Eph 855ff; Jam 11 1/7/90; Jam 22

DOCTRINE OF DISTRACTIONS

A. Distractions Related to the Christian Way of Life.

1. Negative volition to Bible doctrine.

2. Lack of spiritual self-esteem, therefore, hypersensitivity - subjective arrogance in the life.

3. Ignorance of or failure to use the problem solving devices.

4. Legalism. The legalist always assumes he is a very spiritual person, when actually he is in one of the stages of Christian degeneracy leading to moral degeneracy.

5. Failure to execute the protocol plan of God.

6. The distraction of Christian service.

a. Failure to understand that every believer has a spiritual gift and to line up your Christian service with your spiritual gift.

b. Holding the erroneous assumption that Christian service is spirituality rather than the result of spiritual growth.

c. Neglect of responsibilities in life related to: marriage, business, etc.

d. Christian service beyond one’s energy level, health status, or capacity for service.

7. The distraction of Christian fellowship.

B. Distractions Related to Carnality.

1. Succumbing to the lust pattern of the sin nature: power lust, approbation lust, inordinate ambition and competition, monetary lust, sexual lust, pleasure lust, revenge lust, crusader lust, social lust, chemical lust, and criminal lust.

2. Involvement in Satan’s cosmic system.

3. Involvement in Christian degeneracy - implosion, explosion, reversionism.

C. Distractions Related to Emotions.

1. Emotional revolt of the soul.

2. Emotional sins.

a. Fear, which includes worry and anxiety.

b. Hatred, which includes anger, violence, and murder.

c. Guilt.

d. Self-pity.

3. Involvement in temporary spiritual gifts - prophesy, miracles, healing, prophesy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, discerning spirits, and apostleship.

D. Distractions Related to Priorities.

1. Social distraction. This is making social life more important than doctrine. If you put Bible doctrine first, you will organize your own social life, at your own level and capacity, and in your own time.

2. Mental distraction. This comes primarily through arrogance and includes hallucination, extreme self-consciousness, and subjectivity.

3. Marital distraction.

4. The distraction of Christian service and activism.

5. Pleasure distractions.

6. Time distractions, the problem of the disorganized life. Put doctrine first, and then organize everything else around it. An organized thinker has an organized life.

E. Distractions Related to Perspective - your observation of people and things around you.

1. Role model arrogance followed by iconoclastic arrogance - eyes on people.

2. Unrealistic expectations - eyes on self, you imagine yourself as great in many areas of life, which leads to frustration.

3. Rejection by others.

4. Mental attitude and mental illness as a distraction.

5. Failure to submit to authority.

6. Political distractions. So what, if people do not agree with you politically.

7. Racial distractions. Anti-semitism is the worst of all.

F. Summary of Distractions to the Spiritual Life.

1. Arrogance.

2. Ignorance.

3. Wrong precedence.

4. Judging other believers.

5. Being judged by other believers. We may not like it, but we can certainly learn from being judged by others. Maybe they have a point.

6. Failure to recognize the privacy of other believers.

7. Failure to understand that there are degrees of spiritual growth and the accompanying modus vivendi related to each stage of spiritual growth.

8. Motivation of self-righteous arrogance combined with Christian activism.

9. Emotionalism as a substitute for perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.

G. Distraction through Christian Activism.

1. Too many Christians today are distracted by so-called “Christian activism.”

2. There is a tremendous emphasis today among evangelical Christians to enter activism under the practice of social and political engineering. This means Christian involvement in a vigorous and often illegal activity to achieve political goals.

3. There is little or no understanding of the believer in the client nation of God today. That’s why so many believers get involved in activism.

4. Such involvement is predicated on the erroneous theory that the United States is a “Christian nation” or can be converted into one.

a. In the history of the world and until the Second Advent and the Millennium, there never has been and never will be a “Christian nation,” meaning that every citizen is a Christian.

b. There can be Christian influence in a nation, which is found in the pivot. The closest is a client or priest nation to God.

c. We in the United States are a client nation to God, which means there is a large enough pivot of mature believers to cause certain functions to exist under blessing by association, i.e:

(1) Freedom, privacy, the sacredness of property and life.

(2) Evangelism.

(3) A certain number of the clergy teaching Bible doctrine.

