fallen world.

That is not real life in the fallen world, and sooner or later they will have a very rude awakening to the harsh edges of God’s world. We may deny evil and sin but we cannot escape living in God’s world. But this sin and ugliness denial is so very prevalent, and it starts young. Think of the message of Barney and Friends—all areas of life are covered with a pink cloud of optimism and PC values. Disney has created a similar world, which is also devoid of God, sin and redemption. Our kids are being exposed to a sentimental view of life from early age. Sesame Street and Kaptain Kangaroo had real kids without scripts and things went bump. Even classical children’s stories that speak of evil step-parents are being downplayed. We want stories that always have happy endings but that is not life in the real lane.

Let me give an adult example. Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi Party from 1933-1945. He had a fascinating strategy for masking the evil that was becoming increasingly ensconced in that culture. On State radio he mandated the music. One might think that he would have played Wagner and military marches but instead he required the playing of non-stop syrupy and sappy love songs. Hour after hour, year after year, Goebbels played these love songs while all the while all around them Hitler was turning their country into a police state based on racism. The people’s perception of profound evil was being affected and distracted by this relentless barrage of sentimental music, which blinded the people seeing what was right in front of their noses. The trivialization and denial of evil, ugliness and suffering through music was state controlled and very effective in controlling the masses.

I am amazed that after the bloodiest century in the history of mankind (170 million non-combatants were slaughtered by Communists) we are experiencing this profound evil denying worldview.

Immediately it is apparent how this radically impacts one’s ability to see a need for a savior. If we deny sin and evil, then there is no need for a savior; Jesus becomes an irrelevant nice guy or even a joke. Sin is the whole reason Jesus came into the world, so if we deny or trivialize sin then we will not see a need for a savior. They may like Easter (because of its positive energy) but not Good Friday. Do you see how serious this is? And we are talking about a view of the world that has become enormously popular, and aspects of it have entered the church as well. Not so sweet and innocuous as it first sounded is it? It is sending many to hell because it is undermining the entire message of redemption; no sin, then no need for a savior. With these glasses, the gospel seems primitive and obscene.

But it is not just salvation. It blinds people to the true suffering that people are going through. This mindset is reflected in what is the life goal for many: personal peace and affluence; just leave me alone and I don’t want to see the ugly underbelly of your life. I read recently that one woman said that all she wanted from life was to be drama free and to have fun and laugh. That is a recipe for not only wasting one’s life here but for losing it eternally.

The mega-popular authors and pastors alike often avoid speaking of dark themes which the bible speaks so frankly about. We live in a terribly broken and fallen world, in which we are glorious ruins. However, sentimentalism is: we just want to have fun and no drama in relationships. They fixate on the glorious aspect to the total neglect of the ‘ruin’ that has befallen all of us.

A singer songwriter from NC is James Taylor who is internationally famous. And the song which jumpstarted his career in 1970 was ‘Fire and Rain.’ This song is about drug addiction/heroin withdrawal, suicide, career slide and emotional collapse, as he was institutionalized a few times. Nevertheless, at a large fund raiser 40 years later, there was Taylor grinning as he sung this song about horrible realities but brought back sentimental feelings for the audience—they were grinning and swaying. There was a total disconnect between the awful lyrics and our wanting to squash harsh reality and focus on sentimentalism. That is an example of musical sentimentalism. I hate to face the ugly side of life so leave me alone.

This avoidance of the ‘ruin’ is what is driving many people’s fanaticism about fitness. Fitness is wonderful and I enjoy it, but for many, they do not want to think about the ugliness of death, so they throw themselves into all kinds of activities that distract them from thinking about the inevitability of death. Instead of doing the rational thing and making sure we are ready to die well, we avoid and deny it. In truth, we are not ready to live well unless we are first ready to die well…it will always be haunting us. So, sentimentalism denies or mutes the harsh realities of life, like sin, brokeness and suffering. They don’t have a corner on denial of evil; paganism and a host of other -isms deny evil too.

From Genesis 3 to Revelation God’s assessment of all mankind is that we are sinners: ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’(Rom. 3:23) So, this aspect is a total denial of reality, as we know and experience it, and most importantly as God declares it to be. Our feelings are not the ultimate criterion of truth; God’s Word is. Our experience is to be sifted through the bible and not vice versa.

Second, sentimentalism is emotionally self-referential; emotions are turned inwards. Its directing your emotions towards your own emotions, so you are the subject of the expression of your emotions. What I mean is that we are more concerned about our experience of our emotions than we are for the people who we are emoting to because of their pain. Instead of feeling true sadness for a person who is suffering, the sentimentalist feels good about themselves that they are expressing sad emotions. So, what may look like feelings for others, really may have ‘me’ as their object. For example, do I really love this person or do I love how this person makes me feel? And what happens when they don’t make you feel good about yourself? Sentimentalism has done great damage in relationships and marriages because true love is not the goal—self sacrificing love. Many on dating sites speak of initial chemistry, how this person makes me feel? It is fine and good to be attracted to the one you want to marry but how will this chemistry handle the first argument you get into, when they no longer make you feel good? As a former pastor who has performed many weddings, I really like the classic vows because they force one to think through all the possibilities of when your spouse may not be ‘chemistry on fire’ anymore; for better/worse, richer/poorer, sickness/health, til we are parted by death.

It has been said that sentimentalists see all of reality revolving around them. Whatever happens, their response is always: how does this affect ME? It is a terrible situation where they cannot even acknowledge that there are other people, and an entire external world, which is outside of them.

A biblical example of self-referential feelings is King Hezekiah. In Isaiah 39 Isaiah rebukes the king for his hubris in showing all his riches—he tells the king that his country will be utterly destroyed. And Hezekiah’s response? Classic self-referentialism—‘what you have said is good.’! He had positive emotions because all the devastation would occur after he died. Incredible selfishness.

Another example is Tennyson’s long poem entitled ‘In Memorium’ which is about the tragic death of his 22 year old best friend Arthur Hallum and sister's fiancée. It is 50 pages long but hardly nothing is said about the dead man; we learn nothing about Arthur Hallum; it is all about Tennyson’s reflections on HIS emotional response to this tragic death; his struggle with his emotions and doubts about his faith. It is all self-referential; its all about his feelings about his friends death but nothing is said about the man himself. It’s all self-referential; the dead man is lost in the shuffle of his emotional turmoil.

