PropheZine #91 (http://www.prophezine.com) March 15, 2000 Bob Lally Publisher Mimi Nila Senior Editor Rick Woodcock Asst. Editor Abraham George Asst. Editor Lori Eldridge Asst. Editor Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor To Subscribe, Unsubscribe or Change email addresses see notice at the bottom of this newsletter. ********************************************************** ********************************************************** International Prophecy Conference 2000! Hi everyone! This years International Prophecy Conference will be held in Orlando Florida April 5-8. Come hear 13 of the the best Prophecy teachers. It is actually 4 conferences in one. To learn more about the speakers and the conference please visit http://www.godsnews.com/confhome.htm ********************************************************** ********************************************************** ARTICLES Robert Longman......... Discernment : Finding God's Will In A Sea Of Nonsense Ken Onweller............ The Hope Of Glory: Jesus Christ Zenith Merrill...........Pluralism: The Sin of the New Tolerance Ray Stedman.........Discernment COMMENTARIES FROM THE YOUNGER SET Submitted by Bob Ippolito.........Children Write to God ========================================================== Hi Everyone, There is so much deception going on in the church today regarding what is of God and what is not that I thought an issue focusing on discernment and related topics might be timely. The following articles will not only give us a glimpse into how easy it is to be deceived but also show us a way out. As the Bible plainly explains, most sin is the result of Idol worship in one form or another. When we turn the focus on ourself or others then we are very easily led away from the most basic concept of Christianity--trusting in Christ and His Word. Without discernment we are like one of those complacent frogs sitting in a nice warm bath that is eternally getting hotter and hotter while the mind gets sleepier and sleepier until it finally dozes off, i.e., frog soup. I hope you are blessed by this issue, Lori Eldridge Assistant Editor Bob Lally Publisher ========================================================== | | Discernment: Finding God's Will in a Sea of Nonsense | by Robert Longman | WHAT IS DISCERNMENT? Discernment of gifts is one of the most important functional gifts that those in the Body can be given. For it is how the Body gets the people God wants into the role He wants them in. Discernment isn't an afterthought tacked on at the end of whatever it is we do on the off chance that the Spirit was doing something. Discernment is a basic course of action. Church actions should be set up to discern the right direction before your event, to keep effective tabs on it during the event, and to debrief after the event, taking whatever disciplinary actions or clarifying lessons are needed. EXPECT that the Spirit will lead, if really asked and really given a chance to do so. Discernment of spirits is a gift given to the whole church, and within the context of the church, the gift may be given to individuals for leading the church in its discernment process. The gift shows itself in people who are given a 'spiritual eye' for cutting through facades and confusion, for getting to the heart of the matter. Someone who's gifted in discernment finds where the devil is at work in seemingly good things, and where the Spirit is working when things aren't working right. Some think of discernment as merely a skill, seeking those with the right skills. That sounds to me more like a corporate bureaucracy than a church, and we know how poorly those generally do the job. But we are God's people, where mere fishermen are history shakers, where stuttering fugitives become bold leaders for the people's freedom, where ordinary young men slay mighty warriors of great skill with a well-aimed stone from a slingshot. This is not skill, at least not until after they've exercised the gift for awhile. Discernment is a gift from God. That being said, discernment is not without means. There are processes and tools that God gave us to use in order to discern rightly; there are lessons God has taught us that help us find out what God is up to. Discernment is only rarely a zap from beyond; it is, as a rule, something that emerges. Spiritual discernment is a fallen thing; like everything else in this world we are part of, it is bound by our imperfections (1 Cor 13:9,12) and thus can be false or shallow or merely mistaken. But it helps greatly to have the right attitude toward it : 1. Make sure you can be held accountable, on small things as well as large ones; 2. Allow others to hold you accountable (don't fight back nor blindly accept, but pay attention and be a servant about it); 3. Be ready to hold others accountable, if need be. It is important to discern the spirit of gifts: the devil makes imitations, and the human mind can create the appearance of a gift. (This is spoken of in 1 Cor 12:10; 1 Jn 4:1-3.) If a gift is being used to spotlight or further the earthly power of its wielder, it is to be distrusted as being of Satan. "Discernment" is sometimes used to throw bricks at other people, to defeat them in a struggle for power or influence, or just to pick at them until they quit or retreat. One has to discern whether what is done in the name of 'discernment' is done from love, or whether it just is a clanging gong or a noisy cymbal. Jesus didn't call us to love ideas, he called us to love people. When discerning, it's important to stay focused on why you are doing what you're doing. The Christian is called to ask