----- Original Message -----
Sent: March 29, 2004 12:35
Subject: [TruthTalk] M Scott Peck a
Christian LOL
Charles, you wrote about M Scott Peck
I did not consider him a Christian. Or even a Buddhist, or anything. I
considered him a psychologist. Nothing more, nothing less.[….] Rather than
wallow in my secular journey as an
adversary, can you celebrate with me in my spiritual awakening, belief, and salvation? There is much
more to my story than just reading Scott Peck. It was not the only, and not
even the greatest influence going on in my life at the time.
Jt: Yes Charles I can rejoice with you over your ‘spiritual awakening’ but
there is a very important issue here with regard to truth vs error and
let me remind you that I am not your adversary. You may not see it now but I
am here to challenge listers to fix our eyes on Jesus and to ‘contend for
the faith once delivered to the saints’ which in our generation is no easy
feat because the professing Church is at present hopelessly enmeshed with
mixture and has little or no spiritual discernment to speak of. You hear
more about smart men and psychobabble than you hear God’s Word today and
people with emotional issues now look to secular counseling to try and fix
their spiritual problems. Yes, we do have an adversary but he is not
me.
For example Izzy wrote to Lance: Thanks for the
comments. I agree completely, sadly enough. I have no hope
of unity either.
I say why not? Where is faith? Jesus will not come for a messed
up sick, fragmented bunch who act like devils but claim to belong to Him. The
Church He returns for will be “without spot, Wrinkle, or blemish” So how do we
get from here to there? Certainly not by turning to psychological gurus who
peddle this worlds wisdom.
Sinfulness/selfishness/flesh is a fact of life on
earth.
It is but it is not supposed to be a ‘fact of life’ in the Church
(unless you are John) sanctification is a second work of grace and Jesus died
so that we could be free. However only His truth will make us free
and that when choose to walk in it.
We can only try to keep our eyes on our own failings, and
try to avoid toxic relationships that drag us down. I
guess that’s why I tend to avoid the subject of doctrine—everyone has a different opinion about everything. Infinite hairsplitting.
The fruit of the mixture. This concept of toxic relationship (a new
psychiatric condition labelled in May 2003) points the finger at others
because of their demonics while excusing our own. This is the stuff you
find on Oprah Winfrey and she pays Dr. Phil to come with his worldly wisdom to
give the illusion that he is fixing something. Where does sin comes from? Out
of our own heart (see Matt 15:19) and until we deal with ourselves we
are part of the problem and we are doing the same as Adam in the
garden when he pointed the finger blaming God instead of taking responsibility
for his own actions; accusing spirits are from the adversary.
If you were looking at Jesus, face to face, right now I am sure that
doctrine would be the LAST thing on your mind.
So I just keep trying to look at Him.
Impossible! How do we know we are looking at the right Jesus
aside from His Word? God has not left us an image to follow and the
4th commandment forbids making one so any Jesus we could
conjure up outside of what is written is only a figment of our own imagination
and no better than the Jesus of the cults “His sheep hear
His voice and another voice they do not follow”
Without sound doctrine we don’t know what voice we are
following.
(“
We know that when He appears, we will
be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” I John 3:2) Seems to me that the
important thing is what kind of relationship we have with the Lord, and how that is reflected in our everyday life.
Outside of His Word there is no relationship. He sets the terms and He says
“If you love me you will do what I say (John 14:15). When we love Him enough
to take his word seriously and do what he says then we will know of the
doctrine - and this is when He and the Father will make their
abode with us and the spirits will obey us so we can help others. Until
we reach this point we are ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of Truth and may even be helping to establish the wrong kingdom.
