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discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false gospel, false spirits, following Jesus, God, Jesus Christ, justification, pain, peace, sanctification, Satan, sin
I am sure there are more versions of that kind of gospel today and I presume there will pop up more and more of them in these last confusing days where Satan appears as an angel of light. However, I want to merely focus on two different manifestations of the crossless gospel I have met particularly on the internet since I began to write online comments in English on December 1, 2011. I would like to refer to these two confusing sub-categories as Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner and Spiritual Self-Salvation.
Whether it is coincidence or not, the first false gospel is rather accepted by men, the second by women. It might have to do with the fact that men by nature are inclined to rely more on their reason so that they are more easily convinced by facts and sensible deliberations. Women, instead, tend to be more spiritual by nature, but alas, that can be dangerous if they rely more on their feelings than on what the Holy Spirit really wants to tell them. Both “gospels” spring from biblical roots, yet they have turned into false teachings because they both left a balanced approach to Scripture and those people who follow these teachings lack a continued support by God’s Spirit who alone leads us into all the truth. Basically, both sides cannot discern the spirits and thus offer a mix of truth and lies.
To put it very simple, you can say that both approaches are founded on Jesus’ words “It is finished.” As for the Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner, here we find a focus on justification by faith alone which was the heart of the Reformation. Needless to say, it does not represent the true scale of the Reformation. However, those preachers proclaim that we are and will stay sinners who cannot really be changed as long as we live in sinful flesh. Maybe, they do not tell you these things frankly right away, but if you listen to them for a longer time, you might get the impression that there is NOTHING to do for you. Jesus did it all and now you can sit down, lay back and – fall asleep, I would add. Since if we have fallen asleep (spiritually), we will easily fall prey to Satan’s deceitful schemes. It is no coincidence if you, sooner or later, find out that these people keep living in sin for they believe that there is no hope for them to ever be changed as long as they walk the earth.
I admit that it is indeed true that we, apart from abiding in Jesus, cannot change ourselves – ever. But Jesus did not send the Holy Spirit on Pentecost so that sinners remain sinners forever. Instead, He provides spiritual power for a renewal of our mind and heart so that a genuine new creation will be seen at the end of a long and often painful sanctification process. It is evident to me that someone who has not yet received the Holy Spirit can easily be tempted to believe this gospel lie, since, without the Spirit’s power we truly remain stuck in our old Adam nature. So, this gospel approach is not easy to discern. I was thinking about mentioning a few names of theologians and pastors who preach(ed) such stuff, but God nudged me to encourage every reader to ask God themselves whether they have listened to such people or not.
Regarding Spiritual Self-Salvation, well, that is a very modern approach, I would say. It has been influenced by so many different non-Christian sources so that it is now very difficult to outline its features with only a few brief strokes. What this false gospel has in common with the Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner, is the fact that there is nothing to do for us any longer. But these people believe that Jesus endured all our pains on the cross. Therefore salvation of body, soul, and mind is ours in the here and now. The only thing we had to do was to accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and then every blessing in heaven would be ours forever. If you now wonder about the spiritual part of this gospel approach, well, it could not be easier and more confusing at the same time. Somehow I am reminded of the Word of Faith movement since these people, too, say that you only need to receive/accept what is already ours in Christ and then – that was it. You will be healthy and happy and – Jesus was a nice guy. What do I mean by that?
Neither one of these approaches hold the Holy God in high esteem. The Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner gospel might still preach the Christ, yet He seems to have become a helpless God who is not able to interact with us human beings at all. Due to the conviction of being hopelessly sinful, you can observe proponents of this belief fall into sin without real repentance after having done so. The reason is, they had no real relationship with God and Christ and therefore they do not fear God. The conviction that Jesus did not come to save us from our sins (see Mt 1:12) is deadly poison that has been spread by Satan.
The Spiritual Self-Salvation gospel might also claim to believe in Jesus, but here, too, you do not need a powerful God to save you from your old lifestyle and natural inclination to rather do, or at least think, the worst things that are rooted in our old and fallen nature’s heart. You can quasi open up toward “God” and then you will FEEL how the “Spirit” will fill you up with all good things. Dear brothers and sisters, good feelings can be sooo misleading!!! 😦 Our soul is able to change its feelings by simply thinking or visualizing pictures on the mind. You can sing songs and watch wonderful films which make you feel happy, but… for a certain time only. Then you need to repeat your preferred method of getting some good feelings. However, the author of this kind of happiness was not necessarily the Spirit of God! All people in this world were created by God and have received a soul from Him that functions that way. If you now wonder which joy has come from God and which only from our soul, then it might be helpful to realize that our soulish joy depends on circumstances while the joy of God is able to fill our hearts DESPITE adverse circumstances. God’s joy and peace are not logical and they are subtly and quietly fulfilling and satisfying like nothing else on earth. A rather loud and gimmicky joy that keeps us still focused on our old self instead of feeding on the peaceful presence of the Eternal God, is the sad result of having been successfully deceived by Satan. If such people who seem to permanently be able to go softly, softly would ever ask their neighbors about how they felt being confronted with their extreme emotions, they would most probably get disappointing responses (but only if those others were being honest toward them).
In both cases we see that neither God nor Christ is the center of their preaching, nor is He the center point of the lives of these people who fall prey to these false gospels. Even if we included legalistic preaching here – as another false gospel approach – you could observe the same feature. Every false gospel is focused on us poor and miserable human beings. Whether the “gospel” condemns, sets free (seemingly), or offers a soulish kind of freedom, none of them will bring forth the fruit of God’s Spirit in our lives so that others could realize that the Eternal God still lives among us. Instead, false gospels force us to still live after the flesh and follow the wrong spirits.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Gal 5:19-26 ESV)
Fred Thoren said:
I will be honest I am still trying to figure out how to live by the spirit and not by the flesh.
