Book is out!

It’s been quite on the blog here lately because I’ve been working hard to get my book finished, and it is now done. I encourage you to take a look on Amazon. This is the first of several books I plan to write in the next few years drawing from material you’ve been reading on this site.  This first book is about finding personal freedom.  It is based on my life experience and our experience working with men in recovery.  God bless!

PS. You can also order direct from the publisher. Same price to you but more comes back to me to help me recoup cost.

Salt and Light for “just Moms”?

In keeping with Will’s theme about Salt and Light paradigm below, I wanted to post some thoughts here.  As this paradigm relates to the home life, I mean.

For many years, I struggled with finding meaning in staying at home… as many stay-at-home Mom’s or mom’s-to-be probably do. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to stay at home with my kids as much as it was not knowing how to do that AND be effective for God’s kingdom.  After being brought up in a cutting-edge church, I didn’t know how to let the dream die of reaching others.  Maybe if I had just wanted to have one or two kids and then go back to work, I could have dealt with the demands of full-time ministry.  But I was persuaded by the active stay-at-home Christian moms camp that raising children was a ministry and a full-time one at that.  I became persuaded that I wanted to have a larger family, stay at home, and homeschool.  And I didn’t see any way to do that to my utmost while supporting my husband’s more radical dreams.

Maybe that’s just because I didn’t know many pastor’s wives or missionary wives personally.  I had only had close contact with a few and most of them—forgive me—”settled” for being a home-oriented Mom with just radical Christian views (as opposed to leading a radical life).  I don’t in any way mean to denigrate the Mom job.  Or overestimate what “radical” means.  But I could not reconcile the fiery, Pentecostal, evangelistic missionary Mom with the meek, conservative, homeschooling domestic Mom.  I saw two lives and wondered how it was possible to get them both.  One role always seemed to win out at some point, at the expense of the other.  The fiery Moms had home lives I didn’t envy.  The meeker Moms had church lives I didn’t envy.

Over the last ten years, I have been trying to make sense of this polarization.  I have asked Christian women in leadership all kinds of questions, and tried to make sense of their answers.  From afar, I admire a number of Christian women leaders today who have managed to rear children, grandchildren, and stay the course… Beth Moore, Lisa Bevere, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, etc.   But I still feel like there are two people inside of me, as I raise my children and serve my husband.  One is like a nun, treasuring the daily duties of life and trying to find the sacred in them.  And the other is like a soldier in battle, forsaking personal tranquility to grab hold of the desperate lives of the lost around me and my city.  At times, either one of these roles might be burning bright.  But it has been hard for me to meld them into one person, consistent and progressive.

But now comes my point.

The Salt and Light paradigm addresses both of these roles.  On the one hand, raising children is a “salt”ministry—a ministry to our culture and future.  I mean, we do it today but we do it for tomorrow.   My “salt self” is my home life, that domestic part of me that is trying to separate from the world and raise my children differently.  It pursues my childrens’ character and education, knowing that they are part of the next generation and can make a difference.  It chooses to forego television, sports, and worldly entertainment in our home.  It talks differently, disciplines differently, and incorporates different subjects into the “core curriculum.”  Not to earn brownie points but to be sure that our family and children can season the culture around us and not be thrown out and trampled by men. My “salt” self knows that the devil strives to capture hearts and minds on massive scales, to shift society.  And that beliefs are tested again and again by each generation that arises, often resulting in political and moral shift.  So if I don’t teach my kids the values and beliefs they need, they will never win the cultural engagement war.  On a practical level, I put a lot of hope in them, and I invest.

However, I cannot be satisfied that my life’s sole purpose is wrapped up in them.  My children are not my badges of success (or failure!).  And God’s judgment of my life will include more than how I stewarded them… it will include how I stewarded myself.  So many home-based Christian teachings implicitly teach stay-at-home mom’s that they live FOR their children.  Even THROUGH them sometimes, vicariously.  When they say that staying home is enough, homeschooling is enough, raising a godly generation is enough—they are wrong.  It is not enough.  If it were, then it would mean how my children “do” is the measure of my success.  (Especially how my boys “do” because girls are often expected to just raise the next generation, perpetuating the predicament.)  It would mean that my mothering role is “enough” for God.  All I would need to do, then, is stay connected to the Lord personally while I fulfill that role, and He will think I’m faithful.  Have a great quiet time, pursue my religious studies and habits.  And if I put all my being into the home life, so the story goes, then God is satisfied.  And if He is, then I certainly should be.

So why do so many evangelical moms with a fire breathing deep in their hearts FEEL that it’s not?  Because it isn’t!

The “Light” side of me burns to reach out, to reach more than my family.  The “light” self yearns to do the same things as my husband… to touch others, to counsel and pastor, to travel and heal.  The “Light” self notices that a culture is dying around me NOW, not just around my kids’ generation.  It knows that the gospel is needed now, and the expansion of the Kingdom of heaven and everything it entails!  Yet so many neo-feminist Christian teachings implicitly teach that women should pursue their destinies, fulfill their potential, and take advantage of their giftings.  The focus is all on self, and the obligation to God ostensibly through self-actualization.  I don’t believe that is the right philosophy either—women end up with unhappy marriages and children because they’ve pursued the talents God gave them.  Or maybe their families are supportive, but the moms have missed a lot… just like a dad who worked away from home.  The Kingdom of God has gained more souls, and God will be happy that His talents were stewarded… but the people who are not delivered and free are our kids.  Or the people who were not counseled with revelation were our own spouses.  The people who were jealous for Mom’s time and attention that she showed others were her own family.

The truth is that Salt and Light must work together, as Jesus said.  If mothering is an end all to itself, then I have no mission.  I’m a soldier with no battle.  Just a nice prayer journal.  But if Christian ministry is an end to itself, then I am selfish.  I cannot meet the needs of a spouse and children properly.   I need both.  I need to be a mother with a battle to fight… a “salty” family that is also “light” to the world.  As best I can, I need to see my family as a missionary family who tries to serve others in battle while trying to raise little people who will do the same.  For I must focus on my family.  I must put in the time to produce healthy children who will then propagate healthy relationships and values with others as they grow up… “salting” the culture.  I must also put in the time to grow them the holy way, which is often more time-consuming that relying on cultural shortcuts to do it.

