Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Problem with Forgiving Yourself (Part 1)

by Bruce Mills
I recently came across a great article written many years ago in The Journal of Biblical Counseling titled “I Just Can’t Forgive Myself”: A Biblical Alternative to Self-Forgiveness.  The author is Robert D. Jones who was, at the time the article was written, a pastor in Hurricane, West Virginia.  I thought the article was so thought provoking that I decided to write a two part article which is based upon and adapted from that article.
I think this is a particularly relevant topic because it is not uncommon these days in evangelical circles to hear about Christians who are struggling with guilt over a particular sin from their past, and well-meaning friends, counselors, or even their pastors will say these words: “You just need to learn to forgive yourself.”  Unfortunately, the question that most Christians never ask is, “Is such a concept biblical?”  If we say that we believe that the Scriptures are the final and sufficient authority for all faith and practice, we need to ask that question about every suggestion, recommendation, and supposed answer that we encounter in life.  The biblical Christian—the serious follower of Jesus Christ and His Word—is never content to drift in the wind and waves of the world’s philosophy.  He hungers to know what God says about this and every other matter.  Nothing less satisfies.
What does the Bible say about forgiving yourself?  It may surprise you to hear that it says nothing about it!  You can search the Word of God from cover to cover and you will not find the concept of self-forgiveness taught anywhere in it—not by direct statement, not by example, not by precept.  The Bible speaks of vertical forgiveness (God forgiving a person) and horizontal forgiveness (one person forgiving another), but it says nothing about internal forgiveness (a person forgiving himself).
Now, there are many Christian teachers and counselors who use various biblical passages to support their view that the Scriptures do, in fact, teach such  a concept.  However, when one examines the texts which they purport to teach self-forgiveness, what will be found is that the context of every passage is speaking of either vertical or horizontal forgiveness.
This is important, because what it tells us is that the idea of self-forgiveness is not the result of careful exegesis of the Scriptures, but from some other source.  That other source is secular psychology which focuses on the “felt needs” of the counselee.  Then so-called Christian psychologists have claimed that certain Bible verses support the self-forgiveness idea and thus, many Christians have been bilked into believing it is a biblical concept.  Another problem with this approach is that it neglects to carefully determine what is going on inside of those individuals who are struggling with their past sin.  It takes their experience at face value rather than exploring why they say “I can’t forgive myself.” 
So what is the believer who is struggling with his or her past sin to do?  Are such individuals powerless to overcome their problem unless they forgive themselves?  Not at all!  Their struggle with self-recrimination is a real problem.  But rather than misdiagnosing their problem as an inability to forgive themselves, we need to instruct them in what the Scripture says is the proper approach to solving their forgiveness problem.  So how does God’s Word address this issue that is commonly misdiagnosed as an inability to forgive oneself?  There are five possible reasons why such an issue exists in an individual’s life.  We will only deal with two of them in this post and take up the others in a subsequent post.
1.  The person who says “I just can’t forgive myself” may be expressing an inability or unwillingness to grasp and receive God’s forgiveness.
This is the most common explanation behind the “self-forgiveness” concept.  The person says he can’t forgive himself because he really doubts that God has forgiven him.  So being unsure of a solution, he proposes a need for self-forgiveness to satisfy his lingering guilt or to supplement God’s insufficient forgiveness.
This may come about because the individual has failed to see his sin as a direct offense against God, so his conscience isn’t quiet because he has underestimated the heinousness of sin.  He fails to see the magnitude of his sin.  It is as an infinite crime against an infinitely holy God and thus, a finite creature can never do anything to forgive such a crime.  So he reduces it a mere “mistake” rather than a treacherous assault against his Creator and King.  Consequently, he is not driven to seek God’s grace for his sins, but rather he continually ponders on his “mistakes.”
It may be that the individual has not yet grasped the width and depth of God’s forgiving grace and power.  He doesn’t truly believe that God can forgive even the worst of sinners.  Holding to a view of such a limited God, he sees his sin as unforgivable.  In effect, he reduces the value of God’s grace to a level that it is “cheap grace,” which is incapable of breaking the hold of sin in his life.
