Unpacking Revelationism

Revelationism vs. the Mind of Christ



[This article follows on the introductory article The Tare of Revelationism.

 

In the early days of my search for spiritual truth, the Lord led me to challenge the textualism of the fundamentalist-evangelical branch of the church, seeking to break free from unbelief regarding the present power of God’s revelation available to us today.

 

But as I have grown over time, the latter days of my search have been marked by exposing and challenging the tare of revelationism in the Pentecostal-charismatic-faith-prophetic streams of our faith. This teaching on revelationism presents the flip side of my earliest teachings on our relationship to the word of God.]

 

Five factors affect our engagement of spiritual understanding. They are:

-         access to the scriptures

-         carnal understanding

-         revelation by the Spirit

-         counterfeit (lawless) revelation

-         the Mind of Christ

The century long battle between the advocates of the Spirit’s revelation and those retaining a carnal mind against it has obscured a different but as costly spiritual conflict in the prophetic streams of the church. It is the conflict between those who possess the Mind of Christ and those who promote counterfeit revelation, that is, revelation without bounds. We call this Revelationism.


The Mind of Christ: the Plumb Line of All Revelation

Superior to all revelation is the Mind of Christ. The Mind of Christ is the knowing of Christ (and Him crucified!) in the inner man that contains any and all present revelation within bounds of Truth established by the Spirit of Truth in accord with the Logos of scripture. Where revelation is greater than carnal understanding, the Mind of Christ is greater than revelation, bringing government to it.

The Mind of Christ stands at the epicenter of All Revelation, both codified and fluid. This can be illustrated on a spectrum thusly:

 

Scripture
(codification)

Mind of Christ
(living solidity)

Knowing Him and Him crucified in the inner man

Spirit Revelation
(fluidity)

 

The Mind of Christ supersedes Spirit revelation for all authority in faith and practice, just as it supersedes human interpretation of scripture. The Mind of Christ subjects revelation to a certain process of testing and proving for its validity against the standard of the Knowledge of Christ in the inner man (“My sheep know My Voice”).

The Mind of Christ tests revelation for whether it promotes the Knowledge of Christ or takes away from it. It begins with the foundation of the scriptures laid before us and is revealed in the sum total of His self revelation over the ages.

Where revelation is fluid by nature, the Mind of Christ presents a solidity of mental stability and heart grounding in the inner knowing of Christ Himself that asserts government over revelation. This is the meaning of sound mindedness:

II Tim. 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

The Greek word for sound mindedness, sometimes translated as sound judgment or simply as discipline, in its largest sense means disciplined thinking. It is a mind under government, or a governmental mind. 

Revelation is thus subject to a disciplined mind in the Knowledge of Christ. This is what the Spirit of revelation Himself promotes. The Spirit of Truth (i.e., true revelation) favors sound mindedness. This is why true revelation is held in humility and made subject to testing:

I Jn. 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit [of revelation], but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

If revelation was the highest authority for our knowledge, it would not be subject to testing.

To what testing is revelation, therefore, subject? Is it subject to testing by the carnal unbelieving textualist mind? No. It is subject to testing by the Mind of Christ in the inner man contexted by the panoply of established revelation given us already through the scriptures.


Revelationism: Rebellion Against the Sound Mindedness of Christ

In contrast to true revelation, Revelationism exalts revelation and spiritual experience in itself as its own standard of truth, independently of the internal Knowing of Christ. We may illustrate this as a warped extremity off the end of revelation:     


Scripture

Mind of Christ

Spirit Revelation

Revelationism



Revelationism denies requirement of sound mindedness. It exists to thwart the certainty and stability of belief that attends the Mind of Christ through the inner knowing of Christ supported within the broad context of the entirety of scripture.

Revelationism rebels against the Mind of Christ. It has an agenda of its own outside the government of that Mind and works to overthrow that internal government. It denies any authoritative class of knowing greater than revelation itself. It promotes whatever it does without regard to any higher authoritative internal parameters of belief.

 

Hiding behind the Charge of Textualism

Revelationism accomplishes its end by leveraging the known error of carnal minded textualism to prevent all questioning and testing of the supposed revelation. Its power is in the ability to hide behind this lower level conflict between Spirit revelation and the Biblicist mind to escape such proving.

Textualism is the opposite error to Revelationism in which the carnal mind seizes on and exalts the scriptures in themselves apart from revelational illumination under government of the Mind of Christ. (On this we have already written much.) We are able to illustrate this also on our spectrum:

 

Textualism

Scripture

Mind of Christ

Spirit Revelation

Revelationism

 

The carnal mind is already at enmity with true revelation because of its unbelief and rebellion against the superior life-plane of Spirit revelation. This is a known fact in Spirit-savvy streams of the church.

