The "Woke" Subversion of Calvinism
In 2020, LifeWay Research conducted a survey to measure approval among U.S. Protestant pastors for sodomite “marriage.” In the survey, 24.0% of pastors said they see nothing wrong with it, while 72% disagree.[1] However, support for sodomite “marriage” is up from 2010 among Protestant pastors. According to the survey “Presbyterian or Reformed (49%), Methodist (47%), Lutheran (35%) and Christian/Church of Christ pastors (20%) are more likely to see nothing wrong with same-sex marriage than Baptist (3%) or Pentecostal ministers (1%).”[2]
How on earth are Presbyterian/Reformed ministers (Calvinists) the most likely to see nothing wrong with sodomite “marriage”? That revelation is staggering!
We have seen that George Soros has been “renting” Evangelicals. He has financed the Evangelical Immigration Table on which serves Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention. Is the same thing happening among the Reformed (Calvinist) community? Is American Calvinism being subverted by globalist billionaires to take a hard-left turn?
The Calvinist editors of Pulpit & Pen think so and after reading the evidence, I have to agree with them. One of the editors of Pulpit & Pen JD Hall was dismissed from his position and ministry for drunk driving and so I do not endorse him. However, the evidence is still apparent regardless of who reported it. Hall asked:
I, like many of you, have seen a hard-left turn in American evangelicalism. As a Reformed believer within American evangelicalism, I have seen that Calvinists have not been immune to this turn. In fact, it seems as though the Reformed community (or a pseudo-Reformed subset known as “New Calvinism”) has been leading the way in Marxist thought, Globalism, and Social Justice. This has left me asking the question as to whether or not the left-turn among America’s Reformed community has been a natural product of shifting economic theory and political ideology or if something more sinister is at play. Is it possible that the Marxist-Globalist alliance has been intentionally buying its way into Reformed American evangelicalism, and purchasing theological stock in the growing movement? Is it possible that, like many others, the powers-that-be have seen the massive tidal wave of the Reformed Resurgence and determined it’s a suitable vehicle to advance their agenda? Is it possible that well-meaning Reformed leaders have been “useful idiots” for Global powers far greater than they could imagine?[3]
Through his research, Hall discovered another “George Soros” who was buying theological stock among Calvinists – Indonesian, globalist billionaire James Riady. He is the deputy chairman of the Lippo Group which is a major Indonesian conglomerate. He entered American business in 1977 and became partner in the Worthen Banking Corporation. He became an acquaintance of the then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Riady bought the Bank of Trade in California which was the oldest Chinese-American bank. He later got in trouble for “hazardous lending” and money-laundering.
In 2001, Riady pled guilty to a conspiracy charge related to illegal campaign contributions in the 1996 Democrat fund-raising scandal.[4] Riady and his owned LippoBank California acknowledged in court papers that they made millions of dollars in illegal campaign donations to Democrat presidential and congressional candidates dating to 1988; this included hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clinton campaign in 1992.[5]
Riady has had longtime connections to the Clintons. He and his father Mochtar Riady knew Bill Clinton since the 1980’s as they were investors in a Little Rock bank when Clinton was the governor of Arkansas.[6] During Clinton’s first term as president, James Riady visited the White House at least twenty times.[7]
The Riady family and its companies also gave $100,000 to Clinton friend and Associate Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell.[8] Part of the money given to Hubbell by the Riady’s was “hush money” to keep Hubbell from incriminating the Clintons in the Whitewater investigation.[9]
In 1990, James Riady converted to Christianity. Specifically, he converted to the Reformed faith and is a Calvinist. He was converted by megachurch pastor and head of the Reformed Evangelical Church in Indonesia, Stephen Tong. However, Riady never joined Tong’s Church. He did, however, help manage Tong’s church’s finances.
Riady began setting up Reformed schools in Indonesia. He is the co-founder and financial benefactor of the Pelita Harapan Foundation, a Reformed School. His wife Aileen sits on the board and the school’s director is his youngest daughter, Minny. The school has more than 16 thousand students. In fact, the Gospel Coalition has encouraged its readers to visit Riady’s school in Indonesia.[10]
Riady also gives donations and grants to various American churches. He has donated to Arkansas’ Ouachita Baptist University and Biola University in Southern California.[11] The University of Melbourne received $1.5 million to name a chair in his honor.[12] Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) has partnered with Riady to launch the Center for Reformed Theology in Indonesia.[13] RTS President Ligon Duncan inked the deal with Riady and frequently shared the preaching circuit with SBC president Albert Mohler.[14]
The connections don’t end there. Riady’s pastor, Stephen Tong is growing in influence among the American Reformed community. D.A. Carson, John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson, Steven Lawson and Timothy Keller were speakers at Tong’s Jakarta Conference in October of 2020.[15] That same month, Tong was featured by Ligonier in TableTalk.[16]
Despite his conversion to the Reformed faith, the Calvinist Riady maintains his connections to the pro-abortion, pro-sodomite and anti-God Democrat Party. First, he was funneling money to the Clinton’s and got in trouble back in the 80’s – after his alleged conversion to Christ. This resulted in his being barred from the United States. But when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, Riady was given a six-month entry visa by the US embassy in Jakarta.[17] As of 2010, he was found to still be donating to Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation and in May of that year he and Bill shared the stage at a real estate convention in Bali.[18]
Not only that, Riady has only expanded his globalist influence. He is now a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) based in Davos, Switzerland and led by the infamous Klaus Schwab. He regularly attends events organized by the WEF and pays more than $40,000 a year in corporate membership fees.[19] In fact, the WEF listed Riady as an attendant to its 2015 annual meeting.[20]
Quid-pro-quo. Riady was a funder of the Reformed Resurgence and New Calvinism and we are seeing the sour, socialist, “Woke” fruits among America’s leading Calvinists. As disheartening as it is to me (as a 5-Point Calvinist myself) facts are facts. Leading evangelicals (including Calvinists) have taken money from globalists such as George Soros and James Riady.
As mentioned previously, The Gospel Coalition encouraged its readers to visit Riady’s theological university in Indonesia. The Vice President and co-founder of The Gospel Coalition was Tim Keller who spoke at Riady’s pastor’s Jakarta Conference in October of 2020.[21]
On September 29, 2018, Keller wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times. He started by asking what role Christians should play in politics. He stated: “Nevertheless, while believers can register under a party affiliation and be active in politics, they should not identify the Christian church or faith with a political party as the only Christian one.”[22]
Keller went ahead and beat up his straw man. Most conservative Christians do tend to vote Republican. Many of us held our noses and voted for Donald Trump and will do so again. That does not mean that we see the Republican Party as the “Christian” party. Donald Trump has gone on record admitting that he doesn’t need to ask God for forgiveness. No, we do not see the Republican Party as the “Christian” Party.
Nevertheless, what Keller wishes to simply dismiss is that there is a landfill of difference between the Republican and Democrat Party. The Democrat Party is utterly perverse and anti-God. It is socialist and is the open and avowed enemy of the free institutions of the United States of America. It has declared war on the Bill of Rights (particularly the 1st and 2nd Amendment); its leaders have suggested that the Constitution is not “sacrosanct” and can be changed at will; and that we should expand the Supreme Court and pack it with liberal judges like FDR wanted to do. More sinister is its promotion of anti-god agendas, perversions and perhaps most critical of all – abortion.
Tim Keller tried to reframe the debate as being about Christians supporting “justice” and “loving your neighbor.” Jesus indeed did tell us to love the least of these. But what Keller tried to circumvent was the foundational issue of why Christians do tend to vote Republican – because to vote Democrat is to support the murder of the “least of these.” It is to hate your unborn neighbor. It is to worship Molech and sacrifice the unborn to the Arminian goddesses of free will and “choice.” Voting Democrat because they “support the poor” is not compassionate; it is violence against the unborn.
Keller ends by favorably quoting British ethicist James Mumford who condemns “package-deal ethics.”[23] Of course, Keller leaves out the fact that Mumford was a Senior Policy Researcher for The Center of Social Justice in Westminster England and that his published works praise the Marxist Frankfurt School and touts Critical Race Theory.[24]
In April of 2018, Tim Keller and 50 other “Evangelical” leaders met at Wheaton College; it was invite-only. What was the purpose? “To discuss the future of evangelicalism in light of the Donald Trump presidency.”[25] The meeting included a number of center-left “Evangelical” leaders “who have publicly expressed displeasure with President Trump.”[26] Attendees included New York City megachurch Pastor A.R. Bernard; Fuller Seminary President Mark Labberton; former Wesleyan Church General Superintendent Jo Anne Lyon; North Carolina Bishop Claude Alexander; Wheat College’s Ed Stetzer; Harold Smith of Christianity Today; World Relief’s Jenny Yang; and Gabriel Salguero of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.[27]
The meeting at Wheaton College was apparently a way to discuss how to prevent Evangelicals from voting Republican or (best-case scenario) get them to vote Democrat. Evidence of this is that conservative Evangelicals were not invited. Attendee and organizer of the event Darrell Bock (executive director of cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary) was interviewed by The Christian Post. According to the interview, Bock stated that there would be discussion at the event about conservative evangelicals who supported Trump. When Bock was asked by the interviewer whether any of the conservative evangelicals who supported Trump were invited to the event, he simply stated that they are “not involved in our discussions yet.”[28]
In other words, conservative Evangelicals were not welcome. Only center-left “evangelicals” were invited.
The Gospel Coalition continued its downward spiral into the new religion of Wokeness. In a 2015 article they published (written by Mark Mellinger and Rosaria Butterfield), TGC tries to minimize the sin of sodomy. According to Butterfield, “The gay and lesbian community is a real community from which the church has a lot to learn about standing with the disempowered and being good company for the suffering.”[29]
In November of 2019, Keller’s Redeemer Church in Manhattan sponsored a training event for all of their New York City churches. The event featured Tim Keller and Rebecca McLaughlin who is the author of Confronting Christianity and who admits to be a “Same-Sex Attracted” person. During the Q&A, she revealed the subtle movement towards affirming SSA:
Emcee: “What are some of the ways you’ve shared the gospel with the LGBTQ community that have been helpful?
McLaughlin: “The LGBTQ community is concerned, rightly, about those on the margins, and those that are being marginalized by society. Why do we care about people on the margins? Because Jesus told us to. Why do we care about racial diversity? Because Jesus told us to.”[30]
Notice that McLaughlin is quick to establish the sodomite community as “victims” and people that are “marginalized.” She goes on to state that same-sex attraction (SSA) is now a part of the church’s status quo. It is the “new normal” so to speak:
Emcee: “What are some of the ways church can support our brothers and sisters who have same sex or bisexual attraction?
McLaughlin: Rather than assuming everyone in the room is straightforwardly straight, assume that is not the case … research seems to suggest that, say 14% of women experience same sex attraction – and you have 100 people in the room … 7 of those woman experience same sex attraction. So I think we need to say that this is something that is a part of my community.”[31] (emphasis added)
McLaughlin then uses the sodomite community as the leaping-off point to start accepting transgenderism:
Emcee: “How would you approach a friend who believes they can choose their own gender, male, female, or whatever else they prefer?
McLaughlin: “I am just starting to get very interested in trans-gender thinking … Recognize that for some people this is a deep part of their human experience, and it’s easy for us who have never experienced gender dysphoria to be dismissive. I think that’s a very unchristian approach.”[32] (emphasis added)
Pulpit & Pen recognizes how far mainstream “Calvinism” and its representatives have sunk:
Sometimes it helps to see things in black and white. It is shocking to realize how low TGC has sunk. Yet, far from this being an extreme event with no impact on other Bible-believing churches, it must be noted again that Rebecca McLaughlin is a spokesperson for a “Same Sex Attracted” movement with many tentacles. Being a TGC and ERLC spokesperson, she speaks for Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Russell Moore (who promotes her frequently), her fellow Same Sex Attracted authorities at The Gospel Coalition, and any church that encourages the sheep to wander into these poisoned pastors.
Here’s a good question to evaluate how deep the SSA movement has made inroads into your own church: What would cause more offense in your church-Using the term “vile affections” or saying someone is a “sacrificing, godly, Same Sex Attracted Christian.”[33]
Of course, The Gospel Coalition continues to promote a Woke, Marxist political agenda. Tim Keller has denied that he was a Marxist. However he did affirm that he was strongly influenced by the Marxist Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School was a Marxist think tank that originated in the 1920’s Germany. The members of the school feared that Marx’s predictions of the collapse of capitalism wasn’t happening fast enough. However, they rejected Lenin’s violent approach. The Frankfurt School therefore developed an agenda to translate Marxism in cultural terms; they developed a new political theory of revolution by dividing people into groups of “oppressors” and “oppressed.”
