The Return of Evil Spirits
Unto this Wicked Generation
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
OPENING: - Nelson Mandela once said “You speak a language people know you speak to their head. You speak a language people understand you speak to their hearts”. It is my desire to speak to your hearts.
So often we say we are living in the last days and that Jesus is soon to come when we look and see what is going on in the world today and understanding scripture, we realize that these are perilous times. If we look at the last 8 – 15 years we see just how much our nation has declined morally, economically, politically, and most of all Spiritually. What we were shocked about 8 years ago is mild compared to what we are facing right now. We are a culture clashing between timeless truths and modern thinking, a culture of offense and division where people are so easily offended by the slightest thing, politics, news, and every part of part of religion because it exposes their sin and the sin of humanity. We have developed an invisible switch that is so easily flipped and if you flip that switch then there will be hell to pay.
A normal conversation often ends in strife because often unaware you flipped the switch in someone when you spoke about race, education, medical issues, a political party, a certain candidate, an athlete, celebrity, or preacher. God forbid if you speak on sexual orientation, transgenderism, adultery, fornication, abortion, homosexualism, heterosexualism, polyamory, or anything for that matter that someone doesn’t agree with or has a different opinion then yours then immediately you fall victim to this so-called cancel culture that is so quick to dismiss people then tries to quote the Bible out of context and without any understanding of the Word of God at all.
I have written in the beginning of my Bible a statement that has been my desire down through the years in ministry, it says “My desire is not to read the Bible to get a sermon but read the Bible to get to the heart of God”. When it comes to understanding the Bible, we must strive to understand it from God’s perspective instead of our own denominational, traditional, westernized, and opinionated understanding. You can never fully understand a text of any kind outside of understanding the culture of when it was written, the people for whom it was written, and the time in which it was written. We must first understand to whom it was written, why it was written and then how can I apply that scripture to my life and this situation.
Returning Evil Unto this Wicked Generation.
PRAYER: -
SCRIPTURE: - Matthew 12:43-45 “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation”.
This scripture is a parable of Jesus a Parable is a natural story with spiritual implications. Matthew 13:10 -13 says, “And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
Let me suggest that in this parable the man represents the nation of Israel as well as the spiritual leaders of Israel, such as the scribes and Pharisees. The unclean spirit is the sin of pagan idolatry, which the children of Israel constantly struggled with until the Babylonian exile, like the idol worship of Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech – remember those 3 names. The casting out of the spirit was the Babylonian exile and return under Ezra, Nehemiah. The Israelites, now out of bondage begin to serve the Lord again.
Although they externally pretended to keep the Law, they did not do so, because they did not obey from the heart. They had a form of godliness but neglected the core teachings and spirit of the Law. Matthew 23:27-28 says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity”. Even as they praised God with their words and external rituals, internally they were empty and unoccupied. The Bible says in Isaiah 29:13 “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men”.
When the unclean spirit of paganism returned with the Roman occupation, it found the Israelites whitewashed clean on the outside but not filled with the spirit of God, ripe for repossession, but instead of merely reinstituting the old forms of Paganism, the unclean spirit invited other demons such as religious legalism, social elitism, and sectarian strife. (Sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by discrimination, hatred, or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion within a nation/community) better known as Denominationalism. Now the Israelites were in a worse predicament than they were in the first place.
That answers the 2 of the questions who it was written to – The Children of Israel, why was it written – to explain what would happen if they didn’t fill their hearts with the Spirit of God. The 3rd question is how can I apply this to a current situation.
Ok Bishop how does that apply to us today. How many times have you heard the saying “America is a Christian Country Founded upon Christianity”. Well, America, contrary to popular belief was not founded upon the practice of Christianity or any religion for that matter. Although it was supposedly based on Christian principles. The 1st amendment to the Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state, which basically means that government cannot tell people how to worship or believe.
Therefore, Christianity or any religion is not the official religion of the U.S., down through time we have drifted farther and farther away from the basic principles of Christianity to the point that now the basic principles of Christianity and the Law of God have been abandoned. Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” has been abandoned. A Catholic Catechism states “The chief end of man is to know God and glorify Him forever”, has been abandoned.
