Clinton Arnold, in The Powers of Darkness, covers this subject from a NT exegetical viewpoint of the stoicheia of Galatians 4:3-9 and Col 2:8, 20 [refer to notes at the end of this page]
This article is a summary of an area we have been walking through as a church; confronting the prevailing mentality of apathy that is so observably influential in Western Sydney (so much so that the people are called "Westies" and this term normally conjures up an image of someone sloppily dressed, with a casual attitude towards work, education, achievement, and personal heath. This is the immediate application, but the principles covered apply equally to any prevailing secular culture anywhere at anytime. It's what the NT calls, "the world" (kosmos - the ordered layers of society).
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Clinton Arnold, in The Powers of Darkness, covers this subject from a NT exegetical viewpoint of the stoicheia of Galatians 4:3-9 and Col 2:8, 20 [refer to notes at the end of this page] |
Looking back; we've considered what's considered "normal" to a culture is informed by conditions that vary culture to culture; the Problem of Our Cultural Environment is that no one is exempt from this. We are all born into one culture or another. It consists of our race, location, history, economic circumstances, etc, etc.
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Family (extended family and tribal environment (district, social status, etc- Pommie cleaner and council flat; - the localised mindset / values system of our surrounding natural and extended family. This can involve material wealth or poverty, view of the value of other people, teachability, respect / honouring of others, etc |
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Ethnic - tribal, social caste (ethnic, geographical location); the cultural mindset of our people group conditions us from a very young age - with its values, concept of truth, power-handling, etc. Paul calls these structural elements / principles and attributes their influence to the demonic realm, saying they are causes of bondage over people groups. Gal 4:3 he uses a very strong word for captive - take as plunder, lead away captive (idea of domination and control |
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National - The national mindset can come from the original people groups and be adapted by later immigrant people groups. The result will permeate the media, political system of doing things, our view of sport, achievement, patriotism, etc. |
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International - such things as " Western civilisation", American entertainment industry (Hollywood, music industry, etc, which is mostly ruled by people practising godless lifestyles and occultish belief systems), the "African way". A powerful example of this is the "Asian" value of "face" which influences many Asian cultures / people groups to not tell the truth - thinking it more important to say what they think you want to hear. |
All these are "natural" factors that produce "normal" to those people within the respective boundaries. (in the children's story, the ugly duckling suffered mockery and rejection, simply because he was different)… But behind them is another dimension of spiritual factors that very powerfully shape the mindset that develops at each level - firstly, from the realm of kosmokrator powers (Eph 6:12), in this area we have no option. This is where we ALL start from. But then also, if yielded to, from the realm of Heaven! - the watching powers of Heaven under God's command (eg. Daniel 9:20-23, Acts 27:21-25). What faith in God is produced here!
The difference is,
The angelic hosts work to bring us to God and His Word, to shape our thinking of what is "normal" - Kingdom NORMAL! Whereas,
The unseen hostile powers work continually to keep people enslaved to a twisted view of God's "normal" - trying to produce a mindset opposed to the Kingdom's. eg. twisting our view of the true nature of God (eg. I know He doesn't love me…. people under this enslavement will choke at the "lavished affection" Scriptures), or, sin is OK, God understands, it doesn’t matter as long as you come to church / mass…).
Religiously, these dynamics also operate. Religious spirits enslave through mindset control too (the same thing of perceiving what's "normal"). Real faith comes from really knowing God (and His purposes) as He really is!. Hence the enemy's continual push to "distort the truth" (eg. Acts 20:30). A friend commented to us it took 7 days to get out of the Slavation Army (as he called it) but it took God 7 years to get the Slavation Army (in which he had been an officer) out of him!
Before we come to the subject of "correctly handling the word of truth", let us consider for a moment we all bring this inherent subjective bias to our study and understanding of God's Word. This is inbuilt - so much so that when we begin as young Christians, we don’t even recognise its existence, and the effect it has on our ability to really understand God's Word, as He wants us to. As we grow, we work through this bias. God's intention is not to make us people without a national or ethnic or family identity, but rather to establish the culture of the Kingdom of God over them all! This will cause us to examine ourselves and continue to deal with those (fallen) elements our cultural background that have a detrimental effect on our ability to read, hear, understand, believe, and act on God's Word.
Questions for Discussion: what aspects of our personal, ethnic, and national background can we identify in terms of shaping the way we will come to the text of God's Word, as ministers of the gospel? How do we deal with these elements in order to enlarge our ability to gain maximum benefit from God's Word? Or from being a Christian? [to top of page]
Over several weeks we did an exegesis of Ephesians from the viewpoint that the Ephesian people had to be set free from the prevailing mindset of the culture of the city - not an imagined one, but one based on very real spiritual powers and their fear of them. Only then would they renounce their allegiance to the Temple of Artemis, join the (temple-less) church, and stand against the prevailing powers of darkness (as in Eph 6:10ff).
