I recently had the privilege of guest lecturing at the University of Texas on the topic of the Resurgence of Mission & Reformed Theology in America. Eileen Delao-Flynn, Professor and Religion writer for the Austin American-Statesman, was kind enough to extend me the invitation to address her Journalism & Religion class. The entire lecture would be too long to reproduce here. However, I have included a section on “Resurging Calvinism” below.

The "New Calvinism"

In an article entitled “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now,” TIME magazine numbered the "New Calvinism" as the third most influential idea changing the world in 2009. In an effort to explain this "New Calvinism," New Calvinists are laboring to shake off a fundamentalist, religious image and articulate the old gospel in fresh, biblically faithful ways. They are making five important distinctions:

1. Gospel/Religion:

New Calvinists point out that the Gospel is not Religion. This came as a surprise to some of the students. Religion says, “You must impress God,” but the gospel says, “Jesus impressed God for you.” Religion says, “Perfect yourself and God will be happy.” The gospel says, "We are all imperfect people, but Christians cling to a perfect Christ who obtains the pleasure of God for them." The gospel is good news, but religion is burdensome news. Religion tells us to perform for God, but the gospel reminds us that Jesus has performed perfectly on our behalf. The Gospel is not Religion.

2. Us/Them:

The Gospel makes a distinction between arrogant separatism and humble evangelism. It doesn't exaggerate an Us/Them mentality. New Calvinism doesn't evangelize out of superiority but empathy. We recognize that we all need Jesus before the judgment of a holy God. The only difference between true Christians and non-Christians is that Christians are recipients of God’s grace in Christ. But we all are equally in need of that grace. There's not one person in this world who needs God's saving grace more than anyone else. The New Calvinism does not pit the human race against one another—Us versus Them—but views all humanity in light of our standing with God.

3. Big/Small:

New Calvinism is recovering a gospel that is bigger than "fire insurance" from hell. It is articulating the gospel as “good news” for the whole world—society, culture, people, and the environment. The gospel is not an LCD, a lowest common denominator of the bare minimum facts you have to believe to get into heaven. Rather, it is a TOE, a theory of everything that addresses God’s purpose for humanity, society, culture, cities, environment, justice, and the future. It possesses an explanatory power that addresses everything from human motivation to environmental concerns. New Calvinists are embracing all goodness, truth, and beauty as God’s truth, goodness, and beauty, and redemptively engaging those things that are false, ugly, and evil. The gospel is much bigger than people think, but it is not smaller than personal redemption.

4. Conservative/Liberal:

New Calvinists are distancing the gospel from politics. They are not preaching a political gospel, though the gospel does have political implications. In short, Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat.

5. Urban/Suburban:

New Calvinists are returning to the city, to engage the beauty and brokenness of urban life. They are recovering a commitment to justice and mercy in the city, returning to cities from the white suburban flight.

Where Do These Distinctions Come From?

These distinctions are the direct result of a high view of the sovereignty of God—his reign over all of life, not just in so-called religious matters. These distinctions flow from a big gospel that can be articulated as the good news that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new for those who hope in him. The dying-rising-from-the-dead Messiah alone has the power to break the back of evil, redeem sin, and exchange life for death. It is the gospel that awakens us to this marvelous news.

Continuity from the Old to the New Calvinism

Much more could be said regarding this resurgence. One student asked what remains the same between the "Old Calvinism" and the "New Calvinism." There is much more continuity between the New Calvinism and John Calvin than with some of his followers. However, what essentially remains the same is the soteriological core—God's sovereign grace in redeeming broken sinners, which has been popularly captured by the TULIP acronym: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints (limited atonement appears to be more negotiable among the New Calvinists). This understanding of God’s sovereignty over salvation extends into a life lived under his sovereignty post-salvation.

