
The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines
The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines
A Critique of Dallas Willard and The Spirit of the Disciplines
I recently took a seminary course on the book of Luke. It was a summer intensive and was one of only two classes being offered at the time. About midway through the week, while the class was steeped in trying to discern the intent and significance of the book of Luke, we began to hear the echoes of mystic chanting coming through the walls. As it turned out, the other class being offered was parked right next to ours. The paper thin walls were carrying the choruses of a class exploring the life and teachings of Catholic mystic Henry Nouwen. We proceeded, trying to concentrate on studying the Scriptures while tuning out the chants that were carrying on next door. Perhaps what was more unsettling though is the class studying Nouwen was chock full, while there were plenty of empty seats next door for anyone wanting to learn about the inspired book of Luke.1
How can this be? A Baptist seminary was favorably studying the teachings of this Catholic mystic whose own biographers describe as having had emotional problems and homosexual inclinations.2 Soon after talking to Ryan, I met a lady who attends a Christian college. As part of her study program she was required to take a course on spiritual formation at her college. Spiritual formation in her class also concerned the study of Roman Catholic mystics and the search for techniques to help those who implement them feel closer to God. This study also explored “spiritual disciplines” which promised to make those who practiced them more Christ-like. After she finished the class she shared her textbooks with me. This article will focus on the claims of one of these text books, The Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dallas Willard.3 In our study we shall see that those promoting spiritual disciplines in courses of study called “spiritual formation” make claims that are unbiblical and dangerous.
Jesus’ “Yoke” as “Spiritual Disciplines”
Dallas Willard bases his entire spiritual disciplines book on his understanding of Matthew 11:29, 30, which says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Willard cites this passage at the beginning of a chapter entitled “The Secret of the Easy Yoke,”4 Willard says, “And in this truth lies the secret of the easy yoke: the secret involves living as he lived in the entirety of his life—adopting his overall life-style.”5 He also says, “We have to discover how to enter into his disciplines from where we stand today—and no doubt, how to extend and amplify them to suit our needy cases.”6 He claims that the “yoke” is to try to emulate Jesus’ lifestyle in every possible way.7 Willard interprets Jesus’ “yoke” as the practice of spiritual disciplines like solitude, silence, and simple living. He later adds voluntary banishment and others that we will discuss later.
Willard is very critical of traditional Protestant doctrine and practice, declaring it a massive failure.8 His remedy for this failure is to see the body and certain ascetic practices using the body as the means of change: “Looking back over our discussion to this point, we have connected the reality of the easy yoke with the practice of the spiritual disciplines. These in turn have led us to the body’s role in redemption.”9 He claims that we have been misguided by being concerned with the forgiveness of sins and “theories of the atonement.” He says, “Salvation as conceived today is far removed from what it was in the beginnings of Christianity and only by correcting it can God’s grace in salvation be returned to the concrete, embodied existence of our human personalities walking with Jesus in his easy yoke.”10 According to this thinking, the yoke of Jesus involves using the body in certain ways to accomplish changed lives:
Although we call the disciplines “spiritual”—and although they must never be undertaken apart from a constant, inward interaction with God and his gracious Kingdom—they never fail to require specific acts and dispositions of our body as we engage in them. We are finite and limited to our bodies. So the disciplines cannot be carried out except as our body and its parts are surrendered in precise ways and definite actions to God.11
So evidently, rather than concerning ourselves with the blood atonement, averting God’s wrath against sin, salvation by faith through grace, we should be practicing spiritual disciplines with our bodies so that we could then be more like Jesus.
The concept of Jesus’ “yoke” being interpreted as an invitation to practice His life-style is reiterated throughout Willard’s book; see pages 91, 121, and 235. This idea is the framework and logical foundation of Willard’s entire thesis. But the question is, “Is this what Jesus meant in Matthew 11:29, 30?” Let us examine the passage in context to see if teaches the spiritual disciplines.
The True Meaning of Jesus’ “Yoke”
If we want to understand Matthew 11:29, 30 it is essential that we understand the context, particularly the meaning of verse 28. Jesus said, “ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We must understand Jesus’ offer of rest in the context of His debates with the religious leaders. Their “yoke” demanded the strict observance of Sabbath rules and their oral tradition. Immediately after Jesus’ offer of “rest” in Him, there ensued a Sabbath debate with the religious leaders accusing Jesus and His disciples of being Sabbath breakers (see Matthew 12). They plucked grain on the Sabbath and Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Jesus was offering true Sabbath rest and the Jewish leaders were offering the yoke of the Law. Jesus’ yoke was different. Jesus perfectly kept the law so that all who would come to him would enter into the true Sabbath rest that could never be achieved by keeping the rules laid down by the religious leaders.
Taking this understanding of the term “yoke” we can see what Jesus meant in Matthew 11. His words came in the middle of a dispute with Jewish leadership. He had pronounced woe upon cities that did not repent (Matthew 11:20-24). He uttered this prayer:
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. 27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:25-27)
The wise and intelligent were the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees who accused Jesus of being a Sabbath breaker and who refused to repent when they witnessed His miracles. They rejected both Jesus and John the Baptist in a most fickle manner (Matthew 11:16-19). They refused to come to God on His terms, but demanded that God the Son obey them on their terms! So Jesus pronounced the judgment of hardening on them and chose instead to reveal Himself to babes.
When Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), He was offering them what the Jewish leadership rejected—Messianic salvation. True Sabbath rest is only found in Christ (see Hebrews 4:1-9). Ironically, the people who accused Jesus of being a Sabbath breaker were the ultimate Sabbath breakers because they rejected the only one who could give true rest. They put the yoke of law keeping on the people but kept them from the one true Law keeper, Christ who died for their sins. Therefore, no matter how scrupulous and religious a person is, if he or she does not come to Christ by faith, that person is under the yoke of bondage rather than the Sabbath rest for the people of God.
There are other places in the New Testament where the term “yoke” is used in the sense of the requirement of law keeping. Two of them are very pertinent to interpreting Matthew 11:28-30. In Acts 15 the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to determine whether the new Gentile converts would be required to keep the Law. The three most prominent laws that marked off the Jews as unique were the food laws, Sabbath, and circumcision. Peter’s speech convinced the apostles that the Gentiles were not obliged to follow such Jewish laws:
“And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” (Acts 15:7-11)
The “yoke” was being under the Law.
Now consider how Paul used the same term: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). The Judaizers wanted to put Christians under obligation to be circumcised and Paul called this “a yoke of slavery.”
So Jesus’ yoke is in stark contrast to the “yoke” that the religious leaders put on the people. He is offering salvation to all who come to Him by faith. Craig Blomberg summarizes this section in Matthew 11:
The sequence of thought of vv. 25-30 thus progresses as follows. The increasing polarization of response to Jesus in fact reflects God’s sovereign choices (vv. 25-26). Jesus is God’s unique agent in the outworking of those choices (v. 27). This gives him God’s authority to call people to himself (vv. 28-30). The invitation to come to Christ remains for all today, but now as then it requires the recognition that persons cannot come by exalting themselves (recall v. 23) but only by completely depending on and trusting Christ.12
Jesus’ Yoke is to Practice Spiritual Disciplines?
Therefore our conclusion is that in Matthew 11 Jesus was offering salvation to all who come to Him. Now let us examine Willard’s claim that Jesus was telling people to try to emulate His life-style. Willard claims that we are failing to practice the disciplines that would make us able to live better lives and that most Christians are failing to live lives pleasing to God. He further states that the solution is that we practice spiritual disciplines that are based on Jesus’ lifestyle and supplemented by practices of the Medieval Catholic Church. So he sees Jesus’ “yoke” as an offer to take up a life-style that will make us better people, rather than an offer of true Sabbath rest through Christ’s finished work on the cross. This is tantamount to substituting works for grace, and making Jesus an ethical teacher whose example can be followed rather than the unique Son of God who alone always does the things that please the Father. Willard offers no exegetical analysis of the passage in Matthew to defend his interpretation. In my opinion, his position is not defensible.
Does the Bible Prescribe the Spiritual Disciplines?
