The Physics of Heaven #5
A Serial Book Review & Theological Interaction: Part 5
Review of Chapter 4: Recovering Our Spiritual Inheritance by Bill Johnson [1]
“God is glorified by not speaking in plain language to you. He’s glorified by speaking in parables, symbols and dark sayings.” (TPOH, 31)
–Bill Johnson
Though this chapter does not fit The Physics of Heaven’s exploration of the ways quantum science can energize the Christian faith (i.e., tap into Pentecostal power by harnessing the universe’s quantum “sounds, vibrations, or frequencies”), the authors decided to include Bill Johnson’s teaching “on recovering our spiritual inheritance . . . because there are whole realms of insights that belong to the people of God we’ve failed to explore and, therefore, haven’t been leaving as a legacy for future generations.” (TPOH, 29) If today’s indifferent Church fails to move forward by reclaiming “lost ‘God truths’,” “a vacuum forms that the enemy fills” and “future generations of Christians” will loose the inheritance this generation should have left to them. [2] (TPOH, 29) In developing this theme, Johnson employs the word “inheritance(s)” and “generation(s)” numerous times. [3] The chapter’s title, “Recovering Our Spiritual Inheritance,” suggests that there’s an inheritance out there to be recovered, reclaimed and bequeathed to future generations. “It’s time to start constructing . . . a hundred-year vision,” he says later. (TPOH, 37) So what does Johnson mean by the “legacy” he wants this generation to reclaim and pass on to future generations of Christians?
The Inheritance—“Hidden Things”
The inheritance has to do with “anointings, mantles, revelations and mysteries that have lain unclaimed . . . because the generation that walked in them never passed them on.” (TPOH, 30-31) Along with other of the book’s contributors, Johnson believes they possess the potential and possibility “to recover realms of anointing, realms of insight, realms of God that have been untended for decades . . . and perpetuate them [in what he calls a “domino effect”] for future generations.” (TPOH, 31) He believes that “there are realms opening up right now to people because they realize their destiny . . . that God has ordained and given them access to hidden things” [Ed. hidden means occult]. (TPOH, 32) To buttress his hand-me-down theory, Johnson quotes Deuteronomy 29:29 (italics in the NKJV translation, emphasis added), [4]
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (TPOH, 31)
Extracting the word “secret” from this verse, Johnson then leapfrogs to the Gospel of Luke (though he fails to cite the verse’s location) to connect Moses’ statement to one Jesus made to His disciples when He told them (Johnson rewords Luke 8:10), “It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the secrets [Greek, musterion, “mysteries”] of the Kingdom.” From this verse Johnson observes that, “Jesus taught in parables, not to reveal truth, but to hide truth.” (TPOH, 31) Then he gave this stunning opinion embracing esotericism (that only a limited number of initiates can comprehend meanings):
Truth is not hidden from you; it’s hidden for you. . . . God is glorified by not speaking in plain language to you. He’s glorified by speaking in parables, symbols and dark sayings. (Emphases added, TPOH, 31)
Seekers of the Secrets
According to Johnson, it thus becomes the responsibility of the “royal priesthood”—the king’s kids—to realize they have “legal access” to explore and unlock the secrets (the parables, symbols and dark sayings) and leave the things they discover as an inheritance for future generations. [5] (TPOH, 31) So “trip out” into the mysteries all ye seekers, and delve into the “realms of science, of politics, of business, of creativity in the arts” to discover God’s secrets. From these realms this generation will discover a legacy to hand down to future generations because Jesus told Johnson, “The things that are revealed are for you and your children forever.” (TPOH, 32) A legacy then “enables us to start our Christian life at spiritual levels that might have taken us years to reach. Another generation’s ‘ceiling’ in God can become our spiritual ‘floor’.” (TPOH, 30) What exactly constitutes an inheritance is vague, but in addition to personal revelations from God, may involve recovering the experiences of “mystics” and “revivalists” that in past centuries “broke into realms of the Spirit to leave something . . . .” (TPOH, 38) But regardless of the past, Johnson says, “We’ve never seen the accelerated spiritual growth that comes from inheritance. We’ve never fully seen what a spiritual ‘jump start’ can mean to the next generation.” (TPOH, 30)
But before addressing other issues raised in this chapter, Johnson’s twisting of Scripture ought to be noted. Bill Johnson’s mixing of words Moses spoke to Israel in Deuteronomy 29:29 and those spoken by Jesus to His disciples in Luke 8:9 serve to illustrate the author’s misuse of Scripture.
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