Cross Conference Website Full of In-Your-Face Spiritual Caste
I have written much on the whole power of the keys thing that New Calvinists advocate. Basically, it’s the idea that truth comes down from God to the elders, and then the elders disseminate the truth to the unenlightened masses. We call this, “orthodoxy.” A good example of orthodoxy is the Westminster Confession authored by, and don’t miss this, “the Westminster Divines.” Did I say, “Divines”? Yes I did.
Prior to the Reformation, it was the philosopher king’s parable or noble lie: mythology. By the way, “orthodoxy” is a word that is born from, and is part and parcel with the marriage of church and state. The etymology of “orthodoxy” has always been associated with eras when “truth” was owned by the state. Using that word as a synonym for “truth” in our day is an epistemological sleight of hand. The word is used to subtly assimilate the idea of spiritual caste into the minds of people who are not paying close attention to words in an open society.
The power of the keys gig also includes the authority of elders to decide who is saved and who isn’t. When you get kicked out of a New Calvinist church, they honestly believe that they have removed your name from the book of life. After being removed from the book of life by the Clearcreek elders, and other Calvinistic elders that I have never heard of threatening to do the same, I wondered where they get this stuff, so I perused my trusty copy of the Calvin Institutes and found this notion in 4.1.21,22.
Regarding http://crosscon.com/ , the official website of the upcoming Cross conference where the future leaders of the church are going to be fed this stuff, everywhere you poke that site, this kind of caste mentality comes oozing out. Consider the following:
The Great Commission was given to a community. Western readers have tended to read the Great Commission passages (especially Luke 24 and Matthew 28) in light of the autonomous individual. We [tend to] interpret the commissioning scenes as tasks assigned to individual Christians. But a proper focus on the corporate dimension of these accounts helps us understand the commissionings in light of the identity Jesus bestows upon a community. Jesus does not send a Christian to the nations, but a church.
Being interpreted: all faith based ministries not under the authority of “the church” have no mandate from Christ. Also, the constant referring to Western thinking this and Western thinking that among New Calvinists is very, very creepy if you know where it is coming from. This is in contrast to medieval Reformed thinking that, in Martin Luther’s words, “settles all disputes by sentence of death.”
And a PPT friend sent the next example. Remember when Jesus talked about the vine and the branches in John 15? Do you remember anything about elders being in that conversation? Well, note the following screen shot from the conclusion of a John Piper video:
Listen folks, we can’t let these guys feed this stuff to our youth without putting up some kind of a fuss. These are future leaders coming to a church near you. These are young people who will leave that conference and take these ideas into hundreds of local churches. I interviewed a media guy today who will hopefully be videotaping our dialogue with the young people at the conference. After it sank in, he commented, “Sooooo, you are going right into the belly of the beast.”
Well, somebody needs to. Come and join us.
paul
Seven Questions That Reveal the Deception of New Calvinist Statements of Faith
I have asked To Every Tribe, a New Calvinist missionary organization, to answer seven questions about their statement of faith. No answer yet, and I am not holding my breath. New Calvinist statements of this sort appear biblical, but the devil is in the details. The words in these statements are carefully crafted to appear biblical. By the way, To Every Tribe is egregiously top heavy in regard to administration. Administrators outnumber missionaries in the field. One of their missionary families, according to a newsletter, will spend almost two years in the field training! Good grief. The following seven questions are handy in testing the waters in any church you are considering for membership. The To Every Tribe statement of faith follows and is typical of New Calvinist statements of faith.
1. Do you hold to a Christocentric view of the Bible; ie., it is primarily a tool for seeing our own sinfulness and God’s holiness in a deeper and deeper way? Is the instructive value of the Bible secondary to that purpose?
2. Based on your stated view of the Trinity, do you reject a Christocentric approach to the Scriptures?
3. Does a perpetual Christian life of FAITH ALONE have to be maintained in order to maintain Christ’s “perpetual intercession”? Is that intercession for justification, or sanctification?
4. Is Christ’s “sinless life” imputed to our Christian walk perpetually?
5. Is the righteousness of Christ inside of us and a part of us? Or is the righteousness of Christ outside of us? Are we both practically and positionally righteous, or just declared righteous?
6. Is grace imparted to the believer through the ordinances?
7. How many resurrections and judgments are there? Since believers are declared righteous, will they stand in the same judgment with unbelievers?
