Darkness, Darkness—All Around!

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
                  Isaiah 60:1

Darkness, darkness—all around;
  Leering, glaring, jeering, staring;
Weighing down upon my soul with noise and fear.
  Nothing hopeful found that cheered
       my wayward soul from dust adhered.
      
Then crashing in my endless night;
   shouting, crying, routing, vying;
Awakening up my startled soul with hope and Light.
   Something bright untied the blight
       that chained my soul to endless night.

"Awake, awake; rise up and shine!"
   beckoning, shooing, reckoning, wooing;
Pulling up upon my soul with Light and Life.
   Nothing could resist the knife
       that cut my yearning soul from strife!
      
"How can I shine?  I have no light!"
   Pushing, prodding, bushing, rodding,
Surrounding all my soul with His eternal blaze.
   All evil fled before His gaze
       that opened up my heart to Heaven's rays!

I can then do all things for my ALL does strengthen me;
   No more groping, tumbling , no mere coping, bumbling,
But running in His Light to do His perfect will.
   And now all things work to fulfill
       His glory and my salvation—my soul does thrill!

- D. Benning

A Sonnet of the Woods

Of sunset ev'nings in a quiet wood:
The gentle whisp'rings of that quiet place
Is filled with peace for all who there seek good
And quietness of heart from Love's embrace.
The dark'ning canopiéd tree tops tall
Stretch forth their boughs as if to catch the sun;
While far off music from a waterfall
Enjoins itself to deep'ning night as one.
Upon the canvas of the fluid sky,
An Artist paints the changing hues of eve,
Which caught upon the stream intensify
And upward bent with clouds a vestment weave.
Then with parting glance and silent tear,
The earth now slumbers in a sunless sphere.

- D. Benning   (Spring, 1978)

Technically, this is a sunrise overlooking Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe.

What is Heresy?

Some have been arguing whether a particular preacher is a heretic or merely has bad doctrine.  I sure don't want to start parsing theological points like that.  But suffice it to say that heresy is something that will pull you away from God, from Jesus as Lord, from genuine salvation and from running the race and receiving the crown.

Blatant heresy is *easy* to detect: "You can become 'God'!" or "There is no 'god'" or even "Everyone gets to go to heaven regardless of what they believe."  I say *easy* but not really.  Eve was snookered by a similar line.  Heresy detection only works if you are up to speed with what God has said AND if you are listening to His Spirit.

But sometimes *heresy* is not just in what is said or taught; it comes in what is left out.

Rick Warren has said: “I’m looking for a second reformation. The first reformation of the church 500 years ago was about beliefs. This one is going to be about behavior. The first one was about creeds. This one is going to be about deeds. It is not going to be about what does the church believe, but about what is the church doing. I am working toward a second Reformation of the church which could create a Third Great Awakening in our nation or world.”

You cannot emphasize behavior without addressing doctrine. That's why Paul wrote to Timothy that he should "Watch your life and doctrine closely; persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1 Tim. 4:16)

I would argue that each of the "great awakenings" and reformations came about because there was doctrine—not dry, theoretical doctrine, but Truths that affected the soul and the mind and the will and the affections of the people. Doctrine is to point us to God and show us who He is. When we see God correctly, we fall down in worship (Isa 6) and we obey His commandments. (Jn 14:15) 

How can we love God whom we do not see? We read His word. Our understanding forms our beliefs which is what doctrine is.  Doctrine is the tangible handles by which we know and love God.  We worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Doctrine is Truth!

Yes, doctrine divides. It divides the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the good from the bad.  And to leave out fundamental, basic doctrine is thus arguably heretical.

The following is an interesting caveat, not any great theological insight, but illustrative of what I believe is the importance of doctrine:

It is interesting to note that the word "doctrine" derives from the Old French and Latin words for "doctor." As that word was coming into our language, "Savior" was translated into Old English as "Hæland." That is, "Healer." The Old English idea of Salvation was pictured by Health, Wholeness, Wellness; Someone who brought a Cure was a Healer or a Savior. (This is supported by Isa 53 and other passages.) So it is quite fascinating that Salvation ("Healing") is given to us through the Savior ("The Healer") and the Cure is Doctrine ("the Doctor").

What is a Charismatic™?

Every so often, TV evangelists come under scrutiny and by their sullied practices pull down the Name of Christ and cast dispersion upon all who would wear the label of Christianity.  Some would be more focused and just implicate "Charismatics" alone.

But the problem is that there are so many preconceptions of what "Charismatic" is—in addition to every arm-chair theologian's definition of *their* idea of what is a "Charismatic" and what makes them Wrong™ or Right®.

The chandelier-swinging, dawg-barking fools who trump Truth with his own version of Experience have hijacked the Biblically informed discussion.  There is no easy way to debate logic vs. emotion. But we can look to extremes and heretics across many denominations (including the modern Evangelicals in their push for divorcing Jesus as Lord from Jesus as Savior), so I would postulate that extremes are not the rule.

See this Adam4d comic on that point.

That the fools and charlatans behind most of the TV-christianity are patently wrong and leading people further away from God and probably even inoculating their listeners against the true gospel is a given. But it might be useful to examine what some consider Charismatic.

At its base, healthy, Biblical Charismata must be rooted in:

1. the Holy Scriptures and
2. the work of the Holy Spirit.

All of that MUST work to bring more HOLINESS into the individual's life. If the professing Charismatic has no experiential holiness—a profound sense of turning from past sins and an overwhelming sense of *Coram Deo*, living before the Face of God and in His presence—then this has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit and thus is not Charismatic in the traditional sense. 

There may also be other signs, including Gifts of the Spirit, but if the professing Charismatic only uses the Holy Spirit to "speak in tongues™" then he/she is like a huge train that gets a fire going to increase the pressure in the engine only to go "Toot-toot!" If the train doesn't go some place, it's a waste of power. Likewise, if the Christian doesn't progress in sanctification (holiness), it's a waste of the Holy Spirit's power and probably not really the Spirit of God in the first place.

Nightfall

The sun is slipping silently
   Off the Western edge of night,
Gentle breezes stir the cool, dark grasses,
   And crickets chirp in dimming light.
  
      The sky in majesty of hues
         Shows its changing colors to the earth,
      And stars in uncharted courses
         Whisper of another day—rebirth.

The weariness of this day's hassles
   Fades against the thought so great:
That God would send His Son to die—
   For me!  My punishment to take!
  
      So gently close my eyes, Dear Lord,
         That my cares in sleep are washed away;
      When Darkness comes around me deep,
         Bring me the hope of another day.

- D. Benning