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Frank Viola Author’s main blog – Beyond Evangelical – is for Christians in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who know there is something more to the Christian faith than what the Progressive Left and the Religious Right offers.
They know that legalism on the one hand is wrong and so is libertinism on the other hand.
Viola’s book – Beyond Evangelical – meets this need in this age group and so does his official blog.
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I’m often asked what I believe about “the gifts of the Spirit.” My typical answer is that I believe in them—all of them. However, I believe in and practice them without the classic Charismatic packages and Pentecostal wrappings.
A large chunk of my Christian life was spent in Charismatic circles. I benefited from being in those circles, and through them God taught me a great deal about the supernatural workings of His Spirit.
However, many years ago, I came into an experience of the Spirit’s work and power that looked nothing like what I had seen in any Charismatic or Pentecostal church to which I belonged or visited. For me, it was a new experience of the Spirit; one that was less artificial, less contrived, and less centered on the Spirit Himself. Rather, it was an experience that was authentic, pure, and centered on the Lord Jesus Christ.
For this reason, I’m neither a cessationist (a person who believes that some spiritual gifts have ceased) nor a Charismatic (one who emphasizes spiritual gifts). Instead, I consider myself to be a post-Charismatic.
Note that what I’m about to write is based on my experience in the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Your experience may differ.
Excerpted from Revise Us Again by Frank Viola
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Those who are captured by the same spirit they oppose refuse to live with diversity in their movement. Everyone in the group must rehearse the same party line. Those who do not are viewed with suspicion. They are either overtly silenced or excommunicated and shunned.
When diversity is forbidden in a group, it creates a “walking on egg shells” situation. People are not free to share what they really feel or believe. Legitimate concerns are swept under the rug. Rushes to judgment are routinely made, and the faintest hint of diverse thinking is viewed as subversive. (Note that I’m not speaking here of judging motives, being critical, and having a spirit of fault-finding. I’m speaking of legitimate concerns that are rooted in reality.)
Some group leaders use explicit tactics like overt threats to intimidate those who have valid concerns. Others use the vindictive weapons of public ridicule to belittle, demean, and insult them. This is a gutless way of evading an issue by seeking to make its victim the butt of contempt and ridicule in a public forum.
Instead of dealing with the issue maturely and graciously in Christ, one uses ridicule to strike at another person and humiliate them in front of others in juvenile fashion. (Incidentally, those who feel they need to ridicule others have very low self-esteem. Vitriol is an effective way to hide one’s own insecurities.)
Schoolyard belittling, blue-blooded insults, mockery, and ridicule are all tools of the flesh. And those who wield them smell of flesh. They grieve the Spirit of God and betray the Spirit of the Lamb. And we have not so learned Jesus Christ.
I’ve watched this sort of behavior poison many relationships. The “cheap shot” that gets a laugh is the fleshly instrument of the insecure leader. Consequently, those who relish mocking others only reveal serious interior problems that they’ve never dealt with. Jealousy and envy are chief among them.
Even so, those who are captured by the same spirit they oppose cannot abide diversity. Instead of embracing it as a mark of fullness, they do all they can to squash it. And ridicule—a tool of the old man wielded by self-indulgent souls—is one way that it’s accomplished.
From Revise Us Again by Frank Viola, author
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Those who are captured by the same spirit they oppose tend to impute the motives of their own hearts onto those who threaten them. Christian leaders who have inflated egos or deep insecurities are easily threatened by others. As a result, they will unwittingly read their own heart motives into the hearts of other people.
Psychologists call this “projection.” I can’t face my own shortcomings and defects so I unconsciously project them onto other people. I accuse others of the very same things that are lurking deep within my own heart.
I’ve watched some Christian leaders engage in projection when they came into contact with those who were just as (or more) gifted than they were. The root was jealousy. You can call it a “Saul complex,” if you will.
Herein lies a great lesson: Those who judge the motives of others are simply revealing what’s in their own hearts.
In Matthew 7:1–4, Jesus points out that those with defective eyesight are all too willing to perform eye surgery on others. Yet within this text, the Lord made this chilling assessment: If you impute an evil motive onto someone else, you’re simply making known what your real motives are.
To put it another way, the piece of sawdust we see in our brother’s eye is simply a small chip off the two-by-four that lies within our own. And sawdust always distorts our vision.