Advantaging itself of this, Revelationism can establish a platform for condemning all that questions it as evidence of “pharisaic unbelief” from a carnal “legalist” mind, thereby shielding itself from all examination against the Spirit’s centrally stabilizing power of sound mindedness.

Revelationism thus rebuffs any challenge to itself saying, “Oh, you’re just thinking ‘in the flesh.’ You’re ‘carnally minded.’ ” It launches an accusatory self-defensive salvo with the charge of “legalism” against any sincere believer who questions it, is troubled in spirit by it, and wants a higher reference point for validating it.

In this entire scheme, the spirit of Revelationism denies existence of a higher over arching Mind of Christ within the believer that holds authority over revelation, imparts governing limits to it and subjects the revelation to testing within the Knowledge of Christ in consort with all scripture.  

 

Revelationism’s Use of Scripture

This does not mean Revelationism does not use scripture. On the contrary, it does! But Revelationism subjects scripture to itself rather than subjects itself to scripture within the Mind of Christ.

As noted above, Revelationism is the opposite of Textualism (or Biblicism, or as some call it, Bibliolatry.) Revelationism is to the prophetic what Textualism is to Fundamentalism. Textualism is the inability to receive the living revelation of the Holy Spirit upon the text of scripture, leaving the meaning of the text up to the natural mind. Revelationism is the inability to subject revelation to the bounds of Truth established by the greater central Mind of Christ as revealed to the inner man through the totality of the Scriptures.

Where Textualism exalts scripture in itself so as to block and fossilize its living meaning, Revelationism through self-exaltation abuses scripture to suit its own lawless ends.

Though its employment of scripture is lawless, Revelationism can nevertheless appear very logical. Its persuasiveness is oft found in its logicality. Products of revelationism include such tripe doctrines as:

-      the identicality of the Son and the Father

—despite the clear Scriptural portrayal of unique persons having separate wills (the point of the Life of Christ is that He was able to submit His unique will perfectly to the equally unique will of the Father);

-      the indistinguishability between the identity of the “sons of God” (believers) and God Himself

–even though redeemed believers are created and God is uncreated;

-      hyper faith teaching that denies the reality of hope under time—denying the creational reality of past, present and future under the time continuum;

-      universal reconciliation teaching that removes all concept of limits from the grace of God, leading to the ultimate conversion of all men and satan

–despite the clear unmitigated Biblical picture of permanent separation between that which is redeemed and all the rest.

 

Taken together, the cumulative effect of revelationist doctrines is to remove all distinction between God and His creation, and to use that broken down distinction to promote the reign of lawlessness in body, soul and spirit.

Revelationism is ultimately an antichrist spirit manifesting itself through the prophetic, and in the end is designed to divert the genuine power of Holy Spirit revelation to promote acceptance of the antichrist.

 

How Revelationism Forms in the Prophetic Teacher

Revelationism occurs through the tying of one’s sense of self-worth to His gift of revelation. It occurs through failure to submit the gift of revelation to the superior inner knowledge of Christ. It occurs as a spiritually aggravated carnal reaction against the carnal response of textualist unbelief. It is truly no more “spiritual” as pertains to the heart than what it opposes.

Revelationism carries certain telltale marks:

1.     The clearest evidence of Revelationism is a spirit of defensive pride. People who speak from a spirit of Revelationism find it beneath themselves to be questioned and put to the test.

 2.     Revelationism is expert in promoting confusion with no answers to tie its assertions together.

3.     Revelationism denies the obvious to promote the obtuse and the esoteric. It often thrives on promoting a sense of secretiveness and promotes a spirit of elitism among the “illumined” who embrace the revelation.

Revelationism is really a rebirth of the spirit of Gnosticism. It answers to the charge of puffed up revelation and knowledge which Paul lays toward some in Colossians and the Corinthian letters.


Traits of Teachers under a Spirit of Revelationism

Revelationists often manifest an obfuscation of transparent personality. They mask their personality through an air of trance-like super-spirituality.

Revelationists are often characterized by many words. They show an inability to “shut off” their flow. They allow no cognitive processing to take place. They string webs of thoughts and quips together in an endless parade of knowledge designed to leave the hearers “spellbound” with the “magnificence” of what they have said. All this may be interspersed with out-of-context scripture phrases.  

A common phrase among revelationists is “now this is going to throw you for a loop…” It’s their way of pre-empting questioning and projecting a superiority over their audience causing the hearers to feel that unless they can buy into this obtuse revelation, they are obviously carnal and filled with unbelief.