In his book The Reason for God, Keller admits he was influenced by the Frankfurt School in his formative years in college. As a teenager in a Lutheran confirmation class, he was impressed with a teacher who was a “social activist … filled with deep doubts about traditional Christian doctrine.”[34] The teacher taught him about a “spirit of love in the universe, who mainly required that we work for human rights and the liberation of the oppressed.”[35] In college, he was “heavily influenced by the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.”[36]
Keller redefined the death of Jesus Christ and couched it in Marxist terms. In his book Generous Justice he writes: “Jesus did not only suffer for us but with us … He voluntarily took his place beside those who were without power and suffering from injustice … But when Jesus suffered with us he was identifying with the oppressed of the world, not with their oppressors … God himself would come down off his ultimate throne and suffer with the oppressed so that they might be lifted up.”[37] According to Keller: “Jesus’s life, death and resurrection was an infinitely costly rescue operation to restore justice to the oppressed and marginalized … to be a Christian today is to become part of that same operation.”[38]
In The Reason for God, Keller ends by expressing hope that Christians will become “true revolutionaries who work for justice and truth in expectation of a perfect world,” and will “go from here” into churches that are devoted to social justice. According to Keller, Christians are to “do restorative and redistributive justice whenever they can.”[39]
It is no surprise, therefore, to see The Gospel Coalition promoting Marxism. On September 20, 2019, The Gospel Coalition published an article by Justin Lonas bashing capitalism and promoting a book titled Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade. The book has been described as an “attack on Trump’s America.” The book of course presents conservative voters as uneducated, illiterate and poor and suggests that the reason people are poor is because someone else is rich. The author of the book being praised by The Gospel Coalition (Chris Arnade) supported Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Presidential election.[40]
Given that Justin Lonas of The Gospel Coalition is lauding such a book, it is no surprise to see he himself bash capitalism in his article for TGC. This TCG-published article reads as though it was written by Elizabeth Warren herself:
It’s no secret that an increasingly large portion of wealth in the United States belongs to a small number of people. Lest we simply write that off as “part of the deal” with capitalism and a global economy, economists and sociologists express great concern that pathways to economic mobility seem to be narrowing. American’s chances for financial stability depend more and more on being born and raised in a certain set of circumstances.[41]
Arnade is not a Christian, but that doesn’t stop Justin Lonas from considering his criticism of the American Church as being sacrosanct. He jumps on the Church-bashing-bandwagon with Arnade and praises his “rebukes” of the Church for not doing enough to halt the horrors of capitalism:
Mercy ministry can’t be reduced to a set of best practices. It requires a revolution in thinking that starts to see God’s image reflected in back-row values as much as front-row ones. The stories that fill me with hope for the church all center on repenting of mutual brokenness and entering into place and presence with a wholehearted embrace of human dignity. For every church content to serve the spiritual needs of people in the front row, for whom daily life seems to work well, there is a courageous church plant in a crumbling neighborhood, relentless in relationship while applying the gospel to painful earthly realities. For every church that wants to “fix” the poor, there is a church that wants to embrace them and walk with them through their struggles. For every church that doesn’t want to “get political,” there is a congregation willing to enter into another’s suffering, acknowledging faulty social systems that have conspired to break and shame their neighbors.[42]
Of course, ten days later on September 30, 2019, The Gospel Coalition released a propaganda YouTube video which called capitalism “dangerous.” The video, titled Thinking Christianity About the Economy, featured a talk between Justin Buzzard, a Silicon Valley “pastor” and Eden Chen, a CEO of a tech firm. Buzzard asked Chen what he thought about capitalism. Chen called it “selfish” and added, “Without proper regulation in place, there’s a lot of danger to it … without the proper boundaries in place, then that simpleness gets extracted to its highest level which is why we see large amount of inequality with Capitalism.”[43] Buzzard replied that he was in complete agreement.[44]
Of course, there is no mention of the dangers of socialism, communism, or Marxism … you know, the political philosophies responsible for the deaths of 100 million people in the 21st Century alone.
