*UPDATE* A LITTLE SURPRISE FOR “SURPRISING MINISTRIES”
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Jan 5, 2008 in Current Issues
*UPDATE* Although the blog mentioned below remains online whoever was responsible for it has now taken down the posts which were there.
Apprising Ministries would like to let those who may stumble upon this waste of cyberspace that they may rest assured that the “Ken Silva” there is not me. Apparently someone who is humor-impared Had posted this site in the comments section at Pyromaniacs.
Oddly enough in the initial post at Surprising Ministries we see the writer has trouble with reading comprehension. In the following from the AM piece As It Concerns Free Will Or The Bondage Of The Will, which is actually based on a work by Bob DeWaay of Critical Issues Commentary, I am quoted saying:
the Reformation solas of sola fide and sola gratia mean that while the sinner is dead in his trespasses and sins it is God Himself sovereignly regenerating those whom He will and gives them as His gift the faith to believe and repent. This is diametrically opposed to any of the seeker-friendly new evangelical movements like that led by Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren.
And then in apparent glee the writer wrongly concludes:
There you have it! Ken would have you believe that a “Man-Centered” gospel is a new idea that was recently invented by the seeker-sensitive movement, specifically Rick Warren.
Not exactly a “new-evangelicalism” as Ken is so fond of saying.
Then the writer goes on to quote Wikipedia, which is not a scholastic source, concerning Jacob Arminius who in their mind “started” the “Man-Centered” gospel. Leaving aside that man-centered gospel of apostate Roman Catholicism predates Arminius, I didn’t say the seeker sensitive movements (plural) or Rick Warren started anything.
What I actually said was that these movements, and specifically Rick Warren, are preaching a man-centered gospel that is “diametrically opposed” to “the Reformation solas of sola fide and sola gratia”.
As far the new evangelicalism I speak of, history will show that evangelicalism was far more God-centered in their Gospel than the neo-evangelical movement. Neo-evangelicalism, and by the way neo means “new,” that involved men like Harold Ockenga and Billy Graham began to take shape as early as the 1940’s and even would give birth to Christianity Astray Today magazine.
And concerning this new evangelicalism Phil Johnson was dead on target when he said over a year ago:
It seems to me these days that neo-evangelicalism has pretty much gained complete control of the entire evangelical movement. Today the visible evangelical movement is so overwhelmed with shallow neo-evangelicalism that most people in the movement think that’s what historic evangelicalism is.
Frankly, if you’re looking for examples of virile, dynamic, doctrinally-rich historic evangelicalism, you’re not likely to find it very prominently displayed on the best-seller racks in evangelical bookshops, on the pages of Christianity Today, or in press releases from the National Association of Evangelicals.
In other words, neo-evangelicalism is living and graphic proof of how easily and how quickly a little leaven can leaven the whole lump. (Online source)