Paul's Passing Thoughts

Source: Five Damning Facts About Calvinism

“John Immel addressed this at the TANC 2017 conference: the church has three standards of truth that are always right when one of the other ones are wrong. Scripture, teachers, and confessions/catechisms. When you think Piper is wrong…you point to the confessions. When you corner them on confessional errors, they point to Scripture, but remember… [the confessions supposedly interpret Scripture, and] …vary according to denominations.”

I just finished a four-day-on shift at the nursing facility the day before yesterday and was on the net in the morning catching up on things. Everywhere I clicked was an opportunity for an article; so, which should I choose? I was also on the phone with several people catching up on things. Here is what I am going to do; I am going to combine a phone call with an article I saw posted on Face Book. Regarding the phone call, my friend shared how she was asked by a family member if she was going to continue fellowship with that “cult in Ohio.” We may start there with the utter confusion of church psychosis. How do the churched define a cult? It is any religious organization that is not under some hierarchy of authority and is not institutionalized.

The word doesn’t show up in human history until the 17th century as a positive word meaning to “cultivate” as a religious group. The word comes into heavy negative use after the American Revolution and this is why: prior, the idea of “cult” was irrelevant because the church didn’t need to manipulate people to obtain their conformity; church was the law of the land. You submitted to the authority of the church, or you paid the price.

After the American Revolution’s separation of church and state, the church had to improvise with manipulation to get a following. As far as competition between denominations, anyone who disagreed with your particular brand of church might have been deemed a “cult,” but the term was primarily reserved for those who didn’t submit to the authority of a denomination. A denomination can be cultish in behavior, but will normally be excluded due to a minimal allowance of credibility for combining faith with authority.

Hence, this is the true definition of a cult: any church or religious organization claiming to have authority. Keep in mind, such a claim comes with the belief that said church is being deprived of its authority by the state. As the church is returning to its medieval roots at breakneck speed, you will see an increased anti-American sentiment in the church, especially among the Neo-Protestant/Neo-Calvinist/New Calvinism crowd. This anti-American sentiment is nuanced with, “We worship God, not a country,” blah, blah, blah, ad nauseam.

The real issue is the church’s implicit dominion theology. The church was patterned after the longstanding partnership between state force and religion. Supposedly, Christ brought God’s kingdom to earth and assigned the church with the task of taking dominion over it, and ordained governments to enforce the church’s orthodoxy. Prior to the church, the pagan-state followed the same pattern according to Plato’s “The Republic” which propagated the social engineering construct of philosopher king, warrior, and producer. In the end, according to the book of Revelation, this construct makes a comeback of biblical proportions, pun intended.

Churchians are also confused about what church is; they actually think Christ and the apostles started the church, and they actually think the word is in the Bible because some publishers put it in there. However, it is a very useful word because it delineates between true biblical worship and fellowship versus institutional religion that combines faith with authority. Leading evangelicals like John MacArthur Jr. promote the thinking that rejection of the church as an institution is a rebellious do-your-own-thing mindset.

Supposedly, individuals working together as a cooperative body striving to have one mind according to individual conscience will most certainly lead to chaos. This is why passages like Acts 6:1-7 confuse use; the whole idea that hundreds of Christians could agree on a course of action defies what we have been taught about individualism. A body doesn’t operate on authority; if my arm is paralyzed, my brain can tell my arm to move all day long and the arm will not obey. A body operates by mutual edification and every member contributing to homeostasis. Spiritual homeostasis is not obtained by authority, it is obtained by every member functioning according to their intended gift and its contribution to the rest of the body. When a believer is sitting under authority, the focus is away from personal calling and towards supporting institutional infrastructure.

In fact, everyone’s calling is supporting the church, and edification is even defined as such. Furthermore, members will wait for permission to serve and are clearly told they cannot discern their own gifts. Even if such ability is conceded, the notion must be validated by the elders. If you don’t believe that, try starting a Bible study in your own home and inviting members without elder approval.

The institutionalization of Christ’s body doesn’t occur until the 4th century. How church came about, and all but totally replaced true assemblies in private homes has been written about by this ministry here, and here. Even then, the institutionalization of Christ’s body was not referred to as “church.” The word does not appear in history until circa 7th century.

Though churchians throw around the words “cult” and “church,” like all other words they use, they have no idea what they are talking about or even what the words actually mean. Whether Catholicism or Protestantism and all things that flow from them, it is a plenary confusion.

