More Venom from the "Spirit-Filled" Camp


  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:21-23

"You will know them by their fruits." - Matthew 7:20

Chippy the Attack Gopher

on the rampage against

those mean ol' Pharisee types

who read their Bibles!

"How dare you question

the Mighty Prophet

Gopher,  heretic?!?!?"

Recently, a fellow Christian writer and biblical counselor and I were attacked online, for daring to question the veracity of extreme "deliverance ministries" (and those who set themselves up as "prophets"). What made this particular attack so odd was that neither he nor I commented with a critical spirit, challenged anyone to a debate, OR questioned the fruit of the individual's life. What we were questioning, (and quite objectively, I might add), was the aberrant theology being promoted. Neither of us said anything the least bit sarcastic or inflammatory, nor did we attempt to bait the blog owners. This rabid hatred completely blind-sided me -- from individuals claiming to be Christ-followers.

Moreover, on the basis of one reference to 1 Corinthians 11-14 (cessation of the sign gifts) and 2 Thessalonians (referring to the lying signs and wonders in the last days), I was then told I was "obviously not a Christian"; "could not be saved"; sarcastically dismissed for my polite tone; called "trite"; and accused of raising a "strawman" (sic). I think the writer meant "red herring" in this context, but I'll let that slide. This was on the basis of ONE COMMENT simply giving a hermaneutic frame of reference for the apologist's comment. As a newcomer to this particular blog, I deliberately worded my explanation as respectfully and diplomatically as possible, leaving rhetoric and argument out of it.

The attack on the other writer, who actually responded to the sneering and personal insults, was even worse. This hatefulness was on a "Christian" blog, from people who don't even know us. Sadly, we agreed with our attackers' mission - a ministry to ex-homosexuals (the blog exposes the lie of homosexuality, and gives the biblical truth to those coming out of this lifestyle). None of that mattered. We gave the (substantial) biblical proof of A) cessation of the sign gifts; B) that demonic deliverance in the Bible was an act of mercy, not a way of ridding sin; C) people are delivered from life-dominating sins by faith and repentance, NOT by the "casting out" of the demon of ____(fill in sin of choice).

None of that mattered. We dared touch the sacred cow of C. Peter Wagner's fictitious "Five-Fold Ministry", and thus were deemed worse than pagans. My most heinous offence? Suggesting that freedom from homosexuality was by repentance, rather than "supernatural deliverance complete with prophetic words of knowledge". How dare I question a Prophetess, who is now a Prayer/Intercessor/Fast-er (for a small donation to her ministry, of course). Never mind that no biblical prophet(ess) ever charged a cent for praying.

Most of my regular readers know that I am a nouthetic counselor in training, and am publishing a book about biblical repentance from eating disorders. Many of you have read my testimony, through my "Redeemed from the Pit" blog (where I get attacked, regularly, for having the audacity to call bulimia a sin). After being set free by the grace of God, after 17 years enslaved, I think I know something about the power of the Holy Spirit. (Despite the unwarranted and relentless attack by these rabid charismaniacs to the contrary). My colleague, the apologist? A "rock-throwing Pharisee-cum-Sadduccee". Again, the venom was poured out on us for no other crime than being cessationists, and holding a "Prophetess'" claims up to the light of Scripture (which 1 John 4:1 commands us to do). According to my Bible, God takes false prophets (and prophetesses) very, very seriously.

What these rabid, hate-filled, desperation-driven seekers of signs fail to realize is that when one makes an extra-biblical claim, the burden of proof is on them. An argument cannot be made from silence. The Lord Jesus said "repent and believe"; not "pray for a demon to be cast out and to receive an extra-biblical prophetic word". The Canon of Scripture is closed, but even if we agree to disagree on that, the proof is in the unChrist-likeness of their response. Jesus Himself said that " a man speaks out of the abundance of the heart".  Our words were "filled with grace and seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6), but the "Spirit filled Christians" responded with malice, slander and harshness. They returned goodwill with evil. They did not content themselves with a single snide remark, but continued to slander us even after we graciously bowed out of further dialogue. Hmm...they were filled with a spirit of something, that's for sure.

Rotten fruit simply doesn't grow from a good tree. I admit I'm perplexed and cannot explain where this evil comes from in ones who claim the Name of Christ, but a brief look at the three moderators' blogs revealed morbid prose about flesh burning off of bodies in hell, below-the-belt verbal assaults on other people, and an irrational (albeit unsupported) allegiance to the new-fangled idea that the office of Apostle has somehow been restored. Aha...so that's it, I thought. Pride....and a desire to be self-important. We inadvertently 'messed with' that idol, and now their feathers are all ruffled!' No doubt when they're passing out on the floors of their sanctuaries, barking like dogs or screaming gibberish, they think themselves oh-so-much holier than we mere students of the Word, and therefore are vindicated by cursing and damning us with no cause. Yes. So much holier.

