Has the Son Set You Free?:
Deliverance Ministries & Bondage-making

By Billy C. Sichone

Introduction

The Christian life can be interesting, depending on what angle one looks at or approaches it. It is possible that one saint could be excessively busy and over loaded with "The Lord's work" while the other is bored to death, with literary nothing to do! In between these extremes, we have a wide spectral continuum of people looking in either (or different) directions as well as holding varied perspectives to the Christian faith and life in general. Some appear joyously liberated, at peace, elated, exhilarated, flowing along and evidently happy with what they hold, believe or possess while others live in perpetual consistently deep fear of the unknown. They dread about any and every shred of unusual activity; a form of excessive debilitating phobia. And yet all these various sets of people belong to God and presumably read the same Bible, so why the difference? Why so wide a gap between them as to the extent of their liberty, joy and comfort? These are very deep and involving questions with as many answers as there are people raising them. The one major reason for these varying interpretations is simply because people do not read or perceive the Bible from the same perspective or angle, hence the differences in opinion. While some let the Bible chart the course, to declare what God intended to communicate and then they obey, others would like to dictate what they think the Bible should say and then somehow force the Bible fit into their mould and world view. This is some form of eisegesis rather than exegesis, with interesting effects on adherents!

Bondage and Liberty Teaching Explored

But then, we have only scratched on the surface for now. In a previous consideration relating to this all important subject on topics related to bondage and liberty, we stated that the generational curse teaching goes against the grain of scripture and is a mere innovation created by a set of modern mystics and Gnostics like Rebecca Brown or Word of Faith Movement (WOFM) stars like Kenneth Haggin and Kenneth Copeland whose popular teachings have spread like bush fire right across the world. In this short treatise however, we proceed to synthesize thoughts from good minds like that of DeWaay and others' teaching as they expose erroneous, if not heretical teachings taking their rounds in the Christian circles, as well as their damaging effect on individuals, families and friends alike.

We need to state from the outset that what often comes across as Biblical teaching in these degenerate days from self acclaimed "Men of God," or "Prophets" is sometimes actually chaff, far removed from both Biblical teaching and reality. Often times it is false teaching mingled with truth which the untrained eye finds difficult to tease apart. In one sense, we may assert that it is a mixture of paganism, sorcery and mysticism all in a modern garb. Because of the great ignorance that has swept across the world, many saints are caught unawares and thus vulnerable and susceptible to all sorts of abuse.

While we agree with the reality of the spiritual world with attendant respective warfare in the heavenly realms, we do not agree that everything that comes under that name is necessarily as taught by pundits is necessarily Biblical or true. Put differently, everything we teach or believe must be able to pass the scriptural test or else forget it. The apostle Paul declares that the man of God must not specialise in quarrels and Godless chatter (II Timothy 2: 24-26) but at times it is important to contend for the faith when the fundamentals are under threat or God's children bought by the blood of the lamb are led astray (Jude 3). In that spirit therefore we enter this polemical fray so that future generations may stay clear of the present errors presently confronting the Church. It would be great if they steered a course that is Biblical so that God's name is not blasphemed in the process. As earlier stated, we, in the same breathe, do not wish to doubt or grieve the Spirit, the author of life but several things claimed under God's name can hardly be associated with Him. It is therefore essential to contend for the faith for the following reasons:

1. God's children risk relapsing into bondage, much like the Galatians did (Galatians 1:6-7).

2. The saints may march back to superstition, from whence they were hewn. During the dark ages, superstition took the centre stage but when the Reformation came around, this vice was eclipsed but consistently threatened to come up. JC Ryle chronicled this thought exceptionally well in his discourse "What we owe to the Reformation." In that paper, he sweets that the Reformation plucked Christians from the clutches of superstition.

3. It affects their productivity. Instead of focusing on the gospel, they focus on the wrong things such as demon cleansing and chasing.

4. Their world view will be out of line with what God's word actually intended to communicate.

5. The saints will live in constant fear of their own shadow and thus robbed of spiritual peace as it is in Jesus Christ. They are made to believe that Christ's work was not complete and needs to be supplemented, hence the teaching that a Christian can be demon possessed or suffer from some previous generation curse.

