Dear Lighthouse Trails:
Enclosed please find this announcement that was in our church’s bulletin (see image below) titled “New City Catechism.” We do not have a computer to do research on this, and we were wondering if you would be so kind as to do this for us. We are wondering if it is a good thing or not. Would you please let us know? May the Lord bless you all and give you continued wisdom and discernment in 2019.
Mr. and Mrs. E. (Wisconsin)
LT Comments:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. E:
We are writing regarding your letter asking about the New City Catechism. This is a Reformed/Calvinist project that was started by the Gospel Coalition and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The Gospel Coalition is an organization that has definite earmarks of being influenced by the emergent church, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church (Timothy Keller’s church) has on different occasions promoted the contemplative prayer movement.
On the New City Catechism website, one of their main books they use is titled The New City Catechism Devotional with an introduction by Timothy Keller. Keller is also one of the main contributors of the book, as is John Piper (a contemplative advocate) and John Calvin (a man directly and indirectly responsible for dozens of executions – see information below). The New City Catechism Devotional is published by the Gospel Coalition and Redeemer Presbyterian.
We hope that this short letter will be of some help to you as you research the matter and that you will use the utmost discernment and wisdom if you do end up doing this course.
Most Sincerely,
Editors at Lighthouse Trails Publishing
Below are some resources from Lighthouse Trails that may help equip you:
Calvinism: None Dare Call It Heresy by Bob Kirkland (see chapter 2 below)
5 Things You Should Know About Contemplative Prayer by Ray Yungen
How to Know When the Emerging Church is Showing Signs of Emerging into Your Church by Roger Oakland
Three Vital Questions on Navigating Discernment by Harry Ironside
John Calvin’s Manner of Life” by Bob Kirkland (Chapter 2 from Calvinism: None Dare Call It Heresy
Bernard Cottret, a university professor in France, wrote a book titled, Calvin: A Biography in which he clearly shows his admiration for Calvin on several levels. Thus, given that Cottret is not what you would call a critic of Calvin, it lends credibility to the more than 36* executions with which Calvin was directly or indirectly involved that are recorded in the book. Cottret documents the dates of executions and the methods of persecution, torture, and execution. He describes the period of time when Calvin had much authority in Geneva; and when Calvin denounced someone as a heretic (often the denouncement came for criticizing or even just questioning Calvin’s teachings) that person was hunted down. Cottret describes the atmosphere during this time:
Fear of sorcery and of heretics entailed their retinue of hasty, indeed barbarous remedies: imprisonment, torture, the stake.1
Men and women alike endured the torturous imprisonments and deaths.
THREE EXAMPLES OF CALVIN’S PERSECUTIONS
Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested and tortured twice a day for a month in an effort to get him to confess to the accusations against him. Then, on July 26, 1547, he was tied to a stake, his feet were nailed to it, and he was beheaded.2
Gruet’s book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch. This was not unusual behavior to those who dared to challenge or disagree with Calvin:
Gruet was put to the torture many times (444) during many days . . . In reality such unmeasured use of torture was in Geneva a Calvinistic innovation. Gruet, refusing under the worst stress of torture to incriminate anyone else, at length, in order to end it, pleaded guilty to the charges against him, praying in his last extremity for a speedy death. On July 26, 1547, his half-dead body was beheaded on the scaffold, the torso being tied and the feet nailed thereto. Such were the judicial methods and mercies of a reformed Christianity, guided by a chief reformer.3
Michael Servetus, a scientist, a physician, and theologian was born in Villanova in 1511. He angered Calvin by returning a copy of Calvin’s writings with critical comments in the margins. Calvin drew up a doctrine of over thirty official charges against Servetus, one of which was the rejection of John Calvin’s teaching concerning infant baptism leading to salvation. Five days into the trial, Calvin wrote, “I hope the death sentence will at least be passed upon him.”4 He also stated regarding Servetus, “If he come, and my influence can avail, I shall not suffer him to depart alive.”5
Calvin got his wish on October 27, 1553. Servetus was burned at the stake. He was screaming as he was literally baked alive from the feet upward and suffered the heat of the flames for thirty minutes before finally succumbing to one of the most painful and brutal methods of death possible.