Of course, these types of revelational shows almost always occur in large settings where there is no possibility for questioning or “reasoning together” about what is being said. This would “destroy the spirit” and “quench the flow.” It is much more difficult to speak revelationally in small group settings unless the revelator has already cemented a cult following.

Beware the following:

-       “web-spinners” connecting revelation to revelation to revelation among implausibly connected scriptures without return to a larger scriptural framework;

-      teachers who build up a corporate atmosphere of uncontested agreement that requires no thoughtful meditation over what they are saying;

-      teachers whose “flow” is thrown off balance by questioning;

-      meetings that allow no opportunity for questioning or checking of revelational rambling;

-      teachers who perpetually sprinkle their teachings with statements like, “Are you with me, now? Are you with me? Can I get a witness? Can somebody say Amen?”

-      teachers who communicate by means of harangue (incessant loud proclamation, yelling at the audience);

-      teachers who float in “revelational ozone,” giving the impression they are now communicating as a transcendent oracle from some higher spiritual place through a trancelike state that depersonalizes their connection with the audience.

 

Revelation, Revelationism and the Lawful Meaning of Words

The purpose and effect of revelationist spirits is to erase any difference between true and false understanding. Revelationism tracks as a counterfeit to revelation in the same way that lawlessness tracks as a counterfeit to grace. To illustrate this we will adjust the perspective of our illustration, putting our view of scripture into central focus.

The heart issue between revelation and Revelationism is the lawful meaning of the words of scripture en route to transcending the knowledge of good and evil.  Between revelation and Revelationism also lies our legally minded apprehension of the written word—our adherence to the legal definitions of words without room for spiritual prophetic application:

 

Revelationism

Textual Understanding

Holy Spirit Revelation

Lawlessness

Legality

Grace

Scripture
 


So let’s break this out a bit:


          - The Legality of Textualism

Textualism is the carnal mental force of the knowledge of good and evil applied directly to the scriptures. Textual belief is the scientific power of unbelief by which the scriptures (the Law) were used to crucify the Lord and by which textualists (e.g., fundamentalists, mainline evangelicals and old line denominational churches) reject the possibility of present tense revelation.


          - The Grace of Revelation

To one side of textualism—the grace side—is revelation. We live under the grace of Holy Spirit revelation, not according to the carnal law of scientific belief. Revelation accesses the Mind of Christ through the Holy Spirit in the form of present revelation, based on the governmental framework of scripture.

In relation to the scripture, revelation builds on the meaning of scripture while preserving the “lawful” meaning of scripture. Revelation recognizes a higher spiritual form of understanding than textualism allows for, transcending the knowledge of good and evil applied to the scripture.

But in so doing, true revelation still submits to the lawful framework of the scripture, a framework that embraces the context of mind of its original authors. Revelation does not seek to ignore or violate that context. Of revelation it can be said, as Christ says of Himself, “I did not come to destroy the legal meaning and intent of the scriptures, but to fulfil them.”

The revelation of Christ certainly transcended that of the Law, but did so in a way that fulfilled its meaning. That is the meaning of grace. And it is by the same definition of grace that true revelation relates to the scriptures to this day.

 

          - The Lawlessness of Revelationism

On the opposite side of textualism however—the lawless side—is Revelationism. Revelationism is a counterfeit of revelation that pretends to access the mind of Christ through the Spirit as present revelation. As with revelation, Revelationism is built on the scriptures. But contrary to true revelation, revelationism does not preserve the legal meaning of scripture, but seeks to contradict it or ignore it for the purpose of advancing an interpretative agenda.

Revelationism recognizes a higher spiritual form of understanding than textualism. It speaks of transcending the unbelieving knowledge of good and evil applied to interpretation. But it disavows any necessity for adherence to legal definitions of words depending on what it is trying to prove.

Revelationism specifically ignores the context of the minds of scripture’s original authors. It also carries predetermined conclusions into its “search” of the scriptures. While it decries textualism, in reality, it is built on its own human presuppositions about something it has already determined to believe.

When challenged in regard to its thwarting of legal definitions and apostolic context, Revelationism professes its transcendence of the knowing of good and evil. As we have seen, it counters any challenge based in appeal to legal scriptural context by tagging such challenges as evidence of textualist unbelief. Revelationism refuses to be held accountable in any way to a lawful framework of scriptural understanding.

