A Plan for Saving Calvinism with “First Generation” Biblical Counseling
“But since I am a nice guy, I hereby propose a plan to save Calvinism with first generation biblical counseling.”
I have been getting emails that suggest the present-day Neo-Calvinist movement has peaked, is imploding, and will soon be on the decline. This would be a repeat of history. The only problem is, what is left behind of the authentic Reformation still yields weak sanctification which leaves the door open for the authentic Reformation gospel to return.
This is because the Neo-Platonist political goal of the Reformation gospel sought to keep the masses under the one law of sin and death. The practical application of the Reformation gospel wasn’t a new method for interpreting the Bible, it was a new method for interpreting reality itself through the redemptive works of Christ. Man lives in the shadows of the true forms; Jesus Christ and His works. Reality is a gospel metaphysical narrative that glorifies God through the history of sinful man, and every event is completely pre-authored by God’s pen down to the smallest detail.
This isn’t a natural way to interpret reality or literature, and as history moved further away from Calvin’s Geneva, Christians began to gravitate more and more towards a grammatical interpretation of Scripture. This made Christians more than mere characters in a prewritten metaphysical narrative, and spawned the antinomian controversies throughout church history.
Even though the European idea of living a preordained life of slavery under preordained masters was eventually rejected in America, the significance of that idea in regard to the European gospel has never been fully dealt with. There has never been a complete reevaluation of the foundations laid by the Reformation regardless of its abhorrent historical fruit.
In 1970, the American church was languishing in anemic sanctification after the first gospel wave of the 50’s and 60’s produced massive converts with very little power in the Christian life to show for it. Christianity had few answers for life’s difficult questions. Billy Graham saved you, and Oprah Winfrey counseled you. Even in our day, a disciple of Winfrey’s, Dr. Phil McGraw, helps people with real-life problems more than the institutional church would ever dream of.
And what is the church’s Neo-Calvinist answer to that? “It’s not about your life, it’s about Jesus.” “It’s not about anything you do, it’s about what Jesus did.” “Is the gospel about Jesus, or your Spirit-filled life?” “We preach the gospel, we don’t try to be the gospel.” And yes, that was the answer for concerns raised in the 70’s about powerless Christianity. You see, supposedly, what little bit of sanctification and practical application that was being practiced at the time was the problem. The first gospel wave circa 1950-1970 was strong on getting people saved and emphasized sanctification little; the Neo-Calvinist gospel wave came along and said, for all practical purposes, that sanctification is not needed at all—what we need is more Jesus—“Jesus is our sanctification.” “Sanctification isn’t you—it’s Jesus.”
In the same year that the Reformed lager once again came to save Protestant Light, 1970, a Presbyterian by the name of Jay Adams ignited the biblical counseling movement with the groundbreaking and controversial book, “Competent to Counsel.” In my opinion, being a part of the movement during its peak in the 90’s, it was one of the true revivals in church history that was strictly a church affair minus European political intrigue, if not the only one.
The reason for this is simple: Adams focused on walking in the Spirit. This wasn’t a walking in the Spirit that prescribed working hard at gospel contemplationism, this was a walking in the Spirit that prescribed learning and hard work on the part of God’s people with the Holy Spirit as counselor and helper. Adams separated justification and sanctification, and claimed that the power for Christian living came from the new birth, not justification. The cross saves you, but it doesn’t sanctify you. The resurrection sanctifies you.
There is only one reason for being sanctified by justification: Christians remain under the law of sin and death. Hence, the cross must continue to save us from that law—more cross. Adams prescribed walking in the law of the Spirit of life, and rejected the idea that the law of the Spirit operated in the power of the cross; Adams insisted that obedience to the law of the Spirit of life was a colaboring between us and the Spirit who raised Christ from the grave.
And the Neo-Calvinist resurgence went to war against Adams and won. Adams’ primary nemesis was the propagators of Sonship theology who are alive and well in the present-day Neo-Calvinist movement and own 95% of all biblical counseling. Adams’ Institute for Nouthetic Studies is the last vestige of the revival standing, and is unfortunately staffed with some who want to be friends with both camps even though at issue is the very gospel of Jesus Christ—because the crux is, are we still under law, OR under grace and the law of the Spirit of life?
