Biblical Spirituality: Wholeness or Holiness?

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16….Leviticus 11:44)

What is your vision of spirituality? What is true spirituality? For 2,000 years, Christians have heeded Jesus’ call to holiness BY keeping His commandments-a call to personal holiness, and the Lordship of Christ over the totality of life. It is a God-centered approach.

Today, more and more Christians are asking, “How can being a Christian make me feel whole?”
But for Christians, our calling from God must conform to the ethical boundaries He has laid out for His children, for our protection and His glory.

There are several components to a biblical worldview, but the biblical view of God is primary and central to all else. It HAS to be primary, for “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” As important as the supernatural is to biblical Christianity, that is not the chief attribute of a biblical worldview. Indeed, other false worldviews are supernatural to the core but deficient in their understanding of God.

Secularism (naturalism, secular humanism) is no longer the primary threat to Christianity; the occultic worldview is. Most Christian leaders are decades behind in discovering this.

One cannot exaggerate how important our world views are: they are like chauffeur's that drive us through life, affecting how we think, act, and behave. They actually act like a grid through which we sift all the data that comes to us. With a biblical worldview we can see all of reality through God’s eyes. Our worldviews affect our view of spirituality.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Unlike pagan mythologies, biblical visions of the Living God like Isaiah experienced, took place in space and time—it really happened. The death of the great king Uzziah occurred about 740 B.C., marking the end of a long period of national prosperity….. until the king contracted leprosy for flouting God’s holiness.

DO WE LIVE IN A WHOLE OR A HOLY COSMOS? Should we strive to be whole or holy? Those are not trick questions, as we’ll see. The biblical worldview affects how we live life, and holiness is at the heart of living a life pleasing to God. For many, holiness is a prudish, life-negating word, but that is due to a mis-understanding of the word, as well as Christians often living with self-righteous attitudes.

In the Greek and Hebrew, some form of the word “holy” occurs 1,097 times! Holiness is one of the most important concepts in both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. The exhortation to holy living is especially prevalent in Paul’s writings. (Romans 6:19, 22; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification (holiness)..”etc.

The biblical understanding of right living in relation to God and others—holiness—is the polar opposite of what today’s occultic spirituality proposes—wholeness. I need to define our terms.
Yes, the gospel should bring substantial psychological healing/wholeness, but that is not the connotation of ‘wholeness’ as used in the occult worldview.

Because ‘wholeness’ and ‘holiness’ sound and seem similar, they are often mistaken for the same idea. Even the renowned Huston Smith errs when he states that “wholeness’ and ‘holiness’ have the same etymology. They do not! The two Greek words “hagios’ and ‘holos’ are NOT related. ‘Qadosh’ is the Old Testament word for holy, as seen from Isaiah’s text.

In classical Greek, hagios does refer to the moral perfection of God. However, its primary meaning is uniqueness, separateness, set apart, otherness. (I’ll come back to this)To sanctify something is to set it apart as dedicated to God. In Genesis 2:3 the seventh day is hallowed. We are entering the holiday season—“holy days”, which are set apart)

In classical Greek, the adjective “hagios’ (holy) stems from the noun “hagos’, meaning “an object of awe.” The Hebrew ‘qodesh’ from the verb ‘qod’ means “to divide”. Things that are holy are set apart, separate, and divided from things that are common. God is holy in that He is separate from His creation.

On the other hand, the Greek ‘holos’ means whole or universal…from which we get the word ‘holistic’…..as in holistic healing. In a sense, hagios and holos are opposite in meaning. The term ‘holos’ means that nothing is distinctively other, or specially set apart, as with ‘holiness’.

EVERYTHING is included. In fact, these two words are so antithetical that they represent two different worldviews…..two antithetical views of spirituality—holos represents the occult worldview spirituality, and hagios represents the biblical worldview spirituality.

By describing something as holistic, modern spirituality means the same thing that Jung taught about the joining of the opposites on the path toward self-realization.

Jeffrey Satinover, an ex-Jungian stated: for Jung good and evil evolved into two equal, balanced, cosmic principles that belong together in one over-arching synthesis. This relativization of good and evil by their reconciliation is the heart of the ancient doctrines of Gnosticism, which also located spirituality, hence morality, within man himself. Hence, “the union of opposites.”

We must realize the such ‘holistic’ thinking lies at the heart of the occult worldview, which is a rebirth of ancient Gnosticism, which almost destroyed the church many centuries ago.

A beautifully holy God. When we think of holiness, divine or human, we tend to think of moral purity. While that is certainly an aspect of God’s holiness, it is not the primary meaning of qodesh or hagios. There is a sense in which the holiness of God is the “God-ness of God”. His holiness differentiates Him from all His creation….He is separate from or distinct from all else. He is the self-existent, wholly Other Supreme Being. He is primary, and all creation is derivative, deriving its existence and sustaining from Him,, as well as redemption.

