MYSTICISM AND RICHARD FOSTER: IS IT POSSIBLE TO TRUST GOD TOO MUCH?

While it is not possible to trust God too much, it is possible to trust Him wrongly and unbiblically. David had trusted God in the wrong way. He had been celebrating the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem – a good thing – but he was trusting God in the wrong way. Instead of appointing Levites to carry the Ark, as God had instructed, he thought he had a better way to convey the Ark – in an ox-drawn cart:

·       And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:5-7; ESV)

We find this very disturbing. Often, we too do things that we think will honor God, but instead, we are disciplined. We had thought that we had been led by right motives, but we weren’t. When we violate God’s concerns and His Word, we are not led by the right motives but by our own. Scripture gives us many warnings against departing from His Word:

·       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 dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

·       I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. (1 Corinthians 4:6)

When we violate the Word or go outside of it in ways that compete against God’s counsel, we incur His needful discipline. Jesus therefore taught:

·       “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

I bring this up because many, in the Name of God, go beyond the Word of God to the detriment of the people of God. For example, the “Christian” mystics add many things to the Word, which they claim are essential for our Christian life. However, the Bible claims that whatever is essential is already contained in Scripture:

·       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)

However, in Celebration of Discipline, the mystic, Richard Foster, proposes many “essentials” that go far beyond anything that Scripture has to say:

·       “Often we assume we are in contact [with God] when we are not…Often people will pray and pray with all the faith in the world, but nothing happens. Naturally, they are not contacting the channel [of God]. We begin praying for others by first centering down and listening to the quiet thunder of the Lord of hosts. Attuning ourselves to divine breathings is spiritual work, but without it our praying is vain repetition. Listening to the Lord is the first thing…(34)

Often, “nothing happens” for many years. Abraham had to wait 25 years for the birth of his promised son, Isaac. Moses had to wait 40 years until God appeared to him in the burning bush. Therefore, the Bible counsels us to wait patiently:

·       For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. (Hebrews 10:36)

However, Foster suggests that there is something wrong if we don’t promptly receive from God. Yes, we can create barriers against God that can cause us to miss “the channel.” Unrepented sin creates such a barrier, for example:

·       Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7)

Our motives can also create a barrier:

·       You ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)

However, failure to implement Foster’s unbiblical practices presents no barrier whatsoever.

Foster also promotes the use of imagination in meditation and prayer:

·       Hence, you can actually encounter the living Christ in the event, be addressed by His voice and be touched by His healing power. It can be more than an exercise of the imagination; it can be a genuine confrontation. Jesus Christ will actually come to you.

According to Foster, we can imaginatively visual Jesus coming to us, and “Jesus Christ will actually come.” This is little different from idolatry. In one instance, we create a physical idol; in another, we create a mental idol to do our bidding, something strictly forbidden by the Ten Commandments:

·       "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” (Exodus 20:4)

Foster is instructing us to make for ourselves a mental idol, one that will actually serve us. Instead, Jesus requires us to worship God in “spirit and in truth,” rather than in our imaginations. We do not have the privilege to imagine or conjure up the God that we want. The KJV translation brings out the fact that many have hardened themselves to God by creating for themselves a god of “their imaginations”:

·       Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23; KJV)

Instead, we are to expose such false imaginations which oppose the “knowledge of God”:

·       For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5; KJV)

Nevertheless, Foster insists that:

·       Imagination opens the door to faith. If we can ‘see’ in our mind’s eye a shattered marriage whole or a sick person well, it is only a short step to believing that it will be so. (36)

Perhaps our imaginations do open the door to faith, but to which faith:

·       Imagine the light of Christ flowing through your hands and healing every emotional trauma and hurt feeling your child experienced that day. Fill him or her with the peace and joy of the Lord. In sleep the child is very receptive to prayer since the conscious mind, which tends to erect barriers to God’s gentle influence, is relaxed. (39)

Not only is this practice unbiblical, it is also assumes that we can coerce God, through the use of our imaginations, to give us what we want and when we want it. This represents both a serious debasing of God and an exaltation of our own manipulations. Against such presumptions, James warned:

·       Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

Foster’s teachings are no less boastful. We cannot presume that we can manipulate God to give us what we want and when we want it. This is how Satan tempted Jesus:

·       Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:5-7)

Foster is also putting “God to the test,” assuming that He must perform in accordance with Foster’s techniques. Instead, blessing doesn’t depend on such manipulations but on God’s specifications:

·       Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:8)

·       But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

Foster is teaching an unbiblical God, one who cannot bless “since the conscious mind, which tends to erect barriers to God’s gentle influence.” Instead, God is all-powerful and is not impeded by our conscious mind:

·       But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

·       "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.’” (Rev. 3:7)

Foster also suggests that our minds are an impediment to receiving the grace of God. Instead, we are taught that our minds are a tool that enables us to connect to God:

·       And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

Foster has imagined an unbiblical God. How does God react to us when we go beyond Scripture? Here is how He addressed his most righteous servant:

·       “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)

·       “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (Job 40:2)

After Job repented of his foolishness, God turned His anger upon Job’s three friends:

·       “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7-8)

We must speak of God correctly. However, after Job repented in dust and ashes, it was as if he had never sinned at all.

