Isr 172-174 2/2/92; Eph 576, 694, 858, 893, 909
A. Definition and Description.
1. Rejection is defined in terms of being forsaken, being excluded, being repudiated or eliminated, being denied, being discarded, being set aside. Rejection is also defined in terms of negative volition: to refuse to acknowledge, believe, receive, accept, hear, or consider. Rejection also means to throw away as worthless or unsatisfactory. Rejection for our study includes: the act of rejection, and the state of being rejected or what is rejected.
2. The person being rejected is the rejectee; the person doing the rejecting is the rejector. Both sides have very serious problems, such as, being hurt so much that the outside pressure of adversity becomes the inside pressure of stress in the soul, so that the believer’s spiritual life is damaged either temporarily or permanently. The reaction on both sides is destructive to the spiritual life.
a. In passive rejection, you are rejected by others. The person being rejected may be rejected because it is all their fault or partially their fault.
b. In active rejection, you do the rejecting. The rejector is often blamed for being wrong, when in reality, he may or may not be at fault.
c. Very few believers are properly prepared doctrinally to handle this particular problem. If the rejectee does not have personal love for Jesus Christ (occupation with Christ) and if Jesus Christ is not the role model and if Jesus Christ is not more important than people and if what the Bible says is not as important as what people say, then rejection is destructive. Sometimes rejection is mutually destructive. Sometimes it is destructive to the rejectee. Sometimes it is destructive only to the rejector.
3. Rejection is often a matter of individual perception of reality. Rejection is one of the greatest pressures in life because very few people have the proper concept of reality and because many believers are not even mature as human beings. The accurate perception of your environment in which you are really rejected is important. An inaccurate perception of reality in which you imagine you are being rejected is a disaster for the rejectee.
a. Too much emphasis is placed on environment.
b. Too much emphasis is placed on defending human self- righteousness, which is really indefensible. The arrogant believer is always defending his own perception of self.
c. When any believer gets into a state of anxiety or feels challenged by something, they immediately rise to their own defense. Once you put yourself and your self-righteousness on the forward line of defense in your soul, you have completely destroyed your spiritual life. Defending yourself is a sign of still being a child.
d. In some cases, the perception of reality is so distorted that the believer who assumes that he or she is being rejected is actually the rejector. They have brought about circumstances where they are the rejector, but in defense of their position, they immediately assume they have been rejected.
e. Whether you are the rejector or the rejectee is not the issue. The issue is: Where do you stand in your spiritual life? Have you even begun to organize the problem solving devices and put them on the forward line of defense in your soul?
f. All too often, the victim of rejection is fragmented and deserves it. However, there are two exceptions when the object of rejection is innocent.
(1) Our Lord Jesus Christ received passive rejection during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union. Both perfect God and perfect humanity were rejected in the one person, Jesus Christ. See point 2.
(2). When the believer actively rejects Bible doctrine, he is wrong, not doctrine. It is the believer who has pulled the pin of the grenade, leading a fragmented life. The believer’s number one priority in life must be cognition of Bible doctrine. This priority demands daily perception of Bible doctrine.
4. Certain technical terms must be used to describe the reaction to real or alleged rejection and real or alleged rejectors.
a. Repression—a mental mechanism in which a person transfers to his subconscious those things which constitute a threat to the arrogant image of self.
(1) The ego cannot stand certain allegations by a rejector, so the rejectee represses those things which threaten his arrogant image of himself or might destroy making a role model out of self. Repression is a part of forgetting the reasons why you have been rejected or the reasons why there is suffering in your life which seems to have no explanation. Anything which is incompatible with your self-righteous arrogance, your flaws, your inferiorities, your sins is repressed and assigned to the garbage in your subconscious. There, they do not hinder your motivation of antagonism, but they help you maintain the idea of your own self- righteousness, your own perfection, and your own justification in doing anything that is wrong and calling it right. Anything that lowers your pseudo self-esteem is apt to be repressed.
(2) The experiences involving guilt are often repressed. They are removed from the conscience mind to avoid destruction of or challenge to your own image of self.
b. Projection—a defense mechanism in which the believer projects his or her own flaws on the rejector. If you filled with self-righteous arrogance and you are the rejectee and you feel that you have been mistreated, then you have to set aside and put into the subconscious anything that might disagree with that. You cannot deal with the fact you might be wrong in some way. You set up the defense: I, the rejectee, am right and he or she is wrong. Projection means you develop a tremendous amount of garbage in the subconscious while you are developing scar tissue of the soul. The rejector is a challenge to your life; therefore, the rejector has to be wrong and you have to be right. Therefore, you must assign to the rejector the sins and flaws which you are experiencing. The rejectee is unable to tolerate anxiety aroused by his or her own hatred. Therefore, the rejectee unconsciously changes the attitude from “I hate the rejector” to “The rejector hates me.” Projection protects the arrogant believer from being overwhelmed and disorganized by the effects of his or her own flaws and sins.
c. Denial—is a mental or emotional mechanism in which a person fails to acknowledge some aspect of external reality which would be apparent to another.
d. Dissociation—is a mechanism in which a believer sustains a temporary alteration in the integrated functions of his or her soul; therefore, the split off of personality.
e. Intellectualization—is used to describe a person who engages in excessive abstract thinking to avoid experiencing disturbing feelings.
f. Autistic fantasy—a mechanism in which a person substitutes excessive day dreaming for the pursuit of human relationship rather than using the problem solving devices. 5. Categories of Problems.
a. Some believers recognize the outside pressure of problems from metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness and use the problem solving devices to prevent the conversion of these outside adversities into the inside pressure of stress in the soul.
(1) Adversity is always outside pressure of life; stress is the inside pressure of the soul.
(2) Adversity can be handled; stress is destructive to the spiritual life.
(3) Stress is what you do to yourself; adversity is what people and circumstances do to you—like rejection.
(4) Adversity is inevitable; stress is optional.
(5) When the believer converts the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul, the sin nature takes full control of the believer’s soul and problems, thereby, intensify.
b. Some believers have problems and they do not understand why they do the things they do. They have accumulated garbage in the subconscious and are in the eight stages of reversionism. Therefore, between the subconscious and the stream of consciousness they have great problems. They react to people and that is as close as they get to their problem. From psychotherapy, they often discover their repression, denial, and even dissociation, but they cannot relate it to Bible doctrine for recovery through the function of their spiritual life. Often, such discoveries develop a reaction of self-justification based on environment rather than the recognition of the law of volition responsibility. The function of self-justification results in locked-in self-righteousness and becomes the function of legalism.
c. Some believers, when experiencing the problems of rejection, react to their rejectors and intensify their problems with denial, repression, and projection, functions related to converting the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul.
d. Some believers have problems in which they want their solutions related to stress in the soul rather than God’s solutions. They prefer to enter into malice. Malice is a lust, an overwhelming desire to hurt someone you assume has rejected you. This may be expressed in vilification or forms of revenge activity. This malice is reinforced with implacability.
e. Some believers have problems, but they do not want solutions. They simply want to enjoy the trends of polarized fragmentation. These believers are described in different ways in 2 Tim 3:2-7, “For [believers] men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents [lack of authority orientation], ungrateful, wicked, unloving, implacable [unforgiving], malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, thoughtless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, although they have denied its power [the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness]; consequently, avoid such men as these. For among them are those who creep into homes and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by multifarious lusts, always learning but never able to come to [epignosis] knowledge of the truth.”
(1) When the believer converts the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul, the sin nature controls that soul. Stress in the soul results in self-fragmentation, polarized fragmentation, the eight stages of reversionism, Christian moral and immoral degeneracy.
(2) The spiritual life function in the heart of the command post of the soul is composed of two basic factors: the stream of consciousness (which is the location of metabolized doctrine) and the subconscious (which is the location of garbage related to denial, repression, and dissociation).
