Christian Reviewers Need To Be Careful & Accurate

I receive a free magazine named The Arminian, produced by the Fundamental Wesleyan Society.  I enjoy reading it; I have always found John Wesley's work and heritage interesting, and the magazine comes from a section of evangelicaldom that I don't inhabit. But I was dismayed when I read how a Reformed Christian brother named Kevin deYoung was mishandled in the latest issue.

The artcle's writer, Dr. Vic Reasoner, claims that Calvinism promotes evil (which by itself is absurd, honestly, but that's another point), and he quoted something from pastor deYoung as proof. DeYoung in some place wrote that if a preacher has never been accused of preaching a license for sin, then he probably hasn't been preaching the Gospel correctly. Dr. Reasoner cited this quotation as proof that Calvinists don't care about holy living.

Thing is, I remember reading for myself DeYoung's original quotation. DeYoung was quoting the late British preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who himself was explaining why the apostle Paul started answering the question, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" in Romans 6:15. Everything Paul taught about the saving grace of God in Christ in Romans 1-5 might lead a Pharisee opponent to make that accusation. 

That was Lloyd-Jones' point, and DeYoung was seconding it. The justifying grace of God in Christ is so free, so unmerited, so not earned by works, that it was easy for a legalist to draw the wrong conclusions and make that accusation.  Paul's critics were drawing that erroneous conclusion in Paul's own lifetime. So Paul goes on, in Romans 7-8, to show that the unmerited saving grace of God is the only power that does produce actual holiness of life.

In fact, DeYoung has a book, titled The Hole In Our Holiness, in which he criticizes antinomian teachings about the relationship between faith and works. The very teachings that Reasoner claims DeYoung promotes. DeYoung's unstated primary focus in that book was on the antinomian teachings of Tullian Tchividjian, the former pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian church.

This published claim that deYoung promotes Christian carnality, when the reality is that he criticizes, from a Reformed standpoint, the lawlessness that Reasoner is against, is an example of how to break the Ninth Commandment: "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor." Writing calls for precision. If we sum up someone's ideas in a written format and then publish it, it's important we take the time to really read up, and get the facts right. Dr. Reasoner didn't simply adopt an "uncharitable reading" of DeYoung, he was in flat error. He really should have known better.


(P.S. I have tried to e-mail Dr. Reasoner, but the e-mail link at his organization's website doesn't work).