DOCTRINE OF PROBLEMS IN LIFE

A. Introduction.

1. Basically, there are two classifications of problems.

a. Categorical problems.

b. Functional problems of modus operandi.

2. Categorical problems are defined as those related to sins and emotions in the life of the believer. These problems are caused by two things.

a. Ignorance of Bible doctrine.

b. Resultant ignorance of the mechanics of the ten problem solving devices.

3. Therefore, categorical problems emphasize the sins of Christians and emotional malfunction in the spiritual life. Emotion is one of the greatest hindrances to believers in executing the protocol plan of God.

4. There are seven categorical problems.

a. Distraction from self and others.

b. Fear and other emotional problems.

c. Rejection.

d. Dying and the hereafter.

e. Timing.

f. Promises versus integrity.

g. Old sin nature and fragmentation of trends.

5. There are four functional problems of modus operandi.

a. The believer places his relationship with people over his relationship with God.

b. The believer attempts to execute God’s plan with human power rather than through divine power.

c. The believer’s ignorance of the Biblical subject of love results in failure to execute the divine mandates regarding love in the Scripture.

d. The believer’s failure to metabolize Bible doctrine is the malfunction of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, tantamount to failure to function under operation Z.

6. Solutions are best understood when problems are defined. Until you can define your problem, you can’t apply a solution. Therefore, it is important to have a general concept about the problems in life.

B. Problem #1: Distraction.

1. Distraction has two categories.

a. Related to self.

b. Related to others.

2. Distractions related to self begin with the fragmented life.

a. Every believer is a walking grenade with the potential for fragging his own life. All the believer has to do is to use his own volition to pull the pin in the grenade, and in ten seconds he begins to frag his life.

b. The pin in the grenade is gate #1 of the arrogance complex, e.g., jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, implacability, self- pity, hypersensitivity, motivational and functional revenge, gossip, slander, maligning and judging others.

c. Fragmentation is the state of being fragmented, the disintegration, collapse, and breakdown of your motives, thoughts, norms, standards, and behavior pattern.

d. “Fragging” ourselves is a major distraction, and is the #1 categorical problem in the Christian life. We are constantly fragging ourselves, which is stupid and dumb but very real.

e. While the believer pulls the pin of his grenade by his own volition, he usually blames someone else. It’s always someone else’s fault.

f. The fragmented life follows the trends of the individual’s sin nature. There are two major trends in the old sin nature.

(1) Legalism and self-righteousness.

(2) Lasciviousness and lawlessness.

g. The trend toward arrogant self-righteousness produces moral degeneracy. The trend toward lasciviousness and lawlessness produces immoral degeneracy.

h. Eph 4:14 warns against the fragmented life. “That we no longer be children, destabilized in heavy seas [fragmented], driven out of control by every wind of false teaching [fragmentation results in accepting false doctrine], by the trickery of people [false teachers], by cunning deception for the purpose of deceitful scheming.”

i. Cosmic one presents the major fragments in the life of the believer who is distracted from the execution of the protocol plan.

(1) Sexual arrogance of the fragmented life is described in Eph 4:19. “Who because they [believers] have become calloused, these believers have given themselves over to licentiousness, resulting in the practice of every kind of immorality and insatiable lust.” This last phrase refers to three different categories of sexual arrogance.

(a) Normal sexual arrogance includes adultery and fornication.

(b) Abnormal sexual arrogance includes masturbation, homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, and voyeurism.

(2) The emotional sin of anger is described in Eph 4:26. “Although you may have become angry, in spite of that, stop your sinning [use rebound]. The sun must never set on your anger.”

(3) Christian criminality is described in Eph 4:28. “He who stole up to now, from now on, stop stealing; but rather begin to work hard, working with his hands, doing what is right, so that he may have money or the means to share with those who have a need.” To go from criminality to sacrificial giving requires the use of the ten problem solving devices.

(4) Eph 4:30 says that a fragmented life is grieving the Holy Spirit by living in cosmic one. “Furthermore, stop grieving the Holy Spirit, the God, by whom you have been sealed to the day of redemption.”

(a) Sealing means four different things.

i. The signature guarantee of the Spirit’s ministry in efficacious grace.

ii. The signature guarantee of eternal life given to the believer in Jesus Christ.

iii. The signature guarantee of eternal security of the believer in Jesus Christ.

iv. The signature guarantee that every believer in Jesus Christ has the same portfolio of invisible assets by which to execute God’s plan.

