 |
|
Date: 1 January 2005 |
|
Gap Analysis Accountability Performance Reporting: Evaluating and measuring program performance, providing analyses, options, recommendations, and assistance, helping Christian Leadership make effective changes in Spiritual Accountability Rating System (SARS) Analysis of Themistic Law upon Intelligent Design for Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation (IDCCST): |
A Special Report on Spiritual Accountability Rating System (SARS): Analysis of Themistic Law upon Intelligent Design for Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation (IDCCST): By Eric vonAnderseck TH.D., D.D. Abstract
This report relays my findings in
regard to the integration of Themistic Law into God’s Intelligent Design
for Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation (IDCCST). Spiritual
Accountability Rating Systems (SARS) thus shifted Christianity away from
IDCCST to locate spiritual prediction, engagement, and outcome
expectations in Themistic Law, thereby resetting the Accountability Rate
to an unstable baseline that was considered pragmatic only because it
addressed those things that are common to man. I further assert that
Themistic Law is used as a pathway for what I call the “Journey Mask,” and
have concluded that short-term desires that seem pragmatic are at odds
with requirements for long-term spiritual yield of IDCCST. Additionally,
Themistic Law arrests IDCCST development. Based on the findings of this
report, I suggest returning SARS to the Headship of Jesus Christ, and the
stewardship of living apostles, which will result in the return of the
stable baseline of truth to the Church that corresponds to God in reality.
Contents 1. Introduction.........................................................................................2 2. What is Themistic Law ............................................................................3 2.1 Figure 1: EVA Disparity Index: Themistic Law Radial....................................5 2.2 The Original Design of the Soul.............................................................6 2.3 Instinct for Survival..........................................................................7 3. Mechanics of Themistic Law: The Support System for the Conscience: A Form of Correctness.........................................................................11
4. Mechanics of Themistic
Law: The Support System for the Conscience:
4.4 Figure 2: EVA Disparity Index: Prediction, Engagement,
and Outcome Chart.......25 5.1 Figure 3: EVA Disparity Index: Sliding Scale..............................................27 6. Conclusion...........................................................................................31
1. Introduction There is an Intelligent Design to the spirit, soul, body, and will of man, just as there is an intelligent design to the universe. Understanding ID in regards to man’s spiritual makeup allows us to then trace the dynamic behavior of Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation (CCST) from structural design to predictable functions. Humanity is struggling spiritually because program prediction, engagement, and outcome is not according to that design. Rather, it is misguided by Themistic Law. Understanding Themistic Law is therefore fundamental to understanding the flaws present in current Spiritual Accountability Rating System (SARS). Clinical studies show that when Christian leadership establishes accountability claims in Themistic Law, faith participants are not empowered to make faith choices that result in IDCCST. Faith is further crippled when leadership sets faith expectations in predictions and engagements while believers set their sights on outcome. This disparity between the expectations of faith practitioner and faith participant resulted in paradoxes that bring faith into crisis. The negative data points set within Christian doctrine and discipline along with program failure produced aggravating factors upon the soul. Christian leadership, instead of returning faith to the baseline of First Generation Knowledge (FGK1) and the Headship of Jesus Christ through Apostolic Governance, provided new programs to mitigate the fallout, continuing to titrate Themistic Law into the baseline, setting their sights on new predictions and engagements with no regard to outcome. Lack of quality Christian education resulted in faith participants not knowing the difference between mitigating aggravating factors upon the soul and the true mediation of Jesus Christ for the soul. Neither did believers know the difference between the peace of the world, which comes from a form of correctness born of Themistic Law to settle the conscience, and the peace of God that comes with the covenant and the law of grace and truth. Furthermore, believers did not know the level at which they were being engaged. Were they being engaged on the emotional level, the financial level, the behavioral level, the motivational level, or all of these?
This Gap Analysis Report (GAR) describes some of the most common problems that occur when SARS is located within Themistic Law. This report includes a background on the dynamics of Themistic Law and the spiritual psychology behind it, providing leadership with a firm grasp of this trend. This report is an analysis of how short-term desires that seem pragmatic are at odds with requirements for long-term spiritual yield of IDCCST.
My clinical studies show that when faith participants are empowered with Choice Education through Apostolic Governance and leadership returns to an accountability system that sets an accountability rate on the Christian Performance Index, rather than Themistic Law, faith no longer goes into crisis. My studies further show that returning the church to the Headship of Jesus Christ and Apostolic Governance facilitates Cognitive Faith rather than Intuitive Faith. Cognitive Faith choices yield daily long-term IDCCST. 2. What is Themistic Law? Themistic Law has a universal presence in every culture throughout time. When religion and spirituality are not hubbed to Jesus Christ, it is hubbed to Themistic Law. Themistic Law is like the mighty Mississippi River, which stretches out for hundreds of miles with its numerous tributaries branching off into smaller streams. The branches of the river are like the many familiar issues of life that everyone faces. Personal and social issues are transcontinental. They represent the most essential social questions that all of humanity faces. They are the common challenges that come our way through relationships, family, job, politics, gender, need, desire, and character development. These issues are the common threads of life that bind the human race together. Just as the Mississippi river can be defined by its many branches, Themistic Law can be defined by its many issues. The predominant belief is that the ability to keep life on track is governed by how well these issues and surrounding circumstances are handled. Christian leadership thought that our ability to keep life on track was governed by how we let God handle these issues and circumstances. The conflux of Themistic Law converging upon faith drove Christians to center doctrine and discipline on the pursuit of health, wealth, and well-being, thus removing Christ as the hub of life and faith, replacing Him with Themistic Law. Themistic Law became a false pathway to Jesus Christ, thus arresting true IDCCST. Christian leadership focus on Themistic Law and circumstances of life developed into a form of correctness, a way of “correct thinking” that replaced truth. Faith discipleship programs and faith motivational speakers and preachers spoke to Christians about their dreams, their visions, their desire to connect to their true inner self, their family values, and their need to develop themselves, renew themselves, and revitalize themselves. Themistic Law promised spiritual balance through balancing themes and issues of life with the Bible. Themistic Law is used to deal with life by developing psychological connections, which promised peace, forgiveness, character development, love, joy, humility, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, and meekness through biblical step planning. Additionally, Themistic Law was used to jockey faith into the arena of commiseration. The sanctified exchange of charity instituted by Christ through the tools of His covenant was replaced with the exchange of stories about human suffering and triumph. Each story about trials and tribulation were “backed up with scripture” with an emphasis on the necessary meditation about how this relates to our own life and how we also can triumph. The focus of Themistic Law is “our life,” “our ideas,” and “our desires.” This is not faith in Jesus Christ. Faith practitioners are confusing commiseration with the stewardship and exchange of God’s grace, which is the true focus of the covenant priesthood of each believer. Instead of hubbing faith to Jesus Christ through His grace and truth, faith is hubbed to Themistic Law. As a result of this confusion, our redemption is reduced to step modeling techniques that do not purge the conscience from sin, but rather mitigates the affects of sin upon the conscience. Themistic Law demonstrates the gross misconception that the Bible was written to teach us how people handled things, and that God is giving us many stories with a moral to follow so that we too can try to handle our own personal problems with the same methodology. The Bible is misused to find a “God perspective” that will tell us how to live, how to think, how to behave, and how get from God. Redemption is seen in the noble ways in which humanity can repair the damage of sin and remove the curse of death from their experience by mitigating the experience of sin and death with a form of right thinking. Mitigation, however, is not mediation and reparation is not redemption. This report finds that faith goes into crisis because these short-term desires do not produce the long-term results of IDCCST.