But, you would at least think they are not confused about how to be saved and would be on the same page even if the orthodoxy is erroneous, right? Not. There is no clear consensus on how to be saved among the churched, and EVERY take and position is also errant. “But Paul, don’t they all agree that you have to be a church member to be saved?” Well, that’s not true, but can we at least give them credit for unity on that point? No. With that said, it (required church membership) is church orthodoxy in most cases, but few churchians even understand what their own orthodoxy is. In other words, in most cases, they will deny mandatory church membership for salvation.

It’s all a morass of confusion unparalleled by anything in human history. A pity, my friend, that you would be a cultist meeting in a cooperative home fellowship. We wouldn’t want any chaos goin’ on.

Now let’s get to the article. Oh. My. Goodness. Basically, you have the blue chip of church publications, The Aquila Report, disagreeing with a leading evangelical ministry (Desiring God) on how to be saved. But it’s much richer than that; they don’t even agree on what the definition of the word, “salvation” means. I kid you not.

Thank goodness, the church is an alternative to being one of them-there “lone rangers.” Thank goodness, according to Al Mohler, that God ordained church elders to “save His people from ignorance.” Am I here right now?

Before we get into churchians not even agreeing on what the word “salvation” means, let’s add one more caveat to their morass of confusion because the depth of this confusion makes it novelty-proof. The conclusion of the article is presented as the marque introduction:

“No matter how much we may like Calvin, Twisse, Edwards, Horton, or Piper, ultimately we don’t confess them. We confess the standards of our denominations.”

Then this editor for the AR proceeds to accuse John Piper of misrepresenting the way of salvation. But, yet, we like him? I see, well, anyway, get ready, because I am adding yet another level of confusion, because it’s fun. Are you keeping count? As we will see in the article, John Piper teaches a false gospel, but we like him, we also disagree on his definition of the word, “salvation,” and also how it’s applied, and as I will demonstrate, according to Protestant orthodoxy, they really agree with each other.

That’s right; they can’t agree to disagree, because they don’t even know they agree. Maybe someone should try to tell them, but would it add to the confusion?

Let’s plow ahead into the article and I will do my best to clarify their confusion because I don’t want you to be confused about their confusion.

“The debate over salvation by faith alone continues unabated [why? they have had over 1500 years to iron this out!]. As I wrote in my last article on the subject, at issue is whether and how good works can be considered necessary or part of salvation. From the recent Desiring God article, it’s apparent that I did not overstate things when I said that Piper was separating justification from salvation. The article, though not written by John Piper, references Piper’s article and states: ‘But what about being saved by faith alone? You’re not. You’re justified through faith alone. Final salvation comes through justification and sanctification — both initiated and sustained by God’s grace.'”

Church will always be confused about the relationship of works to salvation because church has a fundamental misunderstanding about what biblical law is and how the relationship of the law to the believer is changed by the literal new birth. It be that simple. We be talkin’ 2+2=4 theological math. Church doesn’t understand law, and is totally confused about what the new birth does to the law. Their concept of law requires arguing about how to get a square peg in a round hole. The result? Look at church, it is, what it is. So, of course, “The debate over salvation by faith alone continues unabated.” Why wouldn’t it? They start from the wrong premise about law.

Wait a minute! Have we stumbled upon a church agreement on something? Is there universal agreement on a wrong view of law? Pray tell.

First, we might as well nail down the fact that they are really in agreement here and are wrong about disagreeing. So knowledgeable they are; not even knowing when they agree with each other. Worse yet, the agreement is obvious. The editor doth protest that Desiring God says that good works are required for the finishing of salvation, then she cites a quotation by them stating that, well, good works aren’t part of finishing salvation. I know what you are asking; “What’s this ‘finishing salvation’ business?” More on that later. Let’s look at her citation:

“But what about being saved by faith alone? You’re not. You’re justified through faith alone. Final salvation comes through justification and sanctification — both initiated and sustained by God’s grace.”

Here is their disagreement on what salvation is—is salvation synonymous with justification, or not? The confusion comes because according to church, the answer is both “yes,” and “no.” And when two parties are both right in their wrongness, of course the debate will continue unabated. Confused about the confusion yet?

Let me clarify: the question that clarifies follows; who is doing the work? The AR editor seems to think DG is saying that the believer is doing the work, or “killing sin,” but that’s not what DG is saying at all. Read the citation carefully:

“Final salvation comes through justification and sanctification — both initiated and sustained by God’s grace.”

