Concerning Tim Keller the Mystic and the New Calvinist/YRR movement. Here are further concerning reasons why we should be aware of, and Why We Cannot Endorse Rezolution 2013, as Tim Keller is a leader in this movement where the so called Young Reformed and Restless all work in unity to further the New Calvinist Charismatic movement. Some of the major figures in this movement are John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris.
It has come to our attention, that many Reformed brothers and sisters in South Africa are excited about the coming Rezolution Conference , being held in South Africa in April 2013. We have some concerns about the speakers as they are all from the Young, Restless, Reformed movement also known as the New Calvinism movement. Hearing names like Tim Keller , who is a leader in this new movement is concerning, as Keller has, in recent years embraced mysticism , theistic evolution and more recently his church has now embraced Lectio Divina. Tim Keller’s books are also highly recommended by pastors and teachers across South Africa in many Reformed churches. While he may be a good author, he certainly does intentionally mix subtle “ear – tickling” error with Scriptural truth.
[1] While Keller claims to be a Reformed Protestant, his writings reveal a profound empathy with the Roman Catholic Church. In The Reason for God (2008) he refers to the Catholic Church as “the largest church in the world”. Is the Roman Catholic church really a church, a true Church???
[2] He explains that he believes in a broad definition of Christianity that includes the Church of Rome. He says that “all Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christians assent together to the great creeds.” Great creeds? We have failed to find those man-made creeds in the text of Scripture.
[3] And this, in Keller’s mind, means that Roman Catholics are real Christians. He frequently quotes from Roman Catholic sources and authors.
Points 1-3 above taken from here http://www.newcalvinist.com/kellers-affinity-with-rome/kellers-mysticism/
1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Notes of great concern from the latest News Letter from Lighthouse Trails :
Is someone who’s teachings you follow on this list? (See below). If so, beware, you have been warned. Lectio Divina is not Biblical. Lectio Divina is a filthy concoction of Satanic deception aimed at those who desire to experience God as entertainment.
A Lighthouse Trails reader brought it to our attention that Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, is promoting the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina. On his webpage, Lectio Divina (“Divine Reading”) instructions are given on how to practice Lectio Divina. A statement at the bottom of that page says that the material is adapted from David Benner’s book, “Sacred Companion”. On a Recommended Resources page, linking off the lectio divina page, is a link to an article, “Meditation: Not so Mysterious”, by contemplative teacher Jan Johnson (author of When the Soul Listens). With these things in mind, Redeemer Presbyterian Church has been added to the Lighthouse Trails “Lectio Divina” list.
On February 25th, 2013, Redeemed Presbyterian Church (Timothy Keller’s church) was added to the list.
Some places you will find Lectio Divina being promoted:
David Crowder in Praise Habit
Richard Foster (numerous places)
John Michael Talbot in The Universal Monk
Dan Kimball in The Emerging Church
Tony Jones in Divine Intervention
David Benner in Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer
Eugene Peterson in Eat This Book
Ken Boa in Healthy Spirituality and Conformed to His Image
Eugene Peterson in Message Bible for Kids
Keri Wyatt Kent in Listen
Multnomah University (OR)
Mike Bickle in IHOP
Cornerstone U. (MI)
Biblegateway.com
Marjorie Thompson in Soul Feast
John Ortberg in An Ordinary Day with Jesus
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook
Christian Camp & Conference Association (CCCA)
Biola University (CA)
Larry Crabb in Real Church
Michael Casey in Sacred Reading
Saddleback Church
Willow Creek
Ruth Haley Barton (various)
Jan Johnson in When the Soul Listens
Leighton Ford in The Attentive Life
Lynne Babb in Joy Together
Richard Peace in Conversations in the New Testament
Mark Yaconelli in Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray
Dallas Willard in Hearing God
Robert Webber in Ancient Future Faith
J.I. Packer in Praying
Mike King in Presence Centered Youth Ministry
Ivy Beckwith in Formational Children’s Ministry
Brian McLaren in Finding Our Way Again
Tony Campolo in The God of Intimacy
Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian
Read more here, lots of info on why Lectio Divina is not Biblical :http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2013/newsletters20130226.htm
Also read these extensive well written articles which voice serious concerns, by Dr Paul M Elliott Tim Keller’s False Gospel: A Point-By-Point Analysis. Timothy Keller promotes a “gospel” designed to be attractive to unregenerated man, but stripped of the Biblical essentials and robbed of Divine power and authority.Tim Keller’s False Gospel: Changing Both the Method and the Message. Timothy Keller’s “gospel” rests on a faulty foundation: the misconception that man changes, therefore the message must change. Tim Keller’s Gutless ‘Gospel’. A segment from an interview with Tim Keller shows just how gutless his “gospel” is – a mass of evasions, equivocations, and misrepresentations of God’s truth.Tim Keller: Dangerously Influential. Dr. Timothy J. Keller is one of today’s most influential religious leaders, and one of the most dangerous.
