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Christian Index editor pushes for answers from Calvinism Advisory Committee about babies burning in hell

Below is the most recent editorial by Christian Index editor, Gerald Harris.¹ Entitled "A New Kind of Calvinism" Dr. Harris shares his perspective on the committee report released prior to the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention by Executive Committee President Frank Page. In addition Harris recalls his concern over one aspect of the committee report, a concern he expressed during the official Q/A at the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention. Harris rightly asked about the committee's affirmation that "most Southern Baptists believe that those who die before they are capable of moral action go to heaven through the grace of God and the atonement of Christ."²  

C.J. Mahaney, The Victims, and Depths of Darkness

I got about two-thirds of the way through the Second Amended Class Action Complaint and Jury Demand filed by attorneys representing the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against young, restless, and reformed icon, C.J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), two SGM churches, one SGM school, and ten other SGM leaders.¹ Truth is, I couldn't go on. It's most horrifying and even solicits the deepest anger and rage from a person's soul.

Contemporary Reformed authors on John 3:16: Joel Beeke

I've been posting some classic Calvinistic authors' renderings of KOSMOS in John 3:16. Thus far, we've considered:

Sovereign Grace Ministries and C.J. Mahaney want lawsuit to end

The Louisville-based Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) and, up until recently, head of the dwindling mini-denomination¹ of Charismatic-neo-Calvinist churches, C. J. Mahaney, are apparently claiming that constitutional rights of religious freedom shield them from an ever-expanding lawsuit mounting against the organization generally and certain individuals particularly (the plaintiffs' lawyers continue to amend the lawsuit adding more and more victims who allege wrong-doing against them). According to Louisville's Courier-Journal religion reporter, Peter Smith, the defendants contrarily allege that SGM's demands for unquestioning obedience led to the shielding of sexual predators.

More verbal abuse and implications of "heresy" by Baptist Calvinists

UPDATE: one of James White's supporters, Micah Burke, put up a post in response to my piece below. Entitled "Peter Lumpkins doesn't know who he's responding to," Burke suggests my critical commentary below is misdirected toward James White. Instead he claims my criticism presumably should have been directed toward Al Mohler since "Nearly 99% of the quote [the quote below I transcribed from White's broadband broadcast] is actually Al Mohler's own words" (italics and link original). What a rip-roaring revelation! I'd never thought of that! Of course, Burke (he apparently is a volunteer employee for White's ministry) completely ignored the two references to Pelagius that White employed in the context of speaking about Harwood which contains much of the substance driving my concern below, two references White could not have quoted from Mohler because Mohler didn't mention either Pelagius or Pelagianism in his piece. Hence, White went well beyond Mohler in theologically implicating Harwood by identifying him not with semi-Pelagianism but identifying Harwood with Pelagius himself. These are the kinds of vacuous defenses offered by James White advocates...

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I've already mentioned the verbal assaults some aggressive Southern Baptist Calvinists levelled toward the presenters and participants of the 2013 John 3:16 Conference (here and here). One may now add to their literary hubris the voice of Reformed Baptist, James White. On his latest "Radio Free Geneva" internet broadcast White especially deals with presenters Adam Harwood, Eric Hankins, Emir Caner, and Steve Gaines.¹ 

Baptist Press reports on the 2013 John 3:16 Conference

Baptist Press posted a good summary article on The 2013 John 3:16 Conference held at North Metro First Baptist Church March 21-22. It rightly cast the differences between the earlier conference as a planned response to each of the five-points Calvinism (T.U.L.I.P.) and this year's conference:

Trouble continues to mount for C.J. Mahaney and SGM

On April 12, C.J. Mahaney, Founder and President of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), will step aside as president (//link). According to Christianity Today, Mahaney wants to step aside in large part "to focus on being a local pastor." While Mahaney mentions he is "eager to once again devote my attention to pastoral ministry," he also questions whether, as the newly revised polity for SGM is implemented, his personal "gifts and sense of call are the best fit for certain aspects of this new role" (//link).

A helpful visual image demonstrating the influence of a single man in the Southern Baptist Convention

Thanks to Dr. Adam Harwood, the helpful visual below shows how powerfully influential one man can be in a convention of churches like Southern Baptists. In itself, the image is neutral. That is, the visual only depicts what is without necessarily suggesting what ought to be. Hence, while my inference from the visual might produce alarming concern, a concern the reality of which I see inevitably leading to top-down, centralized authority going against the grain of free church tradition, another's inference might suggest an appreciation--or even inspiration--about how God uses certain people. Indeed, it's quite possible it might produce both of the above or neither of the above while yet producing another inference.

Is it "breaking news" the new ERLC lead man is Russell Moore?

Listed as "Breaking News" on Russell Moore's site, Moore to the Point, we read:

"Russell Moore has been elected as the next president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

The ERLC’s board of trustees approved Moore, currently dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a special, called meeting Tuesday (March 26) at a Nashville hotel" (//link)

Compare the "breaking news" with these words I penned September 26, 2012:

"And, given Mohler's powerful persona among the Southern Baptist denominational elite, it's hardly avoidable to predict who will be on the short list--and perhaps the actual candidate to take Dr. Richard Land's place--Dr. Mohler's "right-hand man," Russell D. Moore" (a probability I reiterated again in the comment thread)

Some query whether they even needed a committee. Not me. Committees are non-negotiable, aesthetic necessities in Baptist life. We do have to maintain our congregational appearances after all.