The spiritual disciplines are not taught in Matthew 11:29, 30 (Willard’s primary proof test), and even Willard admits they cannot be found elsewhere in scripture (we shall show this momentarily). But he is nevertheless enthusiastic about the recent rediscovery of the disciplines.
Dallas Willard is excited to tell us that finally, through the lead of people like Richard Foster, we are having a revival of the use of spiritual disciplines. Writes Willard: “Today, for the first time in our history as a nation, we are being presented with a characteristic range of human behaviors such as fasting, meditation, simple living, and submission to a spiritual overseer, in an attractive light.”13 He claims that ordinary means such as Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and evangelism are inadequate and having failed, have left most Christians as failures. He writes, “All pleasing and doctrinally sound schemes of Christian education, church growth, and spiritual renewal came around at last to this disappointing result. But whose fault was this failure?”14 The “failure,” according to Willard is that, “. . . the gospel preached and the instruction and example given these faithful ones simply do not do justice to the nature of human personality, as embodied, incarnate.”15 So what does this mean? It means that we have failed because our gospel had too little to do with our bodies.
The spiritual disciplines are supposed to remedy this deficiency. Willard says, “By contrast, the secret of the standard, historically proven spiritual disciplines is precisely that they do respect and count on the bodily nature of human personality.”16 Willard claims that Paul understood the need for such practices but that they were lost: “Paul’s teaching, especially when added to his practices, strongly suggest that he understood and practiced something vital about the Christian life that we have lost—and that we must do our best to recover.”17 Of course, had Paul bothered to write about these “lost” disciplines in his epistles, they would not have been lost.
So why did Paul fail to write about these secret, lost disciplines? Willard’s answer is that Paul had in mind, “. . . a precise course of action he understood in definite terms, carefully followed himself, and called others to share . . . So obviously so, for him and the readers of his own day, that he would feel no need to write a book on the disciplines for the spiritual life that explained systematically what he had in mind.”18 Translated that means that Paul did not write about the spiritual disciplines because everyone was practicing them. Willard goes on to say, “It is almost impossible in the thought climate of today’s Western world to appreciate just how utterly unnecessary it was for Paul to say explicitly, in the world in which he lived, that Christians should fast, be alone, study, give, and so forth as regular disciplines for the spiritual life.”19 There is a serious problem here that Willard overlooks: Paul did write about approaches like these—he wrote against them!
Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23)
They had ascetics in Paul’s day and he rebuked them. Willard never discusses this passage which teaches explicitly that “severe treatment of the body” cannot help us find freedom from sinfulness.
Where do we find this “wisdom” that Paul failed to write about? Says Willard, “This is not something St. Paul had to prove or even explicitly state to his readers—but it also was not something he overlooked, leaving it to be thought up by crazed monks in the Dark Ages. It is, rather, a wisdom gleaned from millennia of collective human experience.”20 So the disciplines we need to be more like Christ cannot be found in the Bible, but they can be gleaned from religious history. Willard tells us, “But thoughtful and religiously devout people of the classical and Hellenistic world, from the Ganges to the Tiber, knew that the mind and body of the human being had to be rigorously disciplined to achieve a decent individual and social existence.”21
The obvious problem with this is that if this type of logic is valid, we could claim that we need Ouija Boards as part of our spiritual practice and that Paul and other early Christians must have been using them so regularly there was no need to write about them. Ironically, Willard admits that the Bible does not command us to practice the spiritual disciplines he prescribes.
To hear evangelicals like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster tell us that we need practices that were never spelled out in the Bible to become more like Christ or to get closer to God is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that evangelical colleges and seminaries are requiring their students to study practices that are relics of Medieval Rome, not found in the Bible, and closely akin to the practices of many pagan societies.
The False Gospel of Human Ability
As with most unbiblical approaches, the spiritual disciplines are based on the idea of innate human powers that can be harnessed for good. Holding a false concept of sin as a “disruption of that higher [spiritual] life,”22 Willard looks for a solution through finding our true potential, individually and corporately, through spiritual disciplines that will enable us to reconstruct the rule of God now. Willard says, “The evil that we do in our present condition is a reflection of a weakness caused by spiritual starvation.”23 Rather than wicked rebels abiding under God’s wrath, humans are bundles of huge potential who have lost their way through “disruption of the higher powers.” We supposedly have great potential: “It is the amazing extent of our ability to utilize power outside ourselves that we must consider when we ask what the human being is. The limits of our power to transcend ourselves utilizing powers not located in us—including of course, the spiritual—are yet to be fully known.”24 Willard gives this interpretation of 1John 3:2: “Because of his personal experience with spiritual powers brought to him in Christ, John sensed unimaginable greatness in our destiny.”25
So how do we tap into this great human potential? He says we must tap into the spiritual dimension using spiritual disciplines. Willard shares his definition of “spirit”: “If the missing element in the present human order is that of the spirit, what then is spirit? Very simply, spirit is unembodied personal power.”26 His idea is that “spirit” is the missing nutrient that we need to realize our full potential. The ideas of total depravity, the wrath of God against sin, the blood atonement, and the cross are either absent or distorted in Willard’s theology. What replaces these truths is the hope that we will realize our potential through tapping into the spiritual kingdom of God. This is to be done by the use of spiritual disciplines to obtain the necessary power to transform the world. The terminology that Willard uses is strange and unbiblical. For example, he writes,
“When the human organism is brought into willing, personal relationship with the spiritual Kingdom of God, ‘sucking in orderliness’ from that particular part of the human environment, it becomes pervasively transformed, as a corn stalk in drought is transformed by the onset of drenching rain—the contact with the water transforms the plant inwardly and then extends it outwardly. In the same way, people are transformed by contact with God.”27
These ideas are more akin to Eastern Religion than Biblical Christianity. Our problem is not the need to suck in more “unembodied personal power” by techniques to contact God. We are dead sinners facing God’s wrath unless we repent and believe the gospel. Willard’s concepts are foreign to the Bible. He says, “A ‘spiritual life’ consists in that range of activities in which people cooperatively interact with God—and with the spiritual order deriving from God’s personality and action.”28 This means practicing asceticism through the spiritual disciplines. He says, “The disciplines are activities of the mind and body purposely undertaken, to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order.”29 This depends on us: “Yet even as we reach for more grace to this end, we also learn by experience that the harmonization of our total self with God will not be done for us. We must act.”30
What results are in store for the church when we take action to tap into this spiritual dimension to realize our full potential? The church will be the incarnation of Christ and the kingdom of God will come through us, now, before Christ’s bodily return. Rejecting the pre-millennial doctrine, Willard says, “Often, we are told that the rule of God upon the earth will be fulfilled in a great act of violence, in which multitudes of people are slain by God, followed by a totalitarian government of literally infinite proportions, headquartered in Jerusalem.”31 He fails to mention that this “totalitarian” rule is the rule of Christ Himself as promised in the Bible. What is Willard’s alternative? – “I believe, to the contrary, that the coming rule of God is to be a government by grace and truth mediated through personalities mature in Christ.”32 It is amazing that he would consider Christ Himself reigning as “totalitarian” and us reigning as “grace and truth.”
For Willard, Christ is not coming for the church but in the church: “The real presence of Christ as a world-governing force will come solely as his called out people occupy their stations in the holiness and power characteristic of him, as they demonstrate to the world the way to live that is best in every respect.”33 We gain the ability to reign over the world for Christ through spiritual disciplines.
Since these disciplines were the order of the day for Rome at a period where her goal was to rule over the world, I wonder why the result was the Dark Ages? What kind of glib optimism would make us think that if we try them again, this time we will have a better outcome? Whenever theology turns to human potential and human ability aided by some type of spiritual infusion, the result is utopian dreaming. Supposedly we do not need to have Christ return in judgment and set up His Kingdom; we just need to tap into great human potential that has never been fully implemented. Willard says that Christ’s way has not yet been tried.34
According to Willard’s theology, just like Christ coming at the fullness of time during the first advent, the church will be the answer (not Christ’s bodily return) for the coming kingdom. We, not Jesus, will be the new incarnation: “[T]here is likewise a fullness of time for his people to stand forth with the concrete style of existence for which the world has hungered in its thoughtful moments and praised through its poets and prophets. As a response to this world’s problems, the gospel of the Kingdom will never make sense except as it is incarnated—we say ‘fleshed out’—in ordinary human beings in all ordinary conditions of human life.”35
By downplaying the doctrine of total depravity and the sin nature, Willard makes it seem plausible that we can be infused by divine power and establish the kingdom now. The Bible, however, predicts apostasy and the revealing of the man of lawlessness just before Christ returns in judgment (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8). Willard’s assertions lack sound exegetical work from the scriptures for their support. He needs to offer a clearer definition of the kingdom of God and provide Biblical support for the idea that we can establish it before Christ returns. Lacking Biblical support, his arguments are unconvincing.
