Rev 3:20 8/4/82; Eph 237 3/13/86, 196-197 1/15/86
A. Definition and Description.
1. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive action taken by the justice of God in grace to correct, to punish, to encourage, to train, and to motivate the believer’s free will toward the protocol plan of God.
2. Therefore, divine discipline is distinguished from divine judgment, in that discipline is for believers only, but judgment is directed toward all categories of the human race and angels under certain circumstances.
3. When believers get out of fellowship through sin, human good, or evil, we bring suffering on ourselves. If we do not use the most basic problem solving device of rebound, we will continue in a state of carnality, cosmic living, or reversionism. Carnality is a brief stay in the cosmic system; reversionism is a prolonged residence in the cosmic system. Only in time are we, members of the royal family of God, disciplined in the form of suffering.
4. Divine discipline must also be distinguished from the law of volitional responsibility with its self-imposed, self-induced, and self- indulged forms of misery. Bad decisions not only destroy future options in life, but they result in tremendous misery manufactured by ourselves, for which we must take the responsibility. The resultant discomfort, misery, and unhappiness may last for a short or long period of time.
5. If the believer persists in the three categories under the law of volitional responsibility, i.e., self-imposed, self-induced, and self- indulged misery, it is obvious that God will add to it if you do not come around through rebound.
6. Punishment from God often follows the failure to rebound from our sins. Our every sin originates from our free will. Though temptation may come from the old sin nature or another source, we make the decision to sin! All wrong decisions come from some form of arrogance or lust.
7. While God is the source of divine discipline, man’s free will is the source of suffering under the law of volitional responsibility. God uses His sovereignty and His perfect judgment to know when it’s time to warn us that we are out of fellowship, and to bring us back to reality with varying categories of punishment.
8. All divine discipline, except the sin unto death, is always designed to correct, to train, and to motivate.
B. Principle of Divine Discipline.
1. There is no such thing as a perfect child.
Therefore, if you as a parent have never spanked your child, you have failed! And the child who is not properly trained and disciplined inevitably grows up to be a source of great misery. Generally, speaking, children are benefitted from spanking, and they always feel better when it’s over. Not only are children imperfect, but all children are hard-headed.
2. So there is an analogy between children and believers. For as long as we live on this earth, we continue to have an old sin nature. We will never be free from sin; no one is perfect.
3. When we, through our own bad decisions, put ourselves in a jam, we hate ourselves, whether we know it or not. We’re miserable under the law of volitional responsibility.
4. God in His grace provides divine discipline. His divine discipline is motivated by love. God does not punish us because he likes to see us squirm! God is perfect, just, and fair; we are His children as royal family of God.
5. Prov 3:12, “For whom the Lord loves He judges by punitive action; therefore, like a father to a son in whom he delights.”
6. Being fair and loving to your children means you will reward and bless them on certain occasions, and at other times you will discipline them. Being a parent is a very difficult life, because you love your children but you cannot cater to them. You must recognize their faults and train and punish them; you must also recognize when they succeed and reward them.
7. Heb 12:5-6, “And so you yourselves have forgotten a principle of doctrine which teaches you as sons [Prov 3:11-12], `My son, do make light of corrective discipline from the Lord, nor be fainting when you are reproved by Him [intensive discipline]; for whom the Lord loves He disciplines [warning discipline], and He skins alive with a whip every son whom He receives [intensive discipline].’”
8. Divine discipline to the believer is parental training in the royal family of God. Like parental training, divine discipline is designed to inculcate humility, and from that humility, true objectivity for life. You are never oriented to life until you are objective. People who are basically subjective have a much more difficult time in learning from and receiving blessings from God’s discipline.
9. Divine discipline teaches us as believers to be oriented to what we really are. The very fact that we receive warning discipline from God tells us we are divorced from reality, and that God is bringing us back to reality and objectivity so that we can grow in grace and have all the wonderful assets He has designed for us in our portfolio and in His protocol plan.
10. So divine discipline teaches the believer when he refuses to learn from Bible doctrine (being arrogant), or what he simply has not learned from doctrine, being negative and ignorant. Often what you resist in the teaching of doctrine God will teach you in another way, the hard way, through divine discipline.