6. Your spiritual life is the solution to the problem of rejection.
a. You and you alone are the only one who can live your spiritual life. No one else can live your spiritual life for you; they can help to mess it up, but you have to take responsibility for reacting to those persons.
b. The key to your spiritual life is the function of your volition and your priorities in life. Positive volition is making good decisions from a position of strength. Positive volition gives number one priority to Bible doctrine. Positive volition is consistent in cognition, inculcation, and metabolization of Bible doctrine.
c. Metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit is the function of your spiritual life. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the absolute concept of spirituality. The amount of metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness is the relative concept of spirituality. You have to extrapolate the problem solving devices from the metabolized doctrine you have learned. 7. Rejection is a combination of the arrogance of unhappiness, which is subjective preoccupation with self and passive rejection, and iconoclastic arrogance, which is subjective preoccupation with others and active rejection. 8. There are three categories of rejection.
a. The rejection of Jesus Christ, the living Word.
b. The rejection of Bible doctrine, the written Word.
c. The general concept of rejection in the human race.
B. The Dangers of Being Rejected.
1. Nothing is more discouraging to the believer than rejection. Nothing augments fragmentation like being rejected. The believer can be rejected in many areas: by his peers, in friendship, in romance, in marriage, in social life, in business life, or in church.
a. When a believer is rejected by those with whom he associates or by those whom he admires, respects, or loves, that believer has a tendency to react. The reaction goes into every aspect of arrogance. First you blame others, then become bitter, vindictive, implacable, revengeful, turn cruel, have self-pity, and become so divorced from reality that you destroy your own life by reaction to rejection. This is especially true where intimacy has existed in marriage, romance, friendship, or social life. If you are rejected in any of these areas and if you have rejected Bible doctrine, i.e., the problem-solving devices found in the mystery doctrine for the Church Age, you will react.
b. Your reaction to rejection complicates your life. It produces many problems if you do not utilize the problem-solving devices. For example, you should use impersonal love toward the one who rejects you, along with grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, and +H. These problem- solving devices head off the tremendous complications that come from reacting to rejection.
c. Life is always complicated by reaction because it involved self-fragmentation.
d. Iconoclastic arrogance first worships a person, then sees their feet of clay and rejects them. Such a person bounces from one person to another, always blaming these people for their faults, when it is really their fault for regarding a person as being on a pedestal. When a believer is rejected by someone he loves, respects, or admires, he generally reacts by pulling the pin in the arrogance grenade and fragging himself. Sometimes, the believer is rejected because he is living a fragmented life already.
2. Life is always complicated by reaction because it involves self- fragmentation. When the believer is rejected by those whom he loves, respects, or admires, he reacts by pulling the pin of the grenade and fragging himself. Sometimes the believer is rejected because he is already living a fragmented life in the cosmic system. Reaction to rejection leads to many of the problems that destroy any possibility of having a spiritual life. Reaction is always an outside pressure of adversity which demands the use of the ten problem solving devices. Stress in the soul from rejection means complete malfunction of the spiritual life.
3. Reaction can include anything from being hurt to bitterness, or jealousy, or vindictiveness, or implacability, or being filled with self- pity, or self-fragmentation of the spiritual life.
a. Being hurt by rejection is a very subtle form of arrogance. The reaction to being hurt when rejected is related to the fragmentation of your spiritual life.
b. The rejected person often reacts with self-righteous arrogance against authority. Sometimes the rejected person associates his rejection with Christians, and he reacts by negative volition to Bible doctrine.
c. The rejected person is deeply hurt and reacts in very strange ways. These strange ways usually result in loss of emotional control of the soul.
d. When the rejected believer reacts through being hurt or self- pity or the sins of arrogance or the sins of the emotional complex, flaws are developed in the soul. These flaws originate from the conversion of the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul. These flaws are expressed through self-righteous arrogance on the one hand, or irrationality of the emotional complex of sins on the other hand.
e. Projection is the function of arrogance complex of sins, whereby the believer falsely attributes his own unacknowledged sins or flaws or garbage in the subconscious to others. Denial is the function of the believer in which he fails to acknowledge some aspect of external reality that is quite apparent to everyone else. The combination of denial plus projection indicates maximum conversion of outside pressure of adversity into inside pressure of stress in the soul. The result is arrogant subjectivity plus a false perception of reality.
f. As a rejected person, you cannot become subjective about others without becoming subjective about yourself, and above all, about Bible doctrine. Subjective arrogance grows under the pressure of rejection so that you distort Bible doctrine to justify self, and you enter into a system of malice (which is the intense desire to hurt or inflict suffering on the apparent or real rejector).
(1) This system of malice includes jealousy as a motivation, hatred, vindictiveness, revenge, vilification.
(2) It also includes manipulation from malice, in which the rejected person is controlling the strong. Manipulation from malice results in the weak reducing the strong to their own level of weakness through the emotional complex of sins.
(3) The emotional complex of sins includes five categories.
(a) Hysteria, which includes: fear, worry, anxiety, panic, consternation, irrationality, dissociation, garbage in the subconscious. See also the doctrine of Fear.
(b) Hatred, which includes: anger, hatred, bitter jealousy, loathing, animosity, vulnerable to imagined insult or injury, implacable, malice, tantrums, irrational violence, and sometimes murder.
© Self-centeredness, which includes: arrogant self- righteousness, egotistical irrationality, insensitive about self but hypersensitive about others, projection, denial, repression, whining, sniveling, and self-pity.
(d) Rejection, which combines the sins of arrogance with the sins of the emotional complex: jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, vilification, malice, the creation of the public lie, revenge motivation and modus operandi, inordinate ambition and competition, are all a part of this.
(e) Guilt. (See below.)
4. The greatest of all problems related to rejection is guilt.
a. Guilt can be a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some real or imaged offense and this is not sinful. But as a part of the emotional complex of sins, guilt becomes morbid self-reproach, emotional feelings of culpability for imaged offenses. It brings out a sense of inadequacy which becomes very dangerous, because it leads to arrogant pre- occupation with the correctness of one’s behavior from self-righteous arrogance.
b. Guilt is a sin that often caused by repression, denial, projection, and manipulation. The weak control the strong through manipulation by stipulation. (1) Repression is rejection from the stream of consciousness of painful and disagreeable ideas, memories, feelings, and impulses. Repression puts garbage in the subconscious and sinful guilt in the stream of consciousness.
(2) Guilt results from being manipulated by some self- righteous or arrogant Christian. Guilt becomes a sin when the believer rebounds but fails to forget those things which are behind and reaching forth toward those things which are before, Phil 3:13-14.
(3) Experiences involving guilt or shame are likely to be repressed to form garbage in the subconscious, but they also have a tremendous effect upon the volition and decisions that are made in interaction with people.
(4) Guilt is the failure to use the problem solving devices, so that the conversion of outside pressures of adversity are brought into the inside pressure of stress in the soul. This results in painful anxieties, which are repressed, but do not lose their dynamic drive and tension.
(5) Guilt causes repression as a primary defense against anxieties, fears, worries, instead of using the problem solving devices which are available.
c. Reaction to feelings of guilt utilize defense mechanisms.
(1) Repression—this is how we accumulate garbage in the subconscious.
(2) Dissociation—this is how we get disorganized in the stream of consciousness.
(3) Denial—this is how we have a false perception of reality, especially as it pertains to people.
(4) Projection—this is when we begin to assign to our rejectors or others our own flaws or failures. Feelings of guilt which cause anxiety may be alleviated by a contrived defense mechanism of blaming others for one’s shameful and evil flaws. By projection, a person with a guilt complex of lowering self-esteem falsely attributes his or her own flaws, unacknowledged feelings, impulses, or thoughts to the rejector. By blaming others for one’s emotional sins and guilt producing impulses, the believer uses projection to leave himself or herself guiltless and even victimized. If you can make the other party feel guilty in this problem, then you feel less guilty. This is the evil of manipulation of the weak to control the strong.
