I am so honored to have Eric Pazdziora as a guest blogger on The Cult Next Door.
Eric writes definitively about legalism and spiritual abuse.
Without further ado, Eric's post:
Legalism. It’s one of those nasty words that everybody points to as an example of religion gone wrong. Everybody knows that you shouldn’t be a legalist. Everybody knows that legalism is unbiblical. Everybody would be affronted if you called them a legalist.
Unfortunately, “everybody” by definition includes all the legalists. All the most legalistic people I’ve ever known assure me that they’re not legalists, and that legalism is wrong, and that they know they’re not saved by works, and that you must misunderstand them if you think they’re legalists.
So who are the legalists, then? The bogeymen? Anyone whose view of religion is more than 5% stricter than the person talking? Those are lousy definitions. We need something better. If legalism is so bad, and most of the people who practice it are not even aware of it, how can we avoid it? How can we diagnose ourselves to see whether we’re legalists? How can we be free if we are?
The human heart cries out to be free. Everything within us fights against the bondage of tyranny of oppression. Our souls were not made to live in cages of fear that restrict us from the joys of liberty. Once we get a taste of such relief, our appetite for more becomes consuming...true for God's people who have existed too long in the suffocating grip of legalistic demands and expectations.-Charles Swindoll-
Grace Awakening
prison image bywillymac123 in photobucket
