Faith vs. Manmade philosophy (Pgs 35-44)

The struggle between Robert Richardson and Tolbert Fanning is similar to the differences between our nation's Founding Fathers and Thomas Payne (Paine?).  Payne wrote "Common Sense" which embodied all the universal principles that galvinized the American Revolution.  He was a key part of it and was accepted by all of our Founding Fathers.  One of the in crowd...  But around 1790 and the beginnings of the French Revolution Payne attributed the Revolution's success to Man's own ingenuity, self ingenuity and resourcefulness but not to the Lord's Divine Providence.  Payne wrote a series on this philosophy that paralleled the French ideas at the time and guess what?!!!!  Payne was ostricized by the Founding Fathers to a man, and he wasn't even allowed to be buried with any public notoriety.  He was buried in some obscure cow pasture!!!  With Fanning and Richardson, it stacks up to me, that Fanning takes the man made ingenuity and resourcefulness tract while Richardson clings more to Providence with the natural state of The Spirit, only Richardson is the one who becomes ostricized by the Church of Christ Status Quo.  
For lack of a more eloquent argument I'm going to post some ideas that coincide with Richardson's argument, which I totally agree with thus far.

"The Holy Spirit of God is imparted to the believer, really and truly, taking up his abode in his person, as a distinct guest."

Richardson argued against the idea that the Spirit works only through the Word (or Scripture).  {{Its kind of like saying that the only way the Spirit works is by some mystical invocation of the literal written word of scripture.  This demotes the Spirit to the written word in scripture and the scripture itself as only some form of magic spell!!!}}  Richardson rightly asserts that this view "chilled Spiritual vitality and replaced it with a doctrinal formalism."

That last point leads to his conclusion that "some system of human philosophy has insidiously intruded itself, and, like the serpent in Eden, seduced the unwary, by the charms of forbidden knowledge."

Literally, like the Pharisees in Jesus' time, this human philosophy that is spoken of is consistent with the letter and principle of the Law but doesn't come anywhere near the Spirit and appropriate practice of it!!!

Therefore, the Spirit is rendered sterile, absent of Divine Life and energy.

This sterility reduces Christianity to a "mere profession of faith" void of the Spirit's life. 

The most incredible point of it all is that we do it to ourselves, "The contamination of faith with pilosophy is a very subtle business.  No one sets out to do it.  Everyone thinks that his or her "speculations" are simply revealed Bible truths."  {{This explains denominations more clearly to me and reaffirms a belief that I've always had is that the actual Body of Christ is Spiritual and no denomination has cornered that.}}  
         

The Spiritual Journey Today (Paraphrase/Main Points)

There is a huge spiritual hunger that is manifesting today that traditional institutional Christianity can not fulfill.  Humanity is recognizing that all life is at root spiritual, that everything we see is formed and sustained by what we cannot see.  {There is an entire market of Christian books that clearly show this spiritual thirsting; A Journey that I have personally been on for at least the past 7 years.  Titles like, Radical, Finding Organic Church, Unchristian, The Christian Atheist, Pagan Chrisitanity have all attempted to piece together the puzzle to this spiritual void.} 

To fill the void our authors have offered the cause: The collapse of the brass heaven.  Christian intellectuals and apologists have attempted to accommodate the modernist world view by reformulating faith by watering down or banishing its mysteries in order to pass the scientific rationality test.  {Now we have a unique opportunity to restore a proper understanding and application of miracles, the Trinity, divine presence and all such things spiritual that were sacrificed for the modernist perspective.  But we also have to keep in mind that we are competing with secular views of spirituality who are seeking other spiritual answers outside of Christianity due to their mistrust.  We have to understand that one of the reasons for their mistrust is because of our lack of proper teaching.  We appear fragmented with denominations and hypocritical in believing in something such as spiritual issues, by not being able to explain them or habitually practice them...  The bluff that technology will solve all of our problems will also be an obstacle to overcome from those who cling to that worldview.}

@ Lana: If you notice, we will find out more about heaven by reading this book.  Everything we see is formed and sustained by what we cannot see.  That's a start!  Can't wait to read on!!!