UNGER'S UNDOING
Miles
J. Stanford
The late Dr. Merrill F. Unger
earned his A.B. and Ph.D degrees at John's Hopkins University, and his Th.M and
Th.D degrees at Dallas Theological Seminary. In 1947, after several
pastorates, he taught for a year at Gordon College. For the next 19 years,
until 1967--at which time he became professor emeritus--Dr. Unger was professor
of OT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS).
Scholastically and theologically, who
could ask for anything more in a Christian leader? All through the years,
until 1971, his teaching, preaching, and writing ministry was doctrinally
sound. It included a definite dispensational orientation, as well as a
knowledge of the identification and position truths.
Highly qualified in all respects, he
authored some 40 books, many of which have long been standard texts in our
Christian colleges and seminaries, as well as in all doctrinally sound pastoral
libraries.
"BIBLICAL DEMONOLOGY" --
In 1945 Dr. Unger received his Doctor of Theology degree from DTS, magna cum
laude. In 1952 one of his best known and widely accepted books, Biblical
Demonology, was published by Van Kampen Press, and later by Scripture Press.
Not only is this textbook a biblically
sound and comprehensive treatment of demonology, but in reference to the Body of
Christ the material is based upon the identification truths of the Word.
Dr. Unger made it very clear that, because of the work of the Cross and the
believer's position in Christ risen, it is not possible for him to be demon
possessed (pp. 100,221).
But for all of the author's strength in
his biblical stand regarding the believer's safe position in the Lord Jesus
Christ, he revealed a fatal flaw in his application of those
truths. He stated that it is possible for a believer to choose sin, or
yield to sin, and thereby expose himself to demonic power (p. 27).
In the same vein he wrote that although
the believer is positionally safe from Satan, he can only experience
that safety by means of reckoning; then, and then only, is he conqueror over the
Enemy (p. 221).
"NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING ON TONGUES"
-- Nineteen years after the release of his Biblical Demonology, Dr. Unger
wrote New Testament Teaching on Tongues (Kregel Publications,
1971). He presented a very strong, uncompromising, scriptural stand
against the charismatic error, leaving no question but that tongues are not for
this dispensation. The final paragraph of the book states:
It pays to put God's Word first
and human experience second. Experience that is not based solidly on the
Word and that does not grow out of an accurate knowledge of the Word is as
unstable as a house built on sand. In the storm it will fall, and great
will be the fall of it.
The book itself is based upon biblical
rock, and its message will stand--no storm will cause it to fall. Yet
there is sand in the author's thinking, as is evidenced on the very first
page. Consider the following contradiction. In regard to the
charismatic movement he wrote:
This large-scale spiritual
manifestation has spread over America and throughout the world. There is
no doubt that this significant development in contemporary church life
represents by and large a genuine moving of the Holy Spirit in revival and
spiritual enduement.
The beginning of the end!
"DEMONS IN THE WORLD
TODAY" -- Later in 1971 Dr. Unger presented another book, this one
titled Demons in the World Today (Tyndale House Publishers). Why a
second work on the subject of demonism, while the first, Biblical Demonology,
is still in print?
Did Dr. Unger change his mind? He
certainly did; and not only his mind, but his method. Despite all he so
scripturally established in his first book, in this one he reversed all:
They [missionaries] claim to have
witnessed cases of repossession among converts of ancient idolatrous cultures,
such as in China and India, and also among aboriginal peoples and primitive
civilizations, who live in servile fear and abject bondage to Satan and
demons. The claims of these missionaries appear valid (p. 117).
In this book Dr. Unger quoted accounts
given by missionaries and others, mainly Arminian and charismatic, concerning
the experiences of "demon possessed" believers. He submitted
none of these accounts to the Word, not did he contest any of them.
Rather, he made such remarks concerning them as "thoroughly
authenticated," "this seems very reasonable," "quite
probably," "would seem to confirm," "it is only reasonable
to conclude," and
"supported by experience and observation."
He also favorably and without question
quoted such authors as Hobart Freeman, Kurt Koch, C.S. Lovett, J.A. McMillen,
T.J. McCrossan, J. L. Nevius, J. Penn-Lewis, A.B. Simpson, Charles Ussher, and
V.R. Edman--all of whom teach that believers can be demon-possessed.