(a) Often the rejector has been motivated by the rejectee, so that the real rejectee is the rejector who is simply functioning under some separation. On the other hand, it may be a real rejection, so that the rejectee now has to deal with the problems of the rejector.
(b) The rejectee might be all right, all wrong, partially right, or partially wrong. The rejector might be all right, all wrong, partially right, or partially wrong. Who is at fault? The one who finally had enough and rejected, or the one who motivated all of that having enough? People must decide this for themselves before the Lord.
© You can be right in being rejected and wrong in how you react. You can be right as the rejector and wrong in how you function.
d. Guilt produces restitutionism. Restitutionism is a mechanic of relieving the mind of the load of guilt through reparation or acts of restitution. Restitutionism becomes a primary motivation in life.
e. Another defense mechanism against anxiety—the believer may react with hostility and aggressive behavior toward the object of projection. Projection is actually a means of denial.
(1) Example: Believer A is the rejectee and is unable to tolerate the anxiety aroused by his or her own hatred toward the rejector (believer B). Believer A assumes they are rejected; therefore, develops antagonism or hatred toward believer B. Believer A is very self-righteous and cannot even tolerate himself or herself because of this hatred. So believer A handles the problem by making a subconscious change of attitude. Believer A changes their attitude from “I hate B” to “B hates me.” That is a defense mechanism for getting rid of the anxiety. Repression and projection protect the ego from being overwhelmed or disorganized by the effects of the sins of hatred, antagonism, and guilt. Guilt may be assuaged by attaching to others the very motives that created the problems in the first place.
(2) Example: Believer A rejects believer B through manipulation by stipulation. Believer B reacts and rejects believer A. Now believer A is shocked.
f. Another problem is the sweet believer. Some people have a natural sweetness which has nothing to do with the spiritual life. Sweetness is often a facade for a person who is self-fragmented and already into Christian degeneracy, but they are still sweet. Do not confuse your spiritual life with your natural attributes. Natural sweetness is not produced by the filling of the Holy Spirit or by doctrine. Excessive sweetness or amiability may conceal a very arrogant, self-righteous, intensely hostile person.
g. Feelings of rejection and resultant hostility can be disguised by a self-righteous facade of being injured, of being unjustly treated, of being a victim of cruelty or unfairness, when in reality, the mask of being rejected is a disguise for a person who is rotten to the core. To deny and disguise personality traits involving the sins of arrogance and the sins of the emotional complex of the soul, not only require denial and rejection, but they demand projection—you have to assign these to others.
h. Another problem is compensation. Compensation contributes to a mental process by which the believer being rejected, not only becomes blind to his or her undesirable characteristics from the sin nature, but also develops, designs, stimulates, and makes a pretense of spirituality. This is the believer who assumes the appearance of a spiritual giant, when the inner reality of the soul is that of an arrogant, insolent, overbearing, spiritual midget. They persuade others that they are the victim, when in reality, they are the problem. If the rejected believer is weak, he or she will develop a big guilt complex, so that they feel like a legitimate victim. Therefore, projection reinforces the martyrdom complex assumed by the rejectee. Part of the martyrdom complex is the feelings of guilt which give rise to feelings of anxiety, which must be alleviated. If the rejected believer is able to cast the blame for his or her shameful tendencies on the rejector, then there is alleviation. The attitude of the rejected person is that to be guiltless is to be victimized, to be persecuted is to be martyred. This follows the motivation that if you can make the rejector feel guilty, you feel less guilty as a phoney rejectee. In this way, the rejected believer can shift all of the blame to the rejector, which means the rejectee can hold the rejector responsible for the entire problem for that moment and for the rest of his or her life. Thinking to yourself, “I am a victim; I have been wronged.” is scar tissue that destroys and covers up metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness.
i. Another problem is delusions of grandeur and emotional instability.
(1) Delusions of grandeur originate from feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, or inferiority. The believer who has been rejected, but through self-righteousness arrogance thinks he or she is absolutely right, has through the delusion escaped from reality, which has been too great for his or her emotional security. Emotional sins bring emotional insecurity. Emotional insecurity brings irrationality to the soul. If the problem was guilt, then the delusion is that he or she achieved a spiritual life approximating perfection. The rejectee has destroyed his or her own spiritual life. Instead, they have put on the costume of the perfect person, and they are absolutely sold on the idea that they were right about this and they are right about everything else. Once you start practicing repression, denial, projection, and compensation you are totally divorced from reality.
(2) Emotional instability. If the rejected believer was troubled with thoughts of inferiority, he or she as a martyr of rejection has now achieved spiritual distinction. Martyrdom is a pseudo spiritual life. If the rejected believer was troubled by fear, worry, or anxiety, he or she has gained a sense of security—not from metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness, not from problem solving devices, but from a grandiose delusion, so that feeling of guilt may be assuaged by attaching to the rejector the motives that created the problems. It is very difficult to recover from this type of bitterness. Some of the trends of emotional maladjustment are:
(a) Stubbornness.
(b) Tantrums.
© Hypersensitivity.
(d) Sulking.
(e) Deceitfulness.
(f) Defiant.
(g) Erratic.
(h) Arrogant.
(i) Affectionless.
(j) Demanding much and giving little.
(k) Ungrateful.
(l) Limited feelings of guilt or remorse because of self-righteousness arrogance, projection, denial, and repression.
(m) Demands instant gratification with no concern or regard for the feelings of others.
(n) As a result of emotional instability, lacks definite objectives in life but is quick to blame others as if there were objectives in life; hence, in a state of restlessness resulting from a search for the unattainable.
(o) Emotional instability has few values in life, and learns nothing from confrontation, adverse experience, or divine discipline.
(p) Can only adjust to environment where he or she dominates.
(q) Often becomes a sociopathic personality, having no regard for the rights of others and is unable to either sympathize or empathize.
® Projects his or her insecurity by blaming others.
(s) Rationalizes his or her behavior to be compatible with the status of his or her self-righteous arrogance.
(t) Impulsive and instant response to his or her own feelings. Manipulation by stipulation, which means, “reconciliation on my terms.” “If you don’t do this, then I won’t do that.” This is the statement of a person who has lost all perspective of reality in life. They never think about handling the problems of relationships with people through the use of the problem solving devices because they never think about God and have no love for Him. They are out of fellowship and do not even know it, because they have entered into repression and denial.
C. The Status of Rejection.
1. The believer may be rejected for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons are kind, some are cruel; some of the reasons are honorable, some are dishonorable; some are fair, some are unfair; some are right, some are wrong; some are honest, some are dishonest. Sometimes the fault is with the one who is rejected, and sometimes it is with the one who is doing the rejecting, but usually it is the fault of both.
a. You may be rejected because you have taken advantage of a person and they have had enough.
b. You may be rejected because you have been dishonest and deceitful and you have had enough again.
c. You may be rejected because you are a user and manipulator.
d. You may be rejected because previous compatibility has soured and the status of incompatibility has come into existence.
e. You may be rejected because your partner has found a better deal in romance with someone else.
f. You may be rejected because you are positive to doctrine and another believer is negative to doctrine, or they reject you because they are positive and you are negative.
2. The rejector may be right or wrong, but he or she rejects for the following reasons.
a. Because he or she is a victim of vilification, of malice.
b. Because the rejectee is in a state of arrogant self- righteousness.
c. Because he or she is tired of nagging or bullying.
