Austin Bible Church
Human viewpoint is the anger adjustment to the frustrations and fears of life. Some people try to solve every problem in life with anger, a fit of temper, a tantrum, and so on. In its full attack, it has three concepts. First of all to get attention, to be heard, to impress. This attempts to satisfy your approbation lust. Second is to control your environment and people around you in this way, to scare them into obeying. This stems from your power lust. Some people are able to control everything around them by being angry and by throwing tantrums. If you are trying to control your environment in this way, you know you are a prisoner of Satan’s world system that surrounds you. The third way is to be spiteful and to be so strong in revenge that people stop right there. They are afraid to cross you because they fear being taken to court by you, or that you will malign them in the neighborhood.
The defense mechanism is a human viewpoint system designed to protect the soul against pressures that are too much to bear. The change of thought pattern leads to a change of behavior pattern. This is a person who becomes disillusioned with a local church and jumps into a wild social life.
Denial is a human viewpoint adjustment which ignores some difficulty or danger. It either ignores it or attempts to ignore it. This is the soldier who walks into a barrage in combat saying the bullet with my name on it hasn’t been manufactured yet. This is the man who won’t go to the doctor.
Sublimation is a human viewpoint defense mechanism that involves channeling unwanted or unacceptable urges into an admissible or productive outlet. An example of good sublimation is a baby with their thumb in their mouth. You see this and pull their thumb out and put in a pacifier. An example of bad sublimation is a human viewpoint adjustment through finding a new outlet or a drive or a frustration. You are frustrated, so you go out and play golf. You are frustrated in your golf game, so you go out and get drunk. These are people who frantically seek happiness through heavy drinking, through drugs, through a wild social life, or through the fast crowd. This person has lost capacity for love, for life, for happiness. They are subjective in their thinking which is expressed in many sinful ways of thinking and behaving. 2 Tim. 3:1-5.
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, NASB)
Rationalism
Rationalism is a form of self-justification within the mentality of the soul. Self-justification forms under scar tissue in the soul. Self-justification can be found under emotional revolt. Self-justification can be found under reversionism. The mentality of the soul justifies wrong actions, or blames God on the basis of scar tissue, or warped conscience, or human viewpoint, or no Bible doctrine in the frame of reference.
Using God as a patsy, rationalism justifies wrong actions because someone has wronged them while in reversionism. They are therefore justified in doing thus and so. The principle here is that two wrongs do not make a right! No inner divine happiness is connected with this.
All forms of the apostacy are rationalized. People into tongues use a crowd rationalization. If everyone else is doing it, it is okay to do. Many feel they must do more work for God resulting in a lower priority or no priority to study of Bible doctrine. Rationalism is a system of thought whereby the believer is neutralized in the Angelic Conflict.
Your Mental Attitude after Confession of Sin
Greatness of a believer is how they recover from sin and move forward in the spiritual life, not that they don’t sin. Focus on the intake and application of the Word of God which is critical to spiritual growth. Only through the renewing of our thinking through Bible doctrine in the right lobe of the soul can we “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Heb. 12:1-2.
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NASB)
Consider the thought life of Jesus Christ who always looked forward to joy. He constantly considered and focused on the plan of God for His life and mission on earth. Sinners could not upset him. In fact, He found numerous ways to give such people the Gospel of salvation. When you encounter opposition to Jesus Christ in others, consider the reality of their thinking. You know it is human viewpoint, so don’t take it seriously. Don’t take it personally. Don’t take imaginations as real. When unsure, keep your divine viewpoint thinking and exercise unconditional mental attitude agapao love toward them. This is the thinking of Jesus Christ. Heb. 12:3-4; 1 Cor. 2:16.
“For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;” (Hebrews 12:3-4, NASB)
“For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16, NASB)
Believers in the Church Age are to keep a positive mental attitude based on the Bible doctrine in their soul. Take in more Bible doctrine. Keep moving in the spiritual life. When you sin and step out of the will of God and enter carnality, you may be under divine discipline. Don’t fear God's discipline because He promised it is in your best interests. Divine discipline is an expression of God's love for you. God administers divine discipline because He wants you to recognize that you are out of the spiritual life and to name your known sins and return to fellowship with Him by using 1 John 1:9. Heb. 12:5-6.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB)
“and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."” (Hebrews 12:5-6, NASB)
Human Viewpoint Dreamworld Example
Many believers attempt to use the dreamworld to solve their problems, but dreamworld never solves any problems. Worry is one the fairy helpers in dreamworld, but it never solves any problems, ever!
For example, a believer has had a rough day at the office. Instead of using God's grace resources and placing his problems in the hands of the Lord, he sticks it out using his own abilities even though he has been out of fellowship with mental attitude sins, but he makes it through the work day.
He comes home, kicks off his shoes, and tries to relax and read the paper. But in reality, he is not reading the paper, his mind is reliving the day at work - the irritable boss, the nervous secretaries, the griping customers, and the raw deal he has working there.
Now remember, this guy is a believer. But yet, he tries to solve his problem by dreamworld. He mentally tells off the boss and he, in his mental picture, sees the boss begging his forgiveness on his knees. He crucifies the secretarial staff until they are pleading with him for mercy. He mentally tells off the griping customers as he is reading the paper.
He mentally goes on to dream himself into a plush office with a considerable annual salary with all the benefits that should go with such a high office. But then he is suddenly snapped back to reality when his wife calls him to supper. He instantly has to leave dreamworld and come to reality all the while having solved absolutely nothing!
This believer had a problem. How did he solve it? He attempted to solve it by human viewpoint. The problem is still unsolved. Why? Because the believer himself is the problem. A problem cannot solve a problem.
Here is what he should have been done. The problem had to be approached from divine viewpoint. First, he should have gotten into fellowship by applying 1 John 1:9 and then maintained his fellowship with promises and application of doctrine from his soul’s frame of reference. He should already understand the stages of the grace apparatus for perception. He should be daily erecting an edification complex of the soul from consistent learning and applying epignosis Bible doctrine.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB)
Spiritual growth develops mental stability. The Lord controls the thought life by displacing human viewpoint with divine viewpoint. How is that done? By daily intake of the Word through the grace apparatus for perception. Eph. 3:4-5.
“By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;” (Ephesians 3:4-5, NASB)
Moving from the job, withdrawing, or any form of sublimation only causes more self-induced misery. A believer mastered by the details of life is never happy. No wonder so many believers are nervous wrecks and candidates for mental disorders.