For some time Dr. Kurt Koch has been
purported by most to be the authority on demonism. This man was
incredibly naive, being completely taken in by any and all stories and claims
concerning demon possession, etc. As an expert on the subject he traveled
to Indonesia to observe the "revival" of Mel Tari (ill) fame, and was
completely hoodwinked by all the charismatic trickery, consisting of
"raising the dead," "turning water into wine," etc.
Certainly Dr. Edman's subjective claims
went far in toppling Dr. Unger from objective truth into the pit of
subjectivity:
For many years the late chancellor
of Wheaton College, Dr. V. Raymond Edman, taught that a Christian under
certain circumstances could be invaded by demon powers. His first-hand
experience with crude demonism, as a result of missionary labors in Ecuador in
his earlier years, gave Dr. Edman an understanding of the subject of demonism
not possessed by purely theoretical Bible interpreters.
In 1955, three years after the
appearance of Biblical Demonology, Dr. Edman wrote me a letter in which
he stated his convictions on the subject. At the time, I espoused the
purely theoretical position which did
not square with the authenticated facts of experience (What Demons Can
Do to Saints, p. 61).
How about experience
squaring with the authenticated truth of Scripture? So, three years after
Dr. Unger presented his Biblical Demonology stand that believers could
not be indwelt by demons, he referred to that stand as a "purely
theoretical position." And just what did he mean by "authenticated
facts of experience"?
For that answer we must
go back 20 years, to the early 1930s. Dr. Unger had several Christian
women in his early pastorate whom he believed to be demon-possessed. And
he still held that belief when he wrote his anti-possession Biblical Demonology!
Some 40 years after his pastorate
experiences, and 20 years after his anti-possession stand in Biblical
Demonology, he wrote:
Believers can be hindered, bound,
and oppressed by Satan and even indwelt by one or more demons, who may derange
the mind and afflict the body....
One woman, who excelled in the
gift of intercessory prayer, was nevertheless constantly the center of a
disturbance because of lack of tact and wisdom, due apparently to some alien
spirit indwelling her.
The writer remembers well the
occasion of a prayer meeting when this woman was delivered from this evil
spirit, as she and a group of us were on our knees in intercession. All
of a sudden, as she quietly prayed, the demon [!] in her gave an unearthly
yell that could be heard for a block and came out of her, frightening the
group almost out of their wits. After falling into an unconscious state
for a minute or two, the woman regained consciousness and rose to her feet,
joyfully confident that she had been set free from an evil power (Demons in
the World Today, pp. 185,186).
Here we have a Pentecostal woman's
typical "relief" in a too-quiet prayer meeting. That will get
the attention of the uninitiated! In this and similar cases, Dr. Unger's
diagnosis was demon possession without question. Coupled with this false
conviction, and the pressure of the missionary letters and other claims, our
brother's subjective subjection was complete. Six years after writing his
second book on demonology, a third was produced.
"WHAT DEMONS CAN DO TO
SAINTS" -- Here we have his fully charismatic work, What Demons
Can Do to Saints (1977). What makes it even more tragic is the fact
that it was published and promoted by Moody Press. Not surprising, but
still tragic. Added to that, Dr. Robert Lightner, of Dallas faculty, gave
the book an affirmative review in the July-September 1978 issue of Bibliotheca
Sacra:
This is a good book
and deserves a wide readership, even among those who do not believe demons can
take up residence in the same dwelling place with the Holy Spirit. Maybe
differences on this issue are merely semantics, after all.
By now Dr. Unger's subjectivism has
submerged his objectivism. In this latest book he wrote:
Scripture nowhere expressly
teaches that a believer may not be invaded by demon power. On the other
hand, God's Word intimates that the Powers of darkness may invade the believer
under certain conditions (p. 88).
The errors that result from
subjectivism are boundless. Dr. Unger, here at the Penn-Lewis and Evan
Roberts level, makes believers liable to demon possession for almost anything
short of perfection:
Clinical evidence [!] abounds that
a Christian can be demon-possessed as a carry-over from preconversion days, or
can fall under Satan's power after conversion and become progressively
demonized, even seriously. If such a person blatantly lives in
scandalous sin, subscribes to and embraces heresy, engages in occultism, or
gives himself to rebellion and lawlessness against God's Word and will, he may
expect a demon invasion in his life (P. 137).
While he rejected tongues-speaking, Dr.
