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My Dad: 80
Tomorrow my Dad turns 80. He was born December 3, 1939 during World War 2 in Danville, IL, and grew up on a farm in Foster, Indiana along the Wabash River without running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing. My Dad has been the most important person in my life. He and my mom moved in with us and have lived with us now about a year and half. He is type 2 diabetic and more notably, he has alzheimers. He’s not going to get better and he will only get worse. We’re glad to be taking care of him. I’m glad he’s made it this far.
His name is Terence Carlton Brandenburg. He got up every morning of his childhood to milk cows before he went to school. He bailed hay and also ran from a bull and jumped a six foot fence to get away. He has a brother, who lives in Texas, and a sister, who now lives in Misourri. His mom, Nila, was sociable and talkative, a story teller. His father, Charles, was quiet, taciturn, and hard working. They were a church going family, Plymouth Brethren, a country church where he made a profession of faith in Christ under the preaching of an itinerant revivalist.
My dad was never a good student in school. His parents put him in special education class in junior high. He was a good athlete, but because of work on the farm, he could play only two sports, so he chose track and field and football at Covington High School in Covington, Indiana. In the former, he went to the Indiana state final in the 100 yard dash, second place. For decades he held his high school record in the 100 and the long jump, running on cinders in 9.9 seconds. His football team won the Indiana state championship his senior year.
My mom grew up in Clinton, Iowa. Her mom died when she was 8 from a malignant brain tumor. Her dad’s work sent her family from Iowa to North Carolina for a year and then to Covington, Indiana for employment at a factory for the Olin Corporation just out of town, which made cellophane. My dad met her and they married just out of high school.
My father worked a short period as a fireman on the railroad and then when he was only eighteen he started work himself at Olin’s, and stayed there for 17 years. A bigger event was that my dad and mom started also attending First Baptist Church of Covington, and the pastor came to visit and she received Jesus Christ. My dad and mom were both baptized by immersion into the church. My sister was born their first year, I came along three years later, and my brother three years after that. We grew up in the church.
Dad became very involved in the church, as a deacon and door-to-door evangelism. Some were saved through his work. We attended every service and it influenced me greatly. I heard Bible teaching in Sunday School and jr. church and preaching in church services. We invited others to church. I evangelized my classmates, this greatly influenced by my dad’s example.
When dad was in his early thirties, he started attending a Bible institute at a Baptist church in Danville, Illinois. He desired to go into full time service for the Lord, so our family went on a Bible college trip to several places. We met B. Myron Cedarholm at Maranatha Baptist Bible College, and when he was thirty-five, our family moved to Watertown, Wisconsin. We sold our house and most of our belongings. My dad worked two jobs, went to college full time, and sent us three children to Christian school. That sacrifice had the biggest influence on my life.
Our family was never rich, but we became even more poor in Watertown. Our whole family of five large adult sized people rode first in a 1967 volkswagon station wagon with no heat. We scraped the inside of the windshield in the winter, while my dad drove. Our 1972 Vega rusted out in the bottom and we could see the road through the large jagged rust hole in the floor. The shower in the basement of the house, no bathtub, was a pipe out of a crumbling brick wall with a deteriorating concrete floor. However, we were always rich, because we had the Lord Jesus Christ and He had us.
My dad was a strict disciplinarian, what some might call old school, and he required obedience of his children. My fear of my father kept me from wrong activities. Today people would say he went over the line. I don’t think so. I have a lot of stories to tell, but I have not one ounce of resentment. He was loving me. It was exactly what I needed. We also played sports together, sat in church together, and talked about the Word of God. School was difficult for him, but he studied very hard and made the honor roll. He majored in secondary education and Greek, and minored in physical education. When he graduated, he won the award as the top Greek student in the college. He stayed on to teach in the Academy and I had him as a second year Greek teacher my senior year in high school.
Seven years later, my wife and I married and moved to California. My dad and mom had gone to teach at a Christian school in Arizona. A year and half after we started our church, my dad came to become principal of our Christian school. With my mom, he served faithfully first as principal and teacher, then just teacher. He weekly evangelized and taught a men’s Sunday School class. My parents lived in the same small, old two bedroom apartment their entire time in California. They were on time and helpful to every meeting and event, an encouragement to the church.
