High standards, effort, and the Holy Spirit

Word of God + Effort = Sanctification

(Sanctification happens on the foundation of regeneration. Regeneration means you now have the ability to do.)

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Doctrine + Doctrine = Warped Doctrine (even if you start out - or at some point get to - on-the-mark doctrine, you will inevitably get warped with doctrine if you refuse to practice what doctrine you learn).

Doctrine + Practice = Understanding (where Understanding includes Memory and Will as well).

If you listen to even the most orthodox (biblically on-the-mark regarding doctrine) theologians and church leaders you will hear them, sort of mentally groping, finally come to a justification for their notion that a Christian is to make no effort in this: people must hear the same truths over and over and over, because we forget. In other words: that is what Christianity is all about, repeating doctrine over and over and over.

Hebrews 6:1 just doesn't exist for them.

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God...

The word 'perfection' scares them as well. The very Word of God scares them. (Unto perfection doesn't mean you have to achieve the absolute called perfection any more than a sprinter who attempts to run 100 meters under 10 seconds absolutely has to do that to develop as an athlete. If he starts at 12 seconds and gets to 10.5 he is developing 'unto perfection'. In the direction of perfection. Only God is perfect! That should not be a revelation... And when you are talking about ability to glorify God and developing inner being and inner unity and command and things that go to essence you are talking about something that won't necessarily go away, like athletic ability will go away.)

The theologians and church leaders mentioned above would be at 12 seconds and say, "God be praised, when the competition starts I'll run it under 10 without indulging any vanity in thinking I can make efforts to get there myself!" When the competition starts they'll be met with what the guy who decided it was 'best' to bury his talent in the ground was met with: rebuke from God Himself.

(Memorize something, theologians and church leaders: when you speak of justification speak of 'absolute'; when you speak of sanctification speak of 'degree'. Yes, yes, yes, sanctification is spoken of as well in Scripture as done, yet it is also a process, is it not? Either it is or it isn't. If Scripture tells you to mortify your sinful nature that means you are involved in a process. A matter of degree, not an absolute. Justification is a matter of an absolute. Sanctification is an absolute only to the basic degree that you are made righteous enough to enter the Kingdom of God now, once regenerated and justified. But the program, as the Word of God lays it out, is for you to use that 'basic level' of sanctification as your foundation to build upon and develop. Develop by the Holy Spirit and by your effort. Unto perfection.)

Another justification for no effort theologians and church leaders use is this: "Christians are hurting. They're 'broken reeds'. We can't talk about effort and moving on 'unto perfection' when the people in our churches are so ignorant and weak. Some of them have criminal tendencies! We must be careful not to put too much on them... They can't all have my seminary education! My God, look how hard it is to just read the Bible! We didn't even do that in seminary! Ha, ha... Ahem..." Yes, justify no-effort because the most currently ignorant, the most currently weak, and the most currently f***ed up are among us. Well...you're part of them. You can't see it, but you're just as ignorant and weak and f***ed up, in ways you have no clue about, as those you use for your justification to make no effort in sanctification...

You'd be amazed how quickly humans can shape up, though, when challenged and given the real thing. Especially when they have real leaders... There's something about high standards, effort, and the Holy Spirit that kind of go together.

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Postscript: There's no one in the Christian blogosphere who could have written this post. And there is no one in the Christian blogosphere who will ever link this post. This says it all. When all of the mainstream of Christianity can be rebuked and shown up by a common outcast, a stranger in this world, in this world not of this world, separated out of the world, no-formal-education, no worldly standing, mocked for professing the goal to read the Word of God complete, a mere lowly follower of Jesus Christ...when you all can be rebuked so easily and so unanswerably by someone like me you need to step back and take a look at yourselves. You need to wake up.

Now it is high time to awaken out of sleep..., Rom. 13:11.

You're the blind leading the blind. Some of you at the front, some of you at the back.