The Denial In The Bible

Peter said to Jesus "Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended." (Matthew 26:33)

Jesus said to Peter, "...thou shalt DENY me thrice." (Luke 22:61)

    As Bible believing Christians, we categorically reject the art (as opposed to science) of Psychology - and its various subsets, Psychiatry, the Dialectic, Philosophies of Men, and other man-engineered intellectual strongholds inspired by the Devil. However, the Scriptures plainly teach us there are behavioral processes that appear to be recognizable patterns that can be quantified.

    For example, Titus tells us "...unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." (Titus 1:15,16)

    Ezekiel tells of believers that have placed "the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face." (Ezekiel 14:3). That "stumbling block" is an invisible stronghold spoken of in II Corinthians where the believer is instructed to cast "...down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (II Corinthians 10:5).

    For lack of a better term, we will use the term Denial. This is a devilish stronghold that must be "cast down." It is used by the human mind (the portion that is commonly called the ego) to protect itself from threatening knowledge or awareness of truth by blocking the information from the mind's awareness. Denial is used by Christians to excuse and justify un-Christian behavior, sin and false doctrine.

    The denial mechanism is automatic and operates below the level of awareness. An individual is not only unaware of the information or knowledge that they are denying, they are commonly unaware that they are engaging in denial. Denial impairs judgment and results in a state of delusion and an increasingly destructive pattern of living.

    Denial is progressive, because the affected individual sets up increasingly elaborate denial mechanisms that pervade the entire personality and become so enmeshed in the ego's dream world that they are extremely difficult to penetrate.

    There appear to be seven denial mechanisms that can be identified in the light of Scripture:

1. Simple denial - maintaining that something is not so which is indeed a fact and obvious to rational people.

2. Minimizing - admitting superficially to the problem but not admitting that it is serious in scope.

3. Blaming - denying personal responsibility for a certain behavior and blaming someone or something else.

4. Rationalizing - offering an excuse or justification for behavior. The behavior is not denied but an acceptable, even comfortable, explanation of its cause is given.

5. Intellectualizing (the Biblical "imaginations") - avoiding emotional and personal awareness of a problem by dealing with it on a level of generalization, intellectual analyses, or theorizing.

6. Diversion - changing the subject to avoid discussion of the topic that is threatening.

7. Hostility - becoming angry or irritable when reference is made to the problem causing conflict.

    Just as Peter denied knowing Jesus Christ for fear of his own earthly life, Christians today deny THE TRUTH in order to protect their mind's dream world and its pleasures. For example, a majority of Christians believe that they will be raptured and not experience the tribulation of the end times. Exposing these "rapture cult" members to the Biblical proof that true Christians will suffer tribulation seems to frequently trigger this theological denial process.

    The truth that the Ten Commandments are God's law, and are meant to be followed by all generations is another tough truth for many Christians to accept. It is easier to deny this truth, by simply declaring that "we are under grace," than it is to conform individual behavior to that which God has mandated.

    The truth that abortion is a sin is easily denied by referring to "the clump of tissue," and siding with the U.S. Supreme Court's higher "denial" in this matter.

    All Christians should immediately quit their collective denial of the imminent tribulation, give up on the non-scriptural make-believe "rapture" lie, and begin preparation. Most will not.

    The Holy Scriptures refer to Satan as the "father of lies," and tells us that all liars are antichrist (I John 2:22). It would seem that denial is a subtle way of perpetrating a lie - transforming the dissimulating "believer" into an "antichrist." All Christians should seek THE TRUTH in all matters, no matter how painful seeing and understanding that truth is.

    As a true disciple of Jesus Christ, you must kneel before God, and ask to see the TRUTH, for "Ye shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you free" (John 8:32)

January 14, 2002 -- Doug Hudson