Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Here is my second point: if you purchase a booklet published by us titled, ‘It’s Not About Election,’ that booklet details Protestant orthodoxy calling for no assurance of salvation in sanctification. Once saved always saved (OSAS) is NOT a Protestant distinctive. John Calvin even called for a continual fear of condemnation among God’s people. Now, in this series so far, we have stated that there is one common factor in mental illnesses and depression in particular, what is that? Right, FEAR. But my precious brothers and sisters, church orthodoxy calls for fear of condemnation as a sanctification principle! Do you want to utterly destroy your family with spiritual gangrene? Make sure you don’t ever miss church.”

How Church Orthodoxy Produces Depression

“Ok, we will get to this later, but this is the Reformed definition of the new birth. Instead of the new birth happening once, the Christian invokes the new birth continually by using the Bible for the sole purpose of bringing one’s self to despair (death), and consequently experiencing joy (resurrection), and thereby keeping one self-saved. It’s an official Protestant doctrine called, “mortification and vivification.” Obviously, in order to use the law for purposes of self-condemnation, one must still be under law. But more to the point of tonight’s subject, frequent despair is called for in no uncertain terms. However, the duty of the believer is despair, while resurrection depends totally on God. So, if the “believer” is faithful, despair will be the order of the day, while joy may be experienced, or not experienced depending on the grace of God entirely. This is, in fact, the theses of John Piper’s book, ‘When I Don’t Desire God | How To Fight For Joy.'”     

How Protestant Orthodoxy Produces Depression