Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Let me put it in perspective for you Peter: imagine Mark Driscoll as president of the SBC and CJ Mahaney as president of Southern Seminary.”

Sent by email on 2/13/2012:

Peter,

Greetings. I hope this email finds you well my friend. I saw your article about “aggressive Calvinism” (aka New Calvinism) and how they are partaking in hostile takeovers of Southern Baptist churches. Your complaint is that they are not upfront going in about what their theology is. Their less than full disclosure doesn’t include the fact that what they believe has the name “Calvinist” in it for fear that they would be rejected out of hand. Poor souls are therefore deceived into attaining a pastor who is a New Calvinist, and in the same kind of situation, is why Hillary Clinton looks so good to us right now after the real Barak Obama has been revealed. I can tell you about a Presbyterian church in Alabama who would love to have a real Calvinist running the show right now.

As stated in my addendum (“The Southern Baptist Connection”) to The Truth About New Calvinism, this organized, hostile takeover has been in full swing since the early 80’s. Al Mohler and company probably distance themselves from Founders Ministries because they are only one step removed from the connection to The Australian Forum.  New Calvinism is based on the doctrine that came from the Forum, which believed they had recovered the original Reformation gospel. It is my contention that a former Presbyterian and founder of Founders Ministries became a Southern Baptist for the sole purpose of bringing this “new reformation” into the SBC. Covertly, using the name of a famous Southern Baptist who would have been horrified by their doctrine.

New Calvinism is ecumenical because all that matters is an acclamation to the Forum’s, the centrality of the objective gospel outside of us. Everything else is secondary because real and lasting transformation only comes from Gospel Contemplationism anyway. Supposedly. Certainly, I do not have to make a case for this as the inclusion of everything but the kitchen sink is apparent in T4G, and the Together for the Gospel crowd.

Though they pretend to oppose the emergent church movement, they approach the Scriptures in the exact same way: the Scriptures are a historical gospel narrative that we put our life story into. New Calvinists believe that is mostly done through contemplation—emergent folks believe that is done primarily through taking action and participating in the narrative, often bringing a charge of works salvation from the other side because it is working in the narrative verses contemplating it. But both believe that the Scriptures are an exclusive personal narrative about Christ, and therefore, drawing propositional truth/cognitive principles from it for purposes of life application is an inappropriate use of the Scriptures. In a shocking display of  diss-discernment, MacArthur masterfully articulates this complaint against the emergent church while at the same time describing the same approach that his newfound New Calvinist pals hold to (The Truth War pages 13-22; also see How People Change by Paul David Tripp, page 27).

In fact,  MacArthur targets John H. Armstrong specifically on those pages in Truth War, who was also one of the movers and shakers in the movement that created Founders Ministries! Come now Peter, look at Acts 29’s involvement with Southern Baptist churches. It’s not only emergent, but was spawned by the spiritual children of Dr. John “Jack” Miller, the father of Sonship Theology that is founded on the Forum’s doctrine.

Which brings me to the name change being proposed in SBC circles. That spells certain death for the SBC—it is part of the plan. Removing “Baptist” from our name paves the way for Charismatics, Emergents, Seventh-day Adventists, you name it to be involved in the everyday activities of the SBC.  Let me put it in perspective for you Peter: imagine Mark Driscoll as president of the SBC and CJ Mahaney as president of Southern Seminary.

Peter, it’s gut-check time for Southern Baptist. I have a meeting with my pastor this afternoon. Should our church continue to contribute to the Cooperative Fund which is well on its way to being taken over by spiritual misfits?

Not in my book.

paul