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This study may be freely posted on other bbs' and distributed to others provided this leader remains with the study text at all times. THE TEMPLE OF DAGON I SAMUEL 5:1-6 1. And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. 2. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord: and the head of Dagon, and both of the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. 5. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. 6. But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod, and the coasts thereof. Paul teaches us in Romans 15:4 that the scriptures written during the "Old Testament" period of time were written for OUR "learning" (Greek word means "doctrine"). We want to use one of these "types" to refresh our memories of an old truth pertaining to our "flesh", and the battle that Christians face in order to keep it under control and living in the will of God. It is needful for us to understand what the house of Dagon was LITERALLY, and then we need to take those things and study them from a spiritual point of view. Dagon was a large statue, which represented a Philistine god. This idol had a form that today we would call a mermaid or mer-"man". It could be either sex and was half fish and half human. The upper portion of the body was the body of a man or woman. The lower portion of the body was the tail of a fish. Because of this idol being so common in those days, it is still used today in the female form and called a "mermaid". Dagon was the god of the people who were the enemies of God's people, and also the enemies of God! These Philistines had been warring against the children of Israel who, like so many Christians today, let the devil convince them that their victories had resulted from THEIR OWN HOLINESS and strength, rather than the power of the ark of God in their midst! Now we know this ark was a piece of the furnishings from the tabernacle. The important feature about the ark of God was that it symbolically contained the very presence of God! We've studied enough to know that symbolically speaking, the ark of God must be in a temple before it's God's temple! Before the ark of God came into Dagon's temple, it was the temple of Dagon, yet once the ARK of God was brought in, Dagon's temple became God's Temple. Someone might say, "it's not called a temple," but look in I Chronicles 10:10, where it is called "the temple of Dagon." This was the place that housed this idolatrous form of worship. We know that nearly all of the idols in ancient times had a building to house them. It's the same today! There are buildings all around us (which many people who do not understand call churches), which are nothing more than temples for various forms of idolatrous worship. People say they are worshipping the true and living God, but any religion that fails to teach the GENUINE BIBLE TRUTH IS IDOLATROUS WORSHIP!!!! As we try to grasp the spiritual significance of these passages, keep your mind on the fact that here we have pictured a MIXTURE form of religion. It's a mixture just like all Babylonian worship! We have an idol that represents mixing man with a lower creature; a creature from the sea; the LOWER part of a fish! A mixture is always symbolic of FALSE religion! Dagon was the visible object that the Philistines worshipped, but they were REALLY worshipping the power behind the visible object. The god was unseen, yet still they worshipped him through the form of Dagon. People call him satan, or the devil, but we know that those are descriptive terms for the one the Bible calls the "god of this world", the "prince of darkness", and by his common name of old; Beelzebub! People will ask, "how do you know that people are worshipping Beelzebub? They believe they are worshipping the true God!" SO DID THE PHILISTINES! Ephesians 2:1-2: 1. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2. Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Paul speaks here of Beelzebub, this wicked spirit, as the prince or ruler of the air! God had given him control! When he spoke of the air, he was talking about this atmosphere or this air that surrounds us. With that thought in mind, we only need to know the meaning of one other word to understand this text, and that's the word "power". "Power" comes from the Greek word "exousia", and it not only means power and strength, but its primary meaning is "jurisdiction." Luke 23:7 speaks of the "jurisdiction" of Herod, and uses this same Greek word. This word is also translated "authority" in the scriptures. He is showing us that Beelzebub is the prince, or ruler of the jurisdiction of the air! He has the privilege of letting his demonic spirits roam throughout this air or this atmosphere in which we live! There are many things happening today that people can't understand, so they are attributing them to God. We need to search the scriptures to know WHICH GOD! When Luke 23:7 speaks of Herod's jurisdiction, it's talking about the area where Herod rules. So when Ephesian 2:2 speaks of Beelzebub's jurisdiction, it's talking about the area where he rules. God has separated this atmosphere and this world from eternal "space," by leaving the great deep in between (Genesis 1). No matter how far you get out in "our" space, you can't get away from the jurisdiction (territory) of demonic spirits and the workings of demonic power! The only way to escape is to go out beyond the great deep! Then you would enter