Another possibility is that the individual has experienced on-going failure with a particular besetting sin, and because he has failed to grow in the grace of putting off the old self and putting on the new self (Eph. 4:22-24), he comes to doubt God’s forgiveness because he keeps repeating the sin.  So eventually, he subtly accepts defeat and surrenders to the idea that victory over that sin will never come, and the expression of that surrender is found in the words, “I just can’t forgive myself.”
The remedy to such a problem is to properly understand, believe, and live out the gospel.  Grasping God’s forgiveness in Christ undercuts these errors and removes the risk of misdiagnosing our true problem (which is the need for deliverance from sin’s guilt and power) as “self-forgiveness.”  We need to replace our thought processes which focus on our past sin with thought processes that focus on the amazing love and forgiveness of Christ.
2.  The person who says “I just can’t forgive myself” may not see or be willing to acknowledge the depth of his depravity.
When a person says the words “I just can’t forgive myself,” what he often means is “I still can’t believe I did that!”  Such a statement is not evidence of low self esteem, but rather it is actually a form of high self esteem; that is, a form of pride in which we think that we are incapable of such evil deeds.  The so-called inability to forgive oneself is often an expression of an underlying problem of self-righteousness.  We may think others are capable of doing such a horrible thing, but not us!  But the truth is, we are totally corrupted by sin and thus, we are not above doing the most deceitful and desperately wicked acts (Jer. 17:9, 1 Cor. 10:6-12).
Our ability to do utterly wicked deeds shouldn’t surprise us, especially if we understand the depth of depravity that reigns as king in the unbeliever and still remains as a deposed but subversive enemy in the believer.  James 1:13-15 portrays the power of our corrupt desires to bring us to spiritual ruin.  It was the great Puritan theologian John Owens who observed that any kind of sin carries within itself the seeds of total apostasy.
So a second remedy to the false concept of self-forgiveness is to recognize the depths of our depravity and the wretchedness of which we are capable.  And rather than adopting a prideful attitude that denies the awfulness of our behavior, we must prostrate ourselves before Christ and receive His gracious, merciful forgiveness.
In my next post, I will take up the remaining three reasons why many people feel that they cannot forgive themselves, and what the proper biblical approach is to such ideas.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Those Dangerous Calvinists!

by Bruce Mills
Recently another of the elders at the church I serve called my attention to information posted on Pastor Tom Ascol’s blog, Founders’ Ministries Blog, regarding documents that are circulating among Southern Baptist Churches in western Tennessee.  These documents are intended to teach people in those churches how to determine if any of their church staff are Calvinists and then get rid of any that they may find.  You can view them here.  This information is apparently being spread by individuals who consider the doctrines of grace to be heresy.
The first document is titled "Reformed Red Flags" and it contains a list of 16 "behaviors" to look for when seeking to determine who the Calvinists pastors may be.  Some of these “behaviors” are quite surprising.  Included on the list are:
“Use of the ESV Study Bible” – This is simply another way of promoting the KJV Only position.  Prior to the emergence of the ESV, most of the KJV Only proponents directed their assault on the NIV, but now that the ESV has become widely accepted among reformed evangelicals, they are now redirecting their slander on this fine translation.
“Moving the church to be under Elder Rule” – Perhaps these folks should go back and read Titus 1:5 where Paul clearly instructed Titus to appoint elders in the churches in the cities of Crete.  Apparently God, who inspired Paul to write that instruction, believes that elders are to be the leaders of the church rather than the congregation.
“Focusing on creating the ‘true’ church” – Clearly this is aimed at Grace Life Church of the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a strongly Calvinistic Southern Baptist church which holds an annual “True Church” conference.  Closely related is another statement regarding the use of church discipline.  The unknown author considers the purpose of church discipline to be an attempt to purge the church of anyone who is not part of the “true” church.  While that is never the primary intent of church discipline, the purification of the church is a secondary result.  Apparently those circulating these documents consider that to be a bad thing.
“Look for the men they quote in their sermons; do they mainly quote Calvinists such as John Piper, R. C. Sproul, James White, Jonathan Edwards, and others?” – Wow!  Some of America’s greatest theologians and teaching pastors whose ministries have led countless hundreds and thousands to saving faith in Jesus Christ are persona non grata to these people. 