The TULIP is flowering more vibrantly than it has for some time in the U.S. The Reformed resurgence has led to a missional resurgence that is set on holding the formerly "liberal" and "conservative" agendas together with the gospel, promoting robust engagement of social, cultural, and spiritual spheres of life. In this regard, the New Calvinism has more in common with the Calvinism of Abraham Kuyper, who argued that Calvinism is not merely a soteriological system, but an entire life- and worldview. The New Calvinism is broader than some of its narrower conceptions. All in all, I believe this resurgence is a very positive resurgence, a winsome Calvinism for the 21st century that advocates a whole gospel for the whole person and country.

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Is God's law a delight, or a drag? You would probably say the answer is a little complicated. Many of us who work hard to remain focused on the gospel as our hope before God have an almost visceral reaction to "the law," particularly when it is presented as a means of obtaining or maintaining peace with God. This is good. The law is never our hope. Jesus is.

However, the law is "holy, righteous and good" (Romans 7:12) and  Scripture tells us how "blessed" is the man who "delights" in the law (Psalm 1). The Psalmist says, "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 19:97). The apostle Paul also says, "I delight in the law of God in my inner being" (Romans 7:22). Why do (should) the people of God love the law? Here are 3 reasons.

1. In the law we have divine direction.

God has not left us alone to figure out what is right and wrong. He has graciously spoken clearly, and we now know the difference between good and evil. In the law we see the character of God and his will to be carried out on earth as it is in heaven. For example, we not only know that God calls us to do good to others in some general sense, but more specifically that we should be hospitable, loving, generous, and patient. He tells us what he desires of us. This is itself grace. We can delight that God has been kind enough to tell us what he requires of us (Micah 6:8).

2. Through the law we uncover our sin.

The law of God not only shows us God's will, but it also acts as a mirror that exposes our sin and falsehood. In the law we see God's standards and commands, but we also see how quickly we break them (Romans 7:7-25). As we have broken the law, it breaks us. The law is used by God to afflict our conscience so that we feel the weight of our guiltiness. And this is a reason to love the law, as it can eventually destroy our pride and any confidence we put in our ability to measure up to God's standards.

3. By the law we are led to the gospel.

In showing us the will of God, and our inability to keep it, the law leads us to see our need for mercy and grace. As many like to say, before we can know and embrace the "good news" of redemption and restoration in Jesus, we must first know and embrace the bad news that we are condemned as law-breakers and under the curse of God. It functions as one of the tools that God uses to prepare us to meet Jesus. So, we love the law as it leads us to see our need for grace and the beauty of the gospel against the backdrop of our guilt and corruption.

But here's the rub: we can only love the law after it has been fulfilled by Christ on our behalf. The law will only be a delight to us after we have found life by the gospel. 

For without the gospel, in the law we only find standards unmet and guilt without relief. We wind up sharing Martin Luther's frustration with the call to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," and say with him, "Love God? Sometimes I hate him!" Apart from the gospel the law leaves us broken and needy.

It is in the gospel where God's standards are met, his law is fulfilled, sin is forgiven, and we are restored to him. The reality of our justification before God through Christ liberates us from the law's condemning power and produces in us a delight in God's law and a motivation to keep it for God's glory and our good.

Is the law our delight? It really depends on whether the gospel is our hope and boast. If it is, then the law does not condemn us, but guides us. It shows us God's way, reminds us of our need for the gospel, and as we walk in it the law leads toward the good of our neighbors and praise of our God (Matthew 5:16). That is our delight.

Re:Train

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I've been asked several times in the last couple of days about whether I'm upset about the new remix of "We Are the World."



The Christians contacting me about this are disturbed by what they see as a startling omission from the '80s-era song in its 21st century update, performed by artists in support of Haiti relief. Willie Nelson's line "As God has shown us by turning stone to bread..." is gone. These Christians are outraged, and they wonder if I am too.


Well, yes, I am outraged. Willie Nelson should have been invited to participate. He's still every bit as talented as he was in 1985, and if Nick Jonas can be invited, then certainly Willie should've been too.


Oh wait.



