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Why did I call this blog ‘Rejecting Plato’s Apple’?

I found James Thwaites summarised his entire writings from ‘Church Beyond The Congregation’ and ‘Renegotiating the Church Contract’ well:

“The same addiction to the idol as continued down to this day. The serpent’s action in the Garden was no different to what he did via Plato in the fifth century BC. The ideal other was simply upgraded to match the move in Israel (precipitated by the judgement of exile) away from idolatry to a more consistent monotheism; hence the statement; platonic idealism is just a more sophisticated form of idolatry.” - James Thwaites, Renegotiating the Church Contract, pg. 103

To me, if we reject Plato’s philosophy, we’ll be rejecting Satan’s apple. We will be rejecting the idol of the mind and the idol in a form. He goes onto say:

“Plato simply moved our attachment to the instinctual away from the creature and to the conceptual. As such, idols were no longer feathered, furry or of wood and stone. Now they were made of pure, invisible thought. The idol as ideal was no longer earthy, tangible and present; it was now spiritual, abstract and future-oriented. It still, however, retained the quality so necessary to Satan, i.e. the fixed, arrived, absolute and complete feel. Adding strength to this new version of instinctual life was the (apparent) attachment of the ideal to the transcendent realm. We had upgraded from idols and animals to ideals and eternals, but essentially the old operating system had remained very much in place.

Dow through history the best way to house, protect and express the idol or the ideal has been the authority construct. Priests aligned to rulers have generally always spoken for the dumb idol. In the Roman Empire these were joined as one in Caesar. Throughout subsequent history the emperor, king, state or institution has held, on behalf of the people, the right to own and thus speak for the idol or the ideal. The apparent reality that the idol or the ideal contains is used to justify the right of the authority construct to exist and exercise its power. Idealism is a catalyst for institutionalism and the institution is a catalyst for idealism. It has always been a very convenient marriage. One… that produces a powerful offspring named ideology.” “The same addiction to the idol as continued down to this day. The serpent’s action in the Garden was no different to what he did via Plato in the fifth century BC. The ideal other was simply upgraded to match the move in Israel (precipitated by the judgement of exile) away from idolatry to a more consistent monotheism; hence the statement; platonic idealism is just a more sophisticated form of idolatry.

We have come along way from the days when pharoah was declared divine and thus determined the life and fate of so many. Now the most powerful construct on the planet is the corporation and the most powerful form of idealism is consumerism. The church has kept well in step with the journey of the ideal - generally mimicking and, whenever possible, marrying the power brokers as they moved from empire, to state, to institution, to corporation. When future life idealism predominated the church was more necessary to the emperors and monarchs.” - James Thwaites, Renegotiating the Church Contract, pg. 104

You can stop reading here if you want. I’m just going to start talking about me and my experiences leading up to reading James Thwaites materials.

The above is one of my favorite parts of the entire book. This spoke to me so much, because this is what I discovered while going through high school. It was great to have someone else confirm my views and spiritual experiences.

For my major work, I combined Egyptians and images of the divine and pharaoh to the contemporary corporations and governments. I was exploring the power of ideology and how a greater power seemed to determine how man thinks and behaves. My understanding in how the media operates out of immorality rather then truth opened my eyes. In my art started depicting elements of reality of the media and turning the mass media giant into a filthy consumeristic, thousand eyed, whoring, spiritual beast.

The creature that I made next was a giant slug-lizard face that consisted of on eyes just a giant mouth. It’s tongue was an arm and hand, grabbing onto anything that it saw (with a single eye hanging from the back of it’s tonsil), and consuming it. It’s many arms were but tentacled necks with it’s hands being arm-tongue faces too. Whatever it ate, it grew and hoarded. It lived in a giant slime-covered shell. It was the blind, tasteless spirit of the consumer.

I also played with the spirit nemesis/controller (that looked like a bit like Sauron’s eye) to represent our thirst for power and control as people of the west; the Breeder (spirit of conformitism) it’s imagery depicting the Egyptian sun; the Deziak (spirit of lust) it’s appearance depicting sensationalism and sexual excitement (nothing crude); the Excellence (spirit of perfection) it’s appearance of a golden horned star goat, appearing to look very masonic and cult-like but ideal, dripping gold from it’s beard and meditating like the Buddha, offering perfection and wisdom to all that glorified perfection.

The final spirit was the spirit of truth (the Dahktile), which was absent from the city and lived on mountains. (I’ve often associated prophets with the mountains). It looks demonically hideous and foul. Not on it’s own accord, but by the scars we placed upon it’s once beautiful body. It lost it’s beauty the more people twisted truth, corrupted it’s appearance and distorted it’s value in the world.

The dragon-bird blinded-like spirit-beast blesses anyone that seeks it out, regards it and cherishes it. Often people are too afraid to approach it because of it’s sinister appearance.

