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Intro

After starting to read The Bloody One by D.T. Childress, which was recommended from the wife of the author’s channel, Angel’s Journey Podcast, I realized that there is an important element of the gospel that has largely been neglected by modern religions: our learning to interact with the court of heaven.

The background is that the author’s wife, Angel, has suffered from extensive satanic ritual abuse, which required a truly incredible amount of deliverance from her husband in order to expel all of the different demonic entities which had become attached to her. This work of deliverance put Angel’s husband through the furnace of affliction, but the end result was that her husband was forced to come to an actually true understanding of how people are delivered in order to save his wife. This understanding came from extensive study – both of the scriptures and the supernatural, simple experience on what worked and what didn’t work for his wife, as well as his wife’s supernatural experiences of what was happening to her as she went through this deliverance. Therefore, in his experience, the following doctrine has good fruits in terms of helping people escape from demonic oppression.

The Basic Gestalt

Here is his theory: there is a legal system in heaven, and Satan and his angels are quite literally attempting to use these laws to gain a legal right over our souls, allowing us to become subject unto them.

Satan is able to gain a legal right over our souls mainly when we choose to sin, since it is important in heaven’s legal system if we of our own free agency choose Satan.

However, there are a great many dark magic ways used beyond this to gain control over a person’s soul:

1. Satan uses technology to change our bodies, which he argues means that we are becoming his creation, and therefore we become his.
2. Satan uses dark magical rituals to split and mutate people’s souls, that way he can claim us to be his.
3. Children are imprisoned and forced to do filthy things, such as commit cannibalism, which Satan uses as evidence that these kids now belong to him.
4. People are tricked into accepting “marriage” ceremonies with demonic entities, which ceremonies are said to become binding for the rest of their life.
5. In summary, Satan attempts to twist the legal system of heaven to support his corrupt agenda, and therefore it is up to Jesus Christ, our advocate, to set the laws straight and call out Satan for his deceptions.

This point about marriage immediately rings true to me, because – while popular culture does not talk at all about how occultists attempt to literally marry supernatural entities – this is a large part of many of the native religions which existed before colonialism. To learn more about this, I encourage you to read English Translation of Mariage mystique et pouvoir chamanique chez les Shipibo d’Amazonie péruvienne et les Inuit du Nunavut canadien, which is very interesting.

Therefore, to deliver someone from the hold of demonic entities, often times it is not as simple as just telling the person to “forgive those who wronged them and take upon themselves the blood of Christ” – because there are actual legal claims that Satan has over their souls, and addressing these claims is much more complex than simply saying that you want the blood of Christ to cover you.

Arguments used in the court of Heaven

While the situation of D.T. Childress and his wife was very atypical compared the average person’s spiritual journey, I think it is still informative to learn about the various legal arguments used by D.T. Childress to save his wife from the various entities that had claim over his wife’s soul:

1. Renouncing the past – as long as we are mortals, we are given the right to renounce the evil that we have chosen in the past to instead proceed forward with Christ.
2. Agency – agreements his wife made as a child don’t have binding power because she was not an adult and therefore didn’t have the agency to make decisions on her own and because these decisions were made under duress.
3. Creation – Satan doesn’t *truly* create things – rather he twist’s God’s creations. Therefore, the creations don’t belong to him, they belong to God.
4. Dwelling place of the Holy Ghost – since the Holy Ghost dwelt inside her, it was unholy and against divine law for demonic entities to also be allowed inside her.
5. It can be helpful to renounce the deeds of your ancestors and repent of them so that intergenerational curses don’t fall upon you.

Therefore, from the perspective of D.T. Childress, he felt inspired to make these arguments on her behalf whilst in prayer. However, from his wife’s perspective, she literally saw herself in a court room in visions, where her husband and Jesus Christ were pleading her case against the opposition, who were demonic entities also present in the room that argued that they had control over her.

In summary, his wife simply saying that she believed in Christ was not enough to instantly deliver her from evil. Instead, she had to go through a long process where each entity was banished after the courts of heaven determined that said entity didn’t have ownership over her.

And to note, I imagine that there are courts of heaven proceedings going on all the time without humans being aware of them, in which Jesus Christ argues on behalf of the souls of the saints against Satan. And if we truly are saints, Jesus Christ will eventually win our court cases for us, even if we aren’t even really aware of what Jesus is doing for us in heaven. However, knowledge of this system I believe can help speed up deliverance from demonic entities, which is helpful even for normal people because this can alleviate temptation.