God's jurisdiction which is His place of authority or responsibility. The scriptures show us that God has given over to Beelzebub (with very few limitations) the jurisdiction of the air! That's why God's spirit doesn't go floating around in the air! That's why God's spirit doesn't wander to and fro in the air, seeking a place to dwell as the demonic spirits do (Matthew 12:43)! God's spirit doesn't come within this atmosphere, until he moves into a person and saves them (ie: the Holy Spirit dwells in beings who have spiritual life; Romans 8:9). Until you receive Jesus through the WORD of God coming (spiritually) into your heart, you are worshipping the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:3-4) and serving him through Dagon (your flesh)! Dagon was an object that was visible, but represented something invisible; the god of this world! That's why the Lord said in I John 2:15-16: 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. God said for us not to love these things because Beelzebub is in control of them! The word "world" comes from the Greek word "kosmos" which means "the arrangement of things." Anyone who serves the arrangement of things of this world is serving Dagon or what he represented; Beelzebub! Dagon pictures a man who is incapable of "walking" the way God creates man to walk (Revelation 4:11). He can do fine in the water! Put him in water and he can swim all over the place. What kind of "water"? Isaiah 57:20 shows us: "... but the wicked are like the troubled sea..." In Isaiah 60:5, he's speaking of converting the sea, and he's talking symbolically about gentiles (lost people)! Revelation 17:15 says the waters (same waters that are called the "sea" in Revelation 13:1 as we will prove in another study) symbolize people! The fish god would have a wonderful way of getting around as long as you put him in the sea (among lost people), but put him in God's territory and he couldn't get anywhere! Dagon is a god representing the fleshly life, which is not suitably equipped to truly serve God. It is only fitted for the present world (arrangement of things) among the wicked! Dagon was a bad combination! He had the bottom half that would get along in the sea, but he didn't have the top half to survive there! He's going to strangle in the sea! That's exactly what happens to this type of people. The sea smothers them from the "air" of the spirit of God (Jesus used the symbolism of the wind to represent the spirit of God in John 3). What we have pictured here is a man without the capability of "walking" spiritually. He can only "move about and fellowship" in the sea, but there he will drown. Romans 8:7 says: "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." We've studied in other Bible Studies the fact that the carnal mind has reference to a lost person's mind, as one whose affections are given over to the flesh. He said that lost people are not subject to the law of God! This is like saying a lost person has a fish tail! The feet represent the "walk" in the Bible (spiritually speaking). If you take away a man's feet and give him a fish tail, you've taken away his ability to walk! Romans 8:7 teaches us that a lost person can't walk God's straight and narrow! Mankind was made to walk in the law of God, but the carnal mind is an enemy against God! The lost person can't "walk" (spiritually), because they are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1; I Timothy 5:6). The lost person does not have spiritual "legs and feet," but only a (symbolic) fish tail! They are not really walking; they are flopping around on the end of their tail in the sea water! Dagon isn't in here just to fill space or to give us a little story about some past history! He is to portray to us a series of lessons and we must analyze this passage in order to understand and comprehend it spiritually! We've got to let the spirit of God speak to our hearts, to allow us to understand these things! I Corinthians 2:14 shows us a natural (lost) person will think the TRUE word of God is foolish! This Bible Study will appear to be foolish to those same people. Dagon was nothing more than an idol! He had no power to do anything, but Beelzebub used him in a great way! This flesh has no real power and no capabilities in itself. A lost person can't deceive anyone on their own, but you put Beelzebub in control and that person becomes a tool of the devil just as much as Dagon ever was! Dagon doesn't just represent our body; he represents our flesh life manifested through our body. This body is nothing more than a statue and Beelzebub likes to use statues! If God is to use us, we must humble ourselves and keep this body (statue) down out of sight (spiritually speaking)! They could have taken Dagon and put a dress on him or a one-legged trouser. They could have fixed him up in many different ways, but Dagon is still there! It's the same way with the body. Multitudes of people today are professing to live according to the will of God, and yet they ignore a large amount of scripture! They try to "fix up" their fleshly body in order to "appear righteous before men" as the Pharisees did in Jesus' day. True humility recognizes that no matter how you decorate and idolize this flesh, it is still corruption (I Corinthians 15:50)! It is like trying to beautify a garbage can in God's sight! This flesh will NEVER be approved by God! We are taught by God's word to subdue the flesh; cast it down; keep it under subjection! We