Tchividjian Booted from The Gospel Coalition for Being Too Concise
“Tullian Tchividjian is John Calvin. Period.”
Be sure of this: Tullian Tchividjian thoroughly understands Reformed doctrine and its gospel. Tchividjian doesn’t believe one whit different from anybody who writes or speaks for The Gospel Coalition, and they ALL know it.
The problem with TT is that he does not follow the philosopher king script of nuance for the sake of the totally depraved herd that is “not ready” for the true Reformed gospel of justification by faith…plus the dirty little secret of faith alone for both justification and sanctification. It’s like total depravity this, and total depravity that, and “oh, we forgot to mention that includes the saints as well.”
TT is not nuanced enough. In this interview here, it is absolutely clear that this is the reason he was sent packing. Because of him, The Gospel Coalition, T4G, and others have to recruit sanctification gurus Jerry Wragg, Kevin DeYoung, and Mike Fabarez to cleanup his mess and calm the mindless totally depraved zombie sheep. They are tired of cleaning up the messiness of questions raised as a result of TT’s accurate articulation of the Reformed gospel.
There is only one thing better than a rank antinomian, an honest one. Charles Spurgeon once said that Calvinism isn’t a nickname, Calvinism is the gospel. Let me take that a step further for our purposes: Tullian Tchividjian is John Calvin. Period. I will debate anyone out there who has a problem with TT’s Calvinism and will show clearly from the Institutes that TT is spot on. Get over it. Please debate me on this, you will lose.
In my disdain for the Neo-Calvinist movement, a weird respect is floating to the top for the few who know what Calvin really believed and are honest about it. In fact, who else is there other than TT and Joseph Prince? (see here for explanation). How bad is it when I have to admit that I respect these guys because A, they know what they are talking about, and B, they are honest about it? Prince’s life application is beside the point, he understands the Reformed version of justification by faith, and the rest of the story mostly untold.
The two other camps annoy me to no end: those who think there is a difference between New Calvinism and Old Calvinism, and for that matter, Sonship theology as well, and those who know grade-A-well that there is no difference and are lying about it. I have also lost all patience with those who think they can help the spiritually abused while retaining some supposedly respectable remnant of Reformed theology. Name one aspect that passes a grammatical interpretation of Scripture: it’s not there.
So there it is. TT is very important to this ministry because people have to know what they believe before you can convince them. We think followers of TT know what they believe. The rest? It’s really just a massively confused personality cult with a plethora of discernment bloggers adding to the confusion by dissecting all of the symptoms.
Get with the program: it’s either Tullian or something else.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
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I do have some concerns over Tullian. I wish he would not skip over the imperatives and would give a little more instruction on third use of the law. He would be good at it, because he would be careful not to make it the cause of our acceptance with God. Christians do need it. There are a lot of them who don’t get it because they came from such surroundings that allowed, promoted, or at least winked at, certain sins and were never instructed otherwise. It is loving to instruct them carefully regarding how we should now live.
I think that’s a debate worth having with him. I know he believes it, he just doesn’t teach it terribly well sometimes. Sometimes he promotes something that seemed purely sentimental. I’m thinking of the one blogger/runner lady who talked about attending LIBERATE and finding God again, but her posts lacked any indication of repentance and understanding of what she was saved from.
I know Mark Jones has offered to debate him. I think that could be instructive. Does he know about it I wonder?
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When one has a proper view of law and gospel, they know it is impossible to do anything in sanctification that would effect justification. There is no danger of obeying the law in sanctification for justification because justification has NO connection to law. It’s just not there. But this is the Achilles’ heel of Calvinism–there is law in justification.
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I do find it rather ironic that the guy they’re accusing of antinomianism is the guy who is ACTUALLY judging them for their sinfully complicit behavior. 🙂
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Right.
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Joseph Prince is a false prophet and preaches Heresy.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/chace-gordon/exposing-a-heretic-joseph-prince/285347971502104
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Rod,
Right, he is an antinomian in the Reformed tradition of sanctification by justification. This is overlooked because of his prosperity application, but it is clearly the same gospel.
