The great American Bible preacher, pastor, teacher, radio pioneer and writer, Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895-1960), was paralyzed and very near death when, as his wife, Margaret, recalled in her memoir, That Man Barnhouse:
The Thursday before the last cobalt treatment was due I had a strange conversation with Donald. His eyes had been moving back and forth as if he were planning something, thinking deeply about it. I sat beside him and asked, 'What are you thinking about?'
'I'm writing a show.'
'Oh?'
'Yes.'
'Is this TV, or movies, or a play, or what?'
'Oh, any of them,' he said.
His voice was not at all his normal voice. It sounded strange and sly. I asked, 'What's it about?'
'Deceit.'
'Deceit?'
'Yes--the deceitfulness of deceit.'
'Tell me about it.'
'It's to teach deceivers how to deceive.'
All the while he had been looking directly at me, as if by holding my eyes he could keep me from seeing him working his fingers under the bandage holding the nose-tube in place, a thing forbidden.
With a start I recognized the strange, sly voice, because at one time that same voice had spoken through me. When I was in my teens I used to read palms, a parlor game. I became so good at it I was quite in demand at parties. For some reason I could see in a person's palm true things I had no way of knowing.
At times like that I was aware that the voice saying these things through me was not my voice--and the voice coming from Donald sounded just like it. After I knew Jesus as my Savior, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I had been dabbling in the occult, and that the voice speaking through mine could well have been a demon. I had renounced the whole thing, in Jesus' name.
I took both of Donald's hands and began to pray. I claimed Jesus' own request from the Father, in His high priestly prayer of John 17:15, 'I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.' (The Greek says, 'From the evil one.')
Immediately I was aware of invisible warfare. Satan had spoken through the Apostle Paul's vocal chords, and Jesus had rebuked him. I prayed to Jesus that this thing should likewise be rebuked and leave Donald. Satan works through subtle suggestion, and Donald's mind was so vulnerable at this point.
I was relieved to see the sly look vanish and the expression in his eyes return to normal.
*****
“Let me show you a verse in Ezekiel that curdles my blood," says Preacher Richard Jordan in a study. "I can’t fully grasp the heinous depths to which this thing goes and I’m glad I can’t. Paul said, ‘Be simple concerning evil and wise concerning that which is good.’
The Thursday before the last cobalt treatment was due I had a strange conversation with Donald. His eyes had been moving back and forth as if he were planning something, thinking deeply about it. I sat beside him and asked, 'What are you thinking about?'
'I'm writing a show.'
'Oh?'
'Yes.'
'Is this TV, or movies, or a play, or what?'
'Oh, any of them,' he said.
His voice was not at all his normal voice. It sounded strange and sly. I asked, 'What's it about?'
'Deceit.'
'Deceit?'
'Yes--the deceitfulness of deceit.'
'Tell me about it.'
'It's to teach deceivers how to deceive.'
All the while he had been looking directly at me, as if by holding my eyes he could keep me from seeing him working his fingers under the bandage holding the nose-tube in place, a thing forbidden.
With a start I recognized the strange, sly voice, because at one time that same voice had spoken through me. When I was in my teens I used to read palms, a parlor game. I became so good at it I was quite in demand at parties. For some reason I could see in a person's palm true things I had no way of knowing.
At times like that I was aware that the voice saying these things through me was not my voice--and the voice coming from Donald sounded just like it. After I knew Jesus as my Savior, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I had been dabbling in the occult, and that the voice speaking through mine could well have been a demon. I had renounced the whole thing, in Jesus' name.
I took both of Donald's hands and began to pray. I claimed Jesus' own request from the Father, in His high priestly prayer of John 17:15, 'I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.' (The Greek says, 'From the evil one.')
Immediately I was aware of invisible warfare. Satan had spoken through the Apostle Paul's vocal chords, and Jesus had rebuked him. I prayed to Jesus that this thing should likewise be rebuked and leave Donald. Satan works through subtle suggestion, and Donald's mind was so vulnerable at this point.