Which Spiritual Disciplines?
The spiritual disciplines that are supposedly necessary for spiritual formation are not defined in the Bible. If they were, there would be a clear description of them and concrete list. But since spiritual disciplines vary, and have been invented by spiritual pioneers in church history, no one can be sure which ones are valid. Willard says, [W]e need not try to come up with a complete list of disciplines. Nor should we assume that our particular list will be right for others.”36 The practices are gleaned from various sources and the individual has to decide which ones work the best. Willard lists the following: voluntary exile, night vigil of rejecting sleep, journaling, OT Sabbath keeping, physical labor, solitude, fasting, study, and prayer.37 Willard then lists “disciplines of abstinence” (solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, sacrifice) and “disciplines of engagement” (study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, submission).38
Willard offers a discussion of each of these, citing people like Thomas Merton, Thomas a Kempis, Henri Nouwen, and other mystics. We are told that practices like solitude and silence are going to change us, even though the Bible does not prescribe them. Willard writes, “This factual priority of solitude is, I believe, a sound element in monastic asceticism. Locked into interaction with the human beings that make up our fallen world, it is all but impossible to grow in grace as one should.”39 So if we cannot grow in grace without solitude, how come the Bible never commands us to practice solitude? The same goes for many other items on Willard’s list.
Willard tells us that the list of disciplines he provides is not exhaustive. Others can be pragmatically determined. He says, “As we have indicated, there are many other activities that could, for the right person and upon the right occasion, be counted as spiritual disciplines in the strict sense stated of our previous chapter. The walk with Christ certainly is one that leaves room for and even calls for individual creativity and an experimental attitude in such matters.”40 However, there is a serious problem with Willard’s logic here. Earlier he rejected such practices as self-flagellation, exposing the body to severities including being eaten by beetles, being suspended by iron shackles, and other means of severely treating the body in order to become more holy.41 Willard rejects these on the following grounds: “Here it is matter of taking pains about taking pains. It is in fact a variety of self-obsession—narcissism—a thing farthest removed from the worship and service of God.”42
Willard had admitted that there is no clear list of the disciplines and that each person might choose different practices through pragmatic means. This does not give sufficient ground for rejecting such practices as self-flagellation. So Willard resorts to arguing that those who do such things have bad motives. But he cannot really know their motives, perhaps they determined that these practices “worked” using the same means Willard offered. If pragmatic tests are the means of determining which practices are valid, and if these people feel closer to God and more like Christ through their practices, then Willard has no valid way of rejecting their practices. Having no valid argument, he resorts to an invalid ad hominem argument.
He cannot have it both ways. Either God’s Word determines both how we come to God and how we grow in grace, or humans determine these things by pragmatic means. Willard has chosen the latter. But then he steps in and tells us that some practices are wrong, even though they fit his own criteria for validity. If a person feels that sleeping in a tiny stone crevice with all the heat being sucked out of his body makes him more spiritually disciplined, then who is to say that is wrong? Had he been willing to submit to the authority of Scripture, Willard could have refuted these practices based on Colossians 2:21-23.
Even though decrying some of the excesses of monasticism, Willard is fond of the monastics and thinks that the Reformation left us with no practical means of spiritual growth. He says, “It [Protestantism] precluded ‘works’ and Catholicism’s ecclesiastical sacraments as essential for salvation, but it continued to lack any adequate account for what human beings do to become, by the grace of God, the kind of people Jesus obviously calls them to be.”43 This is simply false. Luther believed in means of grace that God has provided all true believers that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.44 The difference is that means of grace are what God has provided for all Christians for all ages and they are determined by God, not man. These are revealed in the Bible. Spiritual disciplines are man-made, amorphous, and not revealed in the Bible; they assume that one is saved by grace and perfected by works.
Paul wrote, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3). Paul rejected the idea that we are saved by grace and perfected by works. We are saved by grace and we grow by grace. Willard seems to miss this point. Here is how he views it: “The activities mentioned—when we engage in them conscientiously and creatively and adapt them to our individual needs, time and place—will be more than adequate to help us receive the full Christ-life and become the kind of person that should emerge in the following of him.”45 Elsewhere he suggests that growth comes through human will power: “The entire question of discipline, therefore, is how to apply acts of the will at our disposal in such a way that the proper course of action, which cannot always be realized by direct and untrained effort, will nevertheless be carried out when needed.”46 It is hard to see how this is anything other than [being] “made perfect by the flesh” which Paul said was impossible.
The Reformation understanding of means of grace was that they were God’s gracious means of working in a person of faith’s life. What ever is not of faith is sin. Even the Word and sacraments as Luther understood them were of no avail unless they were received in faith. No works righteousness could be tolerated. Willard’s approach is works oriented and man-centered; it was created by spiritual innovators who mostly did not find their practices in the Bible.
The Spiritual Disciplines as Presumption
The spiritual disciplines, as we have seen, are bodily activities that we engage in hoping to become more Christ-like. So we decide what discipline we need, perhaps with the help of a “spiritual director.” Since we have established (and Willard admits) that most of these disciplines are not prescribed in the Bible, we have to decide which ones will work for us. The problem is that this is the very opposite of what the Bible says about discipline: “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:5, 6). God, not man, determines what each of us needs because only God knows exactly what each of us needs.
For example, consider Paul’s thorn in the flesh described in 2 Corinthians 12: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2Corinthians 12:7). Paul did not determine he needed this, God did. When Paul asked for it to be removed, this was the result: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God allowed the thorn in the flesh for Paul’s spiritual good. God’s discipline is what He does sovereignly and providentially to bring each of us ultimately into the image of Christ. Willard is right that every person is different and has different needs. He is wrong that therefore we must experiment with spiritual disciplines to see what works for us. We don’t even know our own needs fully, only God does. If we need poverty to help us learn to trust God, He can arrange that. There is no need to take an oath of poverty and join a monastery.
God disciplines us in ways we could never imagine or never arrange. The Bible tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Obviously everything in the universe is at His disposal. Do we think He is unable to discipline us according to His infinite wisdom? Do we suppose that we know better what we need than God does? For one person God’s discipline could be the sorrow of loosing a job and the need to trust Him to find a different one. For another it may be that God thrusts him into a situation of great responsibility that stretches him to the utmost. If we need solitude, God can grant that. He might make it so the only job we can find is being a midnight shift watchman.
What is presumptuous about the spiritual disciplines approach is that the practitioner presumes to know what he or she needs when only God knows such things. The monk who takes a vow of chastity presumes to know that he is going to be more Christ like single than married. The person who leaves civilization on a voluntary exile into solitude presumes to know that he will be more Christ like exiled than interacting with others. This is the case no matter what activity we presume will make us more spiritual. The only exceptions are those things God has ordained for ALL Christians. We are never presumptuous to, in faith, avail ourselves of those practices that God has ordained. But this brings us back to means of grace, not spiritual disciplines.47
Therefore, those things that are unique to the individual in regard to discipline God is in charge of. He disciplines every Christian for his or her own good according to His own infinite wisdom. Those matters that are necessary and common to all Christians are clearly described in the Bible; they are means of grace.
Conclusion
We began this discussion with a description of strange teachings and practices entering evangelical Bible Colleges and seminaries. They have been borrowed from Medieval Rome and dressed up for evangelical consumption. We have examined the teachings of one of the visible leaders of this movement. Starting with a serious misinterpretation of Matthew 11:29, 30, Dallas Willard built his entire system on the idea that Jesus’ “yoke” consists of various spiritual disciplines. The issue in Matthew 11 was Messianic salvation—finding true Sabbath rest in Christ rather than following meticulous religious rules decreed by the Scribes and Pharisees. The idea of practicing spiritual disciplines was imported to the text, not found there.
