First, Whitten’s admission of legalism
Whitten admits his legalism often and openly. But in his first chapter he affirms that he learned his legalism in the reformed teachings. On page 144, he states his protestant background was over 40 years long.
Whitten admits his former love for his legalism in his book and in many videos, especially the interview with Judy Manis at min 18. They wryly chuckle together and admit they used to love the whole cycle of sin, confess, repent, try harder; “we loved it didn’t we? yeah, we did”.
They put stock in their ‘doing’. It affirmed them in their identity. They loved what they did, in their own strength. They depended on their own obedience for assurance. They admit it made them feel ‘good’. He writes that he was “proud of it” on page 19.
In that video, Whitten and Manis go on to say that the reformed teaching of God’s requirement of repentance and thankful service to God is legalism. They denounce this teaching as ‘not characteristic of the Father’, ‘condemning’, ‘not even nice’, and ‘not kind’.
Now, it is one thing to be assured that one is in the faith* by seeing the evidence of faith in one’s life; it is quite another to depend on this evidence for assurance of salvation, or for justification. True believers do not ‘put stock’ in their obedience; their obedience does not make them who they are, it is evidence of who they are in Christ. (*Transcript of HH sermon, please read the last paragraph.)
Whitten’s ah-ha moment
Whitten’s Ah-ha moment was not a specific event but a gradual shift in his own thinking. He explains that he came full circle when he decided that, like his justification, his sanctification was finished, full, and complete; and all the rest was legalism. The Reformation “missed it on sanctification”, page 26. To him, it was the church’s use of the law as a guide for living that put him in a bondage of “I’m sorrys” with their ‘lies’.
His own legalism leads Whitten down a wrong path
Whitten understood the good, gospel truth, which the Reformation taught, with a mind that was already legal. God’s Truth cannot teach error any more than it can cause sin.
We are legalistic by nature; it is part of our old man. Even Whitten connects legalism to the Fall. Legalism always sees salvation apart from true and lively faith. Whitten’s legal mind caused him to see reformed sanctification as merely a legalistic framework invented by the church to control people. His legalism caused him to conclude that confession, repentance and conviction was a church-instituted rat maze, pages 87-111.
In his legalistic mind, Whitten concluded that all obedience was conjured up by the believer himself, on his own, apart from Christ and apart from faith, page 19. Eventually he hated his legal form of sanctification because he figured, rightly, it was a dead end. His rebelling but still legal mind gave him the ‘revelation’ that the law was NOT a guide, and no obedience was demanded by God.
He trades in legalism for his awakened revelation
Whitten awakened to such things as “Christians are too conscious of sin”. That Christians are “not required to confess their sins to God in order to be forgiven, we are already forgiven”. He awoke to recognize that “repentance is heathenish!”, page 20. Whitten teaches that “Jesus did not die to modify my behavior”, page 29.
So, he turned against Christ’s lordship over his life, his will, and his body. He intuitively decided that the great, almighty and austere God doesn’t really care how we act. To Whitten, that is what made God so gracious, and so unconditional.
But it wasn’t the teaching of the Reformation that was wrong, it was Whitten who was wrong. He understood sanctification wrong. He saw it as something humans performed on their own, apart from Christ. Something they did to make themselves perfect through outward law keeping and apart from faith, page 23.
Now it’s agreed that ‘grace without works’, and ditching his legalism, would have been a step in the right direction; except that he swept positional sanctification into justification, and nixed all obedience and progressive sanctification carte blanche. (links to Gotquestions, and Gospel Coalition)
Devotion recaptured?
Whitten claims his Awakening ‘recaptured the simplicity of his own devotion to God’. One soon realizes that what he actually captured was merely the carnal idea of ‘easy believe-ism’; or the centuries-old ‘Faire and Easie Way to Heaven‘, (BRF speech by Engelsma 2014).
