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Robots or Rebels: The Dangers of Growing Up a Legalist, and Biblical Motivations for True Holiness
Legalism!
Almost no one is neutral on the subject. Some see a legalist behind every attempt to encourage holiness in the lives of God’s people, while others fail to see that they have fallen into the clutches of legalistic thinking. In the name of calling people to righteousness, many add to the Word of God and form a system destined to end in an unbiblical approach to godly living.
The results of legalism are devastating.
Many fail to learn to think, or at least think biblically, but continue to conform to the rules that have been laid before them. Robotic in their obedience, they never experience the joy of the freedom available in Christ. Others rebel, not only against the system, but against even those teachings that are true to the Scriptures. These rebels often leave their families and the church in pursuit of personal pleasure. In so doing they find themselves becoming slaves to sin.
Robots and Rebels is designed to expose legalism and its tragic results, and then point the way to a true holiness that is based in biblical motivations.
Christ is glorified only through truly holy lives.
Almost no one is neutral on the subject. Some see a legalist behind every attempt to encourage holiness in the lives of God’s people, while others fail to see that they have fallen into the clutches of legalistic thinking. In the name of calling people to righteousness, many add to the Word of God and form a system destined to end in an unbiblical approach to godly living.
The results of legalism are devastating.
Many fail to learn to think, or at least think biblically, but continue to conform to the rules that have been laid before them. Robotic in their obedience, they never experience the joy of the freedom available in Christ. Others rebel, not only against the system, but against even those teachings that are true to the Scriptures. These rebels often leave their families and the church in pursuit of personal pleasure. In so doing they find themselves becoming slaves to sin.
Robots and Rebels is designed to expose legalism and its tragic results, and then point the way to a true holiness that is based in biblical motivations.
Christ is glorified only through truly holy lives.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 15, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 21, 2018
As Christians, we know we are called to pursue holiness, but it's called "the narrow way" for a reason: on one side is the ditch of legalism, and on the other, the swamp of license. Avoiding one without veering off into the other has been a perennial struggle of the Church since Galatians and 1 Corinthians were still letters in the mail.
Robert Pruitt (a former pastor of the friend who gave me this book) does an excellent job of shedding Biblical light on this narrow path. He accomplishes the very difficult task of confronting legalism in the church, without minimizing the need for true Biblical holiness. In fact, he spends a good portion of the book going over the proper motivations for pursuing sanctification. Much like Andrew Strom, as a continuationist, has credibility in addressing the excesses of the Charismatic movement (see my review of Kundalini Warning), Pruitt should be taken seriously as he analyzes the shortcomings of conservative Christianity, because he is clearly a conservative himself. (Some will appreciate the fact that he uses the KJV for Scripture quotations exclusively throughout, though he makes it quite clear that he doesn't consider it an article of faith.)
I have to say that I did find the first half of the book more engaging than the second half, but this was probably because I am quite familiar with the Biblical teaching on holiness, to which the latter part was devoted. Still, I agreed with almost all of it, and highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to take a hard look at the issue of legalism vs. true holinesss and liberty in the Christian life.
Robert Pruitt (a former pastor of the friend who gave me this book) does an excellent job of shedding Biblical light on this narrow path. He accomplishes the very difficult task of confronting legalism in the church, without minimizing the need for true Biblical holiness. In fact, he spends a good portion of the book going over the proper motivations for pursuing sanctification. Much like Andrew Strom, as a continuationist, has credibility in addressing the excesses of the Charismatic movement (see my review of Kundalini Warning), Pruitt should be taken seriously as he analyzes the shortcomings of conservative Christianity, because he is clearly a conservative himself. (Some will appreciate the fact that he uses the KJV for Scripture quotations exclusively throughout, though he makes it quite clear that he doesn't consider it an article of faith.)
I have to say that I did find the first half of the book more engaging than the second half, but this was probably because I am quite familiar with the Biblical teaching on holiness, to which the latter part was devoted. Still, I agreed with almost all of it, and highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to take a hard look at the issue of legalism vs. true holinesss and liberty in the Christian life.
