Dr. Welch

Dr. Ed Welch of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) makes his living via the wide and deep ocean of Christians who have emerged from a secular education system that stopped teaching people how to think long ago. In a recent article he wrote (What the Church Really Believes about Sanctification), absurdities occupy nearly every sentence, but people will buy it because he is, well, a doctor. It reminds me of the less than aesthetically truthful Gene Simmons stating, “Trust me, I’m a doctor” in the Dr. Pepper commercial. It’s meant to be a joke, but one wonders how many believe he is really a doctor just because he said so, and would indeed trust him to do brain surgery while dressed in his KISS attire—staring at the creepy face with calm demeanor.

In case you think I am being absurd, consider the first sentence of the aforementioned post:

Each generation of believers develops its own weird convictions about Scripture.

Here is my problem: words mean things. Welch’s words are indicative of his spiritual caste mentality that is uniquely Reformed: preordained philosopher kings are chosen to

Trust him, he’s a doctor.

herd the pathetic totally depraved zombie sheep to heaven while losing as few as possible. And like other CCEF elitists David Powlison and Paul David Tripp opine: “It’s very messy business.” Yes indeed. Welch doesn’t write, “Every generation of believers has those who develop weird convictions about Scripture.” Instead, his choice of words reveals his overall spiritual elitist attitude towards the common Christian, and their “cooperate weirdness.” What does “corporate” mean? This first sentence is followed by the typical Reformed argument for why creeds and confessions are needed:

Though confessions and creeds offer some stability, they also conceal our faulty beliefs under a thin cover of orthodoxy. And there they wait, erupting to the surface in times of trouble.

The arrogance takes your breath away. If not for Reformed confessions and creeds written by the….and this kills me, “Westminster Divines,” and bloodthirsty Puritans at the behest of civil government—there wouldn’t be any stability at all! Per the usual, like his associate David Powlison often does, Welch deceives with subtle words that pretend to make him one of us: “….our faulty beliefs,” but obviously, he is of the anointed few that sees the problem since interpreting the Bible for ourselves is a dangerous stunt that we shouldn’t try at home. Like their good friend Dr. Albert Mohler has stated:

The main means by which God saves his people from ignorance is the preaching and teaching of the word of God. That’s why a conference like this is so important. It’s not just because we think of the pastorate as a profession set along side other professions so that we can gather together for a little professional encouragement to go out a be a little better at what we do. No, we’re here because we believe that those who teach and preach the word of God are God-appointed agents to save God’s people from ignorance (2011 FBC Jax Pastor’s Conference).

CCEF’s own view of interpretation posits the idea that research and development teams made-up of experts from various fields can only draw out truth that can help the totally depraved zombie sheep cope while on the long road to heaven fraught with darkness and hardship. In an interview with 9Marks blog, Powlison stated:

CCEF is also unique even within the wider biblical counseling movement in two more ways. One is what I call “R&D”—a research and development purpose. We don’t believe that saying “biblical counseling” means that we have figured it all out. We are a work in progress. We have a core commitment to push, to develop, to build, to tackle a new problem…The church forgets things.  The church rediscovers things. But when it rediscovers something, it’s different because it’s always in a different sociocultural-historical moment, and different forces are at work.

So, even if the average Joe Christian could find the forgotten truth which apparently isn’t in the Bible to begin with or else it wouldn’t be forgotten, you would have to be a sociologist to understand the significance of that truth in our day. Game over. All hail to the CCEF philosopher kings.

Welch further exploits the apparent stupidity of Christians by implementing the Reformed either/or hermeneutic:

One place we can find the corporate weirdness of our day is in the doctrine of sanctification. It seems that we [he really doesn’t mean “we,” again, this is disingenuous and manipulative] have arrived at a consensus about the normal process of sanctification and it’s not good. Here it is: We believe in the victorious life: healthy, wealthy, prosperous and sin-free. Lord have mercy on us.

Again, though Welch uses the word “us,” he and the brainiacs at CCEF are the only usians that can see the problem. They are the usian philosopher kings. And we EITHER see it their way, OR we believe in the “victorious life”; i.e., Christians will never suffer and will enjoy prosperity unless it’s a judgment from God:

No sane Christian believes we will be free of trouble, hardships and suffering, but most of us believe we should have less of it than our unbelieving neighbors. So suffering still surprises us, as if children of the King have immunity. The two common responses to suffering are: [with frustration] Why is God doing this to me?[with guilt and confusion] What have I done to deserve this? Do we think that Christ suffered so we are spared the hardships that would have fallen on us? True, Jesus bore our judgment but that doesn’t eliminate the suffering of living in a sin-filled world. Instead it gives us power to follow in his footsteps.

Here is what Welch, being evil, does with this statement: he takes four different biblical truths and uses them as three points to draw one conclusion:

Weakness. That is the normal Christian life. It looks like power but it feels like weakness. That is the real victorious life.

Hence, the biblical truth that we can obtain blessings in this life through obedience; the biblical truth that sin can in fact bring judgment; and the fact that God brings trials into our life to stretch our faith, are all presented as fallacies to make his Reformed money point: we are pathetic, helpless, weak, defeated, totally depraved morons that need to learn how to be victorious in weakness via the CCEF philosopher kings.

In the above statement, he also reveals their Gnostic paradigm for how this is accomplished: normal is weakness because we are weak, and a deeper and deeper knowledge of that weakness enables us to “feel” the power of the heavenly. In this earthly realm we “look like” weakness, but we experience the “power” of the spiritual realm. This CCEF Gnostic viewpoint was at the crux of the Welch/Jay Adams heart/flesh debate. Welch (like the rest of the bunch at CCEF) believes sin is a realm; Adams believes sin is also in our flesh where Christians can fight against it through obedience and practical biblical means. Welch, to the contrary, believes that gnosis concerning the works of Jesus (gospel contemplationism) manifests the spirit realm which we passively “feel” or experience:

We fix our hearts on Jesus and what he has done, and begin a journey that travels from loving sin to hating it, which can take quite a while and seem circuitous. It feels like weakness, but is sustained by the Holy Spirit. That is the real victorious life.

Yes, though we “hate” sin, there is really nothing we can do about it, that wouldn’t be “weakness.” The true victorious life is looking weak, but feeling the power of the heavenly. It’s “look” and “feel” which is anything but, learn from the Bible and do.

In the end game—it’s Reformed antinomianism. But what is amazing is how these guys can couch their Gnosticism in a way to make it look like solid biblical wisdom. Nevertheless, CCEF plays an important role in the present-day New Calvinist tsunami. It is a think tank for the development of the movement’s most valuable asset….

CONTROL.

paul