Miles
J. Stanford
Christian
Correspondence
4
February 1991
Dr.
Thomas Ice
Dr.
Robert Dean, Jr.
Biblical
Awareness Ministries
Austin,
Texas 78709
Dear
brothers in Christ Jesus
I
am so glad that it is you who have accomplished it! Your A Holy
Rebellion should go far in stemming the dread tide of the present day
"demonization" problem.
To
my knowledge, yours is the first up-to-date and scriptural statement against
the charismatic nonsense concerning Satan and his demons. I intend to
highly recommend your book far and wide. There is a vast field of
believers who are badly in need of the liberating truth you have so
faithfully set forth.
It
did my heart good to carefully go through the work, and as a result I would
like to reciprocate in kind. You may well feel that I have failed
completely, but please be assured that I am in no way seeking to criticize.
What
I have sought to do is take you a step further in certain places, possibly
to improve rather than to question. What I am sharing is for your
patient consideration--I do not expect any changes to be made. I am
confident that A Holy Rebellion will exceed your expectations in its
ministry to needy believers.
I
will not go into scriptural detail with these comments, but will gladly
supply my doctrinal basis for any that you might wish to question.
Yours
for His best.
Resting
in Him,
Miles
A
FEW KINDLY CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING
A HOLY REBELLION
PAGE 32 - John Todd... giving people
"inside information" about Satan and his current schemes (which he
has had access to as a former Satanist) ... including such information as the
proper names of some of the demons, how they organized, and certain of their
strategies and tactics. None of this information was gleaned from the
Bible; rather, it was gained from the time Todd spent as a Satanist....
Readers
are being told here that Todd, as a Satanist, actually had access to inside
information concerning Satan's schemes, names of demons, and their strategies
and tactics.
Even
if Todd had been a deeply spiritual Christian at the time [which he never
was], and walking in the Spirit, he would not have gained such
information.
Many...
were eager to listen to this information gleaned from demons, until they
learned that Todd had fabricated much of what he was saying....
The
"information" was not gleaned from demons. Todd totally
fabricated it, as all Satanists do. When it is admitted that
"much" was fabricated, the inference is that some of it was
authentic. This leaves the reader open to believing some of what Todd
said, maybe even 49%.
PAGES
47,139,141 - You
have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ...credited and
clothed...imputed or credited to us...
The
underlying problem concerning the Church is that the vast majority of
believers do not know who they are in Christ. Hence they see themselves
as Christians "clothed" with His righteousness--a something good
imputed or credited to their account. The old made "all
better" by the encompassing new.
Believers
need to know scripturally that the imputation of His righteousness
amounts to judicial imputation--they are, as new creations in Christ
Jesus, the thing itself! "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us...righteousness..." (1 Cor. 1: 30). "For
He hath made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us [He was not
"clothed" with our sin], that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21).
PAGE
52 - The result was that He withstood the
temptation.
Whereas
Satan was seeking to tempt Him, He was not being tempted. The entire
40-day-and-night incident of the so-called "temptation of Christ"
was to reveal to Satan, and to you and me, just who He was [is].
PAGES
68,69 - The same is true about Satan's rule
over his dominion during this present age: He is in control.
The
sovereign God of the universe has always been in total control of all, and
that includes and controls Satan's "control."
It
is as you aver on the next page: During this present age, Satan has been given
a certain freedom of operation, within divinely appointed limits.
Getting this straight as to the Father's sovereignty will solve the
entire question as to Satan and company, including all the lying claims and
stories of the "deliverance" con men.
PAGE
70 - The believer's new relationship to the world-system revolves
around two simple aspects: separation from the world and evangelism
of the world.
This
is an old John R. Rice type of limited evaluation of the Christian life.
The key to both of these aspects is the believer's spiritual
growth--both are
dependent upon that. Think of the percentage of emphasis on spiritual
growth over
evangelism in that realm of the Word directed exclusively to the believer--the
Church Epistles. What chance do the lost have if Christians are in an
unhealthy state?
PAGES
76,81 - ...the problem was
personal sin and the solution was
mastery
of the sin nature. It means you must master sin (Gen. 4: 7).
It
will not do to go outside the Christian realm of the Scriptures to get the
primary answer to a Christian problem. All is profitable, etc., yes, but
not necessarily the answer. Moses is not the source of Christian grace.
Even
though alluded to in Hebrews, Cain, of all people, has no answer for the
Christian regarding sin. Believers must be taught primarily from the only
portion of the rightly-divided Word that was written exclusively to and for
them--the Pauline Epistles.
