(Colossians) Philosophy and Vain Deceit — Brian Brodersen

Christ's Sufficiency in Colossians 2

I'd like to read to you from Colossians chapter 2 Verses 6 through 10 as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught a bounding in it with Thanksgiving.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and You are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power.

Paul is writing this epistle in order to protect these believers from these men who have crept in With a doctrine that was undermining the sufficiency of Christ there were men who had come into the church and They acknowledged that Jesus was important but they Said that there was something else that was needed to really bring them to completion as Christians.

There was a special knowledge That they needed to pursue and seek to attain to and They were coming in and they were leading the people astray. They were leading them astray after philosophy and So Paul is writing to them and he says in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

He said to them Jesus is all that you need and so we believe as God's people today through what we have stated in the scripture that Christ is sufficient as A Christian person to know how to live life to the glory of God here in this world.

I need one thing. I need Jesus Christ and All that is included in him his word his Holy Spirit. That's what I need. I need nothing more than that. I Need him. I need his word. I need his spirit and Therein is all That I need for life and godliness in this world.

That's what we believe. That's what the Bible teaches. It's very clear about that. But yet just as was the case in Colossae. So today in the modern church men have crept in men have come in under the guise of Science and They've said Oh Christ is good.

Of course We need Jesus. He's the Lord and he can surely meet your spiritual needs but There are other things that you might deal with that, of course Christ and and his Apostles they didn't address in the Bible and Therefore you need something beyond the scriptures.

We live in the modern world and we have different problems and life is much more complicated and so we need some help we need something additional to Christ in the scriptures and they've come in and They have spoiled many.

They've led many people astray. They've robbed many people of the fullness of what Christ has for them. They've deceived them through Philosophy. Philosophy the word itself Simply means love of wisdom.

Love of wisdom is the literal meaning of the word philosophy. The term has come to refer to systems of thought. Systems of thought and we use that word frequently and We use it to describe a variety of systems of thought.

You know, you might say to somebody well, what do you think about this? And they say well, you know, my philosophy on that is such-and-such a person maybe Has a business. You say well, you know, how do you approach your business?

Well, you know, my philosophy on business is that the customer is always, right? So they're using the term philosophy to express a A system of thought in its classical sense. Philosophy refers to human reasoning and speculation on the meaning and purpose of life.

That's in its classical sense when we talk about philosophy in the classical sense. That's what we're talking about human reasoning and speculation on the meaning and purpose of life and That's the philosophy that Paul is warning the Colossians concerning human reasoning and speculation on the meaning and purpose of life throughout history.

Philosophy as an Enemy of the Christian Faith

Philosophy has proven to be the great enemy of the Christian faith. Many in the church have found the forbidden fruit of man's wisdom irresistible many in the church as Far back as apostolic times and so the Apostles addressed this issue Paul here in Colossians 2 and more thoroughly even in 1st Corinthians chapters 1 through 3.

Because man has always been attracted Christian people have been attracted quite often to human reasoning human speculation human understanding and so philosophy has always been a Very powerful tool in The hand of the devil from apostolic times up and to the present time philosophy is still the great foe of the Christian Church.

Although there are many philosophies that have and still do affect the church there is one in particular that I want to concentrate on and That is the philosophy known as psychology. Now maybe you're saying wait a second this guy's confused.

He's talking about philosophy. He's talking now about psychology and he's saying that Psychology is philosophy. Doesn't he know that there are two distinct Areas of learning there. Psychology isn't philosophy psychology is science people say.

But the fact is this psychology is a pseudoscience. It is more accurately philosophy and One of my goals here today is to prove that to you. Psychology the word itself is a combination of two Greek words the word literally means the study of the soul or the study of the mind a study of life in the sense of the immaterial aspect of man.

That is what psychology is. It's the study of the soul but Christianity and the biblical revelation Claims to be the authority on the soul on the mind on life on the immaterial aspect of man's being. So here you have Christianity that claims to be the authority on these things and then you have psychology that comes along as a so-called discipline That is going to put forth expert information on the soul the mind on life.

