Losing Your Mind for God

Lately I've seen videos and Facebook interactions which consist of claims that thinking and the use of reason are unnecessary for Christians who have an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All these claims come from Red Letter Ministries (http://www.redlettermin.com) and those who follow the author of the website. The claims come from a pretty isolated group but this isn't a new claim historically by any means.

A gospel that preaches against reason, logic, thinking, and various sorts of mental processes (even study), is blasphemous because it twists what is good into what is evil. Anytime someone says what God has made good is "evil" they lie and sin for they lead others away from the truth. Just as the Pharisees called the work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus demonic, so we err when we say the mind, brain, use of reason, logic, or thought are bad or even unnecessary. At no point does the Bible promote the idea that the mind or brain are to be escaped, set aside, neglected, or the like.

Romans 12:2 states, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Paul tells the Church in Rome to have their minds renewed (sometimes translated as 'transformed'). This doesn't mean they abandon their minds but rather allow their processing to change, strengthen, and be made more right. 

Similar verses give us a good idea of what this means. Colossians 3:10 speaks of us being renewed in knowledge. That means we process and hold to new (better) information and truth. Ephesians 4:23 talks of being renewed in the spirit of our minds as we become new people. None of the New Testament passages communicate a need to exit the mind or to not employ the mind unlike Brandon Barthrop.

"A person who remains in their brains, instead of trusting God in their Spirit remains disabled spiritually. ...You have to be very strong and courageous in... taking your brains because you forfeited them to the enemy by being soulish and natural and logical and reasonable." -Brandon Barthrop, Joel's Bar 5/25/12 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivzicIpGYw0&feature=plcp).*

In this quote Brandon Barthrop proclaims that being logical and reasonable is forfeiting one's mind to the enemy of God. This unavoidably implies that using logic and reason moves a person away from God and thus these are tools that God does not support for they can't lead a person to him. This sort of statement makes logic and reason out to be weapons of evil that are used against God's kingdom.

The scriptures do not teach this notion that we must abandon logic and reason, abstain from thinking, or exit our brains or minds. Throughout scripture there is a call to employ reason with our neighbor and our God (Leviticus 19:17). Repeatedly we see the Apostle Paul reasoning with people through the use of scripture to convince them of the truths of God (Acts 17:2, 17:17, 18:4, 18:19, 19:8-9, 24:25). Even God himself desires man to "come and let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18). This shows that God is reasonable and wants his people to be as well. To be reasonable is to imitate God. To stand against reasonableness is to stand against godly attributes.

James 3:17 tells us that the wisdom from God is open to reason! 1 Peter 3:15 commands believers to always be prepared to give an answer of defense for the reasoning of their hope in Christ Jesus! This is what we see Paul doing throughout Acts. The scriptures mention the mind over 100 times and never in a way that communicates one should abandon the mind. Often, these passage are about how one uses the mind (for good or evil).

Barthrop wants people to get away from reason but we see this happen in scripture as a curse and not a blessing! In Daniel 4 King Nebuchadnezzar's arrogance brings upon him a cruse form God which sends him to life in the fields, eating grass like the ox, growing long hair, and having no reason within him. When it ends the King writes, "At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High" (v. 34). He also states, "At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me" (v. 36). This story show us that reason is a blessing to be embraced. It makes no sense for Christians to abandon reason in order to worship God and do his will for without reason they are like the beasts of the field.

If we did not have use for thinking, logic, reason, brains, or minds, then I makes no sense for God to command us to "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27 emphasis mine). Using our mind can be a way to love. What does it mean then if we do not use our mind for God?

Without reason, logic, or thinking, there is no learning, no growing, no edification. Yet throughout the scriptures there is a tremendous amount of attention given to the need to  learn and to teach. Jesus certainly never speaks against learning, study, teaching, thinking, or the use of one's mind. To escape one's brain would be death. The brain is what send messages to the body so that it knows how to function. A human without a mind is not a human at all for it can not process anything that it experiences.

