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THE REVERSE OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH
“Reversionism” is the negative status of the believer. It is the opposite of spiritual growth- it’s the recession from any stage of spiritual growth, becoming contrary, maladjusted to the justice of God Reversionism is a process characterize by the following: A) The formation of negative volition (human will)toward the Word of God to total rejection of the Bible Doctrine. Bible Doctrine is the systematic teaching of the Bible properly using the exegetical, categorical, and historical method of studying the Bible, rightly dividing the Word of God for maximum benefits of the believer’s soul. Doctrine here and after refers only to the pure Word of God, not to any church “doctrines.” B) It is brought on by a reaction to one of the many “reactor factors” that will periodically arise in any normal life. Reactor factors include human emotions. C) Its the result of an act of the believer falling into sin when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust (Gen. 3:6 James 1:14). D) It is falling into temptations without the volition to get out of chain- sinning that quenches the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 10:13 1 Thess. 5:19). Carnality is grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30) Carnality is the absolute status of being out of fellowship with God because of unconfessed sins, where the believer loses the filling of the Holy Spirit (not the indwelling Holy Spirit) and the old sin nature (the old man, self) controls the life. E) False confidence in the things that are no basis for confidence for spiritual growth and stability (1 Cor. 10:12). The reversionist thinks that because of his sacrifices, services, “spiritual power”, tithing, tongues, works, etc., he is already strong and mature in the Lord. It’s foolish to think that we become strong and mature believer through such effort. Spiritual growth comes from God through study of the Word of God (2 Peter 3:18). F) They have their hope in Satan’s modus operandi (Eph. 2:12) of good and evil. Good in the eyes of Satan and men, evil in the eyes of God. Good in the standard of Satan and men, evil in the standard of God. Good & evil is a satanic system which includes the entire of human good works, every attempt to solve human problems apart from the Word of God and Divine will. Evil is the partial or total exclusion of grace from human ability or talents, power, wisdom and resources. The human good works produces under the control of self or old sin nature either by the unbeliever or carnal believer falls under category of good and evil. Example of good and evil are altruism, charity, humanism, philanthropy, positive thinking, legalism, social gospel, new evangelicalism, modernism, etc. G) Material and temporal prosperity (Psalm 37:1,7). 1) It is a pseudo-blessing from Satan (Mt. 4:9, Lk. 4:6), because they accept and approve the doctrine of Satan. 2) Their prosperity is design to test the attitude of the growing or maturing believer towards the “world” and towards the Word of God. Some of the reversionists who obeyed the command to rebound or to return back to God and then reached spiritual maturity all and glorified God in time.
Why God allows the reversions alive? a.) Their reversionism is just for a short period of time and God knows that they will rebound (1 John 1:9) going on up spiritual maturity to glorify God. b.) They serve as a assay or testing a aid for the advancing believer but if they continue in reversionism, they will be eventually taken home through sin unto death (Prov. 16:3-4, 1 Cor. 11:30c). Some of the reversionists who had suffered shipwrecked for failure to rebound and existed by means of sin unto death:
GOD’S PLAN FOR BLESSING THE BELIEVER The perfect God has a plan for the imperfect believer divided into three phases: salvation, in time and in eternity. An individual can only get into the perfect plan of God by way of the perfect God-man Jesus Christ. The plan of God for believer in time and on eternity is tremendous blessings (Eph. 1:3, 11, 14, 18). These astounding blessing are: A.) Logistical blessings B.) Special Blessings
C.) Blessings on Eternity
Church Age pertains to believers saved from the first day of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) to the last man to be saved before Rapture. The blessings are to be distributed in two phases:
The “good and evil” of Satan is absolutely evil in the standard of God, while the “good or bad” of 2 Cor. 5:10 refers to two things
The good and evil of Satan and bad of 2 Cor. 5:10 both refers to Reversionism. Logistical Blessings are of two categories: 1) Logistical blessings or grace for the physical existence of the believers while in Satan’s world like air, water, food, shelter, friends, guardian angels to protect us 2) Logistical grace for the spiritual advancement of the in spiritual life like Bible doctrine, Bible, local church, Pastor / teacher who teaches Bible doctrine, vehicle for going to place of Bible studies. Why we are so anxious about material needs which the Lord Himself is responsible? Believers have equal opportunity to grow and mature spiritually. The logistical blessings are provisions for believers and an opportunity to exercise the faith-rest principles and not struggle in the devil’s world. The recipient of the logistical grace are all believers, with out respect or regardless of their spiritual standing, carnal or spiritual, or reversionist (Phil. 4:19). The Lord Jesus is not referring to logistical blessings when HE challenged the disciples to ask the Father for things that will glorify God. (John 