can fix up and fancy up this flesh all we want, but it will still be (like Dagon) unable to walk! We will just be concealing the "slippery-slimey-fishy" manner that the flesh uses to accomplish its works! If a person is truly a child of God, they will want to overcome the flesh and keep it under subjection! They will want to have the "ark of God" in their life so they can have a means of "walking" SPIRITUALLY. The lower half of Dagon was fish and the upper half was man. We know that the works of our hands or whatever we see or hear depends on where our walk takes us! I'm not going to hear or see anything bad if my walk doesn't take me there! Our "walk" determines how our hands, our eyes, and the rest of our bodies are used. The fact that Dagon had a head and hands like a man didn't change the fact that he wasn't able to walk! Anything that he does is going to be "fishy!" Any place that he uses his hands, his eyes, or his head is going to be affected by where his fish tail takes him! It's the same way in our lives (spiritually speaking) before we get saved! We have nothing in the way of a spiritual walk before we get saved! When we are lost, we might as well have a fish tail, because we don't have any manner of "walking" for God! NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY OUR ATTEMPTS TO SERVE GOD WILL BE NOTHING MORE THAN "FISH FLOP". You have heard people say that their efforts in attempting to do something were a "FLOP". That is what happens to LOST people trying to serve God. For example, when we read the Bible, we read it from the point of view of a fish tail (in the manner that a fish would bring you to the Bible). How's that? Through the sea! Remember, the sea is a Bible symbol for lost people. They are constantly raging waves (Jude 13), rising and falling with the tides of their life! When a lost person reads the Bible, they can't truly understand it (see Bible Study, "EAT TO LIVE"). Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 2 that God's word is "mystery" wisdom and the lost ("natural") man can't understand it! Jesus said in Matthew 13:10-16 that He purposely spoke in a manner that the lost person can't understand! When Dagon rules in our life, we are blind spiritually and cannot comprehend the TRUTH! Somebody says, "I get out and do good deeds with my hands, or I give food and help to the poor." Yes, but you do it on your way through the sea powered by a "fish tail!" Before we get saved that's all we've got and that's all we can be! We're not fitted at all for life with God! We don't want to overlook that Dagon had some good possibilities! He had hands that COULD be used for God if they were motivated in the right direction! He portrayed a being or creature with a head that contained a mind and knowledge that could be used for God! He had eyes, mouth, nose, ears, etc., and those could be used for God! Likewise, a lost person is spiritually a temple of Dagon, but there are some good capabilities there. They have hands and a mind that God wants to use! They are bound up by the fact they can't walk for God, and all they have to carry them around is an old fish tail that pushes them through the sea! When they attempt to get out of the sea (ie: life and fellowship with lost people) and try to "walk" God's way, they just slip and fall because of their "fish tail!" They need a miraculous transformation that will crumble Dagon to the ground and set up the ark (the presence of God) in their life! They need to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17)! Romans 1:25 "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever." This tells us that people were worshipping the creature or the flesh more than they were worshipping God. They became obsessed by the flesh so God turned them over to a reprobate mind to believe a lie and be damned (verse 28 and II Thess. 2:10-12)! Someone might say..."but I don't do those kind of deeds!" Listen dear one; the people of Sodom didn't always live that way! This sin of worshipping ourselves (our fleshly desires and wants) starts very small and constantly grows unless we receive God's presence into our temple! What Paul described is the final end result of Dagon worship! People today ARE worshipping Dagon! Someone says, "I'm not an idolatrous person; I wouldn't have a statue in my house!" If they are worshipping this creature (their flesh) more than they are worshipping God, they might just as well have a statue 5000 feet tall in their house and have a hole in the roof to stick him through to let everybody know he's there! Remember friend, idolatry is not just having some kind of statue or picture to represent your God! Idolatry is putting anything in your life in a more important position than God! For example, in Matthew 6:24-33, Jesus is talking about the impossibility of having two masters at the same time (God and Mammon, ie: Dagon)! The context speaks entirely of physical and material things as being the god (idol) of mammon as opposed to the TRUE GOD! Multitudes of people profess to love God and to put Him first. However, they let Dagon come first in their lives! If the weather is bad or if they have something else to do for the flesh they use it for an excuse to skip out on church services and the opportunity to feed upon the TRUE word of God (if they attend a TRUE CHURCH)! They use the excuse that gas is too expensive to go far enough to find a TRUE CHURCH where they can be taught the deep things of God! They let their