him/herself, "By bringing this issue up, how am I pointing people to Christ? How am I helping them grow in the Spirit?" If there is no answer to those questions, or if you have to stretch far and wide to come up with a complicated or weak answer, then it's probably best not to speak. Indeed, it's probably time to focus on listening, because it's your time to learn. SCRIPTURE AND DISCERNMENT When Peter wrote on the ending of his era, he was not in writing about a coming end of spectacular gifts, but of the end of the earthly lives of those who bore witness to the resurrected Christ. Their testimony had to remain when they were gone. The Gospels and Acts were all written with that very directly in mind. The Epistles were written as those apostle/witnesses did their apostolic duty. Their role was about to pass from the scene, but new roles would arise in their place, roles that are already mentioned in the Epistles. And with those new roles came new gifts. Paul, in 1 Cor 13:8, told us that the gifts will eventually end, because "when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with" (v.10). Paul was not really speaking of the end of gifts, but of the end of all earthly matters -- gifts included -- keying on what will last, "faith, hope, and love" (v.13). For the Reformers, and for us today, we turn to Scripture to teach us what is the Spirit's. This is where we know the Spirit speaks, and because this is where the Spirit tells us the divine purposes; the Spirit will not work against it. It is in Scripture where the Spirit's priorities are shown, where the vision of the Kingdom is shared with us. We simply can't identify the Holy Spirit from the Deceiver without it. We will fail to distinguish our will and words from God's Purposes and Word. This is especially true of modern ideas and practices, but (as the Reformers insisted) is also true of those of the past, too, including our most cherished traditions. If the new or the old stands against Scripture or is used to thwart its central thrusts, we must stand with Scripture, or we will fall for anything. That said, this 'Scripture principle' is not intended to hold the Spirit in chains. It is to be read permissively, in the light of freedom in Christ, knowing that Scripture does not directly address most matters. One does not demand 'Scriptural warrant' for a practice, but for all of three things: 1. that Scripture does not outrightly contradict it; 2. that what the practice or saying conveys is the Gospel, and that it is fully in keeping with the root and heart of Christian belief found in Scripture. 3. that it turns the focus onto Christ, not persons or organizations or manifestations or activities. If it meets those rules, then it needs no direct warrant from Scripture, tradition, or for that matter, even from common sense. The Spirit has every right to lead us into what looks like folly. The Holy Spirit is sovereign; discernment is just our checking to find out if it's the Holy Spirit and not someone else's folly. I'm not one of those who believes that every spiritual thing must have a Scriptural proposition to define it. However, when it comes to gifts and the discernment of gifts, we are indeed given some rules by Scripture. The 'proposition' regarding gifts is that they are there to be used to build up the Body and further the Gospel witness, whatever that means in a specific situation. They are also to be done in keeping with a sense of good order. There are some people who could read Scripture until it came out their noses, and still refuse to let the Spirit teach them anything. For the rest of us, though, the patient, prayerful, steady study of scripture brings many rewards. The most relevant reward for discernment is that the Spirit develops within us an understanding of why God acted in the past. From that, we develop a sense' of what God is doing now and what role we may have to play in it. It simply will not do to try to justify some unusual activity by using a biblical text that really doesn't match what is going on. It has to fit into the overall scheme. The Scripture principle is not a substitute for the Spirit, but rather is a recognition that this is how the Spirit works. It relies on the Spirit's communicating through the Scriptures when we read then in prayer and earnestness. If there is no action by the Spirit, the Bible's pages would lay lame, moving your life no more than a dictionary or encyclopedia. If the Spirit is working in us, the Bible is aflame with truth and vision for our own lives and all those of the world we live in. The Spirit wants us to study, trust, and shape our lives according to what is in Scripture, to steep it into our souls, to live by the contours and the world vision of the Scriptures. Noone can prove that Scripture is the authentic story of God's dealings with humanity. That has to be shown to each of us by the Holy Spirit; it becomes a matter of faith. Denial of the authority of the written Word in/for/by the church is denial also of the Christ who is the Word of God. One cannot just nakedly 'go by the fruit', because it is Scripture which tells us what fruit we are to look for, and in what contexts they are the work of God. Scripture shapes an authentic Spirit-led experience, and sets the bounds for our part within it. Scripture tells us many spiritual events, and we may find that the experience we went through may be in the same train as those events. Scripture tells us the most important course and purposes of what God is doing, and why. Scripture ranks first : if Scripture says our experience or what we are about to do is NOT of the Lord or according