But I can’t win the family and lose everything else.  If all I’ve done is invested in four small people, then I have spent the bulk of my life making only four disciples.  What about everyone else around me, while I was doing that?  What about this woman I know who battles addiction to meth and has had her children taken away from her?  What about this young girl I know who is getting into trouble because she fears she has angered God irrevocably?  What about ministry at my local crisis-pregnancy center, or marriage counseling with some couples who need it?  Do I have time to counsel them on weekend, and pray with them in my messy house, or run out for coffee with them when Dad is home?  Can I fit in a bible study and home group, and church, and AWANA, and whatever else everyone needs?  Well, practically speaking, sometimes no.  Sometimes it takes all my energy sometimes to make it through a day.  I don’t feel I have the time for the hurting world out there.  I don’t have the mental energy, peace, or answers for others.  But that’s too bad because the New Covenant requires me to walk in the supernatural, the Holy Spirit, and the fountain of life that never runs dry.  It calls me above the Jewish commandment to raise holy children in the obedience of the Lord.  It calls me out into the lost and dying world, to touch and give and mend.

It’s too bad I can’t do this every day in the way that I want.  But I do know that’s my call.  I can’t just put in all the family effort every day and know that in twenty or thirty years, I might be able to say I was a success.  If my children are as perfect as every childtraining book offers that they could be, then I’ll know I discharged my duty to God.  And if they raise healthy Christian children, then I’ll really be Supermom.  No, I have to see my ministry as present day too.  I am not just ministering to the life of twenty or thirty years down the road, I am ministering to today.  The kids somehow have to fit into the ride, the larger ride of serving God today.  Even if that means a less than perfect meal, a less well-thought out curriculum, or a messy house.  It has to go beyond a thrilling quiet time, a wonderful marriage, and a home nice enough for a home group.  It has to move into a realm where people on drugs are set free, marriages are saved, women in prostitution are given hope, those who are lost find answers, people who are suicidal are given an alternative, and the poor’s needs are addressed.

In some way, I think I’ve always known this even in the beginning of my search.  But putting it to work in real life has been so hard now that marriage has set in and children have showed up.  Part of me has had no idea how to do this.  And my two selves within, my Salt and Light, have sometimes been at war with one another, threatening to overtake the other because the cause is so strong.  Sometimes I even see churches and Christian groups at war over which cause is more important.  But just like evangelism and cultural transformation, one can’t win over the other.  We have to reach both individuals and society.  We have to help both the family and the community.  We have to address both the Christians and the lost.  I think the Salt and Light paradigm has helped me reconcile the inward and outward call, as it pertains to myself and family.  It is helping me see that the call really is two-fold and impossible (in the flesh).  It is not, as each camp would tell me, that one of the missions is ultimately more important… and therefore attainable.  I have to be both the meek stay-at-home Mom and the fiery outreaching Mom whenever necessary, in whatever way I can handle for the day I am in.  I have to live the world of plans and spontaneity, routines and ruining them, and future and present!

But the call will not be simplified…

The Ministries of Freedom

I was fortunate enough to be in Chicago at the same time as a meeting of the Acton Institute and so despite the super cold weather, I went over to check it out.  It was a great meeting because it really stimulated my thinking at a different level than I normally get and it actually confirmed a number of things we’ve been thinking about but from a different angle.  What is the mission of the church?

In the last post, I started to deal with the “Kingdoms of this World” and what we have to do with them.     This led to the realization that the church has a two fold mission: salt and light.  Of course there is nothing new in that observation, but the nuance of that meaning was becoming more clear to me.  Light is our proclamation of the Gospel, the expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven and everything it entails.  Salt means that we do and believe things which impact the culture around us.  If we do not, then guess what — we get “thrown out and trampled by men”.  In other words, when the church does not fulfill its mission to preserve what is good in a culture, the Kingdom of this world will come and trample us.  People wishing for the church to enter into a state of martyrdom are simply wishing for the church to fail.    When you realize that the future proclamation of the gospel hinges on your current preservation of the culture – that the souls of the future hinge on what you do in the culture, then you realize they are both vital ministries.  In a sense, salt is a ministry to the souls of the future, light is a ministry to souls of now.

Look at the passage more closely where Jesus talks about salt losing its saltiness – we have typically translated saltiness to mean that when we are no longer holy, judgment will come.   I think that’s a valid aspect, but thing about the salt – the salting is the preservation of culture.  Therefore the “saltiness” are the beliefs and activities which preserve the culture.  In other words, we could be “holy” and still get thrown out and trampled by men because we do not hold beliefs that will preserve the culture, or take actions that will preserve it.  We become so like the culture, not just in our rate of divorce or something like that, but in our beliefs about what is good and bad, that we no longer preserve it.

Essentially that is what happened during the Fundamentalist/Dispensationalist moment in American History which lasted from about 1932 to about 1980.  Culture entered a free fall because the church pulled out and became irrelevant.  With the rise of Evangelicaliam and the vision of Ockenga, we got back in the game, and now evangelicals are back in the important positions in culture – even though many are closeted.

What does the Acton Institute have to do with this?  A former Marxist turned Catholic priest started an organization designed to impact clergy with the beliefs that will lead the culture to freedom rather than slavery because all too often the clergy unwittingly are giving the appearance of divine blessing on ideas and policies which will have us all “trampled by men.”  It’s about making the church salty again.

At the meeting, though, the light bulbs were going off for me about the different dimensions of what we are supposed to be doing.  Ironically, these were the kinds of things I was taught in the postmillennial church I went to, but could never really swallow or fully embrace because the rationale was faulty.  Now, with the present millennial grounding, and the idea of “salt and light,” I am seeing the picture more clearly.  Moreover, having worked in a real “hands on” way with those in recovery, I am seeing the human person at a different level of detail than ever before.  As a church based on the concept of “Freedom” we want to bring freedom to all areas of the world– the liberating power of the Kingdom of God operating in the world.   What are these distinct areas where freedom is needed, however? I have listed the ministries that I believe that a fully mature church must become competent in along with categorizing them by Salt vs. Light.

Psychological/Personal (Light) – We started out seeing this through the lens of demonic deliverance.  We would come and cast the demons out of you so you could walk in the way you were designed.  Having seen a lot of rough cases now, we have shifted our emphasis to repentance.  When you empower someone to walk out of sin, you empower them to really be free.  It’s not about removing another entity as much as it is removing your own desires.    All freedom begins inwardly.  This has been the pursuit of our church this year, and we’ll be coming out with our book on the topic of how to be inwardly free.

Family (Both) – On top of personal freedom we build family freedom.  A single person being free enough to govern themselves is good, but when a man and a woman are able to relate in a lifelong covenant of health, they produce healthy offspring.  They produce the future.  When the family fails to produce healthy offspring, the future is cursed, and the children themselves are not only cursed, they become a curse to others.  Because the future is passed on through the family, the health of the family is the basis of all culture.  When the family fails, the culture fails.

