Vaxxers, Anti-Vaxxers, and the Health of the Body

The way Michelle answers this question is a fantastic way for us to determine how we should respond to any debate or problem with another person we're having!


by Michelle Lesley

Q: I was wondering if you could help me work through this issue: some people at my church did not vaccinate their children. While I do see that people have very strong opinions about this issue, it creates a hazardous situation for some of the members. For example, a young expecting mom can not come and worship because she could contract measles from an unvaccinated child and put her unborn baby at risk. (Not a hypothetical, these are the doctor’s orders. She should not be around unvaccinated children.) The same goes for newborn babies and their families. I am wondering if I should speak to the pastor about this issue, since I believe that the anti-vaxxers act unlovingly towards those who cannot come and attend church until their children are vaccinated. However, I fear that it would cause division and divert the focus from Christ to political or medical issues.

A: To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate? It’s a tough issue to discuss these days. I have a strongly held position on vaccinations. I’m not going to share it because as you’ve aptly pointed out, that would do nothing but cause division and divert the focus of this article and my ministry from Christ and His Word to a far less important issue. I will say, though, that, my personal position on vaccinations aside, I miss the “good old days” – like 30 years ago – when this wasn’t an issue that had Christian women practically scratching each other’s eyes out. We really should be ashamed of that regardless of which side of the issue we’re on. As sisters in Christ, we can, and should, do better.

I’m not a medical professional, so if you clicked on this article looking for me to say, “Vaxxers/Anti-Vaxxers are right because…science,” I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed. (You’ll also be disappointed if you came here to argue your position in the comments section. I won’t be posting argumentative or inflammatory comments from either side.) My priority is to address the biblical side of how individual Christians and our churches should approach this issue.

Being godly and obedient to Scripture is exponentially more important than your stance on vaccinations.

So let’s take a look at some biblical principles involved in the vaccination issue:

Is your stance on vaccinations an idol?

How strongly do you feel about vaccinating compared to how strongly you feel about evangelizing the lost? How much time do you spend talking about vaccinating compared to how much time you spend discussing Scripture with others? How much reading have you done about vaccinating compared to how much you read your Bible? Has your stance on vaccinations ever caused you to sin in thought, word, or deed?

Making decisions about your child’s health is, of course, important. But it is not anywhere near as important as the things of God, and it is certainly not more important than the things of God. Prayerfully reflect on the portion of your heart, soul, mind, and strength you invest in the vaccination issue. If it’s more heart, soul, mind, and strength than you invest in studying your Bible, prayer, evangelism, or attending and serving your church, then the vaccination issue has become an idol for you. Repent.

You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30

Do you trust God’s sovereignty?

God is sovereign over life and death, sickness and health. The reason you are alive and reading this article is that it is not God’s will for you to be dead right this minute. If it were, you would be.

Think of all the stories you’ve heard of people who were practically religious about wellness, healthy eating, and exercise who dropped dead out of the blue in their 30’s or 40’s. Now think about the people who have lived into their hundreds. When the newspaper interviews them and asks about the secret to longevity, the centenarian inevitably responds with something about eating eggs and bacon and drinking a few beers every day. You can do everything “right” and still die young, and you can do everything “wrong” and live longer than most people. Even if the pregnant woman isn’t exposed to measles at church, she could be exposed at work, the store, the park, the post office, a restaurant, even her own husband or her other children could bring it home. And even if she is exposed, it’s not a foregone conclusion that her unborn child will be harmed. God is the one who decides all of that, not our own actions.

Should we be good stewards of our health and our bodies? Of course. Christians are to be good stewards of everything God gives us. But beyond being a good steward and making decisions as wisely as possible, the life and health of your child is in God’s hands, right where it belongs. If it is within God’s plan for your child to be healthy, your child will be healthy. If it is within God’s plan for your child to have an illness or disability, your child will have an illness or disability. And there’s nothing you can do about that except praise God in whatever situation He sends your way.

And let’s consider why we’re being good stewards and making wise decisions. Sometimes, without our even realizing it, fear of what might happen causes us to think that if we can get all our ducks in a row just right, we can ward off anything bad happening. It’s kind of a superstitious or even a prosperity gospel (“If I just do all the right things to appease God, He’ll protect me from what I fear.”) way of thinking.

Superstitious worry and fear are not to be our motive for stewardship and wise decision-making. Our motive should be honoring and obeying God in every aspect of our lives and then trusting the outcome to Him. There are health concerns with vaccinating and there are health concerns with not vaccinating. Whichever choice you make, you must trust God with the outcome of your child’s health, rather than trusting in your decision, the experts, studies, statistics, etc.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of Lord.” Job 1:21

What’s love got to do with it?

A major problem in the church today is that everybody thinks she gets to define what Christian love is. And most of the time that individualized definition is selfish or worldly or both. If Sister A says something or does something Sister B doesn’t like, Sister B accuses Sister A of being unloving.

No way. We don’t get to mishandle God’s Word and use it as a weapon or tool of manipulation against our brothers and sisters. That is wrong. If we’re going to accuse someone of being unloving, we’d certainly better make sure we’re using the Bible’s definition of love, not the world’s and not our own. And the Bible nearly always addresses the issue of Christian love not from the perspective of, “Is my sister in Christ being loving to me?” but “Am I being as loving to my sister as Christ is to me?” John 15:12-14 is Jesus’ example to us of this: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Jesus’ instruction to the disciples is to give love, not to concern themselves with whether or not they’re receiving enough love from the other eleven.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Who is about to lay down His life here? Jesus. And who are His friends? The disciples. Jesus is teaching them to focus on laying their lives down for others, not to expect others to lay down their lives for them.

The fact of the matter is that we’ve got to demonstrate selfless love to others even when they’re not demonstrating that kind of love to us.

By not vaccinating, are anti-vaxxers being unloving to fellow church members who can’t be around unvaccinated children? Are vaxxers being unloving toward anti-vax church members by accusing them of being unloving for not vaccinating their children? We need to be very careful here. The Bible does not address vaccinations, which means it’s not a sin to vaccinate and it’s not a sin not to vaccinate. That puts vaccinations in the category of adiaphora, or Christian liberty, to work out our own salvation and follow our own, biblically informed, consciences. It is a sin to violate your own conscience. So, if a sister in Christ has prayerfully searched the Scriptures and made a decision about vaccinations that is in keeping with her conscience, and you are insisting she do something that violates her conscience (or you’re saying she’s unloving for refusing to violate her conscience), who is the one who’s really being unloving here?

Which is greater, our love for our position on vaccinations or our love for brothers and sisters in Christ who hold the opposite position?

…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, Philippians 2:12b-15

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:21

Are you dying to self?

The Christian life is a continuous act of crucifixion of the flesh and denial of self. There is no point in our journey with Christ at which we can sit down, cross our arms and say, “I’ve been serving others non-stop. Now it’s time for somebody to serve me.”. (I’m embarrassed at how many times I’ve had this attitude myself.)

How does that work itself out in the context of this reader’s question? The pregnant woman does everything she can to love and serve her anti-vaxx brothers and sisters while protecting her unborn child. She looks for a workaround in which she bears the burden of making sacrifices, not the anti-vaxxers. At the same time, the anti-vax church members do everything they can to love and serve the pregnant woman while maintaining what they believe is the wisest decision for their children’s health. They look for a workaround in which they bear the burden of making sacrifices, not the pregnant woman. (Every decision we make comes with responsibilities. Christian anti-vaxxers, part of your responsibility when you choose not to vaccinate is not only to protect your child, but also to protect, as far as you’re reasonably able, anyone your child might infect.)