 

Counterfeiting the Spiritualizations of Christ

The spirit of Revelationism is extremely masterful at its art of undermining the framework of scripture as it plies its higher understanding by “grace” in the church. It is extremely cunning, subtle and difficult to perceive to the unattuned ear. It easily slips by those who have never been taught to test spirits of revelation for their origin against their inner knowing of Christ or against the lawful framework of the minds of the scripture writers.

Revelationism appeals to the same evidences by which the revelation of grace through Christ transcended the Old Covenant. By this counterfeit grace argumentation, it advances its lawless assertions and interpretations of Scriptural words and contexts toward breaking down all distinction between Christ and Lucifer, their peoples and their kingdoms.

For example, the Lord Jesus introduced new spiritual meanings to Old Covenant and other words which they previously did not have. The word “temple” is a case in point. Jesus changed the definition of “temple” from a building to a human body. Paul expanded this to refer to the corporation of saints.

Similarly, Jesus overrode the superficial physical meaning of commandments to get to their root meaning and application of heart. Relationship to the Sabbath is the central example of this. From here, the apostles expanded on this to teach that all morally-oriented commandments were transcended by the law of love, and all liturgically-oriented commandments were transcended by Christ’s own sacrifice, being fulfilled by Him.

In course of these transcensions of meanings, both Christ and the apostles were careful to point out that they were not contradicting the lawful Old Testament framework. Rather, in the grace of transcending it, they were fulfilling the true meaning of the Old Covenant.

Revelationism copies this example. It follows how Christ and the apostles spiritualized certain words and concepts, but it does so in order to remove all lawful context of meaning to words as we find them now in both testaments and to replace them with meanings and concepts that suit the revelationist agenda of eradicating distinction between good and evil.

The ultimate purpose of Revelationism is not to really transcend the knowing of good of evil into the heart and mind of God, but to erase any difference in meaning between good and evil. Revelationism promotes moral lawlessness as well as theological lawlessness in reference to the knowing of God and the nature of His kingdom.

Revelationism uses the precedent set by the New Testament’s graceful surpassing of the Old Covenant meanings to eradicate all distinctions and create total identity confusion within the Godhead, between God and His people, between God’s people and the world, between the fallen and the redeemed, between the mortal (temporal) and immortal (eternal) creations and between God and all His creation, including the angelic hosts—in complete contradiction to the framework of the Scriptures which preserves all these distinctions.

Where the Lord said that Yes is to be Yes and No is to be No, in Revelationism, Yes can be No and No can be Yes as it suits the need to interpret according to the confusion agenda.

In its ultimate manifestation, Revelationism’s purpose is to erase any distinguishability between God and His creation in general, and between Christ and anti-christ (Christ and Lucifer) in particular. Its aim is to promote total identity confusion. Its end is to utterly destroy the supreme attribute of God—His holiness (unique distinctiveness).

The name Lucifer means “bearer of light.” As Yeshua came claiming to be the Light of the World, so Lucifer comes with the same claim, not as the “Prince of Darkness.” Revelation is all about light. So is Revelationism. But Revelationism is about false light.


Revelational Oneness and Unity Doctrines

Revelationist oneness doctrines are prevalent now, while some have not yet been coined, but will be on the road to acceptance of Lucifer as the Son of God at the end of our present age. Primary revelationist doctrines currently in force range from lower level morality teaching that uses grace to justify sinful behavior, to the high level super-spiritual theological doctrines. We have identified some of these teachings above already and cite them again here:

-      the Pentecostal oneness of God which denies all personage distinctions between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;

-      Latter Rain Christ / Body of Christ oneness teaching that denies final distinction between Christ and His People, between the Father and His Sons, etc.;

-      Catholic / Passionist Universalist teaching that removes all distinction between the people of God and the people of the world (everyone is a “child of God”);

-      and the Universalist Restorationist teaching which eliminates all distinction in final destinies between the redeemed and the damned.

Again, all these doctrines depend on the gymnastics of spiritualized grace—imitating “transcendent” interpretation that purposely thwart the clear legal scriptural framework that preserves all permanent distinction between these realities. (For more on how these doctrines are used to infest the body of Christ, please see the sequel article Are You Food for Prophetic Parasites?)

 

Preserving the Gospel Basics?

It’s very important to understand that Christian Revelationism does not initially contradict the basic tenets of the Christian gospel regarding the atonement and the means by which men are saved. Revelationist proponents are careful to maintain adherence to the legal scriptural framework involving the atonement, though their approach to scripture does not oblige them to. In order to gain acceptance with the Christian body at large, revelationists cannot afford to tamper with the legal meanings of these fundamental concepts and terms, at least not in the beginning! Otherwise they would be rejected outright.