The media is very good about eliciting an emotional response from the audience that makes them feel good about their emotional response of feeling bad. It is all about making one feel good about the fact that they have expressed themselves; pride in one’s emotional response. It is quite twisted.

Have you ever told a friend about a trial you are experiencing, only for them to reply how this inconveniences them? ‘I had a flat tire’. ‘Oh what a bummer because I wanted to borrow your car tomorrow.’ That can get old real quick for those on the receiving end. Or take the counselor who feels the need to be needed, and so he does not really want you to get healed. Pastors sometimes do this too; need to be needed.

Worst, perhaps, is when a person has heard potential or real devastating news regarding their friend's health. But they express extravagantly (perhaps on Facebook) how much it has kept them up at nights, but you have not even heard from them. They are more concerned about how noble they feel about the sadness they feel for your devastating news.

Those who are on the receiving end of such self referential emotions feel like prey; they can tell that its more about the other person and their feeling pleased about themselves, than a proper compassionate concern for you. After such an encounter the true sufferer may likely have a ‘hunted’ look on his face—he has fallen prey to this persons selfish quest for emotional self-validation as a ‘caring person.’ The reality is that they are emotional vampires.

This of course flies in the face of countless biblical texts about putting others before oneself. It is also destructive of true expressions of genuine compassion. Jesus was quite indignant about those who did good things for show. This aspect undermines all true compassion and turns people into selfish folks…deep down, shallow people. However, I need to add that we all struggle with hypocrisy at some level.

The third aspect of sentimentalism is that our emotions do not lead to appropriate action; especially if that action is sacrificial or costly. If we refuse to see evil and our emotions are self-referential, then it only makes sense that that person is apt to close their eyes to evil/suffering and do nothing.

I heard the story of wealthy couple in 19th century England and they go to the theatre on a cold wintry night. They are both moved to tears about the story of a poor person who is belittled and battered by uncaring rich folks. Meanwhile, the carriage driver who drove them is outside and almost froze to death while waiting in the cold. He forgot to clean the snow off the step of the carriage and the woman got snow on her shoes. The husband gets verbally abusive and furiously horsewhips the driver for this oversight. They are totally oblivious to the disconnect between their response to a play and how they treat their driver in real life. They can weep at a play but have no compassion on the poor man outside, nearly frozen to death—sentimentalism can elicit strong emotion but it does not lead to costly expressions of love.

For the sentimentalist, their strong emotions stop with their emoting and feeling good about their emoting. They don’t feel any compulsion to reach out to anyone who is need, especially if they have to roll up their sleeves to do so. If there is no evil, and if the feelings we do have are self-referential, then it only makes sense that that person is not likely to do anything to help.

This is why sentimentality is so dangerous because it is all about niceness and warmth. It is very easy for Christians to overlook because it looks so sweet and kind and we are used to getting worked up about raving atheists, like the late Christopher Hitchens. But to realize that much we value is being undermined by niceness is a strange shift of gears for us. The bible is full of warnings about the dangers posed by sentimentalism. The following passage from James captures and condemns all three aspects of sentimentalism.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

First, in this text James is condemning the attitude that denies in practice the reality of suffering because they are looking squarely at folks who are nearly naked and starving but seem to look right past it. They do not take seriously another person's suffering; they don’t see it. But since it is a sin of omission and not commission it is easy to overlook. But sins of omission are a brutal reality in a sentimentality soaked culture. Second, they seem to feel quite good, smugly self-satisfied and self-congratulatory about their emotional and verbal response. However, their shallow and self-centered emotions do not result in any action at all; it would cost them something—like interrupting their supper. They neither clothe nor feed them. Instead they feel quite content with uttering a pious cliché and slamming the door in their face. To this James says that that kind of faith is dead. And it critiques all 3 aspects of sentimentalism.

Do you see how sentimentalism is not just confined to Hallmark cards? It is an entire worldview that has America and the west in a tight death grip. With its categories, the redemptive work of Christ is rendered useless and unneeded. If there is no evil and man is basically good then who needs a savior? That is why we must hammer home the law to reveal that all of mankind is in desperate need of a savior.

Not all three aspects of sentimentalism are present in every situation; sometimes it may just be just one-like the first aspect. But that in itself is enough to dissuade anyone from looking seriously at the gospel. The church is not immune to this dust of death which is settling everywhere. All three aspects have crept in the back door. The Christian bookstores are filled with bestsellers which make people feel good about themselves; shallow in theology but rich in sentimentalism. Some mega pastors virtually deny sin and evil by not mentioning it from the pulpit. ‘If you only have enough faith, then you can make your suffering go away’, then like Job’s counselors we may become blind to people’s true suffering—throwing sentimental biblical clichés at them. We feel in clichés and talk in clichés. Not enough worship music mentions the blues and becomes biblically imbalanced.

The beguiling attractiveness of sentimentalism is that it can be mistakenly connected with fond memories of a loved one. Please, I am NOT saying that we should be cold and emotionless robots. It all depends on how we define sentimentality. My deeply fond memories of my deceased parents and siblings are a profound sentiment of mine. But deep sentiments is not to be equated with an -ism, in this case sentimental-ism. In most instances, the root word is perfectly fine until the suffix ‘ism’ is added.

In close, I want to reiterate how massively sentimentalism has infiltrated our society and the insidious damage it has done, and continues to do. It is wrecking havoc in every area of life. But the tragedy is that this tsunami leaves hardly a trace of even a wake, because it is not being seen. Our glasses are fogged. It is truly the child of the angel of light; a ‘nice sin’ of omission.

Next week—cynicism.

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook forma

The Historical Fall & It’s Radically Comprehensive Consequences

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

(Genesis 1-4)
After the Creation of the universe and  Adam and Eve, the Fall occurred. I will return next time to what it means to be made in God’s image. You know the story—which I insist occurred in space and time because the Bible does,—not some mythological fairy tale. Adam and Eve disobeyed the direct command of God. We have no idea of how long they remained in garden before being tempted and sinning I want to focus on the consequences of the Fall more than of the event itself.

1, This event occurred in real space/ time history as Adam and Eve were real people. Jesus affirmed Adam as historical as did prophets and apostles. Jesus is second man and last Adam, and just as his sin was imputed to us, so our sins are imputed to Jesus.