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:12-13

Are you thinking outside the box?

Outside the world of math, there is rarely only one solution to a problem. (And even inside the world of math there are some problems which have several possible solutions!) It’s probably not the case that the only choices in this situation are that either the anti-vaxxers keep their children at home (or vaccinate them) or the pregnant woman has to stay home. Your idea of going to your pastor is spot on. Just make sure you’re going to him with the attitude of, “Could we meet together as a church body and brainstorm a workable solution to this issue? I’m willing to make sacrifices,” rather than, “Please tell those anti-vaxxers how wrong they are and make them vaccinate their children or stay home.” (Not saying you would have that latter attitude, just making a comparison.)

Is your sanctuary large enough that if the pregnant woman sat on the far end of one side and the unvaccinated children sat on the far end of the other side that they would be far enough apart to keep her from exposure to the measles? (She would need to discuss this with her doctor.) Does your church have more than one worship service (two a.m. services or an a.m. and a p.m.)? An agreement could be reached in which the pregnant woman comes to one service and the unvaccinated children come to the other service. Does your church have a baby cry room/nursing room (a room fussy children can be taken to so they don’t disrupt the service and/or in which moms can nurse babies, that has the sermon “piped in” via video or speaker)? Could something be worked out where the pregnant woman and the unvaccinated children take turns “attending” the worship service in this room each week? If your church doesn’t have a room like this, could one be rigged up? If no other solution can be worked out, and it actually does boil down to someone having to stay home from church, could the pregnant woman and the unvaccinated children take turns staying home from church?

These are just some possible solutions off the top of my head. If the vaxxers and the anti-vaxxers will all come together in an attitude of self-sacrificial love (and, what an incredible opportunity for a pastor to lead his people through putting this into practice) and the desire to serve one another, surely something can be worked out. (And let’s keep in mind, this is only a temporary situation until the baby is born and is old enough to be vaccinated himself. It’s not going to last forever.)

In the body of Christ, no issue is an “us vs. them” issue. It’s always a “we’re all in this together” issue.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6

Posted with permission:

michellelesley.com/2019/04/22/the-mailbag-vaxxers-and-anti-vaxxers-and-the-health-of-the-body/

False Spiritual Warfare Teachings: How the Church Becomes Pagan

False Spiritual Warfare Teachings: How the Church Becomes Pagan 

by Bob DeWaay

A pagan is anyone who lacks special revelation from God. And had God not spoken in the manner described in Hebrews 1:1, 2, everyone in the world would be a pagan. This is to say that each of us would have to guess about the nature of the spiritual world we live in and develop techniques in order to contact or manipulate our world. We would wonder how we could manipulate the "gods" to better our situation. We would create a class of shamans with special abilities to contact and manipulate the spirits. That is what every pagan culture looks like.

Sadly, that is what the church looks like when teachers of the warfare worldview proceed as though they were pagans with no special revelation (i.e., Scripture) to guide them. They are trafficking in forbidden information—and that is pagan (we will show how later). Since the pagan temptation is all around us, we must be discerning about its many inroads into the church. We have discussed many of these in past CIC issues: In this issue we will explore spiritual warfare teachings and show the alarming manner in which they introduce Christians to a pagan worldview.

The Bible is our "firewall" against paganism. When we believe and practice scripture alone, we are sure to develop a Christian worldview—if we interpret the Bible according to the meaning of its Spirit-inspired authors. Scripture "alone" implies that using extra-Biblical sources for spiritual information is forbidden. It also implies that God has revealed everything we need to know and that it is sinful to think or act otherwise. God has limited our access to spiritual information for our own good. He wants us to think like true Christians; not like pagans.

The Warfare Worldview

 

Dr. Greg Boyd describes the warfare worldview as that being held by pagans, but simultaneously claims it to be the view the Biblical authors held. I find his perspective amazing. He discusses the view of a particular pagan society: "The Shuar Indians of eastern Ecuador believe that there are two levels of reality: the ‘ordinary' physical world, which we experience with our senses, and the ‘real' one, which is experienced occasionally, and mostly in dreams or in shamanic journeys."¹ In this view the "real" world is the world of the spirits which is not that accessible. But it is considered the cause of things in the "unreal" physical world. Boyd explains, "This invisible society of spirits is behind everything that occurs in the physical world—though one has to see past ‘the lie' to discern this society." ²

Pagan societies, whatever their terminology, create a class of shamans, as mentioned above. Boyd explains how that works for the Shuar:

The primary business of shamans (medicine men) within the Shuar culture, as in many other primitive cultures, is to engage in warfare with these spirits on behalf of the members of his tribe. There is no "natural" evil here; there are only victims of supernatural evil. The shaman's business, therefore, is to enter into the "real" nonordinary world and fight against such supernatural attacks.³

Spiritual warfare is the business of shamans. Boyd accurately describes the pagan "warfare worldview."

What shocks me is that he claims it is the Biblical worldview. Boyd writes, "This central thesis of this work is that this warfare worldview is in one form or another the basic worldview of biblical authors, both in the Old Testament and even more so in the New."⁴ He offers this definition: "Stated most broadly, this worldview is that perspective on reality which centers on the conviction that the good and evil, fortunate or unfortunate, aspects of life are to be interpreted largely as the result of good and evil, friendly or hostile, spirits warring against each other and against us."⁵ This means that our welfare is in the hands of wicked spirits and if we cannot come up with a means of dealing with those spirits we shall become victims. 

My disagreement with Boyd is not about the existence of spirits, principalities or powers, nor of Satan or of other spirit beings—or even that the Bible does portray a world influenced by such beings. My disagreement has to do with his conclusion that God is not fully in charge of His own universe. Boyd wishes to absolve God from any possible association with evil by limiting His providential rule of the universe.

The providential view claims that though God allows evil, He nevertheless remains fully in control of His own universe and brings history forward according to His good purposes. Those of us who believe it take passages like this to be literal: "also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11). There are many other passages that assert that God providentially rules His own universe. The Bible says that He draws the boundaries of the nations (Acts 17:26), ordains the human authorities (Romans 13:1), determines what Satan is allowed to do (Job 1:7-12), that through Christ he created the "ages" (Hebrews 1:2) and "upholds all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3). The Psalmist wrote: "Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands. They stand this day according to Your ordinances, For all things are Your servants." (Psalm 119:90, 91).⁶

The warfare worldview is Boyd's way of rejecting the providential worldview that I claim to be Biblical. He labels the view I defend the "providential blueprint worldview."⁷ I cite Boyd because his is the most scholarly articulation of the warfare worldview—and he admits it is pagan. But other spiritual warfare teachers take this even further by seeking information and technology from the world of the spirits ostensibly to use for the purpose of warfare.

Victims of a Spiritual Legal System

 

The problem for those who adapt the pagan, warfare worldview is that they are dealing with an unseen world and they are doing it using an illegal tool chest. The spirits have been doing their wicked dealings in that realm for many millennia and they know their way around it. Pagans fear these beings because they know that the spirits exist, and they know spirits can bring much harm. That is why pagans develop a class of shamans whose job it is to understand the unseen world. Shamans claim pragmatic results. But how do they know that the shamans themselves are not being used by spirits? Pagans believe that good and bad spirits exist, and that the good ones can be used to their benefit—a "benefit" determined on the basis of a pragmatic outcome.

