SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT TIM KELLER:
AND A PASTOR WHO CREDITS KELLER WITH OPENING HIS EYES
ABOUT THE MEANING OF A SCRIPTURE VERSE:
QUOTE:
"Wait...Jesus said what?
Luke 21:16-19 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. (17) And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. (18) But there shall not an hair of your head perish. (19) In your patience possess ye your souls.
I believe I first heard Tim Keller reference this passage. It was an "aha" moment for me in understanding the mind of God concerning bad things that happen to believers."
TIM KELLER: REDEFINING SIN AND JUSTIFYING LOVE FOR THE POP CULTURE
(Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2015, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Redefining Sin” by E.S. Williams, www.newcalvinist.com: “In his book Every Good Endeavour (2012), Tim Keller, founder of The Gospel Coalition and prominent New Calvinist, expresses his disappointment that Christians are not more involved with popular culture. He writes: ‘Christians’ reaction to popular culture in the last eighty years has been some form of disengagement. ... Why this disengagement with our culture? One reason is a ‘thin’ or legalistic view of sin, where sin is seen as a series of discrete acts of noncompliance with God’s regulations. You pursue Christian growth largely by seeking environments where you are less likely to do these sinful actions. ... This view of sin comports with a lack of understanding of the thoroughness and richness of Christ’s gracious work for us. ... If we have a thin view of sin, we will feel safe if we remove from our view anything that could tempt us to commit actions of overt sexual immorality, profanity, dishonesty, or violence’ (Keller, Every Good Endeavor, pp. 192, 193). ... He says that Christians, who hold such a view of sin, are ‘legalists’ who withdraw from the popular culture of the world in order to avoid situations that could tempt them to commit ‘thin sins’, like overt acts of sexual immorality, profanity, dishonesty, or violence. ... Here we should note the biblical definition of sin. The Bible describes sin as breaking God’s law (1 John 3:4). It is also defined as rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7), which separates the sinner from God (Isaiah 59.2). Sin is an offense to God’s holy character, and all sin is primarily sin against God. ... Keller’s assessment is completely wrong, for it is those who hold what he calls a ‘thin view’ of sin who have been convicted of their sin and rebellion against God’s holy law and understand that their only hope of salvation is God’s grace revealed in the Cross of Christ. Hence their prayer: ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy Cross I cling’. Born again Christians, who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and stand in God’s grace for their salvation, are those who delight in God’s moral law and seek to obey it with all their heart, and do all they can to comply with what Keller calls ‘God’s regulations’. [This is the true grace of God, Titus 2:11-15.] ... Keller’s ‘thick view’ of sin encourages Christians to engage with worldly culture ... But Scripture makes no distinction between thick and thin sin. It teaches that sin comes from the lusts and desires of the human heart that is desperately wicked (James 1:14-15). Keller’s classification of sin into thin and thick is entirely without scriptural authority and purely a figment of his foolish imagination; it is profoundly heretical, for it presents a false and misleading view of sin that downplays the wickedness of disobedience to God’s moral law, suggesting that Christians should engage with the world in order to overcome what Keller calls ‘the compulsive drive of their heart to produce idols’. ... Scripture warns that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). Christians must not conform to the pattern of the world (Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 5:11; 1 John 2:15-17). ... God commands his people to be separate from the things of the world (2 Corinthians 6:17).”
TIM KELLER’S INFATUATION WITH CATHOLIC AUTHORS AND PRACTICES
(Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2015, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many of America’s most popular “evangelical” preachers are infatuated with Catholicism, as we have frequently documented. Consider Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer megachurch in New York City, head of the Redeemer City to City church planting network, and co-founder with D.A. Carson of The Gospel Coalition (council members include John Piper, Alistar Begg, Mark Dever, Moody Church pastor Erwin Lutzer, and Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Al Mohler). Keller has a huge influence by his writings via books and blogs, his books reaching the top 10 of the New York Times bestseller list even in an apostate age. His love for Catholicism is evident in his book The Reason for God (2012), in which he quotes and refers to Catholic theologians and philosophers frequently, passionately, and non-critically. He includes Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox within his definition of true Christians. Referring to the Apostles, Nicene, Chalcedonian, and Athanasian creeds, he says, “For our purposes, I’ll define Christianity as the body of believers who assent to these great ecumenical creeds” (p. 117). In The Reason for God, Keller quotes Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, Catholic writer Mary Flannery O’Conner, Catholic mystic Simone Weil, Polish Catholic poet Czeslaw Milosz, and Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose doctrine Keller calls “orthodox” (p. 66). He also quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge, J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton. Not one of these people hold to the one true gospel of grace alone without works. All of them trust in baptism and Rome’s sacraments for salvation. Not surprisingly, Keller promotes Catholic contemplative prayer. In 2009, his church taught “The Way of the Monk,” encouraging Catholic monastic practices such as lectio divinia, centering prayer, “silence,” the “prayer rope,” and the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. In his lecture series What Is Meditation? Keller promotes the contemplative prayer techniques of four Catholic “saints”: Loyola, Francis de Sales, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila. He says, “The best things that have been written are by Catholics during the Counter Reformation. Great stuff!” This lecture series was promoted on The Gospel Coalition website. (For more about this see Evangelicals and Contemplative Prayer, available as a free eBook and in print from Way of Life Literature.)
