Gnosticism & Pietism | Two Plagues On Modern Evangelicalism

It’s high time that Evangelicals be done with Gnosticism and Pietism.
Watch the full sermon here: • How Pietism & Gnostici...
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*If you live in the Austin area, Pastor Joel just started planting a brand new church called Covenant Bible Church in Hutto, Texas. He would love for you to come visit on a Sunday. Check out the church’s website for details: covenantbible.org/
#preaching #jesus #magistrate

[@frankcastelo6980]

Amem!! Thank you Pastor Joel!

[@ctamarack5229]

Biblical pietism, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED UNTO YOU"

[@preppedforeternityhomestea2848]

Thanks Joel and team good word.

[@AidenRKrone]

“. . . [One] common error concerning salvation which prevailed . . . [in the feudal era] and continues to prevail now was the identification of salvation with spirituality. The material world was held to be, by neoplatonists and others, evil and fallen, and the spiritual world good. Salvation thus meant forsaking material things for things spiritual, and asceticism and flights from the world to the life of a hermit became common among pagans. These pagan movements exerted a deep influence on many Christians and led to the monastic movement, and, much later, to pietism. According to Scripture, however, man is totally fallen, in all his being, _i.e.,_ the extent of the Fall affects every aspect of his being. The Fall is apparent in his ‘spirit’ as much as in his ‘body.’ Man is a unity, and the Fall affected the whole man. There is no virtue inherent in either spirit or matter, and the Fall had its origin in the mind of man, so that the scholastic view (derived from Aristotle) that the mind is untainted by the Fall is clearly wrong. Satan is entirely a spiritual being; he is a creature, with a local being, but he is not part of the material universe but of the angelic or spiritual order of beings. Satan as a spiritual creature is still fallen. The mind or spirit of man is not exempt from sin, and the more men have imagined that separation from the material world unto a spiritual or mental ivory tower constitutes virtue, the more they have blinded themselves to their sin.”
- Rousas J. Rushdoony, _The Death of Meaning,_ pp. 108-109

[@josephmungai1799]

This is wonderful. Wooow.
Where I live there is a new church spreading like wildfire and it has all the gnostic teachings

[@all4christ52]

Good words, thank you!

[@kenim]

Probably we Reformed are the most, if not almost the only, vulnerable group to Pietism. Congregating in the local church and actively trying to manifest love to our brothers and neighbours has been the best remedy for this.

[@charlesa.monagan4159]

I disagree. I was part of a non-denominational church with an Arminian bent for several years, and they were very strong on expository preaching, one-on-one discipleship, equipping members for evangelism and apologetics, and encouraging deep, meaningful fellowship among its members. For a church of its size, (and it would qualify as a megachurch) Biblical illiteracy was not much of an issue as it is in most of modern American evangelicalism. Many, if not most members knew their Bibles fairly well and took sanctification seriously. But personal study of God's Word, evangelistic outreach, and regular fellowship beyond the typical Sunday morning and Wednesday night schedule found in many churches were emphasized so much to the point that just about anything outside of that was met with suspicion as being "worldly," or something to that effect.
"Oh, you're going to miss one of the five meetings scheduled throughout the week? You better be hanging out with friends that you plan on inviting to homechurch."
"You're pretty invested in politics. You do know our citizenship is in heaven, and that we're not to be entangled in civilian affairs, right?"
"What's that? You just accepted a job offer for a position that has some conflicts with our schedule? You must love this world, desiring to store up treasures here on earth, and you are uncommitted to Christ's bride."
I'm speaking somewhat hyperbolically, but statements like the ones above are characteristic of the mentality a lot of people had when I was there. And this was compounded by the fact that dispensational premillennialism was taught. "We're just passing through, and Jesus could return very soon, so why bother trying to build something that won't last?" I was part of the problem, too. I once met someone from another church that told me that she wanted to start a business, and I silently judged her, thinking that she had misplaced priorities, selfish ambition, and a love for money. Basically, career planning and following Christ were antithetical in my mind. I was led to believe that any line of work that did not have some connection to evangelistic endeavors was virtually meaningless. As such, working towards leadership in ministry within the church or at some Christian non-profit was the only course of action with eternal, spiritual significance. And the spiritual was always to be prioritized over that which was deemed earthly.
TL; DR: Non-reformed churches can be vulnerable to this, too-maybe even more-so. I came from an arminian dispy (and perhaps R2K) church, and I am recovering from Pietism.

[@kenim]

@@charlesa.monagan4159 wow thanks for the writeup! Love to hear about real life experiences of other brothers. That was a really deceptive; no way anyone would have known until its too late. Everything sounded beautiful and even very impressive for Mega Church.
I just recently joined a local Presbyterian Church after almost a lifetime of Pentecostalism and I’m still shocked about how chill they are. They certainly focus on Sanctification and do great expository preaching but they dont keep track of your every daily move. They help and expect you to find your own individual path of sanctification, based on Biblical principles. I still have to see how they behave in the face of sinning church members though. We’ll see.

[@charlesa.monagan4159]

@@kenim My pleasure. I pray that God would help us all learn to take sin seriously and respond accordingly, beginning with our own. We must put to death our own individual sins, and much of evangelicalism must collectively repent of tossing Matthew 18 aside and foregoing proper church discipline within our congregations.

[@christopher1369]

This is a very simplistic and misleading representation of the terms gnostic and pietism. You need to do your homework and research these topics before talking about them and misleading others. I recommend open minded inquirers DYOR, this person does not know what they are talking about.