Jesus answered the question in Matthew 22:36-40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” America those commandments have been abandoned.
Because this nation, America, has abandoned the basic principles God and have neglected God, have neglected to fill the house with the spirit of God, we have allowed prayer to be taken out of schools, the Ten Commandments have been considered offensive, the Law of God when preached is considered hate speech opening the flood gates to every filthy, disgusting, vile, abomination that can be pushed down our throats to run rampant, and when you try to stand for Holiness the depths of hell are raised against you. WHY – because the evil spirit has returned. Like Malcolm X said the chicken have come home to roost and now we have a nation that is in a worse state then it has ever been.
Earlier I mentioned 3 names that I said remember they were Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech. They were Idols and false deities that were worshipped by the pagans in the Old Testament and when the Israelites would turn from worshipping Adonai my Lord, El-Elyon the Most-High God, El-Shaddai the Almighty God, Elohim the Creator and Only True and Living God, those aren’t different God’s just different names of God. When the Israelites would turn away from truth, they would begin to worship these false gods.
Well America has turned from worshipping God and the spirits of these 3 false gods that have infiltrated and taken over America and sadly have infiltrated the church as well.
Baal.
If you have vaguely heard of the name Baal in the Bible, you know it doesn’t have a good meaning. Baal was the title of the "god" small (g) worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. The worship of Baal penetrated the Israelite religious life during the period of the Judges (Judges 3:7), became common in Israel during the rule of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31-33), and influenced Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-2).
In artistic depictions and archeological finds, Baal took the shape of a bull or ram, remember the Golden Calf.
Baal becomes a big player in the book of Judges and during the time of the kings when Israel appears to succumb most to the foreign pantheons. One of the most famous instances of Israel going head-to-head with the prophets of Baal comes from 1 Kings 18 when, the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal have a show-down to prove the power of God and their gods. The prophets of Baal danced, cut themselves, and made all kinds of noise trying to invoke Baal. Baal remains silent during the exchange, whereas God showers a sopping-wet altar with fire.
Baal is still influencing the world as well as religions and other pagan practices and churches today; we must be aware of what happened to the Israelites and vigilantly watch our churches. How many pagan ideas have we let seep in our churches today? What modern-day Baals have we worshipped in place of God, like prosperity, fame, prestige, and power!
It is so easy to point the finger at the Israelites and say, how could you worship Baal? But there are many doing the same with modern-day Baals and Pagan rituals in the church today. I heard a pastor say recently “We are going to push the limits of sin without sinning”. Like there is a line of demarcation in the church that says if you pass this line, it is sin, so they have twerking in the church and say they are twerking for Jesus.
I don’t care how you try to flip it or what you call it, “twerking” is a sexual component a sexual devise designed to stimulate Eros, the erotic nature in every one of us. Then we have churches that want to use laser lights and smoke machines working themselves into a frenzy, the whole church so-called speaking in tongues talking about they are invoking the presence of God. Sounds to me a lot like a Psychedelic Trip where visual alteration is used or experienced making complex geometrical visual patterns. Basically, the prophets of Baal were doing this on Mt Carmel dancing, cutting, calling on Baal, working themselves into a frenzy trying to invoke Baal.
DISCLAIMER: - Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in speaking in tongues but if there is no fruit tongues are useless. If your worship is designed to entertain the people instead of honoring God, then it is nothing more than a pagan ritual.
So, the spirit of Baal, false worship has returned to America and is causing false church to be all about us with a feeling of self-worth, self-satisfaction, and self-gratification that does not please God and can never produce the effects of TRUE WORSHIP which set captives free, opens blinded eyes, and heals the broken hearted. Because True Worship worships God for who He is, and you can’t worship God for who He is and He does not do what He is.
Ashtoreth.
Ashtoreth symbolized reproductive power and fertility. She was seen as the mistress of Baal. The Canaanites believed that by the sexual union of Baal and Ashtoreth, the earth would be magically rejuvenated and made fertile. Ashtoreth is mentioned several times throughout Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, and 1st and 2nd Kings. Her worship was a direct violation of the first of the Ten Commandments God gave to the Israelites. You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3-6 says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments”.
