spirits portrayed in chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation as the beast from
the earth who had two horns like a lamb, but who spoke like a dragon.”
I followed the angelic spirit. To my surprise I saw a crowd with
church leaders in the center of it. The leaders were teaching that nothing
saves us except faith in Christ’s merit and that works are good things to
do, but not for our salvation. They were also proclaiming that works
need to be taught from the Word so as to put lay people, especially sim-
ple ones, on a leash so that they obey their civic leaders and feel com-
pelled from within by religion to practice moral goodwill.
[ 2 ] Then one of them saw me and said, “Do you want to see our
shrine? It has a sculpture in it that portrays our faith.”
I went and saw it. It was magnificent! In the center of the shrine
there was a statue of a woman dressed in scarlet clothes. She had a gold
coin in her right hand and a chain of pearls in her left.
Both the statue and the shrine, however, were projected images. Hell-
ish spirits have the ability to portray magnificent things using projected
images. They do it by closing off the inner levels of our mind and open-
ing only its outer levels.
When I realized that the statue and the shrine were conjured up
through sorcery I prayed to the Lord. Suddenly the inner levels of my
mind were opened. Then instead of a magnificent shrine, I saw a house
that was full of cracks from the roof all the way to the foundation. Nothing
in it was solidly connected. Instead of the woman, I saw a dummy hanging
in the house that had the head of a dragon, the body of a leopard, the feet
of a bear, and the mouth of a lion. It was exactly like the beast from the sea
described in Revelation 13 : 2. Instead of the floor, there was a swamp that
contained thousands of frogs. I was told that under the swamp there was a
great hewn stone; and beneath it the Word lay deeply hidden.
Seeing this I said to the sorcerer, “Is this your shrine?”
“It is,” the sorcerer said.
Just then, though, the sorcerer’s inner sight opened up as well. The
sorcerer saw the same things I was seeing and loudly shouted, “What is
this? Where did this come from?”
“It came from the light of heaven,” I said, “which has disclosed the
true quality of each form here, including the quality of your faith, which
has been separated from spiritual goodwill.”
[ 3 ] Immediately the east wind came up and blew away the shrine
with the sculpture. It dried up the swamp and exposed the stone that had
the Word lying underneath it.
§187 the holy spirit & divine action 261