Jean F. Larroux, III Preaching on Obedience? Well, That Depends on What the Definition of “Is” Is.
I figured I would stop by Southwood.org and see what my pals have been up to lately. I found that their “pastor,” Jean F. Larroux THE THIRD (hereafter, “JL3”) is preaching a series on obedience. Sigh. Oh well, somebody has to do it—I will start listening to the mp3’s tomorrow. Like I haven’t been down this road a hundred times. Let’s pretend: New Calvinists believe in obedience. Every time I do this I can’t help but to think of Clinton’s famous quote that called the definition of “is” into question during the Ken Starr hearings. I listened to a little bit of one mp3 to check on the sound quality, and it was excellent. But of course, if it wasn’t, somebody could be brought up on church discipline. What little bit I heard didn’t surprise me in the least; JL3 is going to teach us what obedience “looks like.”
paul
The New Calvinist Takeover of Southwood Presbyterian Church: Part 5; a Clarifying Quotation
Randy,
Let me get right to the point: New Calvinists believe that Christ’s obedience to the cross (passive) was for justification, and His obedience to the law (active) was/is for our sanctification; and both were/are part of the atonement. Hence, any effort on our part in sanctification would be the same as working for justification as well. To make any effort in sanctification would be an attempt to usurp Christ’s works for sanctification which completes justification. New Calvinists claim we work hard, but work hard at what? Well, I just read the answer to that question as answered by Southwood’s pastor on their blog; humble repentance is hard work:
“I’m not arguing for NO EFFORT or WORK I am arguing for GREATER EFFORT and MORE DIFFICULT WORK, the work of humbling ourselves, being broken, repentant, prostrate before God, looking past our ‘symptomatic sins’ to their root causes and being faced with such horror over my depravity that I am left with no other options than Jesus.”
In other words, the New Calvinist working hard at the same things that saved us: faith and repentance alone (or what they call “deep repentance”). Sorry Randy, but orthodox Christianity has never believed in sanctification by faith alone, nor do we believe that Jesus obeys for us. Neither do we believe that all obedience is a mere natural flow that must first come from Gospel Contemplationism.
The New Calvinist Takeover of Southwood Presbyterian Church: Part 4; Jean F. Larroux, III is Pure New Calvinism
As I peruse the Southwood website blog, it is saturated with New Calvinist doctrine; there may not be a finer specimen than Jean Larroux, III, hereafter, “LM3.” This is good for me because I was getting ready to write a series of articles on Ligon Duncan who is much more nuanced than LM3. Ligon Duncan is one of the “Core Four” of the T4G conferences that is doing damage control and spin concerning the former president of SGM ministries, CJ Mahaney, who is also one of the Core Four. CJ Mahaney is a serial propagator of parishioner abuse, and there are several SGM expose blogs that document his abuses—that’s why he had to step down. Apparently, Duncan, as a “pastor,” is completely indifferent to this reality.
As I look through the site, I think I will address this particular post first: Idolatry, Self-righteousness and other confessions of a Homeschooling father…(Monday, September 26, 2011). This is LM3’s repost of an article by New Calvinist Reb Bradley. My post on the Bradley article is here: http://wp.me/pmd7S-Us .
Also, I noticed that LM3 has done a series on Galatians. He probably toed the NC line that the apostle Paul was teaching that synergistic sanctification is a false gospel. I address that here: http://wp.me/pmd7S-KC . You can click on the pages to make them bigger if needed.
Also, no surprise, it looks like LM3 uses the New Calvinist view of the Pharisees as well. Here is an excerpt from The Truth About New Calvinism that deals with that: Chapter 2
paul
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