Guarding His Flock Ministries

Twelve Questions.

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Paul, Galatians 2:16, KJV

In America over the last two centuries, no event has become more associated with the evangelical-fundamentalist movement than the altar call. In evangelistic campaigns, revival crusades, and many church services, the altar call is synonymous with winning souls to Jesus Christ, or calling backslidden believers to repent and return to the Lord.

Typically, at the end of an evangelistic or church service, the invitation is extended for those in the audience to physically rise up out of their seat, step out into the aisle, and walk forward to a "metaphorical altar" located at the front of a church or stadium. As one altar call was stated:

Don't let distance keep you from Christ. Christ went to the Cross because he loved you. Certainly you can come these few steps. Come right now.[1]

At a metaphorical altar located at the front of the meeting place, people supposedly become saved. Other reasons for extending the altar call include that persons might rededicate their lives to Jesus after having backslidden into sin, seek certain spiritual gifts or blessings, or perhaps, dedicate their lives to vocational Christian ministry. Because of the publicity that altar calls receive via televised evangelistic crusades, and their use in many local churches, no public rite of passage to salvation, or rededication, is viewed as important as the altar call.

But the greater question surrounding this rite of passage is whether, or not, it accords with the nature of faith as the New Testament defines it. We need to examine "the altar call" in light of the Bible's description of faith, and what it means to be justified by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). Does the altar call help someone to get saved? Or possibly, could this rite of Christian passage actually hinder the salvation of many?

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And the "uniformly favorable" words of false prophets.

"And Ahab the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, 'There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He is Micaiah son of Imlah'." 1 Kings 22:8, NASB
 

In coping with her health issues (she has psoriatic arthritis, an incurable and debilitating disease characterized by fatigue and joint inflammation), my wife has visited several doctors and undergone many tests. In dealing with her physical condition, two doctors in particular have treated her: We’ll call them “Dr. R” and “Dr. P.” On a couple of other occasions, she has met one of her brother’s doctors (he has cancer and is on dialysis), and for reason to be explained later, we’ll call his physician, “Dr. N.”

In spite of some improvement experienced over the last few months, negative symptoms of my wife’s disease have reappeared. Recently, Margie revisited her physicians to understand why her treatments don't seem to be working at this time. During the course of a conversation between us about the two doctors treating her—“Dr. R” and “Dr. P”—she remarked that she felt “Dr. R” was more realistic in his counsel to her about her disease than “Dr. P,” who tended to be more positive and optimistic. When she told me she felt “Dr. R” (realism) was more straight forward than “Dr. P” (optimism), I said to her: “Stop there Margie and tell me, which doctor’s counsel about your disease do you prefer, would you rather have, “Dr. R’s” or “Dr. P’s”? Because the disease is what it is, she told me she preferred the counsel of “Dr. Realism” to that of “Dr. Positivity.” But then she added, “I prefer both my doctors to my brother’s. 'Dr. N' doesn’t tell him anything!"

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Was the appointment of Matthias apostolically errant?

"Jesus therefore said to them again, 'Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.' And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained'." Jesus, John 20:21-23, NASB

As liberal and emergent Christians seek out a new paradigm for doing church—in their estimation the old one has miserably failed—they exalt the authority of Jesus on the one hand—that’s good—but diminish the authority of the Apostles on the other—that’s not good. To emergent liberals, the apostles stand as obstructers to the kingdom building that Jesus envisioned and taught about.[1] So in questioning apostolic authority, they assume that, in contrast to Jesus, the apostles were only human and as such, made mistakes in their understanding of the meaning of the kingdom and their governance of the early church; and because they didn’t get it right yesterday, we should not assume that their writings have it right for today. In such a way, modern emergents question apostolic authority.

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An old spirituality in the New Age.

"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me . . ." Yahweh, Isaiah 46:9, KJV

One of my seminary professors stated in a theology class, "God created man in His own likeness and image, and man has been returning the compliment ever since." Again, like one pundit put it, "Man is the ape that wants to be God." In many ways, shapes, and sizes, the "man-is-God" teaching still comes to us.