Whitten’s repentance is love
In chapter 11, love replaces repentance because on page 21 already he writes, “sin is not a violation of the law”. Rather, sin is a “violation of friendship”. So, to Whitten, neither sin or repentance has any bearing on your spontaneous love-relationship with God. According to Whitten, God doesn’t need any ‘I’m sorrys’ because ‘you can’t make God love you less by sinning, or love you more by being sorry about that sin’.
Whitten’s ‘revelation’ is what A. Lanning teaches now in the Mar. 15, 2022 of his magazine. “Repentance has no bearing whatsoever on that man’s remission of sins or his justification”, page 27. “The sinner has forgiveness without repenting“, page 43. And in the S&S, Mar. 15, 2022, Vol. 2, #16, pg. 10, “Here is my definition and doctrine of repentance: Repentance is the believer’s spontaneous love for God as that love comes into contact with and hates the believer’s own sin and corruption. My explanation of that definition is that, in its essence, repentance is love for God.”.
Whitten’s idea is nothing new to the world. The world threw off human responsibility of repentance long ago. Sin has always been merely relational, and not a violation of God’s law. To the natural man, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Love Story, 1970.
Whitten sees legalism everywhere
On page 27-28, he condemns “acting right, and trying to be like Jesus in front of the world”. Whitten states that God doesn’t need your help with “His mission to rid the earth of sin”. Whitten denounces ideas such as “die to yourself and serve God fervently” as legalistic. He includes, “setting your will to do what is right and glorify God” also as legalistic. He belittles reading the Bible as a perfect rule book. Whitten teaches that the Holy Spirit’s work is not to empower you to act better and better. It is not to convict you of sin when you stray. Sin management is Satan’s ploy perpetuated by the churches. He even sarcastically mocks witnessing for Christ by your words and life.
Whitten is without important definitions
Whitten offers no specific definition of the term ‘Pure Grace’. He only defends his contention that there are 3 contaminants in everyone else’s grace.
Whitten makes no distinction between legalism and the sincere obedience of the true believer. He describes Christians who are seeking to obey what Jesus said as legalists. He fails to concretely define liberty and freedom. To him, these are just feelings that you will experience.
Whitten denounces any spiritual struggle against a ‘sinful flesh’. Whitten’s ‘assurance’ is based on one’s inner feelings and is therefore mystical and subjective.
Although he writes a lot about the finished work of Christ, he avoids the whole idea of the justice of God. He also does not write about Jesus as the Judge of all the earth, or that He is coming to judge.
Summary of the book itself
As a book against legalism, it is okay. He rightly defines why and how it is wrong to be a legalist. After 40+ years, he of all people would know! But he places any and all human effort of obedience in the Legalism Category. And he denies any work of the Spirit in the Christian once he is converted.
The book contains no real theology but, it is his understanding of things, the way he sees ‘it’. He does not use examples from scripture to prove his points but prefers stories, personal experiences, and even cartoons and worldly songs. He makes his ‘truth’ resonate emotionally.
Due to Whitten’s long exposure to reformed teaching, his counterfeit of justification seems quite good at first blush. His repackaging of sin as strictly relational would resonate with the present modern culture quite well. The actual truths that he does write about are indeed powerful truths. But then, that is the nature of actual truth, no matter who brings it, it remains true.
Final thoughts
Whitten claims that the church veiled up this new ‘revelation’, until he and a few others figured out that sin was all taken care of; past, present and future.
His legalistic performancism had been crushing him; and rightly so. He should have repented of the sin of legalism. But he didn’t see his legalism as his own sin. Instead, he decided it was just a theological flaw, an error that he could get rid of without Christ.
Whitten relishes and glories in how super kind God is, and how His real attitude toward you is one of unconditional grace. Unlike John Crowder who mostly ignores his opposition, Whitten viciously denounces what he learned for the past 40+ years. Sound familiar?
That’s all for Whitten. Brenda Hoekstra is joining the blog and will write the next post. She has written for the Beacon Lights in the past and also several book reviews in the SB.