To Every Tribe statement of faith:
The Word of God
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Mark 13:31; John 8:31; John 20:31; Acts 20:32
The Trinity
We believe that there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons; that these are equal in every divine perfection, and that they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption. Genesis 1:1, 26; John 1:1, 3; Matthew 28:19; John 4:24; Romans 1:19-20; Ephesians 4:5-6
God The Father
We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Luke 10:21-22; Matthew 23:9; John 3:16-17; 6:27; Romans 1:7; 1 Timothy 1:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:6
Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles and teachings. We believe in His substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people and personal visible return to earth. Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; John 1:1; 20:28; Romans 8:46; 9:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:21-23; John 20:30-31; Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 1:4; Acts 1:11; Romans 5:6-8; Romans 6:9-10; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Timothy 3:16
The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment and to regenerate, sanctify and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, that He is an abiding helper, teacher and guide. John 14:16-17, 26; John 16:9-14; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 5:22-26
Man
We believe that man was created by God in His own image; that he sinned and thereby incurred physical, spiritual and eternal death, which is separation from God, that as a consequence, all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners by choice and therefore under condemnation. Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6; Romans 3:10-12; 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3 Romans 1:18-21; Revelation 20:12-14
Regeneration
We believe that those who repent and trust Jesus Christ as Savior have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and have become new creatures in Christ. They have been delivered from condemnation and have eternal life. Genesis 1:26; 5:2; Genesis 2:17; John 3:14; 5:24; John 8:12; 10:26; Romans 9:22; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 19:3, 20; Revelation 14:15; Psalm 51:7; Jeremiah 17:9; James 1:14; Romans 3:19; 5:19; Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9; 3:16; John 1:13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:1
The Gospel
We believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. It proclaims how one may receive the righteousness of Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone and so be justified in God’s sight. Justification is an act of God’s sovereign grace in which He pardons all our sins, once and for all declares us to be righteous in His sight by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. We believe God sovereignly declares a sinner righteous, once and for all, through faith by imputing the righteousness of Christ to the sinner’s account and forgiving his sins. Romans 1:16; Romans 5:17-19; Hebrews 10:14; Romans 3:24-25; Galatians 2:16; Romans 4:4-8; Philippians 3:9
The Church
We believe in the local church, consisting of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and united for worship of God, fellowship with the saints, and the work of the ministry. Ephesians 2:19-22; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:19-21; Acts 2:42; Hebrews 10:23-25
The Ordinances
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two ordinances to the local church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We believe that baptism is the immersion of the believer into water into the name of the triune God. We believe that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ for the commemoration of His death. We believe that these two ordinances should be regularly observed and administered until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 11:23-26
The Last Things
We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal felicity of the righteous and the endless suffering of the wicked. Matthew 16:27; Mark 14:62; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; Rev. 20:11-15
The Importance of the Evangelistic Mission Trip to Louisville
The New Calvinist elite will have a conference at the end of this month that specifically targets our youth. Personally, I cannot stand by idly and watch the Neo-Gnostics of our day have unfettered access to our youth and their indoctrination.
Moreover, characteristics of today’s youth, known as the Millennial Generation makes indifference to this reality even more egregious. This is a generation eager to engage others in the arena of ideas, unlike the previous generation that is more inclined to let others, particularly those of professional pedigree, think for them. Here is the problem: the New Calvinists are the only ones with the ideas; they are the only ones with proposals. The Millennial Generation is merely listening to the only ones that are talking to them.
The Millennial Generation will not be swayed by a laundry list of what’s wrong with New Calvinism because New Calvinism offers an alternative to the traditional church. The discernment blogosphere offers no alternative to the traditional church which is obviously troubled and powerless. The discernment blogosphere is indicative of lazy parenting:
Parent: “Stop doing that!”
Adolescent: “Why?”
Parent: “Because I said so.”
What discernment bloggers decry is often seen as unfortunate collateral damage by the Millennial Generation. They know something needs to be done, and they know it might seem radical at times. This idea wasn’t lost in the mind of Barack Obama who targeted this generation with, “hope and change.” This is a generation that is not afraid of change, unlike the previous generation.
Our mission will be to engage these young people face to face with the following ideas:
1. The foundation of New Calvinism is Calvinism, and Calvinism is a false gospel.
2. Change is needed, but New Calvinism is not the answer. Youthful energies must be redirected from following to leading.