Luke 9:47 shows that it is not reasoning itself that is bad but what we reason! There is a reasoning behind everything we do, whether we believe that to be true or not, and that reasoning can either be healthy or unhealthy, loving or hateful, selfish or selfless, good or bad. Bad, sinful, unhealthy, selfish reasoning should be abandoned and our minds should be renewed so that our reasoning may be good, pure, and selfless thanks to wisdom. Wisdom is in cahoots with the mind. 1 Corinthians 13:11 shows that there is a reasoning that belongs to children and a reasoning that belongs to an adult. It does not say reasoning is to be abandoned. Such a notion is simply unbiblical. 

We are to be a sober-minded people (1 Timothy 3:2, 11, 2 Timothy 4:5, Titus 2:21 Peter 1:13, 4:7, 5:8). A blind minded person is under influence of the enemy (2 Corinthians 4:4). 

The danger in experience based religion that people like Brandon Barthrop of Red Letter Ministries preach is that it divides man and demands that a person only access part of who God made them to. They declare that God created aspects of the human being which are worth discarding. This is often seen as dualism.** To disregard logic and reason is to make an easy loophole for avoiding accountability to scripture, the church, and God himself. 

Not using knowledge, logic, reason, or the thinking process is literally being foolish. A fool is someone who is weak-minded and/or disregards sound judgment/reason/sense. Scripture is pretty clear about what foolishness looks like and how we should view it.

• The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverb 1:7).
• How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge (Proverb 1:22)?
• The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense. (Proverb 10:21).
• In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly (Proverbs 13:16).
• The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools (Proverb 15:7).
• Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly (Proverb 16:22).
• The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness... (Ecclesiastes 2:14a).

Nothing in scripture supports the notion that an indwelling or working of the Holy Spirit in the life of an individual means that individual is allowed or able to forsake logic or reason. On the contrary, the Holy spirit engages the mind as a teacher (John 14:26)!  It is through the Spirit that we obtain wisdom (Isaiah 11:2, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16) but wisdom is not a supernatural phenomenon that allows for the absence of logic or reason. It's the exact opposite. I'm not saying the Holy spirit demands a college level education, turns anyone into a genius, or even gives a person supernatural abilities***, but I am saying that the Holy Spirit makes good use of the mind that God has given us in our creation. Wisdom is a blessing to the mind as discussed earlier.

When this idea of throwing away logic and reason is set side by side with Barthrop's other big emphasis such as being intoxicated by the Spirit it proves his hyper pentecostalism and cultish intentions. Using both logic and reasoning we can make sense of why someone like Barthrop would teach the abandonment of logic, reason, brain, and mind when their largest emphasis is on entering a type of intoxication. He believes intoxication should be heavy and constant. When one is intoxicated, reason and logic weaken. Being sober minded means have self-control and reason at one's aid.   Someone who preaches the need for a spiritual intoxication would certainly also argue that the mind is physical and evil (dualism) and thus people should abandon it for a spiritual encounter which doesn't demand thinking.

He essentially tells people to not think for themselves, just listen to him and be given over to feelings. There is no wisdom in the words of Brandon Barthrop and his followers are being led astray. I pray that anyone who encounters him would have clear eyes and the ability to receive the Spirit of God so that they may have true wisdom, discernment, clarity, and teaching from God. May we all use our entire created selves to honor God, never calling what he has made good "evil" by dismissing it. May our reasonableness be known to everyone (Philippians 4:5). Finally, let us be in unity of humble mind (1 Peter 3:8).

*Another video I've recently encountered which makes similar claims can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-yEISB75uvM "This Barthrop fan claims that "You're not required to think" and contrasts thinking with trusting in God. The problem with this contrast is that the scripture he uses doesn't make such a contrast. Thinking and trusting are not opposites. Trusting and not trusting are opposites. Believing and thinking are not opposites. Believing and Denying are opposites. 
Another follower of Barthrop stated on their facebook fanpage, "when you say 'hmmm' a lot you are manifesting the lower frequencies of the reptile brain and are entertaining unbelief." In other words, when you think you are using "the reptile brain", which seems to be a connection to the serpent in Genesis and thus a type of evil. This being tied with unbelief shows a condemning of thinking activities. 
**Brandon Barthrop teaches "A Christian is NOT human! He is spirit!" This is an extreme type of dualism. The implication here is that humans have no spiritual quality to them and thus are no more than a body.
***Brandon Barthrop teaches that "It is available to every Christian to see at least 300 years into the future" and that "To say you have the mind of Christ and not have a photographic memory is error. Is Jesus not the essence of genius?" Scripture doesn't teach either of these things. 