On March 2, 2020 Brett McCracken wrote for The Gospel Coalition an article called “We Need Prophets, Not Partisans,” where he continued TGC agenda of sanitizing the idea that Christians can morally support the Democrat Party. McCracken called for political diversity within the Church.[45] In other words, Christians must be accepting of members in their Church supporting the pro-abortion Democrat Party. Cody Libolt of Pulpit & Pen reviewed McCracken’s article and concluded: “While JD Hall correctly pointed out that one of TGC’s goals is to get as many Christians as possible not to vote Republican, there is another even more sinister goal. TGC seeks to make it culturally unthinkable for the average Christian in the average church to speak badly of those who DO vote Democrat.”[46]
The Gospel Coalition has gone full-on crazy. On October 4, 2019 they compared Christian Trump-supporters to Nazi sympathizers. The writer of TCG article is Courtland Perkins who is himself a Democrat. He opens his article thusly:
A glaring fault line among evangelicals has opened up over whether Christians should support Donald Trump. This divide is raising larger questions: How should evangelicals relate to political power? How can they maintain a prophetic voice? When do they lose their holy distinction and become just another interest group?
On the cusp of another presidential cycle, it’s important for Christians to decide what kinds of power we should seek. To do that, we must explore the concept of power from a biblical worldview.[47]
Perkins insinuates that Christians who vote conservative are making moral compromises: “But political power is not the power of the gospel. It’s not necessarily the power of God. God always accomplishes his will, and he doesn’t need Christians to morally compromise themselves to do so. Christians need to remember that they ultimately serve God and should avoid becoming too attached to earthly political power.”[48]
He then compares conservative Christians who vote their faith to Nazis:
Nazi Germany is a classic example of the consequences of wedding the church too closely to political regimes. After losing in World War I, Christians in Germany were burdened and anxious due to various political, economic, and social changes. So the Nazi political party in the 1930s sought to soothe the Germans’ political angst. Many Christians were persuaded into linking arms with the power of the Nazis, especially given their claim to uphold “positive Christianity.” Tragically, time would soon expose this claim as counterfeit; it offered nothing to Christ and instead sacrificed millions of lives on the altar of Aryan supremacy.
These German Christians tried to bring about kingdom goals through earthly political power—and they wound up morally compromising in horrific ways.
When we try to plug the kingdom into an earthly political outlet, it doesn’t work. It might even explode.[49]
The totalitarian impulses of the Democrat Party has manifested in its propaganda outlet The Gospel Coalition. Justin Taylor, writing for TCG, forbids you from getting any news from any other source other than mainstream (Democrat-controlled) media.[50]
The leftist-crazy train continues. The Gospel Coalition compared the acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse (who was proven in court to have acted in self-defense) to the mass shooter Dylan Roof.[51]
Critical Race Theory is now promoted by Calvinist professors. The Gospel Coalition interviewed Jarvis Williams – associate professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Albert Mohler has condemned Critical Race Theory (CRT). Yet right under his nose, one of his associate professors promotes CRT to The Gospel Coalition! In an interview with TGC author Matt Smethurst, Professor Williams admits that he wishes evangelicals would study CRT!
What books have most shaped your understanding of racial justice?
So many A few are: Michael Emersons Divided by Faith; Christena Cleveland’s Disunity in Christ; Richard Delgado’s Critical Race Theory: An Introduction; Benjamin Isaac’s The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity; Love L. Sechrest’s A Former Jew: Paul and the Dialectics of Race; and W.E.B. Dubois’s The Soul of Black Folks.
Which book do you wish every evangelical Christian would read and wy?
· Richard Delgado’s Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. A necessary book because evangelicals still tend to be decades behind on critical race discussions.
· Michael Emerson’s Divided by Faith. This book shows how evangelical movement and white supremacy are closely connected. Evangelicals tend to ignore racial discussions because evangelicalism has historically benefited from racism. This book will help evangelicals see this and hopefully move them to repent.
· Kevin Jones and Jarvis J. William’s Removing the Stain of Racism from the SBC: Diverse African American and White Perspectives. This book offers a critique of and some solutions to racism in the SBC, the world’s largest Protestant evangelical denomination.[52]
Leaving The Gospel Coalition, let us turn to someone for whom I have a great deal of respect, but believe has bought into the “Woke” narrative that the boogeyman of “Christian Nationalism” (it is a heresy) is on the same moral footing as abortion (baby-murder): John Piper.