EVA Disparity Index:
Figure 1 Christians can get totally immersed in these themes and issues as well as the programs that promise to establish them in these things. They completely orient their life to the nobility that has been ascribed to these objectives, thinking they are finding and fulfilling God’s will for their life, when in fact they are merely fulfilling the principles of Themistic Law. Themistic Law is used to illustrate God’s involvement in our lives. Jesus did say that God was involved with the care of those who believe in Him, but Jesus set that care within the terms of the yoke of His covenant, not within the terms of Themistic Law. Mt.11:28-30 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Jesus said that those who take on His yoke of knowledge would find rest. Jesus further connected the rest of the soul with His yoke of faith. The burden of life is heavy and the soul is saddled with the load of many cares. Themistic Law is man’s instinctive need for God’s care and carnal response to set the terms for that care according to one’s own appetites. Themistic law is about instinct, not faith. With instinct come many detrimental qualities that aggravate the soul. Qualities such as “projection with aspiration,” “perfection through the flesh,” and “using self as a record.” Themistic Law replaces the record of Jesus Christ with the record of the conscience, replaces faith with aspiration, and replaces truth with our principles. This cripples faith as the efforts to redeem our lives with the principles of awareness and affirmation simply bear witness to the wisdom of the world and the witness of the world and remove our confidence from God. It is this insightfulness of Themistic Law that has mass appeal and speaks to the deep recesses of the heart. When we talk about faith based on “instinct” we are talking about two frames of knowledge, (1) knowledge of the original design of the soul and (2) knowledge of survival. 2.2. The Original Design of the Soul "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" ~Gen.1:26 When Adam sinned, God withdrew His Light from Adam, and mankind retained the image of God, but not God’s likeness. The power is in the likeness. Deep within the soul humanity possesses an instinctive “knowing” of God’s original design signature upon the soul and therefore humanity shares a strong desire to return to that power. God’s image holds the design of goodness, benevolence, greatness, divinity, mercy, wholeness and equity, but is separated from the power of God and therefore life becomes a journey to reconnection with God. Humanity is constantly looking for a source that will again enable the image of God and return the soul to its original design and power. Concepts such as forgiveness, love, hope, humility, gratitude, self-control, and wisdom are sought because intuitively humanity knows that these attributes are part of the original design of the soul. Themistic Law promises the power of the likeness of God apart from the redemption and covenant process God has sanctified in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the journey is a bogus journey. The shortsighted desire for connectivity with God through Themistic Law does not yield the long-term results of IDCCST. Although individuals are capable of forgiveness, love, hope, humility, gratitude, self-control, and wisdom, compassion, mercy, and goodness, these attributes are now responses to issues and needs, rather than responses to the covenant and faith. People resource the Bible to support their conscience concerning issues they face, and judge compassion by their own appetites rather than God’s likeness. Subsequently, the many truths developed through Themistic Law references people to themselves, their needs, and their journey rather than to God and His covenant. Intuitively people stand in expectation of their redemption, and therefore Christians talk about God, the Bible, truth, and values, but refuse the yoke of God’s covenant. As a result, the fear of lack controls the heart rather than faith, and the soul is made weak because Satan hides behind many Journey Masks and wearies the soul by inspiring many pursuits. As long as the imagination finds a tool compatible with one’s aspiration the conscience is temporarily settled, yet the settling is in inequity not equity. This is the peace of the world, not the peace that Jesus gives. 2.3. Instinct for Survival How did humanity come into a position of having to survive rather than rule as a son of God? Adam was created the second in command of this dimension (second to God). God put everything under Adam’s power with the intention of raising Adam up to sit with Him in His throne (Rev.3:21). The throne of God is a position of divine authority in the kingdom of His righteousness. Sitting with God in His throne means that God created Adam with the intention of sharing His powers of divinity. He will not give the inheritance of His divinity without a plan to first test and prove the human race. Satan was therefore created as the agent of testing; through him, Adam experienced Autonomy Transference Activity (ATA) and was separated from God. Life then became centered on survival.
God is called the “Lord of Hosts” because He is Lord over all that He created. Everything that is created by God is subject to Him and made to serve Him. Rev.4:11 reads, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” God created the race of Adam after His own image and likeness, for His pleasure. Therefore, God Himself set the stage for the testing of humanity. God spoke to Enoch and said, “And I gave him (mankind) his freewill, and I pointed out to him the 2 ways; light and darkness. And I said to him, ‘This is good for you, but that is bad.’ So that I might come to know whether he has love towards me or abhorrence, and so that it might become plain who among his race loves me” 2 Enoch 30:15.
We see God setting the challenge based on faith and then set faith in Jesus Christ so humankind could meet that challenge perfectly. Satan, on the other hand, set the challenge in man’s frailty and need, and then set paradoxical systems to address frailty. Hence, we see the prevalence of Themistic Law throughout all cultures.
When Adam fell from God’s grace, he experienced spiritual death. Every culture has a story of the fall of the human race from the grace of God. This was the removal of God’s Light and the establishment of the headship of Satan over Adam. This represented a huge spiritual adjustment for Adam who had to function without the light of God and under the tyranny of Satan’s stewardship. Adam’s original design was severely restricted and the plans that God had for the human race could only be completed through covenant redemption. As war, famine, and pestilence were in the heart, they would soon be seen in each civilization.
As we look within ourselves, we understand that condition and that conflict. We know that we were not created for this experience of the flesh. Humanity faces the very depravity of his existence. We were not created for vanity, we were created for eternal things. Why does tragedy and death shock the soul? Because we were not created to experience death or loss; that was not in our original design. The same thing applies to our labor. Our soul is vexed every day with labor. Why? Because we were not created with these things in mind. We know that we were not created for this experience of conflict, restriction, and contradiction. Yet these are the elements we face daily.
The book of Ecclesiastics was written to review some of the ramifications of Adam’s choice in the Garden, and how the fallout from that choice is felt to this day by every man, woman, and child.
Ecc. 1:2, 3, 14, “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecc. 3:19: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.”
Ecc. 4:4: “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.”
Ecc. 7:7, 10: “Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart. [10] Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.”
