Antithetic Pursuit - Epilogue
Semper Reformanda?
This article is an epilogue to The Antithetic Pursuit – Misconceiving IVF. It is astonishing the rapidity with which worldly innovations find their way into the church and are actively promoted by Reformed Baptist ministries.
Who is currently leading the charge to fundamentally redesign marriage? A reformed Baptist pastor, partnered with a reformed Baptist publisher, promoting a non-reformed book. Together they present a theological novum that sets aside the specificity of Genesis for a progressive understanding of marriage, the gospel, sex, family and personal responsibility.
This progressivism includes such things as the undiscerning use of technology, birthing children without sex, using marriage as a tool in an attempt fix others' sin, and the culpability of Christian couples in human death -- in what has now become the Baptist understanding of modern marriage.
How do pastors and ministries go awry when faced with modernity? With improper thinking that does not give the Law of God its due weight. When faced with something never before experienced, the Law Word -- the one eternal moral standard -- is pushed to the side. Is this what Semper Reformanda has become?
The emotional stress produced by the constant assault of evil from the world can lead an anxious, unthinking mind into a fishing expedition -- using a euphemism as bait, then searching the Word for some justification to hook onto in order to take some self-defined moral action, and from that catch, discovering a parable of the gospel.
As such, concluding that we are required to do something, followed by the proclamation of an unwarranted, conscience-binding mandate. The use of such language, and its equation with the gospel, directs and admonishes people to violate God's Law.
This is the fundamental error when Genesis serves no function, but rather is viewed as a set of nebulous ideas that can be ignored, allowing a set of alien ideas to be injected into marriage. Then, a practice is promoted that can only lead to sin.
The Bible Is Not Enough
This is my fifth publication addressing the promotion of error into marriage, yet this writer has been told that I am the one in need of refining my argument. What this tells me is that making an argument or expressing a concern based on Scripture is not enough for some Baptists. On the other hand, not one Reformed Baptist has made a solid biblical case for outsourcing sex in Christian marriages, apart from the use of figures of speech, metaphors, or analogies.
Instead, what we are given is a disordered empathy driven by worldly syncretism. This is how Baptists are justifying the use of IVF technology in Christian marriages — a detachment from moral truth.
When the Law of God is presented as a mere "ideal," this failure of understanding leads to a warped gospel -- that is, man thinking himself a savior of invisible preborn life. Taking such foreign life into the innermost and most intimate Christian marriage relationship is a direct violation of the clear literary structure of Genesis, thus polluting the sanctity of marriage and breaking the covenantal bond established by God's Law.
The God who gave us the gospel also gave us His Law, and when that Law is ignored, should it be any surprise when gospel confusion follows?
Missing Pages
Founders' recent lack of Reformed doctrinal consistency is on full display in the publication of the book Misconceiving IVF and in two recent videos, Should Christians Use IVF and Why Is Law and Gospel Important?. The latter Founders video presents a doctrinal truth that is spot-on. However, when viewed in light of their published book and the other video, the inconsistency is striking.
When Founders dropped their recent video promoting the book Misconceiving IVF; swords were drawn to attack IVF, slaying favorable IVF arguments with confidence and conviction. Yet, the latter one-third of the book was not discussed.
The conversation covered only those parts of the book that speak to what Christians should not be doing. Why the silence? Why not discuss the latter third of the book, which tells Christians what they should be doing regarding abandoned embryos? This leaves one to wonder why.
The latter one-third of the book promotes a new theology that can only come from and take hold in a technologically saturated, affluent Western nation. The pragmatic use of technology, assumed to be morally neutral, requires Christians to take an unwarranted action using that technology and spend tens of thousands of dollars to put it into practice -- all while the action taken and the money spent are likely to result in the death of more human life.
Is this what churches are to champion? Are they suggesting that pastors take money from the offering plate and use it to assist in purchasing an IVF embryo for a childless Christian couple -- while at the same time sanctioning a violation of the purity of marriage and becoming complicit in the death of a person?
This is what Misconceiving is promoting, and what Founders has published as a parable of the gospel.
Further, the program hosts and author sat there as if no one has directly raised concerns about Christian husbands taking strangers' embryos and impregnating their wives. Instead of addressing those concerns, they moved the discussion along as though one-third of the book did not exist.
Attempted Privacy
This writer reached out privately to the publisher six months ago and, more recently, to the author to share biblical concerns. In contacting Founders, I assumed at the time that we shared some common concerns. When I directly asked about Founders' position regarding leftover embryos, I received a brief reply stating that they have no official position, while also acknowledging that they had published a book that does take a position.
