You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that -- and shudder.
In James chapter 2, James makes a distinction between a saving faith in Jesus, which includes obedience to God with it and a faith in God which does not have obedience with it. In verses 14 through 17, he wrote this:
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.In that verse, James taught the importance of good deeds to faith is like the importance of the spirit of man to his body. It is vital for people to understand that a mere confession of faith in Jesus as Lord without a corresponding heart-felt commitment and serious dedication to him to the point of turning away from idols to serve him (1 Thess. 1:9) is useless. A non-obedient faith is on a par with the faith of demons, who believe God exists but are not obeying him (James 2:19).
A person becomes a new creation when he gets saved, which includes getting set free from his sin addictions (Rom. 6:22). He follows Jesus doing the will of God (Mt. 10:38; Luke 8:21; etc.). If not, he doesn't have a saving faith.
The following are among the evil things that demons do as they oppose the spread of God's truth and righteousness:
1. Demons formulate teachings to turn people from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1). One example is once saved always saved.
2. They can perform miracles to deceive (Rev. 16:14)
3. They can tempt people to sin (James 4:7)
4. They can inhabit people's bodies and cause various kinds of pain and distress (Luke 13:11; etc.).
With all of that in mind, notice what demons believe and confess, as stated next.
Scripture reveals that demons:
Multitudes in our day, who profess to be Christians, only have the faith of demons (James 2:19). Their demon faith enables them to profess Jesus as the Son of God, while they live in sin like demons. Such people are not carnal Christians like some think, but instead children of the evil one!
In fact, many of the same actually think they can not obey God and no one ever did, including Paul, who they think was the worst of sinners. Imagine that! Folks, if you think Paul as a Christian was the worst of all sinners what chance do you have of obeying God? None. You have no chance!
These same people with demon faith are filled with lust, get drunk, commit adultery, cuss, lie, hate, etc. They think this is the normal Christian life. Some were never saved, but many others were saved at one point but since have died spiritually (Luke 15:24,32; Rom. 8:13; James 1:14-16; 5:19,20; etc.). They lost the salvation they previously had.
Because of the prevalent heretical teaching of eternal security, multitudes who need to repent for salvation's sake have been deceived into thinking they don't need to repent for salvation at all. Multitudes are actually on the road to hell, but think they are on the road to heaven with their now dead faith in Jesus or the faith of demons, and the teaching of eternal security is primarily responsible for this massive and lethal deception.
One final point: getting back to James 2:19. There James declared the demons believe in God and shudder in fear of him. In contrast, the faith of many people who profess salvation in our dark time doesn't even fear God. In that way they have a faith that is less than the faith of demons and will spend their eternity with the demons in the lake of fire unless they repent and become faithful to God. It is only a trusting, submitting and enduring faith in Jesus that will get one into Gods paradise kingdom and save him from hell. That is the saving faith of an overcomer.
The Apostle John told us how to identify a dead faith (or demon faith):
The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)In the most concise way, Jesus refers to both saving faith and demon faith here:
...those who have DONE GOOD good will rise to live, and those who have DONE EVIL will rise to be condemned. (John 5:29)Demon faith is not a saving faith in JESUS, the kind needed to save us from hell. It takes an obedient and enduring faith in Jesus to save us and get us into God's kingdom.
OTHER TOPICS:
Skull And Crossbones Awards For False Prophets And False Teachers
The Apocrypha is NOT Inspired By God
Could This Be The Great Apostasy
Apostasy Occurs Among Christians
Evangelical Outreach Alphabetical Map
PO Box 265
Washington, PA 15301
EvangelicalOutreach.org
EternalLifeBlog.com