Though the “second generation” counseling movement has managed to stay clear of the ongoing implosion, they are in the Neo-Calvinist camp and if history repeats itself, and that is what seems to be happening, they will likewise die the same social death that monergistic substitutionary sanctification always dies. That is, unless it can get in bed with the government and compel its orthodoxy by force, but historically, that only buys it some additional time prior to its inevitable demise.
But since I am a nice guy, I hereby propose a plan to save Calvinism with first generation biblical counseling. It is said of Adams’ first generation biblical counseling that it is to be commended for paving the way and laying a foundation, but now the “second generation” of biblical counseling is the real solution. Oh really? They have been running the show completely for twenty years now in the American church, and are we better off? Hardly! They have created mediating organizations that keep churches out of court, or at least try to, as a solution for cleaning up the bad fruit that their false gospel has created. When in American history have we ever needed mediating organizations to keep Christians from suing the institutional church? 2009 brought a nuclear explosion of discernment blogs, not against the familiar isms of church history, but against the same old spiritual tyranny that this doctrine has produced for over 500 years leading to its own periodic social deaths.
The key to saving Calvinism in all of this is the general ignorance and doctrinal illiteracy that has always been part of Calvin’s tyranny. As the framers of our constitution stated, an informed people is a free people. Calvinists can now use this ignorance to save the movement, and take credit for the future fruits born by instructing people to walk in the Spirit of life through obedience to everything Christ has commanded.
Because we Christians are generally stupid, the same ploy used by David Powlison (one of the forefathers of second generation biblical counseling) against Jay Adams can now be employed to save Calvinism. On the one hand, Powlison et al call Adams a Pharisee, but on the other, they commend him for laying the foundation of biblical counseling, by far the most formidable catalyst for Neo-Calvinism in our day. In the same way, since God’s people have apparently bought into this oxymoron of helpful flawed foundations and false premises that bear good fruit, the same could be said of Calvin.
Yes, even though Calvin kept God’s people under the law of sin and death, it could be said of him, “Well, Calvinists don’t believe everything Calvin believed.” I know, it’s stupid, but hey, it works. In our day, it enables folks to call Jay Adams a Pharisee while at the same time commending him. And David Powlison is so nuanced in what he says, if he slithers back into first generation counseling, no one will know the difference.
Hence, a return to the real revival of the 90’s, while giving Calvin all the credit. Hey, people also buy into all of this Old Calvinist/New Calvinist stuff; Tullian Tchividjian could be labeled the father of New Calvinism and all of the blame for misunderstanding Calvin could be placed on him. There is already a head start on that play. I am telling you, this plan is coming together in my mind and is examplitory of my compassion for Calvinists. After all, we are all just sinners saved by grace.
Now, what would this new plan, “look like.” Well, it would look like Calvinists standing around a bonfire holding hands on a clear summer night, actually, a book burning, while singing… “trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus…trust and obey.”
paul
Piper, Tchividjian, Christian Counseling, and the Calvinist False Gospel: The Law of the Spirit has NO Power to Change
DOING THE CROSS ONLY TO KEEP YOURSELF SAVED
The Bible is two different laws to the only two people groups in the world: the lost and the saved. To the lost, it is the law of sin and death. To the believer, it is the law of the Spirit of life:
Roman 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
We are no longer UNDER LAW, but UNDER GRACE, and being under grace is the same as being under the law of the Spirit of life. As Christians, the Spirit does in fact use the law to change us:
John 17:14 – I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
As I will keep proclaiming, the Achilles’ heel of Calvinism is law. Calvinism keeps the Christian under the law of sin and death. Hence, Jesus must fulfil the law of sin and death for us, and this is made up to be part of the atonement. But the law of sin and death has no part in justification—that’s why there is “no condemnation” for believers. But clearly, Calvin taught that Christians are still under the condemnation of the law and that Christ must perpetually save us from it by reapplications of the cross. In particular, note 3.14.9-11 in the Calvin Institutes. This construct turns the Bible and grace completely upside down. This is also why John Piper refers to the Bible as a book of “saving acts” (plural).
Note that John Piper, like Calvin, keeps Christians under the law of sin and death:
What Then Shall Those Who Are Justified Do with the Law of Moses?
