Paul's Passing Thoughts

Cedarville [Ohio] Christian College will be hosting a pastors conference on February 14-15, 2012. Per the usual, the promotion uses orthodox sounding terminology, but nothing could be further from the truth. 9 Marks is a ministry led by New Calvinist Mark Dever and propagates nine supposed primary marks of a healthy church. Those nine marks are stated in the Cedarville promotion. Before I address them, some preliminary thoughts:

Is it really right that pastors attending the conference will be allowed to assume that Dever is just another everyday Baptist guy that God has called to be a teacher of other pastors? Not in my book. Dever is on the cutting edge of a huge movement with a radical agenda. He is also one of the “Core Four” of the Together for the Gospel conferences that promote New Calvinism.

Is it really right that these pastors are not aware that this movement began in the 70’s? Not in my book. Is it right that the  pastors/attendees are not aware that this movement has been known by other names and  vigorously opposed by respected evangelicals, ie., Sonship Theology, etc.? I don’t think so.

Also, as noted by folks who stop by here to visit PPT, these organizations (TGC, T4G, Founders Ministries and a host of others) are targeting churches/leadership and not individuals. Hence, pastors return to their local assemblies and try to assimilate this false doctrine into their congregations—often resulting in strong contentions. That is why the New Calvinist machine often trains pastors on how to handle dissent in their churches accordingly, and one of the methods is among the “9 marks.” In fact, a New Calvinist wrote a book on how to ram through changes in a local congregation; it is a playbook for many such transitions.

Yet another item to note is the youthfulness of the movement. Two of the four speakers are just, well, kids. The idea that these little antinomian punks will be teaching seasoned pastors, some who have been to hell and back, just makes me cringe. This is nothing more than a Mark Dever venquilitrist show and a waste of time for godly men who are serious about using God’s time wisely. The conference is a sham and does not employ full disclosure.

Now, let’s look at the promo, one “mark” at a time:

1. Expositional Preaching–An expositional sermon takes the main point of a passage of Scripture, makes it the main point of the sermon, and applies it to life today.

Lie. New Calvinists do not believe in expositional preaching. Yes, their preaching, “takes the main point of a passage of Scripture, makes it the main point of the sermon, and applies it to life today,” but in New Calvinist “exposition,” EVERY point is about what?  Right, the gospel. This is not expositional preaching, it is CHRISITOCENTRIC preaching. The Bible is also seen as a tool for Gospel Contemplationism as opposed to the orthodox approach that the pastors attending will be assuming. This is not right. This is not full disclosure and is outright deception.

2. Biblical Theology–Biblical theology is sound doctrine; it is right thoughts about God; it is belief that accords with Scripture.

Big time lie. New Calvinist “Biblical Theology” is not a theology, it’s a HERMENEUTIC known as Biblical Theology. The father of Biblical Theology Hermeneutics was Johann Phillip Gabler (18^th century), and the contemporary forefathers are Geerhardus Vos and Graeme Goldsworthy. The theme of the New Calvinist 2011 TGC conference in Chicago was “Biblical Theology” and the following video should make my point:

3,4,5. A Biblical Understanding of the Good News–A biblical understanding of the gospel is important because the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, and it is the only way for sinful people to be reconciled to a holy God.

A Biblical Understanding of Conversion–A biblical understanding of conversion recognizes both what God does and what people do in salvation.

A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism–Evangelism is simply telling non-Christians the good news about what Jesus Christ has done to save sinners.

It should be assumed that these three points will not be introduced with the following full disclosure: New Calvinists believe that justification and sanctification are the same thing. They believe that “the same gospel that saves you, also sanctifies you.” That we, “must preach the gospel to ourselves every day,” etc. Any of the pastors attending who know what to look for will be able to see through the nuance, but most will be there with their guard down.

6. Biblical Church Membership–According to the Bible, church membership is a commitment every Christian should make to attend, love, serve, and submit to a local church.

True, but that’s not why New Calvinists emphasize church membership. Church membership is vital to number 7 because control of parishioners is critical during “transitions” from traditional “Romanism” to New Calvinism. New Calvinists believe they are the continuance of the original Reformation and are “recovering” the Reformation gospel. Everyone else is Rome. When churches are “transitioning,” authority over the vast majority of the church membership is imperative. New Calvinist churches are known for their creepy cult-like control over congregants. Also, New Calvinists believe that regular visitors should be considered as under the authority of any given local church. This might be touched on at the conference.

7. Biblical Church Discipline–In the broadest sense, church discipline is everything the church does to help its members pursue holiness and fight sin. Preaching, teaching, prayer, corporate worship, accountability relationships, and godly oversight by pastors and elders are all forms of discipline.

Oh really? This alludes to my contention that New Calvinists practice a completely unorthodox church discipline. Parishioners can be brought up on church discipline for any and all sins according to elder discretion. Furthermore, the process does not end without the approval of fruit inspecting elders. Counseling, both formal and informal, is automatically considered to be the first step of church discipline, and often without the knowledge of the counselee. This reality can be detected in the above statement.

8. Biblical Discipleship and Growth–Scripture teaches that a live Christian is a growing Christian (2 Pet. 1:8-10). Scripture also teaches that we grow not only by instruction, but by imitation (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1). Therefore churches should exhort their members to both grow in holiness and help others do the same.

New Calvinists believe this is primarily obtained by Gospel Contemplationism.

9. Biblical Church Leadership–The Bible teaches that each local church should be led by a plurality of godly, qualified men called elders.

Primarily, this is ELDER RULE which relieves them of any accountability to the congregation. This form of church polity is yielding very troubling results.

paul