Paul's Passing Thoughts

I have to think long and hard these days for something that annoys me more than Albert Mohler. His presidency at Southern Seminary is a boondoggle rivaled only by the election of Barak Obama, who is, by the way, advocated by Mohler. As the world was blessed with another week, Mohler failed not to mark his territory with an article about the passing of Nelson Mandela lest the world not know his opinion about it. Hence, the Louisville Kool-Aid drinkers who wait with bated breath for his unctions from on high are now apprised.

The article compared Nelson Mandela to George Washington. Ok, the buffoonery of that theses aside, why does Mohler meddle in this stuff? What makes the president of Southern Seminary a political player? For crying out loud, why does Mohler, Piper et al weigh in on every political tryst that comes down the pike? Why did a lot of these guys vote for Barak Obama? Answer: Calvinist history predicated by Calvinist need.

As you know, New Calvinism is the latest resurgence of authentic Reformed doctrine. Historically, authentic Calvinism dies a social death and experiences periodic resurgences in 100-year cycles. New Calvinism is the fifth resurgence since Calvin’s Geneva. Volume 2 of TTANC will document the history of these cycles and the reasons for them.

Protestantism is predicated on passive sanctification/Christian living. Therefore, in an attempt to stop the death spiral Protestantism finds itself in from time to time because it is a light form of its original lager recipe, it attempts to go back to the original recipe for a solution. The only solution in history since the Reformation that offered aggressive sanctification as a solution was the biblical counseling movement founded by Dr. Jay Adams. However, his movement was spawned in the same year that New Calvinism was born (1970), and a war ensued accordingly.

The true biblical counseling movement and its aggressive sanctification lost the war. I witnessed the movement and was involved in it firsthand when it really started

Target Publication 2015

making a radical difference in Christianity circa 1990. New Calvinism (then known as Sonship Theology), infiltrated the true biblical counseling movement through Westminster Seminary and effectively destroyed it by 2006. The high priest of this inquisition was Dr. David Powlison who was a mentoree of the father of Sonship Theology, Dr. John “Jack” Miller. I therefore assume that Powlison will one day receive his just reward for snuffing out one of the most significant revivals in church history.

There are six reasons authentic Calvinism dies:

1. Protestantism was founded on the ancient ideology of spiritual caste. As a result, the Reformation gospel integrated Neo-Platonism with the Bible and offered not just a different gospel, but an entirely different way to interpret reality. Luther, taking his cue from St. Augustine, made the cross the sum of epistemology in and of itself. Many didn’t understand this and still don’t.

In other words, the Reformers interpreted reality through a redemptive prism, while the natural tendency is to interpret reality grammatically. The former believes that creation is a narrative that points to nothing but redemption; the latter doesn’t reject the idea that redemption is referred to in some way, but also believes other things are going on, and the plain sense of words are the key to understanding reality. The redemptive view of reality relies heavily on allegory because it demands a redemptive outcome.

The Reformers actually believed, as many do today, that a grammatical interpretation of reality is synonymous with works salvation and the glory of man. This was Luther’s epistemology. New Calvinists such as Paul David Tripp and Rick Holland have said that a literal, exegetical approach to Scripture separates us from the saving works of Christ (Tripp), and makes bad theology (Holland). Salvation is therefore married to redemptive eisegesis.

Hence, as time progressed, redemptive Protestants grew fewer, and grammatical Protestants increased in number. Remember, at issue is the very interpretation of reality itself. This has resulted in the present-day reality of redemptive Calvinists and grammatical Calvinists; ie., “Old Calvinists” and “New Calvinists.” Both claim Calvin, the former unwittingly. Therefore, in the midst of these resurgences, you have Calvinists fighting Calvinists. Examples of this are ample in church history and will be detailed in TTANC2. Along with every resurgence is an antinomian controversy between Calvinists.

The first point here is that authentic Calvinism dies a social death because its contra intuitive interpretation of reality is a natural anomaly. As it dies, it is replaced with the weaker form that came from it, and a need for solutions once again arise, and the original once again presents itself as the solution: “See, we have gotten away from our roots. That’s the problem.”

2. The original calls for a perpetual revisiting of the same gospel that saved us. This simply becomes boring and people lose interest. Susan and I have recently visited New Calvinist churches that were on fire in the early 80s. They are now deader than dead. Imagine our teenage son pointing this out without any cue from Susan and me at all.

3. The doctrine does not produce spiritual growth which results in a plethora of negative issues that arise from spiritual immaturity. See Hebrews 5:11-6:8. Infants in adult bodies will eventually devour each other.

4. The spiritual tyranny that is ALWAYS part and parcel with this doctrine. Remember, it is basically a spiritual cast system that puts a high premium on control.

5. God’s people eventually figure out that it is a false doctrine.

6. Ultimately, it needs to survive by getting in bed with the government as a way to enforce its orthodoxy. If this doesn’t happen, reasons 1-5 result in its death. Everyone agrees that the Enlightenment era destroyed authentic Reformed orthodoxy because it severed church and state—first in America, and then Europe followed. When this happened, it resulted in the proliferation of cults because government force had to be replaced with various forms of manipulation and mind control.

And this is why New Calvinists such as Albert Mohler are so politically minded. Authentic Calvinism has always been a parasite that will ultimately die unless it finds a government host. Be sure of it: this is what happened to the colonial Puritans, they were kept out of the American political process when they attempted to use the American Constitution to enforce their orthodoxy. This resulted in the death of American Puritanism. Before the American Revolution, the Colonies were Puritan theocracies.

Mohler et al knows their movement will eventually die unless they can use the government to enforce it, and this is behind their liberal political leanings. It takes a collectivist government to enforce a collectivist religion. They know this; hence, “No Government is perfect.” This is why Mohler thinks that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” This is why Mohler thinks the differences between Washington and Mandela are “ironic” despite the fact that Mandela was a communist.

Frankly, I believe that this is why John Piper retired from the pastorate and made a video  in Geneva that announced his future vision. New Calvinists will continue to become more and more involved in the political realm. There is an agenda to get in bed with the state in order to enforce their faith. If they don’t, history will repeat itself—they know this. They will go the way of the colonial Puritans.

This is just simply history. Calvinists will do what Calvinists have always done. Sure, grammatical Calvinists may deny this historic agenda because they don’t get it, but the authentic Calvinists do get it…

It’s about the collectivist parasite feeding from the host of individualism.

paul