A Clarification on my Anti-Reformation, Anti-Protestant Stance
It is true, I have totally written off every Calvinist that has ever lived in regard to having any value for sanctification or justification except for two, one being Dr. Jay Adams. After all, I don’t want to be extreme.
So, what’s my excuse for excusing Adams? He brings something to the table that isn’t Reformed. Sure, he may argue that it is Reformed, but nevertheless the results are the same: people find a measure of real help in a contemporary church where there isn’t any help. In fact, the consensus is in: people are better off after they leave church. This ministry has witnessed several marriages on their way to divorce court until the couple simply stopped going to church. In fact, I dare say their marriages are getting better.
We are in a Protestant Dark Age. A movement is needed where the wisdom of God found in the Scriptures is rediscovered in Western culture. What needs to be rediscovered specifically? It starts with the knowledge that the Bible is written for the able individual. That’s first.
Secondly, the issue of how we interpret reality must be addressed. The Reformers did not interpret reality literally, and that tradition was passed down to all that followed them. In the church today, by and large, the pastorate does not interpret state of being in the same way that congregants do. The Reformers reinterpreted every word and term according to their own worldview. For example, “God’s glory” really means “God’s self-love.” Stated simply, John 3:16 in reverse.
The Reformers devised an ingenious indoctrination system of sliding metaphysics. They redefined every word and term, and allowed the listeners to assume what they meant by each word and term. In the process of using these words and terms in a certain way, listeners are slowly indoctrinated in accordance with the primary goal of the Reformers: a desired functionality albeit foggy understanding.
Let me give some specific examples. Total depravity. From the beginning in Reformed thought, this included believers. So, while assuming total depravity pertains to the unregenerate only, many are eventually indoctrinated into the original Reformed idea that this also includes believers.
Sola scriptura. The assumption is Scripture alone, but the Reformers knew that few would ask the following question: “What exactly did the Reformers believe about the Scriptures?” Sure, Scripture alone, but for what purpose?
Election. The assumption is that this argument focuses on man’s ability to choose God for salvation, but it goes much, much deeper than that and is directly relevant to what the Reformers believed about reality itself. Few know that Calvin believed in three classes of elect: non-elect, temporarily elect, and the final elect, or those who persevere.
The Reformers believed that reality is a narrative written by God in which mankind is written into the script. Reformers such as Jonathan Edwards believed that man has no will per se, but God preordains every thought that precedes every act of man which makes it seem as if man has a will. My wife Susan will be doing three sessions on Jonathan Edwards at this year’s TANC conference. Many will find her research fairly shocking.
Sola fide. The assumption is faith alone for salvation/justification. By far, this is the one that the Reformers get the most mileage out of. Using this assumption, they continually talk about sanctification in a justification way. Eventually, sanctification becomes justification. Eventually, the Christian life becomes perpetual re-justification which is the Reformation gospel in a nutshell.
Protestantism is truly the super-cult of the ages.
And the institutional church finds itself in a huge dilemma. Traditional institutional worship beginning with the Reformation was tailored for perpetual re-justification down to the alter call routine. The Lord’s Table is a solemn ceremony where additional grace is imparted through repentance. In reality, the first century assemblies met for dinner, and the fellowship meal was supposed to remind them of their fellowship with God and His Son. It was all very informal and not for the purpose of imparting additional grace.
The gatherings were an extension of worshipful living specifically designed for private homes and nothing more. The institutional version is an extension of two pillars of Reformed theology: the doctrine of progressive justification, and the politics of church-state. Hence, traditional institutional worship necessarily circumvents the original intent of Christ’s mandate for His assemblies.
With all of that said, Adams supplies a little help that can be found right now in the institutional church, and at least for the time being, we need to seize upon everything we can get. I am not talking about those who think they are helped by adopting a Reformed worldview of zero-sum-life (viz, “second generation” biblical counseling). I am not talking about those who seem to stand strong in the face of adversity because they see all of life as nothing but a divine prewritten narrative for the sole benefit of a divine self-love. No, here is my reasoning in regard to Adams per a comment I posted yesterday:
God used Jay Adams to save my life. How? Jay emphasized the need for biblical counseling using a grammatical approach to the Scriptures. This approach proffered the idea that seizing upon the literal promises of God in the Bible is curative. Of course, this would seem evident. That gives hope; if I follow God’s instruction on this, God will do that.
In the midst of the hell I found myself in, I could begin to please God. Nothing could keep me from doing so except myself, and in God’s timing, and in God’s way, it would be curative as well.
As someone who prided himself as a knowledgeable, objective evangelical, Jay’s teachings exposed the fact that I was really a functioning mystic that used all of the orthodox verbiage. While I disagree with Jay on many things, this is the powerful approach that he brings to the table.
“Christians” have a choice to make in regard to how they will interpret the Scriptures and reality itself: grammatically, or according to Christocentric Gnosticism. I am not talking about pseudo grammatical interpretation used for a purely redemptive outcome, I am talking about authentic exegetical interpretation, not cross-centered eisegesis leading to the antinomianism of “second generation” biblical counseling.
