SUMMARY
Context:
The context is a study of 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, which is a call to discernment.
Satanic Ploy:
The infiltration of rationalism during the Enlightenment era resulted in the denial of miracles in the Bible and supernatural spiritual truths, leading to theological liberalism, and the Church opening its doors to various Trojan horses that are seeping into the Church today. This is a Satanic ploy to lure people away from the truth with subtle lies and deceptions.
False Prophets and Teachers:
False prophets and teachers will deceive and exploit people in the name of spiritual blessings, leading them away from the truth. The church must be discerning and not tolerate false teachings in the name of love and unity. Some may attack those who name false teachers using Scripture, but a proper understanding is necessary. The verse "do my prophets no harm" means to not physically harm true prophets or kings.
Lack of Discernment:
Softness on false teachers has poisoned the church, which tolerates every kind of aberration. Paul Crouch and TBN are the equivalent of Phil Donahue in the Christian world, giving a forum to every theological aberration. The church today lacks discernment due to a weakening of doctrinal clarity, failure to take an antithetical approach, and a tolerance of every viewpoint without making value judgments. This has led to a church filled with error and confusion.
Causes of Lack of Discernment:
The lack of spiritual discernment in the church is caused by a focus on personal gain, image over evangelization, misinterpretation of scripture, a failure to discipline sin within the church, and the immaturity of believers.
Importance of Discernment:
Spiritual discernment is an essential skill for pastors and Bible teachers to distinguish divine truth from error and half-truth. It is necessary to identify truth and apply it in spiritual life. The context discusses the importance of discernment in recognizing truth and separating it from false doctrine. The passage includes instructions on reading scripture, serving others, and guarding the truth against corrupting forces. Discernment is the ability to separate truth from error using skills of judgment, understanding and knowledge of God's will. It is a process of separating and making distinctions between unmixable realities. Christians are called to discernment to guard and pass on the truth.
Becoming Discerning:
The passage discusses the importance of being a discerning person, and outlines steps to becoming one. It highlights the need for a desire for discernment born out of humility and a recognition of one's own weaknesses.
The Importance of Discernment
Discernment is a crucial part of understanding the truth of scripture. It requires humility and a willingness to put others before oneself. Soloman's prayer for discernment is a good example of how to seek it.
Three Steps to Becoming a Discerning Person
The three steps to becoming a discerning person are desire, continual prayer, and learning from those gifted in discernment. Discernment of spirits was a concept in early Christianity and was exercised by Paul, who cast out a demon from a girl speaking truth laced with lies. The gift of discernment still exists within the church through theologians and Bible scholars.
Identifying False Prophets and Errors in Doctrine
Discernment is key in identifying false prophets and errors in doctrine within the church. To become a discerning person, one must pursue growth, depend on the Holy Spirit, and diligently study the scripture for principles of discernment as it flourishes only in an environment of intense faithful Bible study. To avoid doctrinal confusion, we must be diligent in distinguishing truth from error and avoid spreading empty chatter. Diligent study and knowledge of the Word is essential for dispensing truth.
Emphasizing the Importance of Discernment
The writer emphasizes the importance of discernment in the church and warns against compromising with the world. Love should be based on knowledge and discernment, and being discerning will result in glory in the future. The prayer asks for the ability to discern and protect the holiness and righteousness of the church.
DETAILED NOTES
A Call for Discernment, Part 31 Thessalonians 5:21–22
•The text of 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 calls for discernment, an examination of everything, holding fast to what is good and abstaining from every form of evil.
•This is the final part of a series entitled "A Call to Discernment."
•The story of the Trojan horse is a symbol of infiltration and deception throughout history.
•Throughout its history, the church has embraced many Trojan horses, enemies disguised as gifts.
•Christianity merged with Roman pagan superstition, assigning the responsibilities of Roman deities to dead saints.
•People began to pray to dead saints, violating the Scripture.
Trojan horses infiltrating and destroying the church
•The Trojan horse of Roman religion infiltrated and destroyed the Christian faith from inside the walls of Christianity.
•During the Enlightenment, rationalism emerged in Europe, and man believed he could solve all problems with his own mind, worshiping it and denying supernatural spiritual truths and miracles in the Bible.
•The church opened its doors and pulled in the Trojan horse of rationalism, leading to European Protestantism becoming liberal and dead.
•Today, the church is still opening its gates to Trojan horses, such as the erosion of moral values, the prosperity gospel, psychology, and mysticism.
•Satan will not come openly, but subtly with deceptive lies mixed in with a little truth to lure people away from God's truth into destructive error.
Warning Against Deception in the Church
•Paul warned in his letter to Timothy about deception and doctrines of demons that hypocritical liars will spread.
•Peter also warned about false prophets and teachers who will introduce destructive heresies and exploit people through greed and sensuality.
•Millions of people inside the church are being devastated by Trojan horses that have been allowed inside the walls of the church.
