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The Path to Reversionism
RV61-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1993)
Once more, we are studying the letter to Laodicea, segment number seven, in Revelations 3:14-22.
The Cross
The Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross, won a
permanent victory over Satan and his demonic army. In 1 John 3:8, we read, "He that commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the
beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested: that He might destroy the works of the devil." It is very important to realize that
all of this conflict between a holy God and an unholy Satan came to a finish on the cross. It came to a climax there. The result was that Satan
was totally and completely defeated. It's very important to realize that, because all that we have said about spiritual maturity, and all that we
have said about the assets that the Christian has in spiritual things and living his life as a believer, are directly based upon that victory on
the cross. This victory has doomed Satan forever to a place that was specifically prepared for him. That place is described for us in Matthew 25:41,
where we read, "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, 'Depart from me, accursed ones, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels."
So, on the cross, there was a great, overall, strategic victory for the Lord Jesus Christ. It set the base of the combat in which we are engaged
day-by-day. There are, in the realm of warfare, two kinds of actions. There are actions which are called strategic, and there are military moves
which are associated with those strategies that fall under the category of strategic moves. They are the moves which a military force takes for an
overall setting of the battle. It tries to position itself in terms of the industrial capacity of the enemy nation; in terms of its military
potential; and, in terms of the weapons it has. It tries to position itself in a maximum desirable situation before it meets the enemy.
But that's the overall picture. Once that has been settled, then you have to make moves which are called tactical moves, and those are the actual
decisions upon the battlefield; the actual movements of troops; and, the actual engagements with the enemy. But all of those tactical moves are
directly dependent upon the strategic situation which was first set up.
So, you've heard of strategic bombing. That is the desire to set up an overall condition for the battle. Tactical bombing is when the planes are
strafing to protect and to assist the troops who are in the line; who are actually engaged in battle; and, who are doing the bombing in close
conformity to where the troops are on the ground in order to assist the battle at any particular point.
The World
On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ established the great strategic victory upon which everything else that we do is based. So, we must remember
that that is the starting point. He has taken care of the devil and of the demons once and for all. Because that is true, you and I are now free
to engage in the combat of the angelic warfare with tactical victories upon tactical victories day-by-day, because He has made it possible on the
cross for us to have victory over the world. 1 John 2:16 tells us about that victory: "For all that is in the world, the lusts of the flesh, and
the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world." The Christian can beat all that. The Christians can whip
that appeal of the world every time. The unbeliever cannot. He is a slave to that. But because of the victory on the cross, we have the ability
in the field to defeat the world at its own game.
The Flesh
Also, that victory on the cross gives us (in the field) the victory over the flesh. This is referred to in Galatians 5:16-17: "This I say, then,
walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."
These are contrary – the one to the other: "So that you cannot do the things that you would." There is within us a streak of disease of sin.
It is a nature that is inclined to evil. It has a cluster of lusts that are attached to it, and the Christian is capable of beating those –
hands down. He is capable of defeating that in the combat in which he is engaged. Again, this is because of the overall victory provided on the
cross.
Satan
Then the third factor that all of us (as you know) face – it's not only the world and the flesh, but also the devil. In 1 Peter 5:8, we
have reference to how the strategic victory of Christ on the cross gives us the tactical victory in the field against the devil himself: "Be sober
and be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour." It is almost unbelievable that
the person who undoubtedly has the greatest wisdom of all the creatures that God ever made should be capable of being defeated at your hands, and
he is. He's your adversary. But you have a tactical victory at your fingertips because of what happened on the cross.
The Christian's destiny, therefore, is total victory in the angelic warfare. All of this is based upon the death and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 sums it up in these words: "But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The
victory means the victory in the field. This is the victory in the direct engagement day-by-day and moment-by-moment in the angelic conflict.
The Spiritual Maturity Structure
The application of the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross – to apply that in time is the work of the spiritual maturity structure in the
believer's soul. The way we apply the victory of the cross in our day-by-day engagements in combat is through the spiritual maturity structure
which we have built in our souls. This maturity is viewed in the Bible as the work of the Holy Spirit, through the knowledge of Bible doctrine,
building a structure of maturity in the soul of the believer. This is the spiritual maturity structure. The goal of the Christian life is to
build this structure, fully developed in all of its various five basic facets, so as to come to the super grace level of living, where we have
a container for God's overflowing grace. Super grace is the status of maximum spiritual stability, and maximum effectiveness in Christian service.
Without this spiritual maturity structure in your soul, well-developed, you will not have maximum stability in your life as a believer: you will
have a comparatively fouled-up life; you will be ineffective in service; there will be a low level of divine good production; and, you simply will
not be functioning in the way that God has designed you to function in His service.
So, when we say that doctrine is our life, it is because the spiritual maturity structure evolves from that doctrine. Without the truth of God in
your thinking and understanding, you cannot build this structure of maturity. Without this structure of maturity, you can't go anywhere in the
Christian life. It is zero. That is why the devil hates the teaching of the Word of God. That is why the devil seeks to belittle teaching pastors.
That is why the devil seeks to discredit teaching churches. As long as they teach doctrine, he is defeated – not only on the cross, but he is
defeated in the field as well. The super grace believer enjoys major victories, therefore, and maximum prosperity.
Throughout human history, for this reason, God has stressed the basic human need of learning and applying doctrine. This is the primary divine
responsibility of the believer today: to become something spiritually – not to do something for God. Churches often deceive Christians
(well-meaning Christians) into thinking that God wants them to hustle in some way for the Lord. But what the Lord wants of you, first of all,
is to become something spiritually through the Word of God. Then you're going to be in a position where all of your hustling will be very valuable,
divine good results. The Christian with the spiritual maturity structure has the container to receive super grace blessings, and the capacity to
bless others as well. So, the primary objective, we pointed out from Colossians 1:9-10, of the pastor-teacher ministry in the local church is
to build spiritual maturity structures within the believers.
Spiritual Retrogression
The greatest hazard in the Christian life is this thing we call spiritual retrogression, which tears down the spiritual maturity structure that
the members of the royal family of God have built in their soul. The reason that you and I, as Christians, are left here on earth after salvation
is so that God can be glorified in us. The way that God is glorified in us is His freedom to bless us. God is glorified by prospering you and by
blessing you right in the devil's world. What is the devil trying to tell you? "It's not good to be a Christian. It's not worthwhile. It's very
costly." God comes along and says, "I'm going to pour out blessings like you never dreamed of." But the hitch is that without a developed spiritual
maturity structure in your soul, you do not have a container for God's blessing. You do not have a capacity to be able to take His blessing, and
to handle it.
Do you have the capacity for God to give you a million dollars? What would you do? Shall we spend the rest of the evening in a sharing testimony
meeting of telling what you would do with a million dollars? I know what some of you would do right off the bat. My daughter would buy a moped.
I know that. Some of the rest of you, I kind of know what maybe you have a desire for. Would you be capable of having a million
dollars and not tearing yourself apart spiritually? God is not going to give you resources that are going to injure and destroy you as His servant.
He left you here so that he could pour out blessings right under the devil's nose. The devil grinds his teeth, and it makes him madder than
anything, because he does not want to see you blessed. He does not want to see you prospering. When that spiritual maturity structure is in your
soul, and when you're up there strong and powerful on that super grace level, then God says, "Now I can give it to you." The rest of the time, what
are you doing? Our God is sitting up there tapping His foot, waiting for you to get with it, so that He can pour blessing out on you. It's
pathetic. Some of us are never going to make it. All of our lives, we're going to muddle around, and God is going to just be waiting and waiting
before He can prosper you in every way you can imagine.
Reversionism
The greatest hazard is for us to undermine our spiritual maturity structure, because what God wants to do is for us to reap what He sows. But
we're so dumb that we go around reaping what we sow, and we think we've got something. That's the whole point of spiritual maturity –
so that we can reap what God sows. The status of reversionism is obviously, then, a victory for Satan, who exercises a frenzied effort to deny
glory to God in every way that he can, and to direct that glory to himself. If God cannot prosper and bless you, because you do not have the
spiritual status (because you are in reversionism), then the devil is honored. And that's exactly what he wants.
