CHAPTER ONE: Born Again Again
PASSION CONFERENCE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Downtown Atlanta was prepared to host the 1996 Summer Olympics. But I donât know if any city is prepared to accommodate nearly twenty-three thousand college students all trying to check into their hotels at the same time. At least not when they show up New Yearâs Day less than twenty-four hours after the home-state football team won a bowl game in Atlantaâs Georgia Dome.
Daunting lines at the Sheraton Hotel ruined my best-laid plans to arrive on time for the opening session of the 2007 Passion conference. The downstairs lobby teemed with college students knitting, chatting, or listening to iPods as they waited in lines that did not move. After a few minutes of moping and fruitless scheming, I determined to make the best of a bad situation. Suddenly the insufferable lines appeared differentlyâa captive interview audience, I thought.
Soon I overheard two young men in the line next to me talking about theology and church. There is no tactful way to butt in on some-one elseâs conversation. So I just asked why they signed up for Passion. The older man said he escorted a group of college students from Florida Hospital Church, a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Orlando. Among them was Robin Treto, eighteen, a freshman at Seminole Community College. âIâm a John Piper fiend,â Robin responded. He spoke excitedly, yet with careful thought for his words.
âHeâs so Jesus-centered in his preaching,â Robin said of Piper. âHe doesnât just share anecdotal stories. I look to guys like Piper because he looks to Jesus.â
Piper, the best-selling author and pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a Passion fixture. His book Donât Waste Your Life emerged from a talk he delivered in front of about forty thousand students for the Passion OneDay event in 2000. But what exactly is a John Piper fiend? Robin apparently listened online to two hundred Piper sermons from the book of Romans alone during just four months. Thatâs a John Piper fiend.
I was curious to learn from Robin how an Adventist student from Florida became such a big fan of a Baptist pastor in Minnesota. Seventhday Adventists have sometimes worshiped at armâs length from the evangelical mainstream. Robin began to explain that he has only believed in Jesus Christ for a couple of years. Just a few months earlier, Robin would not have been confused by anyone for the type who sits down and listens to hundreds of sermons. Between smoking marijuana and heavy alcohol use, Robin had rebelled against what he described as the legalistic environment at the Adventist church of his parents, who had emigrated from Cuba.
Robinâs lifestyle began to change when he was sixteen. The older cousin who introduced him to party life began talking about Jesus. His cousin had been touched by the gospel. Sitting together at his cousinâs house, they opened the Bible and read Romans 8 together. Robin was so impressed by the dramatic and unexpected conversion that he patiently heard his cousin out. But the Bible did not make sense to him. Frustrated, Robin left his cousinâs house confused. Yet as he sat in his car and prepared to drive away, everything suddenly changed. The words of Scripture began to strike him as true. He understood at once that Jesus Christ had paid the penalty on the cross for his sins and three days later rose from the dead, achieving salvation for those who would believe. In a moment Robin lost his heart for partying but gained a new heart filled with passion for God.
âThatâs why I have hope for a generation like ours,â Robin told me. âThe gospel is powerful enough to change hearts.â
Robin did not return to his parentsâ church. But he did not leave Adventism. Shortly after Robinâs conversion, a pastor from a nearby Adventist church gave him CDs with conference talks from C. J. Mahaney, a charismatic teacher from suburban Maryland. Mahaney delivered the messages over the span of six years at the New Attitude conference, launched by pastor/author Joshua Harris for young adults. Robin also listened to some of Harrisâs talks. During one message, Harris quoted Piperâs manifesto, Desiring God. This stirring call to âChristian hedonismâ argues that âGod is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.â1 Piperâs teaching about Calvinism squared with Robinâs growing knowledge of Scripture.
You will find no explanation and no index entry for Calvinism in Desiring God. But itâs all there, if you know what to look for. Calvinistsâlike their namesake, Reformation theologian John Calvinâstress that the initiative, sovereignty, and power of God is the only sure hope for sinful, fickle, and morally weak human beings. Furthermore, they teach that the glory of God is the ultimate theme of preaching and the focus of worship.