We live in an age of mysticism. People lust for spiritual reality and spiritual experiences. The danger is that unbiblical practices will give people a real spiritual experience, but not from God. Deception is the likely outcome. God puts a boundary around the means by which we come to Him and grow in Him for our own protection. If we ignore the boundary set by Biblical guidelines, there is no telling were we will end up. If however, we come to God on His terms, knowing that we have a High Priest who is at the right hand of God, and that we have access through His blood into the holiest place, we can be assured we cannot be any closer to God this side of heaven.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
End Notes
- This happened during the summer of 2005 at Bethel Theological Seminary in Arden Hills, MN.
- Michael Ford, Wounded Prophet (Image: New York, 1999); for a review: http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/bookreview/item_1589.html
- Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Understanding How God Changes Lives, (HarperCollins: New York, 1991)
- Ibid. 1.
- Ibid. 5.
- Ibid. 9.
- Ibid. 10.
- Ibid. 11-18.
- Ibid. 40.
- Ibid. 33.
- Ibid. 40.
- Craig L. Blomberg, “Matthew” in The New American Commentary (Broadman: Nashville, 1992) 195.
- Willard, 17.
- Ibid. 18.
- Ibid. emphasis his.
- Ibid. 19.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. 95.
- Ibid. 99.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. 63.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. 62.
- Ibid. Willard errors in failing to tell us that this “destiny” is not one that is actualized now, but is linked to Christ’s return: 1John 3:2b –“but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
- Ibid. 64.
- Ibid. 65.
- Ibid. 67.
- Ibid. 68.
- Ibid. emphasis his.
- Ibid. 238.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. 239.
- Ibid. 243.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. 157.
- Ibid.
- Ibid. 158.
- Ibid. 161, 162.
- Ibid. 190.
- Ibid. 142-144.
- Ibid. 144.
- Ibid. 145.
- See Bob DeWaay, “Means of Grace” in Critical Issues Commentary, Issue 84, Sept./Oct. 2004. HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE84.HTM
- Willard, 191.
- Ibid. 151, 152 emphasis his.
- The Bible does tell us to “discipline ourselves”; but in this context: “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1Timothy 4:7, 8). Notice however that Paul is teaching the practice of godliness not “bodily discipline” to create godliness. Willard’s promotion of bodily activities as “discipline” is not supported by this text.
Spiritual Formation and Contemplative Prayer Exposed
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False Apostles Exposed!

Ever notice today who everyone and their uncle’s dog is supposedly an “apostle”? Laughable. Heretical. Holy Scripture specifically addresses “false apostles” two times.
“For such are FALSE APOSTLES, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
Any man pretending to be an “apostle” is one of the “false apostles.”
To the Ephesian assembly of believers, Jesus said:
“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried (tested) them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” Revelation 2:2
Those who falsely claim to be apostles “are evil.”
Below is a specific exposé of a network of false apostles. Most deceivers use similar schemes and methods to prey upon the unlearned.
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Romans 16:17-18
Reasoning away the blatant error and deception of these self-appointed so-called “apostles” is unwise and will result in being misled and damned ultimately (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 2 Peter 3:17). It doesn’t matter how many good things are on their site and presented in their ministry, it’s a false ministry based on the fact that they are elevating themselves as “apostles” and deceitfully manipulating people with mind control to believe they need these wolves for spiritual maturity. This is a classic, easily discerned deception (2 Peter 2:17). This is classic Nicolaitan deceit. Jesus says He hates these deeds and doctrines (Revelation 2:6, 15).
“In fact it would be the same as attempting to elevate oneself in the power of the self, over other believers, as Jesus told us we are not to be doing. Reference where the disciples were arguing with each other over which of them was the greatest. Same would be true of a a person elevating themselves as a Pope.” Trevor Gamble
Most deception is simple mind control which is witchcraft to get gullible people under their spell and false leadership by making them think they need these “living apostles.” It’s a scam.
“Beware lest any man spoil (ruin) you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:8-10
These “false apostles” will verbally agree with the fact that all true believers are “complete” in Christ and yet, they add to His Word and plan by insisting that THEY are Christ’s appointed “apostles” whom the LORD has sent to perfect them (those they are preying on). This is nonsense folks. This is no different than the Catholic cult convincing their prey that Peter was the first pope. We know that isn’t biblical and yet, when someone is convinced of this lie, they then wrongly believe that the Roman religion is the one true religion that extends from Christ and Peter. So, like Rome, these “false apostles” add themselves into the simple equation given us in the original Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). More on this below …
We hope that these men will contact us with proof that they have repented and are bringing forth tangible fruits consistent with that true repentance (Matthew 3:7-8).
Self-Appointed “Apostle” John Welty Exposed
Any man calling himself a prophet or apostle is a fraud.
John Welty is a part of the “Second 8th Week Ministries.” Their website reads: “Living Apostles Today | Restoring the Church Back to Her First Love.” This clearly indicates that they believe that no one alive today among the true servants of Christ are able to do this work of Christ except them – the “living apostles.” This statement infers that until now, the body of Christ has not been able to grow into full maturity but now it can since they are on the scene. Another false apostle involved is self-appointed “apostle” Eric Vonanderseck.
“The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers of the Second 8th Week welcome you. Hear what God is saying to the church through His apostles and prophets. If God has been preparing your heart for transition and change, be ready to be ignited by the Spirit to the fulness of the hope of Christ. This is a time of separation, a time of challenge, and a time of rejoicing. (Isaiah 42:16)”
This is a network set up to entrap and ensnare souls (Ezekiel 22:25-27). Note the typical buzz words and terms used by false ministries such as “transition and change” and “ignited.” This witchcraft, manipulation, and mind control is being wielded over the minds of men and women.
Note: A warning has been sent by us to these men in hopes that they would see the light of truth and turn to the LORD before it’s too late. No reply back was received to date. It is our prayer that these men will repent and turn their lives over to the LORD afresh in humility and brokenness. If they do, they will become genuinely broken, drop their titles, and begin serving God’s people instead of exploiting them for personal gain. Yet, for now the alarm must be sounded so that others can escape the snare of their falsehoods and counterfeit pretentious “ministry.” Our desire is not to condemn or be harsh. These things must be done in obedience to our LORD to protect precious souls (Romans 16:17-18; Hebrews 13:20; Jude 3-4, etc.).
Yet, we pray these guys themselves will turn to the LORD
At the top of the page on his personal website, John Welty didn’t even pay enough attention or purposely used a lower case “c” when referring to Jesus Christ. Keep this in mind as you read the following concerning this ravening wolf (Ezekiel 22:25-27; Matthew 7:15).
Did you notice this paragraph on this guy’s site? I high lighted some things…..
“Truth, which comes through living apostles, makes all the necessary connections so that we may recognize the pattern God set for our faith to follow. With truth in the heart, we learn how to meet God’s expectations through sanctified faith in Christ which joins our faith perfectly to Him that we may experience the power and fullness of Christ.”
Typical tricky and deceit-filled language used here. Welty is positioning himself by conditioning the reader to believe there are “living apostles” and that those apostles have the same amount of kingdom authority as did Paul and the original twelve and that we are to submit to them. Not quite! Though I do believe there are apostles today, I don’t believe they fulfill the same function or place in God’s kingdom as did the original twelve and Paul, and that if they are an apostle and a true one, they are probably humble enough not to refer to themselves as an apostle. They simply go about humbly serving.
You see, if wolves like John Welty can convince the unlearned that they need him then he’s got them in his grip. After all, John Welty is a “living apostle,” right? Wrong!
We are often warned in Scripture of beguilers like John Welty.
Read and commit to memory the following verse and it will keep you till the end beloved in this time of great and treacherous apostasy:
“For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:17
Read it one more time please. This is key.
When you allow a man to “overcome” you with a lie such as Welty is peddling, then he will bring you under his “bondage” to the lies he perpetrated upon your life.
When we are truly submitted to Jesus Christ, rooted and grounded in Him and therefore His love and truth, we will escape such beguilers.
