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May 16, 2011

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Q/A Topic:

VW too Simplistic and Arrogant?

    "Now I exhort you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and snares, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them." (Ro16:17)
A couple years ago a long-time subscriber sent me a letter, which, due to its content, I did not reply to it. In all those previous years I don't recall that he ever wrote personally (most don't); thus, I don't 'know' the person. Now, this past week he sent that letter again, with an accompanying e-mail chastising me for not having replied to it the first time. (It took him TWO YEARS??) You see: I was supposed to have either A) written to 'correct' him, or B) indicated how I had received his correction and mended my ways. (Not his words, but the general gist) He then also submitted the "unsubscribe" form.

I'm not going to post his letter. But his main bones of contention are worth observing. His letter did not warrant a reply, because his arguments were the very things we refute regularly. His arguments have been answered, on-going for years, before he posited them in the letter.

CASTING OUT DEMONs:
In addressing Tourette Syndrome and other things, we speak of and "diagnose" certain things as being "demon possession". While he was in agreement with the diagnoses; Why was I not going around casting out those demons, and exhorting others to do the same? When Jesus diagnosed demon-possession, He "cast them out".

VW RESPONSE:
I find the 'timing' of this whole thing rather fascinating. A couple days ago a (female) customer comes in, notices the (bright yellow) paper sign in the front window with VW's web-address, asking about my "proclamation of faith". Asks after my 'authority' to do what I'm doing: Have you been ordained "by man"? No. By God? Yes. She seems pleased by that, and then goes into a speech how she, also, was "ordained by God" and ministers thus, so, and that way, and is a chaplain. Do you believe in the "full gospel"? And while claiming to believe what the Bible teaches, as I read a couple things to her from the Bible, she also believes "from Jeremiah and Ezekiel" that God's Spirit is poured out "on ALL FLESH". I guess she forgot that that passage is Joel ch2, and a different context than the Church, and for another time. I was prepared with a couple Scriptures for when she would come to pick up her order, and the next day, instead, her husband came to pick it up. Phew! I didn't really want to talk to her again anyway!

But what about this topic? Perhaps some think this "full gospel" lady is off-topic from this writing? Out of -whom- did Jesus cast demons? Out of -every- demon-possessed person, whether they wanted healing or not? When He arrived by boat the demon-possessed "met Him" (Mt8:28) The little boy was "brought to" the disciples and the father pleads with Jesus to heal him. (Mt17) Other demon-possessed were "brought to" Him. (Mt4:24, 8:16, 9:32, 12:22, etc) All the sick and infirm THAT WERE BROUGHT to Jesus, He "healed everyone of them" (Mt8:16, 12:15)

But what happened when certain ones tried to take upon themselves, as charismania and full-gospel do, authority not given by God? "We command you by Jesus whom Paul preaches"

    "Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them and subdued them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified." (Ac19:16-17)
Why is a person demon-possessed? In the case of charismania their evil hearts lust for it and go into it -willingly-. They -ask- for it. They ask to be "spirit-filled". They engage in eastern meditative mantras (that Scripture does not command) to purposely "empty" their minds. And as Jesus taught, the empty mind is an OPEN INVITATION for "unclean spirits" to take up residence. (Mt12:43-45) And Jesus says, "the last state of that man is worse than the first" (vs45) They -claim- to be saved, but are not content with Biblical definition that a person who is saved -has- the Holy Spirit, and if a person is minus the Spirit, he is not saved (Rom8:9); but while claiming to believe that, ALSO lust after the "outpouring on all flesh" (Jo2:28)

Does God's minister go up to such a person and try to -force- the demon out, against the will of the 'host' individual? Remember that the...

    "...spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." (1Co14:32)
Even the Holy Spirit does not -force- an individual against his will. Why is it any different with unclean spirits?
    "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (Ja4:7)
Aside from charismania, is it possible that many people of the world don't realize what they are getting into when they first start doing yoga, accupuncture, tattoo, massage, holistics? What is the spiritual state of those who engage in goth and other satanic activities? If they got into it ignorantly...
    "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Ac17:30)
But there are also those who -think- they are God's ordained servants who will be wailing in that day....
    "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many works of power in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work out lawlessness!" (Mt7:21-23)
In addition to which: those who have Tourette Syndrome (where this topic started) are often firmly entrenched in their condition. Due to the article posted at the site, I've gotten a couple e-mails from such, and can assure you they are in NO state-of-heart and humility to be healed. You don't go casting out demons and healing people who DON'T WANT to be healed.

SIMPLISTIC:
If A is true, therefore B is false

VW RESPONSE:
If it is a true statement that (A) Joe -WALKED- to the store; then the statement that (B) Joe -RODE THE BUS- to the store is 'false'. "simple" The true statement is, well... TRUE. The statement that disagrees with that is, thus... FALSE. A vs B.

Now, the individual tried to prove otherwise with the "self-esteem" argument.

SELF-ESTEEM:
if man is depraved in God's sight, is he thus "worthless in himself"? No. He is "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps139)

VW RESPONSE:
The quote "worthless in himself" is quoting the person directly. And since the signature indicates a 'law' firm, I suspect he -meant- what he said. People who deal in law are used to wrangling about precise words. Our former president, when trying to wriggle out of having been caught in lies, tried to debate what the "meaning of -is- is".