(b) There are two categories of redemption.

i. The redemption of the soul occurs at the moment we believe in Christ. This means we are given freedom from the slave market of sin through faith in Christ, Rom 3:24; Eph 1:17; Col 1:14; Gal 3:13; Heb 9:12; 1 Pet 1:18.

ii. The redemption of the body is tantamount to ultimate sanctification, when we receive a resurrection body at the Rapture, Rom 8:23; Eph 4:30. So Eph 4:30 refers to the redemption of the body at the Rapture of the Church.

(5) Eph 4:31 is the mandate to utilize the problem solving devices, necessary to recover from the fragmented life. “All bitterness [pin of the grenade], both anger [paroxysm, rage] and wrath [fury, bitter resentment, hatred], both clamor [verbal brawling, angry and noisy quarreling] and slander [malicious defamation of character] must be removed [taken away] from you [by using the ten problem solving devices], along with all malice.”

(a) Malice is the motivation and desire of the fragmented believer to inflict suffering on others.

(b) Malice is motivated by such pins of the grenade as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, implacability, anger, and revenge as both a function and motive.

(6) The results of recovery from a fragmented life are given in Eph 4:32. “But become kind [perform many acts of grace] one toward another [interaction of impersonal love], compassionate [capacity for impersonal love through personal love for God the Father and occupation with Christ], and forgive each other just as God also, by means of Christ, has forgiven us.”

(a) You can’t perform many acts of grace while you’re fragmented. You can only recover from fragmentation by using the problem solving devices.

(b) God forgave us the moment we believed in Christ of all sins we had ever committed up to that moment. Isa 43:25, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy sins, and as a cloud thy transgressions.” Isa 44:22; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14.

j. Lack of concentration causes disorganization in thinking and in life. Distraction is a lack of concentration. People distract themselves and then others join in to distract you as well

k. Distraction related to self is arrogance. Arrogance is the greatest distractor in life, and the greatest cause of self-induced misery.

(1) Prov 16:18, “Arrogance precedes destruction; and before a fall, there is a lifestyle of arrogance.”

(2) A lifetime of arrogance means that people make a profession of arrogance. Prov 11:2, “When arrogance comes, then comes dishonor; but with the humble is wisdom.”

(3) Prov 29:23, “A person’s arrogance will bring him low; but a lifestyle of humility will attain honor.” We have parents and authority from an early age to establish the principle of humility. Humility is the base for happiness among unbelievers, and blessing in all categories of life. It is one of the greatest assets an individual can have. Humility plus concentration means success in achieving any objective.

(4) James 4:6, “Moreover, He gives greater grace; this is why the Scripture [Prov 3:34] says, `God makes war against the arrogant, but He gives grace to the humble believer.’”

(5) 1 Pet 5:5-6, “God makes war against the arrogant, but He gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves [become grace oriented] under the powerful hand of God that He may promote you at the proper time.”

(6) James 3:14-16, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish [inordinate] ambition in your right lobe, stop becoming arrogant and lying against the truth. This pseudo-wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly [demon influence], natural [psychological living], demonic [demon possession and influence]. For where jealousy and inordinate ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil deed.”

(7) Rom 12:3, “For I say through the grace [grace orientation] which has been given to me to every one who is among you, stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think, but think in terms of sanity for the purpose of being rational without illusion, as God has assigned to each one a standard of thinking from doctrine.” That standard of thinking from doctrine are the problem solving devices.

3. Distraction related to others.

a. It is inevitable that a fragmented believer, whose trend is toward self-righteousness, will begin to judge others. With this judgment of others comes slander, maligning, gossip, unrealistic expectation, role model arrogance.

b. The fragmented believers becomes preoccupied with the sins and failures of others, whether they are real or imagined. By becoming preoccupied with others, he is distracted by others, and he also distracts others by his self-righteous attitude.

c. Hence, a self-righteous believer is distracted under two categories.

(1) He is distracted by the sins and failures of others, real or imagined.