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
I appreciate your honesty very much, Fred.
Actually, we cannot help but live after the flesh if we have not yet received Christ’s Spirit in our heart through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit by Jesus. Many people think once they believe in Jesus they would be indwelt by His Spirit, somehow automatically at that. But that is not true. Jesus told us the following,
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17 ESV)
In the last sentence we read, “he dwells with you……and WILL BE in you.” The Holy Spirit is a great companion for the believer, for many years, sometimes even for decades before God in His time baptizes us with His Spirit so that God and Jesus Christ make their permanent home with us (see Jn 14:23), even in our bodies that have become the temple of the Living God then (cf. 1 Cor 6:19). Only then we are continually led by His Spirit and FEEL in our own spirit what He wants us to do, that is, to walk by the spirit. Not that we always succeed in doing so, but we try.
Do not worry if it is not that clear to you right now, dear Fred. God will show you more and more every day. It is an adventure with Him – promise! 🙂
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Fred Thoren said:
Thank you, I think I actually read the “Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner ” Gospel on a site just today. Guess that means your post has great timing for me.
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Ha! I am glad this post was timely for you, Fred. Thanks for the encouragment! 🙂
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Michael said:
Susanne, it is simple as this, “what is it that we find happiness in?” This will show us the issues of our hearts and our hearts are what God is concerned with for the state they are in determines our final destination. Most Americans take the opening of the Declaration of Independence as their God-given right and this sets the tenor of the desires of their hearts and sad to say, our American thinking has permeated the world. In Wikipedia we read,
These words have been used to justify the well being of our soul natures and to be free to live as we like, and in many a hedonistic lifestyle to do about whatever they like, as we seek to “do our own thing.” The mantra of the hippie generation of the ’60’s and ’70’s was, “If it feels good, do it!”
But is this the gospel of Christ? I think not, yet the gospel we hear preached in churches today has been heavily influenced by this kind of thinking. One of the most seditious things spoken among Christians today is, “After all we are ALL sinners,” and in parroting this line we make room for sin in our lives as if it is normal. Yet John wrote, “Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he [Jesus] was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” (1John 3:4-6, nrs).
The soul in man, also known in the Bible as the heart, is seen by God as something very contrary to life in His Kingdom. Jeremiah prophesied, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jer 17:9-10, KJ2000). Because of its nature the heart can not be trusted. With this in mind, let us look at the REAL gospel of Christ and what Jesus actually taught,
This is not exactly the “seeker friendly” gospel of today’s churches, is it? The word translated lower life in this passage is psuche (from where we get the word psyche) or soul life. How often have we heard a person say, “I am trying to find my life”? This is the very life that Jesus said must be crucified as we take up our own God given crosses. Christ’s death on the cross dealt with our sins, but the cross He gives each of us to take up, if we truly are HIS followers, deals with our propensity to sin. What is the outworking of this cross in our lives? I like what the Amplified says here, “follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].” THIS my friends IS THE REAL GOSPEL OF CHRIST! We lay down our soul lives and take up His, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
And what is this higher life that we gain from the working of the cross on our soul lives? Here are a few scriptures that speak of it and where real happiness comes from:
Do you want to pursue and find happiness in this life? You will not find it by doing your own will that is motivated by your fallen lower nature. Submit yourself to the hand of our loving Father who knows what we really need. “Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.” (Prov 27:6, NLT).
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
This has been a wonderful complement to my article, Michael. God nudged me to “omit” the prosperity gospel for some reason and now I know WHY. 😉
Looking forward to reading your excellent exposition made out of your comment above in your next blog article on A Wilderness Voice, my brother! 🙂
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Michael said:
Thanks, my friend. Soooooon! 🐻
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Finally, here is the link to Michael’s article which I announced above:
https://awildernessvoice.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness-the-american-dream/.
Thanks, Michael! 🐱
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Michael said:
Wow! Thanks for the link to my latest post, Susanne. ⭐
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
My pleasure, dear friend. Your and my post belong together because they are complementary. Although they were separately written by us, the Holy Spirit who inspired us is ONE. 😉
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Michael said:
Yes, Susanne, the unity of the Spirit is an amazing thing to experience. I thank God that He has allowed us to meet and fellowship here on the net. As for our two blog posts belonging together… Maybe He will show us how. ⭐
Michael
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Indeed, Michael, both the unity of His Spirit and His leading cannot be comprehended by people who still belong to this world alone. Actually, I have given up on trying to explain it to anyone since it is impossible. For it is written,
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:14-16)
Susanne
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Michael said:
Yes, without being born of the Spirit as Jesus told that old Pharisee, those who are are not are not even on the same page with those who are, much less of the same language. Like him, they come back with, “How can these things be?”
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Yuppers! Well said, Michael. ⭐
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Anna Waldherr said:
Very insightful, Susanne. What you term Spiritual Self-Salvation seems to me particularly prevalent in our culture. Any form of spirituality will suffice — paganism, witchcraft, deism, New Age, you name it. So long as it is not biblical Christianity. And all roads lead equally to God — never mind that these belief systems conflict with one another. All truth is relative, apparently. There is enormous need for Christ, and little or no recognition of that.
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Thank you for these great examples, dear Anna. Indeed, I was thinking of any kind of esoteric stuff inlcuding New Age and those others you mentioned above. The worst thing is, in my humble opinion, that they often use Scripture to prove they are right. And it works… although they use it wrongly (not balanced, that is). A very saddening development in Christianity and regarding spirituality on the whole, indeed. 😦
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