“The ‘Gospel’ Coalition” Series, Part 2: The 2011 Sonship Coalition
I started working on a project the other day. Some readers have requested that I put together a directory / list of leaders and organizations that promote Gospel Sanctification. Why? Because GS is covert and very subtle, and lay people, especially those in the process of searching for another church, don’t have two years to figure out whether the doctrine is being promoted or not. Why don’t they just ask? Because in most cases leaders who propagate GS / Sonship think they have a right to withhold information “until the people are ready for the totality of this hard truth recently rediscovered.”
So, while working on the list of organizations, I went (for the first time) to The Gospel Coalition website. My discoveries made my heart sink. TGC is an information / network organization bringing together churches “of like mind.” The network is a well-oiled, slick machine that appears to be spreading this doctrine like the mother of all Bubonic plagues.
Indicative of the doctrine’s covert character is the fact that all the information posted on the website appears to represent a deeply heartfelt endeavor to spread an orthodox revival throughout Christianity. All of the communication is the usual gospel-speak Christians are accustomed to, but one has to know the doctrine and read carefully to see the nuanced message that is presented. For instance, few Christians would disagree with the following: “We have committed ourselves to invigorating churches with new hope and compelling joy based on the promises received by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.” Most Christians will immediately focus on the familiar “through faith alone in Christ alone” part of this sentence, but those familiar with GS will immediately connect this justification statement with “invigorating churches.” Hence, we see the veiled propagation of sanctification by justification.
Moreover, and more to the point of this post, the despicable covertness of this movement can be seen in the replacement of “Sonship” with “Gospel.” GS / Sonship proponents clearly avoid labels, which are useful in categorizing truth. Among the many speakers at the yet future TGC 2011 conference in Chicago are the who’s who of Sonship Theology.
Two of the speakers, Tim Keller and David Powlison, are no-brainers—it is common knowledge that both of these men were mentored by Dr. Jack Miller, the father of Sonship Theology. Of more interest and worthy of notation is another speaker, Darrin Patrick, who is the vice president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and the founding pastor of the Journey Church in St. Louis. He is considered to be an expert on church planting and speaks regularly at pastor’s conferences and training events for church planters. He is also the author of Church Planter: the man the message and the mission. The book is barley less than a treatise on Sonship sanctification by justification. On page 169 he writes the following:
“We’ll close this chapter and section with the words of the late Jack Miller: ’The more that you know that you are stained to the bone with selfish impulses, the more that you see how you hold out against the will of the Lord, the more you go to Christ as a thirsty sinner who finds deeper cleansing, more life and greater joy through the Spirit.’”
In this quotation by Miller, we see the essence of the Sonship doctrine; specifically, that we grow spiritually via the same way we were saved, by focusing on our hopeless enslavement to sin (on page 167, Patrick propagates the Sonship element of the total depravity of the saints by stating that Christians are “completely sinful.”), and the continual confession thereof. Just prior to quoting Miller on the same page, Patrick says the following: “The way to deal with sin and idolatry is to repent of them and believe the gospel….In Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul praises the church for how they ‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.’ May this be said of us and our churches as we repent and believe the gospel.”
Christians are not sanctified by practicing our initial salvation experience (“repent and believe the gospel”). Notice also how the apostle Paul spoke of what the Thessalonians did as being in the past tense, but Patrick says the same thing needs to be true of us as if Paul had said, “you turn [present tense] from idols to serve the living God.” On page 162, Patrick regurgitates Miller’s theory regarding idols of the heart as articulated in “Repentance and the 20th Century Man.” He also noted a book by David Powlison that, like 20th Century Man, classifies different types of idols (“Idols of the Heart in Vanity Fair). Apparently, Miller devised twenty-one different types, or classifications of idols.
Another speaker scheduled to speak at the 2011 TGC conference, Mark Driscoll, wrote the forward to the aforementioned book. In the forward, he commends Patrick for being “gospel centered,” ie., the same gospel that saves us also sanctifies us.
I know of a particular situation regarding a longstanding struggle between some elders and a parishioner who was confused by their teachings. The tension went on for about two years and included several meetings, emails, and confrontations. The elders insisted that what they were teaching was orthodox and not identifiable with any particular movement—this while the ink on “Biblical Sonship” by Jay Adams had barley dried. The elders were afraid that the “Sonship” nomenclature would let the cat out of the bag before the rest of the congregation was “ready for the whole truth.” Though the parishioner never identified the doctrine as Sonship, he put together a model of plenary justification and left that particular church. It was unlikely that the parishioner would have been able to articulate the doctrine to the rest of the congregation in a way that would have made the doctrine understandable, but nevertheless, the elders attempted to muzzle the parishioner and the end results were tragic.
This is indicative of the same covert wickedness of the so-called “Gospel Coalition.” They don’t teach the true gospel; their gospel is the half-gospel of Jesus as savior only, and not Lord as well. That’s very important because He said that He is both. It is a gospel that reduces our sanctification repertoire to two elements: belief and repentance. It is not the gospel; it is Jack Miller Sonship theology. And I am of the opinion that they need help in regard to telling the truth about what they teach. Lord willing, I will be of much help to them.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
So, help me understand. I pulled the following quote from an article published in Modern Reformation, posted here, http://www.ouruf.org/d/cvt_sanctification.pdf. Why are you so against this way of thinking about the christian life. If I am not motivated to obey the commands of scripture by the fact that I am already justified, then what would you suggest should be my motivation?
“I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude.”