•The only defense is to be sound and strong in the knowledge of truth and to be discerning and discriminating.
•The climate in the church today is intolerant towards discernment and wants to elevate love, unity, and non-divisive attitudes instead.
•Satan sold liberal hermeneutics which eventually leads to liberal theology and away from interpreting the Bible based on a historical, grammatical, contextual understanding of the text.
•Naming names, drawing lines, or being discerning and discriminating may even lead to attacks from people who will use “touch not my anointed ones” and “do my prophets no harm” as a passage of Scripture to defend themselves.
•A proper understanding of that passage does not yield the way it is being used today.
The Importance of Speaking Out Against False Teaching
•The Hebrew word for "touch" means physical injury or bodily damage while "anointed" is related to kings.
•The verse advises against harming kings and true prophets who speak the Word of God.
•The church's tolerance for false teachings has allowed harmful ideas to infiltrate and create confusion and destruction.
•Phil Donahue is cited as the prime mover in promoting the disintegration of American morality by giving a platform to every aberration.
•His approach reduces moral perversion to a trivial curiosity, which ultimately undermines the significance of moral values.
•Similarly, Paul Crouch and TBN provide a platform for every theological aberration in existence, welcoming every form of false teaching into the church.
The Importance of Discernment in the Church
•The church has created a non-judgmental forum for every theological aberration, which has softened the church's ability to discern and led to a lack of doctrinal clarity and conviction.
•The church tolerates and accepts everything, even aberrant viewpoints, in the name of maintaining the spirit of love and unity in Christ.
•The liberal hermeneutic has resulted in the rejection of the trinity, the deity of Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
•The church is filled with error and confusion, making discernment essential, even if it is not popular.
•Discernment requires examining everything carefully, holding onto what is good and rejecting what is evil.
•The lack of discernment is due to a weakening of doctrinal clarity and conviction and a failure to be antithetical.
•Relevant Christianity is now subjective and experiential, which keeps Christians confused and unable to distinguish between true and false.
•C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters accurately portray how keeping Christians confused about the difference between true and false can lead to their destruction.
The Causes of Lack of Spiritual Discernment in the Church
•Many Christians lack spiritual discernment because they are confused and can be easily influenced by false teachings.
•Preoccupation with image and popularity is another cause of lack of spiritual discernment as some Christians focus on making services comfortable and enjoyable for unbelievers.
•A failure to properly interpret Scripture leads to uneducated preachers creating their own theology, preaching psychology instead of the word of truth.
•A lack of discipline in the church is also a cause of lack of spiritual discernment. Failure to discipline sin creates confusion between the church and the world, making it hard to distinguish between good and evil.
•Lastly, spiritual immaturity causes a lack of discernment in Christians, as they are easily swayed by every wind of doctrine, just like children.
Spiritual Discernment
•The writer poses the question of what spiritual discernment is and its importance to pastors, Bible teachers, and professors who teach the Word of God.
•Spiritual discernment is akin to the task of a medical doctor, which involves understanding, diagnosing, and finding a cure.
•The responsibility of pastors is to discern truth from God and its application in spiritual life.
•Discernment is the skill in separating divine truth from error and half-truth and is what pastors and those in the ministry are called to do.
•Paul's letter to Timothy describes the importance of being constantly nourished on the words of the faith and sound doctrine and the need to distinguish between worldly fables and the truth of God.
The Importance of Discernment in the Christian Faith
•To be a good servant of JesusChrist, one must continually nourish on the words of faith and sound doctrine, and recognize the junk.
•Give attention to reading scripture, exhorting and teaching, and pay close attention to yourself and your teaching.
•Separate truth from error and distinguish it from anything that is different or conceited.
•Stick to sound doctrine and teach and preach these principles.
•Guard and protect the revealed scripture, avoiding empty chatter and falsely called knowledge.
•Develop and fine tune the skill of discernment in separating divine truth from error and half truth.
•To do this, it is helpful to understand two key words that arise from scripture when talking about discernment.
The Meaning of Discernment in Hebrew and Greek
•The Hebrew word for discernment is bîn, which has been translated in various ways such as distinguish, understand, and discern, but it means to separate or create space between things.
•The Greek word for discernment is diakrin, which means to separate or judge. A judge separates truth from error to make a decision.
•Spiritual discernment is the ability to separate God’s truth from everything else and know His perfect will.
•Discernment is the skill of reaching understanding and knowledge of God’s truth through a process of separation and distinction.
•Christians are called to discernment and examine everything to separate error from truth.
Developing Discernment
•Satan tries to infiltrate the truth with error to destroy the church and create chaos.
•To become a discerning person, desire is essential - without it, one cannot develop discernment.
•Desire emanates from a place of humility, recognizing that one's judgment may not always be correct.
•Humility also includes recognizing the dangers of deception, false doctrine, and selfish desires.
