Richard Foster and the Athletes of God, the Athletae Dei

Church History labels a group of Christians as The Desert Fathers. These guys were the early monks, leaving material comfort to go be with God in the desert.

Certainly monks went too far in many cases, and also seem to miss the point: by completely abstaining from material things, they made material things the measure.

At the same time, they knew material things were a hindrance to true worship of God. You cannot serve God and mammon. They knew this. Did they end up worshipping God truly? I guess that’s for God to decide.

These guys seem even more foreign and ridiculous to modern Christians because we are so comfortable with material things. “What’s the big deal? Everyone has this stuff.” But that’s exactly why they went to the desert!

Here are a few quotes from Richard Foster’s book Freedom of Simplicity about them:

“The Desert Fathers renounced things in order to know what it meant to have the single eye of simplicity toward God. They were the Athletae Dei, the athletes of God, who sought to strip away all hindrances. There is no question that there were excesses in the monasticism of the Desert Fathers, but no more so than the excesses evidenced in the Church of today in the opposite direction.”

Point being: They went as far into simplicity as we are into excess. Which one is better? Probably both wrong, but one at least was attempting to deal with it. We are told in Hebrews 12 to run with patience the race set before us, this is done by laying aside every weight and sin that besets us. Every weight is probably material stuff/mammon.

“Detachment frees us from the control of others. No longer can we be manipulated by people who hold our livelihoods in their hands. Things do not entice our imagination; people do not dominate our destinies.”

I believe this is true. This is especially true in terms of debt. Proverbs says that who we are indebted to, we are slaves to. Whether actually financially in debt, or in debt because of our lustful cravings for more stuff, both enslave us.

The fact that monks went too far and whatever spiritual gain they made seems mostly achieved for their own benefit not anyone else’s, doesn’t mean they didn’t have a point.

Hebrews 12:1 is in the Bible. We have made too much peace with the world, and because of that are carrying around way too many worldly concerns that are impeding our progress in Christlikeness.

Tozer on the “Jingle Bell Crowd!”

“Our hindrance, our difficulty, is our lack of desire for God. We have reduced this entire spiritual matter to a kind of mail-order, automatic acquisition; Christ died on the cross. I believe he died for me. Now I have nothing to do but wait for His return and He will give me a big, bright crown.

“Let me tell you, there will be some bitter disappointments in that coming day when we find how wrong we have been. We have tried to reduce our relationship to God to an automatic coin-in-the-slot proposition. And it will not work that way.

“I remind you that we live in a spiritually troubled time in history. Christianity has gone over to the jingle bell crowd. Everyone is just delighted that Jesus has done all of the sorrowing, all of the suffering, all of the dying.

“Christian believers are emphasizing happiness. They no longer want to hear what the Bible says about death to self and the life of spiritual victory through identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. The number is great of those who will no longer admit that spiritual victory often comes through wrestling in a long, dark night of the soul.

“‘That is not for us,’ they contend. “Jesus did all of the suffering so we can be happy. And we are going to be happy even if we have to invent new ways to happiness.'”

The Gospel Has Power, But Where is It?

One request Paul made in his prayers for the believers in Ephesus was that they would know “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”

This is in the context of God’s plan of redemption, our coming glorification, and inheritance. This is all cool stuff. Paul says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and set Him in heavenly places is the same power working in us (1:19-20).

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

I can only assume Paul would pray the same thing for us. That our eyes would be enlightened and we would know this power. In 3:20 Paul says God can do exceeding abundantly more than we could ask or think according to His mighty power.

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

Paul says later in chapter 6 that we should be strong in the power of His might.

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

It seems the entirety of my Christian life I’ve been surrounded by people who tell me there is no power. That you can believe the Gospel and it makes or requires no change. That as long as you say The Prayer, you’re in, don’t worry about it. You don’t do anything. Even if there is never any fruit or external change, you’re still saved.

It’s a Gospel with no power. Yet repeatedly the New Testament talks about God’s power in relation to the Gospel and salvation.

On the flip side, I also have known people who think their ecstatic experience: speaking in tongues, hand raising, healings, alleged miracles, are proof of this power. Yet all these things are external, things that makes my physical life better and more thrilling.

Is that really what Paul is talking about? Ecstatic emotional experience that people in other religions also get? This is above all that we could ask or think? It seems exactly what people ask for and think!

In the middle of Ephesians Paul throws in this verse, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man” (3:19).

That’s Paul’s idea of power. Spiritual strength, probably most easily summarized with the Fruit of the Spirit. This is above what we typically are asking or thinking. Everyone loves the spiritual gifts that make us feel special. Spiritual fruit is humiliating and hard. Who wants that?

Yet I think that’s the power. Spiritual growth. True manifestations of the Spirit always look like Christlikeness.

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

Where are all these fruits of the Spirit in the church? Where are all the mature believers? How come I hardly see any of this? Do I just not have eyes to see? Am I too cynical and judgmental to be able to see it?

The question remains: Where is this power?

Why are we not talking about this? Why do we keep telling people the Gospel requires nothing out of you and results in nothing in you? Why do we make salvation about going to heaven when we die rather than living a new life raised up with Christ?

Ephesians says that the same power that raised Christ from the dead and set Him in heavenly places is at work in us. Where is this power?

A W Tozer on Emotions and Christian Experience

We know that the emotional life is a proper and noble part of a man or woman’s total personality. But by its very nature it is of secondary importance. Religion lies in the will and so does righteousness

God never intended that such a being as mankind should become the mere plaything of his or her feelings. The only good that God recognizes is the willed good. The only valid holiness is a willed holiness. That is why I am always a little suspicious of the overly bubbly Christian who talks too much about himself or herself and not enough about Jesus.

Then I am always a little worried about the “hope so” Christian who can not tell me any of the details of his or her Christian experience.

And finally, I am more than a little concerned about the professing Christian whose experience does not seem to have resulted in a true inner longing to be more like Jesus every day in thought, word, and deed.

–A W Tozer
Men Who Met God, page 18

Doctrinal Debates and The Gish Gallup

The Gish Gallup is a debating technique where tons of information is thrown out at once to either sound overwhelmingly authoritative or to distract.

Here are several examples so you will know when you’re being Gish Galluped while talking theology with someone!

The Gish Gallup bombards the other person with many arguments, and any time one argument is answered, another argument is thrown out. As you answer one of their many verses, they just throw another one out, never listening or pausing in between verse lobs.

A second way The Gish Gallup is used is when people list a large number of sources to make it seem like they have overwhelming authority. This is seen while reading Christian books, perhaps say, The MacArthur Study Bible. A phrase is followed by a parenthesis where many verse references are listed. If you look up these verses, some may mention one or two words in the phrase, but none will actually say anything close to the statement.

Paying attention to debate skills will help you understand what people are doing. It’s also a good way to identify whether a person has any idea what they are talking about. Gish Gallupers don’t, they flit around on the surface, ever moving to avoid being pinned down, and bombard you with words and verses and other things to give the impression they are winning by all their noise.

Best way to deal with this tactic? The difficulty in refuting this tactic is that it requires thought, time, and an attention span, and Gish Gallupers don’t have any of that! The best approach is to either summarize all their points into a main theme and go at that, or concentrate on their best or worst argument. Ignore the noise and focus in.

You can also refuse to move off the first point under debate, just keep bringing it back. Come right out and say, “You just keep throwing more stuff at me, Deal with my response to the first thing you said.”

Getting them to focus is probably the best approach. Will it work? Probably not. If they refuse to sit on any point and they just keep throwing stuff at you for too long, move on. You’re wasting everyone’s time by continuing.

Gallup into the sunset and pray for their soul.