A Doctrine is Needed to Explain David

The Doctrine of Interlocking Systems of Arrogance

The Gates (Entryways) into Interlocking System of Arrogance

David and the Interlocking Systems of Arrogance

What appears to be the case is, R. B. Thieme, Jr. came upon this passage, which he was determined to teach, and did not have a viable doctrine to explain David’s behavior. Nor was there any developed doctrine in theology which explained David’s behavior and the results.

A Doctrine is Needed to Explain David

1.       The problem which seemed to bring out this doctrine was David’s sin with Bathsheba.

2.       David will first stay home when he ought to go out to war.

3.       Then he has sex with another man’s wife, and it is possible that this illicit sex involves rape.

4.       David attempts to manipulate the situation to get Bathsheba’s husband to come back from the war and sleep with his wife (to cover up the pregnancy).

5.       When this doesn’t work, David has her husband killed in battle giving a field order which requires Joab to carry it out.

6.       David will rebound and God will discipline him afterwards with installment discipline.

7.       Here is the problem: going into the sin, David is clearly a mature believer. Coming out of the sin, David is clearly a mature believer (he does a lot of writing of Scripture once he is restored to fellowship). David does not seem to lose spiritual ground in terms of maturity, although he certainly brought upon himself a heap of discipline.

8.       Although David gets out of fellowship for an extended period of time, this does not appear to be reversionism.

9.       Reversionism is where a believer gets out of fellowship, rejects Bible doctrine, intentionally not taking in doctrine (even though he might go to church) and consequently goes into a spiritual decline. Reversionism is a term which speaks of a person reverting to his behavior as an unbeliever during this period of spiritual retrogression. We find the Hebrews guilty of this in Heb. 6:1–6.

10.     In fact—and this is an important point—although David has been in and out of fellowship on several occasions, he never seems to go into reversionism. There never seems to be a point where he has to start over from scratch.

11.     David became a believer at a very early age and it appears as if he grew to spiritual maturity at a very young age as well.

12.     Therefore, there is no actual set of behaviors to which David can revert to when out of fellowship, because he was so young when he was saved and then when he matured.

13.     However, there is no way that we can overlook the gross sins which David immerses himself in. He will break several of the Ten Commandments here: he will covet another man’s wife; he will commit adultery with another man’s wife, and then he will have that man killed.

14.     In committing these sins, David is not reverting to his behavior as an unbeliever. He never committed such sins before.

15.     In reversionism, people tend to spiritual regress. That is, whatever level of spiritual maturity a person has reached, he begins to lose that state and to fall backwards.

16.     This does not appear to happen to David.

17.     He is spiritually mature at the beginning of these sins, and he will write a lot of Scripture immediately after committing these sins, suggesting that he is still in a state of spiritual maturity.

18.     That is, despite committing this set of horrendous sins, David does not appear to have lost spiritual ground. At no time, will David have to start over and grow.

19.     Therefore, we need more of an explanation of David’s sin here and the results which goes beyond David being out of fellowship for a protracted period of time and beyond the concept of reversionism, which does not appear to apply here.

These points ought to make it clear that, simply saying that David is out of fellowship for awhile or that he has gone into reversionism does not fully explain what he did and where he is spiritually, both before and after this sin.

This particular doctrine was originally developed by R. B. Thieme, Jr. in the late 1970's and he had it crystalized into a complete doctrine by 1980 (when he taught it in conjunction with this particular passage). He later revised this to 2 sets of interlocking systems, which he called cosmic 1 and cosmic 2.

As just discussed, we need to explain David’s spiritual state in this chapter. We cannot fully explain his behavior by saying this is simply a protracted period of time that he is out of fellowship nor can we say that he entered into reversionism, because this is not reverting to any behavior which David exhibited as an unbeliever.

The Doctrine of Interlocking Systems of Arrogance

1.       The interlocking systems of arrogance refers to many clusters of sins which have a tendency to interlock with one another.

2.       That is, a believer who goes into interlocking systems of arrogance through one gate (or entrance), is likely to interlock with another cluster of sins if he remains out of fellowship.

