Federal Visionists, NPPists, ReformedCatholics: Academic Jackanapes with a Deadly Twist

Regarding the current Federal Vision and New Perspective on Paul, etc., that is having its way with Reformed Christians just see it simply: they are the same academic jackanapes that 'took on' Shakespeare and Homer, and are now turning their academic jackanapy 'brilliance' on the Holy Spirit.

They are a one-trick pony, learn their trick: they identify something real and above them then abstract it - or make it into an artificial "construct" - then, using academic pomo jargon (even while denouncing pomo jargon ala Doug Wilson) theorize how and why it got to be a construct. Then the poor fools on the believing side crawl out onto their inane web and engage the jackanapes on their defined territory. This is because Reformed Christians - mainstream Christians that make up 'churchianity' in general - are shallow regarding literature and naive regarding its jackanape enemies and their tactics in the academy and have a juvenile crush on anybody with an academic degree or writes using academic language. Also, mainstream Christians tend to be Village of Morality 'churchians' and because of that are half way towards the jackanapes default Romanist doctrine anyway, so their defense against such kingdom of death jackanapery is weak. It's really a Village of Morality civil war. Real Christians don't reside in that village, but are on the Way.

As for the jackanapes, just as they as English and philosophy professors, couldn't write anything inspired, and so 'bring down' all great writers to their level; just so in the realm of biblical doctrine it's a similar situtation for them: they are unregenerate, so instead of humbling themselves to God and God's Word they 'bring down' God's Word to their level and make of it what they demand it to be. With the extra ingredient of mocking believing Christians and, ultimately, the Holy Spirit Himself as they gleefully defile biblical doctrine and lead any who they can lead astray.

And of course mechanically their nonsense gravitates towards Romanist, kingdom of death doctrine - ritualism, clericalism, formalism, moralism - as anything done by those with the spirit of disobedience (spirit of the devil) coursing through them gravitates towards.

Jackanape: A conceited or impudent person. A mischievous child.

They will wish this definition applies to them. When you do to the Holy Spirit what you've merely done to man and the words of man previously, you convict yourselves to the most serious degree. You're no longer just a mischievous child or conceited and impudent. You're blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Because you can't do what you're doing to biblical doctrine without having an understanding of that biblical doctrine.

Stay away from these condemned fools. Don't let even their garment spot you.

How to see the Mosaic Covenant

On certain sites on the internet the Mosaic Covenant is being discussed as to whether it is a republication of the Covenant of Works in the Garden, and what that means in terms of it being a covenant of works itself and how that squares with the Covenant of Grace, etc., etc.

I find it interesting (and I don't say that sarcastically) that the first and second Adam parallel isn't pulled into the discussion. The Mosaic Covenant (the laws given on Sinai) were a republication of the Covenant of Works because Jesus (the second Adam) needed something to follow and accomplish to fulfill what the first Adam failed to fulfill. That the laws on Sinai were given to national Israel simply means this: national Israel is a type of the Messiah Himself. Jesus' very life mirrors the history of the nation of Israel. National Israel's very reason for being was to bring the Messiah in the fulness of times.

So the Mosaic Covenant - the laws given on Sinai, i.e. the Ten Commandments and the cermonial and judicial laws - WERE a covenant of works, and were in fact a republication of the Covenant of Works made with the first Adam in the Garden. The Second Adam - Jesus Christ - came to fulfill what the first Adam failed to fulfill. But Jesus needed those laws given on Mt. Sinai to have something to fulfill. Was Jesus supposed to fulfill the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Anyway, the Covenant of Works was still in effect - as a curse - after the fall. The laws on Sinai made them known to the nation of Israel and gave the Second Adam - Jesus - the actual laws of the Covenant of Works He had to fulfill.

When Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Works - a covenant of WORKS for Jesus - it becomes a covenant of grace for us. It is PART of the Covenant of Grace.

I may be missing something obvious, but why is this so difficult?

The parallel between the two Adams (the first and second Adam: Adam in the Garden, and Jesus Christ) is the spine, so to speak, of Federal Theology. Federal Theology is classical covenant theology systematized. This is how best to explain it. If you stay in the organic, biblical theology realm of Covenant Theology to explain it everything is always mushy (the way doctrinal mischief-makers like it to be, by the way). When you explain these things explain it using the language of Federal Theology.