Servetus had written a theology book, a copy of which was strapped to the chest of Servetus. The flames from the burning book rose against his face as he screamed in agony.6
While Michael Servetus definitely had some unbiblical teachings, such as his rejection of the Trinity, he was, as the late apologist Dave Hunt puts it, “right about some things: that God does not predestine souls to hell and that God is love.”7
Some have tried to say that Calvin was not responsible for the cruel manner in which Servetus was executed and that all he wanted was for Servetus to be beheaded (obviously, a less painful way to be executed). Brenda Nickel, a former Calvinist who was featured in a documentary film about Reformed Theology, provides some insight:
Calvin had a long-standing vendetta against Servetus. Servetus foolishly taunted Calvin through letters; thus, Calvin insisted on having him arrested and charged when he entered Geneva. Calvin wanted the death penalty for him. Servetus pleaded with Calvin to be beheaded instead of being burned at the stake, and Calvin was willing to go along with the idea. If Servetus was beheaded instead of burned, then Calvin couldn’t be blamed. Beheading, in this case, was attractive to both Servetus and Calvin. Beheading would be seen as a civil crime and free Calvin from having blood on his hands. French reformer William Farel rebuked Calvin for the thought. Since the charge was religious and not civil in nature, Servetus was burned at the stake.
Melanchthon (Luther’s friend and successor) praised Calvin for Servetus’ death. This execution basically skyrocketed Calvin to fame throughout Europe. It put him on the map, so to speak, as a noteworthy and respected reformer.8
Apparently, Calvin must have felt a need to appease himself of guilt in the murders he had helped to institutionalize.
Bernard Cottret also wrote of the persecution of the Anabaptist Belot:
While he shared the prejudices of his contemporaries against sorcerers, Calvin the churchman remained devoted to one of the church’s principal missions, the denunciation of heresy and the condemnation of heretics. For Calvin the greatest heretics were the Anabaptists. They were the internal enemy, as against the papists, who threatened the development of the “true faith” from outside. Papists, moreover, were not heretics in the strict sense; their errors were predictable, almost programmed, and less dangerous on the whole than those original thoughts that risked affecting the Reformed world itself. In 1545 the Anabaptist Belot held that the Old Testament was abolished by the New. This point of view might be debatable theologically, but did it justify the torture inflicted on poor Belot after he was chained and his invectives against Calvin were laughed at?9
Gruet, Servetus, and Belot were not the only ones to be persecuted for speaking against John Calvin and his institutes:
With dictatorial control over the populace (“he ruled as few sovereigns have done”), Calvin imposed his brand of Christianity upon the citizenry with floggings, imprisonments, banishments, and burnings at the stake. Calvin has been called “the Protestant Pope” and “the Genevese dictator” who “would tolerate in Geneva the opinions of only one person, his own.”10
It puzzles me immensely why anyone would think that God would use such a man as Calvin to be a great leader of Christianity?
In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul said, “Be ye followers (imitators) of me, even as I also am of Christ.” Was John Calvin an imitator of Christ in his actions? I see no answer to that question but a resounding, “Not at all!”
CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE
Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
Jesus was persecuted for over thirty years and finally crucified. In Luke 23:34, we read how Jesus responded to His enemies. He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And in John 13:15, Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
Dave Hunt, who wrote the Calvinist expose, What Love is This?, said:
Perhaps Calvin thought he was God’s instrument to force Irresistible Grace (a key doctrine in Calvinism) upon the citizens of Geneva, Switzerland—even upon those who proved their unworthiness by resisting to the death. He unquestionably did his best to be irresistible in imposing “righteousness,” but what he imposed and the manner in which he imposed it was far from grace and the teachings and example of Christ.11
EXAMPLES OF THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST
Stephen’s persecutors did not write a note on the margin of his sermon outline; they were smashing his head in with rocks. He cried loudly, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60). When Peter, James, John, and Paul were persecuted, they had no desire to strike back at their persecutors. They responded the way they did because they were all under the control of the Holy Spirit. “[T]he fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22). But Calvin had no real persecutors and responded to those who opposed him by having them imprisoned, brutally tortured, and murdered.
Bible Christians who are born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit never hope the death sentence is passed upon their persecutors as did Calvin when people disagreed with him.
WHAT SPIRIT CONTROLLED JOHN CALVIN?