I could say a lot more, but on his 80th birthday, I want to thank the Lord for my dad and what he has meant to my life. It has been great serving with him and my mom for thirty years in the Lord’s church.
More On Ghosting
The Irish Independent is the most prominent newspaper in Ireland, and yesterday, November 29, 2019, in that paper, Larissa Nolan writes about ghosting in an article entitled, “Into thin air: How ‘ghosting’ became the new normal”:
We’ve all heard about ghosting: the spineless trend of severing a relationship by disappearing from contact. No calls, no texts, no emails – and no warning, explanation or chance to discuss. It’s a particular kind of narcissism, a form of emotional cruelty, according to psychology. It’s a mixture of cowardice, immaturity and modern technology.
I think anyone with an ounce of common sense would recognize this as the truth about this odious, heinous practice, primarily by young people, who very often justify it as a means to “wellness.” Dropping out, they justify, preserves themselves, keeps them well or improves them. In my last post, I spoke about how that psychiatry is notoriously untrustworthy and a pseudo-science. Nevertheless, a major mark psychiatrists give the narcissist is “the silent treatment”:
The silent treatment is probably one of the most common forms of emotional abuse used by narcissists . . . . Narcissists use the silent treatment as a form of punishment for not acquiescing to their point of view or as the way to gain the upper hand and control in their relationships. It’s also a way to avoid discussing important issues in the relationship and avoid taking accountability for their wrong-doings. When a narcissist uses the silent treatment, they will do it in a way that is so out of proportion to the situation. Narcissists will also tend to demand a perfectly delivered apology. If the apology is not said correctly or in the right way, the narcissists will extend the length of the silent treatment. By demanding a perfectly delivered apology, narcissists confirm their dominance and support their exaggerated importance.
If someone reads the entire above article from which this paragraph comes, to possess narcissistic personality disorder, one must check off several markers. Even if ghosting or the silent treatment are narcissistic, this isn’t a biblical means of analysis of human problems. It’s way too subjective and seems as though it is invented to weaponize against a chosen target. The truth about someone is not a matter of an arbitrary culling from studies or articles to conform to an already settled conclusion. This isn’t how the Lord Jesus Christ or any of God’s men in scripture function in service to God and men.
The Bible is sufficient as it speaks to behavior, and ghosting is in no way scriptural. It is a form of extreme separation, but not biblical separation. Separation in and of itself is fine, required even by God in His Word. However, certain forms of separation are evil.
Evangelicals do not practice biblical separation, but I have observed they still practice separation, and an unbiblical version more like ghosting. They are not attempting reconciliation, which is a requirement in biblical separation. Real reconciliation centers on the truth, the basis of reconciliation, bringing two entities back together. The point on which they come together is the truth, aligning with the historic, biblical teaching of the church.
Ghosting is not about reconciliation. It’s many different variations of selfishness. At it’s best, if even possible, someone who desires to avoid the pollution of sin separates in an extreme manner to preserve personal purity. Out of sheer desperation about sinning, a person turns monastic without any warning to those around him. I’ve never seen it. People truly concerned for sin want to help sinners. They know the truth and want others to know it too, because they care.
Someone really can judge belief and behavior based upon scripture. The goal is to get to the right position and practice for God. A person can know that. Some people don’t want that. They want what they want and they don’t want to be challenged — at all. This is the new generation Z and millennials. They have picked upon this new standard of human relations, even with the encouragement of evangelical leaders.
A kind of ghosting behavior actually is not new. It is an extreme form of self-centeredness. I understand it, because I’ve done it. I can’t imagine that any human being hasn’t at least given the “silent treatment” to someone at some point. I remember two instances. It’s a form of throwing a fit, a childish type of tantrum behavior. Instead of reconciling along the lines of Matthew 5:21-26, someone sulks, ignores those around him, and goes silent.
An antidote for ghosting or the silent treatment for a true believer is Ephesians 4:26, let not the sun go down upon thy wrath. It’s a command. It’s not, let not a week, a month, or a year go down upon thy wrath, but the sun. A dispute or division has got to be settled between believers out of love. It’s not right to hold a grudge, hold onto resentment, none of that. It’s self-destructive and dishonoring to God. Much of this goes on between children and their parents today, but also between siblings, and childhood friends. It’s not acceptable, but it is still happening and at an alarmingly increasing rate.