Notice how these so-called “apostles” have inserted themselves in the equation? Didn’t God tell us that there is only “ONE Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus”? (1 Timothy 2:5). Did you catch the word “necessary” Welty used? This is classic, typical Nicolaitan (conquer the laity by convincing them they need you) usurping. Jesus says He hates this (Rev. 2:6, 15). “False apostles” is one of the perils Paul faced (2 Corinthians 11:13).
These so-called “apostles” need to repent and begin obeying Jesus by not using titles and calling themselves mere servants who do not merit being saved much less ruling unwarranted over God’s children (Matthew 20:24-28; 23:8-12; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:15).
The 5-fold eldership giftings are to be used to glorify God was SERVING HUMBLY among His people and not to use as a title to build ones own brand in self-promotions (Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Peter 4:10-11). This is a direct contradiction of what Christ taught about the necessity of humility among His people (Matthew 20:20-28; 23:8-12).
Another clue to his smoke-blowing scam is that he is a cloud and wind without rain or without any substance (Proverbs 25:14).
“These are wells without water (no substance), clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” 2 Peter 2:17-18
This guy is very long winded to make little simple points that aren’t even biblical and he really doesn’t make those points well if at all. Doesn’t the Bible tell us that the LORD is not the author of confusion? See 1 Corinthians 14:33. It would seem, at least in part, that John Welty is striving in the flesh and wanting “job security” as it’s called today. In other words, he wants people to think they need him which would assure his rule over them and being funded. So he’s deliberately not upholding the “Head” but instead he’s usurpingly intercepting the worship due only to Christ, the only Head of His body from which all divine virtue flows. See Colossians 2:18-19.
These “false apostles” give themselves away by never mentioning the very “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” Jesus alone is “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.”
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;” Hebrews 3:1
Isn’t it interesting how much time and energy these circus clown wolves spend claiming and touting their own self-appointed, supposed apostleship and say little or nothing about the very “Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus”? Now that’s a huge red flag, waving profusely!
The “Apostle” that matters is Jesus Christ, not modern men who wish to elevate themselves among other men by touting titles and thereby deceiving and snaring souls.
Paul, a known servant and true apostle of Jesus, appointed by Christ Himself, stated:
“Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” 1 Corinthians 1:13
Inserting so-called modern “apostles” into the equation is Nicolaitan domination over other souls which is witchcraft, which Jesus says He hates (Revelation 2:6, 15). JESUS Christ is building HIS true church as He promised and warns us about false prophets and false apostles, especially in these final days.
“The spirit of antichrist” opposes Christ by replacing Him who told us He is the only way (John 14:6). Those possessed with “the spirit of antichrist” don’t antichrist” don’t “consider” or esteem and factor in the only true Christ – Jesus Christ. They factor Him out of their message and your mind and life. That’s the very job of “the spirit of antichrist” who is Satan himself who has come to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). The “spirit of antichrist” is that evil spirit that works to replace Christ with something or anything else, derailing those who once knew Him (Colossians 2:8; 18-19; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; Hebrews 3:12-14; 1 John 4:1-3). Anti means in place of and so “the spirit of antichrist” replaces Christ with a false Christ or anything else (1 John 4:1-3). So, this evil spirit, working through false apostles like John Welty, seeks to replace Christ with himself in the lives of the people he preys upon.
You see, this guy is not preaching Christ but self. Paul said “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23). Welty distorts and throws out smokescreens with lots of fluff and stuff that goes undetected by those who have chosen to reject Christ in their own personal lives and therefore don’t study diligently His written Word. They therefore find it intriguing to hear all this acrobatic language that makes him appear as if he is a guru who has a special line to God and yet, in reality, what he says amounts to nothing.
Paul says: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14
You will most likely never hear John Welty say those words and if you do, he will twist them. Welty is glorying in self, not the Savior. Those snared by this man’s ministry of deceit will be like Welty – self-serving and Savior-rejecting.
1 John 4
“1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
Glory intercepted: This fellow is under “strong delusion,” even having been sent by God this “spirit of antichrist” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). If you look at large segments of this guy’s work, you will not see him preaching and confessing Jesus Christ who came in the flesh because he is purposely x-ing Jesus out of the message in order to be able to elevate and establish himself and give job security to himself. The spirit of antichrist comes on those who want to reign over their own lives as Lucifer vaunted himself against the Almighty but was cast down for doing so.
If you are going to understand how the enemy works, you must understand the following passage which holds the key to understanding and being able to detect the work of the enemy of all souls:
Isaiah 14
“12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”
Did you see the 5 “I”‘s of Lucifer?
In Heaven in eternity past, Lucifer, who is now Satan, appointed himself to be “like the most High.” This is exactly what the self-appointed, so-called “little gods” of today do as they seek to wield their manipulation over the people just as Lucifer did and was successful at garnering a third of the angels in Heaven who joined him in rebelling against God (Revelation 12:7-12). The first rebel, Lucifer, was cast out of God’s presence violently and permanently because “God resisteth (sets Himself against) the proud” (James 4:6).
Ezekiel, the servant of the LORD, was told by God to “Speak WITH MY WORDS unto them” (Ezekiel 3:4). Timothy was charged to simply and only “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).
Note what the elders of Israel did in ministering to God’s people:
“So they read in the book in the law (written Word) of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” Nehemiah 8:8
They simply read God’s Word to the people and helped them “understand” GOD’s Word. ANY person in “ministry” who is not doing this is a bona fide wolf on this basis alone.
As the video goes on, Welty speaks of “tools we can use daily.” I don’t like this word “tools” for more than one reason but firstly, I don’t like it because it’s not biblical language. What’s wrong with using the word “tools” and other non-scriptural terms and words? Well, lots. The premise from which he speaks is that WE use God and the things He has given us instead of being LED by and of Him. In this guy’s Luciferic theology, we take what God gives and use it as we see fit. He’s an enemy of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18-19). When we obey Jesus, we lay down our lives and deny self, take up the cross and follow Christ who is “the resurrection” and raised us up in His power, humbled before Him and simply following His lead. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Do you see the difference here of being led by the Spirit and taking things into our own hands, even the “tools” God gives us? In this guy’s corrupted theology, God isn’t in control but he is.
Then he speaks of these so-called modern apostles whom he says “God” has called to “steward these things to you.” In other words, you need THEM. THEY are essential, not Christ, but them. You seeing this baiting and switching? This is slight of hand friends of Christ, so beware!
He says “this is what Christ is doing….. not apart from my stewardship but through it.” So, according to this wolf’s deranged theology, you must have him to have the work of God done in your life. It’s through him, not Christ but him, that God is doing His work. Absurd!
Then he says Christ was not our substitute but rather did what He did for “our benefit.” There we go again – he is making everything revolve around man when God’s Word teaches us that man is utterly depraved, corrupted, and sinful and that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sin. This man has replaced who the Messiah revealed in Holy Scripture with a false Christ that simply does all he does for the benefit of man. He’s like some cosmic bellboy who has come to give man tools to do his (man’s) own bidding as he sees fit as his own little god.
He uses more code language here such as “sanctified contact.” No such term or language appears in Holy Scripture. It’s like these guys create their own language to hoodwink the unlearned who refuse to study God’s Word and seek His face.
“Nine spiritual tools”? There are nine “GIFTS” of the Holy Spirit given to the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:4-12) and nine dimensions of “the FRUIT of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23); but never are nine or any “tools of the spirit” mentioned. What spirit is this man speaking by and of? The answer should be obvious.
Ouch, then he digs himself deeper with this feigned idea and worn out scheme of “learning the language of the covenant.” But his use of the words “language of the covenant” is not referring to simply learning the language given us as Holy Scripture which would be the language of God’s covenant if you will. You see, by his whole new language, he has to complicate the simple Gospel, the original Gospel, in order to establish his own position and profession and make people believe he is above them; and that they need him to know all these useless things he is putting forth and making sound fancy. To the contrary, Paul speaks of “the simplicity that is in Christ”:
2 Corinthians 11
“2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.”