When pressed in an effort to engage in private dialogue regarding Founders' editorial standards and to voice biblical concerns again, the clear reply was a declination to engage. The reason? Taking the time to dialogue would not be good ministry stewardship (my paraphrase).
Here is Big Eva's parapet, erected to protect itself from unwanted accountability. The listener's concern is not worthy of their time. And yet, Founders manages to find time to publicly admonish others for their failures. Two examples are here and here.
When a public ministry becomes so large that it refuses to be held accountable to the very public to which it preaches, it is time for a change.
Preaching To The Underlings
The internet is filled with staged videos such as Why Is Law and Gospel Important? Men sit alone, insulated in front of a camera, preaching to the masses with authority, yet cannot find the time to be challenged to biblically defend their position in light of the inconsistency they themselves preach.
Considering recent failures among Reformed men and the crash and burn of Reformed Baptist ministries, something indeed is amiss. When a ministry states, "We believe that the biblical faith is inherently doctrinal," and yet will not engage when challenged doctrinally by an average Christian, why should I not have concerns regarding Founders?
From nearly three decades of following and supporting Founders, my disappointment is profound.
Open Question
Modernity has produced excessively large ministries with inordinate influence over Christian churches and culture. Such ministries may begin with good intentions and sound convictions. As they gain traction, the desire for growth, greater influence, and expansion often continues unabated.
Here is where the scent of elitism emerges -- an evolution into "us and them." Sight is lost to self-importance. Growing conferences, book sales, demand for interviews, and accolades can become intoxicating to the flesh. In nearly 50 years of observing such ministries rise and fall, few men, and I mean few, are capable of handling such a position.
Need evidence? Just look at the ash heap of recent years, the past couple of months and even recent weeks. A reformed heap that is still smoldering.
I find no pleasure in having to write in such a manner. Will Founders heed the warning and recognize its progressively inconsistent doctrinal position on Law and Gospel? This remains an open question in this writer's mind.
A Call To Dialogue
Here I will issue a call to these men to exercise intellectual honesty regarding their advocacy of young Christian couples attempting to give birth to someone else's embryo through IVF. Address this short list from the Scriptures, lay an expositional foundation from the text of the Word for each of the following:
Is or is not God Lord over life and death?
Is or is not God sovereign over the evils of man?
What responsibility do Christians have regarding someone else's sin?
Was Christ's work on the cross insufficient to redeem the unborn? Are they beyond the mercies of Yahweh God?
Does God's sovereignty over the womb have limits (explain)?
Is man given authority to depart from the divine Law, marriage covenant and the standard given in Genesis for marriage?
Demonstrate how impregnating a married woman with a strange man's sperm and a strange woman's egg by way of an embryo, using IVF, is morally acceptable? Explain how this does not violate the purity of the marriage bed?
Justify birthing children in the absence of sexual union -- outside of the one-flesh union?
Since life begins at conception, explain how risking the death of one or more embryos in the hope of giving life to another can be justified?
Explain how these are not commodification of life:
The exchange of money to purchase an embryo as soulless, biological matter.
Desirableness and quality -- choosing of one embryo over another.
Marketing of embryos of lessor desirability or quality on sale at a discount.
How do these three not sound like people are choosing a “puppy”?
How are any of these equivalent to the true gospel and not a violation of the Law of God?
Gentlemen, there are indeed biblical arguments, objections and questions regarding the one-third of the book you did not see fit to address.
Downgrade
The fall of the preeminence of marriage is evident in light of the downgraded worldview many Reformed Baptists are embracing -- the move from the Bible as doctrinally explicit to merely ideational. This allows the Genesis account of the marriage institution to become a generalized guide, enabling marriage to be molded to fit our sophisticated times.
Reformed used to mean systematically consistent with the Word -- the reformer conformed to the Word. Reformed used to mean you do not take to yourself authority, but rather, the reformer humbly submits to the one true authority. Reformed used to mean the reformer is willing to be held accountable.
Reformed used to mean trusting a sovereign Creator God in everything, who owns everything. Reformed used to mean, staunchly biblical.
Twisting the marriage cleaving and one-flesh union in order to accommodate modernity is a sin. Who do we think we are (cf. Job 25:6; Isaiah 40:17)?
Descending
Along with marriage, another divine institution is experiencing a downgrading -- the church.
Outsized parachurch and other ministries have become dominant influencers. These are not churches as defined in Scripture. Too often, they are the source of aberrations -- teachings that have not been rigorously vetted.
Within a few short years, we have witnessed the crumbling of the Reformed Baptist ecosphere. It is apparent that this purging is needed. In our communication-connected age, legitimate ministries must adhere to a high standard of accountability. That is indeed good ministry stewardship.
Nevertheless, when the average Christian is brushed off, we have to wonder -- when will the next shoe fall?