But God's grace is ready to supply everything that a Christian soldier needs for life and service, and to provide it in abundance.
Reversionism
frustrates this logistical grace of God. Reversionism prevents a believer from receiving the training in Bible doctrine, which is necessary to
groom him for his role as a member of the royal family of God. It's necessary for us to learn how to act as royalty. A child which is born into
a royal family, from the very first, is trained and groomed to someday become the king or queen – to take a place of authority as part of
the royal family. The devil just loves to see members of the royal family being denied that training that they need. The Christian life is a
disciplined life. It is a life of living in the Word instead of going off on some emotional and mystical tangents.
So, if this is so important, you can bet that the devil is out there to get you to tear down the spiritual maturity that you've developed in your
soul. The way he does that is recorded for us in Ephesians 4:17-19. This describes the spiritual conditions of unbelievers. It is a condition
which Paul says was once true of us and which, as Christians, if we are in carnality, can again be true of us. But his point here is that this
should no longer be true of you. What you once were, you should not be again. Once you come into the Christian life, you should be a very different
person, because of all these assets that are available to you and that are built into your soul through the Word of God. This is a pattern of
spiritual backsliding which Christians are warned not to follow. It's a result of carnality.
Christians who are not building or maintaining their spiritual maturity structure are in revisionism. Progress in spiritual maturity
is a daily function (Matthew 4:4). Mature Christians are faced with the need of maintaining the high ground of super grace which they have
attained in their spiritual life. This means using, in part, the techniques of the Christian life. They play a very vital role in the maintenance
of your spiritual maturity structure. I'll just mention the techniques. There is a great deal to be said about this. We can't stop on that now,
but you can get the studies that deal with the techniques of the Christian life, and you certainly should go through those with great care.
The Techniques of the Christian Life
One is the technique of confessing known sins. That's very crucial to maintaining your relationship to the Word of God and the building of
maturity. There is the technique of faith rest – knowing how to do everything that you can do, and knowing how to respond all the way
as the Spirit of God leads lead you in a certain situation, and then how to rest on the Lord to carry it through from there, and to leave
it with Him. There is the technique of Bible study. This is very crucial to maintaining maturity. There is the technique of spirituality
– walking and living as a spiritual Christian. There is the technique of divine viewpoint thinking – gradually weeding out all
of the contaminated human viewpoint ideas that you come into the Christian life with. There is a technique for converting that to divine
viewpoint. And, certainly there is the technique of prayer – the crucial tactic of the angelic warfare.
The Path to Reversionism
So, we begin at Ephesians 4:17. Here is the path to reversionism. Here's the way to tear down all the capacity that you've built in the soul into
which God is pouring His grace blessings.
Vanity
Paul says, "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk (that is, unsaved people) in the
vanity of their minds." Point number one is this word "vanity." The Greek looks like this: "mataiotes." "Mataiotes" is a noun, and it means
"emptiness." Here it refers to a lack of a certain content in a person's mind: "In the vanity of their mind." The word "mind" here is the Greek
word "nous." That is associated with the perceptive function of the human mind – the function of learning, or the function of perceiving.
That is the function of what you're doing now with your mind: you're sitting; listening; and, learning the Word of God. From the language of
Scripture, you're learning what God the Holy Spirit has said.
What this phrase, "the emptiness of the perceptive mind" is referring to is the lack of Bible doctrine content in the perceptive mind – in
the place where you think things over. There is no divine viewpoint, thus, for the guidance of the other function of your mind – the
directive mind. The perceptive mind is empty. There is nothing in it. The directive mind, therefore, has no guidance. There is nothing to send
over to it, because there is nothing to send down to the human spirit reservoir, to be sent up to guide the directive mind, so that your actions
are godly actions.
This condition is the result of the neglect of learning doctrine, or being negative to the doctrine which you have heard. An emptiness is created
in your reasoning ability: when you do not have doctrine; when you are not learning doctrine; or, when you are negative to what you have learned.