For the Love of His Truth 
This unwanted Blog that was circulated all over is just another underhanded way of hyper-orthodoxy
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Kobus van der Walt (karooseunKobus)
By your standards unwanted, it is mere human standards. I had to block you on Facebook because of your insults toward me, and now you come here to raise your little straw man argument. It says a lot about your character as a leader and teacher of your church. You know there are clear instructions in the Bible as to how a leader/elder has to lead the flock. Do you even know the meaning of “hyper-orthodoxy”. It would seem not.
Kobus, you are leading the sheep astray if you teach them Lectio Divina and use those teachings of Tim Keller and the others on the list.
I will pray for you to be lead to the narrow path of truth.
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Please remove my name from your E-Mail list, because I don’t want to be identified with your one-sided and hyper-orthodoxy views.
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Kobus van der Walt (karooseunKobus)
Here are brief instructions for unsubscribing to emails.
1. click the “unsubscribe” link on the emails of the posts received at the very bottom of the emails.
2. go here > http://wordpress.com/#!/read/edit/ locate and click the “x” next to any blog there to unfollow it and no longer receive posts in the Reader or by email.
3. go to the blog in question and click the unfollow/follow link on your Admin bar.
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The message which Jesus Christ preached was certainly completely one-sided. The Sovereignty of God is one-sided, perfect Holiness is one-sided. The Gospel held within Scripture is one-sided, however, the false gospel has many sides. The means to salvation is one-sided. Effectual Grace is one-sided.
The only acceptable way in which we can serve our Master is one-sided. Sovereign Election is one-sided. “I AM”, the statement Jesus made of Himself is one-sided. Truth is one-sided, whereas lies are myriad and have many sides. The Way is one-sided. The Creator is one-sided, the Godhead created all things alone. According to Jesus, there is a one-sided means by which we can come to the Father.
Remember what the Reformers fought for? A return to Orthodox Biblical teaching! Without failure, those who uphold nothing but the one-sided Truth within the Christian faith, have always been regarded by those who accept many possible truths, as being too “orthodox”. An overstatement of man’s free will has produced this deadly result. Here, that contradiction in terms has once again been used. The Truth held within Christ, within Scripture, can only be described by an orthodox and unaffected understanding. Man-made doctrines and beliefs, by their very nature, destroy orthodoxy.
The object of our worship, adoration and our faith is a hyper-orthodox God, as a matter of fact, our estimation of hyper-orthodoxy insufficiently describes the Perfectly Holy, Almighty and Sovereign God.
Gnosticism, Romanism, Paganism, Pelagianism, Mysticism, Arminianism and other forms of Free-willism and post-modernism, have all led to a tolerance toward error, and false doctrine being accepted by much of the church. The message issuing forth from affected pulpits and seminaries, is that each individual has the right to regard God according to how we “experience” or “perceive” God. That is where emergent thinking has led much of the church to, and that is demonic doctrine.