The reason why I did these things at song a young age was because I was sick of seeing people chase after sex, perfection, power, coolness and material gain. At Oxford Falls Grammar school I scared my Christian teachers and friends when I painted this beast flying out of my hollow eyes into a dark frightening looking sky. This was for a project, ‘Me, Myself and I’. I couldn’t focus on ‘me’. While everyone was painting plastic ‘life is good’ images around their portraits, I had to paint what I wanted people to get offended with: truth. It was absent in everyone elses work. No one was embracing the realities of life, but depicting their wants and desires. I saw this as idolatry (by my Christian friends in a Christian school).

The teacher loved it, but everyone else thought I was suicidal. I remember saying, “If you hide this painting, this painting is condemning you for the truth you prefer to avoid ever confronting”. I said it again to the teacher when she said she needed to hide it for parent teacher night. My painting SCREAMED truth - accepting things that we don’t generally want to confront. If we don’t keep confronting the truth’s of reality, we are stuck with our idols. We don’t grow or mature. We are going backwards if we hold to our ideals and idols.

I didn’t realise the significance of what I stumbled upon in year 9. It was hard and the cost was great. I learnt something that no High School system or Christian Church could teach me. I went through such hard ship as I’ve had to stand up for myself and others and have done things I never thought were possible. I’ve Rejected Plato’s Apple. Have you?

Here is a great article I stumbled across when talking to someone on Facebook.

http://www.herealittletherealittle.net/index.cfm?page_name=Colossian-Heresy

A great read of what heresy Paul was combatting in the Colossian church. Here are snippet of what was said:

“Of the “pleroma,” ISBE states:

“For the Gnostics God is the ultimate, nameless, unknowable being called the ‘Abyss.’  He is perfect, but the material world is alien to the divine nature.  How, then, does it come to exist at all?  What is the source of its imperfections and evils?  The Gnostic answer is that the FULNESS (Gr. pleroma) of the diety could flow out in no other way than in emanations or aeons or angels, all of which are necessarily imperfect, the highest of them being more spiritual than the grade immediately below.  Of these aeons there is a gradation so numerous that at length the lowest of them is almost wholly corporeal, the spiritual element having been gradually diminished or eliminated until at last the world of mankind and of matter is reached, the abode of evil.  In this way the gulf is bridged between God and mankind.  The highest aeons approximate closely the divine nature, so spiritual are they and so free from matter.  These form the highest hierarchy of angels, and these with many other grades of angelic hosts are to be worshiped. (p. 488, vol. 2, “Gnosticism”)

We see this Gnostic belief in the need to worship the angelic host specifically referred to later in the letter (Col. 2:18).  Paul’s argument for the primacy of Christ, which began in verse 15, rebuts the Gnostic teaching on the nature of the Godhead.  It is not through the hierarchy of angels (aeons) that Christians are reconciled to God, but rather through His son, Yeshua the Messiah.”

This here is key for me, as I was keen to do an article on the ‘Doctrine of Demons’ and how that it was related to the Greek and present times. Below they say it better than I could.

“COLOSSIANS 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe [ta stoicheia tou kosmou], and not according to Christ. (NRSV)

Paul gets to the heart of the problem in verse 8.  He warns the Colossians of the devious philosophy the Gnostics were promoting and labels their doctrines the traditions of men (see Matt. 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-13), as well as the teaching of demons.”

We need anti-Gnostic teachers today to help cleanse the church from these teachings from ‘doctrines of demons’. Or as the NRSV so nicely put it philosophies of ‘elemental spirits of the universe’.

Here is a blog that has done an article on a very similar topic about Hebraic and Greek thinking. It was refreshing to see someones views on this too.

“What’s the difference between thinking like a Hebrew and thinking like a Greek?  No, there’s no punch line, let me explain.

When I say Hebrew or Greek,  I’m not necessarily referring to the concept of nationality.  Rather, I’m talking about the difference between eastern and western mentality, or more specifically - the difference between a Scriptural and a worldly mentality.  You see, when I speak of thinking Hebraically I’m not talking about thinking like a Jewish person.  Nor am I saying that having a Greek mindset is referring to a person of Greek heritage.  It really is a picture of thinking either biblically or worldly.

God created the Hebrew people and their way of life.  He invented a people that would follow Him by entering a covenant relationship with Him.  That means whether a person is a natural born Jew or a Gentile, they are a part of God’s family if they’ve accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior…”

Read the entire post here:

http://www.ezekielthree.com/Ezekielthree/Hebrew_vs_Greek.html

It is important for Christian’s to realise HOW INVOLVED God is with His creation and OUR LIVES. The gospel continually declares that God is forever present in our reality, no matter what we think, feel or do in the present reality.

James Thwaites open up Chapter 4 of his book ‘Renegotiating the Church Contract’ with the following:

“The Platonic worldview did not come from God. It is not taught in Scripture. It should have no place in defining either the nature or the purpose of the church. Our challenge is that its leaven has worked its way substantially through what we deem to be the primary expression of the church – that being the local church organisation… There is quite some difficulty in describing something that does not exist or at its best unknowable. This is the challenge when it comes to examining the nature of the platonic regime.

