Christian CounterCulture?

Posted by Michael Bunker
editor@lazarusunbound.com

“And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19) 

July 23, 2004 – I want to start this article with a story that will serve as both a parable, and a filter.

In 1993 I was working in the Dallas, Texas area.  I was introduced to cigars by an acquaintance who offered me one after work.  I have to say that I enjoyed that cigar immensely.  A lot went in to my instantaneous affinity for cigar smoking.  I had never been a smoker; I never smoked cigarettes and never did drugs.  As a student of history, I was well informed of the critical roll that tobacco had played in the formation of a republic on this continent, and in its early successes.  Many (if not most) of the founders, the Puritans and the Pilgrims, were tobacco growers and tobacco users.  However, I was also well aware of the insidious roll that greed had played in bastardizing what God had given as a financial, cultural and sociological gift to the Protestant fathers.

Depraved man had taken the pure simplicity of the tobacco plant, hybridized it, sprayed it with fertilizers and pesticides, laced it with about 21 other types of chemicals (many cancerous and addictive), chopped it up and rolled it in chemically bleached papers and sold it to the world as “cigarettes”.  Hollywood taught the masses (and children) how to inhale it (something early tobacco users would never have done), suck it up into their nasal passages and into their lungs, in order to get a temporary high and to look cool.  Opportunists and wicked money grubbers made millions, while thousands died from addiction.

All the while, there were still the purists - men who enjoyed the purity of the untainted tobacco plant, rolled from whole leaves and packed in boxes – the only additive being some vegetable adhesive glue and a paper ring that could be easily removed.  They didn’t inhale it, and they weren’t addicted to it – they just enjoyed it in moderation.  Tobacco was a simple, inexpensive pleasure – usually smoked at the end of a hard day’s work.  Knowing this history helped me to enjoy that first cigar in 1993.

A few days after that first cigar, I went to a local tobacconist and purchased 3 top notch cigars for .75 cents each.  I announced to my wife that I was now a cigar smoker, and asked her what she thought about that.  She told me that she didn’t mind, she liked the smell, but would rather that I not smoke them in the house since she was pregnant with our first child at the time.  After that, I would smoke a couple of cigars a week, usually in my back yard – enjoying the evenings after a day at work.

In late 1994 I hit another milestone.  My wife bought me my first full box of cigars.  It was a box of 25 Baccarat Lonsdales.  She probably paid $17 or $18 for the whole box.  But soon, tragedy struck…

The Cigar Boom

The worst thing you can do with something that is pure is make it popular.  In early 1995 the cigar boom crashed across America and around the world.  Some loud-mouth blowhards in the media and in Hollywood launched the boom by smoking cigars in public and by gracing the covers of shiny magazines.  Cigars were in.  Masses of the ignorant public flooded the cigar stores buying anything in sight, and paying whatever prices the stores would charge.  There were waiting lists for almost every brand and prices skyrocketed.  In less than a year that box of Baccarat Lonsdales was around $45 and still going up.  There had always been some unscrupulous characters in the cigar business – folks who sold junk and tried to convince the ignorant that they were getting the real thing – and now they had an opportunity to make millions.  There had also always been some low-end characters on the user end of the transaction – people who smoked cigars because they sought the persecution, or because they thought it made them look cool.  Soon opportunists, greedy merchants and misguided capitalists took over the business.  Thousands of untrained, unskilled children in tobacco growing countries were enlisted to hand-roll sub-par tobacco to fill the growing orders.  Tobacco companies rushed products to the market to try to meet the demand.  Junk cigars, which only 2 years earlier would have sold 2 for a dollar, were packed into fancy boxes and priced at $5-$12 a stick.  Cigar bars and cigar stores opened up in malls and shopping centers across America.

So I quit smoking cigars.  I refused to participate.  Everyone was a cigar smoker now… but the purity of it was lost.

The Cigar Bust

Six years later, the boom was over.  The ignorant public grew tired of the fad and stopped buying the product.  It wasn’t cool anymore.  Cigar Aficionado magazine even officially dropped the word “Cigar” from the title of the magazine.  Prices dropped.  Warehouses were stocked with cigars and mainly just the purists remained.  Cigar retailers admitted that the cigars that they were hawking for $10 a stick during the boom, could now be purchased for around a dollar a piece… even cheaper if you would buy in bulk.  Stores and bars closed down or changed their marketing strategies. The purists breathed a sigh of relief and began, once again, to partake in a simple pleasure – one that had once built a great Republic.  Some folks who jumped on board during the Cigar boom are still around.  They are becoming purists and beginning to see the truth about pure, simple tobacco.  I started buying cigars again in 2001.

End of parable.

Neo-Calvinism

As we scanned the theological horizon only 5 years ago, it was hard to find anyone preaching or teaching the Doctrines of Grace.  Sure there were some comfortable-Calvinist, Presbyterian churches (the frozen chosen), and even some Reformed Baptists out there – but who even knew what they believed?  Where were the websites and the books?   You could find some if you looked hard enough, or if you were willing to rifle through the used book stores with a fine-tooth comb.  The truth was out there.  There were purists who believed and held on to the truth of the Gospel of Grace.  YOU could find THEM if you looked hard enough too, and if you knew where to look.  Then the “revival” hit.  Neo-Calvinists sprung up from everywhere, websites were launched, books became available… and I have to tell you, that much of this was good… really good.  Many publishers began making available the classics of true Christian theology.  Bunyan, Knox, Owen, Gill, Watson, Boston… all became available on the internet and in some bookstores.  The battle was once again joined.  The overwhelming, apostate, Arminian majority was soon faced with the Truth from a dozen different angles at once.  But comfortable Calvinism itself was faced with a dilemma it had never faced before… Calvinism was now… profitable!  Sure there had always been popular Calvinists out there; you had James White, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur and John Piper – folks who had always had an audience for their books and tapes.  The Republican majority would roll out James White during election years to warn “christians” that abortion-mongers would overrun the country if the “right people” were not elected.  Focus on the Family and the other “christian” media harlots were glad to have the occasional Calvinist on the air, so long as they never talked about THEOLOGY; so long as they never told the Truth about Arminianism and its birthplace in Rome; so long as they never actually said that Free-Will theology was false “christianity” and was Romanism repackaged.

Then the neo-Calvinist boom hit.  Few people saw it coming.  The same folks who had handed the country over to the Papists and Arminians in the first place now had a chance to make a killing.  The truth was watered down and sprayed wholesale on the hungry public.  A people who had been lied to and starved of the truth, were now given some lukewarm milk and they were convinced it was steak.  So long as the message never moved anyone to action; so long as the doctrine was sound (however limited); and so long as no one rocked the boat… the neo-Calvinist opportunists could continue to make a fortune by soft-selling the Truth.

A Digression

Without getting into a deep discussion (or argument) about the spiritual state of the founders of the American Republic – it must be admitted by most thinking men that quite a few of the most principle architects of that republic were truly Christian men and Doctrines of Grace adherents.  John Witherspoon and James Madison were hard core believers in the truth of the Doctrines of Grace, and these two men (more than any others) were the principal thinkers and crafters behind the Bill of Rights.  Madison, who had been a student of Witherspoon’s at Princeton, fundamentally believed in the Total Depravity of humanity – and it was on this foundation that he crafted the limitations on government.  Madison and Witherspoon were revolutionists above all; they firmly believed in the freedom of man, and the bondage of the human will.    All government, in order to be a legitimate authority, must derive its authority from God, and it must limit itself to that which is specifically provided for in Scripture.  Government cannot require that which the Bible forbids, nor can it prohibit that which the Bible commands.  Madison knew that men, by their fallen natures, were wicked and depraved and that the concentration of raw power in the hands of wicked and corrupt men would always lead to tyranny and oppression.  The Gospel required that government must be handcuffed in order that true Christian free men could obey the dictates of the Biblical law and conscience in the diligent performance of their duty.

