An Assault on True Faith

I am really having trouble writing this particular blog, because I am feeling the full force of evil assaulting my work and ministry – or rather the work and ministry of Jesus Christ which he has graciously given to me. And when I say "trouble" I mean that I am upset.  Hopefully, it is a righteous indignation.  At the same time, I am wondering what it means to have your ministry so attacked, but I am hopeful it means that God is at work and will bless my feeble but willing efforts to serve him and advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Allow me to explain.

Most of you are aware that I have a new book being released this week on November 20, 2012.  Actually, it is available on Amazon a few days early even as I write this… and actually, it is not really a new book.  I first self-published the book in e-book format on Nook and Kindle back in April, 2012, and had quite a few people purchase the book in that format.  At that time, I went through a fairly rigorous and thought-provoking process of trying to determine what my book should be called.   When I settled on “Faith Beyond Belief,” I did my research to see if there were other books out there by the same name to make sure my book would not get lost in the noise.  In April of this year, there was only one other book by that title – a book published in 2002 about a Gulf War pilot who was shot down and imprisoned by Saddam Hussein.   The only other “book noise” were a few books with “Beyond Belief” in the title, but all seemed well with the full title I had chosen – Faith Beyond Belief: Understanding True Faith from the Book of James.

That was in April.  Since then, my book has been picked up and is being published in paperback form – officially on November 20, but in actuality it is available right now.  Somewhat accidentally, I found out today that another book has just been published this past month (October 2012) with the name “Faith Beyond Belief,” so I decided to go to Amazon.com and check it out.  To my surprise, I found that since April of this year, not one, but TWO books have been released with that same name.  To make matters worse, if you go to Amazon.com and do a search on “Faith Beyond Belief,” my book is the 11^th book down the list.  In just a few short months, with the release of my book in paperback form imminent, my book has gone from standing out in the crowd to 11^th in a long list of similarly titled books.

Is this a coincidence or is it something else? Most of the books that show up are not titled “Faith Beyond Belief,” and they were mostly out there in April, but they have similar enough names to muddy up the water such that with the addition of the two new books by the same name, mine may be getting lost in the crowd.

What makes me believe this is not a coincidence, however, is the nature of the two books that have the same name as mine.  I will not go so far as to call out their authors or make any pronouncements concerning them individually because I do not know either of them. If you really want, you can go search them out. However, I have read enough about both of them from what is available at Amazon.com to know that contents contained inside the covers of these two books are a direct spiritual attack on the message inside the covers of my book.

My book is about faith in a Jesus Christ who was the one and only Son of God.  Faith in a Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on a cross for crimes he did not commit, and was raised from the dead on the 3^rd day so that my sins may be forgiven.  My book is about REAL faith.  It is about faith that is alive and active and working in the life of the believer, working to make that believer more like Jesus Christ.  It is about faith that begins with repentance and ends with obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ.  It is about a faith that goes beyond “belief” to action and obedience.

One of the two books that has the same name as mine is about abandoning the faith of your church and moving to a higher level of spirituality into being spiritual but not religious.  It is about moving beyond “belief” into mysticism and is openly pluralistic in its message.  That means while the author does not condemn Christianity, she condemns Christianity’s claim of exclusivity and encourages Christians to move beyond their exclusive doctrines.  Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Either Jesus meant that… or he was a liar – or worse – delusional.

The other book (and to be honest, it is called “Faith Beyond Mere Belief” rather than just “Faith Beyond Belief”) is far more subtle and therefore – in my opinion – far more dangerous.  It likewise does not condemn Christianity itself, but rather it considers Christianity to be “parochial” and in need of an overhaul to be relevant for today’s post-modern world.  The book openly denies the virgin birth and the Trinity as being secondary, mystical additions to the true message of the gospel that were added for the primitive minds of the past.  Oh, and the true message of the gospel that the book puts forth?  That is the most dangerous part.  The author says the true and primary message of the gospel is the Greatest Commandment – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…  wait, that doesn’t sound bad.  Exactly. That’s what makes it so dangerous.