There is only ONE way to be saved: WORKS. Either your own, or Jesus'. (Good luck if you try to rely on your own.) And Jesus' accomplishment - or fulfilling - of the Covenant of Works becomes our own if we appropriate it by faith in Jesus. This effects all that needs to be effected within us regarding being born again and outside of us regarding being justified in the eyes and judgment of God. (It also is the only way a human being can develop, or recover, or just have the image of God in a real way, and not just in a fiat, or robotic way. It's a brilliant Plan, but it's God's Plan, so that would follow...)

I'm actually in a unique position to respond to this...

Jeff said...
Curious what you thought of this. No comments yet.

Thomist Or Molinist Or Neither?

E.g., "There is a tendency among many Calvinist authors to treat biblical language as if it is a lot less ambiguous than is really the case. For example, many of the key terms connected with salvation--"redemption," "justification," "sanctification," and even "salvation" itself--occur in Scripture with more than one meaning. This is not often appreciated in some circles. Also, it is often assumed that certain terms are synonyms, when in fact they may not be. These tendencies appear particularly in Calvinist writings, and in reading them one often gets the feeling that a system is being imposed on the data of the text rather than being derived from it."

Miss seeing you around... God bless.

January 15, 2007 10:03 PM

This is an excellent subject. I'd say what separates regenerate believers from nominal believers is the ability to fear/revere God Himself and not demanding any substitute or mediating influence othr than the Spirit (man, clerical hierarchy, Mary, etc.). Fearing/revering the Creator rather than any part of the creation. Because the Old Man (vanity, worldly pride, self-will) within fallen man will do anything to avoid recognizing God Himself because it is the death of the Old Man - or the beginning of it - when you recognize God Himself. Recognizing that which is both higher than 'you' and is real.

This is why the problem a regenerate Christian has with Protestant environments even (Calvinist, Reformed - other Protestant environments are too nebulous doctrinally to use as an example) is usually always in the realm of ecclesiology. It's in ecclesiology that the Old Man and the world and the devil is able to smuggle the fear/reverence of man into the temple. Clericalism, ritualism. And formalism and moralism always follow.

This is where the magisterial reformers (other than Zwingli when young and before he got political, or scared of being killed, whichever) left too much of the fat and darkness of the realm they were leaving on their plate.

This is also why modern day Reformed Christians have only a surface appreciation of the Puritans. They claim the Puritans because of the writings and history and so on, but they consider the Puritans to be no better than modern day 'emotional' or 'pietistic' evangelicals when it gets down to it. This is how a professor at a conservative Reformed seminary can consider John Bunyan to not be a Calvinist/Puritan (yes, they are currently redefining the term Puritan as well to suit their fear-of-man darkness, kind of like homosexual groups appropriate people and groups from history).

As for the subject of the link above... I don't consider biblical terms to be as loosely defined as the post suggests. When you take the whole counsel of God. Jesus didn't commission Paul to teach the faith for no reason, for instance, and the epistles hone much of the main language of redemption. I'll concede that a Calvin would use the term regeneration, for instance, in a more encompassing way (if not different way) than later Reformed theologians who refined doctrine to more degree, things like that, but ultimately what the Bible calls sound doctrine can be known, but it requires the Spirit of discernment (the Holy Spirit) to see it, let alone accept it. I didn't get born into a Calvinist family or church. I just discerned Calvinism to say what the Bible says, un-watered-down, un-negotiated to the demands of fallen man's nature.

When you can discern sound doctrine you just can. You, also, know what doctrine like regeneration is when you've experienced it yourself. (That last sentence gets you banned from most all Christian sites on the internet. Just as any talk of actually reading the Bible will, unless the ice has already been broken by a Christian not residing in the Village of Morality on that subject...)

You know what salvation is when faith gives you eyes to be able to see the kingdom of Satan all around you and throughout the world -- and in yourself.

The hardest to accept is the need for justification (the need for the atonement, for a saviour), but you get over that when you start truly seeing yourself by comparing yourself to God and His standard rather than merely comparing yourself to your fellow human beings and the standards of the world and your own standards.

Also, when you begin to provoke your limits for having the Spirit in you. A real Christian learns how to be filled with the Spirit. (Peter prayed and was filled with the Spirit.) That provokes your limits. When you experience first-hand how weak you are and how ignorant of yourself you are in that battle where the Old Man wars with the Spirit within you you see - actually see - that you need a prophet (to give you real knowledge), a king (to give you power to overcome the devil in you and around you), and ultimately a high priest (to reconcile you to God). You experience your weakness and darkness of mind and bondage to the devil first hand. This doesn't happen if you follow the teachings and demands of the churchians who have been convicned by the devil that the faith involves merely sitting on your backside in the Village of Morality.