It is the unknowability or inaccessibility of the Platonic realm that is… the source of its power over so many people’s lives. To uncover the reasons for its elusive sway over the Western and Christian minds we need to look into the way it taps into and turns the creation reality away from the good.”

James Thwaites then goes on to talk about the transcendence and immanence of God.

I would like this post to explore the different realities of God both the Platonic and the Hebraic world views offer.

I think it is about time we explore the Hebraic and Platonic World views. One is a godly world view – the other, unfortunately (I believe) is demonic in so many ways.

Hebraic World View

The Hebrews believe God is in all things.

God brings the sun. God brings the rain. The Israelites saw God move powerfully in pagan Egypt. They saw their God meet with them powerfully at the Sea of Aquaba, the Sinai wilderness and deserts. They saw their God live, dwell and fight with them as they came into pagan Canaan. They saw God in the temple, in their children, the elders, the family and the community.

They knew God was in the sun and the rain, in the heat of the day, the morning mist and in the cool among the grazing cattle.

They saw God express His beauty through the flowers and his gentleness through the seeds of a dandelion (if they have them their). They saw his strength and might expressed through thunder, storm, fire and mountain. They saw his wisdom and life hold things together, they saw his love expressed through community, they saw his richness expressed through perfumes, mineral and solar system. You get the idea.

But God is also found in pain and in loss. His judgment was seen in famine and disease. He was also found in struggle. In the bible He wrestled with Jacob and struggled with His relationship with Israel (there is a significant link between the two as Israel means . In that struggle with Israel, Israel saw their God cares for them and loves them. Israel saw God choose to limit Himself within His creation and also saw Him respond with human emotion and vulnerability. Their God was incredibly engaged with their creation. If you look at the bible – he is not often talked about transcending outside of time. He CHOOSES to operate within time. We also observe that the first heaven (earth’s atmosphere), the second heaven (the great vacuum of space) and third heaven (invisible realm) are all connected and have a place WITHIN creation, not beyond.

Artistically, God is the painter’s, the writer’s, the singer’s, the worker’s, the artist’s best friend.

With this perspective, we see God fully at work in His creation and in His community with the Hebraic world view.

Platonic World View

The pagans, (we’ll say through platonic thinking), believed that their God’s were not in all things.

James Thwaites says:

 “Plato’s power to deceive comes from the way in which he made use of the perfections (attributes, nature and power) of the eternal transcendent God. He made these the focus or the goal for human existence. There is a semblance of truth here, in that these eternal perfections do actually exist in God. But… they are infinitely out of reach. Things like the eternal, the ideal, divine holiness, absolute knowledge and the like exist only in the transcendent God himself…

Plato’s ploy was to make the focus of life and truth something and somewhere outside the scope of human experience. He disconnected truth and reality from the life of the image bearer in creation and (supposedly) attached them directly to the infinite. Thus, rather than travelling in, through and over the finite revelation of God in creation, people were dislocated from their present life. Essentially what Plato has done in messing with our mind is to make us focus on the perfect and ideal rather than the good and created relational present.”

Our everyday life in creation is considered to be the backdrop, the waiting bay, the shadowlands waiting to the defining moment when ‘it’ all comes into focus. The platonic realm is ever inaccessible to people because reality is always elsewhere - that being said, there are a group of people in the Platonic programme, the elite, who have special knowledge of this ideal realm. There are the chosen few who are in contact with the ‘eternal’. These ‘philosopher kings’…”

We can see that Plato with this philosophy is seemingly treating the human race and creation like a donkey and has offered us the carrot that we will never obtain. This philosophy is Gnostic in origin as we try to obtain that level in God so that we can be more like Him. With this mental thought/wiring in striving to that ‘closeness’, we start the religious road to enlightenment. Therefore, we are often trying to see what God wants us to see and are struggling to obtain an enlightenment that so called prophets, evangelists and ‘apostles’ already have… ‘supposedly’. We can deny religion as much as we want, but unless we desperately seek truth, (commune with God, focus on the gospel, return to our first love and use the mind of Christ God has given us), we will fail. Now that we are aware of how we are taught to think, this religious philosophy has a much weaker and powerless grip over our minds.

Think about this. Think long and hard about this. How does advertising work? How do governments speak to get re-elected? How do leaders speak to congregations? Why are church visionaries so exalted? How do corporate businessman or bosses speak to their staff?

With the exaltation of the ideal, (the perfect, the transcended, the glorified, the pure, etc), all being associated with the divine, we see a division of the divine with the fallen, corrupted, muddied understanding of the world. Lets see what Jesus has done with this philosophy of Plato by coming to earth and doing the work He came to do in obedience to His Father.

Reformed World View

The Hebrew God who revealed himself as Jesus completely turns this platonic agenda upside down, exposing it as a lie. The Gospel, (the Good News, who IS Jesus Christ) exposed this lie. He revealed that God IS in us and not far away at all. He is a God that revealed himself as both HUMAN and DIVINE, that goes against the philosophies of Plato’s gospel. Let’s see how he does this through His incarnation and ministry:

Jesus Christ’s ministry exposed the lie of the Platonic Philosophy. This is just one thing he did to the platonic. From the Hebraic World view, this is what we too are called to do like Christ.