3. When you are rejected, do not react by thinking about the other person. Immediately examine your own life to see if there is any sin or failure in your life. Forget about those who reject you. Concentrate on the possibility that you are out of line, that your relationship with God is not what it should be. This is not the only rejection you will ever have; you will always be rejected throughout your life, especially if something in your life needs straightening out. You cannot afford to react to anyone who rejects you, regardless of the reason.
a. But whatever the reason, the reason is never the issue in solving the problem. Whether you are rejected because you are the worst jerk or the most honorable person, whatever the reason, you must face the reality that rejection exists! The issue for you is to start using the problem-solving devices. You have an opportunity of accelerated growth or of falling flat on your face and becoming a loser.
b. For whatever reason or whatever cause, fair or unfair, kind or cruel, honest or dishonest, right or wrong; rejection is always the greatest opportunity in your life for blessing from God. Otherwise, it is a trap of total self-destruction. If you react to being rejected, you’ve had it. You won’t take another step forward in your spiritual life, and you will become either legalistic or lascivious.
c. But the blessing must come through your decisions. If you have been making decisions to grow in grace, if you have reached spiritual self-esteem, if you possess these problem-solving devices, you will handle rejection magnificently. If you don’t have these spiritual assets, when rejected, right or wrong, you will fall flat on your face!
4. There are dangers in being rejected. These dangers are related generally to reaction sins.
a. The reaction sins from the arrogance complex: jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, vilification, revenge, malice.
b. The reaction sins from the emotional complex of sins: hysteria, hatred, self-centeredness, fear, guilt.
c. The reaction sins related to denial, in which the believer is divorced from reality or has a false perception of reality. The believer fails to acknowledge some aspects of external reality that would be apparent to others.
d. The reaction sins related to repression, which is why rejected believers never see any fault in themselves in being rejected.
(1) By repression, they avoid being aware of their own sins, failures, and flaws related to the emotional complex of sins. The rejected believer will move his sins, flaws, and failures from the stream of consciousness to the subconscious where they form garbage.
(2) Self-righteous arrogance has a very strong pseudo self- esteem. They have made a role model out of self. This self-righteous arrogance creates a mechanism to transfer from the conscious mind desires, lusts, flaws, impulses, motives, and actions related to the arrogance complex of sins and incompatible with the role model of self. Anytime the believer with self-righteous arrogance is rejected, there is a very strong accompanying hypersensitivity. That hypersensitivity cannot cope with sins in their own life that might destroy this pseudo image. To protect this pseudo image, the believer engages in repression.
(3) Repression is converting the sins of arrogance and the emotional complex into garbage in the subconscious. Repression functions as a very strong defense mechanism against the reality of one’s own sins and failures. Repression is not a deliberate or conscious effort on the part of a person to whom it operates, but it is a voluntary repudiation which exercises a rejecting influence against their own unacceptable feelings, striving, memories, hostilities, aggressions, or inferiorities. In this way, the rejected believer who practices repression is hypersensitive about self, but insensitive about others, unless others contribute somehow to the hypersensitive believer’s entertainment or selfish desires. Through repression, the rejected believer is always right, never wrong, and quite shocked that you cannot see it.
(4) Repression and denial can even bring a believer to psychopathic arrogance, which results in a distorted and incorrect perception of reality. While repression and denial are defensive, projection (which is actually a defense mechanism) often takes very offensive action toward the rejectee.
e. The reaction sins may be related to projection, which is a mechanic in which the believer falsely attributes his or her own unacknowledged feelings, impulses, or thoughts to others.
(1) Projection in the rejected believer denies that his or her own sins and flaws exist and falsely attributes these obnoxious characteristics, traits, lusts, desires, sin nature function to the one rejecting them. This mechanism enables the believer to remain blind to the loss of spiritual life. The content of the projection is simply an echo of his or her own subconscious.
(2) When feelings of guilt give rise to any form of anxiety in a rejected believer, these feelings of guilt may be alleviated if the rejected believer is able to transfer the blame and shameful tendencies to someone else, usually a real or alleged rejector. Projection likes to cast the blame for flaws to someone else. That leaves the rejected believer feeling guiltless and as though they are the victim. They create the role of being a victim. The more guilt they can assign to a rejector, the less guilt feelings they have.
(3) Projection is hostility and aggressive behavior, a defense against the guilt or anxiety that comes from being rejected. Projection is used as a means of denial. Example: Believer A is the rejected believer. Believer B is the rejector. Believer A is unable to tolerate the anxiety which is aroused by his or her hatred directed toward the rejector. Believer A has a subconscious change from “I hate B” to “B hates me; therefore, I am all right and B is all wrong.” In this way, self- righteous arrogance is protected from anxiety and guilt or any sin nature function that would imply that the rejected person is wrong.
5. The combination of repression, denial, and projection functions to sustain self-righteous arrogance in a rejected believer. If you have rejected doctrine as a believer, you have no problem solving devices to protect you against these things. Stress in the soul means sin nature control of the soul and arrogant preoccupation with self to the exclusion of reality. This produces all the flaws of the fragmented life.
a. One of these flaws is hyperactive hypersensitivity. The hypersensitivity is related to arrogant self-righteousness which must be defended at all costs, and therefore, resentment at every real or imagined slight. This causes reaction sins like an exaggerated self-pity, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, anger, hatred, vilification, and malice.
b. Great flaws are developed in the soul of the rejected believer. Very often the rejected believer is in the right, but by reacting the right becomes wrong. The rejecting believer, or rejector, also might reject on the basis of flaws in his or her life. In both cases, we have two people failing to execute the protocol plan of God.
c. The rejected believer is further divorced from reality through projection, in which he or she falsely attributes his or her flaws to the opposite person.
d. Rejection causes both projection and denial which establishes a base for rejecting reality and attacking the other person. Being so preoccupied with self, so full of arrogant subjectivity, so impressed with their own self-righteousness, so motivated from garbage in the subconscious, they fail to see the reality of the situation—they are the rejected ones and they are the cause of the situation. You need to stop and ask yourself, “Did I do anything to cause this rejection?”
6. As is often the case, it is the rejected one who is at fault and not the rejector. Rejected believers seek their own level through reaction sins. This is the great danger to the one who is rejected. The rejected believer seeks the lowest possible level of divorcement from their spiritual life. Rejected believers seek their own level by counter rejection, which is unjust, unfair, and without legitimate excuse. Rejecting someone because you think you are rejected is the quintessence of human arrogance and its by-product—pettiness.
a. All too often such a person has not matured either mentally or spiritually. In such cases, the rejected believer compounds the problem by converting adversity into stress in the soul. You start out being right and end up being wrong.
b. The believer being rejected generally has two problems.
(1) They are rejected because they have never matured as a human being. This means failure to take responsibility for one’s own decisions in life, especially bad decisions from a position of weakness. Under the law of volitional responsibility, it is inevitable that all of us under these circumstances will sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind. Such a person fails to understand the role of human volition in the soul. Therefore, they blame other people and environment as the reason for their sins, flaws, and failures. Once you get into denial, repression, and projection, it is easy to blame people and develop a self-righteous arrogance and conclude it is your spiritual life.
(2) Through reaction sins, the one being rejected becomes the rejector and follows the pattern of spiritual decline through self- fragmentation, polarized fragmentation, and reversionism.
c. The spheres of rejection include: friendship, romance, marriage, social life, Christian fellowship, business life.
7. The Problem of Manipulation by Stipulation.
a. Manipulation, here, is used in the sense of changing a person to suit your concept of what you want in life. To establish a pattern and then try to fit the person into the pattern. Therefore, changing a person to suit one’s purpose or advantage. Therefore, to control that person or to recreate that person into what you want personally.
b. Manipulation is how the weak believer controls the strong believer. The manipulator is always self-righteous, full of arrogance, and has definite ideas of what to expect from someone else, and they work hard to get them into that area.
c. Stipulation are the conditions demanded by the weak believer of the strong believer. The weak believer is often rejected because certain demands are made of the strong believer, demands that are ridiculous, wrong, and have nothing to do with the spiritual life. Specific demands are made by the alleged rejected believer for reconciliation with the rejector and vice versa. It is very hard for people to accept others as they really are until they are mature.
d. The believer involved in manipulative stipulation is always a childish type person. They are egocentric, selfish, vain, like to be the center of attention, take great pleasure in exhibiting their virtues, over sensitive, irritable, petulant, exhibit emotional capriciousness, moodiness, histrionic posses, and fleeting enthusiasms.