Again, scripture requires initiation of reconciliation, including possible mediation. At the foundation is the love of the neighbor, the love of the brethren, according to the Word and will of God and as fruit of the Spirit. It is also endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. Ghosting and the silent treatment don’t please God and sin against God in their hateful treatment of others.
A Hearing or Listening the First Rightful Response as Thanksgiving
Deuteronomy 5:7 begins the ten commandments in Deuteronomy: “Thou shalt have none other gods before me.” There are at least two and maybe three stages before one arrives at that first command from God. One, God does a lot of good stuff for people. That first one could be divided into more than that one stage. He gave them mercy, He delivered them, and He blessed them physically in numerous ways. These are seen in the first four chapters of Deuteronomy, and in several other places in the Bible. A representation of these are seen, in essence a summation, in chapter 5 and verses 2 to 6:
2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, 5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying, 6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Reading those there, one can see at least:
- Our God — He possesses them and they Him.
- God made a covenant — He made promises to them that He always kept and would keep.
- With us, even us — He chose them out among many other people, and it could have been other people but it wasn’t.
- Alive this day — The very fact that they were alive was a testimony of multiple deliverances by God.
- The LORD talked with you face to face — God kept it personal with the people.
- I am the LORD thy God — He is the LORD their God; enough said.
- Brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage — He saved them from a very difficult situation, Egypt and bondage.
10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever: 11 And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever: 12 With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth for ever. 13 To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever: 14 And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever: 15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever. 16 To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever.
1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. 3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.
And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day.
Faithless Music? The Belief in a Transcendent God Requires Objective Beauty
A material universe exists. Modern science shows that it is not eternal. It had a beginning a finite time ago out of nothing. It is absurd to to say that the universe just popped into existence out of nothing. The existence of the universe requires a transcendent cause that must be spiritual, because it can’t already be a part of the material universe. That cause also must be a lot of other qualities that fit a description of God. Based on the complexity of the universe, the cause must have been the personal choice of an intelligent designer. Vast evidence shows the existence of the universe requires elaborate initial conditions to sustain intelligent life. This has been called the fine-tuning of the universe.
In this complex, personal, and intelligent universe, there are also values. Like the natural laws bind the universe, so do the values, indicating that they too proceed from God. Everyone for instance knows that certain objective, moral laws exist that are wrong to break. The same cause of the universe is the cause of the moral values — God.
The process I’m traversing here fits what Psalm 19 says in the Old Testament and Romans 1 in the New. Psalm 19:1 says:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Romans 1:19-20 say:
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Nature reveals not only the existence of God but also various attributes of God. Sir Isaac Newton at the end of his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy wrote:
[T]hough these bodies may, indeed, continue in their orbits by the mere laws of gravity, yet they could by no means have at first derived the regular position of the orbits themselves from those laws. . . . This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.
The founders of science called science “the wisdom of God.” The Royal Society began in 1660 and in 1667 John Ray became a fellow of the society, writing The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation. David said “their words,” the words of the handiwork of God through His creation, go out “to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:2-3).
The words of creation, providence, and conscience match the Words of God in scripture. Values are transcendent and the scripture, which reflects natural law, manifests those in categories of truth, goodness, and beauty. Since God originated everything, so truth, goodness, and beauty spring from and, therefore, mirror Him. Believing in the existence of God is believing in objective beauty. Rather than state that argument myself, I use the statement of Augustine in his City of God:
Beauty. . . can be appreciated only by the mind. This would be impossible, if this `idea’ of beauty were not found in the mind in a more perfect form. . . But even here, if this `idea’ of beauty were not subject to change, one person would not be a better judge of sensible beauty than another. . . nor the experienced and skilled than the novice and the untrained; and the same person could not make progress towards better judgement than before. And it is obvious that anything which admits of increase or decrease is changeable.
This consideration has readily persuaded men of ability and learning. . . that the original `idea’ is not to be found in this sphere, where it is shown to be subject to change. . . And so they saw that there must be some being in which the original form resides, unchangeable, and therefore incomparable. And they rightly believed that it is there that the origin of things is to be found, in the uncreated, which is the source of all creation.
Furthermore, Augustine writes in his Confessions:
[M]y sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in him but in myself and his other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.
