Guest Writer, Susan Dohse: Provoked by Her Husband
This cannot be accomplished if I stay at the foot of the cross contemplating my precious Savior’s death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus said to take up the cross and follow Him.
I asked my husband if I could write an article for his blog. With some reservation he agreed. Why do I want to write an article? Because my husband provokes me. To be truthful, he has provoked me from the very beginning of our relationship, and he continues to provoke me.
With purse in one hand and my trusty Scofield Reference Bible in the other I met Paul for the first time over coffee at Perkins. Not to be outdone, he pulled his Bible out of his briefcase and placed it on the table next to his laptop. Thus began the first of many provocations.
I teach school and am entering my 38th year of teaching. As a lover of words I chose to use the word provoke for a reason. According to the dictionary, provoke means to move a person to action, to goad or stimulate one into a renewed vigor or action. Therefore, the reason for the use of the word. Let me repeat: My husband provokes me.
Anyone who has known me for a while is aware of how much I cherish my personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is first my Redeemer, the author and finisher of my faith. He is my sustainer, my refuge in time of trouble. Without Him, I would be nothing. My husband knows my life’s story and in spite of that knowledge, wraps me daily in the healing arms of his love. But, dear friends, Paul continues to provoke me.
He provokes me to move deeper into the study of God’s Word, to listen with discernment to what is being said about the Word of God, to read with discernment what other “godly” authors write, and to speak with discernment.
Recently, Paul has provoked me to move from the foot of the cross to a greater joy and reveling; that being, doing the work that God calls me to do each day. Jesus taught his disciples how to have a servant’s heart by taking up the basin and towel. He warned his followers that there would be a yoke to carry, a harvest to glean, a going, a teaching, a discipling that must be continued until He comes again. This cannot be accomplished if I stay at the foot of the cross contemplating my precious Savior’s death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus said to take up the cross and follow Him.
When I became a believer at the age of 8, I experienced joy, peace, contentment, and a myriad of other emotions. When I close my eyes and remember the day I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior I can experience those emotions again. But, the joy, peace, and contentment I experience daily as I go forth to serve the Lord, applying His words to my life, go far deeper than when I first believed. I attribute this to being provoked by my dear husband.
I hope you have someone in your life that provokes you in the same way.
susan
Discernment Ministry and Philippians 4:13
I am working on a major project right now in regard to GS/Sonship theology. But as I often do, I let myself get distracted, and started doing some reading for a post that is in the batter’s box. Even with being immersed in this foul doctrine, God keeps showing me more, and more. One reality that I have seen of late (discovered in the project I mentioned) is how the movement has systematically redefined almost every tenet of the Christian faith. This tempted me to put some thought into the post that is in the batter’s box. The post will be about how GS has redefined the traditional definition of Antinomianism. Guess what? It’s not what you thought it was—it’s really legalism! Go figure.
I am using (for the post) what I think will be the future, official systematic theology of the GS movement: “The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims On the way” by Michael Horton (over 1000 pages). I’m not a prophet, but I would be willing to bet that this book is already the official text for systematic theology in many seminaries. As I was reading the section on Antinomianism and the relationship of law to the Christian life on pages 673-680, something occurred to me, but I will share some other thoughts first.
In that section, Horton employs the usual techniques found in GS teaching: lots of orthodox statements, red herrings, straw men, pink elephants, nuance par excellence, and criticism of movements that believe the same thing GS proponents believe. Then it occurred to me. I’m not smart enough, educated enough, tenacious enough, disciplined enough, organized enough, connected enough, loving of the truth enough, and rich enough to fight this movement. I am up against a doctrine propagated by highly respected men who are paid to do what they do full-time. And…. I guess that’s the beauty of it all.
“ I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Yes I can. I can be God’s kind of husband, father, parishioner, worker, etc., etc., and God can also use this hillbilly from Portsmouth, Ohio to bring this vile doctrine to ashes. The bigger the mountain—the more glory for God. Let it be so.
paul
Latter-Day Church Reality
What’s wrong with you? “You seem to struggle with being content.” “Well, there’s no such thing as a perfect church,” “Are you one of those ‘heresy hunters?’” “You aren’t a ‘church-hopper’ are you?” “Nobody else has a problem with what your talking about; maybe you should take a deeper look at your own heart.” “Come now brother, you act like there’s a false teacher behind every bush.”
If your a zealous Christian with a deep love for the truth, the above statements might sound familiar to you, but it just might be that the trouble isn’t in your set (or head). It took several years for the following to sink into my head: if one takes Scripture seriously, we must believe that solid New Testament churches will be the exception in our day, and not the norm. In fact, the big question is not where to find a “good” church, but rather what to do, and how to think about the fact that such churches will be extremely rare in our day. Julia Duin took a stab at it in her book, “Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do about it.” I think her book describes the symptoms well and offers a reasonable solution to the problem. More on that in my close.