The
Christian is not to master that which has been fully and forever dealt with on
the Cross--a finished fact that he is told to reckon upon. The
experiential manifestation of that specific faith [reckoning] is carried out
by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
PAGES
79, 80 - "The old man," (the
person he was in Adam before he was
saved)
is crucified, dead, gone.
This
amounts to placing yourselves, and any of your readers who might
not know better, in the same subjective place as that of John MacArthur,
David Needham, Charles Solomon, William Gillham, Charles Stanley, Bob George,
Warren Litzman, as well as most Covenant folk.
Romans
6:6 is positional truth concerning the believer; as to his condition, the
ever-indwelling Adamic life and its nature are all too evident in most of us.
The
"old man" here is not the sin nature, but our old unregenerate
self.... We must recognize that the person we were before we were saved is
dead and gone, crucified with Christ. But though the old man is gone,
the sin nature continues.
Life
and its nature are inseparable. Since we have the first Adam's nature,
we have his life. As we have the life of the Last Adam, we are
partakers of His divine nature.
PAGE
91 - As we continue to grow and to develop godly habit patterns in our life...
This
is the aberration of the Covenant theologian, Jay Adams and others, i.e.:
develop good habits to overcome bad ones. The fruit of the Spirit does
not consist of habits, but rather the effortless manifestation and flow of the
characteristics of Christ who is our Life.
PAGES
93,94 - While we are to be Christlike in emulating His
character....While
we are called to imitate the character of Christ....
No
fair--no Roman Catholic Thomas 'aKempis! We "are changed into the
same image from glory to glory [spiritual growth], even as by the Spirit of
the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18). "Always delivered unto death for
Jesus' sake [in order] that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in
our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).
PAGE
99 - ...many of the demons had names, such as the demon of lust, gluttony,
worry, gossip, and criticism. One demon was even named after a
particular food.
Spare
and protect your readers! To give validity to this is contributing to
the delinquency of the "Christian" con man.
PAGE
113 - Jesus creates something, but Satan destroys it.
The
statement, as it stands, has a bad connotation. Satan can never destroy
anything that the Lord Jesus created. Lucifer, in God's foreknowledge,
caused us to fall in Adam, in order that He might recreate us in His
Son. Infinite gain out of so-called destruction. The same for the
earth, the universe, and even the kingdom Gentile nations.
PAGES
124,125 - We agree with Wimber that Saul was a believer. It is wrong to
equate a disciple as necessarily being a believer, since not all of Christ's
disciples were believers.
None
of the Lord's disciples were Christian believers...until Pentecost.
After that, in the Epistles, they were not referred to as disciples.
It
is essential to make clear just what type of believer is being referred to--an
earthly kingdom believer, or the infinitely higher heavenly believer --a
member of the Body of Christ. To the average Christian, the term
believer means the latter.
PAGE
142 - This is exactly what happened in the life of King Saul in the Old
Testament....
It
is an injustice to the believer to resort to an experience of King Saul as an
example of what could happen to a member of the Lord Jesus' heavenly
Bride. Regarding the Church, none supersedes Paul!
PAGE
144 - The shield that protects the Christian is the shield
of
faith.
Faith
must be explicit, not just general trust in God. One must exercise faith
in what was accomplished on the Cross in order to be saved. One must
reckon upon what happened to himself and his sin in order to be freed from the
power of sin. One must count upon Satan's total defeat at the
Cross--"resist," and "stand" upon that finished fact--before the Enemy will back off and flee. It took, and it takes,
the Cross!
PAGE
145 - The Christian is able to defend himself against the attacks of Satan by
using Scripture accurately.
While
this statement is correct, it stops short. The believer needs to know
the specific truths of Scripture upon which to exercise his faith. He
must be informed that Satan will only respond to that which has already been
accomplished concerning him at Calvary. Otherwise the believer will soon
find his shield of faith to be badly dart-punctured.
PAGE
171 - What is the cause of weakness, according to the New Testament?
Repeatedly it is said to be sin in a person's life which has not been properly
dealt with.
This
assertion can be very detrimental to a believer, especially one young in the
Lord. Sin may be "all cause of weakness, and often is. But it
is not "the" cause of weakness in the believer's life. There
is the matter of immaturity, of not knowing certain facts, his pastor perhaps
having failed to teach him the necessary truths, etc.
PAGES
177,184 - ...during the second coming of Christ........ shortly before
Christ's second coming...
The
first reference has to do with His Kingdom coming. The second reference
has to do with His Rapture coming. For the sake of the rightly
divided
Word, and the reader, the blessed hope [Rapture] should be kept clear of
Israel's hope [Kingdom] in the Christian's thinking and expectation.
"If
thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good
minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good
doctrine, unto which thou hast attained.
"But
refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto
godliness" (1 Tim. 6,7)