The “Enthusiasts'' of Church History: From Montanists to Modern Day ``Prophets''

White Horse Inn

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Grace, Scripture, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, God, Knowledge, Christ, Gospel, Jesus, Faith, Belief, Religion, Christian, History, Theology, Bible, Reformation, Horton, Discipleship

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🗓️ 5 May 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

Martin Luther once said that, “Adam was the first enthusiast,” and by “enthusiast” he doesn’t mean someone who is enthusiastic. The philosophy of enthusiasm is “god-within-ism,” a belief and tendency to pit internal spirituality versus external texts, institutions, and authorities. In this episode, Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Walter Strickland, and Bob Hiller discuss how this “god-within-ism” has appeared in the church, from Montanists, to medieval monks, radical figures in the Reformation, Enlightenment philosophers, and contemporary movements today.

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Featuring: Michael Horton, Bob Hiller, Walter Strickland, and Justin Holcomb

Transcript

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0:17.7	And then eventually they write their own scriptures that say, you know what, it isn't true what they tell you at church. It isn't true what they tell you at church. It isn't true that Paul said X Y and Z. It is not true Jesus supposedly telling people these things. It is not true that I really had a physical body. And that's one of the things
0:25.9	John is picking up. You mentioned first John. Whoever says Jesus has not come in the flesh is
0:31.9	Antichrist. He doesn't mess around there. has not come in the flesh is anti-Christ.
0:33.3	He doesn't mess around there.
0:35.0	What we're dealing with here with enthusiasm
0:37.6	is really an inability, and we really see this
0:40.3	with the Anabaptists, An inability to see the incarnation is real, to see God
0:47.1	actually becoming flesh. They believe that he took his humanity, not from the Virgin Mary but from heaven it wasn't really
0:54.9	human flesh he wasn't really creaturely it's because of this dualism this
1:00.5	Gnostic dualism between physical stuff and spiritual stuff and this is exactly in every
1:07.6	age what you get with enthusiasm. applying the riches of the Reformation to the modern church, this is Whitehorse Sin, a weekly
1:27.6	roundtable discussion about theology and culture. Radical and a Baptist leader Thomas Munster boldly challenged Martin Luther, asserting his superiority
1:47.4	through a higher word of divine revelation that transcends mere rhetoric that, quote, merely beats the air.
1:54.0	Referred to by the reformers as enthusiasm.
1:57.0	Munster's approach placed an inner spiritual revelation
2:01.0	supposedly by the spirit over the authoritative external word of scripture.
2:06.0	Looking at 2 Corinthians 3, Paul's contrast between letter and spirit delineates the law's role,
2:12.2	apart from the gospel, as a ministry of death.
2:14.9	In the gospel, which serves as the spirit's means for justifying and regenerating
2:19.3	sinners. Despite Paul's intended contrast, Gnostics, enthusiasts, and mystics across generations have misinterpreted his terminology,
2:28.0	positing a division between the text of scripture, letter, an esoteric inner spiritual knowledge, spirit.
2:36.2	And this was not just a phenomenon in the reformation.
	...

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