First, I must believe that any mentality that fosters the idea that “there are many good churches out there, but you have to find them,” couldn’t be true. Why? Because the coming of Christ and His ascension marks an “age” that will be characterized by an unprecedented attack on the truth unrivaled in all of redemptive history. I delve into this in detail in the following post: https://paulspassingthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/an-apostolic-call-to-discernment-in-the-%E2%80%9Clast-days%E2%80%9D/
Christ said the following in Luke 18:8, “…when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In the very beginning of the New Testament age, all-out warfare between truth and error was a raging fire, mostly WITHIN the church. Almost all of the New Testament books are primarily written to address doctrinal error / heresy WITHIN the church, or address that problem as a secondary issue. The only exception I can think of is Philemon. Furthermore, it is clear that looking forward historically, the apostles made it clear that the problem would only get worse: “while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2Timothy 3:13). Also, the apostle Paul warned Timothy, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine” (2Timothy 4:2,3). Got that? Men will not TOLERATE sound doctrine in the last days; and again, I think the apostle is talking about men within the the church. And with bad doctrine comes the usual results:
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them” (2Timothy 3:1-5).
Paul said the times would be “terrible,” and I have to believe that the Holy Spirit isn’t given to exaggeration. Frankly, when you consider the mindset of today’s church in regard to the sufficiency of Scripture, what could be more descriptive than “having a form of godliness but denying its power”? Forget biblical counseling for serious life problems, its been replaced with Church-in-a-Bottle and Saint Sigmund. Without getting sidetracked further, I might also mention Peter’s description of the latter-day characteristic regarding eschatology (2Peter 3:3-10). The church’s disdain for last things has become very prevalent, especially in this decade.
However, this isn’t the picture we are coming to grips with in our day. We don’t want to think about how bad it really is when the kingdom of darkness has been perfecting its trade for 2000 years. The apostle Paul was consumed with defending the truth on every front, and warned that false teachers would increase, not decrease; and again, that was 2000 years ago!
But there’s hope. The manual for doing church right hasn’t gone anywhere; the truth still waits for all who will follow. Julia Duin seemed to advocate home churches that aren’t constrained by church hierarchies. Perhaps, but I do think new churches that have the right biblical goals are a good solution to the problem. I also think that such churches will have to remember the following: the kingdom of darkness will seek to snuff them out early on; where there is life, there is CHANGE; the Bible must be the final authority on EVERYTHING, and; a hermeneutic used for interpretation of the Scripture must be known and agreed upon. The problem is huge, but God never leaves his children without remedy.
paul
What Really Happened at Coral Ridge: Heavy-Handed Leadership is Part of the Gospel Sanctification Mystique
I have plowed through massive amounts of data / articles regarding the Coral Ridge Presbyterian split / controversy, and wow, what a gargantuan mass of theories, opinions, and “he said – she said.” But what happened at Coral Ridge is really very simple, and is being played out throughout the country on a continual basis. Actually, in all the information I consumed, the crux of the matter can be boiled down to a few excerpts.
First, the key to understanding what happened there is the theology of the new pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, hereafter referred to as “TT” (who in the world would ever name their child Tullian Tchividjian?). TT is a proponent of Gospel Sanctification, hereafter referred to as “GS.” One writer refuted an accusation against TT (by one person in the small group of dissenters who tried to have him expelled as the pastor) that he has a distorted view of the gospel. But in supposedly refuting that, he quotes TT as saying the following:
“As I’ve said before, I once assumed (along with the vast majority of professing Christians) that the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But I’ve come to realize that ‘the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths, but more like the hub in a wheel of truth.’ As Tim Keller explains it, the gospel isn’t simply the ABCs of Christianity, but the A-through-Z. The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christians going every day. Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel.”
In this quote, we see the theology of GS and why it caused big trouble at Coral Ridge. Notice that TT says plainly that he has come to a scriptural understanding of the gospel that “the vast majority of professing Christians” don’t share. Think about that statement, I mean really think about it. He is saying that he was once among “the vast majority of *professing* [that word is no accident] Christians” who HAVE THE GOSPEL WRONG! This is the mentality of GS proponents: they think they are on the cutting edge of a reformation that is saving Evangelicalism from a false gospel. What else can be surmised from this statement?
As a result, leaders in the GS movement do not intend to play nicely with papal minions of the Synergistic Dark Age, and they routinely kick butt and take names. The pattern is the same: new pastors assume leadership in a church that doesn’t know what GS is, and the church takes it for granted that their theology is orthodox. Then once in, they replace present leadership with those of like mind, and begin to make vast and rapid changes because they see that church as a bastion of falsehood. Then, dissenters are mercilessly mowed down and muzzled, usually via church discipline.