Psychology's Secular and Philosophical Origins

Psychology Was born out of a rejection of God's revelation Found in the scriptures concerning the soul concerning the mind Concerning life. We need to understand that it was born Out of a rejection of God's revelation found in the scripture.

Let me quote to you from Baker encyclopedia of psychology. Since all of these psychologies were based on secular philosophy and values they were explicitly or implicitly hostile to religion especially Christianity.

Initially these psychologies functioned as alternative worldviews or secular religions primarily in the lives of psychotherapists most of whom were drawn to modern psychology because they were already alienated from traditional Christianity or Judaism.

And we're looking for an alternative understanding of life that could be interpreted as scientific and as compatible with the increasingly secular world. So you see Psychology was born out of literally a rebellion against Christianity.

All psychology listen closely. All psychology is Rooted in philosophy. All psychology is rooted in philosophy. Some psychology Such as self or humanistic psychology is purely philosophy. Let me give you a brief history of psychology.

In 1907 Herman Ebbinghaus Pinned the epigram. Psychology has a long past. But only a short history. Psychology's past goes back at least 2 ,000 years into the early beginnings of philosophy. Its history goes back only to 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in Germany.

Three disciplines Played key roles in the growth and development of psychology philosophy physiology and psychophysics. Most surveys of the history of psychology trace the philosophical beginnings at least as far back as Plato and Aristotle.

Rene Descartes freed philosophy From the bonds of theological and traditional dogmas and helped to establish the dominance of a new force Empiricism the search for knowledge by the observation of nature itself.

British empiricism and associationism as Represented in the works of Thomas Hobbes John Locke George Berkeley David Hume David Hartley James Mill and others provided the basic subject matter for the newly emerging science of Psychology.

All of these men all of these names that I just read to you beginning with Plato these men. You can find their names in the who's who of philosophy. They are all philosophers. They were all philosophers who rejected God's revelation of himself God's Statements concerning the world the existence of man the purpose and meaning of life and so forth and They are the ones who are behind Psychology.

Notice. Again they provided the basic subject matter for the newly emerging science of psychology. So from the historical account of the beginnings of psychology We see clearly that all psychology is deeply rooted in philosophy.

All Psychology is deeply rooted in philosophy, but you see there are variations within psychology. Some people will say oh no now, you know, you're getting confused because there's you know. Yes, there is the scientific or yes, there is a philosophical aspects.

But you know there there's much that is just purely scientific. Not true. All psychology we just read it. All psychology is deeply rooted in philosophy. But as I said a moment ago some psychologies such as self or humanistic psychology.

Which by the way is the most popular form of psychology and the one that is having the greatest impact on the church is purely philosophy. It is purely philosophy and according to one authority It is simply a commercialized American packaging of much of European existentialism.

Existentialism is the philosophy that is destroyed Europe Born in Denmark through a man named Kierkegaard and then Propagated by a man named Sartre and Yet here we find that this doctrine that the church is so enticed by and becoming increasingly immersed in is really just a new version of Existential philosophy and so Psychology is philosophy and falls under the condemnation of the Apostle Paul.

There could be no question about that Psychology is philosophy now. The scripture is clear That we are not to be Getting involved with philosophy. That's what the Apostle is saying to the Colossians here.

Beware lest any men spoil you through philosophy and. So it's clear that psychology is philosophy. All of its roots are in philosophy and some of it is purely philosophy with nothing else to it. But going one step further We can safely say that psychology is not only philosophy.

Psychology as an Alternative Religion

Psychology is an Alternative religion to Christianity. Psychology is an alternative religion to Christianity and in the public sector you see how fiercely The psychologists contend against their opponents the Christians.

