TIME Magazine is one of the foremost social and political magazines in the world. What it has to say is usually considered very important. It has for its main story this week the subject of “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.” The issues raised are considered by the Editors to be the “ten new ideas for our times.” So TIME has looked at the “world right now” and identified these ten ideas that are making a real difference to people’s thinking. As might be expected the ideas range from politics to economics, and from biomedical technology to morality. But there is a surprise in this list. Standing at number three is a theological issue.
The full list of ideas “happening now” is very interesting -
Jobs are the New Asset
Recycling the Suburbs
The New Calvinism
Reinstating the Interstate
Amortality
Africa, Business Destination
The Rent-a-Country
Biobanks
Survival Stores
Ecological Intelligence
It is a varied and stimulating list. TIME predicts that people are going to start looking differently at jobs, at what it means to live in the suburbs, at the way shops work, at the relationships between nations, at the way we approach old age and so on. As Bob Dylan once said, “the times they are "changing."
Many of the issues raised would have a resonance within UK society. The economic crisis, the growing ecological awareness, and the issues of health and age are certainly making people re-evaluate their priorities in life. This is good and provides Christians and the Church the opportunity to bring a Biblical mindset to these very important aspects of life.
The issue however that would take most people in the UK by surprise is the third one - “The New Calvinism.” To most people the word “Calvinism” has a pretty sour taste and would raise all sorts of ideas of negativity and repression. Even to most Christians, including many Conservative Evangelicals, the word “Calvinism” is an unwelcome one. It represents an old set of theological ideas that people just don’t want to think about. So the idea that a new form of this old set of ideas becoming a major influence would not only shock, it would also be very unwelcome.
So what is happening in the USA that such a phenomenon should attract the attention of a magazine as important and influential as TIME? The article in the magazine says the following -
“Calvinism is back. John Calvin's 16th century reply to medieval
Catholicism's buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is
Evangelicalism's latest success story, complete with an utterly
sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the
combination's logical consequence, predestination: The belief that
before time's dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not),
unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.
Calvinism is a bit less dour than its critics claim: It offers a
rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including
illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but
don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is
fulfilled simply by "glorifying" him.”
The article identifies a number of key men in this resurgence of Calvinism - John Piper, Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler. The extraordinary influence of these men on the rising generation of preachers and teachers has been analysed in a book called “Young, Restless, Reformed” by Collin Hansen. Christianity Today identifies the distinguishing mark of these men by saying “everyone knows where the energy and passion are in the Evangelical world.” They inspire those who listen to them and challenge the values and attitudes of the culture in which they minister. The men mentioned are all excellent preachers and teachers of the Bible, but in other things they are generally very innovative and imaginative. The reason for the growing success and influence of this New Calvinism is that many young people have grown up in a culture of “brokenness, divorce, drugs or sexual temptation.” Al Mohler comments, “They have plenty of friends: What they need is God.” And the fact remains, as it always has been, that the moment anyone tries to define God from the Bible they will be drawn towards a Calvinistic viewpoint.
Now much more could be said about what is happening in the USA, but we have to ask whether such a thing is happening at all in this country? Indeed we might ask whether such a thing could happen in this country. God is Sovereign - so all things are possible. But we have to say that despite the considerable influence by those same men on many in Britain the overall impact has been less than might have been hoped. Partly, this is due to the smallness of the Conservative Evangelical constituency. A further cause in my view is that the prevailing style of preaching among many Conservative Evangelicals is too analytical and ‘lecturish’. It does not inspire as, for instance, Mark Driscoll would, or Dr. Lloyd Jones did. Then again, the fragmented nature of Conservative Evangelicalism militates against the sort of impact we see in the USA. And again, very controversially, I must say that the confusion created by the predominance of the Church of England hinders a clear voice being heard from Evangelical preachers - the man in the street is more bemused than challenged.
But the greatest cause of weakness in our country is surely summed up by the comment “everyone knows where the energy and passion are.” Isn’t our greatest problem lethargy and lack of imagination? How hard it is to do anything different. Someone has a traditional perspective or a fear of supposed compromise that dampens almost everything we do. We like things as they are - even though we are having no impact at all on the world around us. Suggest a new idea and so many objections are raised that by the time you have answered them the enthusiasm you had has been exhausted. The doctrines we claim to hold should thrill and motivate us. They should inspire us to be seeking new initiatives and new ways of communicating that will reach out to a dying world. Instead we intellectualise them and hold them up as historic truths. Of course that is what they are - as historic as the Gospel itself - but we treat them as relics to be preserved instead of mighty weapons to be used.
The great difference between the USA and ourselves is this energy and enthusiasm. Our greatest need therefore is, not only to recover the glorious doctrines of Grace, but to know an enabling of the Divine Spirit that creates a new energy and delight for God and His truth. All things are possible! Let us be up and praying until God moves us and sets us aflame. We need the fire as Elijah did on Mount Carmel!