Mike,

The Church I was attending was led by a man who went to Masters College in California run by John MacArthur. He is about 50 years old, and I would say he knows his orthodox message very well. I just got done this morning listening to your audio on another Jesus and it’s amazing how Christ is tuning my ear to pick up on these false messages. I can even look back and remember times when it seemed like he avoided certain questions and I always wondered why but didn’t ever second- guess it. It really is all starting to make sense now why he did. I remember about 18 months ago in a study he had a verse on a projector with the Greek words coded and one of the words had #165 aion in it. Someone stated that the word “world” was a strange Greek word. I remember he immediately got some what flustered, but I never knew or questioned why. I do however understand why now. My question is this; do these “educated seminary ministers” know that there is a doctrine out there that contradicts their whole message? A part of me thinks he knows that he’s lying. Have you encountered through your years that the truth is being withheld because of a hardness of the heart to repent or they really just don’t see it because they’re blind? I mean to see aion doesn’t mean ‘forever’ doesn’t take spiritual discernment – just honesty.

Thanks,
M____

Hi M____,
It is really good that you are beginning to be able to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God.”

What you tell me about this minister and his inability to cope with the simple word ‘aion’ is actually very typical. Is this man intellectually dishonest? That is impossible for me to say since I don’t know the man. But I do know many intellectually dishonest men who simply do not want to and will not deal with anything that is contrary to the doctrine of their church or in many cases simply contrary to their own individual teaching. The lies and false doctrines that are out there are so numerous that they “darken the sun and the air” (Rev 9:1-2)
You are in a better position than I am to determine whether this college educated man, tutored by John MacArthur, is being intellectually dishonest or whether he is simply blinded and cannot see. But regardless as to the degree of culpability, regardless as to whether the man knows that ‘aion’ means ‘age’ or not, it still demonstrates a degree of blindness in which the Lord is holding this man.
You are right, it would seem that it would only take honesty to see the meaning of a word, but in the realm of spiritual matters, spiritual blindness is nothing less than a miracle of God, just as were the plagues upon Egypt and the flood of Noah. Pharaoh, knew that God was doing the miracles Moses was performing, but God had hardened his heart and he could not see or accept the Truth. The same is true for you and me “until the time appointed of the Father:”

Gal 4:1 Now I say, [ That] the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Anyone who is dishonest is also spiritually blinded or he would not be dishonest. This man’s blindness is not of himself any more that our sins are of ourselves:

Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [ it is] good.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

This is the very meaning of “I create evil.” Twice we are straightly told that we are not responsible for our blindness and sins, but “who has believed our report?” So it is with this minister. God is working his blindness after the counsel of His own will just as he did with your blindness and mine in the past.
I hope this helps you to accept what God is doing with this man and with all who, like him, simply are not given to see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, at this moment.
We all should be both humbled and grateful for the blessing we have been given to see these things and to be counted worthy to suffer with Christ because we have been given eyes that see and ears that hear.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike