Divisiveness, anointing with oil, twelve-step groups, spiritual gifts, Bishop Spong, and fear of hell

Replies to letters

ver.: 21 February 2008

Take a look at these letters from people who are asking spiritual questions :

• on causing strife in a congregation
• anointing or consecrating places with oil
• Twelve-Step groups
• is something stopping me from receiving gifts?
• on Bishop Spong and his proposals
• soul ties
• on the use of fear of Hell
• There's more to check out, on letters pages one, two, five, six, eleven, eight, and ten.
• Or go back to the letters index.

On being divisive

>> I believe God is moving in my congregation, and that He will soon bring a revival or renewal to it. May I use parts of the text on your web page, to show to people or to print up, in order to stir things up? <<

I am all for people trying to stir up their congregations in order to get them to really use their members' gifts. (And I'm all for using my Web materials for it; that's why they're there.) But there is a way to do it, and a way to be better off not doing it. The Spirit can cause division, even conflict. But the Spirit does not set out to do so. The Spirit sets out to bind wounds, assist, help, and bring together. Sometimes, those who get power from people being split-up and wounded will get real tough and demanding and divisive -- but that is their choice and not the Spirit's. It is people who cause the division, by being selective about their love.

So whatever you do in your church, please, please do things the Spirit's way. Work at bringing people together, at giving them opportunity and encouragement to use their gifts for the good of others. Be the one who prays for and with them, and comforts them in time of need. And reject the idea of seeing people as enemies that must be fought instead of people that must be loved and fellow members in Christ that must be heard out. If done within that kind of a context, stirring things up may well be the Lord's role for you. In fact, stirring-up would be inevitable. But you can only do it right if you live the Spirit's renewal yourself.
more on divisiveness
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Anointing with Oil

> A friend and I with the permission from authority have started to
>pray over our church school and anoint the place with oil as we go.
>Another friend as asked me what my scriptual basis for this is. I know
>people were anointed with oil as there were commissed for service. I
>know that oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Can you tell me more??

Oil is indeed a symbol of the Spirit, and is used as a sign of healing. The origin may have been in the ancient use of spiced oils in treating sores and wounds (it keeps the wound clean and moist, and when spiced it can have a mild antiinfective effect). The connection with healing is still strong, and is found in James 5:14 and Luke 10:34. Later (but still before the Bible was written), it came to be used to mark inner healing and purification, and thus was used at death, and when consecrating a church member for a holy purpose (for example, Exodus 25:6, 1 Samuel 10:1). These uses were true of Asian and North African cultures as well as Middle Eastern ones. Since the spirit of the god(s) (whether seen as a being or a force) was seen as the agent making this healing and purification possible, the oil came to symbolize that spirit.

From there, the symbolism developed further to where objects (such as chalices, altars, and even buildings) were anointed to symbolize the object's being dedicated to God's use. This is still a part of the Orthodox and some Catholic traditions, and Anglicans have been known to do it too. Objects are anointed with consecrated water if oils would stain the object.
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Twelve-Step

<<Do you know of any Christian based 12-step support groups on the net?>>

The link I have is :

Christian Recovery :      http://www.christianrecovery.com/

I myself have been in recovery groups from time to time, as an ACOA, and still attend irregularly. For me, the groups that were not specifically religious-based worked best, because the ones that were religious-based tried to force their situation into a pre-formed religious straightjacket instead of allowing God's guidance and mercy to emerge from living. The grace and the guidance are really there, but when that is described in a pre-formatted way, most people in recovery can't really believe it deep inside. This is especially true of those who've suffered under some parent or lover who knew how to use the usual 'religious' rules and words to their manipulative advantage. (I myself work with my faith in Christ that has a Christian shape and root, not just a Christian 'religion' that might have faith behind it but doesn't have to.)

There are a few local groups with a Christian base that are very aware of this very real problem, and labor hard to counteract that temptation. The awareness makes these the best groups of all. But the only way to know what your local groups are like is to drop in on them and see how they do it.

In a proper AA / Al Anon setting, a person can talk about where the Spirit leads them, even with a passage of Scripture, but only as it springs naturally from how you are actually grappling with a situation in your life that you are sharing with the group at the moment. In fact, both of AA's main founders did this many times. Faith-talk is not entirely excluded, but attempts to convert or shame or express superiority, or to set judgement or moral law down on anyone, are excluded, and talking in a way that doesn't come directly from one's own struggle is not encouraged. Often, someone will start their sharing by saying, "my Higher Power, who is Jesus Christ", and that is acceptable and in fact common.

Some Christians I know have gone to these groups and laid out a thinly-veiled evangelistic pitch. Often, they can't help it, they're so churched-up that they've lost the ability to talk about God in their lives without it becoming a sales pitch. This has no place in a recovery meeting of any kind, and it gets in the way of their own recovery. The whole trust thing breaks down if conversion is brought in. Any 'witness' comes solely through others detecting how God helps you through your situation, and from your support for the others (Christian or otherwise) in the group -- something that *emerges* from your participation and is not planned on your part. You're not there as a missionary, you're there only to get well, and if you're not, don't go. Be real with it, and the Spirit will do the rest, in God's own time.
more on inner healing
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What Stops Gifts?