When there's a problem in society. Who do we call for? The world calls for the psychologist if anyone is ever for a moment to suggest bringing a Christian in. Oh, no, we can never do any such thing. If a young person is going for some sort of therapy The psychologist will generally give a warning keep them away from the Bible keep them away from Christians.

Don't let them get any of that kind of information. That'll just confuse the matter. You see there's fierce competition out there. Psychology is a competitive religion to Christianity. It is beyond a philosophy it has become the religion of Secular humanism now the founding fathers of psychology and Especially the most popular form of psychology.

They were all men who Really understood that that was exactly what they were doing developing an alternative to Christianity. They were men who understood Christianity rejected it and Chose to develop a system outside of it.

Men like Sigmund Freud Carl Jung and those who followed after them. Sigmund Freud he's the man who stated that all religion is a form of or all religious thinking or You know religious desire or any of that is a form of neurosis.

That's what he believed he was an atheist he was a Jew ethnically and He was very hostile to Christianity because he felt that the church was Antisemitic. He rejected his own Judaism was an atheist, but he was also hostile to Christianity, but he actually set himself up as Somewhat of a Messiah somewhat of a of a religious figure.

He had a group of disciples People that were his devoted followers and they must adhere closely to his doctrine and those who Were in most agreement with him were rewarded and those who disagreed with him were chastised and sometimes even excommunicated.

He was really in many ways a religious figure. Freud directly acknowledged the essential similarity between psychoanalytic therapy and religious counseling by describing psychoanalysis as listen Pastoral work in the best sense of the word.

He understood that they were replacing the pastor that what they were doing was Coming in and bringing counsel and advice and wisdom to people. That was contradictory To the message that was being given by the pastor from the Bible.

So he said what we're doing is pastoral work in the best sense of the words. This is this is really it. We've got the truth. We've discovered it ourselves. Carl Jung who was a contemporary of Freud and Briefly a disciple of Freud later developed his own school of thinking and Had his own loyal followers and so forth.

He was different than Freud. He rejected Freud's idea that religion was a sign of neurosis. He thought that religion was Beneficial. He believed that all religions were were forms of mythology. But yet they did have some benefit to man Because they helped man to cope even though they weren't true.

Even though there was no fact behind them they they helped man to cope with life and Therefore he saw some benefit in them. So he did not discourage People from being involved in religion. He encouraged it with the exception of course of true biblical Christianity.

Now, it's interesting some Christians really are very sympathetic toward Carl Jung and They They kind of paint him as a victim of his of his day and age. They they almost give the implication that if he had really come into contact with with a true Christianity instead of the the liberal Protestantism that he had grown up with that.

He he probably would have actually been a Christian but That is far from the truth. He understood Christianity. He rejected it. He developed, you know his own version of it. He would use things from both the Old and the New Testament To help illustrate his principles and all but he thoroughly rejected the essential doctrines of the Christian faith and not only did he reject those doctrines, but he took many of them and he revised them to accommodate his own theories.

Let me quote from Carl Jung he said patients forced the psychotherapist into the role of priest and Expect and demand that he shall free them from distress. That is why we psychotherapist must occupy ourselves with problems which strictly speaking belong to the theologian.

Here is an admission by one of the founding fathers of The most popular form of psychology. The things that we're dealing with They belong Strictly speaking to the theologian. In other words he understood that what they were doing was developing a new religion a religion based on humanism a religion based on man being at the center a Religion that was an outright rejection of the revelation of God revealed in the scriptures.

Jung's most prominent student a man named Jacoby. He said this about Jungian psychotherapy. He said it is a way of healing and a way of salvation a system of education and spiritual guidance both ethically and intellectually an extremely Difficult task which can be successfully performed only by the fortunate few those elected and favored by grace.

So he's borrowing from Christian Theology those elected and favored by grace. See Jung did understand the doctrines of the New Testament, but he rejected them. The last stage of Jungian Salvation Called the path of Individuation or self-realization.