If something can be beautiful, then something can be ugly. Scripture backs up the logic, the natural law of which I and many others through history speak. I provide three verses, two from the Old and one from the New, first 1 Chronicles 16:29 and Psalm 27:4:
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I apply this truth about God and beauty to you professing pastor, who has his play list filled with vile music. I apply this to you professing Christian, listening to your worldly tunes on your road trip or on your way into work in your car or when you work out. I write this to you, who when you hear the ugly, do not turn it off, when you can.
The Continuous Practice of Sin in Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism with Its Music
Young people. . . should and must receive an education in music as well as in the other arts if we are to wean them away from carnal and lascivious songs and interest them in what is good and wholesome.
Mark 4:19, “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”
Romans 1:24, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.”
Romans 6:12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”
Romans 13:14, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:24, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
Ephesians 2:3, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
Ephesians 4:22, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.”
1 Timothy 6:9, “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”
2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity,, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
2 Timothy 3:6, “For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.”
2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
Titus 2:12, “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
Titus 3:3, “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”
1 Thessalonians 4:5, “Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.”
James 1:14-15, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
James 4:1-3, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
1 Peter 1:14, “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.”
1 Peter 2:11, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,, abstain from fleshly lusts,, which war against the soul.”
1 Peter 4:2-3, “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.”
2 Peter 1:4, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
2 Peter 2:10, “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”
2 Peter 2:18, “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.”
2 Peter 3:3, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.”
1 John 2:16-17, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Jude 1:16-18, “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”
Many more can be applied above. They are very serious. The popular music hurts the Christian and displeases God. Those who “walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, . . . despise government.” I’ve never seen more anger than that from those who wish to keep their lustful music. It is feeding their flesh, and they don’t want to or can’t give it up. It becomes more important than God and usually godly parents. Young people take the music over their parents at the same time savaging the parents with scoffing. I’ve watched this again and again. It almost always goes along with immodest clothing as well.
The popular music of the world does not deny “worldly lust,” and so conforms to this present world, the lust of the flesh, rather than proving what is the good and acceptable will of God (Titus 2:11-12, 1 John 2:15-17, Romans 12:1-2). Evangelicalism and fundamentalism is filled with those who disobey these passages in a continuous manner. It leads to a hunger and fascination with many other worldly interests and behaviors. Rather than deny worldly lust, they deny true fellowship with God.
I am not writing here about what is even used in churches today for worship. I’m talking about what Christians do in their lives on an almost every day basis. They not only listen to this music, but they promote it all the time in how they use it in their cars and podcasts. All of this shapes a different view of God than a scriptural one. They might have “God” in their doctrinal statements, but this forms God into the image of their own lust. They subject God to their lust and invent a different, heretical view of the grace of God. Rather than their lives being transformed by the renewing of their minds, they conform God to their lust. It affects everything they do, how they make decisions, what they do and how they live, much more than the continuous practice of sin in disobedience to passages against lust. What I’m explaining, Jonathan Edwards already described in his Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections:
The affections and passions are frequently spoken of as the same; and yet, in the more common use of speech, there is in some respect a difference. Affection is a word that, in its ordinary signification, seems to be something more extensive than passion, being used for all vigorous lively actings of the will or inclination; but passion for those that are more sudden, and whose effects on the animal spirits are more violent, and the mind more overpowered, and less in its own command.
David Wells in No Place for Truth writes:
It is this God, majestic and holy in his being, this God whose love knows no bounds because his holiness knows no limits, who has disappeared from the modern evangelical world.
God hasn’t actually disappeared. He is Omnipresent. He sustains the universe. He is missing from the imaginations of evangelicalism and fundamentalism, replaced by a god shaped by their passions, fed by their lust. Edwards warned of this in his Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections. A different god is shaped in the imaginations formed by lust or passion. Someone chooses his music according to either passion or affection, or his music fashions the passions that lead to a different god in his imagination.
Jessie Penn-Lewis: Binding and Loosing (part 15 of 22)
The content of this post is now available in the study of:
1.) Evan Roberts
2.) The Welsh Revival of 1904-1905
on the faithsaves.net website. Please click on the people above to view the study. On the FaithSaves website the PDF files may be easiest to read.
You are also encouraged to learn more about Keswick theology and its errors, as well as the Biblical doctrine of salvation, at the soteriology page at Faithsaves.