Ashtoreth’s name refers to all female deities Israel turned to. Many modern Hebrew scholars believe that Ashtoreth’s name shows God’s contempt for Israel’s dealings with false gods, as the Bible is the only place that refers to this goddess Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth’s name seems to combine the goddess’s real name Astarte with the Hebrew word for shame, boshet.
Ashtoreth was worshipped as the goddess of a wide variety of things. She was connected with both the moon and the planet Venus. Easton’s Bible Dictionary says she represented “the passive principle in nature.” She was also known as the Queen of Heaven. Ashtoreth’s main task is to entice God’s children into idol worship by confusing lust with love, thereby having their love for God grow cold and their need for physical love increase.
Parts of Ashtoreth’s cult influenced the worship of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar; the Egyptian goddesses Isis and Hathor; and the Greco-Roman deities of Aphrodite, Juno, and Artemis.
Ashtoreth worship incorporated perverted and illicit sex acts, prostitution, homosexual sex acts, sodomy, and every form of sexual perversion imaginable. In Greek sexual immorality comes from the word Pornea, which is where we get the word pornography. Pornea includes all moral perversions, and sexual relations that God forbids such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, incest, pornography, polyamory, pedophilia, etc.
The Evil Spirit of Ashtoreth is operating in America and in many churches today because there are all kinds of sexual perversions on the Television, Internet, in the Media and yes in the churches as well. Sexual perversion in all its deviant heterosexual, homosexual, and other expressions, is a manifestation of humanity being unhinged from God. The Ashtoreth spirit understands scripture and focuses upon 1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. The spirit of Ashteroth seeks to satisfy Eros, the erotic nature of humanity, the pleasure principle. That’s why some people feel it’s o.k. to twerk in church and portray all kinds of sexual perversions because it satisfies the erotic nature and the pleasure principle that pleases the flesh. That’s the whole premise behind the prosperity false gospel have a big house, a fancy car, prestige and power. Sure, no-one desires a life of struggle, everyone would love to have prosperity, wealth, easy life, prestige, fame, a plane but that is not Biblical. Jesus said in John16:33 “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”. Then 1John 4:4 says, “because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world”.
The spirit of Ashtoreth promises a good and easy life, a pleasurable life, an erotic life it strokes the Id in humanity. According to Psychology and Freud the id operates based on the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification of needs. So, this immediate gratification principle says you can have reformation without regeneration, relationship without repentance, Heaven without Holiness. The devil is a lie.
Earlier I mentioned a pastor who said they were going to push the limits of sin without sinning. Well, this same pastor said “God decided male and female I don’t know why he didn’t include the in between I get it”. He goes on to say if he had been there at the time, he would have asked God what about something in the middle, what about the other and how come there is no other in the Kingdom. We have other in culture but not in Kingdom and I don’t know why”. Well let me say this pastor, if you understood scripture, you know why, it’s an abomination to God. This pastor is operating under the spirit of Ashtoreth trying to please the erotic nature of mankind, the lustful, sinful, nature that’s why he has twerking in the church, that’s why he gets it because he is operating under the spirit of Ashtoreth.
The root cause of the spirit of Ashtoreth and sexual perversion that is literally squeezing the life out of people, in the world and in some churches, like a python, the python spirit is based on pride. Romans 1:21-32 says, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them”.
That’s the spirit of Ashtoreth!
Molech/Moloch.
Moloch has often been portrayed as a bull-headed idol with outstretched hands over a fire. Leviticus 18:21 says, “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord”. The worship of Molech included infanticide, which is the murder of infant children as a sacrifice.
God was very clear in his prohibition of Molech worship and sacrifices. According to Scripture, this worship took place primarily in the Hinnom Valley at Topheth, a place in the valley that translates to “pit of flame” 2 Kings 23:10 says, “And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech”.
Molech is usually depicted as a bull-headed anthropomorphic deity, which means it had the head of a bull and the body of a man. This idol made of metal was heated until glowing red hot. Then, as the pinnacle of worship, an infant would be placed in his hands while his devotees listened to the infant cry as it burned to death before their eyes while they performed obscene sexual acts as worship.
