Mapping the Federal Vision

There is no question that the Federal Division is in many respects a farce and while holding these false teachers up for ridicule and scorn is of some value, nothing diminishes the deadliness of their heretical system of doctrine or that its teachers and fellow travelers are determined schismatics. As one of Wilson’s followers said recently; “I am heartened to know that the Auburn Avenue church may soon be part of a growing, thriving and vibrant denomination like the CREC.” He’s right. The FV is a growth industry for Wilson’s FV denomination, the CREC. And, with pressure building against the FV men, especially since Steve Wilkins has jumped ship for the CREC rather than face trial in the PCA, now is the time for Wilson and his CREC to reap their illicit profits.

Of course, even at this late date, there are still many who are still unaware as to the exact nature of the soul destroying message these men are teaching, but the FV men have been developing their false doctrines for decades and one of the few men who saw the trajectory which has lead to our current situation is John Robbins.

While observing the warfare going lately and inspired by the pontifical self-righteous salvoes launched by James Jordan, I had the opportunity to revisit a piece Robbins wrote back in 1992, The Reconstructionist Road to Rome. In the piece Robbins reviews Jordan’s 1986 book, The Sociology of the Church: Essays in Reconstruction. Virtually all of the central elements of the FV/NPP are there in nascent form including the denial of the biblical doctrine of justification. Robbins observes:

Jordan apparently believes in salvation by works. He writes: “Paul goes on to speak [in Romans 2] of Gentiles who did not have the law, but who did the things contained in the law. The plain implication here is that such Gentiles were saved (by their faithful obedience)” (107).

Apparently is an understatement. A salvation premised on our own “faithful obedience,” as opposed to one premised on the finished work of Christ alone appropriated by belief alone to those for whom Christ died, is something all of the FV men from Norm Shepherd to Doug Wilson wholeheartedly embrace and have unwaveringly been working out the implications of Jordan’s anti-Christian premise ever since. However, what really stuck me by Robbins’ review was the disturbing and cult like view of the church being advanced by these men. Robbins explains:

. . . Jordan thunders, an individual cannot simply leave a church: “If an individual leaves a local church, without transferring, then he has apostatized from the church. He is no longer part of the church of Christ” (74). Jordan stops short of saying the former church member is going to Hell, but he wants the reader to draw that conclusion. He clearly means: Outside the (visible) church there is no salvation. But with most churches today, there is no salvation inside the visible church. A high churchman like Jordan, lusting for dominion over men, cannot permit the masses, the common people, simply to leave a church. They must be scared into staying, even if the church is a liberal Episcopal or the Roman Catholic Church itself. “Intimidation,” Jordan believes, “is a good thing. People should be intimidated by the church [that is, the clergy]” (276).

Every known cult from the Jehovah Witnesses to the Moonies to Scientology to the Roman church-state, all have a similar “Roach Motel” admission policy (people go in but they don’t come out). The goal of the cults is to instill the fear of hell in their members to keep them from leaving. The FV is no different. This explains why the FVs attracts ecclesiastic authoritarians and assorted thugs. One way these thugs terrorize their congregants is through the use of the “liturgy of malediction,” or, what Robbins calls the “liturgy of hate.” Robbins explains:

For special occasions, Jordan recommends cursing as part of the worship service. “It is the church,” he bellows, “that binds and looses on Earth” (280). “She is only to bind on Earth what she knows has been bound in Heaven,” and that is easily discerned. Here are some excerpts from the liturgy Jordan’s Reconstructionist church has used:

“Presiding Elder. ‘Tonight we bring before you the names of _______________, who have attacked the church of Jesus Christ. We ask you to join with us in praying that God will pour out His wrath upon them, and upon all in alliance with them in this sinful act….

(Praying) “Almighty and Most terrible God, Judge of all men living and dead, we bring before You _______________(here name the persons being cursed), who have brought an attack upon the integrity of Your holy government on the Earth. We as Your anointed office-bearers now ask that You place Your especial curse upon these people, and upon all in alliance with them. We ask You to pour out the fire of Your wrath upon them, and destroy them, that Your church may be left in peace…’” (281-282).

What heinous persecution provoked this vitriol? It seems that a former teacher at the church’s school had filed for unemployment benefits (280-281). Well, add another chapter to Foxe’s Martyrs.

Not surprisingly, another practitioner of the liturgy of hate is Doug Wilson. You can find a sample of one of Wilson’s “prayers of imprecation” here.