I was relieved to see the sly look vanish and the expression in his eyes return to normal.
*****
“Let me show you a verse in Ezekiel that curdles my blood," says Preacher Richard Jordan in a study. "I can’t fully grasp the heinous depths to which this thing goes and I’m glad I can’t. Paul said, ‘Be simple concerning evil and wise concerning that which is good.’
“I don’t want to know what this stuff is; I’m not interested. But I’ve had people sit with me, and I’ve had to deal with people who’ve been there, or somewhere close to it, and I’ve seen the hooks and the chains of sin holding onto a person’s soul in a way that I don’t want to be any part of.
“I’ve seen a little bit of what the verses say and I don’t want any more first-hand experience than what I’ve had, but I can tell you it’s a very sobering thing.
“In Ezekiel 29, Ezekiel goes from talking about ‘the king of Tyrus,’ the king of the north, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. And once again, just like in chapters 27 and 28, where he was talking about the king of Tyrus, but was really talking about Satan (who the king of Tyrus represented), he does the same thing in Ezekiel 29-32.
“Ezekiel 29:2-3 says, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
[3] Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
[3] Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
“Who is the great dragon? Satan. The prophecy goes on down and you come over to chapter 31:2-3. [2] Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
[3] Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
[3] Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
“What are we talking about there? Who was in the Garden of God? Who was in Eden? Same thing you’ve got in chapter 28. When Ezekiel talks about the ‘cedar in Lebanon,’ the trees, he’s talking about the angelic creatures; their different functions and things they carry on.
*****
“Prophetically, you’re out at the end time in the 70th week of Daniel. You’re looking forward to destruction of the satanic policy of evil with the Second Advent of Christ. What culminates out there under the personage of the Antichrist, that ultimate form of the lie, began and was propagated among mankind in the Garden of Eden.
“Pharaoh was a part of that and along through history God puts in little things about it, about what’s ultimately going to happen, and he talks to Pharaoh here as though he was Satan out there, because it’s all the same program.
“Watch what happens out there. Verse 16 says, ‘I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.’
“That’s like Isaiah 14:9: [9] Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
“So he goes down to hell and they say, ‘This is the Antichrist; here he is,’ and you notice there’s some people who are going to be COMFORTED when that happens!
*****
*****
“In chapter 32 you have a picture of the battle associated with the Second Advent of Christ as He goes and destroys His enemies. Verse 31, speaking of Satan under the cover of Pharaoh, says, [31] Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
“He’s going to see all these host who He’s gathered together; who have been DESTROYED by God’s judgment. He shall see them. He shall see all these people who have been damned and destroyed as they followed his program.
“Watch Verse 32: [32] For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
“Pharaoh’s going to look out there in hell and look at all those people who’ve been damned by following him and the verse says he’s going to be comforted in the damnation of all those multitudes.
“Remember Hosea 7:3? ‘They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.’ I remember all those verses like that where it says, ‘Who knowing the judgment of God, not only do them but rejoice in them that do them.’
“Not only does he go to hell under the wrath and judgment of God, but he looks out at the multitudes who’ve been damned by following him and says, ‘Wow, ain’t that wonderful.’
“There isn’t anybody down there that I know of that’s happy to see you come, but that verse says there’s going to be somebody one day. You know what that tells me? That tells me that hell and ‘the lake of fire’ is going to be the mad house of the universe; ‘the depths of Satan.’
“There’s that sadistic glee over the eternal damnation of others to the place that Satan himself would look out over the hordes of people that were damned for following him and rub his hands together and go, ‘Hee, hee, hee, hee,’ and have a good time over it.
“Folks, you don’t want to be a comfort to the devil. You don’t want to comfort him by seeing his plan work out in your life. You want to discomfort him, and the way you do that is you live under the wonderful administration of the wonderful grace of God. As Paul says, ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!’ That’s this wonderful wisdom and understanding that God afore prepared unto our glory."
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