THE KNOWLEDGE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD

Peter had written something so incredible about the role of our knowledge of God that few of us really believe it:

·       May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:2-3; ESV)

How can it be that “all things that pertain to life and godliness” come to us “through the knowledge of him?” Of course, we can only internalize these truths through the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, we still cannot get our minds around the fact that all blessings come through this knowledge.

Why not? We have been conditioned to believe that the Christian life is about experiencing God apart from truths about God. We have come to believe that there is either something very sterile about truth or even that the notion of truth carries negative consequences for our experience of Christ.

Many have written this way. For example, the professed Christian and psychologist, David Benner, has written:

·       Equating faith with beliefs truncates and trivializes spirituality by reducing it to a mental process. Thoughts are, quite simply, a poor substitute for relationship. Some Christians speak much of a personal relationship with God but assume that this is based on holding right beliefs. Is it any wonder that this attempt to reduce Ultimate Mystery to theological propositions so often results in the principle personal relationship being between a person and his or her own thoughts? Cherishing thoughts about God replaces cherishing God; knowing about the Divine replaces knowing the Divine. Whenever the Wholly Other is thought to be contained in one’s beliefs and opinions, divine transcendence is seriously compromised and personal relationship with the Spirit minimized. (Soulful Spirituality, 6)

Benner needlessly denigrates thinking, believing, and the knowledge of God. Even worse, for him it is an impediment.

However, it is because I know that God loves and forgives me that I can love Him and feel intimate with Him. I know that I am beloved, and this helps me to love others. Our beliefs affect our entire lives – how we feel about ourselves, our attitudes towards others, and how we behave towards them.

What does Benner have to offer in place of Scriptural truths?  Awareness!

·       The spiritual life starts with awareness. Limited awareness equates to a shallow spiritual life. (96)

This certainly agrees with Scripture. However, what does Benner mean by “awareness?” Certainly not the awareness of God and His Word! Rather, it is the awareness of an unthinking object:

·       Feel it, smell it, look at it from as many angles as possible.  Notice how heavy or light it is, how hard or soft. Don’t analyze it as a scientist. Just allow it to capture your interest and hold your attention. Gaze at it in wonder and curiosity, and allow yourself to see it as if for the very first time. (99)

This is tragic. It is the Spirit working through the knowledge of God in Scripture that has rescued me from decades of depression and panic attacks. Scripture informed me that:

·       I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

It was Scripture, the knowledge of God, that enabled me to stop obsessing about my own failures and inadequacies and to look at the One who now owned me and would never stop loving me. This truth told me that I could now rest, because it is no longer about me but what He has done for me.

Scripture has also corrected me in so many ways. I used to feel so condemned, and even after I came to Christ, I felt that even God was condemning me. However, the Spirit woke me up to the knowledge of God:

·       There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

In view of my overwhelming feelings of condemnation, it was hard to believe that this verse was true. However, the Spirit eventually made this truth of God very real for me. Before, I had resented a God, who I felt had been unwelcoming of me, but I now became convinced that He not only didn’t condemn me, but He actually loved me with a love that transcended anything I could comprehend (Ephesians 3:19).

Through the knowledge of God, I had received a confidence and a freedom that the idolatrous meditation upon an object could never give. To Him alone be all the glory!

HOW BAD THEOLOGY CAN UNDERMINE THE FAITH

Paul had warned that bad theology undermines faith:

·       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. (Colossians 2:8; ESV)

Bad theology can take us captive. Sometimes, it can even look benign:

·       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. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:1-5)

Paul argued that even the smallest morsel of bad doctrine can undermine the entirety of our faith:

·       You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Galatians 5:7-9)

A little bit of bad teaching can contaminate everything. I know that this sounds unbelievable, but just think about a computer virus. It’s just a small bit of information, but it can destroy your computer. The same seems to pertain to our faith.

Let’s take a couple of examples. Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved in the end. They argue that, since God is love, He would never condemn His creations to an endless hell. However, this one simple belief contradicts the entire Bible.

Why should any bother to read the Bible if they are going to be saved anyway. The Christian life is not easy. We are called to suffer (2 Cor. 4:10-11). Why then live for Christ? Why be obedient if all will be saved?

The same goes for prayer, confession, repentance, and certainly evangelism. I would be ashamed to tell anyone that they need to come to Christ if they are going to heaven regardless. In fact, if all are to be saved, nothing in the Bible is of any real consequence. Better to eat, drink, and be merry!