OF COURSE man is -worthless- "in himself". It was when man was "in himself", and thus "without strength" that "Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom5:6) Adam was made "in the image of God" (Ge1:27, 9:6) But when Adam sinned, his offspring came in the "image of Adam" -SINNERS- (Ro5:12) Even as a Believer, and yet in the flesh, Paul wails, "O wretched man that I am" (Ro7:24) When Job sees God, and then reflects on himself, bewails, "I despise myself" (Job42:6) When Isaiah, the foremost prophet who proclaimed God and Christ to Israel, sees God's glory, "Woe is me! for I am undone!" (Is6:5) These, all, -NOT- expressions of self-esteem.

But what does Ps139 proclaim? Man's self-esteem? We were "awesomely and wonderfully made". That sentence is -passive- voice. The action was done -to- somebody/something. We WERE MADE... not by our own AWE-wait-for-it-SOME-wait-for-it-NESS. No! We were 'hand-crafted' by the Almighty Creator God.

While our physical fabrication in the womb by God is awesome, David also confesses...

    "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Ps51:5)
That's not... quite... SELF-ESTEEM, is it. This person's letter had all the earmarks and sense of the person who took me under his wing, upon hearing that my wife had left me (over 20 years ago). (I now know she was my unequal yoke, but didn't yet then, at the time) This person was the very embodiment of what I would read a year later in Dave Hunt's books on "christian" psychology. This person went to the same church I was attending. He claimed to be a Christian. And yes, his favorite passage was Ps139. And during the times we got together....I went to his house regularly for a period of time, as though he was the 'counselor' and I was the 'patient'....he also proposed this theory: Supposing that babies could be born, and then immediately plopped into this idyllic environment where there were NO ADULTS - PARENTS to "harm their psyches", and the babies could always receive everything they wanted and craved, without adults telling them "NO" to any of their desires, that a human race would grow out of that that was sinless and perfect. That it is "parents" who -create- sinners by withholding desires and suppressing the baby's self-esteem. Up until that point, as he was rattling off the psychobabel, I was 'listening' to him, because it "made sense" (at the time). But when he, a self-proclaimed "christian", was proclaiming babies "sinless" at birth, I knew something was askew. In addition, God ALREADY DID what he was proposing. He put Adam and Eve in that idyllic environment; nobody came before them to mess them up. Or was he going to suggest that Eden was -NOT- 'perfect', when God declared it "extremely good"? (Ge1:31)

But you see...if we are "awesomely made", how could we be sinners? Like the favorite comeback of the 70s, and the following years by those who grew up during the 70s, "GOD DON'T MAKE NO JUNK!" God did NOT -make- "junk". But when the serpent came along, what did he pump up in Eve? "You will be as God" (Ge3:5) Eve's self-esteem. It was Eve's sense of self-esteem and self-worth that got her into trouble, and led her to sin.

The truth (A) It's just the opposite of what the world (and pretend christians) proclaim (B). Thus, indeed: When A is true, then B is false.

SALVATION STATUS of OTHERS:
PB's arrogance that: Acceptance of all vw teaching is an indicator that one is saved or not. In other words, if a person doesn't agree with PB, they're not saved. "Is it not better to teach truth and correct error than to judge others' salvation status"?

VW RESPONSE:

    "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Ro10:9-10)
When Jesus commanded the message:
    "and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name to all nations, beginning out of Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." (Lk24:47-48)
And also...
    "...unless you repent you will all likewise perish." (Lk13:3,5)
and somebody proclaims that "repentance is not necessary" for salvation. Or that salvation "does not include" repentance... by the CONFESSION OF THEIR MOUTH, they have proclaimed a "contrary" doctrine. BY DEFINITION they are NOT SAVED. That is not PB from VW -judging- their "salvation status". That's not my job! God is the Judge! It is THEIR OWN MOUTH which CONDEMNS THEM. I am merely hearing their words, comparing it to Biblical Doctrine, and 'connecting the dots'; making the conclusion which -they- proclaimed...accepting them at their word, regarding what is in their own heart. "For out of the heart proceed...." (Mt15:19)
    "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Mt12:34)
You see, this is why today's apostasy wants to "tear down walls". During the height of the Promise Keepers days, and I was still tuned to the local Moody radio station for waking up in the mornings, I would hear them play the song, "Walls come down, walls come down..." They tear down the "walls" of DOCTRINE. When they listen to, and accept the teachings of other spirits, than what the Bible teaches, they are adhering to OTHER GODS. They are of a different spirit. They are NOT "in Christ". (2Co5:17) By definition.

By the confession of their (own) mouths. I did not make that judgment. Well, I -did- make a "righteous judgment" (Jn7:24), based on the CLEAR WORD of SCRIPTURE. But it was -their- mouth that judged them.

    "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment." (Mt12:36)
CONCLUSION:
Of course, all of this has already been said on numerous times, both in mailings, and also those mailings that get posted to the website. My 'responses' here are nothing new. Anybody who has been around here even a handful of years has heard them at least several times. These topics tend to continually cycle around. Just as, when a person reads the Bible cover-to-cover, as one passes through the pages, many topics repeat themselves, often, too. God was -continually- 'repeating' things to Israel, so they would not forget. But even so, Israel continually rebelled. And so, in like-fashion, we repeat to today's rebellious generation (Ezk2:3-7); as Paul wrote...
    "For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe." (Php3:1)
Amen!

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