One of the earliest and most potent threats to early Christianity came from the heretical group known as the Gnostics. Blending elements of Christianity, Greek philosophy, and Oriental mysticism, the Gnostics denied the orthodox view of God, man, the world, and Christ. The Apostle John included them in the camp of the Antichrist.
The Gnostics were so-called because of their view of Revelation. The word, gnosis, is the Greek word for "knowledge." In many cases the Gnostic heretics did not make a frontal assault against the apostles or against the apostolic teaching of Scripture. In fact, many of them insisted that they were genuine, Bible-believing Christians. It wasn't that they rejected the Bible; they just claimed an additional source of knowledge or insight that was superior to or at least beyond the knowledge of Scripture. The "gnostikoi" were "those in the know." Their knowledge was not derived from intellectual comprehension of Scripture or by empirical research, but was mystical, direct, and immediate. God "revealed" private, intuitive insights to them that carried nothing less than divine authority.
Here is a typical Gnostic statement:
We cannot communicate with God mentally, for He is a Spirit. But we can reach Him with our Spirit, and it is through our Spirit that we come to know God . . . This is one reason God put teachers (those who are really called to teach) in the church -- to renew our minds. Many times those who teach do so with only a natural knowledge that they have gained from the Bible and other sources. But I am referring here to one of the ministry gifts. Those who are called and annointed by the Spirit to teach.
God has given us His Word, and we can feed upon that Word. This will renew our minds but He also puts teachers in the church to renew our minds and to bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God's Word.
Notice that this quotation does not include a direct assault on the Bible. The Bible is recognized as God's Word. But in order to understand the Bible we need something beyond our natural mental ability. We need the Spirit-annointed teachers to "bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God's Word." This is a typically Gnostic statement, but the quote is not from Valentinus or any of the other early Gnostics. It is from the pen of a modern missionary of Gnosticism, Kenneth E. Hagan [founder of the Faith Movement]. It is from Hagan's Man on Three Dimensions. Hagan's theology echos the tripartite epistemology of early Gnosticism (man as having three separate entities: body, soul and spirit).
Robert Tilton [Faith Movement] also claims a direct pipeline to divine revelation:
God showed me a vision that almost took my breath away. I was sucked into the Spirit . . . , caught away . . . and I found myself standing in the very presence of Almighty God. It just echoed into my being. And He said these words to me . . . exactly these words . . . .
"Many of my ministers pray for my people, but I want you to pray the Prayer of Agreement with them." . . . I have never seen the presence of God so powerful. This same annointing flooded my Spirit-man . . . .It's inside of me now and I have supernatural faith to agree with you.
From that day forth, as I have been faithful to that heavenly vision, I've seen every kind of miracle imaginable happen when I pray the Prayer of Agreement with God's people.
It seems that in Robert Tilton the church is blessed with a twentieth-century apostle whose visions of revelation exceed that of the Apostle John and whose miracle powers surpass that of the Apostle Paul. If we are to believe Tilton's astonishing claims, there is no reason we should not include his writings in the next edition of the New Testament.
Paul Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), has revelatory dreams and has warmly embraced the neo-Gnostic dogma. His network has become a prime distribution center for the growing movement. Kenneth Copeland also receives phrases from God in "his spirit."
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The Perspicuity of Scripture
Perspicuity is a fancy word for "clarity." The Reformers insisted that, in most cases, the clearest interpretation of a text is the correct one. The Bible isn't a puzzle. It is not designed to lead the "initiate" into a maze of obscure or ambiguous passages. One does not need a Ph.D. in theology to understand that the Bible teaches we are sinners in need of the atoning work of Christ.
Though we believe in the basic clarity of Scripture, we do not mean by this that all parts of the Bible are equally clear. The Bible teaches some very complex and difficult things. Though its essential message is clear, there is enough complexity in the Bible to keep the sharpest minds busily engaged for a lifetime. The message of the Bible may be simple in its essence, but the Bible as a whole is anything but simplistic. To be able to handle the whole of Scripture, with all of this complexity, is a difficult task. It requires diligent study and, for the vast majority of serious students, years and years of disciplined training. Hence, James' warning, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1).