Though contemporary Mormons now disavow his statement, Lorenzo Snow (1814-1901), the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, once said, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." Pretending to be within the pale of Christendom, some Word of Faith teachers boldly tell their followers, "You are gods."[1] Helen Schucman (1909-1981), a New York research psychologist, authored volumes which now comprise A Course in Miracles (ACIM). Over a period of seven years, Schucman claimed to have received the contents of the course by a process of "inner dictation," the dictator being Jesus, an "ascended master" and spirit guide. Though using Christian terminology, ACIM is founded upon the fundamental premises of Eastern-metaphysical-mystical religion. In one of the course's lessons, Schucman stated, "The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself."[2] Among a host of other believers, authors and teachers, Schucman-like spirituality is widely being disseminated into American culture by various New Age gurus like Marianne Williamson and Eckhart Tolle, and their publicist, Oprah Winfrey. But I will, in this article, address this question: Does the Bible teach anywhere that man is not God?

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Investigating the intent of Jesus' statement, "You are gods."

"Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" Jesus, John 10:34, KJV

Mystic, New Age, cultic and Word of Faith spiritualists commonly assume that in the essence of their being they are divine, that either they are or can become gods.[1] By employing The Third Eye for example, mystics attempt to contemplate into the consciousness of their divine nature. One Norwegian website explains:

During deep meditation, the single or spiritual eye becomes visible within the central part of the forehead. This omniscient eye is variously referred to in scriptures as the third eye . . ."[2]

The website asserts that the Lord is in heaven. But where is heaven? How can heaven be found? "Gliding inside oneself in the right way should 'work wonders'," the university explains. How can someone "glide within" to discover heaven within where the Lord dwells? By meditating upon the assumption that you are "the image of God inside yourself." In a spirit of self-hype, members of the Word of Faith movement also claim themselves to be little gods who can self-create what they want out of life. To assert their divinity, both movements employ the statement of Jesus where He asked the Jews, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'?" (John 10:34).

When in John 10:34 He told the Jews "You are gods," did Jesus mean to say that persons possess an essential divinity awaiting their discovery by taking a meditative journey into "inner space"? To support their claim that man is or can become God, teachers of the "man-is-god" doctrine have seized upon words that Jesus intended only for the Jews, ignored their original intent and arrogantly applied them to their own being. Without conscripting Jesus words to make them conform to any  preconception of what we might want them to say, what did Jesus really mean when He said to the Jews, "You are gods"?[3]

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The contemplative delusion that the kingdom of God is "within."

"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Jesus, Luke 17:20-21, KJV

In common with eastern mysticism and New Age religion, contemplative spiritualists assume that all humanity possesses a divine essence within their souls, an essence waiting to be awakened via contact with God through meditation. Because "God is within and permeates all creation," one contemplative states, "Every person can awaken to this and experience God directly." She then adds, ". . . anyone can experience this dynamic presence of God, because God is within everything he creates. . . . So 'The Kingdom of God is within you' is hardly a heretical statement."[1]

Her reference to the "kingdom-of-God-within" derives from Jesus' statement in the Gospels where responding to the Pharisees' question about when the kingdom of God would come (Luke 17:20a), Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Emphasis mine, Luke 17:20b-21, KJV). As assumed by contemplative spiritualists, did Jesus mean to infer that all persons possess a "dynamic presence," a divine kingdom within them?

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The impossibility of spiritual life apart from God's work: a meditation on Ephesians 2:1-10.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9, NASB 

Many Christians think that salvation is not so much a gift to be received, as a destiny to be earned. Their concept of salvation is that God will pay them in eternity for what they accomplished in time. To them, salvation is achieved, not received. The tragedy of it is that salvation will never come to them by such an arrangement. As the Apostle wrote, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6). Charles Spurgeon summarized the issue well when he said, "One might better try to sail the Atlantic in a paper boat than to get to heaven in good works."

