The Formal Launching of the Potter’s House: Why?
“Christian fathers have been sold a bill of goods. They have been told by the inept Christian academia of our day that they are not qualified to teach their families the word of God. Supposedly, the academiacs are the experts, but all they have done is regurgitated Reformed orthodoxy and tradition for hundreds of years.”
I became a Christian in Dallas, TX circa 1982. I was pursued by a young Christian zealot named Mark Cline. Mark was an individual whose life commanded respect from the saved and unsaved alike. Mark was a member of the Prestonwood Baptist mega-church located in Plano, TX during its infancy. I often visited with Mark and associated with the young singles group there. Mark died unexpectedly during minor surgery; an event that facilitated my full commitment to Christ. I now know why God took Mark home; the insidious scandals that where revealed at Prestonwood shortly after Marks death would have absolutely crushed him. The infamous womanizing founder of the church, Dr. Bill Weber, who Mark had infinite respect for actually conducted Mark’s funeral.
I moved on and eventually joined Richardson East Baptist Church where my calling to the ministry was formally recognized four years later. The pastors that participated are men of qualities hard to find in our day—that means a lot to me. But as one who grew up in the faith as a Southern Baptist, being Protestant has always been the greatest challenge in maintaining my faith. How can I still have complete faith in God and His Son after all that I have witnessed among Southern Baptists? It can only be chalked up to saving faith.
Recently, I have finally concluded what the problem is. It’s our foundation. Protestantism itself is the problem. First of all, it was founded on the false gospel of progression justification; that was Luther and Calvin’s gospel. Protestantism is a religion founded on a false gospel—it’s just that simple. Empowering the laity and starting home fellowships is not a radical alternative, it’s the only solution. “That’s throwing out the baby with the bathwater!” Absolutely, the baby is a Nephilim. That’s what Christians have to come to grips with in our day: the Western church was built on a faulty foundation. The only true road to revival is a rebuilding on the authority of God’s word. The anemic American church’s lust for control and indifference to spiritual abuse does not happen in a vacuum—it happens because of the pagan foundation it is built on.
Thank goodness for the New Calvinism movement. It is responsible for drawing attention to the real problem. Authentic tyrannical Reformation doctrine oscillates between the weakness/easy believeism that it created and New Calvinist resurgences claiming that the full dose of the disease is the cure for Calvinism Light. The president of Southern Seminary recently stated that Reformed theology in the form of New Calvinism is the “only alternative” for the present condition of the church. He failed to mention that Reformed theology is responsible for the present condition of the church to begin with.
In contrast, Susan and I have learned more about Christianity in the past six months than we have in the combined eighty years of our Christian lives. And I wonder if we haven’t had a bigger impact in the lives of others than we ever have as well. This is the result of merely studying the Bible for ourselves, and with the minds God gave us. But the statement by Al Mohler really incited me to make the Potter’s House an official church. Susan and I have filed the necessary papers with the state of Ohio. The Potter’s House will operate as a non-profit organization under TTANC L.L.C. (a non-profit LLC). Our Sunday evening Bible study will start at 7PM and will be streamed live weekly. All are invited to join us.
We endeavor to incite others to be the alternative to the formal church’s present-day tyranny and arrogance born of the Reformation. Christian fathers have been sold a bill of goods. They have been told by the inept Christian academia of our day that they are not qualified to teach their families the word of God. Supposedly, the academiacs are the experts, but all they have done is regurgitated Reformed orthodoxy and tradition for hundreds of years.
We hope to publish materials that will aid the laity in teaching their families the word of God. We hope this will be a major thrust of our ministry. Our present materials can be found at tancpublishing.com. We also have plans to start a Bible Institute as well.
Our new church website address is freebereans.blogspot.com. It is also the location of our live feed for the Sunday Bible studies.
Because only truth sanctifies,
Paul and Susan Dohse
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Paul,
Quick question: I suppose that people who were saved out of reformed theology would be considered outright heretics by the NC, right? How do they look at people who come to Christ and are saved out of their churches? Or don’t they even have that category…?