So, Paul wrote a Letter full of assurances of the supremacy of Christ, the position of great safety "in Christ", the enduring nature of the relationship in the church, the Body of Christ, the authority we have over the hostile powers when we are secure "in Christ" and walking in holiness (not giving Satan a "foothold"), etc, etc.
Then we began the task of translating this scenario to our time and environment - doing a hermeneutic - the process of interpretation. We asked the question, how relevant is this to our situation? Right here where we live, work, and fellowship?
What are some of the distinguishing features of the prevailing mindset of Western Sydney?
And are we spared spiritual bondage of the kind Ephesus was so aware of?
How does 2 Cor 4:3-5 apply today to our area specifically? And what about 2 Cor 10:3-5?
What strongholds exist over our district, and how much have they saturated our way of looking at things?
How do we wage war in this realm?
3958. pascho, (patho) - used only in certain tenses for it; apparently a primary verb; to experience a sensation or impression (usually painful):--feel, passion, suffer, vex. >>> 3806. pathos, prop. suffering ("pathos"), i.e. (subj.) a passion (especially lust):--(inordinate) affection, lust.
so "a-pathy" is lacking in passion!
Hence Paul's admonition to 'Timothy - 2 Tim 1:6-8 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spiritA of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
2 Tim 1:6: Mat 3:11 there is a one once for all baptism of the HS and fire. Timothy is told to fan into flame the fire already resident but had died down through fear.
The element of fear in Timothy's natural disposition could have been prejudicial to his efficiency as a church ruler.
A "SPIRIT": attitude is a possible translation but most unlikely. It's (all of) US receiving the Holy Spirit; Better translated "For when God gave us His Spirit, it was not timidity that we received, but power, love, and self-discipline" - Gordon Fee.
Discuss the dynamics of how the prevailing spirit power ruled in Ephesus, and how does it rule in Western Sydney?
we examined the Lord of the Flies principle - opening the door for individual demonisation through personal behaviour that flows out of the fallen mindset.
It's a bit easier to see if we look at some general features of a large culture (look at the soccer situation in Australia. Just what is wrong there???). eg., so we can see such things as societal unforgiveness, revenge-taking opening some very ugly doors….
In the next study we will discuss the effect this stuff should have on our discipling process of new believers, and the essential rôle of deliverance in the discipling process of new believers. [to top of page]
To go forward, we need outside stimulus. It may not be pleasant but the alternative is worse! Stagnation and atrophy. Nothing stays the same, no matter how much we try to hold on to things.
Our view and decisions are informed by our surroundings. We accumulate information, process it, and try to make decisions that are best for us (and others who may be involved). The problem is we get closed in and often can't comprehend the bigger picture that would give us a more balanced (and truthful) perspective; eg. Many Germans willingly participated with Hitler in his atrocities. He had so set up a censored society that even their wider view was under Hitler's influence and manipulation. Why couldn’t they see that?
Lack of external reference points caused them to lose their perspective on what was really true and right. Hitler created a national mindset. So we too begin life under the influence of a mindset that the Bible tells us is under the control of the evil one [1 John 5:19]..
When we turn to Christ, we are challenged and changed in many areas where this mindset (and its twisted view of truth) once ruled. But we must understand the process of change (and deliverance) is ongoing for years and years!
The process starts young! We are shocked to learn Santa isn't real! Nor is the tooth fairy!
Hitler closed the borders of their minds, controlled the intellectual life of the nation, eliminated alternative views ruthlessly, and a whole nation thought they were AOK - while at the same time heading for the greatest disaster their country had ever faced… Nothing changes.
God really does have limitless provision at His disposal; He is abundantly willing to distribute it to His followers (as He thinks appropriate); and He has expressed the way for this to function in Mal 3:10-12 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty (the context is irrigation of the seed they have sown - so that their work will be blessed abundantly).
Reading that, one would ask, why on earth would a follower of God not act on this (even for selfish reasons)? The answer is - in the prevailing mindset - it takes faith to believe God's Word where it clashes with our own conditioned way of thinking (eg. Prov 11:24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty). This simply doesn’t make sense to us initially.
We have been looking at how our environment informs us as to what is "normal" - our family background (looking for repeated habit patterns), district (Westies), and national mentality. And how the way of God is opposed to this conditioning - we are released through hearing, then believing, then acting on THE TRUTH! No wonder there's a war every time we determine to meet, pray, worship, hear the Word taught together! God is changing our view of "normal" to a Kingdom cultural mindset.
This is so very difficult to do; so much so that often the Holy Spirit tells people to get away from their original host culture (the Abrahamic calling was really about this - leave your family, friends, and country".. After he had dealt with his idol system (of old values which were points of enslavement) God fulfilled to him great promises after this process was worked through. The apostles faced the same journey - from narrow-minded rural peasant Jews to become men who shook the Greco-Roman culture to its foundations [Mark 10:28-30].