And, Jay is an example to all of us in practicing our gifts faithfully to the end. There is no retiring from a love for the ministry that you are called to whatever it is.
May the Lord give God’s people many more years of his living sacrifice.
Am I willing to give a Calvinists credit where credit is due? Yes, if he brings something to the table that can give life. If we were in a time when the laity has retaken its rightful place in Christ’s mandate supplying ample sanctification wisdom, would I recommend Adams in any regard? I am not sure, my due to him in this particular age notwithstanding. But for the time being, we must scrape up everything we can get until the laity obeys its calling, as long as it is truly worth scraping up.
The Reformation has failed. A resurgence of it commenced in 1970. By 2008, it dominated American evangelicalism and continues to do so today. But, the chickens are coming home to roost. Its leaders are dropping like flies. The damage control is now unmanageable. The institutional church is a train wreck while the Nones and the Dones are laying about everywhere on the landscape. The latest trail blazer of the neo-resurgence to fall at the hands of his own gospel sanctification Reformed doctrine is Tullian Tchividjian. He is one of seven of the most visible leaders of the movement to resign for misconduct in less than two years. Others have been the focus of controversial bully-like conduct in the same time frame, along with numerous Neo-Calvinist mega church pastors who have resigned for sexual misconduct, three in the Orlando, Florida area alone.
The answer is NOT Reformation—the answer is a laity revolution. The laity has been conned into investing huge sacrifice in Reformed academia, and to what end? Who will deny that the laity understands less about Christian living than we ever have? Rather than seeking God’s face on our own, we run to orthodox sand boxes like The Warburg Watch and play with the same regurgitated Reformed talking points. This only serves to help the failed Reformation with its damage control. It only serves to send the message that being confused is acceptable.
But we do not serve a God of confusion. It’s time for the laity to stop worshiping Reformed academia and give honor to the one who sanctifies us with truth—not the traditions of mere men.
paul
Cowardly Husbands and the Protestant Super-Cult: Elder Authority Over the Family Unit
I have written some articles recently about elder authority. Where is it? When it gets right down to it, the gift of eldership (no, it is NOT an “office”) is specifically spoken of in the New Testament four times, five if you want to argue for Hebrews 13:17 regarding “leaders” which assumes eldership.
Furthermore, where tradition assumes “church discipline” is a ministry tool for the express use of elders, they are not even mentioned in Matthew 18 nor is there anything in the chapter that lends any notion towards an argument for such an idea. Moreover, where do we even find “church discipline” in the Bible to begin with? Where is the idea in Matthew 18 or anywhere else in Scripture?
In books of correction and apologetics, as well as major doctrinal statements on justification such as the book of Romans, elders are not even mentioned.
Also, ministries traditionally attributed to elders such as counseling are specifically earmarked for congregants at large and the Scriptures specifically call on them to fulfill those ministries as a matter of obedience.
This brings us to the supposed authority of elders in the home. Ephesians 5:22-6:4 and 1Peter 3:1-7 speak specifically to
authority in the home and guess who are totally absent from the conversation? Right, the big bad elders.
How have those of such little relevance in the Bible come to rule over the church with a spiritual iron fist?
This brings me to yet more drama going on in the institutional church. At Matt Chandler’s church, a well-known Neo-Calvinist, the elders have brought a wife under church discipline for divorcing her husband who was caught with child porn. If she goes to Chandler’s church, she has heard often about how people cannot change save their perception of just how sinful they really are leading to an increased “gratitude” for “what Jesus has done, not anything we do.”
You do the math. Unless the wife is mentally catatonic, she has to figure she is married to a man that is infatuated sexually with little children, but cannot change. But trust me, she has something going on upstairs because she asked the elders in essence, “Who gave you the authority to tell me I can’t divorce my husband?” Good question, and the answer is… “nobody.” Also, redemptive church discipline proffers the idea that the elders have the authority to “declare her an unbeliever.” How do we get from the aforementioned biblical facts to a bunch of guys who have authority over your salvation? Have we totally lost our minds? In addition, preventing someone from performing a lawful act under threat of public defamation is a felony in most states. It just so happens that the practice of redemptive church discipline is technically a serious crime.
And let’s talk about the tragedy of Chandler’s teachings and how they created the situation to begin with. The Bible makes it clear that anyone can be inflicted with “sinful desires” of all sorts. This is an affliction and the source is sin. The source is also the old self that was crucified with Christ which means that the desire has no power over the believer—the believer is able to say “no” to that desire, and if he/she doesn’t, it will bring death in one way or another.
The blood of the situation is totally on the hands of Chandler and his elders due to errant teachings on sanctification, and the divorce is merely part of the death process that her husband is now experiencing. In this case, the death of a marriage along with whatever else is he is going through.
It is amazing to see how husbands are relinquishing their families to these doctors of death. This return to authentic Protestantism will continue to implode more and more until something gives. The destruction of families is ongoing and incalculable. As I have mentioned in other articles, I continue to get testimonies that family situations are greatly improved by virtue of the fact that the families simply leave the institutional church.
Cultism will never make a situation better, only worse.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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