(2) He becomes a distraction to others through the modus operandi of moral degeneracy.

d. You cannot be occupied or preoccupied with the sins and failures of others, and at the same time advance in the protocol plan of God. Spiritual advance requires post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, which means perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. It means an unfragmented life in the divine dynasphere.

e. Spiritual advance requires understanding and utilizing the ten problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God.

f. All believers sin after salvation. No one is perfect, no matter how moral they are. All of us must have the right of rebound under the privacy of our own priesthood. We have the right to live our life as unto the Lord. We must have the privacy to fail and recover, to sin and rebound without interference from others.

(1) We all have areas of strength in our old sin nature: self-righteousness, legalism, morality.

(2) We have an area of weakness which is prone to lasciviousness.

(3) We have trends toward either legalism or lasciviousness.

(4) The sins of legalism are considered far worse by God than the sins of lasciviousness.

g. When someone else judges us, it becomes a source of discouragement and frustration. It is an irritation which neutralizes the motivation of the believer in spiritual childhood and his #1 priority of Bible doctrine first.

h. The believer who contends that he does not sin after salvation is a liar, and he is deceived by his own fragmented life. 1 Jn 1:8-10, “If we contend that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and doctrine is not in us. If we acknowledge [cite, admit] our sins, He is faithful and righteous [just] so that He forgives us our sins, and He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. If we contend that we have not sinned [after salvation], we make Him a liar, and His doctrine is not in us.”

i. In the dispensation of the Church, the sins and failures of others must be left in the hands of the Lord for discipline, judgment, or punitive action. God has the ability to deal with these things totally apart from our help.

j. Condemning another believer is tantamount to blasphemy, because you are superseding the Lord as the true and righteous judge with all the facts. There never was a sin on the part of another believer that the Lord couldn’t handle better than you. Therefore, leave the sinning believer in the hands of the Lord and do not interfere.

k. The exception to this is parents over children, or any system of authority in human establishment over those under establishment authority. Parental corporal punishment should occur before puberty.

l. If believers were more concerned about learning Bible doctrine, they would be less concerned about sticking their noses in the lives of other people.

(1) Rom 14:10,12-13, “But you, why do you judge your fellow believer? Or you again, why do you regard your fellow believer with contempt? For we shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. So then, each one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let no one judge one another anymore. But rather determine this, not to put an obstacle [stumbling block] in a fellow believer’s way.”

(2) Mt 7:1-3, “Judge not, or you too will be judged. For in the same way that you judge others, you will be judged; and by what measure you measure it out to others, it shall be measured back to you. Therefore, why do you look at a speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?”

(a) The “way” in which you judge others is from a fragmented life, which begins by mental attitude sinning. So the gossiper is disciplined for the mental attitude sins which motivate his gossip.

(b) He is disciplined for the gossip itself.

© He is disciplined for the sins he mentions, which is the “measure.” He will receive whatever discipline those mentioned sins bring, and the one he judges will be freed from any discipline if guilty, or he will be blessed if innocent.

(d) This is called triple-compound discipline.

(3) 1 Cor 4:5, “Therefore, do not be judging anything before the appointed time of judgment, but wait until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and disclose the motives of person’s right lobes; then each person will have his praise from the Lord.”

m. In the meantime, the gates of the Supreme Court of Heaven are open twenty-four hours a day. When given the opportunity, God judges believers for their failures. But when the Christian steps in first and judges another believer, then God cannot judge the wrongdoer, but must pass that judgment to the critic.

4. Solutions to the problems of distraction from arrogance.

a. The rebound technique provides recovery of fellowship with God and reentry into the divine dynasphere where there is the filling of the Spirit. This means restoration to the divine dynasphere, which is the only place where you can execute God’s plan, will and purpose for your life.

b. Grace orientation is used for the perpetuation of enforced and genuine humility.

c. Doctrinal orientation to the protocol plan means the attainment of spiritual self-esteem, where you no longer feel threatened by others, as well as the attainment spiritual autonomy and spiritual maturity. This discontinues inordinate ambition and competition. Doctrinal orientation is the means of orienting to the dispensation in which you live.

d. Personal love for God and/or occupation with Jesus Christ not only motivates, but provides the objectivity for spiritual adulthood.

e. Impersonal love for all mankind replaces arrogant self- righteousness and maligning others from the motivation of inordinate ambition and competition. It provides objectivity in human relationships. It restrains the believer from judging and maligning others, and instead gives others their privacy.

f. The function of +H, or sharing the happiness of God, provides the necessary tranquility to equate adversity with prosperity, living with dying, and to handle all the problems of unfairness and injustice in the devil’s world.

g. The faith-rest drill is also a solution by claiming the promises of God in spiritual childhood, and by applying the doctrinal rationales to your experiences in spiritual adulthood.