In Jesus’ life, what revealed His perfection, His godliness and His glorious aspects of His Father (Love, Wisdom, Word, Faith, Hope, Forgiveness, Mercy, Peace, Gentleness, Light, etc), was His willingness to engage His Father’s creation. Through Jesus’ challenges, His wisdom and authority and love and faithfulness was revealed.

When God made the first Adam, He gave Adam an untamed garden/wilderness to TAME. Since the first Adam knew NOT what sin was, he would learn how to face the challenges he would come up against in the wild and untamed creation. Adam was to GROW into the fullness of the creation that called him into.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil seems to be the short-cut/robbery of man experiencing this discovery of creation. Adam was to grow up into all things like God was, but THROUGH the creation He was placed in. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil operated outside of God’s agenda, and undermined the gift of creation to man and its purpose it served in relation to God.

Hidden in creations DNA was a hidden function that responded to mans actions to it. When man chose to eat of the forbidden tree, creation RESPONDED to Adam by bringing in death, thorns and sweat to seemingly prevent him from entering INTO the fullness of the creation.

What Jesus revealed through His ministry on earth, is how relational God is to man through His creation; and how we are to walk through it TO inherit its fullness. Read the gospels again.

If Jesus did not encounter opposition; if Jesus did not encounter angry mobs, hard questions, dangerous sea-storms, angelic temptations, puberty, sweat, frustration, pressure, tears and death, what proof would we have that he is God?

To truly show He was a God of purity, he fell in the dust and filth of the streets while carrying his cross – still sinless until his final hours. He embraced sin, the curse and death. Since he became our sin, we can push on through our shortcomings. We can be thankful that He is willing to deal with our impurities by becoming those impure things. But in our relationship with Him, he chooses to work through our short-comings, sicknesses, greeds, lusts so that we may turn to Him to take us out from such acts. He dealt with all these impurities! This is the God who loves us that we know!

In further examining the New testament, we see Jesus revealed as Judge, Love and also the God who holds death in His hands. With this Hebraic pattern laid out in front of us, what is revealed is that through our suffering, God is there WITH us. In our sin and imperfection, God is there WITH us. This is what the gospel revealed – but this is something that the Jews had an understanding about all along (until they were exiled and started adopting pagan beliefs into their own). We will all face the death of love ones, but death, struggle and pain will help shape us into the PERFECT will of the Father, just as it did Christ. Christ was born as an infant and walked into the fullness His Father laid out before Him, by having His Son embrace difficulties, trials and judgments.

Now Plato has twisted the Hebraic meaning of the word ‘perfect’. For when God said ‘be perfect just as I am perfect’, James Thwaites beautifully writes:

“When the word ‘perfect’ (teleios) is used in scripture in relation to our lives, it refers to our being who we were made to be. When Jesus speaks of being perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect he speaks of our journey towards the fullness of who we are, not a journey to arrive at the actual perfection of God Himself.”

This means I can value my journey with God intimately and appreciate where others are with God in their personal journeys with Him.

Now it is important to note how creation responded to the death of the man who did overcome IT through His death and Resurrection. This is also talked about in Romans 8. It says how we through Jesus’ Spirit, now walk on His road of suffering into the fullness of the creation that can’t wait to be liberated. Christ laid down the Hebraic world view and plan down through His ‘perfect’ life. With His Spirit in us now, we all walk in our ‘perfection’ into maturity and fullness like Him.

We shall embrace other people’s short-comings/sins and embrace the grave like Him. But we too shall be raised like Him.

I pray that Jesus will reform your philosophy and your world view. (Yes this is brainwashing! But at least NOW you KNOW who is doing the washing!)

Now that we are in communion with God, he has made us ‘perfect’ in His creation and among His human family. Enjoy the adventures of life and learn to rest with yourself, in God in His creation. You, as a Christian will endure incredible hardship and will have to learn to embrace the thorns, sweat, tears and death in your life, just like Christ did, so that you may grow into the fullness with God in this life. You will have adventures and stories to tell to children. You’re life will be full of rich memories! People around you will see what you go through WITH God and will see Him through your trials when you acknowledge that He is there among those dark times.

So I encourage you to shake off the shackles of Plato’s lies and walk in ‘perfection’ through these God-given difficulties of this present creation. Don’t take short-cuts or escape the realities of this present creation. Engage WITH THEM! Let God reveal what YOU are capable of in His life!

Learn to enjoy your hardships !

Until next time… Think Hebraic, not Platonic!

Jake

The Gospel Of Experience

Well! This took me by surprise. I wrongly referred to Bacchus being the Greek God of wine. In fact that is the Roman interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus.

In researching further Dionysus’ character and what he represents, his influence in the church is much more recognizable than I thought so originally. Dyonysus is the Greek god of wine, ecstasy and self-gratification. He is also related to frenzied madness that could lead to murder and also inspires ritual mysticism, dance, fervor or madness. (Wine or ecstatic experiences were used in many greek ritual.)