Many other heresies will also undermine the entirety of the faith. Mysticism is becoming fantastically popular. Mysticism is the belief that we can enjoy the love and blessings of God without certain beliefs and doctrines. All that is necessary is the practice of certain mindless techniques/exercises like meditation to clear the mind, visualizations, repetitions of a single word, or imaginations.

If we can experience the love of God through the various mystical exercises, who needs the Bible, confession, repentance, faith, and obedience. Mysticism makes them all irrelevant. However, their various techniques are entering the Church like a tsunami.

Why? Progressives are coming to believe that experience, rather than our opposing beliefs, will bring world unity. Sociologist Tony Campolo wrote:

·       A theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of ecstatic union with God…I do not know what to make of the Muslim mystics, especially those who have come to be known as the Sufis. What do they experience in their mystical experiences? Could they have encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism. (Roger Oakland, Faith Undone, 108)

According to Campolo, we can plug into God through mystical techniques and experiences, and this common experience can become the basis of “common ground” among the various religions. He claims that he has been able to achieve “intimacy with Christ” through “centering prayer” (113). For him, this involves the repetition of the name of Jesus. However, he suggests that Muslims – and probably others – may also be able to achieve this same “intimacy with Christ” through the use of similar mystical techniques. If this is so, then theology and doctrine are no longer important. Instead, they build walls and present obstacles.

However, Campolo’s hope that people of different religions are experiencing our God lovingly and savingly is biblically absurd. Without having been reconciled to God through His Son, we cannot enter into His presence; nor would we want to. Israel had been so terrified by the manifestations of God on Mt. Sinai that they thought they would die (Deut. 5:25).

The Temple stood as a constant reminder that anyone not authorized to approach God would be struck dead. Even the authorized could only approach after lengthy preparations.

Jesus reiterated that fact that, naturally speaking, we hate the light of the presence of God:

·       And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

Jesus, therefore, is the last One the unredeemed would want to encounter. What then are they encountering when they claim to have an encounter with God through exercising their techniques? Paul had warned:

·       For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

Where then can we find safety from demonic deception and demonic encounters? Only through Christ and through His Word!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE LOSE INTEREST IN TRUTH AND THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW?

What happens when Christians embrace Christ as Someone who has changed their lives and has bestowed on them many benefits, while there is little consideration of Christianity as the Truth? In his essay, “Why Christianity Lost America,” Indian scholar turned Christian, Vishal Mangalwadi, asks:

• Why did Christianity lose the power that gave it influence over education and economy, government and law, press and entertainment? How can the Church recover the power to prevail over the forces of evil?

He explains that today’s Christianity is not the vibrant Christianity of the recent past. Today’s version has separated truth from faith, leaving Christianity unbalanced – a plane with one wing, trying to fly with only feelings, mystical experiences, and a private and personalized faith, separated from its Biblical and defensible truth-claims:

• Christianity lost America because 20th-century evangelicalism branded itself as the party of faith. By default Secularism (science, university, media) became the party of truth. This is one reason why 70% Christian youth give up meaningful involvement with the church when they grow up. http://www.revelationmovement.com/instructors/blog_post/38

Magalwadi observes that many of today’s Christians believe in a Christianity that has little to do with truth and facts and everything to do with internal experience. This imbalance has proved disastrous for Christianity. Mangalwadi cites several examples:

• In November 2011, I met an American missionary who has served in Guatemala for 36 years. He described a recent (unpublished) doctoral study examining Protestantism in one part of Guatemala. The Hispanic scholar had hoped to substantiate Max Weber’s thesis on the connection between Protestantism and economic development. The data, however, drove him to conclude that the gospel taught by present-day American missions makes no perceptible difference to the economic life of the believing communities.

What a contrast with what Christianity had been historically. One example of the vibrancy of the Christian faith is found in its establishment of universities. Sociologist Alvin Schmidt writes:

• Given the powerful influence that secularism now has on most Americans, they are probably not aware that “every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War – except the University of Pennsylvania – was established by some branch of the Christian church.” Nor are most Americans aware that in 1932, when Donald Tewksbury published The Founding of American Colleges and Universities before the Civil War, 92 percent of the 182 colleges and universities were founded by Christian denominations. (How Christianity Changed the Word, 190)

This should not surprise us. The Bible’s teachings unequivocally testify that the faith rests upon the undeniable truths of God (Deut. 4:34-37) – what He revealed and accomplished historically. God never asked Israel to just believe, but rather to believe by virtue of the evidences. For example, when Moses asked God for evidences that He could take to the Israelites to prove that God had appeared to him, God didn’t say, “Well, just tell those Israelites to believe!” Instead, He consistently provided the necessary proofs:

• Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.' "So the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), "that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." (Exodus 4:1-5)

Likewise, Jesus never instructed His followers to believe without reasons to believe. Instead, He provided evidences through his miracles and prophecies:

• He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

• "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. (John 14:28-29)

The Biblical faith embodies verifiable truths (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; Titus 1:1). Mangalwadi contrasts this with other religions:

• Hinduism, like Greco-Roman religions, is based (self-consciously) on myths.