God requires us to love Him with all of our minds. To apply our minds diligently to His Word is hard work. There is no magical (or superstitious) substitute for that work. "Words of knowledge" do not suffice when we have the final "Word of Knowledge" (the Bible) to teach us. Thinking is not "carnal" or "unspiritual." But it is hard work. That is one reason people find it so easy to turn their minds over to a high powered preacher who convinces them that he is "plugged in" to the Divine intelligence. Pious appeals to direct supernatural insights are often, if not always, spiritual masks for our own indolence. It requires far less effort to listen to private subjective hunches than to pay the price of mastering Greek, Hebrew, historical backgrounds and the science of hermeneutics.
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
Though we believe in the basic clarity of Scripture, we do not mean by this that all parts of the Bible are equally clear. The Bible teaches some very complex and difficult things. Though its essential message is clear, there is enough complexity in the Bible to keep the sharpest minds busily engaged for a lifetime. The message of the Bible may be simple in its essence, but the Bible as a whole is anything but simplistic. To be able to handle the whole of Scripture, with all of this complexity, is a difficult task. It requires diligent study and, for the vast majority of serious students, years and years of disciplined training. Hence, James' warning, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1).
God requires us to love Him with all of our minds. To apply our minds diligently to His Word is hard work. There is no magical (or superstitious) substitute for that work. "Words of knowledge" do not suffice when we have the final "Word of Knowledge" (the Bible) to teach us. Thinking is not "carnal" or "unspiritual." But it is hard work. That is one reason people find it so easy to turn their minds over to a high powered preacher who convinces them that he is "plugged in" to the Divine intelligence. Pious appeals to direct supernatural insights are often, if not always, spiritual masks for our own indolence. It requires far less effort to listen to private subjective hunches than to pay the price of mastering Greek, Hebrew, historical backgrounds and the science of hermeneutics.
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Private Interpretation
An essential element of the Protestant Reformation was the principle of private interpretation of the Bible. That is not to say that the view was never articulated before Martin Luther, but the Reformation did emphasize the position. The concept of private interpretation is subject to much confusion. It suggests to some a license for subjective and relativistic interpretations: "What is God telling me in this passage?" or, "Well, there are a number of ways to read the text." How often have we heard the phrase "that's your interpretation," with the unspoken assumption that your interpretation and my interpretation can be equally valid -- even though they contradict each other. Here the Bible becomes a wax nose, capable of being formed and twisted to suit anyone's prejudice.
That is hardly the intention of the historic doctrine of private interpretation. Against the relativistic view of subjective interpretation stands the classical principle of the objective truth of Scripture. The Scriptures do not contradict themselves. When we disagree, your view may not be correct; mine may not be -- both can be wrong, but both cannot be right at the same time in the same place. There may be thousands of applications of a given text, but there is only one correct meaning.
The idea of private interpretation arose as a protest against limiting the translation of the Bible into the vernacular (i.e., the common language of the people). Translating the Bible into French, German and English, for example, was motivated largely by the desire of the Reformers to allow the laity to read the Bible for themselves. But the right of private interpretation always carries with it the responsibility of interpreting the Bible accurately. God grants no one the "right" to distort the meaning of Scripture. "Private interpretation" does not mean that the individual Christian is free to find in Scripture something that is not there. That is why we look to the interpretations of those who have gone before us. Although tradition does not rule out interpretation it does guide it. If, upon reading a particular passage, you have come up with an interpretation that has escaped the notice of every other Christian for two thousand years, or that has been championed by universally recognized heretics, chances are pretty good that you had better abandon your interpretation. Private interpretation is not only a right; it is a grave responsibility.
Our distortions or misinterpretations of Scripture are not caused so much by the lack of biblical clarity as by our own weaknesses in handling the text. Here private interpretations touches another cardinal maxim of Protestant theology: the perspicuity of Scripture.
