Alexander Pagani’s Book is a Doozy of a Holy Nope

I've not read very many bad books. I mean, I've read books with which I disagree in part, at least. I've read other books for research purposes that I wouldn't recommend, but a truly bad book, I haven't deliberately read many of those.

But here's one I have read. The Secrets to Deliverance Defeat the Toughest Cases of Demonic Bondage by Alexander Pagani. If you are familiar with my content, then you know that I have spent some energy contending for the faith against the newest wave of charismania, Deliverance Ministry.

It is a theology that holds that born again spirit-filled Christians can have demons inhabiting them either in their body parts or somewhere in their souls. This doctrine is an assault not only on the finished work of Christ, but on the sanctifying work of Christ that he continues by his spirit in the life of the believer.

It is a doctrine of demons, not because it has much to do with actual demons, but because its proponents, like Pagani, molest Christ's bride by yoking her with the burden that though she is clothed with the pure robes of Christ's righteousness, she is still filthy with demons and still in need of deliverance.

We're going to go through this book together in preparation for a larger project I'm working on, and the issues begin not on page 13 or 39, but before we even get to the introduction. The first sentence on the first page of the Acknowledgments presents a glaring issue which really highlights the crack in the book's foundation.

Professed apostle Alexander Pagani claims to be the recipient of new special immediate revelation. He begins, To the Holy Spirit, thank you for granting me wisdom and insight into the mysteries of the kingdom and entrusting me with the secrets to deliverance to continue your work of setting the captive free.

Does the Holy Spirit give wisdom and insight to men? Certainly. In fact, whenever we pick up a Bible to read it, we should ask the Holy Spirit to grant us wisdom and insight so that we can understand what we are reading and glean from it what the Holy Spirit has intended to say.

Because a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who don't have the Spirit cannot understand the things of the Spirit.

In this context, in 1 Corinthians 2, the things of the Spirit refers to the wisdom of God revealed in Christ crucified for sinners. Those who do have the Spirit, believers, are able to understand because the Spirit enables them.

We sometimes call this illumination. Illumination is the work of the Holy Spirit to teach the things of God to believers through His Word. We need to understand what illumination is as distinct from revelation.

There is general, immediate revelation. This concerns God revealing Himself through creation. There is also special, immediate revelation, which is what Pagani claims for himself throughout the book. Special revelation is redemptive.

It reveals God as Redeemer through His redemptive acts in history and through the subsequent interpretations of those acts in the inspired authors. Special revelation culminates in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word made flesh.

Christ's work of redemption is the final redemptive historical act of God recorded for us in the Gospels and interpreted and applied to the Church in the epistles. In this epistle, 1 Corinthians, I want to call your attention to the same passage we've already looked at.

Paul says in verse 7 of chapter 2,. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. Now, God's wisdom here, again, is Christ crucified, the long-awaited Messiah dying on a cross for sinners.

But I want you to consider the word mystery. Notice what Pagani writes. He claims that the Holy Spirit has given him insight into the mysteries of the kingdom. Pagani is using a biblical word, but he is not using it biblically.

Common trait among false teachers. See that Pagani uses mysteries synonymously with secrets. These secrets were discovered, claims Pagani, not by the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit to make us understand the written revelation that is the Bible, but by quote, download after download of revelation, which he says to have received in no small part through visions and dreams.

Biblically, mystery has to do with the once concealed, now revealed plan of God for reconciling the world to himself, Christ crucified as the savior for Jews and for Gentiles. When the New Testament talks about mystery being revealed, it is talking about formerly hidden things that have now been revealed in the coming of Christ and the giving of the gospel.

Consider Romans 16, 25 and 26. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations leading to obedience of faith.

You can see in this text that the preaching of Jesus Christ is used synonymously with the revelation of the mystery. The mystery of the gospel is now manifested and it is contained in the scriptures. The same thing is true of Paul's use of the word mystery in Ephesians.

By revelation, there was made known to me the mystery as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit.

To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. So we see here again that it is the mystery of the gospel, formerly hidden but now revealed, and it is not talking about you receiving some sort of gnostic download of revelation unknown to anyone else, even if it aligns with scripture.

People who twist scripture can make anything align with scripture. Consider finally Colossians 1, 26 and 27. Paul says that he was made a minister so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So again, Paul is using mystery to refer to what was before partially hidden in previous revelation contained in the Old Testament through the mouth of the prophets but is now manifested in the person of Christ in the New Testament scriptures and is made freely available to all nations.

What's helpful to understand is that Paul is using this language intentionally to contrast with the contemporary pagan understanding of mystery, which were secret insights reserved for a spiritual elite and which were sometimes secured through money.

It might look very similar to sowing a seed. Pagani's understanding of mystery in Revelation and Secrets actually more closely resembles the paganism found in the Roman Empire in Paul's day and has very little to do with the biblical use of the term.

Mysteries are not mystical.

I feel like I'm losing my mind. Is everybody in the world blind? Please Lord give me a sign, a sign.