When we say that God is holy, we are primarily speaking cosmologically. He is utterly unique and different. The Triune God is separate, and distinct from His creation, and this distinction will remain throughout all eternity. One song writer put it well: God of wonders beyond our galaxy, You are holy, holy! The universe declares Your Majesty!

In the model prayer, the first prayer request or petition is, “…Hallowed be Thy Name..” Our first and primary prayer concern is that the Name of God (God) would be seen as holy. As the seraphim cry ‘Holy, holy, holy..’ so should God’s children long that God’s holy Name would be recognized as holy….that we would mirror to a dark and unholy world the holiness of God, as His image-bearers.

If we understand holiness in primarily moral terms, as much of the West has, it tends to cause a holier than thou attitude, and holy huddle. God is morally pure, and we are to be morally pure too.
However, we must put the horse before the cart. God’s GODNESS…His utter Otherness must overwhelm us with awe, as it did Isaiah. Without this humbling fear of God, Christianity can degenerate into a superficial moralism.

When Isaiah had his vision, the seraphim cried out three times, “Holy, holy, holy..” (see Revelation 4:8) The Hebrew way of accenting something of supreme importance was to repeat it. No other attribute of God is raised to the third power, because holiness is everything about God that makes Him God. “It (qadosh) can be used almost as a synonym of deity.” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament) The place where God dwelled in the Old Covenant community was called THE HOLY OF HOLIES.

Isaiah was a righteous man, and yet his close encounter with the holiness of God was extremely frightening. The Holy One of Israel became Isaiah’s distinctive name for God…and no wonder after this hair raising episode in which all of his senses were being assaulted with the holiness of God.
A depth view of God’s holiness, reveals a depth view of sin…and a depth view of sin brings a depth appreciation for the gospel….again, as it did with Isaiah. I am convinced that if folks grasped God’s holiness, then there would be revival in the church and folks would be beating down the doors to the church seeking for salvation. It would also pulverize the heart of the occult worldview which is taking America by storm.

The God of the bible will not be confused with any part of His creation; He is holy in Himself.
“Though the words ‘Holy Trinity’ are not found in the bible, the concept is. God’s divine being consists of three distinct Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are never confused, and so always retain their individual distinctiveness or holiness from one another. Thus God comprehends both distinction and complementarity within His Trinitarian Being, and as an independent Creator, without a beginning, is necessarily separate or holy relative to the dependent creation He makes, sustains, and redeems.” (The Other Worldview, Peter Jones, pg. 149)

By contrast, the occult worldview (or progressive/evolutionary spirituality, mature New Age, Neo-Gnosticism) conflates creator and creation. This is seen as wholeness, instead of holiness. God’s holiness is tossed out….the essence of God’s God-ness is stripped from Him. In the worldview that is taking America by storm, god (if there is one) is not separate from creation….he/it/her imbues all of the cosmos with a spirit of wholeness. You are god!

By an ever-expanding means—raising your vibrations, tapping into the collective unconsciousness, getting in tune with the universe, quantum jumping, energy healing, yoga, etc. Etc—one allegedly finds wholeness, which has a wide variety of meanings, but none that include biblical holiness.

Our culture’s view of God or ultimate reality is a return to the Gnosticism of the early centuries, which the early church fathers fought against so valiantly. Then, as now, though there is a mind-boggling variety of occult/gnostic variants, they all reject holiness and embrace wholeness as the model for understanding ultimate reality and personal development or spirituality.

The Beautifully Holy God has called us to be His beautifully holy people, leading beautifully holy lives, in a beautifully holy cosmos with a beautifully holy future.(each of these could be expounded, but I’ll leave it for later) Before a watching world, may we live in such a way that the beauty of holiness is ‘written all over our faces.”

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.

How the Devil uses Legalism at Christmas

By Lisa Grace

I attend services with a congregation that observes the seven festivals mandated by God. Even the prophet Isaiah mentions these will be observed in heaven.

Unfortunately, there are several festivals (and many more if you include such commonly observed days as the Lent season or Epiphany) or holidays we celebrate: Purim, Hanukkah, Resurrection day (commonly called easter the English translation of the pagan goddess ishtar.), Christmas, weddings, dedication days, baptisms, etc., that some say we shouldn't celebrate.

Many legalistic Christians like to fall back on the prophet Jeremiah 10:1 - 6 where Jeremiah is talking about following the custom of worship of false gods. ( Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.)

So the tree is neither good nor evil, and cutting it down is a waste of time. I think this is why many have migrated to plastic ones.

Since the Jewish religion sacrificed animals, he couldn't use that as an example of how not to worship heathen gods, so he picked one the Jewish people did not do at the time, which was the cutting down and decorating of trees to the false gods. He goes on in further verses making it clear these trees can do neither good nor evil, and that these false gods will be forgotten, Jer 10:10 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. which they have been forgotten.

For the last four hundred years or so though, Christmas trees have not been associated with false gods, but have almost exclusively come to signify the promise in Christ of life everlasting. Instead of taking these verses out of context, read the whole of Jeremiah starting at the first chapter, and it becomes clear it was about the Jews turning away from God, and you can see time and time again how Jeremiah laments the Jewish people chasing after pagan gods.

Taking Jeremiah out of context is a perfect example of how legalism can be used by Satan.

Let's look at what Jesus did. Did Yeshua (Jesus) celebrate other traditions not ordained (like the seven) by God in the Torah? Yes.

We know He celebrated at weddings, the festival of lights: Hannakuh, and Purim. We know He attended dedications, and was all for baptism (He even had one Himself when He was thirty, and was dedicated Himself at the temple eight days after His birth as was the custom.) Therefore we can conclude Yeshua (Jesus) was all for observing traditions that included and honored God.

What about His birthday and resurrection?

I run across legalistic Christians who seem to think celebrating these momentous occasions is wrong, or even a sin. They go as far as to say the celebrations of these events are pagan, but are they?

Let's look at Biblical proof. First from the word of Yeshua Himself. The Lord's Prayer offers the first proof. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:9-13 KJV).

So was Yeshua's birth celebrated in Heaven? Yes.

Luke 2:9-17: And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

Then in Luke 2:20: And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

We are to celebrate, share and make known to all people OUR SAVIOUR is Born! The angels even describe how He will be dressed, in swaddling clothes lying in a feed trough! Certainly the angels were commended by God to release that tidbit of information because He wanted the Saviour found, worshiped, and praised. What kind of witness are we if we ignore His birth, the one the angels were commanded to come down and reveal to us through lowly shepherds? Is this news we keep to ourselves?

1) The angels rejoiced at his birth.

2) The angels were commanded to give the message and then told the shepherds to make the birth of the Savoir known to all people.

3) Christmas is the celebration and time to make known to all people the birth of our Saviour.

How does Satan (the adversary) use legalistic Christians to pervert the news of the Saviour's birth and the celebration of the news we are to spread?

The timing we celebrate

Many legalistic Christians say we shouldn't celebrate on December 25th because it falls so close to the winter solstice (December 21st in 2013, 2014, and 2015), which was commonly used to worship pagan Gods.

The truth is—any day is just as good as any other because we do not know what date it was. And if we followed God's calendar, the lunar cycle, the date would change from year to year anyway. It's legalistic to get caught up on a date since it wasn't revealed by God, it is not the "date" that is important to Him. There are plenty of times dates are revealed in the Bible.

The fact is, we do not know exactly what day Yeshua was born on. We can trace back what day he died on. However, the Jewish calendar, (God's calendar) is a lunar one, which means it does not follow closely the Roman one which is in common use today.

Yes, Yeshua was not born in the winter. The fact is we do not know what day or month He was born in. We can narrow it to a season. Roman tax season, which would be April, May or June.

So yes, the middle church picked a date close to the winter solstice to celebrate the Lord's birth. The winter solstice is not on a set date, it changes according to the movement of the sun. It fell on December 21st, 2013 and will fall on December 21st again in 2014. Sooo if you're going to be *legalistic* be aware that Christians are not celebrating it on the pagan celebration day, but four days later.

If Satan can get legalistic Christian to forsake celebrating our Lord's birth, and spreading the joy and peace they were commanded to, then Satan wins. Silencing the church is a work of Satan.

Pagan Elements are Integrated into Christmas

This is the most common argument used against celebrating our Lord's birth.

Who made creation? God.

Who said it was good? God.

What perverted it? Satan, sin.

Romans Chapter 1 is a powerful treaty against those who know God and see the works of His hand, then pervert it, and become "the inventors of evil things" Romans 1:30. Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things

That is what pagans do.

They take the creation and make it into the creator, or assign God's creations unholy meanings and attributes they have never had or were not intended to have.

By saying, "Well, trees were used for pagan purposes so we can't use them now to honor God" is ludicrous. The earthly Ark of the Covenant was made from a tree, so was the cross! A Christmas tree should do the same thing, be a reminder of our Awesome God. Satan stole it for a time with the use of pagan gods who are now forgotten BUT God takes back His creation to be a reminder of His ultimate sacrifice. If God did it by using trees for the ARK and the cross, we should take back His creation and use it for the purposes it was intended for: to scream there is one true God, He is magnificent, and worthy to be praised, and remembered for His humbling Himself to be born of an unwed mother, born in a lowly borrowed barn, and lain in a feeding trough among cow and sheep food.

As Christians we can stand firm and boldly profess that the creation is God's handiwork. If we don't he will replace us with stones! (Keep reading to see what I'm referring to.)

Pharisees were the equivalent of the legalistic Christians we find today.

In the book of Luke we come across an impromptu gathering of Yeshua's followers. They were so happy their Saviour and King was here they threw an impromptu parade and celebration for Him. Waving fronds, lining the road with their cloaks. They were showing their love, joy, praise, and respect for their King. (Just like we do at Christmas!)

And what did the Pharisees say to Jesus about this impromptu celebration?

Luke 19: 39: And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

Interesting point here, the Pharisees admitted (by calling them disciples) that they were doing His will.

What was Jesus' answer to the legalistic Pharisees?

Luke 19:40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

Praising the one true God is never wrong. This can not be stated enough. If you are rebuking someone from worshiping the one true God, you just might be legalistic.

What should Christians do?

1) Use every opportunity to turn people back to God.

2) Remove pagan elements from your celebrations. There's no need for a Santa Claus or an Ishtar bunny. Bring the celebrations back to what God intended. Celebrating Jesus' birth, resurrection, baptism, sacrifice.

3) If you are legalistic, think about Jesus' admonishments. If someone is using an opportunity to praise God, do not be a stumbling block. Praise God even louder, instead.

Satan will use legalism as a tool to turn baby Christians away, and fool weak believers into thinking their righteousness is anything more than filthy rags. Remember, Eph 2:8-9 It is by grace and faith alone, salvation is a gift of God. Law is a mirror to condemn, and you can bet that's what legalistic Christians are using the law for, to condemn others. But when they do, the mirror of the law is condemning them.

Halloween and the Last Great Deception

By Lisa Grace

People believe what they hear. When you repeat falsehoods over and over, people believe it. One bad horror movie with incorrect theology, can re-write the most authoritative book written on the subject, The Holy Scriptures.

For example, on October 30th, 1938, seventy five years ago yesterday, a radio broadcast of a dramatic science fiction story of a Martian invasion called War of the Worlds caused panic up and down the east coast of the United States. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/warofworlds.htm you can listen to the original show here: https://archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns

How foolish to think people really believed we were being invaded by Martians. How could people be so easily deceived? Because they believe what they hear if it appears to be coming from someone with special knowledge.

But that couldn’t happen today, could it?

Well, it is. Right now you can watch television shows, listen to radio programs, buy books, that all teach you, “How to communicate with the dead.” This is last great deception.

Yes, empaths are getting information—from demons! 1/3 of the angels fell, and they can appear to be angels of light. What better disguise than to act as some one’s passed on loved one?

What do all the mediums say?

Go into the light.

Your loved ones are in a better place.

Your loved ones are with you.

They don’t want you to worry.

It doesn’t matter what you believe, when you die, everything will be fine.

This, however, is not what the Bible says.

The prophet Isaiah said it best: (Is 8:19) And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

That’s right. The Bible says to seek God. If you have questions, go to Him. Read His Word. The answers are in there and not in the words of lying spirits.

The mediums themselves are being mis-lead. If they knew their Scriptures, and had an ounce of discernment, they would know this. This is why the Holy Scriptures forbid communicating with “spirits.” The very spirits that want human interaction do so only because their ultimate goal is to lead humans down the wide road, the path of false doctrine and feel good theology.

The penalty of suffering a witch not to live or mediums, because it was better the one die by unwittingly acting as a pawn of the evil ones, than to have them lead many to their destruction. (Ex 22:18);

(Lev 19:31) Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

(Lev 20:6) And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

The warnings go on and on throughout almost every book of the Bible. There are around fifty of them.

The Holy Scriptures give very clear messages over and over:

The dead are dead.

The dead “sleep.”

The dead know nothing.

There is a great gulf between the living and the dead.

When Christ died, He was dead for three days! He did not immediately go up to the Father and heaven. He died. He was DEAD, and He was buried. (1 Cr 15:4)

Only on the third day did He go  up to his Father in heaven. He warned Mary not to touch him, BECAUSE HE had not been to the Father yet. John 2:17 (KJV) Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

And what did Jesus do? He cast out demons. He didn’t sit and talk to them! He wasn’t mis-lead.

The great deception is that so many are willing to talk with the demons (ghosts, i.e. spirits, which are all fallen evil types of angels), which will do nothing but lead them away from the truth. The demons tell just enough truth, so you and the mediums will believe the ultimate lie.

I leave you with this warning: 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (KJV) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

So today, a day most of the world celebrates the evil things in this realm and the next. Get educated, and do not be deceived.

Lisa Grace is the author of the teen Angel Series, which has been optioned for a major movie. You can pick up her first book in the series free through any major ebook retailer, from Smashwords.com in a variety of forms including .pdf and phone apps, or here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052AI5W8