Dionysus wears a fox-skin which symbolizes new life, but is also depicted wearing a leopard skin or shown riding a leopard. He was also accompanied with Pan (god of music).

In Athens there were festivals in his honour known as the Greater Dionysia and the Lesser Dionysia. The festivals were performed enthusiastically through religious fervor, ecstastic experiences and were orgasmic in nature. The center of this worship was called the sparagmos. A worshipful act was performed where  people would tear apart a live animal, eat it’s flesh and drink it’s blood, believing they were partaking of the god’s body and blood.

The Greeks believed they could obtain something of Dionysus, (that being his resurrection-like nature). The Greeks believed that Dionysus was born from His dead mother which Zeus (the Father) killed, due to Hera’s trickery. As a result of the death of Dionysus’ mother, Zeus delivered her child and continued to grow the child in his thigh by cutting it open and placing the supposed dead child in his body before being birthed from the side of his leg. This is how the Greeks believed Dionysus was born twice.

Thus in their festivals, it was believed once a year, Dionysus would be resurrected from the dead to play a fertility role in these rituals and ceremonies. The Greeks believed that Dionysus stayed with Persephone’s home in the underworld, hoping one day get his dead birth-mother back from the under world – Semele. He would be summoned up from Hades through these rituals. Thus doctrines and dramas/performances would play a dominant role in these festivals and rituals. After the major festival, the spirit of Dionysus would return to the underworld and stay with Persophone in an attempt to find his mother.

The Five Counterfeits

Let’s see if we can now DISCERN a similar spirit to Dionysus in the church today… It is INDEED present!

Has anyone else picked up how much drinking the ‘new wine’ is in the church these days? Combine that with ministries heavily promoting worship ‘experiences’, ‘ekstasis worship experiences’, ‘drunken glory movements’, ‘smashed in God’s presence meetings’… You start possibly seeing a similar spirit.

This gospel message starts on the GRACE road! But c’mon! Get that NEW LIFE inta ‘ya! Get plastered by Jesus! Daddy wants YOU to have FUN! This gospel emphasizes grace to the point that it’s hedonistic agenda starts detatching believers from the gospel, the bible, other believers, churches and community. It’s an alternate reality. The results, (from personal experience), is devastating. People’s eyes have turned to God’s hands and not His heart. Their eyes follow experiences and eventually – God hands them over to those experiences. People worship the experiences they want for fun’s sake. It is also easy to enter into this kind of experience. It is the role of the hypocrite (actor), becoming something that you are not, and surrendering to ‘it’.

They have set their own snare. The experience chasers wait for the next ‘experiential’ leader to give them the next dose of a ‘Holy Ghost Hose down’.

They often use these out-of context scriptures to justify their experiences and motives.

Acts 2:15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose.

And,

Eph 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

To them also, the Song of Solomon’s justifies this drunken glory movement.

But Paul says:

Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Others come to mind, but I can’t find them at the moment. I will publish them when I get the time.

But it’s worse than just chasing experiences… Remember Dionysus is associated with DRAMA! As a person who has studied drama, in these kind of church cultures, I have found it easy to identify those dramatizing something that is not present or faking being in God’s presence. There is holiness and there’s hype.

What’s odd is also the timing of this so-called ‘New Wine’ (Shakir) doctrine hitting the church globally. As soon as a lot of churches returned to the foundations of solid grace teachings, they focus on the Spirit birthing us as new creatures. This is biblical. But do you see the connection here with Dionysus? A doctrine of a SECOND BIRTH.

Scripturally also, we are RESURRECTED with Christ in this NEW LIFE we share with Him. Now this is where it kilter’s off the narrow road. Rather than living a life disciplined and self-controlled by the Spirit, we see something rather hedonistic manifest in our meetings and mimic the role of Christ. Meaning is lost and we don’t know what second birth, new wine or what resurrection life is any more.

I do believe that God wants us to have fun with Him and experience Him to an extent – but I’ve never seen that be a solid focus in any of the Apostle’s teachings. It seems hedonistic in origin, and as a result, a lot of Christian’s are getting so called ‘drunk’, ‘sloshed’, ‘smashed’, or ‘high’ in the glory of God. Unfortunately, I am led to believe we are following the fox-skinned spirit and not a new-wine-skin Spirit which was Christ’s blood and life, now in us.

If this is a counterfeit spirit in today’s church, can you also see how it mimics the Pass-over meal and some of Jesus’ controversial teachings (‘eat me’). I even recently saw on youtube a really belittling Passover meal. This wasn’t it. It was worse. But here is an example of people who go after experiences but lose the sense and meaning of Passover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-WJ-QqUXsQ

By all means question the articles I write. I myself often become a bit spooked of the parallels that run between the Greek gods and the different types of Jesus’ the church is portraying today. I thank God I am made wary of possible counterfeits. If you’re chasing an experiential Jesus, you might end up eating at the table that does not belong to the lords. Test the spirits at all costs!

