Well, I have lived in Memphis for a year and a half now, and
reflecting on my new life here I had an epiphany the other day. I was looking
at 2 Corinthians 10:4 and I thought about strongholds and fortresses. If you
look in NASB, a version that I particularly like, (no it is not perfect, and
believe me once you understand just a little Greek, you will know that there is
no such thing as a perfect translation, I digress…) Anyway, I used to wonder about
the word fortress that is used in many of the new translations. I always
thought that stronghold was better. Not so any longer!
Of course, the Greek word, OCHUROMATON (the last two o’s are
omegas and not omicrons) means castle or fort so fortress is certainly more
correct than stronghold in a literal sense. But until yesterday I preferred
stronghold. Thus the epiphany; I believe for good biblical reasons that the
strong man that so many folk speak of is none other than Satan himself and his
stronghold/fortress is as the demon of religion. That is the strong man.
I suddenly realized that religion has a stronghold in
California, a stronghold in Michigan, a stronghold in New York, but here in the
Mid South… smack-dab in the middle of the bible-belt it is indeed a fortress!
Stronghold does not begin to adequately describe the hold
that the demon of religion has on the bible-belt. If there was ever a place
where wooden legalism, devoid of the
Spirit exists, it is here. It saddens me to see that the people of God are so
oblivious to it. They seem to get excited about legalism as much as they get
excited for the liberating gospel of grace. Where is the discernment?
It is almost as if Isaiah 29:10-13 is descriptive of the
state of evangelicalism in the bible-belt. NASB “For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut
your eyes, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, the seers. (11)
The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which
when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, "Please read
this," he will say, "I cannot, for it is sealed." (12)
Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying,
"Please read this." And he will say, "I cannot read." (13)
Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”
The Lamb has opened
the sealed scroll. Jesus showed his immediate followers that the scripture was
about redemption. It is the redemptive narrative and it is NOT a legal
constitutional document. Not for Christ followers at least. It was a legal
constitutional document for national Israel in Old Covenant times. No so today!
