New Calvinists Don’t Play Well With Others
For some time, this blog has been harassed by a New Covenant theologian from Costa Rica. He has not only harassed me which I am accustomed to anyway, but he has also harassed my readers with endless circular arguments that are typical of New Calvinists. He has also showed hostility towards those who disagree with him which is also part of the New Calvinist mode of operation.
This post is sort of an apology as well to my readers. I am a layman and not much of an IT guy, so between working/writing/husbanding/fathering and not knowing all the ends and outs of web stuff—it took me awhile to figure out how to blacklist him from the site. I know, moderating mode is easy, but that’s also TIME that I don’t have. We will see if my new tweaking of the blog settings will work.
However, this all brings back to mind how hostile, condescending, and elitist New Calvinists are in general. This comes from two sources: One; New Calvinists think they are completing the original Reformation. In their minds, literally, today’s gospel narrative in the “ongoing redemptive drama” is the same as it was during the great Reformation. They are Luther’s children and I will give you three wild guesses as to who we are. Secondly; they resent the fact that evangelicals have supposedly led myriads into hell because of the separation of justification and sanctification; specifically, some of their own relatives. When they talk about “justification by faith,” let me give you a heads-up fellow evangelical—they are talking about sanctification also: “The same gospel that saves us also sanctifies us.” What do you think they are saying when they say that? Please, words mean things—start listening to them and stop assuming you know what they are saying!
Look, this mentality came directly from the Australian Forum. Everything is either Rome or the Reformers—the subjective gospel or the objective gospel. Listen to the contemporary NC crowd carefully and you will hear them say it all the time. Piper said it while commenting on Goldsworthy’s lecture at Southern seminary. On the one hand, they’re Reformers that will go down in church history, on the other, Roman Catholicism is behind every bush. It’s visions of grandeur on steroids.
This mentality is driving the hostile takeover of many ministries, ie, Coral Ridge as one example, and rampant elder abuse of parishioners. Parishioners in New Calvinist churches may rape pillage and steel, but don’t you dare question doctrine. In one particular case in a well-known NC church , a parishioner sent a letter to an excommunicated individual (same church) who questioned doctrine; the parishioner stated that she knew why he was targeted, and that she was not only a member in good standing, but living with her boyfriend out of wedlock under the full knowledge of the elders. I saw the letter. After all, we are all totally depraved anyway, right?
This mentality can be seen among their leaders on a national level. The wagons have been circled around CJ Mahaney for the exact aforementioned abuse I am talking about. It is my understanding from people who follow that venue that the website SGM Survivors . Com has been up for four years while John MacArthur, Al Mohler, and others clamor to hold events with him. His heavy handed squashing of detractors is irrelevant; “He has the gospel right.” Not that it mattered that much as I had only been there three times in about four years, and that at the behest of others, the Pyro blog blacklisted me for pointing out that Piper often flip-flops between justification and sanctification in his messages without any transitions. Frank Turk, a Pyro contributor, rebuked me for daring to “slander” Piper and said “to know Piper is to grasp Piper.” He also aped the often used you can’t criticize a NC unless you have read everything they have written routine. Of course, that would exclude any criticism of Piper because he has written about 600 books—all concerning the eternal depths of joy and proofs that God is a happy God which is supposedly a primary theme of Scripture as opposed to discussion about His holiness. The author of the blog, the insufferable Phil Johnson, bemoaned the fact that women had the audacity to criticize a teacher of “Piper’s stature” rather than being in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant.
I was in a Christian bookstore the other day and it occurred to me that other people telling Spirit filled Christians what God is saying to them is big business. The New Calvinists are making big bucks selling the idea that they are the new Reformers here to finish what Luther started (by the way, Luther’s contention with Rome was on a moral issue, [indulgences] not salvation by grace alone). And you’re either with them, or you are with the Romans. Character doesn’t matter, if CJ draws a crowd, CJ is too big to fail. Follow the money.
Enough is enough—Christians need to take the church back from New Calvinism. And by the way, Christ said, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” So, sometimes I wonder about this whole “Reformation” motif to begin with. Had Rome temporarily prevailed against God’s church? Don’t know, but I can tell you that I don’t believe it because a bunch of men say it’s true. And the “new” Reformation? Well, that’s definitely a stretch.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Paul,
the New Calvinists think we’re a bunch of Papists, don’t they! Ha!
We’ve all heard the monotonous claims by New Calvinists about other churches: “Self-salvation is the goal of much preaching.” They see two religions, one is their so called MODERN REFORMATION/NEW CALVINISM, and the other is ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
Below are a couple classic quotes for refreshers:
DOES JUSTIFICATION STILL MATTER? By Michael Horton Ph.D 2011
“There are two religions, says Paul: “the righteousness that is by works” and “the righteousness that is by faith.” While the former feverishly pursues its schemes of self-salvation,…the latter simply receives the word of Christ and rests in it alone.”
One more quote, here’s where Horton thinks he knows history and goes on to include sanctification with justification outside of us (i.e. we do nothing; simply rest in it alone):
UNION WITH CHRIST by Michael Horton Ph.D 1992
“Those who are familiar with the historical (if not contemporary) discourses of Reformed and Lutheran preaching will immediately recognize the emphasis on the objective work of Christ in history. Themes such as election, the incarnation, the substitutionary atonement, the active and passive obedience of Christ, justification, adoption, and the objective aspect of sanctification (i.e., the declaration that we are already holy in Christ), form the diet of the best and most biblically faithful preaching. Each of these themes serves to remind the believer that his or her righteousness is found not within, but outside… All of our righteousness, holiness, redemption, and blessing is found outside of us – in the person and work of Christ.”
By the way, I’ve read the whole Catholic Catechism. I agree, the Roman Catholic Church does not believe in “self- salvation” or “works- salvation.” Check the online Catechism of the Catholic Church (850 pages). It’s been out there for years – free anytime. Sure there’s problems, but they’ve literally got everything sprinkled with grace, God centered, not man centered as we’ve heard.
It’s not going to be a surprise to me if we find out in the end that the Roman church was actually closer to Truth than the New Calvinists.
Arkansas Bill
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Bill, Great quotes. I might need them–can you get me the references?
> —–Original Message—– >
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Paul,
you can just Google those two article names (Union with Christ and Does Justification Still Matter) and get the full articles.
Below in an interesting paragraph by a Protestant writer about Justification:
A HANDBOOK OF THEOLOGICAL TERMS by Van A. Harvey 1964
Justification Discussion:
“Roman Catholic theologians tend to regard the Protestant view as a purely legalistic and forensic one, because Justification seems to be simply the act of remitting punishment and involves no transformation of the justified person. Protestants, on the other hand, tend to regard the Roman Catholic view as based on the idea of merit and a magical view of the sacraments. To some extent, both criticisms are caricatures and justifiable only to the extent that a few theologians in both groups have sometimes written in extreme ways. Both Reformed and Lutheran theologians, for example, have written as though Justification is solely a juridical act that involves no interior change in man, and some Roman Catholics, on the other hand, have written as though Justification were a reward for the merit of cooperating with actual grace. Both Luther (1483-1546) and Calvin, however, argued that Justification was not only the forgiveness of sins but involved the gift of the Holy Spirit and a new righteousness. In fact, they often talked about it in language that suggests something like infusion. But both of the Reformers were also careful to add that the transformation of the believer is not the condition of Justification, nor is it so complete that the Christian life is not a continual cry for forgiveness. On the other hand, some Roman Catholics insist that what they call merit is itself a gift of God and that Justification is entirely gratuitous.”
Arkansas Bill
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