2 Peter 1:5

One very meaningful experience to Angel and her husband was when she saw in a vision her spirit appealing to 2 Peter 1 5 in the courts of heaven. Here is the scripture:

2 Peter 1:3-5
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

Basically, her argument in court was that, as described in this scripture, we have the right to choose Christ and escape from corruption. Therefore, even though she might have chosen corruption in the past, according to divine promise she is afforded the opportunity to renounce this corruption moving forward and leave it behind to instead choose Christ.

Further teachings from D.T. Childress

According to Childress, a useful tool in spiritual warfare is to appeal to the “zeal of the Lord” in prayer. Basically, the Hebrew word for zeal also means Jealousy (specifically, the Hebrew word Qanna means Jealous or Zealous, and the word Qinah means zeal, passion, and jealousy). Therefore, when we make this appeal, we are hoping that God will be jealous for our souls over Satan, and therefore he will intercede for us, but we also are ourselves choosing to be jealous for God – or in other words, we are passionately choosing God over Satan.

Childress also claims that there are a great many angels across the world that are hidden from mortal eyes, and that we can appeal for their assistance in prayer – which is especially useful if you are praying to have angels restrain demonic entities.

Interestingly, Childress claims that a title for Jesus Christ is “the Bloody One”.

To note, he also teaches many esoteric things about the nature of the soul in his book, but they are out of the scope of this essay.

Finally, Childress offers an interesting perspective of deliverance: when you deliver someone, your goal should be to speak specific things to their soul that appeal to their own perspective. Therefore, we should not become overly self-absorbed in lofty doctrines, but instead should continually be seeking inspiration on what to say and should be OK with explaining doctrines in a personalized fashion to people, appealing to things that are relevant to them, rather than simply explaining everything by the book. This point is important because sometimes specific parts of our soul actually do side with Satan, even if overall we are against him, and Satan argues that these fragments give him rights over us. Therefore, a part of deliverance involves trying to understand these fragments and speaking to them to make them reject Satan (Hopefully, this last part isn’t relevant to the vast majority of people whose souls are not fragmented via ritual abuse).

Adding my thoughts

Fruits meet for Repentance

I think one helpful thing we can do in prayer is claim that we have brought forth fruits meet for repentance, and present this as evidence that we should be delivered from the influence of demonic entities.

This is what the scriptures say about fruits meet for repentance:

Matthew 3:8-10; Similar (Luke 3:8-9)
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
…10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Luke 3:8–14
8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.
12 Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?
13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.
14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

Acts 26:20
20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judæa, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

And to note the obvious, fruits worthy of repentance aren’t simply having a knowledge of God, but are literally changing our actions to serve others and follow Christ. We know this because Christ explicitly lists what these sorts of actions are in Luke 3:8–14.

I believe fruits meet for repentance are part of this process because in order to claim access to the blood of Christ, we first must truly walk with Christ, and that requires us to follow what he tells us to do. The necessity to actually obey Christ in order to claim atoning power is described further in 1 John 2:1-4.
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

James also discusses the necessity to actually follow God in our actions in this scripture:

James 2:14-26
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
… 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
…26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Jesus himself also discusses the need to follow the commandments in these verses:

Luke 8:21
21 And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

Luke 6:46
46 ¶ And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

But this is just a tiny portion of the vast number of scriptures which explicitly say that we must actually follow God and try to change our actions and stop sinning in order to access Christ’s atoning power. I outline the many other scriptures in Hyper-Grace is Wrong and Following the Commandments / Works Matter.

And just to be clear, I am not saying that we have to be perfect (no one is perfect except for Christ). However, we should be trying in a heartfelt fashion to conform our actions to his will, and therefore we should actively be seeking to not sin and make right any sins we have committed. I discuss this further in The Atonement as a Blood Transfusion.

But I digress. To paint a picture, I imagine these “works meet for repentance” are sort of like binders full of evidence that can be presented in our heavenly trials – which heavenly trials we can initiate via prayer in order to petition heaven to evict any demonic entities which have influence on us. This is necessary because the satanic side will try to argue legally that it has the right to control us because we have of our own free agency chosen darkness – and so if we can provide evidence to the contrary that we actually have chosen Jesus Christ over the darkness, this helps very much in refuting Satan’s arguments and thus winning our court proceedings in heaven.

