The Wartburg Watch » Calvinism/Calvinista

Another Mars Hill “Testimony”: One More Reason to Beware of Covenants

dee — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:17:30 +0000

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. -Martin Luther King, Jr. Mars: Hubble I apologize that we have not gotten to the topic of spiritual abuse resources. We will get to them next week. (Promises, promises). The last two days we have focused on legal ways to leave your church. especially if you have signed a membership covenant. We said that the threat of legal action might need to be employed and this raises the question of the biblical injunction against lawsuits. Kind of sad, isn't it? 1 Corinthian 6:1-6 (ESV) When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Fri, Feb 03 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Acts 29, Calvinism/Calvinista, Church conflict, Church contracts, Covenants/Contracts, Ken Sande, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Peacemakers/CCEF, Spiritual abuse

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Mark Dever / 9 Marks Edict – You Cannot Resign w/o “Permission”

deb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:31:11 +0000

"Just as freedom to worship is protected by the First Amendment, so also is the liberty to recede from one’s religious allegiance." Guinn, 775 P.2d at 776 Statue of Liberty It is hard to fathom in the land of the free and the home of the brave that CHURCHES ARE IGNORING THE LAW OF THE LAND in order to impose their will on members (and in some cases, regular attendees). Bobby Jamieson, Assistant Editor at 9 Marks, just posted an article entitled: "Pastors, Don't Let your People Resign Into Thin Air". Jamieson begins with these words: "Does your church let people resign into thin air? A church member simply submits a letter or has a conversation with a pastor, and then poof!—they’re gone. And your church couldn’t say whether the person has joined another evangelical church or dropped off the face of the earth. My brothers, this should not be. . . An encouraging number of evangelical churches seem to be regaining meaningful practices of church membership and discipline. But I’m concerned that even some of these churches, however unintentionally, are leaving their back doors wide open." Doesn't it sound like he's talking about sheep or some other kind of Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Thu, Feb 02 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Arminianism, Authoritarian leadership, Calvinism/Calvinista, Church contracts, Church discipline, Covenants/Contracts, Mark Dever, New Reformed Theology, Nine Marks, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Fired Mars Hill Elder Breaks His Silence

deb — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:44:41 +0000

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Edmund Burke FreeFoto.com Dee and I began blogging on March 19, 2009, after several years of giving lip service to it. A week before we launched The Wartburg Watch, Dee called me saying, "We've have got to start blogging NOW because if we don't I fear we'll get swallowed by a giant fish!" For the literalists among us, that's figurative language. With some degree of trepidation, we hammered out our thoughts and went online with our first post — Who Hijacked My Church? If you take time to read it, you will see that we have come a long way in our almost three years of blogging. However, history has shown that our research prior to launching this website was on target. At the end of that first post, we highlighted two issues that plague Christendom: (1) The rise of a new brand of Calvinism and (2) The expansion of church discipline. In our assessment of Mars Hill, we find it interesting that these are significant characteristics of Mark Driscoll's church. Since Dee and I missed the Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Mon, Jan 30 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Acts 29, Authoritarian leadership, Calvinism/Calvinista, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill-A Tutorial on Spiritual Abuse

deb — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:18:22 +0000

God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, " O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints. -AW Tozier Massive Solar Flare 1/ 2012 NASA-Goddard As many of you are now aware, Matthew Paul Turner has posted two explosive articles: (1) MARK DRISCOLL’S CHURCH DISCIPLINE CONTRACT: LOOKING FOR TRUE REPENTANCE AT MARS HILL CHURCH? SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE here (2) MARK DRISCOLL’S ‘GOSPEL SHAME’: THE TRUTH ABOUT DISCIPLINE, EXCOMMUNICATION, AND CULT-LIKE CONTROL AT MARS HILL here. We want to commend both Turner and Andrew (who is the subject of these posts) for their courage in allowing this story to be presented to a watching world. This saga has carefully exposed the underbelly of what appears to be abusive leadership at Mars Hill Church and sounds a clarion call to those in the pew. It is time to stop the excuses and start dealing with the bizarre "goings Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Wed, Jan 25 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Acts 29, Calvinism/Calvinista, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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“Why I Hate Religion” Goes Viral

deb — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:16:59 +0000

"Here's probably the reason I hate religion the most violently. Religion tells you this. Religion tells you it's all about what you do!" Mark Driscoll Cathedral in Europe Have you seen the YouTube sensation "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" that has had over 16 million hits? Take a look… Jefferson Bethke, who posted this video on January 10th, came to my attention earlier today as I watched CBS This Morning. I found the remarks of this 22-year-old interesting as he attempted to speak for his generation. Here is what Bethke said before a national audience: "I think my generation has been inundated or inoculated with the hypocrisy of religion, and so I think that's the good and the promising future is my generation just wants authenticity. We want to know that whatever they say they believe. And I think there will be a resurgence of grace following, Jesus loving, Bible believing people who will maybe transform and change this country for the good because we believe and we have that power and that grace with us." If you Google Jesus>Religion or Why I Hate Religion or Jefferson Bethke, all kinds of articles show up. Fortunately, I did just Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Mon, Jan 23 2012.