Read it and meditate on it as those who are dead to it as the ground of your justification and the power of your sanctification. Read it and meditate on it as those for whom Christ is your righteousness and Christ is your sanctification.
Notice that Piper replaces the law of the Spirit of life with Christ alone as our sanctification. Notice also that we are to PRESENTLY read the law as those who are dead to it…[for] the power of your sanctification. Piper, like Calvin, only recognizes ONE law, the one we are dead to.
Tullian Tchividjian is more pointed about it:
So do you think the law no longer has—or should no longer have—a role in the Christian life?
No, I wouldn’t say that. While the law of God is good (Romans 7), it only has the power to reveal sin and to show the standard and image of righteous requirement—not remove sin. The law shows us what God commands (which of course is good) but the law does not possess the power to enable us to do what it says. You could put it this way: the law guides but it does not give. In other words, the law shows us what a sanctified life looks like, but it does not have sanctifying power—the law cannot change a human heart. It’s the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone can give God-honoring animation to our obedience. The power to obey comes from being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us. The fuel to do good flows from what’s already been done. So, while the law directs us, only the gospel can drive us.
This, of course, asserts the idea, per Calvinism, that the power of our sanctification comes from justification. Per the usual, “gospel” and “Jesus” are words used to replace “justification” for cover on this issue. If our sanctification comes from justification, the law of sin and death is not ended and Jesus must continue to save us from it. The “finished” work isn’t so much finished, it needs to be perpetually applied to save us from the law of sin and death. Simply stated, Calvinism keeps us under the law of sin and death and ignores the law (“nomos”) of the Spirit of life. In other places, Tchividjian posits the idea that “the Bible never says that the law can give life.” That isn’t true,
Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
Psalm 119:93 – I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.
I won’t belabor the point, but Christ also said that man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and when Moses said to “choose life” he was talking about the law.
In the final analysis, it’s works salvation via antinomianism; we have to work hard at doing nothing but the cross to keep ourselves saved from the law of sin and death which Calvin, even from the grave, keeps poised over our heads, ready to damn us at any time unless we live by faith alone in sanctification. And of course, faithfulness to the institutional church which has the “power of the keys” is our best shot to be “ready for the judgment.” Frankly, a judgment that we will not be attending because the final judgment is according to the law of sin and death, not the law of the Spirit of life that the Spirit does in fact use to change us.
And also take note: 95% of the Christian counseling going on in the institutional church is based on Christians being yet under the law of sin and death with Christ fulfilling it in our stead as part of the atonement. Good luck with that—it’s a false gospel.
paul
The Biblical Counseling Wars: A Very Simple Understanding
Unfortunately, if you are a Christian who needs counseling, you will go to the first “biblical” counselor that happens to be in your neck of the woods, or said another way: in your particular church venue. The grammatical Calvinist, Dr. Jay Adams, exposed the folly of doing that in the secular realm because psychology is based on 200, count them, 200 different theories. Likewise, it is the same folly to go to a counselor just because he/she is “biblical.” All psychologists are not simply “psychologists,” there are different kinds with different world views. If you are going to a counselor I understand that you are going for advice, but shouldn’t it be a counselor who interprets reality in a way that you deem sane? Or by your own admission, are you completely insane? And if you are, which counselor has the correct view of reality? You can’t know; you are insane. Good luck with that.
But there is good news! In all of the controversy running amuck in the biblical counseling wars, it boils down to this and this only: two gospels. Yes, t-w-o (2) g-o-s-p-e-l-s. It’s that simple. One states that salvation (justification) is a finished work. The other states that salvation is not a finished work, that sanctification is the progression of justification and is powered by justification. “We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” Sound familiar?
Simply stated: sanctification by justification. And how were you justified? “By faith alone.” Right, so then, you are sanctified how? “That would be sanctification by faith alone.” Very good class. “Didn’t James have a problem with that?” Right. “But how do we distinguish grace from law?” One has works, the other doesn’t. “Huh”? Antinomian justification: good. Antinomian sanctification: bad. “Oh.”
