Fallen and Flawed

This has been a huge bone of contention between me and my mother, who “honestly and sincerely” practices what can best be described as “Cafeteria Virgin-de-Guadalupe-Worship with TBN Sprinkles and a side-order of Convenient Christ.” I could rant but I do enough of that. I’d rather pray that the Holy Spirit tear the veil from her face and she is compelled to flee the false christs she holds up, and run to the arms of the True Christ.

Perhaps what makes my mother’s situation so nerve-wracking to me is, I’m so easily compelled to do the same. I can easily look to Charles Spurgeon, or Johnathan Edwards, or the Epistles of Paul or someone’s devotional page or the slip from my last fortune cookie, settling for the weak nuggets of wisdom there while ignoring the sweet fellowship of Christ Himself.

This is like snubbing a foot-long sub with rare roast beef and slices of homegrown beefsteak tomatoes on fresh-baked whole wheat bread, in favor of a cheap pimiento-cheese-spread fold-over on stale white bread.

I had more I wanted to say…but I just got really hungry. Hmm, wonder why…

Back again… You know, it’s funny that you should bring this up, when I was just reading at Sola Dei Gloria blog about the antics of Brian Tamaki in Australia:

http://pjmiller.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/destiny-church-a-cult-in-the-making/

(forgive me, I’ve drawn a blank on HTML hyperlink coding…)

I’m sure “Bishop” Tamaki is “honest and sincere” in his beliefs too, in the same way that many wolves in sheep’s clothing seem to be. It’s frightening how easily our beliefs can be perverted by the Serpent. Eek.

Good post about the importance of real faith in the real Savior.

One warning I have is that we don’t err by having faith in faith itself. It’s not just the “word of faith” guys that do this. A lot of Evangelicals to this as well.

A menu doesn’t actually feed my stomach. It accurately points to the real food that is available to me. But I must believe and put my trust in the words in the menu and then actually accept, receive, and eat the food that is presented.

I like your statement regarding the “fiducia” aspect:

“This is when a Christian accepts, receives and RELIES on Christ alone.”

The “receiving” and relying part are critical. Paul asked questions like, “Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?” Or made statements like, “after you heard the gospel and having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise…”

Faith is not saving until it actually receives and partakes of that which is promised, a glorious divine Person, Jesus Christ, and as you said, fully relies upon Him alone!

Good post. Thanks.

I appreciate these three terms and your grip on theology. I struggle with how hard this basic tenet of Christianity is to explain for me. I almost feel like Potter Stewart in that “I know it when I see it”.

Nice! I referred to this Sunday morning

Great post, Demian.

I would like to add that Feducia faith is not something we conjure up – that would be akin to salvation through works. When you state, “Here’s the core content we we confess as true, deserving of our belief and worthy of our submission-” it does sound a little like, “God what you have done is OK with me – you have earned my trust.”

I think it’s the other way around. God in His graciousness has given some the gift of faith so that we can believe. Ephesians 2:8, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” I read this as it is faith that is the gift of God. We can’t boast in receiving a gift.

I like how John Piper addresses this subject(here.

Well said Don, and I thought through how to say that so I didn’t infer that faith was something from us…but a gift of God. Goes back to a later post on “How Faith Is Created in Your Soul.”

See…you guys do a nice job of keeping me inline. Much appreciate it.