•Proverbs 2:3 says that seeking discernment will result in understanding and the ability to differentiate between the fear of the Lord and mere knowledge of God.
•The desire for discernment is driven by an intense hunger for the truth that separates everything that is read or heard in one’s mind.
The Importance of Discernment in Writing and Prayer
•As a writer, it is important to have a desire for truth and a high view of scripture to correctly interpret and divide it.
•The responsibility of implanting knowledge correctly affects not only the writer's life but also the lives of readers.
•The desire for discernment and the humility to recognize that it comes from God is necessary in the writing process.
•Prayer plays a crucial role in cultivating discernment, as seen in the example of King Solomon's request for an understanding heart to judge his people.
•Seeking discernment requires stepping outside of oneself and not being consumed by selfish desires for personal gain or revenge.
•Asking for discernment pleases God and demonstrates the writer's dependence on Him in the process.
Steps to Becoming a Discerning Person
•Ask God for discernment to understand justice, just as Solomon did in the Bible.
•Prayer is key in becoming discerning – ask God for wisdom like James 1:5 instructs.
•Learn from those who are gifted in discernment and seek their guidance.
•In 1 Corinthians 12:10, the gift of distinguishing/discrimination of spirits is mentioned.
•The early church had to rely on discernment to distinguish between true spokespeople of God and demons.
•It’s possible that discernment in the early church may have been supernatural, given by God.
The Gift of Discernment in the Church
•In Acts 16, a demon-possessed girl proclaimed that Paul and Silas were servants of the Most High God, but Paul knew it was a demon speaking.
•In the early church, some had the ability to discern truth from error and a true spirit from a false spirit, acting as watchdogs for the church.
•There is no biblical evidence that the gift of discernment has ceased, and some in the church still possess this ability.
•Those gifted with discernment can lead the church in distinguishing truth from error and can be referred to as "theologians" or "Bible scholars."
•We can learn from these models of discernment and follow their lead in exploring issues and seeking the truth through their writings and teachings.
How to Discern Truth and Falsehood in the Church
•False prophets and cults are prevalent in the church today.
•God has gifted some individuals to unmask false teachings and discern error in doctrine.
•Learn from these individuals, whether through their teaching, preaching, books or personal interactions.
•Follow the example of mature Christians who have their senses exercised to discern good versus evil.
•Discernment is a process that requires desire, prayer, learning, and following the path of maturity.
•Immaturity leads to undiscerning behavior and being carried away by every wind of doctrine.
•To become mature, desire the pure milk of the Word and grow through trials and tests.
Developing Discernment
•To become more mature, be discontent with your current state and pursue growth.
•Depend on the Holy Spirit by walking in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, who is the true discerner according to John 16:13 and 1 Corinthians 2:16.
•Diligently study the Bible because it is where you learn the principles for discernment and the truth.
•Discernment flourishes only in an environment of intense faithful Bible study.
•Confess sin, live a pure and holy life, and yield to the control of the Spirit of God through the Word of God to become a discerning person.
Diligent Study of the Word of God to Strengthen Doctrinal Conviction
•Paul warned the Ephesian elders about the possibility of wolves infiltrating the church and causing doctrinal chaos.
•To combat this, Paul commended the Word of God, which is able to build them up.
•2 Timothy 2:15 emphasizes the need to distinguish between the word of truth and empty chatter that leads to ungodliness.
•We must present ourselves approved to God by diligently pursuing the Word of God and standing alongside Him as worthy of His company.
•As workmen of the Word, we must not be ashamed of our effort and quality of work.
•To rightly dispense the word of truth, we must be diligent in our study of the Word of God, which makes us thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
•To be discerning requires desire, prayer, example, maturity, the Holy Spirit, and knowledge of the Word.
•Strengthening the doctrinal conviction of the church requires a diligent approach to the study of the Word of God.
The Importance of Discernment
•Discernment is key to avoiding being antithetical and keeping from foolish compromises with the world.
•Discernment also leads to good interpretation of scripture and spiritual maturity, which honors God.
•Love is important, but it must not be the sole principle of interpretation. Real knowledge and discernment are necessary for proper understanding.
•Through discernment, one can approve what is excellent and be filled with the fruit of righteousness.
•Lack of discernment can be dangerous and can result in being victimized by deceitful individuals or teachings.
•Ultimately, as Christians, we must strive to be faithful and discerning stewards of the truth of God's word.
The Benefits of Meditation
•Meditation reduces stress and enhances emotional wellbeing.
•It improves cognitive function, focus and attention span.
•Regular meditation leads to increased self-awareness and introspection.
•It can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
•Meditation can lead to better sleep and reduced insomnia.
•It increases feelings of empathy and connectedness with others.
•It helps to regulate blood pressure and lower heart rate.
•Regular practice can improve physical health and pain management.
•Meditation has been shown to improve overall quality of life.