There is an "Into the Wild" podcast which I heard recently which kind of reminded me of an anecdote from Kenneth E. Hagin's faith books. When I thought of this anecdote it really struck me of both how my own approach to Christianity had changed and just how off-track and completely out of touch with reality I feel Christianity has been in the past.
I thought of this anecdote when I listened to the podcast entitled "Spiritual Autism" dated 2nd January 2010. One of the hosts of the podcast, Aimee Daselle, related how she had read a book written by a Christian woman who had a son who suffered from autism. In this podcast, the hosts related how many Christians have also suffered a form of spiritual autism which had been instilled in them by the institutional church.
At the end of this particular podcast, the hosts relate how pastor's wives can become very repressed and unhappy. Pastors and their wives are kind of lifted-up on a pedestal and expected to maintain a perfect standard. I once heard Brad Cummings on The God Journey podcast say that pastors in these days have become our spiritual coaches. In Biblical times, pastors would have simply facilitated gatherings of believers - without unrealistic demands placed upon them.
Anyway, there is a rather significant anecdote which Kenneth E. Hagin has referred to in several of his books on faith. One of these books is entitled The Triumphant Church, and the anecdote can be found in the chapter Can Christians Have a Demon? In 1952 Hagin had a vision of Jesus when he was enveloped in a cloud of glory. In this vision, Jesus told Hagin that he was now going to give him the gift of discerning of spirits.
At that moment Jesus gave Hagin a vision of a woman who happened to be the wife of a pastor he knew. This woman had left her husband and was now living with another man. Jesus said, "I'll show you exactly how demons and evil spirits get a hold of people and dominate them and possess them, even Christians, if Christians let them." In this vision Hagin could see into the spiritual realm. He saw a demon that look like a little monkey come and sit on the woman's shoulder and whisper into her ear that she was beautiful and that in the world she could have fame, fortune and popularity.
At first this woman dismissed this demon's temptations, but after a while, she became seduced. Okay, we have something of a correlation here with the temptation of Jesus in the desert – but as far as I can discern, she was not exactly making a pact with Satan. Something that strikes me as rather odd is that Hagin says that according to Philippians 4:8, these thoughts were not in-line with the Word of God. But this is the man who made the prosperity message widespread -- so I am quite flummoxed by that statement. There are quite a few pastors, Bible teachers and evangelists who have become like celebrities and live in mansions; they use scriptures such as Isaiah 1:19 to substantiate their claim to wealth -- and most charismatic Christians just don't bat an eyelid about it at all. We seem to forget that the majority of the fortunes of these people comes not from “the world” but from desperate Christians who seek to be just like they are.
Anyway, back to the story. This woman resisted the demon by saying, "Get thee behind me Satan." So she exercised her authority over the devil. That tactic has not always worked for me personally, when I start thinking on thoughts that don't line-up with the Word. But she stopped resisting the devil after a while and then she become obsessed, and finally, she become possessed.
The moral of the story was that Christians should resist the devil when they think thoughts that don't line-up with the Bible, which is the Word of God. Darin Hufford would argue that the Bible is so open to misinterpretation that it is virtually impossible to do that. Darin would say that we are to live according to what we know is right in our heart. Darin Hufford calls this approach to the Bible that many Christians have towards scripture as "Back-up Verse Theology".
When I reflect on this anecdote of this pastor's wife who committed adultery, I am inclined to see a woman who is terribly repressed and bored out of her mind. Surely, if a woman is happily married and she's got good friendships and she's doing the things that she enjoys doing most, she wouldn't even dream of committing adultery, it wouldn't even be an option for her. After all, doesn’t 1 John 3:9 say that we cannot sin, because we have been born again of incorruptible seed? When it says we “cannot sin” it must mean at the very least that if a person is born again, sin should be a difficult and unnatural thing to do.
I just see this poor pastor's wife just sat at the piano on a Sunday and singing old hymns or cheesy contemporary Christian numbers like Charlie LeBlanc's classic "Celebrate Jesus Celebrate". Not many churches have access to a huge crowd of worshippers and a world-class worship leader like Dom Moen, so it’s bound to look and sound more like this. This pastor's wife must have got fed up of dull, quirky middle-aged housewives approaching her after the service and talking about knitting and canning fruit.
I believe the pressure just builds-up over the years of trying to be someone that you are not. I think in church we just get this impression of what it is like to be spiritual: what other people expect us to be like and even what God wants us to be like. It must be especially bad for a pastor’s wife. But in actual fact, I believe that oftentimes God has no intention for us to be that way.
We create this impression that the Christian life is so difficult and it's so full of temptation. We get this impression that we've got to resort to biblical formulas in order to live our lives the way that God wants us to. The notion is implied that we cannot survive and thrive as Christians, unless we buy the latest book on spiritual warfare, faith, healing, finances or whatever. We are fed ideas by the church which gives us the impression that we would wither away and die, or that we’d be easy prey for the devil, should we dare to stop attending church on a Sunday.
This reminds me of an episode from Blake’s 7, which was a cult, low-budget, British science fiction series which ran from 2nd January 1978 to 21st December 1981. This particular episode was titled Cygnus Alpha (Series 1), which guest starred Brian Blessed in which he played a character called Vargas. Vargas is the power-hungry dictator of a planet whose oppressed people are told that they cannot leave the planet because they need a daily antidote to a disease which infects all who visit or live on the planet. Vargas later reveals to Blake and his crew that the sickness does not exist; the symptoms are created by a mild poison that clears itself.
So what I get from Hagin’s anecdote is that this woman was expected to resist temptation and remain spiritual, by constantly saying, "Get thee behind me Satan". But is this practical? In actual fact, what we end up doing is trying to use flimsy formulas to try and hold back the sheer weight and pressure of years and years of repressed thoughts and desires; as we try in vain to become somebody that we were never meant to be in the first place. The struggle is not the devil or temptation – it is the concepts that have been handed down to us over the years that we are still trying to hold onto.
Rather than seeing this woman in a condemnatory manner, I am more inclined to look at this woman's plight with compassion and kindness. No, I do not condone adultery in any way, shape or form. But I do hold to the belief that people should be allowed to be who they are and be allowed to live their lives naturally. If a person is allowed to become who they are meant to be in Christ, then I believe the desires of God will be in them; they will have a heart of love, temptation should not really be the difficult thing that Christians have made it out to be.
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