Biblical doctrine: the academic approach vs. the spiritual warfare approach

Theologians who take an academic approach to biblical doctrine usually are wildly off-the-mark (i.e. usually liberal to some degree, often a great degree); but even Reformed theologians who do not profess an obvious liberal approach in public, and who also take an academic approach can be subtly off-the-mark, and usually in ways they can't even see in themselves.

They usually are just a degree shy of mocking the notion of the supernatural existing in any way. They mock the supernatural unconsciously, but publicly they manage to control themselves. Or all of that is usually half conscious at best as it manifests in them.

They usually gravitate towards a practical deism as well. Any notion of supernatural regeneration, of a 'living' word (they see all text as mere text), of any kind of workings of the Holy Spirit, of individuals being temples of the Holy Spirit, this all embarrasses them and makes them apologetic to their academic friends that stupid evangelicals would even believe in such nonsense.

The true approach to biblical doctrine is not an academic approach but a spiritual warfare approach.

The spiritual warfare approach to biblical doctrine sees on-the-mark biblical doctrine as being actual armor of God. It sees biblical doctrine as what determines our very state and ability to stand and fight and endure in the spiritual realm which is the spiritual battlefield.

When you approach biblical doctrine as spiritual warfare it changes everything. It changes how you discern doctrine. It changes how you value doctrine. It changes how you sift sources and teachers. For instance, number and kinds of degrees of learning hanging on a person's wall and the reputation of the institution of higher education they attended is meaningless to a person who approaches biblical doctrine as spiritual warfare. Custer was a West Point grad.

Approaching biblical doctrine as spiritual warfare also changes how you engage in the process of learning biblical doctrine itself. You are not interested in endless debate (or conversation and dialogue) which inevitably leads to moving in novel directions. You are actively looking for *terminal knowledge and terminal understanding* of doctrine because it is your *armor* on the spiritual battlefield.

And lo and behold the Bible presents terminal knowledge and terminal understanding of the doctrine it presents. It gives you the full, real armor of God.

The academic approach knows nothing of this. Those who take the spiritual warfare approach know it is everything.

Deists of the world, arise!

Michael Horton and his ilk have begun to intone a new mantra. They want you to think they are boiling a biblical truth down into a slogan, but they are really exposing themselves, the way God makes the Devil's children mark themselves. Their new mantra is:

"It's not about you!!"

I.e. the biblical story of redemption, what God has done in history, what Jesus did on the cross, all of it...it's not about you!

There is no reason to be preaching such a message. They have to do their usual straw man constructing to find a justification for it. "So all of you who think you can stop the sun in the sky so you can have more time to get that job, hey! it's not about you!!"

Here's what they are really doing with their new mantra 'it's not about you.'

They are petulantly digging in against the recent charges they have received that they are practical deists.

"It's not about you!!" is a slogan of deism.

Who are these people?

Who are the people in broadcasts like this?

http://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ctc321/

Don't waste your time, they are just church Christians.

But where did they come from? How did the faith get to be what they are?

The first impression I got listening to the interview within the show was how dumb they are. They have no clue how to learn anything. They don't even know what is meaningful to learn.

From the top (their famous pastors and teachers) to bottom they all approach learning at the unserious surface level, and have no clue there is any other approach. "We all need to remember that we need to keep Jesus in mind when we are doing..." and blah, blah, blah. They give a litany of "we need to always keep in mind" knowing that is a type of empty effort that gets forgotten the moment they stop talking (key: talking) and go get their junk food. The next day the book(s) is forgotten (they are always forgettable books anyway), and all the litanies of "we must..." are forgotten.

They know this is the pattern, yet they stick to it. Day after day, until they die.

It's shallow. It is not how one learns anything.

Here's how you learn:

"I'm going to read the Bible complete; dedicated cover-to-cover complete readings, seven times."

"But, my friend, you may be taking a wrong approach there, we must caution you..."

"Back off, devil. I'm going to read the Bible seven times complete. Yeah, that pisses you off. It makes you angry like Cain. I don't care. Go dissuade one of your nursery room sheep."

Then you do it.

Oh, just simply read the Bible?