What DG is doing is making justification present, or the beginning of salvation, and sanctification the progression of salvation, and separating that from “final salvation.” But nobody is saved until the fat lady sings at the final judgement. But yet, note that DG is clearly saying that everything from the beginning to the end is “initiated and sustained” by God. This is the Protestant doctrine of Already, Not Yet, and Christ For Us, or Christ 100% for US, as applied to the doctrine of Double Imputation.

Again, the AR editor seems to think that DG is saying that the believer does the work, but that is not the case. Also, the AR editor seems to think that DG is separating justification from salvation, and that is kinda true, but it is more accurate to say that DG is making a distinction between beginning salvation (justification), the progression of salvation (sanctification), and final salvation (glorification). And the interpretive key follows: final salvation is determined by one of the 5 points of Calvinism, The Perseverance of the Saints (the “P” of TULIP) which is also predetermined by God in regard to individuals lest it be works salvation. If everything in salvation is initiated and sustained by God, of course, therefore, those who persevere must be a class of elect.

That begs the question: are those justified by faith (beginning salvation) considered to be part of the elect? Calvin said, “yes.” This is what Calvin referred to as the “called” class of elect, or for all practical purposes, the temporary elect. Even though John Piper denies that Calvin taught a temporary election, which totally throws assurance of any sort out the window, let’s think about this. If Piper confesses Christ 100% for Us in the whole process of salvation, and he does, and also confesses the “P” in TULIP, and he does, and also confesses that all confessing Christians do not persevere, and he does, how can he deny a temporary election? Well, he would say (and has so stated) that those who don’t persevere were never elected in the first place.

But please note: he then teaches assurance of salvation based on election. Huh? If there is no way of knowing who is going to persevere, and that is the final revealing of true election which is an initiation and sustaining by God, who can have assurance of salvation based on God’s election? The fact that Piper confesses Christ 100% for Us, and Double Imputation, and the “P” in TULIP, and assurance of salvation based on election, this attests to his true endorsement of temporary election either unwittingly or by deliberate deception and intentional doublespeak. Get a load of Piper: he will vehemently declare assurance of salvation and once saved always saved while holding the “if” sign behind his back. That is, if you are of the perseverance class of elect.
But in all of this, trust me, the AR editor is totally lost. Pun intended.

This editor then goes on and on in the article citing Reformed confessions that bolster her view that salvation… “As you will note, the teaching that salvation, from first to last, is by faith alone is clear in all of the Reformed confessions and catechisms.” And, “From the Westminster Confession of faith, notice that it says that saving faith means resting on Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.”

Piper is saying the exact same thing; and note that both believe salvation to be a PROCESS and not a finished work in the life of the believer. All in all, and I have written about this extensively and will not further belabor it here, Calvin’s Sabbath Rest sanctification is the work and “killing sin” that DG ministries is referring to. This is the Reformed/Protestant doctrine of Mortification and Vivification. The so-called believer MUST partake in ongoing repentance of sin (mortification [of sin, or the killing of sin]) under the auspices of the institutional church in order to keep the salvation process going (vivification [increased glory towards glorification]), but Piper et al would not consider this to be a work contributing to salvation, and clearly, nether would the AR editor.

Yes, I know what you are thinking; “Wait a minute here, repentance is doing something—it’s a work.” Right, but remember our theme here: plenary confusion.

The AR editor concludes with this:

“Everything, no matter who said it, must be weighed against Scripture. And for confessional Christians, a good place to start is with our confessional standards. Confessional Christians, especially ordained leaders, believe and affirm that the confessional standards of their denomination contain “the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures” (PCA and OPC ordination questions). For this reason, it is important to know and to return to the confessional standards in any controversy.”

Hello, if Scripture is the standard, why not merely start and end there? A good place to “start” with Scripture is someplace else? Think about it, and this is astounding; millions of intelligent people actually give money to these people.

Nevertheless, this brings us back to the authority issue. The AR editor is saying that Scripture is the standard, she isn’t saying who can actually understand it. That’s where the confessions and catechisms come in, you know, those documents written by the “Westminster Divines.”

The AR editor continues in her conclusion:

“Piper does not hold to any of the Reformed confessions or catechisms. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a Christian or that he doesn’t teach useful things. But it does mean that we shouldn’t be surprised when he teaches something outside the confessional standards.”

