Heidelminicast: To The Evangelical Nicodemites (Part Three)

0:00It's a Hyde Ominicast, and now Scott Clark. To the NICADEMITE Part 3 In the Hyde Ocast helps you, will you help us keep enjoying? Please make the call for a clinic, by clicking on the PayPal link or by sending a check to Hyde Overnor Reformation Association 1637 East Darling Parkway number 391. S. Condito, California 92027. Now time to pick on my own people. The Hyde Ocast! Lest my evangelical and reconkeys to friends think that I'm being too hard on them, I well recognize that too many nominally reformed or perspiterian congregations are indistinguishable from the great mass of therapeutic, moralistic, deist congregations that pass for Christianity in our age. It may well be possible to be a crypto-Calvinist in a nominally reformed or perspiterian congregation

1:00where the substance of reformed theology by it in practice has been replaced with weak alternatives. Calvin actually talked about this, he wrote. Then later, seeing that they could still not avoid suspicion in this way, they considered it to be doing their duty when they concealed their Christianity altogether, not speaking a single word about God except when they were with their close friends and family members well enclosed in some room. Meanwhile they permitted the truth of God to be blasphemed. And whatever dishonor anyone did Jesus Christ not only did they not say anything against it, but they put on a good show of consenting to it being concerned only to take care that no one perceived that they were Christians. Remember, when he said Christianity, he was not talking about people living in a predominantly pagan world or in a post-Christian culture or in a pre-Christian culture. He was speaking about crypto evangelicals who were, for reasons of safety or comfort, hiding in Roman Catholic congregations.

2:01Again, remember in many places these were the socially acceptable places to be. The blasphemies to which he refers are either Roman criticisms of the evangelical that is the confessional Protestant faith and the Roman doctrine of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the lie. In response, the cryptos clam up if they don't say anything that no one will know that they dissent inwardly. When people around them slander the evangelicals or invoked saints or pray to the Blessed Virgin, they keep their mouths shut. Calvin reminded the cryptos that in redemptive history, God dealt harshly with those who practiced wicked subtly. That's the phrase he used, that God, according again, let them stumble into an abyss of darkness, depriving them of the knowledge which he had formerly given them. The proper response is not that one should seek to justify himself in his iniquity that Calvin's phrase, but rather that we should give glory to God, he said, by confessing our

3:06wretchedness rather than doubly confounding and condemning ourselves by squirming about seeking vain excuses. Today, we would call that doubling down. Over the years, I received comments from cryptos who hide themselves in the local mega-church and sometimes in comfortable, mainline congregations, and sometimes they seek to justify themselves by arguing that they are seeking reformation of the congregation, and in the case of the reconquestas of the entire PCUSA. If so, you're not really cryptos. At all, are they? If they're seeking reformation than the ministers and congregational leadership will be aware of them and of their efforts. If this mega-church is worth its salt as a mega-church, they'll have a plan and they will have read the Church Growth Literature. Rule number one of the Church Growth Program is to get rid of dissenters. Any reformer worth his salt is a dissenter from the Todry, Songs, Puppets, Play-Doh,

4:06and PowerPoint that passes for public piety in the mega-church. Immovable object, meet irresistible force. Something has to give. Maybe the mega-church leadership will be struck in the heart, but maybe not. What then? Most of the time, the cryptos remain just that hidden, quiet secret. We could say the same of those who fashion themselves in anonymous accounts on social media as reconquestas. For Calvin, the core issue of the Nicodemite, that is crypto evangelical problem, is the lordship of Christ. Not necessarily in the sense that phrase was used in the recent American evangelical controversies, but in the sense that the cryptos are acting as if they were God's counter-parts, Calvin says. The issue is whether the Christian will submit to the revealed will of God. Calvin appealed to the example of Siprian to illustrate what he meant by obedience.

