Allen Jackson, pastor at the World Outreach Church in Tennessee, is on his mission to make people think more deeply about angels, demons and the supernatural.
Jackson’s new book, Angels, Demons & You, is addressing these very subjects, with preachers calling for fellow followers to approach the subject more boldly.
“Most of us are comfortable having the theoretical discussions about angels and demons,” he told CBN News. “The most important part is to imagine that there is a spiritual power that is unquestionably affecting your life today.”
Jackson continued. “And once you get to that point, the discussion becomes quite important.”
Preachers have been obsessively moving towards rationalism since enlightenment, and have been too many to lose contact with “spiritual dynamics.” Even when these issues were discussed, Jackson said he tends to focus on the spiritual “dark side.”
“We’ll focus more on the devil,” he said. “And that’s certainly justified. I don’t want to reduce it, but the title of the book was intentional. I wanted to start with an angel because I think there’s spiritual power to help us.”
Jackson said angels are crucial to gospel stories and serve the main purpose of helping people understand what is unfolding.
“The entire gospel story cannot be understood separately from angelic engagement,” he said. “The visit to Gabriel is the opening story of John the Baptist, and Gabriel goes to see Mary and Joseph, who served Jesus after his seduction in the wilderness, the angel who served him in Gesemane while he was preparing.”
Even the devil understood the importance of angels. Satan told Jesus that if God leaves the temple, the angels will save him. Matthew 4:5-6 (NIV) writes: “The devil took him to the holy city and asked him to stand at the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said.
Ultimately, Jackson said there was a disconnect today, especially when it came to understanding many Christian angels. Most of the aforementioned Gospel stories seemed to understand the importance of it, but today we are suspicious or ignored.
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“We seem more willing to trust in the presidential election than the beings God has made available to us,” he said.
Jackson said that some people might avoid the supernatural, fearing it might feel strange or strange. There are also elements of uncertainty regarding issues like healing. This can cause further resistance among some people, as they are fully involved in the related conversation.
Anyway, Jackson said that Christians must lean on the Bible and survive their beliefs.
“We are willing to walk through this and live the way we believe the Bible is true,” he said. “If not, we’ll just leave it to the insurance contract at the end of our lives, and if we can’t trust God to make a difference in my life today, I think it’s stupid to trust him forever.”
Beyond the individual meanings, the spiritual battles described in Ephesians 6 mean that society and culture have a major impact. That’s what Jackson dealt with.
“For me, the trigger is when I see something and there’s no rational explanation. When it’s completely illogical, and a series of actions — and “OK, there’s other components involved,” Jackson said. “And we’ve seen it’s pretty unreasonable to me. They’re cutting off children and saying that the biological sex is confused. That’s not really true.”
He continued. “I have great compassion for people who are confused about something fundamental about their existence. But when I see it, I think, ‘Okay, I don’t understand that, so there has to be a mental element to this.” ”
Ultimately, Jackson said Christians are called cultural forms and that they are called to not rely entirely on politics for change to unfold. Enchanting, discussing and understanding the supernatural is part of that important process.
“I think we’ve hindered the gospel,” he said. “And we’ve done it in a formal education system. I had the privilege of studying in some well-known academic environments, but most of them were pretty dishonest, even in theology schools.”
Jackson said people must be comfortable aware that Jesus himself clearly believes in angels and demons. And modern believers should not be afraid of it.
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