The false gods

[Gabrielman]

Okay been wanting to ask this for a while. As some of you may already know my Biblical knowledge isn't that great, I studied things around the Bible, just not the Bible it's self. So now I must ask another question.
The Bible mentions many gods. It says they are idols and false gods and that they were inspired by the adversary (satan). As I undersatnd it there are many fallen angels who are the adversary, and I have heard it said time and agian that the false gods were really demons (fallen angels) poseing as gods. Is this true? I would like an indepth answer to this, something form the Bible if at all possible. I don't know much about this but it bugs me a little. I understand that islam is a false religion and that allah is a false god. So does that mean he is really a fallen angel poseing as a god? I read a little that the moon god allah was once one of many pegan gods and was chosen as the one god of islam by muhamed. Is that true? If it is does that mean allah is real, but just and evil angel out to decive people? What he commands sounds a lot like what an evil being would wish for his subjects to do anyway. I thank you all in advance for your answers!
God bless!

[cslewislover]

Hey Gabrielman! I just want to answer to Muhammad and Islam right now. A number of sources say the same thing. When he received his first vision, he was terrified and didn't know where it was from, but thought it was from a demon. His wife convinced him it was from God. Later, he began to have convulsions during supposed revelations. This calls into doubt those revelations. Later still, he claimed odd things that also bring doubt that his revleations are from God, like he claimed to talk with dead people. Besides these things, God wouldn't contradict himself.

[Gabrielman]

Thanks CS! I had heard such things before, but never could confirm them myself. That's why I asked that part in the false gods thing.
God bless!

[ageofknowledge]

Hey Gabrielman! I just want to answer to Muhammad and Islam right now. A number of sources say the same thing. When he received his first vision, he was terrified and didn't know where it was from, but thought it was from a demon. His wife convinced him it was from God. Later, he began to have convulsions during supposed revelations. This calls into doubt those revelations. Later still, he claimed odd things that also bring doubt that his revleations are from God, like he claimed to talk with dead people. Besides these things, God wouldn't contradict himself.

Charles Martel was a better man. His only problem was arthiritisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

[Gabrielman]

Hey Gabrielman! I just want to answer to Muhammad and Islam right now. A number of sources say the same thing. When he received his first vision, he was terrified and didn't know where it was from, but thought it was from a demon. His wife convinced him it was from God. Later, he began to have convulsions during supposed revelations. This calls into doubt those revelations. Later still, he claimed odd things that also bring doubt that his revleations are from God, like he claimed to talk with dead people. Besides these things, God wouldn't contradict himself.

Charles Martel was a better man. His only problem was arthiritisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Pardon me for asking this Age, but who is Charles Martel. Probably someone important, lol, and everyone here is probably thinking "You don't know!?"
God bless!

[ageofknowledge]

Hey Gabrielman! I just want to answer to Muhammad and Islam right now. A number of sources say the same thing. When he received his first vision, he was terrified and didn't know where it was from, but thought it was from a demon. His wife convinced him it was from God. Later, he began to have convulsions during supposed revelations. This calls into doubt those revelations. Later still, he claimed odd things that also bring doubt that his revleations are from God, like he claimed to talk with dead people. Besides these things, God wouldn't contradict himself.

Charles Martel was a better man. His only problem was arthiritisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Pardon me for asking this Age, but who is Charles Martel. Probably someone important, lol, and everyone here is probably thinking "You don't know!?"
God bless!

Charles Martel is the reason why you don't bow down and pray to Allah three times a day Gabriel. Wiki him.

[Byzantine_Catholic]

lets us also remember John III Sobieski king of Poland for also saving Christianity in 1683 ( from the peace loving muslims)

[ageofknowledge]

Gabrielman,

Go to your local library and check out this book:

God's Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? Insights from the Bible and the Early Church (Paperback) ~ Gerald R. McDermott

[ageofknowledge]

Here's one you should have for your own library that will help you answer this line of questions:

World of Difference, A: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test (Paperback) by Kenneth Samples

[ageofknowledge]

lets us also remember John III Sobieski king of Poland for also saving Christianity in 1683 ( from the peace loving muslims)

Ahh yes..

Popular among his subjects, he was also a brilliant military commander, most famous for the victory over the Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. For his victories over the Ottoman Empire, he was dubbed by the Turks the "Lion of Lechistan." Sounds like Dracula only a rightous man loved by his people rather than a bloody tyrant who scared them to death.

