By chance I stumbled upon this article. I may not have bothered to read it under such circumstances but the author being not unfamiliar I began the first paragraph. I don't have any commentary to append except perhaps to say writing of this quality leaves us all exposed and we would do well to heed those final words to examine ourselves, to measure ourselves by the Word of God.
As a side note, given the insight I touched upon here regarding the Book of Proverbs, and C's insight on Proverbs serving as a handbook for the Spiritual Quest it may be of relevance that of all the books of Scripture it was this same book which first penetrated Pink's heart.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. - Proverbs 14:12
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It's said that you can divide self-identified Christians into two camps: 1. those who see Jesus as a great master, or great teacher; and 2. though who see Jesus as their Lord and King and Saviour.
I used this line on my oldest brother once, and I could see it kind of stung him (i.e. he could see the truth in it even if he didn't want to hear it).
I think I get at it by saying to recognize something higher than 'me' is a revolutionary act for a fallen human being. Vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will refuse to recognize anything higher than me, myself, and I.
What created us is higher than us. Then to accept original and active sin and our fallen situation. To see it, and to see the work of and need for a Saviour.
Federal Theology, which Pink came to, explains it. In Adam vs. in Christ. Old man vs. new man.
I wonder if there is a 'small' allusion to Work teaching in your post, as in, it is part of the way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.
Like anything it *can* be, but it isn't if Scripture is your standard.
Of course this is known.
I've got many hours now of self-remembering done, and when you do this you wonder: is anything happening? and of course things *are* happening, you're just in the midst of it and can't see it. But I also wonder: since I'm no longer flipping out at intervals, am I *really* getting into the third state? And I think I have to accept that I have developed enough now to not flip out so easily. Perhaps I do need to make better efforts - super efforts - to provoke my new limits.
I feel good though about continuing my goal to read the Bible complete 7 times (then more!, but first things first).
With understanding of the plan of redemption, and perspective on what one needs, these efforts take on more immediate meaning which produces enthusiasm in doing them.
I see as I write this it is about an hour from the strike of midnight in England and a new year (2009).
On the first point of your second comment, I have to clarify that I do not see the Work as something that seemeth right to man. I accept that the Word of God is all that is needed, yet it is so conflated with that Gospel of Satan and secular politics and the personal ambitions of men in all times and places that I for one need the Work to make sense of the Word, or at least to protect me from the worst of their influence. Most Christians, especially evangelicals, wouldn't touch me with a barge pole and I likewise. I'm probably a bad Christian when all is said and done, I wouldn't set myself up to be followed. For a brief time in my teens I may half-heartedly have believed in atheism but largely I have always felt the presence of a Creator God as a living and wonderful reality but it was the Word that put Christ in there as the ultimate challenge to my vanity. I say that because I think believing in a personal God is easy and more widespread than generally acknowledged but knowing Christ as our Lord & King is a much greater step and not one easily taken. That is why there are those that see Christ as a Great Teacher, doing so eludes the real internal confrontation that one must encounter. This is partly why I'm very sceptical about raising children to believe in Jesus. I'd rather children were given a sound awareness of B Influences and the world generally and hope that the Spirit will awaken them at the appointed time as a preference to evangelical indoctrination which any half intelligent kid will naturally rebel against.
I agree, but have a Bible or Bibles in among the other books too. That means something.
What Pink is setting against the Gospel of Satan in that article is basically Calvinist, five solas, Federal Theology. It's interesting though that to see the depth and power of Federal (or Reformed) Theology it IS helpful to have the ideas, practices and goals of the Work. Pink had something along those lines (his theosophy probably took him somewhat into Work realms here and there even if it didn't stick).
For instance understanding monergistic regeneration, and how one follows the law after regeneration without being legalistic and all that it helps to have understanding of Real Will. Acting from top down.
Also, a Calvinist really does need an understanding of time that goes beyond the linear birth to death perception. Recurrence helps to understand the phrase 'the fullness of time' and also it makes sense of the fact that we all know regarding people who die are not necessarily hell bound. There is a terror of the situation no doubt, but once regenerated your time starts to be counted. When the Bible says there is one death and then judgment it does so because *that* is the only way we can see it practically (the Work sources say the same thing when they say don't think you have infinity of time to develop, think in terms of this life now). But there are other parts of the Bible which give the recurrence sense of life too.
Because we're not out frantically telling people about the Gospel, knowing that they are destined for eternal hell fire if they died tonight. That is not how it works and we don't feel a need for that.
(I've brought this up on Christian forums and only one person tried to answer me, but he wasn't very successful.)
We are, in a real sense *in Hades now.* Think about it, as long as Hades is an interval in our recurrence we are there now. We only exit Hades now by a conscious shock. This also connects conscious shocks with eschatology.
Think about this too: we are told that our experience will be the same as Jesus', in terms of what we receive from the world and so on. But also I think in a real way mirroring Jesus' dying, going down into Hades (the grave, same thing) triumphing and rising up out of it - resurrecting - to life.
We die to ourselves; then really see the starkness of where we are, i.e. see that we are actually in Hades now; and by conscious shocks rise up, resurrect, all made possible by Jesus defeating death and freeing us from the bondage we were in to the law and all that, but still experiencing basically what Jesus experienced.
In this way of seeing it all the darkness and death and depressing reality we encounter when we provoke our limits and lose all the illusions is a very positive things because like Jesus we are seeing Hades and the fact of our being in Hades now.
Odysseus had the same experience of course, visiting and seeing the underworld and the land of the dead.
It's lazy of me, but the question has to be answered - as much for anyone else who may read these comments (not that I am aware of any traffic here but I suppose occasionally someone passes through)- specifically where in the Bible do you see this sense of recurrence being aired?
A verse like this:
Ecc 3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
But really implicity the Bible gives room for recurrence in that the Bible doesn't say what happens to the unregenerate when they die. It *does* say, on the other hand, where the *regenerate* go at death, they go to be with God. But the unregenerate go into some ill-defined 'intermediate state' that even the most biblical theologians have to speculate on when they adopt a position.
Some take the position that they are in hell, but not the really *bad* hell. This is not stated in the Bible, but they speculate this because they can't think of anything else.
The Roman Catholic Church had to invent Purgatory to take care of this problem. They turned it into a big doctrine that got bigger and bigger with more meaning (and farther away from Scripture) as the centuries past.
Some groups speculated on 'soul sleep.' Calvin wrote his first doctrinal book countering this doctrine.
The great white throne judgement happens when the end of the age arrives. The Bible is clear on that. That is the Second Coming and all that. The great harvest. But prior to that great wheel of the Age coming to full revolution then individual lives still exist, in life and death.
So if the Bible doesn't say what happens to the currently unregenerate and unconverted when they die, and since the Bible uses the term Hades, there is room to see it as souls going down to Hades and up again in recurrence. Not reincarnation, but just the fullness of their time as it takes in higher aspects of time.
The Revelation of God routinely doesn't get into issues of higher elements and aspects of time. It would skewer the message, and it is not necessary (sort of like it's not necessary to say, instead of "the sun rose" the Earth revolved on its axis as it revolved around the sun hence making it appear that the sun arose...
Just like the Work says, don't get *too* interesting in recurrence. It is something, it explains alot, but it is, for us, still just theory. We need to awaken now no matter what.
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