Look, I often hear this in reply to the indisputable falsities of New Calvinism: “But if not New Calvinism, what?” (This was the exact reply from a prominent evangelical leader that Susan and I lunched with). Bingo. What’s the alternative? What’s the real solution? I do believe that this generation is solution oriented, but the New Calvinists are the only ones talking about solutions. And it’s a pity because this is a generation open to bold ideas that facilitate change.
As many of you know, home flock groups are a big part of New Calvinist churches. This is a trend that started in the early 90’s. Let me pause here to say that the essence of the generational brain trust of New Calvinism is genius. They implemented and integrated the New Testament church model into the traditional caste system of the Protestant Reformation. Trust me; there were no home flock groups in Geneva during Calvin’s rein.
However, in our day, this serves as a means of circumventing any movements away from the institutional church and its slavery to Reformed orthodoxy. The New Calvinists actually saw the Millennial Generation coming and adapted to it. Dr. Robert Congdon calls this the perfect storm of New Calvinism, and I agree.
But it begs the question: where is the chaos and all of the cultic splinter groups one would expect from these small groups? It would be argued that this is prevented because of the central authority based in the building where the weekly worship takes place. But really, all that is taking place is the exchange of biblical authority for Reformed orthodoxy. It plays into the traditional mindset that the commoner is wired to be led by other men of elitist stature. In other words, the individual is incapable of ordering his own life according to his own conscience and reasoning. This contradicts biblical reasoning. It is clear that God has many times ordered events that resulted in decentralized authority. This is the question of authority versus leadership, and leadership’s role in fellowship. These are areas of study where we are woefully inept: individualism versus collectivism; doctrines of human competence versus incompetence; the balance of natural order, the freedom of man to be fruitful and multiply, and how these issues relate to how we do church.
So, our focus at the Cross conference will be to challenge the foundation of the New Calvinist gospel: Calvinism. Our unique challenge will come from those who have read and know the Calvin Institutes and how it relates to the rest of Reformation writings. Our version of what is in the Calvin Institutes is the whole story, not just what John Piper et al want these young people to know. Undoubtedly, some, if not many, will be taken aback. And the answer to this question, “If not New Calvinism, then what?” follows:
1. Certainly not a false gospel.
2. Stop being a follower and be a leader who helps to figure it out. Start acting like you are part of the Millennial Generation. Stop letting others use what defines you as a means of controlling you, and getting your money for doing so.
3. You are more than welcome to join our think tank that is exploring this question of how church should be done. You are here at this conference because you fancy yourself as a leader—real leaders think on their own two feet. Real leaders love the truth; New Calvinism is not the truth. The Bible states that God will send a strong delusion to those who do not love the truth in the last days.
I am calling on discernment bloggers to be more solution oriented as well. We have a glut of humanity that has given up on church, but not given up on God. You can continue to document what is wrong with the church, and you should, that’s important in many ways, but remember that these people already know how bad things are—that’s why they left! I fear that discernment blogging is a movement to save the traditional church, but that is what New Calvinists and the Nones are running from. The Nones will NEVER be persuaded to return to the traditional ways of doing church. Never. They will never be convinced that spiritual Communism is a good thing that has never been done right. They have bought that song and dance too many times.
Why should the arrogant New Calvinists be given unfettered access to our youth? This is not right. You can help through prayer, financial support, or joining the team that will be going to Louisville. To those praying and those who have donated money to this cause, THANK YOU! Right now, those who would like to be part of the team, you will have to raise your own support, but that could change. To donate, or to join the team:
Contact Paul Dohse: mail@ttanc.com
Donate via mail: TANC PO Box 583 Xenia, Ohio 34385
Donate via PayPal: mail@ttanc.com
Materials that will be used for conversation starters, and are in the development stage follow. Input from others has been very helpful in developing these materials.
This booklet is in production format. You can print 1,3,5 in reverse order, drop the copies back down to the paper tray without flipping or turning, and print 2,4,6 normally. Then fold and staple bind with a long reach stapler. Why is Calvinism False 1,3,5 r
This is a trifold pamphlet. Just print side one, drop it back down in the paper tray without flipping or turning, and print side 2, then fold. 3Pillars
By Request: How Did New Calvinism Get Into The SBC?