On October 20, 2020, Piper wrote an article on his website Desiring God. The article was an obvious attempt on Piper’s part to dissuade Christians from voting for Trump in the 2020 election by trying to put Trump’s arrogance and adultery on the same playing field as abortion:
Actually, this is a long-overdue article attempting to explain why I remain baffle that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai), and the like, to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby-killing, sex-switching, freedom limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.[53]
From the outset, Piper tries to put Trump’s sexual immorality (what about Joe Biden’s adultery with Jill Biden when he was married to his first wife?), his boastfulness, vulgarity, etc. on the same level as abortion, transgenderism, socialism and secular totalitarianism. First, let me say that I do not defend Donald Trump. I agree will Piper’s criticisms of him. I personally do not believe Trump is a Christian – he has gone on record admitting that he does not believe he needs forgiveness from God which is the core of the Gospel. I will not defend Trump, but I will defend conservatism and the cores of liberty against the baby-murdering, socialist, secular and outright insane Left and Democrat Party.
To put Trump’s personal flaws on the same par as socialism, transgenderism and baby-murder is insane to hear from a Christian (especially a Calvinist)! I would also point out that the Democrat Party also has the same flaws as Trump: vulgarity, sexual immorality (Bill Clinton anyone?), boastfulness and factiousness. To deny that is to deny the nose on your face. Why are those flaws a concern for Piper when it comes to Trump, but Biden and the Democrat Party get a pass for those very same flaws?
Piper ultimately tweeted that he voted for a third-party. That was as good as voting for Biden as far the Democrat Party is concerned. See, the Democrats don’t care if Christians don’t vote for them, as long as they don’t vote for the Republican either.
James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries pointed out the flaws in Piper’s thinking (and indeed the thinking of Christians who think Republicans and Democrats are even in the same league of wickedness). You see, the issue is not Trump or Biden. It isn’t the person you are voting for, it is a worldview you are voting for. Piper points to the kings of Israel leading the nation to sin, so he believes Trump through his character will cause Americans to sin. James White explains his fallacy:
I’m not sure that that is as relevant in our day because we’re talking worldview issues here and Donald Trump did not inculcate a worldview. The left has through our educational system, through our courts, through our universities. That’s what led to the bloodshed. That’s what leads to the injection of hormones into eight-year-old bodies. That’s a worldview and it started under Barack Obama and he wasn’t doing it. He was outwardly moral.[54]
Piper was arguing that Trump’s personal sins would infect America (even though America itself already glamorizes those sins – America created Trump, not the other way around). But Obama put on a sanitized image. He did not have a filthy mouth. He is the polar opposite of Trump in character. Yet under his administration the injection of puberty blockers into the bodies of children began. He promoted the ripping apart of the unborn. This is not about the person anymore – this is about the worldview!
Piper claims that Trump will spread high-handed, culture shaping sin. White takes his argument apart:
But the high-profile, high-handed culture shaping sin is the influx of secular humanism through the universities and through our government and the Leftists who have taken positions of authority in your own state, under your own nose, they’re the ones refusing to prosecute criminals in the streets that are burning buildings down … Joe Biden last year before the riot started said the civil rights issue of our day is transgender rights. You can’t see a difference between Donald Trump’s arrogance, which is sinful before God, and that corruption which is not only corrupting Joe Biden, but destroying innocent little lives? I’m left speechless. You’re making these the same thing.[55]
Piper stated in his article: “Therefore, Christians communicate a falsehood to unbelievers who are also baffled when we act as if Policies and laws that protect life and freedom are more precious than being a certain kind of person.”[56] So Piper, by implication, is saying that he does not believe that pro-life policies and freedoms are more important than not having a president with a potty mouth. What?
James White cannot believe it either:
Brother Piper, it is evil in God’s sight to teach and promote that mankind is an animal without transcendent meaning. It is evil to deny the existence of the Creator. It is evil to deny that the Creator made us male and female. It is evil to teach that marriage can be between wo men and two females, two women. It is evil to teach that you can determine your gender when God has said otherwise. Which is more directly destructive to a wider number of people, Dr. Piper? And it is truly evil when the government takes your children from you to cram this into their heads. Which is what Kamala Harris will do within a matter of weeks of taking office if elected, sir. Donald J. Trump won’t do that. Oh, well, I’ll take that back. I suppose the possibility exists, but Harris and Biden have promised to do it.
Have you heard about the Equality Acts, sir? The end of our religious freedom in the United States, have you heard of it, sir? Do you think that that is actually equal in its sinfulness?