5. When you see too much of other people’s sins, you become blind to your own sins, which results in fragmenting your own life. Arrogant self- righteousness is invariably parlayed into crusader arrogance, which is often mistaken for the Christian way of life. The story of the woman caught in adultery, Jn 8:3-11, illustrates this principle (although this passage is not part of the Canon). “Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery and made her stand before the crowd. Then they said to Jesus, `Rabbi, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The Mosaic Law commands us to stone such a woman; what do You say?’ They were using this question as a trap in order to have grounds to accuse Him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. So they persisted in questioning Him. Jesus stood up and answered them, `He who is without sin among you, let him be the first one to throw a stone at her.’ Now again, He bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they began to leave, one at a time, beginning with the oldest. Finally, Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. Jesus stood up and said to her, `Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?’ `No one, Lord.’ Then Jesus said to her, `Go [depart]. From now on, stop this category of sinning.’”

a. There were two religious groups, the scribes and Pharisees. Both were extremely self-righteous and legalistic. They didn’t give the woman her privacy; they brought her before the crowd and our Lord.

b. Note the hypocrisy; why didn’t they bring the man along too? She was caught “in the very act.” This means that they had to spy on the woman and invade her privacy to catch her in the very act.

c. Making this woman stand before the crowd demonstrates the terrible vindictiveness of the scribes and Pharisees.

d. “Rabbi” is a respectful vocative used for a teacher, but they said it in great sarcasm. The scribes and Pharisees considered themselves the great teachers of their generation, and Jesus as competition. They want to put Him down in front of this crowd because of their inordinate ambition and inordinate competition. The woman is used as the bait.

e. Deut 22:13-30 commands that both male and female adulterers were to be tried, and if found guilty, they could be stoned to death, but that’s not applicable here. They didn’t bring the man before Jesus. This shows that they were not interested in justice, but sought revenge against this woman and wanted to discredit our Lord’s ministry.

f. What Christ wrote is not important. The point is not what He wrote, but that He changed His posture and did not speak. What is important is the fact that He ignored them because of their motivation of arrogance and self-righteousness.

g. By stooping down, Jesus separated Himself from their attitude as evil judges. By this posture, Jesus isolated Himself from them, showing that He wasn’t listening any more. In effect, Jesus was isolating Himself from their fragmentation. By this act, Jesus separated Himself from one of the worst forms of the fragmented life, i.e., self-righteous arrogance.

h. Jesus had no intention of compromising with evil, neither condemning the sin of the woman nor condoning the sins of the scribes and Pharisees. His posture indicates that He was not interested in trying the case.

i. So the Pharisees and scribes in their arrogant self- righteousness pushed too hard (“they persisted”). Only then did He state the divine standard; He does not condone anyone’s sin here. When people think they’re right, they always go all out. The Pharisees see themselves as being absolutely right and the woman as being totally wrong. It has not dawned on them that their sins of self-righteous arrogance are far greater than the adultery of the woman.

j. Jesus makes this pronouncement because they had already condemned the woman; they came with stones in their hands. Since they were ready to execute her, Jesus said that anyone without sin should be the first to throw a stone at her.

k. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground, again isolating Himself from their arrogance, self-righteousness, legalism, and injustice which He does not condone. Notice that He deals with the worst sinners first. By bending down and writing on the ground again, this implied that Jesus did not condone what they were doing. It implied that they were the ones sinning, and ought to take a look at themselves before throwing a stone. He neither condoned moral degeneracy nor immoral degeneracy.

l. Notice that the woman called Him “Lord,” and no one can do this except by the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor 12:3. The vocative indicates that the woman was already a believer, and she recognizes Jesus as Lord. She was probably a believer when she committed the adultery.

m. Jesus recognized the fact that the woman had sinned, and that He had a right to condemn her as God. But our Lord Jesus Christ also recognized the fact that the scribes and the Pharisees were far more guilty of sins of the fragmented life.

