Paul's Passing Thoughts

A question regarding a recent post by James MacDonald:

Do they really think this way?

Answer:

The New Calvinism movement is a return to the viral Gnosticism that wreaked havoc on the first century church. Gnosticism permeated Judaism as well as Gentile mystery religions. Some evidence of this can be seen in the seven letters of Revelation. The Nicolaitans were Gnostics, and the church at Laodicea at the time of those letters is a good picture of what a Gnostic church would look like. “Nicolaitan” means, power over the laity. A root of the word can also be seen in THE teacher of Israel, Nicodemus. Part and parcel with Gnosticism is antinomianism and the idea that man is part of evil matter and not changeable for the better. Hence, the reason Christ emphasized the new birth and obedience to Nicodemus. This is also why the motif that the Pharisees were “legalists” (a word that does not appear in the Bible), is a sham. Christ plainly stated that they had replaced the law of God with their traditions. The New Testament was written against the backdrop of a Gnostic tsunami. It is the doctrine that dared to confront the apostolic church; therefore, its present-day resurgence should be no surprise.

Gnosticism has the blue chip ability to deceive Biblicists because it posits a plenary justification in its pseudo Christian version. The pseudo Christian Gnostic needs to only speak of sanctification in a justification way. Of course, like Gnostics of old, they are also masters of terminology. New Calvinists sometimes refer to their doctrine as, Objective Justification, Subjective Justification, and Final Justification. Ever heard of Ronald Reagan’s trickle-down economics? This is trickle-down justification, and you get the trickle-down from focusing vertically on justification. You can preach wonderful sermons on justification all year long, but the big question is: “What’s missing?”

And, since matter can’t change for the better, and to attempt change in sanctification is synonymous with denying the person and salvific works of Christ, “manifesting” the glory of Christ replaces works in the Christian life. We “experience” the works of Christ, but we do not participate in the works. How this is actually said to operate in the Christian life varies among the New Gnostics. Some say that we are merely experiencing a manifestation of Christ in our realm. Others say that we are actually incited to participate bodily because Christ has filled our hearts with a desire to do said task; so, it is us doing it, but only because Christ has filled our hearts with Himself for that particular manifestation. These manifestations are a result of gospel/justification contemplationism.

Like most Eastern concepts of sanctification, EXPERIENCE is the key. The goal is spiritual wellbeing and glorifying the gods. The goal is to experience rebirth, or the true objective forms that trickle down into progressive subjectivism. It’s experiencing the pure unchanging true, good, and beautiful to the fullest extent possible in the subjective realm that we live in. We are, as the New Calvinist Justin Taylor states, “between two worlds.” As New Calvinist Chad Bresson states it, “between two spheres, gazing at Christ—our heavenly destiny.” But primarily for the New Gnostics, it enables us to eliminate our works in sanctification, and thereby maintaining our just state before God. Its goal is to manifest the objective gospel in our subjective realm. The payoff is a perpetual experience of rebirth—the same baptism that we experienced when we were saved, it is John Piper’s “treasure chest of joy.” They blatantly call it the same thing that it is called in Eastern Sufism, “vivification.” The likes of Michael Horton and Paul Washer call it a “living out of our original baptism.” It results from focusing on our miserable existence in the subjective realm (and especially our sin) as set against the glories of the objective. Therefore, suffering is good because it reminds us of the difference between the two. Suffering brings a death that will result in vivification. Those who put any stock in this life are disdained as ignorant and blind.

So, key is gospel contemplationism leading to manifestations, and resulting in experience. Vertical only =’s the baptism experience and accompanied joy. It frees the “Christian” from the experience of this horizontal life, and seeks to experience the objective. Those who “live in the shadows” are naysayers worthy of death. And that is the essence of James MacDonald’s Vertical Church. In the 320 pages of the book, MacDonald uses the word “experience” 128 times. He uses the word “manifest/manifestation” 111 times.

My advice to the congregants at Harvest is to cut your losses sooner than later. Not just because this movement is destined to crash and burn, but because it is a mystic lie and a vile affront to the gospel.

paul

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