Paul's Passing Thoughts

“I want to begin this twentyf-part white paper by encouraging the former elders of Harvest that have been persecuted by the New Calvinist weapon of choice, bogus “redemptive church discipline.”  We will be looking at this issue very closely in this series. Take heart, you are the two or three gathered in Christ’s name. Let me explain.”

Pastor James MacDonald didn’t get up one morning and decide to become a spiritual tyrant. His life is now bearing the fruit of his ideology. I have chosen to clear my schedule and focus on his behavior as overseer of Harvest Bible Chapel. This is because his present behavior, the culmination of indoctrination, is a classic model of how New Calvinist ideology functions and the inevitable results that always follow.

In my six years of research on New Calvinism, three of those fulltime, I have never seen a more neatly arranged motif of New Calvinism’s inevitable despotism.

Harvest Bible Chapel is the same show that has been played out innumerable times throughout church history and on a daily basis in our day. The pattern of behavior that follows the exact same script is uncanny.  It is an underground version of Calvin’s theocracy restrained by an open society. Be certain of this: illusions to modern juggernauts and human catapults speak of a heart-lust that can only want in this culture. It is a restless evil that must settle for character assassination in the stead of burning stakes, the gallows, and the guillotine.

Many still follow MacDonald, and will continue to follow him, and we will discuss why in this series. Our purpose is simple: future prevention, and learning how to be better Christians through antithesis. James MacDonald is an antithetical example of how we should not do ministry and think about others.

There is no hope for Harvest Bible Chapel. But if we are wise, we can learn from the autopsy. Once a ministry goes down this antinomian road, there is no return. Those at Harvest who have not yet soiled their garments must come out from among them. Those presently involved must let the dead bury their dead. On the other hand, the situation must be fully exploited for its educational value. For those presently involved, it is far from being a tragedy that will not bear abundant fruit.

Right now, I am reproducing media that has come out of Harvest that I think will eventually disappear; particularly, the infamous “5 Things….” sermon. I have reproduced the video (pretty decent quality) in a windows format, and the audio in wma, wav, and mp4. I am also in the process of having the sermon transcribed. At least one post will delve deeply into the lives and video produced by the four elders at Harvest. The post will be entitled “The factious Four.” If the Lord so allows, their treachery dressed in the demeanor of Mr. Rogers will be recorded on the internet for future posterity.  Any follower of James MacDonald should be as infamous as he is. Maybe more so. These men certainly act like men of renown; therefore, I will do all I can to make their fruits widely known among God’s people for better or worse.

I want to begin this twenty-part white paper by encouraging the former elders of Harvest that have been persecuted by the New Calvinist weapon of choice, bogus “redemptive church discipline.”  We will be looking at this issue very closely in this series. Take heart, you are the two or three gathered in Christ’s name. Let me explain.

In Matthew 18, we have the familiar process of going to the one who has offended you alone, then returning with one or two witnesses if necessary. If the offender will not listen, “tell it to the church.” NO ONE is excluded from that process, especially elders. But after the finality of the process, and seemingly for no reason at all except for a poorly structured narrative, Christ states this:

18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Why would Christ drop that in there out of nowhere? Why wouldn’t He speak of the congregation agreeing on the matter? And by the way, there is NO mention of elders in this passage anywhere. Why not? So what is this passage teaching? It is teaching that TRUTH is the authority, not the elders or the congregation. The “two or three” speak directly to the second step before it goes to the congregation. Surely, if the elders are paramount figures in this process, Christ would not have excluded a reference to them accordingly. Christ is saying that he stands with those who are in the truth regardless of what the congregation does. Those standing in the truth have Calvin’s “power of the keys,” not sinning, Reformed elders. They are to be rebuked publically by those standing in the truth.

And this is exactly where the former elders of Harvest find themselves. The sinning elders of Harvest are speaking continually of  “elder consensus.” Where is such in Matthew 18? The binding of heaven is on the few, not the majority. They must know Christ stands with them, not James MacDonald. And those in that congregation will do themselves good by recognizing that as well.

We will learn much together for the sake of elders who find themselves in this situation hereafter. Lord willing, a suggested course of action will not give a majority of sinning elders undue authority.

Please pray for this project, and give thanks to those who love the truth; the embattled Harvest elders. Refer to them as elders, not former elders. Their love for the truth is their sterling qualification.

paul

NOTE FILE SHARING WIDGET FOR THIS SERIES ON BOTTOM RIGHT SIDE PANEL