(1) From the emotional complex of sins comes the hysterical personality whose failure to prevent the conversion of adversity into stress in the soul has made a weak person a manipulator, trying to change everyone to conform to their patterns. These believers are emotionally inferior, impulsive in their reactions, which causes them to be socially defective. These believers sometimes become criminals.
(2) The manipulating believer is a child emotionally who lacks any mature drives in puberty, so that they remain in an infantile state of development in their soul. Therefore, the manipulative believer makes demands for reconciliation comparable to principles related to salvation by works. “I will take you back, if you do this, and this, and this, and this.” They stipulate the basis for reconciliation. The only true basis for reconciliation among believers is spiritual. The stipulations reflect the arrogance of the manipulator and indicate the manipulator has been involved in repression, denial, and projection.
(3) There is no use of problem solving devices on the part of a weak believer who tries to manipulate by stipulation. Manipulation by stipulation is a rejection of Eph 4:30-32, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you have been sealed to the day of redemption [the soul at salvation and the body at resurrection]. All bitterness, both anger and wrath, both clamor [a vehement expression of dissatisfaction] and slander, must be removed from you, along with all malice. But become kind toward one another, compassionate, and forgive each other, just as God also by means of Christ has forgiven us.”
(a) You cannot advance in the spiritual life as long as you have in your soul memory of wrongs against yourself, real or imagined. You cannot advance while you are in a state of denial, repression, or projection.
(b) Personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for mankind are the beginning of kindness. Kindness in the soul is the by product of an advancing spiritual life.
© Christ forgives and forgets, and that is where we fail. We are to forgive and forget. This is where manipulation by stipulation fails. Forgiveness is only real when you forget the wrong done to you. 8. Rejection gives the believer some options. The option to surrender to your failure and destroy your spiritual life. The option to recover and discover your spiritual life. Through the function of rebound and keep moving, it is possible to get up and fight another round. As long as you alive, recovery is a possibility. But when reality is so far removed that your life is made up of such things as repression, denial, and projection, you are locked into negative volition.
D. Rejection by others is designed for your blessing.
1. The blessing comes from facing the reality of your fragmented life and beginning the process of recovery. Recovery must begin with rebound and the resultant filling of the Holy Spirit. Rejection is one of the greatest opportunities to be motivated to develop and use the problem solving devices. For the believer who reacts to rejection, there is no blessing, just the potential for destroying his or her spiritual life permanently. Recovery comes into focus when we understand Col 2:7, “Having been rooted [doctrinal orientation] and constantly edified in Him, and being stabilized by means of doctrine as you were instructed, overflowing with thanksgiving.”
a. Once you are stabilized by means of doctrine, that means you are utilizing the ten problem-solving devices. But to learn them, you must be instructed by your right pastor-teacher.
b. To overflow with thanksgiving means to be grateful for obvious blessings, but also to be grateful for the adversities in life, including rejection.
2. Rejection by others is designed for blessing under the principle that God in His grace can turn cursing into blessing. So thanksgiving at the point of rejection, rather than reaction, is one of the signs that you’re moving in the right direction. It’s a sign that you’re grace oriented and doctrinally oriented. 2 Cor 4:15, “For all things are for your sake, that the grace which is being multiplied to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.” In effect, that describes problem solving devices. The “all things for your sake” include being rejected by people.
a. It is often a shock when you are rejected, for it comes from people you love and admire, your spouse, parents, children, etc. But rejection is an inevitable part of life. You shouldn’t even consider for a moment whether that rejection is fair or unfair. Your response to it should be to thank God for it, and to ask that the wisdom you’ve accumulated may now be brought to bear on the subject.
b. At the point of your rejection, someone will be glorified. If you respond in thanksgiving, which indicates your capacity for life, occupation with Christ, and your impersonal love for the one who’s rejected you, God will be glorified.
c. Thanksgiving is an expression of capacity for life. People who are grateful for what others do have capacity for interaction with people. People who are grateful to God for the blessings in their life and who always keep God first in their priorities, no matter how great the blessing, are utilizing the problem solving devices.
d. Thanksgiving is not only capacity for life, but also capacity for love. People who are grateful show capacity for love.
e. Not only that, but thanksgiving is actually an expression of happiness. It is a manifestation of the happiness developing in your life.
f. Thanksgiving is also a manifestation of your personal love for God as your motivational virtue and problem solving device. Here is where you begin to enter spiritual self-esteem.
3. You cannot say that Rom 8:28 applies, unless you have a problem solving device called personal love for God the Father. “We know, in fact, that to those who love God [personal love for God], He [God] works all things together for good to those who are elected according to a predetermined plan.”
a. Loving God does not really begin until you reach spiritual self-esteem. Before then there may be glimpses of loving God, but there is no stability in your love for God until you attain spiritual self-esteem.
b. Only God can work your rejection together for your good.
c. Stress in the soul hinders your personal love for God the Father.
4. Rejection alerts the believer to change his perception of reality from people emphasis to God emphasis. This can only be accomplished by making Bible doctrine the number one priority in your life. When people are more real to you than God is, this means you have very little doctrine in your soul, and you are not yet qualified to love God. It is impossible to love God whom we do not see apart from the perception of doctrine and cognitive conceptualism. 5. Whether you are a winner or loser, you can never be rejected by God, Ps 27:10, “Though my mother and my father reject me, the Lord will receive me.” Heb 13:5, “Let your lifestyle be free from the love for money and be content with what you have [+H, virtue-love, hope 2 and 3], for He Himself has said, `I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.’” Deut 31:6, “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you nor reject you.”
6. Rejection by people is actually designed for your blessing provided you have learned enough doctrine and some of the problem solving devices, and provided you are willing to put the matter in the Lord’s hands and not do anything about it yourself.
7. If you are at fault, the blessing comes from facing the reality of your fragmented life, and beginning the process of recovery which includes rebound and keep moving through post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation.
8. For the believer who reacts to rejection, there is no blessing, only the multiplication of his problems. The blessing is neutralized by the arrogance involved in reacting to rejection. 9. For the believer who uses the problem solving devices, the response to rejection is thanksgiving, which is a manifestation of both humility and capacity for life from metabolized doctrine. Most people associate thanksgiving with something they enjoy, but thanksgiving has its greatest manifestation when directed toward something unpleasant. Your capacity for life and motivation in life is related to your personal love for God.
a. When you are rejected by people, whether it is fair or unfair is really not the issue. The issue is: do you have the problem solving devices and use them? Do you pick yourself up and move on in occupation with the person of Jesus Christ?
b. Now that you are a believer, if you react when you are rejected, you do not possess spiritual self-esteem! You are still in spiritual childhood. You have lost track of the real issue.
c. Rejection is an opportunity for fantastic blessing, for spiritual growth, to get your life organized, to sort out your priorities in life, and to establish a scale of values that will move you ahead in your relationship to God and in the execution of the protocol plan of God.
d. It becomes extremely important for you to take advantage of every rejection in your life. If you utilize the problem solving devices, you will be the better for it. It causes your spiritual growth. For no one ever attains spiritual maturity without being rejected, and usually unfairly.
10. 1 Thes 5:18, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
a. This includes thanksgiving for the difficulties in life. This must be genuine; you can’t fake this. If your thanksgiving to God is gratitude expressed from the epignosis doctrine in your soul, you’re on the road to accelerated spiritual growth.
b. You can’t be truly thankful for rejection and at the same time react to it. In other words, the glorification of God when you are rejected and the function of arrogance in reaction to rejection are mutually exclusive.
11. Eph 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things to God, even the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here is personal love for God the Father and occupation with Christ, problem solving devices to be used when you are rejected.
