Cross Conference Website Full of In-Your-Face Spiritual Caste
I have written much on the whole power of the keys thing that New Calvinists advocate. Basically, it’s the idea that truth comes down from God to the elders, and then the elders disseminate the truth to the unenlightened masses. We call this, “orthodoxy.” A good example of orthodoxy is the Westminster Confession authored by, and don’t miss this, “the Westminster Divines.” Did I say, “Divines”? Yes I did.
Prior to the Reformation, it was the philosopher king’s parable or noble lie: mythology. By the way, “orthodoxy” is a word that is born from, and is part and parcel with the marriage of church and state. The etymology of “orthodoxy” has always been associated with eras when “truth” was owned by the state. Using that word as a synonym for “truth” in our day is an epistemological sleight of hand. The word is used to subtly assimilate the idea of spiritual caste into the minds of people who are not paying close attention to words in an open society.
The power of the keys gig also includes the authority of elders to decide who is saved and who isn’t. When you get kicked out of a New Calvinist church, they honestly believe that they have removed your name from the book of life. After being removed from the book of life by the Clearcreek elders, and other Calvinistic elders that I have never heard of threatening to do the same, I wondered where they get this stuff, so I perused my trusty copy of the Calvin Institutes and found this notion in 4.1.21,22.
Regarding http://crosscon.com/ , the official website of the upcoming Cross conference where the future leaders of the church are going to be fed this stuff, everywhere you poke that site, this kind of caste mentality comes oozing out. Consider the following:
The Great Commission was given to a community. Western readers have tended to read the Great Commission passages (especially Luke 24 and Matthew 28) in light of the autonomous individual. We [tend to] interpret the commissioning scenes as tasks assigned to individual Christians. But a proper focus on the corporate dimension of these accounts helps us understand the commissionings in light of the identity Jesus bestows upon a community. Jesus does not send a Christian to the nations, but a church.
Being interpreted: all faith based ministries not under the authority of “the church” have no mandate from Christ. Also, the constant referring to Western thinking this and Western thinking that among New Calvinists is very, very creepy if you know where it is coming from. This is in contrast to medieval Reformed thinking that, in Martin Luther’s words, “settles all disputes by sentence of death.”
And a PPT friend sent the next example. Remember when Jesus talked about the vine and the branches in John 15? Do you remember anything about elders being in that conversation? Well, note the following screen shot from the conclusion of a John Piper video:
Listen folks, we can’t let these guys feed this stuff to our youth without putting up some kind of a fuss. These are future leaders coming to a church near you. These are young people who will leave that conference and take these ideas into hundreds of local churches. I interviewed a media guy today who will hopefully be videotaping our dialogue with the young people at the conference. After it sank in, he commented, “Sooooo, you are going right into the belly of the beast.”
Well, somebody needs to. Come and join us.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
LikeLike
[…] via Cross Conference Website Full of In-Your-Face Spiritual Caste. […]
LikeLike
Paul, you and I have our theological disagreements, but you are right to highlight this bastardization of the faith. This is terrifying.
You are either a comrade of the collective, or you are a comrade of the stake. All hail the incarnate Pastor.
LikeLike
Argo,
I go to bed at 9pm, sometimes 8.
LikeLike
Okay I am not where I can check this out further at the moment so in between now and then if you respond please let me know if I’m correct in reading John Piper is putting the pastor as the vine and church members under the pastor is the branches is this correct
LikeLike
Alex,
I am not sure, but the illustration is code red on the creep meter. It fits with Calvin’s power of the keys. I mean, I have manuscripts where these guys say straight up that truth must be interpreted by the elders. But you raise an interesting question as I have a bad habit of constantly underestimating the hubris of these guys.
LikeLike
Can you link me to anything online regarding the “interpreted by the elders” assertion? I know I have read you refer to this and a few other people but simply did not have time to follow it up. And if not a link a source?
LikeLike
http://wp.me/pmd7S-1fJ
http://wp.me/pmd7S-1r6
LikeLike
Okay, I found the video for the screen shot. It is a conference on Union with Christ, apparently the most profound doctrine, they say “may be the most important doctrine you’ve never heard of”.
Okay, so here we have Neo-Calvinists who have, for the last 15-20 years and certainly the last 10 years, overwhelming their people and those being assimilated, being offered a conference on “the most important doctrine you’ve never heard of”.
Hmmm…so Neo-Calvinists, what have you been doing all this time if this doctrine is central to all things as you promo says? Suddenly you now offer the most important doctrine. I suggest theological and ecclesiastical malfeasance with such an admission.
If it was and is so important, and it is, why haven’t you made it the centrality of your teaching and articulations all this time or…is this just another gimmick to incite spiritual anxiety in people who now believe they have been missing something and cannot miss this?
Good grief.
LikeLike
Thanks for the links Paul.
LikeLike
Alex,
Rule #1, EVERYTHING they do comes from the Calvin Institutes. I have connected so many of these elements to the Institutes that I do not have time to write about all of it.
LikeLike
Paul
Having read your posts for some time I agree that your premise is well founded. BTW I am amazed at the volume of material you and your wife produce on this matter. Thank you.
LikeLike
[DELETED] You need not address me in your replies since I certainly will not be back to this site.
LikeLike
And I need not post your comment.
LikeLike