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The Heresy of Tullian Tchividjian & the New Calvinists
If there was any doubt about the greatest error in the teachings of new Calvinists, this should put it to rest. Here’s a tweet from Tullian Tchividjian today:
Think about it.
Just as you are – no spiritual growth or maturity, no increased knowledge of Jesus Christ or God’s Word is needed. According to Tchividjian, none of that is necessary. It’s all grace, baby. Once you’re in Christ, you don’t need to do a thing. Cruise through life ‘just as you are.’ That’s what the man is teaching.
There are what? 700+ commands in the Bible?
If what this man is saying is true, was Jesus Christ wrong in commanding us the Great Commission? Of course not. Is God wrong when He tells us to put off anger, malice, jealousy, etc? Of course not. Or were these merely suggestions for us to consider as options?
The new Calvinism that he espouses is error of the worst sort. It appears Tullian doesn’t want you to mature in Christ. He doesn’t want you to do anything, just continue ‘just as you are’ – and he calls that sanctification!? being made holy!?
Now, before you swallow this antinomian lie, be aware of what God has said:
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God – Hebrews 6:1 (NASB)
When we were born again, we were born again as infants, babes in Christ. It’s perfectly natural for a babe to grow up and become an adult, but Tullian wants you to remain a babe. Why?
Brethren, this is contrary to all things Christian. “Grace alone” and gospel contemplation will not cut the mustard when it comes to your sanctification.
Sanctification is about growth in the knowledge of the Christ and God’s Word, of prayer and of fighting, mortifying sin in our lives, of becoming holy in word and deed, increasingly set apart from the world, it’s lusts and its culture – sticking out like a sore thumb. Certainly, the Spirit is working in us, and it is by grace alone, but it des not mean we are passive in our sanctification. It is not about remaining ‘just as you are’. Indeed, the only way to grow in grace is to grow, increase, in your knowledge of Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
Prayer and no action against sin is an abject failure and a rejection of God’s will. So then, at best, listening to and believing Tullian Tchividjian will keep you in spiritual infancy contrary to God’s plan while you reject God’s clearly communicated will. At worst, Tullian is leading people to Hell and damnation with an antinomian lie.
This ‘pastor’ is not a mere miscreant muttering in some dark corner. No. The Gospel Coalition has given him a platform from which he reaches untold numbers with this new Calvinist lie. He is one of many babblers masquerading in effulgence and with much alacrity. With his own words he combines sanctification with justification, and therefore this is no calumny on my part, so don’t bother leaving some childish, snard remark in the combox. It won’t see the light of day.
This is not a knee-jerk, snarling petulance on my part. I have, with great interest on behalf of the Church, attempted to warn readers of this dangerous new Calvinist fusion of justification with sanctification, often times, seemingly, with little success. It can be frustrating.
Yet the brutish stupidity of this man’s theology needs to be made public, and indeed he has done that for us. Any believer who has spent serious study in God’s word can see the folly of this man’s teaching. For those who cannot, I invite you to research the articles regarding new Calvinism on this site.
5 Pt. Salt 
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby . . .” (1 Peter 2:2) “that you may grow thereby” is our sanctification. By reading, studying, meditating day and night on His breathed out Word.
“Sanctify them through your truth: Your Word is truth” (John 17:17).
He didn’t say not to desire to grow, only connected both salvation and justification to the power of God.
30But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: 31that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
American Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995), 1 Co 1:30–31.
Amen. To God alone be the glory for our justificatin and sanctification.
The best way to indoctrinate is to keep them from reading the Bible themselves. If they read, they might think that there is more to the Christian life than living for yourself.
“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. . . . Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this you shall both save yourself, and them that hear you” (1 Timothy 4:13, 16).
The Tweet as it stands alone is false.
Actually, the Tweet merely denies that we have anything in and of ourselves to bring to the table and connects both salvation and sanctification to God’s power. Therefore it is true on it’s face.