n. The religious leaders were unbelievers, and in their sarcasm they called Jesus “Rabbi.” The woman called Him “Lord.”

o. The woman was a born-again believer and would shortly live in the dispensation of the Church where precedence is not based on the Mosaic Law, but on the grace policy of Jesus Christ in the dispensation of Hypostatic Union.

p. Apparently the woman understood and used the rebound technique. Jesus as deity knew the woman’s right lobe and what they thought. Therefore, our Lord was free to forgive her. He didn’t forgive her just because she committed adultery; He did so on the basis of grace.

q. Christ made an issue out of grace; the scribes and Pharisees made an issue out of legalism. The legalism of the scribes and Pharisees was related to religion, the Mosaic Law, and self-righteous arrogance.

r. If Jesus had said they could go ahead and stone her, not only would it have been wrong according to the Mosaic Law, but that would have cut the woman off from life without the opportunity of rebound. This would have cut off her self-determination related to the rebound technique. Ps 32:5, 38:18, and Jer 3:13 are rebound passages in the Old Testament.

s. If the woman were stoned to death, she could not utilize the problem solving devices. It’s possible that not only did this woman learn and utilize the problem solving devices, but she was probably one of the great believers in the first generation of the Church Age. All of that would have been cut off if the Pharisees had their way.

t. When you see too much of other people’s sins, you have a tendency to become blind regarding your own sins.

u. You cannot be occupied with the sins and failures of other people and at the same time advance in God’s plan, will, and purpose for your life.

v. Possibly this woman lived on into the Church Age, became grace-oriented, fulfilled the protocol plan, and became one of the invisible heroes of Christianity in the first century.

w. The only question is whether she was saved prior to committing this act of adultery, or whether she was saved while standing there. There doesn’t seem to be enough evidence for her being saved while standing there. So apparently, Jesus was her Lord before she arrived at this point.

Ÿ Fornication and adultery is one of the more common sins among believers. But it is a sin to be judged by God and under His administration of divine discipline. When David committed adultery he said, “Against You and You alone have I sinned.”

y. Believers guilty of judging and maligning other believers and their sins are generally losers. Losers do not use problem solving devices.

z. All too often believers who malign the fornicating Christian do not understand grace and the mechanics of salvation because they say that a person cannot be a Christian and commit adultery or fornication. However, Christians can commit any sin an unbeliever can commit.

aa. The worst confusion is arrogant confusion. They are shocked and react. To be shocked by sin means you have not reached spiritual adulthood. Believers are still believers, no matter how much their sinfulness may shock you.

bb. Grace orientation is a problem solving device by which you live your own life as unto the Lord, and stop judging the sins and failures of others.

cc. No believer has a right to say that because some believer has committed a certain sin, that he’s not really saved.

dd. Only spiritual growth can change your pattern of sinning. Without spiritual growth, arrogant self-righteous believers commit the worst sins and produce the most awful heresies.

ee. Jesus Christ was judged for the sins of both believers and unbelievers on the cross.

ff. Therefore, do not be guilty of judging others by contending that they’re not really saved. Beware of being shocked by the sins of others. The shocked person is usually guilty of far worse sins.

gg. Therefore, the sins and failures of other believers must be left in the hands of the Lord for judgment and punitive action. When one believer condemns or judges another believer, He supersedes the Lord as judge, tantamount to blasphemy.

hh. If believers were more concerned about learning doctrine, they would be less concerned about sticking their noses into the lives of others. You don’t have time to be critical of others. You only have time to grow in grace and learn doctrine.

ii. Therefore, they would come to the ultimate problem solving device of occupation with Christ.

(1) Ps 128:1, “How happy is the believer who is occupied with the Lord.”

(2) Ps 146:5, “Happiness belongs to the one whose confidence is in the Lord.”

C. Problem #2: Emotional Sins, Represented by Fear. See the Doctrine of Fear.

1. Scripture commands you not to fear, Deut 31:6,8; Isa 41:10. 2 Tim 1:7, “God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power, virtue-love, and sound judgment.” 1 Jn 4:18.

2. Fear, worry, and anxiety is a contradiction to God’s plan for your life. Contradictions cannot exist in the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. No believer can fulfill God’s will or plan for his life as long as he is in a state of fear or worry. The believer in fear is a loser; he loses his escrow blessings for time and eternity.

