Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains

		06-03-26-B.CC02-590 /

Assault of the Paramours: Reversionism: State 5: Locked-in Negative Volition, Hosea 8:7; 6: Blackout of the Soul: Mataiotes Sucks in the Lie, Eph 4:17-19

(36)	Principle: God knows how she thinks.  He knows who she really is.  In His genius He provides a man that is right for her.  If she were positive and grace oriented then God would provide a man that is positive and grace oriented as well.
(37)	But if she is negative and self-centered then God will allow her to pick a man that her rebellious free will concludes is right for her.
(38)	The man she picks will also be flawed spiritually since in grace God would not assign a woman positive to doctrine to a reversionist.
(39)	Thus the damsel forfeits true happiness for a mess of pottage, or more precisely, a mess, period.  She enters into a fantasy world of her own delusions, exemplified by Johnny Mercer’s lyric for the title song of the movie, Days of Wine and Roses:
“Days of Wine and Roses”
(© 1962 by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini)
The days of wine and roses
Laugh and run away
Like a child at play,
Through the meadowland
Toward a closing door,
A door marked "nevermore,"
That wasn't there before.
(40)	Negative volition to God’s plan means the doctrinal damsel chases false destinies because she can no longer orient to God’s will, plan, and purpose for her life.  The false destiny is the “closing door marked ‘nevermore,’” which means, “never again.”
(41)	When people are in reversionism they will not admit it.  They are blind to their condition and the sinful nature does not want to release its authority over the soul.  But if there is any objectivity that remains it is possible that the reversionist might respond honestly to these indicators of soul degeneracy:
1.	Is your relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend more important to you than your relationship to God?
2.	Is maintaining that relationship more important to you than maintaining your relationship with God?
3.	Is doctrine, which you cannot see, less important to you than one you can see?
4.	Do you find the relationship so exciting and meaningful, so filled with good times and fond memories, that you can’t believe you wasted so much time attending so many boring Bible classes?
5.	Do you conclude that doctrine is not all that important after all?  As proof, do you note that doctrine, followed to the letter, would destroy this fairy-tale life you’ve discovered with Mr. or Miss Wonderful?
6.	Do you have a problem with the personality of the pastor and impute this dislike to his message?  This latter question can destroy a person’s ability to grow in grace or recover from reversionism.  Here is a stinging rebuttal by:
Thieme, Reversionism, 17-18:
The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher provides the ability as well as the authority to communicate doctrine; it does not include what you might consider to be the “pastor profile.”  Most people think of a pastor as a stereotyped personality—a kindly, self-effacing, pious individual who always makes the right noises, whatever the occasion.  This engenders the erroneous concept that in order for a pastor to be properly prepared, he must assume a certain image.
There is no standard personality for the pastor.  The fact that God uses many dissimilar persons can be demonstrated by the apostles, who are a study in vivid contrasts.  Peter, for example, was impulsive and precipitous; John, aristocratic and reserved; Thomas, intellectual and humanistic.  Paul’s personality was characterized by forcefulness, sarcasm and brilliant virtuosity in the communication of doctrine.  There was also a side variation in vocabulary, presentation and use of idiom by these individual teachers of doctrine.  (p. 17)
If you have been accustomed to hearing the Bible taught in a certain manner, you will always expect it to be presented that way.  However, the main concern is that (the pastor) fulfill his responsibility by communicating doctrine accurately yet within the framework of his own personality.  Your personal preferences are never the criteria for the proper function of the pastor.  The issue for you is, does he have the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, and does he expound the whole realm of Bible doctrine?  (pp. 17-18)
(42)	There is no question life can be very exciting and fun-filled.  Good times and new experiences are very exciting and are hard to ignore in the vitality of youth.  Life is to be enjoyed.
(43)	But when a damsel discovers the allurements of this lifestyle, she cannot permit them to destroy her spiritual life.  Satan desires to cancel her impact in the Angelic Conflict and would like nothing more than for her decisions to promote his evil plan.
(44)	He has many agents who look like Adonis, who speak with eloquence, and who know how to appeal to a woman’s romantic fantasies.  They get what they want, she gets what she gets:
Hosea 8:7a -	(She) sows the wind and (she) reaps the whirlwind.
(45)	This whirlwind includes the sixth stage of reversionism:
				Blackout of the Soul:
(46)	Life lived in the light is exchanged for life conducted in darkness.  Light is life led by divine guidance from the Holy Spirit through recall of biblical principles.  Darkness is life manipulated by intrusion into the soul of the doctrines of demons.
(47)	Paul refers to this process as mataiÒthj, mataiotēs in:
Ephesians 4:17 -		So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility [ mataiÒthj, mataiotēs: worthlessness, vanity, futility, vacuousness ] of their mind,
(48)	Human viewpoint, human good, and evil have replaced divine viewpoint, grace, and doctrine in the soul of this person.  Negative volition to the Word has created a vacuum into which has been sucked the lie.
(49)	The believer now follows a lifestyle of cosmic living.  Humility is replaced by arrogance and esprit de corps is exchanged for hatred.  This is the result of emotion revolting against truth and conquering the command post of the soul.  Paul continues by describing this coup d’état:
Ephesians 4:18 -		being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them, because of hardness of their heart [ facilitated wheel-tracks of wickedness ];
v. 19 -	and they, having become callous [ ¢palgšw, apalgeō to grow insensible to shame ], have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
(50)	Note the progression: There is a vacuum that sucks in the lie which results in hardness of heart, a condition that results when divine viewpoint is blacked out of the soul.  This spiritual darkness leads to the development of callousness in the soul described by the word apalgeō.

© 2006 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org