CCEF’s Dr. Ed Welch: Sultan of the Totally Depraved
Dr. Welch
Dr. Ed Welch of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) makes his living via the wide and deep ocean of Christians who have emerged from a secular education system that stopped teaching people how to think long ago. In a recent article he wrote (What the Church Really Believes about Sanctification), absurdities occupy nearly every sentence, but people will buy it because he is, well, a doctor. It reminds me of the less than aesthetically truthful Gene Simmons stating, “Trust me, I’m a doctor” in the Dr. Pepper commercial. It’s meant to be a joke, but one wonders how many believe he is really a doctor just because he said so, and would indeed trust him to do brain surgery while dressed in his KISS attire—staring at the creepy face with calm demeanor.
In case you think I am being absurd, consider the first sentence of the aforementioned post:
Each generation of believers develops its own weird convictions about Scripture.
Here is my problem: words mean things. Welch’s words are indicative of his spiritual caste mentality that is uniquely Reformed: preordained philosopher kings are chosen to
Trust him, he’s a doctor.
herd the pathetic totally depraved zombie sheep to heaven while losing as few as possible. And like other CCEF elitists David Powlison and Paul David Tripp opine: “It’s very messy business.” Yes indeed. Welch doesn’t write, “Every generation of believers has those who develop weird convictions about Scripture.” Instead, his choice of words reveals his overall spiritual elitist attitude towards the common Christian, and their “cooperate weirdness.” What does “corporate” mean? This first sentence is followed by the typical Reformed argument for why creeds and confessions are needed:
Though confessions and creeds offer some stability, they also conceal our faulty beliefs under a thin cover of orthodoxy. And there they wait, erupting to the surface in times of trouble.
The arrogance takes your breath away. If not for Reformed confessions and creeds written by the….and this kills me, “Westminster Divines,” and bloodthirsty Puritans at the behest of civil government—there wouldn’t be any stability at all! Per the usual, like his associate David Powlison often does, Welch deceives with subtle words that pretend to make him one of us: “….our faulty beliefs,” but obviously, he is of the anointed few that sees the problem since interpreting the Bible for ourselves is a dangerous stunt that we shouldn’t try at home. Like their good friend Dr. Albert Mohler has stated:
The main means by which God saves his people from ignorance is the preaching and teaching of the word of God. That’s why a conference like this is so important. It’s not just because we think of the pastorate as a profession set along side other professions so that we can gather together for a little professional encouragement to go out a be a little better at what we do. No, we’re here because we believe that those who teach and preach the word of God are God-appointed agents to save God’s people from ignorance (2011 FBC Jax Pastor’s Conference).
CCEF’s own view of interpretation posits the idea that research and development teams made-up of experts from various fields can only draw out truth that can help the totally depraved zombie sheep cope while on the long road to heaven fraught with darkness and hardship. In an interview with 9Marks blog, Powlison stated:
CCEF is also unique even within the wider biblical counseling movement in two more ways. One is what I call “R&D”—a research and development purpose. We don’t believe that saying “biblical counseling” means that we have figured it all out. We are a work in progress. We have a core commitment to push, to develop, to build, to tackle a new problem…The church forgets things. The church rediscovers things. But when it rediscovers something, it’s different because it’s always in a different sociocultural-historical moment, and different forces are at work.
So, even if the average Joe Christian could find the forgotten truth which apparently isn’t in the Bible to begin with or else it wouldn’t be forgotten, you would have to be a sociologist to understand the significance of that truth in our day. Game over. All hail to the CCEF philosopher kings.
Welch further exploits the apparent stupidity of Christians by implementing the Reformed either/or hermeneutic:
One place we can find the corporate weirdness of our day is in the doctrine of sanctification. It seems that we [he really doesn’t mean “we,” again, this is disingenuous and manipulative] have arrived at a consensus about the normal process of sanctification and it’s not good. Here it is: We believe in the victorious life: healthy, wealthy, prosperous and sin-free. Lord have mercy on us.
Again, though Welch uses the word “us,” he and the brainiacs at CCEF are the only usians that can see the problem. They are the usian philosopher kings. And we EITHER see it their way, OR we believe in the “victorious life”; i.e., Christians will never suffer and will enjoy prosperity unless it’s a judgment from God:
No sane Christian believes we will be free of trouble, hardships and suffering, but most of us believe we should have less of it than our unbelieving neighbors. So suffering still surprises us, as if children of the King have immunity. The two common responses to suffering are: [with frustration] Why is God doing this to me?[with guilt and confusion] What have I done to deserve this? Do we think that Christ suffered so we are spared the hardships that would have fallen on us? True, Jesus bore our judgment but that doesn’t eliminate the suffering of living in a sin-filled world. Instead it gives us power to follow in his footsteps.
Here is what Welch, being evil, does with this statement: he takes four different biblical truths and uses them as three points to draw one conclusion:
Weakness. That is the normal Christian life. It looks like power but it feels like weakness. That is the real victorious life.
Hence, the biblical truth that we can obtain blessings in this life through obedience; the biblical truth that sin can in fact bring judgment; and the fact that God brings trials into our life to stretch our faith, are all presented as fallacies to make his Reformed money point: we are pathetic, helpless, weak, defeated, totally depraved morons that need to learn how to be victorious in weakness via the CCEF philosopher kings.
