Practical Theology : Living in spiritual victory

Spiritual Victory is victory over sin. Jesus taught his disciples , "watch and pray , that you will not fall into temptation!". Watch and Pray! Means we must watch out for the temptations , Identify them as temptations and pray so that we can overcome temptations and not fall into them! The happenings of the cross were not far away and Christ did not want his disciples to fall away from him and sin .So he instructs them that they should pray. They were unaware of what was going on spiritually so they did not pray as Jesus wanted them and ended up ditching him when he most needed their support.

What is Eternal Life?

Eternal life is one of the central themes of the bible and the teachings of Christ. Eternal life has two words namely, "eternal" and "life". The word eternal means it is something never ending, as opposed to the temporal life which has an end. The word eternal is used in the bible to describe God.

1 Timothy 1:17

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen

Deuteronomy 33:27
The eternal God is your refuge

Genesis 21:33

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.

Psalm 90:2

Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

God alone is eternal.  

So eternal life is synonymous with God-life. God life is synonymous with Christ-life. One of it's implication is that it cannot be had apart from God, apart from Christ.

Consequently, we can have eternal life by entering into a relationship with the eternal God, who has manifested himself to us, through Christ.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. John 1:18

Again Jesus in John 17:3 says

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

In this context, to know someone is to have a close, intimate relationship with them. For us humans, this is God's will, this is Salvation, to have an intimate relationship with God. 

If you have a relationship with God, you have eternal life. You can have eternal life only as long as you are in relationship with God. You can come as you are, recognizing and accepting your sinfulness, with a repentant heart and God will accept you as you are based on what Christ did for you on the cross. Faith is the arm with which we receive this relationship with God. It means you believe that Christ is God and he died for you, out of love for you and because of your sins. When you repentantly believe that, God accepts you, your guilt is destroyed, your conscience is cleansed and you receive the Holy Spirit. God gives you a new nature. He gives you a new life, eternal life, abundant life lived in this relationship with him. 

Do you have a relationship with God through Christ, by faith? Do you have eternal life? It's free for all. Come! your creator is calling you! He is love eternal and give life eternal to everyone who believes in Christ.

 

Practical Theology: Ego-symptoms

Ego symptoms are the symptoms which reveal the underlying problem of pride. As bodily symptoms help diagnose physical illness, ego-symptoms help diagnose the spiritual pathology of pride.
These ego-symptoms will reveal how much we are bound to pride and are enslaved by pride.

These are few of the ego-symptoms
1. Taking about self unnecessarily to promote self or insult others
2. Looking down on others for various reasons
3. Judgemental attitude and actions
4. Self righteousness
5. Considering self better  than everybody else
6. Unwilling to associate with people  of lower socioeconomic status, different race, other religions, lower/higher caste, lesser education,
7. Comparing oneself with others
8. Higher notion of oneself based on national identity, cultural identity, religious identity, caste identity, tribal affiliation, geographical location, ethical code, moral behaviour, skills, talents, education, educational instituition, occupation
9. Setting own rules to live life as opposed to accepting God and his law.
10. Despising Authority
11. Unteachable, "I know everything attitude"
12. Unable to accept correction
13. Unable to accept mistakes even when proved or true
14. "I did it my way" attitude
15. "I want it my way" attitude
16.  Thinking oneself as important than others
17. Invincible attitude
18. Haughty eyes, that "Proud look"
19. Throwing weight(authority) around excessively or unnecessarily
20. Unable to accept rejection, "How can they say no to "ME"?
21. Easily provoked
22. Argumentative
23. Unable to adjust with others and work in a team
24. Falsely accusing others to save face
25. Inability to handle failure rightly
26. Divisive, factious

These are some of  the ego-symptoms which bring out the pride in the heart.
Pride makes a person devilish, whereas humility makes a man Christlike.
Jesus wants to deliver us from pride by making us Christlike, i.e humble. The Holy Spirit is working to transform us and we should submit to the teachings of Christ and develop the attitude of Christ.
   If pride not be conquered it will place us in a position of perpetual spiritual defeat. So it become imperative that we seek God's face to make us more humble, more Christlike, more spiritual and constantly victorious spiritually.

Romans 8
¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

Let us remember our obligation and let us learn to put to death the deeds of the flesh with the help of the Holy Spirit. Unless we learn this and make it a part of us, we can never be spiritually victorious, successful or fruitful.