[Daniel P.]

Hey Gabrielman! I just want to answer to Muhammad and Islam right now. A number of sources say the same thing. When he received his first vision, he was terrified and didn't know where it was from, but thought it was from a demon. His wife convinced him it was from God. Later, he began to have convulsions during supposed revelations. This calls into doubt those revelations. Later still, he claimed odd things that also bring doubt that his revleations are from God, like he claimed to talk with dead people. Besides these things, God wouldn't contradict himself.

Could you quote a passage in the Bible that says in some form that we cannot speak with the dead. I have a family member that claims to be Christian but says he heard our grandmother speak to him three days or so after she died.

This took me by surprise since I though no one could speak with the deceased but since I'm just starting to read the Bible I couldn't refer to anything that said we can't.

Thanks.

[ageofknowledge]

Certainly. You can start with the story of King Saul and the witch of Endor. King Saul approached a spirit medium for consultations with her to act as a medium to a dead man named Samuel whom King Saul wanted advice from.

Spirit mediums are deceived. Typically they believe they are reaching some deceased person such as a love one but, in fact, they are merely reaching demons who masquarade as the deceased person who then try to deceive and affect the person's life who came to the spirit medium who they already have in their grip. A person can become demonically oppressed or even possessed through occult activities which include spirit divination. This is because they take themselves out of God's protection and place themselves under the authority of demonic powers.

In the case of King Saul, whether or not God allowed him to actually contact the prophet Samuel in this incidence or simply a demon masquarading as Samuel... what happens typically; Saul was judged and died the next day at the hand of the Philistines. Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD ; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse. (1Ch 10:13-14) We must only inquire of the Lord and no one else.

Read Isaiah 8:19, "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?"

Isaiah reveals that spirits and powers of the dark world have the ability to peep into our affairs, and to observe the ongoings of things all around us, and therefore to know much about us that we would only expect someone personally close to us to know about. God says that by seeking after wizards and witches, one is demonstrating that they are placing more faith in the false gods of this world than in the one true God.

According to the Law of Moses, anyone who professed to be a medium or a channel of communication to the spirit world was to be put to death by stoning, and this was the judgment prescribed by Samuel the very one King Saul was trying to communicate with.

A medium was considered a necromancer, or communicator of the dead. The practice of being a necromancer was the craft or practice for extracting information of guidance from a Pagan god. For this reason alone, the spirit of Samuel conjured up by the witch of Endor should be viewed with great skepticism. The Bible explicitly teaches against expecting any legitimate contact with the dead, for its participation can only serve the purposes of Satan.

Read Deuteronomy 18:9-12, "When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee."

Leviticus 20:6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

Tell your grandmother that spiritism is the realm of the occult and that scripture clearly speaks against it. Tell her that no good will come from engaging in occult practices but much bad will enter her life as a result of it. Tell her to trust God, ensure she is an authentic Christian, and wait to be united with God and those loved ones that chose Christ in heaven.

If you want to talk more about this, you can pm me. Peace.

P.S. She may wish to read some of Corrie Ten Boom's views on the subject. Corrie Ten Boom found she had to cast demons out of people in Germany after the war as part of her ministry because they were so desperate for information on loved ones they had been going to spiritists.

[cslewislover]

I'm not as positive. One pastor I heard speak on Saul and Samuel said he thought it really was Samuel -that God allowed it. I also don't know what to make of Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist from the 1700s who claims to have seen human spirits. I don't agree with all of his ideas, but his claims of what he had seen and experienced are hard to simply write-off, to me.

[Gabrielman]

Just now got back to this. Thanks Age on the books, I am defentaly going to look into getting those, and I really appricate your help. I thank all of you for your answers. Not sure about the talking to the dead thing, I wouldn't do it, based on personal experience though.... it isn't safe. That aside, thanks everyone!!! You are all great!!!!

[cslewislover]

Yeah, we are not to try and speak to the dead, as Age pointed out biblically, Daniel (and sure, Nathaniel!). I mentioned Swedenborg only because is seemed like a possibility, if he is to be believed. Now, he did NOT TRY to speak to them, he just happened to see some and be able to talk with them; as I recall, they were all nonbelievers (since believers go to be with Christ right away, this should be the case). Also, the fact that God tells us not to do it seems to imply that it is something that can be done.