THE
BANE OF NEO-GNOSTIC CALVINISM
By:
Greg Fields
Who among us who have
been illuminated by the Spirit of God to heartily embrace that exalted system
of Pauline Theology commonly called "Calvinism" can forget the
sublime joy experienced when these verities became manifest in our believing
heart? For many of us grasping these truths or better, being gripped by these
truths, was the real "second blessing" in our Christian pilgrimage.
For me personally, sovereign grace teaching revivified my entire demeanor as a
saint and delivered me from the morbid introspection engendered by Arminian,
fundamentalist pietism. I have a passionate commitment to Calvinistic
soteriology and am quite emphatic in my apologia for these truths that
so exalt and glorify the grandeur of the Sovereign Triune Lord. Thus, it is
with both sadness and reticence that I issue this urgent caveat
regarding an extreme chimerical form of Calvinism that is spreading
great mischief among the elect of God and dear souls seeking spiritual solace.
I have subsumed this
subtle heresy under the rubric neo-gnostic Calvinism because the main
tenets of this aberration of Calvinism involve primarily a comprehensive
cognitive system of knowledge (gnosis) that must be firmly grasped and
indoctrinated into before the professing Calvinist or seeking Arminian is truly
considered "saved" by these ersatz-Calvinist "teachers".
The subtilty involved in this neo-gnostic Calvinistic soteriology is that they
vigorously promote truths that any committed believer would commend. For
example, they incessantly exhort all to focus on Christ's imputation of
Righteousness as being indispensable to one's salvation. Of course this is true
and this needs to be emphatically declared in our presentation of the gospel.
Particular Redemption is stressed with great vigor. Again, a hearty amen to the
vital importance of this great doctrine is in order. They clearly enumerate the
"five points" with undiminished zeal. Again, I concur and wish we all
would stress these great doctrines with the zeal demonstrated by these men.
If this was the focus
and crux of what these men taught, I would be promoting their
writings and encouraging all interested Calvinists to bookmark their websites
and to participate in their e-group discussions. But, alas, these glorious
doctrines are merely the frosting on the cake of their real agenda. After
elucidating these verities they then go on to add to these truths a dogmatic
unsubstantiated requirement for salvation that in effect nullifies all the
peace and joy that should attend sovereign grace. They assert with bellicose
intensity that unequivocally, all Arminians are lost because
"Arminianism is a false gospel" and under the anathema of Gal.
1:8-9.They set the stage for this "leap of logic", by describing the
five points of Arminianism and showing how incompatible Arminianism is with the
gospel of grace. Again, any thoroughgoing evaluation of Arminianism would
demonstrate this to be true but they then use this evaluation to assert
that all who have never yet grasped the doctrines of grace to be by default,
Arminians, thereby validating their "lostness". The insidious nature
of their neo-gnosticism becomes manifestly transparent here. The major tenet of
gnosticism was the acquisition of knowledge to achieve,N.B., salvation.
Similarly they make the precise apprehension of soteriological doctrine the sine
qua non of salvation. By utilizing a patina of super spirituality, they
create a psychological ambience that can easily intimidate a young believer who
may be new to Calvinism or a seeking Arminian (although most folk, if we are
honest are utterly oblivious to this historical-theological debacle) to
capitulate to this cold, unrelenting dogmatism, creating a vituperative
unloving demeanor and ironically robbing them of the comfort and joy these
glorious doctrines should inculcate in their hearts.
This, to my mind, is the
most utterly insidious forms of "works-righteousness" that I have
ever encountered. By cleverly demanding that for one to truly be saved they must
achieve a solid understanding of Calvinistic soteriology is to "make the
cross of Christ of none effect". "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling" as Toplady's exquisitely penned words succinctly
state is the essence of the gospel offer. To make mere cognition the
predicate of entrance into the kingdom of God's dear son is to despise God's
sovereignty, Christ's finished work on the cross, and the blessed Holy Spirit's
sovereign application of the redemption accomplished to "the apple of his
eye", his beloved elect. It is vital beloved to discern the subtilty of
their enticing words of wisdom. It is Christ who saves through faith, not
our soteriological knowledge.
