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John MacArthur: The Reversal of the Reformed Revival
30 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Videos
30 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Videos
Is MacArthur the only ‘big name’ out there that hasn’t sold out to pragmatism, pilsner, & P Ditty in the name of “church”?
This is slightly off-subject but fits under the general umbrella of this stopic. I heard Mark Driscoll make the statement that some people lead 1000s to Christ and others do not but complain about the techiniques of those who do.
How ignorant of his surroundings must Driscoll be? The question is not about how someone is doing things alone. The question is whether the 1000s in question are actually being saved or fooled by the techniques too many people use today. Changing God’s message in order to include more people is not a narrow way but a broad road plan. Exactly who is sovereign? We should complain if charlatans are selling snake oil & calling it eternal life, no?
Ok. Two issues here for me. I dislike the modern approach to church in many respects, sadly even found among reformed people. When I attend a reformed church (meaning any church with a calvinistic soteriology) and it’s large, and the preacher has one of those silly headset things on, and some big screen behind him flashing messages, and he is moving across the “stage” weaving back and forth like a vaudvillian and many (or most or all) of the songs sung are big screen projected ditties – I am distinctly uncomfortable, and usually cringing. But I understand that times change and people change and that not everything done when I was young is necessarily written in stone as the singular and unique way to meet and worship, etc.
That being said, there are other changes among reformed people that genuinely trouble me. When I was young, reformed churches were pretty standard doctrinally. No fear of walking into a church, either Baptist or Presbyterian that was openly calvinistic (and by the way, that is about all there was then, no Bible,no non-denominatonal) and finding people “speaking in tongues” or having a Warrren-esque view of church. Such things were yet way future. Maybe it was all vanillia, but I’ve always been kinda partial to vanilla. Now I hear of reformed chuches that are not trinitarian, or don’t believe in eternal punishment or who are Brethren like and w/o leadership. Reformed churches that embrace the false concept of evolution or that are toying with or outright rejecting inerancy of Scripture.
I remember back to the days when only Banner of Truth and Jay Green (whatever his faults) were pretty much alone putting out reformed reading materiials, and that only to be found in Puritan Reformed catalogs. Dont get me wrong, I rejoice in all the reformed publications of this day! But I do miss the solidarity in doctrine and purpose of 30 to 40 years ago.This whole issue is bringing out my inner curmudgeon….
Well, now I don’t feel so stupid. I am bothered by the guys with the headsets and the flat screens for a number of reasons, a big one being, how can these guys be ‘pastors’? Isn’t a pastor supposed to shepherd you? Teach you? Correct you? Be an example to you? Weep with you, Rejoice with you? Visit you when you’re sick, comfort you when you’re dying, encourage you in the fight, help you raise your kids, pray with you, etc. etc. etc……but to do that he has to BE with you, spend time with you, and know you. Some of these guys actually boast that their congregation is so big they can’t possibly know everyone’s name. Makes me sick.
I think a faithful shepherd of a simple country church with a dozen families will have a richer reward in eternity than all of these slick celebrity preachers with thousands of unknown followers watching them via satellite on some “campus”.