John Welty is the typical esoteric clairvoyant channeler or medium who feigns to have some special line to God; and be a modern apostle of Jesus in order to trick people into submission to his high and mighty calling and Luciferian self. This man is a self-appointed false apostle and false prophet just as we are warned about in Holy Scripture (2 Corinthians 11:13). As we are doing here in identifying and exposing this false apostle. So did the Ephesian believers. Jesus said to them:
“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried (tested) them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” Revelation 2:2
Welty is a classic and typical example of a man who does not memorize God’s Words but rather has learned a simulated certain type of terminology in order to feel as though he has something unique that people need to learn. That’s his purpose for not preaching God’s Word – so he can introduce and seduce. Instead of simply teaching the written Word of God, false ministers try to come up with something different or something other than just the Bible so that they have their own brand of ware to peddle and make themselves seem unique and a needed commodity. But the Bible instructs us to “Preach the word” and to “speak with MY words unto them;” and “If any man speak, let him speak as of the oracles (written Word) of God” (2 Timothy 4:2; Ezekiel 3:4; 1 Peter 4:11).
I don’t sense the Holy Spirit in this man’s life at all which would be evidenced by “the fruit of the Spirit” or that Christ-like evidence produced in the life of the true disciple who is dying to self and being conformed to the holy and humble image of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us (Romans 8:28; Galatians 5:22-23). A self-serving man is a man who is separated from Him who “is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). With no exceptions, those who are possessed with the fruit of God’s love live their lives to serve others and not exploit them for selfish cause.
Welty’s use of the words, “being in submission to my stewardship as an apostle,” gives his whole gig away. To the contrary, the Bible says:
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
Submitting to God is what is important, not submitting to mere sinful men. And, we are commanded to only submit to those servant elders who preach only God’s pure Word, and diligently watch for our souls (Hebrews 13:7, 17). Such a servant is very rare and nearly impossible to find in this late hour.
Welty’s system of submission is no different that that used by the catholic church which has added itself to the equation of salvation, falsely claiming that there is no salvation outside of Rome. But the true believer knows there’s only one Hope, one Way, one Truth, one who is eternal Life, one Mediator, and one great Intercessor!
Listen to what the apostle of Jesus, Paul, said concerning his place as an apostle:
“Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith (faith in God not Paul) ye stand.” 2 Corinthians 1:24
Yet Welty, and deceivers like him, claim to possess some great authority that believers should submit to. Nonsense!
Paul said that the Corinthian disciples of JESUS were only to follow him AS he followed Christ, and not if he departed from the faith and ceased to follow Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul was protecting the people even against himself, of whom he said he must “KEEP under” his body and bring it into subjection lest he also become rejected as a reprobate or one who is “castaway” from God (1 Corinthians 9:27). The apostle Paul, a true apostle of Jesus Christ said to the Galatians, that even if a very angel from HEAVEN (not hell), or if he (Paul) ever told them anything different than what he gave them in giving them the Gospel of Christ, that they were to consider him “accursed” (Galatians 1:6-9).
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach ANY other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach ANY OTHER gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8-9
This guy is a false as they come. I stopped the video here. It should be more than clear that John Welty is a child of Satan himself, posing as a minister of righteousness.
2 Corinthians 11:12-15
“12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
This guy is so obvious that part of me wants to burst out laughing, and the other part is very sad that there are so many severely lost and unlearned souls who would follow this error; and are one step away from the Lord’s wrath and don’t even realize it.
Paul, a true servant and God-fearing overseer, cried with literal tears for three years day and night, because he knew devouring wolves were going to enter in from among the people of God to lead away and destroy souls. He therefore commended them to the Word of God which is our only protection – but only as we ourselves seek His face and study what He told us in His Word.
Acts 20:27-32
“27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
In verse 32 Paul gives you and me the solution and safeguard to deceit and wolves – “the word” which is able to grant us a heavenly “inheritance.”
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“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” 2 John 9-11
Concerning apostles, one servant writes:
“I believe the scripture bears out that the use of the title of apostle should be reserved for those first apostles who were taught directly from the mouth of the Lord. That would include the eleven, plus Mathias, and Paul. Those apostles will forever be held to a greater position of respect since God chose them to be firsthand representatives of the message and Messenger He sent, Jesus Christ. Their revelation of Him and His message should never be added to, but it may be expounded on by the Spirit who continues to give us understanding of those things. Thus, those men stand alone in their call, and the bearing of the title should be reserved for them alone. That title makes that distinction clear. To strengthen this by the scripture, let us remember that while Barnabas and others were apostles, they were NEVER referred to as apostles by title. (Apostle Barnabas?) This was to distinguish them from second generation apostles who did not learn directly from Jesus Christ, but followed the first generation apostles and continued in the apostle’s call of teaching among the scattered sheep, establishing churches, and walking in the way of the Lord as examples to the whole flock. Yes. Genuine humility is essential in our walk and call, regardless of our particular position for edification in the body; but it is a particularly important characteristic for those who are entrusted with the call of a second generation apostle since we minister to the whole body. Our example should be the life walk of the High Apostle of us all, even Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1).
Finally, Some may argue that they need to use the title as Paul did, so that they will be given proper respect. However, the use of the title does not necessarily give respect and usually turns true believers off (thankfully). Paul was indeed a first generation apostle and even his use of the title did not always work to his favor. There was a lot of pain that went with his authentic title. I dare say, not many who call themselves that today would be willing to pay the price that he did – which was another PROOF of his apostleship.
In His grace,” M.
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Apostasy
SINLESS PERFECTIONISM: WHOSE Righteousness are You Trusting? [podcast]

Salvation, justification, overcoming sin all come by way of the mercy of God, the divinely enabling grace of God, and the cross, the daily crucified life (Luke 9:23-24; Romans 3:24-26; 4:4-5; 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20; 3:1-3; Titus 3:5-7, etc.). It does not come by mere self-determination or self-will.
Don’t strive. Surrender.
Beware of the sinless perfectionism mob.
Beloved, God found us, in our sins, and saved us into His eternal kingdom! (Romans 5:6-9; 1 John 4:19). We didn’t find Him. He found us!
Defusing the iniquity of self-righteousness increases exponentially when we begin learning the biblical doctrine of fallen mankind (Genesis 6:5, 12; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:18; Psalms 39:4-5).
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. … 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:18, 24
“It’s actually freedom when we embrace the Bible truth of how wretched we are! We don’t have to hide it or try to be better than we are! Jesus can now reign on the throne of our hearts and not self!” Karen Cochran
Realizing our own utter helplessness, hopelessness, and depravity and taking up the cross is the only the safe place with God right, the cross, the bowing to Him to take full control…. See Matthew 5:3; John 3:30.
All self-righteous religious hypocrites are going to hell (Matthew 21:31). May God save, forgive, and cause us, to bless us to be His authentic disciples. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Paul’s flesh was and our flesh is a constant reminder of the ever momentary need for the cross, burial, and resurrection grace of Jesus (Romans 6:3-10; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20, etc.). Read Romans chapters 6-7 each morning this week.
The cross reveals your sin, and God’s love, not how wonderful you are! Repent!
Saints, we cannot possibly begin to appreciate this “so great salvation” that is Christ until we understand how lost, helpless, and alienated we were in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-10; Hebrews 2:3). We must study to understand the biblical doctrine of inherent sin, fallen mankind, and the holiness of God …. in order to begin to be able to appreciate the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
Touting our own supposed righteousness is a dangerous undertaking. Lifting ourselves up will result in being brought down low, with no exception.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18
All I have to do to find the man most in need of God’s saving grace and mercy, is to look in the mirror (Romans 7:18, 24; James 1:23-24). As long as we neglect to look in the mirror, honestly, we will continue to be self-righteous as were Jesus’ most evil enemies, the religious frauds, the pharisees of His day (Matthew 23). Are we pharisees or humble, broken, honest disciples of Christ? (Matthew 18:3-4)
“If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.” Job 9:20
“Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” Proverbs 20:9
There is NO righteousness outside of Christ (Romans 7:18, 24).
Every single day is the opportunity to overcome – yet this will only happen as we choose to do things God’s way – the cross. Romans 6-8; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3, etc. Sinless Perfectionism Exposed
The no sin nature people are missing the cross. The Mike Desario’s, the Charles Finney’s, and the Jesse Morrell’s of the world peddle the no-sin-nature heresy and also do not preach the cross, the crucified life. They rag on endlessly about “stopping all sin” but never mention the crucified life which is the only divine prescription for overcoming sin (Romans 6, etc.). That alone makes them false, peddlers of “another gospel.” (Galatians 1:6-9) This is why they can’t understand this. They do not realize that God gave us the solution to this sin bent (iniquity), this inherent in fallen man sin – and that answer is the crucified life which is at the heart of the original Gospel.