To the personal issues that Donald Trump plainly has, I’ve said on this program. I don’t like listening to him. He is an egomaniac. No question about it. And that does open the possibility in the second term, he could be completely different that he was in the first. It’s unlikely. But it’s possible. But the point is the other side has promised to corrupt our youth, has promised to take away our freedoms, has promised to take away our religious liberties and shut us down. They’ve promised it. How can you equate these two things? Because that’s what you did. You equated these things.[57]
…
This is the false dichotomy. This sir is where you are wrong, deadly wrong. We are talking about the policies that led to the murder of 125 million people in the last century. How can you not see that? Dr. Piper, travel to Germany, travel to Berlin, visit the Stasi prison and then come back and repeat this stuff. [quoting Piper] “I find it so bewildering that Christians can be so sure that greater damage will be done by bad laws and bad policies.” How about an anti-christian worldview? How about that?
[quoting Piper] “That is being done by the culture infecting spread of the gangrene of sinful self-exaltation and boasting and strife stirring aristocrats.” I am sorry. I missed how Minneapolis got turned into Beirut by boastfulness. I saw how it happened through a Marxist worldview and violence. That’s where you are. How did you miss that? You really think that Donald Trump’s arrogance is what is causing our current national problems and not the fundament, full-on promotion of critical race theory? Intersectionality? Have you been in the university, sir? Are you listening to what’s being taught? Do you know what’s going on at Union Theological Seminary? I am stunned and I’m not the only one.[58]
It is interesting to note that Piper was among the speakers at the Jakarta Conference in October of 2020 which was held in the church of Stephen Tong, James Riady’s pastor.[59]
In the beginning of the article, LifeWay found that Calvinists are the most likely to affirm sodomite marriage. We are seeing the cracks among the most conservative Calvinists beginning to crack. Recently, the otherwise orthodox Alistair Begg made the comment in an interview that he would advise a grandmother to attend her grandson’s “wedding” to a transexual in the name of “compassion.”[60] When he was lovingly and gently rebuked by other Calvinists including John MacArthur, Begg doubled down on his comments.[61]
We can expect conservative Calvinists to continue their downward trajectory into Leftism. They are compromising on moral and social issues. How much longer until they compromise on doctrinal issues?
How much longer until Calvinists start condemning Calvinist (Christian) doctrines such as Limited Atonement as “Exclusion Theology”?
[1] LifeWay Research, “Mainline Pastors Drive Growth in Pastoral Support for Same-Sex Marriage,” February 11, 2020, https://research.lifeway.com/2020/02/11/mainline-pastors-drive-growth-in-pastoral-support-for-same-sex-marriage/
[2] Op. cit.
[3] JD Hall, “Is a Corrupt Globalist Billionaire Influencing America’s Reformed Community?”, Pulpit & Pen, March 24, 2018, https://pulpitandpen.org/2018/03/24/corrupt-globalist-billionaire-influencing-americas-reformed-community/
[4] Robert L. Jackson, “Clinton Donor Riady Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy Charge,” Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2001, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jan-12-mn-11506-story.html
[5] Op. cit.
[6] Op. cit.
[7] Op. cit.
[8] Op. cit.
[9] Op. cit.
[10] Patti Richter, “Invitation to Indonesia,” The Gospel Coalition, July 3, 2014, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/indonesia-invitation/
[11] Andrew Higgins, “How the disgraced James Riady, barred from travel to the U.S., made it back,” Washington Post Foreign Service, January 5, 2010, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010403106.html
[12] Op. cit.
[13] Capstone Report, “Reformed Theological Seminary partners with convicted Clinton donor to launch Center for Reformed Theology,” October 23, 2020, https://capstonereport.com/2020/10/23/reformed-theological-seminary-partners-with-convicted-clinton-donor-to-launch-center-for-reformed-theology/35095/
[14] Op. cit.
[15] Op. cit.
[16] Op. cit.
[17] Hamish McDonald, “Clinton donor back on radar,” The Sydney Morning Herald, January 16, 2010, https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/clinton-donor-back-on-radar-20100115-mcc1.html
[18] Op. cit.
[19] Andrew Higgins, “How the disgraced James Riady, barred from travel to the U.S., made it back,” Washington Post Foreign Service, January 5, 2010, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010403106.html
[20] World Economic Forum, “Leaders Confident that ASEAN Economic Community Will Be Launched By End of Year,” January 23, 2015, https://www.weforum.org/press/2015/01/leaders-confident-that-asean-economic-community-will-be-launched-by-end-of-year/
[21] Capstone Report, “Reformed Theological Seminary partners with convicted Clinton donor to launch Center for Reformed Theology,” October 23, 2020, https://capstonereport.com/2020/10/23/reformed-theological-seminary-partners-with-convicted-clinton-donor-to-launch-center-for-reformed-theology/35095/
[22] Tim Keller,” How Do Christians Fit Into the Two-Party System? They Don’t,” The New York Times, September 29, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opinion/sunday/christians-politics-belief.html
[23] Op. cit.
