Pensees: “Let me now think for myself”

“Let me now think for myself”

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

One sarcastic commenter tried to lump me in with the sycophantic follow-ship of Kevin Bauder and/or anybody else that seems to need a champion. He is right indeed to opine that that is so typical in today’s pop-star evangelicalism, but I’m not part of it. Not by a long shot.

And other people think that I’ve been disrespectful of my elders for critiquing Dan Sweatt. As if I, a pastor of an autonomous church have some kind of obligation to keep my mouth shut when he says wrong things because we happen to float in the same orb where he is more of a big-shot than I.

Not so. Sweatt is not my leader, but he was speaking from a position of leadership and assuming leadership. Bauder is no more my leader than John Piper. But biblically Bauder, Sweatt, Piper, and Driscoll are all equally mine.

But “a flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome.” And should.

Bauder, however, is a leader in part of the Body of Christ where God has placed me and he does have influence with people I know and love. When he is dead on right, great! When I think that he’s not right, I’ll say so. (By the way, I feel the same for John Piper. For example, I think Piper and his friends at the Gospel Coalition are doing a disservice to us by uncritically platforming Mark Driscoll and I intend to write on that this week as soon as I get opportunity.)

I wrote an article to young fundamentalists about the bad leadership in the “older generation” and I took a lot of flak for it at the time because I said that the problem in fundamentalism was that it refused to confront its leaders (pastors) with egregious sins; sins that I defined as heinous as molestation and stealing. At the time I said that some of us don’t want to be old again and didn’t like “old” foisted on us.

You can read the whole thing here(Download file), but I’ll give ten points about leadership that I gave then as it relates to Bauder, Sweatt, Piper, Driscoll, Carson, Ryken, and Minnick (to name a few) who are recognizably influential in the Body of Christ as God has given them grace.

1. THE EXTENT OF AUTHORITATIVE LEADERSHIP IS LIMITED BIBLICALLY.

First, as a Baptist, these leaders are my leaders only insomuch as I decide to follow them. If they are not the duly selected and elected elders of the local church to which I am loyally bound, they are not my God-given leaders. Men, if you are determined to doggedly follow them even though their churches are dead, their families are dysfunctional, and their cronyism is blinding them to their own grotesque faults — fine. But stop whining. That kind of followship is your choice, not your duty. You are volunteering yourself to a bondage that is not required biblically and probably not even desired by your congregation. Hebrews 13:7 and 17 do not apply here. That text speaks of pastoral eldership and does not require you to kow-tow to a man merely because he is a college president or fifteen years your senior.

2. AGE DOES NOT EARN A FREE PASS.

Secondly, no man is excused from criticism or rebuke merely because he is old or young. There seems to be the notion that 1 Timothy 5:1 teaches us against all forms of rebuke toward an older man. This is simply not true. Paul says, in effect, “Don’t rebuke, but exhort.” Exhortation, according to Paul, should be age/gender appropriate. Therefore, what that passage actually teaches is that we are not supposed to rebuke the elder, nor the elderly woman, nor the young man, nor the young woman.

Now, at first glance, this passage would seem then, not only to justify the consternation over reproaching the older man, but also to expand its applicability to both sexes and all ages! Clearly (interpreted in light of other passages), it is not Paul’s intention to forbid rebuke of anyone, ever. The word “rebuke” here is unique to this passage, speaking of a censorious, belittling, berating, and humiliating brow-beating. Yet, a severe and public rebuke obviously does not fall into this category, because the same author commanded such in 1 Timothy 5:20 and Titus 2:15.

3. GOD OFTEN USES YOUNG TO CONFOUND OLD.

Third, it has been God’s pattern to use young men. It is also remarkable that old leaders have failed God’s people on many occasions. This is not to say that they should not be leaders, but it is to say that they remain as accountable as they ever were. Cases in point:

· Charles Bridges published his tome The Christian Ministry, With an Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency, a volume that is still regarded by serious ministers as one of the most important to read in one’s life time, at the age of 36. In this work he takes it upon himself to instruct all men in the ways of ministering. He even includes strong admonitions to the older men.

· Richard Baxter was 41 when he wrote the sobering, prophetic denunciation of his peers in the volume, The Reformed Pastor, which is still in print to this day. Susannah Spurgeon would often read segments of this work to her weeping husband, Charles, on Lord’s Day evenings.

· John Owen was only 27 when he blasted on to scene with the still-in-print Display of Arminianism (also still in print). He wrote his moving and as-yet-unanswered The Death of Death at the young age of 31. He was 40 years young when he gave generations of yearning saints Mortification of Sin in Believers, and 42 when he penned Temptation: The Nature and Power of It. The latter two works are perhaps the best ever written on personal holiness.

· John Calvin was 27 when he delivered his classic Institutes of the Christian Religion to the King of France. John Murray said of this work: “Institutes is not only the classic of Christian theology; it is also a model of Christian devotion.” According to one of the great historians of our era, an unbeliever, Calvin’s Institutes are one of the ten most influential books in world history.