“Tendency toward a highly logical systematic theology…” – I think it’s clear that they prefer a highly illogical disorganized theology in which anything and everything is up for grabs.
The second page of the document purports to explain the theological differences between what the author describes as “Traditional Southern Baptists” and “Extreme Calvinists.”  For me, the most interesting statement had to do with God’s knowledge.  The writer states: “Traditional Baptists believe in an all knowing God, but they are not determinists, because they do not believe God has planned everything that happens (emphasis mine).  Through His eternal foreknowledge, He knows what is going to happen, but He doesn’t over-ride man’s freewill.” 
This statement clearly shows that the distance from Arminianism to Open Theism is very short!  I’m not sure what they believe the things are that God has not planned, because He stakes claim to both the good and the bad events of our lives and this world (Amos 3:6, 4:6-13; Job 1:12-22; Isaiah 45:7; Lamentations 3:38).  So the writer’s view isn’t significantly different than the Open Theist whose God sits in heaven, captive to the decisions of man, reacting only after man has exercised his sovereign freewill. 
Notice that the writer says that man has the ability to exercise freewill and that God knows what man will choose, but doesn’t override it.  The problem with such a view is that unregenerate man’s will is not free; it is enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6-20).  So man’s “freewill” really isn’t free.  And since the pursuit of sin is his nature, he will pursue sin.  A pig acts like a pig because it is the nature of a pig to do so.  And the same principle applies to sinful man.  And unless God steps in and overrides man’s will, drawing him to Christ, that man would never choose to believe.
So what’s my conclusion?  Simply this: It’s very, very sad when churches reach the point that their greatest concern is not making sure the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, souls are rescued from eternal hell, and God is glorified, but rather that they root out the dangerous Calvinists who might be lurking in their pulpits!  I pray that God will protect other churches and believers who might be tempted to fall into the same dangerous trap as have these men.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Philippe, the Postmodern Evangelist

by Bruce Mills
In my many ramblings around the cyberworld of evangelical blogs, I occasionally encounter something which is so rich that it is worthy of being reposted.  What follows is the text of an article by Krista Graham which was first posted on “The Sacred Sandwich” blog.  This is a great rework of the biblical story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch as it would have been if Philip had taken a post-modern approach to evangelism and the gospel.  I don’t know why Ms. Graham spells Philip’s name with a French spelling, but that is how she does it, so I have reposted it exactly as she wrote it.  Enjoy!
Once there was a man named Philippe. He was a spiritual guide in an emerging community. One day he decided to go on a journey. So, he did. As he was walking along the road, focusing on the journey and not the destination, he found himself alongside the chariot of an African official. The man in the chariot was reading from a parchment scroll. He was reading aloud, so Philippe was able to overhear what the man read.
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
Philippe caught up to the chariot and said, “You read that text beautifully. It made me feel significant and connected to ancient traditions to hear you read it.”
“I just wish I could understand it,” the man replied.
“Understand it? You don’t need to understand it. Just to experience it. Read it again, more slowly this time. I want to hear the poetic forms and imagine myself in the context of the ancient tradition,” said Philippe.
“Who is he talking about?” the man persisted. “Is the prophet writing about himself or about someone else?”
“I think he is writing about all of us,” said Philippe. “I think we are all a part of the larger story.”
“But what story?” asked the official. “It seems to me that the writer is talking about something in particular, and I sense that it is important. I just wish I knew what it was. What exactly does this mean?”
“What do YOU think it means?” asked Philippe.
“I don’t know. That is why I am asking YOU.”
“Well, it is true that I am a Christ-follower, and my tradition does impose certain meanings on this text. But I would not want to force my truth claims on you. Your truth claims would be equally valid. As you see, we are both on a journey; and we both find ourselves on the same road. So, it follows that our destination is also the same. So, let’s just enjoy this time of community and not divide ourselves by discussing meanings and dogma,” said Philippe.
After awhile, they came to a pool of water by the side of the road. There was also a fork in the road at this point, and the official chose the road to the right. Philippe planned to take the road to the left, but first he sat down by the edge of the pool to journal his experiences of the day. He was delighted that he had had an unique opportunity to engage in a dialogue with a person of a culture so diverse from his own.
Meanwhile, the African official went on his way, still searching for the meaning of the text that could have brought him eternal life.