Jude: 12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. (NASB)
Justin Peters:
Session 1 – History of the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement: An Overview
Article by David Powlison
https://www.9marks.org/article/therapeutic-gospel/
What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a “therapeutic gospel.”
In his chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.
The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. “We have corrected Your work,” the inquisitor says to Jesus.
The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.
THE CONTEMPORARY THERAPEUTIC GOSPEL
The most obvious, instinctual felt needs of twenty-first century, middle-class Americans are different from the felt needs that Dostoevsky tapped into. We take food supply and political stability for granted. We find our miracle-substitute in the wonders of technology. Middle-class felt needs are less primal. They express a more luxurious, more refined sense of self-interest:
The modern, middle-class version of therapeutic gospel takes its cues from this particular family of desires. We might say that the target audience consists of psychological felt needs, rather than the physical felt needs that typically arise in difficult social conditions. (The contemporary “health and wealth” gospel and obsession with “miracles” express something more like the Grand Inquisitor’s older version of therapeutic gospel.)
In this new gospel, the great “evils” to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, the problem lies in my sense of rejection from others; in my corrosive experience of life’s vanity; in my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence; in the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off; in my fussy complaints when a long, hard road lies ahead. These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is bent to serve. Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches.
The therapeutic outlook is not a bad thing in its proper place. By definition, a medical-therapeutic gaze holds in view problems of physical suffering and breakdown. In literal medical intervention, a therapy treats an illness, trauma, or deficiency. You don’t call someone to repentance for their colon cancer, broken leg, or beriberi. You seek to heal. So far, so good.
But in today’s therapeutic gospel the medical way of looking at the world is metaphorically extended to these psychological desires. These are defined just like a medical problem. You feel bad; the therapy makes you feel better. The definition of the disease bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the agent of your deepest problems, but merely a sufferer and victim of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word “Jesus,” but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.
THE ONCE-FOR-ALL GOSPEL
The real gospel is good news of the Word made flesh, the sin-bearing Savior, the resurrected Lord of lords: “I am the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:18). This Christ turns the world upside down. The Holy Spirit rewires our sense of felt need as one prime effect of his inworking presence and power. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, we keenly feel a different set of needs when God comes into view and when we understand that we stand or fall in his gaze. My instinctual cravings are replaced (sometimes quickly, always gradually) by the growing awareness of true, life-and-death needs:
Make it so, Father of mercies. Make it so, Redeemer of all that is dark and broken.
Prayer expresses desire. Prayer expresses your felt sense of need. Lord, have mercy upon us. Song expresses gladness and gratitude at desire fulfilled. Song expresses your felt sense of who God is and all that he gives. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. But there are no prayers and songs in the Bible that take their cues from the current therapeutic felt needs. Imagine, “Our Father in heaven, help me feel that I’m okay just the way I am. Protect me this day from having to do anything I find boring. Hallelujah, I’m indispensable, and what I’m doing is really having an impact on others, so I can feel good about my life.” Have mercy upon us! Instead, in our Bible we hear a thousand cries of need and shouts of delight that orient us to our real needs and to our true Savior.
GOOD GOODS, BAD GODS
Properly understood, carefully interpreted, the felt needs make good gifts. But they make poor gods. Get first things first. Seek first the Father’s kingdom and his righteousness, and every other good gift will be added to you.
This is easy to see in the case of the three particular gifts offered by the Grand Inquisitor’s therapeutic gospel. It is a good thing to have a stable source of food, “bread for tomorrow” (Matt. 6:11, literally). All people everywhere seek food, water, and clothing (Matt. 6:32). Our Father knows what we need. But seek first his kingdom. You do not live by bread alone, but by every word out of his mouth. If you worship your physical needs, you will only die. But if you worship God the giver of every good gift, you will be thankful for what he gives; you will still have hope when you suffer lack; and you will surely feast at the endless Banquet.