April 15, 2014
In Robots or Rebels, Robert Pruitt addresses the modern manifestation of legalism that has been around since the Church first appeared in the times of the Apostles, the ones stuck in true legalism he calls 'Robots'. He also warns about rebels, who turn from legalism and flee to antinomianism. As he says in the book, ""Rebels do not love Christ and do not desire to look holy before anyone. Robots, on the other hand, desire to look holy while not realizing that true holiness only flows from the heart and life of one who sincerely loves the Lord Jesus. "
"Too many preachers and teachers today proclaim a gospel that saves from the penalty of sin, while not necessarily saving one from bondage to sin." This leads to many who profess faith but who have no works, no holiness, to show that they are actually alive. They do not have any evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in them, no evidence that they are among the ones God has chosen to work in to do good works that He has prepared for them.
Churches full of tares may make professing Christians do a pendulum swing and focus solely upon good works, building up a legalistic system of salvation. "Many in the church became so concerned with the sinful problems that were manifesting in the culture...that they ceased to ground people in the doctrines of the Bible. In other words, because of the need to maintain righteous lives in the midst of a more and more unrighteous culture, they sought to establish the superstructure of Christian living without the foundation of Christian doctrine." Works-salvation is not salvation but guaranteed condemnation.
And then you have your rebels who see the wrongness, or hypocrisy of the legalistic system of salvation, and many of them turn to antinomianism while holding on to the title of 'Christian'. Rebels bring reproach on Christianity as well. "In seeking to become like the world, the rebel gives indication that the Word of God, the church, the gospel, and even the Lord Jesus, can have no real impact on anyone's life. At times in order to prove that he is like the world, the rebel will live in a manner that is even more evil than is typical of those who are lost. This individual may not only live in moral corruption, but may speak violently against the things of God. When those who are lost observe such a person, they are turned away from the church, away from the Bible, and away from Christ. Rather than encouraging the lost to repent an trust Jesus, these rebels are encouraging them on their way to hell. Nothing could be more unloving."
Pruitt emphasizes that Christianity is not the following of certain rules and doing good works to earn our salvation, and it is not the freedom to fulfill our fleshly desires, rather it is the freedom bought by Christ and His righteousness to actually be pleasing to God and to do works out of love that actually please Him, it is freedom from self, freedom from sin, and it is the freedom to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Personally, I thought that the flow of the book was a little mixed up, at some points it sounded as though he was about to rebuke rebels but he goes on to critique legalists. And, this might seem a bit nit-picky, I also don't quite agree with his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 8, as he seems to think that Paul is assenting that knowingly eating meat offered to idols is okay as long as it won't hurt someone's conscience. We are going through 1 Corinthians in our church and have just reached that chapter, and it seems that Paul is not saying that it is good to eat meat offered to idols since in chapter 10 he points out that it is not really offered to idols but to demons and Christian's shouldn't have anything to do with that. So it is not just a conscience issue in that case but also, it would seem, an association issue. It is alright if a Christian eats that meat ignorantly, but not if they know where it came from, since they do have knowledge and must use it rightly.
But overall I think that it is a pretty good book. I'll end with one of my favorite excerpts that is dealing with the wrong focus on parachurch organizations, legalistic ones in particular, but this applies to any parachurch organization:
"......Adding to the fertile soil for legalistic parachurch gurus to adversely influence churches and individuals is the modern idea that we must have experts in every area of life. Rarely does a week go by that I (as a pastor) fail to receive a call informing me of a new video series that is "must viewing" for every church body. The expert on marriage relationships; the expert on child rearing; the expert on interpersonal relationships; the expert on this; the expert on that has made a video series. Surely no mere pastor can keep up with 'the experts.' And so, we are encouraged to turn our churches over to Dr. ___________. After all, he or she supposedly knows mor ethan any of the rest of us, and if we will just do what he or she says, we will all succeed in our Christian lives. This is not intended to be a blanket condemnation of everything and everyone who is part of what might be called a parachurch ministry. However, any and every time the parachruch dictates to the church rather than the other way around, parachurch is out of place. And any individual who follows a parachurch ministry more closely than his own local church has a definite problem with his priorities, since parachruch organizations are never mentioned din the Bible.......If you listen to those trying to sell many of these products you are likely to conclude that pastors just aren't necessary anymore. And why would anyone in the pew want to listen to old 'what's -his- name' week after week when they could be listening to 'the expert!'"