5:08He reminded his readers that St. Siprian, after being condemned to death, because he was unwilling to sacrifice to idols, was asked to consent to it in order to save his life. The judge did not want to put Siprian to death and urged him simply to say the magic words. Siprian, however, was so determined to follow God's will that he wouldn't do it, even if death was the necessary result. For Calvin, Siprian is the perfect example of one who did not seek counsel from his own head, turning aside from God's word. Calvin offered several proofs that, in fact, it is the lord's revealed moral will for the cryptos to identify publicly with the Reformation. First he appealed to Jesus, saying in Luke 9.26, that if we are ashamed of him before men, he will likewise be ashamed of us. When he appears in his majesty with the angels of God, he appealed to Romans 10-10, that if we believe with the heart under righteousness, then one will confess with the mouth unto salvation,

6:08true faith produces confession. Whoever draws back from doing so must seek another master. Calvin anticipated the objection that he was attempting to make all believers into preachers, not at all, he said, for since it is a particular offense to preach publicly, it is not necessary nor even expedient or suitable for everyone to intrude himself in it. He went on to say, I do not therefore mean for everyone to climb up into a pulpit to prove their Christianity. Then he said, however, let everyone take thought to give God glory in the vocation in which he finds himself. He would have it that every professing Christian should confess his faith in the place and station in which he finds himself. He appealed to 1 Peter 315, we should each be ready to give an account of his faith. It is the office of every believer to take his neighbor by the hand and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of Zion to the house of the God of Jacob, and he shall teach us

7:13to walk in his ways. Isaiah 2.3 and Micah 4.2. What does this have to do with crypto-Calvinists? The local evangelical mega-church or with reconquistas and the local mainline church? Well the fundamental point about submitting to the revealed will of God applies to all Christians everywhere, but particularly where a crypto-Calvinist finds himself in a congregation dominated by therapeutic moralistic deism, where the gospel is absent, where the means of grace are deformed or ignored, and where discipline was banished by the church growth gurus as impractical. Calvin didn't call the cryptos in his day to superhuman feats. He only wanted them to speak the truth in love and to trust the providence of God. It's true, he was, in effect, calling many to great suffering and possibly even to death. In our case, however, there's much less at stake and even less reason why our cryptos cannot confess their faith openly before men, since in many cases it merely means stopping

8:18at the local North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council congregation by which they drive on their way to their mega-church or their local PCUSA congregation. Once more an admonition to my neighbor, brothers and sisters, if our evangelical crypto-Calvinists do step out in faith, if our reconquistas decide that no nation was right and that those who stayed were wrong, and they do walk into our churches to lay hold of the blessings of the heritage of the Reformation, what will they find this Lord's day in your congregation? Will they find what they just left behind? Clicks, clans and clowns? Or will they find the law distinguished from the gospel and the gospel preached sweetly? Will they find joy in the Lord or some nasty congregational contention over who is really in charge? Will they find a sociopolitical rant or the Ministry of Christ when they visit?

9:19Our evangelical and even our reconquista friends are looking for three things. The pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments and discipline. Indeed, that's what the Lord asks of us. It doesn't seem unreasonable that we should be doing these things even if no crypto-Calvinists ever visit our congregations. Calvin recognized that there's a certain degree of subjectivity in deciding, and I quote, how far and how much we must proceed, close quote. Therefore, each one must, he said, and I quote, pray our Lord to direct him in true prudence in order to judge what will be suitable close quote. For Calvin, the driving principle is the same in any case, and I quote, there must be in us such as zeal, both to exalt the reign of God and to edify our neighbors that we extend all our powers and apply all our efforts to it. In other words, because Calvin wouldn't go beyond the scripture and beyond good and necessary deductions, and because he recognized that circumstances would vary, he was unwilling

10:23to legislate exactly how each one must act in every case. Nevertheless, it was clear to Calvin that each one must act. Our goal is the appropriate imitation of Christ, who was consumed by zeal for the House of God, see Psalm 69. And John 217. This zeal caused Christ to be restless in his desire to glorify and serve his father. Calvin reminds us that some of his followers, quote, did not dare to confess Jesus Christ after having believed on him. They love the glory of men better than the glory of God. That's John 1243. God said and perverse a choice it is to prefer men to God close-qua. Thanks for listening to an end tomorrow for more from the title cast. Watch you by Heidelberg ReformationAssociation.org. Don't forget when the coin in the coffin clinks the cost of bandwidth trinks.

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