Unger also succumbed to the healing farce. In both Demons in the World
Today (p. 135), and What Demons Can Do to Saints (p. 193), he agreed
with the charismatic claim that the gift of healing is for this
dispensation. While it is true that God heals, He does not accomplish it
by means of "gifted," or any other kind of "healers."
Nevertheless, Dr. Unger believed that
the healers bring about genuine hearings, provided it is the will of God for the
individual to be healed. He went on to say that if the healer heals apart
from the will of God, it is accomplished demonically, which is called, á la
Kurt Koch, "white
magic" (Demons in the World Today, P. 185).
Dr. Unger also believed that the
so-called "psychic surgeons"--of the Philippines and elsewhere--are
able to heal via demonic power. Once in the charismatic
realm, one's biblical objectivity, to say nothing of common sense,
are in double jeopardy.
In order to see through the trickery
and sleight-of-hand manipulations of the "psychic surgeons," with
their use of chicken entrails, and palmed / silicone slivers, all one has to do
is refer to Dr. Wm. A. Nolen's expose, Healing--The Startling World of Faith
Healers and Psychic Surgery (Random House, P. 1975).
It is time to draw the line on all of
these subjective suppositions. In each of these demonology books Dr. Unger
correctly states that the believer is safe from Satan and his demons in his
position in the ascended Lord Jesus Christ.
But he immediately qualified
(nullified) his statement by insisting that unless the believer reckons on his
position, and walks by faith in those facts, he is subject to Satan's attacks
and possible demon possession. (Other demon-oriented writers, such as Fred
Dickason of Moody, Neil Anderson of Biola, and Mark Bubeck (late of Moody), do
the same thing.)
Scripture clearly
reveals that the believer is absolutely protected from Satan and demons in his
position before God in Christ by virtue of the "so great salvation"
he enjoys (Heb. 2:3). However [!] , as far as his experience is
concerned, protection against demon attack is only in proportion as he knows
and believes in his position and in that way makes it realizable in his
experience (Rom. 6:11). (What Demons Can Do to Saints) , p. 71).
What Dr. Unger, along with the
charismatics, are saying here is that if the believer allows his old nature
freedom, if he walks in the flesh, he thereby "gives ground" for Satan
and his demons to work havoc in his life.
This "giving ground" to Satan
is an age-old Arminian scare tactic long overdue for burial in its own
ground. When one refers to the objective truth of the Word, there is no
basis for such a claim. If it were true, Satan and his demons would be in
control of the Body of Christ today. All believers walk in the flesh to
one degree or another, and not one in a thousand even knows of his position in
the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, to say nothing of his being able to reckon upon
the identification truths.
There are times when the Father may
choose to use His slave, Satan, in a particular instance in the life of a
believer, but always for his good. Satan is no exception to Romans
8:28. The Word introduced this principle in the life
of Job, who thereby gained both spiritually and materially, while Satan
lost in toto. Similarly with Paul's
thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
According to the Word of God, our
Father is sovereign--not Satan, not the demons,
and not the believer. The Father rules over all, whether or not the
believer knows and reckons concerning his position.
Satan can create nothing, nor can he
perpetuate any evil, physical or moral, without God's sanction. His
purpose in the divine program is outlined, the span of his perpetuation is
set, and his inevitable doom is sealed.
Not a hair of the child of God can
fall without the Father's permission. Satan is but the unintentional
instrument to accomplish the Father's will; he can do no more than he is
allowed to do. If trials come as a host against us, we know that the
Almighty is between us and them. They will but work for us His own
purposes of love. --S. Ridout
When the Christian walks in the flesh
he "gives ground" to the chastening, child-training work of the Holy
Spirit, who faithfully utilizes "all things" for his spiritual
development (Rom. 8:28,29). Every believer, whether immature or mature,
carnal or spiritual, is in vital life-union with the glorified Lord Jesus Christ
and the omnipotent Spirit of God, and is possessor of the unfailing grace of his
sovereign Father.
Every Christian, whether or not he
knows and reckons upon it, is safely "hidden with Christ in God" (Col.
3:3). The Father "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. 1:13). And
the Gospel was sent to turn us "from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God" (Acts 26:18).
Most charismatics have a sovereign
Satan, with the Father and the Son more or less subject to him, the Holy Spirit
subject to demons, and the believer victim of both. Even Dr. Unger placed
the Holy Spirit in such a position, when he stated:
The modern-day, widely spreading
charismatic movement in the church ... in general... represents a true
movement of the Holy Spirit in revival and spiritual renewal.