One of Jordan’s cult members writing on the Greenbaggins blog confirmed the above “liturgy of malediction” was indeed an attempt to bring down God’s wrath on a former teacher whose real error was being stupid enough to work for Jordan. This cult member justified Jordan’s prayer of abuse by blaming the victim and added, “This was a deliberate attempt to get our church engaged in controversy with the state.” So, because Jordan didn’t want to go to an unemployment hearing, which no employer is ever required to attend and at worst can often be handled over the phone, he offers up voodoo prayers invoking God’s wrath on this former employee. I’ll have to try that with my employees sometime. Concerning this “liturgy of hate,” another Greenbaggins participant observed:

The Christian is called to grieve and mourn over the sins of others, not to call down imprecations. Better to humbly remember our own sins when addressing the sins of others. I fear that attempts at a practice of imprecations inevitably leads sinful flesh to exhibit a vindictive, bitter spirit sparse of Christian grace and love.

Of course grieving and mourning over the sins of others is something a Christian pastor would do. Jordan is not a Christian pastor. Neither is Wilson. The point of such a prayer has nothing to do with sin, other than the sin of the one offering it. The point of Jordan’s “liturgy of malediction” is to instill a superstitious fear in the hearts of any remaining cult member. Cross the leader and you just might find your name filling in the blanks. It’s ecclesiastic terrorism and a means of control.

Of course, no sane man can read either Jordan’s or Wilson’s voodoo prayers without realizing these men are cultist, pure and simple. They are ecclesiastic totalitarians and use fear to keep the suckers that follow them in line. These are medievalists who have their heads deep in the dark ages. This is not hyperbole or polemics. These are very sick men.

Another area where Jordan’s irrationalism and superstition becomes evident is in his bizarre view of the Lord’s Supper. To one of his critic he said recently; “Just wait. Weekly communion takes time to change things, but it changes things. Yes. It changes things big time. Believe me.” I can only guess that Jordan believes celebrating the Lord’s Supper weekly will eventually make its recipients positively sympathetic to the FV. I confess, I’ve been taking communion weekly for nearly five years now and I can safely say the FV is just as anti-Christian with its scheme of salvation by faith and works as it ever was. Maybe I have to start having communion daily like some poor deluded Romanist in order to achieve Jordan’s desired effect. I’m sure Jordan wouldn’t object since he says; “[W]e must be open to the values in other Christian traditions – even Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions” (11, Jordan’s emphasis).” I guess along with fear instilling voodoo prayers, shifts in theology occur through eating. As to Jordan’s irrational view of the Supper, Robbins explains:

The mention of the Eucharist gets Jordan’s mind on eating: “Worship is a dance…. The Greek notions of the primacy of internal feeling, or the primacy of the intellect, have nothing to do with Scripture. In fact, if anything, the Scriptures give us the primacy of eating” (31). He quotes Alexander Schmemann quoting the German materialist Feuerbach: “He [man] is indeed ‘that which he eats…’” (31). One can think only of Paul’s condemnation of those “whose god is their belly.” Jordan writes, “By eat, we mean eat: a good chewable hunk of bread and a good-sized glass of real shalom-inducing wine” (230).

“At the climax of worship,” Jordan pontificates, “is the Lord’s Supper. Jesus did not say, ‘Understand this in memory of Me.’ What He actually said was ‘Do this as a memorial of Me.’ The doing takes precedence over any theory of what is being done…. [I]n terms of the sacrament, doing is more important [than knowing]” (31-32).

This, of course, is anti-Christian nonsense. If we truly had no theory, if eating bread and drinking wine were more important than knowing theology, the Supper, and the church, would be pointless. It was the church at Corinth, one supposes, that came closest to practicing Jordan’s primacy of eating and doing. That is why Paul read them the riot act. He told them to eat at home and to stop getting drunk. He also explained the meaning of the Supper to them – again.

Aside from a view of the Lord’s Supper that hearkens back to the Dark Ages, no cult can operate without a constant flow of cash, which is why Jordan makes the offertory one of the central “sacrifices” in his Romeward theory of worship.

. . . Jordan says . . . the Offertory (this is the only act that Jordan capitalizes, perhaps indicating its importance to him). The reading of Scripture and the sermon “is all designed to lead us to the second act of sacrifice: the Offertory…. Thus the offering plates are brought down front to the minister, who holds them up before God (‘heave offering’) and gives them to Him” (27). In this second act of sacrifice, notice that the offering plates are elevated, and the Scripture and sermon are only preliminaries to the offering. At least Jordan is consistent with the rest of his theology when he puts money before truth.

Along with his love of money, Jordan is a man who thinks with his belly, which explains the stuff coming out of his mouth. He is the face and even the bowels of the Federal Division and Wilson and his Krist Kirk Kult are salivating waiting to pick up the crumbs, or whatever else drops to the ground, so they can impose their “offertory” doctrine on another batch of hell bound imprisoned souls as they clean out a new batch of bank accounts.

These men are dangerous gross heretics and schematics of the first order. John Robbins had them pegged back in 1992. Too bad so few P&R men were even paying attention.

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