3. A common saying is: “The trouble with problems is solutions.” This is only true of human beings trying to apply human solutions to the problems of life. This epigram is not true when facing problems with divine solutions. The divine solutions are problem solving devices. A correct statement is: the trouble with problems is no solutions, or wrong solutions, or dependence on others.

C. Problem #3: Rejection. See the Doctrine of Rejection.

D. Problem #4: Death.

1. The Christian way of life (protocol plan of God) is divided into two general categories: living and dying.

2. Dying is a part of life. Only after we die are we absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. If you experience a period of time when you know you’re dying, then you have the opportunity of utilizing the fantastic problem solving devices God has given to us. 3. See the Doctrine of Life and Death.

E. Problem #5: Timing.

1. See the Doctrine of Timing. See also Eph #697-698. 2. Scripture: Eccl 3:1-8, 7:17; 1 Cor 4:5; Eph 5:16; Col 4:5; Heb 4:16; Jas 4:14; 1 Pet 4:2.

F. Problem #6: Integrity versus Promises.

1. The tendency among human beings is to depend on promises rather than on the integrity of a person. For example, a politician makes a promise but he has no integrity.

2. Therefore, promises are no greater than the integrity of the person who makes them. 3. Furthermore, promises are limited to what is being promised. People often force themselves or others into making promises, and then they lose the benefit of integrity (if it exists).

a. People are always trying to get others to promise them something. But that limits the integrity of the other person.

b. If there is no integrity, the one who promises deceives you.

c. A person may keep a promise given under duress, but you do not have the benefit of that person’s integrity. Therefore, you become a loser.

4. The problem with promises is loss of the integrity and love of the person who makes the promise.

5. We are benefitted more by the integrity of a person than by promises that we seek to extract from that person. A person may promise never to repeat a sin or a failure, never to “do that again.” Though they may keep that promise, you still are not benefitted by either their integrity or their love. For you have limited them to one thing only.

6. Mature believers or invisible heroes do not need promises from God because they depend on God’s integrity and love rather than His promises. They understand God’s integrity and love.

7. The promises of God are fantastic for new believers who have not yet learned the integrity of God. The Bible contains promises for almost anything. The new believer may not discover them in time to help in his situation, but there are promises for everything in the Bible because of the nature of the integrity of God.

8. The function of the faith-rest drill in a child or adolescent believer means he can claim promises, but then he is blessed only in the sphere of that promise.

a. For example, he can claim Ps 4:8, “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for You, Lord, only makes me to dwell in safety.” But this promise doesn’t cover him while awake. That promise limits God to caring for you only while you’re asleep.

b. In other words, under the problem solving device of the faith- rest drill, you can claim that promise related to safety and security while sleeping, but the promise is limited to sleeping and does not cover any time while you’re awake.

c. But when you learn about the integrity of God, you know that He cares for you under all circumstances. The integrity of God covers all categories of life beyond sleeping; e.g., while living, dying, awake, asleep, in danger, in prosperity, etc.

9. The invisible hero depends upon the integrity of God for every situation, rather than being limited to one or two promises. This does not in any way negate promises, but it opens up a far greater life for you.

10. In spiritual childhood, the tendency of the believer is to depend on a specific promise for a specific situation. But in spiritual adulthood, the believer depends on the integrity of God.

11. The believer with discernment and wisdom does not depend upon promises from another, but he depends on their love and their integrity, which he has been able to discern.

12. This principle also applies to the client nation.

a. When the people of a client nation to God lack integrity, they seek promises.

b. Politicians know what people want, and therefore they make promises, often promises which they could not possibly keep. When these promises are made from integrity or love, they are wonderful. But when they are made from power lust, as is the case in our day, they are dangerous to our country.

c. By making outrageous and irresponsible promises to their constituents, politicians get elected and become powerful. But such men are without integrity, and that explains why our Constitution is not functioning as it has in past generations.

d. Having no integrity, the promises are useless and the people become disillusioned.

e. In the meantime, this category of politician destroys the nation with the consent of the people who have been promised everything and receive absolutely nothing.

G. Problem #7: The Old Sin Nature and the Fragmented Life. See the Doctrine of Fragmentation.

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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740

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