3.       We have simple examples of this in life. A person might begin to smoke marijuana, which is illegal. Some time later, he may become involved in anti-authority actions, extreme liberal philosophy and politics, and break more and greater laws. He may involve himself with a woman with the same weaknesses, and they become involved in sexual arrogance together (his norms and standards being wiped out by his changing mores). He enters in the gate of smoking marijuana which makes him vulnerable to a number of other clusters of sins.

          a.       Obviously, a person who smoke marijuana will be open to the use of other drugs.

          b.       Therefore, the ultimate gateway drug, marijuana usage, can result in using a variety of other drugs; so the user enters into interlocking systems of drugs through the marijuana gate, and finds himself being drawn to other drugs as well.

          c.        The interlocking systems of arrogance function in much the same way: you may not consider criminal acts or sexual arrogance; but you get drawn into the interlocking systems of arrogance through negative volition arrogance, and suddenly, some of these things that you were naturally resistant to, you now indulge in.

4.       Using David as the example, he first is guilty of sexual arrogance, and has sex with a women who is the wife of one of his soldiers. Rather than get back into fellowship, David then tries to manipulate her husband, and, when that does not work, he becomes involves in criminal arrogance, and has Bathsheba’s husband killed.

5.       Believers and unbelievers can enter into interlocking systems of arrogance.

6.       Immature and mature believers can enter into interlocking systems of arrogance.

7.       The believer who enters into interlocking systems of arrogance may not lose much spiritual ground. They may not have to start over from step one in their spiritual lives (as we see in Heb. 6:1–3).

8.       Such a believer may not be entirely negative toward Bible doctrine. He may continue to attend Bible class and will have periods of time when he is both in fellowship and listening to the Word of God.

9.       Although they may not revert to behavior from their past unbelieving life, they may begin committing whole new varieties of sins never committed before.

10.     While in interlocking systems of arrogance, a person can become more easily tempted by a variety of lusts. In this chapter, David will be overtaken by sexual lust for Bathsheba.

11.     While in interlocking systems of arrogance, you may abandon many of your norms and standards. David will commit adultery and then murder in this chapter.

12.     One cluster of sins often interlocks with another cluster of sins, which can pull in a set of sins that this believer generally does not commit.

13.     When out of fellowship in inside the interlocking systems of arrogance, the believer—even the mature believer—is more vulnerable to these other clusters of sins (gates).

14.     Each gate represents a cluster of sins related to arrogance.

15.     These are called gates because they represent the way a person enters into interlocking systems of arrogance.

16.     However, when in interlocking systems of arrogance, the believer may interlock with another cluster of sins. He is not reentering into interlocking systems of arrogance because he is already there. He just begins to participate in a new cluster of sins as well.

17.     We might say, the believer goes further into the interlocking systems of arrogance with each new gate he enters.

18.     In David’s case, he is too entrenched in interlocking systems of arrogance to see just how far he has gone. He does not recognize just how evil he has been. It will take another believer, Nathan the prophet, to get to David, to get him to turn around and look at himself and what he has done (2Sam. 12:1–7).

19.     So there is no misunderstanding here, David is not some helpless soul trapped in a system from which he cannot escape. He is in a system of interlocking clusters of sins, and involvement with one cluster of sins often leads to involvement with another cluster of sins. However, David has human volition which he is exercising the entire time. By arrogantly remaining out of fellowship, and trying to deal with this situation on his own, David continues to limit his options.

20.     God does not look at David and say, “Look, this is too bad you are trapped here. Let’s get you out and everything is all better.” God will discipline David so much here that it must be parceled out in installments. If David got all that he deserved all at once, even David would be unable to endure it.

21.     In other words, the punishment for entering into interlocking systems of arrogance is quite severe.

22.     There seems to be very little spiritual ground lost as a result of being in interlocking systems of arrogance.

23.     We know this because David goes in as a mature believer and he exits as a mature believer. We know he comes out as a mature believer because he will write a number of psalms to describe this experience (which we will, of course, study after completing this chapter).

24.     Mature believers can fall prey to interlocking systems of arrogance. They can go into the interlocking systems of arrogance with doctrine in their soul, and come out the same way. In fact, it is often doctrine in their souls which they apply in order to get out of interlocking systems of arrogance.