2. We do not speak nearly as often as we should of the reality and comprehensive extent of the effects of the Fall. We basically pay it lip service and let it go. It altered everything about the world—not just spiritually. The curse of the Fall has extended its tendrils into every nook and cranny of the universe, on macro and micro level. Indeed the very cosmos itself groans as a result of the their sin—Romans 8. But I maintain that your experience of the exterior world and your experience of your interior world (your own self, psyche) will remain largely mysterious and obtuse if you lose sight of the full ramifications of the Fall. Literally it bent everything. We live in a Fallen world friends. What does that mean? For one, it means that absolutely nothing is perfect; everything is imperfect. It has enormous explanatory power.

Frankly what we sometimes blame Satan for is simply due to living in a Fallen world. If we ever consciously or unconsciously set up and either/or between perfection or nothing, we always get nothing. Whether a perfect church, potential marriage partner, work environment, ect EVERYTHNG has been bent to some degree..and thorns and thistles of some kind are present.

Specifically, what are the consequences of the Fall?

1. Man was separated from God—origin of spiritual death. What was threatened in 2:17 became reality in 3:8. 9 in where we see them hiding from the very God who they used to walk with intimately. This was/is worst consequence bc in Romans 5 and elsewhere we see that Adams sin, as the federal head of human race, was imputed to all of his posterity. Since the Fall, all people enter this world united with Adam and are spiritually dead. Spiritual zombies—biologically alive and spiritually dead. Eph 2:1 Find salvation as it speaks of in protoevngelion. 3:15. We need to speak more of the nature of this sin—how it was imputed to us, and the radical corruption that ensued. and its affect on us spiritually and well do that soon.

2. Physical death—2:17, 3”19 Instead of killing them immediately as God said and they desrved, he graciously extended their lives. Yet this explains the origin of human death…as well as suffering, disease…

We must remember that death is abnormal. Not as most people think today—death is an unfortunate but inevitable fact of life. There is a discontinuity between the world as God created it and the world we live in now. This is tremendously important bc of how it explains the origin of death and how God and can be good in the case of death and suffering. Let me use a story from Albert Camus, the French Existentialist, to illustrate this issue—The Plague. There was a priest who lived in a village. One day a terrible plague broke out. There was enormous suffering and death. The priest felt and agonizing dilemma bc since God made the world as it is, then if he helped those who were suffering, then He would be fighting against God. But if obeyed God by letting God’s nature run its course, then he would be obeying God but betraying his beloved villagers who needed him, who were suffering. He ended up helping them…

Do you feel the dilemma? If this world in all its death and suffering is normal, if it is as God made it, then we have no basis for fighting against it…and we have no way of explaining how God can be good in light of this awful suffering we experience. But the Fall gives us a titanic answer! It explains that the world we live in is abnormal; death is abnormal. Jesus could weep and express anger, as Greek shows, when he confronted the death of his friend Lazarus. Death is the violent disruption of the vibrant flow of life—the ripping asunder what God had joined together—the soul and body. So, the Fall gives us an explanation for the problem of evil.  The original creation was deathless and perfect but we messed it up.

What about God’s knowledge of the Fall prior to it? Well, I have to stop there, all I can do is deal with the reality we all live in and not jump into abstractions.

3. Man was separated from himself-origin of psychological problems. Do you really think that perfect humans had deep psychological issues? 3:7,10 Prior to Fall they were naked and unashamed but after they were naked and ashamed. Nakedness in the bible is a profound motif which expresses how the entry of sin introduced shame and guilt feelings. Since the Fall, everyone born (not Jesus) was born with cracks in their psyches. We all have psychological issues—some worse than others. We can be unintentionally cruel to people, like Jobs counselors, if we try to attribute all emotional/psychological issues with demonic. Some deliverance ministers need a refresher course on the comprehensive effects of the Fall so that they will not be trying to toss out a demon which is simply caused by imbalance in brain chemistry. I do not know about you, but not a day goes by that I am not acutely aware of my psychological brokenness—some inherited and some caused by life’s battering ram. All of us, without exception, have broken places but we have become so accustomed to them that we think they are normal. Or, the circles we hang out in may look down on us for not being 'victorious'.

I don’t have time to develop this but the gospel can bring substantial healing to some psychological issues—especially guilt feelings. Justification deals directly with forgiving our guilt before God…and the guilty feelings that ensue. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rom. 8:1

4. Man separated from other men—origin of sociological problems or mans inhumanity to man, See Adam accusing Eve…3:12…and Cain killing Abel.4:8 God’s very good creation in 1:31 has degenerated terribly due to Fall. The lovely fields of Edenic Paradise have turned into killing fields.

5. Man separated from nature—origin of environmental problems, and fear. 3:17ff. The original cultural mandate has been abused and we’ve raped creation. And instead of the animals coming to Adam to be named they now have instinct to flee from us…sad.

6. Nature separated from nature-origin of violence and decay in creation.1:29, 30—Romans 8. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Carniverous activity…survival of the strongest.

7. Man separated from evil angels and conflict between folowers of Christ and Satan—spiruatal warfare  3:15.
Note how comprehsnsive these effects are. Do you see that now? And how life and this world is inexplicable apart from accurate understanding of the Fall.

We usually focus on Adams sin and how it effects us spiritually and that is primary. It is what plunged us into radical ruin…spiritual death.
It has enormous explanatory power.
Man separated from God-origin of spiritual problems, spiritul death
Origin of physical death, disease
Man separated from others--origin of relational confict and violence
Man separated from himself—origin psychological problems
Man separated from nature—origin of pollution, and fear between us and animals
Separation of nature from nature—origin of violence in nature.

Do you see how the Fall sheds so much light on us as well the world we live in? Let us recapture a deeper understanding of the reality and effects of the Fall—and how that accents the beauty of the cosmic scope of Christ’s redemption.

The goal of the drama of redemption is to not just restore pristine glory of Eden, but much further…Paradise will be here on earth. A renewed heaven and earth. Rev. 21, 22

Still, very very lovely. Not just as proof of existence of God but it is beautiful.

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.

Is It Possible to be Certain & Humble?

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE CERTAIN AND HUMBLE?

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,[f who is at the Father's side,[g] He has made him known. (John 1:18)

17 Sanctify them[b]in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17) 

One of the most frequent objections to Christianity is that they are arrogant for making claims for certainty: arrogant for claiming to be right, arrogant for claiming others are wrong, and even arrogant for claiming to know anything with certainty. It seems much more ‘humble’ to tell people that they can believe whatever they want to, and that all roads lead to the top of the mountain, as long as you’re sincere. It seems more humble to say: “I don’t know for sure, but as for me, I believe x,y, and z.”