A sense of wonder and mystery is also a very good thing. But the same caveat, the same framework, applies. God is no wizard of Oz, creating experiences of wonder for the sake of the experience. Jesus said “no” to making a spectacle of himself in the midst of temple crowds. His daily faithfulness to God is a wonder upon wonder. Get first things first. Then you’ll appreciate glory in small ways and large. In the end you will know all things as wonders, both what is (Rev. 4) and what has happened (Rev. 5). You will know the incomprehensible God, creator and redeemer, whose name is Wonderful.
Similarly, political order is a good gift. We are to pray for the authorities to rule well, so that we may live peacefully (1 Tim. 2:2). But if you live for a just society, you will always be disappointed. Again, seek first God’s kingdom. You’ll work toward a just social order, enjoy it to the degree it’s attainable, have reason to endure injustice. In the end, you will know unutterable joy on the day when all persons bow to the reign of the true King.
Of course, God gives good gifts. But he also gives the best gift, the inexpressible Gift of gifts. The Grand Inquisitor burned Jesus at the stake in order to erase the Gift and the Giver. He chose to give people good things, but discarded first things.
The things offered by the contemporary therapeutic gospel are a bit trickier to interpret. The odor of self-interest and self-obsession clings closely to that wish list of “I want_____.” But even these, carefully reframed and reinterpreted, do gesture in the direction of a good gift. The overall package of “felt needs” is systematically misaligned, but the pieces can be properly understood. Any “different gospel” (Gal. 1:6) makes itself plausible by offering Lego-pieces of reality assembled into a structure that contradicts revealed truth. Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was plausible only because it incorporated many elements of reality, continually gesturing in the direction of truth, even while steadily guiding away from the truth: “Look, a beautiful and desirable tree. and God has said that the test will reveal both good and evil, with the possibility of life not death arising from your choice. Just as God is wise, so you the chooser can become like God in wisdom. Come now and eat.” So close, yet so far away. Almost so, but the exact opposite.
Consider the five elements we have identified with the therapeutic gospel:
1. “Need for love”? It is surely a good thing to know that you are both known and loved. God who searches the thoughts and intentions of our hearts also sets his steadfast love upon us. However all this is radically different from the instinctual craving to be accepted for who I am. Christ’s love comes pointedly and personally despite who I am. You are accepted for who Christ is, because of what he did, does, and will do. God truly accepts you, and if God is for you, who can be against you? But in doing this, he does not affirm and endorse what you are like. Rather, he sets about changing you into a fundamentally different kind of person. In the real gospel you feel deeply known and loved, but your relentless “need for love” has been overthrown.
2. “Need for significance”? It is surely a good thing for the works of your hands to be established forever: gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and straw. It is good when what you do with your life truly counts, and when your works follow you into eternity. Vanity, futility, and ultimate insignificance register the curse upon our work life – even midcourse, not just when we retire, or when we die, or on the Day of Judgment. But the real gospel inverts the order of things presupposed by the therapeutic gospel. The craving for impact and significance – one of the typical “youthful lusts” that boil up within us – is merely idolatrous when it acts as Director of Operations in the human heart. God does not meet your need for significance; he meets your need for mercy and deliverance from your obsession with personal significance. When you turn from your enslavement and turn to God, then your works do start to count for good. The gospel of Jesus and the fruit of faith are not tailored to “meet your needs.” He frees from the tyranny of felt needs, remakes you to fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12:13). In the divine irony of grace, that alone makes what you do with your life of lasting value.
3. “Need for self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-assertion”? To gain a confident sense of your identity is a great good. Ephesians is strewn with several dozen “identity statements,” because by this the Spirit motivates a life of courageous faith and love. You are God’s – among the saints, chosen ones, adopted sons, beloved children, citizens, slaves, soldiers; part of the workmanship, wife and dwelling place – every one of these in Christ. No aspect of your identity is self-referential, feeding your “self-esteem.” Your opinion of yourself is far less important than God’s opinion of you, and accurate self-assessment is derivative of God’s assessment. True identity is God-referential. True awareness of yourself connects to high esteem for Christ. Great confidence in Christ correlates to a vote of fundamental no confidence in and about yourself. God nowhere replaces diffidence and people-pleasing by self-assertiveness. In fact, to assert your opinions and desires, as is, marks you as a fool. Only as you are freed from the tyranny of your opinions and desires are you free to assess them accurately, and then to express them appropriately.