1.The Errors of Calvinism - Hyper-literal interpretation of Scripture

I was discussing Calvinism with one of it's young followers and one of the striking mistakes I could see with the evidences he was giving was hyper-literal interpretation of some of the Bible passages.

1. God's hatred of Esau

In Romans 9 , Paul quotes the old testament and says , "Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated".

Here the Calvinist gives it a hyper-literal meaning to the passage saying that God indeed hated Esau and so did not elect him to be saved. What a distortion of the truth!

For clarification on this please read the other blog on Jacob and Esau : http://crosstheologie.blogspot.in/2012/09/romans-9-clarification-2.html

2. Hyper-literal reading of Acts 13:48

Here the Calvinist makes the mistake of translating the word ordain to mean foreordain from all eternity.
Click this link to read how they are not the same words and how it should actually be understood.
http://crosstheologie.blogspot.in/2012/09/is-acts-1348-about-election-for.html

3. Calvinists read spiritual death hyper-literally
In his lecture , "Why I am not a five point calvinist", Dr.Norman Geisler, explains how Calvinists interpret "spiritual death" hyperliterally.
http://samzlogic.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/calvinistic-confusion-2-mistaking-separation-for-annihilation-with-regards-to-spiritual-death/

Without these errors Calvinism would not be what it is today. That is why it is an erroneous doctrine.

Reasons why Calvinism is not the Gospel

Within the last 30 days atleast two people quoted this , "Calvinism is the Gospel". Calvinism is popularly defined by the acrostic TULIP.
T- Total Depravity
U- Unconditional election
L- Limited atonement
I-  Irresistable grace
P- Preservation/perseverance of the saints

T - Total depravity - Yes , it is part of the presentataion of the Gospel. To tell the sinner that he cannot save himself, by any of his good works is necessary before pointing him to Christ, the saviour , who alone can save.

U - Unconditional election. No one during the Gospel presentation has ever told the audience that God has indeed unconditionally elected a few to be saved and there is a 50% chance that he might be on the list. Unconditional election does not form part of the Gospel. It is at best an unbiblical doctrine, disputed over centuries and remains a mystery for many.

L- Limited atonement : Limited atonement says that Christ died only for those who were unconditionally elected by God. But the bible repeatedly says that Christ died for the sins of the whole world. In John 2:2
"He is a atoning sacrifice for our sins. Not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world"
So this too is an unbiblical doctrine and does not form part of the Gospel. No calvinist ever presents the Gospel saying , "Jesus would have died for your sins. It's possible". They present the Gospel as if Jesus died for everybody hearing the Gospel. This doctrine turns them  into hypocrites, who believe in limited atonement but preach an universal one.

I - Irresistable grace:  Irresistable grace means God's grace cannot be resisted by the elect to whom alone it is shown. No one preaches this in any gospel presentation. Nor is it part of the Gospel of Christ.
You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. Acts 7:51. The Bible is very clear that people did resist the Holy Spirit and his grace. It is not part of the Gospel presentation either.

P - Perseverance of the Saints: Those who are thus irresistable saved by the election of God are preserved from losing their salvation.This can form part of the Gospel presentation. But it is conditional perseverance nor unconditional preservation.

The false Gospel of the TULIP turns the Good News of Christ into a bad news. It restricts the grace of God to the elect few and thus makes the good news into a bad news  because majority of the population are non elect and are hopelessly going to hell, because God had not chosen them to be saved. 

The true Gospel which our Lord Jesus declared goes thus ,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Jesus clearly taught that God loved the world, not a few elect.  Out of his love for the world he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ so that whosoever believes in Christ will not perish but have eternal life. 

The TULIP gospel does not say that God loved the world. So it is a false gospel.

The TULIP gospel does not say that God gave his only begotten son for the sins of the whole world as John 2:2 says.So TULIP is a false Gospel

The TULIP gospel denies that whosoever can believe and receive salvation. Therefore it is a false Gospel.

The TULIP gospel which comes to you in the form of 'Doctrines of Grace' is indeed a very ungracious Gospel, which restricts the Gospel to the few elect of God and turns the GOOD NEWS  of Christ into a bad news for many with no choice for them to receive it.

For these reasons the TULIP gospel of calvinism is a false gospel.