The true message of the gospel is not the Greatest Commandment of Jesus Christ.  The true message of the gospel is found in 1 Corinthians 15:

15 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  (ESV)

The Greatest Commandment of Jesus Christ is about how we live our lives, but it is not the message of the gospel.  The word, gospel, means “good news.” A command on how to live your life is not good news.  Jesus did not give us that command as a message of hope, he gave us that command as instruction on how to live our lives. What makes the gospel good news is its message of hope for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  Once you have that, then you can start living your life in accordance to the Great Commandment. This man’s book makes no mention of this gospel of hope.  People who follow this man’s gospel will find themselves amongst those in Matthew 7 who cry “Lord, Lord” (I will let you go look up their fate).  The point is: what good is it to love God and love others if we do not repent of our sinfulness, place our faith in Jesus Christ, and submit ourselves in obedience to the creator of the universe?  None.

“Faith Beyond Belief” is not about discovering a faith that goes beyond believing in the traditional, religious views of God.  “Faith Beyond Belief” is not about redefining what we believe such that we have a gospel that is relevant for a post-modern world.  By contrast, I would contend the true gospel is perfectly relevant for our post-modern world.  “Faith Beyond Belief” is about ensuring that our faith is more than just an empty belief in a God, but is a saving faith that results in surrender, submission, and service to God - a God who loves us enough to make a way of salvation, but is just and righteous enough to punish those who reject that offer of salvation.

  

Is it a coincidence that these two books that have the same name as mine, but have messages that are meant to confuse the message of God’s Holy Word, are coming out at exactly the same time as my book?  If it is a coincidence, it is a really, really, really big coincidence.

People listen very carefully.  Our adversary the devil is crafty and he wants nothing more than for you to be dragged away and enticed by half-truths and lies.  He has been at this game much longer than we have.  Without Jesus as my conqueror, I couldn’t possibly stand up to his ways, but greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

My purpose in this post is not to get you to buy my book (although it would be awesome if you all did).  It is certainly not to get you to go buy these other books.  My purpose in this post is to point out to you that there is an all out assault on our faith, and sometimes – if we are not careful and watching out for it – the assault comes from the inside… hitting us in our blind spot.  We are not to be moving beyond our faith to a whole new, different kind of faith… That would be a faith that leads us over the precipice into an eternity in hell and punishment.  Rather, we are to be moving beyond mere intellectual assent to TRUE FAITH.  Know what it means to have Faith Beyond Belief.

Your comments are encouraged and welcome.

Blog copyright © 2012 Joel J. Dison

Build a Throne of Praise

OK, everybody’s doing it.  If you are not doing it, get with the program – that is… 21 Days of Thanks.  You know, where you post something you are thankful for every day for 21 days between November 1 and Thanksgiving?  I’m doing it on Twitter/Facebook.  Others may be doing it in blogs or wherever, but if you are not doing it – shame on you for not following along with the crowd.

Seriously, though, we really should take this whole Thanksgiving thing more seriously, and I was reminded of that this morning listening to a podcast of Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta. Not to break my arm patting myself on the back or anything, but I understand the importance of giving thanks in the life of a Christian and I try to make it a point for thanks to be a regular part of my Christian routine.  The problem is this: if you interpret “routine” to mean “ritual” then you would probably not be too far off.  Allow me to explain.

I understand that praise and thanksgiving are important in prayer.  I have studied and taught about prayer from the Model Prayer (or the Lord’s Prayer if you prefer), so I understand that “hallowed be thy name” is a phrase of worship and reverence.  So… a number of years ago I made a point to take extra care and effort to begin (almost) every prayer with some form of statement of thanks or reverence or worship.  It has become second nature in my prayer life.  Second nature, however, can be a mask for ritual.  Remember that childhood prayer we used to pray?

God is Great, God is Good;

Let us thank Him for our food.

By His hands we all are fed,

Thank You, Lord for Daily Bread

  

As I child I can remember saying that at every meal.  It became a ritual even before I understood what it meant.  So much so that I can remember at one point quietly asking myself why the lettuce should be thanking God for our food! …Think about it… you’ll get it.  Sometimes my adult prayers are no less ritual than my childhood prayers – especially when I am ritualistically giving thanks at meal times.  I know you will think this makes me a heathen, but it can be such a problem for me that sometimes I intentionally do not say grace at dinner, just to remind myself that giving thanks at dinner is not supposed to be ritual.  There, I admit it.