When people cannot face the reality of what’s in their own hearts, they project it onto others—particularly those who they find threatening to their egos.
One of the most profound influences in my life was a talk radio show host from many years back. When this man first broke into the talk radio business, he sat at the feet of a man whom he idolized. He was this talk radio show host’s mentor. We’ll call him Nelson since I don’t wish to disclose the mentor’s name.
When Nelson discovered that the man whom he had mentored began to surpass him in popularity, all hell broke loose. Nelson’s monstrous ego began to flicker, and he was loaded for bear. He launched the first salvo, and the two men waged an on-the-air radio slap fight that marched off the map of dignity.
Pointed insults were swapped. Disparaging remarks were cast. Both men drew blood from one another, and the listeners got caught up in the carnage. It turned out to devolve into something quite vicious, and the exchange deeply hurt my radio friend.
Unfortunately, no one could reel in the egos or squash the infighting. It turned into bad blood. Nelson was radioactive for quite some time, and the two men didn’t speak a civil word to each other for many years.
What happened to these two men is not an isolated incident. I’ve watched it occur numerous times since I’ve been a Christian. King Saul is not the only gifted man who has been threatened by a younger David.
What was at the root of that painful period in David’s life? Jealousy and envy in the heart of Saul and the threatening feeling (as well as the irrational paranoia) that comes with them.
As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” (1 Samuel 18:7–8).
Incidentally, jealousy and envy are what provoked the religious leaders of our Lord’s day to put Jesus to death. Tragically, this same drama has played out since Cain slew his younger brother out of jealousy.
I’m no fan of Sigmund Freud nor of his theory of the Oedipus complex. (Please reread that last sentence.) But what led Freud to construct his oedipal theory was a legitimate observation about human nature. Namely, Freud observed that some fathers and some father figures become threatened by their own sons. That is, they fear being supplanted by their sons, and so they grow to hate them.
This only happens when there’s an excessive root of pride and insecurity in the father figure’s heart. The absence or presence of such pride and insecurity is what separates those spiritual fathers who become proud of their sons from those who grow to despise them.
Regrettably, some mentors suffer from both an inferiority complex and a superiority complex at the same time. Their shaky sense of identity cuts in both directions. In such cases, they become masters at the fine art of denial.
Caution: If you’re a person who will one day mentor others, I have a sobering warning. If your ego hasn’t been annihilated by the cross of Jesus Christ, you will end up becoming a Saul in the lives of those who are just as (or more) gifted than you are.
You’ll become another sad example of lions eating their young. And as with every modern Saul, God’s favor and anointing will leave you and be given to another. As Peter said,
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5 NKJV)
Saint John of the Cross warned Christians to be very careful whom they chose to be their mentors, for in his words, “the disciple will become like the master, and as is the father so will be the son.”
To my mind, one cannot show genuine respect for one’s mentor by perpetuating his shortcomings and flaws.
Every father should be extremely proud of the son who surpasses him. True mentors freely give what they have to their spiritual sons and hope that their sons exceed them. False mentors use their sons to increase their fame and carry on their legacies, and they become infuriated whenever their sons share their glory.
From Revise Us Again by Frank Viola, author
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Let’s drawing some distinctions about God’s presence. These are my own linguistic handles and definitions:
Here are some candid observations on the presence of God—revisions that I hope will bring clarity to the issue:
(1) God Is Always Present with His People
God is always present in the life of a believer–-whether one actively feels His presence or not. Jesus Christ Himself promised His followers, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5 NKJV).
To put it another way, the reality of God’s presence is always with the Christian, and it doesn’t change. It’s not dependent on or evidenced by feelings or senses.
The New Testament is quite loud in its proclamation that God in Christ dwells in every believer by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:1–17). This is an unmovable fact. To state it personally, you, dear Christian, are always in God’s presence! His presence is not something you need to seek. It’s not something you need to acquire. The presence of God is not something to be invoked, summoned, or sought after. It is an ever-present reality for all Christians.
As Paul said to the Romans, you don’t need to go to heaven to bring Christ down. Nor do you need to go to the depths to bring Christ up. He is in you … nearer than your breath is to your mouth. You have access to Him at every moment (Rom. 10:6–13).
From Revise Us Again by Frank Viola, author