Paul's Passing Thoughts

Originally published August 20, 2012

Unfortunately, the Noah thing isn’t just a bedtime story; it really happened. Noah was a victim of the Isolation Plague. He was a righteous man upon the Earth, and if any of his family members had spiritual elevators that went near the top floor, the Holy Spirit makes little mention of it.

We now join the Noah family as they sit down for dinner before the deluge event:

Son: “Mr. Grumpbucket  will be in as soon as he finishes fitting the last piece of gopher board on the lower deck. He said we could start without him.”

Other son: “Oh, I’m surprised he found a board that was good enough!”

Daughter-in-law in a sarcastic tone: “Would starting without him be theologically correct?”

Mrs. Noah: “Ask him during the family devotions tonight; surely, as the only righteous man on earth, he would know!”

Whole family: “LOL!”

Truth. It’s such a troublemaker that nobody wants to be its friend. Yet, for some reason, It has such a good reputation that people will readily claim to be its friend, but actually hanging out with Truth is way, way too hard. Everybody “loves” Truth, but if you invite it to any kind of party, everything will be ruined. And it always ruins your credibility with others and wreaks havoc on your life. Examples:

Hi, my name is Noah, I’m the only righteous man on Earth. Ya, that one will endear you to a bunch of folks.

Hi, my name is Mary, I’m pregnant, but have never been with a man. Suuuuure  Mary, whatever you say.

Hi, my name is Jesus, I’m God.  That went over in Judea like a lead balloon.

Hi, my name is the Apostle Paul, “have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Uh, Paul, ya think?

Remember Rodney King’s famous question? “Can’t we all just get along?” NO, not with Truth being around. So, the best thing to do is invite Truth to the party because of his wonderful reputation (“Look, Truth is here, this clearly demonstrates who we are because Truth is willing to fellowship with us”), and proceed to totally ignore him. Engaging Truth in any kind of conversation will ruin everything. Hanging around with Truth leads to being isolated. It’s kind of like a sports team mascot. It symbolizes a desired strength of the team, but if you bring an alligator, bear, leopard, or bird to the party you would most certainly cage it or put it on a leash. “Hey, relationships are important, but you have to set boundaries.” Amen. And not setting boundaries on Truth can wreak havoc on our comfort zone via the Isolation Plague.

Church is just one big party today, and the party is hot. I mean, smokin’! We have the coffee shop in the lobby, the hip décor, hip teachers, hip people, big screen TV, hip music, and a bookstore full of glossy writings from spiritual giants who seem to be in abundance. In our area, mega-churches with awe inspiring buildings and multimedia production are everywhere. And when stinking Truth shows up, and starts running his big mouth, the party might have to be stopped in order to think about something. God forbid!

You hear Truth’s latest complaint?  The vast majority of churches in our day have bought into progressive justification. It denies the new birth, and has Gnosticism for its application. And by the way, it’s the exact same thing that the Reformers believed. So what? Well, other than the fact that it is a false gospel, it teaches that we have no righteousness of our own for sanctification, and that Christ’s righteousness is an alien righteousness that remains completely outside of us.

So what? Well, the so what? is the fact that at some point, this doctrine will ruin your marriage, and basically ruin the lives of your children. You do the math—what eventually happens when people buy into the idea that they have NO righteousness in themselves? And per the contention that I received at a Baptist church that Susan and I visited this morning (which is going through a classic New Calvinist takeover):

“Are you saying that as Christians we still don’t need grace, and that the gospel is not the power of our sanctification?”  ‘That’s exactly what I am saying. The gospel is not the source of our sanctification—regeneration is. You are teaching progressive justification.’ “No, we are not.” ‘Excuse me, how is The same gospel that saved us also sanctifies us not progressive justification? Not to mention the whole We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. It is clearly progressive justification.’”

