THE PRAYER CIRCLE SEDUCTION

 

There is never a lack of heresies. The Circle Maker is one of the latest. Here is how one promotional explains it:

·       This dynamic four-session video-based curriculum uses the story of Honi the circle maker, who prayer-walked his way around a devastating drought in first-century BC Israel until the rains came, to help you and your entire church begin to identify the dreams and future miracles to draw circles around to find your answers from God. God is still looking for circle makers whose bold prayers defy human convention and invoke divine intervention. Mark Batterson not only teaches about big dreams and bold prayers, he lives it. 

What is the attraction? Why the popularity of drawing circles? In their promotional, christianbook.com explains:

·       In Matthew 21, Jesus tells us, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." However, most of the time we pray, we only ask for the small things. We're afraid to ask for what we really want, or to be passionate in our petitions. Do you ever sense that there's far more to prayer, and to God's vision for your life, than what you're experiencing? What impossibly big dream is God calling you to draw a prayer circle around? In The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson introduces you to the possibility of a deeper, more passionate, persistent, and more intimate prayer life. Sharing powerful insights from the the true legend of Honi the circle maker, a first-century Jewish sage whose bold prayer ended a drought and saved a generation, you will learn a new way to pray. Discover the power of bold prayer and even bolder faith in God's promises.

What’s the problem with drawing circles and standing within them when we pray? According to beginningandend.com:

·       The Circle Maker teaches a new method of prayer by drawing a circle either on the ground or in the Bible based on an old Jewish legend from the Talmud and misuses verses from the Bible to put a new spin on the Prosperity Gospel heresy that wrongly teaches that Christians can receive whatever material blessing they want from God. Not only is this a false teaching and heresy, it is also embracing concepts from witchcraft. The popularity of this book among Christians is yet another sign of the growing apostasy as the church moves away from the Bible to adopt any new method even if it is linked to the occult. 

Is it possible that the traditional Christian is missing out on something?

·       See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:8-10; ESV)

In Christ, we have everything we need. Even more, everything that is in Christ becomes ours.  In view of our more-than-abundant inheritance, it is hard to believe that we are missing out if we fail to jump into a prayer circle. Besides, in Christ is buried all wisdom. Therefore, Paul prayed that the Church would appreciate the riches that we have in Christ:

·       …that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. (Colossians 2:2-4)

We have riches of which we are unaware. Consequently, we are vulnerable to the temptation that we are lacking something, maybe even a prayer circle.

Paul also insisted that we have everything that we need for our life in the Lord through His Word:

·       ALL Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be COMPLETE, equipped for EVERY good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

This suggests that if the prayer circle is so essential, then Scripture would have taught us about it. However, it contains not even a whisper about this or any other mystical technique. Instead, Scripture teaches us about the things that will block our prayers – sins, disobedience, rebellion, and a failure to confess and repent. There is never a hint that we do not receive because we haven’t constructed a prayer circle.

Instead, as God warned through Isaiah, we go astray when we leave the circle of the Scriptures:

·       And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no [light of] dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

SHOULD A CHRISTIAN NOT CHALLENGE OTHER RELIGIONS, IDEOLOGIES, AND PRACTICES?

Many Christians believe that we shouldn't challenge the faith and teachings of other religions but, instead, just live out our own faith.

While living in accordance with our Christian faith is commendable, our faith ALSO requires us to be vigilant against false teachings, teachers, and religions. The Israelites were repeatedly warned against these:

·       “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

Such warnings are no less prevalent in the New Testament. While Jesus never warned His disciples about their physical health, He often warned them about their spiritual health and their intake of spiritual food:

·       “And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”” (Mark 8:15)

Our loving Jesus often used harsh words to correct His opposition:

·       ““But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in...Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:13, 15)

In fact, Paul cited the ability to refute false claims as one of the qualifications for eldership (Titus 1:7-11). In the "Book of Revelation," Jesus castigated several churches for not challenging false teachings (Rev. 2:14-16; 20), while He commended the church at Ephesus for challenging false teaching (2:2).

