Spiritual Formation and the Trinity
A new form of salvation by works has entered the Christian world. Really, it’s not new at all. It has been practiced by the devotees of the Church of Rome since it adopted the pagan practices of Egypt. This practice is more ancient than the Catholic Church, running parallel with Egypt in far eastern Asia.
What I speak of is the meditation methods of Hinduism and Buddhism; that of emptying the mind of everything so that the spirit world can come in and communicate. It offers a sense of power and specialness that the “gods” would condescend to spend time with a mortal. Out of it grows a spiritual pride and systematic atheism.
This form of spiritualism has lived in Christianity throughout the Dark Ages under the tutelage of Rome. And now since the New Age eastern mysticism introduced itself to the West during the 1960’s, Satan transformed it into a “Jesus”-centered western religion in the 1970’s, and now it has emerged in mainline, popular denominations around the Protestant world as well as a growing number of Christian colleges and universities. For a closer look at the insurgence of spiritualism into Christianity, read a first-hand account by one who was involved in its very transformation, in the book, Deceived by the New Age, by Will Baron.
Or read how its prime advocate, philosopher and speaker, Dallas Willard, describes it:
Spiritual Formation in Christ:A Perspective on What it is and How it Might be Done
“... until Christ be formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19)
“Spiritual formation” is a phrase that has recently rocketed onto the lips and into the ears of Protestant Christians with an abruptness that is bound to make a thoughtful person uneasy. If it is really so important, not to mention essential, then why is it so recent? It must be just another passing fad in Protestant religiosity, increasingly self-conscious and threatened about “not meeting the needs of the people.” And, really, isn’t spiritual formation just a little too Catholic to be quite right?
We could forget the phrase “Spiritual formation,” but the fact and need would still be there to be dealt with. The spiritual side of the human being, Christian and non-Christian alike, develops into the reality which it becomes, for good or ill. Everyone receives spiritual formation, just as everyone gets an education. The only question is whether it is a good one or a bad one. We need to take a conscious, intentional hand in the developmental process. We need to understand what the formation of the human spirit is, and how it can best be done as Christ would have it done. This is an indispensable aspect of developing a psychology that is adequate to human life.
Speaking of Spiritual Formation, Wikipedia says: “A study of various world religions such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and others would enable one to understand specifically how each religion views spiritual formation or spiritual growth within its unique belief system…. In Christian Spiritual Formation the focus is on Jesus.”
In Spiritual Formation we have a melding of all world religions, with whatever emphasis you desire and whatever god of choice to follow, which of course in Christian churches would be Christ.
But notice a subtle, yet vast difference between the eastern style of meditation and the meditation authorized by Yahweh.
One internet site describes this New Age practice as “contemplative prayer”:
Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.
What do they mean by contemplative prayer? Another website defines it as:
So we have to find the ways of taking our body into solitude and silence, into service, as well as into worship, into prayer, as well as into study; and we have to plan our lives around this objective of fulfilling the vision that our intention has set before us. That, briefly, is how spiritual formation in Christ is done.
And in another website that offers moving photos to help bring on peace of mind:
In stillness, sit quietly in the presence of our awesome God. Take some time with these pictures, and with energy, intelligence, imagination and love, allow God’s Spirit to evoke a prayer within you.
Notice that meditation on God’s word is not encouraged. Yes, many quotations from the Bible are used to bolster and support this new westernized ancient eastern practice, but it capitalizes on silence, solitary, emptying of the mind and waiting for a voice to speak to the conscience.
Similar to the eastern method of imagining a picture and focusing on its different parts to create a mental atmosphere to channel the “astral planes” or the spirit realm, the new Spiritual Formation focuses on images of photographs to bring on mental relief and open up the soul to the spirits of devils who pose as the Holy Spirit or holy angels.
Now listen to the God of the Bible and His authorized form of meditation.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,… But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” (Ps. 1:2). “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” (Ps. 119:97).“I delight in the law of God after the inward man…. With the mind I myself serve the law of God.” (Rom. 7:22,25).
Obviously, true meditation comes through the meditation on Christ and His righteousness, His grace and His Father's Law which He joyfully upheld perfectly.
This brings me to the Trinity. I’ve been bothered by the term over the past year. Not that I don’t believe in the heavenly Trio, but there are some things about “the Trinity” that have been festering in my mind.
One is the way it seems to have analyzed the Godhead and figured it out. It has defined the infinite, undefinable One. It has put God in a box. Corrupt man has conquered the mystery of the holy One who only hath immortality. It has simplified God and made Them manageable by blind, ignorant, fallen men. This revelation didn’t arrive by obedience to the gospel and inspiration by the Holy Spirit; it didn’t descend from above. It was completely manufactured by men of whom it could be said, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matt. 15:8,9).
Another problem is the way the Trinity became a pillar dogma in Christianity. During the famous Council of Nicaea, all the church fathers were subpoenaed by Constantine to congregate and resolve some theological differences in the Christian religion. The “holy” fathers came together and fought amongst themselves so hatefully and violently over the idea of the Trinity that the pagan Emperor Constantine had to act as mediator. It was Constantine who made the final decision on that church doctrine. How can we accept as doctrine any supposed teaching that came out of that kind of hateful, demonic haranguing toward each other?