11. Remember that although divine discipline is suffering, it is not bad, as we associate with suffering, but it is teaching from the grace of God. All of us must learn certain things the hard way through divine discipline. So you can learn the easy way, from your pastor-teacher, or you can learn directly from God, the hard way by which you hurt.
C. Divine discipline is related to suffering in general.
1. There are basically two types of suffering. The first type is made up of categories 1 and 2, the law of volitional responsibility and divine discipline. The second type is made up of categories 3, 4 and 5, providential preventative suffering, momentum testing, and evidence testing.
Suffering for Punishment |
Suffering for Blessing |
|
Issue: sin |
Issue: spiritual momentum, blessing |
|
Status: cosmic, carnal, reversionism |
Status: divine dynasphere |
|
Category: suffering unbearable |
Category: suffering bearable, 1 Cor 10:13 |
|
Viewpoint: arrogance and subjectivity |
Viewpoint: humility and objectivity |
|
Solution: rebound, 1 Jn 1:9 |
Solution: faith-rest drill, Hope 2 and 3, and Virtue Love Result: cursing to blessing |
|
Result: a. Suffering removed. b. Suffering continued, but reduced. c. Suffering continued at same level. |
Result: Acceleration of spiritual growth |
2. The only priesthood function the believer can use while in the cosmic system is the rebound technique. This is the only way to break the system of divine discipline. Naming your sins to God is totally non- meritorious. You are then immediately forgiven and restored to fellowship, filled with the Holy Spirit, and reentered into your palace, the divine dynasphere.
D. Spheres of Divine Discipline.
1. Punishment in time. Heb 5:7-14, “Because of corrective discipline, endure [in divine dynasphere]; as a result, God will deal with you as sons; for what one is a son [royal family of God] whom the Father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all believers have become participants, then your bastards are not sons. Another point: we have our human parents for corrective discipline, we respected them; therefore, to a greater degree, you will become subordinate to the Father of our spirits, and continue living [in divine dynasphere]. For they [human parents], on the one hand, disciplined us for a short time [during childhood] according to what seemed best to them; but He [God], on the other hand, disciplines us for our profit, in order that we might receive a share of His holiness [blessing from God’s justice]. So, on the one hand, all discipline while in progress appears to be an occasion not for happiness but sorrow; on the other hand, afterwards [after rebound], it pays back with interest a prosperous gain [resumption of momentum in divine dynasphere]. Therefore, restore to power [divine dynasphere] the listless hands and disabled knees [mandate to rebound], be making straight tracks by means of your feet [momentum of gate #4], in order that the cripple [believer in cosmic system] may not be put out of joint permanently, but rather be healed [restored]. With all the royal family of God, keep moving toward the objective [gate #8] which is prosperity [escrow blessings]; likewise, [unbelievers] aspire to holiness [possession of perfect righteousness of God and union with Christ], without which no one will see God.”
2. There is no divine discipline during the interlude between physical death and the Rapture for either the winner or the loser. During that interim, 2 Cor 5:8 tells us that every believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. This implies that we have an interim body while waiting for the resurrection of the Church. In this status quo, every believer has great happiness. This has great application of comfort for the loved ones of any believer who has died. Rev 21:4 applies to both winners and losers. Whether a believer failed or succeeded in the plan of God is no longer an issue after they die, no matter how they died.
3. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, there will be some embarrassment for losers. The life of every Church Age believer is evaluated.
a. For losers, 1 Jn 2:28 applies: “And now, dear children [all believers], keep residing in it [divine dynasphere], that if He [Jesus Christ] should appear [Rapture], we might have confidence [as winners] and might not be put to shame [as losers] by Him in His presence [Judgment Seat of Christ].”
b. 2 Cor 5:10, “We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that each one of us [Church Age believers] may receive what is due him for the things accomplished in the body, whether good or worthless.”
c. Rom 5:5, “And hope [Hope 3] does not make us ashamed at the Judgment Seat of Christ.” This implies some will be ashamed.