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“But this is the Achilles’ heel of Calvinism–there is law in justification.”
You mean they are trying to put law in it? Not that there rightly is law in justification?
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terriergal
Right, we are justified APART from the law. The law only exists in justification for those who are under it and will be judged by it if they are not saved. But the law only speaks to those who are under it. Those under grace uphold the law out of love for God and others, but it does not speak to us who are not under it for justification. In regard to justification, the law is eradicated and has no jurisdiction over us. Calvinism teaches that we are still under the law’s justification jurisdiction, and therefore, Christ must keep the law for us in order to keep us justified. No, there is no law to keep for our justification. This is where Calvinism is false–the issue of law and gospel.
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Paul –
In a recent article by Kevin DeYoung about the “things we agree on” he had a list of 15 questions. Question 8 was about “glorification” and he linked to another article he wrote about this subject where he was quoting someone else (can’t recall the name). You might find it interesting to read the thoughts there. Glorification is definitely where they combine justification + sanctification = glorification/final justification.
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Right, in fact Bridget, our recent research has concluded that the position is justification, sanctification, glorification, creation, and reality all progressing together unto a complete consummation which is part of their dominion theology. Also interesting is that sanctification is a progressive experiencing of the same glorification that will be experienced in the resurrection. Hence, it’s not only a fusion of justification and sanctification, it is a fusion of justification, sanctification, and glorification. So, instead of a complete transformation in a twinkling of an eye into something that has never entered into the mind of man, it is a finishing of progressive glorification.
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Bridget,
Kevin DeYoung… more nuanced in speech than anyone I can think of. Crafty. His writing reminds me of Piper. Hence, he sails under the radar. Piper’s gotten away with some nasty, mean.. God sent the tornado on your kid… type of stuff. But he says it in a sweet, mild mannered, sweetly nerdy & flowery way.
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http://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=113
Don’t know if you ever saw the above article called Pied Piper.
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Joe Carter
4 hours ago
“I think, as I suspect most Christians do, that the Gospel is tied to sanctification. It’s certainly not a doctrine that that is optional for Christians.”
The way I would state it is that the Gospel stands alone and sanctification flows from believing the Gospel, Good News, which produces a desire to please God.
I would never say that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection which is the Good News, the Gospel, to those who believe, is tied to any one’s sanctification. That would completely nullify grace by faith in Christ alone. They nullify the atonement by connecting ones sanctification to it.
Am I missing something?
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Not at all. You are right. Sanctification is powered by the quickening (regeneration) and is completely separate from justification. Like all vile heretics, Carter switches the word justification for “gospel” for the purpose of nuance. Reword it this way: “I think, as I suspect most Christians do, that justification is tied to sanctification.”
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Personally, I think the entire movement is imploding. Keller, the one people seemed to trust, has outed himself today as one who is willing to lie to cover for Mahaney and dissed the victims of SGM once again. Their Goebbels, Joe Carter is down right hateful. He alsoworks for SBC ERLC.
‘From the freak show of Driscoll and Mahaney to Piper this movement is climaxing and even fracturing. Anytime TGC speaks, people should respond: You have no credibility.
Yeah, those reading here already knew what they were but it has gone viral.
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Well, this would be the fourth resurgence to die. 2 of them were in SDA circles, and the SDA was responsible for this one. The first was the second European Reformation. We are researching the Keswick movement to see if it counts for one, as well as the Emergent church movement. We initially thought the Great Awakening was one, but that was really spawned by the American Revolution. The Puritans came riding alongside and took credit for it, but they were really only riding the wave. So right now, New Calvinism would be the fourth to come and go, but it may be the 6th–more research is needed. This will all be in TTANC 2. Keep this in mind: if NC doesn’t get into bed with the government fast enough, it will die unless it finds another host; viz, ROME. It could be part of the last days antinomian blitzkrieg that will come, but they have to get in bed with somebody like Rome.
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