Folks are naturally drawn to claims that are couched in uncertain terms because it does not demand a verdict or a change of heart-allegiance. From my experience, no matter how kind, gently, or loving one states certainty regarding truth, it will be ridiculed for being, well, arrogant…abusive..mean-spirited.

The US Constitution protects the equal rights of all religions, as it should. However, it is a short, but profoundly misguided step of logic in the mind, to go from equal rights of all religions to equal VALIDITY of all religions. That is a non-sequitor—it does not follow.

In addition, the claim that we can’t know for certain is an absolutely certain claim about uncertainty! Thus, it is a self-destructive belief/assertion.

But more to the point, we need to re-examine how we are defining ‘humility’.

First in the philosophical community, and then trickling down to popular culture, the definition of humility has undergone a profound change. We live in a culture which has been described as being in the death grip of ‘escape from reason.”,(see Francis Schaeffer, Escape from Reason) and this intellectual odyssey away from antithetical reasoning has led to a profound epistemological (the validity, nature, and limits of knowledge) skepticism.

I’m trying to shorten my blogs, so I’m not going to explain how the developments in philosophy (e.g. Hume, Kant, and Hegel) have profoundly impacted how we view the notion of certainty and knowledge acquisition. Maybe next time when I’ll discuss the basic reliability of the sense perceptions, which has been profoundly undermined in our culture.

The bottom line is that today, humility has become synonymous with ‘uncertainty’; to be uncertain is considered humble or open-minded—a virtue. But to be certain, especially about religious matters, is considered arrogant and close-minded—a vice. Whether we like it or not, that is the spirit of the age we live in.

This shift poses real problems for Christians who believe that we can have certain knowledge, not about everything, but certainty regarding God, salvation, who Jesus is and what He did, and how we can go to heaven.

God is the Lord of linguistics, and though human language is fluid, a concept as profound as humility (or arrogance) must be defined by the Living God, and not by a culture in a rebellion against Him (Psalm 2).

Our certainty has nothing to do with Christians themselves or our innate abilities. Rather, it is all grace dependent. And if it’s grace-dependent, then we have nothing to boast about in our certainty, but only humble gratitude before the Lord. Thus, we can be both certain and humble. Let me explain.

God has revealed true truth in His Word. If it were not for God’s purposeful, grace-full intention to reveal true (not exhaustive knowledge but true knowledge) knowledge about Himself via the Scriptures, we would know nothing regarding the main questions of life. General revelation through nature is true, but it lacks specificity regarding the issues mentioned above, and unaided human reason cannot attain accurate saving knowledge of God.

When it comes to crucial questions like: what is God like; how do we get to heaven, what happens after we die, who is Jesus and what He did, Christians have a solid foundation for being certain in our knowledge and claims: God’s gracious and clear revelation to us in the bible. I wonder how often bible believing Christians thank God for the immense treasure we have in the bible, and how lost we’d be without it?

In the Reformation debate between Erasmus and Martin Luther, Erasmus chided Luther for being overly bold in his assertions regarding how we are saved—Luther was insisting with utter certainty that we are saved by faith alone (which means by Christ alone). Luther, in characteristic fashion, replied: “God does not speak out of both sides of His mouth, and the Holy Spirit is not a Skeptic.” What he was saying is that, since God’s Word is clear, then we must be lovingly bold in our assertions, or it will imply that God has not spoken clearly to us, which would reflect poorly on His character and communication skills. One could say that it reflects a lack of humility to NOT speak with certainty because we are putting our fallible, finite minds in judgment above God’s gracious revelation. Or perhaps we fear what people will think of us if we speak the truth boldly. But Paul said that he was ‘not ashamed of the gospel…”, and neither should we. (Romans 1:16)

Jesus was the most humble Man who ever lived and yet He looked at the Sadducees and said: “You are wrong.” (re: their denial of the afterlife).

In John 1:18 Jesus exegeted the Father. Meaning that He explained what God is like because He IS God! Jesus, the Incarnate Word is the Ultimate revelation of what God is like. In John 17:17 notice that it does NOT say that ‘Your Word is true’ (adjective…though it is true), but that IS truth (alatheia, in Greek, noun) This implies that God’s Word does not simply conform to some other external standard of ‘truth’ but that it is Truth itself. It embodies truth and is the standard of truth against which everything else must be compared and tested. In fact, in Jesus, Truth is a Person (John 14:6). Certitude and humility are friends, not foes, due to God’s gracious revelation of Himself in the Incarnate Word and Inscripturated Word.

Christians can be both certain and humble because our knowledge is not based on ourselves, but in the self-revelation of the Living God. It is not arrogant to speak with certainty regarding matters God has spoken clearly on. It is living in humble reliance upon Him, and knowing that we don’t live on bread alone…

God didn’t go to such great lengths to reveal Himself in order to leave us in uncertainty! Unlike paganism/occult in which WE search for hidden knowledge/mysteries, in biblical Christianity it is God Himself who reveals and explains the mysteries to us—things we could not have known otherwise.

When I write a blog and make strong assertions, I do so with a humble reliance upon the God who, in His kindness and love, has revealed Himself through the Inscripturated Word as well as the Incarnate Word. Both are utterly certain! Not all things are equally clear in the bible but many things are crystal clear—sometimes it takes hard work to arrive at certainty. And when the Word is clear, then we are ill-advised to preface our comments with: “In my humble opinion…” There is certainly a place for those prefatory comments, but my thought is: why blog on something which you’re not certain about? Folks don’t care about my opinions, they want to know what GOD says!

So, let us not shrink back from speaking with confident, bold, loving certainty regarding matters the bible itself is clear about. Speak the truth in love, and not fall prey to false, worldly definitions of humility. We can be both humble and certain! Praise God! Humble certainty is what God wants us to have; it’s part of our inheritance as His children. And the world desperately needs us to be valiant for truth--declaring His glory, for His glory!

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.

The Nature of God and the Greatest Question of All

By Mark Hunnemann

"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21)

I have been accenting the paramount importance of the doctrine of God in our worldviews...how it effects everything. How we view Ultimate Reality has a domino effect on the other six worldview issues. There are several worldviews in our culture, but the one gaining ascendancy is New Age or Neo-gnostic/occult, which we will look at perhaps next time. Obviously, the concept of Ultimate Reality in this pagan goddess spirituality differs significantly from biblical Christianity.