Ecc. 8:14: “There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.” King Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, speaks of vanity and vexation. These words are not often used in our daily communication, yet they speak of the universal condition of humanity. Everyone, without exception, experiences these things and understands these things. Vanity and vexation crosses cultural boundaries. Vanity describes the transient quality of life, how everything is in need of constant care and upkeep. It is this vanity in life that makes achievements of no lasting value, happiness elusive, and time weigh heavily as every labor brings the soul down with repetition and worthlessness. The soul was designed to find completion only with God. This is why humanity hungers and thirsts after this connection. The soul was designed for infinite increase. It is incapable of being filled. The design of redemption bridges that gap and the soul finds completeness in Jesus Christ and is prepared for the infinite increase that God will restore to those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. When the soul does not find completion it must wander from vice to vice looking for relief from life's empty occupations. This is where we see the appeal of Themistic Law, which works with another power for increase. Yet the design of the soul for increase cannot be filled with anything less than God Himself. Because Adam desired to rule independent of the Light of God, another design entered into Adam that followed the pattern of Satan. The conscience, being blemished by sin works all uncleanness, and justifies itself by that law which condemns the soul and makes faith void of the power of Christ. The conscience that is ruled by sin drives the will to find equity in Themistic Law for increase. God created the soul with infinite capabilities. Intuitively we all know that. When humanity cast aside the law instituted by their Creator for increase, their interest for increase did not follow the order of God, but followed after the order of Themistic Law. Darkness reverses the power of increase and decreased the soul through this form of contact. The imagination rules in place of faith and faith is made reprobate. The increase of darkness within the soul is incompatible with the original design of the soul. The soul was created for the increase of God not the increase of darkness. Therefore, all religious systems that propagate Themistic Law keep the soul in bondage to the kingdom of darkness. Humanity’s instincts for survival is the bedrock of Themistic Law. The conditions under which we live makes possible many “soul searching moments” as the suffering of everyday life provides the backdrop for the lessons learned in the “desert,” yielding many “nuggets of wisdom.” While it is true that suffering is a part of the growth cycle in IDCCST when faith is joined to the covenant, it does not carry the same design structure as the suffering that is joined to Themistic Law. The latter draws hope from life’s lessons as Christians stand in expectation of “finding God’s will through the refining fire of suffering,” and “learn to depend and lean on God” to experience a “deeper relationship with God.” There are many euphemistic terms that are used with Themistic Law that are not connected to God’s design structure for CCST through the elements of the gospel, the tools of the covenant, the mediation of Jesus Christ, the operation of God, the pattern of faith set in the record and the witness, and the effectual working power of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not about finding the will and purpose of God for our lives in the spiritual desert. Christianity is about finding the will and purpose of God in Jesus Christ. Christianity is not about finding a “deeper” relationship with God, but growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, knowing God through covenant contact. Themistic Law depends on human instincts for survival and the need to reconnect with God to validate and carry the meaning of the euphemism deep within the soul. Satan plays upon these instincts as he presents the principles of his 13 Kingdoms of error. These draw upon human aspirations, principles, fears, hopes, and need for moral center. Satan’s remedy for the paradoxes he introduced to mankind is overlaid upon Jesus’ gospel, and thus Themistic Law is used to set a record for man’s lifestyle and godliness in self. Once a record is established in self we see the domino effect of the witness being also set in self. Humanity is assisted to deal with the paradoxes of life, to prove self, find inner strength, to conquer lust, to subdue passion, to control negative data points, and to direct talents towards building and achieving. Setting the record for these achievements in self, the witness also follows the same pattern. Faith is removed from the record of Jesus Christ and the witness of the Spirit. Satan approaches humanity with many alternate roads to redemption through which he could continue to rule man through his imagination and render the blood of the covenant as worthless. 3. Mechanics of Themistic Law: The Support System for the Conscience: A Form of Correctness Themistic Law is the support system for the conscience to act independently of God. The conscience must follow a record. And as explained above, when the record is placed in self it is used to address the themes and issues of life and then is verified by self. Themistic Law can then be identified by its self-verifying witness. Whatever the individual chooses as a form of correctness in turn settles the conscience, which in turn is verified as truth. A “form of correctness” refers to the guidelines that people use to confirm their own principle. This is the record they have set for their conscience to follow, and then, project with their imagination to fulfill that drive. A “form of correctness” is thought to achieve something for the individual that he thinks would be of benefit for others, and therefore the principle is pressed upon them for confirmation and conformity. Hence, people use their own sense of correctness as a bar or standard for others to live up to and oppress one another with their principle. Here again we see how Themistic Law was titrated into the baseline to set a standard for Christianity and lend support to the conscience. The principle, nevertheless, is in reflection of the record of the conscience and not the record of Jesus Christ, and is therefore unauthorized and unsanctified. The scripture is divinely inspired by God, but the principle reflects the record of the soul, not the record of Jesus Christ. Christians are not justified before God to use a form of correctness as a record for faith. The need for the soul and spirit of man to lean towards a form of correctness to support the conscience to find increase with Themistic Law is continually demonstrated on many reality shows. We see the continued assessment of another based on one’s own correctness. Although most of these people do not use the Bible as a divine authority, the mechanics of Themistic Law are the same. When people set a standard in themselves for correctness to settle the conscience, this is called self-righteousness. Themistic Law then is a means of glorifying the flesh through a form of correctness that allows the flesh to rest in a record other than Christ. God calls this ungodly, and identifies the unrighteous as those who commit themselves to resourcing God without faith, resourcing faith without the covenant. The plan is to glorify God, not the flesh. Themistic Law is given many noble faces, which speaks of man’s spiritual instincts, spiritual drive, and spiritual needs. Why do people give their bodies to be burned? The deed provides a form of correctness found in self-sacrifice. Yet, the Apostle Paul made a distinction between Themistic Law and faith. People who give their bodies to be burned for the cause of Christ yet their faith is removed from the terms God set for reciprocation (charity), their deeds are not spiritual, but carnal, and of no profit. True charity identifies the record and the witness God has set in His Son. When the record is from above (Jesus, the living blueprint of faith, not precept and line) then the witness of the Spirit is also from above. The soul that is joined to God through the record and the witness is joined to God in charity. The witness preserves faith in Jesus Christ and faith is living. Themistic Law does not join faith to the record and the witness of Jesus Christ. Why do people bestow all their goods to feed the poor? It’s a form of correctness that addresses social need. It is a tool of tradition that uses acts of contrition to appease the conscience. There is nothing wrong with helping the poor, but when these works take the form of correctness based on a principle that others confirm as righteousness, then the principle is removed from Christ and the witness is removed from the Spirit, and the act becomes a form of self-verifying. The passion that Christians have for self-denial fulfills a form of correctness, which evaluates to Themistic Law and not the record of Jesus Christ. The works are therefore dead and faith is dead. We can see that people can demonstrate the desire of personal correctness in a form of religion yet not possess faith. Satan enters into the imagination about spiritual needs and agrees with a form of correctness that allows humanity to continue in sin. How did Satan approach Judas? By entering into his thinking pattern, agreeing with Judas’ form of correctness about Jesus, and sympathizing with Judas’ vision of Jesus. Judas used his imagination coupled with his own principles as a drive towards ministry with Jesus outside the restrictions of God’s plan. Judas had read the scriptures about the ruling King of Judah, the Messiah of power, and he imagined that Jesus would defend Himself if His divinity was put on trial. Judas had combined his imagination with scripture to form his personal convictions. He therefore betrayed Jesus into the hands of the Romans thinking he was fulfilling scripture. He was merely fulfilling his own convictions. Judas did fulfill scripture in the betrayal of the Son of God, but not for his honor, but rather to his