I also understand the importance of ongoing thanksgiving in the normal course of the Christian life.  I have studied and taught through a number of Paul’s epistles and he speaks of giving thanks more than any other epistle writer.  Actually, in the ESV version of the New Testament, Paul mentions “thanks” or “thanksgiving” 49 times in his epistles compared to ZERO (0) – yes – ZERO – times by the other epistle writers.  Don’t believe it?  Go look it up.  As such, studying Paul’s epistles have taught me how incredibly important it is to give thanks.  Despite all that Paul went through, he was thankful for everything and everybody that the Lord brought into his life.  Because of statements that Paul makes like “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” (1 Thessalonians 1:2), which he makes in almost all of his epistles (except for Galatians, but that is a special case… bad bad bad)… anyway, because of such statements, I too try to remember and give thanks in my prayers.  But after a while, I start thinking “did I remember to give thanks for _______” and so I have to ask myself the question:  Am I really thankful, or am I just going through the motions… ritual.

I was actually having this thought this morning during my prayer time.  This whole “21 Days of Thanks” thing has got me thinking about whether I really am – or am not – a thankful person.  Truthfully, over the last week or so, even in the midst of posting my daily thanks, I have felt unthankful and, honestly, a bit distanced from God.  Yes, that is a confession, but you know that you have been there too, right?  I regularly pray for my own relationship with God because I never want to drift away from him.  However, we all do it from time to time and lately, I have felt distant.  I hate that feeling.

Enter Louie’s podcast.  I have a number of preachers that I listen to on my morning and (usually) afternoon commutes (OK, I must confess that sometimes – especially during football season - I listen to Finebaum in the afternoon on the radio – if you don’t know, don’t worry about it).  But most of the time, I am listening to various preachers. It is my way of redeeming my commute and warding off road rage. In this particular podcast, Louie was discussing anxiety and specifically his past struggles with anxiety; but a significant part of his discussion centered around Psalm 22 where the psalmist said in verse 3 that “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel” (ESV).  Of course the old KJV of this verse says “thou inhabitest the praises of Israel.”  I don’t know much about the ancient English word “inhabitest” but I think in modern English we would say “inhabits” instead.   Personally, I like the ESV version better because “enthroned on” has a much clearer meaning to me than does “inhabits.”   To say that God is enthroned on my praises means to me that he has built his royal throne on the foundation of those praises.  In other words, where our praises are is where God sets his royal throne. As Louie Giglio put it in his message, if we want to feel the presence of God in our lives, then we need to build a throne of praise.

For this to take place, those praises – thanksgiving, worship, and reverence, if you will – must be more than just routine and ritual.  They must be real and from the heart.  To paraphrase the song by Matt Redman (and others), I need a heart of worship, not a routine of worship-like activities. To be sure, there are times when I have a true heart of worship, but there are far more times when I don’t have a heart of worship at all.  If God is enthroned on my praise, is it any wonder then that most of the time I do not feel the presence of God in my life? 

• I don’t want my thanksgiving to be like a child’s prayer.
• I don’t want my praise to be nothing more than a ritual.
• I don’t want a routine that is no more than a checklist of things to remember to be thankful for.   
• I don’t want to be a hypocrite when it comes to my worship.  

I realize that as a born-again, baptized by the Holy Spirit, follower of Jesus that I am indwelt at all times by the Holy Spirit. I also realize that as a result I should feel the presence of God in my life at all times – but I don’t – and you don’t either, do you? What I really want is the fully enthroned, majestic, glorious presence of Almighty God in my life all the time. 

• When I am sitting in that hostile meeting, I want the majesty of Jesus that Isaiah saw to be with me.
• When I am doing the bills and there appear to be more expenses than income, I want the full-on comfort of the Father to be there telling me “trust in me, not in the dollar”. 
• When I see no way in which I could possibly minister with any level of success given the circumstances and available resources, I want the presence of Holy Spirit reminding me that success depends upon the ability of the one who fed the 5000, not my ability. 

To have this constant presence of God requires a throne of praise.   Paul had this pegged.  His letters were filled with specific and real thanksgiving and praise… and his doxologies reflected that his worship was truly from the heart. David had this pegged, which is why we can attribute so many psalms to him.  His praise and thanksgiving came from the heart.  Job had this pegged.  Though he lost everything he owned, he could look at his wife and say “Blessed be the name of the LORD” – and mean it!

I want that!  At a minimum, I think I need to incorporate some praise and worship into my commute as well as bible teaching.  But in general, I want more praise in my life so as to build the foundation for the throne of God in my life.  God is enthroned on the praises of his people!  So I (we) need to praise him.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:20-21 ESV)

Comments welcome and encouraged…

The Louie Giglio message referenced in this blog can be viewed from the video link below:

"I Lift My Hands"

  

This blog is Copyright (c) 2012 Joel J Dison.