After yesterday’s examination of Spiritual Formation and the Biblical teaching of discipleship, it seems appropriate to enter into an extended series that will teach us how to connect with God in new ways and expand our awareness of his work in our lives and world. These spiritual disciplines are organized into three sections, those that should be performed in solitude, those performed in community, and those that are personal disciplines. We will conclude by examining what fruits we can expect from these practices, fruits that will make us fit to echo Paul’s sentiment, “Be imitators of me, as I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 11.1).
Since Thursday of last week we have been discussing a Barna\Summit Ministries survey the revealed Biblically-incorrect beliefs that many Christians hold true. We are attempting to overcoming them with the truth of Scripture. Yesterday’s article combatted materialism from the “secularist” movement and today we examine post-modernist beliefs that have slipped in particularly among Gen-X Christians. Post Modernism is a belief system that rejects the common notions of absolute truth, objective reality and many other grand narratives of the last century. This thought system asserts moral relativism and, likewise, there is no one correct system of logic. If true, then nothing can be known with certainty.
During our series we have learned that angels are created beings, spiritual rather than physical in nature, and that they operate in specific roles. There is a military branch headed by the archangel Michael, a secret-service like branch run by the Cherubim, throne room attendants called Seraphim (which may or may not be angels), and some tasked to specific duties like protecting churches and initiating judgments. There is one more being that must be covered here, and despite its name it is in fact no angel at all: The Angel of the Lord.
Yesterday we learned that, while there are some 265 references to them in the Bible, angels are the least explored aspect of Biblical theology. This is unfortunate due to the fascinating nature of these beings. They share attributes with humanity (they were created with intelligence, emotion and will and some will be judged) and with God (they are spirit entities and therefore live eternally). There are various types of angels, suited for their roles, and the angelic guard follow a line of command like any good military. Today we look at the other roles and kinds of angels that exist.
What is “spiritual formation”? Many Christian schools and mega churches will have a director of spiritual formation (SF) and I’ve often wondered, what exactly is this discipline? Deconstructing the term provides me a mental picture of the human spirit as a lump of clay on a potter’s wheel being formed into something useful, which is of very little help since the Bible is clear that God is the potter and not us. There are many different ideas and approaches to what SF is, but perhaps the most useful understanding comes from looking at the disciplines colleges and seminaries teach for this major.
Last Thursday we started a series that overcomes incorrect beliefs held by Bible-believing Christians. A Barna survey, sponsored by Summit Ministries, revealed a great many Biblically-incorrect beliefs that have crept into the church. Yesterday’s article combatted strange doctrine from the “New Spirituality” movement (which largely stems from eastern mysticism, so its not really “new” at all). Today we examine beliefs that are right at home among secularists than among those who think biblically. As always, we use the Bible to combat these false notions which is especially appropriate in this case since those surveyed stated a belief in the Bible as God’s Word. Let’s begin!
Last week we started our series on angels, learning about their origins and basic nature. We then looked at three classes of angels, the militant arm lead by the Archangel Michael, Cherubim who act as guards and Ophanim who backup the Cherubim in their service and transport the royal chariot. Today we learn about the only other named group of angels, the Seraphim. They are mentioned only once in all of Scripture, in Isaiah chapter six, and their description is minimal. They are described as having hands, feet and six wings. Most scholars assume they have a human form, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
In the study of spiritual beings, demon’s get all the press. It’s only natural, learning about one’s enemy is always more interesting than learning about one’s allies. Witness the amount of news agencies covering ISIS and how few stories there are about the men and women of our military as evidence of this fact. Or, look through the theology section of any Christian bookseller and you’ll find books about demons far outnumber those of angels. Even on this site, we’ve had an entire series on our spiritual adversaries and this will be the first about God’s ministering spirits.
This is the final entry in a series we started last Thursday. A survey conducted by Barna and Summit Ministries revealed many worldly philosophies have gained a foothold in the minds of many practicing Christians. This is alarming on many levels, and we have taken the time to examine Scripture in such a way that it overcomes these false belief systems. Yesterday we looked at post-modern ethics and determined that its fundamental flaw is the absence of God from its reasoning. Today we uncover three Marxist beliefs that many Christians believe to be true.
Summit, a ministry in Manitou Springs, Colorado that I wholeheartedly support and have served with, in cooperation with Barna conducted a survey of “practicing Christians” and the results are disturbing. The questions were designed to see if Christians were influenced, or perhaps adopting, beliefs from other ideologies. The results show that New Spirituality, secularism, post-modernism, and Marxism have all penetrated the thinking of the elect. The survey is made up of 1,456 people who described themselves as attending church at least once a month, who claim their faith is important to them and agreed with the following statement:
Yesterday we learned about the cherubim, a fearsome angelic guard that protects God’s properties, and even the heavenly throne room itself. We looked at a description of these beings from Ezekiel 1, an edited version of the passage that eliminated the descriptions of everything else but these amazing angelic hosts. One of the items we skipped was the description of their chariot wheels, which appear to be living spiritual beings. While the word is never mentioned in Scripture, in Jewish tradition they are known as the Ophanim. Little is known about this race, but what we do know comes from the prophet Ezekiel.
Many years ago I was at a conference held by Christian author Dr. Larry Crabb. After taking the stage he asked the audience a question: “What is the center, the bulls-eye, of Christianity?” A number of answers were shouted out, including salvation, God, the Bible, and Jesus. All of which, he announced, were wrong. Wait, what? Jesus is not the “bulls-eye” of Christianity? Of course he is, its even in the name – Christ-ianity! This was surprising coming from such a gifted writer who wrote the likes of Inside Out and The Silence of Adam, two books that helped form my understanding of Christian living.