education, family, job, hobbies, etc., come first before the things of God! How do you think God feels after having given us so much and we set Him in second or third place? How do you think God feels when He sees professed christians, who are more interested in fun and games, sports, finding a girlfriend or boyfriend, "gospel" singings, playing church, etc., more than they are interested in "feeding" on Jesus through the word of God in TRUTH?!?! (see John 6:53-63; Acts 20:28; Jeremiah 3:14-15 etc.) Many people claim to be saved, but are under a very deceptive idol! They would rather hear "gospel" singing than to feed on the word of God! That is truly a very deceptive characteristic of Dagon! A person like that has never "tasted" the truth! This is because they have never had a chance to hear the truth, or else they are not saved and so could not feed on it if they heard it! Dagon is the flesh life (spiritually speaking) and everyone that's worshipping the creature more than the Creator is serving Dagon! The reason people are lost isn't what they are doing! It's because of what they ARE NOT doing! They are not temples for God to dwell in. They are not "feeding" on SPIRITUAL "food". They are not worshipping and putting him first! They are worshipping self (Dagon), rather than the true and living God! If someone had told the Philistines that they had the wrong god, they would have strongly disagreed! They would have said that they served the true God! They didn't believe that they were serving a false god! They didn't think they were idolatrous people! Even when they brought the ark of God in and set it by Dagon, they just figured that they had the box that Israel kept their God in and could set Him by their own god. They weren't against Israel's God or they would have tried to destroy the ark! No man can serve two masters! Dagon pictures our fleshly life manifested through our body. We see in type that the Philistines were just like all false religions today; they wanted both gods! People in the religious realm don't try to take the ark of God and destroy it! They want to have it setting by Dagon! They want to keep Dagon in his place! They didn't go in there, knock Dagon out of his place, and put the ark of God there! They wanted to keep Dagon right where he always was! This is the way the mixture works! People claim to be Christians, and yet they worship themselves and put themselves first in nearly every aspect of their life! They might have one or two areas of their life where they look toward the things of God, but in reality they are serving themselves! To ease their conscience, they want to have the little box with God in it TOO! They come to church, stand up and go through their religious form, talk about the God in the box, and then go home and serve Dagon! A lost person has Dagon in the temple and he is in control! When they get saved, they are moving God into Dagon's temple! You can be sure that when the Lord comes in, things change!!! Remember, these Philistines picture lost people! Let's think back to the time before we got saved. Back then we were "Philistines" and we had old Dagon in control of the temple! Our body held the flesh life in high esteem! Then we began to notice that people who were Israel (the people of God) had something that we would like to have! Lost person, in order to be saved you're going to have to get the same presence of God in your heart that saved people have! This is what happened to the Philistines. They noticed that Israel had a means of possessing the power of God that they wanted to have! They finally determined it was in that ark! (Today we still have God's presence in the true church of God!) Once they had possession of the ark, the first thing they wanted to do was to take it to the temple! If a lost person receives the presence of God what is he doing? He's bringing him into the temple! He is getting saved, but many times lost folks don't know what's going to happen when they get saved. They just know they've found something they want! They know there's a god (in their flesh) that they have been worshipping all their life, but they don't realize how much control over them that he has! What they are saying (in effect), is that God's presence is good and they want Him! They get the presence of God in their temple and set Him right beside Dagon! THEN THE BATTLE BEGINS!!! Will Dagon give God much trouble? Let's look at the "type". Verse 3 says: "And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow"...(Ashdod comes from the Hebrew word which means "ravager" or "destroyer" and every lost person is such spiritually.) "behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord." They brought in the ark of God and Dagon just fell right down and worshipped him! What is worship? True worship is when we take this Dagon, this flesh, and bring it down and humble it before God! True worship is from our heart, but the fullness of worship practiced through the flesh is when we actually humble this body also. When you come before the presence of God and realize what you are and what He is, you just want to get down as low as you can! You want to bring the flesh under subjection and allow the spirit to rule your life. Once God's presence comes in, you can't let your flesh life "stand up" any longer! Dagon MUST fall on his face! Many people don't understand the plan of salvation, so they try to get people to conquer Dagon in order to be saved! YOU MUST RECEIVE