Let me briefly show how the primacy of what God is like effects the other issues, and then I want too camp on what is the most important issue of all--how can I be saved?

1. Ultimate Reality in the bible is the infinite personal God who is really there, and who has spoken to us Person to person in the bible. God is good--meaning He is holy and loving.
2. Since God is both infinite and Personal He took great delight in creating the heavens and the earth, the visible and invisible. (Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:16)
3. Since God is personal, He loves us and desires to be our primary love...He does not leave it to guesswork as to what our purpose in life is--it is stated in His communication to us.
4. The text above speaks of Jesus' sinlessness. Since God is really THERE, and spoken truth to us, we have an adequate basis for ethics. "Be holy because I am holy". (1 Peter 1:16)
5. God is infinite and personal and He made us finite and personal--that is, IN HIS IMAGE. Again, no guesswork as to what humans ARE, because of who God IS! (Gen.1:26ff)
6. We spoke of the three Lordship attributes of God last time (control, authority, and presence) This assures us that the flow of history (and our own personal history) is moving in a meaningful, linear fashion to it's culmination in the Second Coming/restoration. History is the stage upon which God is driving the drama of redemption.
7. The afterlife is, yet again, not a matter of speculation because God/heaven is really THERE. "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ...",   "...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement." The moment we die we appear before the Lord's throne, and are sent to heaven or hell for all eternity. (2 Cor. 5:!0; Heb. 9:27) The greatest argument against the notion of trapped spirits is the nature of God (and His perfect atonement). His nature will also reveal in technicolor how we MUST be saved and enter His perfectly holy heaven.

Do you see how the existence and nature of God effects EVERYTHING? If we had the time, I would like to show how Ultimate Reality as energy/matter would "answer" these worldview questions. We would see that it, and all non-biblical worldviews, are utterly bankrupt to provide adequate answers to our deepest questions.

But what of the greatest question of all: how can I know I am going to heaven after death? Though it is not listed as a worldview component, it underlies and is implied in all of seven components--especially the nature of God. Once again, when we ponder our eternal destiny, the nature of what Ultimate Reality is will guide our thinking. For example, in the history of humanity there are three basic answers to that question. Though details may vary in a multitude of ways, we can accurately summarize three basic views of salvation--which (not surprisingly!) flow from one's view of Ultimate Reality. Let's look at these now.

1. Auto-soterism or self-salvation...otherwise known as Pelagianism (named after the heresiarch, Pelagius). Whether New Age, humanism, atheism, deism or theological liberalism (and scores of others), we either save ourselves by being good or we essentially "save ourselves" by denying that we even need salvation. The details vary from one belief to the next in auto-soterism (e.g. annihilation vs continued conscious existence), but the defining feature is that we don't need a Savior....we will earn or merit our way to our next incarnation or heaven. Perhaps the most common view of salvation is, "Justification by death alone." All we have to do is die, and we fly off to paradise.

The only way one can subscribe to Pelagianism is by having a seriously defective or deficient view of God's nature. Theological liberalism often states that the essence of Christianity is" living the Sermon on the Mount". Hmmm.....I wonder if they have ever carefully read this lofty sermon by Jesus? There is a spiritual logic to the beatitudes, which are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, and the first is, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:3) That is, blessed (well being in one's relationship with God) are those who recognize they are desperately in need of divine grace and mercy, for they are spiritually bankrupt in themselves. A deficient view of God's holiness will lead to a deficient view of our true spiritual condition. In other words, self-salvation is the noxious fruit of having a distorted view of Ultimate Reality in our worldviews.

2. Semi-pelagianism or Arminianism (named after Jacob Arminius) is a half-way house between self-salvation and salvation by grace alone. Stated another way--we are saved by faith in Christ plus.... (fill in the blank). My intent is not to offend anyone, but to state things accurately and urge us to think (Berean style). I was raised in a devout Christian home, but the gospel was, "We are saved by faith in Jesus, plus doing certain things...but if you do other certain sins, that will kill the grace of God in your soul. You will lose your state of salvation until you do x, y, and z." I am intentionally being vague. However, regarding the view itself--we are saved by faith in Christ AND good work/s-I will NOT be vague. As Paul said to the "Arminians" of his day, "As we have said before, so now I say again:If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Gal. 1:9-10) The heresy Paul was eternally condemning to hell was the notion that we are saved by faith in Christ plus being circumcised. That was the Galatian heresy which so agitated Paul and the Lord.

There always has been, and always will be, differences amongst Christians this side of heaven. However, the essence of the gospel must be protected, regardless of what people say. The folks in Galatia were not pelagianists, or believers in self-salvation. However, they did add to the finished work of Christ on the cross by saying,"In order to be saved, you must believe in Christ and be circumcised." Today, that same sort of belief is alive and well in America, and globally. Only the Lord knows the true state of a person's soul and many folks raised in these traditions are truly born again, but it must be due to some happy inconsistency. Only the Lord knows when the line is crossed in practice--all I can do is state the biblical principle, for which I do not care what man thinks. What I plead for you to consider is that many professing Christians--either because they hold to a "easy-believism" or a version of faith plus works heresy--are not really saved and will spend eternit y in hell. That grieves me...and it certainly grieves the Lord.

The issue again is the nature of God. If we have depth view of God's holiness, then we will have a depth view of our sinfullness. With a deep awareness of our radical corruption comes a vision of the glorious beauty of grace. A deep appreciation of God's utter, burning holiness will reveal the utter futility and madness of adding anything to the finished work of Christ on the cross. A person on this faith and works treadmill can never enjoy (if they are consistent) an abiding joyful assurance of salvation. There will always be the insecurity of, "Did I do enough, or did I do TOO much sin today..did I get kicked out of God's family?" Listen, I lived this way  growing up and it was horrible, even as a child.

The third way of salvation is the biblical way...the true way of salvation. GRACE. We are saved by faith alone in the finished work of Christ on the cross. (Romans 3 & 4;Eph. 2:8-10...Gen--Rev) "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it s the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." I included v. 10 because it is often left out when these verses are quoted and it addresses a significant issue--what is the role of works, if we are saved by grace alone? Concern regarding "cheap grace" or easy believism is valid, but is no reason to throw the "grace baby" out with the dirty water. Luther re-discovered the pure gospel in 1517 after it had languished under severe legalism for 1, 000 years or more. He put it this way, "We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." The book of James is about the evidence of true faith. Good works have no meritorious value but they have immense evidential value. As the text in Ephesians states, we were saved in order to be pleasing to the Lord.