In all cases, the dissenters don’t have a full understanding of what they are dealing with, they just know something isn’t right. I saw this exact same GS pattern play out in a church in Dayton, Ohio, and it’s also exactly what happened at Coral Ridge. My thoughts on this were confirmed by a telephone interview with a person involved with the protesters at Coral Ridge. However, the particular church in Dayton didn’t have the ecclesiastical safeguards afforded Presbyterians, and some dissenting members actually fled to other states because of the intensity of the backlash from the GS leadership, and trust me, I’m not exaggerating. Other Christians have told me that their leaders simply refuse to discuss the issue with them, rightly observing that there is no premise for agreement when one party holds to a grammatical view of interpretation verses redemptive.
Before I move on, some of what I am saying here can be seen in the letter that Coral Ridge dissenters issued to the rest of the congregation in an attempt to have TT removed as their pastor: http://blackandwhiteministries.blogspot.com/2009/07/founding-pastors-daughter-raises-mutiny.html
In conclusion, much of the GS doctrine can be seen in TT’s statement if one observes closely and believes that words mean things. Instead of moving on to “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded,” we are supposed to move “more deeply” into the gospel. GS teaches that a deeper focus on the gospel results in Christ obeying biblical imperatives for us. TT has also insinuated this in other statements. You can also see the GS element of continual redemption (or the idea that Christians are continually re-saved) in this part of his statement:
“After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel” [then what do you do with John 13:8-10 ?].
Furthermore, the gospel is monergistic, so if we are sanctified by the gospel, that means we can do no more to be sanctified than we could do to be justified. Therefore, GS can be nothing more than a *let go and let God* theology. Also, the relationship or role of the Law would be the same, making it an Antinomian doctrine. Not being obligated to keep the Law or completely unable is the same difference.
paul
Dr. Jay’s Hopeful Post and the Evil Twins
On the Institute For Nouthetic Studies blog, the comment option is turned off, so I will have to make my own here. Actually, of all people, I thought about foregoing any reaction to this very unique, if not historic, post (“Contemplation?” http://www.nouthetic.org/blog/?cat=39 second from top) Why? I ain’t tellin’, but I will discuss why I think it is at least unique, if not historic. But, I am going to exercise caution here because Adams does not name any specific doctrine, and it would also seem that it is the policy of INS not to name names (kinda reminds you of my blog, doesn’t it?) so, I want to be careful not to attach any references of my own not intended by the (run-on sentence ahead) father of having a clue of how to help people with the God breathed word and the terminator of the rumor that Sigmund Freud is smarter than God and often the victim of pretentious snot-nosed theologians who are jealous of what God has done through him and who often self-aggrandize themselves at his expense. Ooops, I let that slip, and it also reveals why I almost passed on this post; I have very strong opinions concerning the matter at hand. My conclusion will give you some idea as to why.
As one blogger put it, the doctrine of Gospel Sanctification is a “pet” of mine. Amen brother, and if you don’t like it, be sure to report me to the Humane Society because I mercilessly beat that doggy every day, because it is worthy of the hellish pit that it comes from. However, the subject of the Adams post is synonymous with the primary attribute of Gospel Sanctification; Adams did not say (in the post) that he is talking about Gospel Sanctification, but what he did say is the following: “The problem with the teaching is that it tends to confuse justification with sanctification.” That’s exactly what Gospel Sanctification does (as the title implies). So apparently, if Adams isn’t talking about the same doctrine, there could be at least one set of doctrinal evil twins running about. Now, this is what’s unique about his post, if not historic: nobody, as far as leaders who have national recognition; have ever discussed, or are talking about, these evil twins. The Adams post is a first. This is amazing because the one twin that I know was born around 1980, at Westminster hospital. Several leaders like John MacArthur, RC Sproul, and others, hang-out at conferences with those who propagate the evil twin I know, but they never talk about the evil twins. Therefore, it has been suggested to me by others that the evil twin I know isn’t really evil. But I don’t know about that, because here is what Dr. Jay said about the evil twin he has seen: “Will this seemingly Romish quietistic mysticism—or, at least, what borders on it help one to grow?” [the question is rhetorical]. Hmmm, maybe the problem is what Dr. Jay also said about the twin he has seen: “….it is ill-defined, and hard for those who don’t believe it to express it in words.” Yep, just like the twin I know; and therefore, I offer my excuses for Sproul and MacArthur.
Before I go on, let me use this paragraph to further bolster my theory that there are two doctrinal evil twins running about. The following attributes described by Adams are also exactly like the doctrine I have come to know, and therefore, I assume they are twins:
1. “The problem with the teaching is that it tends to confuse justification with sanctification.” Apparently, the twin I know is a little more forceful. Her minions make every effort to synthesize the two, often using Scripture that pertains to justification to make sanctification points.