In the above statement, he also reveals their Gnostic paradigm for how this is accomplished: normal is weakness because we are weak, and a deeper and deeper knowledge of that weakness enables us to “feel” the power of the heavenly. In this earthly realm we “look like” weakness, but we experience the “power” of the spiritual realm. This CCEF Gnostic viewpoint was at the crux of the Welch/Jay Adams heart/flesh debate. Welch (like the rest of the bunch at CCEF) believes sin is a realm; Adams believes sin is also in our flesh where Christians can fight against it through obedience and practical biblical means. Welch, to the contrary, believes that gnosis concerning the works of Jesus (gospel contemplationism) manifests the spirit realm which we passively “feel” or experience:
We fix our hearts on Jesus and what he has done, and begin a journey that travels from loving sin to hating it, which can take quite a while and seem circuitous. It feels like weakness, but is sustained by the Holy Spirit. That is the real victorious life.
Yes, though we “hate” sin, there is really nothing we can do about it, that wouldn’t be “weakness.” The true victorious life is looking weak, but feeling the power of the heavenly. It’s “look” and “feel” which is anything but, learn from the Bible and do.
In the end game—it’s Reformed antinomianism. But what is amazing is how these guys can couch their Gnosticism in a way to make it look like solid biblical wisdom. Nevertheless, CCEF plays an important role in the present-day New Calvinist tsunami. It is a think tank for the development of the movement’s most valuable asset….
CONTROL.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch and commented:
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Paul,
In all fairness, let’s look at *your* first sentence: “Dr. Ed Welch of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) makes his living via the wide and deep ocean of Christians who have emerged from a secular education system that stopped teaching people how to think long ago.”
No “spiritual caste mentality”? No “spiritual elitist attitude toward the common Christian”? No general statement without any qualifiers?
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Jeff,
I don’t think pointing out the following reality is a spiritual caste mentality: Christians in our day that can think critically are a minority. This is the result of construed and organized propaganda by socialists over a number of years. My wife, Susan, has fought it in the Christian and public school systems for the better part of 38 years. The results of people coming out of such a system and into Reformed anti-thinking churches has yielded the obvious results in our day. Let’s remember, Luther called reason an ugly horror who should have dung rubbed in her face. And the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
But to your point: my assessment calls out Christians to use their God-given brains and think for themselves–ABILITY IS ASSUMED. To the contrary, caste systems deny the ability, responsibility, and competence of the common man.
paul
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“Christians in our day that can think critically are a minority.” That is doubtlessly true, and I think it would have been a more accurate leading sentence than the one you used. Frankly, your original first sentence didn’t bother me until you criticized Welch’s: “Each generation of believers develops its own weird convictions about Scripture.” It just seemed to me that yours was just as sweeping a generalization as his. That’s all.
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“Christians in our day that
canthink critically are a minority.” They can do it, they are taught not to intentionally.LikeLike
Actually “reason” was the enemy of the “state church” and the determinist god filter of the Reformation which came from Augustine.
Another Lutherism:
“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom… Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”
—Martin Luther, Works, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148.
“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but—more frequently than not—struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”
—Martin Luther, Table Talks in 1569.
“Heretics are not to be disputed with, but to be condemned unheard, and whilst they perish by fire, the faithful ought to pursue the evil to its source, and bathe their heads in the blood of the Catholic bishops, and of the Pope, who is the devil in disguise.”
—Martin Luther, Table Talks (as quoted in Religious History: An Inquiry by M. Searle Bates, p. 156).
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Evidently, Luther did not think one could possess reason and faith at the same time. Perhaps that should make us not want to believe other things he taught. :o)
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paul,
this is not a rhetorical or silly question i’m going to ask, but do you think calvinists are saved? i keep going back and forth between the arguments for and against in both theological and practical/behavioral evidence, but it’s hard for me to come to a conclusion.
-mike
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Mike,
Sanctified Calvinists are saved. Authentic Calvinists promote a false gospel and therefore are false teachers, and therefore, no, I would not give them the salvific benefit of the doubt. Sanctified Calvinists are the ones that are a remnant from the Authentic Calvinist resurgence movements that come and then die a social death because of tyranny. They retain the name, but modify the false soteriolgy of the Reformers. However, they traditionally retain the eschatology that goes hand in hand with progressive justification; ie., Amillennialism etc. Obviously, with progressive justification, there can only be one resurrection and one judgement. Another judgement based on rewards rather than imputed righteousness does severe violence to the major premise of the doctrine. Jay Adams and Joel Taylor of Five Point Salt would be examples of Sanctified Calvinists. Al Mohler and most of the New Calvinists in our day are Authentic and therefore vile false teachers. Let them all be accursed.
paul
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“Another judgement based on rewards rather than imputed righteousness does severe violence to the major premise of the doctrine. ”
This would make an interesting post.
I am uncomfortable making judgements but I have to say I do think they are false teachers. However, I think many of the followers believe it out of ignorance. (See 1 Tim 1) I have great hope for them as we know Calvinism historically dies out or goes liberal. And many leave it behind…especially those not making a living from it. The bad news is that many become athiest. I meet them quite a bit. They become totally discouraged with the foundational belief of Calvinism of the determinist god.
I always encourage them to read the Gospels only for at least 3 years, every day. KNOW Jesus. What did He say, what did He do and what did He NOT do or say? He looks nothing like the Calvinist determinist god.
An interesting tidbit is what happened to the Puritans? That tends to be relatable to our thinking. What the Puritans taught and believed is the total opposite of our country’s founding. Which founding fathers were Puritans?
I always find it amusing that Aaron Burr was Jonathan Edwards’ grandson. You won’t read that in the bio’s of Edwards that are written by the Calvinists. Edwards is the homeboy for Calvinists.
An interesting book is George Marsden’s bio of Edwards where a passing mention is made of the grizzly suicides of those being discipled by Edwards during the Great Awakening. Why? Going deep with their sin AFTER being “saved”.
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