Many thanks to Ambassador International for sending me a free review copy of this book!(My review did not have to be favorable)
"Too many preachers and teachers today proclaim a gospel that saves from the penalty of sin, while not necessarily saving one from bondage to sin." This leads to many who profess faith but who have no works, no holiness, to show that they are actually alive. They do not have any evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in them, no evidence that they are among the ones God has chosen to work in to do good works that He has prepared for them.
Churches full of tares may make professing Christians do a pendulum swing and focus solely upon good works, building up a legalistic system of salvation. "Many in the church became so concerned with the sinful problems that were manifesting in the culture...that they ceased to ground people in the doctrines of the Bible. In other words, because of the need to maintain righteous lives in the midst of a more and more unrighteous culture, they sought to establish the superstructure of Christian living without the foundation of Christian doctrine." Works-salvation is not salvation but guaranteed condemnation.
And then you have your rebels who see the wrongness, or hypocrisy of the legalistic system of salvation, and many of them turn to antinomianism while holding on to the title of 'Christian'. Rebels bring reproach on Christianity as well. "In seeking to become like the world, the rebel gives indication that the Word of God, the church, the gospel, and even the Lord Jesus, can have no real impact on anyone's life. At times in order to prove that he is like the world, the rebel will live in a manner that is even more evil than is typical of those who are lost. This individual may not only live in moral corruption, but may speak violently against the things of God. When those who are lost observe such a person, they are turned away from the church, away from the Bible, and away from Christ. Rather than encouraging the lost to repent an trust Jesus, these rebels are encouraging them on their way to hell. Nothing could be more unloving."
Pruitt emphasizes that Christianity is not the following of certain rules and doing good works to earn our salvation, and it is not the freedom to fulfill our fleshly desires, rather it is the freedom bought by Christ and His righteousness to actually be pleasing to God and to do works out of love that actually please Him, it is freedom from self, freedom from sin, and it is the freedom to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Personally, I thought that the flow of the book was a little mixed up, at some points it sounded as though he was about to rebuke rebels but he goes on to critique legalists. And, this might seem a bit nit-picky, I also don't quite agree with his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 8, as he seems to think that Paul is assenting that knowingly eating meat offered to idols is okay as long as it won't hurt someone's conscience. We are going through 1 Corinthians in our church and have just reached that chapter, and it seems that Paul is not saying that it is good to eat meat offered to idols since in chapter 10 he points out that it is not really offered to idols but to demons and Christian's shouldn't have anything to do with that. So it is not just a conscience issue in that case but also, it would seem, an association issue. It is alright if a Christian eats that meat ignorantly, but not if they know where it came from, since they do have knowledge and must use it rightly.
But overall I think that it is a pretty good book. I'll end with one of my favorite excerpts that is dealing with the wrong focus on parachurch organizations, legalistic ones in particular, but this applies to any parachurch organization:
"......Adding to the fertile soil for legalistic parachurch gurus to adversely influence churches and individuals is the modern idea that we must have experts in every area of life. Rarely does a week go by that I (as a pastor) fail to receive a call informing me of a new video series that is "must viewing" for every church body. The expert on marriage relationships; the expert on child rearing; the expert on interpersonal relationships; the expert on this; the expert on that has made a video series. Surely no mere pastor can keep up with 'the experts.' And so, we are encouraged to turn our churches over to Dr. ___________. After all, he or she supposedly knows mor ethan any of the rest of us, and if we will just do what he or she says, we will all succeed in our Christian lives. This is not intended to be a blanket condemnation of everything and everyone who is part of what might be called a parachurch ministry. However, any and every time the parachruch dictates to the church rather than the other way around, parachurch is out of place. And any individual who follows a parachurch ministry more closely than his own local church has a definite problem with his priorities, since parachruch organizations are never mentioned din the Bible.......If you listen to those trying to sell many of these products you are likely to conclude that pastors just aren't necessary anymore. And why would anyone in the pew want to listen to old 'what's -his- name' week after week when they could be listening to 'the expert!'"
