Yesterday, Jackie Alnor ran this article on her Facebook page.
Jackie unfriended me a few months ago so I couldn’t see the article to respond to it, so I’ll do so here.
She wrote as follows;
“Tonight the congregation of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa will be taking a vote to ratify the appointment of Brian Brodersen as senior pastor. They do carry a live stream of the Wednesday night service, but I am not sure whether or not they will air that portion. But I will be tuning in to see what happens. Sadly for CCCM there is no other name on the ballot.
One of the first things I heard Brian say after Chuck died was that he was going to keep on doing what he’s been doing – teaching his Bible class at the CC bible school using text books by JI Packer and RC Sproul – both Calvinists. Chuck Smith had always kept Calvinism out of his church – back when he was healthy. It has been creeping in because Calvinists – as I’ve already shown – think their false systematic theology is the right one and the rest of us are not even Christians.
Some pro-Calvinist voices are celebrating this abomination. Here is pro-calvinism-emergent Michael Newnham’s take on the future of Calvary Chapel. Keep in mind, the ones he is pulling for are the ones who want to get away from the focus on Bible prophecy and reject the work of the Holy Spirit:
(Here she inserted the text of my Tuesday article.)
Pray for the Calvary Chapel fellowship. Pray that voices will rise up and save this group of churches from the progressive ecumenists.
But in the final analysis – May God’s will be done!!”
First off, let me make something abundantly clear.
Brian Brodersen is not a Calvinist.
It is quite easy to determine whether or not a given teacher is a Calvinist.
You find their sermons online and you listen to how they exegete Romans 8-9.
I’ve listened to Brodersens sermons on those chapters…and he’s as far away from Geneva as my sins are from the Lord.
Furthermore, after ten years of reporting on Calvary Chapel and having sources in places nobody would imagine…I don’t know of one closet Calvinist in CC.
No, not one.
What we have here is religious McCarthyism being propounded by a blinded traditionalist with the same sensationalism usually saved for her eschatology.
Alnor claims to be an apologist…but a real apologist who was familiar with the diversity of Christian thought would never write that Calvinists “think that the rest of us aren’t even Christians”.
There may be a few on the fringe of Calvinism who would say that…but there are far more mainstream Arminians who would say the same about Calvinists.
It is not a component of mainstream Calvinistic thought…or mature christian thought from any tradition.
She is right that we don’t emphasize “bible prophecy”…we emphasize the Gospel.
If there is a move away from eschatology in CC, it is toward being more focused on the Gospel…and not on end time speculation.
She seems to have missed the fact that John Calvin has historically been called the “theologian of the Holy Spirit’, but I’m surprised that she missed all the Reformed guys who were scorched by John MacArthur for believing that the gifts were still in operation today.
One in particular named J.I. Packer.
Now, for the last time…there is no discussion at any level of Calvary Chapel to embrace Reformed theology within the movement.
There isn’t now, nor has there ever been.
The issue has been one of fellowship…and of stopping the attacks against it from pastors within the movement.
Calling brethren an “abomination” simply isn’t acceptable.
Speaking of name calling…I am now a “pro-Calvinism-emergent.”
This is the first time I’ve ever seen “Calvinist” and “emergent” in the same sentence…but Jackie has always been theologically creative.
I’m a Calvinist.
Nobody can define “emergent” but it’s an insult in ODM theology and any insult that you don’t have to define works for her.
Correct definitions seem to cause her some issues…
This flailing away at Calvinist shadows and progressive ghosts is the rhetoric of division…and division will come.
For those of you that didn’t hear it last night, my report on Tuesday was confirmed on national radio by one of George Bryson’s allies.
It’s here...and his rhetoric was much stronger than mine.
I will amen Jackie’s call that God’s will be done…and we start loving each other as the Bible commands and seeking to solve our real problems instead of creating new ones.
Now, I have a meeting to attend with some “progressive ecumenicists”…