For example, Jose Silva taught people how to contact spirit guides by using his Silva Mind Control program. When Christians asked how he knew these spirits are "good" ones, he answered "They solve problems."⁸ (Of course he never considered that the spirits might solve temporal problems to keep people listening to them and not the gospel.) Deception is the spirits stock in trade. The shamans are as deceived by them as their clients are. And both are on a path to hell.

Nevertheless, those who adopt the warfare worldview are convinced they must find a means to do battle in the spirit world. Christians who claim such abilities assert that learning the "legal system" or "rules of engagement" of the spirit world is the key to having success in that realm. Since God is not sovereignly in charge of His own universe in that worldview, they instead suppose that God has set up a legal system that the spirits have to follow. Humans who learn the secrets of that legal system (they reason) have some hope of using it to control the spirits.

Famous exorcist Bob Larson explains, "Curses are exacting, legal arrangements of the spirit world. Just like human contracts contain fine print and carefully crafted language, satanic curses are often filled with minutia that required detailed voiding."⁹ Do we know the details of this "legal" system? No! God has not taught us the details of such a system. This is how the warfare worldview takes us away from sola scriptura into the pagan world of the shamans. A special class of people is created (in this case deliverance counselors) who perform for the church what the shaman does for the pagans. Think of the burden these people have: if they miss something in the "fine print," this error could derail the process. Bob Larson admits, "In some cases, I've discovered that leaving out one phrase or one word can make all the difference. Satan will exploit the smallest thing to keep the curse in effect." ¹⁰ Fine print is problematic in legal documents in the real world, but how hopeless is it in a world that we cannot even see and in which there is no documentation?

C. Peter Wagner agrees with the idea of legalities in the spirit world:

One of the more curious aspects of my pilgrimage into the field of spiritual warfare during the past few years has been the discovery that those who had been talking about it did not agree among themselves about the nature of strongholds. They agreed that strongholds provide the forces of darkness as a legal basis for doing their evil deeds both in individual people on the ground level and in cities or nations on the strategic level. Almost all of them, however, had their own opinions about the nature or identity of these strongholds.¹¹

Of course they cannot agree because they cannot know! They are dealing in the realm of spiritual information that God has not revealed. Unless God speaks, we are left to guess at the causes, effects and workings of the spiritual world. This "disagreement" by those lacking special revelation is the basis for the arguments, such as what occurred between Job and his friends as they vainly sought for answers. Until God spoke, each had to guess as to the cause and nature of his afflictions—and they guessed wrong. These things are in the realm of "secret things" that belong only to God (Deuteronomy 29:29 which we will turn to later). To try to understand unrevealed, spiritual, legal systems is to put us back into the realm of the pagans who have been doing the same for millennia. The "Christian" curse breaker is hardly different than the pagan one.

Watchman Nee, an early innovator in this "Christian paganism," also asserted an unrevealed, spiritual legal system that if not discovered, will give evil spirits access to Christians:

For each and every thing God has created there is a law. . . . Hence evil spirits also operate according to definite laws, one of which is that certain causes will produce certain effects. Now should anyone fulfill the conditions for the working of evil spirits (whether he fulfills them willingly, such as the witch, the medium or the sorcerer—or unwillingly, such as the Christian), then he has definitely given ground to them to work on him.¹²

One thing these teachers have in common is that they deny that Christians have escaped from the wicked powers of the universe.¹³ The means of escape that they propose are knowledge and techniques that the Bible does not reveal.

These teachers often select phrases in the Bible and extrapolate them to create a system whose inner workings must be discovered through some extrabiblical means. For example, Nee uses the term "place" from Ephesians 4:27 to prove the existence of this legal system and the need to learn it.¹⁴ Nee says, "It pays no heed to whether one is a Christian or not; once the conditions are met, the evil spirits do not fail to act."¹⁵ One of these conditions that Nee has in mind is "passivity of the will."¹⁶ According to this thinking, any person who lacks strong willpower will become a prey of evil spirits. Any known or unknown sin of activity or omission also turns the spirits loose on the Christian.¹⁷ It is hard to imagine that any Christian who believes this teaching could think himself to be free from curses and spirits. 

While Nee is concerned with personal sin and spirits, Wagner is interested in territorial spirits that afflict large groups of people:

One of the reasons evil spirits succeed in returning is that strongholds on which they had based their legal rights to control that area and its people have not been thoroughly removed. We know a great deal more about this than we did previously, largely through our understanding that a crucial part of much strategic-level spiritual warfare should be through identificational repentance. Through accurate and sensitive spiritual mapping we can identify strongholds rooted in unremitted sins of past generations and we now understand the ways and means of dealing with those sins of the past in our own generation.¹⁸

Notice that Wagner claims spirits have "legal rights" conferred upon them by human actions in past generations. This is in keeping with the warfare worldview asserting that people are in bad situations because demons and other spirit beings have gained legal access to them by the actions of humans—some of whom no longer are alive—in a hidden cause/effect. But notice also that we consistently end up with the need for secret information. How else can we do "spiritual mapping." The Bible provides no such map and doesn't describe how to build a system of spiritual guidance.
For instance, a demon commended Bob Larson for his knowledge of the secret rules of the spirit world.

Demon: "Who taught you the rules?"
Larson: "What do you mean by that?"
Demon: "The spiritual rules that determine what we can and can't do. Someone from our side must have taught you."¹⁹

This underscores a major problem with the warfare worldview. The hidden "rules of engagement" for spiritual battles are seen as the key to victory; even if this were true the evil spirits live in this reality and we have to fish around with various means, guessing to gain even a partial, possibly wrong knowledge of them. In fact, we are forced to become like pagans and create a class of shamans who are better than most at gaining secret information. The church becomes dependent on unrevealed, forbidden, spiritual knowledge and the class of people that reveals it. Once that happens, the church has been paganized.

Gaining Secret, Spiritual Information

 

I find it truly shocking that highly educated Christians fail to see the implications of their own teachings. For example, C. Peter Wagner devotes an entire chapter (the second) of his book to allege that extrabiblical spiritual knowledge is available and valid. He uses the same tactic that others have used, claiming that the "logos" word is the Bible and "rhema" words are direct sources of spiritual revelation.²⁰ Having opened the door to extrabiblical knowledge of the spirit world, he follows it to amazing places:

In it [chapter 2] I suggest that it may be possible to receive selected, but valid, information from the world of darkness itself. I am careful to stress strongly that discernment is needed while attempting to do this because evil spirits are by nature deceivers and they must be treated as hostile witnesses. Nevertheless, certain people such as shamans, witch doctors, practitioners of Eastern religions, New Age gurus or professors of the occult on university faculties are examples of the kind of people who may have much more extensive knowledge of the spirit world than most Christian have. Some of the information they furnish is accurate.²¹

He tells us to use discernment when gaining information from the world of darkness. But discernment is impossible when going into an unseen world. The discernment the Bible gives us is objective and concerns the confession of Jesus Christ (1John 4:1-5). These shamans are disqualified on that ground. Wagner encourages Christians to seek truth from the very people God condemns in Deuteronomy 18.

Even if some of this information is accurate, it is nevertheless forbidden in the strongest terms possible. God forbids us access to secret knowledge for our own spiritual good, not because some of it might be inaccurate. It is forbidden because it is destructive—regardless of whether or not it is true!

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

This issue of accuracy is not mentioned; these are "detestable" persons and practices. Yet it is through these forbidden practices that pagans gain their spiritual information. Wagner has opened the floodgate for paganism to swamp the church. 