The Lord Jesus Christ has provided us His own mind in the written Word of Scripture in order to supply the content for our reasoning abilities
– for our perceptive thinking. The mind of Christ is transferred to us through Scripture. Lack of Bible doctrine in the perceptive mind
creates this emptiness of divine viewpoint. When there is an emptiness, what has happened? What you have here is a spiritual vacuum in your
reasoning capacity. That is a very dangerous condition because here's what happens:
A Darkened Mind
Verse 18 says, "Having the understanding darkened." This is the second important word: "understanding." The word "understanding" is the Greek word
"dianoia." This word means "a thinking through" or "a reflecting upon." This is the faculty of knowing and understanding. This refers again to the
perceptive mind. Now we're told something else that has happened. Because we have been negative to the Word of God, or because we have not put the
Word of God into our perceptive thinking, a condition has developed in our thinking that has seriously affected an ability we have. This mind has
been darkened. This is the picture that you have – a mind that simply is blackened. The word for "darkened" is the word "skotizo." "Skotizo
means "a blackout." It refers here to a spiritual condition relative to divine viewpoint understanding in the perceptive mind. The condition is
that there is nothing there. The perceptive mind is totally blacked out relative to divine viewpoint understanding. A spiritual vacuum has been
created.
A Vacuum
The thing that has blackened out your perceptive ability is the fact that a vacuum wants to fill itself. All of you students of science know that
nature abhors a vacuum. A vacuum will try to suck anything into it to equalize and to fill itself. It will not sit there and just remain as a vacuum
unless you can force it to do that. Consequently, that's exactly what happens spiritually. What this Scripture is telling us is that the
understanding has been darkened as the result of what verse 17 told us had happened to the mind, and that is that it was empty. It was empty of
divine viewpoint. Therefore, something else was brought in, and this mind begins drawing into itself, from outside in the world, a variety of
factors.
Filling the Vacuum
It draws in false doctrines. That's where the cults come from. Where do people with cult beliefs come from? They sucked it into
minds that were devoid of divine viewpoint understanding. Human viewpoints ideas and values are drawn into the mind. Secular humanism is one
example of that. That darkens your thinking. Religion darkens your mind. Religion is the concept of man meriting salvation by things that he does,
rather than by what God does. Mental attitude sins are easily drawn into this mind, and they black out your thinking. There is rebellion against
the divine authority of the Bible – that neutral attitude toward the Bible, or that outright opposition to the Bible. The indignation toward
the concept of an inherent Scripture is drawn in. That creates a blacked-out condition of further darkness.
Then there is the pursuit of human
good, which the Bible calls "filthy rags," that is drawn into the mind, and that is placed in a position of honor. That blacks the thinking out
even further. Then, of course, there is the spirit of arrogance, which is so characteristic of the sin nature that places the sovereignty of man
as supreme in human experience above the sovereignty of God. So, that arrogance is drawn in, and that darkens the mind. Of course, one of the
blackest things that a spiritual vacuum in the perceptive mind draws in is all the occult practices that are so common, and that surround us so
widely today. In some quarters, these are presented as being such innocent little things: something in the way of games; something that is just
play; or, something that isn't really harmful. The devil has provided the occult in order to bring darkness into the perceptive mind.
Most of the people that you know walk around with a mentality like this. If you could take a picture of their spiritual condition, you would see
that their perceptive mind is totally a blackout relative to spiritual things. It is people with a brain like this that are in charge of our nation,
by and large, today. It is people who have enlightenment in the perceptive mind who are now desperately struggling to bring the nation back to
enlightenment and prosperity by bringing it back to spiritual principles and a spiritual basis of government. But the people who are making
decisions are the people who have minds like this. If you understand this, you'll understand all of this human viewpoint guff. You'll understand
all of this stuff that you just call "crazy." This is the insanity of what government leaders do – the way that our prosperous nation has been
brought to its knees. These people have all done it because they are sincere and because their minds are blackened out.
One of the primary things that this blackened mentality is trying to bring into the human race now is a one-world government. The powerful business
interests of the world are maneuvering in ways that you wouldn't believe in order to force the world to be a one-world. In just a few years, they
expect all the automobiles in the world to be the product of just six nations – and that's all. And they will be interrelated so that they'll
have a common unit of structure. We say, "That's ridiculous." That's because you don't know what the corporations are doing behind the scenes. They
know they can't come and say, "Let's have one government. Let's have the United States give up its sovereignty. Let's have the United States become
just one nation and let the United Nations make decisions for the United States." But in time, if you can force a people into economic unity, you
will establish the same thing. It'll be a de facto one-world.