The goal of self-realization or actualization Is at its very heart Gnostic. The heart of Gnosticism was to know and ultimately to know yourself and that's what's at the heart of Carl Jung's Philosophy know yourself in contrast to and Replacing the Judeo-christian command to love God and to love others.

No one love yourself. So we see in Freud we see in Jung. We see men who? Rejected the gospel Understood it rejected it and developed Systems of thought based upon their own Biases their own human reasonings that were intended to be competitive with Christianity.

Humanistic Psychology and Self-Realization

Now the clearest expression of Psychology as religion is seen in the self or the humanistic psychologies, which as I said a moment ago these are the most popular forms of psychology and Today if if a person is referred out to a therapist.

Generally speaking they're going to be coming under the the counsel and the advice of someone who is indoctrinated in what's called the self psychologies and the men who were the primary founders of the self psychologies are named Rogers Carl Rogers Abraham Maslow Eric from and They followed.

They are what you would call neo Freudian they followed Freud to a certain degree, but they rejected much of what he said, but there was another contemporary of Freud. His name was Adler and he like Carl Jung became popular and went off and developed his own System and they followed him more closely now Eric from sums up the religious aspect of this Psychology in the title of one of his books you shall be as gods.

It's a title of one of his books. You shall be as gods and All throughout Self or humanistic psychology you find that it is very very religious. With man at the center rather than God at the center. From said if the doctrine of original sin were true My psychology would be untenable.

That's a statement. If the doctrine of original sin were true, my psychology would be untenable. In other words, what he's saying is if the Bible is right, then I'm wrong. But of course he believed the Bible was wrong.

The the doctrine of original sin teaching that man is born in a sinful condition. That man is innately evil because of his fallen nature. Not innately good from rejected that and believed entirely in the goodness of man that man.

That man's actual self is perfectly good. And so you have your actual self the one who is really you who is perfectly good. Entirely good, but then you've got this other self. That has the negative side and so the goal and all the therapy is to attain to the actual self so you see it's all a search for self in contradiction to the scriptures and Yet the man himself admits that if the Bible is right, he is wrong, but he rejected the authority of Scripture.

Pride and the Church's Embrace of Psychology

Now here's the thing that is very Difficult to understand. Seeing that psychology is at best Philosophy and at worst Another religion. How is it that so many in the modern church? Have embraced it Received it Promoted it.

How has that happened? It's obviously philosophy. They make no bones about it. You can read the history of it. You can go back we looked at Plato Aristotle Descartes. These men Hume the existentialist philosophers, it's all there it's all in the historical record.

It's obviously philosophy. But as you look a little further, it's more than philosophy. It's an alternative religion. So, how is it that leaders in the church have embraced it brought it in support it?

Encourage people to be involved in it as a matter of fact many pastors will send people out to the psychologist. How has this happened? It is a very mysterious thing. It's To me it's unbelievable what has happened.

But but there are I think some Some answers to that question, but before we answer that question, let me address a couple of things now having said this and Describing psychology as philosophy, which it truly is seeing it as an alternative religion.

Some people will say now now wait a second. What about the things like the psychologists have learned and you know discovered about methods of study and learning and you know those kinds of things. Well there is and there was in the early days of psychology something known as functional psychology and Through functional psychology came things like educational psychology.

Animal and human learning and things of that nature. Now listen, this is all psychology can do. This is the only valid Part to it and remember there's there's a large variety there. But the most popular psychology is purely philosophy.

But the the only valid thing psychology can do is just simply describe what it sees. There's validity to that Descriptive giving a description of what is going on. There's nothing the matter with that.

We can analyze something. We can give a description of it and and that's not a problem. And that's not what we're talking about when we're talking about psychology see the problem is not describing something the problem begins when you try to define it and Your base of Defining it comes from Human thought rather than God's revelation about man.

So you see anything that's just purely descriptive. You know you hear psychologists have found that under these types of circumstances seven-year-olds. Concentrate better. Great. I'm glad they discovered that they're just describing what's going on under certain circumstances and that's.