GOD'S PRESENCE (the Holy Spirit...Romans 8:9) AND BE CONCEIVED IN ORDER TO BEGIN TO GROW ENOUGH SPIRITUALLY TO CONQUER DAGON! In our type, the lost (Philistines) accept God's presence (ark of the Lord) into their life or place of worship (Dagon's temple). Dagon has always ruled and reigned there, but when the ark of the Lord comes in, Dagon (the fleshly desires of that person's life) wants to stand and tower over God! That ark was just a little box along side of Dagon. However, that little box had so much power in it that it was impossible for Dagon to remain standing! As a result the Philistines (lost people -- ie: your old companions in sin) began to labor to pick Dagon back up! As soon as the old flesh life is dethroned (when a person is first saved) the lost friends come along and try to get the babe in Christ to continue in his fleshly ways (ie: let Dagon remain standing)! This "heathen" influence is what causes the new Christian to stumble so much! A person gets saved and they're doing fine; old Dagon gets knocked down! Then the lost folks come around to help Dagon! Everytime you began to get somewhere in your early Christian life, your old friends wILL come around and set Dagon back up again. God has to do something about that so he says, "It's time to hit Dagon a little harder." Verse 4: "And when they rose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him." Only the stump was left! A lot of people would preach that you've got to get rid of the stump, but without the stump there would be no way in which Dagon could start to grow back up again! THAT stump is going to stay there right on through your life! That stump is all that's left and it can't do anything! IT WILL ONLY GIVE YOU ENOUGH OF A BATTLE TO KEEP YOU ON YOUR GUARD SPIRITUALLY. It can't work since it lost its hands and head! Make certain you don't have any more than a stump! If you see anything growing up again, you'd better cut it off! If there are some areas of your life where you see something starting to grow back up, cut it off! If you don't, the first thing you know your "DAGON" will have a new head and arms and hands! Dagon will be back in his place again and you'll be back where you were before! As long as the presence of God is there, Dagon will be overthrown! Once God comes in it's HIS TEMPLE and he's going to conquer everything else (1 Corinthians 3:16 & 6:15-20)! He wants us to work with and through Him in order to keep Dagon "on the floor in pieces". Verse 5: Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. When the temple changes from Dagon's temple to God's temple the priests of Dagon (false preachers) and those who come into Dagon's house become afraid of you! When God begins to "break down Dagon in your life the people who have been involved with your flesh life don't want to come around you anymore! You don't live like you use to live! "Well, how am I going to win them?" you say. You surely won't win them by letting Dagon stand back up (ie: yielding to the flesh and going along with their fleshly ways)! IT'S FOOLISH TO WORSHIP A GOD THAT FALLS ON HIS FACE! That's exactly what people are worshipping when they serve this flesh or fleshly life! They're worshipping a god that has no power! The worse thing that we can possibly do is to deceive ourselves and think we've got a powerful god in Dagon! All you have to do is bring God in and Dagon falls flat on his face! There are a lot of Dagons around that God keeps knocking down and people keep setting them back up! This is why we need to stop and determine where Dagon is in our life. Where are we still "picking up" our flesh life? Some people say they don't pick up Dagon, but when the slightest thing doesn't go their way, they go to pouting! There they go setting Dagon up again! We can have an attitude against our brethren in Christ, and this is the same as having an attitude against Jesus! Jesus said "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the LEAST of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me!" Everything you do to a sister or brother in Christ you have done to Jesus! That is why the Bible shows us that we've got Dagon's stump and we'd better be careful not to let him sprout back up! We'd better let the power of God to help us to keep him cast down and broken up! Saints let discouragement beat them down all the time. It's sinful to let the devil work on you like that! God has told us to resist the devil and he will flee from us! Instead we pick up Dagon again! God gives us victory and knocks Dagon down so we come along and yield to discouragement rather than pressing on in faith (Romans 14:23b..."whatsoever is not of faith is sin")! We go and set Dagon right back up! When you start getting discouraged, the next thing you're going to do is to start getting critical with God's people, God's ministry, and with God himself! You say "why does God let things like this happen to me?" The next step is you'll start hating Him. You'll say that "the church has changed, the preacher has changed, he doesn't preach like he used to. It's too bad; everyone went wrong but me so I'd better get out." The devil wants us to believe everyone else is always wrong and we're always right. Discouragement CAN take us down to destruction! Young people, look out for the Dagon of fleshly lust! There are temptations that young people go through more than older folks do. Young people may allow the desires of their flesh to rise up and become a Dagon in their