To further exacerbate
their dissimulation, they dare to go even further. They dogmatically and
shockingly assert that any professing Calvinist that does not concur
with their Calvinistic neo-gnostic pretensions and believes that Arminians can
be saved has "spoke peace to Arminians" thereby abrogating their own
salvation. As one gleans their writings on this matter, one amazingly discovers
that according to this chimerical premise, the most eminent saints in church
history are apparently "lost"! A.A. Hodge, Spurgeon, D. Martyn-Lloyd
Jones, Gordon Clark, Van Till ad infinitum,ad nauseum, are consigned to
God's wrath by the unmitigated temerity of these neo-gnostics. These men simply
did not "measure up" to their conceptualization of what constitutes
"the doctrines of grace" and furthermore, they had the audacity to be
gentle and forebearing and tenderhearted (they even dared to offer them
Christian equanimity) to those of non-reformed persuasion. The tragic,
belligerent absurdity promoted by these neo-gnostics should be evident to the
discerning saint. Again, this is why it is vital to "study to show thyself
approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word
of truth" to counter this ancient heresy in new garb. The emperor still
has no clothes as gnosticism, satan's grand masquerade, nefariously continues
to attempt to vex and thwart God's saints in their earthly pilgrimage. It is
admittedly difficult and requires God-given wisdom to sound forth these
wonderfully God-centered, Christ-exalting truths in a bold yet loving manner
that will in God's providence engender interest in Calvinism while giving glory
to our Sovereignly Majestic Thrice-Holy Lord. Worshipping our Majestic Lord in
spirit and in truth is true Calvinism. May our Lord illuminate our hearts to
this glorious truth thereby granting us the Spirit-wrought discernment to live
righteously, soberly and godly in this present evil age and to keep us from the
evil one's subtilties, such as neo-gnosticist "Calvinism".
Greg Fields
Greg can be reached at ferventcalvinist@aol.com
Further Reflections On Neo-gnostic
Calvinism
By:
Greg Fields
Recent dialogue regarding the excesses of a
certain group(s) of "calvinist" zealots has prompted me to write ths
brief followup to my essay The Bane Of Neo-gnostic Calvinism,that was
disseminated via email and posted on a few websites.It is not my intention to exacerbate
but to D.V.,illuminate the discourse regarding the neo-gnostic
propensities of these sincere but heretical folk.I write this out of concern
for those, who not yet grounded in the faith "once for all delivered to
the saints"(Jude 3),may become ensnared by the subtle,specious
"logic" of the neo-gnostic "calvinists".The reason I
persist in putting calvinism in quotes when applied to the zealots,is because
their "calvinism" , when closely scrutinized,is a radical departure
from historical biblical calvinism.Calvinism,in the excellent words of Basil
Manly,an eminent 19th century Southern Baptist theologian is "that exalted
system of Pauline theology commonly called calvinism".It is indeed a
thoroughgoing God-centered system of biblical/systematic/historical theology
that displays the Majesty of the Triune Sovereign Lord,unfettered by the
dictates of carnal human reason.It is ipso facto antithetical to the
aspirations of the natural man who under the adamic curse would "be as
gods".This natural aspiration of the fallen intellect is,in point
of fact,one of the major tenets of gnosticism.
The
focus of gnostic redemption is not on God,but ultimately upon the
individual's self-understanding and the resulting freedom it provides.This
accords accurately with the pretensions of the neo-gnostic calvinists who a
priori demand a comprehensively cognitive grasp of calvinistic soteriology
in order for potential converts to be saved.This cognitive grasp fails to take
into account what is theologically dubbed "the noetic effects of
sin".Simply stated,this means our minds are so effected by our native
depravity that prior to regeneration,we are unable to spiritually
apprehend any of God's thoughts revealed in His word.(1
Cor.2:14,Eph.4:18,e.g.)The "continental divide" between Arminian and
Calvinistic soteriology is that in Calvinism,regeneration precedes
faith.We must be born again to see the kingdom of God.It is quite
possible for the unregenerate to give merely notional("bare
assent")to Scripture,deceiving themselves into thinking what the Puritan
divines called "fancy" is true faith.The eminent Puritan,Thomas
Watson ,wrote in regard to this:
Some
bless themselves that they have a stock of knowledge, but what is knowledge
good for without repentance? It is better to mortify one sin than to understand
all mysteries. Impure speculatists do but resemble Satan transformed into an
angel of light. Learning and a bad heart is like a fair face with a cancer in
the breast. Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to
hell (Thomas
Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Edinburgh: Banner, 1987), pp. 12-13,
59, 77).