That's fine. We all do that. So that's not what we're talking about. And that is just a very small area but even there. You have to make sure that you don't go beyond description if you go beyond description.

Then you start getting into speculation then you start getting into philosophizing then you start getting into. You know putting forth your ideas and it all depends on what you believe and as I said psychology is you know primarily atheistic and It's evolutionary and So once they begin to define that's where the problem begins now another thing that arises as questions about What is called mental illness?

Mental Illness, Brain Disorders, and Psychiatry

What about serious mental illness and I'll tell you something that's quite interesting about that by the way those who are among the self or the the humanistic psychologies. They do not have any interest in dealing with the people who are labeled as truly mentally ill.

Schizophrenics the manic depressives those kinds of people they don't have any interest because There's nothing they can do for them. They admit that now. What about those kinds of things? That's the question.

Now what we have to understand is that there there's some bad terminology that's used and we need to get some clarification. The term mental illness. It's an invalid term. Because the mind is Immaterial.

The mind is immaterial as a matter of fact, no one can even explain what the mind is. There's there's no there's no description of it. Psychologists have have labored in vain to try to describe the mind.

So, how are they going to tell you? What it does if they don't even know what it is. You see so the whole idea of mental illness is an inaccurate definition. Remember this. Your mind is immaterial, but your brain is material.

Your brain is organic matter. Your brain is a physical organ and in some cases. But know this also that the numbers are very few in Some cases what you have is actually brain illness. There's an illness in the body.

Perhaps it's affecting the brain. Many things affect our brain. We don't Realize that. Did you know that your pancreas Can have a radical effect upon your brain if your blood sugar levels go too high or drop too low that will affect your brain.

People who have low blood sugar oftentimes have bizarre Things going on in their brain and and bizarre neurological things happening. It's because of a lack of sugar to the brain. Your thyroid gland can affect your brain.

A lack of Producing of that particular hormone or an overproduction of it can affect your brain and Then I'm sure that to some degree there are There are simply Illnesses of the brain that nobody's really been able to totally discover at this point but you see that falls more under the realm of Neurology and Certain aspects of psychiatry.

There's a difference between psychiatry and psychology. Unfortunately for many many years psychiatrists were no different than psychologists they were medical doctors who were indoctrinated in in talk therapy and those kinds of theories and the only distinction between the psychiatrist for a long time and the psychologist was that the psychiatrist would Just prescribe medication for the patient.

The psychologist has to work with an MD in order to get a prescription. But in the last Ten years or so. There's been an emergence in the realm of psychiatry where where psychiatrists have realized wait a second.

We're medical doctors. The brain is a physical organ. Let's get back to treating the the physical organ. And so there's there's a new dimension a fairly new dimension in psychiatry known as biopsychiatry and So these psychiatrists instead of sitting you down and you know talking to you for hours on end about You know what might have happened back in your mother's womb.

They will evaluate you maybe run some tests on you and so forth and then they might prescribe some sort of a medication to you. But there's a danger in that also. I have a friend who's an MD and practice psychiatry and we were talking a while back and He said that you know talking about the assumptions that people have and things, you know.

You pick up from just maybe reading the newspaper or magazines or whatever, you know. But now there's there's an assumption about us because of things that are being communicated to us that aren't really accurate but there's an assumption that You can test your brain chemistry you go down and Draw some blood and it tells you all about your brain chemistry and if it's messed up at all it'll come up right there on the test and.

And so he was telling me he had a patient come in a while back and said Doctor could you test my brain chemistry? And he said he's kind of a joker. He said well, he said it'll be a little difficult. But yeah, I think we could do it.

The guy said, okay. Well, what do we need to do? He goes? Well, first of all, we got to get your brain out of your head. We got to slice it up several pieces and we got to begin to. You know put it under the microscope and all of these things.