Going to Acton, among Catholics, who really know the power of family, combined with the individual work we’ve done with people who are so broken really drove this home for me in a fresh way.  We’ve lost if we have lost the family but won everything else.  This does not mean that I think a person’s only ministry can be to the home.  Some conservative groups are telling our women that raising children is the meaning of life, but that’s an Old Covenant mindset.  Our families must become a ministry to the world, and we must also minister outwardly to the present, not just to the future through the family. Jaime stays at home and I strongly support it, but our mission is not just to raise good kids, it’s to touch the world – the kids are just part of it.

For all these reasons, I believe family ministry, not just marriage ministry, is an essential part of the work of the church, and one that we will be focusing on more this coming year.  We need to teach people to have healthy relationships first with friends, then with spouses, and then parents of the future.

Culture (Salt) – Culture is the realm of belief which exists outside the Church/Kingdom.  On top of the person and the family rests the culture.  We affect this partly by raising the future, but partly also through other activities such as protest and media whereby we raise the consciousness of the truth about an issue so that society will shift.  As culture shifts, so does the future basis of the Kingdom.   Wilberforce, MLK, and modern anti-abortion crusaders are all examples of those who salt the culture.   So are Christian influenced sources of information such as news, publishing, and media.  Culture has to do with the ministry of information.   We need to do things which will move the culture toward God and righteousness. The ministry to culture is not just outward however, it is also inward.  We must teach our own people, children, church the values and ideas that civil culture requires, otherwise we will become our own slave masters!

Politics (Salt) – Politics are built on culture.   Politics can definitely affect culture, but culture ultimately has primacy.  Politicians act within the cultural context of their time.  Political life is an important sphere of Christian activity as well which we cannot ignore, but not as important as the first three.  We need to be a part of positive things happening in the civil sphere not just ignore them and pray for rain.

Vocational (Both?) – One of the inhibitors to freedom is that the church has almost always been dominated by a few personalities who make a living off of the others.  At FCF we have made the emphasis on each person doing the gospel as well as providing his own bread.  This means that we’re all truly equal partners.  Moreover, we’ve made ourselves about empowering regular people to come up in every part of their lives.  We literally exist to help people grow into who God has called them to be.

It’s not just what the church does, however.  It’s what we do in the business sphere to empower people.  Corporate life feels unfulfilling ultimately because it is.  However, when we create enterprises that help people grow and fulfill their callings, we are creating engines of liberation.  We’re not just making money for the Kingdom, we’re developing the Kingdom itself through the people we restore, develop and touch in our business enterprises.

We must help people find their places along the wall in each other walk of life.  Too often, this has been translated to mean that we encourage people to become CEOs or run in the Olympics for Jesus.  That’s the world’s idea of significance.  What we mean is that in some area each person knows that they are making a real difference according to their ability and experience.  Moreover, they know they are a part of a team where every single person is making that kind of difference.  All together it adds up to powerful ministry.

I believe these “vocational” ministries are the answer to the problem of Protestant ultra-individualism.   In a system where everyone is developed and learns to celebrate their small piece, all are both unique and free, but also interdependent.   In other words, we don’t need rock stars any more.  It’s not about one amazing man who became the pastor of a mega church or wrote a zillion books.  It’s about all of the people who made the megachurch and stack of books possible.   Not just because they got a nod in the Acknowledgements page, but because their ministry is thought of as equally valuable.

God (Light) – Ultimately the Kingdom of God is a one way train to the presence and glory of God.   Our ministry of encounter with God is a very important part of what we must do as human beings.  We can minister to culture, but what do we have to minister if we do not have God?  We must walk into a living and deep relationship with God and bring that outward to others.  Therefore we must pursue healing, prophecy and every kind of deep thing in God.

Evangelism (Light) – Actually reaching out into the Kingdom of Darkness from this glorious Kingdom of Light is the main event.  Otherwise, we are building everything for naught.  Family only is the Old Covenant.  Culture only is social gospel.  Personal only is self-help…. But when we bring others into it, we are fulfilling the dreams of God.  He wants us to get free, but he wants us to bring freedom to the real “lost tribes” – every person who has not found Him.   This means going to the ends of the Earth through world mission, to the street corner through outreach, and to the neighbor for dinner.   Everything we do, we must go out.

Church (Light) – The Church itself is the vehicle of freedom to all other areas.   The church must be producing free people, training families to propagate freedom, inspiring and equipping people to impact culture and political spheres.   This means having not only a polity which promotes freedom, but a theology which promotes freedom.  The way we understand God and others leads to freedom, the way we do church leads to freedom.  We must impact the church at large to share and propagate freedom to others.  This means spreading the Good News to those who are supposed to have it already through literature, conferences, and ministry activities.

Each of these is a distinct area of ministry activity.   As a corporate body we must become competent in each of these areas, and we must help people make a difference in each of these areas.   Every single person gets to be an agent of change.  That’s the real “destiny” message.  It’s not something out of reach way out there, it’s right within your grasp.

The Kingdoms of This World

Jesus explicitly says that His Kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36) yet some of us still persist, like the crowds, to make him an Earthly king by force (John 6:15).   This is not what Jesus wants from us.  What he wants is for us to “make disciples” of the nations.   Unlike the devil, He wants to rule over a kingdom of voluntary subjects, not of people who are enslaved to Him and hate Him.   What is this “making disciples” all about though?   Some explain “make disciples of all nations” to mean “take over the nations” whereas others explain it to mean “take some people from all of the nations.”   Does history offer us any help in resolving which interpretation is better?

Well certainly we can observe that any time that the church and state are intertwined, it leads to serious corruption of the church.   Christianity gets physical defense from other powers in exchange for being corrupt.    History does not lead in the trajectory of the Church “taking over” nations.

On the other hand, to take the other view that the Christian take-over of Rome was a tragic mistake will not do either.  We’ve made a lot about Wilberforce, but what about all of great things that Christianity did to culture before then?  We abolished ancient slavery, gladiatorial matches, raised the status of women significantly,  including female infants, took power away from the autocrats and created room in the society for the common man, to mention a few of the “human rights” related changes that never happened in Rome or anywhere else in history without Christ.    Everything we became as a civilization stemmed out of Christianity being the dominant cultural force,  instead of paganism.   Now we are using the technology and money that resulted from having these Christian principles to reach to the literal ends of the earth for Christ.  Moreover, neither Islam nor barbarians were able to kill us because we were protected by the medieval states.   To argue that the church should not have influence on the state is to argue for a state of perpetual persecution and martyrdom.  God saw fit to end that by making Caesar acknowledge Christ.  I disagree with those who say “the church needs a little persecution.”   If they are so sincere in that belief, I have a short list of places they can move to volunteer.

