Paul's Passing Thoughts

PPT is just really swamped right now. I’m talking about information overload because the New Calvinists are not even being ambiguous anymore. No, I haven’t had time to read everything on the Southwood site, but a member there emailed me to ask the following (paraphrase): “Don’t know how you do it, but anyway, if you haven’t had any time to visit the site, you may want to at least focus on the following letter….”

So I did, which invoked the title of this post. I will address the letter as we go:

To the Ruling Elders of Southwood:

On September 4, 2011, our daughter and her family from Atlanta were here and we attended the Sunday worship at Southwood.  After the service, our 13 year old granddaughter, who is well grounded in scripture, stated that she was very confused by the message.  She had come away hearing that every good thing she does is wrong.  Why would she believe that?  We have gone back and listened again to that message, entitled “Duh,” and here is what we found.

First, I commend the couple who wrote this letter. Thank God for them. Let me just frame this according to what is going on in my neck of the woods. Susan and I live in GARB territory near Cedarville Christian College. Yesterday, they hosted a conference featuring the heretical New Calvinist Mark Devers and his 9Marks “ministry.” Packed house. I couldn’t even get in to report on the conference, and I didn’t wait till the last minute either. I will be going to a GARB conference in a couple of weeks that I got a ticket for , and many of the speakers are  staff members at Skyview Ranch, a GARB youth camp. Long story short, it’s obvious that the Skyview staff is totally in the tank for New Calvinism. So, multiply the experience of the aforementioned thirteen year old times hundreds during the summer, and of course, everybody is asleep at the switch plus clueless. New Calvinism is either indoctrinating or confusing a whole generation of Christian youth.

They letter continues….

The message is from Galatians 3:1-6. Paul is chastening the church for falling prey to the persuasion of the Judaizers, exhorting them again that God’s love for them was not by any of their own works but through the miraculous work of Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Jean seems to take the written word beyond its intent.  He subtly changes ‘God’s love’ to ‘God’s favor.’  He changes legalism to performance. He takes Jewish law and extends it to almost any action one does.  Here are some paraphrased quotes from the sermon.  “To keep God’s favor, the Galatians were believing they needed Christ and a dash of obedience which looks like those things called Christian disciplines. Christian walk Christianity is from the Devil. Faithfulness is feeling condemned for work you haven’t finished (as contrasted with faith: resting completely in Christ). Faith is a litmus test for teachers and leaders; the difference between faith in Christ alone and faithfulness is like the difference between truth and falsehood, between Heaven and Hell. Faith alone is all we will teach.” (Here Jean says this is what Paul is teaching but he gives no supporting scriptures to support his interpretation.) “Discern as false any book, sermon, or Bible study where you hear a dash of self justifying obedience.  Self justifying obedience is from Satan.”

Southwood Presbyterian Church has been putting up with this for more than a year now. It’s plainly sanctification by faith alone and fuses justification and sanctification together. Therefore, anything you do in sanctification effects justification. Without  the New Calvinist formula for tiptoeing through sanctification in a way that won’t affect our justification, we are putting “our souls in peril” according to New Calvinists like John Piper. In essence, doing nothing to keep our salvation, which by the way, is still works salvation

Jean’s statements, combined with the tone and inflections in his delivery, imply that he is scornful of Christian disciplines, preachers, Christian writers, the Christian walk, obedience, faithfulness, good works, and an individual’s efforts.  This message can lead to the conclusion that everything we do is evil and, by extension, that God and the Holy Spirit can do nothing through us.  The message lacks balance and leaves sanctification out of the equation.  A new believer under this teaching would be moribund after accepting Christ, hidebound in fear that he can do nothing right.  While it is true none of us have all pure motives, it is also true that God commands us to go forward and that the Holy Spirit will be with us.  God says we are His instruments for spreading the Truth.  We cannot do this if we are strapped by guilt; we can do this if we seek partnership with the Holy Spirit.

I am going to focus on the key observations of this paragraph:

1. “The message lacks balance and leaves sanctification out of the equation [yes, said another way: it fuses the two together and for all practical purposes eliminates sanctification].”
2. “A new believer under this teaching would be moribund after accepting Christ, hidebound in fear that he can do nothing right [exactly, because if you do something wrong, it could cost you your salvation! Is this the kind of stuff we want taught to our children?!].”

From here Jean goes back to Paul saying “…since you were 100% depraved when you were brought into the Kingdom by the Holy spirit and by no works of your own, why are you trying to be perfected by your own human efforts?  You are being deceived by the Devil.”  I believe Jean is paralleling Paul in this.  Jean then goes on to “We are like alcoholics ; we use Bible study, prayers, small groups, etc. as a crutch and the church rewards our ‘addiction’ with its approval.  How would you know if you were addicted?  Stop everything.  If you feel anxiety, then you are afraid of leaving your ‘fix.’”   So we ask: what does God have us do?  Jean’s answer is “rest totally in Jesus.”  So in turn we ask, what does Scripture say about resting totally in Jesus?  But we hear no clear answer from the pulpit.

1. “From here Jean goes back to Paul saying “…since you were 100% depraved ….” [nothing new here, this is the total depravity of the saints taught by New Calvinists].
2. “….when you were brought into the Kingdom by the Holy spirit and by no works of your own, why are you trying to be perfected by your own human efforts?  You are being deceived by the Devil”

I’m not going to bracket this point because it is an important one. New Calvinists often do this, they cite justification verses to make points concerning sanctification, making them the same.  One of the verses they use most to do that is this one in particular, Galatians 3:2,3:

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

This verse concerns justification (the preceding verses make that absolutely clear), and “being perfected” really doesn’t properly represent Paul’s idea. That’s why Young’s Literal Translation states it this way:

so thoughtless are ye! having begun in the Spirit, now in the flesh do ye end?

This actually matches Romans 8:30 which shows that justification guarantees glorification. Paul is asking the Galatians a rhetorical question: “Are you going to be glorified (in the end) by the flesh?”

I couldn’t conclude this post with a better statement than concluded the letter to Southwood’s session. Please read it carefully:

We believe It is unfair to critique one sermon and disparage it as unbalanced.  However, this same, or very similar, message has been preached throughout 2011.  Please do not tell us weekly how ‘messy’ we are.  We need occasional reminding but guide us in our sanctification and in our understanding of the whole breadth of the Word of God.  Balance from the whole word of God is needed!   And consider the youth, like our granddaughter.  They have urgent needs to move on to solid food too, as they come into adulthood.

Indeed, take the inventory here. What New Calvinists are doing to adult Christians is bad enough, but what about our children?

paul