25.     Because it is so easy for the believer to fall back into he interlocking systems of arrogance after escaping, God often applies tough discipline in order to get our attention and to focus us toward getting out of interlocking systems of arrogance. Sin nature weakness arrogance and sexual arrogance were so deep in David’s soul, that God gave him installment discipline, partially to discipline David, but partially to help him stay out of interlocking systems of arrogance at the end of his life. This does work, because David will be great in the final years of his life (we know this, because he will actually raise up Solomon as a father ought to raise up a son).

Keil and Delitzsch write: Although the primary occasion of the Psalm [51] is the sin of adultery, still David says peshaʿ (פֶּשַע) [pronounced PEH-shahģ] not merely because many other sins were developed out of it, as his guilt of blood in the case of Uriah, the scandal put into the mouths of the enemies of Jahve, and his self-delusion, which lasted almost a whole year; but also because each solitary sin, the more it is perceived in its fundamental character and, as it were, microscopically discerned, all the more does it appear as a manifold and entangled skein of sins, and stands forth in a still more intimate and terrible relation, as of cause and effect, to the whole corrupt and degenerated condition in which the sinner finds himself. This entangled skein of sins sounds a lot like the interlocking system of arrogance.

Surprisingly enough, I cannot find anywhere on the internet where this doctrine is laid out completely. I have it in my notes and it must be in one of Bob’s books, so I will reproduce it here for easy access. Each gate below is a separate doctrine in itself with examples from Scripture of believers who have exhibited these types of arrogance.

I have added 15 or so more gates to the original list.

The Gates (Entryways) into Interlocking System of Arrogance

Gate

Description of the Gate

1.       Mental Attitude Arrogance

Mental attitude arrogance is preoccupation with self leading to sin, human good and evil. It is satisfaction with self and dissatisfaction with others. Mental attitude arrogance results in preoccupation with self, which results in indifference to Bible doctrine, which results in accepting the cheap substitutes of emotional activity, legalism, human good, and becoming a loser in the Christian life.

2.       Negative Volition Arrogance

Negative volition is resistance to Bible doctrine on the one hand, or indifference to Bible doctrine on the other hand, based on arrogant preoccupation with self. Arrogance preoccupation with self has many aspects, such as a personality conflict with the teacher of doctrine, or self-pity in interaction with people in the congregation. In this state, you are not antagonistic to doctrine, but simply distracted from it by your own status quo of arrogance. For the believer, this is the most damaging arrogance of then all.

3.       Impulsive Arrogance

Impulsive arrogance applies to those who are in position of authority and they abuse the power of their authority. Their arrogance is manifested by their aggressive decisions.

4.       Institutional Arrogance

Institutional arrogance is the rejection of authority, policy, purpose and system of any legitimate institution.

5.       Blind Arrogance

Blind arrogance - arrogance of legalism. This is being partially divorced from reality (sociopathic rather than psychotic). This includes self-righteous arrogance, which is failure to see in yourself what you criticize in others.

6.       Conspiracy Arrogance

Conspiracy arrogance comes after institutional arrogance and results in a conspiracy to overthrow the purpose, policy, or authority of an organization.

7.       Criminal Arrogance

Criminal arrogance seeks to solve problems by violence and/or by criminal actions. The modus operandi of a person in criminal arrogance is criminal behavior. Believers are susceptible to this kind of arrogance just as unbelievers are.

8.       Crusader Arrogance

Crusader arrogance is the self-righteousness arrogance that tries to straighten the world from its error and mistakes. A person places his personal standards above the law or any form of establishment or authority. When criminal arrogance interlocks with crusader arrogance, there is terrorism or revolution.

9.       Psychopathic Arrogance

Psychopathic arrogance is total divorcement from all reality. It is a result of bad decisions, not genetics. It is intense concentration on self. Emotions take precedence over reason.

10.     Sexual Arrogance

Sexual arrogance is preoccupation with sex and self-gratification. It is preoccupation with the body to the exclusion of the soul.

11.     Genetic Arrogance

Genetic arrogance is assuming that greatness in life is inherited. Parents who seek recognition through the achievement of their children have this type of arrogance.

12.     Political Arrogance

Political arrogance is a result as well as an interlock with crusader arrogance. It is any human panacea which offers the solution to life's problems. Liberals and conservatives both suffer from political arrogance. It rejects the separation of church and state. Political arrogance is self righteousness searching for a solution to problems in politics.