While the wine represents the blood of the covenant with our God, the wine of Dionysus makes us forget. While we partake in eating the bread and are reminded of the life we partake in through Christ’s Holy Spirit, the animalistic feasts of Dionysus make us forget how we should approach the communion feast, soberly.

Remember that Dionysus is also associated with theatre. Communion is based in reality, not a romantic ideal or occasion which is often portrayed in today’s church as well. With a romantic approach to the cross, a lot more meaning and reality is lost, and so too is Christ’s down to earth message of His love to us.

So I encourage people to beware of the counterfeit wine which belongs to Folly and not get poisoned on Dionysus’ poison ivy concealed in the wine (1). Beware people or groups who turn church into a theatre-scape by faking the spirit, tempting you to fit in and fake it too, OR romanticize doctrines in the bible where the true meaning is lost (2). Beware the temptations to chase wrong experiences out of hedonistic ideals (3). Beware of the ‘New-Wine’, ‘second birth’ doctrines that can lead you down the paths of experiential deception. (5). Beware of the mystic road these experiences can take you down.

Let me say this again in point form so you can possibly observe the counterfeit signs you may come across:

1.     Test the cup you are encouraged to drink from

2.     Test to see if there are spiritual theatrics in the room

3.     Test the experiences to see if they are God given

4.     Test the doctrines that relate to wine and second births.

5.     Know the roads of mysticism and spiritism but avoid them!

In writing this, there are some ministries that I know that fit these descriptions too well. This disturbs me greatly and is freaky! This unfortunately, is the latest Jesus that is being presented to the church. And oddly enough, in relation to theater, it’s followers love to dress up as pirates, princesses, faeries, monks, nuns, super-humans/heroes and odd animals. So I’ve had to update this ‘other’ Gospel accordingly

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE Experiential GOSPEL

Names: Drunken Glory Movement, Slosh Fest, New Mystics, Ghost Toking, New Wine, Wine Barrel, Crack House,

Works: Spirit encourages people to imitate a stupefied, drunk, stoned or trippy Jesus for hedonistic, ecstatic or experiential sake.

Greek God Gospel: The Gospel of Dionysus/Bacchus

Outcome: ABUSIVE SUBSTANCE

This is a book by Timothy Keller. I want to get this and I want to read it. It sounds like a book that tackles exactly what I am trying to talk about. My sources for writing on the subjects of Plato are the books by James Thwaites, ‘Church Beyond The Congregation’ and ‘Renegotiating the Church Contract’; and also ‘Plato’s Republic, Abridged And Modernised, A Vision of Truth, Justice and The Ideal Society’.

I hope ‘Counterfeit Gods’ deals in this similar vein so I can use this book as another resource for this blog.

I’m writing three articles at the moment.

I’m hoping to get one done soon. In the meantime, I want to post this quick.

I met a Baptist minister who was taught that there was a gulf, void, pit or division separating man from God and that obstacle was sin. I’ve  seen this preached in many churches. I’ve also seen this needs to be stressed to non-believers so they may see the circumstance they are in between god and man.

This logic boggles me. After Adam and Eve fell, God CAME and clothed them. While Cain was thinking about MURDERING his brother, God CAME and warned him about sin’s encroaching presence. When Israel refused to turn to God because of their sin, God  remained with His people through Israel’s prophets.

He kept coming to them with words of pain, warning, affection, promise and hope. God was in love with His called-out people and sin did not stop him from coming down and speaking into their lives. He was fully engaged with His people.

My Hebraic god knows my shortcomings and deals with me on these issues and teaches how I can walk in healing out of my pain and circumstances. He is WITH me even while I sin, even though I may feel Him grieve.

To those that don’t believe Him, they make Him grieve because He sees their hurt and  wishes to live in them to heal them of all their foolish sufferings. SIN DOES NOT SEPARATE GOD FROM MAN. God from the beginning, has proven to us that he keeps coming again and again to grace us and show us mercy.

He knows how fragile we are – but also knows how evil we can choose to be. Nevertheless, He is engaged FULLY in His creation. There is no rift. People can deny God – but He is still in their life blessing them and gracing them too. The scriptures declare that the whole earth is His and that nothing can separate us from the love of God – that seems to include UNBELIEF!

So what hole or rift is that cross actually filling in that diagram?

Hears a clue – the Hebraic sees God in all things. The Platonic divides separates God from all things. I encourage you to examine this topic further.

So I’ll let you do some research into this if you want. But this time you’ll…

Think Platonic! Not Hebraic!

Jake Elliot

THE PLATONIC TWIST

Before I continue, I had a friend comment on my last writing about the ‘Gospel of Nike’.

They lovingly said:

“Sounds an awful lot like “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” to me.

be careful to make the distinction between generic situations that affect all believers, and specific revelation God gives you about specific things…”

This is true. But let me clarify: there is nothing wrong going out to preach the gospel to the whole world. Fifty years ago there was NO exaltation of ‘revival’ either. If they happened they happened. However, due to the platonic leaven in the body of Christ, these ‘ideals’ are more exalted sometimes then Jesus – and many of us have seen the confusing contradiction in these meetings questioning what is more exalted.