That makes a lot of sense, because how in the world are you going to get the land of the free and the home of the brave to go with that kind of
insanity? The only way you'll get us to do it in this country is because we helplessly are drawn in, and we can't do anything else. It will be
because we have a gun to our head by forces (by nations and the communist world) which is superior to us. They can blackmail us, and we have to
succumb.
The devil is going to create his tribulation world. You can count on that. The antichrist is going to have his one-world, and he's going to have
an organizational structure that can handle it and that can rule it. It's coming out of this kind of a mentality.
These evils in the perceptive mind create a condition of intense spiritual darkness: total disorientation toward God; and, total lack of contact
with reality that is incapable of any spiritual discernment.
This word "skotizo" (or darkness – to become blacked out) is in the perfect tense. The perfect tense in the Greek tells us that something
happened way in the past. In the past, something happened, and then the effects kept going forward, and they come right to the present, and they
keep going right on. Perfect sense tells us a great deal from that one characteristic. This condition of the blacked out mind happened in the past
at the point where the person was negative to the Word of God or indifferent to the Word of God. The results were this blackness, and that
darkness has continued to the present, and will continue on until that is reversed. It is in the passive voice, which means that this is done to
the Christian. He doesn't try to blacken his mind, but when he is negative; indifferent; ignores the Word of God; ignores his study of the Word of
God; and, ignores his feeding on the Word of God, he receives the consequences without his having to do another thing. It is participle, which is
indicating a basic spiritual principle. The perceptive mind feeds this spiritual darkness into the directive mind. Without the human spirit to
guide real truth, it takes this confused truth. It takes this false truth.
So, the directive mind is making actions which are ungodly actions and
which are self-destructive actions. It is what Romans 1:21 calls "the foolish heart." Paul talks about the foolish heart of the people who rejected
the Word of God. Their foolish hearts were darkened: Paul said, "Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain (there you have it again – empty) in their imaginations" (in their thinking through), and all the evil that the world has was
sucked in to replace the truth of doctrine. The result was that their foolish heart (that is, their foolish mind) was darkened (referring to their
directive mind now). All it had to go on was the darkness of the perceptive mind.
Emotions
The evil content of this perceptive mind is what undermines a believer's spiritual maturity structure. The believer's human spirit reservoir of
truth is now starved. There is no spiritual nutrition going down. It is cut off from doctrine. It is cut off from divine viewpoint. So, there is
nothing to feed the directive mind. Without the directive mind having anything but this blackness from the perceptive mind transferred over, the
emotions and the will of the soul are also affected in this way. As a matter of fact, what usually happens is that, under this condition, the mind
yields its authority to the emotions, and the emotions take over.
Do you wonder why the charismatics go jumping around and carrying on like they do in their emotional orgies? It is because this is the picture of
their thinking. This is exactly where they stand in their mentality. They are devoid. They are blacked out in the perceptive mind. They are devoid
of divine viewpoint. So, there is nothing in their human spirits to feed up to the directive mind so that it can guide their actions in a godly path.
The Spirit of God has nothing by which to guide them. They have just this darkness, and they act upon that darkness. When this happens, the directive
mind (like a dominant woman in a marriage) takes over. The husband, who is the directive mind and is supposed to be the leader, reverses roles,
and lets the woman become the leader. That's what happened in the Garden of Eden. Look how quickly it happened. Once Eve started questioning the
Word of God, she created a vacuum in her perceptive mind. It wasn't long before Satan filled it with a darkness. When it came to a certain point,
she was willing to do the evil.
If you have built spiritual maturity in your soul, and if you have that divine viewpoint in your perceptive mind, you're not going to go out and be
ready to do something evil just like that. It'll grow on you. It'll develop. You'll become acclimated as your mind becomes darkened, until your poor
directive mind has no frame of reference for action, and you will accept the evil, especially when your emotions take over. A Christian in
reversionism has a mind which resists spiritual realities, but it welcomes Satan's delusions as true wisdom. That's what the charismatics do. They
resist true realities, and they accept Satan's delusions as the real wisdom from God.