Paul also warned against false religions:

·       “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ...Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind...These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:8, 18, 23)

Such examples are so numerous that they hardly need emphasizing, but they are so important that they can't be ignored. Life depended upon recognizing their threat:

·       “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

All of these warnings indicate that the way to the soul is through the mind - what we believe. We are liberated (John 8:31) and enslaved (2 Tim. 2:24-26) by what we believe. Consequently, this is where the battle rages:

·       “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

We are surrounded by worldviews that must be challenged for the sake of the Gospel. One common meme holds that Christianity is no different from Islam. Should this lie be exposed? If we don't, then we, the church, are guilty of failing to rescue others from deception. Therefore, I just replied to someone who claimed that Christianity is just as violent as Islam:

·       "There is nothing about the Christian faith that encourages violence. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of Surah and Hadiths that instruct violence. Consequently, Islam has been termed 'The Ultimate Killing Machine.' Where are Christians beheading or raping? Which Christians are teaching to take over the world? Instead, our hope is focused on the next life."

We are required to expose the darkness by the light:

·       “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)

No one wants to be exposed, but expose, we must.

While there is always Room for another False Teacher, the Truth is very Demanding

Jesus warned that the last days would be characterized by mass deception:

• “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:23-24)

Deception comes in many packages – the most appealing packaging arises from within the church itself. Paul lamented:

• “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30)

Several scholarly wolves have even insisted:

• In the beginning, Christianity did not have a fanatic concern about doctrine and orthodoxy. This was an aberration that introduced later.

This represents one of many attacks on the teachings of the Bible originating from our postmodern culture in its disdain for truth. Instead, this culture favors mystical techniques to “experience God.” However, from every indication that we have, the central focus of the Bible is the teaching of truth/doctrine. The early church was “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). They insisted that “everything we need for a godly life [is given us] through our knowledge of him” (2 Peter 1:3). Likewise, Paul proclaimed that the Word of God “can build you up and give you an inheritance” (Acts 20:32).

It can be argued that everything that the Apostles wrote and taught reflected their overriding concern for right doctrine. Paul insisted that anyone who taught a different take on Jesus’ teachings should be accursed (Gal. 1:8-9) and that anyone who disagreed with his teachings was misguided:

• If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. (1 Tim. 6:3-4)

Not only was Paul himself profoundly concerned about right doctrine, he insisted that these truths had to be safeguarded and used as the standard to correct false teaching. Therefore, Paul insisted that elders had to be able to teach according to the Gospel and that “opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25). The elder had to be able to “refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9) and to oversee the teaching ministry of the church (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 3:9-10; Rom. 16:17). All of this gives us the impression that doctrine was of utmost importance.

The other Apostles reflect the same priority. The Book of Revelation contains letters to seven churches. Two of them were castigated by the Spirit for allowing teachings that contradicted the Gospel (Rev. 2:14, 20). John concludes with a warning:

• I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll. (Rev. 22:18-19)

Clearly, John not only regarded his epistle as authoritative doctrine, he also regarded it as Scripture! In contrast, the false teachers claim that the Apostles never regarded their teachings as Scripture. However, this is clearly untrue. Paul declared his own epistles to be Scripture:

• And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thess. 2:13)

Despite their differences, Peter also regarded Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16), as he did the other apostolic writings (2 Pet. 3:2). All of the Apostles seemed to have regarded their writings as authoritative and normative for the church. Consequently, those who rejected these teachings were to be brought up on charges and subjected to expulsion if they refused to repent.

Equally problematic are the charges of the false teachers that, “Jesus came to bring a new life and not a set of stale doctrines.” However, this charge is also meritless. Jesus was intimately concerned about right doctrine. He was the herald of the Good News. This took precedence even over healing. Therefore, when Peter instructed Him to return to the village to heal the many people who had assembled, Jesus corrected him:

• “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” (Mark 1:38)

His message was weightier than any of His other blessings. Embracing His message was a matter of life and death (Mat. 7:24). It was both the key to salvation (Luke 11:52; John 6:29; 8:24; 17:26) and sanctification (Mat. 13:23; John 17:3, 17). He therefore amply quoted Scripture and insisted that it was life:

• The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mat. 4:3-4)

For Jesus, the Word of His Father was everything. He had no doubt that Scripture was the Word of God. Therefore, His disciples would have to live by His every word or teaching! Scripture and its teachings were of such preeminence that Jesus opened the minds of His disciples to understand it:

• Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” (Luke 24:45-46)

Having a saving relationship with Jesus was unthinkable without also following His teachings (John 15:7-14; 14:21-24). Consequently, when He commissioned and sent His disciples out, He instructed them to instruct the nations to embrace everything that He had taught them (Mat. 28:19-20). He never said anything like this: “Don’t worry about the teachings as long as you love one another.” Clearly, Jesus is doctrine-centered. It would be impossible to live the life He had taught without His teachings.