13.     Client Nation Arrogance

Client nation arrogance is the arrogance related to divine laws and spiritual leadership. National arrogance emphasizes the laws of divine establishment (HTML) (PDF) and the function of government leadership in terms of arrogance versus humility. There are three basic forms of legitimate government.

(1)Monarchy is the rule of one man in the interest of the common good, which under arrogance becomes tyranny, i.e., the rule of one man for his own advantage.

(2)Aristocracy is the rule of a group in the interest of the common good. This degenerates to an oligarchy, which is the rule of a group for their own benefit, as the cosmic system influences the nation.

(3)A republic is the rule of the better part of the people in the interest of common good. But when arrogance comes, it degenerates into a democracy, which is the rule of the worst part of the people for their own benefit.

14.     Authority Arrogance

In authority arrogance, the individual fails to make the most difficult transition of temporal life, which is going from the authority in the home to freedom in life. The home is organized humility. The parents' authority is enforced humility, and the child's response to enforced humility produces genuine humility. Rejection of overt authority in life results in rejection of inward authority of the soul, and that destroys your own self-discipline.

15.     The Arrogance of Ignorance

Genuine humility is necessary for the transitions from authority in the home to freedom in life and from ignorance at salvation to cognizance at spiritual maturity. Genuine humility is the necessary teachability to make that transition. The arrogance of ignorance is the failure to make that transition from ignorance to cognizance in the Christian way of life. Simply put, the arrogance of Ignorance is the failure to make transition from ignorance to cognizance

16.     The Arrogance of Unhappiness

In the arrogance of unhappiness, self-centeredness eliminates any capacity or possibility for happiness. Involvement in cosmic one guarantees unhappiness and leads to erroneous ideas about what constitutes happiness. This means you expect others to make you happy. Entertainment and marriage is for people who are already happy. But with the arrogance of unhappiness, you have a martyr complex which results in trying to control people by giving them a guilt complex. This is how the weak control the strong. Unhappiness arrogance is the martyr complex trying to control people by guilt complex.

17.     Iconoclastic (or, Disillusionment) Arrogance

The arrogance of disillusion is called iconoclastic arrogance or the feet of clay syndrome.

(1)This begins when you put someone on a pedestal. Then when their feet of clay shows, you become disillusioned and react to whatever they represent.

(2)In other words, arrogance creates an idol of enchantment and illusion, but when the idol is shattered, arrogance is shocked and distracted and disoriented to life.

(3)As a result, the arrogant creator of the idol seeks to destroy the idol, a revenge in which the person can only gain his self-respect by destroying the thing which has allegedly destroyed his self-respect.

(4)Illusion created by arrogance is illusion destroyed by arrogance.

Iconoclastic arrogance is idolizing a person, which person is then mentally destroyed by the admirer’s own disillusionment.

18.     The Arrogance of Morality

The arrogance of morality is the self-righteous arrogance of superimposing false standards of morality on others. People major in one moral thing so they can rationalize and say they are better than everyone else in that area. This is superimposing a false standard of morality on others or taking a true standard out of its context, e.g., salvation. Morality is designed to protect human freedom. Morality arrogance is the imposition of self righteous arrogance of man-made legalistic norms and standards.

19.     Rational Arrogance

1.       Rational arrogance is the vanity of intellectual arrogance, or the elitism of the genius I.Q. Elitism might be defined for this study as that arrogant consciousness of pride in belonging to a select or favorite group of people. People with a high I.Q. have a tendency to look down their noses at those who are less fortunate.

2.       Rational arrogance is the vanity of giving precedence to human I.Q. and intellectual attainment over spiritual I.Q. and momentum from doctrine. The human viewpoint of life rejects or sets aside divine viewpoint.

3.       Rational arrogance generally afflicts those believers in Jesus Christ whose superior I.Q. or educational background gives them a false sense of elitism or

4.       All too often, intellectual arrogance compromises Bible doctrine by attempting to reconcile those things found in the Word of God with philosophical and scientific speculation.

5.       Because rational or intellectual arrogance is so anthropocentric, it has a tendency to accept as fact theories and philosophical speculations in the field of rationalism and empiricism, and make them a part of Christian doctrine.

6.       This doctrine is found at the Free Republic Website as gate #9 (points taken from there) and at Robert McLaughlin’s website.