The only One with exhaustive knowledge of the spirit world who could provide a spiritual "map" for us is God Himself. Why would we assume that He purposely withheld the knowledge we would need in order to evangelize cities, free people from Satan, remove curses, and bring forth His kingdom on earth only to have us glean it from shamans? God has given us exactly what we nee—the clear revelation we find in scripture. The rest belongs to Him: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29). The rejection of sola scriptura is the reason these pagan teachings penetrate so deeply into the evangelical movement and the practices appeal to people who are not satisfied with what God has chosen to reveal.
Wagner makes the mistake of assuming that because the spirit world where shamans practice their trade is real, the information gleaned from it might be accurate and useful:

[S]ome non-Christians, whether animist shamans, gurus, lamas, philosophers or whatever, may be able to communicate to us some information about the reality of the spirit world in which they have gained considerable expertise. These non-Christian sources, of course, must be evaluated with much prayerful scrutiny and caution. Still, we must keep in mind that the spirit world to which they are dedicated is a real world, not the figment of their "heathen" imaginations. Therefore, some things about it can be accurately known.²²

But the issues are neither the reality of the spirit world nor whether information about it may be accurate. Even we ourselves would concede that some shamans have effective processes that work for their clients. But the world of the occult is forbidden to the Christian. Prescribing "prayerful scrutiny" of a type of knowledge that is categorically forbidden in the Bible is absurd. The result of such a process would be "Christian" paganism—an oxymoron. 

Wagner points out that when the words of demons are recorded in the New Testament, "they speak the truth!"²³ In his mind, that (which Wagner cannot know to be the case) makes seeking such information valid. Larson does too:

Someone should be designated to keep a log of the information received while interrogating the demons. As the internal structure of the victim's demonic system is revealed, list the spirits according to their ranking, cite their right and occasion of entry, and note their legal ground for remaining.²⁴

This approach errs by asserting that simply because some demons spoke in Jesus' presence, therefore it is a good thing for them to speak and that we should seek to speak to them in order to glean information. The gospels objective was to show that Jesus was who He claimed to be (God Incarnate), and that all things, including the spirit world, are under His authority. In addition, Jesus often told the demons to be silent. He was not gleaning information about the world of the spirits.

Spiritual Technology

 

My claim is that God has limited us to what He has chosen to reveal to us concerning the reality of the spiritual world (i.e., in the Scripture). He gives us the freedom to use our five senses and rational minds to engage the world of general revelation so we can survive as humans created in His image. But He blocks access to unrevealed spiritual information for our own good. He does not want His people to be like the pagans.

We see this in the Garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve access to all the trees of the garden except one. Adam was given the authority to name the animals. Eating from the trees, tilling the ground, and naming animals are valid uses of general revelation. They had special revelation as well: "You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:17). The Serpent claimed that there was other knowledge that would be beneficial that God withheld from them. He was right that God withheld it, but he lied by implying it would be beneficial. 

God has the right to withhold knowledge at His discretion. Their subsequent rebellion plunged them and their descendants into bondage to sin and death. So God allowed knowledge gleaned through ordinary means and spiritual knowledge given directly to them by God. But the "knowledge" obtained through forbidden means (listening to the serpent and disobeying God's commands) is destructive and, if followed, leads to judgment. In the section of Deuteronomy where divination is forbidden it says this: "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations" (Deuteronomy 18:9). It is never God's will that His covenant people gain their spirituality from pagans or pagan practices! But today that is precisely where many people in the church are looking. Paul speaks this same message in 1 Corinthians 12:2, "You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led."

Wagner suggests that we can gain direct access to unrevealed spiritual information from both Christian and non-Christian sources:

It is important also to recognize that spiritual insight, which receives information directly from the spirit world, is not an exclusive faculty of those who have been born again. Spiritual discernment certainly constitutes at least some dimension of the image of God in which all human beings, Christian or non-Christian, have been created. If this is correct, then human beings, whether Indo-Europeans, Melanesians, Amerindians, or whatever they may be, can and often do possess valid information about the spirit world.²⁵

These ideas expressed by Wagner are patently unbiblical. God speaks with certainty, through His ordained spokespersons, words which must be obeyed. The knowledge God gives to His people is mediated through specific humans, chosen by God and identifiable by God's people. The essence of occultism is seeking direct, unmediated knowledge of the spirit world that God has not chosen to reveal. The only difference between us and the pagans is that we have God's Word (special revelation) spoken to us by chosen men who spoke with and touched "God come in the flesh" (1John 1:1). To depart from sola scriptura by thinking that God gave all humans special faculties for gaining spiritual information is to reject Christian theism and embrace paganism. Wagner is right about one thing—there is not much difference between Christians and non-Christians directly accessing the spirit world for information. In fact there is a word that describes both categories: deceived. 

Wagner goes further and prescribes developing and testing new, spiritual technology:

In this book, I am not claiming biblical proof of strategic-level spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping or identificational repentance. I will, however, claim that we do have sufficient biblical evidence to warrant at the least a working hypothesis we can field test, evaluate, modify and refine; At the most a significant, relatively new spiritual technology God has given us . . . If this is the case, refusing to use it on the part of some might be to run the risk of unfaithfulness to the Master.²⁶

Here we find grave category errors. How does one "field test" unbiblical spiritual "technology?" The world of the spirits does not lend itself to such testing. In general revelation, technology can be developed and tested because of our ability to create a system of controls, to demonstrate repeatability, and to objectively test output. But how can one do this with unseen spirits who have sinister intentions and wills of their own; who also are unseen to us and are likely to manipulate the output to their advantage and our disadvantage? 

Furthermore, the "testing" process is impossible to evaluate. Some have tried to use crime statistics to prove their spiritual warfare "worked." But having no control over the variables, they have no valid data. Crime goes up and down in various cities for various reasons, far too numerous to control. Groups going on "prayer walks" performing rites of "identificational repentance" cannot watch future crime statistics to see if their experiment "worked." In their minds they are living a pagan worldview that uses the "real" spirit world to control the less "real" visible world. But the visible world is filled with its own complex system of causes and effects; e.g. as economic conditions, family conditions, police policies, court systems, and political decisions. If the crime rate goes down after someone conducts a spiritual "experiment" does he take the credit? And if it goes up does he blame these other factors? The entire approach is fatally flawed.

The only question that matters is whether or not God has commanded us to perform prayer walks, bind territorial spirits, practice identificational repentance, or any of the other new spiritual technologies that Wagner and others propose with which to control the spirit world. Clearly God has not commanded these or there would be no need to "experiment." Prayer, as understood biblically, is practiced on the grounds of God's commands and promises. We cannot try it and quit if we do not like the outcome. In contrast to this, Wagner claims he does not have Biblical proof for his technologies; but rather he "experiments." As I have shown, these experiments cannot be tested either. The whole process is a fool's mission.

Given this, how can Wagner claim that we risk "unfaithfulness to God" by failing to do what God never told us to do? He has jettisoned sola scriptura and "bound" his readers to processes he admits are taught nowhere in the Bible. Wagner threatens Christians with disobedience and sin if they fail to embrace his unbiblical experiments. This is totally unacceptable and should be forthrightly rejected.

Blessing and Cursing

 

Pagans live under unremitting fear of curses and threats from unseen and malicious spiritual causes and effects. They have techniques for creating curses and others for breaking them. They have practitioners of cursing and curse-breaking. In addition they have the greater fear that the sinister spirit beings have their own processes for handing down afflictions to their human victims. This thinking is the result of having a pagan worldview.

