Paul David Tripp Gnosticism
Paul David Tripp is a leading “Christian” author and well noted in the contemporary biblical counseling movement. Tripp was active in aiding fellow Gnostic David Powlison in hijacking the biblical counseling movement from Reformed grammarians. I use the term “grammarian,” who are few in our day, to differ from redemptive historical interpreters. If a teacher is not identified according to his/her interpretation method of either grammatical or redemptive, it is impossible to know what they are really teaching. You may think you know what they are saying, but you don’t. Depending on which method is being utilized, all basic theological terms, like “new birth” mean different things. To believe you can understand any teacher without knowing their interpretive method is folly. The best way to explain a grammarian is, “words mean things.”
Gnosticism came from Platonism and to state it simply: it is the belief that the material realm is evil and only the spiritual realm is good. In order to find true knowledge, one must obtain it by getting beyond what the five senses can ascertain. Plato believed that the material world is the shadows of the invisible world. Plato also believed that truth is immutable; so, the gateway to truth from the material/evil realm must be something immutable. For Plato, that was math.
The Reformers were not theologians first, they were philosophers first and were embroiled in the debate of that era: Plato or Aristotle? Platonism holds to spiritual caste which proffers the idea that elitist philosophers are preordained to lead the masses who are enslaved to the shadows of reality. They are specially gifted by the force or god of your choice to obtain the “Gnosis.” Determinism is also a major pillar of Platonism.
Hence, Gnosticism can be seen throughout Tripp’s teachings, especially in How People Change. In that book, Tripp attributes a literal interpretation of Scripture to works salvation. He also attributes obedience to something that Christians only experience, but do not really perform; the experience is imputed to the material realm by the Spirit, who is defined more as a realm than a person. Gnosticism can be seen in Tripp’s interpretation of Romans 8:2 and most of Romans 7—“law” is not really “nomos,” a written law, but refers to two different realms: material/evil versus invisible/good.
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Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
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Do you ever wonder if they practice this stuff on their kids? I mean, why bother with character formation? Why have consequences for bad behavior?
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Pondering, wonder how old his kids are? I cannot imagine what they are like as teens if raised with this stuff. Teen years are the only years I might be able to buy into total depravity. :o) But we all know it is brain development going from concrete to abstract and finding their own voice.
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The realm was nailed to the cross. Jesus came to fulfill the realm.
I wonder what would happen if a person played their game. Would they insist on telling you that the law was a written law? But, pastor, I have discovered Plato.
I’m letting the Holy Spirit live my life for me. Yup, I am a totally depraved Christian sinner.
Doesn’t sound so good when it’s out in the open, does it?
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Tripp has four grown children : Justin (’76) Ethan (’78) Nicole (’81) Darnay (’85)
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Yeah saw Tripps books also in the homeschool venues. Got real tired of the homeschool scene since it has basically been taken over by Neo-reformed.
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David, my view is to let ’em go be “better, stronger, and faster” than me; they can go and exhaust themselves with all the gnostic dribble they want. I told a Seventh Day Adventist student, who was majoring in philosophy, one time “Oh so you are majoring in a field that branches out onto many paths but leads to nowhere?” He just looked at me with such a blank stare. Gnosticism is just that- it is superfluous and not rooted in reality. How can one be sure of your “spiritual” enlightenment compared to anothers? Where is the gauge of measuring if you are more RIGHT than someone else?
I am in no way discounting spiritual experiences another Christian may have, but thats all it is: “an experience that is subjective for that person alone” and cannot be replicated or hold one in higher position than another. Nor can it be counted as objective truth. Old and New Testament heroes went through things that were for that person alone. I have gone through experiences for me alone and in no way could I count these experiences as something another person could or should follow. This would be and is spiritual elitism and egotism.
Like Paul stated a while back- the Pharisees were not legalists; they took the law and ADDED their own gnostic subjective “law”.
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Funny you should mention that. Last year, Susan, in her research for TANC 2013, ran across an account of two young German friends who majored in world philosophy. One was a Catholic and the other Lutheran. They both immediately recognized the Platonism in both religions when they began studying together, and later wrote articles about it. I think she mentioned it in one of her talks.
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