Nope.
Take note, the tweet is not based on scripture, but a hymn. His statement is completely unsupportable by scripture and is therefore a lie. Our only source for truth is the word of God, not a cleverly crafted misleading statement of any man, no matter how respected the man.
“Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me.” is true for salvation, but not for sanctification? Is grace needed for one but nor for the other? But then again, before one mounts a pseudointellectual attack against a ‘tweet’ it might be wise to consider what the author meant by the tweet. I am not particularly a big fan of Tullian, but neither will i get caught up in the arguments about him. It’s a distraction from proclaiming the simple gospel and Satan loves distractions.
Wait one minute. Sanctification is something I do. I become more like Jesus Christ because I choose to obey him. Now we can say that the Holy Spirit aids me in this process, and that is true. But he doesn’t make decisions form me. When I sin, I sin. When I choose not to sin, It is I, not God in me, who is choosing to say no to sin. That is crystal clear from scripture, and the entire course of human and church history.
I would offer to Jum, who I believe might be taking too much credit for his sanctification, Philippians 2:13.
B4B, do you allow any credit for ones own sanctification?
While I would agree that we participate and are responsible to “know”, “reckon”, and “present” certain things (see Romans 6), and I would agree that our sanctification is synergistic rather than monergistic as is our salvation, it is the spirit of God that causes me to will and do what pleases God, and not my natural flesh. That’s what I believe
That makes more sense to me B4B, and that is really all I am saying. We have to say yes, God doesn’t say yes for us.
Surely you are not saying that God makes you choose to resist any and all temptation to disregard Christ’s teachings?
You are not saying that God forces us to say yes to him? I have followed Christ for over 25 years, and that has NEVER been my experience.
Now, of course, God the Holy Spirit encourages us in those moments to choose to follow Christ and not give in to any particular temptation. He empowers to say no to sin, as well as yes to God. Perhaps that is what are getting at. But He does not force you or I to say yes to His promptings. Growing in Godlikeness fundamentally requires the God Follower to choose to follow God.
So, yes we play a role in our own sanctification.
While I can choose to sin or not to sin, Phil 2:13 still rings true concerning the power behind my choosing rightly. That’s what I believe.
Agreed!
The Tweet by itself could be true or false, depending on what what was behind the thought itself. Tullian is not an antinomian heretic who doesn’t know the difference between sanctification and justification. He merely understands the ‘already/not yet’ aspects of sanctification. Of course, if one does not understand the ‘already’ aspect as being perfectly sanctified IN Christ, one might assign meaning to the Tweet that is not there.
I thought the guy was a dead composer. What do I know??
Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.
where is THAT in the Scripture?
Are you sure about all that? You are attacking him for saying things not even in that simple statement. All the phrase means on it’s face is that we have nothing in and of ourselves to commend us before God, for either sanctification or justification. We rely on Him for both. Have you ever read Philippians 2:13? It is God who works within us to desire and to do what pleases him. If the man is a false teacher, it’s not in a short tweet. It doesn’t say anything about our obedient walk as Christians one way or the other. It only says we depend on God for our salvation and our justification, thus ‘connecting’ them, not ‘combining’ them. That’s a false accusation. If he is guilty of that in his body of teaching, you cannot make the case from the Tweet. I am familiar with much of his work however, and what I see is a clear understanding of both justification and sanctification, recognizing the difference between legalistic sanctification and gospel empowered sanctification.
Follow the links. This is not just about a single tweet.
I’d said that the Tweet by itself is false and it is. However, I agree with you that the Tweet does not reflect his overall work. He just chose some unfortunate terms in the Tweet. He’s not in any way a false teacher or heretic.
The problem with saying “That tweet by itself is false” is that you’re failing to consider the full context of what’s stated. The phrase, “Just as I am without one plea” could potentially be understood to be referring to most anything (“….without one plea” for what exactly?). However, anybody who’s been a Christian for more than a few months knows that the phrase is borrowed from the song “Just as I am”, and that the very next line of the song says, “but that thy blood was shed for me”, which is what the song is actually about.