His point was this you can't really test your brain chemistry. You can draw a person's blood and you can get an idea of serotonin and different things like that. But that's in no way conclusive as to what's actually going on in your brain.

They there's not an ability to do that. There are a lot of assumptions. So this is the the danger of bio psychiatry you see if a person is behaving a certain way. They have concluded that it's because your brain chemistry is off in this particular area.

And so they'll give you some medication to supposedly help you when that isn't the issue at all. There are a lot of people that are out there medicated who shouldn't be medicated. But there are certain people that need to be medicated.

Because there is genuinely something that in the brain and the medication helps them and keeps them able to function fairly normally. So bio psychiatry, there's there's a good aspect to it, but the danger with it is that it tends to Base itself on another form of psychology known as behaviorism, which essentially says that man is Just a byproduct of chemical reactions.

So you see psychiatry psychology as I said earlier for the for the most part is is atheistic. So this bio psychiatry the danger there is just reducing man to nothing but chemical reactions all of your emotions all of your thoughts all of your Feelings all of your actions are simply a result of certain chemical reactions if we can just change the chemical reactions.

Then we'll change the behavior of the person. So you see There is an inherent danger in that also and we need to be careful even as we consider those things. But there is let me make that clear there is the possibility of brain illness or Some other organic abnormality that is affecting the brain and that's where we thank God for neurologist and and the things that they've been able to discover about the brain and so forth and.

And that's where we acknowledge that there are times and places when certain medications can be very beneficial and helpful to a person. But there's another factor that is for the most part never taken into consideration and I think it's probably one of the major factors in all of it and that is demonic activity and in some cases demon possession.

But now when you're dealing with atheist Materialist people who don't consider the spiritual realm you won't expect them to Even consider those things but that is a very real possibility in some of these cases.

So we're not talking about Psychology in the sense of You know descriptive observing and describing we're not talking about Psychology or psychiatry in the sense of true brain illness or organic problems that are affecting the brain.

We're talking about this Psychology. That is at best philosophy and At worst an alternative religion to Christianity. Which is again the most popular form of psychology and the one that has had the greatest impact on the church.

So going back to the question I asked earlier, how in the world did this happen? How have things come to where they are? How did the doors open so freely for this to come in? I think there are three factors.

Pride and the Desire for Intellectual Respectability

The number one factor in allowing psychology into the church, I believe is pride. It's pride. Those men Wanting to be accepted by the world as Intellectual as sophisticated they Embraced it and that's been the case all throughout the history of the church.

There's always been that temptation all the way back to the days of the Apostles the Corinthians were doing it they were so enamored with the philosophers and they were welcoming philosophy into the church and Corinth and Paul rebuked them sharply for it and he warned them against it and he said That he would know nothing among them except Christ and him crucified and then he dealt with the Colossians as we're reading here in our Text and then as you go through the history of the church, you find that there was a constant battle philosophy always trying to make its way in and unfortunately so often being Brought right in through the leadership in the churches for many centuries the dominant philosophy in the church Was Aristotelian philosophy which was the philosophy of Aristotle there were some of the church that even taught that Aristotle was a forerunner to Christ.

Aristotle was a pagan thoroughly and completely he was not even remotely a forerunner to Christ. But many of the leaders in the church, they embraced Aristotelian philosophy and that pretty much governed the church.

From post-apostolic times. All the way up to the time when Descartes and these other Rationalists came forth. Now, let me tell you something about these philosophers for just a moment these philosophers I'll tell you I think a lot of these guys had brain illness and Yet they're looked upon as brilliant men great thinkers.

Descartes His approach to everything his philosophy his philosophical approach was to doubt everything and So he began by doubting the existence of God. It's where it started. Then he doubted the existence of the universe.

Then he had doubted the existence of the material world. He finally got to a point where he doubted his own material existence. He doubted his own material existence. Now does that sound like a brilliant man?

