John

Please forgive me if I check 🙂 There are so many people that come onto this website that appear so knowledgeable on many a subject and after some time I begin to trust them only to later find out later they are Calvinists. Which always breaks my heart.

Hi John
I have not had time to read all the comments you have made, but I just want to ask a quick question, are you a Calvinist?

Hi Deborah,

I am not of Calvin. Why do you ask? Suffer not that if I should use a reference that is well researched and the writer is “Calvinist” that I should be seen as a “Calvinist”. I am not a theologian and have not had time to read all that John Calvin would have had to say. Neither for that matter have I read all that Jacob Arminius had to say. I do not dwell on “peripherals” that denominations fight over. Living in Republic of Ireland that is 84.2% Catholic according to 2011 census (a cross on a piece of paper – not practising) it is difficult to go through a days work without having to curb my tongue. I attend a Presbyterian Church because in my area I have no better choice. Unfortunately one of the elders is a “Buchanite” and this might just cause a rumpus as we have a relatively new pastor that I will need to sit down with and voice my concerns. The elder “has much support”.

1 Corinthians 3:4-6 (KJV)

4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

I hope that answers your question, and would appreciate an answer to mine (I am curious)

Hi John

I have not had time to read all the comments you have made, but I just want to ask a quick question, are you a Calvinist?

I’m appalled at this article and all the so-called Christians who feel it is your duty to dig up “false teaching” under every rock.
Haven’t you read the Bible? What did Jesus promise us? His Holy Spirit, who would comfort us, TEACH us, and guide us into all Truth!
Jesus didn’t promise us the Bible. We already had that Old Testament and the New wasn’t canonized for a few hundred years. The Church had the Holy Spirit, and He is still the One who leads all followers into all truth.
Those of you who dogmatically say “Only Scripture” don’t realize that the people you’re criticizing in this article AGREE WITH YOU! They also believe that if something does not agree with scripture, it is false.
And that is exactly WHY they teach college students that they CAN actually KNOW God personally, that they can speak AND hear from God. That is what the old and new testament God-fearing people did. That is what today’s Christians do.
Take your focus off the bogey man and look at Jesus and you’ll stop worrying about what might possibly, could be, better-run-from-it doctrine.
You’ll stop pulling out the wheat along with the tares. Study Jesus. Study the scriptures. Please.

You have come to a good place if you praise those who teach college students that they “can speak from God”. This would suggest that after a session of Lectio Divina when the students have opened themselves to mysticism they are ready to “speak from God” ???

We are constantly reminded that deception is subtle and does not “rush in shouting and beating drums” before feeding us the error that could lead to hell. Matthew 7:14 (NKJV)

You might take offense at being criticized on this site – take it that people that would tread the path of the truth should be able to digest criticism and admit that that some of of their views should be changed. I am sure that we all have made mistakes – but mistakes are what we can learn from. One of the mistakes we often make is to respond too quickly when we read something that challenges our views.

I see that you are “throwing down a “loving challenge” to Thomas Lessing? You will need to show him the teachings of Lectio Divina as set forth in the Bible first is my take on this argument?

God loves all of us and would have us know the truth instead of making us comfortable and always feeling good. We can get too comfortable and into a place that is very treacherous.

A link to a very good article on Lectio Divina is: http://apprising.org/2012/06/07/dr-gary-gilley-exposes-lectio-divina/ This is by Dr Gary Gilley and is well researched with references.

Discerning Christian was so eager to comment but after you asked him that question, he has disappeared.

Discerning Christian,

Before I answer you in more detail, please tell me: Do you believe that Lection Divina is a God-given biblical doctrine that every Christian should obey, follow and practice? I assume you have already asked Jesus to give you an answer. What does He say about Lectio Divina? And while you are at it, please ask Him whether there are going to be any end time great revivals?