“True holiness” comes exclusively from the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Yet this is not just our position in Christ, it must also be the practical reality of our lives lived (Ephesians 4:24). The holiness of God, “true holiness,” requires the “daily” cross Jesus commanded which separates us from self and sin (Luke 9:23-24; 1 Corinthians 9:27, etc.). Sin is overcome exclusively via oneness with Christ in an abiding relationship (John 15, 17) and not by mere self-effort alone – which is antichrist. The point established in the whole of Holy Scripture is that we are beholden to the Savior, the LORD Jesus, and must be honest about our wretchedness outside of a present abiding relationship with Him (Romans 7:18, 24) whereby the fruit of holiness is produced. There’s a slew of self-righteousness being promoted as “holiness” today through wolves who’ve digested the false teaching of devils like Mike Desario and Charles Finney and those who peddle these doctrines.
“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (not self): 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (atoning sacrifice) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26
After being attacked and accused of being a Roman catholic, Baptist heretic…. the response to the accuser was as follows:
Thanks for the attack, the persecution. I do rejoice (Matthew 5:10-12). I am certainly anything but Catholic or Baptist. Now, to examine what you wrote ….No one is a more staunch exposer of Rome, nor a more critical exposer of the eternal security Baptist, protestant lie (the ministry has 3 landmark books exposing OSAS – over 1,000 pages total) ….. So what you are saying here is a lie, bearing false witness, instead of dealing with the Scripture truth of these things. There is no cross in this sinless perfectionism movement, and the cross is the only way to overcome all sin – by the resurrection power of Christ (Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 4:10-12). Also, there is no grace (divine enablement) or faith in your message, but rather only rote mechanical obedience as if people are earning their own way. This alone makes your message errant, not according to the whole counsel of Scripture. | Eternal Security Exposed | Catholic Church Exposed
You offer some truth here and yet this sounds like Mike Desario, Charles Finney falsehoods, the no-sin-nature, sinless perfectionism heresy.
Sinlessly Perfect? You Sure? [podcast]
Beware of the sinful self-righteousness masquerading behind feigned perfect obedience. This Sinless perfectionism they are pushing is pure self-righteousness.
I am not your enemy ….. attack if you see fit. Yes, the LORD does say that obedience is essential, it proves that one knows the LORD or is known of Him (Matt 7:21). Good works do not save us – Christ alone saves us. This is a real subtle deception. There is the need to synthesize “ALL scripture” which teaches, that faith, obedience and good fruit do not save us, God does, by HIS sheer mercy.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:5-7
Sinful self-righteousness has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus. Matthew 21:31
Self-righteousness was one of the sins of the pharisees and is soul damning (Matthew 23, etc.). Even the publicans and harlots will be in Heaven before the self-righteous religionists (Matthew 21:31).
Obedience is the fruit of saving faith and yet our obedience doesn’t save us. According to this passage, you are under a spirit of witchcraft – to think your own works-righteousness, law-keeping saves you:
“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:1-3
Think about this that Jesus says from perhaps a new perspective … “IF you love me, keep my commandments” …. perhaps He is saying “If you don’t love me, don’t bother obeying Me, because that is futility.” Good works/obedience, fruit are borne out of an abiding relationship. It’s about relationship, not earning our own way I know this well as I was out of balance for many years. I am not seeing this as an argument … just discussing, okay?
There is no cross, no crucified life in the message of the sinless perfectionist heretics and therefore they are preaching “another gospel.” (Gal 1:6-9) The cross is the divine solution to sin and is at the center of the original Gospel and that’s the only way to be raised up out of the flesh and victorious over sin, not be mere self-effort. You are kidding no one but yourself if you believe your own good works are at the ground level of your justification before a holy God who sent His only begotten Son to do what we cannot do. – If righteousness comes out of just sheer obedience, law-keeping, then Christ is dead in vain.
“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Galatians 2:21
God is holy and holiness is essential for eternal glory (Hebrews 12:14, etc.). Yet such comes about by the crucified life Jesus prescribed, the cross and the resurrection (raising up) grace of God – not by seeking to be perfect on our own, not after beginning in the Spirit and then vainly attempting to be made perfect in the flesh (Galatians 3:1-3).
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under GRACE.” Romans 6:14
There’s no cross and no grace (divine enablement) in the message of the sinless perfectionists and therefore their message is false. Heretical.
It’s like they seek and are boasting about their own obedience and their own self-willed sinless perfection. Nonsense. Laughable.
Overcoming must be done in and through Christ – in a real, abiding relationship with Him which sinless perfectionist frauds never mention.
Recognizing our own need to be humble, contrite, broken, and fully dependent on the LORD is what we learn in Scripture, not hiding behind sinless perfectionism but rather being authentic, honest, and realizing that without JESUS and being one with Him in an abiding relationship, we can do nothing to please God (John 15:5).
“For without me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5
It’s better to cease pretending in my opinion, in light of the whole counsel of Scripture. I am not a good person, neither are you. “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Admit it. The sooner we become HONEST with that which is more than obvious, announcing freely and transparently – that there is “NOOOO good thing” in us except CHRIST, the sooner God will begin a new, deeper work in us! (See Romans 7:18, 24.) The Cross!
We are all very imperfect and in present and perpetual need of the LORD’s saving grace which requires a born again and abiding relationship with Christ.
Those who truly follow Christ are to be fully dependent upon Him, not self, or self’s supposed perfect obedience – which is a farce. See Posture of Dependency
Lest someone should erroneously believe there is any justification for any sin, let me say this: Jesus is coming back for “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27), And “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.”
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” Proverbs 16:6
This is how we can observe the ministry of Jesus and His apostles. The only people they were harsh with were the rich and the religious. They were not harsh with people who sinned and were convicted and contrite, humbled before God, seeking His mercy, repentant. The woman taken in adultery is one such example…..
Stone Casting Qualifications
Jesus never called the woman taken in adultery (John 8) or the woman who had had five husbands and was now living with another man, a whore (John 4). Jesus was not harsh with either of them. What does this say for some of these self-righteous, hate-mongering, arrogant, pharisaical, enraged, embattled, need-to-get-saved street preachers so prevalent today who openly call scantily clad women whores instead of winning them as Jesus did? Perhaps it’s the lust in their own hearts driving them? (See Romans 2:1-3.) We never see Christ needlessly provoking, condemning, screaming at, or yelling at lost sinners. WHERE did Jesus or any of His apostles possess such a hate-filled attitude other than when Jesus rebuked them in their younger years for seeking to call down fire from Heaven? Christ rebuked them with “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of” (Luke 9:54-55).
DID Cain murder his brother Abel because of Abel’s sins or his own?
“Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” 1 John 3:12
Those who slander others do so because of the wickedness that exists in their own hearts.
No Sin to Deal with?
1 John 1:8-10 should be kept in mind…. synthesized, right? Yes…… 1 Corinthians 2:13
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:8-10
If we are saved by our supposed obedience, we all fall short, right? Should we not rather trust in the perfect obedience of CHRIST? Memorize Romans 4:4-5. This is in no way to excuse any sin, period (Romans 6:1-2).
“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:4-5
WHO earned our salvation? Jesus.
“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Ecclesiastes 7:20
FROM A SINLESS PERFECTIONIST:
REPLY:
May God find us with Christ’s righteousness, not our own …. The righteousness Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross is the only righteousness God honors, all else is “as filthy rags.”
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
What righteousness does God see us in right now? Is it our own, or Christ’s?
“And be found IN HIM, NOT HAVING MINE OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” Philippians 3:9
Without Christ’s present saving mercy, this disciple is absolutely hopeless, sinful, and doomed. I will trust Christ’s righteousness and not my own!
“Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” Proverbs 20:9
None is righteous by himself, on his own merit and that what sinless perfectionism teaches….. you are being fed by wolves like Finney and Desario…. you didn’t get this in the Bible, by organic personal study… that’s why there’s an imbalance…..