There is only one place you can go with this doctrine; Gnosticism, and hence, the morning worship service message was full of it. For someone like me who has studied Gnosticism, it wasn’t even ambiguous. And here is the crux: the idea that we have no righteousness that is ours will always, and has always, led to spiritual abuse and cultish groups. This present-day party, complete with all of the aforementioned party favors, is the New Calvinist movement. The present zenith it enjoys has a contemporary birth of 1970. Truth, the big mouth, has been asking (as usual) a very troubling question of late: “Where has this gospel been all of our lives.” Here is the answer to Truth’s interpretive question: because of its underlying presupposition of all righteousness being completely outside of us, the ensuing cultism causes the movement to die a social death. When it makes a comeback because of its strong initial appeal, the presupposition eventually yields the deadly results all over again. However, the movement has a lot of staying power because of  the following Gnostic tenet: This is the way to “the good,” and the good we experience has been predetermined by the spirit realm. Therefore, practical results cannot pass judgment on the process.

In now what is yesterday, as I resume my work on this article, the guy preaching in the morning service said as much. He strongly insinuated that “worldly wisdom” was a pragmatic endeavor that seeks positive results for selfish reasons. Instead, Christians should seek spiritual wisdom through praise and worship and trust God’s preordained results for whatever they are. Conspicuously missing in the sermon were elements that connect “worldly wisdom” to spiritual wisdom such as, common sense, and the works of the law written on the hearts of every person born into the world. The criteria that separated the two realms in his message was clearly pragmatism verses praise and worship, and he cited James to proof text. However, James’ criteria that separates worldly wisdom from spiritual wisdom is not pragmatism verses trusting preordained results of praise and worship, but rather disobedience to God’s full philosophical statement pertaining to life and godliness contained in the Scriptures. Hear me well, this is the very core of Gnosticism: a strict dualism between the spiritual and the material with the purest form of good connecting directly with the spiritual (in this case, through praise and worship).

And it answers the questions as to why these churches are experiencing the growth that they are:

1.  It’s easy and fun. Come to the party, enjoy the hip music and fun people. Have your senses stimulated by the high dollar multimedia production, and Jesus will do the rest.

2. Bring people here because the power of the gospel is in people seeing God glorified/praised corporately. Then the pastor will share a gospel story about Jesus that will further His fame. Then, we keep doing the gospel until God fully redeems the Earth and us. It is just a big party till he returns.

3. CONTROL. Once they get them there, control kicks in. For anybody who is on top of this issue, yesterday’s morning message at said church was the epitome of brainwashing for the purpose of controlling people.  This is not rocket science—if we have no goodness within ourselves, we can’t trust our own judgment about anything. We must entrust ourselves to the philosopher kings.

Accordingly, this doctrine is everywhere. They have a formula that works, and works well. And frankly, I am beginning to feel pressure to join a church that is the least of the evil, and just bear up in regard to the rest. It puts me in a position, like many other husbands/fathers, where I have to tell my family that there is nothing out there. Most families don’t want to believe that or hear it which is understandable.  Truly, I cannot even imagine what it was like for Noah. Yet, this is exactly how Christ and the Apostles said it would be in the last days. Paul made it clear to Timothy that professing Christians would not “endure” or “tolerate” sound doctrine in the last days. Christ even said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.” This simply does not match up with mega-churches being on every corner. And as far as just getting along and finding the lesser New Calvinist error and tolerating the rest—honorable, but trust me, it can cost you your family. I have a choice: choose isolation or expose my family to an environment where it is constantly drubbed into their minds that they have no righteousness or worth. This is poison to the soul.

