Facts on Carnality

The Doctrine of Traducianism

The traducianist view (Lat. tradux, “branch” or “shoot”), urging that God carries out his “vertical” work primarily in and through horizontal or mediate means, holds that after the immediate creation of Adam both body and soul of each individuals are immediately formed and propagated together by the natural generation effected by the sexual union of the human male and female. It appeals primarily to four texts: Genesis 2:2, 21 (interpreted by I Cor. 11:8), Romans 5:12, and Hebrews 7:9-10.

Source: “The Origin of the Soul”, in A New Systematic Theology Of The Christian Faith, Dr. Robert L. Reymond (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 424

“When we were born physically we inherited from Adam the flesh with its propensity to sin. When we were born spiritually and given a new spirit, a new heart, God broke the back of sin, crippled its ability, and paid its penalty. But the tendency to evil remains. The one word that best characterizes the flesh, our humanness, our Adamic nature, is selfish. The sin of Adam, like the sin of the tempter when he fell (Isa. 14:13), centered on setting his own will and interests against God’s; and that has been the center of sin ever since.”

Source: MacArthur, J. (1996, c1984). 1 Corinthians. Chicago: Moody Press

The Promise of the New Covenant in Christ

25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances.
Source: The Holy Bible : Holman Christian standard version. 2003 (Eze 36:25-27). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.

Paul, the Carnal Christian?

“The whole individual, body and mind, is “flesh” outside of Christ. In Romans 7:14 Paul contrasts “flesh” and “spirit” and indicates that the moral sense of “flesh” is involved here. The word Spirit should be capitalized, because the reference is to the Holy Spirit. The law is spiritual because it comes from the Spirit of God.
But haven’t Christians been liberated from bondage to sin and from the flesh? What Paul means is that, even though he has been redeemed and made a new man, he is still afflicted with a principle of indwelling sin. He is still to some degree a creature of the flesh, sold under sin. It is not, nor can it be, however, characteristic of the Christian’s entire life, nor can he or she be content in it.”

Source: Sproul, R. (2000, c1992). Vol. 1: Before the face of God : Book One: A daily guide for living from the book of Romans.

Being, Ontologically!

"We are given to know the divine attributes or essential properties by revelation and rational reflection on revelation in such a way that God's nature is truly known by means of the revealed attributes."

TURRETIN

Why this quote in the series about carnality?
Because behavior is NOT being!

....to be continued

Carnal Christianity?

Question: Is there such a thing as a "Carnal Christian"?

10 Now I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction. 11 For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I am saying is this: each of you says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with "Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided?
Source: The Holy Bible : Holman Christian standard version. 2003 (1 Co 1:10-13). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.

1 When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, 5 so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.
6 However, among the mature we do speak a wisdom, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written:
What no eye has seen and no ear has heard,
and what has never come into a man’s heart,
is what God has prepared for those who love Him.
10 Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.
11 For who among men knows the concerns of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the concerns of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order to know what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the natural man does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to know it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For:
who has known the Lord’s mind,
that he may instruct Him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
Source: The Holy Bible : Holman Christian standard version. 2003 (1 Co 2:1-16). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.

1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. 2 I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to receive it. In fact, you are still not able, 3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like ordinary people? 4 For whenever someone says, “I’m with Paul,” and another, “I’m with Apollos,” are you not ⌊typical⌋ men?
Source: The Holy Bible : Holman Christian standard version. 2003 (1 Co 3:1-4). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.

....to be continued

Doubt In The Face Of Suffering

To doubt is to be uncertain about God and to feel isolated from him; to suffer is to experience pain and to feel isolated from others. Giant Despair thus appears and imprisons us in what Bunyan aptly called “Doubting Castle.” There, alone in the darkness, we begin to hear and believe the voices that say “there is no help for him in God” (Ps. 3:2 kjv).
But it is not true that there is no help for us in God! Hear the testimony of others: “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced” (Isa. 50:7); “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.… God will help … at break of day” (Ps. 46:1, 5).
The problem for the doubting sufferer, however, is that “break of day” has not yet come. It is still dark. When doubt is at its height and attacks most fiercely we ask, “Is there no light to help me through the night?”
Indeed there is; but the prescribed antidote tends to work slowly. It is important for us, therefore, to complete the course.
Scripture’s account of genuine spiritual experience speaks to your situation. It describes your symptoms and illustrates the way of recovery. You are not unique. There is no test of faith that seizes us “except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1 Cor. 10:13). Great saints of God have been where you are now.

Source - Sinclair Ferguson quoted in Sproul, R. C. (2000, c1993). "Doubt & Assurance" Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

DISLOCATION

I'm working out some thoughts for a paper I'm writing. Please give me some input.



