Paul's Passing Thoughts

Advocates of GS/Sonship that protest my writings must ask themselves the following: what is it, exactly, that the propagators of GS/Sonship say is so different? On the one hand, people write me and deny my representations. On the other hand, what then are the differences that the proponents themselves describe as “A radical departure” (Russ Kennedy, director of a NANC training center in Dayton OH), a “Modern ‘Reformation’” (the name of Horton’s magazine publication), different from the “vast majority” of “professing” Christians (Tullian T.), different from “hordes” of other Christians (Paul David Tripp), a “New” Calvinism? What’s “new” about it? If my proposed differences are incorrect–then what are they exactly? The former director of the aforementioned NANC counseling center in Dayton OH said that the GS (of course, he didn’t use that label) hermeneutic was “a whole new way of reading the Bible.”

Let me ask: how can someone choose a church to attend when they don’t even know how the pastor of that church “reads his Bible”? Sure, who is going to object to constantly hearing about who Christ is and what he did throughout the Old and New Testaments? Nobody, unless they stop and think about it. Christ was constantly annoyed by people who wanted to focus on other things besides his commands and instruction (Luke 11:27,28). There are two distinct ways of interpreting our Bibles in this day that will yield different results—the GS proponents themselves say they have a different way of interpreting the Bible. Is this not a major issue? How many Christians know the difference between the Redemptive-Historical hermeneutic and the Grammatical-Historical hermeneutic?—No Christian that I have ever asked; and moreover, how many attending this year’s TGC conference even know? However, have no fear; apparently, both sides are going to be presented. Ya, right.

I have a better idea. One of the seventy teachers that are going to be there should make a chart with old Calvinism on the left, and New Calvinism on the right to help explain why it is “new.”  List theological elements on the far left and the differences between the two can be noted in the short descriptions under each new/old heading. My proposed chart follows. Please feel free to print it and take it to the conference with you. It is not meant to be comprehensive or indicative of what ALL GS proponents believe, but merely an instrument to provoke discussion. However, the chart does indicate my conviction that the two are only similar on the election issue.

paul