This is the temptation, to relieve some of the isolation. Everyone is doing that also. Ministries that understand the issue and stand against it; nevertheless, relieve some of the isolation by fellowshipping and colaboring with New Calvinism Light.  But in the book that is God’s full philosophical statement on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics for “life and godliness,” and not simply a gospel narrative, we are told that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” And there you have it; we wouldn’t know that truth for wisdom to be applied to life if the Bible is merely a gospel narrative. And this is the New Calvinist ziggurat—to separate us from the mind of Christ that we are to seek with all of OUR heart, mind and soul, and replace it with the New Calvinist temple of gospel contemplationism.  To refuse to do that is hard, and we will often be afflicted with the pain of isolation accordingly. So we set boundaries on our relationship with Truth:

“Hey Truth guy! I hear you are really hip—let’s hang. I want you to be my bro.” ‘Fine with me, but a lot of folks don’t think the way I do; therefore, I have no place to live, don’t know where the next paycheck is coming from, and the most powerful men in this country are conspiring to kill me.’ “Wooooooeeeeeee there bro-daddy! My relationships have boundaries—I can’t go for that.”

First, we are wired for fellowship; second, we don’t like to fight alone. Thirdly, standing for truth can, and often does, cause us to be misunderstood.  Fellowshipping with Truth while being its true friend, and not a fair-weather friend, is not for the weak hearted. But those who don’t believe that WE can do ALL things through Him who strengthens us on this wise flirt with a denial of the very Lord that bought us. Listen to what the Apostle Paul said on this wise:

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

In regard to your relationship with Truth,  how deep is your love? Note in Paul’s statement that salvation is part and parcel with truth; yet, a premium on truth in our day has never been lower while coinciding with massive mega-churches with 500,000 dollar budgets within every square mile of America.

In our efforts to not fight alone, fellowship alone, or just plain be alone, we feed the beast that will destroy our lives and deprive ourselves of “blessedness.” Or, we merely deprive ourselves of the full counsel of God that is so vital to our sanctification; ie., a narrow concept and reductionist gospel as opposed to the full philosophical statement of God for life and godliness. In yesterday’s aforementioned sermon, the pastor offered the beatitudes as a picture of those who gain spiritual wisdom through praise and worship:

1. Humble: ie., you constantly endeavor to realize how worthless you are.

2. Poor in spirit: ie., the way New Calvinist elders like their mutton; docile, and easy to manage.

3. Peacemakers: ie., you don’t ask questions given to you by that troublemaker, Truth, who is not the same as Worship who always accepts God’s sovereign will while having fun to boot. And remember, sometimes it’s God’s will that the elders abuse people make mistakes.

In contrast, the beatitudes are plainly a picture of those who are battered because of their love for the truth, but are exhorted by God to know that this struggle is really the doorway to happiness regardless of how it looks or feels. The whole sermon was a bastardization of God’s truth from start to finish. And in my estimation, though that church’s hostile takeover is not fully consummated, it is already a New Calvinist cult. Per the usual, said teacher pontificated the idea that worship always leads to unity in contrast to biblical truth which plainly states that truth is what leads to unity. In fact, disunity in the Bible is always framed in context of error or false doctrine.  This is the biblical articulation of a “cult” or in biblical terminology, “sect, “ or “sectarian.” In the New Testament, the word is synonymous with “fractious.”  A “fractious man” in Scripture is one who causes divisions with false teaching. In the false prescript of yesterday’s message, “worship” =’s unity  as opposed to the “worldly” concept of objective data that leads to practical goals which are always for selfish gain. And by the way, what we have here is the mind of Christ regarding the reality of disunity and what makes it tick.

You who frequent new Calvinist churches: how often do you hear these principles taught if somebody happens to take a break from teaching about the same gospel that saved us? You don’t. Knowing this kind of “worldly” knowledge (or misuse of the Bible for practical living and thinking) makes it impossible to control you. A church polity (government) goes along with this that proclaims, “If we are in control, there will be peace and unity.”  This is the same catcry as New Calvinism’s kissing cousins of spiritual despotism. They are preordained by God to lead the saints in peace and unity through love and corporate worship, but if needed, the gallows slumber not. Restrained by the American government’s worldly wisdom for enlightened selfish purposes, New Calvinist elders substitute with dividing marriages, bogus church discipline, slander, break sessions posing as biblical counsel, false incrimination, bogus excommunication, and Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” They are nothing but the embodiment of Freddy Krueger dressed in the demeanor of Mr. Rogers.