dishonor. As Jesus said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born” Mt. 26:24. Satan, however, cannot enter into faith, as we see in the case of Jesus. “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” John 14:30. This is why the pattern for our faith was set in Jesus Christ and not in our imagination, and not in Themistic Law. The gates of hell can prevail against our imagination about God, but cannot prevail against the covenant of Jesus Christ. Judas, in using the law with his conscience, produced guile, not faith. Here we see a strong connection between the conscience and the imagination. As long as Satan was inspiring Judas’ imagination Judas felt no guilt. Judas projected (imagination) a righteousness that shifted to accommodate his imagination. He felt his imagination was empowered because he sensed the power of an earthly spirit speaking to his sense of correctness with the scriptures and his private interpretation of the plan of God. Satan blended his voice with Judas’ sense of correctness and therefore the conscience followed this record rather than the record of the Son of God. Jesus had said that He would be crucified and the third day rise from the dead. Jesus had given the plan of God for redemption. Judas, in working with his imagination, rejected the covenant and refused faith in Jesus Christ. His imagination overshadowed the grace of God. The conscience, apart from the law of God’s grace and truth, works with another law and another power to form Christ (redemption) into another pattern. When the conscience is settled by conviction rather than covenant, the conscience is seared with a hot iron; which means the conscience is not troubled. Many Christian books have been written about the peace of God when in fact the author was describing the peace of the world, describing the conscience that is settled through a form of correctness. Jesus made the following distinction, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27. When the doctrine of substitutionism replaced the doctrine of propitiation the gospel was removed from the power of Jesus Christ and became centered on man’s aspirations coupled with the wisdom and witness of the world. The peace of God was substituted for the tranquillity that the world receives when following a form of correct thinking and acting. The peace of the world is achieved when the conscience is silenced by the voice of reason, thus putting a demand upon the will to agree to the terms (form of correctness) for closure. Counting our blessings, looking at a glass of water as half full instead of half empty, letting go, letting God, these are all carnal ways the mind has of shifting the focus from inequity to something that tips the scale psychologically in our favour. This is not the peace of God. The peace of God passes understanding 100% of the time. This means that the peace of God is not subject to our form of correctness, nor is it produced by tipping the scale. The peace that Jesus gives is given distinction through separation. God issues grace and truth to shield the soul and purge the conscience from sin and increase the soul with the virtues of God. The will is joyful through the release of this charity. This frees the conscience to agree with the Spirit and the peace of God rules the heart. In the presence of God’s grace and truth, the conscience is again challenged and is troubled. We witness this also in the case of Judas. When Jesus did not use His power to free Himself from the Romans, but instead committed Himself into the hands of sinners to be crucified according to the will of His Father, circumstances no longer supported Judas’ imagination and Judas went out and hanged himself (Mt. 27:5). His imagination was violated and his soul caved in on itself. We see that the soul, under the design structure of Themistic Law does not increase, but decreases. The false confidence, drive, and assurance that Judas experienced through the correctness of his own convictions was sustained by another power that he was not aware of—the power that Satan lent to his imagination. Once the deed of betrayal to Christ was accomplished, Satan withdrew his power and Judas’ conscience was no longer supported. This describes perfectly the “defiled conscience.” Themistic Law gives evidence of the “defiled conscience.” The Apostle Paul wrote about the defiled conscience. “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” Titus 1:15. The defiled conscience is under the influence of the ruling powers of the flesh and dominated by the ruling powers of the air. This is why Paul also taught about God “purging the conscience” from sin and the answer of a “good conscience” towards God. As long as people meet their own expectations, there is no guilt. Guilt is manifested when (1) another person successfully challenges the principle and it is seen as lacking, and (2) the truth of God challenges the principle. In that case, the grace of God accompanies truth to draw faith from the heart when the heart yields to grace. Faith, therefore, cleanses the conscience when the imagination no longer resources that record for perfection, but rather, resources the record of Christ through covenant. It is in covenant that the witness of Christ is present, confirming the activity of faith. Sinners err in using the things of God for their own aspirations, expecting God to confirm their imagination. He will not. He will only confirm Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus taught, “…Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given” Mark 4:24. This is the perpetual nature of God, which He demonstrates through His grace and truth, empowered by His Spirit. When grace enters into the heart, the understanding increases. Judas heard the same words of Jesus that the other apostles heard, yet his understanding did not increase because he was embracing the word of God with a conviction rather than by the terms of the covenant. Judas mistook his aspiration for faith, he mistook his principle for truth, and he therefore used Jesus’ words as a self-verifying tool to fulfill his own imagination. When the conscience is satisfied with the imagination, it then becomes a law for the principle of man to work with. This is called wickedness, being the deceitfulness of sin (Heb.3:13). The power of sin is entwined in these things. The conscience that is defiled is at war because the records of the conscience continue to uphold the law of sin and death, confounding the soul and the spirit to rival for control to seek peace. The mind (the spirit of man) tries to control the law of sin and death through intellectual prowess, using theology, scriptures, and the principles of Satan’s 13 Kingdoms to empower a moral compass to find equity. The emotions (the soul) tried to control the law of sin and death through psychology and philosophy, again using theology, scriptures, and the principles of Satan’s 13 Kingdoms to empower a moral compass to find equity. The conscience is seeking for stability by finding a record that is greater than the record of sin and death. Themistic Law is also identified by an imbalance in reciprocation. The price God paid for the redemption of the human race is His own blood. He came in the flesh to suffer and die for the sins of the world. He put everything into His plan of redemption and designed the terms of the covenant with an expectation that believers be able to reciprocate in kind. Seeing the tremendous love that God has towards the human race, Christians use Themistic Law to try to put forth the same efforts with their signature gifts to reciprocate these to God. Their philosophy is, “If God put so much love and effort into His great redemption for humanity, I should do the same; I should pour all my time, love, energy, and skill into the gifts He gave me for so I can use these to benefit humanity. I can absorb the qualities of Jesus by observing His actions in the gospel, get the feeling of His essence, apply that to my gifts and do good to all men.” This kind of thinking is often demonstrated by this saying, “What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.” This idea of “doing the same thing” is not reciprocation in kind. We cannot give our signature gifts back to God and expect God to accept that gift because God did not give our signature gifts to us as a contact point for our redemption or reciprocation to Him. God’s gift to us is Jesus Christ. God has already designed that gift specifically for our redemption, and structured the truth of Jesus Christ with our participation in mind. He then carefully crafted the tools of the covenant with the design of Christ, which carries a contact for reciprocation. Therefore, our gift to God through the design and structure of Christ matches His expectation perfectly and we are able to reciprocate to God in kind, giving back to Him Jesus Christ in the same form in which He was given. Humanity is faced with many social, personal, and political issues. If people can tie these issues with the Bible, then they feel they have a roadmap for their conscience. Themistic Law speaks to basic human need and the need of the conscience to come to terms with the issues of life. Anything that gives confidence and lends support to the conscience is therefore falsely justified. The peace of the world is achieved when issues and themes are resolved. This false peace is accompanied with false confidence and sets man upon a journey with his faith. 