Part of our inheritance from our Spiritual forebears is not just salvation, it is the environment in which we could find salvation and even more importantly — give it to others.   We need to pass something down to our children other than just salvation — we need to pass down to them the cultural inheritance of our past.  We need to pass down to them the Christian principles that make us free as a people, or not only they but all of the weak of the secular world will be slaves again.    Our governments have been working against us to remove the Christianity from our civilization, and when they are done, nothing will be left but the pagan roots of Rome that were there before.   Can you say “welcome back” gladiators?

A large part of the church is focused simply on saving souls, and part of the church is focused on reforming the government.   Both are needed, but these groups have completely different theologies.  Is there any view which would consistently motivate us to do both?  I haven’t solved the puzzle but I’m becoming more convinced of several things.

First, culture is the main thing that welcomes or rejects God among a people, this includes both revival, as well as freedom.   Winning souls is critical, influencing law is good, but impacting culture is the stage upon which these things happen.  If we abandon culture, we curse the ability to reach future generations and their ability to affect the law.

Second, part of who we are as Christians is our Christian cultural values.   Multiculturalists are working hard to undermine this by labeling it Western imperialism.    In reality it has taken 2000 years to get certain values to be deeply a part of who we are.  We can’t throw that under the bus.   The logical extension of this is that we must teach every disciple of Christ the fundamental elements of Christian culture.  Most people refer to this as “Biblical worldview” but this often ends up as a side topic.    We need to understand this as central to the discipleship process.   Of course Biblical worldview is deeply enmeshed in personal character, but what we need to pass down is something about our corporate relationships and relationship to the world.

Third, I have come to the belief that what you belief about the Earth is what you is what you leave on the Earth. I mean that in the very specific sense that the cultural inheritance you pass down is what you pass down to change the Kingdoms of this world.   If you only pass down your faith or people you have evangelized, but pass nothing to them about culture you pass them down an inheritance of slavery.    You have been given an inheritance by all of the Christians before you, you must maintain that trust and pass it down to your children.  If you do not believe in the principles of freedom and pass them down, you are setting the stage for their slavery and bondage.

Fourth, the church is locked in a mortal struggle with the state.   When the state gains enough power over the church, Satan will use it to try and wipe the church out.    The more space in society that the state takes up, the less “room” there is for the church.   “Big government” is not a modern invention.  It is an historical reality.  Christ comes to set people free from the chains of serving man, often personified as an absolute ruler.   Our ideal is not a state we control or one that we ignore.  Our ideal is a state that we influence.   If Jesus says “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s” that means that something belongs to God which does not belong to Caesar and that Caesar himself must render unto God his due.   We as the church are the voice and influence to make that happen.     This doesn’t mean that we can’t actually run the government.  We can, but when we do, we must do so in the spirit of Daniel — as a blessing to all people, like God who “causes it to rain on the unrighteous,” not as implementers of a religious policy.    When we put in place policies which give people freedom, and serve justice to the weak, we fundamentally set back the devil’s Kingdom.   The church can help the poor, but only the state can give them “justice.”   Some have perverted this to mean give them handouts.    Justice means the right to be treated the same as someone who has money, not the right to have their money.

Kris Vallotton and Bethel

I recently attended a conference with the rest of the team where Kris Vallotton was the main speaker.  We were going mostly as a fellowship, not for the message, as I had only heard Kris briefly on a single web cast before.  I just knew that the Bethel related guys were doing cool things and the host of the conference was very excited about having him in.    We didn’t go because we were big followers of his, but because we were looking for an opportunity for the guys to have an encounter with God, and do something as a team.    Kris tells some great “God stories”  Everyone laughed a lot during the services.   I cried a couple of times over the stories.   It was a great experience.    People know Kris and the Bethel guys, though, not because they are funny, but because they are saying something profound to the church in this time.

There was a very nice anointing around his life that I feel like restored my fire and “freshness” with God.  (Not to mention the worship really moved me). Vallotton’s signature is what I might call “prophetic worldview insights.”   This made him a little bit like a Graham Cooke that was more focused on the church orientation than strictly personal issues.  One of Vallotton’s trademarks is to throw big ideas on the table, and then just move on rather than fully develop them.  This perhaps is because they are actually coming from God as revelations and he himself does not fully know what they mean or imply yet.   He put several big ideas on the table that I want to interact with here.  Keep in mind, though I disagree with Kris on several points, I see him as operating under a real mantle from God for changing the church in our generation.  I’m just a guy with a blog trying to figure out what to do with this stuff.

I say this as someone who didn’t feel like I naturally “fit in” with the Bethel folks or the people that they attract.   The spike haired pastor with the USSR t-shirt giving the blessing was only one of many “fish out of water” experiences for us.   However, God is speaking to the church through them right now, and we need to listen and hear what they are saying.  I felt like God showed me tonight how even people who are committed to a life of following the cloud of the anoint will can the new anointing.   I always thought that as a Charismatic who was sold on following the Spirit, all I had to do was ride the wave, but it doesn’t exactly work like that.  Even radical Spirit Filled types can miss what God is doing in their generation because God will design it in a package that maybe doesn’t look so radical and Spirit filled on the surface.  Well the Bethel guys are really shaking things up by changing our orientation toward church.

Bethel as the new Kansas City? Vallotton is definitely one who is looking at a more long term horizon for the church, unlike those in the Kansas City movement.  In fact, one could see how Bethel in some ways has picked up the mantle that Kansas City put down—by blending the Latter Rain (prophetic) with Pentecostal and Vineyard influences.  Kansas City you could say lost out because its leaders lacked the humility to complement their gifts, and now because what remains (the IHOP movement) has gone over to an unhealthy view of the end times.    Bethel comes with an anointing to get the Charismatic church back on track – actually reaching people instead of just waving banners around.   Some of the observations of Bill Johnson could have come straight from the mouth of Curry Blake, but Johnson has the mantle for charismatic people to listen.  The difference is that Bethel doesn’t come with a lot of stunning fireworks.  I don’t really enjoy Bill Johnson as a teacher and they don’t do “wow” prophetic meetings.  Overall I saw the genius of God in this.  Charismatics pride themselves on following the cloud – how can a people who have built their lives around chasing God miss the next move of God?  Well if God comes to them “in a whisper,” without hype or fireworks, then they will only know it is God if they recognize His hand and voice in what is taking place.  God is not a miracle factory.  He is looking for a people that will join with him to bring the Kingdom to earth.