• The Buddha rejected Hinduism’s mythical gods and goddesses in favor of mystical (non-rational) Silence.

• Islam has words that are believed to be true. These words were uttered in a state of non-rational trance, called “prophecy.” Islam, therefore, rests on private, non-verifiable communications of an individual. Sometimes Mohammed went into “prophetic” trance in public, but no one saw or heard angel Gabriel talking to him. The power of his utterances rested on the sword, not on evidence. When his words about the past (e.g., stories from Old and New Testament times) contradicted documented history, his followers had to assume that contradictions mean that texts have been corrupted. Non-verifiable trance communications overrode documented history.

Sadly, Christianity has been going the way of the other religions. In the face of secular attacks upon the truth-claims of Christianity, Christianity has retreated into a cocoon of private faith experiences. We have defensively responded, “Well, I just know what I’ve experienced, and no one can tell me any differently.”

This response hasn’t proved adequate. Against the weight of the claims of the modern university, Christianity has retreated and compromised. It has surrendered the life of the mind for the life of internal experiences. Mangalwadi explains:

• The church created the university to train godly leaders who will look at all of reality through the light of the Truth (revealed by God’s works and words). Fundamentalism insulated Bible Institutes from other departments to study the Bible alone. It gave up the mission to seek public truth in favor of cultivating private spiritual lives. Once the Bible was put into the silo of Bible Institutes, the Bible teachers were isolated from the public life of the mind.  Preachers memorized the Bible but by and large they did not learn how to meditate upon God’s word in a way to shine its light on all of life.

We have compromised in many ways. We have put the claims of the Bible on the bench in favor of charismatic pastors who have promised experiences if we would only turn off our minds and our insistence to check everything out according to Scripture.

We have embraced a neo-orthodox “Christianity” that tried to salvage the Christian basics by insisting that the Bible really isn’t about what it clearly teaches. Instead, it is a tool to bring us magically into a saving relationship with Christ apart from its verifiable truth claims – claims that the university rejects.

We have embraced theistic evolution (TE) in a vain attempt to make friends with the university. This worldview attempts to make peace by claiming that the Bible isn’t about the physical world – science, history, geography – but about the spiritual. Hence, no conflict between science and Christianity! However, in making this compromise, TE has separated Christianity from all of its supporting evidences – objective evidences that cannot be found outside of this physical world. This is because proof starts with what we know and can agree about. Once this is established, it proceeds to the areas of disagreement – the spiritual claims. However, once the Church abandons the physical world, it no longer has an objective basis to prove its case.

We have embraced “Christian” mysticism and Postmodern “Christianity.” These have, in various ways, demeaned doctrine and apologetics in favor of experience, dogmatically claiming that we can’t really know with any degree of certainty, that “doctrine divides,” and what really matters is a direct experience of God, apart from what we Biblically understand about Him.

Consequently, “the church reads the Bible mainly for private “edification.” Corporately, the Kingdom of Christ has ceased being the city on a hill.” Indeed, we can’t be the light if we believe that biblical truth-claims aren’t verifiable.

In contrast to this, it had been the light of the Bible that had provided the impetus to shed its light upon creation and to master it. Schmidt concludes:

• Modern science is an outgrowth of Christian theology of the Middle Ages. It proceeded to show that it was Christianity’s values that provided the necessary Weltanshauung [worldview] and motivation to encourage many of its educated adherents to study the world of nature…The public are unaware that virtually all scientists from the Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century – many of which were seminal thinkers – not only were sincere Christians but were often inspired by biblical postulates and premises in their theories… [they] knew and believed the words of the biblical writer: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). (How Christianity Changed the World, 243-44).

What then is the answer for us today? To return with courage to the basics! Jesus instructed us to:

• " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

When we leave out truth and the cultivation of the mind, we fail to live faithfully to the teachings of Scripture. Instead, we live defensively, fearful that we will be confronted with questions and challenges that we cannot answer. We therefore practice avoidance. Instead of being a light on a hill, we remain in the shadow of the “light” shed by the prevailing culture.

Once we lose confidence in the Light/Truth of Christ, we become indistinguishable from the world. We no longer have the conviction to live according to the teachings of the Bible. Somehow, the Bible begins to seem judgmental. It is then inevitable that our affections will become set on the things of this world (1 John 2:15-16; James 4:4).