4. “Need for pleasure”? In fact, the true gospel promises endlessly joyous experience, drinking from the river of delights (Ps. 36). This describes God’s presence. But as we have seen in each case, this is keyed to the reversal of our instinctive cravings, not to their direct satisfaction. The way of joy is the way of suffering, endurance, small obediences, willingness to identify with human misery, willingness to overthrow your most persuasive desires and instincts. I don’t need to be entertained. But I absolutely NEED to learn to worship with all my heart.
5. “Need for excitement and adventure”? To participate in Christ’s kingdom is to play a part within the Greatest Action-Adventure Story Ever Told. But the paradox of redemption again turns the whole world upside down. The real adventure takes the path of weakness, struggle, endurance, patience, small kindnesses done well. The road to excellence in wisdom is unglamorous. Other people might take better vacations and have a more thrilling marriage than yours. The path of Jesus calls forth more grit than thrill. He needed endurance far more than he needed excitement. His kingdom might not cater to our cravings for derring-do and thrill-seeking, but “solid joys and lasting treasures none but Zion’s children know.”
We say “yes” and “amen” to all good gifts. But get first things first. The contemporary therapeutic gospel in its many forms takes our ‘gimmes’ at face value. It grabs for the goodies. It erases worship of the Giver, whose greatest gift is mercy towards us for what we want by instinct, choice, enculturation, and habit. He calls us to radical repentance. Bob Dylan described the therapeutic’s alternative in a remarkable phrase: “You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires” (from When You Gonna Wake Up?). Second things are exalted as servants of Number One.
Get first things first. Get the gospel of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and glory. Live the gospel of repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son. Proclaim the gospel of the coming Day when eternal life and eternal death are revealed, the coming Day of Christ.
WHICH GOSPEL?
Which gospel will you live? Which gospel will you preach? Which needs will you awaken and address in others? Which Christ will be your people’s Christ? Will it be the christette who massages felt need? Or the Christ who turns the world upside down and makes all things new?
The Grand Inquisitor was very tender-hearted towards human felt need—very sympathetic to the things that all people everywhere seek with all their heart, very sensitive to the difficulty of changing anyone. But he proved to be a monster in the end. There is a saying in mercy ministries that runs like this, “If you don’t seek to meet people’s physical needs, it’s heartless. But if you don’t give people the crucified, risen and returning Christ, it’s hopeless.” Jesus fed hungry people bread, and Jesus offered his broken body as the bread of eternal life. It is ultimately cruel to leave people in their sins, captive to their instinctive desires, in despair, under curse. The current therapeutic gospel sounds tender-hearted at first. It is so sensitive to pressure points of ache and disappointment. But in the end it is cruel and Christ-less. It does not foster true self-knowledge. It does not rewrite the script of the world. It creates no prayers or songs.
We must be no less sensitive but far more discerning. Jesus Christ turns human need upside down, creating prayer. He is the inexpressible Gift of gifts, creating song. And he gives all good gifts, both now and forever. Let every knee bow, and let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
WARNING: SARCASM AHEAD:
I just saw an article written by someone called “Gary” on Bible prophecy entitled “The Divine Message Of The August Eclipse” (original source here, including any links to other articles). I don’t look for these articles, I promise, but somehow they seem to find me. This one came to me by way of a facebook feed.
My responses are in bold type so anyone can follow along. OK here we go…
On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will cross the entire contiguous United States, beginning in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. Incredibly, the eclipse will actually begin as soon as the sun rises on the West Coast (the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west, but eclipses travel in the opposite direction – see here). In other words, people will witness a black sun rising over the United States. It has also been noted that another total solar eclipse will cross the United States at an opposite angle seven years later in 2024.