Ephesians 4:17 says that in the perceptive mind there developed a spiritual vacuum. Verse 18 says that the result of that was that evils were drawn
in and darkened that reasoning capacity so that the understanding of the person was darkened – being alienated from the life of God.
Another terrible condition that then results is what Paul calls "alienation." The Greek word is "apallotrioo." This means "to be estranged" or "to
be alienated." It means negative to anything that God thinks and any of the ways of God. This is perfect tense again. This thing happened in the
past; the results continue to the present; and, they continue on. It began when the perceptive mind was cast into spiritual darkness. When that
happened, something else began to happen. They became estranged from God. This is passive. The Christian suffers this consequence from his
spiritual darkness.
Maybe you think you can play with a negative attitude toward the Word of God, and you can have this darkness, but you're not
going to get estranged from God. You're never going to deny God. You're never going to compromise your life. You're never going to be unfaithful
to Him in your moral actions. You will be. Count on it. When you find this condition in your mind long enough, you will discover that you
will become alienated. You will become estranged from God. A participle is the mood here, indicating a spiritual principle. This describes
the condition to which a reversionistic believer comes. What you are estranged from is the life of God. And what that means is a life which is
under the guidance of God the Holy Spirit. It is alienation from a godly lifestyle – the Godly lifestyle of the Holy Spirit. That leads to
the indulgence of the old sin nature.
In Galatians 5:16, the apostle Paul says, "This I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." Well, when
you're alienated from God the Holy Spirit, you can count on fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. When you have a darkened perceptive mentality
in reversionism (and that's what you do have), you will be estranged, and you will violate the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and you will fulfill
the lusts of the flesh.
Under this condition, the Christian is at odds with his heavenly Father; he's very confused in his soul; his values are inverted; and, his
reasoning is all backwards. The believer is enslaved by an arrogance of self-exaltation instead of humbly exalting in the Lord Jesus Christ as
the preeminent one in his life. Once Christ was preeminent. Now, he is on self-occupation – not on occupation with the Lord. The result is
that he's enslaved by a certain arrogance and a self-confidence. The believer out of fellowship in this condition of being estranged from God the
Holy Spirit (being out of fellowship with God the Father) also finds himself out of fellowship with other believers, especially with spiritual
Christians. He finds himself in conflict with God and with spiritual believers – God and man.
This is the kind of believer who is very prone to rush out and start a new religious group, because he wants to find people that are compatible
with himself. A lot of new churches and religious groups are directly the result of believers who became reversionists, who were estranged from
the life of God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, until they thought, in their arrogance, that they were superior to the people they were with,
and that God was calling them to do something to provide for people like themselves who have discovered something more. What that is, is the old
sin nature trying to find birds of its own feather.
Ignorance
Verse 18 continues and says that this condition, with their understanding darkened so that they are in the status of alienation from the guidance
of the Spirit of God, was through a condition of ignorance. The Greek word for "through" is "dia." It's a preposition which expresses the cause of
their alienation – "Because." And he says that it's because of their "ignorance." That is the Greek word "agnoia." That means a lack of
knowledge or perception. Isn't that interesting? That is the specific word in the Greek language that says "no knowledge." No knowledge of what?
No knowledge of doctrine. Obviously, that's what it's talking about. Negative volition toward the Word of God has prevented the divine viewpoint
orientation which needs to flow from the perceptive mind into the human spirit and then back up to the directive mind, so that we have guidance
in our living. There is nothing so pathetic as a Christian with spiritual ignorance in his perceptive mind, and feeding it on into his directive
actions. This is especially so for the pathetic Christian who fancies himself as being a knowledgeable believer.
I want to remind you that every one of us here is a candidate for "agnoia." Don't exclude yourself. You just start playing footloose and free, and
careless with the Word of God. You just start questioning. You just have enough immaturity that when you hear something taught that doesn't strike
you as being acceptable, you don't have the spiritual capacity and maturity to say, "Well, I'm not sure if that's right. I'm going to put it on
the back burner, and let it stew for a little bit until I get a little more perspective and a little more orientation, and see what the Lord has to
say to me, and direct me on that." But instead, if you cut yourself off, you will come into a condition of ignorance. All of us are potential
casualties of this kind. Just ignore the Word of God as a daily diet in your life, and you'll come to "agnoia." You'll come to a condition of
ignorance.
