Discerning the Counterfeit by Eric Mumford
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Discerning the Counterfeit By Eric Mumford ® P.O. Box 3709 Cookeville, TN 38502 931.520.3730 [email protected] All Scripture quotations are taken from The New American Standard Bible, The Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. All rights reserved. Bracketed notations within these verses indicate a more literal English translation of the original Hebrew or Greek word and also the author’s commentary. Plumbline Published by: ® l i b r a r y s e r i e s P.O. Box 3709 Cookeville, TN 38502 (800) 521-5676 www.lifechangers.org All Rights Reserved ISBN 1-884004-89-X © 2011 Lifechangers All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America Discerning the Counterfeit by Eric Mumford Recognizing ‘Worthless’ Reflecting upon the nature and ways of God’s enemy—“the serpent of old” (Rev 12:9)—a certain southern quip just seems to fit: “An ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure.” The Scriptures frequently refer to Satan by the name Belial or Beliar, which simply means worthless. Belial, whom we will call Worthless, is an imposter clothed head-to-toe in pretense: “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2Cor 11:14). Worthless was formerly a distinguished archangel of heaven whose name is not mentioned in the Scriptures; early theologians named him Lucifer, a Latin translation of light-bearer or shining one (Isa 14:12). This archangel of God willfully degenerated into self-love (eros). As a self-center, Lucifer desired to be first—seeking to be served and no longer to be God’s servant and esteeming himself worthy to be the object of all worship and no longer a worshipper. This noble being of great worth was entirely consumed by envy of God; he ceased to be Lucifer and became Worthless. Through the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord recounts Lucifer’s fall: Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the -3- garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald [Aaron and his sons, the high priests of Israel, wore this breastplate of precious stones, Ex 28:17-20]; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings [lit. tambourines] and sockets [lit. flutes], was in you. On the day that you were created they [instruments of worship] were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there [as a steward of worship, the leader of My worshippers]. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire [heavenly beings, luminaries of God’s glory]. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness [self-love] was found in you. By the abundance of your trade [worship for worthlessness; “exchanging the truth of God for a lie” (Ro 1:25)] you were internally filled with violence [envy, greed, murder], and you sinned; therefore I have cast you from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart -4- was lifted up [in self-worship] because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor [self-referential (eros) rationale]. I cast you to the ground [earth]; I put you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade [counterfeiting] you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes [worthlessness] on the earth…” (Ezekiel 28:11-18). Worship literally means worth-ship: to magnify, cherish, and celebrate God’s worth. “God is Agape [sacrificial self-giving Love]” (1John 4:8). Essentially, worth-ship is reciprocating God’s Agape—perpetually offering ourselves to Him in sacrificial self-giving as He perpetually gives Himself to us. Lucifer was actually a unique creation of God designed with musical instruments of worth-ship, “tambourines” and “flutes,” hard-wired into his very being! Further, God appointed him to a most distinguished position of honor and authority—an angelic high priest of heaven—the first to wear the breast-piece of Aaron and entrusted with authority over all the worshippers of God’s kingdom. The fact that one- third of God’s angels followed him into darkness -5- is evidence that Worthless was previously a being of great worth and authority (Rev 12:4). Lucifer was uniquely equipped and appointed to lead all creation on an eternal journey into the fathomless worth of the infinite Trinity of Agape, but magnifying and esteeming himself, he became a forerunner into sin (eros), blazing a new trail of self-discovery and self-worth-ship. Worthless has spent all the subsequent ages mastering the arts of deception and seduction, luring all God’s creatures great and small to follow him on this alternate, twisted path of eros. Promising self- gratification to each unsuspecting dupe, Worthless exploits the sum total of his victims for his own vainglory, enslaving them through addiction and fear in his counterfeit kingdom and using them as pawns in the gratification of his envy of God. When Jesus “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,” Worthless even invited God’s Son to participate in this egotistical madness. Boldly quoting Scripture as a part of his customized snare, the cunning serpent offered Jesus a certain worthless promise, “if You fall down and worship me” (Mt 4:1-9). From the moment Lucifer (“light-bearer”) sold himself into this irredeemable darkness, he has since attempted to usurp God’s position, authority, and glory in every imaginable way. Worthless is a created being. He is not the Creator, and he is not God; therefore, to carry on this charade -6- of “equality with God,” this imposter must perpetually mask his own finite limitations as a non-deity with deceptive pretense and conceal his deficiencies and inabilities with fraud, forgeries, and counterfeiting. With astounding effectiveness, Worthless peddles worthlessness. The Copycat Worthless, who “disguises himself as an angel of light,” is uniquely qualified to carry on this envious charade because he actually was an angel of light before his degeneration into darkness. The archangel Lucifer was among the most distinguished, powerful, and honored beings of God’s creation before he was thrown out of heaven. The intellectual capacity which God created in this super-being, as well as the privileged access to the Trinity granted to Lucifer as an angelic high priest of heaven, afforded him intimate familiarity with many deep mysteries of God. As a former ‘heavenly insider,’ this outcast cunningly and shamelessly exploits his first-hand knowledge of the kingdom of God by every conceivable means, counterfeiting the light, power, culture, lingo, designs, imagery, and even God’s objectives and methods. To recognize Worthless and discern his schemes, we must understand that as a non- deity he does not possess God’s creative power to generate original things; he is a copycat driven by -7- envy. “One who plans to do evil, men will call a schemer [lit. deviser of evil]. The devising of folly is sin [counterfeit creativity]” (Pro 24:8-9). All of Satan’s inventions and devices are dark ‘knock- offs’ of God’s creative ingenuity. Worthless, the pretender, is himself a counterfeit, and out of his very nature he masterfully counterfeits all the original ideas and creations of God. Though Satan does not have generative, creative power, he does wield tremendous degenerative, destructive power. He strives “to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord” (Acts 13:10). Worthless takes God’s resources—His words, designs, objectives, and especially angelic and human beings—and makes them crooked; that is, he twists them in upon himself as a false center. All of his innovations—deceptions, lures, counterfeits, and forgeries—are crafted from the raw resources of God’s kingdom. The outcome of the degenerative perversion of God’s original, life-giving things is a counterfeit kingdom, which is the antithesis of Father’s genuine kingdom. He has effectively constructed a kingdom of dark-light that is a perverted replica of the kingdom of Light, wrought through with nearly undetectable half-truths—intricately crafted lures, snares, and pit-falls designed to capture and hold mankind hostage from their Creator. An effective fishing lure is painted with multi-colored, iridescent paint, complete with -8- detailed scales and eyes; even motionless it is indistinguishable from a real fish. Further, the lure is triple-jointed, the head, body, and tail are linked, and when skillfully pulled along, the fake fish appears to glide through the water by its own propulsion exactly like a live fish. The barbed hook trailing beneath is rarely discovered until it has already been swallowed. Worthless’ dark gift of al-lure-ment makes him an exceedingly treacherous enemy. As this Plumbline unfolds, we will see how Worthless, moved by envy of God, masterfully and comprehensively counterfeits all the genuine things of God as hook-laden lures, including miracles, spiritual gifts “without Agape,” a kingdom of Oneness, and even Son-giving and resurrection itself. Consider the difference between jealousy and envy: jealousy wants what another has, envy wants what the other has and for the other not to have it. Envy is a very evil, destructive thing—one of the major load-bearing pillars of wickedness and the impetus of murder.