life! The creature becomes more important to them than the Creator! They let those fleshly feelings become more important and are more concerned about finding a husband or a wife than having a spiritual relationship with God! Dagon has been set right back up again. Where is Dagon in OUR lives? Is he just a stump or has he been picked up again? Has he just been knocked over or has he had his head and hands knocked off? What about the realm of materialism? It's easy to let the creature become more important than the Creator to the point where we try to do most everything for this flesh. It isn't wrong to have material things, but it's wrong to let them come between you and God! God wants us to put him first in ALL things; otherwise we pick up Dagon! If we keep setting him up, it won't be too long until we allow the Philistines to carry away the temple of God (ie: we'll allow lost people to influence us to go back into sin.) Our test tells us that neither the priest of Dagon, nor any that came into Dagon's house would come around after Dagon was ruined! If we really have this experience we are going to be so different that a lot of old friends won't have anything to do with us anymore! Many people give in to their old friends. They don't want to offend anyone, so they let down! That's the way to send yourself and your friends to HELL! Do you realize there would be a lot of old friends saved today if we had lifted up the Spirit of God and God's standards in our life! Then people would look on and see that we have a genuine Christian experience. If your old friends don't feel conviction when they're around you, Dagon is still on the throne! How about our spiritual lives? Are we being careful or careless? Are we cautious, or are we going through life at a high rate of speed and forgetting to look out for the spiritual aspect? The things that we need to nourish and strengthen us spiritually are our prayer life and feeding on God's word, etc. How about our attitudes? Do we have an attitude that is loving, kind, compassionate, and burdened to help others? Or do we have an attitude that is unforgiving, holding a grudge against someone and saying, "I'm not going to have anything to do with that person until they are just what I want them to be?" Watch out for these areas! Jesus showed us if we can't forgive others, He can't forgive us! We need to check our feelings toward false religion. Do we have sympathy toward it? When the preacher keeps hitting at false religion, do we feel sorry for those systems? Remember, we're not speaking against people; our warfare is not against flesh and blood! It is against principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in heavenly (Greek means "high" and refers to religious) places as Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 (ie: wicked spirits working through "so-called" Christians and churches)! This is what we are striving against! Most people today who profess to be saved and call themselves Christians are spiritually no different than temples dedicated to the worship of Dagon (ie: the fleshly senses and desires)! Proof of this can be seen in the fact that most people's religion is a sideline, rather than the main event in their life! They want religion that doesn't change them too much and yet will appease their conscience! They want a church that is close to home and short services so they don't take up too much of THEIR time! They want a preacher that will do the work in the church that THEY should be helping to do! They don't care if he isn't able to feed them the deep truths of God's word (I Cor. 2:7- 10; Acts 20:28; Jeremiah 3:14-15), because they don't have SPIRITUAL LIFE, so they don't get hungry for spiritual food! The devil thrills them with things that satisfy Dagon: gospel singings (remember, David soothed the evil spirit troubling Saul with music too, but it didn't SAVE Saul!); FLESHLY "LOVE"; emphasis on SOCIAL EVENTS; BUS MINISTRIES to make them feel they're doing something for God; highly emotional services and manifestations; short sermonettes so they don't get "bored" by "GOD"; clowns, puppets, sports, gimmicks, etc.; big, beautiful, expensive buildings; large crowds to give the conscience comfort that it will be okay as long as it agrees with the majority; specified church "rules" so that as long as they live up to them, the lost individual can feel "moral" and "righteous." Jesus did not believe that any kind of "MAJORITY" would ever be right spiritually! Jesus taught that only a few would be saved (Matthew 7:13-14; 20:16; and 22:14)! Jesus also taught us that if the world values something very much, then God hates it (Luke 16:15)! John gives us this same principle and applies it to the religious world in I John 4:5-6. He shows us that any teaching that is heard and accepted by the world (ie: those who live in the manner of the present world's "arrangement of things") is not of God! This is why Paul wrote in I Timothy 3:5-7 and I Timothy 4:1-4 about such false "forms" of religion that call themselves Christianity, and yet are TEMPLES OF DAGON! The devil would like to come along and cause US to lift up Dagon in our life and follow after the flesh! We must battle satan so God can dwell in our temple (I Peter 5:8-9). Many Christians are spiritually stunted! They have been saved but have grown very little after years of being a child of God. This type of person not only grieves God and makes the pastor's job harder, but also provides