Paul's Passing Thoughts

“But since I am a nice guy, I hereby propose a plan to save Calvinism with first generation biblical counseling.”    

I have been getting emails that suggest the present-day Neo-Calvinist movement has peaked, is imploding, and will soon be on the decline. This would be a repeat of history. The only problem is, what is left behind of the authentic Reformation still yields weak sanctification which leaves the door open for the authentic Reformation gospel to return.

This is because the Neo-Platonist political goal of the Reformation gospel sought to keep the masses under the one law of sin and death. The practical application of the Reformation gospel wasn’t a new method for interpreting the Bible, it was a new method for interpreting reality itself through the redemptive works of Christ. Man lives in the shadows of the true forms; Jesus Christ and His works. Reality is a gospel metaphysical narrative that glorifies God through the history of sinful man, and every event is completely pre-authored by God’s pen down to the smallest detail.

This isn’t a natural way to interpret reality or literature, and as history moved further away from Calvin’s Geneva, Christians began to gravitate more and more towards a grammatical interpretation of Scripture. This made Christians more than mere characters in a prewritten metaphysical narrative, and spawned the antinomian controversies throughout church history.

Even though the European idea of living a preordained life of slavery under preordained masters was eventually rejected in America, the significance of that idea in regard to the European gospel has never been fully dealt with. There has never been a complete reevaluation of the foundations laid by the Reformation regardless of its abhorrent historical fruit.

In 1970, the American church was languishing in anemic sanctification after the first gospel wave of the 50’s and 60’s produced massive converts with very little power in the Christian life to show for it. Christianity had few answers for life’s difficult questions. Billy Graham saved you, and Oprah Winfrey counseled you. Even in our day, a disciple of Winfrey’s, Dr. Phil McGraw, helps people with real-life problems more than the institutional church would ever dream of.

And what is the church’s Neo-Calvinist answer to that? “It’s not about your life, it’s about Jesus.” “It’s not about anything you do, it’s about what Jesus did.” “Is the gospel about Jesus, or your Spirit-filled life?” “We preach the gospel, we don’t try to be the gospel.” And yes, that was the answer for concerns raised in the 70’s about powerless Christianity. You see, supposedly, what little bit of sanctification and practical application that was being practiced at the time was the problem. The first gospel wave circa 1950-1970 was strong on getting people saved and emphasized sanctification little; the Neo-Calvinist gospel wave came along and said, for all practical purposes, that sanctification is not needed at all—what we need is more Jesus—“Jesus is our sanctification.” “Sanctification isn’t you—it’s Jesus.”

In the same year that the Reformed lager once again came to save Protestant Light, 1970, a Presbyterian by the name of Jay Adams ignited the biblical counseling movement with the groundbreaking and controversial book, “Competent to Counsel.” In my opinion, being a part of the movement during its peak in the 90’s, it was one of the true revivals in church history that was strictly a church affair minus European political intrigue, if not the only one.

The reason for this is simple: Adams focused on walking in the Spirit. This wasn’t a walking in the Spirit that prescribed working hard at gospel contemplationism, this was a walking in the Spirit that prescribed learning and hard work on the part of God’s people with the Holy Spirit as counselor and helper. Adams separated justification and sanctification, and claimed that the power for Christian living came from the new birth, not justification. The cross saves you, but it doesn’t sanctify you. The resurrection sanctifies you.

There is only one reason for being sanctified by justification: Christians remain under the law of sin and death. Hence, the cross must continue to save us from that law—more cross. Adams prescribed walking in the law of the Spirit of life, and rejected the idea that the law of the Spirit operated in the power of the cross; Adams insisted that obedience to the law of the Spirit of life was a colaboring between us and the Spirit who raised Christ from the grave.

And the Neo-Calvinist resurgence went to war against Adams and won. Adams’ primary nemesis was the propagators of Sonship theology who are alive and well in the present-day Neo-Calvinist movement and own 95% of all biblical counseling. Adams’ Institute for Nouthetic Studies is the last vestige of the revival standing, and is unfortunately staffed with some who want to be friends with both camps even though at issue is the very gospel of Jesus Christ—because the crux is, are we still under law, OR under grace and the law of the Spirit of life?

Though the “second generation” counseling movement has managed to stay clear of the ongoing implosion, they are in the Neo-Calvinist camp and if history repeats itself, and that is what seems to be happening, they will likewise die the same social death that monergistic substitutionary sanctification always dies. That is, unless it can get in bed with the government and compel its orthodoxy by force, but historically, that only buys it some additional time prior to its inevitable demise.

But since I am a nice guy, I hereby propose a plan to save Calvinism with first generation biblical counseling. It is said of Adams’ first generation biblical counseling that it is to be commended for paving the way and laying a foundation, but now the “second generation” of biblical counseling is the real solution. Oh really? They have been running the show completely for twenty years now in the American church, and are we better off? Hardly! They have created mediating organizations that keep churches out of court, or at least try to, as a solution for cleaning up the bad fruit that their false gospel has created. When in American history have we ever needed mediating organizations to keep Christians from suing the institutional church? 2009 brought a nuclear explosion of discernment blogs, not against the familiar isms of church history, but against the same old spiritual tyranny that this doctrine has produced for over 500 years leading to its own periodic social deaths.

The key to saving Calvinism in all of this is the general ignorance and doctrinal illiteracy that has always been part of Calvin’s tyranny. As the framers of our constitution stated, an informed people is a free people. Calvinists can now use this ignorance to save the movement, and take credit for the future fruits born by instructing people to walk in the Spirit of life through obedience to everything Christ has commanded.

Because we Christians are generally stupid, the same ploy used by David Powlison (one of the forefathers of second generation biblical counseling) against Jay Adams can now be employed to save Calvinism. On the one hand, Powlison et al call Adams a Pharisee, but on the other, they commend him for laying the foundation of biblical counseling, by far the most formidable catalyst for Neo-Calvinism in our day. In the same way, since God’s people have apparently bought into this oxymoron of helpful flawed foundations and false premises that bear good fruit, the same could be said of Calvin.

Yes, even though Calvin kept God’s people under the law of sin and death, it could be said of him, “Well, Calvinists don’t believe everything Calvin believed.” I know, it’s stupid, but hey, it works. In our day, it enables folks to call Jay Adams a Pharisee while at the same time commending him. And David Powlison is so nuanced in what he says, if he slithers back into first generation counseling, no one will know the difference.

Hence, a return to the real revival of the 90’s, while giving Calvin all the credit. Hey, people also buy into all of this Old Calvinist/New Calvinist stuff; Tullian Tchividjian could be labeled the father of New Calvinism and all of the blame for misunderstanding Calvin could be placed on him. There is already a head start on that play. I am telling you, this plan is coming together in my mind and is examplitory of my compassion for Calvinists. After all, we are all just sinners saved by grace.

Now, what would this new plan, “look like.” Well, it would look like Calvinists standing around a bonfire holding hands on a clear summer night, actually, a book burning, while singing…  “trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus…trust and obey.”

paul