The
neo-gnostic calvinists in similar vein exalt the bare mental assent to the
doctrines of grace as being the sine qua non of entrance into the
"kingdom of God's dear Son".The late Professor John Murray of
Westminster Theological Seminary has a most felicitous comment to refute this:
"Saving faith is not simply assent to propositions
of truth respecting Christ, and defining the person that he is, nor simply
assent to a proposition respecting his sufficiency to meet and satisfy our
deepest needs. Faith must rise to trust, and trust that consists in entrustment
to him. In faith there is the engagement of person to person in the inner
movement of the whole man to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation.
It means the abandonment of confidence in our own or any human resources in a
totality act of self-commitment to Christ.
This
fiducial character, consisting in entrustment to Christ for salvation, serves
to correct misapprehensions. Faith is not belief that we have been saved, nor
belief that Christ has saved us, nor even belief that Christ died for us. It is
necessary to appreciate the point of distinction. Faith is in its essence
commitment to Christ that we may be saved. The premise of that commitment is
that we are unsaved and we believe on Christ in order that we may be saved...It
is to lost sinners that Christ is offered, and the demand of that overture is
simply and solely that we commit ourselves to him in order that we may be
saved.
Faith
is a whole-souled movement of intelligent, consenting, and confiding
self-commitment, and all these elements or ingredients coalesce to make faith
what it is. Intellect, feeling and will converge upon Christ in those exercises
which belong properly to these distinct though inseparable aspects of psychial
activity" (Collected
Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp.257-260).
It
is utterly amazing and soul-vexing to see how folk who discover the wonderful
doctrines of grace via excellent christian literature like A.W. Pink's The
Sovereignty of God or Boettner's The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
or the books of R.C. Sproul,Michael Horton,James Boice,et.al.,can so easily
become infatuated with their own learning and misconstrue that learning(as
vital as solid theological understanding is!)as the alpha and omega of their
relationship with Christ.He is the Alpha and the Omega."Of Him,to Him,and
through Him are all things,"not whether or not we have things right in our
minds.Knowledge is indeed vital brethern.Let us never discount
this.Anti-intellectualism is indeed one of the terrible legacies of American
fundamentalism,primarily derived from Arminian presuppositions.But,alas,new
converts to Calvinism can so easily be seduced by their own incredible
arrogance and so overemphasize one aspect of Calvinist soteriology,that they
become blinded to other important areas of biblical revelation and lose all
sense of proportion in their thinking.The neo-gnostic spirit is spawned by
spiritual pride.The whole counsel of God,contained in Holy Writ,
must be assiduously studied and obeyed(!) in the power of the Holy Spirit with
a contrite heart to arrest this nefarious impulse before it takes root in the
heart.
It is my earnest plea to all who read
this,either seasoned saints or new converts, to take heed to the admonition of
the great apostle Paul(whose great epistles contain the richest truths of
sovereign grace):"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,so
walk ye in Him:rooted and built up in Him,and stablished in the faith,as ye
have been taught,abounding therein with thanksgiving.Beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy and vain deceit,after the tradition of men,after the
rudiments of the world,and not after Christ.For in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily.And ye are complete in Him,which is the Head of
all principality and power."(Colossians 2:6-10)
.
By: Greg Fields
True Calvinism versus Neo-gnostic "Calvinism" The importance of
comprehensively studying Calvinism, biblically, systematically, and
historically to preserve true orthodoxy and to protect the church and
individual believer from neo-gnostic sectarianism by Greg Fields
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I have further reflected on the bane of neo-gnostic "calvinism"
and its concomitant sectarianism, there is a vital issue to address. When
understandably recoiling from the baneful theological pontificating of the
neo-gnostics, we need to stress that there is an urgent need in the present
theological malaise of modern evangelicalism to comprehensively study and teach
the salient features of Calvinism biblically, systematically, and historically.
Many of the "grass roots" Sovereign Grace fellowships emerging from
this malaise have seriously truncated the sweeping grandeur of God's Redemptive
Plan by focusing almost exclusively on the "Five Points Of
Calvinism". This emphasis can very quickly lead to incredible arrogance.
