Toxic Faith
Rev. John Glenn
NET Training Institute
Freedom Faith Based Training
Toxic Faith
Law and Grace
Toxic Faith and Religious
Addiction
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The term Toxic Faith is the title of a book by
Steve Arterburn and Jack Felton.
Toxic Faith and Religious Addiction and
spiritual abuse are not restricted to any one
religion, example September 11, 2001.
Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have
examples.
How a Belief System Can
Shape and Form Your Life
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Refer back to the discussion of
cognitive restructuring.
Attitudes are a cluster of at least 7
different beliefs about God.
Beliefs are held together by emotions
that existed at the time the beliefs were
formed.
21 Beliefs of a Toxic Faith
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Arterburn and Felton listed 21 beliefs of a
Toxic Faith.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Conditional Love
Instant Peace
Guaranteed Healing
Irreproachable Clergy
Monetary Rewards
Investment Tithing
Salvation by Works
21 Beliefs of Toxic Faith
(cont.)
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Spiteful God
Slavery of the Faithful
Irrational Submission
Christian Inequality
Passivity
Biblical Exclusivity
Heavenly Matchmaking
21 Beliefs of Toxic Faith
(cont.)
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Pollyanna Perspective
Bulletproof Faith
Vindictive God
Mortal Christ
Impersonal God
Divinely Ordained Happiness
Possibility of Gaining the Divine
Toxic Faith (cont.)
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This is not an exhaustive list.
What makes a belief system toxic?
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It contributes to a personal suffering and
death even though it is hoped that it will
lead to a relief from suffering.
It is always expressed in a form of religious
addiction.
It’s goal is to cover and relieve pain
through religion and religious activity.
Signs and Symptoms of
Religious Addiction
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Compulsive Religious Activity
Laziness
Giving to Get
Self Obsession
Extreme Intolerance
Addiction to a Religious High
These symptoms present a picture of
religious addiction, but should not be taken
out of context.
Example of Toxic Faith
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Jim Jones (Jonestown in Guyana)
David Koresh (Waco)
Andrea Yates (Murdered Her Children)
Evangelical Ministry Scandals
Jihad (Holy War)
Examples of Toxic Faith
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Mathew 23: Jesus’ Rebuke of Scribes
and Pharisees
First Family (Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel)
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Murder over an offering to God
Caused by Toxic Faith and Religious
Addiction
Personal Needs and Religious
Addiction
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Toxic Faith is based on the lie that God
is telling you, “you are no good”
Personal Worth
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In order to be worthy, you need 2 things:
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Personal Security
Personal Significance
In order to have personal security you need 3
things:
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Unconditional Love
Total Acceptance
Complete Forgiveness
Personal Worth
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In order to have personal significance, you
need to have
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Sense of importance
Meaning / purpose in your life
Adequacy, capable and able
The faith factor builds this sense of worth in
you.
God has done everything necessary to make
you worthy, secure and significant.
Can Also Be Twisted Around
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In Toxic Faith, religious addiction and spiritual
abuse systems these things can be twisted
around and used against you.
The 21 False Beliefs of Toxic Faith can be
broken up into 3 Classic False Assumptions.
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Authority
Performance
Suffering
False Assumptions vs True
Statements
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False assumptions are based on the
belief that:
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I will be worthy if.....(meaning that I am
NOT worthy now…I am worthless now).
True statement:
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The Faith Factor says I am worthy NOW
because of what God has already done for
me.
True Assumptions
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The greatest part of therapy, of helping
another person, is to tell them the truth
about who they are…about their identity
according to God.
The lie always counters the truth.
Remember, what you believe determines how
you feel.
How you feel determines how you will act.
The Lies Related to Authority
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Irreproachable Clergy
Irrational Submission
Biblical Exclusivity
Mortal Christ
Impersonal God
Gaining the Divine
Heavenly Matchmaking
I will be worthy if…I gain the approval of certain others.
The Lies Related to
Performance
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Conditional Love
Investment Tithing
Salvation by Works
Slavery of the Faithful
Christian Inequality
Passivity
Vindictive God
I will be worthy if…I perform up to certain standards.
The Lies Related to Suffering
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Instant Peace
Guaranteed Healing
Monetary Rewards
Spiteful God
Pollyanna Perspective
Bulletproof Faith
Ordained Happiness
I will be worthy if…I can control / overcome my
circumstances in life.
False Assumptions (cont.)
