Featured the Elijah syndrome

The Elijah Syndrome: When a person feels they have a corner on the truth, they feel everyone else is wrong, and they feel isolated because it seems the whole world is aligned against them.

JonC posted, "any interpretation or position that is unique to an individual is bound to be wrong."

He went on to say if someone has a new, unique teaching that goes against what has been around for 2,000 years it is problematic.

Now, Iconoclast, exactly what do you disagree with in the above?

Because it seems like you're picking a fight just for the sake of having an argument.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Conversing on a forum which considers itself Christian, I “met” a flat-earther. At first, I thought he was joking and being a troll. But he was serious. Very serious. He thought the Bible said the Earth was flat and therefore it had to be true.

What I found out was that there were many with the same opinion. He was not alone in his belief.

People adopt traditions and beliefs primarily based upon who their friends and neighbors are. People are rarely deterred from traditions they hold dear.

Not being alone in a belief is not a reason to be wrong. Having many who think the same does not mean that one are right. It is easy to be confused since people who think likewise tend to congregate together and oppose opposing beliefs. Just look at Twitter and Facebook.

Remember Sodom and Gommorah was filled with people with similar beliefs. That didn’t make them right. Moses was alone for a time at Sinai when God was going to kill all the others.

I believe the Elijah syndrome may just be a red herring to “win” an argument not based on the merits. That being said, before condemning another, we should always self-examine ourselves - not to the point of navel-gazing.

 

I think the term can also be used by someone who thinks they are the last holdout on an orthodox doctrine when everyone else is abandoning ship. It is easy to think that way sometimes the more we see evangelicalism falling into liberalism and facets of the social justice movement.

 

It takes a lot of hubris and arrogance to tell people that you are better at understanding what they mean, than they are.

 

If any believe in the immanent return of Christ, then true believers will be few in number leading up to that event. "Will the Son of man find faith on earth when he returns"? The Geneva Bible notes interest me on Revelation 20 mentioning the "rest of the dead" did not live until the 1000 years are finished and Satan is loosed to rally the nations against the Church. I believe we are seeing the Gog/Magog attack on the Church by Satan through the "living dead" who embrace every wind of doctrine but the true.

 

Add me to the list. I found the OP confusing as to what you were getting at. Being a late comer to the thread, I had the advantage of reading down through the thread and finding your explanation (otherwise I would have asked for it).

On the "Elijah Syndrome" I think I first heard it as the "Elijah Complex" -- either way, the same, thinking you (or your church) is the only one left that is orthodox, standing for the faith, etc.

 

So what does that imply for our 'right to private judgement'? I personally hold several interpretations that differ from that of hoi polloi.

hoi polloi:
17 For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. 2 Cor 2

Yea. Makes for interesting debate.

 

Similar to Landmarkism.

 

Not exactly. There are any number of Baptist groups who think they are the ones holding up true biblical faith and practice. That would also be true of most Primitive Baptists I know, quite a few fundamentalists and so on. I was thinking on a much smaller scale, as in one individual or one congregation thinking he/they are the only one/ones left standing for true religion. Elijah probably thought the pattern given on the mount was the one true religion, but he further thought he was the only one left standing for it. (He said I, even I only, am left at least twice, 18:22 and 19:10.)

 

Two main areas of disagreement I have with 'most' Primitive Baptists are Landmarkism and KJVO. But for the sake of unity and order I keep it to myself. IMO, their soteriology is spot on.

 

A simple internet search will yield lots of instances of the term Elijah Syndrome. It's used to describe the feeling that one is all alone in a cause.

Elijah was mistaken, of course, hence the term "syndrome," which I've only heard used when describing disorders. I don't think it was properly used by the one to describe the touched Tennessean who thought he was Elijah.

 

Looking online for "Elijah Complex" and "Elijah Syndrome" I found the following purported definitions:

• when you think you are the only faithful one left
• when you feel like you are the only one trying to do what is right
• whenever you get the idea that you are the only one left who is godly
• me against the world

Most I found seemed to use it as above, but some keyed it more to loneliness:

• going swiftly from happy and satisfied to discontented and lonely

 

That is what "Tennessee Elijah" felt. He felt he was the only person who spoke for God. He was pretty extreme, of course, and isn't the normal example of people who display that syndrome, but he did believe that he was the only one who truly spoke for God and that who God was speaking to and through.