12. Phil 4:6, “Stop worrying about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.”
a. This verse is for those who have not yet attained spiritual adulthood. Not yet having the problem solving devices of spiritual adulthood, all they can do is go to prayer.
b. But technically, prayer is not a problem solving device. Prayer is an offensive weapon of intercession. When you pray for yourself, your prayers often indicate that you do not understand the problem solving devices, and that you don’t even understand human volition.
13. Ps 100:3-5, “Know that Jehovah Himself [Jesus Christ] is God. It is He who has made us, and we are His people, even the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; honor His person. The Lord is good, His grace is eternal, and His faithfulness to all generations.”
a. Jesus Christ is the creator, Jn 1:3; Heb 1:10; Col 1: 16-17.
b. Sheep are as helpless as we are; the Lord is our shepherd.
c. To give thanks to Him and honor His person can only be done by the believer who has attained spiritual adulthood. This really becomes a conscious part of worship at gate five, spiritual self-esteem.
14. The first reaction to rejection should always be thanksgiving, because this is your capacity to appreciate who and what God is in time of rejection by people.
15. The believer should thank God in every case of rejection. For the rejecter is at least coming out from behind a facade of hypocrisy, and at least you’re faced with an honest action. So you can thank God that at least you know where you stand, perhaps for the first time.
16. Rejection gives the believer the opportunity for self-examination and the reevaluation of his perspective. Rejection gives the believer the opportunity to utilize the problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God, especially those that deal with God.
a. For example, rebound immediately provides the filling of the Spirit.
b. In the faith-rest drill, you trust God for blessing, claiming the promises of God and using doctrinal rationales.
c. Grace orientation always treats the rejecter in grace. This protects you from bitterness, implacability, anger, cruelty, and hatred.
d. Personal love for God the Father will carry you in the rejection, for it is your motivational virtue in the spiritual life.
e. Your impersonal love for the one who has rejected you, especially if it’s unfair, is essential.
f. If you have +H, you will not react at all, for +H will carry you through all problems of life.
g. A personal sense of destiny comes from metabolized doctrine.
h. Occupation with person of Jesus Christ is the priority solution.
i. Use whatever problem solving device it takes to remind you that none of us are perfect; the only perfection resides in God and our Lord in Hypostatic Union.
17. However, not all these problem solving devices are available until the believer has attained spiritual adulthood. Until then, many of these problem solving devices are merely academic and not a part of his normal living pattern. Once a person reaches spiritual self-esteem, all the problem solving devices can potentially be used, and they should become operational in every situation in life.
E. The Rejection of Jesus Christ.
1. X number of people in life reject Jesus Christ as Savior. During the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, our Lord Jesus Christ experienced the greatest rejection in life. Furthermore, He experienced this rejection from two of the greatest nations in all history: Israel and Rome.
2. Both the person and message of Jesus Christ were rejected during the First Advent. We tend to focus on His miracles, what He said, and on the fantastic dynamics of His humanity which were all observable. We have the idea that everyone was generally for Him. On the contrary, very few people believed in Him or were for Him. We simply have a record of those few who were.
3. In the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, our Lord Jesus Christ had two presentations; He wore two crowns.
a. First, He made a public presentation to Israel during the three years of His public ministry, performing all the acts and making all the presentations that the Messiah should. He talked about the fulfillment of the covenants and everything related to His legitimate rule of Israel as the Son of David. That was a very public ministry which was generally rejected. Many thought He was a drunkard; others said He spent all His time with prostitutes and tax collectors.
b. He also had a very private ministry as the prophet of the Church Age. In the Upper Room Discourse, He presented all that would happen in the Church Age. Again before He ascended, He prophesied about what the Church Age would be like. Israel had already been set aside by the thirty- three years of the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, then again by the Church Age. Our Lord’s private ministry is being rejected right up to this moment because the average believer today doesn’t have a clue as to what the Church Age is all about, yet it is so important.
4. So rejection by both Jews and Romans (Gentiles) was directed toward the greatest ministry in the human race. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine right now is exactly what your attitude would be toward Jesus Christ were He here walking on the earth today. You wouldn’t be any different then than you are right now!
5. The fact that so many would reject our Lord during the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union was prophesied in Ps 118:22. “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” This prophecy has been quoted numerous times in the New Testament: Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20; 1 Pet 2:7.
6. Another prophecy regarding the rejection of Christ during the First Advent is found in Isa 53:3. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like a person from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not.” This describes the only person to ever live on earth who was absolutely perfect in His humanity. 7. Jn 12:47a, “And if anyone hears My doctrines [maybe he will, maybe he will not] and does not apply them, I do not judge him.” The point is that they are in for judgment, but not by our Lord during the First Advent; that was when He came to save the world, not to judge it.
a. Compare this verse to the Bread of Life Discourse in Jn 6:35-40, in which Jesus said in verse 36, “You have seen Me and yet you do not believe Me.” Jesus expressed the alternative to rejection in verse 40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life. For I did not come to judge the world; I came to save the world.” That is the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.
b. Jn 12:48 begins, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My doctrines.” This verse shows the double rejection of both the person of Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union and His doctrine during His First Advent. The rejection of the person of Jesus Christ is tantamount to the unbeliever rejecting Jesus Christ for eternal salvation. The rejection of Bible doctrine on the part of believers was illustrated by Peter who heard these doctrines and yet rejected them, making a fool of himself during our Lord’s six trials.
c. Lk 17:25, “But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”
8. Yet our Lord’s greatest rejection came while He was on the cross. Not only did most of the people standing around the cross reject Him, but God the Father rejected Him as well. Because of the people’s rejection, darkness covered that hill of Golgotha as well as the entire land of Judah.
9. So on the cross our Lord received a double rejection. He was rejected by mankind. But more than that, because He was being judged for the sins of the world as they were imputed to Him, He was rejected by God the Father. That’s why He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Mt 27:46. The answer: because He became our substitute and took our place in being judged for our sins. So not only was He rejected by men, but He received the worst possible rejection that anyone can ever experience, i.e., rejection by God.
a. Because you are believer, you can never experience rejection by God.
b. We will never experience what He suffered, a suffering related to rejection. For in judging our sins on the cross, God the Father rejected Jesus Christ, the most awful rejection of all.
c. Even the worst possible discipline we could receive as a believer from God is absolutely nothing compared to what our Lord endured so that we might have eternal life.
10. 1 Pet 2:20-24 brings all this together. “For what credit is there if, when you sin, you are harshly treated, yet you endure it with patience? But if you do what is good and suffer, and you endure with patience, this is grace from God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept on entrusting Himself to Him who judges in a just manner, who carried our sins in His own body on the cross.”
a. In other words, Jesus Christ, who was perfect, was rejected. Therefore, do not be surprised if there is injustice and rejection directed toward you as a believer.
b. Of course, many believers are obnoxious and bring rejection upon themselves. However, there is legitimate rejection because of your identification with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
11. So what sustained our Lord on the cross while being judged for our sins? Three problem solving devices sustained our Lord on the cross.
a. The faith-rest drill sustained our Lord. 1 Pet 2:23, “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself [faith-rest] to Him who judges justly.”
b. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere sustained Him. Our Lord was filled with the Spirit and utilized the divine power of the Holy Spirit. Heb 9:14, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit [omnipotence of the Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere] offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
c. Sharing the happiness of God or +H as the ultimate problem solving device in the divine dynasphere also sustained Him. Heb 12:2, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our doctrine, who because of the exhibited happiness, He endured the cross, having disregarded the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(1) In the midst of the greatest rejection in all of human history, our Lord had perfect divine happiness in His humanity!
(2) The great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union demonstrated the fact that any believer with +H can endure anything in life.
d. Jesus Christ was also sustained by a personal sense of destiny derived from His perception of doctrine. Therefore, He was sustained by doctrinal orientation and grace orientation.