Each fresh discovery of Sovereign Grace (as exhilarating as this is!) can
easily obviate other equally vital truths, such as "pursuing holiness in
the Fear of God", "mortifying our members which are upon the
earth", "Setting our minds on things above", and many other
exhortations to greater conformity to Christ. The primary impetus of our professed
Calvinism in the evocative words of the Puritan Robert Bolton is that "
(by) a sincere endeavor, punctually and precisely, to manage, conduct, and
dispose all our thoughts, words, and deeds, all our behavior and conversation,
in reverence and fear, with humility and singleness of heart, as in the sight
of an invisible GOD, under the perpetual presence of His all-seeing, glorious,
pure eye, and by a comfortable consequence, to enjoy, by the assistance and
exercise of faith, an unutterable sweet communion and humble familiarity with His
Holy Majesty; in a word, to live in heaven upon earth". This attitude is
as far as the east is from the west from the theological hubris of many
believers indoctrinated in these nascent fellowships. As John Armstrong has
keenly observed :"And if these same individuals read several books and
study a bit further they will often be filled with incredible arrogance
regarding what they have now learned. It has always amazed me that men who
insist the knowledge of the truth is given by a gracious God act as if they
somehow had so much to do with getting things right in their minds. In contrast
to the above approach, truly sound learning will always humble us and make us
aware of how much we still do not know!" (VIEWPOINT July-September 1998,
pg. 3, emphasis added) . "We believe that it is impossible to bring out
accurately, fully, and definitely, the sum and substance of what is taught in
Scripture concerning the place which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
hold in the salvation of sinners, without taking up Calvinistic ground, without
being in a manner, necessitated to assert the fundamental principles of the
Calvinistic system of theology. " (William Cunningham) These stirring
words should constrain us to thoroughly study under the illumination of the Holy
Spirit these "fundamental principles", to "gird up the loins of
our minds", to think clearly and objectively, having our knowledge formed
by grace. This is no small task. It requires diligence, longsuffering, and a
humble teachable spirit. Amid the bewildering welter of ephemeral ideologies
that we will inevitably confront in this pursuit of learning true Calvinism, we
need to meditate upon the memorable words of Thomas Goodwin: "God is the
most glorious object that our minds could ever fasten upon, the most alluring.
Thoughts of Him should therefore swallow up all other thoughts. . . . ".
"But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth Me, that I am the Lord. . . . . . " (Jer. 9:24a) . As Charnock
observed, "a man may be theologically knowing but spiritually
ignorant". A thoroughgoing Scriptural knowledge of Biblical soteriology is
only truly engendered by a fervent love for "The Lord Christ" (as
Owen affectionately and reverently addressed our Regal Lord and Saviour) . The
proper attitude of a Calvinist imbued with this fervent love for our Lord, and
possessing a comprehensive knowledge of Biblical, Systematic, and Historical
Calvinism, was wonderfully exemplified by a stalwart of the nineteenth century,
Mr. Alexander Carson. His remarks form a fitting conclusion to this essay:
" If there is a progress in the Christian's knowledge of the Gospel
itself, every step in that progress, he must get rid of a proportional degree
of ignorance and error. This proves, then , that perfect uniformity of view,
much less of language, even with respect to the gospel itself; is not to be
expected among Christians. According to their respective progress, there will
be a difference, whether expressed or not. As far as Christians are taught of
God they will agree. But even in the Gospel they are not all equally taught of
God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nothing, then, is farther from my wish then to
be understood as dooming to damnation all who are not prepared to adopt the
whole of my views. . . . . . . . . . . that arrogance that makes a god and
saviour of its clear views, that confines salvation to a mode of expressing
faith, that looks with contempt on the body of Christians, as a sort of pious
infidels, that seems to delight in the fewness of the saved, finds no sanction
from the Scriptures, and originates in the pride of human nature, not in godly
zeal for the truth. When a man seems anxious to find out something in the faith
of professing Christians at which to cavil, when he strains their language to
condemn them, there is no ground to suppose that he is influenced by love.
Keeping clear, therefore, of a censorious spirit, I would wish to impress
Christians with the importance of my views of the subject. They have no
sectarian tendency, but address themselves to the candor. . . . . of all
Christians. The strength, the beauty, the glory of Christianity will appear in
proportion as it is viewed in this light. " (My emphasis)