‘I Disobey and Dishonor My Parents Because Jesus Saved Me’: More on Virtual Christianity
In Romans 14:10 Paul says, “[F]or we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” In 2 Corinthians 5:10, he says the similar:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
And hereby we do know that we know him,, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.
You Don’t Care About God’s Standard or God’s Approval: More on Virtual Christianity
Justification by faith brings the “in Christ” position for the believer. “In Christ” the believer is approved before God. That’s how someone is saved by faith. In that way, justification by faith brings approval in Christ. Christ did everything the Father wanted Him to do. He wanted to do it and He did it. In a positional way, the believer receives the imputed righteousness of Christ, the righteousness that Christ lived, and, therefore, is approved in Christ. He doesn’t get this approval by works, but by grace through faith.
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Christians Who Weaponize Secular Psychiatry: Ghosting Again and then Narcissism
What anyone who claims to be a Christian should know by now is that modern psychiatry isn’t science. It can’t be trusted as an assessment of human behavior. It’s essentially a product of modernism, which denies the supernatural or divine intervention. It prefers a human interpretation of everything. Romans 1 calls this suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.
Mechanistic naturalism moves someone into explanations or evaluations of people’s conduct in accordance with secular views of man’s origins. Rather than turning to scripture as sufficient, and with the wisdom of God, the Creator and Sustainer of mankind, he chooses subjective speculation in whatever way he feels it works best for him. Instead of quoting the Bible, he quotes a psychotherapist. A large percentage of the “studies” or “research” are debunked as utter falsehood. It isn’t science, but it is the illusion he embraces over the truth.
Today professing Christians weaponize secular psychiatry, even though it’s false, to excuse bad behavior or justify their own allure for the world. Last week I wrote about generation Z and millennials and their “ghosting.” After I wrote that piece, someone interacted with me:
Yes,”ghosting” is hateful in the extreme. Often it is preceded by thinking or statements like, “You are a toxic personality or a narcissist, so I need to completely cut you out of my life so I can take care of myself, my well-being…” Obviously, there is a lot of “judging” going on by the one doing the ghosting; usually very ironically since the “ghosters” are typically very concerned that they are being judged.
Later I was sent:
It is something that I have just observed has been wildly popular in the culture the last few years. I have seen it all over Facebook and Twitter. There are tons of YouTube videos on it.
I noticed that a lot of the younger crowd is sold out on the idea of “positive only” and that translates into cutting off anyone they deem is bad for them.
They obsess on their “wellness,” and anyone or anything that gets in the way of that is bad. Of course, they really don’t get rid of stuff that actually is bad for them but it is more about just having what they lust for and getting rid of anything that gets in the way of their lusts.
There is a constant consideration of what is good for their body and mind but not really what is truly good for either one. — “whose God is their belly…”
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
If someone behaves poorly in a healthy relationship, upon reconciliation, there is generally an admission of wrong-doing, atonement, and a change in behavior. In a relationship with a Narcissist there is never a desire to have an open dialogue about the ‘problem,’ there is never an admission of wrong-doing and the behavior goes on as it always has. Astonishingly, they act like nothing ever happened. If you bring it up or try to talk about it you will be ghosted again until you learn not to talk about it and you will learn too, because you will remember the agony you were left in.
Virtual Christian Living or Your Christian Brain in a Vat: The Avoidance or Corruption of Biblical Sanctification
Listen to my session from the 2019 Word of Truth Conference. As an addenda to that one, listen to this session from James Bronsveld and this one from Thomas Ross.
Imagine a Christian life you don’t actually live. Jesus lives it for you. You can’t please Him yourself. Impossible. Instead then, just access the life that Jesus lived by faith or by preaching the gospel fluently to yourself (part of the lingo). This supposedly honors God and Jesus more because He’s the one who does it. It’s virtual Christian living where you just click on the faith button, the equivalent of your Christian brain in a vat wired into a Christian matrix.
This false view of sanctification reminds me of the “think system” of Professor Harold Hill in the musical, the Music Man. Why do the hard thing of learning an instrument and how to read music, when someone can just use the think system? The music is as good as being played, even if it is not. Parents all over America have no need to sacrifice for music lessons or to do the hard work at enforcing the practice of an instrument. Even if the child doesn’t want to play, he can just rely on Jesus to have played for him, and feel no guilt for not practicing or improving.
