In our present study we are examining the precedence for the spiritual life of the church age believer and we are making the case that the precedence was established by TLJC in his unglorified humanity during his life on this earth at the beginning of the hypostatic union.
We saw that Precedence is defined as: (1) an earlier occurrence of something similar; (2) something done or said that may serve as an example or rule to authorize or justify a subsequent act of the same or an analogous kind (3) a verdict that had no precedent (4) the convention established by such a precedent or by long practice or (5) a person or thing that serves as a model.
This is because church age believers are a new spiritual species in union with TLJC. Gal 3: 26-29; and because of this any advantages or disadvantages from first birth are not a factor in their relationship with God.
In our last class we left off when we left off in our discussion of systems of pseudo spirituality that is what carnal believers resort to in an attempt to be spiritual when don't know about or refuse to simply acknowledge known sin and function in the PMA of Bible Doctrine for true spirituality
Another system of pseudo spirituality is spirituality by ritual. This is the belief that one is spiritual by observing certain rituals.
This includes observing "holy days," or certain rituals of a denomination, such as Lent, the Sabbath, or water baptism for salvation.
Water baptism was a ritual for the precanon period of the Church Age that was practiced to teach retroactive and current positional truth, and the believer's union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
The only ritual that is mandated for the postcanon period of the Church Age is the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper. Luke 22:18-20; This ritual demands that believers keep it under the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Ritual in the Church Age has been reduced to the communion service that is designed so the believer will remember Christ through the filling of the Holy Spirit and the recall of the appropriate doctrines of propitiation, redemption, reconciliation and expiation.
False application of these rituals has resulted in what can be referred to as "pseudo spirituality by ritual".
An example of this is when the believer thinks they are spiritual because they go to church, take communion, or because they were baptized with water.
The purpose of ritual in the Old Testament was to teach doctrine. There was no merit in the ritual itself. The merit was in learning the doctrine that the ritual portrayed. Psa 51:16; Net note 42
Believers involved in "pseudo spiritually by ritual fail" to understand that the protocol plan of God for the Church has replaced the ritual plan of God for Israel.
They also fail to understand the filling of the Spirit related to spirituality in the Church Age and they falsely interpret Scripture and assign a meritorious connotation to the rituals of previous dispensations.
Another common system of pseudo spirituality that is practiced today is program spirituality.
As a substitute for the spiritual skills, many local churches and denominations have devised a program system that emphasizes loyalty to the church through a system of works.
Program spirituality implies that spirituality is achieved by doing something in the context of the church. Believers involved with program spirituality believe that they are spiritual because they are active in the production of good deeds and Christian service or active in community service.
Program spirituality involves doing things in the energy of the flesh rather than in the enabling power of the Spirit.
Pseudo spirituality through the program system alleges that believers are spiritual based on their church attendance, or their giving, or their participation in prayer meetings, or bringing visitors to the church, or singing in the choir, or because they teach Sunday school.
Activity in the church is substituted for the filling of the Spirit. The program seeks to get everyone involved in church work, and doctrinal teaching and the PMA of Bible Doctrine is given a minor role.
Program spirituality is a false system that ignores the protocol plan of God, creates ignorance of Bible doctrine, promotes cosmic involvement, and involves Christian moral degeneracy.
The activity of this system caters to the believer's approbation lust and their power lust.
Program spirituality does not recognize that spiritual skills must precede production skills for the performance of divine good and action has been substituted for doctrine.
In true spirituality, production is a result of spiritual advance, never the means.
Another system of pseudo spirituality is spirituality by emotion.
Emotion is defined as an affective state of consciousness as distinguished from a cognitive and volitional state of consciousness.
Emotion is usually accompanied by certain physiological changes and overt expression. Emotion is designed to be a responder and to be subordinate to the mentality of the soul.
Pseudo spirituality by emotion attempts to duplicate the temporary spiritual gifts of tongues, healing, or miracles that only functioned during the precanon period of the Church Age.
Spirituality by emotionalism is wrong because the emotion is not the criterion for the filling of the Spirit.
Pseudo spirituality by emotion is the motivation those who are involved with speaking in tongues or performing what appear to be miracles.
Emotion does not possess spirituality. Being overly emotional has nothing to do with spirituality.
Emotion has no ability to reason. When emotion takes over the soul, the believer loses their common sense, their vocabulary as a tool for mental function, and their ability to think.
Emotion is therefore not a criteria for Christian experience that is based on the application of metabolized Bible Doctrine.
Emotion has two functions in life. Normal emotional responds to the values of the mentality of the soul. Abnormal emotion is when there is an emotional reaction in the soul that results in sinfulness or carnality.
When abnormal emotion controls the soul it overpowers the right lobe of the soul where metabolized doctrine is located and makes it impossible for the believer to think or to recall and apply Bible Doctrine.
The use of emotion as an indicator of spirituality is an abnormal function. Abnormal emotion builds a wall in the soul that prevents the application of doctrine and develops emotional revolt of the soul.
The wall is built by the various categories of emotional sins such as fear, hatred, self-pity, guilt, and jealousy.
When believers get involved in sin, including emotional sins, they have a malfunction of their personality. Doctrine does not change one's personality, it refines it.
There are at least five categories of emotional sin:
Fear, which includes worry and anxiety. The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear. The extent to which you surrender to fear, you increase the power of fear in your life. The more things that acquire the power of fear in your life, the more things in life you fear. Fear is inability to think under pressure. Courage is the ability to think under pressure.
Hatred, which leads to anger, violence and even murder if left unchecked.
Self pity, which automatically buries problems into the subconscious mind.
Guilt. Once controlled by guilt, believers become totally irrational. They condemn themselves by their emotional sins, not by the norms and standards of their mentality.
Many people get married, serve God, go to church, try to change their personality, and many other things because of guilt which is wrong motivation.
Another emotional sin is jealousy. Jealousy, as a sin, is part of the arrogance complex of sins and the emotional complex of sins. If one is jealous, at least one of the following emotional reactions will be involved bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, inordinate ambition and competition, revenge, or verbal sins.
Jealousy is emotional or irrational arrogance. James 4:5, "Or do you presume that the Scripture speaks in vain against jealousy." Jealousy results in resentment and hatred of others.
Emotion is related to human power and influence but never to divine power or the legitimate function of the Holy Spirit in the protocol plan of God.
Expression of emotion or being ecstatic is therefore not a characteristic of spirituality.
In the Church Age, the filling of the Holy Spirit has no emotion connected with it although there may be an emotional response to the cognition of Bible Doctrine. Rom 16:17-18; 2Cor 6:11;
This is because in the Church Age believers re-present TLJC in his absence and are therefore without ecstatic expression.
Spirituality in the Old Testament was not related to the Holy Spirit directly. It was related to the function of the faith-rest drill as shown in Hebrews chapter 11.
In the Millennium the believer who is filled with the Spirit appreciates TLJC being present on the earth and therefore, is ecstatic. This is described in the prophecies related to Israel in the millennium. Joel 2:28-29; Isa 29:19, Isa 32:15; Isa 44:3; Ezek 39:29; Zech 12:10.