The primary teaching in Calvinism is the teaching on “election” in that the majority of people God created, He did not elect to save nor did He love them. In fact, He hated them from before they were even born. Under the Calvinist view of election, wherein God does not love every human being or desires that each one come to faith and be saved, it makes sense that John Calvin did not have God’s love toward those he saw as his unsaved fellow man. After all, if God does not even love them, why should he? It is this reasoning that would have made it easy for Calvin to justify the torture and murder of people whom he believed, in his own estimation, to be heretics.
But the Bible says that God is love. And He is righteous, true, faithful, and just. Such are fruits of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5:22, and love is the first one mentioned.
It is hard not to believe that John Calvin was under the influence of some other spirit than the Holy Spirit. You will have to look long and hard to find anything in Calvin’s writings about love. It is certainly not obvious in his manner of life.
Endnotes:
- Bernard Cottret, Calvin: A Biography (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub. Company, English translation, 2000), p. 181.
- To read more about Gruet’s execution and other Calvin-era executions, read Preserved Smith’s (1880-1941) The Age of the Reformtaion (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1920); see page 120 for information about Gruet.
- J. M. Robertson, A Short History of Freethought, Ancient and Modern, Vol. I (London: Owlfoot Press, 1914), p. 352; citing partly from: “Stähelin, i, 400. Henry avows that Gruet was ‘subjected to the torture morning and evening during a whole month’ (Eng. tr. ii. 66). Other biographers dishonestly exclude the fact from their narratives.”
- “The Murder of Michael Servetus” (http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/servetus.html). Also see The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature, Vol. 5, p. 89 by John Clark Ridpath documenting actual letters from Calvin discussing the fate of Servetus.
- J. M. Robertson, A Short History of Freethought, Ancient and Modern, Vol. I, op. cit., p. 354.
- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: The Reformation, Vol. VI (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1957), pp. 482-484.
- Dave Hunt, What Love is This? (Bend, OR: The Berean Call, 2013, 4th edition), p. 79.
- Brenda Nickel, featured in the documentary film, Wide is the Gate, Vol. 2 (Produced by Caryl Productions; available through Lighthouse Trails or The Berean Call; trailer for the film: http://www.lighthousetrails.com/home/29-wide-is-the-gate-dvd-volume-2-the-emerging-new-christianity.html). Her online book on Calvinism, which includes biography on her years as a Calvinist, can be accessed at www.CalvinismNoMore.com.
- Bernard Cottret, Calvin: A Biography, op. cit., p. 208.
- Dave Hunt, What Love Is This?, op. cit., p. 74; partly citing Williston Walker from John Calvin: The Organizer of Reformed Protestantism (New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1969), pp. 259 and 107.
- Ibid., p. 72.
Keller, by his own admission, is a proponent of “theistic evolution”. That alone is enough to run from anything he produces! But then there is the New City lesson on faith. According to Keller (and many Calvinists) we are not saved by faith but rather faith is a gift to those lucky “elect” after they are saved. It is this offensive interpretation of Ephesians 2: 8-9 that is most bothersome to me!
II seems as IF all of Christianity is at odds with one another.
And not for the reasons it should be. Let me explain:
I see and hear many who get in arguments and lose fellowship over the timing of the rapture,or a rapture at all.
Or over sabbath observance. But I do not see as much getting upset over the things that really should be addressed. Like lack of basic understanding of the scriptures ,memorizing, so that we may evangelize the lost. The training up of our own children ,and the effort to keep our own selves unspotted from the world. I have found in my experience that the church looks so much like the world,that they have lost their :saltiness; and therefore no good anymore to be a :purifying” influence on society.
We are in our ivory palaces learning theology and arguing over whose spiritual guru is the best, meanwhile we have
left off to be of use to the Father. The church in making an attempt to be “revelant” to the culture has become like the culture around it. Is it a good thing to call out a false thing? yes we are called to rebuke the darkness. But , I do
see many turn a blind eye to much of the darkness in their own lives ,and in the church and the world. So as to be
seen as merciful and gracious. The Biblical examples of Godly men and women that we have in the Old and New testament were not fearful and unbelieving people. They stood up against the evil and many times it was their own people they had to stand up to FOR the sake of The Glory of God amongst them. That His WORDS would not be cast behind them,nor forgotten.
