How Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism Are Teeming with Ecstatic and Demonic Influence

The church at Corinth, the one begun by Paul in Acts 18, was a horrible mess.  Why?  There are many reasons, but a few crucial and insidious ones are seen in 1 and 2 Corinthians.

You read the following in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21:

19What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? 20But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. 21Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

All of life in Corinth was woven into its mystery religion, including business and labor.  Almost every industry had its own god or idol.  When a particular guild held a festival, the god was involved.  The idol was nothing---like Paul wrote, it wasn't anything.  However, also like he said, when the Corinthians sacrificed to their idol, they were sacrificing to the devil, the demon, behind the idol.  The danger of the association was not with the idol, but with the demon.  People didn't worship a hunk of rock or wood because one of those were so convincing, but because the demon was powerful and persuasive.  The system of Satan was behind idol worship, so attendance to a festival brought a Corinthian church member under demonic influence.  And then those members were bringing that into the church.

Demons are involved in the world.  Like Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood."   Believers in Corinth and believers in evangelicalism and many in fundamentalism see their associations with the world---its entertainment, its music, and its art---as neutral as the rock or wood of a Greek idol.  The notes, the celluloid, the canvass, the sounds of a steel stringed guitar---they are nothing---but there are the demons behind all of these.  He that thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls (1 Corinthians 10:12).  Satan ties believers up with their worldly associations.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:1-2:

1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 2Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

He doesn't want the brethren ignorant about the gifts controlled by the Holy Spirit.  But how does that relate to "dumb idols"?

The Greek cities like Corinth were filled with the mystery religion, originating in ancient Babylon, which worship mainly consisted of manufactured ecstatic experiences, the more frenzied, delirious, and bizarre, the better.  Those had to be supernatural and superior at releasing the soul from bodily restrictions.  The euphoric feelings validated the genuineness of the spirituality.  This was just another dimension of the world that the Corinthian membership had dragged into their church.

When the Corinthians were yet unconverted ("Gentiles"), they were involved with a worship that carried them away and led them.  The ecstasy and euphoria and experiences and feelings that were part of the idol worship manipulated them.

The true worship of God, genuine spiritual worship, does not "carry away" with feelings.  That was the mystery religion of Corinth being brought into the church.  It was a worship of being carried away with ecstasy.  When that was brought into the church, the membership called it "spirituals" or "spiritual gifts."  The euphoria said it was genuine, and now the Corinthians couldn't distinguish what was real and what wasn't.  Paul is saying here that what is controlled by the Holy Spirit will not be marked by being "carried away" or "led."

Today's evangelicalism and much of fundamentalism looks to worldly means for enhancing a church's spiritual experience.  The world considers as authentic music that charges or seduces the emotions. The church has borrowed the world's music and methods to cause the same or similar euphoria.  The people are attracted to the feelings as a genuine means of spirituality.  When the people get "carried away," they think that something truly spiritual has taken place.

When the church brings in these modern dumb idols, they also bring in the deceptive demons.  The demons produce a deceitful counterfeit spirituality.  They work in harmony with the music and the methods.

When Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:16 about the agreement of the temple of God with idols, He wasn't talking about the rock and wood.  He was talking about the demons behind the idols.  The idols were dumb.  They couldn't talk.  They couldn't influence.  When he wrote in v. 17, "come out from among them, and be ye separate," he meant, "Don't bring the mystery religion into the church."  The mystery religion comes with its ecstatic experience.

Conservative evangelicals may not be Charismatic, but they have brought in the ecstatic experiences of the Charismatics into their own worship.  They have labeled the Jesus' movement with its own worldly trances and ecstasies as a genuine spiritual revival.  Don't think they haven't also brought in the demons that operate with the world's music and methods.  When the fundamentalists have brought in the worldly new measures of Charles Finney, they have accepted another kind of euphoria and religious enthusiasm in their churches.  In so doing, evangelicalism and fundamentalism are teeming with ecstatic and demonic influence.

If you are an evangelical, even a conservative one, or a fundamentalist, and this has been part of the operation of your church or group, what will be ironic is that you will likely defend your own brand of ecstasy or euphoria like a Charismatic will defend his less than scriptural spiritual experience.  After all, you felt it.  It was your own, as personal as a lip print.  And it also might help explain the growth of your church or even movement.  If you don't deny it, you can see your future shrinking numbers.  God is working.  How do you know?  Who can deny the results you've seen?  God must surely be doing something in your midst.  And it couldn't be dumb idols.  Those are nothing.

You have been deceived just like the Corinthians.