By their fragrant fruits ye shall know them, indeed. They act just like their father.

The ultimate irony? One of the rabid 5-Folders has John Macarthur's "Grace to You" linked at the top of his homepage. I laughed out loud when I saw that -- Macarthur makes the two of us look like continuationists!!!

David Powlinson on "Life Beyond Your Parents' Mistakes"

David Powlinson is a well-known CCEF counselor, writer and speaker at biblical counseling conferences. Also a member of the Board of NANC, he has produced many books, presentations and mini-books on a variety of practical topics. Along with Ed Welch's writing, I find Powlinson's material to be extremely helpful...not just as a biblical counselor in training, but for my own personal edification.

This week, CCEF's publishing arm, New Growth Press, made a free download available of Powlinson's "Life Beyond Your Parents' Mistakes: The Transforming Power of God's Love". In the 32-page booklet, Powlinson deconstructs the Freudian myth that human beings cannot experience God as Father without having had a loving, nurturing father figure. It is just such reasoning that has led to unhealthy dependency on the counselor, which often accompanies psychology-based therapy. This view also promotes the myth that "re-parenting or corrective emotional experience" is needed in order to know God as He is. It also begs the questions Powlinson raises:

"Are there any people with bad parents who have a great relationship with God? Are there any people with good parents who have a rotten view of God?"

Powlinson uses Scripture to counter this man-centric reasoning, which distorts the nature of the human heart and the reasons why people believe lies about God. Seeing God through the lens of an abusive, remote, or disinterested parent denies the power and truth of how God actually works through His Word and Spirit. Axiomatically, insisting that one must first experience a corrective human relationship to believe the reality of God's fatherly love is essentially to turn Almighty God into an almighty psychotherapist.

It is a sad fact that those of us who had abusive parents (especially of the "religious" variety) often project those images onto the true God. There is a hurt and a betrayal that doesn't just go away the moment we became Christians, and Powlinson acknowledges this. However, having sinful (or even evil) parents, of course, does not mean God is that way, so why do we often twist our view of God? Powlinson doesn't let us off so easily - and his clear, compassionate but uncompromisingly biblical angle makes us sit up and listen.

Other titles by which God identifies Himself include King, Shepherd, Master, and Savior. If human equivalents of these descriptions are corrupt, does that influence the way we see God? Not usually. Powlinson writes:

"Clearly, our fallen experience need not control us. Yet for many, the truth that "God is Father" seems to be the exception. They do feel that their knowledge of God the Father is controlled by the earthly parallel. So we turn to the second question: Must your own father dictate the meaning of that phrase until a substitute human father puts a new spin on it?"

This backwards, create-your-own-god philosophy comes from Freud and Erikson, not the Bible, and caters to our sinful tendency to find excuses and reasons for unbelief. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are prone to look for excuses and blame outside ourselves for our false beliefs and sinful behavior. (Case in point: try convincing a bulimic, even a Christian one, that bulimia is not a 'genetic disease'. Now insert a mental image of me tearing my very long hair out. Okay, illustrative rant over -- back to correcting our view of God.) 

As with any false belief or assumption, this view of God as remote, severe or capricious must be countered with Scripture itself - the living and active Sword of the Spirit, and the only way God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. Powlinson points out that we change when we see what God tells us about Himself, as portrayed in Isaiah 49:13-16 (a nurturing Comforter); Psalm 103:10-13 (compassionate Father); and 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 (gentle, encouraging and comforting Father). Ultimately, the sacrificial love of Christ in coming to die for rebellious children displays the pinnacle of what God's fatherly love is - an historical fact from which counselees often feel disconnected.

Of course, these are only a very small sample of all the Scriptures revealing God as the perfect Father; one of the specific steps Powlinson recommends the reader take is to go through the Bible, finding specific truths that contend with the lies and cravings he identifies in his thinking about God. "There ought to be a battle going on within you daily as God's light and love battle your darkness," he advises.

This booklet is extremely helpful not only in defining the problem, but also in countering it on biblical terms and pointing the reader back towards the only source of truth and help - the Word of God - for the solution. Additionally, in true biblical counselor form, Powlinson leaves the reader with nine well-thought-out, probing questions to work through in order to identify and change warped thinking about God, due to parental abuse or poor relationship. I plan to tackle them myself, and expect it will take me at least three months to fully explore and resolve them. God desires His children to know Him as He is, not to view Him through the warped lens of fallen humanity! This little book is a helpful, convicting resource to help Christians struggling with a "dysfunctional" past not to use that as an excuse to keep God at arm's length. I highly recommend it for counselors and counselees alike.

(To download the free book, go to New Growth Press's Facebook fan page.)

Christ's Endurance of Verbal Abuse and Slander

"Jesus Answering Critics," Artist Unknown.
World Mission Collection (Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary)

The Gospel of John is a treatise on Christology. John emphasizes several essential doctrines of the Christian faith less obvious in the Synoptic Gospels: the deity of Christ; the pre-existence, the Word made incarnate. One additional feature prominent in John's Gospel that stands out to me is the patience and perseverance of our Lord under unrelenting verbal attacks and criticism.

