Idol Destruction 101 Part 3

There is a way of “[delving] into secret, shadowy regions of the heart” that is helpful.  But there is also a way of “idol mining” that is dangerous and deadly to your soul.  It is this deadly digging that we will look at today.

The Keswick Effect

Keswick (pronounced KEH-zick) theology is a very popular view of Christian sanctification.  If J.I. Packer is correct (and he probably is), unless you belong to a Lutheran or confessionally Reformed fellowship chances are you have been heavily influenced by Keswick theology*. 

Fundamental to Keswick theology is the belief that most believers live their Christian life in defeat.  Keswick desires to turn defeat into victory.  Believers can (indeed should) live Christian lives marked by victory—consecration to the Lord and Spirit-filling.  As a result of this teaching there are two classes of believers: those that are living victoriously and those that are living in defeat. 

What separates victorious believers from defeated believers?  Those who are victorious have surrendered in faith.  They have “Let go, and let God”.  This is what happens when a believer allows Jesus to become Lord in their life.  Previously, he had been Savior but not Lord.  Because the flesh is sinful the only thing for us to do is surrender everything to God.  Our only “effort” is the effort of letting go of our feeble attempts to live the Christian life.  Simultaneous to “giving up” we then trust in the Lord to accomplish our holiness for us. 

Usually all of this takes place at a moment of crisis.  After this moment of crisis (which usually takes place at a weekend or week long renewal) when the believer surrenders and believes then he/she is now has taken a spiritual leap.  He/she now lives the Higher Life (hence the name Higher Life Movement). 

The problem, though, is that we have a tendency to “leak” the Spirit.  And so the Christian life is a constant process of surrendering and believing (letting go and letting God).  Most who adhere to Keswick theology do not believe that you can lose your salvation, but you certainly can slip back into being a carnal Christian.  And as such you surrender your fellowship with God.  If you are not surrendering and believing then you are doing things in the flesh.  As such, you are not living the victorious Christian life in fellowship with God, because as Paul said, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. 

When Keswick Meets Idol Mining

What happens, then, when a person who has bought into the Keswick view of sanctification begins idol mining?  Consider these wise words from M. James Sawyer:

Another great problem with Keswick teaching in its various forms is the tendency to morbid introspection. If one’s spiritual relationship to God is dependent upon confession of known sin, and absolute yieldedness, how can one be sure that he has actually confessed all sin. If a sin has been missed somewhere, the individual is still out of fellowship with God and devoid of spiritual power. Thus instead of a relationship with God producing holiness, Keswick demands holiness before communion.

J.I. Packer was rescued out of this muddy mysticism at a young age.  But, according to Packer it almost destroyed him.  Listen to his experience of Keswick theology meeting idol mining:

It didn’t work and that was a deeply frustrating and depressing thing. It made me feel like a pariah, an outsider, and at the age of eighteen that was pretty burdensome. In fact, it was driving me crazy. [p. 169] The reality of its [i.e., Keswick theology’s] passivity program and its announced expectations, plus its insistence that any failure to find complete victory is entirely your fault, makes it very destructive…So all [I] could do was repeatedly reconsecrate [myself], scraping the inside of [my] psyche till it was bruised and sore in order to track down still unyielded things by which the blessing was perhaps being blocked.

Dan Phillips shares a similar experience:

The effect of all this was that I was constantly taking my spiritual pulse, constantly checking within, freezing up, paralyzed, spiraling down into deeper and deeper morbid introspection and depression.  In the name of “looking to Jesus” (revealed in His Word) I was constantly looking to myself, within myself.  (Phillips, The World-Tilting Gospel, 251-52)

The problems with this view of sanctification are multiple and its effects are devastating—especially to believers that may be prone to morbid introspection in the first place.  Another problem is that it hi-jacks an actual helpful and biblical view of sanctification.  What happens when Keswick hijacks idol mining is that the believer is looking for idols to destroy because while they still exist he cannot be in right fellowship with the Lord, he cannot have communion, he cannot have victory.  Idol destruction then becomes a means to a more intimate fellowship with the Lord.  It’s a way to fill in the gaps of our spiritual development.

Idol mining then becomes about me and my quest to surrender more for God, to let God have more control of me, and inevitably to be a better Christian and more acceptable to God.  In essence it hijacks the gospel and the work of Christ.

But who destroys idols in the first place???  That is where we will turn next time.

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*There is more to Keswick than will be dealt with in this brief article.  If you are interested in the topic you are encouraged to check out two helpful articles.  The first is on Wesleyan/Holiness Movement and Keswick Theology from Bible.org.  The next place to look is the work of Andy Naselli.  Andy did his doctoral work on the Keswick movement and he has a good amount of free resources available here: Keswick-Theology, Let Go and Let God?

When Keswick Meets Calvin

One of the charges often leveled against Calvinism is that it hinders growth in holiness.  It is often asked, “If God is going to bring his elect to maturity then why bother engaging in spiritual disciplines”?  It is thought that if Calvinism is taken to its logical conclusion then why bother with holiness.  Reformed folk like John Samson rightly disagree with and don’t understand this charge: 

I have heard this mentioned a few times recently and just scratch my head in wonder about it. One great example are the Puritans, who were strong Calvinists and yet were driven by a desire for holiness. But some see this as a contradiction in terms. Where they get this, I do not know.

Allow me to try to answer that from my own journey.  I grew up (spiritually speaking) in a Baptist church that was strongly revivalistic.  I also had a good does of Pentecostal teaching along with a steady diet of Keswick theology.  Early on in my walk with Christ one of my favorite books was Andrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender.  Some of these quotes were underlined in my copy:

The condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands.

When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that? In this matter of surrender there are two: God and I-- I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?

