A very, very important subject...

You may have, even if just in a side-glancing way, seen me involved in doctrinal battles with certain types and movements (Federal Vision, New Perspective on Paul, Auburn Avenue Theology -- and throw in Roman Catholicism because it's all the same) on my Puritan blog and elsewhere. Here is a review of a book written in the 1600s that is about the exact same thing that is happening today:

http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/articles/article_detail.php?1098

The subject is justification.

In Work terms this is what this is all about: the devil wants everybody to be and STAY asleep and be slaves in his kingdom. The devil knows how people awaken (in Work terms it is development of magnetic center and in Christian terms it is the internal 'turning' that is what conversion basically is. ('Turning' is a word that defines repentance. Faith and repentance are the two principal things involved in conversion.)

To truly 'turn' internally from (in Work terms) self-will to Real Will (and in Christian terms from self-will to God's will) you have to realize you can't do it. In Work terms "man cannot do". In Christian terms, total inability. This, in Work and in Christian doctrine, is the very difficult-to-accept reality of going from acting 'bottom up' to acting 'top down'.

The Protestant Reformation lit the Christian world on fire by recovering the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. No works done by you can save you. Only faith in the works performed by Christ - your federal head (just as fallen Adam is your federal head when you are dead in sin) - can justify you before the Judge that is God the Father.

If you rely on your own works, to any degree, you are saying, basically, I despise the grace of God and the work of Christ. I.e. you havn't 'turned' internally from vanity, pride, and self-will to faith, repentance, and Real Will (or God's will).

So, just as in Work environments there are a thousand voices of people who teach against the true teaching of the Work and are active to keep people from the real truth of the Work (basically to make you think the Work is all about doing things that correspond basically to what you find in any other worldly environment like new age teachings, i.e. all idol worship and resentment and self-will and vanity and worldly pride and etc.; and "you are awake now, there is nothing you have to do, you have done it" and confusing everything like this to basically keep people in the power of the illusions of the world and so on) there are similar forces constantly at work within Christian environment (especially where the truth is being taught) that do the same thing. And their attack in always, one way or another, on the doctrine of justification. The Bible teaches: justification by faith alone. Period. The false teachers who want people to remain in the devil's kingdom teach: justification by faith AND works. This is deadly poison. They do this from myriad angles of doctrinal attack (but if you have the Spirit of Discernment in you you can see them coming and doing their thing very easily).

This can all sound like intellectual games, but it's not. It's about conversion itself. It's about that crucial internal 'turning' from self-will to Real Will (or God's will) without which you remain dead in the kingdom of Satan.

It's a battle that has been being waged from the beginning. It has broken out in our time in a big way since 2002. A big way because the devil's side has been working for decades withing the only camp that has been faithfully teaching the true doctrine of justification and they have recently decided to 'come out' and make a push for power within the Calvinist/Reformed camp. They are pure devils to debate or do battle against because they use ALL the tactics associated with post-modern, 'words have no meaning', sophistic, talking out of both sides of their mouth types. They literally have no shame. They will say anything. They will brazenly say anything to dupe the few in a crowd even when they know the majority can see them lying and being devils. (You see this in the political realms too.)

And just remember that this is practical, tangible business with the greatest of stakes. That internal 'turning' is what this is all about. When a person 'turns' internally from vanity, worldly pride, and self-will to faith, repentance, and Real Will (or God's will) the devil loses another prisoner (and his time is shortened). Much of what all this is merely the devil playing for time (because that really is all he can do).

ps- In part of the above I may have been confusing (when I said part of what the Work 'devils' do is say you don't have to make efforts): real Work effort is not self-will effort but is Real Will effort. It can only be done once a person has developed magnetic center and hence is ABLE to make real efforts. It's the same with 'works' in Christianity. Good works can only be done ON A FOUNDATION of justification (and conversion), and they don't have anything to do with that foundation. Paul states you build your structure on the foundation of justification and that structure will be tried by fire and some people's structures will burn and some will withstand the fire, yet in no cases will anybody lose their salvation because the foundation itself - justification by faith alone - can't burn. The devils want you to be WITHOUT that eternal foundation. They want to keep you from 'turning' internally. They want you to think your works themselves are the foundation of justification. That kind of foundation is useless, and the devil knows it. And, again, this is all spoken as abstract, intellectual doctrine, but it has practical, tangible reality when you see it in terms of conversion itself (or, in Work terms, all that goes into developing Magnetic Center to the degree that you literally come alive and are in a new state).