A clear and present danger exists when a man is bound by external stimuli. By external stimuli I mean any stimuli that produce a perceived sated sense of the Will, Emotion or Intellect that usurps the necessary and God-given stimuli. Whereas God's means of stimuli always involves a measure of grace designed to produce efficacious results, corrupt external stimuli produce only transient delight that does much harm when substituted as a means to an end – namely gratification. Gratification, when accomplished through God-given means is normally sensed through the awareness of unity – or better yet – oneness. Oneness of Will, Emotion and intellect bound together by the realized influence of the Holy Spirit. Whereas the internal stimulus of grace is always a unifier, conversely, corrupt external stimuli always bring division and are a predisposition to dislocation. The clear danger is that as division occurs, without proper inhibition, weakness ensues. As resources are depleted – normally Emotive/Intellectual – the critical juncture of dislocation occurs when the need/desire for increased stimuli reach the stage where the Will can no longer abide the trade-off. The guided Will (Spirit/spirit) rejects the insistence for more of the bankrupt stimuli – thereby overriding the demands of the Emotive/Intellect – and a division of cognitive process is transferred. It is at this critical progression point that the guided Will is no longer cooperating with the (human) Intellect or Emotive process. The Will has recognized the diminished cognitive capacity of the Emotive/Intellect only because it is guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Emotive process, being passive, has failed simply because the strong and alluring directives brought about by the corrupt external stimuli have been rejected. The diminished capacity of the Intellect is more complex. The strong corrupt external stimuli – through repeated ingress – have caused a doping effect. Chemicals released by the brain find their receptors more easily with each new occurrence and form well-built neural pathways. Initial “mimicked” event responses now seem in fact to be true event responses. The present danger now is that the Intellect is unable to deflect the linear digression of thought, if in fact it can even be called a thought process. It now seems that the Intellect is almost functioning as instinct – unable to make appropriate choices – having been weakened by the apparent dislocation from the guided Will. At this point it must become the directive of the Will to subjugate the Intellectual/Emotive process. It must be pointed out that I am not speaking of an unguided Will (unbeliever). If in fact that were the case, recognition of the failure of cooperative efforts would most likely not be perceived. What I am speaking of is a Will that is guided by the co-joined spirit of man and the indwelling Holy Spirit. If the guided Will can indeed perform independent of, or better yet, in spite of the inclination of the Emotive/Intellect then a dislocation (transference) has taken place and of course the operations are no longer ideal. The Will, Intellect and emotion are designed by the Creator to function in harmony with one another. Any detraction of this ideal is not representative of the entire man and therefore cannot image any semblance of perfection in unity. Only after the guided Will has broken the bonds restraining the Emotive/Intellect process can the healing of the Will, Intellect and Emotion as a unified whole be realized.



Can this be equated with a contrite and broken spirit?
In this application where does common grace end and saving grace begin?
Does it help if you read external stimuli = sin?
Help me define this transference

Rick

Belgic Confession - Article 22

ARTICLE XXII
Our Justification Through Faith in Jesus Christ
We believe that, to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery, the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts an upright faith, which embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits, appropriates Him, and seeks nothing more besides Him. For it must needs follow, either that all things which are requisite to our salvation are not in Jesus Christ, or if all things are in Him, that then those who possess Jesus Christ through faith have complete salvation in Him. Therefore, for any to assert that Christ is not sufficient, but that something more is required besides Him, would be too gross a blasphemy; for hence it would follow that Christ was but half a Savior.
Therefore we justly say with Paul, that we are justified by faith alone, or by faith apart from works. However, to speak more clearly, we do not mean that faith itself justifies us, for it is only an instrument with which we embrace Christ our righteousness. But Jesus Christ, imputing to us all His merits, and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead, is our righteousness. And faith is an instrument that keeps us in communion with Him in all His benefits, which, when they become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit us of our sins.

Jn 16:14; 1 Cor 2:12; Eph 1:17-18 Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12; Gal 2:21
Ps 32:1; Mt 1:21,Lk 1:77; Acts 13:38-39; Rom 8:1 Rom 3:19-4:8,
10:4-11; Gal 2:16; Php 3:9; Tit 3:5 1 Cor 4:7 6 Jer 23:6;
Mt 20:28; Rom 8:33; 1 Cor 1:30-31; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Jn 4:10

Historic Creeds and Confessions. 1997

How Eskimos Kill Wolves

The consuming, self-destructive nature of sin is like the technique used by Eskimos to kill wolves. First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed in a block of frozen blood.
Next the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he realize that his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own blood. He just craves more and more until he drops dead in the snow.
We are consumed, the Bible warns, by our own lusts.

Sharing the Gospel

"Many churches are being grown in number rather growing spiritually. By that I mean that we as the Church, the bride of Christ, are suffering spiritually with stagnant growth. We aren't being taught how to share the Gospel as we are going. Rather, we are taught to invite people to church. The church then caters to these invitations so as not to offend, but to make "worship" comfortable for the unbeliever. This drives home a mean catch 22 that may be endless. Instead of being the church we play church pretending that many unbelieving people are also the church. Pretending that light and darkness as well as righteousness and lawlessness have fellowship. This to the detriment to our Lord and to ourselves. Fooling those to hell who die too soon before we could become good enough friends with them to share the Gospel without being afraid to offend them."

Read the entire article here

Rick