to God's will, it means NO. THE CHURCH'S ROLE IN DISCERNMENT Discernment of gifts is one of the most important of the working gifts that those in the Body can be given. For it is how the Body gets the people God wants into the role He wants them in. We as Christians need to be aware that what we teach and discuss is inevitably our own understanding of Scripture. Other understandings, if drawn from Scripture and open to be judged by Scripture, are possible and even faithful. Herein lies the value of the testimony of 2000 years of churchgoing Christians (traditions) and the billion Christians of today (fellowship). Interpretation springs out of life; it is lived and experienced. Even more: it is lived and experienced through being a part of those who believe in Jesus and his good news, a body whose members are formed and shaped in this way as found in Scripture. It is a community which teaches each other, recalls its history, shares experiences, and affirms each other's value. It (hopefully) has the guts to say no and to get each other to amend our understandings and change our ways when they are going astray, and to show a more excellent way in all things. One of the keys to the believing community's role in discernment is that when one is being checked by the Body, one is being checked by others who have also done patient, prayerful, steady study of Scripture. The Spirit developed that sense of God's ways within them, too, in a slightly different way for each of them. If they didn't study that way, they won't have that sense, and thus are less trustworthy as part of a discernment process. (You'll never find out one way or the other unless you listen carefully to them, and have the guts to put away any defensive reactions you might have.) One drawback of the Body's role in discernment is that the Body is made up of people. (It's a benefit too, but here's one reason it is also a drawback.) People are fallen, flawed. They are not all-knowing, and have badly-damaged understandings. They can be fooled. People love to be sweet talked, to be showered with puffery and to get their egos stroked. They tend to push aside the bad news for the camp they're in. It's easy to become a yes-man. These facts must be kept in mind whenever talking about the church's role in discernment. But remember too that you also are a fallen person just like the rest of us, and you too can get taken in. Your role in discernment takes checking and re-checking and cross-checking. What bridges the biblical events and the Church putting them into living effect is neither the communicated Word nor the Church. It is the Holy Spirit's doing. When the Church was starting out, there was only one way she could learn the faith: on her feet. The Church had to learn while she was doing. The Spirit had to teach the Christians how to love at the same time as moving them to act on that love, teaching them mercy at the same time as inspiring them to live merciful lives. THE PASTOR Most Evangelical, Baptist, and historic Black churches lean heavily on the pastor's authority to do the discerning. The pastor is the one who has the responsibility for leading the parish, and thus is responsible for seeing to it that the congregation stays on course with God. Churches of these traditions rarely suffer from a collapse into chaos. However, they may face an even more wicked situation. What happens when the one who is supposed to be applying the discernment is the one who needs to be held accountable? The result is often an authoritarian minister who wields enslaving power over the minds of parishioners. Something less sinister happens just as often : the parish and its pastor merely lose sight of Christ. Either way, it is bad news. The good news comes from the few congregations and humble ministers who have the guts to identify warps in doctrine or practice as they develop, strong pastor or not, and deal with them by working together to discern the Spirit. It can be done. It is far too rare. CHURCH TRADITIONS Many church traditions have documents which state how they believe the Spirit works to help us discern. For instance, in my own Lutheran tradition, the Book of Concord : (references are to the Tappert edition) says : * The Spirit is given through the Word (39.3; 125.135; 313.11; 470.4; 471.13; 472.19; 520.4; 530.48; 535.72), * through proclamation of the gospel and sacrament (31.2; 82.9), * through Word and sacrament (262.70; 469.1; 534.65; 541.16), * through Baptism (105.35; 441.41). * Where the Word is, the Spirit is at work (187.44; 312.3; 415.38; 418.58; 470.4; 520.5; 528.37-38; 531.55-57; 621.29; 629.77). * The Spirit does its work on earth through the church (168; 415.37; 419.61). The Book of Common Prayer 1979 (Episcopal/US Anglican) also addresses how to know when the Spirit is at work (Catechism, pp. 852-3): " Q. How do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? A. We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation. Q. How do we recognize the truths taught by the Holy Spirit? A. We recognize truths to be taught by the Holy Spirit when they are in accord with the Scriptures." COUNTERFEIT GIFTS It is no accident that Paul puts into the middle of his powerful excursus on gifts (1 Cor 12 and 14) his earth-shaking chapter on love (1 Cor 13). When they see what appear to be spiritual gifts, people are right to ask where the love is. For this is a mark of discernment: counterfeit gifts are marked by the lack of love in their use. Counterfeit gifts are also uncovered when someone or something in the place that Christ or the gospel should be. No matter how wondrous or spectacular the