4. Themistic Law: The Support System for the Conscience: The Journey Mask The journey of life is understandable. Our life begins at birth and ends at death. What we do in the middle, is the journey. It is reasonable to say that we are journeying towards the inevitable end of our life, and that the journey is marked with many mile stones. Christianity is also a journey. We begin at the time of our rebirth in Christ and continue on until the rapture or death. It is reasonable to say that we are journeying towards the reward of our faith, seeing God face to face, knowing Him as He knows us, and receiving the reward of an eternal life with Him. The journey of faith is marked with the milestones of God’s grace daily. The Journey Mask is not about the journey of life, neither is it about the journey towards our eternal hope in Jesus Christ. The Journey Mask is a false journey set within the Christian journey; a journey that starts when faith goes into crisis and continues on with many spiritual destinations that are always just out of reach. Normal Christian virtues and experiences are routinely presented as goals towards which we strive rather than a present reality that one lives. Tangibility is errantly set within prediction rather than outcome. The predictions from the pulpit are about the promised experiences that will take place when faith participants engage themselves with the doctrine, discipline, and scriptural motivations. These predictions seem tangible because they are presented as if they are already in one’s possession. All one has to do is take that journey towards the reward of faith. Material questions such as, “How do I experience the presence of God?” and “What is the will of God for my life?” and “How can I live a life that is not ruled by my passions?” are answered through the immaterial Journey Mask. The conscience is temporarily settled by the prospects of prediction and engagement set by the journey, but faith is not born in the heart and the soul experiences crisis because there is a disparity between what the Bible says Christian experience should be and the lack of material experience of it. For example, the Bible says that we should be holy as God is holy. Holiness was designed by God as a present reality. Therefore, God structured faith to meet that daily requirement. When the stewardship of truth passed from the apostles and was errantly given to those of lesser grace, the present reality of holiness also passed from Jesus Christ to works of the flesh, resulting in dramatic changes to faith that bankrupt the Christian experience. This bankruptcy played out in the human soul and spirit, translating into deep pain and sorrow. The pain of not meeting the mark, the pain of falling short, the pain of hypocrisy, the pain of sin dominating the soul, the pain of displeasing God, the pain of being vulnerable to Satan’s crushing blows, and the loss of the virtue of Christ in the soul. These all demonstrate a Compound Depreciation Rate (CDR) on present Christian Performance Index (CPI). Negative data points in doctrine and discipline always translate into aggravating factors that play out upon the soul. Believers therefore experience hopelessness, despair, depression, remorse, displacement anxiety, anger, resentment, guilt, shame, confusion, and fear. These aggravating factors upon the soul must be mitigated. Hence, if the command for holiness cannot be met then the Journey Mask becomes the Mitigation Tool. We can “journey” towards holiness. Believers, faced with the impact of many failed efforts of holiness have learned to adapt. Unable to make holiness a present reality, despondent over the lack of material evidences of holiness, they have adapted to the journey—a journey towards holiness. As Christians become pumped up with the possibilities of holiness, the pain of failure is offset for a short time. The flesh is challenged anew, the spirit of man agrees wholeheartedly with the principles of holiness, and holiness again seems within reach. The Beatitudes seem simple, the 10 commandments make sense, and being a Good Samaritan is esteemed as worthy. Christians are emotionally prepared to affirm, “I can be like Jesus.” The human will, however does not have the wherewithal to follow through with the convictions and the power of the Spirit seems elusive. The milestones of this journey therefore, are the confusing highs and lows of Christianity. Many Christian authors offer “keys of insight” into holiness while freely admitting to be on the same journey as everyone else, and continue to set holiness within the boundaries of Themistic Law. In summary, when holiness is not a present reality, Christians begin to seek for revelations outside of God’s truth to verify and justify the false journey towards holiness. These are the types of revelations seducing spirits readily confirm, leaving believers vulnerable to further faith bankruptcy. The rather large discrepancy from what the Bible says about the tangibility of true holiness and lack thereof in Christian experience is hidden behind the Journey Mask, camouflaging these Exigent Faith symptoms. The philosophy behind the Journey Mask is simply to normalize the disparity between what the Bible says and actual experience by turning all faith crisis into a journey towards that particular lack of virtue. The form of correctness is an attempt to understand and correct the bankrupt Christian experience. The Journey Mask is an attempt to journey towards healing by asking these questions: What is the correct form of relationships? What is the correct form of finances? What is the correct form for health? What is the correct form of community services? It’s in human nature to want to be correct and to bring correctness to every endeavour. It is in the nature of man for perfection because this is the nature of God. A thief perfects his trade, a carpenter perfects his trade. Athletes try to perfect their trade; that is why we have the Olympics. Everyone has an intellectual persuasion, talent, gift, or interest that is translated into a form that they try to sell, to advance themselves, and prosper—to increase. Everything man comes in contact with he wants to create a law for it in order to achieve correctness to meet a required standard or condition set by society or by the conscience or by the Bible in order to compensate for the system of sin and the fruits of iniquity. This sense of need for order, rightness, and correctness is a virtue of God’s nature; He reflects perfect equity in all that He is and all that He does. When Adam fell he lost this equity. However, buried deep in our collective subconscious we yearn for it and work towards it. God provided the covenant to restore equity through Jesus Christ. Satan provided another gospel and another Christ to cause believers to seek equity through biblical text and life principles coupled with Themistic Law to remove confidence from the law of grace and truth. 4.1. Hypocrisy: The Daughter of Themistic Law We often hear people comment on the Exigent Faith. They may say, “The church is full of hypocrites.” Here we have a world view of Christianity. The Church has investigated this report, found many evidences of hypocrisy, and agreed that efforts should be made towards understanding and remedy. In the absence of true Apostolic Governance the Church did not understand the design and structure of the soul, or God’s ecosystem for IDCCST, and therefore remedial efforts to remove hypocrisy from the system did not result in removing hypocrisy from the soul. Rather, the soul now has to labor under the yoke of new Mitigating Tools. Christian leadership launched many programs in their efforts toward remaking the system and set in place new “transparent” accountability techniques. Talk about being “real,” and how to come out from behind the mask of “fake” Christianity, and attempts at targeting new ways to demonstrate vulnerability all pointed toward the present failure of all Mitigating Tools leadership had launched in the past to deal with program inequity. Subsequently, the presence of hypocrisy to these measures requires us to set a Compound Depreciation Rate of -04 upon program inequity that resulted in the use of Mitigation Tools that produced exigent faith symptoms that must again be mitigated. Why does program failure produce Mitigating Tools that themselves must be mitigated? Christianity is presently hubbed to Themistic Law and that law addresses the themes and issues of life. Christian principles, thus removed from the record of Jesus Christ, were used to address the frail condition of humanity. With a focus on the frail condition of man two popular concepts arose in regard to redemption, Themistic Law, and frailty, both of which overcame the Christian faith: (1) Redemption is presented as a total removal of frailty from human experience and (2) Redemption is presented as God’s way of speaking to our frailty and helping humanity cope and deal. 4.2. Concept One: Removal of Frailty Themistic Law is coupled with human principles and scripture to fabricate a life free from frailty. God did not intend to remove frailty through CCST. Christ-Centered Spiritual Transformation speaks of the transition of the soul from darkness to light, the purging of the defiled conscience, and the healing of the soul from the fruits of iniquity. The power of Christ returns the soul to the virtues of God. Sickness, infirmity of the flesh, and frailty are curses that came upon Adam on account of his sin. The human race is touched by the heat of the sun, the cold of winter, hunger, thirst, sorrow and pain, vanity and vexation. All these came upon Adam through his transgression, and are passed on to us. These curses will not fully be removed until the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth. Even so, those who are in covenant with God receive of His mercy and He sustains the flesh according to His good pleasure. Through Event Theology 2 we understand the pattern God designed for redemption through Jesus Christ, and although the body still ages and believers still need to sleep, eat, and drink to maintain their bodies, and still suffer sorrow and pain, God frees the conscience from sin, heals the soul from the fruits of iniquity, and daily provides tangible contact, giving substance to hope. Thus, the soul flourishes and increases in His likeness. There are many spiritual goals that believers have once they are converted. They would like to know God and overcome themselves, the world, and the devil. They would like to be holy as God is holy. They would like to reciprocate to God "in kind." They would like to know God's will for their lives. They would like to have a faith that is free of paradoxes. They do not want to be a hypocrite. They would like to love their neighbor as themselves and live in victory over sin. These goals are met 100% of the time daily through IDCCST. The book of Revelation speaks of the final release of these curses: Rev.7:6, 7, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. (See also: Isa 49:10, Isa 49:10, 25:8).