Historiography. Vallotton referred to the Catholic church as our mother and said he really didn’t know whether or not it was a good idea in 1517 to separate from the Catholic church or not.  He did not come across as an advocate for return to modern Catholicism, however.  This is a reversal of Latter Rain “Restorationism” such as laid out by Kevin Conner and Bill Hamon.  It says we need to get back to a place we were, rather than emphasizing the things God has strategically done to bring us forward in the past 5 centuries.  Conner would see God continually restoring the church doctrine by doctrine and practice by practice beginning with Luther, through Wesley and right down to now.  I side with Conner and the Latter Rainers on this one.   I see the Medieval Catholic Church as being corrupt necessarily because of its tight integration of Church and State, not something we want to rebuild or revisit.

Relationship to the World. Vallotton is pointing to something real though that God is doing in our time.  He’s rolling Spirit filled people into places of influence in the City of Man.  They are a kind of New Testament Daniel Company.  He talks about this as a collaboration between God ordained secular (Romans 13) government, and God ordained Church (Ephesians 6) government.  There is a lot (2000 years of history and thought) to deal with here.  What I saw out of this was lighting a different way forward than strict political activism.  This was a more about a kind of civic activism – the Kingdom is something that comes and saves souls, but also shakes up the culture of the city.  This is very powerful.  Rather than focus on the national political scene which tends to marginalize us, or focusing on spiritual mapping which may not actually do anything, here we have an approach that says “transform your immediate environment.” by leveraging the God given power of Romans 13 offices.  We have to end our hostility toward these offices as “the world,” and start looking at them as the powers which God has established over our city.  He gave examples which included a Christian prophetically elected as mayor, a reformist mayor in a corrupt city supported by the church, and secular officials supported in doing good by the church.  He talked about how solving problems in the city gives the church credibility that we have lost as well.

Eschatology. Vallotton specifically attacked the Hal Lindsey (premillennial) gloom and doom worldview, saying that this kind of view actually gives power to the devil. We start awaiting the coming and empowerment of the anti-Christ not the coming of Christ.  I am on board with these points.  Where he got into murkier water was the expectation of the church’s role in the world.  There was definitely a postmillennial (church taking over) overtone to his teaching.  For example, he held up the Renaissance as a point to which we should return.  He saw this as a time of church dominance in the culture and that as a goal.  He also told some great stories which revealed his orientation to be less about theonomy (takeover by law) and more about real influence in the culture.  His contention was that we should be the people who solve the problems of our cities, and that that can start by us taking a servant attitude toward our civic leadership.  As an amillennial, I fit this insight about the government of this world not into a “redeem the city” paradigm since I follow Augustine in truly seeing a “City of Man” which will ultimately be destroyed.  I see impacting the city as being about saving souls ultimately, but secondarily about making the manifold wisdom known to the principalities and powers.  You don’t bring down the principality over a city through a “prayer walk.”  Even a revival alone will not do it.  The instrument of civil government working with the church, however, can do it.  It’s a kind of taking “Spiritual Warfare” onto the devil’s home turf.

Protestant Individualism. Vallotton identified and criticized Protestantism’s orientation toward valuing people only based on doctrine. He saw this as being historically rooted in the tradition of Protestants separating and joining based on doctrine,  but I don’t think he made a strong enough connection that this orientation is partly dictated. by Protestant theology.  Individual salvation by faith leads us to separate from our families and others and forge our own lives based on Christ.  In fact, individualism is the sine qua non of Protestant civilization.  Our desire to “separate” or “join” with others based on “doctrine” is intimately connected with the idea of individual salvation versus the Catholic or Orthodox ideas of salvation by the Church.  So we can’t exactly throw that overboard.  What we could do, however, is tweak it, and I think his ultimate conclusion was very good: we have to value and love people because they are people, not based on their level of agreement with us as we are apt to do as Protestants.  He talked about an “iron curtain coming down” which was a very powerful image.  That iron curtain is the strict separation we place between ourselves and unbelievers and the way we instrumentalize them by focusing on their conversion (changing their minds) more than actually loving them through their lives.

Judgment versus Reaping and Sowing. Vallotton told a story of being with a bunch of other apostolic/prophetic voices and challenging their assumption that God was judging us for this or that.  He seems to agree with Jim Richards that God doesn’t bring “judgment” per se after the cross.  He allows us to reap the consequences of our actions.  Was Sept 11^th a judgment or a consequence of our actions and attitudes? He specifically called out David Wilkerson as being one who has prophesied a lot of gloom and doom over the years, none of which has come to pass, and said we need to get out of that mindset.   Kris sees it as a contradiction for God to bring death on us because of our bringing death on others (such as through abortion).  He made great points about “culture” and how it really is a feedback loop: you have to change the system.  However, I don’t think that this means that God can’t allow or even bring death as a consequence of our killing.  This is certainly the basis of capital punishment.  On the other hand, I think Kris is onto something when he takes the focus off of “God’s judgment” and puts it back onto us and by extension the activity of the Enemy of our souls to exploit our sin to destroy us.

Remarkably, these were only a few of the major paradigm shifting ideas that Vallotton put forward.   He also discussed “Apostleships”, the “Owl” prophetic movement, and multi-generational church just to name a few others that I can’t cover here.  All of this led me to conclude that I need to be spending more time with God and less time with my brain.  God is a genius, so He tells you things that you could never figure out from a lifetime of study.  He breathes on an idea and it has life.   I need that a lot more than another degree.

Eating your Spiritual Vegetables

So I have become aware that I am an excitement addict.  I need things to be exciting.  In fact, I come from a generation of excitement addicts.  We basically have continuous entertainment opportunities all the time.  We are raised from the beginning on this excitement diet.  Whether it be video games, sex, food, or even things in the church the bottom line is that we want it to be exciting.  This is because we were raised to chase a high.

This concept has recently been ported over into the Christian world as “Christian Hedonism” most notably promoted by John Piper and to a lesser extent Mike Bickle and Sam Storms.  It’s a great revelation that the joy of knowing God surpasses the pleasures of the world.  On the other hand the pleasure of the world and the pleasures of God work in fundamentally different ways.  The pleasure of the world feeds the self and reinforces the self.  The pleasure of the world comes with an intense kick right up front.  That’s designed to get you hooked.  The other thing though is that the pleasure of the world always comes with a “hangover.”  It comes with the negative consequences of what you did.  These may be in your heart, in your body, in your relationships, in your finances or all of the above.

Look at physical intimacy.   Sinful physical intimacy may come with a huge rush right up front, but in the end you have total destruction.  There may be an abortion, an STD, and a broken heart coming just to name a few possibilities.  If you are married, it may include divorce, devastated children, and child support payments.   These are life long “consequences.”   Physical intimacy in marriage may not always have the same “rush” but it is part of building a lifelong relationship and has the potential to develop dimensions that sinful intimacy can never have because it is part of reinforcing a lifelong trust relationship.