Um, based on what she wrote, in essence, this would mean Piper rejects the Bible as well, no? Yet, it doesn’t mean he isn’t a Christian? But, actually, Piper holds totally to the Reformed confessions and catechisms. She has that totally wrong.

And lastly, she states:

“No matter how much we may like Calvin, Twisse, Edwards, Horton, or Piper, ultimately we don’t confess them. We confess the standards of our denominations. It really is that simple.”

John Immel addressed this at the TANC 2017 conference: the church has three standards of truth that are always right when one of the other ones are wrong. Scripture, teachers, and confessions/catechisms. When you think Piper is wrong and he really isn’t wrong according to church wrongness, you point to the confessions. When you corner them on confessional errors, they point to Scripture, but remember, a good place to start with Scripture is with the confessions which vary according to denominations. Ain’t we glad for the clarity?

And don’t forget this one as well: when you call out Protestantism, they are a Baptist, when you call them out on the London Baptist Confession, they are Biblicists, and so it goes. Again, all three are spot-on until one is exposed.

I could better the situation if they would let me. I would be more than happy to go to churches everywhere and teach them out of the Calvin Institutes, the writings of Luther, and the various and sundry confessions.

At least they would have unity around a common error and would be correct in their wrongness. Church is annoying enough without all of the confusion and chaos. For goodness sake, get an error and stick with it.

paul

“We don’t worship at church to get more salvation, we worship as a way of life to love God and others while knowing that our salvation is a settled issue. We are not motivated by the fear of condemnation, but rather faith working through love.”

Susan and I have counseled several married couples including a few presently that are in this situation: one spouse goes to church, and the other one doesn’t. And this situation also: both spouses have stopped going to church, but one spouse goes along with the new arrangement grudgingly. If spouse A ever kicks the bucket, spouse B will go running back to the church at breakneck speed.

Then you have this interesting situation: our culture is full of lovable, but leaderless husbands who go along with whatever the wife wants to do, and in our present-day insurgence of discerning women who love the truth, the wife puts a stop to the family going to church. These lovable husbands who are just hanging out and taking life as it comes are happy either way. I am not criticizing these guys; they are usually hard workers who love their families and possess a laid-back personality. It is what it is, and there is at least peace in the family if not outright happiness, especially because the wife isn’t hearing about what a “loser” he is for not being the “leader of his family” every Sunday. Besides, in reality, that really means sub-leadership dictated by the supposed real leaders—the church elders.

Why does church divide, and particularly in regard to marriages? Because church, according to stated church orthodoxy, deems itself as God’s authority on earth and society’s moral compass. You are either with the church, or the unbelievers. While claiming to be family, it’s more like the Olive Garden; you are only family when you are there. Church will not hesitate to meddle in any personal affair, for church believes it has authority over every square inch of reality. Whether entertainment, art, education, or whatever, the stated orthodoxy of the church is to “take dominion over all of culture.” Hence, we have Christian politicians, Christian schools, Christian bakers, Christian lawyers, Christian musicians…you name it.

Join a church if you will, but this ministry has extensively documented the church’s position on having authority over its membership families. Lately, all but a few leading evangelicals insist that church membership is synonymous with salvation, and requires one to “put themselves under the authority of godly men.” In one Q and A by John MacArthur Jr., he answers the following question with an emphatic, “yes”: Does that mean I have to do what the elders say? Read the Bible for yourselves; Christians weren’t required to even do what Christ or the apostles told them to do. This is the difference between cooperative love and authority.

When two married people disagree on church, the marriage is destined for divorce or miserable co-existence. If one spouse goes to church, he/she will be continually honored as a martyr married to an unbeliever. Note that the church will not hesitate to change a spouse’s perception of their mate, in fact, the church thinks it has a duty to do so. Especially among women, one who is following her husband in being unchurched will hear this when she runs into the former church ladies at the grocery store: “We miss you and are praying for you.” Yes indeed, the poor spouse who is married to a loving husband and good supplier is also married to one who dares to say, “no” to church. Therefore, all bets are off; any good works done by this husband are “filthy rags” before the Lord.

By the way, when wives listen to this sanctified rhetoric designed to conquer and divide, they are dishonoring their husbands. Again, and clearly, churches deem it their duty to divide marriages that have one “unbelieving” spouse. And let’s not play games here: church membership equals salvation; that’s stated black and white orthodoxy.

