Heresy

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Liam Goligher misquotes John Calvin...

(NOTE FROM TB: In response to concern with my use of the phrase "economic subordination," I have added a footnote responding to that concern.)

Over on Carl Trueman's blog hosted by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, my friend Liam Goligher, senior minister of Philly's Tenth Presbyterian Church, has been joining Trueman in an attack upon the historic, Biblical doctrine of our Lord's economic subordination1 to His Father. Liam claims those who believe and teach that Jesus submitted to His Father before His incarnation deny the orthodox Christian faith. He tells his readers that men who hold to economic subordination cannot at the same time affirm the Nicene Creed's declaration of our Lord's equality with His Father.

Of course, Liam's declaration concerning the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is wrong. Here, though, I simply want to correct Liam's abuse of John Calvin in support of his error.

Liam writes:

I am an unashamed biblical complementarian. The original use of that word took its cue from the biblical teaching about the differences yet complementarity of human beings made in the image of God while not running away from the challenges of applying biblical exhortations for wives to submit to their own husbands in the Lord or the prohibition on ordination for women in the church. With only those two caveats, as Calvin told John Knox, women may be princes in the state, but not pastors in the church.

John Calvin said no such thing. Rather, Calvin was consistent in declaring the teaching of Scripture concerning...


The popular blasphemy of Dr. David Gushee...

In this video promoted by the heretic Rachel Held Evans, Dr. David Gushee seduces souls to Hell while claiming it is the Spirit of God Who has inspired him to do so. Then he cops the posture of victimhood by telling his audience that his message is "unpopular.'

"Unpopular?" Can he be serious? What is this message he says is unpopular?

That the church should repent of calling sexual perverts to repentance.

Are you offended by my calling Evans a "heretic?" To not do so would be unfaithfulness before God. She and Dr. Gushee never stop calling souls to join them on their highway to Hell. 

Are you offended by my calling self-affirming lesbians, gays, transsexuals, and bisexuals "perverts?" To not do so would be to cavil at their sin...


Test the spirits: Tully and friends...

(NOTE: I was not aware of the present and very sad additional scandals in Tully's life just announced the day I posted this warning. Had I known, I would have written a different post or not written at all. Please join me in praying for Tully and his family. And may God guard each of us from these sins of the flesh which do terrible harm to all those most precious in our lives; but worse, that cause scandal to the Name of our Lord and His Bride. TB)

Men, we need to warn our sheep and loved ones against these false shepherds. Tully is very appealing to Reformed souls who have no deep root and are in bondage to sin, but the cheap grace he and his friends sell is the road that leads to death. If you love your family and fellow church members, don't be silent.

Having eaten pizza with Cheap Trick at a DeKalb bar back in the day, I liked the author's link to "I Want You To Want Me" as these men's true heart desire.

Remember this warning given both by our Lord and his Apostle John:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)


Tom Wright, Darryl Hart, Tim Keller, and Peter Leithart...

At a classical music concert, all the applause is self-congratulatory. - David Jeremy Bayly

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that three men have been standouts in the volume of Baylyblog posts warning against them: Tom (N. T.) Wright, Darryl Hart, and Tim Keller. Each of these men has shown himself adept at drawing away disciples after him who will join in his rebellion against crucial parts of Biblical faith. Tom Wright denies God’s Creation Order, Darryl Hart denies the Church’s calling to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all creation, and Tim Keller denies the Biblical doctrines of sexuality, Creation, and Hell.

The most striking thing about these men is their abuse of language...


Planetary conviviality, human flourishing...

You may casually dismiss this stuff, but this is the future of Evangelical religion. It will be toned down, somewhat, when it's taken out there to the hinterlands, and localized, but this sort of pantheistic, radically subjective, mystical ad copy is not transparently evil to people acclimated to Christian religion by men like Tim Keller. They're good prep for emotive blather such as "planetary conviviality."

Again, from Union Theological Seminary's e-mail update:

FORREST CHURCH MEMORIAL LECTURE: Dr. Keller [not Tim] develops the relational potential of a theology of becoming. Her books reconfigure ancient symbols of divinity for the sake of a planetary conviviality—a life together, across vast webs of difference...