Please allow me to address your accusations one by one:
1. I have no idea why you’ve assumed I DON’T obey Jesus, especially in being careful not to be led astray. You have judged me wrong.
Your premise appears to be that the way YOU think IS scriptural; and others who read the same Bible and find it different than your pre-digested ideas must therefore be wrong, deceived, out of line with God.
I would ask you to humbly search the scriptures for your right to say that. I would also ask you to humbly ask God if maybe YOU have not misunderstood the very Bible you say you believe. I believe it! I take God at His word and I don’t put Him in a box. I let Him speak His Truth. I don’t not tell Him what His truth is.

2. You are correct: ALL “truth” must line up with scripture or it is not Truth. So why are you knocking the very people who ARE obeying Jesus Christ and His Holy Word?
Did God call you into the “ministry” of attacking brothers and sisters in Christ? I don’t see discernment here in your column. I only see blind attacks based on ignorance of the Bible. Please tell me who you see in the Bible who was ever given the job of telling those who are ministering to the poor, hungry, destitute, naked and lost, that they are disobeying God because they practice things you imagine to be occultic (though they are completely scriptural).

3. I agree with Jude completely. I LOVE the book of Jude! It speaks so well to our day and time because it refers mostly to sexual sin, the bane of our nation.

4. You have distorted what I said. I did NOT imply that false teaching should not be addressed. It absolutely should! But Jude did not look around at the other apostles and write epistles to the churches telling them to “get away from so-and-so because he says that God can do this or that and we don’t have any proof of that so he MUST therefore be a false teacher”.
Jude would not have done that because it is exactly the kind of judgmentalism Jesus warned against.
Jude would only address REAL false teaching.

I truly believe your problem is that you have assumed certain truths and will not let even the Bible tell you differently.

5. Will you accept a loving challenge from me? It is totally safe. You can NOT go wrong.

Please study, at your own convenience, Luke 11:9-13: “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Ask Jesus what He means by this passage. Wait on Him. Wait for Him to give you understanding.
As this scripture itself says, you don’t have to be afraid to ask God questions, nor to ask Him to make truth better known to you. He said He will NEVER allow you to be tricked if you are truly waiting to hear what He has to say.
So, I’m asking you, challenging you as a sister in Christ, to take a week or more to ask our Father to tell you if each of these leaders you’ve attacked is a believer in Jesus or a false teacher. Don’t let assumptions creep in. Ask God to tell you the answers and then ask Him to confirm those answers. He’s not intimidated by your need to know for sure.
Please, for the sake of the church, for the sake of the revivals that God is bringing on the earth when they are needed most, ASK the One you say you follow to show you clearly if you have been misled. Don’t settle until you know for absolutely sure that you have heard from our God. Please.

Thank you for your time.

Discerning Christian,

If you’d truly been a Discerning Christian you would have obeyed Jesus who warned you to take heed that no one leads you astray (Matthew 24:4).

Indeed, the Holy Spirit leads God’s children into all truth but He never contradicts Scripture; he never circumvents all the truth that is already in the Bible for you to read and study.

Had they believed everything is false when it does not agree with Scripture, as you said, they would never have promoted such an unbiblical occult practice like Lectio Divina.

I suppose, if Jude had lived today, you would have told him “Take your focus off the bogey man and look at Jesus and you’ll stop worrying about what might possibly, could be, better-run-from-it doctrine.
You’ll stop pulling out the wheat along with the tares. Study Jesus. Study the scriptures. Please.”

This is what Jude wrote:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jud 1:3-4)

Please note that Jude wanted to focus on Jesus Christ and his salvation but was forced to warn his brethren about false teachers and their doctrines which had crept in unawares. He did not, as you do, “stop worrying about what might possibly, could be, better-run–from-it doctrine.” Out of pure love for Jesus and his brethren He exhorted them to earnestly contend (struggle unto death if need be) for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

You don’t seem to know or care how important sound doctrine is. Let me remind you.

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:9)

If you don’t abide in God’s doctrine, you are not saved. It’s as simple as that.