I sure respect that view, that if there is official denominational affirmation of biblical faith that one can have integrity in staying unless staying communicates endorsement and support through maybe too many inofficial ways that would compromise the testimony and I suppose the problem for many that you couldn’t say for sure when that happens.
John Piper on Separation from the Pastor’s Conference address on J. Gresham Machen (starting about 1:22.00).
I find this interesting since I think it tracks alongside of the concerns of (at least some) fundamentalists about the "inofficial ways" that "communicate endorsement and support" for people or views.
It seems to me that at least sometimes separation is about more than the gospel itself (or some other doctrine). It is also about the messages we send by association.
That needs some more thought and fleshing out by people smarter than me, but I think it is worth considering.
_______________________
PS - Sorry about my three almost identical posts this morning. Blogger was having problems. The last version is the fully redacted version. You can use it as a model for source and redaction criticism if you like.
1 comment:
I have come to find the topic of biblical separation very interesting as I have read the Bible. It became apparent to me that God commands us to use biblical separation when dealing with false prophets. This is seldom used today. We are commanded to expose them and have nothing to do with them. If we support them even with a greeting we share in their evilness. Jesus himself had very harsh remarks and gave examples about them in the letter to the 7 Churches in Revelation. This message stands for today’s church. The guidelines seem to be clear cut and the instructions are straight forward when dealing with false prophets.
I find it interesting that John Piper would talk about this subject. I met with him and 17 elders at Bethlehem Baptist Church (BBC). trying to get them to listen to my detailed outline of concerns about their adoption and usage of TheoPhostic Counseling (A New Age practice that uses spirit guided occultism and Contemplative Prayer techniques) that had infiltrated BBC through an elder endorsement of a book titled REKINDLE YOUR SPIRIT by Paul Singh. Singh also had a seminar at BBC’s north site. Singh and BBC are close friends and supporters of Dr. Larry Crabb. I personally visited with John Piper and 17 BBC elders just to get stone walled. As far as I can tell John Piper’s history does not include implementing biblical separation against false prophets. He often stands arm in arm with them including Catholics. This is contrary to scripture as far as I can tell. I was surprised about what happened at BBC, but after leaving there in order to honor the biblical command to separate from false prophets I did a little background investigation on Piper that showed he is not exactly the zealous conservative theologian he portrays himself to be while preaching or penning his books. He has deep charismatic theology that he has preached on since his early inception at BBC in the 80’s. His doctrines include speaking in tongues, prophecy (soothsaying), and he supports signs and wonders as miracles and tools for revival that imitate John Wimber’s power evangelism and power encounter with demons. He is quoted in his sermons as being a user and supporter of charismatic experiences and considers himself to be a prophet who gives supernatural Words of Knowledge. He and his close followers have experienced things like holy laughter and other unbiblical and questionable spiritual experiences. If these experiences are not truly from the Holy Spirit then they are from an evil spirit. One can not just sit on the fence about this subject and who performs these things. They are either authored by God or Satan. Piper teaches the usage and techniques of Contemplative Prayer where God has supposedly given him unknown specific details about certain events and directs him for the future. As far as I can tell, Dr. Piper would have to separate from himself in order to obey the command to biblically separate, from those teaching false doctrine yet he invokes separation on Christians who have fallen into sexual sin. Is that called hypocrisy? Cathy Trammell
Post a Comment