What does hyper-orthodox mean? No true follower of Christ would even consider opposing the orthodoxy of Christ’s Word. Those who oppose orthodoxy and singular (one-sided) Truth, oppose God. Truth is not in the process of developing, the canon of Scripture is closed, we have God’s complete one-sided and orthodox truth. It is really quite simple.
Hyper-orthodoxy is:
1. of, pertaining to, or conforming to the approved form of any doctrine
2. of, pertaining to, or conforming to approved beliefs, attitudes or modes of conduct
3. customary or conventional, as a means or method, established.
4. sound, correct and established theological or religious opinion or doctrine
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Well said Grant. Amen!
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Having New Calvinists Mark Dever and C J Mahaney talk at Rezolution 2013 is concerning enough for me to put me on guard. The article/s pretty much voice our concerns of this movement the New Calvinist/YRR and the question remains will Mark Driscoll , Piper or Ecumenical A Mohler or even Keller himself talk at the future conferences ?
I do not understand why we need to have overseas high profile preachers here in SA anyway, surely we have good enough preachers of our own in SA. There is no Biblical mandate to import men from any other country. In the end I get a sad and a bad feeling about this whole movement.
The true Gospel must be preached to the unregenerate yes ! But I ask you will they be found at this conference, the unregenerate? The conferences theme is What is the Gospel ?
All true believers knows what the true gospel pertains. So I repeat , we do not need high profile men in SA to tell us what the gospel is.
Many many concerns………only time will tell, may God help us !!
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Dear Christian,
In the beginning God placed us on the narrow road of Reformation, then we got on the broad path that leads to destruction, the road of free-willism, health wealth and prosperity and mysticism. By the grace of God we came out of Babylon and are now horrified that this wicked circle is being repeated by young and old reformers-returning to the flesh pots of Egypt. We know the broad road; we have been there and find it not only wanting scripturally, but lacking true spirituality. We have been where these new Calvinists and so called young and restless reformers are going; to test the river whether it runs true, but be warned: it is a river spewed out of the mouth of the Dragon that persecute the woman. No longer can you hold fast to the Five Sola’s when you embrace the alternative gospel, you will finally have to compromise the Apostles Creed as well.
The state of the Reformation principles today;
Why do people seek greener grass over the fence, what is the problem with the Reformed Church today that the young and restless go and embrace another gospel? We all know what is the gospel once delivered to the Saints and we do not need Americanism in any form to come and bring something new. The closest to an answer I can get is: that they have left their first love, the sweetness of biblical understanding of the living Word. Charles Alexander in the 1950 experienced the poverty in Reformed churches in bringing the Word, the Truth in a manner worthy of the living Word. They have left Orthodoxy. It is not that they have left the Truth of Reformed theology, but that they have lost the excitement that the Word brings and it has become tradition. We commend them for keeping the rigid dogma, the orthodoxy in the chaos of Charismania that brings chaos in the church, but they have in a certain sense, move from the spirit of Reformative theology to traditionalism without making fire in the pulpit with the Word. We thank the Lord that those deceivers we can pass by as Grant said, they will not contribute an iota of gospel that we do not have once delivered by the Saints. There will always be guardians of the wall of spiritual Jerusalem, who echo the voice of the past that is only found in Sola Scriptura.
How do you keep standing in this wicked crucible of base theology that is an alloy of ungodly mix of tarnished and corroded religion? Must we wait till the fire burn the dross with the hope that one day the nobility of Truth will be revealed? Those that teach another gospel will be saved but as through fire, those that murder with lies and harm the temple of the living God, the sheep. Everything new is not necessarily true, not unlike the New Reformers which believe in euhemerism, that historical events and persons are mythologized. They are panentheists and pantheist without redemption in Christ only.
There is hope though, those that emerge out of Charismania find the sweetness of Reformational theology and find it refreshing and their souls regenerate with Truth. In Charismania they had a gospel to live for now they e have a gospel to die for. They find their reformational compatriots amazed by their zeal and hopefully they can light a fire for Reformational revival. Members do not know what they have, do not understand their faith, do not know what they believe and why they believe it? I asked a Reformed Pastor Steyn in Empangeni if I can send a friend delivered from the Old Apostolic Church to a certain Church. He said yes it should be ok. But with further research I found it a free-willism and their statement of faith is Dispensational. That is sending them to the Lion’s den. There is famine of the Truth and the flock is starving or lead astray.