The Results of Reversionism
Then we come to the zinger in all this: the most terrifying factor of all – the results of reversionism. Because the understanding (the
perceptive mind) is darkened, they come to a state of where they are alienated from the guidance of life through God the Holy Spirit. Why do they
have this ignorance of divine viewpoint in then?
Callouses
Because of what the King James Version says: "the blindness of their heart." That's not quite right. The word translated as "blindness" is this
Greek word "porosis." "Porosis" means "callous." It is "a hardening." That's the way it should be translated. The word "because" is the Greek
word "dia." That is the preposition indicating "cause" or "on account of." Why do they have spiritual ignorance? Why is the reversionistic
believer in this condition? Because a calloused condition has developed in him. He is insensitive, and that insensitiveness has enormous
consequences. What is insensitive? His heart. The Greek word is "kardia." The word "kardia" (coming back to the illustration of the mind) is
the perceptive mind and the directive mind. That's the "kardia." We had the "nous" a little while ago, which means "thinking things over" or
"analyzing." "Kardia" means decision-making. This word refers to the directive function of the mind of the soul. The decision-making capacity
of the believer is insensitive to God the Holy Spirit. So, there is a calloused mind which has produced a spiritual ignorance which alienates
the believer from God's life in the Holy Spirit – and reversionism sets in. Since the mind of the soul governs the emotions and the will,
they too are calloused toward the influences of God the Holy Spirit. That's the most terrifying condition for a Christian to come into. That's
what happened in Laodicea. There were Christians who became calloused in the facets of their soul, because of their attitude toward the Word of God:
ignoring it; rejecting it; compromising it; or, being neutral toward it.
The Steps to Reversionism
So, here are the steps into reversionism for the Christian.
Negative Volition
First is negative volition to Bible doctrine. You ignore studying the Word or you reject the Word that you have heard.
A Spiritual Vacuum
A spiritual vacuum in the perceptive mind develops. There is no divine viewpoint content to fill the perceptive capacity of your thinking.
Darkness
The perceptive mind then is enveloped in spiritual darkness as it draws in false and evil concepts. There is no doctrinal illumination available
to the human spirit.
Callouses
The result of this, is that the directive mind becomes calloused (hardened) toward God the Holy Spirit in your mind; in your emotions; and, in your
will.
Spiritual Ignorance
This results in a condition of spiritual ignorance. It develops as the facets of the soul become increasingly calloused against the Holy Spirit.
There is no divine perception.
Alienation from God
You end up at alienation from the life of God. Your life has no Holy Spirit controls; you have no Holy Spirit guidance; and, you're deep into
reversionism.
You will notice that we reversed the order. We took the grammar in verse 18, and we put it in the order in which these things come, and what is
causing the next thing in line. That's the chain of events here. It brings you to that point of alienation, which is the status of reversionism.
As if this were not bad enough, Paul then goes on and says, "Now I'm going to tell you what happens when you are in the state of reversionism."
This is the state in which all unbelievers are. This is the terrible and terrifying state into which a Christian comes. We're going to go on next
time with the consequences of life in reversionism. I think that if you are a thinking believer, we will not go very far into the next couple of
verses, before you will have a hard time not remembering incidents in your own experience, and saying, "That's exactly what was true of me." You
will have a hard time not recognizing this in people you know – especially other believers.
It is awesome, once you understand how this system
works, and once you understand what the grace of God has provided: to be able to glorify Himself; to frustrate the devil; to bring prosperity to
us; and, then for us to reverse all of that and to undermine it. It isn't just that we keep God's prospering from coming to us. We move in another
direction that is horrible to contemplate. The thing about this is that this happens to Christians who are way up in super grace strength. But once
they started the slide downward (once they stepped on the banana peel of reversionism), they went right down into the mud hole of the pigs. The
next few verses tell us about how much of a pig a Christian can be.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1977
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