Rev. 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Rev. 22:3, “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.” Using Christianity to remove the curse of frailty from the flesh now is out of step with God’s timetable and sets a design within doctrine and discipline that is incompatible with the present restrictions God has set upon the soul and design for faith. The initiation of that pattern does not facilitate the necessary witness of the Spirit of God upon the soul and thus, the will alone must carry the program to completion. The existence of paradoxes and Exigent Faith symptoms give evidence of the veracity of the program. The law of any truth is: veracity is measured in light of its power. In other words, the value of a truth is measured in light of its power against the Variable. If the laws of a system have no power upon the Variable other than to Quine the Variable then Choice Education dictates that that the Knowledge Spheres of that system are modelling the Secondary Stem rather than the Primary Stem. That analysis requires us to set a Compound Depreciation Rate upon the Index of -04. 4.3. Concept Two: Coping and Dealing with Frailty Human frailty presents a great challenge to the mind. However, God did not provide the gospel in order for us to address that challenge. He provided the gospel of Jesus Christ in order for us to behold Christ in our faith. If our focus is our frailty we would try to redirect the scriptures to address our frailty in order to learn how to successfully manoeuvre around the obstacles of life. This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. God did not intend for humanity to cope and deal with frailty through CCST. Christ-Cantered Spiritual Transformation speaks of the transition of the soul from darkness to light, the purging of the defiled conscience, and the healing of the soul from the fruits of iniquity. The power of Christ returns the soul to the virtues of God. This design and structure speaks of the life skills necessary to function in a spiritual apiary of faith. Like bees producing honey as a natural process of design, the soul produces the virtues of Christ as a natural process of God’s spiritual ecosystem for contact and virtue. Thus, we understand frailty from the position of light rather than darkness. Theologians and philosophers have analyzed the many powers of frailty upon the soul, learned how to best circumvent the law of sin and death through Themistic Law, and attempted to force virtue from the heart by exercising the will with principles of right and wrong thinking. Trying to force a form of virtue from the soul is much like trying to squeeze honey out of a physical rock. Honey does not come from a piece of stone. A rock can be studied from every angle, position, location, size, composition, and origin, and still not produce honey. There is a due process for harvesting honey through bees. The fruits of godliness that are born of the efforts with Themistic Law are not the fruits of Christ that are born in the soul through IDCCST. The fruits of godliness that are born of the efforts with Themistic Law are the works of false piety and false humility and identifies the works that are born from the soil for they come from the unregenerate soul of man, and do not come from above. That which is born from above identifies the virtue of Jesus Christ. The principle that is left to the will empowers the will. Therefore, in the absence of quintessential truth the human will uses the principles of Themistic Law as a power to fabricate a lifestyle that appears godly. When the soul tries to find completion through Themistic Law it gives witness to a lesser substance than God, which does not carry the power of God. The soul suffers because the witness falls short of expectation, truth brings conviction to the conscience, the imagination is violated, and guilt, shame, and remorse follow. To deal with this inequity faith participants again turn to Themistic Law to garner principles that are used as a pattern of good works to shield the conscience. The world view of these concepts and habits of faith are not favourable because they too are dealing with a cow in their kitchen and they too have analyzed the stone for virtue and they too have their collection of bottles filled with ground stone. Christian forms of correctness as well as the new transparency protocols are met with open contempt as people respond to the double standard, “You set one standard for your principle and another for mine, elevating your principle above mine and gave it authority with scripture for separation and distinction, but I can see through the façade and reject your claims. You are merely shielding your conscience from guilt the same as I. I still see your principle behind all that you say and do, and your principle is no better than mine. You claim that your Christianity will raise you above your failings, but I see you are still as frail as I am. You and I are on the same journey. I reject the claims that you are different.” In addressing frailty through Themistic Law, ministers are setting faith on the battlefield of the flesh. This means that they are using faith to address the issues of the flesh. Christians make a boast of being “different” based on Themistic Law. Sinners can see through the boast and recognize what is empowering the will. “You say you are setting distinction for behaviour in the Bible, yet I see the power of your aspiration and principles behind the scripture and not God. You want me to bow down to your form of correctness as if it is inspired by God; you want me to concede to your principle as if it is greater than mine. I refuse.” Christians feel within themselves the guilt and pain of their own hypocrisy, and have sent out an S.O.S. message of sorts to Christian leadership, “You preached a message that appealed to me emotionally, it convicted me of sin; you promised a Jesus who would free me from my sins, and the chains of guilt and shame, and then you gave me church programs and Sunday School. With my mind I could agree with the message of Christ, with my heart I loved God, I could change my thinking, change my attitudes, and change some habits, but my nature did not change. Twenty years after my conversion I am still on this journey towards holiness—I am the hypocrite.” In summary, titrating Themistic Law into the baseline for Christianity leaves believers vulnerable to their own hypocrisy. Lack of experience with IDCCST led leadership to reference faith to Themistic Law to address frailty and find a “form of correctness.” Setting expectation for SARS within Themistic Law seemed reasonable and sound because it addressed every human issue people faced. However, Christian leadership could not make the necessary spiritual distinctions for faith. People made judgments for correctness according to their own circumstances and needs, and faith practitioners continued to develop programs to facilitate a false journey towards those goals. Christianity, set apart from the Headship of Jesus Christ, follows a principle in place of truth and aspirations in place of faith. This is easy for the world to discern. Christian leadership could not address the inequity of programs designed with their own aspirations and principles. It is the program design that is producing hypocrisy because the dynamics of the program are incompatible with the design of the soul and incompatible with God’s design for CCST. Any doctrine and discipline that attempts to remove, cope, or deal with frailty is crippled with inherent design flaws. Therefore we are required to set a