display is, and no matter how well it is couched in Christian terms, any miracle, wonder, or sign is counterfeit if the doer wants to develop a following. The fruit is to be found in life after the miracle, not in the moment of the miracle. Who makes counterfeit gifts? Mostly the human mind of the phony, through learning how to trick people or to draw them into dependent relationships. Sometimes there is power which comes from the Chief Deceiver himself, the Devil. Whatever the source, there's a lot of it going around. Where the counterfeits show up, they must be called for what they are. One situation that should arouse big questions is when the spiritual authority of one person 'sends' the Spirit into others, especially if chucked into them like a spear or shot into them like an arrow. Another variation is to do a countdown (like that of a rocket launch) to the arrival of the Spirit into the place, as if the Spirit follows some human's cue as to where or when to act. Things of the Holy Spirit are done to draw attention to Christ, not to an evangelist or preacher or movement, and are never done as a lampoon of God's gift-giving. WHEN IS GOD ON THE MOVE? When God is on the move, it's characterized by: 1. Christ-centered spirituality in every aspect of life 2. Rejection of all prejudice, class/ethnic/educational barriers, exclusiveness, and denominational warfare. When it follows the Spirit, the Body knowingly chooses to counter-model prejudices by living without regard to them. The Spirit does not build walls, it rips them down. 3. bringing attention and worship to Jesus Christ, and awareness of God's/Jesus'/Spirit's work. 4. an unusual level of passion and energy. The primary standards for evaluating the effects of spiritual gifts: 1. they are governed by love (1 Cor 10:23, and chapter 13; Rm 12:9; Eph 4:15-16). Gifts without love are worthless (1 Cor 13:1-3); 2. they center us onto Jesus the Christ and Lord (1 Cor 12:3) and His good news; 3. they direct us to Scripture, not away from it; 4. they build up the church (1 Cor 12:7; Eph 4:11-12), giving it power, wisdom, character, boldness, and unity (Eph 4:4-6). 5. they help to create in us as individuals a love of righteousness, a heightened sense of sin, and a turning away from known evil. Preaching on the Spirit creates an atmosphere in which it's seen as good to raise questions about the Spirit's leadings. A congregation would stop looking at someone who raised such questions as being somewhat, well, strange. Fewer folks would say "that's not how we do things around here", because they begin to see that if they are to be a church following Christ, then seeking the Spirit's leading is the way things are to be done. QUOTES "I believe in the Spirit's guidance just as surely as I believe in God." ------ Fredrik Wisloff, I Believe In the Holy Spirit. "God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede." ------ Oswald Chambers "The mystery of Pentecost is that the gift of discernment is breathed into the world, enabling us to see the presence of the divine in the midst of the human -- not as an aside or an afterthought, but as the main event of our lives" ------ Jay Rochelle, in Christian Century, May 22 1985, p. 535 "It is impossible to frame a doctrine of the Holy Spirit by taking all the data indiscriminately and forcing them into the Procrustean bed of a formal system. We have to discriminate between what is true and what is false, ... between what is primary and what is secondary, between what is central and what is peripheral;... between testimonies concerning the Spirit which reflect different levels of apprehension, between those which belong to different stages of the divine economy, and between those which have relation to different moments in the dialectic of spirit." ------ George Hendry, The Holy Spirit In Christian Theology, p.13 "Conflating modern-day intuition, etc. with the real Spirit is like confusing a gentle breeze with a tornado. If the real Spirit were really working in the post-apostolic church, it would be just as ambiguous as a cyclone." ------ Bill Brewer "The majority of historic heresy is based on an interpretation of the written not the living word. The 'living word' -- which is the Word in action through the gifts of the Spirit -- is all application and totally subjected in interpretation to the body of Christian truth, not an elevation of subjective over objective truth." ------Ron Zess More of Jesus let me learn More of His holy will discern; Spirit of God, my teacher be Showing the things of Christ to me. ------ More About Jesus, EE Hewitt, 1915) Some Questions to think about (If these questions are being used in small group study: please talk about these with each other, and be honest with each other in doing so.) (1) Have you had the experience of thinking that you were being led by God to do something, and it turned out not to be so? (If you're doing these questions on your own, grab a pad and write down about it.) (2) What kind of matters have you sought God's guidance about? How has the result surprised you, if it did? (3) Have you ever used "God's will" as a cover for your own plans or ideas? Are you doing so now? (Please, when discussing this: don't start talking about when others have done so; that just breaks down into the blame game. Talk about yourself.) (4) Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21. It says 'Don't quench the Spirit' and 'test all things'. * How do they fit together? * How might these be seen as working against each other? * Have you ever been involved in an activity or a church where one was used to render the other as void?