While the reader needs to be extremely careful not to read his/her own agenda into any biblical text, one can easily read between the lines into the character of Christ and thus what He expects from His followers. Each time I read John, from the challenge to His authority issued in chapter 3 to the mocking of the Roman soldiers at the crucifixion, I am struck anew at how much unmitigated hatred and slander Jesus endured....all the while still extending the offer to His tormentors: "Come to Me."

Yesterday, while discussing the lingering effects of abuse with a counselee, I was able to pull together a few biblical insights we have on how to bear up under unjust suffering and slander. To answer the question of how a victim's heart is to respond, 1 Peter 2:13-4:19 is an excellent passage. The Bible is filled with additional exhortations on how a Christian is to respond to attacks either from an enemy or fellow believer, and it is unnecessary to enumerate them all here. What I wanted the woman to see, however, is how Jesus is able to empathize and have compassion on victims of all kinds of abuse - including verbal - because He continually took it on the chin during His earthly ministry.

"Jesus, Did You Hear What They Said About You?!?"

The next time you read through John, pay special attention to the reaction of the Jewish establishment and their cronies from chapter 5 (following the healing at the Bethesda pool) right up until the Triumphal Entry in chapter 12. Long before we get to Calvary, Jesus bore the hateful attacks, sneers, and unfounded criticism of the religious establishment. Literally no good deed was left unpunished, and Scripture records at least two other attempts on His life (by stoning; for alleged blasphemy). On the heels of one such attack, Jesus heals a blind beggar - unasked - on His way out of town. The man is subsequently excommunicated from the Synagogue for bearing witness to Christ, and Jesus then goes out of His way to find him.

Think on THAT the next time you're tempted to slide into self-pity!

Chapters 7 and 8 of John primarily compose one verbal barrage after another against the One Who came to save them. Each time I read the account, my jaw drops at the amount of hostility Jesus put up with....including a barely-veiled jibe implying that He was illegitimate (John 8:41b). And how does He respond? Righteously, by calling out the sin and hypocrisy of His critics - but also graciously, by calling them to repentance. Right up until Wednesday of Passion Week, two days before His humiliating execution, we see Jesus in the temple courts - preaching, persuading, imploring those who despised Him to come unto Him.

While we know that Christ was, and is, fully human as well as fully divine, I can't help but wonder if the rejection and attacks hurt His feelings in the same way we would experience emotional pain. The reason this gives me pause is that, usually, when our feelings are hurt, it is a personal slight - not God's honor and glory - that has been wounded. The only time we see Jesus getting angry in the Gospels is when His Father's honor has been compromised. The personal attacks seem to roll of His shoulders, and He is consistently willing, ready and able to overlook the offense and forgive. His continual call to repentance is just that - an invitation to lavish grace and undeserved forgiveness.

What does this have to do with nouthetic counseling? Almost every issue for which a person seeks godly counsel is a result of sin - either one's own, or the effects of another's sin upon the counselee. Many have (accurately) noted that the scars of emotional abuse go much deeper than those of physical abuse...long after the bruises are healed, hateful words and false accusations still ring in our ears. It is not helpful to pretend that this is not the case, but nor do attempts to re-write the past (inner healing; visualization) help the victim. Furthermore, seeing one's self as a "victim" can cause compounded sin - self-pity and sinful reactions. What I have found, along with many others, is that returning to the plain text of the Bible reveals a Savior Who truly knows what it is to suffer even this maddening type of abuse. His patient, principled and loving response (forgiveness; a desire for reconciliation) provides us, His disciples, with the only God-honoring response there is to abuse and slander.

Douglas Bookman writes, "...our besetting temptation is to glorify self: to live life as if we were the center of the universe, as if the enhancement of our reputation were a meritorious pursuit, and as if our contentment were the greatest good of the cosmos. That is why every believer must continually be confronted with the demand that God be honored as God." (Emphasis mine; "Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically", p. 56). Do you see the irony here? Jesus, Who was God in the flesh, did not seek to enhance His own reputation - although He was due ALL honor and glory alone. Yet we are preoccupied with seeking our own glory, and this is the underlying reason unmerited criticism hurts us so much. It all goes back to pride, a sin which (obviously) never marred Christ's character.

Jesus Himself warned us that we are to expect to be torn down:

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me."(John 15:19-21)

While I am deeply sorry for the harassment and rejection Jesus endured, I am eternally grateful that He did. His response shows the incredible humility and meekness [def: power under control] embodied by our Gentle Shepherd, and knowing the human level on which He can relate increases my trust and love of Him. His assurance in John 10:13-15 that He cares about the sheep is woven throughout all 4 Gospels, and we can be sure that He cares, and understands, when we feel the sting of slander.