John Calvin: We Keep Our Salvation By Being a Member of a Church
“Nor by remission of sins does the Lord only once for all elect and admit us into the Church, but by the same means he preserves and defends us in it. For what would it avail us to receive a pardon of which we were afterwards to have no use? That the mercy of the Lord would be vain and delusive if only granted once, all the godly can bear witness; for there is none who is not conscious, during his whole life, of many infirmities which stand in need of divine mercy. And truly it is not without cause that the Lord promises this gift specially to his own household, nor in vain that he orders the same message of reconciliation to be daily delivered to them. Wherefore, as during our whole lives we carry about with us the remains of sin, we could not continue in the Church one single moment were we not sustained by the uninterrupted grace of God in forgiving our sins. On the other hand, the Lord has called his people to eternal salvation, and therefore they ought to consider that pardon for their sins is always ready. Hence let us surely hold that if we are admitted and ingrafted into the body of the Church, the forgiveness of sins has been bestowed, and is daily bestowed on us, in divine liberality, through the intervention of Christ’s merits, and the sanctification of the Spirit.”
The Calvin Institutes 4.1.21
John Piper’s Works Salvation Via Gospel Contemplationism
“’Preaching the gospel to ourselves every day’ and ‘living by the gospel’ are not cute little truisms for sanctification help, they are the prescription for keeping your salvation.”
In the following video excerpt, John Piper explains how you keep your salvation through riveting YOURSELF to the works of Christ seen in the whole Bible. I have posted before on Piper’s view of how Christians continue to be saved by the same gospel that saved us. According to Piper, and the Calvinistic gospel in general, moving on to maturity in sanctification is works salvation. We have to keep our salvation by an ambiguous definition of what is not works in sanctification and what is works in sanctification. “Preaching the gospel to ourselves every day” and “living by the gospel” are not cute little truisms for sanctification help, they are the prescription for keeping your salvation.
Notice that he presents Romans 10:9, a clear onetime event that saved us (a justification verse), as something that we have to continue to confess in order to have assurance of salvation (a perpetual believing and confessing). This is works salvation and heresy of the first order.
9 Marks of a Legitimate Pastor
1. Recognizes a literal, future Jewish Nation on earth ruled by Jesus Christ on David’s throne.
2. Rejects Redemptive Historical hermeneutics.
3. Affirms the flesh as where sin resides IN us as opposed to being a realm.
4. Affirms the Spirit is IN us literally and not BY faith only, and rejects the Spirit as a realm as opposed to a person whom we are sealed by.
5. Rejects total depravity of the saints.
6. Rejects progressive justification.
7. Rejects sanctification by faith alone.
8. Rejects the idea that true obedience is only experienced and not performed by the believers will.
9. Affirms more than one resurrection and more than one judgment.
The Joy Bennett Gospel: Salvation by a Confused, Doubtful Journey and the Conversation on Censorship Continues
“But journeys don’t save; a love for the truth saves (2THESS 2:10). Bennett isn’t looking for truth; she’s looking for more questions. But the greatest disappointment was her excuse for censoring me.”
As PPT readers know, I am on a journey of sorts to determine what I want to do about those of differing beliefs that comment on PPT. I had decided to just censor them, but then I was talked out of that by some folks I respect. Then I was almost talked into reversing my position by others that I also respect, until today. Now I want to think this through more because today I was on the other end of some really nasty censorship.
How do I perceive the person who censored me? Well, we will get to that, but for now, let’s just say it’s not how I want my message to be evaluated; i.e., it can’t withstand a fight in the arena of ideas.
That’s the rub. I put a different value on ideas than I normally would because America is so dumbed down in both secular and religious realms. That is the argument that is winning the day with me right now; folks don’t even know where to start looking for truth much less figuring it out. For certain, the Bible is no longer the authority that it once was, but I find that it produces arguments that are irrefutable.
Why has the blogosphere exploded among Christians? Because censorship is rampant in the church. The Neo-Calvinist movement has majority rule right now, and Calvin’s power of the keys come with it. The comment I hear most from church exiles are: “They don’t take challenges to what they teach well.” Or, “Geez, all I did was ask a question!” Couple that with the fact that Neo-Calvinist teachings produce massive confusion. It’s the eternal long car trip for the young child. This is why I am hesitant to censor PPT comments. It just smacks of tyranny. However, in order to turn challenges into the lemonade of persuasion I would have to be available to moderate most of the day, and that’s a huge problem. Unanswered ideas can reflect agreement.
All of that aside, we will now discuss Joy Bennett. Bennett is a blogger that enjoys widespread success as a writer on the blogosphere. She censored me on her Facebook page with a rude finality. Uh, Joy, I am a blogger too, so that’s not the way it works with me. I will now answer you publically and expose you for the rank hypocrite that you are. And Joy, as a rule when I comment, I do screenshots. You didn’t censor anything; I am going to publish the stream in massive fashion with plenty of tags.