In other words, the phrase does not have anything to do with us not growing in Christ, but rather it’s an acknowledgement that it is by God’s grace that we’re saved in the first place. The point to his text, then, was to remind us that it’s also God’s grace which enables us to keep growing as believers and serving him. Read with this proper context in mind, the tweet is absolutely true – and biblical, at that!
Only someone who’s completely unfamiliar with the song from which that line is taken could misunderstand that tweet to have meant “don’t grow in Jesus”. Regardless, anyone who knows Pastor Tullian (or his ministry) at all knows that’s not what he was trying to say.
Josh said on Apr 10:
“The problem with saying “That tweet by itself is false” is that you’re failing to consider the full context of what’s stated.”
He has a really good point. I’m reading Tullian’s book “One Way Love” in the context of a group Bible study, and while I have certain issues with his not really getting to the “duty’ motive for believers in waliking in obedience the we now “delight in” rather than hate, I cannot label him a heretic. Having studied him for some time now and the issue of antinomianism today, I can see how some could interpret his emphasis on the power of grace for justification as being what it is not. I also have reservations blogs that have in their titles ‘generalizations’ that lump an entire group into a category.
Wow! That is a lot of vitriol towards a brother in Christ. I spent a year in ft. Lauderdale attending CRPC listening to Tullians teaching. While Iight agree he can be silly at times, he is no heretic. His “just as I am w/o one plea” is from the hymn which clearly is stating the orthodox position that we bring nothing to our salvation except the sin that makes it necessary. Tullians point is that our sanctification is also a work of grace and to think Jesus got us into heaven & now we have to do the sanctification thing on our own is a recipe for burnout & failure.
Who said you had to ‘do it’ alone? Not me, and not here. Sanctification is synergistic. Both God and you are involved. Don’t confuse sanctification with justification!
and don’t think you work sanctification either. It is through the means of Grace that God works in us to make us more and more like Christ. Yes, we are now both sinner and saint and therefore we have the ability and the want to to obey His commands. However, Jesus Christ is our Righteousness in Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. We will not stand at the throne saying, Look at how I sanctified myself. We will stand at the Throne, pointing to Jesus who is made unto us our Wisdom, Righteousness AND Sanctification.
The testimony of Scripture is that sanctification (being made holy) is synergistic. True, we contribute nothing to justification, yet in sanctification, while indeed Christ is our sanctification, we also are to be fully cooperative with the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Scripture could not be more clear.
Joel your right on this one, I detected his antinomianism right away, he is preaching a gospel which teaches stop trying to be holy, you don’t have to do that, that is why Jesus died. Sanctification is synergistic, we must prayerfully seek holiness, prayerfully live in this unholy world, not being enmeshed in the labyrinth of ungodliness that our Antichrist culture is always trying to suck us into. He is not the only one who preaches this doctrine Steve Brown is the master of this message, it is not the message of the Apostles, nor does it bear any resemblance to the preaching of great preachers such as Charles Spurgeon. John MacArthur is a stawart for preaching the pursuit of personal holiness for the Christian.
Josph,
“There seems to be a fear out there that the preaching of radical grace produces serial killers. Or, to put it in more theological terms, too much emphasis on the indicatives of the gospel leads to antinomianism (a lawless version of Christianity that believes the directives and commands of God don’t matter). My problem with this fear is that I’ve never actually met anyone who has been truly gripped by God’s amazing grace in the gospel who then doesn’t care about obeying him. As I have said before: antinomianism happens not when we think too much of grace. Just the opposite, actually. Antinomianism happens when we think too little of grace.” – Tullian Tchividjian
Actually reading and or/listening to Tulllian might cure your judgmentalism, unless of course you are one of the self-righteous heresies who seem to be found here and there.
Mr. Born4Battle, when Tullian preaches the distinct message I hear is “you need to stop trying so hard to be righteous, Christ died on the Cross so we don’t have to be stressed to the max striving for a holiness we humans will always fall short of. Relax, enjoy the grace Christ merited on the cross, stop trying so hard to be obedient.” What did Holy Apostle Paul says,Wherefore, my beloved, ….work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Phillipians 2:12-13 (Tullian, is telling believers to take the foot off the pedal in the race of holiness, rather than driving forward pedal to the metal, in pursuit of holiless and godliness. Only the elect will be able to discern the subtle error which is preached in the end times; in this case by a man who is where he is at not because of any other reason than who’s grandson he is. He has an innovative message, which takes a burden off believer’s our Savior never intended to be removed.
I may not have been a serial killer, but I sure was a drunk and a fornicator and a drug addict and TOTALLY convinced of my salvation. Straight up antinomian. IT WAS ME.
What happened was my heart was changed BY GOD. My want and desires changed. I didnt want sin any longer. I am not sinless, but if I could be, I would be.
PLEASE dont label this as a Calvinist thing. There are too many of us who would disagree.
Josef,
You rightly quote:
Wherefore, my beloved, ….work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13
There is a grand balance in this passage. On one hand there si a ‘working out’, and on the other hand, it is God who is doing the primary ‘work’. The passage seems to be saying that our ‘work’ is to let God be all that He is within us. The passage clearly tells us that the ‘work being done is God in us,
Apparently we read Tullian a bit differently, but I am not arguing for Tullian, just commenting that you might wrongly read him, as do others.
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It is true that justification and sanctification are not the same, but they are certainly connected. Colossians 2:6, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
I am sincerely confused how Tullian is seen as denying good works. Where does Tchividjian say sanctification is passive? I haven’t read or heard that yet, but I could have certainly missed it. As I read him, Tullian says sanctification is about work, obedience, and sacrifice, but it is effort empowered, motivated, and guided by my looking to Christ’s accomplishment for me, not my fixation with my accomplishments for Him. Here are 2 direct quotes from Tullian’s book, Jesus + Nothing = Everything.
“What motivates our obedience? What animates our obedience? What prompts us to obey? Is it fear or faith? Guilt or gratitude? Paul says when we divorce God’s obligations from Gospel declarations then our obedience becomes nothing more than behavioral compliance to rules without heart change. But when God’s amazing grace in the Gospel grips our hearts, the motivational structure of our hearts is radically changed and we begin to obey out of faith not fear, gratitude not guilt.”
“The Gospel comes in and says we already have in Christ all that we crave, so we are free to live a life of sacrifice courageously and boldly.”
The problem isn’t that good works are being denied, Tullian and others are merely seeing the connection between grace and our good works. Just as we are not saved by our good works, once wee are saved, the good works that count toward sanctification are also powered by grace. The problem is I think with those that are too nearsighted to see the connection.
What you call near sightedness, is the foresight of the spiritually discerning mind to see where this guty is heading. The whole modernistic approach to reformed teaching[scripture] is no where near what would have been heard from reformed pulpits even fifthy years ago. Each generation is more deluted and more shallow, thats why you see the worldly gear[ drums, guitars, modern rap music] in so called reformed churches and claiming this is part of their liberty in Christ, sounds like the bondage of sin to me. Im just glad that there are a very few left who not only ask for the old paths but walk there in. Thats what i would suggest for this man, whether he be a wolf or a sheep i dont know, but he will at some point be exposed
Antinomianism is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God expects us to live a life of morality, integrity, and love. Jesus Christ freed us from the burdensome commands of the Old Testament Law, but that is not a license to sin, but rather a covenant of grace. We are to strive to overcome sin and cultivate righteousness, depending on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fact that we are graciously freed from the demands of the Old Testament Law should result in our living our lives in obedience to the law of Christ. First John 2:3-6 declares, “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”
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