God’s pleasures come with time.  A lot like vegetables.  You get no “high” from eating vegetables, but if you eat a lot of them, and cut out the sugar and caffeine, you’ll have a lot more energy.  Now God is certainly a lot better than vegetables.  But it’s a similar flow.  When we pack into a service looking for the spiritual “high” we’re treating God like our worldly idols.  When we come to him looking for a “high” we’re treating him like a worldly idol.

How do we exit the cycle of looking for the next “high” of some kind.  Well of course there is dying to self, but dying to self is not denying yourself something you really really want.  It is learning to stop wanting what will kill you and start wanting what will save you.  It is learning to stop eating of the forbidden fruit and to start eating of the tree of life.

Look, this even applies to learning.  For me it is easier to feed my mind than to feed my spirit.  But feeding my mind makes me just smart, it doesn’t make me effective.   If you fathom all mysteries but have not love….  But when you get in God’s presence and stay there you actually become something different.  You don’t just know something different.  Eating of the tree of life of the presence of Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving, a lot like a good vegetable diet J   It can even be very exciting, but if excitement is your goal you’re going to burn out.

What I am starting to learn (very slowly) is the “simple pleasure” of the unexciting things in life.  Working hard during the work day, going to bed on time, eat right, etc, are all the “less exciting options” but they pay off major dividends over time.   As your life gets in order, there is more room for God.   The devil works hard to keep your life out of order so you can’t stay in the flow with God.   The bait he uses is excitement.  That first rush of the forbidden fruit masks its deadly nature.   But every time you walk in what is right, you sow a harvest of good things to come.   And there is a joy of the good harvest that is much richer than the guilty and temporal pleasure of the exciting whirlwind.   I never heard anyone say “man I wish had eaten more fatty foods yesterday.”   That’s because later on you are in harvest time.  Do you get a harvest of corruption after a short high, or do you get a harvest of joy after “eating your vegetables?”

What the Devil Says

We continue to wade deeper into the waters of demonic deliverance.  And I certainly don’t have “the answers” as it comes to this topic, but I learn more and more all the time.   Talking to other people about how their bondage works has definitely been eye opening about how to get more freedom myself, and even others who are “healthy.”

Jesus says that “my sheep hear my voice.”  This is a great promise, but the problem is that we also hear the devil’s voice, and we have to learn to totally reject and disfellowship from it.  How do we do that?  A lot has been written in Charismatic movement about hearing God’s voice, but none of that stuff has really worked for me.  I think it is because I need to do more “eviction” of the devil.

Of course the devil has basic tricks like making good things seem evil, and evil seem good.  He “speaks” by giving you negative emotions about Godly things and euphoric emotions about sin.  This feeling is followed by him giving you a script like “I really want that.”  So you will come into agreement with him and he’ll have power.   These feeling have power because you believe the lies.  When you see a pretty girl and you have all of these emotions and you want to act on it, that’s because you are letting the devil play his script in your head.   The devil always lies about the consequences.  He likes you to think that there are no negative consequences of your action, but of course that’s dead wrong.

While those things are tricky, they are more obvious because we know they are obviously wrong.    The hard ones really are the “religious lies” like the ones that Jesus had to face in the wilderness.  Most demons are very well versed in the religious.   I had a friend the other day start praying for a guy on the phone who didn’t believe in demons.  That was until my friend started casting one out of him and he was screaming and choking on the phone.  The devil loves the theology that he doesn’t exist.

The first thing you need to know about the devil’s voice is that it is demanding and “loud”. The devil is glad to talk all the time.  He wants to talk about everything because anything you listen to will lead you into bondage.   God by contrast is not loud and demanding.    One of the keys to knowing God’s voice is that there is grace released when you hear it.   You hear the word and there is something within you desiring to do it.  Now there is often conflict between your flesh and carrying out God’s will, but one of the signs of God speaking is this sense of “yes” and being carried along in that direction.   God’s voice is speaking “in” you as much as he speaks “to” you – after all Christ and the Holy Spirit are living inside of you.  We know someone whose constantly chattering demon says “ask God to speak to you like this.” I believe that is taunt because God doesn’t speak like that.   God doesn’t speak with lots of constant “conversational” dos and don’ts.

This leads to my second observation about the devil’s voice.  He loves to “pile it on.”  Whatever you are doing is not enough.  He loves to find something he knows you won’t do and then condemn you for it.  “Sell all you have and give it to the poor” and then when you don’t do it, you feel guilty.   It’s not God.   If God wants you to sell all, it won’t feel like that.   If God wants you to do it, you’ll have a deep desire to do it, even if it is a struggle.   There is no condemnation in Christ, but the devil’s goal is to find something to condemn you for.  This is because if you are condemned you are in works, and that means he’s in control.  Basically you have to know that you are forgiven and free whether or not you pray, read your Bible, or anything else.  If I worship God tonight, that’s great for me, and great for God, but it has nothing to do with my “rightness” with God.  No “rules” can add or subtract from that because Jesus paid it all.  And if I sin, I repent and am forgiven.   God takes it off, he doesn’t pile it on.

John G. Lake once said that “hell is distraction” and that is the next observation about the devil: he is distraction.  He has all kinds of things you need to do and worry about all the time.  Basically anything to keep you from dealing with your real self, and getting in contact with God.  You’ll know this when you get down to pray and you become worried about all kinds of random things.  That’s the devil.   God is when you get to that place of layer after layer of focus, to the point where you are “lost in the Spirit” and you don’t even know you’re in the room.   You’re caught up in focus on God.   You are carried there by His presence in you which is calling out to His presence in heaven.

And of course we must remember that the devil used Scripture in the temptation of Jesus.   Even if the devil says something that is “true” — such as a Scripture verse — it’s still really a lie designed to bring death.  It’s a lie because of context, and a lie because of intent.   You know it’s a lie because of where it came from.   The devil can only lie and only destroy.  We have to proactively evict the devil’s voice from each of our lives.  We have to evict the voice of guilt and condemnation.  We have to evict the voice that demands we do this and that and this.   Kick it out, and listen to God’s voice of perfect love coming from the Holy Spirit within you.

Faith and The Word of Faith

A recent commenter was trying to understand why Charismatics seem to be particularly open to the Word of Faith movement and assume that if you are anti-Word of Faith you are anti-Charismatic.   When I was in high school, before I became Charismatic, I remember staying up late with my brother and watching one of the TV ministries with my brother.  It was completely ridiculous.  I had a hard time even recognizing it as Christian.   Yet these guys are raising enough money to stay on the air.   It was several more years before I was introduced to the Faith teaching in the church where I came into the Charismatic movement.   At the time it seemed that the pastors of that church were more interested in the Holy Spirit than the money and I saw the Faith teaching as something separate from what I had rejected on TV.  I saw it as part of believing God.  I was believing Him to be a supernatural and victorious person and that entailed an attitude of victory, overcoming and faith.   Declaring Scriptures over myself made sense and I was glad to do it.   It never got me the breakthrough from lifelong sin patterns, but it gave me a much more victorious mindset.   I later found out that the church pastors were in fact not much different from the TV preachers and were making incredible salaries while expecting very high sums out of the congregation in many different ways.