Of course, the justification isn’t finished crowd would cry foul. “But of course we think there are works in sanctification!” Question is: whose works? This also distinguishes the two camps in regard to CHANGE. It is the difference between the titles of two books: “How to Help People Change,” and “How People Change.” One implies that people do change, the other implies change, but not necessarily a changed person. The latter teaches a mere invitation to “enter into the plot” of a gospel narrative. The former believes in the cause and effect of biblical obedience. It’s all Calvinist, but it is the difference between a grammatical interpretation of reality and a redemptive interpretation of reality. As stated by many “biblical” counselors: a literal view of Scripture denies the personhood of Christ and His salvific works in sanctification. Did you know that there are saving works in our sanctification?
I know I probably lost you with that paragraph, so let me boil it down for you: Do you believe that you can actually change with God’s HELP, or do you believe that you can only EXPERIENCE grace in the form of what Christ has already “supplied” for your sanctification?
See, that’s really easy. If you think you can really change, it’s A, if you think you can’t change, but can only experience grace manifested in an obedience already supplied, it’s B.
So why all of the confusion? Well, because unlike the characterization foisted on the father of the contemporary biblical counseling movement, Dr. Jay Adams, he likes people waaaay too much. Once again in a recent article, he has to defend himself, which is utterly disgusting as few in the institutional church will defend this elderly saint against petulant snot-nosed bullies, and once again, Jay does not name names. Couple this with the fact that the movement is chock-full of leaders who care way more about losing friends (or connections) than the truth. Another name for this is Streetism.
Long gone for the most part is any decency in the movement. While sanctifying their attacks on Adams with a tacit recognition of his “first generation counseling” and how much is owed to him, they precede to attack him personally. Why? Because truth is powerful, even when yielded by one 80-something man, or for that matter a mere child. But more intimidating than anything is what “first generation” biblical counseling did for Christians en masse. That is a history that intimidates his detractors. The good accomplished in that movement that brought practical application of the Scriptures back to the church is deemed as doing nothing more than “making us better Pharisees.” Comments like these are often made by Jay’s “friends.”
If there was any real integrity in the movement, the most visible of its leaders would demand a stop to these attacks on Jay based on principle and under threat of separation regarding fellowship. But again, the truth is what they are afraid of. There is no easy money in it.
So what is the solution if you need counseling? That’s a tuff question. For certain, a false gospel will not help you, it will just make you feel better while making you a better antinomian. Jay’s organization is nouthetic.org, but he has a couple of people over there that are half-pregnant with the other gospel. I guess Jay can’t help but to love foxes even when they are in the henhouse. I would probably contact his organization, tell them you understand the big picture, and request a referral for a first generation purist who believes in real progressive sanctification. If they know of anyone other than Jay in any given geography, it would be great to have such a list to refer people to. The home fellowship movement, unfortunately, is a long way from having a counseling strategy.
paul
Book Review: Russ Kennedy’s “Perplexity,” All you Need is the Cover
Really? Christians need yet another book on gospel contemplationism? In Perplexity: Bringing My Questions to God, the theses is a very familiar one in our day. As I was reading through the Kindle version while riding in the family car with my wife Susan, intermittently reading aloud, she commented, “It sounds like the same ole’ stuff.” Indeed, the institutional church will continue to relentlessly pound this one simple message into the heads of Christians in different ways, and anyone who comes up with a different version will be lauded accordingly.
It’s ironic, Russ Kennedy, the “pastor” of Clearcreek Chapel in Springboro, Ohio was at the center of one of the most perplexing seasons of my life. Had this book been published at that time, perhaps I would still be there, and living according to its age-old theses. But I wanted answers, and according to the theses of this religion, a very ancient one, that’s arrogance. Yes, perplexity is a good thing because it humbles us, it reminds us that we can’t know anything except that we are perplexed, and living in the dark cave of life. Hence, see the cover of the book. This is not perplexing at all; you are in the dark cave looking up, and the light seen at the mouth of the cave is the gospel. If you know what Russ Kennedy et al believe, all you need is the cover—it says it all in a visual bumper sticker.