2. ….”they [the several verses he cites in his post] all emphasize that one must put forth effort in order to grow more like Christ….it [the evil twin he has seen] seems to set forth the opposite.” Hmmm, I must admit, this is a little different from the one I know, which doesn’t “seem” to say that, but says in no uncertain terms that our efforts in the sanctification process is a false gospel. Could my theory be wrong?
3. “While properly emphasizing the cross of Christ as central to our Christian faith, it goes on in one way or another to suggest that contemplation of what Jesus did on the cross is the way to spiritual growth.” Oh yes, this is exactly like the one I know. Her minions say: “the same gospel that saved us, also sanctifies us”; “behold [contemplate] as a way of becoming”; “we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day”; “never, never [stated 21 more times] teach that we are saved by the gospel and then move-on to something else”; “there is a gospel application to every event of life, that’s why the Bible is so big”; [no, I swear, I didn’t make that one up] “If not only the unregenerate but the regenerate are always dependent at every moment on the free grace of God disclosed in the gospel, then nothing can raise those who are spiritually dead or continually give life to Christ’s flock but the Spirit working through the gospel.”
4. “….this method of sanctification seems to be a substitute for effort extended in the process of growth.” Right. The one I know teaches that “we can no more obey the law than we can overcome the law of gravity.” Likewise, not only does it teach that we don’t exercise effort in the sanctification process, it teaches that Christ obeys for us; they call it the “imputed active obedience of Christ.”
Here is a good summary quote from a minion of the evil twin that I have seen:
“Where we land on these issues is perhaps the most significant factor in how we approach our own faith and practice and communicate it to the world. If not only the unregenerate but the regenerate are always dependent at every moment on the free grace of God disclosed in the gospel, then nothing can raise those who are spiritually dead or continually give life to Christ’s flock but the Spirit working through the gospel. When this happens (not just once, but every time we encounter the gospel afresh), the Spirit progressively transforms us into Christ’s image. Start with Christ (that is, the gospel) and you get sanctification in the bargain; begin with Christ and move on to something else, and you lose both.”
Wow, so if you don’t believe the doctrine of the evil twins, “you loose both” [justification and sanctification]. Soooo, does Mac and RC still believe in synergistic sanctification? They aren’t hanging out with people who think they are lost are they? Hey, I’m just asking!
I promised to tell why this issue is so dear to me. In, or about 1988, I barley got myself to a counseling appointment located in Springboro, Ohio. I had one foot in a mental institution and one foot on a banana peel. I would have made a great poster child for Gospel Sanctification and Christian Hedonism. Though I was a hard worker (career wise), I was spiritually lazy except for studying “the gospel”; and my own joy in the Lord was certainly the goal beyond all else. I arrived at the counseling appointment perplexed as to why my “total dependence” on God found me in such a state. The counselor, In a manner of speaking, was a disciple of Jay Adams. Much to my dismay, he emphasized obedience to the weightier matters of God’s word in regard to life and godliness. I had been to seminary, and was well-schooled in the Scriptures (supposedly), but in fact, was clueless.
But I had a new hope. Instead of only crying out to God on my knees for hours, and from the deepest parts of my soul, I learned that no matter how bad I felt, I could do something; and it would actually please the God of our universe sitting upon his thrown. This seemed to be an awesome privilege to me. “The War Within,” a book by Adams, also supplied a profound help during this time. Furthermore, though it was difficult, I continued to work, and listened to John MacArthur tapes while doing so. The series I was listening to was from the book of Daniel. MacArthur, in the series, strongly emphasized the spiritual character of Daniel as revealed by the Holy Spirit. I remember driving home, encouraged from the tapes, saying to myself: “look at me, look at me, I don’t want to be like this! I want to be like Daniel!” Again, I thank my God that I was not listening to some spiritual guru who thinks that every verse in the Bible is about the good news (however glorious), relegating the awesome example of Daniel to “pictures of the gospel.” Additionally, I thank God that I did not instead, end-up in the hands of someone who would have merely shown me a better way to do what I was already doing.
It is time for leaders with national recognition to get a spine, a bag of sand, and a stick. They need to empty the bag of sand between them and others, and draw a line in that sand, thus distinguishing between themselves, and the latter-day antinomians that Paul the apostle said would come.
Adams said the following in the same post regarding the doctrine in question: “People are confused by it, and have begun to ask questions” In regard to people starting to ask questions; I hope this is certainly the case, but the confusion of God’s people still continues to reap the indifference of leaders with national recognition, while applauding those who write books that would be the envy of Timothy Leary.
It is my prayer that we will all hear these words from our Savior: “Well done faithful servant.” But for the love of everything on Earth; it’s a verb phrase and we are the subject. Have we completely lost our minds?
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
5 comments