That's not what these folks are outraged about. They're afraid this is indicative of the secularization of American pop culture, and that there should be a Christian backlash.



But wait, again.



God didn't turn stones into bread. 

It was Satan, not God, who suggested our Lord Jesus turn rocks into bread (Matt. 4:3-4). God sends bread down from heaven (Exod. 16), a Manna he ultimately gives to us in the body of Jesus (Jn. 6), signified in the communion meal (1 Cor. 11).


Misguided Christian Outrage

These Christians mean well. They don't want to see the gospel disrespected. But there's something parabolic here, I think. It's the same sort of thing we see when Stephen Colbert interviews a U.S. Congressman who wants to legislate the Ten Commandments in federal courthouses but can't name them. We'd almost rather have the affirmation than the revelation.


Why are we so desperate to see "God" affirmed by the outside culture, even when the "God" they're talking about more closely resembles Zeus (or, as in this case, Lucifer) than Yahweh? When we reach this point of perpetual outrage, are we closer to identity politics than gospel proclamation? I'm afraid so.



Could it be that the problem is we really want the reassurance that we're "normal"? We'd like a shout-out in our pop culture and our political speeches to signify that we're acceptable, that Christianity isn't really all that freakish. But, if that happens, apart from submission to the Cross, is it really Christianity anymore (Jas. 4:4)?


Preaching vs. Product Placement


What if, instead, we loved the world the way God does (Jn. 3:16), and not the way the satanic powers ask us to? What if we loved the world through verbal proclamation and self-sacrificial giving, not by seeking product placement for the Trinity? Rather than expecting our politicians and musicians and actors to placate us with platitudes to some generic god, let's work with them where we can on "doing good to all people" (Gal. 6:10). Let's proclaim the God of a crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus. And let's teach our kids and our converts the actual content of the biblical revelation.


That project is more difficult than signing Facebook petitions. But it's more Christian than pouting when our culture mavens misspell "Elohim" on the golden calves we've asked them to make for us.

You can find Dr. Moore’s writing and preaching at Moore to the Point.

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1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the U.S.

In an interview, sociologist Peter Berger observed that in the U.S. evangelicals are shifting from being largely a blue-collar constituency to becoming a college educated population.

His question is, will Christians going into the arts, business, government, the media, and film

• assimilate to the existing baseline cultural narratives so they become in their views and values the same as other secular professionals and elites?
• seal off and privatize their faith from their work so that, effectively, they do not do their work in any distinctive way?
• or will they do enough new Christian 'culture-making' in their fields to change things?

2. The rise of Islam

How do Christians relate to Muslims when we live side by side in the same society? The record in places like Africa and the Middle East is not encouraging! This is more of an issue for the Western church in Europe than in the U.S., but it is going to be a growing concern in America as well.

How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?

3. The new non-Western Global Christianity

The demographic center of Christian gravity has already shifted from the West to Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The rising urban churches of China may be particularly influential in the future. But the West still has the educational institutions, the money, and a great deal of power.

What should the relationship of the older Western churches be to the new non-Western church? How can we use our assets to serve them in ways that are not paternalistic? How can we learn from them in more than perfunctory ways?

4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel

The basic concepts of the gospel—sin, guilt and accountability before God, the sacrifice of the cross, human nature, afterlife—are becoming culturally strange in the West for the first time in 1500 years. As Lesslie Newbigin has written, it is time now to 'think like a missionary'—to formulate ways of communicating the gospel that both confront and engage our increasingly non-Christian Western culture.

How do we make the gospel culturally accessible without compromising it? How can we communicate it and live it in a way that is comprehensible to people who lack the basic 'mental furniture' to even understand the essential truths of the Bible?