Many recognize Calvinism, described by some as Reformed theology, by the acronym TULIP.2 You wonât find these terms in Desiring God either. But you will find the concepts as early as the second chapter. Piper quotes Romans 3:10ââNone is righteous, no, not oneâ (Total depravity). A little later Piper writes, âRegeneration is totally unconditional. It is owing solely to the free grace of God. âIt does not depend on the one who wills or runs, but on God who has mercyâ (Romans 9:16). We get no credit. He gets all the glory.â3 Here you can see Unconditional election and a hint of Irresistible grace. Piper explains Limited atonement in a footnote. âAll contempt for [Godâs] glory is duly punished, either on the Cross, where the wrath of God is propiti-ated for those who believe, or in hell, where the wrath of God is poured out on those who donât.â4 In a later footnote Piper defends eternal security, or Perseverance of the saints, from Romans 8:30ââAnd those whom [God] predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.â5
These beliefs didnât go down easy with Robin. He described Calvinism as rough sledding at first. Godâs sovereignty was a fear-some concept. But these fears evaporated as he saw the scriptural basis through positive presentations.
âGuys who taught it to meâMahaney, Harris, Piperâsaid it humbly and so passionately,â Robin explained. âThey loved what they were talking about.â
I asked Robin how Calvinism meshes with the Adventist church he attends. âIt doesnât,â Robin answered. He spent his first semester of college studying theology at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee. His increasing unwillingness to go along with unique points of Adventist theology led to conflict with faculty. He returned home to Orlando rather than cementing an unwanted reputation as the only non-Adventist theology major.
But if heâs not Adventist, why does Robin still attend an Adventist church? Because thatâs where he can make a difference and maybe even teach others with his Calvinist theology. Besides, since Adventists meet on Saturdays, he can spend his Sunday mornings in Saint Andrewâs Chapel in Sanford, Florida, where R. C. Sproul preaches. He first heard about the famed Calvinist teacher when he read Sproulâs classic The Holiness of God. He was thrilled to learn that Sproul, a Presbyterian, preaches in the Orlando area. Robin considers Sproul to be the best Bible teacher in town. âBut I skip the first thirty minutes,â Robin clarified. He arrives just in time to miss the traditional music but still catch the sermon. Thatâs no surprise. Sproul doesnât exactly share a taste for the modern praise music that unites the college students at Passion.
âWe wait all year to worship like this,â Robin said of Passion.
If Calvinism finds renewed interest among the young, you cannot understand that resurgence without understanding Passion. Not that Passion proclaims Calvinism by name. Piper doesnât know what Passion founder Louie Giglio believes about Reformed theology. But he does know that Giglio adores the glory of God and desires to spread Godâs renown around the world. And Giglio doesnât protest what Piper teaches the students. Thatâs good enough for Piper.
âIâm sixty. What am I doing at Passion?â Piper asked when we met at his home. Unlike Giglio, an athletic man who wears tight-fitting, hip T-shirts, nothing in Piperâs appearance or dress would indicate popularity among youth. Though obviously fit and healthy, Piper does not cut a strong physical presence. Unlike his dynamic, intense preaching style, he spoke to me in a friendly, calm manner. But do not mistake friendly with jovial. Talking for about two hours over dinner, he spoke with quiet seriousness. He looks like a college professor with tousled thin hair and glasses. Actually, he did teach at Bethel College (now university) in Minnesota until 1980 when he moved to Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Piper may not know what heâs doing at Passion, but itâs obvious to students such as Robin why he fits with Passion. Piper lends academic weight, moral authority, and theological precision to the conference. More than that, Piper shares Passionâs overarching vision. Worship songs from Charlie Hall and Chris Tomlin, preceding talks by Giglio, pound home two themes beloved by CalvinistsâGodâs sovereignty and glory. From there, Giglio encourages students to devote themselves to evangelism and global missions by pointing to the transcendent God of heaven. His appeals go something like this: God is wonderfully, inexpressibly glorious. You are not. But how amazing is it that the very God of the universe invites screwed-up people to give their lives in sold-out service to his eternal kingdom!