E. Purpose for Divine Discipline.
1. Punishment or punitive action from God is designed to train and teach us.
2. Rev 3:19 states the purpose. “Those whom I love [God’s personal love for all believers with perfect righteousness] I reprimand [warning discipline] and I punish [intensive discipline]; therefore, be zealous [motivation from divine discipline] and rebound.”
3. The purpose of divine discipline is to motivate the believer to recover residence inside the divine dynasphere, the only place we as royal family of God can execute the protocol plan of God.
4. Divine discipline is a warning that the believer is out of bounds and not executing the God’s plan, but functioning in Satan’s cosmic system. The boundaries of God’s plan are defined in terms of the divine dynasphere.
5. As a perfect plan, God’s plan must be executed in bounds, not out of bounds. Just as the referee blows the whistle, the flag is thrown, and the penalty is given when a player is out of bounds in a sports game, so God blows the whistle on us through the administration of punishment: divine discipline.
6. There are two systems of perception during the Church Age:
a. Learning the easy way: Operation Z, gate #4, through the communication of doctrine from one’s own right pastor-teacher. This system has unlimited opportunity for advance to maturity. This can result in spiritual maturity and fantastic blessing.
b. Learning the hard way through divine discipline from God, which has limited objectives to alert the cosmic believer that he’s out of bounds, and to motivate his recovery through the function of the rebound technique. Divine discipline reminds us that none of us ever get away with anything! You are no different!
7. Learning the easy way requires three things.
a. Filling of the Spirit.
b. Impersonal love for objectivity.
c. Enforced and genuine humility, without which the believer is unteachable.
8. If you cannot learn from humility, you learn from hurting. Learning from hurting is the limited lesson of motivation to rebound and recover from the cosmic system.
9. The believer must recover from the cosmic system to live inside the divine dynasphere. Only inside the divine dynasphere is logistical grace provision exploited to the glory of God and momentum.
10. The cosmic believer who does not learn from divine discipline is eventually removed from this life under painful circumstances.
11. Learning the easy way through perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere is often too much for the believer. He has to get out of fellowship and learn certain things the hard way.
12. As a motivator to rebound and reside in our palace, we’re given certain passages, such as 1 Cor 11:30-31. “For this reason [believers taking communion in the cosmic system], many believers are weak [warning discipline] and sick [intensive discipline], and a number of believers sleep [administration of the sin unto death]. But if we would judge ourselves [rebound], we should not be judged.”
13. When the believer uses rebound, God exercises one of three options on his behalf, though the purpose for the suffering has changed from discipline to blessing. All suffering for blessing is designed to accelerate spiritual growth.
a. The removal of all disciplinary suffering.
b. Discipline suffering is diminished, but is now designed for blessing. The reason the suffering is reduced is so that you can bear it. God never gives us more than we can bear in fellowship.
c. Disciplinary suffering continues at the same intensity, but is now designed for blessing. It continues at the same intensity because you can bear it and gain blessing from it. Job 5:17-18, “Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves. Therefore, do not desire the discipline of EL SHADDIA [many-breasted God, Provider of logistical grace]; for He inflicts pain and He bandages the wound. He wounds [intensive discipline] and His hands heal.”
14. In summary, most of our suffering comes from ourselves under the law of volitional responsibility. But when we ignore the suffering incurred from the law of volitional responsibility and continue to live in the dungeon of the cosmic system, then God brings us back to reality.
a. The arrogance complex in cosmic one is so great and powerful that it divorces us from reality. So God first administers warning discipline.
b. When that doesn’t work, He adds intensified discipline. At this point, the believer is now used by God for an entirely different purpose. No longer can he fulfill God’s plan. However, God keeps him alive, though obnoxious, psychotic, neurotic, or sociopathic for people testing for those believers advancing through the valley of momentum testing.
c. Finally, God takes him out under the sin unto death.
F. Installment Discipline.
1. Occasionally, a believer will do something so drastic and horrible that eventually he is about to face the sin unto death. Several believers in the Old Testament were in this stage when they rebounded. Though the sin unto death was halted and they were restored to fellowship, the repercussions from their sins were so great under the law of volitional responsibility that they had to receive their discipline in separate installments. This explains recurring suffering that occurs over a long period of time.
2. The prolonged residence in the cosmic system and the very nature of the sins committed warrants this system of discipline.
3. Whenever warning discipline, intensive discipline, and maximum discipline of the sin unto death have accumulated numerous categories of punishment so that the combined punishment is unbearable, and then rebound is used, the discipline is given in installments so that the believer can bear it.
4. Installment discipline can only occur after rebound and recovery of residence in the divine dynasphere.
5. In fact, installment discipline is the alternative to the sin unto death. You’re still alive, but barely! You’re alive by the grace of God and the fact that you finally decided to rebound. The discipline is so great that it must be meted out in installments so that you can handle it.
6. David is the classic illustration of installment discipline.
a. As a cosmic believer, David seduced Bathsheba and murdered her husband.
b. David rebounded his fornication and murder. Three Psalms describe his rebound in detail. “I will confess my sins to the Lord.” God told David he would live after he rebounded, but that he would pay four-fold.
c. David’s first installment of discipline was the death of his first son from Bathsheba.
d. The second installment of discipline came much later, after a lapse of at least 7-8 years. This was the rape of David’s daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon. This matched David’s seduction of Bathsheba.
e. The third installment was the murder of Amnon by his half- brother Absalom. This matched David’s murder of Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband.
f. The fourth installment came 1-2 years later, in the form of the Absalom Revolution. For just as David rebelled against God in all these sins and evil, so he paid by being rebelled against as the king, kicked off his throne, and enduring terrible suffering from this.
g. When a believer like David has a prolonged life in the cosmic system, rebound does deliver him from the sin unto death, but he must still face his due, though in installments. David received these four installments of discipline over a period of about fifteen years.
7. The punishment must be divided into installments so the believer can handle it because it is severe discipline.
8. Although divine discipline is designed so that you cannot handle it (in order to motivate you to rebound), installment discipline is the exception. It can be handled, but it must be given over a period of time.
9. Installment discipline establishes the conclusion that it’s much better to have an occasional cosmic hangover than to be permanently involved in the cosmic system.
10. Installment discipline provides breathing space for spiritual progress, so that the believer can receive blessing from the discipline.
11. David advanced between each phase of installments so that they were cursings turned to blessing. Some of David’s greatest Psalms were written during the Absalom Revolution while David was out in the bush, having lost everything. But David utilized the times in between installments to advance to spiritual self-esteem and to continue his momentum. Therefore when the installments came, they fulfilled the principle of cursing turned to blessing.
12. So the Lord uses installment discipline, even as a part of momentum testing, in the ultimate blessing of the believer involved. Often installment discipline accelerates the believer’s advance in the spiritual life.
G. Categories of Divine Discipline.
1. There are three categories of divine discipline administered to the cosmic or carnal believer.
a. Warning discipline.
b. Intensive discipline.
c. Maximum or dying discipline, with the option of installment discipline if one rebounds.
2. Warning discipline.
a. Rev 3:20 refers only to warning discipline. “Now hear this! I [Lord Jesus Christ] stand at the door and knock [opportunity for rebound], and I keep knocking [warning discipline]. If anyone [cosmic believer] hears My voice [motivation to rebound from warning discipline], then He opens the door [rebound], and I will enter face to face with Him [restoration to fellowship], and He with me [back in divine dynasphere].”
b. In this stage, the believer has not been in the cosmic system long enough to have lost too much doctrine. Therefore, the recovery of residence in the divine dynasphere simply means a continuation of his fellowship.
c. Warning discipline hurts enough so that you become alert to the fact that something’s wrong in your life.
d. So the opportunity for rebound means that the purpose of warning discipline is to motivate you to rebound. You hurt so much that you finally remember 1 Jn 1:9.
e. Warning discipline is exactly the same as punitive preventative suffering in that it restrains sin and motivates rebound. Punitive preventative suffering is identical to warning and intensive discipline.