This avoidance or corruption of biblical and historical sanctification takes the doctrine of imputation to a new and different level. It isn’t just positional righteousness imputed to you, which is biblical, but your whole practical righteousness too, which isn’t. Instead of doing the hard thing, the struggle, the beating your body into subjection, pressing toward the mark, fighting the good fight, and mortifying the deeds of the flesh, you just contemplate the cross and imagine that life you couldn’t live to be already lived. Done.
What I’m describing is very convenient. It really does take all the pressure off you to obey all those imperatives of the New Testament. No expectations. No worries about judgment. No need for approval. That was already settled at justification and it remains settled. You just tell yourself it’s already done.
With the hypergrace view, I don’t need to care for my elderly parents, my alzheimer’s-ridden father. I’m not bothered by any compunction for their needs. Jesus settled that. I don’t have to feel judged by anyone in some form of guilt ridden anxiety as they waste away. I can just enjoy my life. I can reduce my work to the equivalent of clicking a like button and adding a few hearts or emojis under a social network posting.
There is no use feeling guilty about disobeying or dishonoring parents, ghosting them, a wife not submitting to her husband, or even for not practicing the Great Commission, because Jesus paid it all. Satiate in that like a Christian brain in a vat. You preach that to yourself and the guilt is gone. Instead you can go binge watch a season of Handmaid’s Tale, as if it were a virtuous activity. Jesus was checked in, while you were checked out. Apparently, this is true freedom, unchained from the expectations of good works for sanctification.
Biblical Sanctification
James in his epistle explains this dead or demon faith in the second chapter. Rather than feeling the obligation of actual service to someone cold and needy, just say, be warmed and filled, and you have that base covered. James though says, no. No, faith without works is dead. Works? Yes, works. You, that’s you, have to do good works. The good works of sanctification don’t count through justification — just the opposite.
The New Testament is filled with imperatives Christians are commanded to do, things to avoid, activities to abstain, qualities to be, such as “be patient,” “be holy,” “be merciful,” and “be glad.” You can’t just turn those over to Jesus to live and then jump in your car to catch a rock concert for you. Paul said he had to struggle to do what he should and not do what he shouldn’t. That struggle isn’t necessary with “let go and let God.”
Young people today want approval without the actual fulfillment of acceptable behavior. They want to experience fleshly lust and the allurements of the world and not be judged for lapping those up. With this system, God always gives them approval, because they’re in Christ and God always approves of His Son. They didn’t think this system up. Peter says that false teachers ‘through covetousness with feigned words have made merchandise of them.’
Jesus did everything the Father wanted Him to do, and in John 17, He prayed that believers would be sanctified in the same way that He was, sanctified by the truth. That sanctification doesn’t come by His doing everything He was supposed to do and then our just trusting in everything that He was supposed to do, getting credit for living the Christian life because He did it for us. Nope. The Bible doesn’t teach anything like that. That is a monumental lie.
Justification and Sanctification
Justification is by grace alone through faith alone through Christ alone and apart from works. We don’t do good works for justification. We receive positional righteousness by faith. We then stand before God as righteous. We don’t have to prove anything, earn anything, or owe anything. The price was paid by Jesus on the cross, His righteousness was imputed to us, and our sins were forgiven, past/present/future.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
We are not sanctified by believing. We are sanctified by working (and believing). You won’t work if you don’t believe, but the sanctification comes by things like “mortification.” It’s hard work. It’s a struggle. You are doing this work, like Paul said, to be accepted of the Father (2 Corinthians 5:9). We’ve already been accepted for justification. That’s settled. We look for acceptance in our post justification works. Someone can have greater fruit and receive greater rewards (1 Cor 3, 2 Cor 4-5). In Roman 12:1, we present our bodies a living sacrifice, and the consideration for us is that presentation, acceptable to God. If so, it won’t conform to this world (Romans 12:2).
I call on anyone who has received or obtained or borrowed this false view of sanctification to repent. Leave it behind. Forsake it. It is a cultic view formulated to allure its adherents as prey. Sanctification is the second phase of ultimate salvation, the first justification, and the third glorification. Your acceptance of an utterly corrupt, false view of sanctification does not bode well for your justification or your glorification. If you don’t like the kingdom of Jesus Christ now, living it out on earth in your sanctification, why would you think you would enjoy it in the future? You love this present world, not the future one.
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