5. The end of prosperity?

With the economic meltdown, the question is, will housing values, endowments, profits, salaries, and investments go back to growing at the same rates as they have for the last twenty-five years, or will growth be relatively flat for many years to come? If so, how does the Western church, which has become habituated to giving out of fast-increasing assets, adjust in the way it carries out ministry? For example, American ministry is now highly professionalized—church staffs are far larger than they were two generations ago, when a church of 1,000 was only expected to have, perhaps, two pastors and a couple of other part-time staff. Today such a church would have probably eight to ten full-time staff members.

Also, how should the stewardship message adjust? If discretionary assets are one-half of what they were, more risky, sacrificial giving will be necessary to do even less ministry than we have been doing.

On top of this, if we experience even one significant act of nuclear or bio-terrorism in the U.S. or Europe, we may have to throw out all the basic assumptions about social and economic progress we have been working off for the last 65 years. In the first half of the 20th century, we had two World Wars and a Depression. Is the church ready for that? How could it be? What does that mean?

Copyright © 2010 by Tim Keller. Used by permission.
Check out more content from Dr. Keller at Redeemer City to City.

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Deep Water

It's always interesting to watch fights and see how a fighter's natural tendencies become pronounced during stressful situations. For example, a fighter with a wrestling background will almost always resort to shooting a double-leg takedown if he starts getting hit on his feet. Similarly, a BJJ guy will inevitably pull guard if a wrestler starts to get the dominant position in the clinch. Every fighter has a background that they will resort to when the fight gets so tough that they stop thinking and start reacting. Fighters call this being taken into the "deep water." Our lives are not much different in this regard—during times of high stress and struggles we see that our sinful nature starts to come to the surface in ways that are unique to our personal makeup and background.

The Point of Breaking

Personally, the economic downturn has hit my business very hard. My ministry, Agon Fighters, founded with Matt Lindland and other fighters, has seen donations dry up. Because of funding, we have had to postpone video production of a DVD with fighters' testimonies. Through all of this, I have found myself becoming angry and increasingly selfish with my remaining resources. These times in our lives are the "deep water," but the difference is fighters want to be taken into the deep water, while in our personal lives we do almost anything to avoid it. Fighters understand that the only way to become a more complete fighter is to be pushed to the point of breaking, and since their goal is to be a complete fighter, they welcome these opportunities.

Completeness

James speaks of this in the context of our lives when he says, "count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4). Our goal in our faith should be the same as a fighter's goal in the octagon—to be complete. When we have this goal, we can have the joy James speaks of when we are taken into the deep water because God uses these trials to make us complete, to make us like him!

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How should Christians relate to Muslims? Why should we learn about Islam? Sojourn Church in Louisville has a 5-minute interview with Pastor Daniel Montgomery about these issues on their Inside Sojourn podcast. You can also stream the interview directly.

Sojourn is also hosting a forum this week called “Developing a Christian Response to the Challenge of Islam,” taught by Dr. Albert Mohler of Southern Seminary. [Updated with link to the audio from Dr. Mohler's lecture]

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Serving the church and spreading the gospel. Help support this effort by giving to the Global Fund. More info at MarsHillGlobal.com.

On Sunday, January 24, I had the great honor of sharing a lot of photos, videos, and stories of the church in Haiti and how the church is responding to suffering. A number of pastors and ministries have asked if they can use that sermon. The answer is yes. The elders at Mars Hill have always been gracious in giving content away for free to serve Jesus, which is a great joy for me personally. So, we have made the entire sermon available for download free of charge, to be used however and wherever God’s people desire.

As a side note, this sermon is a bit different than the one that is posted online on Mars Hill’s media library and that played at the Mars Hill Campuses on Sunday. The sermon that played at Mars Hill included some issues about our giving and generosity that will not pertain to other churches and ministries. So, we have cut out that content but left everything else. We hope it is helpful to God’s people for God’s glory and you can download it for free here, including an option to burn it onto a DVD, if that is easiest for you.

Get the video

• YouTube

• High-resolution M4V download

• DVD .iso for burning to DVD

This will also be available with the other media we have posted on the Churches Helping Churches site.

Churches Helping Churches

Who will help local churches in the wake of catastrophes? You can. Learn more here.

