A little segue. A brief look at the effects of Whitten’s hyper-grace influence over the president of Exodus International as the reason behind its shutdown.
What was Exodus International (E.I.)?
E.I. was an interdenominational (mostly Protestant and evangelical) umbrella organization connecting groups, mostly churches. E.I. sought to “help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires” (ex-gays). The goal was to help individuals struggling with same-sex attraction to give up the gay life-style and pursue a life lived for Christ. They helped set up local therapy options for ex-gays who wanted to put away the sin of homosexuality. Founded in 1976, E.I. used conversion therapy, the reorientation of same-sex attraction. In ’06 it had over 250 local ministries and over 150 ministries spanning 17 other countries.
But then:
In 2012, then president Alan Chambers renounced conversion therapy, saying it did not work and was harmful. The following year, Chambers closed the 37 year old organization. He apologized for the “pain and hurt” participants of their programs had experienced. While E.I. no longer operates, many of its member ministries continue to carry on through new networks or independently.
Alan Chambers came to his conclusion that gay men were harmed by being taught to not act upon their desires. This harm came from the guilt they experienced when told they should repent of this life-style and stop living in it. He learned this from his pastor Clark Whitten, who was also a board member of E.I. at the time.
Under Whitten’s G.R.A.C.E. Reformation, he learned that what you do in this life, in the flesh of your physical existence, does not matter. Your sanctification is spiritual and 100% full & complete. Since no sinful act can separate you from your fellowship with Christ, it didn’t matter if you ‘continued in sin’. This belief: ‘once saved, always saved even without perseverance in faith’, was the driving force that triggered the decision to close E.I..
Chamber’s own words
Chambers said in a 2011 interview with Lisa Ling, “I do believe they (people living an active gay Christian life) will be in heaven with me … if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ.” He also stated, “We serve that kind of God that says, ‘Come to me as you are.’ His love is unconditional. He wants our hearts more than anything”, (video no longer available).
Chambers told The Atlantic in a different interview, “Some of us choose very different lives than others. But whatever we choose, it doesn’t remove our relationship with God”. And, “My personal belief is that … while behavior matters, those things don’t interrupt someone’s relationship with Christ”.
His apology
In 2012, Alan Chambers issued an extensive apology to the LGBTQ community. It included, “I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change”. He added, “I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation”. Chambers, who is married to a woman, said in his apology that he had “conveniently omitted my ongoing same-sex attractions”.
Not that different from the RPC
Andy already says things that line up with Chambers and Whitten. Recently he stated, “… and that means you can even go into the house of God with great, great boldness and now understand what I say when I say you can sin boldly as you enter into the house of God …” [because the doorpost already has Jesus’ blood on it].
He goes beyond Chambers at min 1:05:50 of his ‘doctrine’ class 4/13/22, “Let us become bold, almost to the point of being rash with regard to this matter of your experience of preservation, your experience of comfort. There is no comfort without sin. There is no comfort and assurance of preservation without sin. ... where there is sin, the grace of preservation abounds. The more you sin, the more the grace of preservation abounds. If you don’t sin, you don’t need the grace of preservation. You don’t need it. You don’t need any grace. If you sin a little, you need only a little of the grace of preservation. If all you do is sin, then all you need is grace. … It’s the truth of Romans 5. Where sin abounded, grace, much more abounded. That’s the only place that grace abounded where sin abounded. Grace doesn’t abound where there is no sin.”
Nate too
Nate has also said many times that what you do does not matter because it will not affect your relationship with Christ. They concur with Whitten that repentance is not necessary, nor required. Repentance is replaced with gratitude.
I’m surprised the RP leaders still finish their prayers in church with the petition ‘forgive us our sins’. They should do like Clark Whitten and simply end with a thanks to God that their sins are already forgiven! If they want this GRACE Reformation, why not cut the confusion and correct their own language?
Andy and Nate’s messages promote Alan Chamber’s approach which provides assurance of salvation to those actively engaged in sin. But this is a very different approach than Jesus’ and Paul’s warnings.
Jesus and Paul taught that immoral sexual behavior, among other offenses, can get one excluded from the kingdom of God. They also taught that such sins will interrupt one’s fellowship with God. No one may continue in a life of sin and expect to enter heaven.
Rev. McGeown has a pertinent explanation of the difference between ‘continuing in sin’ and the reality that you still sin in his recent sermon here.
Powerless, cheap grace?
While God’s grace is marvelous, it does not entail assuring people that they may continue in sin. Grace of salvation makes us dead to the sin we once loved. As Paul writes in 2 Thess. 2:13, “… God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth”.
Like Chambers, Nate and Andy sever the connection between faith in Christ, and a life lived by that faith. They deny the power of faith in the lives of believers.
The costly grace of the cross earned for us the right to obey, and the ability to obey. But their cheap grace teaches that one can remain living in sin and still consider themselves saved. Their powerless grace says we can only merely desire the right things, and desire a holy life, but we cannot really start to live it.
A nice refutation
There is an ordained Presbyterian elder, Robert Gagnon, who wrote a letter against Alan Chambers’ decision to close E.I. and called for his resignation as its president.
He writes, “Faith, in turn, is not mere intellectual assent to the truth. It is a holistic life reorientation in accord with the truth of the gospel; certainly, an imperfect reorientation but a climatic realignment of life nonetheless. Paul contended that self-professed believers who engaged unrepentantly in certain sinful lifestyles of an egregious sort ran a high risk of being excluded from the kingdom of God—not because grace is not grace but because faith, true faith, manifests itself in a transformed life “for God” (Gal 2:19). Active homosexual behavior for Paul was one such sinful lifestyle, along with others, that showed a person to be living primarily out of the sinful impulse operating in the flesh rather than out of the Spirit’s power.”
Gagnon continues, “As James notes, “faith,” understood as mere assent to the truth, “is dead” (2:17, 26). “Even the demons believe [that God is one]—and shudder” (2:19). The justifying faith that Paul talks about is of a very different sort. Those who have such faith say “yes” to Christ and “no” to self because they are convinced that Christ loved them so much that he died for them; trust that what Christ has done is better than what they could ever do for themselves; and die to their own interests while letting the indwelling Christ do the living within the body (Gal 2:20).” You can read it here, it is lengthy but worth reading. (bold mine).
Final thoughts
Does grace allow you to live as a hypocrite? Or does grace include honest warnings that drive away self-deception?
The disagreement with the RPs does not boil down to a difference of opinion regarding eternal security. It boils down to a difference over whether, as Calvin says, one can separate ‘free remission of sins … from the Spirit of regeneration’. I can agree with Chambers when he says that God wants our hearts, but why stop there? God also wants your life, for in Proverb 4:23 we learn that “out of the heart are the issues of life”.