Categories: Acts 29, Calvinism/Calvinista, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Brierley Versus Driscoll

deb — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:58:39 +0000

"When you've got guys in dresses, you know, preaching to grandmas and young men won't show up as a nation, you've gotta ask yourself, you know, have we picked a course that really fits the past but isn't gonna work for the future?" Mark Driscoll Justin Brierley So Mark Driscoll truly believes he has established a course of action that will advance Christendom? Poppycock! (which means unbelievable) Yep, "Unbelievable?" is also the British radio program hosted by Justin Brierley on Premier Christian Radio. Before we take a look at some of the most controversial exchanges between Justin Brierley and Mark Driscoll, I believe it is important to point out that not everything Driscoll states is correct. Here is a case in point. During the interview, Driscoll tells Brierley that Seattle is "the most educated city in America." Wrong! Here's the most recent ranking in Men's Health. Most educated cities in America, along with their grades. 1. Madison, WI A+ 2. Plano, TX A+ 3. Raleigh, NC A 4. Burlington, VT A 5. Seattle, WA A- By the way, Dee and I are very proud of where our city placed in this ranking – Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Thu, Jan 19 2012.

Categories: Acts 29, Authoritarian leadership, Calvinism/Calvinista, Culture and the faith, Gender Gospel, Gender Roles, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Role of women in the church, Women and the church, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Driscoll Bitter Toward the Brits?

deb — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:32:59 +0000

“Let’s just say this . . . right now, name for me the one young, good Bible teacher that's known across Great Britain. You don’t have one – that is a problem. There's a bunch of cowards who aren’t telling the truth. You don't have one. You don't have one young guy who can preach the Bible that anybody's listening to on the whole earth." Mark Driscoll Big Ben (Taken by Deb) Oh what a difference a year can make! It was around this time last year that a chap who goes by "theurbanpastor" shared some fantastic news on his blog. This was his jubilant anouncement: "‘We’ve got him’ were the words that brought to fruition ‘Red Dawn’; the covert operation to apprehend Saddam Hussein in 2003. I have no idea whether Stephen Fletcher, omnicompetent administrator of the London Men’s Convention, shouted something similar when he recently received the confirmatory e-mail from Mark Driscoll. But he’d have been forgiven for whooping in celebration! It’s now official, Mark Driscoll is coming to London. And he’s playing live in the Royal Albert Hall for the benefit of the 2011 London Men’s Convention. This is very good news. And I hope that it’ll Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Wed, Jan 18 2012.

Categories: Acts 29, Calvinism/Calvinista, Gender Gospel, Gender Roles, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Role of women in the church, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Passion 2012 – A Recap

deb — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:50:46 +0000

“Our heartbeat is to see the campuses of this nation awaken to God.” Louie Giglio Courtesy of NASA The Passion Movement, which held its first conference in 1997, continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Passion 2012 – a three-day event – concluded yesterday and attracted around 45,000 enthusiastic attendees to the Georgia Dome. For those like me who were not familiar with this huge event, here is a brief overview as well as a recap. The Passion Conferences are restricted to those between the ages of 18 and 25. As explained in the previous post, Louie Giglio is the founder and architect of the Passion Movement. His student ministry at Baylor, which spanned a decade, prepared him well for his role in motivating college students to pursue their faith. Giglio has assembled a team of speakers, and those who joined him in speaking at Passion 2012 included John Piper, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, and Christine Caine. Music is a HUGE part of the Passion Movement, and the groups who performed included: The David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong United, Matt Redman, Lecrae, Kristian Stanfill, Charlie Hall, and Christy Nockels. Bios for the Passion speakers and musicians are featured here. Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Fri, Jan 06 2012.

Categories: Beth Moore, Evangelism, John Piper, Louie Giglio

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A “Bourgeois” Christian Longs for a Unifying Gospel

dee — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:11:06 +0000

When was the last time you laughed for the sheer joy of your salvation? People are not attracted to somber doctrines. There is no persuasive power in a gloomy and morbid religion. Let the world see your joy and you won't be able to keep them away. To be filled with God is to be filled with joy. -Anonymous S106 -Star forming region-NASA TWW received the following insightful comment from “memje.” “I decided to go to a Reformed seminary because I wanted to learn more about God so I may be better equipped to serve. It was the closest and cheapest Christian college I knew so I signed up. Little did I know I would fall straight into the world of dogmatic Christians who flaunt their theology and focus on biblical obscurities and in doing so make division out of it. I would like to affirm your claims about “Calvinistas” as I have first hand experience with them. This isn’t to say they are all like this. There are many godly men and women in my seminary. But this “YRR” is a real issue.” As most of you know, I, Dee, grew up in Salem, Massachusetts and came to the Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Wed, Jan 04 2012.

Categories: Calvinism/Calvinista, Uncategorized

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Is the Sun Setting on YRR – aka New Calvinism?

deb — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:58:15 +0000

"Our chief concerns have to do with immaturity, instability, and inconsistency in the YRR movement." John MacArthur Beaufort (NC) Sunset (Taken by Deb) The Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement (YRR) gained much notoriety five years ago when Collin Hansen coined his catchy description of a new trend in Christendom. The emergent church movement, so prevalent decades before, waned while the YRR movement, also known as "New Calvinism" advanced at rapid speed. We believe advances in technology are largely responsible for YRR growth. Websites, conferences, blogs, podcasts, Facebook, and Twitter have been highly utilized by the New Calvinists to promote their brand. So many young, serious-minded Christians have fallen in lock step behind those leading the movement, and until recently there seemed to be no stopping the popularity of YRR leaders. Remember the 2009 TIME ranking of Top Ten ideas changing the world? (link) "The New Calvinism" came in at number three. A mere two years later, there appear to be problems afoot within the movement. Perhaps C.J. Mahaney's stepping down as president of Sovereign Grace Ministries in early July triggered a panoply of voices. The internet, which popularized New Calvinism, appears to be a driving force for the movement's Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Thu, Dec 22 2011.

Categories: Calvinism/Calvinista, John MacArthur, Kevin DeYoung, New Reformed Theology, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Submission, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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