As with other teachings we have examined, there is a "Christian" version of pagan curse breaking. One of these is based on the idea of "generational" curses that are lifted out of Biblical context and used to explain various maladies and difficulties that Christians may experience.²⁷ The faulty logic behind it suggests that since God warned Old Testament Israel that He would "visit the iniquities of the fathers to the third and fourth generation," and that Deuteronomy chapter 28 lists the sort of bad outcomes that would be visited upon Israel for being unfaithful to the covenant, therefore one can examine symptoms and outcomes and assume that he is cursed because of the unknown sins of unknown ancestors.

Logically, this creates a belief system in which everyone would be convinced they must be cursed. Derek Prince, whose book teaches that Christians are under curses they must discover, explains:

Conversely, any one of the four generations preceding us, by having committed these sins, could be the cause of a curse over us in our generation. Each of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and sixteen great-great-grandparents. This makes a total of thirty persons, any one of whom might be the cause of a curse over our lives. How many of us would be in a position to guarantee that none of our thirty immediate ancestors was ever involved in any form of idolatry or the occult?²⁸

The answer, of course, is no one. This belief creates a need for a class of people capable of gaining secret information (about which ancestral sin is causing which curse) and devising a process to break the curse. Once again, pagan thinking has come into the church and created the perceived need for a class of shamans and associated shaman training. For them, the contents of the Bible cannot directly provide the necessary information (which sins and curses) and neither can general revelation. So they are back fishing for answers in the sea of the spirits like their pagan ancestors.
What is missed by these teachings and teachers is that in the Bible, blessing and cursing are relational, not symptomatic. A person who is in right, covenant relationship with God is blessed, even if he finds himself in unpleasant circumstances. A person in rebellion to God is cursed even if life is going very well for him. For example, included in the list of persons who "gained approval through their faith" are ones who were mocked, beaten, sawn in two, destitute, afflicted and had other horrible things happen to them (Hebrews 11:35-39). But popular books on the topic of blessing and cursing have Christians looking at the symptoms of their own lives to determine if they are cursed.

Derek Prince lists the following as symptoms of curses: "mental and/or emotional breakdown, repeated or chronic sickness (especially if hereditary), barrenness, a tendency to miscarry . . . breakdown of marriage and family alienation, continuing financial insufficiency, being accident prone, and a history of suicides and unnatural or untimely deaths."²⁹ If any of these things existed in the four generations of your ancestors or in your life, Prince suggests that you are cursed, even if you are a Christian. Obviously everyone would have to consider themselves cursed.
This teaching is clearly unbiblical. For example, Prince claims that people who have "financial insufficiency" are cursed. But here is what Jesus said: "And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God'" (Luke 6:20). Citizens of the kingdom are blessed even if they are poor. 

Prince gets his ideas from applying the curses of Deuteronomy 28 to Christians, suggesting they first determine whether or not they have any of those negative outcomes. If so, they may be under a curse. He says that the presence of one or two of those is not conclusive that a curse is at work. Each person must seek supernatural information in order to determine if they are cursed.³⁰ But that puts us back into the need for extra-biblical revelations which makes us have to again behave like pagans.

There is a logical fallacy going on here as well. It goes like this: If a creature is a normal cat, it has four legs. Fido has four legs; therefore Fido is a cat. But that is a fallacy called "asserting the consequent" in an "if/then" logical formulation. There is more than one possible cause for having four legs. To apply this to curses found in Deuteronomy 28: If Israelites in covenant with God break that covenant and go after other gods, then these curses will come upon them (Deuteronomy 28:16-68). Suzie exhibits several of the symptoms listed in those 52 verses, therefore Suzie us under a curse. That reasoning contains two fallacies: 1) Suzie is not an Israelite under the old covenant; 2) the fallacy of asserting the consequent has been committed. There could be other reasons for her being in one of the many conditions listed in those verses besides being cursed for breaking covenant. 

So objectively examining symptoms is not sufficient for diagnosing curses. That means we cannot know by either special revelation (the words of the Bible) or general revelation (examining physical symptoms) whether or not a curse is in operation. That means we are back to a need for a shaman. Again we have invited paganism into the church and believe that what is clearly revealed in scripture is not sufficient to deliver us from curses. 

Blessing and Cursing from a Biblical Perspective

 

The truth is much simpler than the confusing false teachings that are so prevalent. It goes like this: "Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord'" (Jeremiah 17:5); "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord" (Jeremiah 17:7). With a Biblical worldview, as we have claimed, blessing and cursing are relational; not symptomatic. That message is very clear in many places, such as the book of Job and the beatitudes. Some people who are blessed by God have negative symptoms from a human perspective, and some people who are cursed because they do not know God are happy and healthy.

Here is another example: "For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them'" (Galatians 3:10). Paul's conclusion is that it is impossible to be anything but cursed if one tries to be justified by works of the Law. One transgression and you are cursed. One cannot be in right relationship with God by works. Here is the alternative:

Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations will be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. (Galatians 3:7-9)

Blessing is relational—those who are "sons of Abraham" are blessed because they have the type of justifying faith Abraham had. There is no need to look for symptoms other than for signs of saving faith.

Let us take this even deeper. Consider this passage: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" (1Corinthians 15:22). Everyone born is born "in Adam" and therefore under the curse of sin and death. Our relationship with Adam curses us. But everyone in Christ is blessed with the promise of eternal life. We are "in Adam" by natural generation and can only be "in Christ" by supernatural regeneration—being born again. That is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only means of escaping the curse. (See Romans 5:12-21 for Paul's teaching on the Adam/Christ analogy.)

Being in a right relationship with God means that one cannot be cursed by any lesser being—be it spiritual or human. Balaam, a famous curse maker, tried to earn money to curse God's blessed people Israel. Here is Balaam's conclusion about that attempt: "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it" (Numbers 23:19, 20). But Balaam did not give up. He knew that the only way to get Israel cursed was to tempt them with paganism to disobey God's Word and then God would curse them: "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality" (Revelation 2:14; see Numbers 31:16). If God's people apostatize, they put themselves out of a right relationship with God and that is the only thing that will curse them. Embracing a pagan worldview is a path to apostasy. I believe God will preserve us from that. But we would be utter fools to ignore the warnings against apostasy on the grounds that we deem ourselves secure. 

Believing Like Pagans

 

Pagans are perpetually insecure because they have no way of knowing that they are safe in the hands of their gods. That is, they have no certain, special revelation about God or from God concerning the nature of the spiritual world they live in. To the degree that Christians are influenced by pagan thinking, they also become more insecure. They are never sure when they might be cursed. They are never sure when a demon may invade them. They imagine they need some spiritual technology gleaned from the spirit world in order to insure a successful outcome for their endeavors. They need a "Christian" version of a shaman to mediate between them and the spirit world (usually called "prophets" or "deliverance counselors"). In short, they are like pagans in most respects.