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BD,
New Calvinism classifies ALL gospels that believe works of grace take place inside the believer as a false gospel. It’s the “centrality of the objective gospel outside of us.” This is my primary thesis at this year’s conference. This was the Reformer’s main beef with Rome who believed in a transformation INSIDE the believer that aided him/her in finishing their justification. Hence, and don’t miss this, they therefore classify evangelicals in the same class as Roman Catholicism because both believe in an inner transformation. BUT, here is the big difference: like the Reformers, Rome sees the gospel as linear, or progressive where the believer has to be found righteous at a future (as Calvin called it) “tribunal.” The Reformed will only recognize that construct and NO OTHER. Sanctification MUST finish justification; ie, the “golden chain of salvation.” Therefore, anything that involves an effort by our mortality would not be a perfect finishing of justification. But evangelicals don’t see the gospel as linear–they see it as parallel. An inner work does not contribute to our justification at all because justification is a finished work and only sanctification is progressive. Now, don’t miss this either: the parallel gospel is a reality that the Reformed refuse to recognize because it is the result of grammatical metaphysics and not Christocentric metaphysics. Justification is progressive (linear/progressive) period, and grace is either in us or outside of us period. The former is a false gospel, and the latter is the true gospel. Also, all truth or grace in us leads to inner subjectivism which they deem as the root of all evil. Focusing on the gospel outside of us leads to a subjective power outside of us which is ok because what God decides to do or not do is none of our business anyway. The key is to remain empty and give God all glory for the subjective manifestations outside of us. Evangelicals believe justification is a finished work and separate from progressive sanctification. I suspect the difficulty of this lays with the idea that material and spiritual can be united to perform good in anybody other than Christ.
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BD,
New Calvinism classifies ALL gospels that believe works of grace take place inside the believer as a false gospel. It’s the “centrality of the objective gospel outside of us.” This is my primary thesis at this year’s conference. This was the Reformer’s main beef with Rome who believed in a transformation INSIDE the believer that aided him/her in finishing their justification. Hence, and don’t miss this, they therefore classify evangelicals in the same class as Roman Catholicism because both believe in an inner transformation. BUT, here is the big difference: like the Reformers, Rome sees the gospel as linear, or progressive where the believer has to be found righteous at a future (as Calvin called it) “tribunal.” The Reformed will only recognize that construct and NO OTHER. Sanctification MUST finish justification; ie, the “golden chain of salvation.” Therefore, anything that involves an effort by our mortality would not be a perfect finishing of justification. But evangelicals don’t see the gospel as linear–they see it as parallel. An inner work does not contribute to our justification at all because justification is a finished work and only sanctification is progressive. Now, don’t miss this either: the parallel gospel is a reality that the Reformed refuse to recognize because it is the result of grammatical metaphysics and not Christocentric metaphysics. Justification is progressive (linear/progressive) period, and grace is either in us or outside of us period. The former is a false gospel, and the latter is the true gospel. Also, all truth or grace in us leads to inner subjectivism which they deem as the root of all evil. Focusing on the gospel outside of us leads to a subjective power outside of us which is ok because what God decides to do or not do is none of our business anyway. The key is to remain empty and give God all glory for the subjective manifestations outside of us. Evangelicals believe justification is a finished work and separate from progressive sanctification. I suspect the difficulty of this lays with the idea that material and spiritual can be united to perform good in anybody other than Christ.
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“Forget “all” your research. Thus, far, here, you have posted not ONE direct Calvin quote and refuted it with any specific, direct quotes from the Bible. And you have not done this because you cannot do this.”
No, he can’t because he does not use the Augustinian/Calvin filter when reading scripture. You have to use that filter when you want to proof text your way to a god who elects future people to burn in hell even before Adam sinned. (Now you can tell me that is not what Calvin taught. And round and round we go. No thanks. Calvinists are in it to win for Calvin. Not for truth. They have fallen for an old dead guy who was a tyrant)
Your very foundational premises are wrong. Calvin’s determinist god is one step from Islam. It is creepy. An immoral god you worship.
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Love it when the Calvin-haters rage, imagine a vain thing, squeal like stuck pigs when asked for Scripture to support their views!
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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John, I prefer “Rabid Anti-Calvinist” if you don’t mind.
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“Rabid?” Perfect! Meaning “irrationally extreme in opinion or practice.”
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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John,
Absolutely.Anything like that coming from Calvinists is a badge of honor for me.
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That “rabid” means “irrationally extreme in opinion or practice” is from a DICTIONARY! Perhaps you should consult one prior to using a word.
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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“ARF,ARF.”
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Paul, Aren’t you glad we are not in Calvin’s Geneva? Guys like John would throw the first faggot onto the “green wood” Calvin ordered for Servetus so he would burn slower.