But the doctrinal errors and
inaccuracies upon which it is erected offer an outlet to demon spirits.
Instigating and propagating the unsound teaching ("doctrines of
demons") which it fosters, spirits not of God (1 John 4:1,2) spoil the
underlying work of the Spirit of God (What Demons Can Do to Saints, p. 121).
THE APOSTLE PAUL
-- Although a unique and "chosen vessel," Paul is our
New Testament model of God's use of the Enemy for the believer's good.
Satan had good reason to gnaw upon his heart over this slave-assignment.
Second Corinthians 12 gives us a classic example of irony, whereby the Lord
Jesus Christ once again humiliated the prince of pride. He forced Satan
the Adversary to develop humility in Paul, so that Paul as a result would be
guarded against temptations to pride!
Here again we see the ascended Lord
Jesus, our High Priest, touched with the feeling of Paul's infirmities, and
consequently ministering to him from His heart of love and understanding.
Paul was not allowed to be buffeted by
the Enemy because of sin, but in order to prevent a possible outbreak of sinful
pride, and to make Paul strong in the Lord and the power of His
might. The discomfort was so distressing that Paul thrice asked the Lord
to remove the thorn. If Satan had realized the good it was producing, he
would probably have pled likewise!
However, the Lord Jesus assured Paul
that His grace was sufficient for the experience of suffering and weakness
involved in his spiritual growth. By that grace Paul's response was,
"Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). We must ever be
reminded that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:7).
Here Paul acknowledged that "all
things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28); while
Satan was once again shown that all things work together for bad to them that
hate God, to them who are used according to His purpose!
EPHESIANS SIX
-- Stories, testimonies, and subjective theologians notwithstanding, the Word
makes it clear that God rarely uses Satan in the life of a member of the Body of
Christ. It is God the Spirit who carries out the Father's work in the
lives of His own. How many believers are there, in their present stage of
development, who even realize that Romans 6 is in their Bible? And how
many of these are in the experience of Ephesians truth, or even know what their
armor is?
Are all of these
beloved ones therefore subject to and at the mercy of the Destroyer and his foul
demons? Were you, before you knew and rested in Him via the identification
truths? Does the Bible so much as intimate such a thing, as Dr.
Unger claimed? Of course not! Every elect one is in the loving care
of his sovereign Father, from eternity to eternity.
It is a wonderful thing to see the way
in which through the overruling power of the Father, the efforts of Satan
against His people only bring them out the more distinctly in their own place of
blessing.
According to Ephesians 6, what is to be
the believer's attitude toward Satan and his cohorts? The Word says we are
to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Eph.
6:10). Resting in the Lord Jesus, we "put on the whole armor of
God," that we may be "able to stand against the wiles of
the devil" (Eph. 6: 11).
Our wrestling "against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" is carried on by withstanding,
and standing in our armor (Eph. 6:12-17).
Our "shield" which quenches
all the "fiery darts of the wicked" (Eph. 6: 16), consists of faith
by which we stand, walk, and live--faith in the finished work of the Cross that
both freed us from the power of Satan, and destroyed "him that hath the
power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14).
The Lord Jesus used Satan to win the
battle over Peter, only that Peter might win the war. The Lord guarded his
faith. "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Lu. 22:31,32).
All Satan accomplished was to carry out
the Lord's work in breaking Peter's self-confidence, thereby preparing him for
growth and service. As a blessed result Peter was able to say to us
concerning the hapless devil, "whom resist steadfast in the faith" (1
Peter 5:9).
On the basis of Satan's Calvary
defeat, and our Lord's Calvary victory, all on our behalf, the Word instructs
us to "resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James
4:7). We are not told to overcome him (that we could never do), but when
he meets the Lord Jesus in us, he cannot stand that--he must flee, just as he
fled from Him in the wilderness encounter.
Count upon the facts of the Cross, that
there you died unto Satan, and you are now alive unto the Father in the
Son. If you fail to become established in the Galatians 2:20 truth of the
Cross, you may be confronted by some charismatic story-telling
"evidence" that your inadequate stand will be unable to withstand.
"Stand, therefore ..." (Eph. 6:14).
"Reckon ye also yourselves to have
died indeed unto sin (and Satan), but to be alive unto God in
Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Rom. 6:11).