- Psyched Out by Ready2Rapture
19 y
2,518 8 Messages Shown
Blog: Bible Study
The word psychology is based on the Greek word for soul. God is the final authority on the soul, but psychology is man’s futile attempt to find a scientific cause for bad behavior. In fact, there is not one laboratory test for any psychological disorder. And this so-called "science" is based on the teachings of such anti-Christians as Freud and Young, and ultimately on the theory of evolution.
Obviously, psychology should have no place among Christians, since the Word of God alone is sufficient for all our needs. But psychology’s "self-esteem" has become a popular phrase in churches today. Contrast this concept with what the Bible says:
Mt 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Mt 23:25 Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."
Ac 24:25a While Paul was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment...
Ro 2:8 but wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition and do not obey the truth but follow unrighteousness.
1Co 13:4-5 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.
2Co 10:12 For we would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.
2Ti 1:7 For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2Ti 3:2-3 For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good...
2Ti 4:5 You, however, be self-controlled in all things, endure hardship, do an evangelist’s work, fulfill your ministry.
2Pe 1:5-7 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence4 to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love.
Do the "Christian psychologists" dare to claim that the Bible is insufficient for handling matters of the soul? After all, psychology and its programs were not even invented until the 1800s. What did people do before that? They did what we should be doing: relying on God alone.
Personality Testing
As if the heresy of self-esteem isn’t enough of a problem in the church, we also have "spiritual gift inventories" gaining in popularity. These tests are borrowed from the system of personality testing used by the world, which in turn is based on the Four Temperaments theory.
The Four Temperaments theory is an ancient system devised for understanding human nature and thereby improving the human condition, and divides people according to various personality characteristics that appear to make up their basic temperament. There are many variations to this theory, but it is simply a less detailed version of astrology’s twelve signs of the zodiac.
Astrology is the ancient Babylonian occult religion which sought to find explanations for behavior, and thereby predict behavior in individuals. It taught that man’s basic problem was not sin but an imbalance of the four temperaments. The cure was not repentance but finding a magic cure, known in the middle ages as the Philosopher’s Stone (the original name of Harry Potter’s Sorcerer’s Stone!).
Given the occult roots of personality testing, one would think no Christians would be involved in it, but this is not the case. In fact, personality testing is being touted by many prominent Christian leaders and authors. The Spiritual Gift Inventory test is nothing more than a personality test using Christian terminology. And even if the test were scientifically valid, it would never reveal spiritual gifts anyway. There are accepted scientific standards for tests of any kind, but none of the personality tests meet them. Human resource departments that have used these tests in the past have abandoned them as useless, but the tests have found new life in, of all places, the Christian community.
Since personality testing is on the same level as charting the horoscope, these psychological theories of personality are actually rival religious systems. For Christians to make use of these tests shows that they rely more on formulas and statistics than on the Spirit’s leading. It also shows great gullibility and ignorance.
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Ready2Rapture
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- There is a book related to this topic by SqueakyClean
19 y
848
I read this excellent book:
Psychology Debunked: Revealing the Overcoming Life
by Lisa Bazler, Ryan Bazler
Debunks "Christian" Psychology (Counselling) as well. One editorial comment at Amazon.com is: I would encourage anyone who thinks there is any hope whatsoever in psychotherapy to read this very informative book.
It's certainly eye-opening and thought provoking. I consider this a "must-read."
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SqueakyClean
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- Re: There is a book related to this topic by Ready2Rapture
19 y
1,010
- Question About THEOPHOSTIC by #40679
19 y
856
Hi there.
I enjoy reading your posts, blogs, etc.
I have a question about Theophostic.
My church (seeker sensitive type) offer Theophostic prayer. I went through it myself 3 or 4 times. First couple times were very interesting, I saw Jesus and some things from the past, etc. The last session was very disturbing. I felt as though there was absolutely no God around. I felt so horrible that I asked the councellors to read something from the Bible, just something from the Word to get me back to the Light. They seemed to be confused, but did read a passage finally.
I left that night in absolute despair, drained, distant from God. After that I began researching about it, and found disturbing things about Theophostic.
I brought my concerns to the main Theophostic leader in our church, I included couple article links. She gave me a passionate response (through email) that basically those 'theophostic accusers' don't have Love and compassion. She fumed over the fact that those accusers would probably tell a rape victim that she is a sinner, instead of giving her love and compassion. She twisted the whole thing, and totally misunderstood the points. I don't think she read both of the articles (one included hypnosis, occult).
Anyway, she also said that what I was doing was like taking extra corriculum courses in college, and not concentrating on my Major -reading the Word, studying it, etc. She suggested that I need to work on my relationship with the Lord.., and studying my Bible...
I angered me that she would twist my intent to show another side of Theophostic.. I still haven't responded to her ( I don't know what to say), but I occasionally see her in church, and my heart is hurting that this Theophostic is still continuing and damaging people). Nobody seems to research anything, anything goes.
What would you recommend me to do? Should I give her a book to read on the subject?
I really appreciate your opinion.
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- Re: Question About THEOPHOSTIC by Ready2Rapture
19 y
953
Hi, thanks for the kind remarks :-), I really do appreciate them!
Not too familiar with the term Theophostic Prayer, but I did a quick search (http://www.theophostic.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=3) and a little reading, and all sorts of red flags went up. It really is Contemplative Prayer, and as such is very subtly deceptive. They twist "renew your minds" from Romans 12:2 from filling your mind with God's Word to mean "renew your esoteric revelations" (my assessment of their teaching). They go on to misapply the Bible to support a psychologized Christianity and use Luther for added legitimacy. (Luther's words here are really quite disturbing: "honor him by letting go of this written scheme", because they devalue the written Word and open a person up to deception. This is why it is so important for every believer to know the Word and seek the Spirit's discerning, even when reading theologians' works. Just because they're right about one thing doesn't guarantee they're right about everything.)
I'm glad you sensed the spiritual deception while you were in this. Most people, even those who have spent their lives in Sunday School, wouldn't know what was wrong. I'm also glad you saw the flawed logic used by the Theophostic leader, whose response to you showed the cult-like character of this movement. If you do respond to her, I would suggest delaying "throwing pearls to swine" (per Toonces recent post) and do a little more probing to see if she was just having a bad day or if there really is some doubt in her mind. Maybe send her a link to the Psychoheresy Awareness web and also Dave Hunt's web ( http://www.thebereancall.org/ ). If she still responds with anger and blanket accusations against anyone who doubts their teachings, walk away and don't look back. The heretics at TBN are filled with hatred for "heresy hunters" who dare to point out their false teachings, and they lash out with threats to all who would expose them. If this woman reacts that way consistently to your questions, she is of the same spirit as the others, and you'll just have to pray for her and hope she changes her mind.
Hope that helps; let me know what happens.
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Ready2Rapture
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- Re: Question About THEOPHOSTIC by Ev
19 y
896
R2R - this is very interesting. Quite a few years back I also looked into "Theophostic Counseling". I also felt uneasy about this in my soul, because they "insist" that Jesus isn't enough to cover the hurt/pain in ones life and that you must go through this extra counseling to get relief. While I do believe that you must seek healing in many circumstances you certainly don't need to do so through this "contemplative prayer" which can open the door to deception.
I was interested also that this poster made mention that his church is "seeker sensitive". R2R, could you expound on the term "seeker sensitive" and tell us what you think of this movement? (I already have my ideas, I was interested to hear yours)
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Ev
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- seeker sensitive movement by Ready2Rapture
19 y
1,113
I have some articles about that in my web under Hot Topics (formerly Christian Controversies), but I'll try to summarize.
The seeker sensitive movement (SSM), popularized by Rick Warren but founded by others, basically shifts the focus of churches from believers to unbelievers. On the surface it seems harmless and even beneficial, but there are big problems with it.
Part of the reason mainstream Christianity has accepted this shift is because it has so little understanding of the church that Jesus and Paul set up. Centuries of doing it all wrong have not helped. So we have to be careful to judge church meeting- related topics in the light of the NT, not history.
The NT says very little about church organization and even less about what we're supposed to do in our "meetings" (the NT term for Christian gatherings), and I have more detail in my web. But the meetings were gatherings of believers, not "events" where unbelievers were to be evangelized. This is not to say that unbelievers are not welcome, only that they are there to observe and learn, not be the center of attention. We are to do our evangelism out in the world, bringing the gospel to them, not luring them to "church" and then hoping something good will eventually happen.
In an effort to make church meetings/worship services more palatable to the masses, the SSM deliberately avoids confrontation and so does not tolerate discussion of sin, hell, righteousness, justification, etc. These are the very topics required to convince people they have need of a Savior, but the SSM tries to make them comfortable instead, and only speaks gently of finding "peace" or achieving a higher level of spirituality. This is really indistinguishable from New Age teachings. It is another step in the wrong direction, conditioning Christians to accept anyone and any teaching in deference to the greater god of peace. Not to be tolerated are people like me who would tell the lost that they are lost, that they will spend eternity in hell if they reject Jesus.
I went through the 40 Days of Purpose before I knew anything about it, and I had misgivings from the beginning. At the very least, it failed to achieve any purpose at all: if it was supposed to evanglize it never clearly presented the gospel, and if it was supposed to nurture the saved it offered only the most basic infant formula. At the end of it I considered it a waste of time for both the saved and the lost. Most alarming, though, is that such a superficial "study" has been so outrageously popular. Why? It offers nothing the churches weren't already supposed to be doing, and it doesn't clearly present the gospel. Most likely, it serves a more sinister purpose: to anesthetise believers to the point where they are unable and unwilling to be salt and light in the world.
I knew someone in another message board that passionately defended his use of marijuana as an evangelistic tool. His argument was that it was a "drawing card" to those people who obviously are not saved and opened the door for him to present the gospel to them. Sound familiar? What's wrong with this reasoning, the same as that used for the SSM and others?
Obviously, the view that "the end justifies the means" is not a Biblical one. There are things we Christians cannot do, even to spread the gospel. Smoking pot is one, and watering down the gospel is another. Turning the church into a marketing project may result in a small number of conversions(?), but compared to the damage being done one has to pause and think. Multitudes are being given a false sense of security, happy in their religious experience, thinking they are "Christian" because they accept a very loose paraphrase of only the most gentle passages.
I know how unpopular my view is, so that's why I'm saying it in a blog.
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Ready2Rapture
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- Re: seeker sensitive movement by Ev
19 y
883
Nope your view is just fine, and I think we've been touching on that at the forum (somewhat?).
I understand what you are saying about SSM. My husband and I started to do the 40 days of Purpose Driven, then quickly put it aside when we realized there was absolutely no meat! It just seemed like fluff and stuff. (ha sorry for humor) It just seems to be all in the marketing of the product.
I also see minor adjustments being done in churches such as not singing hymns that mention the BLOOD of Jesus or not preaching on life subjects such as the many sins that can burden the life of a believer or un-believer. I just believe that this issue needs to be addressed, not only here but in the churches where it is taking place also.
The church outline for how it should work is in the book of Acts not in any other book.
Oh well...onwards we go...
☺
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Ev
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