There is one more thing I need to let people know what I am doing with these types of ‘false gospel’ articles - I am being contradictory. I need to say this again as I did in my final post of “The Hebrew Gospel to a Greek Church (Part 6)”:

“What I am about to do now is not an Hebraic thing, rather a Grecian category, listing the things that I have personally seen manifest in different ministries around the world.”

I feel also compelled to stress this again which is of the Hebraic world view:

“The Hebraic world view would say that they are one and the same thing but expressed differently – that being the lie.”

If we observe the names of certain church movements and doctrines, they seemingly reveal these specific types of ‘gospels’ but also demonstrate how they are all specifically intertwined together in one big mess.

The above interwoven knowledge, power, money, etc gospel results in a Platonic clash. The Platonic wishes to purify and exalt knowledge itself and does not want to see power or beauty associated with it. Beauty often is not associated with intelligence. Strength or power wishes to remain separate from any form of intelligence and believes practical is more pure than brain power. It’s the classic (oddbodz) game of brains beats beauty, beauty beats beast/power, beast/power beats brain.

But the Hebraic world view embraces this understanding to be various manifestations of the one lie. Therefore there is no clash in the Hebraic world view on this issue.

If you’re a bit confuse with what I’ve said above, try this example below:

• “Hades was having sexual relations with Proserpina. Adonis was exercising his own intelligence. Eros was becoming stronger and winning over Apollos.”

Let me explain what I just said in the previous sentence that reveals the Platonic clash:

• “Hades was having Aphrodites with Proserpina. Adonis was exercising his own Athena. Eros was becoming Atlas and Nike’ing over Apollos.”

The platonic thinking manifest in these stories of the ideal person of these broken categories CLASH!

Under the Hebraic world-view they are all one and the same thing but expressed differently – the Lie. Or what Paul calls it – delusion/ deception.

In briefly addressing this, I would now like to look at another stronghold/ false gospel/ entity.

This next one is an interesting one.

THE FALSE GOSPEL OF REVIVAL

You’re probably thinking the brand Nike, right?

It’s an interesting name for a brand don’t you think? Let’s see if we can find Nikes origin. Let’s go back to ancient Greece.

Nike means ‘victory’. Victory was seen in the Olympian games. Victory was also a god. Nike is seen engaged in raising a trophy, or in battle inscribing the victory of the conqueror on a shield.

So we have the Greek god Nike who personifies Victory.

She is a winged goddess, often seen flying above the head of the victor. Nike translated across to the Roman religion is Victoria. She is also portrayed in greek art as a divine charioteer rewarding those on the battle field with reward, glory and fame.

She is also the god of Strength and Speed. (Strength, speed and winner obviously being associated with today’s brand.)

She is often portrayed in Greek painting, sculpture, statue and currency.

Just as Eros and Aphrodite’s were one and the same (Gods of sex), so too are Atlas and Nike.

PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH SPIRIT

I remember clearly about three years ago a bit of hype was coming out of America and was hitting Australian shores. There was word that ‘revival’ was coming to Sydney. This made me feel uneasy and with a bunch of close friends we prayed about this. If this was to be God, so be it – if it wasn’t – may it be rebuked. We felt sure God was doing something and if it was revival, we’d embrace it.

I don’t know why I prayed this – but I felt lead to pray against a competitive spirit as I suddenly imagined myself BEING THE FIRST to bring revival to Sydney Australia, seeing God use me mightily in the Manly Corso leadin thousands to Jesus.

I observed my vanity and self-elevation and was disgusted with myself. If this revival came, I wanted to be FIRST!

I felt that I wouldn’t be the only person feeling the pressure to be the first to bring a revival to Sydney - I liked the pride, glory and ownership that would come with it. I don’t think I had have ever felt like that before. As a result, I shared what I just experienced and prayed a rebuke against a ‘spirit of competition’ that would want to work that way in the church.

Not long after that prayer meeting, I started meeting off Christian’s who started calling themselves ‘Revivalists’. Going to and hearing big name preachers speak at Hillsong and C3 conferences, Sunday nights and in various other churches – I noted the elitism of certain churches being the first to bring revival to Sydney for the city.

One preacher specifically went to a small church and said revival was coming first to the local church - those humble to do Gods work in the community. 

That same ‘preacher’ then went to a mega-church and then told that mega-church they were going to be first. Both churches shouted ‘amens!’, both churches were flattered, both churches - at that time could not see at the time this could not be true.

I’ve heard preachers say, ‘God will be using this church to bring revival’, ‘God will be using the small local churches to bring revival to this great nation’, ‘God will pour out His Spirit in ways unimaginable to this congregation. He will makes nations come and partake in the glory in this place’. I observed these STRONG preachers were from America.