Say: "Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy blessed will."

I firmly believed that if I wanted my life to “count for God” then I had to have absolute surrender.  I wanted (probably somewhat selfishly) for God to use me to do great things.  I desired revival.  I desired a deep experience with God.  I wanted what my heroes (at that time) experienced.  Men like Finney, Moody, and other revivalists.  I wanted the intimate “talking together” type of relationship with God that I heard my favorite preachers on television speak about.  And I knew this would come from absolute surrender.

The only problem is that I could never seem to absolutely surrender.  There was always something I was hanging on to.  There was always some residual sin.  I never could have absolute surrender or perfect faith.  So like a donkey pursuing a carrot I sought experience after experience, hoping that something would click.  I wanted to find the key to this whole Christian life. 

Somehow my disenchantment actually led me towards Reformed theology.  Hearing of a great God that would bring about my holiness was welcome news.  Inevitable faith was what my heart had been longing for.  So, the pendulum swung.  I stopped focusing so much on the “let go” aspect of my faith and started focusing on the “let God”. 

The result? 

I became spiritually dry.  I stopped worrying about spiritual disciplines so much.  Yeah, my “Calvinism” had stunted my growth in holiness.  I know now that it was not my “Calvinism” it was my wrong headed understanding of sanctification matched with my new found doctrines of grace.  In other words, when Keswick meets Calvin the result is deadly. 

Calvinism, rightly understood, should not lead to stunted growth.  But Calvinism (or any other system) that is not firmly rooted in the gospel will inevitably lead to frustration and a lack of true growth. 

This all came to a head in my bath tub in Hannibal, MO.  I was in a deep and dark time of the soul.  I felt as if I was on the precipice of rejecting the faith.  Not just Keswick.  Not just Calvinism.  But the whole darn thing.  Then it clicked.  The beauty of the gospel was awakened in my mind, heart, and soul.  And just like John Bunyan I felt chains come off my legs.  Indeed I came to find that my righteousness is found totally in Christ and him alone. 

Keswick theology may call this having a crisis, surrendering absolutely, and trusting in Christ alone.  Perhaps.  A Calvinist would say that all of this was the sovereign working of God bringing about inevitable growth in holiness.  I am inclined to agree.  But all I know is that my desire for holiness was a sham until Jesus rescued me in that bath tub.  The gospel awakened my heart. 

And now I’ll put my trust in absolute Jesus not my absolute surrender. 

The Empty Famish of Letting Go

I was going through some of my books the other day and came across a book that pretty heavily influenced me when I was first a believer: Brother Lawrence's Practice in the Presence of God. I thought I'd give it a quick look.

It's interesting to see some of the things I underlined 8-10 years ago. It's also interesting to see how much my theology has changed since then. When I first read this book I ate it up. Now I think I vomit it out. Okay, maybe that was a little strong. You'll have to forgive me. Reading back over this helped me to see where some of my serious frustrations and doubts came from early on in my Christian walk.

What Brother Lawrence means by “practicing God’s presence” is to be in a state of constant conversation and communion with the eternal God.  Which I’d never say is a bad thing.  It’s all of the muck around it that caused me problems.  Take this quote for example:

“I still believe that all spiritual life consists of practicing God’s presence and that anyone who practices it correctly will soon attain spiritual fulfillment.  To accomplish this, it is necessary for the heart to be emptied of everything that would offend God.  He wants to possess our hearts completely.  Before any work can be done in our souls, God must be totally in control.

Where Spiritual Fulfillment is Found

Do you see any “red-flags”? 

First, notice where “spiritual fulfillment” is found.  It’s not in the finished work of Christ.  Spiritual fulfillment, if I read him correctly, is something that is to be attained.  This type of theology breeds a discontentment that always seeks for a “deeper level” and a “deeper experience and fulfillment”.

The New Testament picture is that our fulfillment has been purchased.  We already have it.  The Christian life is about living in what is already purchased.  There is an earth-shattering yet subtle difference between battling to enjoy all that Christ already purchased and battling to attain an opportunity that Christ made possible. 

The Means of Attaining

Second, notice the means for attaining this spiritual fulfillment.  “The heart needs to be emptied of everything that offends God.”  If he is speaking to an unbeliever then I could more quickly embrace this, but he is not.  For Brother Lawrence if we want to see God working in our lives and experience His presence, then God must be totally in control. 

That sounds so good doesn’t it?  It sounds even like something Jesus would say:  “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  Let God have everything, totally surrender, and then you will see God move in your life. 

Here’s the problem, though, unless God IS working you will not totally surrender--you will not give God everything.  Such a thing is not a precursor to God moving…it IS God moving! 

The Soul-Crushing Effects

Perhaps you could say that I simply misread and misapplied this “Christian classic”.  That could be.  But this book—along with many other similar books—was a negative shaping influence on me. 

For the first couple of years of my Christian walk I was always striving to reach that next level.  I lived frustrated and never able to be satisfied in Jesus.  It practically ran me crazy.  I wanted to be “sold-out” “on fire” all of those other things.  I also wanted other people to be those things.  But I never could attain it.  I never could get myself to “totally surrender”.  The only thing I surrendered was any hope that I’d ever be able to “experience God” how I wanted to.

Then the gospel happened.  Psalm 103 rocked my world.  My eyes opened up and I saw that Christ already had purchased everything.  Of course my battle was still intense.  Now I have to fight to take hold of what Christ has already done.  But, as I think David Platt has said, I fight from victory and not for it.  Huge difference. 

If you’ve been famished by this “let go and let God” stuff, I encourage you to feast on the gospel.

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If this topic peaks your interest a really neat resource that I hope to purchase soon is this book by Andy Naselli.  Or you can check out some of his online resources here.