3. Intensive discipline.
a. Ps 7:14 indicates that failure to rebound or open the door of warning discipline results in intensified discipline. “Behold he [cosmic believer] shall have labor pains [warning discipline] of vanity [involvement in cosmic system] because he has become pregnant with frustration.” This means you use your own volition to create problems. Then instead of solving the problem through rebound, you dig in deeper by piling wrong decisions on top of wrong decisions, caused by wrong thinking and wrong motivation, all of which results in wrong actions. “Therefore, he has given birth to a life of deceit.” Intensive discipline results in a life of deceit.
b. Rev 3:19, “Those whom I love [believers], I reprimand [warning discipline] and I punish [intensive discipline]; therefore, be zealous [motivation from either warning or intensive discipline to rebound] and rebound.”
c. Heb 12:6, already translated above, addresses both warning and intensive discipline.
d. Job 5:17-18, “Behold, happy is the man whom the Lord reproves [warning discipline], and do not despise the discipline [intensive discipline] from EL SHADDAI [many-breasted One, God’s logistical grace title]. He inflicts pain [warning discipline]; He bandages the wound [rebound]; He wounds [intensive discipline], and His hands heal.”
e. God provides many wonderful logistical grace blessings we may not regard as blessings, such as divine discipline.
f. Ps 38:1-14.
4. Dying discipline or the sin unto death.
a. At this point, there is no more use for you.
b. 1 Jn 5:16, “There is a sin terminating unto death.”
c. In Ps 118:17-18, David said when he was close to the sin unto death. “I shall not die but live; I shall live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely [intensive discipline], but He has not given me over to death [dying discipline].”
d. Phil 3:19, “Whose end of life is ruin [dying discipline], whose god is his emotions.” People who die this way are always ruled by their emotions. If they had a doctrinal thought, they forgot it years ago.
e. Rev 3:16, “Therefore, because you are lukewarm [cosmic believer], neither cold [unbeliever], nor hot [believer in divine dynasphere], I am about to vomit you out of My mouth [administration of the sin unto death].”
6. All three categories of divine discipline are found in 1 Cor 11:30-31; the context is believers taking communion out of fellowship. “For this cause, many are weak [warning discipline], and sick [intensive discipline], and a number sleep [sin unto death]. But if we would judge ourselves [rebound], we should not be judged.”
H. Family Divine Discipline. See the doctrine of the Four Generation Curse.
I. National Divine Discipline. See the doctrine of the Five Cycles of Discipline and the doctrine of Economic Depression.
J. Divine discipline does not imply loss of salvation.
1. No matter how intense the suffering, you never lose your salvation. Once you believe in Christ, there is nothing you can do to cancel what God accomplished for you at salvation.
2. On the cross, Christ was judged for all your sins, including the ones related to evil. We cannot change the work of God at salvation. No matter how terribly we suffer under divine discipline, it can never cancel salvation.
3. No failure on your part can change the grace and work of God.
4. 2 Tim 2:11-13 emphasizes this principle. This passage is part of a hymn entitled “Faithful is the Word.” “Faithful is the Word; for if we died with Him [retroactive positional truth], we shall also live with Him [current positional truth]. For if we persevere [in divine dynasphere], we shall rule with Him [in Millennium]. If we deny Him, He will never deny us. If we are faithless [in cosmic system], He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
K. Triple-Compound Divine Discipline.
1. This is the worst type of self-induced punishment. This begins with the believer’s decision to become involved in mental attitude sins as motivation for sins of the tongue. These sins of the tongue are motivated by such mental attitude sins as arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, guilt syndrome, and revenge tactics.
2. While these sins of motivating evil begin with bad decisions from human volition, they are also subject to divine discipline. Therefore, bad decisions to commit verbal sins bring about this worst category of divine discipline.
3. Mt 7:1-2, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by what measure you measure to others, it will be measured back to you.”
4. You receive triple discipline for:
a. The verbal sin: gossip, judging, maligning, slandering.
b. The mental attitude sin that motivated the verbal sin.
c. Every sin mentioned, whether true or not, is put on you.
L. Maximum divine discipline is the sin unto death. See the doctrine of the Sin Unto Death.
For more amplification, see the doctrine of Preventative Suffering.
_
© 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------