6. God is belittled in preference to relying on the arm of flesh. These so-called "spiritual giants" make God appear incapable of doing His work unless they intervene.

7. Closely connected to the point above, God's sovereignty is brought into sharp focus and question. Is He really sovereignly transcendent and immanent at the same time? Is He sufficiently potent? Can He Work great works in the world? Who is greater, God or the Devil? Does He need help to accomplish His will? All these and many other questions arise when we ingest wrong teaching bordering on blasphemy.

How Bondages are Created

But then, how do these Gnostics create again a bondage around the people of God? It caught up, how then can one be liberated and what is the extent of their power on an individual's life?

Firstly, these bondage makers may be said to be sincere, zealous and willing to help anyone who needs help. They work very hard trying to unlock any complicated issue that the demons might scheme doing. Sincere but deceived practitioners work like fire fighters, always 24 hours on call ready to respond to every fire call. In the process, they eventually build an image around themselves irresistibly attracting people to trust in them and their abilities rather than in God. Secondly, although sincerely mistaken, some of these leaders eventually begin to believe they are indispensible in the world. They lose focus on God as the ultimate source of all their strength and power. They increasingly love the praise of men, feel idolised and in a sense, small time saviours to those that would trust and depend upon them. These pundits invest immense amounts of time investigating detecting and deciphering secret codes used by the demons, rebuke, exorcise and chase them out of their hiding places. Furthermore, they literary suspect or see demons lurking at every corner or angle. In their minds, the Devil is busy scheming waiting to deceive, kill, steal and destroy. In a sense, they are right but exaggerate John 10:10. In fact, they strongly believe that since the Devil is not omnipresent, he assigns demons on several missions around the world designed to cause disruption, chaos and trouble. According to these practitioners, demons have territories, bondage locations and power in a given locality. So, demon chasers must first study the said demons; types and how to exorcise them. This is a lot of work and clearly demanding to the extent that God is lost in the detail process.

Thirdly, these bondage makers follow a certain systematic path in their work. They first show up at an individual, saved or not, ask bio data details such as family history background and then get cracking, generating all sorts of theories. In the process, deep fear and vulnerability is installed in the harmless victims in the end manipulate them to do whatever they demand. In a sense, insecurity and dependence progressively develops, much like how some people trust the horoscopes. If one or two episodes appear successful, more faith is placed upon the predictive system rather than God, subtly so.

Finally, the subjects ignore the written word of God and trust these people. This inevitably lead to disastrous consequences as highlighted much earlier in this write up.

In summing up, we may say that these specialists systematically work and worm their way through different situations related to demon cleansing and curses. They concentrate upon the following points:

1. That there are some secret spiritual laws that only they can decipher. This is classic gnosticism.

2. They hold that every person needs to be delivered from some past curse. The evidence of this is a misfortune in the family or some strange occurrence. For the animistic mind, this resonates even misunderstanding Exodus 20:1-4 ft.

3. They confidently assert that demons operate differently and thus to be successful, the exorcist must detect, identify, investigate, decipher or learn discovering the secret codes of the demons beating them at their game.

4. There is no room for God to operate but we (as mortals) must do His part in working out all these details ourselves.

Once one has been won over, that is it. Thankfully, as one faithfully reads the Bible and as God speaks to them, they eventually realise that the God we serve is the sovereign Kind who works in His providence. This is a radical paradigm shift to an Evangelical world view where God reigns whatever betide.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the underlying world view one holds speaks volumes as to how they will operate in the world, whether in bondage or liberty. It is high time saints claimed their crown rights, given the glorious liberty the gospel affords.

Bibliography

De Waay Bob, "The Bondage Makers," Critical Issues Commentary, Issue # 78, September/October 2003.

Brown Rabecca, Prepare for War, Whitaker House, 1987.

Wolford S Marvin, Free Indeed from Sorcery bondage, Pathway Press, 1999.