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The "Spiritual Secret" of Greg Boyd.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8, KJV

On the cover of Gregory A. Boyd’s recently published book, Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now, this endorsement appears:

“Discover a spiritual secret that is as simple as it is profound. Highly recommended.”

—Brian D. McLaren
author, speaker, and activist[1]

One “spiritual secret” in Boyd’s book may be discovered in a footnote to the second chapter, Finding Home.[2] The secret is: “We no longer have a ‘sinful nature’.” Wow! Assuming the author is writing about Christians, he is asserting they no longer have a sinful nature (i.e., nature equals the essential properties of a thing). In other words, our nature is “perfect now”! Within the Christian's psyche there no longer resides an inner disposition to sin. Possessing inner immunity against sinning, Christians can conduct their lives in a "present perfect." As with Roman Catholics Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691) and Jean Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), and the evangelical Frank Laubach (1884-1970), there is no  inner barrier that hinders Christians from contemplating God 24/7. They can sense God’s presence in everything they do throughout every minute of the day, which is what Boyd’s book is all about.[3]

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On music's native ability to engender "religious" experiences.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16, KJV

Music engenders mystical experiences. This can be discerned from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera containing the song The Music of the Night. The lyrics read:

Night time sharpens heightens each sensation / Darkness wakes and stirs imagination / Silently the senses abandon their defenses / Helpless to resist the notes I write / For I compose the music of the night / Softly, deftly music shall caress you / Hear it, feel it secretly possess you / Open up your mind let your fantasies unwind in this darkness which you know you cannot fight / the darkness of the music of the night.[1]

Subject to the individual impulses, tastes and delights of consumers and composers, there is much about music that is creative, experiential and ethereal. But as every genre from military marches to love songs indicate, music possesses a mysterious, if not occult, power to sway the soul. The only question for Christian believers becomes, do their musical preferences, acquisitions and experiences hinder or facilitate the Holy Spirit’s work in their souls? (See Ephesians 5:18-19; Colossians 3:16.)

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Matthew 5:8 and the mystic vision of God.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Jesus, Matthew 5:8, KJV

If we were to see God, what might deity look like? In a metaphorical borrowing from the imagery of the biblical Tabernacle, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ describes both the process for and image of discovering the god within. That gospel advises:

Look deep into the temple of your brain, and you will see it all aglow . . . and you are in the Holiest of All, where rests the Ark of God, whose covering is the Mercy Seat. . . . And then, behold the manna there, the hidden bread of life; and he who eats shall never die. The cherubim have guarded well for every soul this treasure box, and whosoever will may enter in and find his own.[1]

Upon such a visage within, the mystic exclaims, "Eureka! God lives in my brain!" The specter of such a god issues from an assumption that all persons possess an indwelling divinity that is theirs to discover. But because they are unconsciousness of that "presence," the mass of people go through life ignorant of it. Thus, to realize their higher-self, people need to develop their consciousness of the indwelling Christ by employing certain meditative practices and techniques to purify their souls in order to see God. As one Hindu website explains: "Men and women, in their essential nature, are divine. We do not feel this divinity because of our ignorance." Then citing Matthew 5:8, the site goes on to say:

The only goal of our lives is to realize this divinity. It is possible to realize the divinity by removing the ignorance, just as Jesus said: 'Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God'.[2]

Eastern mystics thus claim to follow Jesus' prescription for finding the god within. By voiding "this-worldly" distractions and attractions from their souls, they believe they will create a spiritual climate in which they will see God. As one Hindu devotee explains, "The meaning of this beatitude is that those whose consciousness is posited at the center of their being (spirit), without there being any 'thing' in their awareness but that pure consciousness itself, are 'seeing' God."[3] So, it must be asked, what might the Bible believing Christian think about the use of Matthew 5:8 to endorse such spirituality? Against the backdrop of the rest of the Scriptures, how might we understand Jesus' words?

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