Yes. You get it into you. You apply yourself and get the complete word of God into you. You don't worry about this or that along the way, you are merely reading every word, every verse, every chapter, every book, one after the other, one step after another, until you traverse the full continent of Scripture shore-to-shore.

"Oh, but dear friend, you must have understanding of what you read..."

We can't understand doctrine until we have the entire raw material of the word of God inside us. Dear friend. Much of the Bible is higher visual language, which needs to be merely taken in. Once inside us it gives us language to see things in ourselves and in the world we weren't able to see before. That's how it works. Other parts of the Bible are different, but it all needs to simply be downloaded.

By default on the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. reading you begin to get understanding of what you are reading. But what is happening, dear friend? What is happening is you are in a process of actively reading the real thing and actively seeking out understanding of what you are reading. Active learning. Learning that happens in long arcs of time in your life (it takes a long time to read the Bible complete, hence the word 'dedicated' put before 'complete readings'). It is effort that pays off in time as well. Not noticeable immediately, but like planting a crop in one season, it manifests in another season further along in time.

Once you gravitate towards the pure school (hopefully you are regenerate and will do so) you identify the main sources of that school and you learn from them. And because you have the raw biblical material in you from the complete readings you are able to discern on-the-mark/off-the-mark. It's not an academic exercise. It's in the realm of spiritual warfare at that point. It's everything that pisses academics off.

I'm not going to go into what constitutes a complete education, higher influences, developing different parts of our very being; but I'll just state that learning has to go to essence. It has to get through the shell of your shallow personality and reach your essential being. All that you hear from the churchian leaders and educators is about surface knowledge, surface learning, going through the motions to ultimately get to the ice cream shoppe which is the real goal at the church level. No, your goal is to get to the summit of the mountain you should be climbing. Then to get beyond summit.

Time is coming to an end

I've identified the most meaningful headline of this era:

Pussy Riot Got Whipped by Cossacks

This suggests a breaking down of the boundaries of historical time.

Yes, time is coming to an end.

Being awake to the battle

Sometimes I feel convicted (that churchy term) to write something.

I just heard something where part of what the person said was, "...hell, the very central camp of Satan..."

My mind immediately ran over what I know of Hades, and Hell, and what happens when unbelievers die, and so on. Also, how where we are now has a correlation in the spiritual realm.

Also, issues of protection and spiritual battle and so on.

Recurrence too.

And how it is all so important and potentially dangerous when not 'seen' or remembered or just taken lightly.

Like, why are some living in living hells here in the realm under the sun, but others, perhaps equally unbelieving, are living in areas where they are under less constraint from evil and idols and less coercion from community and leaders and so on (think of the totalitarian, constant coercion in Muslim lands). Do they have more protection in the spiritual realm - Hades - and how is that maintained? Etc.

So it makes me wonder what am I not doing now that I should be doing. Is my armor on the ground, scattered about me, unattended by me? Is the living Word of the Bible being neglected by me? Shouldn't I be getting it into me strong constantly?

Other things like my behavior don't worry me as much, because I truly seem to not be under the control of active sin or anything stupid like in the past. Yet perhaps a more passive sin might be controlling me, such as laziness or just generally not redeeming the time.

But the general thought that we are in a battle, and we need to be vigilant and strong and AWAKE, all the time (awake to this under-the-sun realm and to the spiritual realm), acting from God's will, came to me. The necessity of not taking for granted a current safe environment and peaceful times. Realizing constantly the real danger of evil and of the Devil and his motives and his army of demons and humans acting from his spirit.

One thing that came to me: how people now in the spiritual realms may be observing me, and how when I am strong and awake and adept in this battle it is impressive, but when I sleep and get lazy and lose contact with my armor I am seen as unimpressive - if not a hapless fool - in that realm. This is inspiration, to act from the knowledge of how you are effecting others, or helping others, in other realms...

The royal attitude of God's royal family

A lot of dark, cloudy inane worldview and philosophy in the minds and hearts of people.

Let's cut through it sharply:

There were Jews who suffered in death camps horribly who then died and went to hell. Yet, there were Nazis who worked in those death camps, administrated them, designed them, and who subsequently became regenerated by the word and the Spirit, and then died and went to be with God in Heaven.

