(1): Rebellion – Because you are not at the next level due to not being spiritual or holy enough, you are therefore in sin and rebellion and you need to deal with the rebellion.

(2): Repentance – Since they were convinved that by not being at ‘the next level’ was rebellion, then the person began to ‘confess’ sins that may be real sins in that person’s life or sins that were made up due to some ‘spiritual and holy’ person’s personal opinion of dislike.

(3): Revival – Since they repented of the ‘rebellion’, they are now convinced that the ‘next level’ (aka revival) can now come.

But what happens after all of the becoming more “spiritual and holy” based on someone’s dislike now classified as ‘sin, the ‘next level’ (aka revival) does not come? Someone, some action, or some thing has to become the spiritual scapegoat to explain the reason why the ‘next level’ (aka revival) has not come. Such things such as some ‘rebellion’ and ‘repentance’ that for some reason was never dealt with from their inner child, a new outbreak of rebellion and repentance that has now manifested, lack of faith, disagreeing with the pastor, or not placing enough money in the offering plate becomes the spiritual scapegoat to keep the vicious cycle of killing rebellion and birthing repentance ongoing to bring the promised ‘next level’.

What happens is that a sovereign move of God is now encapsulated into a mentality of “if we had not dealt with the rebellion and done the repentance, revival (aka the next level) would have never happened” instead of God moved down because he wanted to bless his chosen people.

Therefore, we see a works-based mentality of being more spiritual and more holy is because of doing more stuff and making sure that you are not doing the personal opinionated dislike of a leader set in stone as ‘the standard’ . What happens after that person reached ‘the level’? Someone convinces them that there is another level beyond the current level and the cyclic pattern of rebellion, repentance, and revival is enacted again with a more fervent tone with more stuff that was never a sin to begin with be declaired as a sin in order to find something to confess, repent, and eliminate. A system of works is developed and enabled to where the one who does more of the repenting, the one who attends church every time the doors are opened, etc. is ‘moved up’ and are deemed the ‘more spiritual and holy’ and therefore are the only ones eligible to perform ministry.

This creates a mentality where those who minister are deemed more spiritual than the ones in the congregation. This is broadened in the global scope of things when we view the Christian who is professionally in ministry as being more spiritual than the Christian who is a banker, factory worker, teacher, engineer, forklift operator, store clerk, etc.

In summary, where New Testament Christians are seen as ‘brothers and sisters’, why do we resort back to an Old Covenant mentality of leader – servants within the church. It is because we see the Old Covenant concept enacted everyday in various scenerios from leader to followers, employer to employee, sergeant to private, etc. We see it in the world where we live and therefore model a church after a system of the world instead of the Biblical way of church. Worse is when we do the same things in our sphere of influence to boost our self-esteem by deeming someone as less spiritual because they do not agree 100% with us in order to make us look more spiritual and holy.

Related Posts

1. “Total Truth” Page 245
2. Total Truth – Page 146 – A Thought
3. Finished Reading “Total Truth”
4. Nancy Pearcey’s “Total Truth”, The Introduction
5. Picking “Total Truth” Up To Read Again

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