Ok, I am staying calm, breathing in and out slowly at this point. Not much to say here, except I am not sure the word “incredibly” is entirely appropriate. Eclipses happen!
Note: Before you continue reading, please realize that this is not an end of the world prediction.
Praise the Lord for that!
We actually believe the world will never end.
Huh? I thought the prophetic promise for this world is pretty bleak, if I am reading 2 Peter 3:10 correctly… but ok. As I say, I am trying to stay calm.
We believe that God may be communicating a message through this eclipse about the general nearness of Christ’s return.
Ok, I am all ears.. carry on.
The amount of prophetic meaning behind these eclipses is simply overwhelming and I dare not attempt to interpret it all. I’ll simply share with you a few of the discoveries I and others have made and you can interpret it for yourself:
How is it that I have the feeling I am about to be underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed?
1. The August eclipse occurs exactly 33 days before the Revelation 12 Sign, beginning in the 33rd state (Oregon), and ending in South Carolina at the 33rd parallel. I’ve personally verified each of these details (see here, here, and here). Can you really chalk up the significance of this to pure coincidence or confirmation bias?
Actually, in that there is nothing in Scripture that speaks about the 33rd state and 33rd parallel… yes, I can chalk this up to coincidence.
It’s been noted that an eclipse like this hasn’t happened in 99 years.
Errr… so what?
That would be 3 x 33 years.
Really?
You know, you are right about that.
What might God be communicating?
Errr… “nothing whatsoever”, is my guess.
One of our readers noticed Ezekiel 33:
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’”
I’ve noticed Ezekiel 33 too and I also notice it has nothing to do with the 33rd state and 33rd parallel, and… chapter numbers and verses are not inspired and part of the original text anyway. They were added many centuries later, actually, millennia later.
2. The eclipse is also exactly 40 days from Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). “40” represents a period of testing in the Bible as can been seen in the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness and the 40 days Jesus was tested in the wilderness. This 40 day period leading up to Yom Kippur is more than random.
How so?
In fact, this period of time beginning on August 21st is called the Season of Teshuvah, which in the Jewish faith is a time to get right with God before judgment falls on the Day of Atonement. In other words, repent before time is up.
There is nothing wrong with calling people to repentance. Acts 17:30, 31 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” That’s the Biblical reason why all need to repent and that is more than enough reason to do so. Lets just stick with the Bible shall we, rather than trying to find extra reasons for repentance, not found in the Biblical text?
3. While eclipses are not that uncommon, total solar eclipses only occur about every year and a half and often occur over the ocean rather than land. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking this eclipse is nothing out of the ordinary.
It may be somewhat unusual, but other than that, not much to it, in my opinion… and I am still waiting for a biblical text to be cited that shows that any of this is significant.
Day will be turned to night all across the middle United States. It’s been 99 years since a total solar eclipse crossed the entire United States and having another total solar eclipse cross the entire United States again, forming an ‘X’, just a few years later is perhaps unprecedented.
…and what happened 99 years ago when this happened? We are not told.
4. It’s been noted that the United States is the wealthiest, most powerful, and most influential Gentile nation. It is also the world’s ethnic melting pot and hosts a proto-world government in the form of the United Nations. Lunar eclipses (blood moons) are omens for Israel whereas solar eclipses are omens for the Gentiles.
What is your Biblical basis for this assertion?
The 7 year Tribulation is also known as the Day of the LORD when God enters into judgment with the Gentile nations. The fact that two total solar eclipses, spaced seven years apart, cross the entirety of the contiguous United States, and form an ‘x’ over the chief Gentile nation on earth should give you pause.
ok, I paused.
May I carry on now?