We are all interested in how things work out for us today and tomorrow! Much strange religious thought and practice come from how Christians approach the Bible. It IS God's external reference point for us beyond this "world under the control of the evil one". It informs us of truth that's tough, yet powerful, and ultimately very, very beneficial (cf. the Dolly, Girlfriend, New Idea, etc, magazines which continue to help enslave the next generation to the evil one by brainwashing them with satanic values). Either way, we are all externally informed in the ongoing development of our thinking.
Jehovah's Witnesses read (virtually) the same Bible yet don't benefit from it. Why not? The centre of their authority system is wrong. They are working out of their own (closed) mindset, where the big issues are already set in concrete by their leaders. So rather than being free to do exegesis (determining what the text says objectively, to those to who it was originally written), they do isogesis (read back into the Bible what they have already made up their mind on).
When this kind of "reverse authority" occurs, the hermeneutical process is going to be messy! eg. Mormons justify polygamy today this way too; parts of the affluent Western church find biblical justification for their fixation with the selfish utilisation of excess material possessions (the Wealth gospel…).
What's the point of this? As ordinary Germans believed the lie of Nazism because they lost their external reference points, so we too must beware of referring only back to our own background / family / church group for our reference points.
I can become convinced of something through believing a lie, and will then see all kinds of "proofs" that I am right in things that happen around me, things that I hear / read. Drug induced paranoia is a classic example of this twisted process ("I know you're all talking about me, and you hate me". Why? "Because I saw you looking at me and your look said it all!"). How can you reason with such isogetical behaviour?
This is the situation Paul covered relating to the final apostasy of the last days just before Jesus' second coming.
2 Thess 2:10b-12 They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
2 Thess 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
So we have strong reason why we must be careful not to live "isogetically" - to be our own god. Bow the knee to God's authority - the Bible, acknowledge the place of godly authority (with eyes open) - church leaders, parents, civic leaders, teachers, etc, etc. No one is ever too old or experienced to be beyond being adjusted by loving, truthful advice. [to top of page]
So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God--or rather are known by God--how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
The seriousness of this in Paul's view is seen by his use of a very strong word for captive - to take as plunder, lead away captive (idea of domination and control).
Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Col 2:20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:
["principles" - NRSV - the elemental spirits of the universe 4748. stoicheo, from a der. of steicho (to range in regular line); to march in (military) rank (keep step), i.e. (fig.) to conform to virtue and piety:--walk (orderly). >> 4747. stoicheion, something orderly in arrangement, i.e. (by impl.) a serial (basal, fundamental, initial) constituent (lit.), proposition (fig.):--element, principle, rudiment.]
The Greek word for "PRINCIPLES": NIVBD note "Basic principles" (GK G5122) has a variety of meanings. Originally it denoted the letters of the alphabet, its root meaning being "things in a row." The term then came to be used of the elements ("ABC's") of learning (cf. Gal 4:3; Heb 5:12), of the physical elements of the world (cf. 2 Pe 3:10), and of the elemental spirits or supernatural powers believed by many ancients to preside over and direct the heavenly bodies (cf. Gal 4:3). The sense in the present passage may be either the elements of learning or the elemental spirits. If the former sense is intended, the statement means that the Colossian system was really only rudimentary instruction, the ABC's of the world--i.e., it was elementary rather than advanced. The rendering "elemental spirits" is, however, to be preferred. This philosophy probably had the elemental spirits of the universe as its subject matter. We know from 2:18, for example, that the Colossian heresy made much of the "worship of angels."
What Paul says in v18 implies their involvement in occult initiation practices (including visions, trances, altered states). "Seen" as in the spirit world. "Years ago, Sir William Ramsay, the distinguished authority on the geography and religions of Asia Minor, suggested that the italicised part of the verse should more precisely be translated: "what he had seen when he performed the higher stage of the [mystery] ritual". The varying translations revolve around the interpretation of one very important word in the verse, which occurs only here in the New Testament. The word is actually quite rare in all of Greek literature, and every translator has had difficult determining the exact meaning of it in this context. Literally, the phrase reads, "what he had seen, entering" Some have tried to explain the word as "entering" in the sense of "investigating" or "explaining." Ramsay based his interpretation on the appearance of the word in a series of religious inscriptions found just a few years earlier in a cultic sanctuary. The word appeared a number of times and seemed to refer to the climax of the initiation rites to the mysteries of the god Apollo at his temple at Claros on the west coast of Asia Minor. What heightened the significance of this discovery for interpreting Colossians was the fact that one of the groups coming to the Apollo temple was from Laodicea, Colossae's nearest neighbour. All of this seems to point to the fact that the false teaching at Colossae had a very close tie with initiatory rites into the mystery religions. It is possible a faction in the Colossian church was suggesting that their fellow believers join them in celebrating the mystery rites of a local deity, or perhaps even in establishing a Christian mystery initiation. Ramsay suggested there was a rival leader in the congregation who was introducing ideas that he had brought over from his old belief in the mystery religions, resulting in a mystic form of Christianity."
All this contrasts with the way Hebrews 5:12 uses the same word.; there the Word of God builds first principles into the lives of committed believers (and by similarity, builds them up in the Holy Spirit too). [to top of page]