Do you think that those who disagree with you aren't doing this too?
I've been on this forum for close to 15 years, before that I had been a member of another forum for nearly 10 years. In close to 25 years of engaging with many different people online I have encountered a countless number of those who effectively claim to have an exclusive monopoly on the truth.
They, and nobody else, has it figured out. They don't always explicitly claim this, they don't usually say "I'm the only one"; but it's clear that in their mind that anyone who doesn't agree with them is merely "following human tradition".
They often will claim that they don't interpret the Bible, they read it and believe it. When asked what is different between them and others who say they "read it and believe it", they will say they prayed, they studied, and some will go so far as to claim that God specifically told them, or gave them true understanding. As though God personally came down from heaven and put the truth directly into their cerebral cortex.
Then, I am often told, that if I pray, if I ask, if I study God would do the same. Of course, not only I, but millions of Christians all around the globe and throughout history have devoted themselves to seeking, knocking, asking; searching and studying, praying--and come to entirely different perspectives and conclusions.
At the end of the day the Holy Spirit can't be contradicting Himself. And yet I've encountered perhaps hundreds of people who say the Holy Spirit has directly given them truth and/or insight; and yet it contradicts what every other person who says the same has said. That begs the question, doesn't it, is it really the Holy Spirit? Of course, it's not the Holy Spirit. What it is is human arrogance.
There is a term I learned from some Eastern Orthodox friends years ago, in Eastern Orthodoxy there is a concept, in Russian it is called
prelest and in Greek it is called
plani. The most literal translation of these terms would be "fallacy" "error" or "delusion"; but in the Eastern Orthodox context it refers to something more than just delusion or error, but to a dark spiritual delusion. There are countless stories about Orthodox monks who warn about, and also who succumbed, to prelest, spiritual delusion. It is not regarded as a mental error--wrong thinking; but spiritual error, it is a sickness of the soul. A sickness of the soul in which a person becomes deluded by believing they have attained spiritual greatness--having received visions, or dreamed dreams, or having attained theoria, or believing they are holy or are growing spiritually--but it is in fact delusion, a sickness, a shadow has overtaken their hearts and instead of being humble, admitting to being a sinner in need of mercy, there is a false sense of spiritual satisfaction. It is considered one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a Christian journey.
I don't know if we in the Western Church have this same concept, or how we would apply it to our contexts--but I believe that this is a definitely real phenomenon. And it truly is one of the greatest dangers we can face--a false sense of spiritual accomplishment, a false sense of holiness, a false sense of piety, the delusion that we have attained something--but in truth it is actually stagnation. In that delusion we are no longer growing, because to grow in faith we must always be on the receiving end of God's grace; and to be on the receiving end of grace we must be broken--broken with repentance, broken with humility, broken with contrition and confession that we are deep wounded sinners. At no point in this journey of ours, at no point in our cross-carrying pilgrimage in this world, have we "made it". We are, each of us, like the man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road; and without our Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ, to carry us to the inn we remain wounded and dying on the side of the road.
I am not spiritual. I am dead and full of sin. God have mercy on me. Lord Jesus save me.
I need the wisdom of God, which the Holy Spirit has so richly blessed His Church with over these last two thousand years. I cannot go it alone, I need God's Village, I need the Church. I need to hear God's word, day in and day out; I need the Sacraments, I need my Baptism and to remember my Baptism; I need the Lord's Supper, I need to confess my sins and hear the lovely healing words of forgiveness. I need it, I can't go it alone, I'm not an island, the hand cannot say to the foot "I don't need you". Jesus said "I am the Vine and you are the branches", without the Body I am an amputated arm, apart from the Vine I am a branch that withers and dies.
-CryptoLutheran