Piper attributes the growing attraction of Calvinism to the way Passion pairs demanding obedience with Godâs grandeur. Even without an explicitly Calvinist appeal, Passion exemplifies how todayâs Calvinists relate theology to issues of Christian living such as worship, joy, and missions. âTheyâre not going to embrace your theology unless it makes their hearts sing,â Piper told me.
This positive, transformational view of theology might be why so many young evangelicals today hum along to TULIP. Even ten years ago, Piperâs ensemble boasted far fewer singers. You donât need me to tell you that Calvinism has a bad reputation. If you consider yourself an Arminian, the rival to Calvinism that emphasizes free will over Godâs sovereignty in salvation, you bristle at teachings such as limited atonement and irresistible grace. With the feel of a beleaguered minority, even proponents sometimes apologize for Calvinism.
âCalvinists have certainly not stood out in the Christian community as especially pure people when it comes to the way they behave,â Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, writes in Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport. âThey have frequently been intolerant, sometimes to the point of taking abusive and violent action toward people with whom they have disagreed. They have often promoted racist policies. And the fact that they have often defended these things by appealing directly to Calvinist teachings suggests that at least something in these patterns may be due to some weaknesses in the Calvinist perspective itself.â6
Other than endorsing racism and murder, Calvinism is great, Mouw seems to say. And this comes from someone who considers himself a Calvinist. Mouw writes, âWhile I sincerely subscribe to the TULIP doctrines, I have to admit that, when stated bluntly, they have a harsh feel about them.â7
Harsh is how most Christiansâindeed, most evangelicalsâprobably feel about the Puritans, among historyâs most accomplished Calvinists. Oliver Cromwell exemplifies the Puritan cause in Britain. He ruled the isles from 1649 to 1658 after Puritans and their allies beheaded King Charles I. Textbook writers gloss over Cromwellâs contemporaries, including spiritual giants John Owen and Richard Baxter. In America, far more recall the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, than later Calvinists who led explosive revivals (George Whitefield) or achieved theological genius (Jonathan Edwards, best known for his sermon âSinners in the Hands of an Angry Godâ).
Already by the early 1800s during the Second Great Awakening, Calvinism had sustained some serious blows. Infighting plagued the successors to Edwards in New England. Many Southern Presbyterians defended slavery using Scripture. Renowned evangelist Charles Finney, meanwhile, claimed the Reformed heritage but turned many of its teachings upside down.
More recently, Calvinism lost favor as the church growth and charismatic movements swept through American evangelicalism. Church growth principles urged a focus on common-denominator Christian basics, not including doctrines such as predestination. Fast-growing Pentecostal and charismatic churches trace their roots to the Wesleyan/holiness tree. To be sure, Calvinism never went away. But it did remain largely quarantined among the ethnic Dutch in the Christian Reformed Church or the Princeton Presbyterians who built Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
When I first wrote for Christianity Today in September 2006 about the resurgence of Calvinism among young evangelicals,8 I heard from many pastors, theologians, and lay leaders in these traditional communities. âUm, hello!â they gently reminded me. âWhat about us? Donât call it a comeback, Hansen. We didnât go anywhere!â Duly noted. Yet for a tradition that claims John Calvin and Martin Luther, Reformed theology had shriveled into a gaunt caricature of its former self. Who but the gallant few at Banner of Truth kept Puritan writings in print? Who but theologians J. I. Packer and R. C. Sproul convened audiences interested in Reformed theology? Who but the small circle of founders-friendly churches recalled that Calvinists founded the Southern Baptist Convention?
Even these stalwarts likely never envisioned that today Sovereign Grace churches pair charismatic worship with Calvinist theology. They still donât know what to make of the radical church planters who fly the Reformed banner as they employ missional evangelism techniques. They probably neve...