Also, one's experience in life, with General Revelation, prior to coming into the faith, gives one much of this sound doctrine to at least the extent that when you finally see the real thing, unclouded, or unveiled, so to speak, you recognize it and know it for what it is. This is another problem with the churchians (churchianity, i.e. nominal, man-fearing Christians-in-name-only): they are shallow, for the most part. Undeveloped regarding higher influences and having a balanced development regarding the physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects of themselves. If I had a dollar for every internet Calvinist who has written an ecstatic post about their favorate science fiction television series starting up again I'd be wealthy enough to buy a seminary and draw up a real program of learning for the young fools. First thing would be to announce to them: "You won't be getting any degrees granted to you here." Yes, a major motivation change is being called for here... Hear the shuffling of the feet. The call of the world is very strong...

*I'm actually in a unique position to respond to this...because I came to Calvinism - i.e. biblical doctrine - from aspects of it found in General Revelation. Rare sources found in General Revelation. Prior to that I made the effort to actually download the Word of God complete, taking in the language in a pure way. Several times. I came to it all purely, in other words. With a pure motivation. Not a worldly motivation, but seeking Wisdom herself...

Sound doctrine and discernment and spiritual warfare

Onlookers who can't understand why
Christians would be so 'mean' to those poor Federal
Visionsists and New Perspectivists and so on need to
see it like this: that which comes from the Kingdom
of Death to defile sound doctrine tries most to look
like the real thing. It's for this reason that one
can look at the average Arminian and discern that
they are really mostly just misguided. They're not
consciously mischievous. The Federal Visionsts (and
Theonomists and related types) are consciously
mischievous, and they try the most to seem orthodox
(i.e. in their case they attempt to out-Calvin real
Calvinists), but they can't disguise the Kingdom
of Death poison they exist to pour into the well.
At least they know they can't fool
God's elect, but they can fool innocents and those
yet to be regenerated by the Word and the Spirit
and also those yet to convert in a real way. This
only buys them (and their father the devil) time though.
As are all who are in conscious rebellion to God
and who think they can defeat God they are irrational
to the core. They can annoy God's plan, but they
can't defeat God's plan...

Having said that...

Sound doctrine is not just intellectual play. It
is contained in Spiritual Warfare. When you have
discernment for sound doctrine you don't just have a
set of correct statements and finely defined concepts
and terms, but you have the Spirit in you that gives
you that discernment, and with sound doctrine you know
what is not sound doctrine. You can recognize when
something comes from man rather than God, and from the
Kingdom of Death rather than the Kingdom of God.
Sound doctrine also involves your inner being. To be
able to see and accept sound doctrine means an
internal reorientation has been effected from vanity,
worldly pride, and self-will to faith, repentance, and
God's will... From resentment to gratitude. From
being man-centered to being God centered. From
judging God to seeing God as the Judge.

More parody please...

This and more of its kind is welcome and needed...

Because it gets this kind of reaction from the humorless and angry, ecuhypocritical, un-self-aware - "Mean people suck!" - moralists (liberals).

Excerpt from new Theonomy/Federal Vision book 4

FROM JEWS TO JESUITS TO JUNKIES: A History of the Theonomy, Federal Vision, Post-Federal Vision Movement in the 20th/21st Century (Comprising the Beliefs and Acts of the 11 Leaders and 267 Followers of this Movement) by Anthony T. Pellicano.

Excerpt:

The police report stated Ms. Harvey was dancing in a "manner like you'd maybe see in the audience of a Grateful Dead concert." The only problem was: she was at the edge of a five-story building.

"I don't need a parachute. Why can't you see that? Why can't you understand?"

The police on the scene stated that Barb Harvey didn't know what base-jumping was, but she was intent on lecturing to them on what base-jumping was. She was under the impression that 'parachute' meant something other than what the dictionary meaning was. And that her meaning would save her from the fall just as effectively as what other people think parachute means.

"Why can't you grasp what I'm saying?"

To be published in October, '08.

Excerpt from new Theonomy/Federal Vision book 3

FROM JEWS TO JESUITS TO JUNKIES: A History of the Theonomy, Federal Vision, Post-Federal Vision Movement in the 20th/21st Century (Comprising the Beliefs and Acts of the 11 Leaders and 267 Followers of this Movement) by Anthony T. Pellicano.

Excerpt:

By August of '07, due to increasingly heavy use of heroin, Wilson's weight had dropped to 305 pounds. His friend John Frame was worried:

"When you've lost your desire for frozen pizza, especially that square-shaped Brick Oven type, you know you're in it bad."