5. The Tribulation (also called Daniel’s 70th Week or The Time of Jacob’s Trouble) is understood to be a worldwide version of the Exodus from Egypt. The plagues and Exodus were a sort of microcosm of the future Day of the LORD. The ruthless Pharaoh was a type of the antichrist, the plagues were a type of the coming worldwide trumpet and vial judgments, the Exodus was a type of both the rapture and the future Israelite remnant that will escape into the wilderness, and so forth. Even some of the minute details were types and shadows. Moses was a type of the future “male child” (Christ and the Church) that was and will be delivered from harm’s way. He escaped the tribulation that his people endured when he was placed in a basket and ended up as a prince in palaces of splendor. Yet his people continued to endure tribulation and suffering until he later returned to deliver them from Egypt. Even some of the specific plagues in Egypt will be replicated on a worldwide scale during the Tribulation. As a matter of fact, there is a direct parallel in the book of Revelation to seven of the ten plagues in Egypt (see here). You could say the Tribulation is almost a “do-over” of the Exodus because the Israelites were not faithful to the end in the first instance, but at the end of the Tribulation will be faithful, saved, and delivered.
Talk of “The Tribulation” opens up a fairly large can of worms. Many miss the significance of various prophecies already fulfilled in the first century, particularly around AD70 in Jerusalem… but to go into detail on this would require a great amount of writing… maybe an entire book. Anyway, hopefully we can continue..
With this in mind, consider that the ‘x’ that will be formed over the United States rests right over a region in southern Illinois called “Little Egypt”.
Wow!
Actually, I take that back! I am not particularly ‘wowed’ to be honest.
Even more – the exact point where the two paths cross is in the town of Makanda, which used to be called the “Star of Egypt”.
and again, Scripture says what about this? Errrr… zero… am I right?
6. The eclipse occurs in conjunction with Regulus, the “King Star”. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo and Leo is one of the two constellations involved in the Revelation 12 Sign. The fact that this eclipse occurs in Leo, which will be part of the Great Sign the month after, is astonishing. It’s like God’s trying to fix our attention on the King and on the following month’s Great Sign.
Not feeling great astonishment here, sorry!
Also, a reader noticed that the eclipse crosses exactly 12 states and I verified the count to make sure. An eclipse across 12 states just one month before the Revelation 12 Sign that features a woman with a crown of 12 stars.
Again, sorry.. but what does the Bible say about an eclipse across 12 states a month before the Revelation 12 sign (which again is another issue altogether as to what exactly that means)? Errr.. is it the big round digit once again? Yeah, thought so!
7. The first major city that will witness the eclipse is Oregon’s state capital, Salem. Salem is of course the shortened version of “Jerusalem”, which is the most prophetically significant city in the entire Bible.
Admittedly, the Bible has a lot to say about Jerusalem. But nothing to say about Salem, Oregon. Sorry!
Jerusalem was originally called “Salem” in the days of Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18) who was a foreshadowing of Christ or possibly even a Christophany.
You are right!
If that isn’t interesting enough, the closest road to the exact point where the two eclipses cross is Salem Road in Makanda, Illinois. What are the chances of that?
You got me there… not too great… but again, what Biblical text tells us to look for this sign of two eclipses crossing on Salem Road in Makanda, Illinois? Didn’t see those names in my Bible concordance.
8. After crossing Salem, Oregon, the path of totality then crosses Madras, which means “Mother of God” (reminiscent of the Revelation 12 Woman). Then it crosses the city of John Day, which of course reminds us of the Apostle John who recorded the Book of Revelation and described to us the Day of the LORD.
Ok… you’ve lost me now… My name is John and I think I am going to call it a day!
After that it crosses Weiser, Idaho, which is German for “wise man”.
I don’t feel any wiser after reading this.
The wise men from the east were those who were watching the signs in the heavens when Jesus Christ was born. They followed His star and found the exact place where He was born.
Yes, that is true.
Likewise we see another sign in the heavens pointing to the nearness of Jesus’ return.
No, actually we don’t.
The path then points us to John again as it passes over Grandjean, which is French for “Big” or “Tall” John.
Big Bad John! Wasn’t that an old western song from the 60’s? let me look it up?
Yes!!! Yes!!! here it is:
It then crosses Stanley, which means “stone clearing” (see Psalm 118:22, 1 Peter 2:4-7) and Mackay, which means “Son of fire” (see 1 John 4:15, Revelation 1:14, 19:12, Daniel 10:6).
