"Binding and Loosing"
In many areas the church is trying to use biblical teaching about binding and loosing as an instrument to deal with something it was not designed to deal with.
Download or email this sermon Paul in Athens
Acts chapter 17 tells the story of Paul in Athens. Athens was the European center of pagan religion. Rome looked to Athens for its culture, for its religious ideas and for its philosophy. Pagan religion started with Nimrod in Babylon, made its way through Pergamum into Greco-Roman cultures, and from there into Western culture.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was beholding the city full of idols (Acts 17:16).
He was seeing the temples of the demons, and their places of worship.
So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present (Acts 17:17).
"Those who happened to be present" included followers of Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, Astarte, Hermes, and so on. These people were all under the influence of demons. What did Paul do? Did he recite the formulas taught by John Dawson and C. Peter Wagner: "I bind you, I loose you, I take authority over you in the name of Jesus"? There are people in "deliverance ministry" who use this formula to save face and fortune. Their”'ministry” and income depends on forgetting the fact that it does not work.
This is a deception which is known as Dominionism , or Triumphalism , or Kingdom Now theology. The idea that we are going to conquer the world for Jesus Christ before He comes back and set up His Kingdom is bogus.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.