In California, former Federal Visionist Andrew Sandlin was experiencing a similar weight loss. In the course of three months of heavy drug use his weight had dropped precipitously to 428 pounds. Again, John Frame was worried:

"I'd never seen Andrew that gaunt. That's what Mexican horse will do to you."

To be published in October, '08.

Excerpt from new Theonomy/Federal Vision book 2

FROM JEWS TO JESUITS TO JUNKIES: A History of the Theonomy, Federal Vision, Post-Federal Vision Movement in the 20th/21st Century (Comprising the Beliefs and Acts of the 11 Leaders and 267 Followers of this Movement) by Anthony T. Pellicano.

Excerpt:

When Westminster California professor Michael Horton was asked by police to identify the body of his friend Clark he broke down.

"This is the time I go to get ice cream," he said.

Once at the morgue he was asked to identify the marking that had been impressed on Clark's forehead.

"That's the Canon Press logo. Totally stupid that they'd put that on his forehead."

Canon Press was the self-publishing arm of Wilson's Federal Vision empire. It had just published Flowers Set In My Lover's Beard, a book of poems by Barb H.

To be published in October, '08.

Excerpt from new Theonomy/Federal Vision book

FROM JEWS TO JESUITS TO JUNKIES: A History of the Theonomy, Federal Vision, Post-Federal Vision Movement in the 20th/21st Century (Comprising the Beliefs and Acts of the 11 Leaders and 267 Followers of this Movement) by Anthony T. Pellicano.

Excerpt:

Having been notified by his lawyer that he would only be getting charged with misdemeanor stalking Wilson roared with laughter. Even though the recorded conversations had documented Wilson's possession of a baseball bat "with Clark's name on it" and a baseball bat having been found in Wilson's VW bus the connection was not enough to bring a heavier charge. (Wilson later claimed he'd been referring to a bat with former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Jack Clark's name on it.) Barb H. later confessed to having listened to the entire Canned Heat Boxed Set Collection in that bus with Wilson on the afternoon prior to the incident, and had confirmed most of the details of the incident:

"Like, the pigs are everywhere around Escondido," she observed. "Doug though was shooting more and more. N. T. Wright was going to speak at the Los Angeles Wiccan Society - go where the sinners are! that's what I say, and anyway there's more there that will 'get it' than at Westminster California - but Doug seemed to be losing interest in even that. He was focused on Clark. Doug and N. T. Wright both have beards."

Harvey was later charged with misdemeanor property damage in the incident.

To be published in October, '08.

A sermon that redeems all sermons

This is simply the greatest sermon ever. Read all 23 paragraphs, otherwise you'll miss alot. This contemporary of Herman Melville is rivalling him in some of his language. The subject of the sermon - death - draws in all that is most important to ponder and to have. Read all 23 paragraphs. Don't skim or quit. It's also a sermon that is worth reading more than once of course. Maybe once a year, if not more often.

Wake up.

(Update: the last third of this video is a pure scene from hell. Most Christians you know have no protection from this. Most self-identified Christians are shallow (worldly), vain (empty), and fear/revere man more than God. This will be exposed when the physical body dies, and personality falls away revealing essence. They will be victims like you see in this video (if not those holding the whips). You need to wake up in a real way. Get the Word of God into your heart in a real way (i.e. stop dictating to it what it is and start valuing it as something that is actually above you). It also helps to have the actual pure and whole Word of God in your heart. If you're still duped by the Vatican's - spritualist's - atheist's manuscripts you havn't arrived where you need to be. The Traditional Text is the whole and pure Word of God. Get it in the King James Version, the Geneva (if you must), the NKJV if you absolutely have a problem with expanding your vocabulary. Then practice the faith in real time by provoking your limits and struggling to expand your limits. Those limits are provoked in the three-front war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The flesh wars with the Spirit. Accumulate the Spirit by being present. Learn how to do that any way you can, from any source you can find, or be led to by the Spirit Himself. The devil wants you to think you are regenerate and have a connection with Christ when you are indulging in vain ritualism and man-fearing clericalism. Moralism. Formalism. You need the Word and the Spirit. Move close to God, and He will move close to you. He tells you this. Fear God only, it is the beginning of wisdom...)

Next time you're at YouTube type in Saddam torture. I know there are any number of violent things to see on YouTube, but I specifically refer to what will come up when you type in Saddam torture. You'll see the Kingdom of Satan. You see what you have to look forward to when you don't have God. Whether you're the torturer or the tortured it doesn't matter because the roles will reverse eventually, and meanwhile the torture of expecting more torture will be your every-moment experience.