Joy Bennett is married to the rabid New Calvinist Scott Bennett who is also a blogger. Hence, knowing that she was in those circles, I sympathized with her (until today) “journey of doubt.” She is a new breed of shock blogger that emphasizes writing about “real life.” She also postures herself as an advocate for the abused and downtrodden. Her self-aggrandizing “transparency” seems to be a gospel among her types. Apparently, God will smile on the journey of doubt because of sincerity. However, that pesky intruder named “truth” is found unwelcome.
Today, answers seemed to irritate Bennett because she exemplifies a gargantuan problem with the present-day blogosphere: answers are bad for business. The more answers, the shorter the journey. It’s really all about, “Joy in This Journey.” But journeys don’t save; a love for the truth saves (2THESS 2:10). Bennett isn’t looking for truth; she’s looking for more questions. But the greatest disappointment was her excuse for censoring me. I challenged the comments of someone in the stream that both of us used to attend church with. As many know, my 20-year membership there did not end well. Though my initial comments were left posted, she deleted them when I posed a certain argument regarding the subject at hand. Then came the disappointment:
Feud? So disappointing. While Bennett postures herself as an advocate for the downtrodden, she referred to the criminal act committed against me by Clearcreek Chapel as a tiff of some sort. She is indicative of the many in church today who are utterly indifferent to what is right and what is wrong. One of the many reasons for Christ’s return will be to display God’s justice among the nations. Bennett has no such love for justice while calling herself a “bleeding heart liberal.” She will discuss male erections, used tampon sandwiches (not a typo), and other such edgy subjects on her blog, but not my comments regarding the specific post by the former member (which was on topic and said NOTHING of the “feud” at all). So much for the blogger who writes, “naked” according to her.
For the first time, I saw Bennett for what she really is: just another run-of-the-mill New Calvinist tyrant. I don’t like censorship for that reason: it smells like tyranny and the anemic ideas that always come with it. Therefore, debate must be averted by silencing its enemies.
The journey for me continues on this issue, but all of life is not a journey of doubt. And ignorance of the truth is a choice. God is not in the hide and seek business.
paul
John Piper’s Gospel of Begging for Salvation and Hoping for the Best
The Reformed gospel is really a begging for salvation and then hoping for the best. “Election” only qualifies you for the drawing where “final justification” is determined at a one, final, justification judgment. Calvinist views on assurance are shrouded in an ambiguous “already not yet” terminology. You’re for sure saved, but it will be “confirmed” at the final judgment. By the way, there is clearly more than one judgment and one resurrection in the Bible. This is just another example of Calvinists interpreting the Bible any way they please.
One way of confirming this assertion is an examination of John Piper’s Christian Hedonism theology. In his book, Desiring God, Piper makes joy absolutely synonymous with salvation:
“Could it be that today the most straightforward biblical command for conversion is not, ‘Believe in the Lord,’ but, ‘Delight yourself in the Lord’?” (Desiring God page 55).
“The pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an ‘extra’ that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your ‘faith’ cannot please God. It is not saving faith” (Desiring God page 69).
“We are converted when Christ becomes for us a Treasure Chest of holy joy” (Desiring God page 66).
“Something has happened in our hearts before the act of faith. It implies that beneath and behind the act of faith which pleases God, a new taste has been created. A taste for the glory of God and the beauty of Christ. Behold, a joy has been born!” (Desiring God page 67).
But then, Piper continually prefaces that with the idea that joy is strictly a gift from God. He is adamant that we can do nothing to obtain the experience of joy. For those who can’t find joy, all they can do is pray and hope all turns out well because where there is no joy, there is no assurance of salvation. Just one of many examples is in Piper’s book, When I Don’t Desire God:
In obedience to God’s word we should fight to walk in the paths where he has promised his blessings. But when and how they come is God’s to decide, not ours. If they delay, we trust the wisdom of our Father’s timing, and we wait. In this way joy remains a gift, while we work patiently in the field of obedience and fight against the weeds and the crows and the rodents. Here is where joy will come. Here is where Christ will reveal himself (John 14:21). But that revelation and that joy will come when and how Christ chooses. It will be a gift.
Throughout the book, on nearly every page, Piper describes methods for seeking the joy that is in fact our salvation:
Heaven hangs on having the taste of joy in God. Therefore, it might not be so strange after all to think of fighting for this joy. Our eternal lives depend on it.
So, those who want to keep their salvation fight for joy. It is all incredibly ambiguous. In contrast, the apostle John wrote that we can “know” that we are saved. “Fighting for joy” is conspicuously missing in John’s instruction. The good John, not Piper.
paul
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