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Lydia,
It’s easy to see why this mentality acts out like it does.
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Paul / Lydia,
If I got this right, we don’t buy into the presupposition that “all things Calvin” = all things Scripture, right? So when talking to a Calvinist, scripture stacking is a waste of time. We don’t accept their premise. Like when someone comes here to “debate” and then tries to set up the rules of engagement and makes all sorts of demands. Like I told someone recently, “If your theology is so wonderful and your methods are so sound, then why not just find like minded people and start your own church so we can all see how great it is, and get busy reaching the lost and serving God in whatever way he leads you to do that? Why do you have to come into churches that have a completely different perspective and bother people?” I got no answer.
If this is all part of God’s master plan, then why all the fuss? Aren’t the “heretics” part of the plan too? it’s like that tornado thing. That’s one of the reasons (among many) I do not believe in their doctrine of divine election. What kind of God would punish people with a tornado who has already determined the outcome of their eternal destiny in His mind? Punishment implies some kind of sin is being corrected, right? So if the sin of the unbeliever, who is already condemned, has already been judged and their eternal destiny has already been determined, what is the point of reeking havoc in their life and maybe killing their loved ones? It kind of makes that “God so loved the world” thing seem kind of disingenuous at best. really? If that is an expression of love, I would hate to see what hate looked like… Never mind that God would be punishing sin by punishing the person after he has punished sin in Jesus. Sorry, but that dog won’t hunt.
Reformed theology & Calvinism make God out to be less loving than unbelievers, which is probably why they never talk about the implications of their system. Oh well. So glad God saved me out of that!
Have a nice weekend, and a great Lord’s day! Blessings,
BD
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“Scripture stacking?” Not ONE Scripture has been directly quoted here to prove that John Calvin was wrong about ANYTHING!
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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BD,
All good points, but I would like to focus on the big one:“If your theology is so wonderful and your methods are so sound, then why not just find like minded people and start your own church so we can all see how great it is, and get busy reaching the lost and serving God in whatever way he leads you to do that? Why do you have to come into churches that have a completely different perspective and bother people?”
Bingo. They don’t start new churches, they infiltrate and divide. AND: This is the very biblical definition of, “sectarian.” That is a precise biblical concept: those who divide with doctrine. True doctrine UNITES. Also, they see the home church movement coming big time and have already made moves to infiltrate it. Francis Chan is spearheading the effort.
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I already hear Lydia typing on this all the way in Ohio.
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Paul,
I would be interested in seeing resources on how Francis Chan is involved in infiltrating the house church movement. I came across that guy a while ago, and something just doesn’t seem right. Good point: true doctrine unites.
John,
I’m sorry, my responses are limited. You must ask the right questions.
BD
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BD,
He has developed a program for home churches–this is no accident. They seek to infiltrate every square inch of the earth. I will see if I can get you some info on it. You can also do a word search in the side bar: “Francis Chan.”
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Calvinists don’t evangelize unbelievers. They evangelize believers. They do come into churches to pull things their way, not to fit the already existing view of the church. They learned this from their mother, the catholic church.
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yep. Again, this is biblical “sectarianism.” The Catholic Church and its Reformed children are all part of the same super-sect family.
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Say, has anybody noticed this? That is, the post here? Can I assume that what has set this guy off is the idea that a couple of average Joe/Jane Christians have the audacity to start a church without Reformed approval?
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Wow! You guys are REALLY stupid! Greatest preachers to unbelievers in Christian history were Calvinists: Calvin, John Bunyan, John Owen, Matthew Henry, Thomas Watson, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon and many others. Your ignorance is appalling.
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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John,
Progressive justification is a false gospel. I am unmoved by the renown of men. Any of the men above who held to the false gospel of progressive justification are heretics. I really don’t care that they were thought well of by a mass of Kool-Aid drinkers.
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You have directly quoted NO Calvinist who taught “progressive justification”….NOT one…..
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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John, you are repeating yourself. We got it. Your divine unction is duly noted.
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Calvinism is progressive justification. That is what it is. I’ve certainly found that to be fully true in the writings of Spurgeon, which is why I stopped reading him. The supposed “famous” nature of a person, dead or alive, doesn’t make me turn off Acts 17:11.
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You have posted NO Spurgeon quote proving he taught “progressive justification.”