Excerpt from the Truth About New Calvinism: volume 1: TTANC 1 Addendum
John Calvin Heresy 101: Sabbath Salvation
I often hear complaints that Reformed theology is too complicated, and therefore difficult to judge according to its truthfulness. “So, everything seems ok at the Calvinist church I attend, and they talk about the Bible.” Well, this isn’t difficult to understand: Calvin believed you keep yourself saved by living your Christian life according to the Old Testament Sabbath. In what way? Answer: by not doing any works. The Christian life must be lived out as the Sabbath Day, and in the same way that working on the Sabbath was a capital offense in the Old Testament, working in the Christian life will bring spiritual death:
Ezekiel is still more full, but the sum of what he says amounts to this: that the Sabbath is a sign by which Israel might know God is their sanctifier. If our sanctification consists in the mortification of our own will, the analogy between the external sign and the thing signified is most appropriate. We must rest entirely, in order that God may work in us; we must resign our own will, yield up our heart, and abandon all the lusts of the flesh. In short, we must desist from all the acts of our mind, that God working in us, we may rest in him, as the Apostle also teaches (Heb. 3:13; 4:3, 9). [The Calvin Institutes 2.8.29]
And how long, and to what degree should we live out the Sabbath?
Should any expect some secret meaning in the number seven, this being in Scripture the number for perfection, it may have been selected, not without cause, to denote perpetuity. In accordance with this, Moses concludes his description of the succession of day and night on the same day on which he relates that the Lord rested from his works. Another probable reason for the number may be, that the Lord intended that the Sabbath never should be completed before the arrival of the last day. We here begin our blessed rest in him, and daily make new progress in it; but because we must still wage an incessant warfare with the flesh, it should not be consummated until the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “From one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord,” (Isaiah 66:23); in other words, when God shall be “all in all,” (1Cor. 15:28). It may seem, therefore, that the seventh day the Lord delineated to his people the future perfection of his sabbath on the last day, that by continual meditation on the sabbath, they might throughout their whole lives aspire to this perfection. [The Calvin Institutes 2.8.30]
In other words, we “aspire” to perfection (when we are ultimately perfected at the resurrection) “by continual meditation on the sabbath.” When I was sharing these Calvin nuggets with my wife Susan, she asked, “How do you not work in the Christian life?” My answer: ‘By meditating on your own sin and God’s grace and holiness, and thereby allowing God to work through you.’ Her next question: “But how do you know when it is God’s work or your work?” My answer: ‘Everything that you do that is a good work is done by God and only EXPERIENCED by you. All sin is your doing, and is an aid to understanding how sinful you are. All the good works experienced by you are imputed or manifested by God. And, Christians are not to live by faith alone, or in other words, live by the Sabbath for the sake of the manifestations. That would be doing something other than living by faith alone’:
He, however, who has emptied himself (cf. Phil. 2:7) through suffering no longer does works but knows that God works and does all things in him. For this reason, whether God does works or not, it is all the same to him. He neither boasts if he does good works, nor is he disturbed if God does not do good works through him. He knows that it is sufficient if he suffers and is brought low by the cross in order to be annihilated all the more…He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ. [Martin Luther: The Heidelberg Disputation ; thesis 24,25]
Christians, according to the Reformers, are completely unable to do any good work pleasing to God:
We must strongly insist on these two things: that no believer ever performed one work which, if tested by the strict judgment of God, could escape condemnation; and, moreover, that were this granted to be possible (though it is not), yet the act being vitiated and polluted by the sins of which it is certain that the author of it is guilty, it is deprived of its merit. [The Calvin Institutes 3.14.11]
So what’s the point? What’s the payoff? Answer: JOY! The more we live by faith alone (Sabbath rest) in the Christian life by focusing on our sin and God’s Holiness, the more we experience the joy of our original salvation. Said Luther:
Now you ask: What then shall we do? Shall we go our way with indifference because we can do nothing but sin? I would reply: By no means. But, having heard this, fall down and pray for grace and place your hope in Christ in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection. For this reason we are so instructed-for this reason the law makes us aware of sin so that, having recognized our sin, we may seek and receive grace. Thus God »gives grace to the humble« (1 Pet. 5:5), and »whoever humbles himself will be exalted« (Matt. 23:12). The law humbles, grace exalts. The law effects fear and wrath, grace effects hope and mercy. Through the law comes knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20), through knowledge of sin, however, comes humility, and through humility grace is acquired… Nor does speaking in this manner give cause for despair, but for arousing the desire to humble oneself and seek the grace of Christ.