20.     Emotional Arrogance

This is also known as the Arrogance of Irrationality. The arrogance of emotion is irrationality. Arrogant people stop thinking and so their emotion becomes their substitute for thought. This is total preoccupation with self related to emotion. Knowledge is the environment for thinking. Bible doctrine is the environment for decisions. Emotional arrogance fantasizes and therefore collapses under pressure. Emotional arrogance is when thought is replaced by substitute emotion.

21.     Pseudo-generosity Arrogance

In the arrogance of pseudo-generosity, a person gives because of a desire for attention, approbation, or to buy friendship or happiness. 2Cor. 9:7,11 teaches that the function of genuine generosity is found in the mind.

22.     The Arrogance of Christian Service

A loss of momentum comes from rejection of doctrine and substituting Christian service for spirituality. Christian service becomes a distraction to momentum. Production is a result of growth, never the means. Perpetuation of Christian service while in the cosmic system is the arrogance of Christian service. Arrogance mistakes Christian service for growth and momentum. Christian service arrogance is the self-righteous arrogance of making a show of out of his service and sacrifice for God, the motive of which is human recognition and approbation.

23.     Discouragement Arrogance

The arrogance of discouragement is preoccupation with self under pressure and testing. Unexplained disaster tempts the believer to feel sorry for himself. Being maligned, treated unfairly, or facing the death of loved ones are the kinds of disaster or pressure that bring this on. This was Peter and Elijah's problem (Matt. 26:58 1Kings 19:10). In discouragement arrogance, one enjoys the scenario of seeing himself in pain, sorrow and lost.

24.     The Arrogance of Lust

When legitimate desire is linked with arrogance, it becomes lust. Inordinate desire is lust. Desire is not wrong, but lust is. Lust is arrogant preoccupation with one's desires. A legitimate arrogance when combined with arrogance becomes lust of arrogance.

25.     Pseudo-Intellectual Arrogance

Pseudo-intellectual arrogance is the superimposition of human I.Q. over spiritual I.Q. Arrogance rejects divine viewpoint. It glorifies human speculation to the exclusion of Bible doctrine, or seeks to reconcile Bible doctrine with false philosophical, psychological, and scientific speculation; e.g., gnosticism. Spiritual IQ is the ability and capacity of the believer to perceive, receive, believe, retain and recall Bible doctrine for everyday living under the grace of God.

26.     Pseudo-Love Arrogance

Pseudo-love arrogance is the attempt of anyone to duplicate the principles or function of true love while residing in the cosmic system.

27.     Revenge Arrogance

Revenge arrogance - trying to re-gain self respect by destroying the destroyer of his false self-esteem.

28.     Suicidal Arrogance

Suicidal arrogance - is super-imposing his own will over God's sovereign will at the limelight. Arrogance of suicide is produced by arrogance which motivates the taking one's own life.

29.     Religious Arrogance

Religious arrogance exalts creatures or things over the Creator (we see this in hyper-environmentalists who are concerned with the preservation of mother earth more than with human life).

30.     Sin Nature Weakness Arrogance

Every believer has a weakness (or, weaknesses) in his (or her) sin nature. When this is placed above Bible doctrine, that is arrogance. For instance, homosexual believers who refuse to recognize that homosexual behavior is sin. It is certainly possible for any homosexual to believe in Jesus Christ and stand saved forever, no matter how often this person has homosexual relations. However, when their personal predilection for sin is given preeminence over Bible doctrine, that is the arrogance of sin nature weakness. In other words, they often try to portray their sin as good or as a condition given by God, which is far worse and more arrogant than committing this sin.

31.     The Arrogance of Addictive Behavior

Some sins are naturally addictive—alcohol and drug usage are examples of this. Quite obviously, a person drinks or takes a particular drug because they like the way it makes them feel. It titillates their emotions and causes their mind and/or body to feel good. Most often, it removes them from their circumstances, which they may find difficult. At the same time, this addictive behavior begins to consume their life.

32.     Manipulative Arrogance

Rather than to take responsibility for one’s actions and rather than to accept things as they are, a manipulator will attempt to manipulate people and circumstances in order to do his or her bidding.