Many thanks to Ambassador International for sending me a free review copy of this book!(My review did not have to be favorable)
February 26, 2021
Though at times, especially in the first half, I struggled to see where he was taking his point, I had to rate this book 5 stars. The further you get in the book, the clearer the point becomes. And the last section is SO gospel-rich! That alone made this a fabulous book, but the explanations of robots, rebels, and subtle rebels were extremely helpful. Great time and attention was taking to dissecting the errors of legalism and licentiousness, thus priming the reader for the truth of the gospel and the proper motivations for holy living.
March 27, 2014
Disclosure: I received this book free from Ambassador International. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Christ came to free us from legalism, but legalism still exists. Some even abide by the laws hoping their salvation will be earned. Legalism shackles us to laws even though Christ unlocked us from them.
There is so much I like about Robots and Rebels that it is making this book review hard to type without sounding so scattered.
To start, the book is broken up into four sections. The first section defines and explains legalism. Though many think it may just be the Ten Commandments it is not. Pruitt breaks down legalism and explains the different forms legalism can present itself. The second section focuses on the “Robots”- those who follow legalism thus becoming like robots- abiding to what is laid out in black and white, not biblical conviction. The “Rebels”, or the rejectors of legalism and true living, is explained in the third section. In a couple of chapters Pruitt pulls back the layers of the rebels showing us rebels are both obvious and subtle. When we get to the fourth and last section, Pruitt dives right into Holiness, the way we should live- the robots and rebels are the examples we should not follow. This was my favorite section as it explains the “right” way of Holiness. Obviously it isn’t legalism, it is our obedience to Christ.
Through out the book Pruitt backs up his key points using scripture quoted from the KJV. This is what I liked the most about the book, his biblical interpretations. I felt they were sound and completed, not lacking on any of his explanations. Pruitt also draws the robots and rebels from the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This parable has been a recurring topic in my Christian life and I was delighted to have this parable explained in a different light yet again.
While Pruitt doesn’t cover every aspect of legalism out there, and he does tell readers he isn’t, he provides readers a great picture of legalism. Biblically based, wonderful interpretation, and legalism exposed artfully. I’m happy to have this book on my bookshelf and looking forward to sharing this gem with others.
Christ came to free us from legalism, but legalism still exists. Some even abide by the laws hoping their salvation will be earned. Legalism shackles us to laws even though Christ unlocked us from them.
There is so much I like about Robots and Rebels that it is making this book review hard to type without sounding so scattered.
To start, the book is broken up into four sections. The first section defines and explains legalism. Though many think it may just be the Ten Commandments it is not. Pruitt breaks down legalism and explains the different forms legalism can present itself. The second section focuses on the “Robots”- those who follow legalism thus becoming like robots- abiding to what is laid out in black and white, not biblical conviction. The “Rebels”, or the rejectors of legalism and true living, is explained in the third section. In a couple of chapters Pruitt pulls back the layers of the rebels showing us rebels are both obvious and subtle. When we get to the fourth and last section, Pruitt dives right into Holiness, the way we should live- the robots and rebels are the examples we should not follow. This was my favorite section as it explains the “right” way of Holiness. Obviously it isn’t legalism, it is our obedience to Christ.
Through out the book Pruitt backs up his key points using scripture quoted from the KJV. This is what I liked the most about the book, his biblical interpretations. I felt they were sound and completed, not lacking on any of his explanations. Pruitt also draws the robots and rebels from the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This parable has been a recurring topic in my Christian life and I was delighted to have this parable explained in a different light yet again.
While Pruitt doesn’t cover every aspect of legalism out there, and he does tell readers he isn’t, he provides readers a great picture of legalism. Biblically based, wonderful interpretation, and legalism exposed artfully. I’m happy to have this book on my bookshelf and looking forward to sharing this gem with others.
February 10, 2017
Robert Pruitt does an excellent job of describing the two dangers with legalism: robots, who appear holy by their focus on rules, and rebels, who run with reckless abandon from the church. He also does well describing the path God desires: following Jesus and doing works out of real love. I struggled sometimes with the very scholarly writing style and use of the King James Version of the Bible. It's not that either is wrong, but they certainly worked together to make reading more of an effort--again, not necessarily a bad thing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews