Over 700 people attended the Conference of Southern Baptists Evangelists meeting on June 21 in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting featured Johnny Hunt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Caner preached on “Engaging the Last Days’ Culture,” emphasizing the importance of theological education and the impact divinity graduates can have on secular culture. Caner noted in the home locale of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, that if an individual toured any of the SBC’s seminaries or affiliated colleges, “You run into this great cadre, this fired-up army of kids who are ready to charge hell with a water gun. They have not yet learned to be cynical or skeptical or sarcastic. . . . They’d crawl on their hands and knees on broken glass to tell someone about Jesus. . . . We have an entire generation of kids who know more Bible, memorized more verses and are more fearless than any other generation in history.” Ironically, he failed to mention that “those who are worse than Muslims” (e.g., Calvinists) are many of those making up this cadre of seminary and college students. Caner also noted there “are more people interested in Christianity than ever in history” on secular campuses. In this, he failed to mention that one of the reasons secular campuses are being impacted positively by the Christian message is due very largely to the ministries of Reformed stalwarts such as John Piper and Mark Driscoll, and student ministry groups such as Reformed University Fellowship.
Rev. Dr. James Galyon
In all fairness, Caner’s “worse than Muslims” comment seemed to be aimed at the more vocal and uncivil element of the reformed resurgence,
Yes, absolutely. For a small portion of these people, just daring to question the Bezian movement is heresy. They will blog and e-mail incessantly. I call it a “Calvinist Jihad,” because just like Muslims, they believe they are defending the honor of their view. They can discuss nothing else. I have even had a few call for my head!
I believe that it would be better for Caner to qualify even such hyperbolic statements more carefully (e.g. “militant Calvinists are worse than their Muslim counterparts”), since moderate Calvinists obviously don’t fit such a description; but I guess the real issue is whether his statements accurately describe the resurgence as a whole. I don’t have any statistics, but I will say that I’ve run into a disappointingly high ratio of hard-edged Calvinists, especially on the net, some of them widely lauded in Calvinist circles.
J.C.:
Thanks for your thoughts. The quote you produced (from Mr. Caner’s blog) is actually a follow up to his original declaration. On the blog he answers in response to the question, “Didn’t you say that Calvinists are worse than Muslims?”:
Note he isn’t speaking about a small portion of Calvinists being “worse,” but all Calvinists being worse. The “small portion” to which he refers are those who claim “heresy” for “daring to question the Bezian movement.” Note he also speaks of “neo-Calvinists,” bringing up the worn-out caricature related to evangelism and missions. So, with all due respect to his quote and his long history of speaking out against “Calvinists” from the pulpit and with the pen, I don’t think I’ve been unfair or taken him out of context. I still believe he needs to apologize for this statement.
I hate to admit it, but I agree with you my friend, there are way too many “hard-edged Calvinists” who are out there. Perhaps we could lock them into a broom closet with the Caner Brothers, Bob Ross, and other “hard-edged non-Calvinists” and refuse to open the door until they were loving each other in Jesus’ name.
If you’ll note the context of Caner’s statement Rev, his comparison was to the methodology of the Muslims, not their beliefs; hence it follows that such a comparison would logically extend only to those engaged in the stated examples of egregious behavior.
I just took the direct approach and emailed Dr. Caner myself, asking him to clarify whether he was addressing all Calvinists or only those of the more fanatical stripe. He resoundingly confirmed that he was speaking of fanatics, not all Calvinists, and still stands by the statement.
I thought Bob Ross was a Calvinist offshoot of sorts (4-pointer with a different view of irresistible grace). You consider him non-Calvinist?
Perhaps we could lock them into a broom closet…
Only if you promise to include Dan Corner, Andrew C. Bain, and the ghost of John Owen.
Since when standing for the truth is called heresy.
Amen Dr. Galyon, Amen.
J. C. – it would be helpful if Mr. Caner would make the statement he made to you a public one. Others have asked him to clarify that statement publicly, yet he seems content to let it stand as is. Bob Ross claims to be a Calvinist offshoot of sorts, yet he likes nothing better than to assail those within the Reformed camp. Dan Corner and Andrew Bain… yes, we should throw those guys in there as well. I think Owen would wipe the floor with the whole lot.