It’s as if they were blind to their own scripture; they had long lost the first love. “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (James 3:14-18).
But what made the doctrine of the Trinity the cause of so much bitterness? Why be ready to kill someone for not believing truth, if indeed it were the truth? I believe the devilish conduct was due to the threat of losing a sensual dependency that was cloaked under the guise of the Bible; the Trinity was an addiction, a psychological form of idolatry. The Trinity had become a mental icon used in false meditation practices already adopted from Egyptian pagan ascetics. People will fight to the death when they have to give up a cherished idol.
And thus I look suspiciously on the concept of the Trinity now as it is being blended with Spiritual Formation, another pagan practice of emptying the mind and focusing on a single thought or repetition of words or a mental image. The following quotation comes from the website of a well-known fundamentalist evangelical university in Virginia Beach, Virginia as a course description it offers on Spiritual Formation:
This course uses the doctrine of the Trinity as a springboard to understand issues of personhood, de-personalizing views of sin and salvation, and the modern desire for/addiction to uniqueness. We’ll draw on a number of historical sources, focusing especially on those Reformation giants who, like us, found themselves at a time of radical change and social upheaval.
I can’t think of a more clever Mark of the Beast in the forehead than devil possession through meditating on the Trinity! How much more unsuspected could Satan be! Surely, he works under the radar of the sin-loving multitudes. Truly was it written of him, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” (Gen. 3:1).
What we need today are three things in order to find the God of peace, the Unknown God which the whole world desires. The first is feeding on the Bible as God’s word. The second is witnessing to His help and strength in order to uplift others who don’t know Him. The third is praying to Him for help in overcoming self and sin through bowing in faith to His unending love and Ten Commandment Law.
As the blood of sacrificed lambs was brought into the sanctuary and sprinkled on the table of showbread, the seven candlesticks, and the altar of incense, we need to have the gracious, self-sacrificing life of Christ poured out for us, in order to justify us and our past, to bring us to God, and to cleanse us through the three things listed above. Through those three we are brought into communion with the true God, our Father-Creator and Redeemer-Friend.
Otherwise, we will find our spiritual experience so dry and dusty that we will be driven to darkness—i.e. the same attempts to save ourselves without God that trapped the mystical, sacramental religions throughout all time, the opening of the heart to the enemy of souls and the final result—possession by one who plays hard ball when we desire to be freed from him.
“The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end.” Desire of Ages, p. 324.
What I speak of is the meditation methods of Hinduism and Buddhism; that of emptying the mind of everything so that the spirit world can come in and communicate. It offers a sense of power and specialness that the “gods” would condescend to spend time with a mortal. Out of it grows a spiritual pride and systematic atheism.
This form of spiritualism has lived in Christianity throughout the Dark Ages under the tutelage of Rome. And now since the New Age eastern mysticism introduced itself to the West during the 1960’s, Satan transformed it into a “Jesus”-centered western religion in the 1970’s, and now it has emerged in mainline, popular denominations around the Protestant world as well as a growing number of Christian colleges and universities. For a closer look at the insurgence of spiritualism into Christianity, read a first-hand account by one who was involved in its very transformation, in the book, Deceived by the New Age, by Will Baron.
Or read how its prime advocate, philosopher and speaker, Dallas Willard, describes it:
Spiritual Formation in Christ:A Perspective on What it is and How it Might be Done
“... until Christ be formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19)
“Spiritual formation” is a phrase that has recently rocketed onto the lips and into the ears of Protestant Christians with an abruptness that is bound to make a thoughtful person uneasy. If it is really so important, not to mention essential, then why is it so recent? It must be just another passing fad in Protestant religiosity, increasingly self-conscious and threatened about “not meeting the needs of the people.” And, really, isn’t spiritual formation just a little too Catholic to be quite right?
We could forget the phrase “Spiritual formation,” but the fact and need would still be there to be dealt with. The spiritual side of the human being, Christian and non-Christian alike, develops into the reality which it becomes, for good or ill. Everyone receives spiritual formation, just as everyone gets an education. The only question is whether it is a good one or a bad one. We need to take a conscious, intentional hand in the developmental process. We need to understand what the formation of the human spirit is, and how it can best be done as Christ would have it done. This is an indispensable aspect of developing a psychology that is adequate to human life.
Speaking of Spiritual Formation, Wikipedia says: “A study of various world religions such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and others would enable one to understand specifically how each religion views spiritual formation or spiritual growth within its unique belief system…. In Christian Spiritual Formation the focus is on Jesus.”
In Spiritual Formation we have a melding of all world religions, with whatever emphasis you desire and whatever god of choice to follow, which of course in Christian churches would be Christ.
But notice a subtle, yet vast difference between the eastern style of meditation and the meditation authorized by Yahweh.