Compound Depreciation Rate of -04 on concepts in regard to Themistic Law and frailty. When outcome does not match prediction, we have evidence of program failure. Clinical evidence of program failure is seen in three areas (1) in the language of engagement, (2) in the presence of mitigating tools and program recall, and (3) in the emotional and spiritual problems believers face. 1) The language of prediction and engagement: The language of one who is attempting to achieve something that is not yet in one’s possession is obvious. The language is aggressive, futuristic, and speaks of keys of knowledge before unknown that will now accomplish that which was previously attempted, but ended in failure. Language such as “breakthrough,” “optimizing growth,” “enhancing Christianity,” “releasing God’s power,” “revitalizing your faith,” “capitalizing on your dreams,” and “learning God’s purpose for your life.” There is an emotional downside to stretching after revelations that continue to predict and engage without producing tangible, material results, or results that need further mitigation. When outcome does not match prediction, Christians are offered more books and more programs. The language of each prediction and engagement again suggests that the blessing that was just out of reach can now be within grasp. Reengagement is set within new objectives of “removing hindrances,” “binding and loosing,” “removing generational curses.” With each new incentive for successful Christian living faith practitioners have also said that failure to obtain the promises of program prediction was the fault of faith participant. This is not true. 2) The presence of mitigating tools: When Christians are not able to obtain that which is promised to them through prediction and engagement, the resulting disparity brings faith into crisis. Faith practitioners are attempting to mitigate the crisis without addressing program disparity. The doctrine and discipline itself is not compatible with the design of the soul and carry the negative data points. Add to that the aggravation of program failure; believers continue to experience frustration, confusion, guilt, shame, remorse, fear, loss, anger, and resentment. These aggravating factors upon the soul must now be mitigated. That means that Christians have to find means to lessen the blow of the paradox and normalize it. The most popular mitigating tools are the Sliding Scale, Program Recall, Journey Mask, and Retooling of Themistic Law. 3) The emotional and spiritual problems believers face: There are over 10,000 distinct religious groups, including 33,830 Christian denominations in existence today. Yet, according to noted researcher and author, George Barna, the number of unchurched has risen from 39 million in 1991 to 75 million in 2004. This represents a 92% increase. 13 million of these people were formally churched. (Barna Group, retrieved May 24, 2004 from http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=163). Despite the rekindling of faith that we saw after the 9/11 tragedy, we have witnessed a massive church exodus taking place. The American Psychiatric Association recognized this religious and spiritual crisis in America and developed a new diagnostic category, "Religious or Spiritual Problem" (Code V62.89) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fourth Edition (APA, 1994) in part to address the psychosocial fallout that takes place when faith participants become disenfranchised. Why do we have so many disaffected believers? Multi scale analysis points to inherent paradoxes imbedded in faith models that are prophylactic in nature. These present themselves as barriers to rewarding outcome experience, making faith impotent. Cleric proclivity to set life principle within the context of negative data points and clichés was in direct conflict with essential faith building strategies. A groundswell of resentment began as faith participants grew openly tired of spiritual failure, anxiety, frustration and despair. The chart below represents the difference between that focus of Faith practitioners and Faith participants. 4.4. EVA Disparity Index: Prediction, Engagement, and Outcome Chart
Faith practitioners do not purposefully remove themselves from the outcome, they merely assigned that to the providence of God or assigned responsibility to faith participant. This gap translates into the lack of ability to recognize program failure. When there is a design flaw in doctrine and discipline the outcome will not match predictions and believers will face spiritual problems.
Figure 2 When believers embrace the many discipleship models, programs, books, and sermons to engage themselves with the protocols of faith that promise them what they are looking for, and then experience outcome that did not match prediction they face many questions, doubts, and frustrations. Differences in the objectives of the two standards led to differing emphasis in the accountability process. The popular expression, “When all else fails…” is applicable here as believers are told that if all else fails they are to again find a promise in the Bible that covers their circumstance and try again. The focus is refitted onto another prediction and a new set of ways to engage faith. Because focus is directed to reconciling the difference between prediction and outcome, Christianity becomes an attempt to synchronize the two. 5. Models for Correctness: Sliding Scale For their part, faith practitioners are ready with another round of remedial programs. They will predict many tangible aspects of experience that will take place when faith participants engage in their new step programs. Thousands of people will participate with this “improved environment” for faith and report moments of peace, love, and forgiveness. While it is true that God planed to impact the soul with these virtues, Satan takes all that God says and does and creates his own platform. This trend began in the Garden of Eden when Satan titrated his own agenda into God’s word and used Adam and Eve’s imagination to agree with his agenda to overthrow them. This pattern continued throughout history. Satan has always provided pseudo knowledge, pseudo tools, and pseudo experiences to keep the soul on a journey towards wholeness for all the right reasons, yet with all the wrong tools and contact points. Any program that addresses the key issues that humanity faces will push all the right buttons, but not necessarily reconnect the soul with God. There is a lot of pressure upon Christians to live up to the demands of a “Christian Life.” These demands are not based on the covenant of Jesus Christ, they are demands placed upon the soul through Themistic Law. Christian leadership utilizes three separate models to verify a form of correctness for the conscience. Each model is represented by a scale (see figure 3 below) and is used to weigh reason and experience against a selected baseline. A Sliding Scale uses a graduating baseline to compensate for the imbalance that occurs when prediction and engagement falls short of expected outcome. A Sliding Scale, thus adjusts (slides) conveniently to offset program inequity. Politicians are often accused of using a sliding scale because they are quick to tip the political scales in their favor. If justice is said to slide to the right or to the left at one’s convenience we are describing conviction that adjusts to personal needs rather than to the standards of the law. Faith practitioners do the same. This report examines the Sliding Scale and asks questions about the current SARS that accepts and promotes such a scale.
