Paul's Passing Thoughts

I have written two other articles on this year’s Strange Fire Conference hosted by the confused, possibly heretical John MacArthur. MacArthur and the shameless hacks he invited are staunch Calvinists. I have tried to state as simply as possible that Calvin et al taught a false gospel. Why? Because the essence of the false Reformed gospel is that you must live by faith alone in sanctification to keep your justification. It’s salvation by Christ plus antinomianism. And by the way, Antinomianism will be the one world religion of the last days headed by the “man of anomia.”

This is nothing new. James confronted the same thing in his letter to the Jewish church before the Gentiles were officially noted as equals in God’s kingdom. But yet, doctrine is not the crux of the issue here. The cessation of particular gifts issue is not the crux. And behavior is not the crux. Calvin did not go to the Bible and discover that he agreed with Augustine without presuppositions. Neither did Luther. Both approached the Bible with a Platonist worldview.

They simply made Christ the culmination of the true forms, and EVERYTHING else shadows of the true form, including the other two members of the Trinity. Hence, Christ must be seen in every reality of life, and all of life must be interpreted through Christ.

Granted, the way the Reformers dressed it all up in biblical garb is pure genius. Plato’s objective true forms descending into progressive subjectivity is now “the centrality of the objective gospel outside of us,” and “the subjective power of an objective gospel.” Google those terms at your own leisure. It is also comprised of the Platonist idea that matter is evil and spirit is good, so grace cannot be “infused.” This philosophy is the basis of total depravity. And by the way, if you know what to look for, these guys are not even ambiguous about it.

So let me state it again: MacArthur’s problem with the Charismatic movement is that it puts value on life in the here and now. Everything else is just window dressing. He tolerated CJ Mahaney for a time because Mahaney shares his disdain for human existence, MacArthur’s general confusion between his former grammatical interpretation of reality and his present Christocentric interpretation of reality notwithstanding.

This is why these guys brazenly brag about their endearment to the Puritans who despised those who “live in the shadows” of this forsaken world. This is why they boast of their endearment to those who hung Quakers and drowned women; they relate to the same Platonist disdain for putting stock in the ability of man to improve the conditions of this fallen world.

And like the Quakers, Charismatics believe in “infused grace.” MacArthur cannot have them hung, not yet anyway (perhaps his grandchildren will have the Puritan privilege), but the Strange Fire conference is the next best thing.

paul