These ‘outpourings’ would be a QUICKENING move of God to bring radical change in the church and the community and all would see God move with STRENGTH and power. From this anointing, (the definition of this word at this time being associated with oil quickening the process), God was going to bring this church into glory and bring other churches to be apart of this revival.

Nike is seen carrying a palm or a wreath. Symbols of reward and flattery for the victor Do you see the similarities with Nike - this manifestation of the corrupt platonic thinking?

This revival gospel is Nike’s Gospel!

Paul never once preached revival – he preached dedication to Christ and seeking first the prize. James preached the importance of holding on, defending and contending the faith. Jesus continually warned to NOT be deceived by flattery, vain words, self-glory and pride.

The Gospel of Nike offers a so called revival of God-Speed, Power and things that brings glory and fame to the church. And many churches today want to be seen as that church WITH THAT GLORY! Beware of this gospel!

It offers revival but it takes our eyes off the prize. Anyone see that happen to any significant ‘revival’ in the past few years?

Because of Nike, I’ve added a new False Gospel/God entry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE COMPETITIVE GOSPEL

Names: Anointing Doctrine, Triumphalist Theology, Latter Rain, Kingdom Now, Dominion Theology, Manifest Sons Of God Theology, Revivalists, House Of God Doctrine, Bridal Paradigm, [Biblical Character] Generation, [Biblical Character] Army, City Takers

Works: promises and flatters a church that they are the specific carriers of revival, or that they will be the FIRST to bring a revival of glory to the city and the nations, promoting a very Competitive Jesus.

Greek God Gospel: The Gospel of Nike/Atlas

Outcome: COMPETITION

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The last thing we need in the body of Christ is to compete against other ministries. With the peddling of the Nike Gospel, this is what I believe we are seeing in the church today, and it is fragmenting and dividing church against church.

I’m sick of seeing division in the body of Christ because ministries are trying to be the first to be the most impacting to the nations. As a result, they are hoping they may receive some kind of recognition by God through their works – a revival or glory to set themselves apart from the rest.

Whether they be so-called religiously dead or stock-standard or common ministries – they desire to be more set apart and be more noticed by God, noticed by other ministries and last of all, the actual community or city itself.

EXAMINING THE GOD ATLAS - NIKES HUSBAND

I want to look briefly at the Greek god Atlas. People often have the misconception that Atlas carried the earth on his shoulders/back. Creepily enough, the truth of Greek mythology reveals that he carried the weight of the heavens upon his shoulders/back.

The unhealthy focus of revival in the church also places upon the back of saints, the burden and deluded conviction that it is meant to be US that is to bring a revival fire to the world.

It’s true we carry the Spirit of God within in us and we are part of a heavenly Kingdom. But there is an unnecessary burden that some people choose to carry in the church, the ‘heavens’ demanding God to have them opened for revival’s sake. This has convinced some in the church that a work is needed for God to bring revival or to a mighty work. As a result, Christians - like Jews of old, are doing odd rituals to get God to send revival or do a new thing.

This is wickedness.

They hold nights of repentance, events for interceding for cities, weeks of fasting and praying. They do other odd works they think is required of them by God. They are trying to force God, or finally make God reward them by opening the heavens and bestowing a spirit of revival so they can spread this revival across the atla- I mean world FIRST.

Some ‘thing’ has convinced us it is our job to carry the heaven’s on behalf of God to the nations. A pastor I know once spoke of how guilty he felt for not bringing the Kingdom of Heaven or gospel to Africa. He then taught how God knows what He is doing. He exposed the twisted idea that their is an unhealthy ‘ideal’ (the platonic ideal) for Christians to do world missionary work because it is the Christian ideal thing to do. And if you don’t, you’re not fulfilling heaven’s cry to spread God further. (You’re a Christian and you haven’t done missionary work? Better get on the fields then!)

I have felt this heavenly oppression. I have shaken off it’s oppressive weight. This isn’t God. He let me know it wasn’t Him. It was a sickening ideal that was driving me, guilting me, shaming me that I was not being responsible enough in my Christian walk. How dare I not be going into all the nations of the world, bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to desperate tribes and people!

Have you not felt this unrealistic burden and oppression?

Ask God if this is him or spiritual oppression!

THE FINAL WORD

Now to quickly expose the lie of this Nike/Atlas gospel: Christ is our Victor and Victory but shows no favouritism to His church – His grace and favour are poured out onto to all those who believe in Him. The anointing doctrine is a lie. (Hopefully I wont forget to do an article on this soon). The Holy Spirit is a person, not an oil or a ‘speed’. The Spirit leads and points us to Christ to deal with us.

Revival should never be the church’s focus – God, His message and us walking in accordance to this message and obedience to His Spirit, is essential to the mission of the church.

Competition cares about winning and being set apart, bragging of it’s strength, speed and accomplishments. Jesus moves at his pace one heart at a time. He boasts of His greatness through our weakness, vulnerability and foolishness – and it’s in living this way that exposes the demonic doctrine of Nike. I pray that you hold onto the true gospel and reject the demonic gospels that plague the church of today.