One internet site describes this New Age practice as “contemplative prayer”:
Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.
What do they mean by contemplative prayer? Another website defines it as:
So we have to find the ways of taking our body into solitude and silence, into service, as well as into worship, into prayer, as well as into study; and we have to plan our lives around this objective of fulfilling the vision that our intention has set before us. That, briefly, is how spiritual formation in Christ is done.
And in another website that offers moving photos to help bring on peace of mind:
In stillness, sit quietly in the presence of our awesome God. Take some time with these pictures, and with energy, intelligence, imagination and love, allow God’s Spirit to evoke a prayer within you.
Notice that meditation on God’s word is not encouraged. Yes, many quotations from the Bible are used to bolster and support this new westernized ancient eastern practice, but it capitalizes on silence, solitary, emptying of the mind and waiting for a voice to speak to the conscience.
Similar to the eastern method of imagining a picture and focusing on its different parts to create a mental atmosphere to channel the “astral planes” or the spirit realm, the new Spiritual Formation focuses on images of photographs to bring on mental relief and open up the soul to the spirits of devils who pose as the Holy Spirit or holy angels.
Now listen to the God of the Bible and His authorized form of meditation.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,… But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” (Ps. 1:2). “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” (Ps. 119:97).“I delight in the law of God after the inward man…. With the mind I myself serve the law of God.” (Rom. 7:22,25).
Obviously, true meditation comes through the meditation on Christ and His righteousness, His grace and His Father's Law which He joyfully upheld perfectly.
This brings me to the Trinity. I’ve been bothered by the term over the past year. Not that I don’t believe in the heavenly Trio, but there are some things about “the Trinity” that have been festering in my mind.
One is the way it seems to have analyzed the Godhead and figured it out. It has defined the infinite, undefinable One. It has put God in a box. Corrupt man has conquered the mystery of the holy One who only hath immortality. It has simplified God and made Them manageable by blind, ignorant, fallen men. This revelation didn’t arrive by obedience to the gospel and inspiration by the Holy Spirit; it didn’t descend from above. It was completely manufactured by men of whom it could be said, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matt. 15:8,9).
Another problem is the way the Trinity became a pillar dogma in Christianity. During the famous Council of Nicaea, all the church fathers were subpoenaed by Constantine to congregate and resolve some theological differences in the Christian religion. The “holy” fathers came together and fought amongst themselves so hatefully and violently over the idea of the Trinity that the pagan Emperor Constantine had to act as mediator. It was Constantine who made the final decision on that church doctrine. How can we accept as doctrine any supposed teaching that came out of that kind of hateful, demonic haranguing toward each other?
It’s as if they were blind to their own scripture; they had long lost the first love. “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (James 3:14-18).
But what made the doctrine of the Trinity the cause of so much bitterness? Why be ready to kill someone for not believing truth, if indeed it were the truth? I believe the devilish conduct was due to the threat of losing a sensual dependency that was cloaked under the guise of the Bible; the Trinity was an addiction, a psychological form of idolatry. The Trinity had become a mental icon used in false meditation practices already adopted from Egyptian pagan ascetics. People will fight to the death when they have to give up a cherished idol.
And thus I look suspiciously on the concept of the Trinity now as it is being blended with Spiritual Formation, another pagan practice of emptying the mind and focusing on a single thought or repetition of words or a mental image. The following quotation comes from the website of a well-known fundamentalist evangelical university in Virginia Beach, Virginia as a course description it offers on Spiritual Formation:
This course uses the doctrine of the Trinity as a springboard to understand issues of personhood, de-personalizing views of sin and salvation, and the modern desire for/addiction to uniqueness. We’ll draw on a number of historical sources, focusing especially on those Reformation giants who, like us, found themselves at a time of radical change and social upheaval.
I can’t think of a more clever Mark of the Beast in the forehead than devil possession through meditating on the Trinity! How much more unsuspected could Satan be! Surely, he works under the radar of the sin-loving multitudes. Truly was it written of him, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” (Gen. 3:1).
What we need today are three things in order to find the God of peace, the Unknown God which the whole world desires. The first is feeding on the Bible as God’s word. The second is witnessing to His help and strength in order to uplift others who don’t know Him. The third is praying to Him for help in overcoming self and sin through bowing in faith to His unending love and Ten Commandment Law.
As the blood of sacrificed lambs was brought into the sanctuary and sprinkled on the table of showbread, the seven candlesticks, and the altar of incense, we need to have the gracious, self-sacrificing life of Christ poured out for us, in order to justify us and our past, to bring us to God, and to cleanse us through the three things listed above. Through those three we are brought into communion with the true God, our Father-Creator and Redeemer-Friend.
Otherwise, we will find our spiritual experience so dry and dusty that we will be driven to darkness—i.e. the same attempts to save ourselves without God that trapped the mystical, sacramental religions throughout all time, the opening of the heart to the enemy of souls and the final result—possession by one who plays hard ball when we desire to be freed from him.
“The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end.” Desire of Ages, p. 324.
posted by David | 5:55 AM
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