Then it goes through Rexburg (“City of the King”) and Victor (Matthew 12:20, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, 1 John 5:4) and then again points us to the Apostle John as it goes through Jackson (“Son of John”). The amazing message continues as it goes right through Casper, Wyoming. “Casper” is a Chaldean name and is the traditional name assigned to the wise men/magi (see here).
The eclipse then moves through Alliance, Nebraska. An alliance is a union of multiple parties. The Church is soon to be brought into an eternal alliance with Christ when the Body is joined to the Head. Likewise, down on earth a satanic alliance will soon be forming in the form of ten horns (Revelation 17:12) and a “covenant with many” (Daniel 9:27).
Next up is Ravenna, which means “raven” and points us to the days of Noah. Noah sent forth a raven from the Ark before he sent a dove (Genesis 8:7). Also, Ravenna, Italy was where Julius Caesar gathered his forces before crossing the Rubicon. The term “crossing the Rubicon” is an idiom for saying “the die has been cast” or “past the point of no return”. In other words, there’s no turning back.
The meaning goes on and on and that’s just a small sampling.
Thank the Lord for that!!!
What have you discovered?
Nothing at all!
Maranatha! 
Amen… Come quickly Lord Jesus.
Fond regards,
Big Bad John!
Article: The Heresy of Perfectionism by R C Sproul (original source here)
An ancient heresy of the distinction between two types of Christians, carnal and Spirit-filled, is the heresy of perfectionism. Perfectionism teaches that there is a class of Christians who achieve moral perfection in this life. To be sure, credit is given to the Holy Spirit as the agent who brings total victory over sin to the Christian. But there is a kind of elitism in perfectionism, a feeling that those who have achieved perfection are somehow greater than other Christians. The “perfect” ones do not officially—take credit for their state, but smugness and pride have a way of creeping in.
The peril of perfectionism is that it seriously distorts the human mind. Imagine the contortions through which we must put ourselves to delude us into thinking that we have in fact achieved a state of sinlessness.
Inevitably the error of perfectionism breeds one, or usually two, deadly delusions. To convince ourselves that we have achieved sinlessness, we must either suffer from a radical overestimation of our moral performance or we must seriously underestimate the requirements of God’s law. The irony of perfectionism is this: Though it seeks to distance itself from antinomianism, it relentlessly and inevitably comes full circle to the same error.
To believe that we are sinless we must annul the standards of God’s Law. We must reduce the level of divine righteousness to the level of our own performance. We must lie to ourselves both about the Law of God and about our own obedience. To do that requires that we quench the Spirit when He seeks to convict us of sin. Persons who do that are not so much Spirit-filled as they are Spirit-quenchers.
One of the true marks of our ongoing sanctification is the growing awareness of how far short we fall of reaching perfection. Perfectionism is really antiperfectionism in disguise. If we think we are becoming perfect, then we are far from becoming perfect.
I once encountered a young man who had been a Christian for about a year. He boldly declared to me that he had received the “second blessing” and was now enjoying a life of victory, a life of sinless perfection. I immediately turned his attention to Paul’s teaching on Romans 7. Romans 7 is the biblical death blow to every doctrine of perfectionism. My young friend quickly replied with the classic agreement of the perfectionist heresy, namely, that in Romans 7 Paul is describing his former unconverted state. Continue reading
By Pastor Dan Phillips (original source cook, working as an investigator, hosting a talk show, IT education and support, and teaching in various institutions. He is a pastor, an author, and an international conference speaker. He has written two books: The World-Tilting Gospel (Kregel: 2011), and God’s Wisdom in Proverbs (Kress Biblical Resources: 2011). He was also one of the three contributors to the popular and influential blog, Pyromaniacs. He pastors Copperfield Bible Church in Houston, Texas, where he lives with his dear wife Valerie and two of their four children.)