Louisiana's Message republishes "The Calvinists are here" by Georgia's Christian Index editor, Gerald Harris

The Baptist Message recently posted a series of articles on the purported issue over Calvinism at Louisiana College. I received permission from The Message editor to re-post the four articles in full on my site since many Southern Baptists outside Louisiana are watching with concerned interest the fiasco taking place on the Baptist campus. Yet since so few of us outside Louisiana subscribe to The Message, we were left completely in the dark as to the content of the articles. You may find the first and second articles linked after the editorial below.

What is Calvinism? everything you need to know about Calvinism...and then some by Peter Lumpkins

Well it took long enough! The truth is, I've been so busily assisting others in getting their literary stuff published, I've continued to place on the back burner something from my own bean pot. Hence, I took a few days off to cook up this little piece which I think will help church folk understand the Calvinism issue.

Born Guilty? A Southern Baptist View of Original Sin by Adam Harwood

 Free Church Press announces a new and exclusive teaching series on biblical, theological, ethical, and ecclesial themes significant for Southern Baptists. The series will target people in the pew rather than those who have a theological background. While we believe all church leaders--including pastors and other staff leaders--will benefit from the series, the goal is to educate the millions of Southern Baptists who neither have theological or biblical degrees nor desire to wade through long, technical works to gain a reasonable grip on the essence of a particular subject. Thus, "lay" leaders¹ and other church members will especially benefit from this series. 

Mullins proleptical words on "imputed guilt" in the 1925 statement of faith

E.Y. Mullins may be the most controversial theologian in Southern Baptist history. He is routinely cited by conservative and liberal, Calvinist and non-Calvinist as both friend and foe to the Baptist cause¹. Nor is Mullins' role as the primary--if not exclusive--literary architect of the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message seriously questioned. Rather it is barely less than universally assumed   >>>

Adam Harwood on the dilemma at young, restless, and reformed's "ground zero"

The book was Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists by Colin Hansen.  In it, the self-identifying "YRR" journalist dubbed Southern Seminary "Ground Zero" for training and equipping the new army of young neo-Calvinist pastors and church planters to spread the doctrines of grace across the Southern Baptist Convention    >>>

Young Truett-McConnell scholar drops a bombshell on Southern Baptist academia

When Karl Barth's classic commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans was first published in 1919, a biblical monograph which effectively delivered Old Liberalism its first mortal blow, one German reviewer described Barth's neo-orthodox innovation revealed in his Romans exposition as falling "like a bombshell on the playground of the theologians"   >>>

Covenant Life Church pulling away from C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries?

UPDATE: North Carolina pastor Tim Rogers posts a piece raising the question whether Dr. Al Mohler and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have connections so close to C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries that the recent lawsuit against Mahaney and his ministry will legally bleed all over Southern Baptists. While I cannot see myself how that could happen, I happily concede I know much too little about the legalities of such a possibility to make a reasonable judgment. 

Note: do not fail to watch Mahaney's promo video featuring Al Mohler and John Bettler, Executive Director of Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). After both men appear to thoroughly pronounce Mahaney as the (re)incarnation of Peter, James, John and the Apostle Paul all rolled into one, Bettler goes on to congratulate Joshua Harris as the anointed successor of C.J. Mahaney to lead Sovereign Grace Ministries (approx. 8:50 mark), a succession hardly fathomable now if the report below is correct.

Read "A Question for Dr. Al Mohler in Houston" by Tim Rogers

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Recently, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) relocated from Gaithersburg, Maryland to Louisville, Kentucky only to be served a devastating spiritual/sexual abuse lawsuit a mere two weeks after they opened their doors for a new church plant in Louisville, a lawsuit to which an initial response was thereafter released   >>> 

Susan Burke represents plaintiffs against C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries in sexual offenses lawsuit

A well-known litigator for sexual abuse claims is representing the three female plaintiffs who filed sexual abuse claims against Sovereign Grace Ministries and new Calvinist celebrity icon, C.J. Mahaney   >>>

C.J. Mahaney's ministry move to Louisville did not spare them a Maryland lawsuit

Reportedly, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), a ministry founded by high-profile Calvinist celebrity, C.J. Mahaney, is awaiting the official serving of a lawsuit filed in Maryland by three unnamed female plaintiffs. According to Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press,   >>>

Another Texas pastor sends an Open Letter to Midwestern trustees

Following on the heels of Texas pastor Steve Brumbelow's open letter to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees expressing his concern over the search committee's disappointing announcement that Dr. Jason K. Allen would be nominated as the seminary's fifth president, Rodney Hammer, Executive Director of Missions for the Blue River-Kansas City Association, sent his own public dissent to the trustees expressing his disagreement with the Allen nomination, a disagreement coming from the very cradle of Midwestern's influence.¹  Now, yet another open letter reaches the trustees this week...    >>>

Texas pastor Steve Brumbelow sends an Open Letter to Midwestern trustees

Posting verifiable information about Dr. Jason K. Allen, trustee search committee nominee to become the fifth president at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has inspired some pastors to research for themselves whether the proposed candidate constitutes an acceptable nominee and conclude contra the search committee it does not.   >>>