My Favorite Pastor Talked with Someone DANGEROUS

Engaging Other Traditions with Discernment

I understand when you see maybe a ministry or a denomination or a movement that has hurt you in the past, and then you see someone like us partnering with them, that's like oil and water. It's just really hard for you to want to stomach that.

And so I want to say, look, I understand that. And at the same time, Justin and I, we don't see—I don't think we're leading anybody into sin or into confusion, and we're using it as an opportunity to proclaim the truth in places that they may not have that clarity yet.

If we were only ever going to read from people that are thoroughly Reformed, Law and Gospel distinction, Covenantal, Calvinistic, like if we were only going to read from that pool, that pool would be quite small.

Now, there would be a lot of useful stuff to read there, and it's safe, and it's good. And you and I absolutely enjoy reading from our stream, and we want to drink deeply from that. But you and I also would be advocates of reading from other traditions and reading from individuals with whom we might have very sincere or even strong disagreements about other theological matters, but on this particular topic, they're helpful.

And I think that we would definitely stunt our growth and stunt our learning, stunt our development, if we are only ever able to read from a very small pool of resources. We have to trust the Spirit of God to minister in the church broadly, that there are His people in various traditions with whom we will spend forever, in eternity with the Lord, who have really useful contributions to make.

And they might have spent a ton of time studying and thinking and reflecting and expounding upon subject matter that maybe people in our own stream have not thought a lot about for the last 100, 200, 300 years, and there are reasons for that.

And we need to be open to reading with discernment, eating the meat, spitting out the bones, and that needs to not be something that freaks us out, that we need to be afraid of doing. And so I think it's healthy to remember that God has gifted and used people in ways throughout history.

Learning from Luther, Calvin, Keller, and Other Writers

Bondage of the Will is a great example with Luther. That's just a powerful book, right? But there's not everything that Luther wrote that I would just dive into and agree, you know, and ask you to promote.

The same would be true of Calvin or John Owen. Keller is that way for me. There's a lot about Keller I disagree with, but there's a lot. I think The Meaning of Marriage is one of the best books he's wrote.

I mean, it's a powerful book. I appreciate it. Yeah. And so let's not be so reactionary and just so visceral in our responses about, oh, well, you sat down across the table from this person. That means we need to write you off.

Or you appeared on this show, and so that means that we need to write you off. Or you think that this author is helpful on this subject matter. Therefore, we need to be very concerned about you wholesale.

That's just not the way that we should operate from my perspective. I know you agree, John. And again, we could be wrong about some of these wisdom calls, but let's deal with one another in charity.