Modern “christianity” teaches that Grace is the freedom from law, while the Bible teaches that Grace is freedom in law.  Laws were to be written and enforced to allow Christian men the freedom to do their duty, unencumbered by tyranny and despotism.  Christian men and women, likewise, were subject to the law of God; therefore they were free to obey God’s commandments without concern about violating the laws of men.  Government of men was instituted by men, to restrict the depraved proclivities and desires of the wicked – and to prevent them from interfering with the Gospel work of Christian people.  Above all, the depravity of man must be constrained by the shackles of the law, lest the lawless become the law, and the Godly become slaves.

Back to the Neo-Calvinist Boom

Comfortable Calvinism is threatened by the full Truth of the Gospel.  Christ did not just decide to elect some predestinated people to Himself, but He also chose to SEPARATE them unto Himself.  Neo-Calvinists taught predestination without subsequent fruit; they taught that you could be “chosen” without separation and holiness; they taught election without a cross.  Christ prophesied that His true elect would be hated, scorned, persecuted, cast down, trampled upon - the off-scouring of the nations, and the enemies of the world.  Neo-Calvinists taught that election meant lawlessness, acceptance and comfort.  Fat, greedy, compromisers started building more and bigger churches, anxious to reap from what they considered to be “the great revival” or “the next reformation”.  They began to preach against “mean” or “harsh” Calvinism, mainly because they themselves were convicted by it.  They begged men to ignore the Prophets of doom, and to take up their velvet crosses and to follow them.

One of the pied-pipers of the comfortable, neo-Calvinist set is a man named Rob Schlapfer.  He amusingly (and ironically) calls his website ChristianCounterculture.com.  Why it is amusing will surface as we examine it.  Why it is ironic will be apparent by a quick perusal of the site.  Schlapfer fashions himself as the modern heir-apparent to Francis Schaeffer, and parrots most of Schaeffer’s catch-phrases incessantly.  Although I am a great admirer of Schaeffer, and applaud his brilliance in identifying and explaining the Christian worldview – I must say that the fruit of the Schaeffer movement evolved into the disastrous reconstructionism of the 1980’s.  Schaeffer is not responsible for this.  He warned us all before he died that if the window of opportunity to RADICALLY change America and her government (in the early 1980’s) was not seized upon, then it would be lost forever.  Schaeffer’s followers did not heed this warning, and became party to much of the reconstructionist political failures of the late 80’s (after Schaeffer’s death).  It has always been the flawed position of the reconstructionists that government can be taken and “fixed” by Christians.  The carnal lusts of the reconstructionist allows him to bastardize Scripture in order to blend the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world.  Reconstructionists believe that God will use them to fix what is wrong in this country.

But God has promised to destroy the kingdoms of this world, not rehabilitate them.  God has called His people OUT of the kingdoms of this world; He has not called us to fix Satan’s dominion.  Schlapfer and his ilk have mastered the art of doublespeak, and many fall into it without even realizing it.  Listen what Schlapfer says in his “manifesto”:

“…today’s Christian culture is destroying Christianity.  By today’s Christian culture we mean the vast network of people — ministries, businesses, bookstores, magazines, musicians, TV & radio programs and the like — who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ today.  While individual differences certainly exist among them, a consistant pattern is easily detected: the culture it represents is indistinguishable from the world it seeks “to save.”  It is worldly at its very core.  Today’s Christian culture so resembles the world, that standing contra mundum — against the world, in opposition to its culture — would amount to standing against itself. (ChristianCounterculture.com manifesto)