Let me interject something here: that perplexing time of my life was only perplexing at the time. That’s one of the real truths of biblical perplexity; time often reveals exactly how God uses the evil of the world for His divine purposes. In the midst of severe, dark trials, we continue in well-dong and wait for God’s answers (1Pet 4:19). That’s difficult, we will need the love and truthful encouragement of other Christians. Yes, in rare instances, we will have to wait for glory to know the answers, but we can be sure that God is working all things for His divine purposes, and for the believer, that isn’t for the express purpose of showing us how worthless and depraved we are. Conspicuously absent in Kennedy’s book is the following concept:
Deuteronomy 29:29 – The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
According to Kennedy and the long history of those who supply thoughts for him, the only thing that Christians can DO is the same gospel that saved them. We are in the dark cave, and all we can do is contemplate the light outside of the tunnel. Our reality is a subjective dark cave, and according to a former elder that supplied the overall philosophy for the Chapel, “New Covenant Theology presumes a Christocentricity to the understanding and meaning of all reality.” Said elder, Chad Bresson, departed from the Chapel, also dubbed “Cloudy Creek Chapel” by many former members, at approximately the same time of a controversy concerning an accusation that the Chapel elders were teaching, “some kind of Christian mysticism.” Go figure.*
So, if Christians can’t really know anything objectively except the suffering of the cross, what’s the point? Well, that answer isn’t perplexing at all: joy. As you look up from the dark cave of life and humanity to the only thing you can know, the light of the glorious cross shining outside of the cave, the result is the stripping away of everything treasured at all other than Christ resulting in joy while in the cave. Joy, regardless of circumstances, is the payoff. Joy in the cave is the payoff. Like Hinduism, the cause and effect of knowledge and the application thereof are toys that we discard as we mature spiritually, IF we come to realize that life is a completely preordained god-narrative that points us to a light that transcends empirical knowledge. As Kennedy states in the book, answers to life’s problems are “shadows.” Right and wrong answers are not the issue; the arrogant assumption that you can know anything except the suffering of the cross is the issue.
Listen, I was perplexed, and paid a price for wanting answers, but I see now that God used those dark circumstances to incite me to seek godly knowledge. I would only change one thing: I shouldn’t have been ignorant in regard to authentic church history and its progression of various soteriologies. My own ignorance and lack of knowledge led me to that darkness. Instead of letting me suffer the full brunt of my lazy Christianity, viz, letting others think for me, God restricted the circumstances to awakening me out of my pathetic slumber. That’s grace in sanctification my friends. When it gets right down to it, I can’t blame Russ Kennedy mysticism for what happened; we live in an information age, I was a know-it-all according to everyone else’s “knowledge.” Christ died to save me from the law, and gave me a “helper” to sincerely love Him with God-given talents. Instead of utilizing that, I did not study to show myself approved—it’s on me. For certain, I do not deserve what God has done to rebuild my life, but be sure of this, I have learned from it.
What have I learned? I have learned that the present-day chaos in the church is not perplexing at all. It is as simple as the cover on Russ Kennedy’s book. Frankly, the audacity of Plato’s cave adorning the cover of this book shouldn’t surprise us. The framers of the American Constitution readily observed that the colonial Calvinist Puritans of that day were followers of Plato. That, coupled with the tyranny that they experienced growing up under the colonial Puritan theocracy of that day inspired them to create one of the greatest experiments of all time—the American ideal, which God has used to wreak more good on the earth since the good news of the gospel. For one example, the Puritans, like the one Kennedy cites in his book, called Benjamin Franklin a devil for inventing the lightening rod. The only thing that saved Franklin from the fate of others who tried to improve the human condition through knowledge was the fact that his lightening rod saved churches from burning down via lightning strikes.
Platonism eventually became Gnosticism which was nemesis #1 for the New Testament church. The Neo-Calvinist resurgence of our day is a return to that Gnosticism in every respect, and the teaching method is no different than that used by Kennedy in his book:
1. Focus on being rightly descriptive about how trials and the rigors of life are experienced. This makes the listener think that you understand where they are at.
2. Exploit the fact trying to do the right thing the wrong way is very prevalent in the human experience. Then interpret those failures as a misconception regarding the very interpretation of reality. Interpret those failures as part of the overall failures of reason itself: i.e., Plato’s shadows in the cave. Our existence is experienced subjectively via the shadows of the true forms. The Puritans merely changed Plato’s true forms into the gospel/Christ, and our human existence is the cave.
