We Got Mail

Feature, Letters to the Editor

Spirits “Cast Out” But Still Feeling Hindered

I recently attended a presentation by a women’s minister who has equipping and passion for deliverance and prayer. She talked a week ago at a Bible study group. She talked about how Christians could be demonized but not demon possessed because we belong to Jesus. She used the passage 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 and also showed that Jesus’ main ministry was casting out demons and healing. She said that the disciples were given power over the enemy.

I asked her to work with me over the fear introduced by Ellen and by the doctrine of demons I could not recognize as a child. I said I’d wondered about occult symbols and the all-seeing eye. Was Ellen connected to Masonry?  

She said yes, she was. This teacher’s best friend had grown up Adventist, and together they’d learned that the Masons at the thirty-third level are told about the secret worship of Satan. That idea fit with the scapegoat heresy of the sins of the saved going on Satan. This minister cast out the spirit of witchcraft and the occult, of fear and deception. Fortunately, our pastor preaches grace, so I knew Jesus paid once for all. Yet I have felt hindered in my trust that the long-term damage I had my first 30 years could be overcome.  The work Colleen and Nikki did talking about these distortions in Adventism helped me see the clever, unstated rules and connections.

I am having to realize my subconscious still has some doubts from Ellen’s indoctrination. I do believe the truth that the Lord Jesus paid once for all as our Savior at the cross. Yet I wonder if I have relented rightly…

Did you know the Masonic connection? Other ladies in the group said they had their dads’ Masonic Bibles snd rings and now want to destroy those.

Colleen and Nikki do such a clear job speaking what the truth is. It’s sad to see how hidden and entangled it was in Adventism. Scriptures say if anyone teaches false doctrine, let them be accursed. Ellen definitely did. 

—VIA EMAIL

 

Response: Thank you for writing! I empathize with your uncertainty and the sense of “long term damage” from our early indoctrination into Adventism.

First, I want to say this: the true antidote to that indoctrination is immersion in God’s word. It is true that there apparently was Masonic involvement on the part of the Whites and other Adventist pioneers in spite of Ellen’s counsels to the members against it. (This situation seems to be one more illustration of the deep deception that created the Adventist legacy.)

Adventism is built on what Paul calls “doctrines of demons” in 1 Timothy 4:1–5, and because Adventism is, at the core, NOT Christian but is a religion built on doctrines of demons, there is a spiritual hold on people who have been Adventist. Adventism is part of the “domain of darkness” (Col 1:13) and not the kingdom of the Beloved Son. It is not based on the finished work of an infallible, omnipresent Jesus but is based on a system of people’s obedience to the law preparing them for salvation and ultimately having their sins placed on Satan—not Jesus—for their final punishment. 

Because Adventism is not merely accidentally dark or innocently misinformed, we tell people that, once they have understood Jesus and His gospel of His finished work, part of their (our) repentance is admitting the evil nature of that religion and confessing it to God, asking Him to remove the spirit of Adventism from our hearts and placing His Spirit in that place where Adventism used to dwell and define us. 

I am not speaking about demon possession or casting out demons. To be sure, Jesus cast out demons as did Paul in the book of Acts, but those people who had demons cast out were actually possessed by demons. In contrast, I am speaking about the fact that our thinking and biblical understanding (or misunderstanding) is shaped by dark doctrines, and there is a spiritual influence and hold on people who have been involved in this and other demonically-inspired religions. 

What I am describing is something we do before God individually. It doesn’t require a special intercessory prayer or exorcism or someone trying to identify a specifically named “spirit”. It is just a prayer we pray before the Lord, confessing that we were part of a religion that was inspired by Satan, and we ask the Lord to remove the spiritual influence of that religion from us and to fill our hearts with Himself, removing the emotional “pull” of that old familiar confusion. God is faithful; when we trust Jesus and repent of the darkness of our past, He absolutely forgives us.

Second, after confessing that spiritual hold on us (and whether or not the doctrines we believed were Masonic or not, Adventism did not come from God), the next thing the Lord makes it possible for us to do is to understand His word. The Holy Spirit in us interprets and applies God’s word to our lives, and studying God’s word, praying for the Lord’s direction, is the one thing that will literally change us. I suggest that you begin with the book of Galatians. Get a notebook, and literally begin copying Galatians, one verse at a time, in context, into that notebook. Ask God to teach you what Paul is saying in that book. 

Then do the book of John, and Hebrews, and Ephesians, and Colossians, and so on. God’s word is the only thing that truly untangles the Adventism in our heads and hearts. It sounds repetitive and too simple, but the Bible tells us that it is living and active, and it reveals our own hearts to us (Heb. 4:12,13). The Bible is THE THING that can show us how to trust Jesus and believe His words.

Finally, I want to caution you against people who identify and pray out evil spirits. The Bible never gives us a model of this kind of ministry. We are never told to identify family spirits or name the sins supposedly caused by them. What the Bible does give us is a model of repentance. It is not Satan who is responsible for our sins but we ourselves. That is why repentance, when we realize how we have been trained by doctrines of demons, is necessary. It is not demons holding us back; it is our own submission of ourselves to the idea of trying to figure out what evil spirits might be enslaving us that holds us back.

