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Every Christian struggles with sin and wants to be victorious in the fight.Higher life theology--also known as Keswick theology--offers a quick fix for this struggle. It teaches that there are two categories of Christians: those who are merely saved, and those who have really surrendered to Christ. Those who have Jesus as their Savior alone, and those who have him as their Master as well. If Christians can simply "let go and let God" they can be free of struggling with sin and brought to that higher level of spiritual life. What could be wrong with that?A lot, it turns out. In No Quick Fix, a shorter and more accessible version of his book Let Go and Let God?, Naselli critiques higher life theology from a biblical perspective. He shows that it leads not to freedom, but to frustration, because it promises something it has no power to deliver. Along the way, he tells the story of where higher life theology came from, describes its characteristics, and compares it to what the Bible really says about how we overcome sin and become more like Christ.

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Christianity

Theology

Christian theology

Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Lexham Press
Date de parution	30 août 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781577997283
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	7 Mo

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NO QUICK FIX
Where Higher Life Theology Came From,
What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful
Andrew David Naselli
No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful
Copyright 2017 Andrew David Naselli
Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
LexhamPress.com
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at permissions@lexhampress.com .
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version , copyright © 2001 by Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Print ISBN 9781683590460
Digital ISBN 9781577997283
Lexham Editorial Team: Elliot Ritzema, Jennifer Edwards
Cover Design: Bryan Hintz
To Jenni,
My second blessing
Contents
List of Figures
Introduction
PART 1: Where Higher Life Theology Came From and What It Is
Chapter 1
What Is the Story of Higher Life Theology?
Chapter 2
What Is Higher Life Theology?
PART 2: Why Higher Life Theology Is Harmful
Chapter 3
The Fundamental Reason Higher Life Theology Is Harmful
Chapter 4
Nine More Reasons Higher Life Theology Is Harmful
Conclusion
Afterword by John MacArthur
Appendix: A More Excellent Way: Recommended Resources on the Christian Life
Acknowledgments
Subject and Name Index
Index of Scripture
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1. Where Did Higher Life Theology Come From?
Fig. 1.2. The Wesleyan View of Sanctification
Fig. 1.3. The Pentecostal View of Sanctification
Fig. 1.4. Chafer’s Two Categories of Christians: Carnal and Spiritual
Fig. 1.5. The Chaferian View of Sanctification
Fig. 1.6. Ryrie’s Contrast between Spirit-Baptism and Spirit-Filling
Fig. 2.1. “A Spiritual Clinic”: The Early Keswick Convention’s Progressive Teaching
Fig. 2.2. Illustrations of Counteracting Sin
Fig. 2.3. Two Categories of Christians
Fig. 2.4. The Higher Life (or Keswick) View of Sanctification
Fig. 2.5. Illustrations of Sanctification as a Crisis Followed by a Process
Fig. 2.6. Illustrations of Appropriating the Gift of Sanctification
Fig. 2.7. Illustrations of Spirit-Filling
Fig. 3.1. Higher Life Theology vs. the New Testament
Fig. 3.2. Three Tenses of Sanctification
Fig. 3.3. Contrasts between Justification and Progressive Sanctification
Fig. 3.4. Phrase Diagram of Romans 6:1–23
Fig. 3.5. Phrase Diagram of 1 Corinthians 2:6–3:4
Fig. 3.6. Translations of Key Words in 1 Corinthians 2:14–15; 3:1, 3
Fig. 3.7. Two Categories in Which All Humans Fit
Fig. 3.8. The Reformed View of Progressive Sanctification
Fig. 3.9. Illustrations of Content vs. Means
Fig. 3.10. The Components of Jesus’ Metaphor in John 15
Fig. 3.11. Explaining John 15:4 with 15:7, 9–10
Fig. 4.1. Illustrations of How Christians Must Become What They Are
Fig. 4.2. Degrees of Assurance
Introduction
It is not much of a recommendation when all you can say is that this teaching may help you if you do not take its details too seriously. It is utterly damning to have to say, as in this case I think we must, that if you do take its details seriously, it will tend not to help you but to destroy you. 1
That’s what the influential theologian J. I. Packer wrote about higher life theology. It has harmed many people—including me.