We have other examples of when some forgot,and trusted in themselves or others or because of fear and unbelief, it did not end well….BUT GOD. It would be good for us all to remember that WE DO NOT TRUST IN MEN, BUT GOD ALONE. Because when we forget this, we do err and become the thing that God hates. A law unto ourselves. Like Calvin and others have done. Would Jesus have done this? burned people a the stake and tortured them, NO! As a matter fo fact he instructed his DISCIPLES WHICH WE ARE, TO
preach The Gospel, and IF they will not receive you , go elsewhere. IT is not our job, not is it our right to judge in this manner. I see the love of many grow cold these days
and it is THE LOVE OF GOD , not the love of one another,
The Love of God IS the wellspring that enables us all to have love for one another. May we all seek to have the humility that our Saviour exemplified when He put on flesh and dwelt amongst us. And then the lost around us
will see the IMAGE of Christ in us.
Thank you for your article and information on New City Cathechism and Calvin…we left a church last year that seemed Biblically based when we started. After several years the preaching became more and more indoctrinated with Calvinism and Reformed teaching. We knew little about Calvinism at the time but after 5 years I noticed I was getting hopeless, prayerless, and fearful of who God was. It reminded me of my childhood experiences as a Catholic before coming to Christ and being born again. So I started researching the authors our Pastor regularly quoted like Piper, Keller, Sproul etc. We then learned the horrible false doctrine of Calvinism and Reformed and saw how Scripture is taken out of context and twisted to fit their doctrine. Our church also was just beginning a church program with 9 Mark’s and New City Cathechism. Your article confirms everything we learned about this false teaching and we appreciate you being the watchman on the wall. God bless you for exposing this. Nancy
You wrote, “always felt Calvinism was confusing, unloving and not biblical. Now I see clearly, a belief of darkness and of Satan.”
Exactly right!
Julia, you would have known it instantly! You’d have started watching MacArthur, quoted the late R.C. Sproul, thought the ultra rude James White is a “real” friendly apologetic, that Paul Washer’s hysterics and drama on stage were real, and that biblical counselors have authority over you, your children, but that these pseudo-frauds somehow choose your husband’s side (The Calvinist.Reformed Way). Lastly, for now, you would have turned into a female hipster and would have had pictures of tulips all over. Tulips (the doctrines of disgrace). It’s awful.
To call on the name of the Lord, to believe in His Son Jesus, and to accept the free gift of salvation are not putting oneself on par with the Biblical God. God alone has provided salvation, a once-off event on the cross. one takes it (accepts it) or leaves it (rejects it). The murderer Calvin is to be avoided at all costs. He truly was a philosopher king and his father is darkness. Be warned.
Amen Lauren,
Indeed, it is about the true doctrines of the ‘Word of God’, not the ’man’, Calvin.
SALVATION is of GOD alone. God is ALL knowing (eternity past to eternity future) and certainly knows who will respond to His irrestible call & who will not; omnipotence belongs solely to GOD, not man… there lies the rub!
Yet, man desires is to inject himself into this realm of GOD (making himself on par) – the original sin of hubris.
Not a fan of Keller & his contemplative ilk. Watered down Gospel, emotional denier of absolutes, mystical playground for weak doctrine passivist…
LHT, I pray you return to your former roots.
Lauren, is the Trinity Foundation, which you mentioned, the organization which was founded and led by Ole Anthony? If so, please check out his life and ministry. He is not Biblically solid; he has serious spiritual issues and has brought spiritual bondage into other people’s lives. Ironic that he purports to reveal spiritual darkness in other people’s lives when his own life has been so filled with it.
To Lauren! Please explain what early Christians (especially the first Christians mentioned in Book of Acts) believed before Calvin came along? Were they asking the Apostles about (for example) limited atonement? Unconditional election, etc.? How is it that the early Christians survived without TULIP and Calvin.
Lauren…the “great men of god.” Who might that be? The murderer Calvin? The anti-Semite and women hater Luther? MacArthur? I do not recall Jesus telling us that some 1500 years after our only mediator between God and mankind, that someone bigger than He is going to come and tell and show us the real way because He, Jesus has messed up. He said nothing about Calvin and his brother in darkness Luther, et al. Really, Calvinism and its poisonous tentacles have blinded you so severely that you can’t even see anymore. That is what we call deception. That is why there are places like The Lighthouse Trails; that is why there are writers who expose this darkness on this platform. Thank God for them.