12. For those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior, the only source of salvation and eternal life, there is no solution to life or death or the eternal state.
a. Jn 3:18, “He who believes on Him is not condemned, but He who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the uniquely-born Son of God.”
b. Jn 3:36, “He who believes on the Son has everlasting life; he who does not believe shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
c. Jn 16:9 says that the only sin of which the Holy Spirit convicts us, the only sin for which Jesus Christ could not be judged, is the sin of rejecting Christ. Verse 8 says the Holy Spirit “convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment;” Verse 9 continues: “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
F. Sharing God’s happiness (+H) is the solution to rejection.
1. +H, or sharing the happiness of God, is the ultimate solution to being rejected in life. The fact that our Lord had that +H and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere meant He could endure this dual rejection. We cannot begin to imagine the intensity of that suffering. But we know having +H was the key to how our Lord handled the greatest suffering the world has ever known.
2. However, +H must be combined with virtue-love as a problem solving device to establish one’s identity in the environment of rejection. Not only must you direct +H toward yourself, but also you must direct impersonal love toward all those who are rejecting you. At the same time, you must have occupation with the person of Christ and personal love for God the Father.
3. Therefore, you combine three great powers by using these three problem solving devices. Having personal love for God and occupation with Christ causes you to conclude that you may be rejected by others, but you are not rejected by God. This is combined with having impersonal love toward those who reject you and possessing +H. These three problem solving devices combined with the fourth, hope 2 and hope 3 toward Bible doctrine, makes you the strongest individual that can exist on the face of this earth!
4. Personal love for God the Father and occupation with Christ is a part of the solution to rejection. Heb 13:5, “Let your lifestyle be free from the love for money and be content with what you have [+H, virtue-love, hope 2 and 3], for He Himself has said, `I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.’” You cannot be rejected by God. Jesus Christ on the cross was rejected by God the Father, but you cannot be rejected by God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. The combination of these problem solving devices is the greatest power you can have.
5. Whether you receive strong rejection from others innocently or due to your own fault, you need these fantastic and most magnificent problem solving devices. But you will never have them until you reach spiritual self-esteem or gate number five of the divine dynasphere. But you cannot reach gate number five without the perception of Bible doctrine.
G. The Rejection of Bible Doctrine.
1. Our problems are unsolvable if we reject doctrine. This is the greatest single problem which believers have after salvation, failing to execute the plan of God. For without post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation through perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine, it is impossible to execute the protocol plan of God.
2. The believer’s #1 priority in life must be cognition of Bible doctrine. This demands daily decisions to hear the teaching of the Word of God.
3. Incentive is a factor in this but not a cause. In other words, while genetics, environment, influence can provide incentive for good or evil, success or failure, it is never a cause for any of these things.
a. For example, temptation may be an incentive, but human volition is always the cause for sin.
b. Desire to do the will of God may be the incentive, but the function of the believer’s positive volition toward Bible doctrine becomes the cause of executing God’s will and fulfilling the protocol plan of God.
c. Making Bible doctrine the #1 priority in your life may be an incentive, but concentration on doctrinal teaching under the ministry of your right pastor-teacher and the Holy Spirit is the cause for your execution of the protocol plan of God, as well as the means for your “growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
4. Just as a baby must learn a vocabulary, rights and wrongs, and common sense about life, so the new believer is starting all over in the spiritual life and must learn. Just as we were not born knowing anything, so no one is born again knowing anything about the Christian life. 5. Some believers are very consistent in learning Bible doctrine when they are in trouble. But you must be consistent daily no matter what your circumstances. You must learn daily because you must learn mechanics which you must start practicing. Apart from using these mechanics, you can’t hook up with the power of God and so you can’t grow in grace. And acquiring +H is worth every second it takes to get there! 6. No one executes the protocol plan of God apart from metabolized doctrine in the right lobe of the soul.
7. Rejection or indifference to the teaching the mystery doctrine of the Church Age produces losers, believers who fail to execute God’s plan, will, and purpose for their lives. Losers do not lose their salvation, but they lose their escrow blessings for time and eternity.
8. Therefore, rejection of Bible doctrine is failure to fulfill the purpose for which we are sustained on earth after we believe in Christ.
9. Without cognitive independence from consistent perception of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, the believer cannot use the problem solving devices available to every member of the royal family of God. Without the function of problem solving devices, the believer cannot handle the problem of rejection.
10. Cognition of Bible doctrine provides the necessary information regarding the mechanics of fulfilling the purpose, will, and plan of God for the Church Age.
11. Without the function of the three R’s, it is impossible to glorify God in time. The three R’s are:
a. Reception, the consistent hearing of the teaching of the Word from an authorized and prepared pastor-teacher.
b. Retention, the metabolization of gnosis doctrine in the left lobe resulting in epignosis or metabolized doctrine in the right lobe.
c. Recall, the application of metabolized doctrine to your experience.
12. Without cognition of pertinent doctrine, there’s no way you will live the Christian life.
H. Reasons for Passive Rejection.
1. Rejection, fair or unfair, good or bad, just or unjust, is a great test of your spiritual life. A test in your spiritual life is designed to accelerate your spiritual growth.
2. The fragmented life occurs in the cosmic system, where the Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched. Therefore, there is no way you can use problem solving devices in that state; you can only use rebound at that point in order to recover the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is tantamount to life inside the divine dynasphere.
a. Living inside the divine dynasphere under the filling of the Spirit avoids reaction by giving you response to God instead of reaction to those who reject you.
b. Spirituality [the filling of the Spirit] is like breathing; either you are breathing or you are dead. In this sense, the filling of the Holy Spirit is more than a problem solving device; it is your spiritual life. But it is the base for the utilization of all problem solving devices.
c. Spirituality is an absolute: either you are controlled by the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere, or you are controlled by the cosmic system. Just as life and death are mutually exclusive, so spirituality and cosmic living are mutually exclusive.
d. Just as breathing sustains your physical life, so the filling of the Holy Spirit sustains your spiritual life. After you sin, you can only recover through the rebound technique.
e. So don’t “hold your breath” when you are rejected. In other words, don’t react emotionally. Stay inside the divine dynasphere and under the filling of the Holy Spirit. If you do react, rebound.
3. Rejection, when related to Bible doctrine, is a shortcut to spiritual growth and the acceleration of your advance to spiritual maturity. Under people testing you are going to have rejection.
a. Rejection is a fantastic opportunity for objective self- examination, provided that your evaluation lines up with Bible doctrine and is objective while in a state of humility. Rejection provides a chance to grow up and learn by your mistakes.
b. Don’t be prejudiced in your self-evaluation, always wanting to give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Try to look at yourself from the viewpoint of the one who has rejected you. Even though their rejection may be unjust and unfair, they usually do have some gripe, and you’ve probably heard it before.
c. In objective self-evaluation, you have the opportunity to learn from your own mistakes and a chance to reestablish the right priorities in your life.
d. Since rejection removes hypocrisy, it can provide the opportunity to reorient yourself to reality, and to function in honesty with yourself.
e. You can thank God for the reality of life imposed on you by others. Whether they are right or wrong is not the issue. The fact is that you are now rejected, giving you the opportunity to sort out your spiritual life. This gives you a chance to see yourself as others see you. Even if their sight is not very good, there is always some aspect of their rejection that is legitimate.
f. Rejection gives you a fantastic opportunity to check out your own life, and perhaps eliminate some of these things that make you obnoxious to others. Rejection can be the function of honest or honorable modus operandi, a God-given opportunity for self-improvement through the persist perception and metabolization of Bible doctrine, and the use of the problem solving devices and the royal family honor code.
g. Rejection is an opportunity to reevaluate, to regroup, and to establish the right priorities for life. Because of this tremendous opportunity, you now can accelerate your growth through the utilization of the problem solving devices.
h. Rejection is a chance to regain genuine and enforced humility.
i. Therefore, rejection is the means of acceleration of either spiritual advance or spiritual failure.