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JC,
Great question. One: Modern Reformation presents “gratitude” as the primary motivation for obedience to the exclusion of almost everything else. Second point under One: supposedly, our gratitude is increased by pondering / contemplating / meditating on the “gospel” or works of Christ which results in obedience that is qualified as acceptable before God because it is accompanied by joy, and a willing spirit. This is exactly what John Piper believes also; the moral character of obedience is ALWAYS determined by joy. Both of these points are indicative of Quietist, contemplative spirituality that Matt mentioned in the comment section of the other post.
Two: “I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son.” This is true, but MR believes that any attempt on our part to apply that righteousness horizontally is to take away from Christ’ righteousness that has been granted to us. This error is very subtle and is clothed in truth. We are not only righteous positionally, but we are also enabled to be righteous practically. It is up to us to “put on” the righteousness we have been given and to “put off” the remnant of sin left in our mortal bodies (Eph 4:20-24). This process will be EXPERIENCED IN A MYRIAD OF WAYS and will use a wide range of spiritual weapons granted to us, NOT JUST an endeavoring to be thankful for what Christ has done for us. In fact, making use of our complete arsenal is what will lead to deeper gratitude, not the limitation thereof. Paul said to put on the “full armor of God.”
But now let me hasten to reference what I said above (“MR believes that any attempt on our part to apply that righteousness horizontally is to take away from Christ’ righteousness that has been granted to us.”): On page 62 of “Christless Christianity” M. Horton says that spiritual growth only takes place when we, like unbelievers as well, “encounter the gospel afresh.” In other words, contemplation on the gospel is the only thing that produces spiritual growth. Furthermore, this eliminates the purpose of instruction from use of the Scriptures because the Spirit only works “through the gospel.” This is known as the “Christocentric” or Gospel-centric hermeneutic. Also, on pages 189-191 of the same book, Horton propagates the idea that corporate worship is strictly a contemplative affair and that we are a valley of dead bones coming to receive life through the corporate presentation of the gospel and sacraments. Of course, this is a blatant contradiction of Hebrews 10:23-25. In addition, on pages 117-119, Horton says that any attempt on our part to be a testimony with our good works (as Christians) is an attempt to “be the gospel” rather than presenting the gospel. In other words, our own efforts in evangelism is an attempt t to replace the works of Christ with our works. Of course, this is a blatant contradiction to Matthew 5:16 and 1Peter 3:1,2.
Three: “Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God.” No, not for justification, but we need to dependently perform in sanctification in order to “PLEASE God” (2Cor 5:9). Note 2Cor 5:9 carefully–for crying out loud, it will even be our goal in heaven to please Him–except we will be unhindered by the flesh, but it will be no less us obeying Him than now, just more, and too perfection. Christ will not be obeying for us in heaven while we please Him there because we will be “like Him.” Neither does He obey for us now, though no doubt, we need to depend on His strength and knowledge to do so, but we are definitely WORKING with God (1Cor 3:9 1Thess 3:2). But Horton believes that justification and sanctification are the same thing. Therefore, any effort to be “accepted”(a salvation concept) by Him in sanctification (a misnomer) equals an effort to be justified by Him as well. This is very subtle and deceptive. However, he states plainly on page 62 in “Christless Christianity” that any effort to grow spiritually apart from contemplation on the gospel will result “in the LOSS of BOTH.” Both what? Answer: both justification and sanctification; ie, your lost!
Four: The Bible designates several other motivations for obedience other than gratitude. Let’s start with MR’s use of guilt because they / Horton know that our society has been conditioned to view guilt as an ill motivation or bad thing. “My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude.” This statement insinuates that the sum of sanctification is either / or. Not so. The apostle Paul instructed Timothy to “Keep a clear conscience before God” (1Tim 1:5, 1:19, 3:9, 4:2, 2Tim 1:3). Clearly, one of the goals in sanctification is the consideration and motivation to KEEP a clear conscience. Secondly, under Four, fear of discipline is used to motivate (Acts 5:10-16 1Thess 4:6). Thirdly, the awesome motivation to discipline self to prevent the Lord’s disciple. What a wonderful motivation / promise from our Lord! (1Cor 11:27-32). Fourthly, we are motivated by being promised blessings IN (a preposition) the DOING, (James 1:25) not IN CONTEMPLATION. Fifthly, God motivates us to good works via REWARDS. Really, hundreds of verses could be cited to make this point, but I will mention Matthew 6:6. Also note that contemplation is not the cure for hypocritical prayer in the context of Jesus’ counsel here, but the practice of private prayer. I will stop here as the biblical points that could be cited on this are endless, but let me say that I am very concerned with contemplation replacing biblical instruction in regard to helping Christians with serious life problems, and being complete before the Lord, lacking nothing (2Timothy 3:16).
Five: MR fails to recognize the all important biblical concept of self-sacrifice. Often, our faith will drag ourselves kicking and screaming into obedience in order to please God; and the belief that blessings will be our reward, though delayed for the time-being. Joy does not always walk with obedience at every moment. In fact, faith often does not care about self at all, but rather takes pleasure in the fact that God is pleased regardless of how we feel at the time. Here, beating our bodies into subjection and self-death is the motivation / goal. Do we always seek to please God because we are mindful of his sacrifice? Or is it our love for Him that is many faceted with gratitude included?
Six: Gratitude alone does not bring us near to God; “adding” to our faith does (2Peter 1:5-11).
Bottom line: The MR quote above is fraught with deception. Contemplative spirituality is a roadway to destruction.
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Paul,
Good reference.
“Gratitude alone does not bring us near to God; “adding” to our faith does (2Peter 1:5-11).”
2 Peter 1:5-11 (KJV)
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
(NIV)
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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