[Choose Ye This Day]

1. Are Christians the only one who can feel the influence of the Holy Spirit? Are Christians the only ones who can learn and understand Truth, even a portion of it?

2. There's nothing wrong with Psychology that Christianity can't fix. Professor Willard is merely stating that it is helpful to understand the imperfect workings of the biological brain so that we can better help God's children to learn by the Spirit.

3. I think you need to more fully read Professor Willard's statement in context.

In short, in this article Willard is stating that we must learn to become like Christ, to transform our thoughts and actions so that they conform to His. That is the MAIN point of the article. Would you care to comment on the MAIN point?

[Cvengr]

I've read about one third of the article and scanned the rest.

My impression is that the term 'spiritual formation' refers to the continuing sanctification of the believer who daily intakes 'pistis' translated as doctrine or faith.

The believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and also by Jesus Christ while in fellowship with God, a status which never occurred to believers prior to the Church Age. The indwelling, also referred to as the 'Shekinah' in the Hebrew, was explained regarding the dwelling of the Lord in the Tabernacle. The Shekinah is an invisible presence, while the glory of God was the manifestation, such as the pillar of fire or the cloud about the Temple. The Hebrew would refer to the double element of the presence and the visible manifestation as the "Shekinah glory".

After the crucifiction, the temple shroud between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, in the Temple was rent in two. The body of the believer today is the temple for this same indwelling or "Shekinah".

Our continued sanctification is a continual growth in our souls or our thinking processes, frequently described in Scripture as the relationship between the heart and the soul.

In this respect, I suspect the author is on the right track, but I haven't yet followed through the specifics of the presente doctrine to verify its Scriptural concurrance.

Good post though.

[Warlord David]

The main point is fine. It just the path one take to reach the objective.

And yes Christian are the only one to know the truth and have the Holy Spirit. John 4:23,24 For man is spiritual dead, just as real as being physical dead, get it.

But not everyone who says Lord, Lord will not enter heaven either. Matt 7:21-24 Go figure and the Lord may have mercy on you!!!!!!!!!!

And the ways of God are higher than the ways of man. Theology vs Psychology Isaiah 55:6-9 There nothing to redeem in something as dead as psychology.

Consider these thing before speaking, for every idle word spoken you shall answer for, before God. Matt. 12:36