14:13-14) But for the Special blessings in time and for the blessings in eternity. God supplies logistical blessings even though the believers will not pray for it, or seek the Kingdom of God first or not because there is no requirement to exercise our positive (+) volition toward the Word, it involves no capacity factor. Why God rejected the offering of Cain & favored that of Abel? (Gen. 4:4-5) What is missing? Let me translate Hebrews 11:4a from its Greek context: “By believing the Word of God, Abel offered to God a sacrifice according to what the Righteousness of God demands and approves, through which Abel obtained what the Justice of God blesses because through the imputed Righteousness of Christ in him, Abel was approved by God.” The believer at the point of salvation receive the imputation of Righteousness of Christ, making the believer qualified for the Special blessings in time and blessings in eternity. However the two category blessings will not pour out from the Justice of God unless the believer is in position or capable in handling such blessings. Bible Doctrine in the soul of the believer determines the capacity for handling blessings. The Capacity factor needed to handle Spiritual blessings & Blessings in eternity, and “How God is Glorify” will be taken in the study of “The Blessings From The Justice of God.” CAN WE GLORIFY GOD BY OUR GIVING? Human beings give in hypocrisy. When Cain offered a sacrifice to God, it was from his old sin nature and from his love (which has no capacity to love God). Only believers with Bible doctrine in their souls can know, worship, love, serve and glorify God by receiving the blessings that God has prepared for us in the eternity past. How can you love God if you do not know Him, His Essence, His (character) Attributes, His Personality, His Decree? How can you serve God if you do not know His Will and His Plan? How can you worship, love Him if you do not know what pleases GOD. Pertaining to salvation, God rejected human good works, how much more in relationship to glorify God? What can satisfy the Righteousness of God? not human self- righteousness What can gain the favor and approval of God? not human merits What can satisfy the demands and standard of God? - not human good works Human works with false motivation. Cain offered “what is good in his own eyes (as well of Satan), but evil in the eyes of God. Cain offered his gift not to worship God like Herod the great who wanted to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. (Mt. 1:8). Our purpose for coming in Bible Study, church, prayer meeting must be our positive positive volition to study, and learn the Word of God. Our giving, serving, working, and witnessing in the body of Christ are part of our function as Royal Ambassadors, the Church age believers great responsibilities as servant of God which is not design to glorify God. Human gives legally. It is reversionism. Cain offered an offering not according to the standard of God. Only Jesus Christ meets the standard of God. God is glorified by distributing perfect blessings. Perfect blessings from the Father for the imperfect believers who mature in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (Jam4es 1:18, John 14:13-14). To glorify God, you must offer a perfect gift! Can you offer something good by God’s standard? It’s the WILL OF GOD for every believer to mature spiritually and glorify God by receiving the perfect blessings that comes as result of spiritual maturity. However, not all have the positive volition towards Bible Doctrine. A positive believer can easily “fall down” from his spiritual momentum and never regain spirituality because of being ignorant of Bible doctrine. He does not know how to rebound. God does not magically remove all of our “foolish and churchy erroneous doctrine, ideas and humanistic or demonic doctrine that we have since childhood. We are born physically with empty mind, with no knowledge of whatsoever but we learn from almost anyone around us. We are born in the Spirit with no Spiritual knowledge of whatsoever. God commands us to accumulate Bible Doctrine into our souls. Satan scheming is to divert us from doing the essentials and to be engrossed with the nonessentials. We must know our very calling and our priorities. The word of God is our highest priority. It is the essential of our life, everything else comes as non-essential. The essential is not flexible. How dare you call yourself Christian and spend more time with your TV than studying the Bible. Here’s a more accurate and better translation of 1 Cor. 2:16 “For who (the wise of this world), has known the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s counsels and thoughts that he (the fool) should give advice and teach HIM. But we have the Bible Doctrine stored in our souls. The reversionist are teaching God “new doctrines” that are not really doctrine but mere human stupidity. THE END OF THE REVERSIONIST All believers in cosmos diabolicus (2 Cor. 4:4) are given equal privileges and equal opportunities to grow spiritually and therefore receive their special and eternal blessings. Believers are indwelt permanently by the Holy Spirit, Sealed by the Holy Spirit but unless we are Filled with the Holy Spirit there is no learning, perception, and growth from the Word of God. The Indwelling Holy respects our volition to sleep or to listen to Bible teachings. They will never wake you up. (1 Cor. 6:3) We have the Bible, but the Indwelling Holy Spirit will never inject into our souls the Word of God. We have 8544 hours in a year, but how many hour are devoted for studying the Word of God. There are 30,442 verses in the Bible, and enough “WOES” to those who can imperfectly recite nothing but John 3:16. The cause and effects of carnality or immaturity follows a certain pattern:
The life of such immature and carnal believer will end in severe divine discipline and depart from this world through sin unto death. A reversionist is a “spiritual loser” (not his salvation) who will never have any blessings in eternity. There is no crown for the believer. Only Jesus will wear Crowns being the LORD of Lords, and KING of Kings. Crown is diadema in Greek but the word used is stephanos, meaning wreath. THE ETERNAL BLESSINGS
The only prerequisite or criteria for the eternal blessings is the believer’s attitude towards Bible doctrine and not any things else. Service in the Body of Christ will be examined or judge on the basis of the believer’s response to the Word of God, that is spirituality or carnality (1 Cor. 3:12). The questions regarding the believer’s service in the Body of Christ are: Was it based on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11) and Was it a reflection of His glory in the Life of the believer (1 Cor. 3:12)? If the “works” is not founded on the Word f God, and executed by the old sin nature based on the “good and evil” scheming, it becomes combustible, (hay straw, stumble). While on earth, all believers have equal privileges and equal opportunities, however in eternity future, it will be unequal blessings. The Reversionist after allowing his past sins to generates further sins as more sins build on previous sins, it leads to sins unto death (1 Cor. 11:30). “Weak, sick, sleep” denotes the progressive intensity of the discipline. The phrase “weak and sick” means physical infirmities due to divine discipline. The word sleep means physical death, while eternal life is secured, (1 Cor. 5:5, 1 Tim. 1:18-19). The issue here is not the personal sins of the believer since all of our sins (past present and future) were imputed on the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. The issue is the rejection of the divine plan of grace that breaks into five components: The issue is the rejection of the following:
God is not a murderer or destroyer. Satan is a destroyer and a murderer, whose passion to destroy us is so remarkable but he can not touch the believer without God’s permission. Satan waits for that Divine order. The term “sin unto death” of 1 John 5:16 is not the rejection of Christ as Savior by the unbeliever. Note that the word “his brother” refers to a brother in Christ. The invitation of Rev. 3:20 is for the reversionists not for the unbelievers since the invitation is to “eat with,” and that is fellowship and not the verb open which is in present progressive tense. Will God invite unbeliever for fellowship? Does a believer progressively (continually) opens his heart for salvation? If we would judge ourselves (acknowledge that we have committed sins which was already judge in Christ by His death) We should not be judged. (Divine discipline is cancelled) 1 Corinthians 11:31 Let us summarize this lesson:
Emotions have two faces. The positive believer responses with joy when discovering Bible truth, or when applying Bible doctrine (because of bible doctrine stored in the soul.) When a believer does not have the Capacity factors (no Doctrine), and emotion assaults the soul, it becomes the apparatus of miseries & ruin. If the mind is filled with evil thoughts the emotion encourages evil. If the believer response to OSN, the emotion will become a disastrous dictator. Reversionism involves emotional rebellion of the soul, trying to outdo the Biblical truth w/ series of rejections & prolong resistance against Truth. The emotion will try to depend it’s stronghold of unreality. Emotions overthrows the mentality, it has no content of it’s own, no character, no stability, no common sense, no Bible doctrine to base it’s hope, faith, nothing concrete. Emotions are designed to support & to respond to the contents of the right lobe, the dominant thinking portion of the mentality of the soul. Anyone can emote. Emotion that is not based on Bible doctrine or Divine Establishment is meaningless and self- destructive. God is not emotional and His love is not emotional. A person who thinks God operates on emotions will try to operate on emotions and feelings toward God. He wants to feel good from doing good works; he wants to feel spiritual or closer to God by his emotions. The OSN uses emotions as its whipping rod to enslave the believer’s soul back to sin. Emotional believers who have little or no Bible doctrine in their souls are easy prey to believe the reversionists gossips. Emotion is just a covering for guilt, sins, failures, carnality, etc. and then, find relieve by blaming others. There are two ways to learn Bible Doctrines: A.) By voluntary paying attention to Bible instructions B.) By suffering the discipline from God. Our relationship with God is personal; we are personally responsible for our own spiritual growth, maturity or carnality, or reversionism. The judgment at Bema (2 Cor. 5:10) is very personal. We are not responsible for he salvation, spiritual maturity or damnation of anybody. We personally chose to sin, (James 1:14) and we have to rebound personally or be cursed. God will not judge anyone for their past sins, present sins, or future sins, because Christ paid it in full (1 Peter 3:18) and sins is not the reason for God’s judgment and condemnation of man to hell but the rejection of the Lord CHRIST JESUS (John 1:11-13).
Rebound is the only key to unlock a believer from reversionism!
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Copyright ©2003-2007 J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries |
12/02/06