Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton have written a book titled "Toxic Faith" about "Experiencing Healing From Painful Spiritual Abuse." Following is a list which appears in Chapter 3:
Conditional Love
Toxic Belief #1: God's love and favour depend on my behaviour.
Instant Peace
Toxic Belief #2: When tragedy strikes, true believers should have a real peace about it.
Guaranteed Healing
Toxic Belief #3: If I have real faith, God will heal me or someone I am praying for.
Irreproachable Clergy
Toxic Belief #4: All ministers are men and women of God and can be trusted.
Monetary Rewards
Toxic Belief #5: Material blessings are a sign of spiritual strength.
Investment Tithing
Toxic Belief #6: The more money I give to God, the more money He will give to me.
Salvation By Works
Toxic Belief #7: I can work my way to heaven.
Spiteful God
Toxic Belief #8: Problems in my life result from some particular sin.
Slavery of the Faithful
Toxic Belief #9: I must not stop meeting others' needs.
Irrational Submission
Toxic Belief #10: I must always submit to authority.
Christian Inequality
Toxic Belief #11: God uses only spiritual giants.
Passivity
Toxic Belief #12: Having true faith means waiting for God to help me and doing nothing until He does.
Biblical Exclusivity
Toxic Belief #13: If it's not in the Bible, it isn't relevant.
Heavenly Matchmaking
Toxic Belief #14: God will find me a perfect mate.
Pollyanna Perspective
Toxic Belief #15: Everything that happens to me is good.
Bulletproof Faith
Toxic Belief #16: A strong faith will protect me from problems and pain.
Vindictive God
Toxic Belief #17: God hates sinners, is angry with me, and wants to punish me.
Mortal Christ
Toxic Belief #18: Christ was merely a great teacher.
Impersonal God
Toxic Belief #19: God is too big to care about me.
Divinely Ordained Happiness
Toxic Belief #20: More than anything else, God wants me to be happy.
Possibility of Gaining the Divine
Toxic Belief #21: I can become God.
Most of us began our journey into faith with trusting hearts. Yet incidents of abuse, media accounts of perverted religion, personal disappointment, loss, betrayal, and even unrealistic expectations of God, can cause us to develop a warped or damaged view of faith. Too often, what began as an authentic relationship with God deteriorates into a defective faith with an incomplete or poisoned view of God -- one that allows the religion, not the relationship with God, to control our life. If you need to heal your faith, you should pick up this book and read it. You will find it vey helpful!
No comments:
Post a Comment