Let’s just take my own well-documented personal testimony into account. When I took my family and left a mainline evangelical church for doctrinal reasons, they declared me an unbeliever; told my wife that she was not obligated to follow an unbeliever; and in fact, would imperil her soul by doing so; and was still under obligation to obey the church; and they told the congregation to barrage my wife/son with cards, letters, and flowers; and offered her a house, money, an attorney, and a job to come back to the church with or without me. You see, they deemed it their duty to save her soul from being unchurched because of me.

How does this happen? I, myself, ignorantly allowed my family to sit under years of brainwashing that established the church’s pseudo-authority in my wife’s mind. What about their unsubstantiated claim that I had been living in “longstanding patterns of sin”? Well, that’s stated church orthodoxy; EVERYONE is totally depraved and in longstanding patterns of sin. Hence, that can be stated about anyone truthfully in their minds, while leaving the congregation to their own imaginations. In fact, according to letters my wife received that I later obtained, many assumed that I was in an adulterous affair.

This is how it works.

What about families that are faithful to the church? For the most part, as far as family wellbeing, they fare no better than “unbelieving” or unchurched families. Our community, Xenia, Ohio, can definitely be classified as a church community of which my wife Susan was very connected to for years. And, the family testimonies that come out of these churches are one train wreck after another. I mean, really bad, bad, train wrecks. We are not talking about a few boxcars off the track. The supposed model families are comprised of members who have no capacity whatsoever to think for themselves and to a great degree low-functioning in regard to commonsense living.

For church families highly rated by any standard, it’s like socialism paying for the deadbeats—such families are pointed to in the local church to cover for the others. Moreover, the bad testimonies are kept secret until church discipline is necessary where such public disgraces are presented as a rarity. In reality, church discipline is for those who question the church; or said another way, morality is for those that the church wants to get rid of. Nothing is clearer; you can rape, pillage, and plunder, but don’t mess with the church money.

Of course, you can add to this the litany of “fallen pastors” who make the headlines on a continual basis. Of late, this list includes the who’s who of evangelicalism such as RC Sproul Jr., Tullian Tchividjian, Rob Turner, and Tom Chantry. Keep in mind, other than Turner, these are men who come from a deep church tradition. The many fallen pastors, I kid you not, even started their own website, expastors.com where they lick their wounds publicly.

The church claim on marriage has a trickle-down divisive effect on EVERY other personal relationship in life; family, friendships, work…you name it. Its divisive from the top down. Why is this tolerated? Why will people pay this price to be churched? The answer is easy: What will one pay to obtain eternal life? The church sells salvation, and without a doubt has utilized the paramount selling tool: fear. If you don’t submit yourself to the “authority of godly men,” you are going to hell.

What is the answer? Fulltime worship of God is the answer. Seeing worship as intrinsic and mutually inclusive of every element of life is the answer. Christ said the day was coming when people would worship God in spirit and in truth, not at a place. That day is here. What saith the church? Worship only takes place at church. Again, this is also stated black and white church orthodoxy and expressed on placards above sanctuary doors, “Enter here to worship.” or in advertisements, “Come worship with us,” or on the church yard sign, “Worship times are….”

We don’t worship at church to get more salvation, we worship as a way of life to love God and others while knowing that our salvation is a settled issue. We are not motivated by the fear of condemnation, but rather faith working through love.

This is why first century Christians gathered together in personal homes as a corporative body, and why we must do the same in our day. It sends the message that all of life is worship, and that our only authority is Christ, and indeed, is our only mediator who can forgive sin on earth. When you walk into a church building, you are conceding to self-proclaimed mediators other than Christ. Farfetched? Do they not proclaim that heaven will bind and loose whatever they bind and loose? Do they not state this outright in their orthodoxy?

Yes they do. Therefore, home fellowships are not just a different method of some sort, they are a statement concerning our gospel: we are a literal family via the literal new birth meeting as a family with Christ as our only head.

In home fellowships, we strive towards unity according to the one mind of Christ, a mind given to us by new birth. We strive cooperatively as every person is convinced in their own mind. It is a unity based on mutual love for God and others, not authority.

A cooperative love always edifies and unifies; authority dismembers those who dare to think something contrary according to their conscience. And in the mind of authority, collateral damage is irrelevant, and no sacred place deserving of its absence.

paul