What does this tell you?

It tells you there is no amount of suffering that can keep you out of hell.

And there is no sin, as delineated in the Ten Commandments, that can keep you out of Heaven.

So no more complaining. See your situation.

Gratitude in place of resentment for everything all the time. That's the royal attitude. Royal in the sense of God's royal family.

See through the myriad confusion of the Kingdom of Satan

"Back then the lepers had three fingers on each hand... Now we only have two. Times were so much better back then..."

That wistful observation brought to you by humanity under the unending onslaught of the Devil in this world.

What you want to look for is when they make it so that you can't buy or sell. When you can't buy food. When you can't start a business to support yourself.

That is what Communism did. We see these same measures being put on us here in the United States currently like never before. Before, the Devil really never was able to keep us from buying and selling, and starting businesses. Now?

In all this confusion of conspiracy...seeing obvious evil in this and that current movement, in history, in people and peoples, and so on...it is all simple when you view it from the perspective of the Bible. Not what churches and church leaders and Christian educators tell you about the Bible (they are in institutions and institutions are easy takeover targets for the spirit of Satan), but from the bible itself, which has to be actually read by each one of us so that we are potentially able to see.

I.e. the myriad names and forces and movements, now and in the past, with all the confusion, intentional and self-inflicted, it is all one thing: the Kingdom of Satan in this world.

Some Jews are real, some 'Jews' are not real Jews, some are good, some are evil, Nazis used to be Marxists, U. S. Government protected Marxists in its midst, hated Nazis, only after Nazis attacked Marxists. Zionism, bankers, Khazars, British Empire, Islam, Romanism, Jesuits, conspiracy everywhere, different sources identified by different theorists, undeniable in parts, confused mostly overall, difficult to sort out.....evil exists, things get worse...

What does it all have in common? Godlessness. A hatred of Jesus Christ. (Yes, even in the Christian church; see how denominations are taken over always to become more liberal and unbelieving in what the Bible actually says.)

Where do we get protection? The full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Where do we get discernment and understanding? The Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

Whatever is out there, or among us, or in us, that is obviously a force of evil in one way or another, to one degree or another, is of the Kingdom of Satan, and is the spirit of Satan working through fallen human beings unable to act in any other way unless God regenerates them.

The battlefield is simple. On one side: faith in God. On the other side: faith in myriad false idols, some of them very big and powerful (the totalitarian state, for instance).

In our day a big false idol is also the notion of the 'noble savage.' Or multiculturalism. The Devil is big on this as a means to cause chaos and disintegration. Another is environmentalism. Look how they are able to harness an enormous lunacy such as 'global warming' to effect global mischief in the service of their godless faith. This can't be done without the spirit of Satan infusing people.

It is all Kingdom of Satan operations marching along. Whatever name it has to or wants to take on, whatever cover, whatever illusion, whatever delusion, whatever part of the world it needs to be more powerful in now or later or whenever, i.e. whatever it takes it will do what it does until the return of the King, Jesus Christ.

Get in church, you morons... What's the matter, don't you love Christians? You morons...

Has there been anything in the Christian blogosphere as creepy as the Pyromaniacs blog in recent years? Nothing against Phil Johnson, who seems to have retired from that blog, but Dan Phillips? Frank Turk? Really?

That's like turning your blog over to two Jesuits; one bipolar, the other with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

And the 'yes man' culture they enforce in the comments threads. That's really edifying.

Their latest tirades are a long running theme for them: why morons who call themselves Christians won't assume a position of slavery (their word) and dutifully go to a church on Sunday and love their fellow Christians like morons (like you) are supposed to do. And their style - not just especially the ordained pastor - is so encouraging: "Here, let me say it really slowly for you, moron: it's in the Bible. So maybe you might like to kind of take it seriously to any degree that your idiot self can possibly begin to understand it to begin with? Hmm?"

Priesthood of all believers, pastor. Come down to my church on the street. Oh, you don't want to lower yourself? Not to a moron Christian on the street? Hmm...