Ephesians 2:1–3 describes the natural condition of every human: born dead in sin, under the influence of the prince of the air, the spirit at work in the children of disobedience. Jesus said in John 3:18 that those who have NOT believed “are condemned already”. We are born under condemnation and under the influence of the devil who roams about the world seeking victims. When we trust Jesus, we are taken OUT of Satan’s kingdom (as per Col 1:13) and transferred to the kingdom of the Beloved Son. 

Unfortunately, the “ministries” that focus on identifying and praying out evil spirits often leave their victims in a worse condition than when they came. They seem, somehow, to even impart new spiritual bondages to people. 

Furthermore, they often misuse Scripture to support their “intercession”, as it appears the woman whom you met did. In context, 2 Corinthians 10:3–6 is not speaking about casting out demons. It is, rather, speaking about Paul’s ministry as a preacher of the gospel. He was speaking not of powers to cast out demons but of the Holy Spirit’s gifting to teach the gospel truth that destroys the deceptions that raise themselves against the knowledge of God. Paul was reminding the Corinthians that He had the confidence to be courageous toward detractors who tried to discredit him, and the Holy Spirit was enabling him to speak truth and to punish people within the church who were disobedient to God and thus hindering the gospel. 

The biblical model is that when we believe, the Holy Spirit opens up God’s truth to us, and trusting the Bible, read in context in the normal way we read all books, is the source of our change and growth in Jesus. We have to trust Him, and then we can trust His word. 

All to say, I’m thankful that you wrote, and I am praying now that you will turn to God’s word and trust it. I pray that you will trust Jesus fully, knowing that, if you have repented of your Adventism, you do not need to fear Ellen’s Masonic involvement or the possible places evil beliefs have become embedded in your brain. The fact is, we ALL had evil beliefs in our brains! But Jesus’ finished atonement is powerful, and He forgives us and releases us from the domain of darkness when we trust Him. The lingering feeling of being “held back” by long term damage is not something you have to analyze or figure out. It is something you need to SUBMIT to the Lord and ask Him to make His word come alive in your heart. 

If we focus on the evil influence of our Adventism, we will be, like Lot’s wife, looking backwards toward Sodom. If we submit that evil influence to the Lord, we will be turning to Him and His word, and we will find that we understand the “skews” in our heads more clearly and see truth and reality instead. It is a matter of trust and focus. We can’t keep focussing on the bad influences of our past; we have to ask the Lord to apply His truth to our lives as we literally immerse ourselves in His word—and He reveals the ways our hearts have been skewed and our beliefs have been misshapen. 

He reveals Himself and His truth, and He will change us. He brings us the people and the teachers that He knows will help us be willing to own our own sin and entrust that sin to Jesus. He teaches us to trust Him, and He transforms us into His likeness as we submit to Him and His word!

 

Enjoying the Revelation Podcasts

Thank you for the great episodes on Revelation! What an honest look at the text. Have a great day.

—VIA EMAIL

 

Quietly Questioning

I have been having lots of doubts about Ellen White and her writings. Some seem out of agreement or alignment with what Scripture has revealed. I have been searching for former Adventists that still hold the Sabbath and hold to what the early reformers taught about the antichrist and Rome. 

I have always been skeptical about claiming Ellen White is or isn’t a true prophet. I was introduced to Adventism about 20 years ago when I was 21. I came to the understanding of Sabbath being the Sabbath by reading the Bible prior to knowing about Adventism.

I’ve been worried to voice concerns to members at the church my wife and I attend because I didn’t want to cause a rift. I don’t want to compromise truth for error to stay comfortable, and would like to talk if you happen to have time.

Thank you tremendously and in Christ.

—VIA EMAIL

 

Response: Thank you for writing. I understand the questions you are having, and please know this: you are not alone. You are having questions because Adventism does contradict the Bible, and it does have an extra-biblical prophet who adds to Scripture. 

I am going to give you some links that will be helpful. There are good answers to your questions.

First, the question about the Sabbath are answered when one studies the biblical covenants. Adventism did not teach us the new covenant as the Bible reveals it.

Here are some links that will help with the Sabbath question:

Videos:

As for Ellen White, there is a great deal of documented evidence that demonstrates she was not a prophet of God. I want to refer you to the Former Adventist Podcast. The series on the 28 Fundamental Beliefs may be very helpful to you. You can find that series here: https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/2021/10/04/inspecting-adventisms-fundamental-beliefs/

Although we are not currently publishing a printed version of Proclamation! magazine, all our back issues are online here: https://www.lifeassuranceministries.org/

We have also added your name to our weekly Proclamation! email updates. You may need to add the email address LifeAssuranceMinistries@gmail.com to your contacts in order for the email not to be directed toward your Spam folder. These emails will arrive every Friday. Archived articles are available at ProclamationMagazine.com.  

You might also enjoy our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/FormerAdventist/featured

Also, you might like to subscribe to our podcasts here; many say these help them unpack the Adventism hidden in the recesses of their minds: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/former-adventist/id1482887969

Colleen Tinker
Latest posts by Colleen Tinker (see all)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.