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Apostasy
Jesus Answered Questions with Questions [podcast]

“AVOID FOOLISH QUESTIONS”
Could it be that one way to “avoid foolish questions” is to ask questions when questioned?
“But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition REJECT; 11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.” Titus 3:9-11
One of the best ways to “avoid foolish questions” is to answer them with questions. Read that again.
All questions that come to us are not evil and yet, as we see with Jesus’ religious enemies, some questions do come from evil hearts with ungodly motives.
“For we are not as many, which corrupt (twist, adulterate) the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:17
Jesus used the art of asking questions and so should you. This will revolutionize the way you interact with others, if done correctly. And, this should never be used from a heart that is not pure in the eyes of God. The disciple must beware of the evil that lurks within his own heart (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:18, 24, etc.).
“Asking questions was central to Jesus’ life and teachings.”
Jesus used this method of answering questions with questions in order to shift the burden of proof, expose the motives of his critics, and force his listeners to think deeply.
One commentator notes:
“How many times did Jesus ask questions?
In the Gospels Jesus asks many more questions than he answers. To be precise, Jesus asks 307 questions. He is asked 183 of which he only answers three. Asking questions was central to Jesus‘ life and teachings.”
The Big Question is … What’s behind the question?
WHERE is the questioner seeking to lead this conversation?
We should pray for discernment to know whether there is evil intent or the noble desire for answers behind the questions asked of us.
Questioners with evil hearts ask questions in order to get themselves off the hook or deny what the Bible plainly states. This some do to distance themselves from the conviction of conscience the truth is causing them. And if you buy the package, if you take the bait, they will suck you in and devour you.
Beware of the enemy’s tactics.
“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (schemes, tactics).” 2 Corinthians 2:11
“Jesus frequently asked the Pharisees questions. He challenged them. Most of the time He answered questions with questions! He called them out! Which angered them greatly. Jesus was skilled in the art of asking questions! I could learn much from a study of questions Jesus asked.” Karen Cochran
ALWAYS GIVE GOD’S ANSWER AND NO OTHER (1 Peter 3:15): Beware that when God’s Word is spoken, those who love darkness rather than light, those who are unrepentant will divert from the Word by asking you questions off of the WORD itself in order to divert the conviction from their unrepentant hearts (John 3:19-21). STAY with the Word – whether they like it or not (Isaiah 55:11). You owe no man an answer other than to give them what God says – what the LORD stated in His unchanging Word (Mark 13:31). Jesus tells us that such men as will not hear His Word, are “NOT of God.” And, that if they were “OF GOD” they’d be humbly, astutely looking for and hearing HIS Word (John 8:47). Memorizing the words of Jesus recorded in John 8:47 will put your discernment miles ahead. I underlined the key words:
“He that is OF GOD heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are NOT OF GOD.” John 8:47
When you give rebels the answer of GOD from HIS WORD, they will attack you – the mere messenger. They are not there to learn. They’ve made up their minds and are sticking with their rebellion. Always remember, their issue is with the LORD and not with you.
You see, unrepentant men do not like the answer God gives to their questions. They are looking only to justify sin, not repent and confess it as the LORD requires. So their questions are aimed at finding a way to justify their sin – to justify their refusal to truly repent, lay down their lives in this fleeting world, and follow Jesus for real. That’s the crux of the matter.
Isn’t that exactly what the pharisees (false teachers/religionists) did to Jesus?
“Let GOD be true and EVERY man a liar.” Romans 3:4
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalms 119:105
Give God’s answer and no other. You owe no one an answer to anything else, except what God says about it. Refuse to allow rebels to lead you around by the nose with their deflections and questions.
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” 1 Peter 3:15
JESUS ANSWERS QUESTIONS WITH QUESTIONS
Getting a taste of how Jesus dealt with evil hearted religious folks is going to greatly develop your ability to navigate the hate-filled attacks against Christ and you by truth-haters. This will help you as you earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints in the original Gospel recorded on the pages of Holy Scripture (Jude 3-4).
Jesus questioned His questioners and so should you! You serve the LORD Jesus and are not obligated to answer every question that comes your way. Sometimes, you have to stay in control in these situations. I say this specifically referring to conversations you will have with rebels. They have nothing good in their hearts and in many cases, have no heart for the truth, just like the religious frauds of Christ’s day.
Personally, I’ve seldom seen so much evil as when I refuse to answer questions from those who seek to misdirect the conversation away from the Word of God. Often detractors use mere human reasoning, or anything to manipulate and twist and get the emphasis off of what the Word itself clearly states (Mark 7:6-9). This is a tactic they use in order to promulgate their false belief, justifies their sin, and that contradicts Holy Scripture. Such was the case in this recent attack and conversation – Preacher Viciously Attacked for Speaking the Truth! [podcast]
Jesus is THE BOSS and He’s Your Boss! Follow Your Boss. Follow the Example of Your Boss! We learn from our Boss by beholding what He did. And, our Boss, the KING of all kings, asked questions to questioners.
Our Lord was skilled at asking precise questions that drove to the heart of a situation, centering everything on HIS kingdom and never acquiescing to the sinful whims and manipulations of unrepentant men.
Some of Christ’s most profound questions came as a response to those who were questioning Jesus. The following is a list of some of the questions Jesus used in questioning His questioners. This is not an exhaustive list of every question Jesus ever asked and is on record in the Bible. In order to help the reader, I’ve underlined and hi-lighted the words which indicate questions for the reader to capture the essence of how our LORD answered questions with questions. I’ve included also the questions Jesus asked His own disciples. Some of these questions are noble and most (from His enemies) are hostile. As you will see, those questions from Christ’s enemies are obviously inherently evil. I’ve highlighted with yellow where the LORD specifically cites them for such, calling to the reader’s attention the heart motives of those asking the questions. Jesus interrupted their attempted deflections, cover-ups. He called them out on it. Here’s the interaction:
- Matthew 9:14-15 – 14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? 15 And Jesus said unto them (a question), Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
- Matthew 15:1-3 – 1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, 2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
- Matthew 15:33-34 33 – 33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? 34 And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.
- Matthew 17:24-26 – 24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? 25 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? 26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
- Matthew 21:16 – And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
- Matthew 26:6-10 – 6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
- Mark 2:5-11 – 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? 10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
- Mark 4:10,13 – 10 And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. .. 13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
- Mark 4:38,40 – And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? … 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
- Mark 7:17-18 – 17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also?Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
- Mark 10:2-3 – And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. 3 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?
- Notice in this exchange below how Jesus is, as always, in charge, in control and therefore answers the questions of these hypocrites with questions and puts them to work – because He knew the hypocrisy of their hearts and what was behind their foolish questions.
Mark 12:14-17 – And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny (Jesus puts them to work), that I may see it. 16 And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. 17 And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.
- By Jesus telling these men that they did err, were in error, because they didn’t know the “scriptures, neither the power of God” which comes from proper relationship with Him, He was in part directing them to get into the Word where the answers are found. Mark 12:18, 20-24 – Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, … 20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. 21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. 22 And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. 23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. 24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
- Luke 2:48-49 – And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. 49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist (knew) ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
- Luke 6:1-3 – And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. 2 And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? 3 And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; 4 How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?
- Luke 10:25-26 – And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
- Luke 10:29,36 – But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? … 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
- Luke 12:41-43 – Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
- Luke 18:18-19 – And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
- As Jesus “taught the people … and preached the gospel”…. wicked religionists hurled questions with evil intent, questioning Christ’s authority. As His custom was, Jesus answered them with a question.
Luke 20:1-4 – And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, 2 And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? 3 And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: 4 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
- John 8:3-10 – And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. (notice Jesus’ response to their question here – He didn’t answer it verbally but with this action) But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?“
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America2 years agoThe Drugging of America: The Pharmakeia Sorcery Deception [podcast]
Articles3 years agoChildren being Rescued in Tunnels: Happening Now – UPDATE!
Articles8 years agoSelf-Examination in Preparation for the Lord’s Return
Apostasy3 years agoSHOCKING List of False Prophets Most Believe are True













