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
That is hardly the intention of the historic doctrine of private interpretation. Against the relativistic view of subjective interpretation stands the classical principle of the objective truth of Scripture. The Scriptures do not contradict themselves. When we disagree, your view may not be correct; mine may not be -- both can be wrong, but both cannot be right at the same time in the same place. There may be thousands of applications of a given text, but there is only one correct meaning.
The idea of private interpretation arose as a protest against limiting the translation of the Bible into the vernacular (i.e., the common language of the people). Translating the Bible into French, German and English, for example, was motivated largely by the desire of the Reformers to allow the laity to read the Bible for themselves. But the right of private interpretation always carries with it the responsibility of interpreting the Bible accurately. God grants no one the "right" to distort the meaning of Scripture. "Private interpretation" does not mean that the individual Christian is free to find in Scripture something that is not there. That is why we look to the interpretations of those who have gone before us. Although tradition does not rule out interpretation it does guide it. If, upon reading a particular passage, you have come up with an interpretation that has escaped the notice of every other Christian for two thousand years, or that has been championed by universally recognized heretics, chances are pretty good that you had better abandon your interpretation. Private interpretation is not only a right; it is a grave responsibility.
Our distortions or misinterpretations of Scripture are not caused so much by the lack of biblical clarity as by our own weaknesses in handling the text. Here private interpretations touches another cardinal maxim of Protestant theology: the perspicuity of Scripture.
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
A Serious Charge
Heresy.
The word has a chilling ring to it, evoking images of ecclesiastical torture chambers and zealous witch-hunts. It smacks of intolerance and rigid, unyielding dogmatism. Indeed, in our relativistic age, the word itself has outlived its function. Heresy trials are virtually non-existent in the contemporary church.
Historically, the church distinguished between "heresies" and "errors," indicating a difference in degree rather than in kind. That is, though all heresies are errors, not all errors are elevated to heresy. That heinous word heresy is reserved for an error of a most severe sort. All errors of truth matter, but not all errors threaten the very substance of the truth.
Error invades the thinking of every Christian. None of us is infallible. None of us is omniscient -- not only because we are sinners but because we are creatures -- inherently limited and finite. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Omniscience is a divine attribute. God does not impart it to us. We concur with the adage "to err is human."
Our error, however, is not limited to our human boundaries of finite limitations as human beings. Errors are also a real and often deadly result of our sin. We wonder, for example, why there are so many diverse views as to what the Bible teaches. God is neither the author of confusion nor of error. The fault does not lie with Him or with the Bible, but with us. We are the ones who are guilty of distorting what the Bible teaches. To distort the Word of God is no small matter. It does violence to the very Author and Spirit of truth.
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
The word has a chilling ring to it, evoking images of ecclesiastical torture chambers and zealous witch-hunts. It smacks of intolerance and rigid, unyielding dogmatism. Indeed, in our relativistic age, the word itself has outlived its function. Heresy trials are virtually non-existent in the contemporary church.
Historically, the church distinguished between "heresies" and "errors," indicating a difference in degree rather than in kind. That is, though all heresies are errors, not all errors are elevated to heresy. That heinous word heresy is reserved for an error of a most severe sort. All errors of truth matter, but not all errors threaten the very substance of the truth.
Error invades the thinking of every Christian. None of us is infallible. None of us is omniscient -- not only because we are sinners but because we are creatures -- inherently limited and finite. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Omniscience is a divine attribute. God does not impart it to us. We concur with the adage "to err is human."
Our error, however, is not limited to our human boundaries of finite limitations as human beings. Errors are also a real and often deadly result of our sin. We wonder, for example, why there are so many diverse views as to what the Bible teaches. God is neither the author of confusion nor of error. The fault does not lie with Him or with the Bible, but with us. We are the ones who are guilty of distorting what the Bible teaches. To distort the Word of God is no small matter. It does violence to the very Author and Spirit of truth.
For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library. Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book. All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.
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