Author: kevinjandt

I am a self-avowed Calvinist. Not only a Calvinist, but I consider myself fully and completely Reformed. I appreciate and have a deep love for the pursuit of God. I love working to understand Him to the best of my ability by diving deep into the Scriptures and knowing doctrinal and theological positions. It is fun for me to do this. I enjoy learning at the feet of those brilliant theologians of years gone by.

Another phrase utilized for Reformed/Calvinistic teaching is called the “Doctrines of Grace.” I think it’s a good term. All of God’s dealings with man are by His grace, but particularly salvation. We often know and recite this all-familiar text, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

I’m not sure it can be made any clearer than this.

The troublesome part for me is that if we have been saved by grace, transformed by grace, sanctified by grace, and will ultimately be glorified by grace, why are so many in the Reformed Camp that I happily reside, so lacking in grace?

You’ve undoubtedly heard the term cage stage. That means when someone comes to understand the doctrines of grace, they need to stay in a cage until they settle down. New Calvinists, are, shall we say, “zealous” for the truth, and eager to tell everyone about it. I sure did, and I was incredibly un-gracious in my approach. I turned many people off with my good intentions.

It wasn’t until we had been abused by “grace” that I truly understood the need for God’s people to practice living out a gracious spirit. We can argue our theological differences, and to some degree, we should, but must it be at the expense of love? If we truly understand what God has done for us shouldn’t we be the most loving people on the planet? I say yes, but often the answer is no, we are not.

I have no need to rebuke anyone, for I have often been the one needing rebuke. I need to catch myself sometimes because I’m not so great at it all the time. In all honesty, I need to read a lot more Newton. I need to read a lot more of Ichabod Spencer. I need to learn from those men that I know, and those that I observe from a distance, those of a meek and humble spirit.

I’ll leave off with how John Newton dealt with controversy.

As to your opponent, I wish, that before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing.  This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write.  If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab, concerning Absalom, are very applicable: “Deal gently with him for my sake,” The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore, you must not despise him, or treat him harshly.  The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should show tenderness to others, from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself.  In a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now.  Anticipate that period in your thoughts; and though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.  But if you look upon him as an unconverted person, in a state of enmity against God and his grace, (a supposition which, without good evidence, you should be very unwilling to admit,) he is a more proper object of your compassion than your anger.  Alas! “he knows not what he does.”  But you know who has made you to differ.  If God, in his sovereign pleasure, had so appointed, you might have been as he is now; and he, instead of you, might have been set for the defense of the gospel.  You were both equally blind by nature.  If you attend to this, you will not reproach or hate him, because the Lord has been pleased to open your eyes, and not his. 

Lord help us be more gracious!

Kevin

We did the unthinkable this past weekend, and we went to see Jesus Revolution. The warnings were abundant. If we went to see it, we would probably turn from being orthodox to whatever kind of loosey, goosey theological mumblings the movie had to offer. Despite the doom and gloom, I came out unscathed and I hope a touch better for it.

I am offering some reasons why I think you should also see it. If you know what you believe and you can defend your belief system, why would you be afraid to see something with a different theological bent than yourself? It reminded me, as we watched the movie, of the two or three families that left the church in the beginning when Chuck Smith was wrestling with whether he should allow hippies into the church. Such a bizarre concept for me. Wasn’t Jesus the one that received sinners? (My Sermon from Luke 15).

There are some theological weaknesses to the movie, for sure. I have a different take on the “healing” ministry that Lonnie Frisbee purported to have. I also don’t believe he or anyone else has obtained “prophet” status today. I firmly believe those have ceased. Although, I do believe God can and will heal if it is His prerogative to do so.

However, there were many great and encouraging elements to the movie. How often do we neglect those that need Christ’s love because of our theological insecurities? Yes, I call them insecurities because we would rather fight over our sound doctrine than accept someone for their changed life even if it does not follow the prescribed method we believe.

Disclaimer: The sinner’s prayer is not found in the Bible, but I think countless people have been saved by reciting the sinner’s prayer despite bad theology, and then they grow as the Lord sanctifies them.

Was the Jesus Revolution real? I think it was authentic, and I believe there are many saved people today because of it. Do I think all of them were truly saved? No, I think there were probably many false converts. I also think there are many false converts in Biblically sound churches today. Those that grew up in orthodox or fundamentalist churches, as I wrote about in this article.

I’m all for sound theology. I think it’s essential. I think great preaching with precise accuracy is fundamental. I have no doubts the Calvary and Vineyard movements have lots of bad theology and bad teaching, but it’s funny because I know of orthodox churches that have done more than their fair share of damage to people despite claiming good theology.

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved….So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:13, 17).

I heard much of the word of God spoken in this movie. It was even, primarily correctly interpreted. Yes, there are issues. But what if someone goes to this movie and gets saved? Do you want to be the one that discourages them because you don’t think it’s done to your exacting standards? Are you actually hindering the children from coming to Jesus?