3. Offer the alternative of gospel contemplationism, using proof-texting with verses that only tell half of the story: mysteries that belong to the Lord—which can only be experienced by joy and not known. This is the crux of Gnosticism. All reason and human knowledge are only shadows of the mysteries of Plato’s trinity: the true, good, and beautiful. They merely make Plato’s trinity “the gospel.” Any member at Clearcreek Chapel who is honest with themselves will see this concept woven within all of Russ Kennedy’s teachings sometimes plagiarized from John Piper’s Christian Hedonism which led to his dismissal from a church in Illinois.
Church history tells us that Gnosticism has always had mass appeal and has always been the greatest challenge to true Christianity. This is because it feeds our propensity towards lazy thinking, and enables us to step back from the rigors of life and observe them from afar. It also enables us to escape responsibility, and change by glorying in our ignorance while appearing spiritual. Yes, we are the humble totally depraved who “know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” Change is hard, and many will exchange it in a heartbeat for the easy way while having the added bonus of looking humble and spiritual to boot. This is the mass appeal that has always been Gnosticism, a kissing cousin to Stoicism.
Wow! Look at his faith in the face of this immense tragedy! If only I had faith like that!
Faith? Or a Gnostic indifference towards reality? Was it faith that led a son to stand up at the funeral of a godly pastor and proudly proclaim that his father was a “wicked sinner”? What of the disdain shared by a Clearcreek elder in regard to his mother-in-law’s grieving because she was terminally ill and would not see her grandchildren grow up? The disdain evolved around her treasuring of her grandchildren more than Christ. Grandchildren are mere shadows.
There is only one false religion: antinomian sanctification. A rejection of knowledge in sanctification under the guise of “knowing nothing but Christ and him Crucified” portrays a certain mindset about justification. It exchanges love in sanctification for fear in justification. If we must keep ourselves justified by a humbleness defined by knowing nothing, we indeed need the Russ Kennedys of the world which is why he wrote the book. But one best ponder the very words of Christ: “Because of anomia, the love of many will become cold.”
Strange, once again I am inadvertently ministered to by tyranny. Susan and I have been considering a change of direction as this ministry is a very lonely ministry that fights the uphill battle against completely unnecessary perplexity in the American church. A recent sermon by Andy Stanley has Christians “troubled” and “perplexed.” In the sermon, Stanley proffered the idea that Christ put people before “his religion” which he made synonymous with the law. Supposedly, the Pharisees did the opposite by putting the law before people. Stanley then defiantly dared anyone to ask for a practical application to the sermon. Stanley then concluded the “sermon” by stating that he didn’t know where the theses would lead, that of course, would be decided by the Lord. As one blogger noted:
With all due respect, I submit that if Andy Stanley did not know the answers to the questions posed above, he should have never delivered the sermon.
With all due respect, Christians need to stop being perplexed in regard to where these antinomian teachers are coming from. We find the same exact concept in this book published by Kennedy. In the difficult questions of life and times of darkness, you don’t look for answers; you only meditate on the gospel and not shadowy reason. In death, you seek more death, so that the joy of the cross may abound in your heart. This is what you do while waiting for the Lord to change your circumstances at a time of his choosing. Of course, this is a counselor’s dream; one size fits all. Every counselee walking in has the same problem: they value life. Don’t be fooled by multiple layers of nuance and careful choice of synonyms, this is the crux of the matter; you either treasure Christ alone, or you treasure all else but Him alone. It’s either the dark cave or the light, period.
Their god is the god of confusion, not ours. And perplexity is not a glory; it is the disdain of lady wisdom and a lamp-less dark path to destruction.
paul
*Incredibly, the Chapel still benefits from the biblical counseling movement started by Dr. Jay Adams in 1970. The movement was a true revival because it called the church back to practical application in sanctification. As a former pastor at the Chapel, I witnessed this doing reformation (at its peak in the early 90s) firsthand because the Chapel was a NANC training center at the time. The movement was neutralized by a Gnostic form of biblical counseling followed by Russ Kennedy and his elders. Nevertheless, they represent themselves as advocates of the original movement and its tenets. As they deceptively allow people to come into membership under this false pretense, controversy arises later due to the contradictions involved. Much of the energies expended by the Clearcreek Chapel elders involve damage control.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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