If the devil were to design a system to subject the believer to the ever-expanding rules and regulations of man-made legalism, could he do better than this? Get rid of God’s law, invent a doctrine of revelation in which the Spirit may or may not be speaking to us, and allow a generation of dynamic, popular preachers to unleash their ethical opinions on the church! How did we expect this to work out?

Last week I began to introduce some concerns that Old Calvinists have with the New Calvinism. The first of these, perhaps unexpectedly to most, is that the New Calvinism is antinomian at its core. This seems out of step with recent criticism of the bastion of the New Calvinism – the Gospel Coalition. However, I questioned whether or not antinomianism is actually the opposite of legalism. Later in the week I posited that antinomianism actually produces legalism:

The reason is that all men realize that there is no such thing as religion without ethics. The grace of Christ transforms ethics into something other than a system of meritorious works, but of course it does not do away with the concept of ethics. So if an ethical standard is a natural necessity, and if the law of God is rejected, the creation of a manmade system of ethical regulations is as certain as the sunset.

In that post I argued, though, that an accelerator doctrine is likely to stoke the fires of legalism: namely charismaticism:

I can think of no better accelerator than the idea that a man’s personal thoughts and ideas were nothing less than the whispering of the Holy Spirit in his ears – exactly the form of soft charismaticism which abounds within the New Calvinism.

This, then, is the deadly mix which has permeated the movement in which interest in the Doctrines of Grace has surged in recent years. The rejection of the law has enormous consequences. A God-given sense of ethics remains, but all too often it is cut free from serious consideration of the proper uses of the law identified in historic theology. Even where the uses of the law are taught, in the rejection of the law itself it has become necessary to posit some new ethical standard. Efforts to do so entirely from the New Testament lack the clarity given by the Decalogue, opening the door to the commandments of men.

Furthermore, the movement is saturated by charismaticism – a doctrine which destroys discernment, leaving the Christian even more vulnerable to a redefinition of holiness. After all, if the pastor/leader/prophet who is positing a new moral system is actually parroting the promptings of the Holy Spirit, can we afford to ignore him?

That this process has been at work among the New Calvinists is no mere conjecture. Every element of it was on display twenty years ago at the Desiring God Conference hosted by John Piper. If Piper is in some ways the father of the New Calvinism, Desiring God was the first major conference promoting the movement. 1994 was something of a seminal year, with addresses from Dan Fuller, the beloved and respected teacher whom Piper credits with much of his own theological development.

Fuller’s addresses are entitled “Sanctification by Faith Alone” – a provocatively antinomian title which leaves one wondering which work of God’s grace Fuller understands less – justification or sanctification. A considerable portion of Fuller’s addresses was mere polemic against the law. Fuller openly mocked the Reformed tradition – or Old Calvinism – for its focus on the law as the standard of righteousness, a position he portrayed as necessarily moralistic. As he spoke, though, a fascinating element crept in: he kept saying that today we instead follow the “precepts of the Holy Spirit.”

It is evident in the early part of his second message that between messages he was asked what he meant by this phrase, which he promised to explain before he was finished. When at last he had to identify what the “precepts of the Holy Spirit” are, he laughingly said, “Well, there are thousands of them!” (I envy you, reader, seated safely at your computer as you read those words. I nearly drove off the Chicago freeway system the first time I heard them on tape. I was convulsed with laughter at the irony; here was a man saving me from the cruel tyranny of ten commandments – and putting in their place thousands of precepts!) The handful of examples which Fuller gave delved into things such as when to lease a car as opposed to when to buy. Yes, even this is governed by a “precept of the Holy Spirit!”

Read More