Sounds great doesn’t it?  Keep that quote in mind if you decide to peruse Rob Schlapfer’s web pages.  Sounds just like the message we have been preaching for years now.  But what does it mean?  Schlapfer’s gaggle of websites are tightly produced, modernistic, productions… in short, they are cool.  Flashy.  Mod college kids love them.  The production values in most instances are better than Amazon.com or CNN.com.  In fact, anyone trying to make a BIG buck in America today should take a lesson from Rob Schlapfer.  His fancy bookstore (http://www.discerningreader.com) is littered with professional pictures of beautiful models, posed in intriguing ways.  College girls with fabulous hair, sprawled on the ground reading very deep Christian books (albeit dressed like the world and caked with makeup… see, you can be gorgeous, popular, modern… and a Christian too!).  Schlapfer’s ultra cool site Antithesis.com advertises itself as “Progressively Conservative” and “Radically Biblical”.  I, however, have been unable to find out what Schlapfer actually BELIEVES on any of his websites.  He has links to some Biblical stuff, and he certainly flirts with the truth on occasion… but what does HE think about the Papacy?  Who does he think is the antichrist?  The Apostles, Prophets, Reformers, Puritans – all with one voice, warned us about the last days Antichrist Papacy, and her byproduct – APOSTATE PROTESTANTISM.  All of the giants of the faith warned us that seductive men would come in the last days, pushing DECEPTION.  Schlapfer’s cool, modern, progressively conservative “christianity” is mere marketing, and doesn’t have the legs to even stand up against its own manifesto.  But we must admit that the eye-candy is appetizing and there is just enough fascinating lures around that most people probably are captivated pretty easily.  Check out his “former” forum called The Dialogue Box (http://p197.ezboard.com/bthedialoguebox)... You’ll find out that he cancelled his forum because some mean Calvinists wouldn’t play nice there… so the forum is gone, BUT, Schlapfer has strategically placed  some nice fancy ads on the page (to replace all that nasty dialogue).  One shows a very diverse crowd of modernly dressed worldlings; all apparently impatient and waiting to get in to what Schlapfer calls “…OUR BEST SALE EVER”.  Another ad shows a woman’s backside.  She is wearing very tight, modern, culturally acceptable blue jeans, but obviously they are not tight enough to keep her boyfriend’s hand out of her back pocket.  The ad text says, “make love”.  I suppose Schlapfer is pushing still another one of his newsletters, because I went to the link – where I was quickly informed that I should admit that I (as a Christian) have been too prudish about sexual intimacy.

I can go to ChristianCounterculture.com and figure out how to sign up for numerous newsletters.  I can go to every one of Schlapfer’s pages and figure out how to buy tons of fancy, neo-Calvinist books.  I can actually stand there and be dumbfounded in the diversity of theological opinion that can all be considered “orthodox”, and I can even be scolded for being too harsh, mean and unyielding.  What I cannot do is figure out what Schlapfer believes about anything important to me.  Welcome to the “Christian CounterCulture”.  In our modernist, apostate culture – Christian Counterculture means “you can believe the truth and be cool too!”

Government Lapdogs and Lackeys

Here are some facts for ya.  When I set up LazarusUnbound.com and our online bookstore… I wasn’t able to do many of the things I wanted to do, because my conscience would not allow me to marry myself to the pagan “christian” culture and the government.  In order to be able to sell “Christian” books at a profit, you must become a reseller.  In order to become a book reseller, you have to fill out huge forms that prove that you are absolutely married to the government and the government banking system.  You have to provide state sales tax forms and IRS tax forms.  You have to apply for a Federal ID number and show proof that you have a business license and multiple credit accounts!  Otherwise you cannot buy “christian” books at wholesale.  It sounds shocking to some of you, but it is true.  Schlapfer runs a very profitable book business because he doesn’t expose the evils of tyrannical government.  Schlapfer does not expose the evils of the Beast because he is a purveyor of her doctrines and a partner in her crimes.  The neo-Calvinists have agreed together that the government is not all that bad… and you have to obey the government anyway… so let’s preach a gospel of peace and reconciliation (with the world) that doesn’t encourage anyone to flee Sodom before it is too late.  Great thinkers like Jonathan Edwards and James Madison warned us that Arminian government, if it was allowed to thrive and grow, would one day consume everything around it.  The only thing worse than being consumed in the gaping maw of the Beast, is to be anesthetized into thinking that the belly of that Beast is actually Heaven.

James White, John Piper, and other neo-Calvinist writers are really doing well for themselves.  The money is flowing, their churches are growing (like their wallets) and they can herald themselves as the princes of the new reformation.  But where is the fruit?  The Reformation of the 16^th and 17^th centuries led to the REVOLUTIONS of the 18^th century.  Reformation CAUSES persecution, not comfort and cultural acceptance.  Why are these pied-piper neo-Calvinists preaching the divine right of Kings?  Prophets of profits can do no other.  As elections approach, James White will be called upon to use all of his immense oratorical skills to convince you that one Papist puppet is better than another one.  He will get you to cry for all the aborted babies and swear on your honor that you will stand in the gap for those without voices, and he’ll do it quite well because he has done it for years.  Then, 5 days after Election Day (regardless which Papist puppet wins the presidency), Dr. James White will board the cruise ship The Vision of the Seas for his 7 day Alpha and Omega ministries cruise (this years topic? JUSTIFICATION!).  You can find details on this fine Justification cruise at http://www.aomin.org/cruise/cruise2004.html.

I have no problem with a man taking a vacation with his wife; it is the blatant, scam marketing of comfortable neo-Calvinism that I find objectionable.  But comfortable “christianity” sells, the Charismatic movement has proved that beyond all doubt.  There is big money in religion.  White, Schlapfer, et.al, they learned from the best.

“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:20-26).

Worldly men always spoke well of the false prophets, and always reproached those who were doing the will of God.  The Bible says that if a man is teaching the Word of God, that men will hate him; they will separate from his company; they will cast his name out as evil… for the Son of man’s sake.

Let me light a cigar and I’ll continue…

During any boom, whenever something becomes really popular, some purists always complain that opportunists and greedy charlatans are cannibalizing the industry; but the rich opportunists always click their tongues and shake their heads in disappointment and dismay… “Don’t you see all the good we’re doing?  What’s good for us is good for everyone!”

A Prophet is never popular, and a message that does not condemn sinners and encourage God’s children to separate from the world – is not God’s message at all.  The leaders of the doublespeak cult of neo-Calvinism have a good racket going… but it is obvious by their behavior that they do not believe what they preach.  Here’s a test… give ol’ Rob Schlapfer a call, if you can.  Ask him if you can come by and see him.  His website claims that Christians ought to look different from the world… go by and check him out, and tell me what you come up with.  I’ll be shocked if you ever get in the door.  Ask yourself why rich Calvinist authors are represented in every Arminian/Charismatic bookstore in America.  Ask yourself why their books are so popular, and why they are sold right next to the Left Behind quackery and The Purpose Driven Life.  When did the Doctrines of Grace STOP getting you killed and hated, and START making men wealthy?

Half a Gospel

Some people hear the truth about the neo-Calvinists and they have a hard time absorbing it.  Why is that?  It seems as though God has given these men the truth… how can they be so blind about the times?

The only thing more dangerous than a man without the Gospel is a man with only half of the Gospel.  The Gospel teaches us that God is sovereign in all areas of salvation.  God elects, God calls, God saves.  But the neo-Calvinists refuse to teach that God also SANCTIFIES.  When they do teach it, they teach a sanctification that only separates from open, blatant sin; but there is one major theme to all of prophecy… the truth is that God pulls his people out of the mouth of the Beast, and separates them unto Himself.  The neo-Calvinists teach a cross that doesn’t separate and doesn’t divide.  Christ carried His cross outside the camp (John 19:17).  Many walk who are enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:18).  The cross promises persecution (Gal. 5:11,6:12).  The preaching of this cross (the cross that separates and divides) is foolishness to them that perish (1 Cor. 1:18).  Whoever does not bear the cross (of separation and persecution) cannot be Christ’s disciple (Luke 14:27); in fact six times in the Gospel, it is said that if a man will not take up his cross and follow Christ, he cannot be the disciple of Christ.  The daily cross of Christ involves separation and persecution.  Comfortable Calvinism is cross-less “christianity”; it is half of a Gospel.

You will never see a man so angry as when he sees that his “christianity” doesn’t have shoe leather.  Scores of comfortable, neo-Calvinists continue to separate from our company because we preach the cross of Jesus Christ and that a man who is a Christian should do what he says he believes.  A seared conscience is an interesting thing to watch.  I cannot tell you how many friends and supporters I would have if I wasn’t willing to preach the daily cross of Jesus Christ our persecuted and hated Savior.

What will you do with your cross?

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

 
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