(4) Missionary activity.

d. In a client nation, there are both believers and unbelievers. There are also many religions because of the freedom of religion. Of course, all religion is Satanic and evil, often with a facade of human good. There is also terrorism and the more obvious bad side of religion.

e. Christianity is distinguished from religion. In religion, man seeks relationship with God through works; that is Satanic and evil. In Christianity, God seeks man through the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Man’s response for salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ.

f. So-called “Christian laws” in a “Christian nation” cannot exist. National laws must be related to the laws of divine establishment in a client nation. In other words, the laws of a nation must not discriminate against the unbeliever, unless he is a criminal. The laws of the land must be such that the unbeliever can execute them as well as the believer.

g. So the idea of a Christian nation is a myth. The closest a nation ever came to having all believers was probably the Exodus generation when they left Egypt. Yet most were losers, and so they had to spend forty years in the desert under discipline until that generation died. The next generation that entered the land had fewer believers.

h. Today in the United States, Christians have become monsters in trying to get their way with certain laws. They have violated the laws of divine establishment in their destruction of property and civil disobedience to get their way; e.g., those who march in front of abortion clinics, destroying property and bullying people.

5. The Bible clearly emphasizes the fact that the impact of Christianity on a nation is spiritual. You will never have an impact for Jesus Christ until you grow up through post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation. Our only impact on society is through spiritual growth.

6. Christians do have civil responsibility, e.g., military service and paying taxes. Fulfilling civil responsibilities does not include violence, or the destruction of property, or the intrusion upon the privacy of others.

7. The separation of church and state demands that the believer understand his role in society in terms of the will, plan, and purpose of God for the Church Age.

8. The spiritual impact of the protocol plan of God does not oppose the present modus operandi of Christian activism, but assigns it to the arrogance of the cosmic system. People involved in activism are in the arrogance complex of the cosmic system, in blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and reverse process reversionism.

9. As goes the believer in the client nation to God, so goes the client nation.

10. The Bible gives a clear definition of our civic responsibility, taught by both our Lord and Romans 13. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto the God the things that are God’s.”

a. This means as believers, we have a dual responsibility. The unbeliever only has a single responsibility, to “render unto Caesar.” We have a dual responsibility.

b. Rendering unto Caesar is legitimate establishment activity.

(1) The function of divine institutions.

(a) Divine institution #2: marriage.

(b) Divine institution #3: family.

(2) Freedom, which includes privacy, self- determination, the sacredness of property and life. Above all things, we as believers should recognize the sacredness of privacy, property, and life of others.

(3) Freedom through military victory means that our freedom has been purchased on many battlefields throughout the world. Therefore, you should never run down the military or be against the military.

(4) Free enterprise.

(a) Human freedom means we’re all free to make many daily decisions. The result of those decisions means that some will be successful, and some will be failures. Freedom guarantees inequality. Whether you fail or succeed, you’re free. Freedom means we’re only equal before the law, and we are denied slavery. Wherever there is freedom, there is poverty and wealth, and everything in between. But the welfare state or any form of socialism must reduce everyone to the same level.

(b) Free enterprise means the government has no right to try to destroy management by taxing them to give to everyone else.

(5) The separation of church and state is very important. That’s why no church should ever advocate a political candidate. The pastor should not tell you how to vote. No man with a communication gift should ever run for office!

(6) Recognizing the laws of the land; not being a criminal. Civil authority must be recognized and obeyed; otherwise you have anarchy.

c. To render unto God includes:

(1) The execution of the protocol plan of God through perception of doctrine.

(2) The manufacture of invisible heroes - not visible.

(3) The establishment of a pivot causes blessing by association.

11. Manifest destiny demands blessing by association with mature believers, not activism from carnal Christians guilty of moral degeneration. The only hope of our client nation is an enlarged pivot.

12. See the doctrine of the Pivot (points 2-3). See the doctrine of Mental Attitude (points 1-2).

13. Gal 6:3, “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Christian activists think they are something and think they have all the answers by marching and social engineering.

14. From our thinking comes our motivation. From our motivation comes our decisions. From our decisions comes our lifestyle. These determine whether we will survive as a client nation.

H. Distraction from Carnality and Cosmic Involvement.

I. Distraction from Categorical Problems.

1. A categorical problem is defined as the problems of believers related to sins and emotion. These problems are not related to just sin, because not all sins are related to emotion.

2. The problems are caused by lack of doctrine, and lack of understanding and using problem-solving devices. Therefore, categorical problems emphasize sin and emotion rather than Bible doctrine and problem-solving devices. Therefore, as you advance spiritually, you eliminate from your life the categorical problems.

3. The categorical problems are:

a. Distraction.

(1) Distraction related to self.

(2) Distraction related to others.

b. Fear complex.

c. Rejection.

d. Dying.

e. Timing.

f. Promises versus Integrity.

4. See the doctrine of the Problems in Life.

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