Some adherents, like Greg Boyd, who are more theologically sophisticated, have emotional or philosophical reasons to prefer the pagan worldview. Boyd cannot accept the implications of the doctrine of God's providence and willingly says so. The providential worldview is the Biblical worldview, though Boyd denies it, instead offering paganism as the alternative. The teaching of the Bible clearly claims that God is indeed in charge of His own universe and knows all things. That is what God told Job when Job found himself the victim of what Boyd calls "gratuitous evil."
But exchanging the Biblical doctrine of providence for the pagan belief in the warfare worldview creates the type of insecurities common for pagans. Boyd realizes this: "Whatever else may be said about the classical-philosophical blueprint model of God's providence [Boyd's way of discrediting the doctrine of providence], it does provide the believer with a certain kind of security that the warfare worldview seems to lack—so long as one steers clear of concrete atrocities."³¹ In other words, it may be more comforting to believe that God is providentially ruling over His own universe to bring history forward according to His saving purposes; but it is not emotionally satisfying to think of God allowing evil in His universe for His own good purposes. To think that evil happens outside of God's foreknowledge and providential control seems more satisfying to some (such as Boyd). The implication, of course, is that to avoid being victims of gratuitous evil that God did not foresee and chooses not to control, we must figure out how to battle the spirits and find shelter from their malicious power. If we fail to embrace the shamans and their teaching, the evil spirits may very well get the upper hand and destroy us.

Posted with permission: 
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue109.htm 


See also: 
Is pleading the blood of Jesus biblical?
Magic Charms Enchant Apostolic-Prophetic Movement

God's Sufficient Grace

God's Sufficient Grace

by John MacArthur

A certain poor man spent many years saving money to realize his dream of going on a cruise. When he finally saved the required sum, he bought a ticket. Knowing he could not afford the extravagant food on board, he took what he could afford—crackers and peanut butter.

After a few days of observing the other passengers eating luxurious meals, his peanut butter crackers became stale and tasteless. Desperately hungry, he begged a porter to allow him to work for food.

“Why, sir, didn’t you realize meals are included with your ticket? You may eat as much as you like!”

Lots of Christians live like that man. Not realizing the unlimited provisions that are theirs in Christ, they munch on stale scraps. There’s no need to live like that! Everything we could ever want or need is included in the cost of admission—and the Savior has already paid it for us!

There’s a single word that encompasses all the riches we find in Christ: grace. What a magnificent word it is! It is used more than 150 times in the New Testament to speak of divine favor bestowed on undeserving people. It is the means by which we receive every physical and spiritual benefit.

To some measure even unbelievers benefit from God’s grace. Theologians call that “common grace” because it is common to all mankind. Common grace is God’s continual care for all creation, providing for his creatures’ needs. Through common grace God restrains humanity from utter debauchery and maintains order and some sense of beauty, morality, and goodness in society’s consciousness.

Christians, however, receive a greater grace (James 4:6). To us God’s grace is inexhaustible and boundless, including all that we have talked in earlier posts about regarding the all-sufficient provisions of Jesus Christ.

We are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8) and in grace we stand (Romans 5:2). Grace upholds our salvation, gives us victory in temptation, and helps us endure suffering and pain. It helps us understand the Word and wisely apply it to our lives. It draws us into communion and prayer and enables us to serve the Lord effectively. In short, we exist and are firmly fixed in an environment of all-sufficient grace.

Grace upon Grace

One of the most wonderful statements about our Lord is that He was “full of grace” (John 1:14) and “of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:16). “Grace upon grace” speaks of accumulated grace—one grace following upon another. Such grace is ours each day. It is unlimited and sufficient for every need.

Paul called it “the abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17), “the riches of [God’s] grace” (Ephesians 2:7), and “surpassing grace” (2 Corinthians 9:14). Peter called it the “manifold” (in Greek, poikilos, “multifaceted” or “multicolored”) grace of God (1 Peter 4:10). He used the same Greek word in 1 Peter 1:6 with reference to the various trials believers face. That’s a wonderful parallel: God’s multifaceted grace is sufficient for our multifaceted trials.

Super-Abounding Grace

Perhaps nowhere is the magnificence of grace more wonderfully stated than in 2 Corinthians 9:8–11. The superlatives here are staggering: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.… You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God” (emphasis added).

In a sense, those two verses sum up everything that could ever be said about our sufficiency in Christ. Set in a context describing God’s material provision, they have meaning that obviously extends to limitless proportions. Surpassing grace indwells every believer (v. 14). Is it any wonder Paul could not restrain his praise to God for such an indescribable gift (v. 15)?

All-Sufficient Grace

Paul experienced God’s grace as few others have because he endured suffering as few others have. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord gave him one of the most profound truths in all revelation: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” That wonderful promise extends to every believer, but its context is one of severe difficulties, distresses, persecutions, and human weaknesses (v. 10).

In chapter 11 Paul chronicles many of the hardships and life-threatening situations he had endured. Included in his list are great physical trials—imprisonments, beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, dangerous rivers, robbers, Jewish and Gentile persecutions, sleepless nights, inclement weather, and lack of food and drink (vv. 23–27). More painful than all that was the daily concern he had for all the churches (v. 28). God’s people and His church were Paul’s greatest passion (Colossians 1:28–29) and presented the highest potential for pain and disappointment.

The greatest pain he ever knew came from some of the people he loved the most—those to whom he had given his soul and his gospel, but who now had turned against him. Their rejection, betrayal, criticism, false accusations, and even hatred cut deep into his heart. In 2 Corinthians he wrote as a man who was unloved, unappreciated, distrusted, and deeply troubled in his soul.

The Lessons of Grace

Paul’s distressing circumstances put him in a position to learn some marvelous lessons about God’s grace, which he passes on to us in 2 Corinthians 12:7–10:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave from me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

There is so much to be drawn from this marvelous text. For the purpose of this post I’ll simply make brief mention of the lessons we can draw regarding God’s grace.

Humility. God knows that men are prone toward pride, especially when they are in positions of spiritual privilege. Therefore He often uses opposition and suffering to teach them humility. That God places trials in our lives to restrain our sin and produce godliness is an act of grace.

Dependence. Often other believers are channels of God’s grace, but He alone is its source. We tend to turn to people with our hurts, but God wants us to look to Him first of all in times of trouble.

Three times Paul appealed to God to remove the thorn—three times the Lord said no. He prayed persistently and faithfully, yet he learned that God’s purposes could be better accomplished by the answer no.

Sufficiency. Paul was content with God’s decision because he knew that God would supply sufficient grace for his trial. “He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ ” (v. 9). “He has said” is in the perfect tense in the Greek text, implying that every time Paul prayed, God said the same thing and kept on saying it. “My grace is sufficient for you” was his standing answer. After three times, Paul dropped the request. This was not a sign that Paul gave up on God, but that he rested in God’s sufficient grace.

Power. The same suffering that reveals our weaknesses reveals God’s strength, “for power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). When we are least effective in our human strength and have only God’s power to sustain us, then we are suitable channels through which His power flows. And so we should praise God for adversity because that’s when His power is most evident in our lives. There is no one too weak to be powerful, but there are many too strong.

Contentment. Paul gives us a key principle in verse 10: “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul embraced his deepest trouble as a friend to lead him to greater spiritual usefulness.

Conclusion

God’s grace is more than sufficient for your every need. Is your relationship with Him deep and trusting enough to draw you to Him during times of difficulty? Are you content to endure weaknesses, insults, distresses, and persecutions for Christ’s sake so that you can be spiritually strong even amid physical and emotional weakness?

The story is told of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was riding home one evening after a heavy day’s work, feeling weary and depressed, when the verse came to mind, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

In his mind he immediately compared himself to a little fish in the Thames River, apprehensive lest drinking so many pints of water in the river each day he might drink the Thames dry. Then Father Thames says to him, “Drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient for you.”

Next he thought of a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt, afraid lest its daily nibbles exhaust the supplies and cause it to starve to death. Then Joseph comes along and says, “Cheer up, little mouse. My granaries are sufficient for you.”