Therefore, if we seek to combat demonic influence over ourselves, I think it might be helpful to note in prayer that:

1. You have brought forth fruits meet for repentance.
2. The Holy Ghost dwells within you.
3. As long as you are mortal, you have the free agency to make the decision to turn away from corruption and choose Christ, and at this moment you are exercising this right to choose Jesus Christ and renounce your sins from the past.

In prayer, you can then use all this as evidence that any demonic entities which harass you should be expunged from your life, and any entities which don’t comply with this court order should be punished.

Along this line, I think that for purposes of engaging in Spiritual Warfare, it can be helpful to promise in prayer to follow Christ and promise to always seek to do His will and put Christ above your own vain imaginations. Verbally stating these promises I believe has special power in unlocking blessings, though I suppose it would be very bad to make these promises and then not try to follow them (thus, we should repent for our mistakes and try to not repeat them).

Our Life as a Probation

The largest conclusion from the work of D.T. Childress is that the many scriptures describing Jesus Christ as our advocate with God and Satan as our accuser are not symbolic, but rather are literally describing the inner workings of heaven:

There actually are sophisticated heavenly laws, and Jesus advocates for our souls in the courts of heaven while Satan and his angels are the opposition who accuse us as having broken these laws.

Importantly, as long as we are still mortal, we always have the chance to return to God and amend any heavenly laws that we might have broken. However, if we die in our sins, without having chosen Christ or repented, then we will likely become subject to these laws and having broken them our custody will be given to Satan.

Remarkably, the above ideas proposed by D.T. Childress are very explicitly detailed in the Book of Mormon – to a far greater degree than they ever are mentioned in the Bible. So it is interesting that Childress and his wife – who are not Mormons and have no Mormon backgrounds whatsoever – have apparently stumbled upon ideas that the Book of Mormon has explained the whole time. In the “Scripture Precedent” portion of this essay, I outline the many Book of Mormon scriptures which detail how Satan becomes the proprietor of our souls if we die in sin.

One further point added by the Book of Mormon is that our lives are a time of a probation. According to the Cambridge dictionary, Probation is “a period of time when a criminal must behave well and not commit any more crimes in order to avoid being sent to prison” (link). This legal language further adds to the concept that there are actual legal proceedings going on in heaven, and a large point to our lives is to ensure that our legal case in heaven will go in our favor after we die.

To finish this essay, here are a few of the supporting scriptures about the heavenly court system.

Scriptural Precedent

We fall under the dominion of Satan when we sin

Alma 34:32-35
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
…34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.
35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.

2 Nephi 2:26-29
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
28 And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit;
29 And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.

Mosiah 16:3–5 & 8-12
3 For they are carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil.
4 Thus all mankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state.
5 But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God.
…8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
10 Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the bar of God, to be judged of him according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil
11 If they be good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation
12 Having gone according to their own carnal wills and desires; having never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them; for the arms of mercy were extended towards them, and they would not; they being warned of their iniquities and yet they would not depart from them; and they were commanded to repent and yet they would not repent.

Alma 40:13
13 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.

Probation

2 Nephi 9:26-27
26 For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel.
27 But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!

Alma 12:24
24 And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.

Alma 42
4 And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.
…10 Therefore, as they had become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature, this probationary state became a state for them to prepare; it became a preparatory state.
…13 Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.
14 And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence.
15 And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.
16 Now, repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should be, affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was as eternal also as the life of the soul.
17 Now, how could a man repent except he should sin? How could he sin if there was no law? How could there be a law save there was a punishment?
18 Now, there was a punishment affixed, and a just law given, which brought remorse of conscience unto man.
19 Now, if there was no law given—if a man murdered he should die—would he be afraid he would die if he should murder?
20 And also, if there was no law given against sin men would not be afraid to sin.
21 And if there was no law given, if men sinned what could justice do, or mercy either, for they would have no claim upon the creature?
22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.
23 But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.
24 For behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved.
25 What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.

2 Nephi 2:21
21 And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents.

Christ as our Advocate

Doctrine and Covenants 45:3–5
3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—
4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;
5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.

Romans 8:34
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Satan as the Accuser

Revelation 12:10
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Zechariah 3:1–5
1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
2 And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.

Job 1:6–12
6 ¶ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.
7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
8 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

God as our Judge

Psalm 7:11
11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

Isaiah 2:4
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

1 Samuel 2:10
10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.