We've seen an incredible amount of this in our own era. The 20th century was full of it. Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, the wonderful Muslims, on and on.

Next time you hear or read people who want you to come away from Jesus Christ, the Word, the Spirit, God the Father, to fear and reverence man in their 'church', with their priestcraft (or cleric-craft, if they still call themselves Protestant) and their empty ritualism try to see it in the context of those videos. They want you in the Kingdom of Satan with them. For eternity. The only thing that separates you from that hell is the Saviour and your connection to Him (justification by faith alone -- alone; let me repeat that: justification by faith alone; in Christ alone; by God's free grace alone; it keeps you out of hell; and it's what the wicked of this world - calling themselves Christian or not - want you to deny). The only thing that has protected you from Satan's Kingdom in your life, if you have been protected from it, is God's common grace and the fact that God had you born where you were born. That common grace won't last forever. The wickedness of not only the atheists and leftists but the self-proclaimed Christians who attempt to draw you away from the faith with their man-centered doctrines and ritual is such that you can't measure it. They want you in hell with them. See them and what they offer for what it is.

Fundamentally they want to keep you from being regenerated by the Word and the Spirit. This is why they put ritual and clerics in the place of the Word and the Spirit. They mock you if you don't follow their program. They demand that you fear and reverence man rather than fearing and reverencing only God. Humble yourself to the Word of God and allow the Spirit to work in you. You can't regenerate yourself, but you can move close to God so that He will, as He says He will, move close to you.

The devil and his tame slaves and consciously wicked prisoners want you in the devil's kingdom. They want you in darkness and in the God-forsaken horror of where they exist and will exist for eternity. They are in rebellion to God. They hate God. If you go easy on them, or if you show any weakness in your faith towards the Saviour you will be in bondage to them. And they mock and laugh all the while.

Look at the grinning, mocking faces of all the current apostates claiming to be orthodox Christians. Innocent blokes, you say? Pure demons from hell. They hold human beings in bondage to the devil. Romanists in Protestant clothing. They channel the devil's spirit purely, and they do it instinctively and mechanically. Now look at the mainstream 'churchians' residing smugly over in their Village of Morality. They too, in a less sinister way, want you to stay in the Kingdom of Satan. Where they are comfortable to be. They enforce their formalism, moralism, ritualism, and clericalism.

Christian, you need armour. You need the Spirit. You need Jesus Christ, your Prophet, High Priest, King, Lord and Saviour. You need to fear God only. And you need to keep these satanic wretches, that would pull you down to their level, at Sword's point. They won't give up until you die and are glorified.

It's a joyous thing to fight the devil and grow in strength in the grace of God...

Doug Wilson and the Westminster Standards

Douglas Wilson addresses on his blog comments made on another blog, many by myself, that took issue with his understanding of the invisible church. He concedes what we were saying is not as novel as he thought. For instance he quotes Berkhof saying what we said, and other standard Reformed sources. Where he continues to be off-the-mark is his insistance that the Westminster Confession of Faith is on his side on the issue. He is reading into the WCF what he wants to see. So let's consider the Westminster Standards as a whole and look at the Larger Catechism (this, by the way, was done already in the thread mentioned, but in classic Federal Visionist style Wilson went deer in the headlights regarding it):

Question 64: What is the invisible church?

Answer: The invisible church is the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head.

Question 65: What special benefits do the members of the invisible church enjoy by Christ?

Answer: The members of the invisible church by Christ enjoy union and communion with him in grace and glory.

Question 66: What is that union which the elect have with Christ?

Answer: The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God's grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling.

Well, what's that last term in that related sequence of Q&A's? Effectual calling. The invisible church indeed is connected with the elect on earth who have been effectually called. The invisible church is not defined by all who are decreed to election whether or not the Holy Spirit (that would be God, Douglas) has applied that election to their hearts yet or not.

Wilson knows this, by the way. He's a dishonest fellow. He can't accept many points of Reformed - i.e. biblical - doctrine because it nukes his Romanist program. Just as he can't accept the Covenant of Works he can't accept the doctrine of the visible and invisible church. What he is doing in the post linked above, though, is claiming a Reformed standard such as the Westminster Standards back him up. This is what these Federal Visionists do. They claim Calvin the same way when Calvin probably would have lit the fire under them without the time and debate (or appeal for a less painful death) he gave Servetus. Wilson though states it over and over. He knows it's a lie. A conscious lie on his part. He only has to fool his followers though. They deserve him, most likely...