>  I wonder if I am doing something that is keeping me from receiving the
>  gift of tongues (or any other gifts for that matter), or if I simply just
>  don't understand how to receive these gifts.

"Knock, and the door shall be opened"; "Pray without ceasing". That is, keep praying, and the Lord will open a door here and a door there, and probably slam some others shut. The gift will be given to you that is fitting for the task God wants you to do. You won't always be surprised by the gift, but many people find that they never would've chosen the gift they were given. God always knows the right one. Trust in that. Feel free to seek specific gifts (especially the higher gifts such as prophecy, wisdom, or discernment of spirits), but understand they may not be the ones you get. And, remember that you might get more than one special gift, and that your gifts may change as your task changes.
more on spiritual gifts
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New Reformation?

> Why haven't you taken up the questions that Bishop [John Shelby] Spong [formerly of the
> Episcopal Diocese of Newark NJ] has put into his recent New Reformation theses?
> Aren't you running as scared as everyone else in the Christian world?

1. I do address it, in my own way, just by having the site.  Then also, by what I write in the site.
2. I do not address them in a direct or point-by-point way because this site isn't here for general theological discussion.  It's made to present Christian spirituality in a down-to-earth way.
3. I don't want to drag myself into the warfare between Anglican bishops.  But I must say one thing about the role of bishops : they were not appointed to purge people to create a pure church [Wantland] nor to create strange new 'gospels' out of thin air [Spong].  They are chosen to see to it that the true gospel as found in the Scriptures is taught to all.  If they can't do that, then they should be honest about it and quit pretending to be bishops.
4. I wonder about a 'dialogue with the new world' where the main points of the new world's views become the ground rules before discussion even starts.  Spong may call that a 'dialogue between estranged parties', but by definition that's a chat between friends on the same side of the table.  That's a monologue not a dialogue, and the faith loses before it starts.
   

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>> What is the true definition of the word "soul ties"

To be honest with you, it's not a term that I hear much of. I recall hearing it used in some discussions on sex, marriage, and extramarital affairs.

From what I remember, it's a way of saying that we are spiritually linked with others, in one-to-one relationships. This can be for good (a godly marriage or close friendship) but also for bad (for instance, a close relationship with a suicidal person often leads to spiritual discomforts and thoughts of suicide). This grew out of Paul's discussions on sex in 1 Cor 6:15-20, and the Old Testament example of David and Jonathan. I don't think that's quite what Paul was driving at, but it's close enough, a workable spinoff that explains some things. Just so long as no foolish ideas about compulsion, bondage and spiritual warfare are thrown in. There are some who think that if someone gets intimate with a demon-powered person, he/she can become possessed. That's just stuff that comes from someone who's seen too many horror movies.

The kind of love this would involve would have to be that of John 15, and the effects would be those found in Ecclesiastes 4 and Acts 4. The act of forming covenants with other people (like marriage, and God's covenant with Israel) would then mark the 'soul tie' like baptism marks becoming part of the Body.

I think you can guess that some of this is guessing.... : ) Try a Google search on it; something should come up (look for the links that aren't about books, TV or movies).
let the index guide you.

I've now gotten two letters about churches that put on a warped sort of event. I'll use the name one writer used for it : "Judgement House". It varies in length from one full night to 7 evenings, with varying levels of seriousness. The most serious are filled with intense screaming and people being dragged into Hell (or rather, something designated as "hell"). It didn't take much checking before I got scared that anyone would do this. Some people who have gone through it report severe insomnia, with nightmares when they do sleep. Others report sudden bursts of terror and shaking out of nowhere, and periods of extreme sensitivity to media images of satanism or hell-fire.

The strong forms of the event don't scare the hell out of them, they burn the images of Hell into them. It can only be held by a church that stresses judgement instead of forgiveness, guilt instead of hope, terror instead of love, law instead of grace, and Hell instead of the Kingdom.

If you went through, or even are part of a place that puts on, the strong forms of such an event, my first recommended step : GET OUT OF THERE FAST !!!!!!! Don't look back! Don't even say goodbye! Get yourself to a new church, pronto. God's love, and the love of a fellowship that actually loves people (in its human, fumbling way), can chase out the fear. And when you go to a new church that lives this way, talk to the pastor about what happened. That pastor might be able to help you through your inner turmoil. You don't need to face this alone.

God LOVES you, and wants you to have a full life of joyfully following Him because you want to, not a shriveled life of shivering and shaking in fear of an eternal rotisserie. Christ came not to damn the world to Hell, but to save it -- that is the Gospel! Jesus took the penalty. You are forgiven -- right now. Grasp hold of that love and forgiveness, celebrate and live in it !

This kind of event isn't a fundy thing or a Baptist thing -- most such churches that I know of wouldn't even think of doing it. Even in its tamer versions, it overplays bad news so much it pretty much blocks out the Good News, and puts the emphasis on your sin and fear instead of God's love and solidarity. The less-tame forms are a warped thing, mentally unstable and spiritually delusional, and churches must never do that.

Oh, and the watered-down forms aren't so scary. They have no effect at all -- to such a point that they're not worth bothering to do.