· Jim Elliot affirmed when he was only 20 years old:
“There is no need to apologize for one’s action, nor defend it if he is sure of God’s will. And this is my confidence. That the Lord wanted me here for now. Deliver their souls from the conventional tediums, terms, and traditions” (as quoted in Shadow of the Almighty, pp. 140-141).

· David Brainerd completed his earthly ministry at age 29. Anyone who has read his journals even cursorily can gather that his expulsion from college — supposedly as a rebellious and impudent young man — was uncalled for, unmerited, and unjust. The older leaders were wrong.

· The young William Carey was told by the elder John Ryland Sr. to cease from his overly ambitious and unrealistic vision of world-wide missions.

· Over half of the Westminster Divines were under the age of 45.

And the list goes on and on. The evidence is in. God uses young men.

4. ALL LEADERS ARE JUDGED BY A STRICTER STANDARD.

Fourth, whether they are old or young, public leaders are fair game for public criticism if their leadership is either blatantly unbiblical, or if it is producing fruit unbecoming to godliness. You know a man by his fruit. A close examination of the state of fundamentalism will reveal bad fruit and “a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit” (Matthew 7:18). The cry of many young hearts is for congregations of people who “have become crucified to sin, separate from the spirit of the world; conformed by the image, and consecrated to the service, of God; brought to the present enjoyment of Christian privileges, and ‘made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light’” (Charles Bridges). Rather, we see in too many fundamental churches people who are coddled by preaching which “begets in them a persuasion that they are in as good condition as the best professors…and with many such considerations do poor creatures harden their hearts in their unregeneracy” (John Owen). This is the fruit of the leaders who have been our teachers.

Teachers have great influence, and they should be prepared to take the heat, for they will be judged with greater strictness (James 3:1). As already stated, they do not automatically get a get-out-of-jail-free card because of past achievements or gray hair, although many pretend so. There are literally hundreds of ministries shriveling up and dying under the sleepy, lazy watch of aging ministers who have pampered themselves with an early retirement from spiritual vigilance, but who still wish to be afforded the status of reverend doctors. At the ripe young age of 36, Charles Bridges had this word for his older contemporaries: “Let not age itself, let not the long and active discharge of your ministerial avocations, in which you have grown old, suggest for you a legitimate reason for ceasing from the combat, and of at length enjoying the repose, to which, after so many years of labor, you may seem entitled. Rather let your ‘youth be renewed like the eagle.’” George Whitefield is said to have prayed that “the Lord would keep me from growing slack in the latter stages of my journey.” Vigilance is required all the way through to the end. Moses, as an old man, disqualified himself from entering the Promised Land by smiting the rock instead of speaking to it as commanded by God. God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), and age makes one not less, but more accountable — for “to whom much is given much shall be required” (Luke 12:48).

5. WE MUST BE REALISTIC ABOUT INDIVIDUALS’ SIGNIFICANCE IN GOD’S CHURCH.

Fifth, public leaders are mere men and their importance in the Church is not so significant as many are tempted to think. Their importance just seems to be more significant than it is. Paul said this of the Apostles Peter, James, and John, the intimate friends of our Lord Jesus while He was ministering incarnate. They, said Paul, “just seemed to be pillars” (Galatians 2:9). If inspired Writ will say that of Peter, James, and John, I have no problem thinking that college presidents, seminary professors, pastors of large churches, and old men might only seem to be pillars of God’s Church.

6. AGE DETERMINES VALUE ONLY WHEN WE ARE DISCUSSING WINE.

Sixth, age is irrelevant if you are right.

7. YOU’LL UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU’RE OLDER…NOT.

Seventh, it has been the age-old, over-used, predictable modus operandi of older folks to undercut the arguments of younger folks by telling them they are young. This ad hominem technique is very effective and convincing, though it evidences nothing less than rebellion. If He were ministering among fundamentalists today, some people would chastise Jesus Christ Himself as an impertinent young man. Don’t think so? Why wouldn’t they? Solely on the basis of age distinctions, there are those who defy Jesus Christ’s words when spoken by men of God who are about the same age as our Lord during His earthly ministry.

8. FAITHFULNESS AND RESPECT ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.

Eighth, it is not disrespectful to disagree, nor to disagree emphatically, nor to disagree with vehemence. If a brother within the reach of a man of God’s influence is sinning, it is the man of God’s duty to confront him.

9. IT IS SINFUL TO SHIRK CONFRONTATION OF SINNERS.

Ninth, it is a sin not to confront leadership who have sinned. And if you pass yourself off as a teacher of a particular matter, ignorance is sin.

10. GOD SAYS “OBEY” TO YOUNG AND OLD.

Finally, God called the prophet Jeremiah to the difficult and mostly negative task over the nations to “pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). There was only one hitch: Jeremiah said, “I am only a youth.” God responded, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:6-7).

Either shut up, speak up, or put up. But drop the “he’s old and you’re young” rhetoric. It’s unbecoming of people who really care about the truth.

Maybe you younger men who have been whimpering in the corner in holy frustration ought to pen into your journal the same words that Henry Martyn wrote: