Brad’s Blog

I am still continuing in my journey through Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness.

In chapter 6, Bridges discusses our battle for holiness. The text to lead off this section is Romans 7:21. Bridges does a great job dealing with the issues raised in this verse. I liked how he ended the chapter discussing how we are often drawn away from obedience by the abuse of grace (Jude 4).

Bridges says, “We abuse grace when, after sinning, we dwell on the compassion and mercy of God to the exclusion of His holiness and hatred of sin.” How often are we all guilty of that?

Moving along, Bridges once again reminds us that, “Holiness is not a series of do’s and don’ts, but conformity to the character of God and obedience to the will of God.”

I really liked chapter 8 entitled “Obedience - Not Victory.” Bridges uses Romans 8:13 and emphasizes our responsibility in the second half of the verse.

I am going to end this post with a long quote from Bridges. This one really hurts. He really gets at the heart of how our thinking is flawed.

“Too often we say we are ‘defeated’ by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient! It might be good if we stopped using the terms ‘victory’ and ‘defeat’ to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms ‘obedience’ and ‘disobedience.’ When I say I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me. We may, in fact, be defeated, but the reason we are defeated is because we have chosen to disobey. We have chosen to entertain lustful thoughts, or to harbor resentment, or to shade the truth a little.”

OUCH!

Well, I just finished reading an article on Christianity Today’s website. It can be found here. It is long but well worth the read.

This was just a heart-breaking article to read. It is basically about “pastors” who have taken Pentecostalism to the extreme and are taking advantage of the poor and hopeless in Africa. The article really made me sick to my stomach.

It is not surprising that we have arrived at this point. Ever since the Second Great Awakening, America has been embracing a more and more man-centered theology. The American church put God’s sovereignty on the shelf during this time, and man has continually taken a more center seat in determining his destiny. As man became the sole determining factor in his salvation, the next logical step was that he could determine his circumstances as well.

Couple this with a misinterpretation of Scripture that applies the material promises and blessings to the nation Israel to the present church, and you have yourself a terrible monster on your hands. The rise of man-centered theology went in like a bullet with a small hole and has exploded out the other side with horrific consequences.

The rise and spread of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement were a direct result of these 2 errors. The Church will be suffering the consequences of these movements for decades to come.

It is so sad to read that the Africans view America as the center of Christianity so they buy into anything we feed them. Furthermore, they equate the American lifestyle with Christian faith. As the article states TBN is widely available in Africa, so this is where the people are learning their theology. They are flocking to Pentecostal pastors who promise them material wealth and salvation from their circumstances instead of spiritual wealth and salvation from their sins. These people are turning the little money they have over to these churches as “seed” money.

Many, many people are hurt by this wrong theology. What happens when God does not heal? What happens when your loved one is martyred for their faith? What happens when you don’t become wealthy? What does this do to someone’s faith and trust in God? Please, show me 1 verse said by Jesus or 1 verse penned by Paul that supports this theology.

We may read the article in Christianity Today and scoff at it. We may say that those people should know better. Are we really any better? Didn’t they learn it from us?

A national Christian bookstore in my city recently moved to a new location. I was excited to check this out and see their bigger store. I was appalled at what I found. I told my wife that the only reason they moved was so they had an excuse to get rid of any book with substance.

In the new store, I found the Bibles conveniently moved to the back corner of the store. The theology section was virtually non-existent. It mainly consisted of some shallow commentaries and Bible studies. The front of the store contained the Christian Living section, Christian Fiction, and Charismatic Interest books. There were too many T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, and Joel Osteen books to count. I only found 2 Chuck Swindoll books, 1 or 2 John Piper books (and these certainly were not prominently displayed).

What a sad, sad commentary on the present American church. This same bookstore named Joel Osteen’s book Your Best Life Now their book of the year a couple of years ago. This is a book written by a pastor who has no formal education and can not clearly state what he believes. The book is shallow longings for good parking spots, happiness, and the easy life.

You really have to wonder how things might be different today if we still had church councils that met and condemned wrong ideas as heresy and squashed movements. What if the weight of the Church would have come to bear of the initial proponents of man-centered theology and Pentecostalism? Instead, they are left to spread like a wildfire engulfing everything in its path.

I can do no better than to quote the Apostle Paul.

• Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. (Philippians 3:19, NIV)
• For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3, NIV)

I am continuing on with The Pursuit of Holiness by Bridges.

Bridges juxtaposes Hebrews 10:10 with Hebrews 12:14. In the former, the writer is telling us about the holiness that we get from Christ. Without Christ, no one can be holy. The latter refers to a holiness that we are to work to attain.

Scripture speaks of holiness in two ways. We have a holiness through Christ that is by grace that we can not earn.  Secondly, we have a holiness that we are to strive after. These are not contradictions but a complete understanding of holiness. The two complement each other. It is the same as faith and works. Faith produces works. Holiness from Christ produces in us a desire to pursue holiness.

Often times in scripture, we have this tension.  How can Christ be both God and man?  How can God be both 3 and 1?  A proper understanding is to accept both and hold them in proper balance to get the full picture.  The same applies to holiness.

In no way is holiness a cause of salvation, but it is a natural by-product of salvation. I really like how Bridges stresses that our assurance of salvation is grounded in holiness. We can look at our pursuit of holiness as evidence of salvation in our life. This is excellent to combat the doubts that will surely surface throughout life.

I am currently reading The Pursuit of Holiness by Bridges. He starts off the book explaining our need for holiness and that the pursuit is for every Christian. He explains some false ideas of holiness such as certain extra-biblical prohibitions or certain extra-biblical requirements.

Bridges give us 3 basic problem areas in our pursuit of holiness.

• Our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered.
• We have misunderstood living by faith (Galatians 2:20) to mean that no effort at holiness is required on our part.
  
• We do not take sin seriously.

I would agree with Bridges. These are all rampant problems, especially a self-centered view of our Christian walk and brushing off sin. I like this quote from the book. “It is only as we see His holiness, His absolute purity and moral hatred of sin, that we will be gripped by the awfulness of sin against the Holy God. To be gripped by that fact is the first step in our pursuit of holiness.”

So far, I am very impressed with the book. It is a good study on theology proper, anthropology and harmartiology. Bridges is not laying out some formula saying do this, don’t do this, and you will be holy. He also takes a very high view of God, and His holiness and majesty. He also presents a very accurate view of sin.

I really like what Bridges has to say about sin. He says that it is precisely because of God’s holiness that He can not overlook or excuse any sin we commit. Bridges discusses how God hates sin and that hate is a legitimate emotion when it comes to sin. As we grow in holiness, we should hate sin more. Bridges really stresses that true holiness comes with proper action driven by proper motives and attitudes. These are very difficult things for us to do, and, obviously, impossible in and of ourselves.