The 2^nd London Baptist Confession – Chapter 26, Section 3. “The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan; nevertheless Christ always has had, and ever shall have a kingdom in this world, to the end thereof, of such as believe in him and make profession of his name.

That is a powerful statement we should take seriously rather than looking down our theological noses at those less worthy of the gospel than us. Jesus Revolution may not be up to your standards, but If you can get outside yourself and think about people that were affected and transformed despite bad theology, maybe it humbles us a little. Maybe that’s the point and one of the reasons I recommend you go see it.  

I’ll leave you with a quote from John Newton. One we should all meditate on, deeply.

Whoever is truly humbled — will not be easily angry, nor harsh or critical of others. He will be compassionate and tender to the infirmities of his fellow-sinners, knowing that if there is a difference — it is grace alone which has made it! He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart. And under all trials and afflictions — he will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.

Kevin

“When you come to a fork in the road take it” Yogi Bera

Jonestown or the People’s Temple was the most notorious cult of all time.

It was evil through and through and ended in great tragedy. Could it have been avoided? Hard to say, but one man tried to help and he paid with his life.

Congressman Leo Ryan was part of a delegation to investigate Jonestown along with legal advisor Jackie Speier, who would survive and go on to a career in politics. Reporter Don Harris was slipped a note that was intended for Ryan that said, “Dear Congressman, Vernon Gosney, and Monica Bagby, please help us get out of Jonestown.”

Jackie Speier said this: “So, I was sitting in the back of the pavilion at a picnic table with the bench and both of us had been sitting back there and interviewing members of the People’s Temple who had family members back home and they wanted us to deliver letters or talk to their children or young adults and try and assess whether they were being held there against their will.”

Then Congressman Ryan addressing the group seemed to have the appearance that things were somewhat “okay” but that would change quickly. Here is a short video clip as he was addressing the People’s Temple.

Speier in an interview with Brian Lamb of C-Span had this to say: “That particular clip that you just showed, the pandemonium that kind of broke out in terms of fervor of the applause was unnatural, and it was alarming to me.” She went on to say that “it went on for an uncomfortable period of time.”

Once Ryan received the note he made an announcement that if others wanted to leave they would be allowing them to fly home. This is when things began to spin out of control for Jones. The departure or intended departure of some emboldened others and as others revealed that it wasn’t quite as great as it had previously appeared, many intended to leave. Jones, ordered the mass suicide and the murder of Ryan and those attempting to leave ensued.

And here is where I want to make my point. I don’t say every church has the potential to become a People’s Temple or end like Jonestown. There is a time to leave a church and the reactions from others and from leaders can tell you a great deal about how they view the topic. I’ve written extensively on the abusive church and most pointedly the topic of the “Painful Exit Process” many forks in the road take you back to exactly the same place. But to break free from abusive churches and cultic churches will take you back to Christ.

There is evil in the world and it often exists where it is described as religion.

Kevin

Congratulation mom and dad, you’ve brought home your child from the hospital…. Sorry, you had your first child, via home birth. Whew, we almost missed that one. It would have been off to a very poor start. Now that your new little precious is safely, still, at home, let’s get started on doing it right. You must also keep in mind it is your Christian duty to have as many of these little darlings as possible, that’s the only way to ensure a future Christian nation. (I’m not against having lots of children by the way, just an observation of certain fundamentalist tribes).

The next step is you need to get that baby on a strict schedule. After all, you need your sleep, and your baby can sleep if you follow the proper protocols. For one, it all needs to be timed out. If they cry because they are hungry…. Ooops, hahaha, I almost missed that one as well, they aren’t hungry, they are little sinners. Silly me. As I was saying, they need to be on a strict schedule. Sleep, eat, poop, and plenty of forced awake time, so they get used to being awake. You can train them to follow this routine and you, and your husband will be back to the regularly scheduled program in almost no time. I mean, you want to get to work on that next one as soon as possible.

Okay, let’s fast forward a little bit, that little darling is now old enough to understand some things, so don’t delay in catechizing them. This is incredibly important. Along with catechism, they should be working on scripture memorization. Did you know that by the time they were twelve, most Hebrew children had the entire law of Moses memorized? That’s a high bar, and you don’t want your budding scholar to get behind. It’s also important to ensure you do family worship before you do anything else. I mean, if you are planning a trip to the park, it would be sinful to NOT have worship first. Satan is lurking around the corner and your children are in his immediate sight.

You’ve done well dear brother and sister; your little guy or girl has grown quickly. They are ready for “school” and that, of course, means there is no other option but homeschool. After all, they aren’t ready for the mission field just yet. A Christian school is out of the question, I mean what if their doctrine is not up to your level? They need to be trained at home thoroughly, and that means Greek, Latin, and Hebrew training in addition to Bible. If you have time, toss in a little math and history. Make sure the history is from the Creation Museum, we can’t let anything sneak in that might corrupt their impressionable, little minds.