Freedom in Being Wrong

Recently I wrote a simple (yet unoriginal) idea on my Facebook status. I stated, "Admitting you are wrong about something you've been passionate about is incredibly difficult. It's also incredibly freeing because it forces an identity change to some degree."


A friend of mine said they were intrigued so I offered some explanation. Here it is:


Anytime we give our hearts and efforts to something we give it priority in our life. The things that we give our time and selves to end up shaping us because it creates the context within which we live. Our context, especially the context which we seemingly create and have control over, nourishes our identity (like it or not). When I write about this issue I'm thinking primarily of our view of God but it can expand beyond that to other issues. 

For instance, if I think God is a racist it will severely impact how I see myself, see others, and behave. When I discover God is not a racist it will take a lot of submission and humility for me to cast aside the identity of a white supremacist I had been developing because it demands I overhaul my worldview (that other skin tones are not bad), self view (that I am not great or blessed due to my skin tone), behaviors (more acceptance and personal relationships of love with people different from me), and so on. 

What we choose to believe ends up changing the lens through which we see and interpret the world and thus changes how we live in the world. So when we discover we are wrong about the things are are passionate about, be it our view of God, of politicians, of conspiracy theories, or anything else we give ourselves to in large quantity it will hurt to force ourselves into abandoning what has thus far been a strong pillar in the forming of our identity, behavior, and future. Nobody wants to abandon their foundations. It's horrifying.

It's like making a cake only to discover (two steps too late in the baking process) that you've poured in a wrong ingredient and now you must make an entirely different kind of cake that you didn't intend to ever make. But... this new cake is going to be better. It's not the best metaphor but it'll suffice.

When I speak of freedom being a result what I mean is that truth frees us from bondage. If we're convinced of lies or any kind of untruth or evil and we give ourselves to it then it plays a huge role in the development of our identity, behavior, worldview, and future. When we finally escape that lie/untruth/evil/wrong information then we escape an unhealthy identity, worldview, behavior, and future because we've abandoned a foundational aspect in our lives that was unhealthy. Truth sets us free to live as we ought, to be healthy in our entire being. This is why truth is so important, it sets us right where we perfectly belong. This is also why 
humility and the readiness to admit being wrong is important. 


So if we give ourselves to something it helps form who we become in this world. If we learn our foundation or pillars which have helped form us are misguided or warped then it becomes a difficult thing to decide we must abandon these foundations or pillars because it demands we abandon a loyalty we've held for a significant amount of time. It demands we change our person and yet we can not know what person such a decision will end up turning us into. If we were wrong before there is danger in being wrong again. However, once we leave the warped foundation or pillars, and in turn, person we had become and we begin the journey into correction there is a freedom which promises that we will be healthier in every way.
So when Christians say Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life it's a very important deal. This is why we place so much emphasis on the issue of identity, transformation, renewal, being born again, and so on.  When Christians speak of "repenting" this is what they are referring to. They are speaking of a change in direction, foundation, identity, behavior, future. 

May our eyes be opened to the warped pillars that hold up our future and the damaged foundations upon which we stand and build our views, identity, and behaviors. May we be brave enough to let the wrecking ball of truth destroy these disguised curses and allow truth to replace them, providing us with a hope and a healthy standing so that we may bless others and lead them to truth just as one beggars leads another to bread. May we exchange darkness for light, rotten fruit for ripe, and wrong for right... even if it feels like death for a time.

You Can't Do All Things Through Christ

In Philippians 4:13 the Apostle Paul states,

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

The final verse of this passage is often quoted as an encouragement to others. Indeed, it is an encouraging though. However, we too often use it in a way that communicates we can achieve all goals or make impossible things happen if only we trust in Jesus. This is not the message of this verse. The context (surrounding verses) give us the ability to understand the true message of Paul here.