[24] https://s3.amazonaws.com/iasc-prod/uploads/pdf/63347158f5c79fb1a5f0.pdf
[25] Samuel Smith, “Tim Keller, 50 Other Leaders to Discuss Future of Evangelical Identity at Invite-Only Meeting,” ChristianPost, April 13, 2018, https://www.christianpost.com/news/tim-keller-50-other-leaders-to-discuss-future-of-evangelical-identity-at-invite-only-meeting-222863/
[26] Op. cit.
[27] Op. cit.
[28] Op. cit.
[29] Mark Mellinger & Rosaria Butterfield, “’We Are All Messy’: Rosaria Butterfield on Loving Our Gay and Lesbian Friends,” The Gospel Coalition, February 17, 2017, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/video/we-are-all-messy-rosaria-butterfield-on-loving-our-gay-and-lesbian-friends/
[30] Quoted by Pulpit & Pen, “Tim Keller’s Redeemer Church Calls For More Same Sex Intimacy in Churches,” November 21, 2019, https://pulpitandpen.org/2019/11/21/tim-kellers-redeemer-church-calls-for-more-same-sex-intimacy-in-churches/
[31] Op. cit.
[32] Op. cit.
[33] Op. cit.
[34] Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p. xi, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009.
[35] Op. cit.
[36] Op. cit., at pp. xi-xii.
[37] Tim Keller, Generous Justice, pp. 195-196, Viking, 2010.
[38] Op. cit. at pp. 224-225.
[39] Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p. 225, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009.
[40] Rod Dreher, “Chris Arnade’s America,” The American Conservative, June 5, 2019, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/chris-arnade-america-dignity/
[41] Justin Lonas, “A Book on Dignity for All Has Much to Teach the Church,” The Gospel Coalition, September 20, 2019, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/dignity-seeking-respect/
[42] Op. cit.
[44] Op. cit.
[45] Brett McCracken, “We Need Prophets, Not Partisans,” The Gospel Coalition, March 2, 2020, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/prophets-not-partisans/
[46] Cody Libolt, “Christians are Not Capable of ‘Feelin’ The Bern’,” Pulpit & Pen, March 4, 2020, https://pulpitandpen.org/2020/03/04/christians-are-not-capable-of-feelin-the-bern/
[47] Courtland Perkins, “Evangelicals and the Allure of Power: Anticipating 2020,” The Gospel Coalition, October 4, 2019, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/evangelicals-power-anticipating-2020/
[48] Op. cit.
[49] Op. cit.
[50] Justin Taylor, “7 Ways You Can Contribute to Better Public Discourse,” The Gospel Coalition, October 1, 2019, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/7-ways-can-contribute-better-public-discourse/
[51] K. Edward Copeland, “Why I Hate August,” The Gospel Coalition, August 29, 2020, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-i-hate-august/
[52] Matt Smethurst, “On My Shelf: Life and Books with Jarvis Williams,” The Gospel Coalition, February 28, 2017, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/on-my-shelf-life-and-books-with-jarvis-williams/
[53] John Piper, “Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin: Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election,” October 22, 2020, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/policies-persons-and-paths-to-ruin
[54] James White, “The Pope, the Red Pill, the Muslims, and John Piper, October 20, 2020, https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/transcripts/
[55] Op. cit.
[56] John Piper, “Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin: Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election,” October 22, 2020, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/policies-persons-and-paths-to-ruin
[57] James White, “The Pope, the Red Pill, the Muslims, and John Piper, October 20, 2020, https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/transcripts/
[58] Op. cit.
[59] Op. cit.
[60] Alistair Begg and Bob Lepine, “The Christian Manifeto Interview, Truth For Life, September 1, 2023, https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/christian-manifesto-interview/
[61] Bob Smietana, “Alistair Begg Stands by LGBTQ Wedding Advice with Sermon on Jesus’ Compassion,” Christianity Today, January 31, 2024, https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/january/alistair-begg-lgbtq-gay-wedding-advice-radio-sermon-truth.html