What Muslim Civilization?

Read an interesting letter from an Assyrian Christian to Carly Fiorina then of Hewlett-Packard regarding some radically stupid comments Fiorina made about Muslim civilization. It's nothing new, but it's directly stated, and one needs to be constantly reminded of the modus operandi of followers of the devil, Muslim or communist or atheist, &c.

A word to those still capable of hearing...

Kevin Johnson and the folks at 'Reformed' Papists .com want you to follow them. "Come...come into my kingdom, little children..."

In his latest attempt at sounding like an adult Kevin has penned another thinly veiled tantrum at Reformed - i.e. Calvinist, i.e. bible-believing - Christians who actually believe what Reformed Christians have stated they believe for going on about 500 years now (and longer if you consider the persecuted remnant from apostolic times).

Notice Kevin's site uses the name 'Reformed'? That is standard Popular Front tactics. Kevin and the folk at ReformedCatholicism.com are Roman Catholic. They've yet to enroll officially only for strategic purposes. Traitors (apostates) are valuable if the world still doesn't know they have turned. Valuable to the devil, in this case.

It's unfortunate that Reformed - Calvinist, Bible-believing - Christians have allowed themselves to be so softened up that such attacks can be made against them. When you give yourself over to formalism, moralism, ritualism, and clericalism it shouldn't suprise you that the Roman Catholic church and its willing agents provocateurs would begin their forays into your camp with enthusiasm and an actual belief they can be successful (Federal Visionsists and NPPists are other examples very active today).

An agent provocateur (plural: agents provocateurs, French language, "inciting agent") is a person who secretly disrupts a group's activities from within the group. Agents provocateurs typically represent the interests of another group, or are agents directly assigned to provoke unrest, violence, debate, or argument by or within a group while acting as a member of the group. 6

I know you are all thinking: "But do they really think we're that dumb, or that vulnerable to their satanic nonsense?" Yes, they do. When the devil attacks you in this manner you have to accept the fact that you have fallen far enough to his level that he considers you to be potential prey. The fact is, you are now potential prey for him. Again, when the devil sees you engaging in formalism, moralism, ritualism, and clericalism, he sees you as potential recruits into his prison kingdom. And you are.

A good illustration for a difficult subject

Here is a post from a blog that gets at something regarding sanctification and effort that is what makes the subject so difficult.

Before you go there I can paste the main point of what I'm getting at (RAD stands for Reactive Attachment Disorder):

~~~~~~~~~
RAD and the Christian

"The goal of therapy for a RAD child is not to reduce his anger or to change his behaviors. The ultimate goal is to attach or bond the child to his parents. When your child becomes bonded, changes will take place spontaneously. Changes in emotions, behaviors, attitudes, and thinking will happen automatically." © Walter D. Buenning, Ph.D.

Where I work, I read files with this diagnosis in them every day. What struck me about this quote though, is how easy it is for me to accept the truth of this guy’s assertion when we’re talking about a psychological problem, but yet how hard it is to accept the same thing in my spiritual life. To show what I mean, here’s the same quote with some word-substitutions;

"The goal of the Gospel for a sinner is not to reduce his anger or to change his behaviors. The ultimate goal is to attach or bond the sinner to Christ. When you become bonded, changes will take place spontaneously. Changes in emotions, behaviors, attitudes, and thinking will happen automatically."

My apologies to the good doctor. I did this to show what’s so different and radical about Christianity...
~~~~~~~~~

She goes on. My main point is this: this is what most of the most hardcore (Reformed, Calvinist) Christians believe regarding spiritual development vis-a-vis effort. I.e. no effort necessary, just bond with Christ and it all happens automatically. But you can see holes in it all over the place, even while at the same time you can agree with it. It's not either/or. What they're doing and thinking is rare indeed. They are really adopting a Real Will (i.e. God's will as opposed to self-will) approach, but without understanding it that way. But at least they are on to the on-the-mark approach. The Bible communicates this subtle approach. But the Bible also says you have to actually struggle and do things. And the main point they miss is this: once regenerate a person is ABLE to make effective efforts. And this 'bonding with Christ' is really being able to have His Spirit - the Spirit of Christ, i.e. the Holy Spirit - in you without grieving it. Without highjacking it to indulge all the features of the Old Man. The flesh (the Old Man) wars with the Spirit. This struggle is necessary and requires knowledge and effort and development and all the rest of it.