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Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible Teaches that Despite Faith We Will Inevitably Fail

Renovare: In Spite of Our Faith in God, We Will Inevitably Fail

Shocking is the defeatism of the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible: “Third, in spite of our faith in God, we will inevitably fail.” (Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, p. 11). This is fatalism, defeatism.

The Faith of Jesus That Does Not Fail

God intends that we have ‘the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12), a faith that never falters or fails. “The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger, --a faith that will not faint, though severely tried.” YI 7-12-84.

Renovare Falsely Calls Abraham’s Faith a “Lone Ranger” Faith

Looking down on Abraham’s experience, as “a family without a law, a priesthood, or a national identity,” the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible declares, “For reasons beyond his control, Abraham’s was a ‘Lone Ranger’ faith.” (Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, p. 11).

Renovare has three great falsehoods here.

1)      Abraham’s family was without a law;

2)      Abraham’s family was without a priesthood;

3)      Abraham’s family had no national identity.

Abraham Had the Law of God

Renovare’s position is all falsehood. Abraham and his family had the law of God. God declared, “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept my charge, My commandments, My statues, and My laws.” Genesis 26:5. “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment…” Genesis 18:19. “Abraham recognized the fact that Jehovah had a law, and he determined that he would keep the law as the apple of his eye.” ST 11-14-95.

Abraham Was Priest of His Home

In the Patriarchal times, the father was the priest of the household. “In early times the father was the ruler and priest of his own family, and he exercised authority over his children, even after they had families of their own. His descendants were taught to look up to him as their head, in both religious and secular matters.

This patriarchal system of government Abraham endeavored to perpetuate, as it tended to preserve the knowledge of God.”  PP 141. “The life of Abraham, the friend of God, was signalized by a strict regard for the word of the Lord. He cultivated home religion. The fear of God pervaded his household. He was the priest of his household.” CC 49.

Abraham Had National Identity

As to national identity, God declared, “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do: Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation…? Genesis 18: 17, 18. “Thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Genesis 17:5. “The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath unto Isaac, And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a statue, To Israel for an everlasting covenant, Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, The lot of your inheritance.” Psalms 105: 9-11. In Jesus day the Jews identified their national identity as being “of Abraham’s seed:” “They answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed.” John 8:33.

Thus, Abraham had the law, a priesthood, and a national identity.

Abraham’s Faith is the Faith of All the Saved

If Abraham had a “Lone Ranger” faith, then all who are saved will also have a “Lone Ranger” faith, for the great apostle Paul tells us, “And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

“And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised…

“Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all.” Romans 4: 11, 12, 16.

James: Abraham an Example of True Faith

But James declares, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

“Seest thou haw faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

“And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God.” James 2: 21-23.

It would appear that those who put together this Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible were so intent upon promoting the Jesuit concepts of Spiritual Formation that they failed to read the Bible itself.

Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible Is Taking Its Readers Back to Rome

It is clear where the authors of the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible are taking the reader. Of Abraham, they write, “Although they built altars, they had no temple, no rituals, no ordered means of forgiveness manifested through a community of praise.” Well, neither did Christ establish on earth a temple. As rituals, of course, Rome loves ritual, and their “ordered means of forgiveness manifested through a community of praise.” What does a community of praise have to do with the forgiveness of God?Abraham had all the forgiveness he needed from Christ Himself. Obviously, this Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible is designed to take the reader right back to Roman Catholicism.

Here I Stand, Alone Under God

Why is it important to understand the truth regarding the nature of religion being an individual relationship between the soul and God? Because that is the nature of discipleship-Come, follow Me, hating all else. That is the nature of the Protestant Reformation-Martin Luther’s breakthrough came when he understood that he could be justified by faith alone. Because at the time of the end, you may be thrown into a dungeon alone, you may be in a cave alone, and you need to know that what is necessary is that your soul is right with God, as an individual.

Rome: Social, Not Individual

Once again for perspective, the Jesuit John L. McKenzie, S.J., opens his book The Roman Catholic Church, with these words: “Religion is a social phenomenon; that is, it is a function of man in society and not of the individual person.” –John L. McKenzie, S.J., The Roman Catholic Church. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969, p. 1. This is the secret of the formation of Rome’s ideologies of collectivism, socialism, feudalism, Marxism, etc. They are rest on concept that the fundamental determinant of human life is social, not individual. Even Rome’s concept of persecution is that the diseased part, namely the heretic, must be exterminated from the body politic of the social fabric.

Freedom Rests Upon the Concept of Individuality

All of the development of freedom in Anglo-Saxon Common Law and Constitutional Law rests upon the concept of the individuality of man, the concept of the state of nature, for instance, in Locke. This individuality, which rests in discipleship of Christ, is the basis of human freedom. The fundamental element is the union between the soul and Christ by faith.

Adam, Elijah, John the Baptist, Jesus on the Cross

We ask, What about Adam when he was alone on earth? What about Elijah, when he was alone at the brook of Cherith? When he practiced his faith for three and half year’s underground? What about John the Baptist, who made the decision to separate even from his family when very young to grow up in the wilderness with the tutelage of God alone? Of John the Baptist Jesus said that no one greater than he had been born of woman. His faith was in direct conflict with society-with established religion. What about those cast into solitary confinement for decades in the Inquisition for their faith? What about Jesus on the Cross-? Where was the social element there? What about Jesus and his followers who were excommunicated from the Jewish religious establishment? What about John the Revelator on the isle of Patmos?

John Knox: From the Eternal God Alone

John Knox declared before the queen of Scotland: “As right religion took neither original strength nor authority from worldly princes, but from the eternal God alone, so are not subjects bound to frame their religion according to the appetites of their princes. For oft it is that princes are the most ignorant of all others in God’s true religion… If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what religion would there have been in the world? Or of all men in the days of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, what religion would there have been upon the face of the earth?… And so, madam, ye perceive that subjects are not bound to the religion of their princes, albeit they are commanded to give them obedience.” GC 250, 251. 

Luther: I Am Alone

“To the reproaches of his enemies, who taunted him with the weakness of his cause, Luther answered: “Who knows if God has not chosen and called me to perform this needed work, and if these babblers ought not to fear that by despising me, they despise God Himself? They say I am alone; no, for Jehovah is with me. In their sense, Moses was alone at the departure from Egypt; Elijah was alone in the reign of King Ahab; Isaiah was alone in Jerusalem; Ezekiel was alone in Babylon. Hear this, O Rome: God never selected as a prophet either the high priest or any great personage; but rather, he chose low and despised men, once even the shepherd Amos. In every age the saints have been compelled to rebuke kings, princes, recreant priests, and wise men at the peril of their lives.” “I do not say that I also am a prophet; but I do say that they ought to fear precisely because I am alone, while on the side of the oppressor are numbers caste, wealth, and mocking letters. Yes, I am alone; but I stand serene, because side by side with me is the Word of God; and with all their boasted numbers, this, the greatest of powers, is not with them.” GC88 142.

The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible declares that “Abraham embodied the prayer of Thomas a Kempis.” (p. 37.), thus seeking to link Abraham with a Roman Catholic monk who was “widely sought after as a spiritual advisor.” (Oxford Dictionary. Of the Christian Church).

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