I TRIED TO “LET GO AND LET GOD”
I’m not sure when God first enabled me to turn from my sins and trust Jesus. I probably became a Christian when I was eight or twelve years old. In my teen years, I deeply desired to be holy. I wanted to serve God with my heart and soul and mind and strength. I didn’t want to waste my life.
When I shared my Christian “testimony” in my high school and early college years, I would say something like this: “God saved me from my sins when I was eight years old, and I surrendered to Christ when I was thirteen.” By “saved,” I meant Jesus became my Savior, and I became a Christian. By “surrendered,” I meant I dedicated myself to Jesus—I finally gave full control of my life to Jesus as my Master and yielded to do whatever he wanted me to do.
Most of the Christians I knew—especially preachers—used those categories, so I did, too. Young people in my youth groups or at summer camp commonly told their stories the same way: “I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was eight years old, and I accepted Christ as my Lord when I was thirteen.” That was the standard God-talk lingo.
There were always two steps: first you get saved ; then you get serious . Too many of us Christians were saved but not serious. We were living a lower life rather than a higher life, a shallow life rather than a deeper life, a defeated life rather than a victorious life, a fruitless life rather than a more abundant life. We were “carnal,” not “spiritual.” We experienced the first blessing but still needed the second blessing. Jesus was our Savior, but he still wasn’t our Master. So preachers urged us to make Jesus our Master. How? Through surrender and faith: “Let go and let God.”
The small Bible college I attended as an undergraduate was a ministry of my church, and preachers in my college and church took this carnal-spiritual dichotomy to another level. It became their primary focus and distinctive passion. Whether the text was from Exodus, Jeremiah, Matthew, or Revelation, nearly every sermon had the same application to Christians: Be Spirit-filled. That’s the key.
At first, I genuinely tried to go along with the program, but it just didn’t work for me. During my freshman and sophomore years of college, I became frustrated, then disillusioned, and then suspicious. I became frustrated because I still struggled with sin. I became disillusioned because higher life theology seemed too good to be true. And I became suspicious because this teaching didn’t seem to fit with what I was reading in the Bible.
I appealed to one of my former pastors for guidance, and he guided me safely through this storm. He recommended books, articles, sermons, and syllabi from his seminary, and I devoured them. By the time I was a senior in college, my school’s president and vice president nearly expelled me for not embracing their two-tiered view of Christian living.

EVALUATING HIGHER LIFE THEOLOGY
I entered graduate school with this issue on my front burner. I wanted to go deeper, so I wrote several research papers related to the topic as I completed an MA in Bible and then worked on a PhD in theology. I met more and more people who were victims of higher life theology, and I became aware of even more people who continued to propagate it.
So when it came time to choose a dissertation topic, I decided to evaluate higher life theology. I wrote a dissertation that surveys the history and theology of that two-tiered view of progressive sanctification and then analyzes it. 2 Then I lightly revised that dissertation as a book for Lexham Press: Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology . 3
This book is a miniature version of my more detailed and academic work Let Go and Let God? I have stripped out most of the academic jargon and repackaged it to make it more inviting for thoughtful lay people. 4 For example, I usually use the term higher life theology instead of Keswick theology since higher life theology is a more intuitive label. I also want to be careful to distinguish higher life theology from the Keswick Convention today. 5 (By the way, Keswick is pronounced KEH-zick. The w is silent.)
I have become more and more convinced that the “let go and let God” approach to Christian living is a quick fix. A quick fix , according to the Oxford English Dictionary , is “a quick and easy remedy or solution”—or negatively, “an expedient but temporary solution which fails to address underlying problems.” That’s what I think higher life theology is—an easy but temporary remedy or solution that fails to address underlying problems. And that’s why the title of this book is No Quick Fix .

WHY IS HIGHER LIFE THEOLOGY SO POPULAR?
My story is not unique. Hundreds of Christians have shared their stories with me about how higher life theology has harmed them. I have tried to do my part to drive a nail in the coffin of higher life theology, but higher life theology is by no means dead. So if higher life theology is so harmful, why is it so popular?
It is pervasive because countless people have propagated it in so many ways, especially in sermons and devotional writings. It is appealing because Christians struggle with sin and want to be victorious in that struggle—now. Higher life theology offers a quick fix to this struggle, and its shortcut to instant victory appeals to people who genuinely desire to be holy.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
This book is for you if you have a form of higher life theology in your background. You may embrace higher life theology enthusiastically; you may embrace it unknowingly; you may know there’s something not right about it but can’t clearly explain why; or you may reject it and would like to analyze it more penetratingly.
This book is also for you if you don’t have a form of higher life theology in your background. Higher life theology is so widespread that you will be able to serve your brothers and sisters in Christ better if you understand what it is and why it’s dangerous.
A silver lining of theological controversy is that it can help you refine how you understand what the Bible teaches. In this case, analyzing higher life theology will help you better understand the Christian life.

HOW THIS BOOK EVALUATES HIGHER LIFE THEOLOGY
This book has two parts. Part 1 tells the story of higher life theology (chap. 1 ) and explains what it is (chap. 2 ). Part 2 evaluates whether higher life theology agrees with the Bible (chaps. 3–4 ).
My goal is not to make you an arrogant know-it-all who pugnaciously goes on higher life theology witch hunts. My goal is to edify you by