Which leads to my first observation:  it’s funny how “faith” always gets tied in with money.    I do not think it is supposed to be.   When you start going after the money, you end up with “name it and claim it” and a very selfish version of Christianity.   That was never what I wanted — perhaps because I had never lacked money or status, or perhaps because I had already put it all on the altar when I accepted Christ.    Yet, these faith teachings about money always end up in “give to get.”   Instead of giving to speed the gospel, you are now giving to increase your bank account.   Count me out.  I’m trying to build a heavenly bank account.

My second observation is that the Word-Faith teaching quickly becomes a kind of Gnosticism, much like Christian Science.  You are declaring yourself healed even though you are sick.   You are declaring yourself free even though you are in bondage.  You end up starting by denying reality.  This is a fundamental problem that keeps it from “working.”   Instead of exposing and confronting you end up denying.

But does that mean I am completely anti-Faith?  Actually it doesn’t.   After a number of years of not listening to that kind of teaching, I’ve realized that I’ve lost an important part of my Christian identity that I need to bring back in a healthy way.   I don’t think that I could listen to the main teachers on this subject for the two reasons above, yet I think that the “Attitude of Faith” is absolutely critical.   What would a “Faith” teaching look like without the money stuff and the denying of reality?   Hard to imagine isn’t it??

Well for starters, I think it would become focused on victory over sin, demons, and disease, which are the things that I think I remember Jesus focusing on.   I think it would also focus on confidence in the face of danger and intimidation.   It would focus on bold proclamation of the truth and walking in the full stature of Christ.    Secondly, I think that it would begin by recognition of a problem and THEN asserting the will of Christ over it.   You are sick but — Jesus makes you well.   Instead of Gnosticism we have declarations of victory on behalf of an almighty God.   Real Faith is about stepping into the attitude and position of Jesus on the Earth.  Hebrews 11 does truly paint a fabulous picture of the “man of faith” that God wants us to be.  Is the money really that exciting?  Can’t you get hyped about that on a late night infomercial?

Which leaves a question — where do the “confessions” that form the heart of the WoF teaching come in?  Actually these Scriptural confessions were part of why it was attractive to me in the first place.   The idea of quoting a Scripture to take authority over my problem made a lot of sense to my evangelical-fundamentalist ears.   I moved away from them because I felt that they weren’t really getting the job done and because of the “Gnosticism” issue of denial of reality.  I am thinking about bringing them back, but with a different focus — expose the issue, and assert God’s dominion over it.

A Christian Counseling Model

The basic task of pastoring people is helping them to grow.  A major component of this then is counseling.  And both counseling and pastoring are tied closely to our view of sanctification, and our view of the human person.  There are several major schools of thought today that provide us an approach to helping people to grow:

“Christian Counseling.” The Christian Counseling movement is very integrationist in its philosophy.  The basic idea is to build on secular counseling insights and just insert Christian values without addressing the fundamental models. This school is best represented by Gary Collins and his book “Christian Counseling” There are several problems with this.  First  Secular Psychology and Christian psychology are based on very different premises. Starting with the existence of God, and working through the various facets of the human personality, traditional psychological models differ greatly from a Biblical view.   Secular counseling for example has no concept of “sin” and therefore no idea of “correction.”   Secondly, secular models are not static.  Contemporary psychology has great diversity and the reigning paradigms change every decade or two.

“Biblical Counseling” Also called “Nouthetic Counseling.” This is the movement started by Jay Adams with his seminal work “Competent to Counsel.”  Adams is a strong correction to integrationist approaches.  Looking at examples from his books, you could almost caricature his model as “Scriptural Rebuke.”   Basically this is the no nonsense, in your face, why didn’t you do the right thing approach, salted with a some Scripture verses.  Now, this is certainly better than secular counseling for sure, because you are getting responsibility back on the person instead of just validating them.

“Deliverance.” In the Charismatic church, if you have a problem you can’t beat we say that you have a demon.  The idea is that if we cast it out, you will be able to break the cycle.  This traditionally involves repentance of past sins, naming the spirit and commanding it to leave.  A new movement of “Inner Healing” has rounded out the deliverance approach   This has meant a greater focus on the “Father’s Heart,” and healing of past wounds.   Deliverance methods are great if the person you are working with has the anointing to just blast the devil off of you, but a lot of people end up frustrated trying to get free from their problems when the focus is on the devil alone.

“Discipleship Counseling” This is the name that Neal Anderson has chosen for his model, but I think a more descriptive name would be Christian Identity Counseling . Anderson’s model is kind of like Deliverance gone mainstream. He’s taken the concepts made them more palatable and consistent and give it his own twist, which has evolved over time. Anderson’s basic idea is that when you are not doing well it is because you are failing to recognize your identity in Christ. In addition, you may have demonic activity, which mainstream models essentially ignore.   I am most familiar with Anderson’s model because I have tried, used it, and built on its insights.   With time this has led me to identify what I see as flaws in the approach and move toward our own FCF approach.

Anderson, whether consciously or not, has much similarity with the “Word of Faith” movement.  He leans toward a once saved always saved model of salvation and with it an approach that if things are going wrong it is because you are not walking in your already fully established identity in Christ.    One sign of this is his use of the word “renounce” in several places where it would be natural to say “repent.”   This seems to stem from the idea that if you are already perfect in Christ, you are simply needing to “renounce” the problem rather than take ownership of it and repent.   The idea being that your spirit is perfect, but your flesh is not.   Your flesh sinned.   This can lead to the thinking that “it really wasn’t me it was my flesh.”

“Reality Counseling“  For now this is what I’m going to call our method.   It is NOT to be confused with secular “Reality Therapy.” First, we see “exposure” as a major facet of freedom.  Talking and bringing the problem fully out into the light is critical.   What are the roots?  How does it function?  What is your pattern?  Related to this, we see that most people  work very hard to “put up a front” for others to see.  It is critical that you tear down this idol of pleasing others and get real in order to be free.  As long as you are trying to be someone you are not, you are in works, and God’s grace will not function for you.   When you bring your real sins and real self before God only then through the blood of Christ can you be secure and accepted in his presence. If you are hiding like Adam and Eve were in the garden, you cannot experience the cleansing power of that blood.   This is the reality about yourself.