As obvious as all this should be, many have drifted away and have adopted a doctrine-less Jesus – a Jesus who suspiciously resembles the dictates of their own hearts.

No Tolerance for the Real Jesus

There are many postmodern, agnostic and progressive “Christians” who are attempting to redefine the Gospel and the words of our Lord. Here is a statement by one of them followed by my response:

“I actually believe the very confidence and comfort you preach to be a far cry from what Jesus taught.”

Honest Interpretation, the Episcopal Church, and Apostasy

 

Often, when mainline church leaders are challenged about their liberal interpretation of the Scriptures, they defend themselves by saying:

• Well, we also believe that all Scripture is God-breathed. We just interpret it differently than you.

However, I wonder whether our differences are a matter of honest interpretation or our prior commitment to a particular philosophy, which we impose upon Scripture, coercing Scripture to agree with us. Here’s an interesting example. Luke wrote:

• One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. (Acts 16:16-19) 

Frankly, I can’t say with any assurance why Paul was “very much annoyed.” This spirit-possessed slave girl was evidently speaking Gospel-truth. Perhaps she said it in a disruptive or mocking manner? We don’t know. However, Paul reached a point where he had had enough and cast the spirit (demon) out of her. Consequently, she was no longer able to reveal hidden knowledge and make money for her owners.

However, according to BishopJefferts Schori, head of the Episcopal Church, USA, “Paul was guilty of failing to value diversity, to see the slave girl’s beautiful difference”:

• “Paul is annoyed at the slave girl…She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves. But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it.”

However amusing Schori’s imaginative interpretation might be, it was clearly miles away from what Luke had intended to convey. Luke never gave his readers the slightest hint that Paul ever attempted to deprive anyone of God’s gift! Schori’s idea that Paul sought to deprive “her of her gift of spiritual awareness” flies in the face of everything we know about Paul – a man who consistently sacrificed his life to build up the church.

Furthermore, if a holy spirit from God had been cast out by Paul, there is absolutely no precedent for such a thing anywhere in Scripture. It would mean that God Himself was casting out His own servants – an unthinkable impossibility! Instead, Luke identifies the resulting problem for Paul as the fact that the owners were now deprived of their income, not that Paul had done anything unrighteous or that he didn’t “honor diversity.”

Why does Schori resort to such an impossible interpretation? Evidently, she has a commitment to an alternative philosophy of life – one that will not restrict her or others to certain sexual norms. How will such a pre-commitment affect interpretation? It will relativise it. In other words, Paul’s teachings and behavior are no longer the product of the Holy Spirit, but rather his own limitations – personal and societal. It also means that we are now free to take the teachings in any manner we so choose in order to justify our lifestyle!

Clearly, despite her protestations otherwise, Schori doesn’t believe that Scripture is God-breathed. How then do such people rise to the head of our churches? Can say for sure, but it certainly was prophesied. When Paul addressed his beloved Ephesian elders for the last time, he revealed his pain:

• I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:29-32)

“Savage wolves” will arise from the midst of the church and tear it down by distorting the truth. His prime concern was never the plague, invading armies, or even the Romans, but the distortion of the Bible. What was Paul’s answer? Unwavering alertness and discernment! From where would this come? From God and the “word of his grace!” As the distortion would tear the church down, it is Scripture that would “build you up and give you an inheritance.”

It is therefore my prayer that my own agenda or philosophy will never interfere with my understanding or the teaching of His Word. Above all else, I want to honor Him! This is life and truth! This must also become the prayer of us all!

A Revived Heresy: Saving Faith without Repentance

In our permissive age, it is not surprising to find this permissive heresy taking hold of many of our churches. It goes like this:

• Since Christ has forgiven us past, present and future (Heb. 10:14), this means that we don’t have to repent of our sins once we’re saved.

This heresy certainly has the semblance of truth. That’s what makes it so tenacious and destructive. It’s true that we are forgiven permanently in Christ. The New Covenant promises us that He will never again bring our sins to bear against us (Heb. 8:12; Jer. 31:31-34). Therefore, we no longer have to worry about condemned (Romans 8:1).

Well, doesn’t this mean that we can continue to sin unrepentantly once we are saved? No! Scripture warns us in so many ways that that we cannot continue in sin:

• If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

This is a description of someone who practices sin as a lifestyle. Such a person should not be encouraged that they are saved simply in view of their profession of faith. This would amount to a false and misleading encouragement:

• This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)

John is emphatic. Salvation – the purification “from all sin” – is accompanied by a changed life, not a refusal to repent and a rejection of the light.