EVA Disparity Index:
Figure 3 Scale #1: The first scale represents a very familiar message that is preached from many pulpits. That message says that once a faith client makes a confession of faith in Jesus Christ, God accepts them the way we are. There are no goals, there is no performance, and each Christian meets this benchmark of faith without contradiction. God’s unconditional love is used as a baseline and form of correctness. The conscience, however, continues to cry out against the individual because the conscience has not been purged. Sins have been forgiven, but the soul is still in bondage. Additionally, because the soul was designed for increase after God’s likeness it is still restricted because the faith client has no tools for increase. Not only do Christians suffer shame, guilt, remorse, frustration, and depression because the conscience is not purged, but they suffer frustration and confusion because they are not able to increase. Additionally, faith practitioners preach a paradoxical message by stating that although God accepts you the way you are, you now have to make many changes. This message was born of the need to quiet the conscience. These new demands lead both faith practitioner and faith participant to slide the scale towards finding a moral code to guide them. The soul is hoping for an opportunity to increase with these sets of standards. Scale #2: There are three main branches of moral conduct that Christians use as a new benchmark of faith (1) the Ten Commandments, (2) the Beatitudes, and (3) the Good Samaritan. The exercise of the will with these branches of conduct addresses the flesh and sets a standard for the flesh thus obligating the conscience to fulfill a debt. These firm guidelines promise to deliver a form of correctness that is clear, sound, and pure. Faith practitioners make new predictions and engagements using these guiding principles to benchmark faith and adjust the imbalance of the first scale. Scale #2 promises believers a moral guide to quiet the conscience. Books and sermons that utilize the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Good Samaritan focus on Christian living, habits of the flesh, and life skills, and yet Christians continue to live a defeated life and suffer that “let down” feeling in their walk with God because the prediction and engagement did not translate into the expected outcome. The benchmark was used to set the bar for holiness yet holiness is still elusive. The commandments against sin are clear, but the will does not find power of completion. The activity of the flesh with the law of sin could be restricted for a short time, but the power of sin was not removed. Jesus paid the debt for sin with His own blood. The continued witness of sin by the conscience speaks of that debt not being paid. The conscience not being purged bears witness of the record of sin in the soul rather than the virtues of Christ. The promise of life is not carried by the flesh through the law of Moses; it is carried by the Spirit through the law of grace and truth Jesus oversees. The angel that worked with Moses to confirm Christ through the Old Covenant knowledge now works to confirm Christ with the New Covenant knowledge. When Jesus spoke of what was correct people mistook that message as a form to follow (the Beatitudes). This became an opportunity for human aspiration and principle to find fulfillment through a form of correctness. Instead of following Christ, believers followed the Beatitudes. “You can be like this—Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The Beatitudes became a set of praiseworthy virtues that the world attached to themselves for righteousness. “Thou shalt not steal” is another praiseworthy virtue. “I don’t steal, so I’m going to heaven.” Your thinking is correct concerning not stealing, but faith is not born in the heart by observing this law. The need for moral guidelines has been evident from the dawn of civilization. Many cultures therefore have developed laws for morality. Christians think that God is in favor of their actions because the principles speak in favor of their conscience. “Life has a moral;” “Life has a message;” “Life is about discovering one’s signature gifts.” When this false message is overlaid onto the gospel of Jesus Christ Christians are heard to say, “Jesus came to earth to give us a message, and then He died for the message.” Or, “Jesus died on the cross so we could have the good life.” Both of these reflect the gospel of Themistic Law, not the gospel of Jesus Christ. A spirit works with Themistic Law; it is the spirit of the world, the spirit of Anti-Christ, the spirit of Cain who shed the blood of Abel to uphold the issues that defined his own morality. People exercised their will with practicing love, forgiveness, and holiness yet sin still dominated their faith and Christians suffer because they are not able to reach the bar of expectation by the law of Moses, the Beatitudes, and the principles of being a Good Samaritan. New paradoxes are introduced every time there is a disparity between what the Bible says our experience should be and what reality states. The need to quiet the conscience and meet these new demands leads both faith practitioner and faith participant to slide the scale once again towards finding a means to supplement the moral code with something that is more within the grasp of the common person. The soul still needs to increase after the likeness of God and still needs to enter into rest. Christians hope for new opportunities for increase and completion with the new standards of scale #3. Scale #3: Unable to create a witness for the conscience with the law of Moses, the will then looks within for a record and witness for one’s increase. The record of the signature of the soul is readily available. Both faith practitioner and faith participant hope they can supplement the law of Moses with the works one can generate from signature skills and talents. Using one’s signature as a benchmark for faith would appear to have several personal advantages. These advantages, however, carry a hefty price tag. Faith practitioners can engage Christians on the level of their talents, skills, time, and money. People can identify with this benchmark and give of themselves. The result is a flexible Christ-like system of self-transformation that can be personalized to one’s own liking. The average Christian is able to reach their expectations a little better on this scale yet the paradoxes are not removed from faith. They can give, but pride is attached to their giving and contradicts their efforts to give without notice. They can exercise their will with their talents, but their need for affirmation contradicts their efforts to give without expecting anything in return. They can exercise their will doing things for others, but their sense of competition and envy contradicts their desire to give without these carnal identifiers of the flesh. All that is born of the flesh will bear witness to the flesh. One cannot escape the inertia of that kingdom. One cannot expect to sow to the flesh and not reap these carnal benefits. There is no such thing as “being spiritually minded about one’s signature.” The witness of the Spirit is not present with the human signature because the record of the soul cannot be used for faith in place of the record of Christ. Benchmarking faith with human skills and talents looked promising because it seemed reasonable that we could reach that bar, but the soul did not increase in the likeness of God, did not experience completion, and did not enter into rest. The soul has to wrestle with hypocrisy. Christians say, “I have faith in God,” yet resource the law of Moses or the Beatitudes or their signature as a record for faith and give witness to this record through earthly agreements. The conscience is convicted of the debt of sin because Jesus is not mediating the conviction. Conclusion With so many discipleship models on the market today is it any wonder that Christians have difficulty identifying the faith of our Lord, Jesus Christ? Is it any wonder that Christians find themselves on a journey of faith without a destination? Titration of Themistic Law into the baseline results in forcing aspirations and principles upon scripture, thus misdirecting faith with earth bound tools that give witness to the creature rather than the Creator. Under Themistic Law, the soul works with many goals that focus faith on their life and their issues. The soul is constantly struggling to find the tools that will bring it increase in the likeness of God so it can enter into rest. Unable to find rest the soul finds a point of reference, a form of correctness in Themistic Law to settle the conscience. The constant shifting of goals and issues touches many unstable elements of the soul, which then requires mitigation through the Sliding Scale to try to remove the contradictions and bring the soul into equity. Efforts with the 10 commandments, with the Beatitudes, and WWJD merely wearies the soul and forces the soul into many journeys. Faith practitioners mitigate the failure of Journey Masks by telling their faith clients that life is about the journey, not the destination, thus moving the focus of faith from Jesus Christ onto one’s life and Themistic Law, and removing the expectation of outcome. The soul looks for completion through Themistic Law, looking towards God to further that journey and inspire a better way of life. This act to bring Christ down to our level to serve the creature, rather than raise man to behold Christ and serve Him in righteousness brings faith into crisis and burdens the soul with the cares of this life. I propose returning the church to the Headship of Jesus Christ through Apostolic Governance and returning the soul to the virtues of Christ for faith. Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light. God inspired Jesus Christ as our faith, which faith brings life to the soul. |