Then he thought of a man climbing some high mountain to reach its lofty summit and dreading lest his breathing there might exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere. The Creator booms His voice out of heaven, saying, “Breathe away, oh man, and fill your lungs. My atmosphere is sufficient for you!”

Let us rest in the abundance of God’s wonderful grace and the total sufficiency of all His spiritual resources. That’s the all-sufficient Savior’s legacy to His people.

“May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure” (1 Peter 1:2)!

See previous parts of this series: Contaminated Cures for Soul Care;

 Insufficient Help, Part 1;  Insufficient Help, Part 2;

God's Sufficient Word, Part 1; God's Sufficient Word, Part 2;

God's Sufficient Spirit;

Posted with permission:

http://www.gty.org/blog/B140919/gods-sufficient-grace

 

Contaminated Cures for Soul Care

Contaminated Cures for Soul Care

What is your response when someone bares their soul to you, sharing their emotional or spiritual struggles?

Few things reveal our inadequacy more than listening to someone’s problems and not having a clue what to say. When people use words like “depression,” “anxiety attack,” “addiction,” or “mental illness,” we tend to shrink back. These are words that describe deep problems, likely requiring a combination of medication and professional counseling. Or do they?

During the last century, the church began to drink from the well of psychology. The water promised to be the elixir that would resolve emotional, mental, and even spiritual problems. Psychology cast troubles in a new light, identified new sources for our problems, and proposed new solutions to solve them.

Even with its multitude of contradictory theories and questionable therapies, psychology has successfully altered how the world thinks about and responds to the problems of life. Tragically, setting aside its infinite spiritual resources, the church of Jesus Christ embraced this revolution of humanistic thinking.

A Movement in the Wrong Direction

For centuries the burden of caring for the souls of men and women was gladly borne by the church. With its trust in Scripture, its empowerment by the Spirit, and the all-sufficient grace of Christ, the church could provide comfort in affliction, light in darkness, rebuke in rebellion, help in weakness, and hope in every trial.

Famous preachers of the past are known rightfully for their faithful expositions, powerful evangelism, and insights into Scripture. But many of these men were also exemplary in their care for sinning and suffering saints through their preaching, writing, and counseling.

A supreme example of intense and practical pastoral care is Richard Baxter’s A Christian Directory—an extensive work on practical Christian living and handling life’s problems. John Bunyan, Thomas Watson, John Owen, and many other puritan pastors likewise left a legacy of faithful preaching and shepherding souls.

In contrast, many of today’s preachers are known almost exclusively for engaging and culturally relevant sermons that merely scratch the felt needs of their congregations. So what happens when someone seeks help for intense personal struggles? It is common for him or her to be referred to a professional counselor outside the church.

Most churches are no longer centers of soul care. Whatever else they are, they are not the place where sinning and suffering souls can go for help and comfort.

The Wrong Kind of Help

Admittedly, many charismatic churches seek to be places of spiritual healing. Healing Rooms International is a clear attempt by charismatic churches to care for troubled souls. Additionally, books and sermons from charismatic leaders address the struggles of life in an attempt to meet the needs of the suffering.

The problem is their solutions are no better—and perhaps worse—than the humanistic doctrines of psychology. Just like psychology, charismatic soul care comes with its own set of unique terms, diagnoses, and solutions.

Leanne Payne is a leading voice in charismatic soul care. Through her writing and teaching ministry, she has trained thousands in her unique view and style of healing prayer.

In her book, The Healing Presence: Curing the Soul Through Union with Christ, Payne has strong words for those who rely on humanistic theories and practices. She rallies support by saying, “This is why our eclecticism (so prevalent in the Church today, as many non-Christian ideas flood in) will not work. Herein is the (dreadful to some) exclusiveness of the Christian truth and reality that we are to proclaim” (p. 96).

And yet, her book is filled with quotes from evangelicals, Catholics, poets, novelists, and others. Scripture references are rare and scarcely used as the foundation of her ideas. Furthermore, she betrays a clear acceptance of at least some theories from psychology.

At one point Payne provides a case study of a man struggling with homosexuality. She writes:

The strong compulsion he suffered I’ve come to call the ‘cannibal compulsion,’ the twisted way we try to take into ourselves that which we think we lack. In reality, it is that within us which (for whatever reason) is unblessed, unaffirmed... The pedophile, for example, attempts to gain a childhood he never had by ‘swallowing up’ young boys[1]

While she coins her own term (“cannibal compulsion”), she essentially parrots the modern psychological dogma that one’s current struggles are the result of deficiencies in his childhood experience. What is clearly lacking in her diagnosis is the concept of sin, and therefore what was lacking in her treatment was repentance. How does Payne propose dealing with such problems? Offer a multi-sensory experience of healing prayer to heal past memories, the “diseased mind,” and most importantly, invoke God’s “healing presence.”

In fact, the very first chapter begins with a step-by-step example of how she sought to heal a man from fear and depression.

First, I applied holy water to his forehead and began the prayer by invoking the Presence of the Lord. In Christ’s name, I then broke and put to flight the demonic force that had been banding, ever more tightly, this young man’s mind. Next, anointing his forehead with the healing oil (making the sign of the Cross as the symbol of present and future protection of his mind), I prayed for God’s healing light and love to enter in and fill his mind and heart, to dispel all fear and torment, and to grant peace and quiet. Going on to gently press his temples, I sensed this cleansing and healing taking place, and continued thus to pray until I could give thanks to God that it was done.[2]

There is little in that ritual that resembles Christianity, and much akin to witchcraft. The Scripture provides no instructions that would lead one to develop such a practice.

Keep in mind, Leanne Payne is not an isolated practitioner. I was directed to her material by Dr. Michael Brown, a vocal critic of John MacArthur’s book Strange Fire, and a self-proclaimed leader in the charismatic movement.

One could also point to Bethel Redding’s “Prophetic Ministry” as a similarly mystical attempt to exercise the care of souls. Healing Rooms International, where similar practices also occur, has hundreds of locations in the United States, and hundreds more throughout the world. These are not isolated ministries in the dark corners of the church.

Turning to the Source

Thankfully, there is a growing movement to return to the true source of soul care. The Author of Life has not left us to invent coping mechanisms for life’s problems. He has given us abundant and sufficient resources in Scripture to handle struggles with sin and suffering.

That movement is known as the biblical counseling movement, which began in the 1970’s under the guiding light of Jay Adams. To promote biblical soul care and ensure continued fidelity, the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (formerly the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors) actively equips and certifies counselors through numerous training seminars and conferences. In fact, John MacArthur will be a featured speaker at this year’s national conference addressing the issue “God’s Truth in a Culture of Mental Illness.”
True biblical counseling is not about creating a class of professionals or new schools of thought. It does not have its own lingo, theories, and remedies. Rather, it returns the care of souls to its proper sphere—the church of Jesus Christ. It restores the only meaningful purpose to counseling—making more and better disciples of Christ. And it utilizes the only true power to change—the Word of God energized by the Spirit of God.
True biblical counselors are not professionals. They are Spirit-empowered, Scripture-saturated, compassionate members of the body of Christ. Some, by virtue of their gifting and calling, may be pastors or vocational counselors. But the majority of biblical counselors are simply mature believers skilled in wielding the sword of the Spirit as they care for those with serious emotional or spiritual struggles.

It’s been said, “Everyone is a counselor—you’re either a good one or a bad one.” While we may often feel inadequate in responding to the spiritual needs of others, that feeling is not due to our lack of resources; for “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness...” (2 Peter 1:3). I’m persuaded we often feel inadequate because for too long the church has taken its cues from the world and convinced us that, indeed, we are inadequate.