This is not a systematic theology, so I need to wrap up. We come finally, again, to Ultimate Reality--the nature of the biblical God--which reveals the sovereign grace of God Almighty. All this talk of worldviews is foolish and empty if we ourselves are not reconciled with our Creator. 2 Cor 5:21 is one of the most important verses in all of Scripture  for understanding the meaning of the atonement and justification. The sinless Son of God became a substitute for us...substitutionary atonement. We are justified by faith alone. To say that are saved by faith or grace alone is to say we are saved by Christ alone (and His finished work on the cross) Justification involves a double transfer. Christ became sin "for us"--and was punished "for us"--but His 33 years of righteous living (the righteousness of God) is imputed or counted to us as well. It pleased the Father to transfer our sins to Jesus, and to transfer Jesus' perfect life to us. We are declared eternally "Not Guilt y!" and the Father sees us "IN HIM".

The only way we can stand before the holy Father is due the robe of righteousness wrapped around us. Though it may not make sense to the world, we must be saved by grace alone because of how absolutely just, holy and righteous God is. Every sin is an act of cosmic treason against a thrice holy God and deserves eternal punishment. However, since we are in union with Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension..God not only accepts us, He absolutely delights in us! (Isaiah 62:3-5) He delights and rejoices over us...may we relish this, and dance for joy because salvation is of the Lord....from beginning to end. For all eternity we will sing the praises of the King of Grace!
Amen.

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.

Demonic Influences And Holy Angels Of the Lord

Per your request from some of you I will give some more examples of possible side effects from a demonic attack. There are many of them but I will name a few before getting into the subject at hand.

1. A compulsive desire to blaspheme God

2. A revulsion against the Bible, including a desire to tear it up or destroy it

3. Compulsive thoughts of suicide or murder

4. Deep feelings of bitterness and hatred toward others without reason - Jews, other races, church, strong Christian leaders

5. Any compulsive temptations that seek to force thoughts or behavior that the person truly does not want to think or do

6. Compulsive desires to tear other people down, even if it means lying to do so; vicious cutting by the tongue

7. terrifying feelings of guilt even after honest confession is made to the Lord

8. Certain symptoms that may appear suddenly or leave quickly and for which there are no physical or physiological reason; symptoms such as choking sensations, pains that seem to move around and for which there is no medical cause, feelings of tightness about the head or eyes, dizziness, blackouts, or fainting seizures

9. Deep depression or despondency

10. Sudden surges of violent rage, uncontrollable anger, or seething feelings of hostility

11. Terrifying doubt of one's salvation even though they once knew the joy salvation

12. Seizures of panic or other fear that is terrifying

13. Dreams or nightmares that are of a horrific nature and often recurring; clairvoyant dreams that may even come true are most often demonic

14. Abnormal or perverted sexual desires

15. Questions and challenges to God's Word

16. Sleeping or eating disorders without physical cause

17. Most compulsions and obsessions

18. Rebellion and hatred for authority

19. Bizarre terrifying thoughts that seem to come from nowhere and cannot be controlled

20. Fascination with the occult

21. Involvement in criminal activity

22. Extremely low self-image (unworthy, a failure, no good, constant undermining.

Remember these are just more that I could think of but their are many other signs out there and they can be very subtle which is very scary.

Now let's discuss the subject at hand:

The first goal of demons in my opinion is to prevent us from receiving God's love and ever lasting life in Heaven..getting saved. Their sneaky are to attempt to get people to turn away from God. They do this through many forms of temptation, harassment, and also from distorting The Word Of God. Demons lie to us and work hard on our minds so that we are lying to ourselves and thinking awful things of our self worth and our ability to do things right. And pleasing to,God.

Another form of attack is accusation and criticism. Demons will interject condemning thoughts into the minds of believers. They absolutely love to conjure up the past with thoughts of, “You really failed at so much..” or “You really messed up”. Demons are on a mission to destroy us. They work together and strategize. They go after our weaknesses especially times when people are physically and/or emotionally weak. They attempt to affect all areas of a person’s body, soul, and spirit. They don’t play fair.

We know that we are made up of body, soul and spirit. Again the soul in itself is made up of mind, will and emotions. Becoming a believer means we must have surrendered our will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ our savior. But the mind and emotions, we might not have fully surrendered to our Lord. In these circumstances either knowingly or unknowingly we are allowing the devil to have a legal hold on our mind or emotions.

There are several ways by which demons oppresses people. Afflict: To inflict something hard to endure. Harass: To annoy or disturb persistently, to wear out by frequent attacks. Influence: To exercise indirect power over in order to sway or affect. Oppress: To lower in spirit or mood. Torment: To cause severe suffering of body or mind. Torture: To punish or coerce by inflicting excruciating pain. Worry: To disturb one or destroy one’s peace of mind by repeated or persistent torment. Wrong: To inflict injury on another without justification.

A demon can keep you in chains and isolate you by attacking the mind. That is the devils playground. But God has the final say and power to end it all. Rev 20:10 and the devil who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Demons are not God but sometimes they become the object of worship.  Behind every idol, there is a demon or an evil spirit. Sometimes we cherish certain beliefs which are not true.  This can become a form of idolatry.

Psa 106:37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

God's Angels Are Invisible But Everywhere

God has had angels specifically assigned to supervise and protect his Church throughout all of its history (Revelations 1:4, 16, 20; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). He has angels who are to always walk through the earth to watch and report back to him the overall conditions on earth (Zech 4:10; II Chron 16:9; Revelations 5:6). And God has angels specifically assigned to look after his begotten human children (Mattew 18:10 Acts 12:15). God promises: “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways (Psalms 91:11).” Angels are Good spirits that can manifest them self into a physical body. Good spirits linked to The Holy Spirit always speak the truth. Angels are everywhere my friends. God has us under protection.

In Job 38:4, 7, God is speaking specifically of the creation of earth. He says all the angels shouted for joy at the creation of the earth. This shows us that angels were created before the creation of the earth and probably before the material universe. The suns, planets and astral bodies are material substances. Angels are individually created spirit beings, composed solely of spirit.

Written By Jennifer L Auld

Running Out of Time?