Does that sound like a great thinker? It sounds to me like someone who has a true chemical imbalance a true problem. Somebody who's deceived. I mean I'm not saying that was the case with him. But you know, what I'm trying to do is show how.

You know, what is so brilliant about these people now? Here's what he finally concluded. He was doubting his own existence but He found that because he was still thinking he must indeed exist. And so that's.

That's where he came to. I Think therefore I exist I do exist after all what a glorious discovery he made he did exist and Then he he went in the opposite direction and you know, he took and he came up with his philosophies.

But you know, this is just one example of these people who are looked to as Great thinkers brilliant men. These are the people that we need to follow after and so forth and and we want to Impress the world the church said and so it was embracing the philosophy of Aristotle.

Then it was embracing the philosophy of these guys as they came along Europe the church in Europe embraced existentialism. Christian existentialist and the church in Europe is history. It's dead and and that's always been the case.

So in America You know European philosophy Hasn't had the impact on American society directly, you know, and I really do think this. You know, we as Americans we're not into thinking as much as Europeans are Europeans just think all the time sit around thinking No, Americans are doers.

We're just doing all the time. I'm too busy to think man. I'm having fun I'm into pleasure and things like that. So, you know those philosophies, although you know, if you've gone to a university or something like that, of course.

You've understood those things and they're more they're more subtly communicated but those same philosophies that dominate Europe do dominate us but just in in a slightly different form as as the one I man, I quoted earlier said What we have with from and these guys is just a Repackaging it's an American form of existentialism.

So it's all been welcomed into the church. Why because of pride. We don't want anyone to think that we're unsophisticated unintelligent we want them to know that we're Right up there with everybody else and they've fallen into the same air as the Corinthians.

That's where the Corinthians were. The Corinthians did not want to be thought of As fools for Christ and Paul rebuked him. He said you are wise in Christ. We the Apostles we are fools for Christ and he was rebuking them for their unwillingness to be a fool for Christ.

You see this is the bottom line if you're a Christian and you adhere to the gospel of Jesus Christ You are going to be thought a fool. Are you willing to be if you're not then you're gonna have to compromise and That's what's happened in the church.

Unbelief in Christ's Power and the Sufficiency of Scripture

The church did not want to be seen as foolish and Evangelicalism we give you just another little brief history here. Evangelicalism was born out of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism has become you know a pathetic thing and of course is the brunt of You know much political joking and things like that, but fundamentalism in the beginning was Was basically true Christianity Standing against the the liberal theology that was dominating the the churches at the time and So what happened is some men came together and they put together a series of lectures called the fundament fundamentals of the faith and Fundamentalism was born out of that but in a process of time the fundamentalist kind of lost touch with the world and Started to become a little bit backward and kind of withdrew from the public square and Was no longer out there giving an apologetic and contending for the faith and so forth.

So there was a need to you know, bring forth something new. So Evangelicalism was born to bring back intellectual respectability to the Christian faith and There was something that was valid to that at the time.

Because Christianity is certainly not anti-intellectual and We are supposed to think and use our minds and give a defense for the faith and love God with our minds and all of That but evangelicalism was was born out of that desire to bring back intellectual respectability to the faith as much as you can do without compromising.

But in the process of time wanting to maintain intellectual respectability. Compromise was needed. If you're gonna maintain respectability out there you have to embrace psychology. You're gonna have to embrace evolution because after all it's you know, it's pretty well proven that that's How we originated and so there's been this great compromise going on in the Evangelical Church embracing Compromising all for the sake of being accepted by the world.

So that's where it all begins but secondly It is a demonstration of Unbelief the church no longer believed that Christ and his word were sufficient. That's why the embracing of psychology that's why the Looking to philosophy no longer believing that Christ and his word is sufficient coming into a place of kind of a dead orthodoxy where you no longer see the life of Christ being manifest and So now there's no longer the conviction that The Word of God is true because after all we're not seeing people with real problems get changed.