Second, in response to Anderson, we believe very much that you may not be saved, and that can lose your salvation.   In addition, we see “In Christ” as an important reality which applies subsequent to repentance, not as a proxy for repentance.   You must take full responsibility for having committed the sin, whether or not there was demonic involvement.  You must then repent and turn away from it at the point that if it were offered to you again, you would not take it because you would rather have Christ.     Then you can assert your identity in Christ, because you are now “in Christ” in this area.  Being in Christ is something that happens by faith, and happens progressively.   As you repent and excercise faith, you are more “in Christ.”   This is not from a perspective of your salvation, but it is from a perspetive of your ongoing experience of God and victory over sin.   This is the reality of your sin.

Connected with this is the issue of faith and works.   If you try to fight your sin without really repenting, or fight the devil without really removing, you will be in works.  You will be trying to please God by doing good things instead of accepting that God loves you regardless of your inability to do good things.  It is by abiding in this unconditional love, and by receiving forgiviness for your sins that results from repentance that you will have the power of God living inside of you.   When you try to get God to love you more by human effort, you are in works.   This is the Reality of God’s love.

After exposing, and taking real ownership of the issue including repentance, you can deal with the demonic power that is reinforcing the pattern.   We really see this as the devil’s role.  He’s like the iron padlock on the door of your sin.   He keeps reinforcing it by making it hard to do the right thing, and easy to the wrong thing.   He supercharges the evil, and fights you on the good.   He plays tapes in your head and until you accept them.  He’s an evil bully.    We will command him to go, but you must be ready to take back the ground one piece at a time.   We look for “total disfellowship” as the condition of his removal.  Every thing that causes you to “like” him being there must be gone.   But I don’t like the devil being there?   You like what he offers you on the front end, just not what you get on the back end.  You like the drinking but not the hangover.   When you stop liking the drinking, the devil’s days are numbered.   This is the reality about the devil.

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The basic task of pasturing people is helping them to grow. A major component of this then is counseling. And both counseling and pastoring are tied closely to our view of sanctification, and our view of the human person. There are several major schools of thought today that provide us an approach to helping people to grow:

“Christian Counseling.” The Christian Counseling movement is very integrationist in its philosophy. The basic idea is to build on secular counseling insights and just insert Christian values without addressing the fundamental models. This school is best represented by Gary Collins and his book “Christian Counseling” There are several problems with this. First Secular Psychology and Christian psychology are based on very different premises. Starting with the existence of God, and working through the various facets of the human personality, traditional psychological models differ greatly from a Biblical view. Secular counseling for example has no concept of “sin” and therefore no idea of “correction.” Secondly, secular models are not static. Contemporary psychology has great diversity and the reigning paradigms change every decade or two.

“Biblical Counseling” Also called “Nouthetic Counseling.” This is the movement started by Jay Adams with his seminal work “Competent to Counsel.” Adams is a strong correction to integrationist approaches. Looking at examples from his books, you could almost caricature his model as “Scriptural Rebuke.” Basically this is the no nonsense, in your face, why didn’t you do the right thing approach, salted with a some Scripture verses. Now, this is certainly better than secular counseling for sure, because you are getting responsibility back on the person instead of just validating them.

“Deliverance.” In the Charismatic church, if you have a problem you can’t beat we say that you have a demon. The idea is that if we cast it out, you will be able to break the cycle. This traditionally involves repentance of past sins, naming the spirit and commanding it to leave. A new movement of “Inner Healing” has rounded out the deliverance approach This has meant a greater focus on the “Father’s Heart,” and healing of past wounds.

“Discipleship Counseling” This is the name that Neal Anderson has chosen for his model, but I think a more descriptive name would be Christian Identity Counseling . Anderson’s model is kind of like Deliverance gone mainstream. He’s taken the concepts made them more palatable and consistent and give it his own twist, which has evolved over time. Anderson’s basic idea is that when you are not doing well it is because you are failing to recognize your identity in Christ. In addition, you may have demonic activity, which the other two models essentially ignore. Overall, Anderson’s I am most familiar with Anderson’s model because I have used it, and I see several weaknesses

New Perspective on Paul

It was asked in a comment what is the significance of the New Perspective on Paul.   First of all, I am not going to pretend to be an expert.  It’s a bit of a tricky subject that people will want to argue about.  If you want a more expert debriefing, check out one of the audios here.  Or you may want to look at John Piper’s book “The Future of Justification.”

The simple version is as follows.   Back in the 70s, a scholar named E.P. Sanders wrote a book called “Paul and Palestinian Judaism.”   It claimed that Paul was not arguing against Jewish legalism, he was just arguing against Jewish exclusivity.   It was based on research which Sanders believed showed the Pharisees and others to not be oriented toward salvation by works by to salvation by grace.

It seems like a minor argument, but it’s actually quite significant.  If Paul was not arguing against Jewish legalism then this affects the meaning of terms like “justification” and “works of the law.”   If Paul was not arguing against those who would seek salvation by human effort, then in effect things like the letter to the Romans are no longer about how to be saved.  They are about who gets to be in the church or not.

Sanders contended that Luther’s tortured conscience is really the source for our reading of these terms as dealing with legalism.  Ever since the Reformation we’ve been misunderstanding it.   In essence, this reading of Paul reverses the Reformation.   Out is the “old” Lutheran salvation by faith perspective and in is something about being part of God’s covenant people.  If Salvation is not by faith, then dare I say we labor in vain.

This argument was picked up by James D.G Dunn of the University of Durham in England and then N.T. Wright, who is now Bishop of Durham.  N.T. Wright is the main person influencing the average evangelical.  This is because he sees himself a kind of moderate evangelical, and has taken strong stands in the past against the crazy theological liberal ideas.   People that are otherwise very orthodox are drinking down his commentaries and books.   Certain ultra-Calvinist groups have also picked up on this as a basis for their views called the “Federal Vision” or “Auburn Avenue Theology,” which undermines salvation by faith too, but just in a more conservative way.

Now of course Wright is too slippery to show his cards and take these ideas to the logical conclusion.  If someone from the NPP were to show up and read this blog they would most likely claim that I had not really understood the New Perspective, or that I was making conclusions that the proponents themselves do not make.   I think Wright as an Anglican may see himself as trying to create a new path by de-emphasizing certain Reformation distinctives and thus build a bridge between Protestants and Catholics, but it’s not really a new path, it’s a new basis for the old path of salvation through the “church.”  It seems that ever since it’s founding Anglicanism is always fighting between the Puritan and High Church parties — see for example the “Oxford Movement” Regardless, it’s not a path we can take, because even if Wright and other proponents are unwilling to draw the conclusions, they will inevitably surface.