By Pastor Stephen Piersall

It is September, and our children are back in school. The leaves are turning color, and before you know it; snow will be falling, and we will be wondering what happened to 2014? The days and weeks and months and years seem to roll one into another like a dream.

Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Take a few minutes this week, and think back on the events that have transpired. How many; births, deaths, how did the economy affect your life, how along did you get in reading your Bible, how many people did you bring to your local church, did you help anyone to receive Jesus’s gift of Salvation?

Psalm 39:4 “Show me, LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.”

I mention this as a beloved pastor friend of mine passed away last week and looking back what a wonderful life of commitment to Our LORD. At his funeral, his wife requested the church to have 50 people in the chorus worshiping God, raising the roof off the church with singing full of love. Just imagine the choir he must have heard when he met with Jesus in person? Awesome!

Job 9:25 “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.”

Let us to do the same. As we become more cautious of our fleeting days let us become more appreciative of the Lord's providence and more aware of His favor on us.

Job 7:6 “My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.”

Pastor Stephen Piersall

God's Preservation Ministry Soul Care 

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Do You Have God's Peace?

By Pastor Stephen Piersall

Wars and even more wars, every day in the news it is the headlines! Have you ever done a study and find a time that there was NOT a war on this planet? Even Jesus described to his disciple's wars, and rumors of wars would be a sign toward "End of Times." That fact alone makes it difficult for us to figure that one out, considering WWI & II, were the wars to end all wars.

Have you ever stopped to think of whom is the mastermind of wars? Satan is the driving influence behind man's viciousness to his fellow man. He is the source of instigation of wars. Satan wants to eradicate humans because he knows our ultimate potential of becoming glorified sons of God. He hates that our destiny is, among other things, to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3, Hebrews 2:10, 1 Peter 5:8).

The devil cannot directly destroy human beings without God's express permission (Job 1:12, Luke 22:31). Therefore, he sets himself to influence humans to destroy themselves, hoping to end it all through the bloodshed of the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21).

Satan will fail, but the path of his destruction is right before our eyes. Here are some examples?

·      Abortion

·      Alcohol

·      Drive-by shootings

·      Drugs

·      Genocide

·      Process foods

·      Race riots

·      School shootings

·      Smoking


I am sure you can name a few more yourself. We, for the most part, are not directly affected unless a friend or family member, or a well-known personality, e.g., Robin Williams. Yes, it is a shame for anyone. For that matter, to die because of Satan's influence.

I figured since this is fresh in our minds, to mention once again, there is an alternative. No amount of money can buy you the life insurance policy that Jesus has for us. If you have not accepted the gift of Salvation, now is the time to decide. God created us in his image, but also gave us "Free-will" to determine what we do with our own lives.

Buying a new car, yes we can sleep on it and decide in the future. As for your opportunity of eternal life in Heaven, you may NOT awaken the next day to consider it more. Now, is the time to decide! If you already are a Christian, I ask you how many individuals are on your own prayer journal that you are praying for regarding salvation.

If you are against it altogether, go about your day as you see fit.

If you are on the fence and leaning toward God, drop to your knees and just ask Our LORD Jesus for forgiveness. My staff and I are available, and you can contact us multiple ways listed below. We will be glad to answer your questions, guide, and pray for you. Even so, YOU must make the first step. † 

May God shine his light through you †

Pastor Stephen Piersall

God's Preservation Ministry Soul Care 

gpmsc.org/

facebook.com/GodsPreservationMinistry

networkedblogs.com/blog/soul-care

Curses, Yokes & False Covenants

By Kirby Robinson

I'll focus on three tools that the dark forces/demons use against us in the never-ending battle, and as the saying goes, “Knowledge is power.” I want to empower you on the pervasive subject of curses, yokes, and false covenants.

A curse is any act, spoken, or mental thought that seeks to produce harm or injury towards someone or something. When the demons out there pick up the scent of a curse they go to work on the curse and the person who makes the curse. (The simple act of cursing anything is an invitation to the demons to enter your life and you opened up the door to them). A curse can take many different forms.

1. A curse as an evil declaration against a person, group, place or thing, so be careful when you say such things as: "I curse this job." "I curse that relationship to fail." "I curse this office." This is the act that leads to most curses being cast and often people don’t even realize they are casting curses, until years later, if ever. And of course there is the other way, that of finding a trained individual who will cast the curse for you, or the do-it-yourself method of buying or checking out a library book and casting it yourself.

2. A curse is the polar opposite of a blessing. When you say "I love you" that’s a blessing. When you say, "I hate you" that’s a curse. Blessings are positive wishes, hopes, and prayers for good. No curse can ever produce such things.

3. A curse can be our own personal actions. Let’s say you drink alcohol. Then, by the simple act of drinking you opened up the door for possible legal, personal, and health related curses. These can range from being arrested for DUI, to becoming addicted, and such alcohol related diseases like depression, cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and AIDS. Conversely, good conduct, such as abstaining from liquor, produces the opposite results, which are blessings.

4. A curse is a judgment against a person, place, or thing. How often have we felt good about a task we set for ourselves, then someone attempts to undermine us, saying: "That’s too difficult." "Your goals are unrealistic.""What makes you think you’re good enough?" We as mere humans hear the curse of the negative words and buy into them.

5. A curse can be placed on a physical object and thus effect everyone who comes into ownership with that object. I can’t count the times I’ve been called into a case and while moving through the home, I find some little object and ask where did you get that? And hear answers such as "My boy bought that statue thing back from Iraq" or "I dug that up at some burial ground." Objects can have curses placed on them that can last for thousands of years.

6. A curse can come from the simple act of saying the words: damn, hell and any other cuss word, or in reality curse word, with a negative intent in mind. When you get cut off in traffic and say "damn you" to that driver of the sports car, you’re cursing the driver of that foreign sports car. When you say "damn you" to your spouse when you fight, you’re cursing your spouse. When you say "damn" or "dammit" when you get mad at yourself, you’re cursing yourself. And whenever you curse someone, even yourself, that curse will return to you.

7. A curse can come from a negative wish. For example, you wish someone dead, or to go to hell after they die, then that also constitutes a curse. 