4. There are two categories of rejection in the human race.
a. You are rejected as a person. It may be fair or unfair, right or wrong, kind or cruel, honest or dishonest. But to you as a believer, the fairness or unfairness of your rejection is no longer the issue, but the issue is the challenge and blessing to be derived from it. The one who blesses you is God, not the people who have rejected you!
b. Someone you love is rejected, and you associate yourself with their rejection. Resenting the rejection of your loved one is also failure. This can be called secondary arrogance, whereby you become bitter, vindictive, or implacable because your friend or loved one is rejected. Even though the rejection is not directly related to you, you still become fragmented.
5. You cannot become subjective about people without becoming subjective about Bible doctrine. Such people cut themselves off from their only hope for spiritual growth. Such subjectivity leads to rejection of Bible doctrine as reaction against believers who are arrogant.
a. From subjectivity you distort doctrine to justify yourself or whomever is rejected, so that doctrine is no longer the means of momentum in your life. Therefore, you fail to execute the protocol plan of God, even though God is sustaining you by logistical grace for that purpose.
b. You will often distort doctrine as a means of excusing or justifying yourself. In this you do yourself far greater harm than you do to those who have rejected you.
c. The subjectivity in rejection becomes arrogance, and arrogant subjectivity results in reaction toward people so that you reject or distort doctrine, and you malfunction in the use of the problem solving devices which God has made available for your blessing.
6. Under transference arrogance, you transfer whatever your sins, flaws, or failures to the rejecter. This occurs when you react to either your own rejection or the rejection of your friend or loved one.
7. Failure to pass the test of rejection indicates at least four different things.
a. You possess the “hurt syndrome” caused by arrogance and hypersensitivity. Once you become hypersensitive, you reject other people and complicate your life. Hypersensitivity is a complication that none of us can afford. It is the subjective form of arrogance that destroys us, wearing our feelings on our sleeves. The result of this is scar tissue on the soul.
b. You become involved in the details of the rejection, which results in motivational arrogance or the arrogance of self-justification. This results in blackout of the soul and reverse process reversionism.
c. You attribute to the rejecter your own weaknesses and flaws. Here you show what you are really made of. For example, your rejecter may not want to have anything to do with you and not explain his rejection. You attribute to him cowardice, but in reality you are the coward. So you superimpose your flaws on someone who has rejected you. Your flaws are the only ones you know, so you assume, in your arrogance, that anyone who rejects you must have those flaws.
d. You may reject Bible doctrine because you associate doctrine with the people who have rejected you, or with your rejecter.
8. Failure to pass the rejection test will often cause negative and permanent personality changes and flaws. If you become bitter, jealous, or vindictive, these cause a permanent personality change in you. Or if you become hurt, subjective, withdrawn, full of self-pity, frustrated by unrealistic expectations, a chronic complainer, and a manipulator, these characteristics will only increase your future rejection by many others. These fragments of the grenade cannot be removed simply by rebound.
a. Erroneous changes in your personality will increase the area of your rejection by others and will intensify resentment toward you. So if you react to one person rejecting you today, tomorrow hundreds will reject you, and the next day thousands.
b. No one can stand to be around someone who complains, is self- righteous, and constantly tries to justify himself instead of facing reality.
c. The believer who reacts to rejection inevitably becomes an obnoxious personality, so that rejection multiplies and problems intensify.
d. Even when rejection is cruel, unfair, and wrong, at least it is an honest function related to reality: you are rejected. It is reality with which you must deal; not the causes, but the reality. So don’t react; stop and evaluate your own life from the standpoint of the Word of God. Rebound and keep moving; get cracking with doctrine; don’t look back!
e. Rejection can become the basis for great blessing in your life, and simultaneously the means of orienting you to reality. Rejection by people must inevitably turn your thoughts back to the Lord.
f. Orientation to reality is necessary for both enforced and genuine humility, the basis for being objective and teachable. No one ever functions under the problem solving devices unless they have both enforced and genuine humility.
g. It’s amazing how, once you become objective and listen to Bible teaching, the problem solving devices evolve in your life. Having enforced humility means you recognize the authority of someone you cannot stand and can function under them in perfect competence and tranquility. Having genuine humility gives you protection against the many attacks of arrogance on your life.
9. Your reaction to rejection and permanent personality change may even end up in your psychosis. Many people, when they are rejected, avoid reality and retreat into fantasizing, delusion, and hallucination.
a. The problem solving devices of grace orientation and doctrinal orientation to reality in time of rejection result in the avoidance of mental illnesses, personality changes for the worse, retreat from reality, fantasizing, hallucinating, and delusion.
b. In this state of reality, a weak person seeks to control the strong, manipulating through the threat of rejecting others.
10. The threat of rejection is a system used by the weak to control the strong. The threat of rejection imposes a false motivation on the strong, resulting in the weak reducing the strong to their own level of weakness. When the strong give in, they too become weak.
a. Anyone who can be manipulated is reduced to the level of the manipulator.
b. So you can’t live in the past, forming the patterns of your life based on past rejections. If you insist on reacting to the past, your whole personality changes and you fragment your life. In reaction, you become a manipulator.
c. The strong can control others as well. Therefore, the strong must beware of bullying, intruding on others’ privacy, and threatening others.
d. Humility levels us all out.
11. Rejection in life is a part of “all things working together for good” (Rom 8:28).
I. Reasons for Active Rejection.
1. In active rejection, the believer becomes the rejecter and rejects for the following reasons.
2. He is a victim of slander, gossip, maligning, or judging.
3. He rejects to protect his privacy, to which he has a right.
4. He rejects because he has had enough, and he is protecting his tranquility, sanity, and the organization and priorities of his life.
5. He rejects because he is fragmented. 6. He rejects because he is incompatible. 7. He rejects because he is tired of nagging and bullying.
8. He rejects because of interference in his life.
9. He rejects because Bible doctrine has given him a new outlook on life, not shared by old friends.
J. Historical Pattern of Rejection.
1. People in groups or crowds are emotional and irrational, so that as a mob they become unstable, fickle, irrational, and arrogant. Crowds or mobs cheer success in one moment and reject failure in the same person in the next moment. This generally starts in the early teens.
2. Those who function before crowds must have great stability from Bible doctrine.
3. Pastors, evangelists, missionaries, heroes of the faith, military heroes, presidents, athletes, or heroes in any field face rejection.
4. The pastor who is faithful in teaching the Word of God will always face this problem of rejection by some in his congregation for many different reasons. Often the reason is negative volition toward Bible doctrine; sometimes it is personality conflict, jealousy, resentment, insecurity, or even a lousy message. Every pastor must ask himself as he faces rejection: “How can I improve the way I communicate doctrine?” Or, “How can I improve the content of my communication?” Or, “How can I illustrate this, and present it so it is vivid and perspicuous?”
5. Rejection will occur in both friendship and romance, in the divine institutions of marriage and family, in all legitimate categories of authority, and in business and professional life.
6. Rejection also occurs because of criminality; dishonesty; drug addiction; nosiness; moral or immoral degeneracy; incompatibility of thought; incompatibility of spiritual life, social life, or interests in life; politics; and money.
K. God will never reject you.
1. If you are a believer and are rejected for any reason - good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair - you must remember that God has not and never will reject you!
2. Deut 31:6, “Therefore, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and tremble. For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you. He will never fail you; He will never forsake you.”
3. Deut 31:8, “And the Lord is the One who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you nor will He forsake you. Therefore, do not fear; do not be discouraged.” If the Lord goes ahead of you, that means He leaves behind Him road signs for you to follow. The road signs are the doctrines found in the Word of God.
4. Heb 13:5, “Let your lifestyle be free from the love for money, and be content [+H] with what you have; for He Himself has said, `I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.’”
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R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740
© 1996, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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