33.     Compartmentaliza-tion Arrogance

Here, a person is able to set aside all of the pain and grief he causes, because these things are a means to a desired end. There are a huge number of people around the world who are willing to do very evil things, so that their ends might be gained. Islamic radicals, communists, socialists and anarchists all come quickly to mind. These people all have a radical vision of the future, and are unconcerned about the pain and suffering that they cause, which will take them to that goal. They are able to set aside, in their own minds, the pain, harm and evil which they cause, because these things result in what they see as a good result.

34.     Anti-societal arrogance

This is where a person rebels against societal norms and standards, to the point where, if society classifies some as right, he questions it; if society classifies something as wrong, he does it. He looks at other people who adhere to these rules with disdain and sees them as inferiors. A great many filmmakers suffer from this sort of arrogance. They attempt, in their films, to continually push the envelope when it comes to societal mores. Because they question society’s conventions, they see themselves as superior and insightful to those who abide by them. However, from time to time, they we latch on to an axiom of counter-culture morality and display it with great self-righteousness (such as, tolerance).

35.     Entitlement arrogance

The infusion into the soul that one is entitled to things which one has not earned. Like all other gates, this begins to color the entire life of a person. Entitlement arrogance is just like a drug that a person cannot quit.

36.     Abuse of Authority Arrogance

This is where a person in authority considers himself too smart and too good to consider the suggestions of his underlings. He automatically reacts negatively to the suggestions of certain people below him. Or he rejects philosophies and approaches which rejection has been ingrained in his soul from his early age.

Another form of this is where a person in authority abuses or takes advantage of those under his authority. You have entered into this gate when this is your modus operandi.

Many of these definitions from:

http://demonology.jrcbdm.com/gates_of_evil.htm Some of these definitions came from Rev. Dr. James A. Brettell from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/33520367/Texts and others came from Cvengr’s notes from Berachah Church circa 1989 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2344068/posts The final 6 or so gates are my own.

There are more extensive notes on the interlocking systems of arrogance from Bob’s teaching of David lessons #631_0238–631_0239. My notes from those classes have been removed from my website, at the request of R. B. Thieme III.

Applying the interlocking systems of arrogance to David in particular,

David and the Interlocking Systems of Arrogance

1.        David likes women and he began to collect women very early on.

2.        As a great and charismatic leader, David could also apply this charm to women, and we have a list of David’s wives, mistresses and children begun in 2Sam. 5 (HTML) (PDF).

3.        However, during all of this time, before and after David began to collect wives, David continued to grow spiritually and he had many spiritual breakthroughs (e.g., the successful moving of the Ark in 2Sam. 6 (HTML) (PDF).

4.        However, all of this time, he continued to collect wives and mistresses. David collected so many that he did not even record all of their names in 2Sam. 5, nor did he keep track of which child belonged to which wife or mistress (which will be discussed in greater detail when we look at David’s Wives.

5.        This chapter marks a point at which David takes this too far.

           a.        He does not go out with his soldiers at war.

           b.        He appears to take advantage of the fact that his soldiers are at war, as there are far fewer men inside of Jerusalem.

           c.         David finds himself attracted to a woman, and when he finds out that this woman is the wife of one of his soldiers—even now, on the field of battle—this does not dissuade David. He desires the wife of Uriah the Hittite, breaking commandment #10, and he commits adultery with her, breaking commandment #7, which violation makes David worthy of death.

           d.        When David takes Bathsheba, bear in mind, he had 10–20 other women that he could have had sex with legitimately.

           e.        However, even then, David continues on this arrogant pathway, and he has her husband killed, which is breaking another commandment, which is also a capital offense.

6.        David is both out of fellowship for an extended period of time, and he is committing acts which begin affecting dozens of people, completely ignoring his own personal responsibility toward these people.

7.        David will gives in to the lusts of his sin nature and he will abandon his many norms and standards.

8.        David’s old sin nature weakness is revealed in 2Sam. 5, and despite the clear spiritual growth that David enjoys in 2Sam. 6 (and elsewhere), David later finds himself giving in completely to his personal desires, which is what this chapter is all about.

9.        According to R. B. Thieme, Jr.¹, David will go 18 months without rebounding (naming his sins to God and being restored to fellowship).

¹ From my notes of R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s 1972 David series, lesson #631_0238.