This is clear from what has been said, for, according to the gospel, the kingdom of heaven is given to children and the humble (Mark 10:14,16), and Christ loves them. They cannot be humble who do not recognize that they are damnable whose sin smells to high heaven. Sin is recognized only through the law. It is apparent that not despair, but rather hope, is preached when we are told that we are sinners. Such preaching concerning sin is a preparation for grace, or it is rather the recognition of sin and faith in such preaching. Yearning for grace wells up when recognition of sin has arisen. A sick person seeks the physician when he recognizes the seriousness of his illness. Therefore one does not give cause for despair or death by telling a sick person about the danger of his illness, but, in effect, one urges him to seek a medical cure. To say that we are nothing and constantly sin when we do the best we can does not mean that we cause people to despair (unless we are fools); rather, we make them concerned about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Heidelberg Disputation: thesis 16, 17]
So, the Christian life is a cycle of seeking mercy by using the Bible (the law) to reveal our wretchedness which results in being “exalted.” It is a perpetual cycle of humbling ourselves resulting in grace (exaltation). Seek mercy—get grace—seek mercy—get grace—seek mercy—get grace. The Reformers called this “mortification and vivification.” This occurs in the Sabbath rest:
Spiritual rest is the mortification of the flesh; so that the sons of God should no longer live to themselves, or indulge their own inclination. So far as the Sabbath was a figure of this rest, I say, it was but for a season; but insomuch as it was commanded to men from the beginning that they might employ themselves in the worship of God, it is right that it should continue to the end of the world. [The Complete Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis: Jean Calvin; translated by John King, 1844-1856. Genesis 2:1-15, section 3.]
According to the Reformers, this perpetual cycle of seeking mercy and receiving the joy of grace is in fact their definition of the new birth, and this experience is a congruent deeper and deeper realization of our sinfulness coupled with more and more consistent joy. It is a perpetual reliving of our baptism and the joy thereof (Michael Horton: The Christian Faith; mortification and vivification, pp. 661-663 [Calvin Inst. 3.3.2-9], Paul Washer: The Gospel Call and True Conversion; Part 1, Chapter 1, heading – The Essential Characteristics Of Genuine Repentance, subheading – Continuing and Deepening Work of Repentance, The Heidelberg Disputation These 24, The Complete Biblical Commentary Collection of John Calvin 1844-1856: Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, Translated by John Owen | 1Peter 4:1-5, section 2). John Piper added some contemporary philosophical pizazz to this doctrine with his Christian Hedonism doctrine. So, the pay-off is easy believism with the JOY bonus. However, many Calvinists contend that it is really the hard and narrow way because the essence of all sin is: to avoid repentance whether unregenerate or Christian. It is the hard way of Dr. Larry Crabb’s “inside look.” It is “peeling off the layers of sin ” prescribed by CJ Mahaney. Nevertheless, the affront to the Bible command to not rejoice in evil cannot be missed here (1Cor 13:6). Also, we must not miss the point that this is a prescription for keeping ourselves saved by living in the Reformed Sabbath:
And this emptying out of self must proceed so far that the Sabbath is violated even by good works, so long as we regard them as our own; for rightly does Augustine remark in the last chapter of the 22nd book, De Civitate Dei, ‘For even our good works themselves, since they are understood to be rather His than ours, are thus imputed to us for the attaining of that Sabbath, when we are still and see that He is God; for, if we attribute them to ourselves, they will be servile, whereas we are told as to the Sabbath, “Thou shalt not do any servile work in it.” [The Complete Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis: Jean Calvin; translated by Charles William Bingham ,1844-1856. The Harmony of the Law: Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses | Its Repetition—Deuteronomy 5:12-15. ¶2]
In essence, this is salvation by Christ + the Reformed Sabbath Rest. It is living in a cycle of seeking knowledge of our sin in order to better appreciate the cross. Our salvation is not finished, we must “keep ourselves in the love of Christ” (CJ Mahaney). We must keep ourselves in the Reformed Sabbath for the “attaining of that Sabbath.”
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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