Elsewhere, John claims that:

• No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6)

If we make sin into an unrepentant lifestyle, we have no connection to the One we profess. Repentance and confession are key. We all struggle with sin. However, if we sincerely confess, he will forgive and cleanse us (1 John 1:8-10) more than 70 x 7 times. However, if we refuse to repent, we should have no expectation of forgiveness.

However, these verses seem to suggest that we can loose our salvation if we refuse to repent. However, if salvation is truly a free gift – and it is - it’s a done deal, isn’t it? But if it is a gift and a done-deal, why then the warnings against continuing in sin? God won’t retract His gift of salvation, will He? No, He won’t (Romans 8:38-39). How then can we reconcile the truth that we are unsaved if we refuse to repent with the truth that salvation is an absolutely free gift not requiring our good deeds?

These ideas can be reconciled once we understand the meaning of faith and our new life in the Spirit. If we believe in Jesus, we will do what He tells us to do, as John assures us:

• We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. (1 John 5:18)

If He lives within us, we can’t unrepentantly continue in sin. If we continue in this manner, it means that He is not living in us, and we must cry out for His forgiveness.

Similarly, if we claim that we trust our doctor but refuse to take the pills that he says that we must take, we don’t really trust him. If we truly trust him, we’ll do what he tells us to do. This pertains even more so to our relationship with our Savior. If we trust Him, we will repent!

Yes, we are forgiven by Christ past, present and future, but Hebrews warns us that if we fail to hold onto our faith/repentance to the end, we never really had them:

• Hebrews 3:6: But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

• Hebrews 3:14: We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

We only “share in Christ” if we “hold firmly till the end.” If we truly have the Biblical gift of faith, we will continue in faithfulness. If we refuse to repent, it means that we never had it and His Spirit never resided within us. Therefore, it’s not a question of loosing salvation but recognizing that we never had it.

Those who refuse to repent are kidding themselves about their salvation. And those who are preaching this way preach a false hope. Instead, they must preach repentance.

Faith and repentance are truly inseparable. You, therefore, can’t have faith without repentance, and you can’t have repentance without faith. If faith means turning to the new life in Christ, then repentance means turning away from the old life. It’s only one turn from the old to the new – opposite sides of the same coin.

Because faith and repentance are almost interchangeable, we often find the promise of salvation depends on faith, but also repentance. Therefore, in many offers of salvation, faith isn’t mentioned. Mentioning repentance is clearly enough:

·        In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30; 2:38; 3:19: 8:22)

Also, as faith is granted as a gift (Eph. 2:8-9), we find the exact same thing regarding repentance (2 Tim. 2:24-25; Acts 5:31; 11:18). This again strongly suggests that the two are inseparable – part of each other. Therefore, we can’t claim to have faith and not repentance.

Jesus even warned that if we refuse to repent, we refuse Him. Repentance is the way to open the door to Him:

·        Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:19-20; 2:5, 16, 21; 3:3; Luke 13:2-5)

Nevertheless, we trust that those who have His seed will repent. If we refuse to repent, we also refuse to have faith and reject salvation. This doesn’t mean that we will always repent of our many sins. We are unaware of some of them. However, if we know that we are in sin or are in active denial that our adulterous affair is a sin, then we have no reason to expect that we are forgiven.

To demonstrate the absurdity of this idea that I can be forgiven while refusing to repent, let’s imagine a new believer who goes to the pastor wanting baptism:

·        Pastor, I believe everything in the Bible, but I must tell you that I refuse to give up my adulterous affirm. This woman is just too important to me. Nevertheless, I want to be baptized and to join the church.

The pastor must say “no!” How could he extend the right hand of fellowship to this “believer” and then immediately start church-discipline proceedings to retract that hand from him, if he remains unrepentant! This is absurd. The pastor must tell the adulterer that he must first repent before he can be received as a brother.

If this new believer had instead stated, “Pastor, I believe and therefore want to leave this woman, but I don’t know if I can summon the strength,” this would be a different matter. There are some sins that we continue to struggle against for our entire lives. However, also in this instance, the pastor should withhold baptism even if this man is truly a believer.

Faith and repentance cannot be separated. Any who claim that they believe but refuse to repent are simply deluding themselves.