Given the chapters and mere verses preceding these words we can conclude that this verse really means "I can endure all things." It means I can walk through all seasons of life. I can be content at all times. It doesn't mean I can do anything. I've tried to fly off my roof, walk on the top of a lake, move soda cans, communicate telepathically, etc. I've tried these things and I've even prayed that God would help me do them specifically because of this verse! But... As you can imagine, I fell off the roof, got soaked in the lake, went unnoticed in my friend's mind, and had to walk to the can of soda for it to touch my hand. 

When we follow Paul's thought we can't help but see what he means by this statement. He'e simply saying "I can live contently no matter what." It's like wedding vows. "I'll love you in sickness and health, rich or poor, etc." In all circumstances, I'll be consistent. In all circumstance I'll have a constant approach. For Paul, it's contentment. I'll be satisfied wherever God takes me, be it the heights or the depths. If I get flogged in a prison cell or if I eat grapes in the palace, I'll be content, satisfied, and thankful, because it's where God has placed me and he doesn't place us anywhere without just cause. 

Part of that contentment is knowing that the situation probably won't last. Be content because it will pass. Everything passes away. Trust God. What he's doing with you and what he has for you is always enough, if not more than enough. Because it is God who strengthens you, you're able to endure, be content, and find satisfaction in all seasons, places, things. Because we depend on Christ we are able to live this out. There is no other reason. Not because we have a positive attitude, give a lot to others, have amazing support systems of friends, or anything like that but because we put our trust in the God who is strong and uses our weakness. The God who raises the dead and has power over death is able to give whatever we need.

This attitude is seen in many martyrs of the Christian faith who were unafraid of their deaths but considered it a joy and worthy of rejoicing to share in the sufferings of Jesus. Their stories can inspire us to adopt this same attitude of Paul which exudes a faith and confidence in Christ's reigning power over death to the point of rejoicing in all seasons of life, be they good or bad. 

Being Content with Much

Philippians 4:10-13 states, 

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

It's pretty easy to understand the need to learn to be content when we are in need, poverty, or hardship. However, we don't think to be content when we have abundance, full bellies, and plenty. This is something we must learn.

Too often I've read this passage thinking I need to feel as good about my poverty as I do my wealthy. That is, when I have need and pain I should learn to feel as good as when I have joy and provision. This isn't right. We should be content, satisfied, in both! 

We aren't always content in our abundance. In fact, in our culture it is very easy to be discontent in our abundance. We find ourselves harboring a sense of entitlement and greed. We say "What I have is good, but not good enough." or "I want more." Our lust for more is never ceasing if we lack contentment. We can literally gain the whole world and lose our soul. We can have everything we need and be convinced that what we want is now a need. 

When we live this way we begin to steal. In our discontentment we say "I need more for me" and when we take more than we need and refuse to use our overflow for those who do not have all they need we essentially steal from them, refusing to give to others what they need and we do not.

We need to learn to be content, satisfied, pleased, in whatever abundance we've been given. We have to learn that this desire for more is a sickness. I have a friend who is young and has a really good job. She had recently been driving a nice and fairly new car. After having it for several years she is now selling it used for $17,000. Why? She told me it's because she has come to realize it's too much. "I just need to get from Point A to Point B and I don't need all this to do that." The heated seats, sweet surround sound, tinted windows, iPod attachments, GPS screen, etc. Are nice luxuries but they're just luxuries and if they complicate life then why not get rid of them? So she's selling her car and buying another for about $2,00 because that will get the job done. At the end of the day, she still owns a car which makes her rich on a global standard.

She's learning to be content in her abundance. She can have more, but she no longer wants it. She has had more, and realized it doesn't satisfy. Now, she is freed up to give more, and that giving is satisfying. Right after this lesson in Philippians Paul goes on to speak about giving. I am convinced this is not a coincidence.

Without contentment during abundance we'll not ask for daily bread but demand bread, butter, wine, meat, and everything we don't need and in so doing we shall put ourselves above God's throne as though he were our slave and not our gracious Father who gives to those who ask.