The Thorn Street Chronicles

"I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." Jude 1:3b

The Rocks of Indonesia

The day I visited Borobudur was warm and beautiful, with fluffy white clouds against a clear-blue sky. It was a perfect day for pictures and I captured the moment with my video camera.

I was a bit upset because the usual price of 15,000 Rupiah was marked up for "orang asing" (foreigners) to 50,000 Rupiah ($5). For tourists, perhaps 50,000 Rupiah is nothing, but for me, after living in Indonesia for two years, it seemed like a lot of money. My mentality, influenced by American culture, interpreted the price hike as nothing less than racism against non-Indonesians -- "You're not Indonesian? Okay, it will be 50,000 for you." My offense was softened a little as I remembered the day my brother and I visited a fish aquarium in Long Beach, California, and it cost us $15 each. It was kind of fun, but we were out-of-there in two hours.

As I paid my fee and entered the temple grounds, I was expecting to sense the oppressive presence of powerful evil spirits. I had heard a lot about the place and knew that many people from all over the world held it in high regard.

There is the story of a group of "spiritual mappers" who came here to walk around the place in prayerful meditation. They were commanded by their leader to remain silent as they "discerned the spirits" and prayed against them. One of the prayer warriors broke the code of silence and was disciplined by not being allowed to continue with the group to the next site they were to visit. I thought about how in-agreement with the demonic spirits the spiritual mappers have become.

First, the mappers spend hours and hours studying about evil spirits, demons, and grievous sins. Then they spend a lot of money to travel to special sites where they believe the wicked spirits dwell, or an evil act occurred. Then they spend hour after hour praying against the spirits they believe they have discovered through study and "revelation" from the Holy Spirit. Or they spend hour after hour repenting of the sins that had been committed in a certain place. Then they command Christians to be silent about what they "know." What!? The Apostle Paul asked for boldness to preach the Gospel -- now the practice is to  punish people for preaching it?! It makes me wonder what spirit the "new paradigm" is aligned with.                                

The greatest spiritual warfare we can get involved in is by taking the sword of the Spirit and preaching the Word -- not through some kind of prayerful meditation! First, the East was taken to the West, and now the West is taking it back to the East; not because they don't want it, but because they think it is powerful stuff! The mappers believed they were binding powerful spiritual forces inhabiting the area.

I refuse to lend any credibility to any "spiritual wickedness in high places" at Borobudur. It is nothing more than a pile of rocks. So much the worse if people bow down before them and think they have special power. They don't! They are rocks. Satan works through lies. God works through truth. To say that there are powerful spiritual forces at Borobudur is to be in agreement with Satan! Even if it could be proved that there were actually powerful spirits there, it is forbidden for true Christians to spiritually search them out. God wants us to seek his face by gaining a thorough knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, not a knowledge of demonic spirits. 

The serpent to Eve: "God doesn't want you to eat of the fruit because He wants to keep you ignorant! Go ahead, eat! It looks good, and it tastes even better. If you eat it, you will be like God. Don't listen to that God of yours. He doesn't have your best interest at heart." 

Eve to the serpent: "Okay, Mr. Serpent, I believe you. Let me try that stuff! Are you sure it won't hurt me?"

I watched for open doors to preach the Gospel while at the temple and I made a short video recording with a sermon about the powerful Lord Jesus Christ and the lack of power we should attribute to evil spirits. I was approached by a couple idol-hawkers who wanted to sell me small stone statues and I told them that those things were nothing more than pieces of rock and that they should bow before the only true God; the living God who made heaven and earth. We know about Him through the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him have the forgiveness of sins.

Something interesting about Borobudur is that it was overgrown with brush and ignored for a few centuries. What do you suppose all the evil spirits did for all those centuries? It must have been terribly boring with no spiritual mappers or other worshippers there to give them attention. A liar without an audience is truly a miserable being!

As I began climbing the coarse volcanic-rock steps, my suspicions that the spirits people believed to be so powerful at this place were only a bunch of wimps, was confirmed. Where are the Elijahs of today? Who will tell the truth about these "rock gods"? 

Placards had been placed in obvious places – "no scratching." Apparently their placement was too late, because the carved initials of young lovers were common as was the graffiti of those who had a statement to make.

The majesty of these "rock gods" was further diminished when I discovered that the heads of the Buddha statues bring a high price. The story is that fearless thieves had whacked them off and sold them in the black-market. Can you imagine that? Thieves delivering the heads of gods to the highest bidders. Yet multitudes of people still look to these headless-wonders as having some kind of power to save them or to help them. That so powerfully reinforces the fact that we must tell them, with our vocal cords or with the written word, about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit shows His power through the Word and has historically opened millions of eyes in that fashion.

Thousands of years ago the prophet Habukkuk gave God’s perspective on carved rock and other highly esteemed artifacts: "Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.’ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet." Habakkuk 2:18-3:1 

It is the height of irony that God is in His temple and tells us to be silent before Him, yet the spiritual mappers go to the temple of idols and are silent before them!

If Habakkuk were to continue, I could imagine him saying, "Woe to those people who call themselves My people, yet they silence My true servants and give attention to deceiving spirits!"

The other day I was a witness to some true spiritual warfare. I was in a taxi with a friend and my wife. We were driving through Jakarta when my Indonesian friend, a brother in Christ, began sharing the Gospel with the taxi driver. The taxi driver was uneasy and seemed to squirm a little, but Indonesians tend to be very polite people and he shook his head in reserved agreement with the Christian message he was hearing. I became intensely aware about the spiritual warfare that was going on, and I thought about how wicked this new spiritual mapping stuff is. Believe me, my friends, the demons were active in that taxi -- and frankly I do not care what their names were! My prayer was, as the servants of the father of lies were active, that the Holy Spirit would open this taxi driver's eyes through the Word of God -- just as He had done so many times with people in the Book of Acts and throughout subsequent Christian history. 

Habakkuk ended his words by saying, "Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy." (chapter 3, verse 2)

The only hope we have to be accepted with an awesomely holy God, the One we must all ultimately answer to, is through the forgiveness of sins that we find in what Christ Jesus has done for us in His work on the cross. His forgiveness is free. There is no way you can work your way into acceptance with Him. If there was, Jesus' coming into the world to suffer and die for our sins would not have been necessary. 

We invite you to completely commit your life to the living Rock and tell others about Him. The word of your testimony is a powerful thing. Satan will do anything to silence you. Of all the rocks in Indonesia, only Jesus is a true and living Rock. He hears our prayers. He meets our every need. He is Lord of lords and King of kings! He shall soon return to judge the whole earth in true righteousness.

Pastor Greg

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