A Summary of the Heretical Teaching Known As
“ModeleticsTM.”
In his book Modeling God, John Lenhart proposes a framework and a belief
system he calls “ModeleticsTM.”
This teaching is heretical to its core. Here is an overview of his false
teaching along with some quotes from his book and website.
1.
He
teaches that God is a non-omniscient, non-sovereign
deity.
“We see proof throughout
the Bible that God can’t unilaterally initiate His will.”
“God doesn’t know how much
each of us needs until we’ve made choices…. God doesn’t know which people are going
to need the value until after they have expressed their will to focus on the
spiritual over the physical.
Therefore, God could not justly identify that exact amount ahead of
time.”
“Sovereignty" is a man-made tradition that makes the Word
of God of NONE EFFECT.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
2.
He teaches that Jesus is not fully God in his
fundamental essence and nature.
Rather, he becomes God as he
chooses to act righteously.
“The only way for God to
bridge this gap between His nature and our nature was for there to exist a being
that had free will and chose to be righteous and just in everything he did. This would make this person fully
God because he is always completely righteous and always completely
just….
This is how Jesus is able to be fully man and
fully God. (Notice, Jesus’ father
being God and his mother being a human would only make him half man and half
God.)” (Emphasis
mine.)
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
3.
He teaches that sin is relative to the individual and
not the breaking of God’s objective and revealed standard.
“Therefore, sin is anything
we do that does not look Long Term.
Sin is an action, attitude, or thought that is wrong because it is done apart from understanding
and experience. That is, anything done apart from what the individual
knows is right due to their understanding or experience.” (emphasis
mine)
“This [sin] is not a list of objective actions, like
the law. It is dependent on the individual. If it is wrong for the individual, then
it is sin for the individual alone.” (emphasis
mine)
As a result of this idea
the sin is relative to the individual, Lenhart
writes…
“It is not our
responsibility to point out what is sin in other people… Sin causes guilt. If it is sin for the individual, the
individual will feel guilt.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
4.
He teaches that salvation by grace must be earned, it is
not the unmerited favor of God manifested in Christ’s death on the cross which paid our debt of
sin.
“When you ask most people
their definition of grace, their answer is ‘unmerited favor.’”
He then goes on to debunk
this notion, mocking it as a “golden key” definition which must be
rejected.
“When a person does wrong,
they have to pay… This ‘golden key’
definition says the person pays (and continues to pay) with the unmerited value
they received from God. Now that
their debt is paid and they are righteous, they can go to heaven. This actually raises a lot of
questions….
“…Obviously, this ‘golden
key’ definition of grace makes no sense…”
“Unmerited favor is not a
cause of righteousness and therefore has no power to save us.”
And why is grace not
“unmerited favor?” Listen to
Lenhart’s deduction from his previously deduced conceptualization of God’s
justice.
“Justice says we are still
going to have to pay for this value we get from God. God may give us value to pay for sins
here, but we still need to reimburse
God.” (emphasis
mine)
“The ‘golden key’
definition of grace puts the responsibility on God. The New Testament definition of grace puts the responsibility on the
individual.” (emphasis
mine)
“We have control over grace
and removing guilt.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
5.
He denies there is a point at which one receives Christ
and enters into a saving relationship with God.
“The ‘golden key’
definitions looked at salvation as a one-time event…However, we know you aren’t
saved yet.”
“Essentially salvation is a
process that depends on progress, not a quantitative threshold.”
“If I were working for the
enemy, I would tell people I was a Christian and all they had to do was say they
believed in Jesus… I’d tell them
the ‘golden key’ concept – they were saved by unmerited favor no matter what
they felt or how illogical it appeared….
First of all, this would cause the ‘convert’ not to receive
salvation.”
“Salvation is not a one
time event.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
6.
He teaches that one does not need to have personal faith
in a real and living Jesus.
According to Lenhart, there are multiple ways of being saved, all of
which depend on human behavior and intent.
“If we were to put a name
to the process [of salvation], it would be Jesus, because He made it possible
for us to receive the value. There
is ‘none other name’ that can be correctly placed in this process. However, a person doesn’t have to know the name of
Jesus in order to receive the value [of salvation]. The quoted verse that opens this chapter
does not say it is the only method.
It says it is a sure way of making it to heaven.” (emphasis
mine)
“Everyone can benefit from
these causes regardless of religious
affiliation. It would be unholy
for someone to intentionally make progress and be barred [at death] from
continuing on the journey because they didn’t recognize the brand name [Jesus]
on the process. In fact, the
‘golden key’ belief in the name only leads to the biggest problem in the
salvation process.” (emphasis
mine)
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
7.
He teaches works salvation, as in working the formula
and process Lenhart lays out. This
formula significantly sidelines the cross.
“We know that progress is a
result that depends on the individual’s decision to pursue growth in grace and
faith. This decision is an expression of the
will of the individual and causes the
individual to be saved when he dies.
Going back to our party
analogy, when a person dies, it is up to God whether he gets to continue the
journey or not. If people want to
get to the party, they are going to choose to make progress towards the party
instead of looking for short-term thrills by driving on roads that take them
away from the party.
If the person should die while they are trying to make
progress towards the party, the individual is saved… It would
be unholy for God to do something against the will of the
individual.
If people die while they are intentionally driving away
from the party, then they are not saved, even if they said they wanted to go to the party while
they were driving away from it.
Even if they spend their entire life driving toward the party, if they
are choosing to drive away when they die, God will not allow them to continue
the journey….
As long as you are moving
forward when you die, no matter how slowly, it would be unholy for God to bar
you from continuation of the journey.” (emphasis
mine)
(Interestingly, in a 230
page book about a theology of salvation, I found just a couple of paragraphs
connecting the cross to salvation.)
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
8.
He teaches that prayer doesn’t work if you don’t have
enough “value” built up in your spiritual bank
account.
“If you don’t have value,
God would have to first take a value away from you before giving it back in
answer to prayer.”
“Prayer initiates an
exchange of value with God.”
“We are told to pray. Yet, prayer doesn’t really work unless
you have value.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
9.
He teaches it is witchcraft to pray for someone to be
saved.
“It is witchcraft to pray
that someone believes something or does something when he or she is against
it. This includes praying for
people to get ‘saved’ or healed.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
10. He teaches
that the key to finding spiritual vitality is discovering your “spiritual
ARE.” (Ask yourself where that is
in the Bible.)
“Your ultimate goal is to
find and operate in your ARE. This
is your calling.”
“Even today, the ultimate
profitability attained by each person occurs through his or her ARE.”
“The ARE is the unique
purpose for which you were created.”
For a more complete
analysis and refutation of this aspect of ModeleticsTM, click here.
Let God’s curse fall on
anyone, including myself, who preaches any other message than the one we told
you about. Even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message,
let him be forever cursed. I will say it again: If anyone preaches any other
gospel than the one you welcomed, let God’s curse fall upon that
person.
Galatians 1:8-9 NLT