a perfect tool for the devil to use as a stumbling block for a new Christian! This takes place because most new Christians automatically assume that all "older" saints will be "taller" than them spiritually! This, however, is not always true! If a child of God falls into the deceptions of false religion, they will be feeding on poisonous false doctrines mixed in with the TRUE food! This poison "stunts" their growth spiritually! If someone gets saved who has not been involved much with false religion, it is much easier for them to grow spiritually! They may quickly "pass up" those who have been saved much longer! We need to know what causes this "stunted" condition, and what the results of it are! Then we can examine ourselves to see if WE might be "stunted" spiritually! The cause of this condition is the result (as we have already mentioned) of the influence of false doctrine. If you have ever been taught anything (spiritual) that was not true, then you HAVE BECOME STUNTED SPIRITUALLY! The amount you have been affected is mostly dependent on how much false teaching you have received and learned! We can DETERMINE THIS SOMEWHAT by the following conditions which are signs of "stunting" spiritually: (1) People who have been saved for a couple years or more and still find it hard to grasp new truths which God allows them to hear preached are spiritually stunted! This is equal to saying that they find it hard to grow since growth is based on feeding on "fresh" food (Hebrews 5:11-14)! (2) People who have been saved awhile who are sensitive and easily offended, hurt, or upset, are spiritually stunted. These are signs of spiritual "babyhood!" (3) People who have been saved for several years and have never had an important part in the work of winning a soul to Christ (personally) are still spiritual babes when they should be growing up! (4) People who have been saved awhile and yet do not busy themselves in the different aspects of the work of the church family are showing that they are still "little babies" spiritually! In any TRUE family, each member will bear the share of work that they are capable of! If a person is only helping in a small part of the work of the church, they are manifesting their true spiritual age as being that of a baby! Some people would argue with this and claim that either their talents are not sufficient for the task or they are just too busy! Both statements show us that if they are saved they are spiritual babies. A lack of talent simply shows lack of growth. No one has the ability to do very many things until they work at them and "grow up!" Also, a person who won't TAKE TIME for the work of God is demonstrating that they don't have themselves (their Dagon) under subjection! They are still being strongly influenced by the flesh and yielding to its "whims" just like a baby! (5) A baby requires much more help from its mother than the older children. If a person who has been saved for quite a while still requires a lot of special attention from the pastor and "older saints" (from time to time), they are spiritually stunted! As they "recover," their growth will be obvious as they will gradually require less and less special attention! (6) A saint that has been saved for a long time and still cannot eat the food that the rest of the family eats but has to be "spoon fed" at intervals between the regular family "meals" (by the pastor or older saints), is spiritually stunted! (7) A baby or small child has not matured enough to have good control of its emotions. Similarly, if a person has been saved for years and still can't keep their body under control of their saved spirit they are "stunted!" We must realize that if a saint IS "stunted" there is no reason they should throw in the towel spiritually! They are going to have to work extra hard to overcome their condition! However, it will be worth it when they grow up spiritually! They will have to eat extra amounts of good spiritual food to overcome the bad effects of the false doctrine they have consumed in the past! They will know that they are growing when they see the symptoms (mentioned previously) of their "stunted" condition gradually disappearing. This body in one sense is material substance and in another sense it's a fallen nature! It's a means whereby the devil can work, but God can help us to keep it reduced down to a "stump" (reduced to where it doesn't have any authority or control over us) or else we can keep picking it back up and putting the pieces back together! There are a lot of people who have gone around after Dagon's head was knocked off and felt so sorry for him that they stuck it back on! They kept feeling sorry for him until they put one hand back on, then the other hand and, before you know it, all the pieces were back in place! People say "poor Dagon," and they feel pity for their own fleshly lives until they become bound by the things of the flesh and have lost their faith in Christ Jesus! We must be very careful if we're the temple of God! There's still some remnants of Dagon laying around and he will be picked up and put together if we're not careful! May God help us to be willing enough and cautious enough to search every area of our life and find every place where we are letting Dagon's stump grow back! Where is Dagon in your life? Is Dagon standing or is he on his face? Is he whole or is he in pieces? Is Dagon's temple still dedicated to his worship or is it possessed by the power and presence of God?