Josh Harris has kissed Christianity good-bye. While this is
tragic I want to thank him. Thank you for publicly declaring your apostasy.
Thank you for not pretending to still be a Christian and cashing in on your
legacy of compromise with the world.
Harris has embraced sodomy and indeed one wonders if another
'conversion' or announced conversion isn't pending. He has abandoned
Christianity believing that god (as he understands the concept) extends 'grace'
on many fronts and it can't be restricted to Christianity.
He could have joined with the growing numbers of Apostate and
heretical Evangelicals* and played the role of celebrity prophet for the Neo-Christianity
that's on the rise and he would have probably gained a following. Indeed many
have drunk from the same cup and walked the same roads as Harris. They have
abandoned older Fundamentalist and conservative Evangelical paths and their new
paths lead them to all but abandon the faith. In fact there are a lot of semi-
and post-Evangelicals types that might have been won 'back' to the faith in
such a re-cast form.
I (for one) am glad that he's making a clean break. It's
better that way.
Someone said it's too bad he must have never understood these
things, the gospel and what it means to be a Christian. I suppose that's one
way of seeing it but I think it better and more accurate to say... he
understood, but he lost his way and fell from grace. He failed to persevere.
Harris wasn't just a Christian, he was a zealous one. But
what happened? I of course can't pretend to know and I'm sure it's complicated.
But I'll say this much... he was part of a worldly New Calvinist project,
geared toward cultural impact and riddled with Dominionist thought. They forgot
that friendship with the world is enmity with God. They got into the fight to
change the world and a couple of decades later, their 'ministries' are in ruins
and it would appear they're the ones who have changed. Riches and the pursuit
of them ate away at their minds and their souls. It rotted their spiritual
reason and cognition. I know many will quote the passage in 1 John 2 to suggest
that Harris was never a Christian. This verse is commonly used to override and
overrule the dozens and scores of verses throughout the New Testament that
speak of apostasy, falling away, failing to continue etc.
Most Evangelicals and certainly most contemporary Calvinists
have no concept of apostasy. It's an empty category, a hypothetical one at
best. In their case election (which is absolutely Biblical) trumps all. It's a
case of the Analogy of Scripture being abused at the behest of man's finite
conceptions of coherence. **
1 John 2 is dealing with these specific 'antichrist' figures
that were frauds, seducers and Christ deniers from the beginning. They should
have never been granted a voice in the Church. That doesn't apply to most
apostates. It certainly doesn't apply to Josh Harris. He was a Christian and
now he's not. As Christ Himself put it, the cares of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. The tree that
bears no fruit is cast into the fire. He did not abide. His branch withered and
has now been cast aside.
This is not works salvation, this is the lost doctrine of
perseverance. This is but another case of duality, an irresolvable dynamic or dialectical
tension between the various concepts which when combined are referred to
collectively as soteriology. The Bible teaches election and predestination. It
teaches free grace on the basis of Christ's death and resurrection. But that
salvation rooted in the heart and obedient trust (generated by the Holy Spirit)
is administered through signs and seals, outward temporal means which include
not only the sacraments but a living, active and persevering faith. Saving
faith is ongoing. It requires trust and obedience. It's not works but rather
it's how God works in us. The glory is all His.
We will certainly fail and we are not judged by God in terms
of some kind of quantity or point system but the Spirit's work produces a
quality of faith... a faith that obeys, a faith that fails and sins but is not
a slave to sin. Saving faith perseveres, it repents, it dies to self. If it
fails to do this it is like the tree which no longer bears fruit or the plant choked
by weeds. It dies and is cast away.
Josh Harris is of this sort and his downfall makes for a sad
tale. But for the sake of the Church, I'm glad the break is a clean one.
*I'm not saying all Evangelicals are apostate. Some people
apostatise and abandon Christianity altogether. Others have effectively
apostatised in their holding of extreme heretical beliefs and yet still make
some kind of claim to being Christian. Heresy in this sense is more than mere
error. I use heresy in the sense that it's an error of such magnitude that the
Biblical message of the gospel is compromised and that if one holds to such
views there's a good possibility they are not in the Kingdom. In terms of the
Church they should be put out unless they repent.
Dispensationalism for example is a heresy that if followed
through will lead to the compromise of the Gospel. And yet I believe many
Dispensationalists (as individuals) are yet Christians. And yet they are in grave
danger and I would hope and pray they abandon that terrible unbiblical system
before it leads them to Judaize and support evil policies and wars.
Open Theism and Gay Theology profess to be Christian but
these heresies are of such magnitude that their proponents really can't be
reckoned as Christians any more. They are apostates due to their heresy but
they are not apostates in the sense of someone like Harris who no longer
professes the faith.
In terms of my Northern Kingdom Analogy the difference would
be between those in the North who worshipped Jehovah at Dan and Bethel versus
Jehovah rejecting Baal worshippers. Both are apostates but of a different
stripe.
** It's especially strange given Calvin's views of 'Temporary
Faith', his discussions of progressive justification and his constant use of
the term 'regeneration' in reference to sanctification.