Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Piper is an antinomian false teacher who has the audacity to proclaim, in essence, “You are with us (the New Calvinists), or you are with the Roman Catholics.”

Let’s take some time here to chat about how John Piper thinks he’s the elder statesmen of a modern-day resurgence of the original Reformation. Truly, his ego cup runneth over.

First, as established in “The Truth About New Calvinism,” Piper and his arrogant horde got their doctrine from the Australian Forum. The Forum believed the following about what the true issue of the original Reformation was: Rome separated justification and sanctification, and thereby “infused grace” into the believer via the new birth. The new birth constituted a righteousness that was inside of us, or a righteousness that we actually possessed within us. Supposedly, the Reformation reclaimed “the objective righteousness of Christ completely outside of us.”

To believe that we have an actual righteousness imparted to us through the new birth is supposedly to  believe that our participation in sanctification can maintain and finish justification. In other words, the Reformers supposedly believed that sanctification had to maintain justification and finish it. Of course, mortals cannot do that. Supposedly, the Reformers believed that Christ not only died so that we could be justified, but He lived a perfect life for us also, so that His obedience could be imputed to us for sanctification, which can now complete justification because it is Christ’s works and not ours that is being presented. The Forum believed that living by faith is to constantly present the works of Christ to the Father to maintain justification, and not our own imperfect righteousness.

But the premise is false, and evangelicals believe that justification does not have to be maintained. We believe that justification is a onetime declaration that guarantees glorification (Romans 8:30). And the full righteousness of God has been credited to our account based on our faith ALONE  in what Christ accomplished on the cross, and His resurrection. Evangelicals believe that sanctification can’t change that—it’s past tense—it’s a completely done deal. Evangelicals and old Calvinists alike utterly reject an infusion of sanctification and justification.

The truth of the matter is that the infusion of sanctification and justification is the bases for almost every false doctrine known to man because it leaves you with two alternatives only: First, faith alone justifies us and wipes out all of our past sin, but now our standing has to be maintained by what we do in sanctification, either by work or ritual. The other alternative is to say that Jesus ALONE does sanctification for us because everyone knows we are not even going to be faithful in the easier option of ritual to maintain justification; this second option is a Jesus obeys for us antinomianism.

Again, evangelicals don’t believe that justification has to be maintained or completed by sanctification. However, the Forum was formed to develop a systematic theology that made sanctification by Jesus alone for the purpose of completing justification plausible. They also taught ecciesia reformata semper reformanda which holds to the idea that the Reformation was not finished with Luther and Calvin.

The following charts might help to clarify the issue:

The following montage from the Forum’s theological journal confirms what they thought about the original Reformation and the new birth:

Then it happened. One of the original members of the Australian Forum did a series of lectures on the Reformation at Southern Theological Seminary. Piper, who usually stays aloof from his ties to the Forum—couldn’t help himself. He wrote an article about it:

Desiring God blog, June 25, 2009: Goldsworthy on Why the Reformation Was Necessary.

In the article, Piper shows his full agreement with the Forum on their ridiculous Reformation motif and false doctrine:

This meant the reversal of the relationship of sanctification to justification. Infused grace, beginning with baptismal regeneration, internalized the Gospel and made sanctification the basis of justification. This is an upside down Gospel.

In case one would think that Piper excludes evangelicals from this concern because of his mention of baptismal regeneration, consider what he said in the same article: “I would add that this ‘upside down’ gospel has not gone away— neither from Catholicism nor from Protestants….” Piper, like all New Calvinists, insists that justification and sanctification have a “relationship” (infusion), and of course, they reject the idea that we help in the completion of justification; that’s a “reversal” of the two and an “upside down”  gospel. They therefore hold to option B: Jesus obeys for us antinomianism.

Piper also states in the same article:

When the ground of justification moves from Christ outside of us to the work of Christ inside of us, the gospel (and the human soul) is imperiled. It is an upside down gospel.

Like the Forum, Piper rejects the new birth as having anything to do with a righteousness that is possessed by the believer. This explains the continual pontification by New Calvinists that believers are no better off than the unregenerate. Paul David Tripp describes believers as dead and unable to do anything. Piper also got the “upside down gospel” phrase from the Forum. In fact, it was one of the major themes of an issue in their theological journal as can be observed below. BUT, also note that they even exclude a righteousness imparted to us by Christ within, and Him doing the work!  In fact, to believe that Christ is doing the work within us “imperils(ed)” the soul!

Like the Forum, Piper lumps evangelicals together with Rome in the same article:

In it [Goldsworthy’s lecture at Southern] it gave one of the clearest statements of why the Reformation was needed and what the problem was in the way the Roman Catholic church had conceived of the gospel….I would add that this ‘upside down’ gospel has not gone away—neither from Catholicism nor from Protestants.

Piper is an antinomian false teacher who has the audacity to proclaim, in essence, “You are with us (the New Calvinists), or you are with the Roman Catholics. While Piper puts on the whole humbleness and wisdom of Yoda act, he is one the most arrogant and deceitful false teachers in recent church history.

paul