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We have been conditioned to base our
worth on everything and everyone
other than what God has done for us.
There is a battle that we fight with
infinite false assumptions.
The Toxic Faith system is a flavor of
false assumptions that have to do with
God and Religion.
The Key to Recovery
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The key to recovery is The Faith Factor.
Counteract Toxic Faith and Religious
Addiction with a real plan for recovery
based on the Faith Factor.
Spiritual Abuse as a Function
of Toxic Faith
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People don’t believe that they’re secure,
significant and worthy.
‘Needs’ create within us a hunger to gain
approval and to make ourselves worthy.
There is an underlying belief system that
lends itself to toxic faith, religious addiction
and spiritual abuse. It needs to be exposed
and dealt with.
Grace Versus the Law
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“By grace” is a totally different way to live
compared to “by law”.
Under grace we have:
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Authentic faith: You live your life based upon a
choice that you make. There is a spiritual
relationship between you and God alone.
Eliminates the approval addiction.
Under law:
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God is not in the picture…just you and others.
Grace Versus the Law
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Law is called “The Letter”
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Leads to death
Conditional relationship with God
Addicts live under this
Grace is called “The Spirit”
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Leads to life
Unconditional promise
To get to recovery, addicts must move away from
the law system to the grace system.
The Most Fundamental Flaw of
Toxic Faith
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Illustrated by the Jews in the wilderness
after receiving the 10 Commandments.
All of the Old Testament is the history
of the nation of Israel in their effort to
keep the 10 Commandments. They
blew it over and over again.
God had first made an unconditional
promise of grace to Abraham.
God’s Promise with Abraham
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Abraham was the father of the Jewish
nation, the Islamic nation, and of
Christianity.
The covenant God made with Abraham
was a covenant of grace.
The failure to understand the covenant
of grace made with Abraham has led to
religious addiction and spiritual abuse.
The Covenant
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The covenant of grace between God and
Abraham can be found in Genesis 15
Examples of Covenants
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The Salt Covenant
The Shoe Covenant
The Blood Covenant
God continues to bless the nation of Israel,
the Islamic nations, and Christians because of
the covenant of grace.
The Unconditional Nature of
Grace
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The unconditional nature of grace is not
understood in Judaism, Islam and
Christianity.
The failure to understand this leads to
toxic faith, religious addiction, spiritual
abuse and war.
Our Worth
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When it comes to our worth, the good
news is it comes based upon an
unconditional promise of grace. God
makes us worthy because he does for
us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Under the law, the letter of the law is
your understanding of what is required
of the law. Ultimately leads to death.
Grace
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Under grace, the spirit of God works
within us, transforms us, regenerates us
and brings forth life.
What God does for us, we can’t do for
ourselves.
All Toxic Faith, leading to religious
addiction, has at its base a legal
methodology.
The Law
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In the creation story with Adam and Eve,
they were told not to eat of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil…it was a tree of
the law, and it would kill you.
All addicting faith, toxic faith, has at it’s base
a conditional promise of the law. It will
ultimately kill you. That’s how you recognize
it.
Definition of Grace and Mercy
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Definition of grace and mercy:
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Mercy is when you err and don’t die.
Grace is a supernatural working by God’s divine
provision (inside of you) to transform you by
God’s spirit into a healthy functional human
being.
Grace is what is referred to in the Big Book of
AA.
Recovery of all addictions involves the
supernatural working of God to transform us.
Contrast Toxic Versus
Authentic Faith
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Toxic faith: Imposed upon the individual from
external sources.
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Coercion / forced compliance
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If you feel compelled to force / compel others to believe
in Christianity—that is a form of Toxic Faith.
Focused on self-effort
Authentic faith: Origin is from within the
individual.
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Allows free choice
Focused on divine provision
Toxic Faith Versus Authentic
Faith
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Toxic Faith:
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Focused on the Law
Expression is intolerance and manipulation
Authentic Faith:
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Focus is on Grace
Focus on ministry (love and tolerance)
More About the Law
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Under a Law System
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Motives: fear of failure and rejection
and anxiety
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produces guilt and shame
pride covers the guilt and shame
More About Grace
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Under Grace
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Appreciate and celebrate what God has
done. Believe and trust in what God has
done.
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Faith produces within us hope…
Hope is a joyful confident expectation about
your future. It comes from faith.
This produces love…Once I have faith and
hope, I can then love and care about others.
Love fulfills the law.