Spiritual Growth

     "Spiritual growth" has to be in the top 5 abused teachings in the church today. It means everything from feeding the poor to getting more people to come to church. Generally though it is related to learning and keeping certain rules or Bible truths. Pray more. Read the Bible more. Go to church more. All great things, and all things that a spiritually mature person does. But doing them does not make you "spiritually" mature.
     In all of these teachings the one thing that is never defined, much less nurtured to grow, is what exactly "spiritual" means. Learning Bible verses and truths is actually academic or mental growth. Observing more and more laws or principles, or practicing rituals is behavioral growth.
     Consider the teachings of early Dispensationalist J.B. Stoney on this matter:
Reformation or Transformation?
     Everyone according to his moral sense, if he is true to his conscience, refuses the evil and seeks the good; and as the conscience becomes enlightened, this is more definitely insisted on. This is the principle of law; obedience was enjoined by the law however contrary to the natural man. Now when grace comes in, the believer rejoices in the assurance of his forgiveness, and, as he knows atonement, his conscience constrains him to live to please God; but this is often taken up on the principle of law, so that self-improvement becomes his great aim, and the law his standard of walk.
     Now it should be plain to anyone who understands the Gospel, that in the fulness of the grace of God, the man who offended against God was judicially terminated in the Cross, and the one who believes in the Second Man is justified. He should know that he is not now in the flesh, in Adam before God but in Christ; and that any attempt which he may make to improve his old man in conduct is in reality a flagrant, though unintentional, denial of the greatness of the grace of God.
     But this is a wile by which many are captured and detained. Almost every believer is more or less caught in this snare, and many, alas! continue in it to the end of their course. Very few learn early in their history what it is to be in Christ, and thus meet to enjoy fellowship with the Father. Until this is known he is necessarily occupied with himself. As a result he sometimes subjects himself to much self-mortification in the effort to repress or improve the tendencies of the flesh, and this goes on until the cry is not, Who will improve me? but "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
     The word "transformation" occurs twice in Scripture with reference to Christians (Rom. 12:2, and 2 Cor. 3:18). Every believer tries to be reformed, but very few apprehend the great moral difference between reformation and transformation. As a rule believers rejoice that they are saved, and aim to be up to the language of Micah 6:8, "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
     There are increasing numbers who have accepted the truth that by the grace of God they have been transferred from Adam to Christ, and that they are clear of the old man in God's sight; yet they have no true understanding of what it is to be "transformed." Reformation is improvement, and refers to what already exists; but transformation means a change of being. This, it is feared, is little known.

from Reformation or Transformation? J.B. Stoney
online source Bob Nyberg - New Tribes Mission

A Word to Christians

I hate CATS

In this post I begin a series on Prayer. I hope to challenge you in your complacency and your misconceptions about this most important part of the Christian life. What you may initially think I mean in the title of this post is probably one of the things you find least "offensive" in the following series, -or, hopefully, not.

The problem with prayer is that people have learned everything they know about it from the wrong places. They have either read a book or heard a message on prayer. While that in itself is not bad, it becomes bad when it is not backed up by Scriptural truth.

Wait, it gets worse. In the worst offenses against "truth in prayer" the Bible itself is used as the starting point for the teaching. "How could that be bad?" you ask. It is bad because while they may start with the Word, instead of going into the truth of the text, they launch out into fantasy. These false teachings are repeated over and over until they eventually become doctrine.

To begin again,
I don't hate cats--the furry little vermin--although my attitude towards them is in fair approximation to their obvious disdain for me.

I hate CATS.
The dreaded teaching that "Prayer is Confession, Adoration, Thanksgiving and Supplication."

It is obvious but not certainly trite to say, words have meanings. Each one of these words have a meaning, their own individual meaning.

Confession is not thanksgiving, adoration is not supplication. Go through all of the permutations and you end up with:
Prayer is NOT Confession, Adoration, Thanksgiving or Supplication.

What is prayer? - Prayer is ASKING.
By mixing in the activities which go along with prayer the most important (from our perspective) fact concerning prayer is obfuscated- the answer to prayer is RECEIVING.

With that understanding clear in our minds we can move on to an effectual prayer life and avoid all of the pseudo-spiritual maneuverings and Oprah book of the month plans and search out the true teaching and meaning of prayer from the source- God's Word.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints Ephesians 6:18

ENLIGHTENMENT

Offered without comment:

© SMBC-comics by Zach Weiner

What if Satan Ruled?

What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer "Yes, sir," "No, ma'am," and the churches would be full on Sunday ... where Christ is not preached.
quoted from Michael Horton,"Christless Christianity: Getting in Christ's Way " in Modern Reformation.

So if the churches are full and the name of Christ can't be mentioned, what could they possibly be teaching?

Let's try to come up with some ideas:

• Your Best Life Now
• Purpose Driven Life
• Possibility Thinking
• 12 Step Recovery

Then there are the spiritual giants:

• Prayer
• Spiritual Formation
• Spiritual Disciplines
• Meditation and Silence
• Chicken Soup for the Soul
• Holistic wellness
  

O.K. I admit, I couldn't really come up with any ideas on how there could possibly be a church without preaching Christ, and Him crucified. So I just looked around at all the popular megachurches today.

And that, my brothers and sisters in Christ, makes me very sad indeed.

maranatha

What is New Age (part 3)

      Phil Johnson has added the final installments of his overview of what New Age means with
Part 3: Typical Beliefs and Practices of New Age Spirituality
Part 4: New Age spirituality is Anti-Christian

      I just wanted to add this link, point out the term holistic, and the mish mash of assorted practices which have been brought into the one collective term New Age.

      It is important to understand how truly ANTI-Christian these practices are, and they have been condemned repeatedly in the Bible from the Old Testament all the way through the New.

previously:

• Part 1: "What's So New About the New Age Movement?
• Part 2: Background of New Age

Christless Christianity?

      "What happens when we take Christ out of Christianity?"
Author Michael Horton, Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, has explored that question in his new book "Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church."



      At his website for the book he gives a 5 minute introduction to its message. You can also download the first chapter for a further glimpse.

      From the website,

"Christians have always had their differences, but never in church history have there been so many statistics indicating that many Christians today are practicing what can only be described as "Christless Christianity."

Christless Christianity guides the reader to a greater understanding of a big problem within the American religious setting, namely the creeping fog of countless sermons in churches across the country that focus on moralistic concerns and personal transformation rather than the theology of the cross.

Michael Horton's analysis of the contemporary church points believers back to the power of a gospel that should never be assumed."

      Check out this especially pertinent warning to the church.

p.s. Do Not miss the link to Horton's article in Modern Reformation linked in the side bar

h/t Phil Johnson