Pastor Mark has posted a letter to Mars Hill Church regarding the devastation he saw in Haiti and Mars Hill's response on the Mars Hill blog:

The devastation there is more horrendous than you can possibly imagine. Within the first few hours on the ground to research the state of the church, we saw multiple collapsed churches with members’ decomposed bodies trapped inside; we saw multiple churches with the decomposed bodies of church members baking in the sun on the sidewalk outside of what used to be the church entrance; we saw a teenage boy shot in the head just feet away from a Christian seminary that was housing 5,000 refugees, most of whom were children; and we watched a twenty-four-year-old Christian man pull the body of his twenty-six-year-old brother, a worship leader, from the rubble.

Read the whole letter on the Mars Hill blog. Consider giving to help rebuild the churches in Haiti at ChurchesHelpingChurches.com.

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American Jesus

Stephen Prothero’s American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon investigates the various constructions of Jesus in American history. He argues convincingly that what Americans have seen in Jesus has been a reflection of themselves. The versions of Jesus that Prothero sees in American cultural history—Enlightened Sage, Manly Redeemer, or Superstar—are mainly reflections of American ideals and hopes.

Friend of Losers

In the Gospel accounts of Jesus, we see another version: Friend of Losers (Thank you to Steve Taylor for the brilliant song “Jesus is for Losers”). Jesus loved the spiritual losers: swindlers, whores, and drunkards. These were not people “achieving growth in noble virtues.” Jesus told us what to think about his mission for losers: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Good News

The good news is that we are all “the sick” who are in the scope of Jesus’ mission. In his commentary on Galatians, Martin Luther explains the good news this way: “Although I am a sinner according to the Law…nevertheless I do not despair, because Christ lives and he is my eternal and heavenly life. In that righteousness and life I have no sin or death. I am indeed a sinner according to the present life and its righteousness, where the Law accuses me. But above this life I have another righteousness, another life, which is Christ, who does not know sin and death but is righteousness and eternal life.”

Freedom and Joy

The result of this good news being true might be freedom and joy—freedom because we are not God’s enemy and joy because we don’t have to take ourselves so seriously. When Jesus showed up on the scene, he said he brought the kingdom of God. And this kingdom looked like a party to which all the losers were invited. The blind received sight, the lame could walk, and the sick were healed. There was much to celebrate in this kingdom. And many of his parables ended with celebrations and joy.

Why do we see so little of this joy or freedom? Have the old Pharisees, with their dour legalism, scared us away from joy and freedom? Have we domesticated the extravagant grace of God by relying on moralist techniques and disciplines? Have we overlooked the fact that we are known and loved by God? Have we forgotten that we are accepted and we don’t deserve it?

Recommended Books

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Making Men-Catchers: Click | View Series

Matthew 4:19—And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Conversion is most fully displayed when it leads converts to seek the conversion of others: we most truly follow Christ when we become fishers of men.

Our desire should be to be men-catchers; and the way to attain to that sacred art is to be ourselves thoroughly captured by the great Head of the College of Fishermen. When Jesus draws us we shall draw men.

Our ROLE: "Follow me."

1. We must be separated to him, that we may pursue his object.
• We cannot follow him unless we leave others (Matt. 6:24).
• We must belong to him, that his design may be our design.
2. We must abide with him, that we may catch his spirit.
• The closer our communion with Christ, the greater our power with souls. Near following means full fellowship.
3. We must obey him, that we may learn his method.
• Teach what he taught (Matt. 28:20).
• Teach as he taught (Matt. 11:29; 1 Thess. 2:7).
• Teach such as he taught, namely, the poor, the base, children, etc.
4. We must believe him, that we may believe true doctrine.
• Christ's own teaching catches men; let us repeat it.
• Faith in Jesus on our part is a great force to produce faith.
• We must copy his life that we may win his blessing from God; for God blesses those who are like his Son.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes, which are in the public domain.

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