For centuries, Calvinism, the doctrine of the bible, the gospel, was preached and taught by the great men of God during the Protestant Reformation. The Synod of Dort, 1618-1619, met to answer the problem of spreading Arminianism throughout Christianity. Arminianism was found to be an heresy by this synod and Calvinism was found to be the biblical truth. This is a fact of history. Not many know this nor do they spend much time in true study and understanding of Calvinism, which has nothing to do with following a man but only following the sound doctrine of the bible. Please do a report on this Synod so Christians have some knowledge of it and can be discerning with some truth to guide them. The Gospel Coalition, Tim Keller is not a true representation of Calvinism nor of the reformed faith in any way but rather, from his own books it is clear he is a Marxist. Check out Trinity Foundation.org for article on Keller and a book he authored. I continue to hope that LHT would bring to light the true original Calvinism to your readers. That book you published is far, far from the true representation. I fear that feelings have darkened the understanding.
Julia Pomeroy: Yes, Calvinism is an infection! What a great way of describing the man-made nonsense. There’s zero link between biblical Christianity and Calvinism, no matter what your pastors, friends, or counsellors tell you. Calvinism is from darkness; the end of the story. Have nothing to do with it and those who sell it as being “light.”
Amen to T. Miller. Another elephant in the room is so called bible colleges teaching textual critism. These colleges should teach textual critism as a warning so students can be equipped to counter this elephant. Young pastors to be are taught doctrines on men. Without Biblical doctrine they love, love, love sheep to slaughter. Think of a shepherd loving wolves and doing nothing as they devour the flock.
I think everyone is missing the bigger picture. The elephant in the room is, exactly why is it the majority of Christians are so easily led astray? There is an old LHT article that exposes what I call pastoral apocity. APOCITY LEADS TO APOSTASY. Pastors have ran away from their primary duty which is to defend the faith. Eph. 4: 11-16 also Titus 1:9 and also Jeremiah chapter 23. Church love unity and harmony and grace is an illusion apart from solid biblical truth. LHT has lists of Seminaries that require students to be trained in spiritual formation which is eastern mystical heresy in sheep clothing. Christians are buying one heretical book after another. they are sending money to false teachers. The essentials of the faith are not being inculcated into either our children or the adults. The congregation no longer wants to fed the meat of sound doctrine. The American culture is now anti-Christian. And pastors want to play patty cakes and pretend all is well. How many of us can boldly defend the faith like a Dave Hunt ?
I thank God that I have never, as far as I know, ever been infected with Calvinism.
Biblical election has to do with God fulfilling His purposes through His Son Jesus and His chosen people, Israel. It has nothing to do with God, at some point in eternity past through an eternal decree, choosing or electing certain people to salvation Jesus is God’s Elect Isaiah 42 1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. – compare with – Matthew 12 15. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; 16. And charged them that they should not make him known: 17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 18. Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 19. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God John 1
Thank you for another solidly sourced and valuable research piece made available to those who pray to be discerning according to God’s will, but find it very challenging. I pray for many blessings upon your ministry as you continue to shine a beacon of light into the darkness of the world; may it draw many to the Way, the Truth and the Life of Christ in all His abundance, until He comes! >
To respond to Victor’s comment, actually Jesus does have dominion already. “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Matthew 28; 18 Jesus has always reigned on one sense or another since He is God the Son and existed eternally. He will reign in a special way after He sets up God’s Kingdom, restores paradise, and destroys the enemies of God when His wrath is poured out according to Revelation. Dominionism is the heresy of thinking man can set up God’s kingdom and even skip the end times judgment.
Oh Yeah, I also forgot one of the bigger signs of the reformed theology this catechism portrays. They said that Jesus is on the throne of His kingdom now when in fact He is on the right hand of the Father’s throne waiting to come back to Earth and sit His throne, the throne of His father David – which reformers deny with their replacement theology.
Thank you for your research on the contributors. I could tell from going through all the questions that there was a reformed bent to the catechism. The question on ordinances included “sacrament” as an alternative, baptism omitted “choice or submission” leaving to the door open for infant baptism, “elect” was used several times and there were other nuances to tip off a discerning bible student. The only clear and complete catechism is the entire word of God (2 Tim 3:16, 17 2 Pet 1:3, etc) Jesus was clear in Jn 8:31,32 “if ye continue in my word” not in a catechism.
Excellent research, always felt Calvinism was confusing, unloving and not biblical. Now I see clearly, a belief of darkness and of Satan .