The yoke is the outgrowth of the curse that binds the cursed one physically and spiritually. It’s like the ox that pulls the cart, with that big, heavy wooden yoke binding his neck. Someone who has been cursed is prevented from finding peace. They only know suffering via physical and emotional pains and inner turmoil. They suffer physical, emotional, and oftentimes sexual abuse. Shame and disgust will rule every thought they have about themselves. Coldness, fear, hopelessness, and confusion will rule their minds. We also need to understand that our own inactions can produce curses that saddle us with yokes. These would be traits like refusing to forgive, refusing to engage in a spiritual path, and refusing to stop self-imposed negative thinking. That trio of inactions produces curses that saddle us with yokes. We end up cursing ourselves.

A covenant is an agreement that is entered into by two parties. If party A does the thing that Party B asks them to do, then Party B will reward them for their actions. As in the Christian act of salvation, the person goes through the process of accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior in body, mind and spirit, makes a public confession, and in turn Jesus Christ will stand up for them in heaven. Covenants are good things, but there can be "false covenants" that we don’t realize that we’re entering into. "I'd give my soul for that job." "I'd give up my five years of my life to date him/her." "I would give up everything to see him/her lose." You’ve heard those expressions before, or maybe you even spoke those words. At some time, quite often in our youth, we make pacts with the devil. I’ve seen it so many times in my cases where I find out that at some time they’ve asked for something from the devil, got it, and years later their life literally went to hell. Folks, the devil doesn’t play by the rules. He may get it for you, but you’ll never be able to keep it. And the price you end up paying is immeasurable. 

False covenants can also be simply wishes such as: "If I only had that job, my life would be complete." "If I married that person, I’d be whole." These are also false covenants because you’re seeking happiness outside yourself. And only true happiness is inside. Curses, yokes, and false covenants can all be multi-generational. In Numbers 14:18, the Bible reads: "The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." Additionally, this can also mean their mothers, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles. And I‘ve seen some curses run as long as twenty generations. 

Appendix: There’s something I wish to add here concerning curses and a person’s ability to curse total strangers. It can’t be done. You simply can’t go through the phone book, newspaper or any website and cast curses on people that you don’t share some form of a metaphysical interaction with. But, at the same time, you still suffer the consequences for intentionally or unintentionally casting a curse on a stranger. 

From the book Paranormal Teachings: The Best of Shedding Some Light

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Trapped Spirits and the Loss of Hope

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

“Sir, your blood oxygen level is 74 %, which is very dangerously low…we have to get you to the hospital ASAP!” This was said to me two weeks ago when I visited my doctors office. I was struggling to breathe, and for good reason—I had pneumonia. It was the sickest I have ever been in my entire life, and I could easily have died, especially with my heart problems. I spent several miserable days in the hospital as they fought to control the infection and get oxygen in my system. I was scared, because it was so difficult to breathe and I felt like any second my heart would go into cardiac arrest (I have a pace/defib in my chest).

It was impossible to get comfortable, and as I said, I wrestled with fear—not of death, but the dying process...as well as I did not want to leave my children yet. The potential of death was thrust in my face, like never before. I have a strong assurance of my salvation—not based on my faith, but on the OBJECT of my faith—the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Hence, I do have hope, and it was deeper than any fear that I experienced.

It is impossible to exaggerate how crucial hope is to the biblical message of salvation. Faith, hope, and love…Hope is not to be understood as the word is commonly used today, as wishful thinking. No, biblical hope is certain faith applied to the future. Remember the spiritual “Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home...”? Certainty!   That is hope. We die in Christ, and then we immediately join Him in heaven. We are to be certain of that, because hope is soaked in the blood of the finished work of Christ.

The question I have is this: how is it possible to live with a solid, soul-comforting hope, if the prospect (no matter how remote) of being trapped here after death is hanging over your head? The notion of trapped spirits vitiates or destroys hope. You can’t have your hope-cake and eat it too. You cannot believe in trapped spirits and (if you are consistent), experience deep hope.

I have stated elsewhere that the notion of trapped spirits is hostile to every major biblical doctrine. If you are a Christian, how can you live with such a monstrosity?  This notion is a hope-robber, and that should raise a red flag. It kills, steals, and destroys hope.

Due to this close run in with death, I have lost patience with those who espouse trapped spirits but do not have the courage to acknowledge what is manifestly clear—we all should live in fear… if we are consistent with basic ghost formation theory. Unless you are excited or turned on about the prospect of being trapped in a paranormal gutter world, then the only logical position is fear, or hope-lessness. Hope—biblical hope—is impossible to enjoy if ghosts are real. It is as simple and profound as that.

One thing I admire about the atheistic, existentialists Camus and Sartre is that they had guts to be consistent. If God is not there, then life is utterly meaningless. Where is the same guts in the paranormal community? When is someone going to say,”Ya know, what we believe undercuts all hope.”? The notion of trapped spirits gets folks all jazzed because it allegedly proves an afterlife. Well, what about that after-life? If there is any element of violence (or whatever) in one’s death, then their entry into heaven will potentially be derailed into an indeterminate amount of time trapped here. That is a high price to pay for allegedly proving the after-life (which it doesn’t).

There is not one scrap of evidence that ghosts exist. NONE. There is a ton of real paranormal activity happening which is being mis-identified as ghostly, but it is demonic. If you will simply take the time to test the spirits you will see that this is factual. Which of you is messing with the spirit world and NOT having problems (like paranormal activity of your own)?

It has been said that one cannot live well until they are certain that they will die well.  That is, hope is needed in order to live with fullness of joy in the present. You may live in happy inconsistency with your beliefs. But if you become consistent, then you should become miserably insecure. Your hope is empty and groundless. If the only way you can live with your beliefs is by “side-stepping” it, then perhaps you should re-consider that belief…seems logical to me. But logic is a rare commodity in the paranormal community, when it comes to examining its core beliefs.

What of the eight year old child who was murdered in Boston? I have nothing but contempt for the notion of trapped spirits, because HE IS A PRIME PROSPECT (according to ghost theory). You say you believe in trapped spirits…you assert with confidence that a violent death is the cause of entrapment…congratulations, you just stripped the child’s parents of hope. Have the damn guts to apply your beliefs consistently. If this were done, then think of the millions of Americans who have died violent deaths through the centuries. The consequences would be unspeakably horrific.

Having almost died myself, I know how crucial hope is. My stay in the hospital would have been unbearably dark if I had harbored the smallest doubt about my soul getting stuck here. I have no patience for the miserable waffling in the paranormal community. Do you believe in ghosts? Then have the courage of your convictions and lament the death of hope. Better yet, repent of your rationalistic/autonomous thinking, and bow before the God of the bible—who will give you true hope.