School is going well, and you’ve got three others’ now in addition to that first little beauty you brought home from the hospital, oh darn, I did it again. Those home births are going incredibly well, and imagine the money you are saving, not to mention that you avoid any potentially dangerous vaccines or eye drops that could cause serious long-term effects. You’ve done the right thing. I’m proud of you.  

Along with all that is going on I’m certain you aren’t skipping any church gatherings, because you shouldn’t be forsaking the assembling as is the manner of some, don’t forget that. Your little ones are doing great, they are faithful to hit the streets with you when you evangelize, that little Jr. is one of the best tract hander outers I’ve seen in a long time. That kid is awesome. Oops, only God is awesome, I’m sorry for such a silly faux pas. It won’t be long, and he will be heading into his teenage years, but not to worry, if you’ve trained him right, and you certainly have, there is no concern for teenage rebellion. He’s wired tight. You’ve crossed every T and dotted every I, some of them twice, so you got this. 

Well, those teenage years have turned out to be a little bit more challenging than you first anticipated, you would have thought all those spankings through the years would have beat the rebellion out of him, but he sure does seem to have a mind of his own. Oh well, we are trusting the Lord, and where we fail there is grace….  Hahaha, I slipped up again, none of this really is dependent on grace, it’s really how you’ve done.

Now he’s 21 and my things have gotten a whole lot out of control. It seems he’s rejected the faith he once professed, and he’s gone wild. What will become of his soul? Was he never truly converted? You did all the right things. I just don’t know, the other kids are still doing well, they are following the protocols, and surely do love going to the abortion clinic with you, so I’m sure they will turn out the way we want God to turn them out…. Won’t they?

On a serious note:

I trust you caught the sarcasm, and for the record, I’m not against training our children, we need to train them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. But the attitude that this strict regime produces godly children is called idolatry. You must depend on God’s grace every step of the way, seek Him in all you do, and He will direct your paths. Raising children is hard work, and it doesn’t always go the way you plan. They do have minds of their own no matter how hard you’ve tried to train it out of them, and I’m not sure you’d really want it any other way.

May the Lord help us as we endeavor to raise a godly generation for the glory of Christ.

Kevin

I met Dave Wellman at a Starbucks coffee shop. That’s not an unusual place for me to meet someone if you know me at all. It’s not that I think Starbucks is all that great, but it’s convenient, and the one near my home became a regular hangout for me. Once upon a time, I would get up early and take my laptop and Bible. I’d read the Bible and write blog posts. It was how I met the first character in this story, Gus Pappas. Gus is Greek, and specifically, he is Greek Orthodox.

Gus would see me reading my Bible, and he started asking me questions, and we started having regular sit-downs together. We would discuss the Bible, theology, the gospel, and many other topics. Gus is such an easygoing guy; we liked each other and still do. As the story progressed, Gus and I were chatting it up one day, and I noticed this fella over in the corner looking up from whatever he was doing and noticing our conversation. He keeps looking up and keeps looking up.  

After Gus left, I went up for a refill, and the fella came up behind me and said, “Hey, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Pastor Dave Wellman of Crossroads Baptist Church, and I really enjoyed listening in on your conversation.” After a brief chat, I invited him to join us, and the next day it was the three of us having a grand old time.

We would meet at about 7 am almost every day. The three of us were the core, but Jerry also joined the group. Master Chief Jerry Anderson was a wee little man who must not have been much taller than 4-something feet tall. He said very little, but he was always listening. We all met at the funeral home for Jerry’s visitation to say our final goodbye.

Different people came and went through the years, but we were always there, and the staff knew us well. It was always a great way to start the day. We would read the Scriptures, discuss them and attempt to grow in our own ways. Dave was always steadfast in his temperament and theological convictions. We didn’t always see things perfectly the same way, but we had a mutual respect and love for one another that far surpassed theological convictions.

Monday, January 30^th, I received a text message from Dave, “Praying for you all this morning.” We exchanged a few messages, and I left him hoping we would see him this coming summer if we visit Iowa. His final words to me were, “Awesome.”

On February 1st, Dave suffered a massive stroke and entered into eternity on February 9^th. I love my friend, and I will miss him dearly. If we do get to Iowa this summer, I have no doubts Gus and I will meet, sit at our usual table, and tell stories of our friend Dave. We will never forget him. Dave walked me through some difficult times in my life, and we had the joy and privilege of attending Crossroads for a time where he faithfully ministered to our souls. We always had such a great love for his preaching and his joyful singing.

If there is anything I know for sure, it is that Pastor David Wellman heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23).

It is not goodbye, but, until I see you again, dear friend. God’s speed, your work is done here on earth. I look forward to seeing you on the other side someday.

Kevin