So it is that Revelationists still acknowledge the distinctiveness between sin and God, that sin exists in the world, that men are sinners outside of Christ, and that Christ died and rose again to save from sin. It’s Revelationism’s adherence to these legal basics that enables it to claim legitimacy on its road to erasing its distinction between Lucifer and Christ and between God and the Creation. Erasing that distinction on the back of apparent gospel legitimacy is the ultimate goal of Revelationism.

 

Charting the Course of Revelationism

Paul tells us that one day the Man of Sin, being that man inhabited by Lucifer, will show himself in the temple of God to be God. The temple of God is, of course, the people of God, as we are told, regardless of whether a physical temple is built again in Jerusalem, which it likely will be. Nevertheless, the purpose of the antichrist is to inhabit the body of Christ.

Revelationism is the antichrist spirit’s means for accomplishing that habitation. In truth, Revelationism is nothing more than anti-revelation. It is replacement revelation for the true revelation of the Holy Spirit designed to enable our reception of the man of sin as the Son of God.

Knowing the goal, it is possible to chart what the spirit of Revelationism will seek to inseminate into the body of Christ to make it ready for such reception. Simply put, revelationist doctrine will continue to come forth that will eliminate all the holy distinctives that permanently separate the inviolable identities within the Godhead, those between the Godhead and the redeemed and the angels, and ultimately those which separate us out from the world, the realm of the dead, and the realm of the fallen angels including Lucifer.

These doctrines have already been articulated having made inroads at one level or another into the modern body of Christ. But they will be amplified and merged until the consciousness of the body of Christ is fully ripe to receive the Man of Sin as Jesus Christ.  (For more particulars on all this, see again the sequel article Are You Food for Prophetic Parasites?)

 

The Mind of Christ: the Complete Framework of the Logos (Scripture)

We now want to recap by bringing all this back to our central theme of the Mind of Christ.

The Mind of Christ lies at the center of all true Knowledge. All true knowledge is centered in the Knowledge of Christ which is found in the Mind of Christ. Remember our original illustration:

 

Scripture
(codification)

Mind of Christ
(living solidity)

Knowing Him and Him crucified in the inner man

Spirit Revelation
(fluidity)

 

The Mind of Christ is the fullness of knowledge that lies between the codified and fluid Word of God, that is, between the historic scriptures and contemporary revelation through the Holy Spirit, including the ongoing revelatory teaching brought forth by the Spirit since the close of the Scriptures in 317 A.D.

In that Mind of Christ is preserved the foundational meanings laid down by the apostolic and prophetic writers as they were given to articulate it and as they and their original hearers understood it—particularly the apostles. To the apostles was committed the wedded gifts of prophecy and teaching for the laying of foundational truth intended to be observed by all generations since, no matter what new revelation is added as the building that adorns that foundation.

The Mind of Christ embodies the totality of the scriptural revelation before us, a revelation that cannot be broken. No revelation that seeks to circumvent or break or alter that all-encompassing grain and its foundational understanding laid through the apostles and prophets is issued by the Holy Spirit. It is only by the spirit of anti-revelation, that is, Revelationism.

Those bearing the Mind of Christ for the church bring to bear the fullness of present revelation in the light of the total and unbreakable historic scriptural revelation. In its presentation, the Mind of Christ preserves the personality of those through whom the revelation of Christ comes. However directly authoritatively they may speak, they speak from a position of genuine humility and transparency. They are unafraid to have their words put to the test. Those bearing the full Mind of Christ are approachable and entreatable. Their wisdom is pure and comes from above.

The Mind of Christ is centered in the simplicity of the ultimate knowledge of nothing “but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And in this it provides the plumb line for testing all other revelation, for testing what scripture is saying, and for exposing Revelationism for what it is—a counterfeit.

&&&&&&&&&&

In light of these things, let us find confidence in the Holy Spirit for revealing to us all truth that brings us into the fullness of the Mind of Christ, and that delivers us from the imitation spirit of Revelationism in all that we hear and encounter. Let us listen with humility, transparency, without agenda, and He will be sure that we are led and kept by the plumb line of Christ’s full mind.

Having the full Mind of Christ does not mean that we know everything that Christ knows. It means we have access to every dimensional element of spiritual understanding necessary in the love of God for finding safety and deliverance from all antichrist teaching wherever it may appear, and for assurance that what we believe and have received is indeed of the Holy Spirit as sent to us by the Father through the Son.

With great love to all the Royal Priesthood,

 

Chris Anderson

New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

First Love Ministry

- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship

http://www.firstloveministry.org

1/06



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