I am reading a couple other Telushkin books and two by other authors. One of those authors, W. Phillip Keller (also author of A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Lessons from a Sheep Dog, A Layman Looks at the Lord's Prayer, and numerous other books) had this to say in The High Cost of Holiness (Harvest House Publishers, 1988):
The reason such transformation ["into abundant life in God"] does not take place more often is simply that our spiritual leaders mislead people in the experience of their faith. The [average person] is induced [to invest faith] in some sort of creed, doctrine, or body of belief, . . .sometimes persuaded [to place] total confidence in "the church" . . . . All too often the individual is encouraged to place . . . complete trust in the pastor, minister, speaker. . . [sometimes falling] prey to the most pernicious sort of propaganda. [Even with the best intentions], the consequences can be utterly devastating.Amein!
The terrible fallout from such delusion has no doubt been more damaging to God's work and His wishes in the Western world than any other single factor. There are in truth literally millions . . . in our sophisticated society who are totally turned off to Christianity [because] at some stage of their past spiritual experience they had put their faith . . . into either a creed, a church congregation, or [in clergy] only to be double-crossed.
And when we place our trust into the Church of the Aberrant Authoritarian Facsimile of the Faith and its leadership, we have given over to human dominion what was intended to be G-d's. The nature of this absolutely excludes true sanctification (!), exchanging the Truth for a lie, worshiping the creature rather than the Creator.
The whole purpose of such a church is to feed itself and those who are its keepers. Such was the first sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, who used their wealth to make themselves fat, proud, and lazy, giving them time to indulge themselves in further sin [Ezekiel 16:46 - 50; Luke 17:28, 29]. Remember Lot's wife, who was so in the grip of that unsanctified city that she looked back longingly and was lost.
2 Peter 2:
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.Once G-d has delivered, don't look back. Don't be enticed with smooth words or by memories of the few good times or by their momentary indulgences and flatteries of you. Remember the reality of the abyss it really was, and move on.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
7 and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished
10 But especially those indulge the flesh with corrupt desires, despising authority: these are daring, selfwilled, and unafraid to revile angelic majesties.
11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, do not bring reviling accusations against them before the Lord.
12 But these, like unreasoning beasts, created to be captured and killed, speak evil of the things that they do not understand; and shall also be destroyed;
13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you;
14 having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: their hearts trained in greed, accursed children:
15 forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: the mule-donkey, speaking with a man's voice, restrained the madness of that prophet.
17 These are springs without water, mists driven by the wind; for whom darkness is reserved forever.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through fleshly desire, by sensuality, those who barely escape from those who live in error.
19 Promising them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for by what a one is overcome, by the same is that one enslaved.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and overcome, and the latter end is worse than the beginning.
21 It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 It has happened unto them according to the true proverb: The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
4 comments:
I have long said that most people who are religious are worshiping their *insert faith here*...Christianity is no exception.
I feel that religion is only a framework, a tool, to worship the Almighty. Not the focus of worship itself. (Or you could say that going to church doesn't make you holy, but sometimes it makes you feel self-righteous. Now, there's a concept!)
:-)
Oh, and i really like this statement you made:
"(Or you could say that going to church doesn't make you holy, but sometimes it makes you feel self-righteous. Now, there's a concept!)"
Thank you.
I'm glad you wrote this strong and clear - TRUTH!
The more I see how sucked into it I was, the more angry I become. I get angry at me for taking the bait hook, line and sinker ESPECIALLY after having already been in AND out of it.
My question is how do we STAY out and not return to that vomit? I suppose constantly keeping in check that Yeshua is L-rd, not just in word, but in reality. My concern even with that is that while in the midst of my delusion, I thought He was. How are we so easily taken? What are the warning signs? What subtlties can we catch before becoming fully engulfed in it? It's the little foxes that spoil the vines - Oh that I had a trap for those little foxes.
I am asking the same questions, LLB. I hate that I once fell for it and that I still feel vulnerable. Sometimes, I feel like I am not sure what to watch for.
I think that we all have a first step -- just my opinion -- that we never pull out that pedestal and force anyone on it and that we never listen to another sould who desires that place in our lives.
I rarely quote anyone I do not respect, as though they have something to teach us, but I will this time. Gloria Steinem said, "A pedestal is as much a prison as any small space." Ironically, the pedestal imprisons the one on it as well as the one putting that person there.
Thank you, LLB
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