Underground Exiles

So, as part of my research for the manuscript I’m still working on, tentatively titled Adoptive Grace, I’ve done some thinking on the Fatherhood of God - mainly on the theology side of things.  Since I’m emotionally stunted, I’ve yet to work out how this fleshes out in our actual lives (even in my own), so I post this hoping that someone will read it and give me their thoughts.

When we think of God’s fatherhood, it’s first necessary to make certain distinctions. There is, first of all, God’s fatherhood that is exclusively trinitarian; the fatherhood of the Father, the first person of the trinity, in relation to the Son, the second person. This applies only to God the Father in his eternal and necessary relation to the Son and to the Son alone. It is unique and exclusive. No one else, not even the Holy Spirit, relates to the Father in this sense. In modern theology, it is sometimes said that men by adoption come to share in Christ’s Sonship and so enter into the divine life of the Trinity - needless to say, that’s patently false. It is serious confusion and error. The eternal Son of God is the only-begotten Son and nobody shares his Sonship, just as God the Father is not the Father of any other in the sense that he is the Father to the Son.

Read more…

So as I continue reading The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, I find my self struck by this statement:

You cannoy mortify a specific sin that is troubling you, unless you are seeking to obey the Lord from the heart in all areas!

Let me be frank; that statement hurts.  When I first read it, it was like a hard punch to the stomach.

In reality all John Owen is doing is being plain about what is apparent all throughout the Gospels.  Jesus is absolutely ruthless about going after the heart, and anything less just isn’t on His radar.

Read more…

“Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Do not take a day off from this work; you must always be killing sin or it will be killing you.” — John Owen,The Mortification of Sin

The honest answer to Owens’ question is “No”.  Killing my sin is not something that even crosses my mind.

I’m so full of sin that I’m not even aware of my sin the majority of time.  Sure, I’m pretty good at confessing the small stuff - but what about anger?  Or pride?  Or lust?

Read more…

After this comment on the T.D. Jakes post I decided that maybe some theology needed to be explained.  I would like to point out that heretic isn’t a title I throw out lightly.  Charging a shepherd with heresy is a serious thing - and “Bishop” Jakes meets the definition with his denial of the Triune nature of the Godhead.

He gives lip service to belief in the Trinity, but embraces Sabellian modalism, a very old heresy that denies that there is one God who exists in three co-equal, co-eternal, and co-existent Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Instead, “Bishop” Jakes teaches that there is one God who exists in three manifestations or modes—not three eternal Persons.

On the T. D. Jakes Ministries Web site, an older but still accessible version of their Statement of Faith reads, “There is one God, creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and existing in three Manifestations: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”¹ The position taken by T. D. Jakes Ministries is problematic. The problem lies in the word “manifestation.”  Manifestation is a modalistic term often used by Oneness Pentecostals.  Modalism views Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as different modes of God’s activity rather than three separate persons.

Read more…

1. T. D. Jakes Ministries, Doctrinal Statement for T. D. Jakes/Potters House Ministries, 18 March 1999 (http://www.tdjakes.net/ministry/doctrine.html [↩]

I swear if I see this bumper sticker one more time, I’m going to scream at the owner of the car - not because I disagree with the sentiment, but because it shows how much of the public lacks a basic knowledge of the English language - besides being intellectually dishonest.

I actually got an invitation today to join the COEXIST group on Facebook; so that is what led to the on-coming rant.  Here’s a description of the group from their profile:

This group is here because there is too much intolerance and blind hatred in the world. Too often do we let our cultural, political, and religious differences separate us. We are all members of one race, humans, and we’re all on this planet together. It’s about time we started learning to be more accepting of others, because the planet isn’t getting any bigger. Everyone has a right to believe whatever they will, and all welcome to share it.

I should point out that the folks joining the Facebook group and driving the bumper stickers around, that this is how “coexist” is defined by Merriam-Webster:

to exist together or at the same time.

Do I really need to point out that we already coexist, or is it as obvious as I think it is?  Furthermore, the mentality behind the sentiment is nothing more than a fuzzy feeling version of the old mantra that truth is relative, and there are many paths to God. (Cue Oprah theme-song here.)

So, what do we do when my truth says your truth is wrong?  Can we both possibly be right?  Or is it more likely that there can’t possibly be two contradictory truths - that my sister can’t be a mother and simultaneously not a mother at the same time?

My advice to those of you that are thirsty for spiritual truth or spiritual things would be this: even if you’re thirsty, don’t take a tall drink of toilet water.