For the next two weeks we will be focusing our blog posts on the insufficiency of psychology and the all-sufficiency of Scripture, the Spirit, and grace. John MacArthur will correct the false advertising of the world’s ideas, drawing our attention back to the rich resources we have in Christ. This is a series you won’t want to miss.

The next part is: Insufficient Help, Part 1

Gabriel Powell
Internet Ministry Coordinator

posted with permission: http://www.gty.org/blog/B140908/contaminated-cures-for-soul-care

Feeling Frustrated?

We’ve been studying Job and wanted to share what we've learned in Job 37 today with you. If you recall, Job had had some really awful things happen to him suddenly. Quite literally, his whole life fell apart. His friends come to comfort him and do a terrible job and Job finds himself having to defend himself to them as they've decided that the only possible reason for these things to have happened is if Job had been knowingly sinning, (which he hadn't) and God was judging Him. Then a bystander named Elihu joins in. Needless to say, Job was feeling pretty frustrated by then. Here, Elihu is at the end of his speech. A mighty storm has begun and Elihu has been describing how he views God in the storm to the listeners.

One of the main points of the scriptures describing the storm is to show that God is sovereign, that nothing happens by chance, because God is in control. While Elihu is using the weather and seasons to illustrate this, it's true about everything that happens in our lives. No, that doesn't mean that God causes every bad thing that happens to us, but it does mean that He at least allows it to happen, and when He does, it's always for His glory and our good. It is never to harm us. Verse 7 especially points out that people instinctively know that the weather is God's Work. Interestingly, even the unbelieving world calls the weather, "acts of God"  showing how true this is.

The problem is that although Job was upright and blameless when the tragedies struck, as time went on, and he dwelled on what had happened to him and all he'd lost, he became more and more negative. Before long, it seemed like everything he saw was negative and bad, quite the reverse of the way he'd been before. This is an example of another thing the Lord tells us in His Word. That when we dwell on negative things, then we'll start seeing the negative in everyone and everything else around us, but if we dwell on the Truth, or on good things, then we'll see the good in everyone and everything around us. We see the Truth of this all the time in ourselves or others when we get down or depressed about something.

In verses 11-13 we are told that sometimes God does send storms (trials) into our lives as discipline, but mainly they're sent because of His love and mercy. Although Job didn't have this knowledge yet, we know that even God's discipline is due to His love and is something we should cherish, as He only disciplines His children, so if in fact that's the cause of our trial, it's a sure sign that we're saved and being made more like Jesus all the time!

Starting in verse 14, Elihu asks Job to "listen to this." He's painted a picture of a storm raging outside as they talk, and he's obviously so totally overwhelmed by the wonder and awe of seeing God's power and majesty in it, that he wants Job to see God's wonders in it too (as well as us). He then asks, can Job explain them or control the clouds or lightening? Of course the answer is no; only God can.

Then Elihu makes his other point in verse 20: if Job can't explain it or control it, then how in the world can he think that he's capable of preparing a court case to defend himself before God! If a man were to try to do so, surely they'd wind up under God's judgment for being so presumptuous! Because if we can't comprehend the things of God that we can actually see, like the weather, then how can we possibly comprehend things we can't see? (like why something is happening to us) Elihu was sure that God wasn't trying to oppress or oppose Job, even thought that's how Job had been seeing it all this time (verse 23)

So even though Elihu had gotten pretty full of pride in himself earlier and had gotten some things wrong, most of what he had to say to Job were things that Job really needed to hear and remember. They're things we all need to hear and remember.

Things like, God is just and merciful, and good. That's what Job had forgotten. The Holy Spirit kept slipping it in once in awhile to try and remind Him, but Job kept ignoring it and instead dwelling on the bad things that had happened to him. He was looking for bad, and therefore that's exactly what he found. Now Elihu comes along and finally gets him to see the good in God again; reminds him of God's love and mercy and that He's not out to get us, but instead wants to help us. Exactly the opposite of what Job's 3 friends had been saying, because they too had been focusing on the negative since they were so sure that Job was being judged as a sinner.

Elihu was quite right in how he viewed Job's problem by this point. He was saying that Job's actions may have been right, that he wasn't the sinner that his friends kept saying he was, but that his attitude was wrong. Because he got involved defending himself as not being a sinner, he wound up pretty much considering himself a "saint", as he continued to explain to his friends how good he'd been all his life. He conveniently refused to think of all the times he'd failed, even if they were small failures. So, listening and then replying to his 3 friends, Job's attitude slowly but surely became a know it all attitude; an attitude of defiant self righteousness, saying he was right and everyone else, including God, was wrong.

Whenever we start thinking we're right and everyone else is wrong, it should be a red flag warning us to look a little deeper into our hearts with the Lord's help. For those are often times we're deceiving ourselves and refusing to look at things honestly.

This is why Elihu's last remark was that Job should fear God (or revere Him, depending on the translation). In order to fear or revere God, we must first do away with our own self righteousness and conceit or pride; or thinking of our self as wise in heart, because to fear God we have to first recognize that we're very much inferior to Him. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! Once we or Job realize that, then we also can realize that God's ways are beyond our understanding, because He is God. If we could understand Him and His ways, then He'd be no wiser then we are and wouldn't be God.

However, Elihu went further then that. He insisted that even though God's ways were beyond our understanding, that we shouldn't question or challenge Him or His ways. First, because we already know that God is good, loving, and full of mercy and compassion, therefore although we may not understand what's happening or why, we can be sure it's because of those things and not worry about it. Secondly, the very act of challenging or questioning them was the same thing as saying that we don't believe that God is good, loving, righteous, merciful and full of compassion. We're calling Him a liar! And that's not a good place to be! Besides all of that, Elihu insisted that tragedies and trials served to remove pride and protect people from even worse problems. So he reminds Job to worship God, instead of challenging Him. That's very, very good advice for us as well!

We need to remember that complaining is a sin and it's one that God hates. Actually, I think most of us do remember that part. The part we tend to forget is that when we complain about the weather, or about how someone is treating us, our physical illness or pain, or anything else at all, that we're actually complaining about how God is treating us. We're saying we don't like or appreciate what He's allowing to go on in our lives, that we think his judgment is a bit off and that he's made a mistake somewhere down the line, because surely we don't deserve this! At times like this, we generally start to feel angry and hateful toward whatever it is that's happening. We fight it, because we don't think it should be happening; we think it's wrong. We think God is wrong to allow it. That's exactly what Job did too and we're seeing where it's gotten him and just how wrong he was to do this. So what is our attitude to be? We're told it's to be the same as our Lord's was, which is to say to entrust ourselves to God who judges justly, knowing that good will come from whatever we're going through. He didn't retaliate or try to stop his torture or impending death, he allowed it all to happen, leaving it in God's hands. This is what Job forgot as he dwelled on the bad things that had happened to him. And that was the start of his downhill slide, allowing those kind of thoughts to stay in his mind instead of taking them captive (stopping them) and replacing them with the Truth. If he'd done that at the start, he never would have gotten to this point or gone through the emotional pain he put himself through because of it. This too is one of our biggest downfalls today. We don't take God's Word seriously and do what it says, even though we know it's for our own good!

Some relevant scriptures:
Philippians 2:3-5; 1 Peter 2:23; Ephesians 4:31–5:2; John 3:27; Exodus 16:8; 2 Corinthians 10:5 & Philippians 4:8