Such worship demonstrates such a depth of depravity, such a disregard for the sanctity of life that only the most morally degenerate could justify it. However, some Israelites did so, which grieved the Lord tremendously.
This nation America is operating under the spirit of Molech in its abortion activity without caring for the sanctity of life. One study I came across said since 1973 there have been over 54 million abortions in America. I don’t believe God is at all pleased with this and I believe that it grieves Him tremendously and this country as a whole is going to have to answer for the lack of care for the sanctity of life it has had through the years. That’s all I have to say on that but let me talk about the spirit of Molech in the church today.
Bishop how is the spirit of Molech affecting the church. We have false preachers committing spiritual abortion with the people of God, not caring for the sanctity of spiritual life by presenting false doctrines, damnable teachings, heresies and straight up lies. They are now, instead of impacting the culture, conforming to it. They spew lies and damnable philosophies talking about they are reaching this new generation when in actuality they are killing the babies in the kingdom. I actually heard one preacher say, “The gospel that was good for grandma ain’t good for the youth today we need a different gospel”. That is a lie of foolishness that is birthed in the depth of hell coming out of the mouth of a false prophet. First of all the Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ. How could that not be good today Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever”. For a pastor to say there needs to be a different gospel they are not a pastor but a false prophet and a mouthpiece for the devil. Galatians 1:8 says, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed”.
We have preachers and gospel artist that are causing the little ones to be spiritually aborted because they constantly are mixing the profane with the Holy confusing people causing them to think that it’s o.k. to call yourself saved, sanctified, and Holy Ghost filled and still live in sin. There is no distinction anymore between the Holy and the Unholy Leviticus 10:10 says, “that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean”. Since there is no distinction between the Holy and the profane, they develop a mentality that it is ok to twerk for Jesus aborting any spiritual development. They think they can live any diabolical way they please and not have to repent. They think it’s ok to be non-binary believing they are neither male or female aborting spiritual development.
This same preacher that said we need a different gospel today also said the church can grow weed and sell it because it will help the economy and teach farming aborting spiritual development – he is nothing more than a false prophet and a mouthpiece for the devil.
My God My God - Luke 17:1-2 says, “Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones”. Yet in still the spirit of Molech is operating through these so-called pastors that are nothing more than wolves in sheep clothing, charlatans, perverted preaching pimps that will sell the unadulterated word of God for gain while killing spiritually the babies of the faith and think in their spiritually and morally depraved minds that they are worshipping and serving the One and Only True and Living God.
CLOSING: - “So shall it also be with this wicked generation”. Jesus was saying basically in the form of a parable discussing the degeneration of the generation who imagines that they have nothing to learn from Him are in danger of entering into even greater evil and ending up in a worse condition then they could imagine.
True our world needs to have that passionate and positive commitment to the truth of the Word of God, otherwise our emptiness invites a worse fate. However, the Bible says in 1 Peter 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God”.
Yes, time is coming to an end and Jesus is soon to come but a lot of the church, not all the church because there are still those of us that will preach the unadulterated Word of God, but the rest of them are to blame for the mess that is going on now in the church. To many passive, itchy ear, friendly seeking so-called preachers have let down the standard of Holiness trying to merge the Holy with the profane allowing the worship of Baal, Ashteroth, and Molech to come into the church spiritually aborting multitudes.
UNDERSTAND: - If the heart and soul of a nation, an individual, or the church is not being filled with the Holy Spirit, it will just get filled with more other junk. Jeremiah 17:9-10 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”. So, if the heart is desperately wicked and the Lord tries the reins. If that is what happens to the heart of a person just imagine the Church.
FINAL THOUGHT: - People of God understand that we don’t need to have a Christian nation, government, educational system or culture to stand for holiness and thrive spiritually. We are a peculiar people and citizens of a Kingdom not of this world. Let’s stand for holiness not being conformed to the ideologies and modern day thinking of this wicked generation. We cannot compromise the Word of God for the itchy ears of people wanting to satisfy the flesh. I am reminded of the Sunday School song “This little light of mine I’m going to let it shine”. Will you let truth shine in this world through you.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