All and All on this point, the ability of Christians to think with the mind of Christ is being replaced with gospel contemplationism for all of the aforementioned reasons.

But, living for truth does not have to embrace isolationism. Being successful in our fight against spiritual tyranny does not have to be experienced in isolation. It’s not always the case, but most often, we can have our cake and eat it also. We can grow and experience rich fellowship while not being a fair-weather friend to Truth. So, 2, 600 words into this post, I will now share what prompted it.

On the one hand, among many, I am considered, “toxic.” Among those closest to me, “a bull in a china shop.” And after yesterday, our household is beginning to look a little like the hypothetical Noahian household presented at the beginning of this post. And in the midst of this, a warning from a reader; in essence, you’re compromising.  In regard to PPT’s protocol of reposting everything  Bangladesh Missionary Kids, I reposted a post that they posted by someone who has taken up their cause. The reader pointed out that the author has strong New Calvinist ties. Rather than to finger me pointblank for compromise, the reader expressed confusion as to why I would do that when she thought I knew that New Calvinists were primarily responsible for the kind of abuse suffered by the MK’s to begin with.

I appreciate the veiled honesty with the nomenclature, “confusion,” but let’s state it as it is:

1. The post wasn’t vetted: ie., sloppy journalism.

2. It brings back to mind that I have backed off from the G.R.A.C.E. issue.

Regarding number 2, in  the ABWE Bangladesh Missionary Kids holocaust case,  G.R.A.C.E has been appointed to “investigate” the deplorable cover-up that is barely named among the unwise, worldly, pragmatic American citizenship that is a product of the evil Enlightenment era. Two things are very troublesome here: GARB, the primary abode of ABWE, is presently being overrun with New Calvinism from the top down, and G.R.A.C.E is of the same New Calvinist philosophical mindset—as their very name implies. If you know the facts of this atrocity, the MK’s would be better served by an organization named, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. To the contrary, this is like calling Colonial Sanders to negotiate a contract between the chickens and the food industry.  While many evangelicals applaud Penn State’s handling of the same kind of crime, do New Calvinists see that model response as worldly wisdom that seeks a pragmatic solution as opposed to  “showing forth the gospel”?  If G.R.A.C.E were to learn anything from Penn State would that be sharing God’s glory with another?

Have we not heard New Calvinists, over and over again, say that the concept of justice from the “worldly realm” is extreme because it is a pragmatic revenge that doesn’t consider that we all deserve hell? A judge who thinks he deserves hell just as much as the criminal will certainly swing the gavel lightly. I have written many articles about my concerns on this which caused stress between me and at least one MK. I have since backed off—holding out hope once again that these New Calvinists are New Calvinism Light and there could still be a good outcome. However, I think it is time for me to drive the stake further into the ground—a little leaven leavens the whole lump, or it doesn’t—it’s “A,” or it’s “B.”

It’s time for a full embracing of truth, and doing it in a way that enables us to enjoy all of the benefits that come with the relationship. If Paul meant to say that the issue was loving the “gospel” instead of the whole counsel of God which is many faceted in its full philosophical statement for life and godliness—he would have simply said so. If Christ’s primary mandate to the church was to observe the gospel rather than “all that I have commanded,” why would He not simply say so?

So what to do? First, stop compromising. We don’t need anybody for a friend other than Truth. It won’t always be pretty when we are hanging out with Truth, but He has promised that the outcome will always be good. Second, find a fellowship of those who will not compromise. They are out there—one wrote me. Third, support those who refuse to compromise. If monetarily, it’s not the $1.00 or the $5.00, it’s something that’s worth all of the gold in Fort Knox. It is a message that even Elijah needed. It’s the message that says….

….you are not alone.

paul