A TRUE AND FAITHFUL WITNESS
Are you committed to being a true and faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament Gospel?
TOMMY TENNEY: CHASING UNREVEALED AND MYSTICAL
DEITY by David Sheldon
"The difference between the truth of God and revelation is very simple. Truth
is where God has been. Revelation is where God is. Truth is God's tracks. It
is His trail, His path, but it leads to what? It leads to Him. Perhaps the masses
of people are happy to know where God's been, but true God Chasers are
not content to study God's trail, His truths, they want to know Him. They want
to know where He is and what He is doing right now.....There is a vast
difference between present truth and past truth. I am afraid that most of what
the church has studied is past truth, and very little of what we know is
present truth."
(From the introduction) The God Chasers by Tommy Tenney, Destiny
Image® Publishers Inc., Shippensberg, PA., 1998.
(P.S. It should be noted that Tommy Tenney's roots are in the UPC
denomination. They are Jesus Only or Oneness Pentecostals which
doctrines deny the trinity. As far as can be determined Tenney has never
denied these roots.)
The above quote would seem to be quite an undermining of the authority
and sufficiency of Scripture. Let's see if we can first understand and then
dissect the above statement. First of all, he sets up a false dichotomy
between the truth of God and the revelation of God. The revelation of Holy
Scriptures is the present truth of God. And it is God by His Spirit who is
already present (whether we “feel” any “manifest presence” or not!) to reveal
Himself to us via HIS chosen instrument - the WORD OF GOD. It is not past
truth. It is present truth about the God who PRESENTLY runs HIS universe.
And it is not mystical - it is propositional and objective. It is first of all, God's
self-disclosure, His revelation. This is fixed. God has revealed Himself in the
Bible. This is true whether we believe it or not. And it is in the PRESENT
ministry of the Holy Spirit illumining our minds and hearts to know and
understand God through HIS WORD that we receive the benefit of that
revelation. The entire process that Tenney incorporates actually leads us
away from the pursuit of the true God and into a pursuing of some deity who
wants to make his “presence” known to us based upon our own pursuit. And
the outcome is manifest in some sort of “feeling” of his presence based on
either personal experience or intuition or, if a group of people get together
and do this, corporate delusion. So one can simply ask the question: How
and Where does Tenney expect us to know this supposed present truth? It
would seem his answer is through a mystical experience of manifest deity -
and not the Spirit through the Word (because that is “past truth” i.e. old and
out of date). Tenney's above statement is not “what is wrong with what the
church has studied as past truth” - it is what is wrong with the new manifest-
presence approach to deity via mysticism (either apart from or beyond the
Word) by those who were proponents of the Signs & Wonders Movement,
and the Third Wave and now are the supposed New Apostles and Prophets.
Copyright, David Sheldon, 2006, all rights reserved.
Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89
The sum of Thy word is truth, And every one of Thy righteous ordinances is
everlasting. Psalm 119:160
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God....And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth. John 1:1,14
Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth,...” John 14:6a
Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. John 17:17
(If you read through I Corinthians 1-4 you will notice how Paul can very easily
go from a statement in I Cor. 2:10 about the ministry of the Spirit to a
statement in
I Cor. 4:6 about not exceeding what is written.)
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB
For another article on Tommy Tenney and this issue: Go here.
For More Articles Like This Go To: www.atrueandfaithfulwitness.com
DEITY by David Sheldon
"The difference between the truth of God and revelation is very simple. Truth
is where God has been. Revelation is where God is. Truth is God's tracks. It
is His trail, His path, but it leads to what? It leads to Him. Perhaps the masses
of people are happy to know where God's been, but true God Chasers are
not content to study God's trail, His truths, they want to know Him. They want
to know where He is and what He is doing right now.....There is a vast
difference between present truth and past truth. I am afraid that most of what
the church has studied is past truth, and very little of what we know is
present truth."
(From the introduction) The God Chasers by Tommy Tenney, Destiny
Image® Publishers Inc., Shippensberg, PA., 1998.
(P.S. It should be noted that Tommy Tenney's roots are in the UPC
denomination. They are Jesus Only or Oneness Pentecostals which
doctrines deny the trinity. As far as can be determined Tenney has never
denied these roots.)
The above quote would seem to be quite an undermining of the authority
and sufficiency of Scripture. Let's see if we can first understand and then
dissect the above statement. First of all, he sets up a false dichotomy
between the truth of God and the revelation of God. The revelation of Holy
Scriptures is the present truth of God. And it is God by His Spirit who is
already present (whether we “feel” any “manifest presence” or not!) to reveal
Himself to us via HIS chosen instrument - the WORD OF GOD. It is not past
truth. It is present truth about the God who PRESENTLY runs HIS universe.
And it is not mystical - it is propositional and objective. It is first of all, God's
self-disclosure, His revelation. This is fixed. God has revealed Himself in the
Bible. This is true whether we believe it or not. And it is in the PRESENT
ministry of the Holy Spirit illumining our minds and hearts to know and
understand God through HIS WORD that we receive the benefit of that
revelation. The entire process that Tenney incorporates actually leads us
away from the pursuit of the true God and into a pursuing of some deity who
wants to make his “presence” known to us based upon our own pursuit. And
the outcome is manifest in some sort of “feeling” of his presence based on
either personal experience or intuition or, if a group of people get together
and do this, corporate delusion. So one can simply ask the question: How
and Where does Tenney expect us to know this supposed present truth? It
would seem his answer is through a mystical experience of manifest deity -
and not the Spirit through the Word (because that is “past truth” i.e. old and
out of date). Tenney's above statement is not “what is wrong with what the
church has studied as past truth” - it is what is wrong with the new manifest-
presence approach to deity via mysticism (either apart from or beyond the
Word) by those who were proponents of the Signs & Wonders Movement,
and the Third Wave and now are the supposed New Apostles and Prophets.
Copyright, David Sheldon, 2006, all rights reserved.
Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89
The sum of Thy word is truth, And every one of Thy righteous ordinances is
everlasting. Psalm 119:160
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God....And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth. John 1:1,14
Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth,...” John 14:6a
Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. John 17:17
(If you read through I Corinthians 1-4 you will notice how Paul can very easily
go from a statement in I Cor. 2:10 about the ministry of the Spirit to a
statement in
I Cor. 4:6 about not exceeding what is written.)
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB
For another article on Tommy Tenney and this issue: Go here.
For More Articles Like This Go To: www.atrueandfaithfulwitness.com
HOME
Rick Warren
Forty Days: False Gospel
Forty Days: A Closer Look
Forty Days: Which Jesus?
PDL: God's Wisdom
PDL: Exalting the Fallen Creation
PDL: A Purpose-Shaped
Worldview
Antichrist
Will Antichrist Be Revealed
Before the Tribulation?
The Great Harlot
"Mystery" Babylon
"Emerging" Church
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 1
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 2
Church Growth Movement
Schuller, Hybels & Warren
Review of Schuller's "Self-Esteem"
False Apostles, False
Prophets, False Revival
River of Seducing Spirits
Spiritual Warfare Script
Deception of Spiritual Warfare
Flags & Banners...Spiritual Power
Tools?
Davidic Warfare/Worship?
Jesus of the "Signs" Now the
"Christ" of Apostolic Government
Mystical Christianity?
Tenney's Mystical Deity Chase
Richard Foster: Quaker Mystic?
Willard and "The Way of Jesus"
What Oswald Chambers
Might Have Thought About
Todays "Christianity"
Rick Warren
Forty Days: False Gospel
Forty Days: A Closer Look
Forty Days: Which Jesus?
PDL: God's Wisdom
PDL: Exalting the Fallen Creation
PDL: A Purpose-Shaped
Worldview
Antichrist
Will Antichrist Be Revealed
Before the Tribulation?
The Great Harlot
"Mystery" Babylon
"Emerging" Church
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 1
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 2
Church Growth Movement
Schuller, Hybels & Warren
Review of Schuller's "Self-Esteem"
False Apostles, False
Prophets, False Revival
River of Seducing Spirits
Spiritual Warfare Script
Deception of Spiritual Warfare
Flags & Banners...Spiritual Power
Tools?
Davidic Warfare/Worship?
Jesus of the "Signs" Now the
"Christ" of Apostolic Government
Mystical Christianity?
Tenney's Mystical Deity Chase
Richard Foster: Quaker Mystic?
Willard and "The Way of Jesus"
What Oswald Chambers
Might Have Thought About
Todays "Christianity"