John Lofton, Recovering Republican
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John,
Why are you here? What is your purpose? Now you are calling people stupid. Is that an expression of Christian love?
You fail to realize that people here do not accept your premise; that you get to dictate the rules of a discussion. You can ask for quotes all you want, but I doubt very seriously that you would accept ANY form of evidence anyone supplied. Other sites, books, ministries have provided ample evidence and supplied exactly what you are asking for. Why should someone else do the work for you? If you are truly interested in finding out the truth about Calvin, et al, do the research yourself as all of us have done. Maybe this is a cry for help… Do you want to leave Reformed Theology behind too? If so, plenty of folks here will help you do that.
But to come in here making demands and behaving rudely is not displaying Christian love. All you are doing is putting people off and giving us a teachable moment. Many of us have had these exact same conversations with other rabid pro-Calvinists, and we have moved on. I suggest you do the same. Nothing we say will change your mind anyway. Only God can give you the gift of repentance, which He will do freely by His grace.
All you need do is believe the good news about God, who Jesus says He is, your sin, and God’s remedy for your sin. If you believe that Jesus is able to do all that He promised, you too can be healed. Now is the time John, now is the day of salvation. If you have already believed, you will rejoice in the reminder that Jesus saves all who come to Him by faith alone and that you are secure in Him. If this message of grace makes you angry, maybe you need to examine yourself to see if you are really in the faith. Perhaps you have believed a different message? Only you can be the judge.
I prayed for you today John, that God would open your eyes and show you His grace that is available freely to all who come to Him by faith. The world’s greatest preachers will not give you eternal life John, nor will Rushdoony. They are still in their graves. Only Jesus will fill the emptiness of your heart, which seems to me to be on display here for all to see. Who will you follow John, dead men or Jesus? The choice is yours.
I Bid you peace,
BD
P.S. I’ll be out of touch until Tuesday. Have a great weekend! Blessings to all!
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Anon,
You referred to other ministries that had provided what John L was asking for. Can you direct me to such a ministry that provides quotes verifying that Calvinists believe in progressive justification?
Thanks
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Anon,
Assuming that Calvinists follow the teachings of, uh, well, John Calvin, I would refer you to the 14th chapter of book 3 in the Calvin Institutes. The title of the chapter is “The Beginning of Justification. In What Sense Progressive.” In section 11, he, that would be John Calvin, whom, forgive me, but I assume is followed by “Calvinists,” but perhaps that’s presumptuous of me, states that the forgiveness of sins supplied by Christ’s atoning death is “perpetual.” But perhaps perpetual doesn’t really mean, you know, perpetual. And perhaps “progressive” doesn’t mean progressive. And perhaps his assertion in sections 9 and 10 that no Christian can please God because anything he/she does falls short of a perfect keeping of the law doesn’t really mean that Christians are still under the law. And of course, to think that leads to the presumptuous conclusion in 11 that we need ongoing atonement would just be silly of me I suppose.
At any rate, don’t waste my time with anymore of your stupid questions.
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I’m sorry you thought my question was stupid. I was really asking the person called Anonymous about other sites or books that verify what you are teaching. I read the part of Calvin’s book that you suggested and I have some other questions. I hope you don’t think they are stupid. 1. It looks like Mr. Calvin is talking against some people called schoolmen. It looks like they were saying that after a person is justified his works of obeying the the Law are acceptable to God and form part of the basis of Justification. Mr. Calvin seems to be saying that even after a person is saved, his works can’t please God for justification. He says that it is not our works that keep us justified, but it is Jesus’ s work that keeps us justified. That seems like the opposite of what I have read about progressive justification. Everything I have read about progressive justification looks like it means that God gives people the ability to obey and they progressively obey more and more until they are good enough for God to justify them. My first question is where does Mr. Calvin teach anything like that?
My second question is how can Mr. Calvin believe what he says about justification being based completely on the righteousness of Jesus that God imputes to us and also believe that it progresses?
I have lots of other questions but maybe you can answer these first.
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You answered your own question: “He says that it is not our works that keep us justified, but it is Jesus’ s work that keeps us justified.” NO work by anybody KEEPS us justified. It’s a finished work apart from the law. And justification is apart from the law period. Who keeps it is not even the point. There is no law to keep for justification. The spouse died, and we are no longer under it (ROM 7:1-4). If we are not under it–nobody needs to keep it for us or otherwise.
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