Every Christian is called to contend earnestly for the faith delivered to the saints 2000 years ago (Jude 3) in Scripture alone (2 Timothy 3:15—4:4; Hebrews 2:1-4). There are various legitimate ways of doing this. Paul’s approach with the Colossian error is particularly instructive.
The Colossians had a sound beginning, learning the saving good news of Christ from Paul’s associate Epaphras (Col. 1:7). They had made a healthy start (Col. 1:4-6, 8).
But now a personable, dynamic individual had come with a strange mix-and-match set of doctrines. Like modern charismatics, he made much of his own experiences (2:18). He posed a real danger to these young believers (2:4, 8).
Paul’s way of responding is striking. He doesn’t name the man, or go into detail about his teachings. Instead, what Paul does is make a great deal about Christ and His salvation. He shows what a glorious Lord Jesus is, and what a great salvation Christ has accomplished (see all my online studies, starting here).
As promised last time, I want to do this same sort of thing in marking off genuine Christianity from false teachings. Get a hold of these points of distinction, and you’ll be prepared to resist error – or be delivered from the error that enslaves you.
1. Sound doctrine spotlights the person and work of Jesus Christ
This is a matter of emphasis. Christ saw all parts of the Old Testament as pointing to Him (Luke 24:27, 44) and said that the ministry of the Spirit would be to continue to glorify Him (John 16:14). Understood correctly, then, everything in the whole Bible tends to the glory of Jesus Christ, and to prompt us to center our lives around Him (Col. 2:6, 7, 10). False teaching always ends up focusing our attention elsewhere and has us chasing in a different direction.
2. Sound doctrine is based on the saving work of Christ, conveyed to us in the Gospel
It glories in every aspect of Christ’s work redeeming helpless, lost sinners (Romans 3—5; Ephesians 1—3; and on and on). Everything – whether issues of personal ethics, marriage, family, church life –is directly related to who Jesus is to us, and what Jesus has done for us (cf. Eph. 4:1—6:9). False teaching has little time for such matters, being obsessed instead with the esoteric, private experiences that only the false teacher and his movement has had or can provide.
3. Sound doctrine is really, really old
Age alone is no guarantee of truth. The germs of every heresy ever hatched were already prowling around in New Testament times. That said, two truths guide us: (1) our doctrine must be clearly taught in the Bible; and (2) someone must surely have seen something about it before today! The Bible contains every word we need from God. Believers have studied it closely for centuries. Is it possible that someone could catch something major that tradition blinded others to? Yes. But possible is not a synonym for likely! It is unlikely that an isolated, accountability-averse autodidact with his KJV will see what all his betters missed, despite their years of delving deep in the Hebrew and Greek texts. Spurgeon said a number of times, “There is nothing new in theology but that which is false.” The more I learn the Bible and history, the more I see this truth: every claim to a “new move of God” is probably neither new, nor of God. God said His last word to us long, long ago (Hebrews 1:1-2; 2:1-4). Continue reading
Text: Matthew 24:1-15
Deceived people, deceive people: Jesus made it clear that a key feature of the end times would be pervasive deception on a scale that if possible, would deceive even the elect. Thankfully, God has shown us how we can protect ourselves from this deception while remaining constantly vigilant as we pursue His truth.
On Saturday, March 28, I traveled to Globe, Arizona to attend the 2015 Bible Conference at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. The theme was the truth about the Word of Faith Movement / Pentecostalism / Prophecy / Tongues, and Healing on demand. The Guest speakers were Phil Johnson and Justin Peters. It was a rich time together in the word of God and a real privilege to meet host Pastor John Skaggs and the kind people of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. The teaching sessions were excellent. I recommend them highly:
Session 1: Phil Johnson: Why I am a Cessationist
Session 2: Phil Johnson: Beware the Greed Mongers: An expose of the Prosperity Doctrine
Session 3: Justin Peters: Clouds Without Water (1)
Session 4: Justin Peters: Clouds Without Water (2)
Session 5: Justin Peters: Clouds Without Water (3)
Session 6: Justin Peters: Clouds Without Water (4)