Charles Alexander in the 1950 said this: Cracks are in the Reformed Movement of our time. All the signs of a steady disintegration are with us.
They are, in brief:
1. The rise of a new Calvinistic scholasticism;
2. Inability of our young men to preach convincingly or expound adequately;
3. The increasing tendency to be sidetracked to second or third rate issues;
4. Dangerous symptoms of turning aside to dabbling in charismatic ‘gifts’.
1. THE RISE OF A NEW CALVINISTIC SCHOLASTICISM.
In Great Britain, U.S.A. and Holland, men who display an impressive collection of qualifications, are writing or reviewing abstruse books which are acclaimed as marking an epoch or a new high watermark of relevance in current theology, although they are completely meaningless to ordinary Christians wrestling on the ground level with the true facts of life.
Young ministers, with or without the same intellectual facade, (Mr. Muggeridge, who ought to know, has recently spoken about ‘bogus degrees’) have eagerly added the new books to their shelves and are impressing themselves (if not their congregations) with the feeling that they are not behind the times, even though they cannot preach and their own future usefulness is in grave doubt.
They are in a Valley of Dry Bones, but there is unlikely to be any breath of the Spirit to animate their theology.
Theologies and commentaries are being sent out from the press, which, though thoroughly orthodox (Calvinistically speaking), are entirely scholastic in their treatment of divine themes, as though theology was a mental exercise among a higher rating of students. The language (some would say the jargon) used, is calculated to make the authors relevant among other scholars neither Reformed nor evangelical, and often positively rationalistic and atheistic.
Reformed Theology of that name, and which grew out of the Reformation stem as the most complete and satisfying presentation of truth in the understanding of the common people, the world has ever seen. We implore some of our younger men before it is too late, to consider seriously where the present tendencies may lead. They should look to their priorities and get back to first principles.
Do We Need A Modern Reformation?
Because of the lack of making the bible alive in the reformed tradition young Reformers are going elsewhere for spiritual food, to a table laid with spices and meat of new reformism and theistic evolution, which is a table laid with dung which deception blind their eyes to the truth and they perceive it as genuine food. The problem is now that they look back towards their precious heritage they now despise the orthodox table that contain real spiritual food. The reason is that they were not properly nourished from a table laid out with real meat and so they did not recognize what they had in Reformational doctrine. They throw out the baby with the bathwater when they experience phenomena of doubtful origin being under the delusion that it is from God. They see now with their fleshly eyes and hear with their fleshly ears new things that titillate the flesh instead of having old things made new. In China it is the year of the Snake and so it seems in Christian circles as well.
You will not find God and the true gospel in any new Calvinism, or young and restless Reformers, or any Conferences, it is a strategy as old as Creation, that of lies, the Liar of al liars, the Murderer of murderers, that of the soul and not of the body. The answer is to go back to the unadulterated Word of God that always brought revival; revival is back to the excitement of finding Christ in Moses’ writing, seeking where Moses wrote about Christ, where did the prophets write about Christ. Moses only wrote about Christ as Bengel said. Expounding Christ in the whole Bible, that is more than a lifelong task, which will never be boring or completed in a thousand years of exposition? It will always be exiting to keep in the Word which is the real experience; made alive by the Holy Spirit. This is the ultimate, experience, the ultimate richness and health wealth and prosperity. This is true biblical mysticism and not the likes of reformers committing spiritual adultery with Rominism disguised as a Reformed teaching the likes of Rezolution 2013.
Thank God for Hyper-Orthodoxy, the only answer to another and false gospels.
Nico
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More exposes on Tim Keller:
http://www.perfectpeaceplan.com/post/doctrine-of-primary-and-secondary-separation-is-vanishing/
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Thank you James.
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