A Quick Note on the "Young, Restless, and Reformed"

(Update: Before I get any comments to this fact, I acknowledge that my quick note turned into a fairly lengthy note. I am a preacher at heart after all.)

Tim Challies posted a timeline today that explain (imperfectly, he admits) the resurgence of Calvinism in the present day.

This timeline will most certainly provoke a variety of opinions on both the strengths and weakness of the YRR movement. My friend, Dr. Brian Lee, pastor of this wonderful church plant in DC, writes the following:

"As if we needed any more proof that the "Young, Restless, and Reformed" movement of "New Calvinism" is neither calvinist, nor reformed, nor churchly/ecclesiastical in any senses of those words, here's a timeline explaining its origins... THAT BEGINS IN 1986!!!

Qualify this thought-experiment however you like, but starting a timeline claiming to explain a movement of the church in 1986 strikes me as preposterous. It says a lot about not only the author, but the audience, that would expect it to be explanatory in any more than a Rorschach sense."

Brian's critique of the starting point of this timeline is dead-on. Much of the YRR movement, despite its perceived appreciation for the ancient Church, the Reformation, and the Puritans, seems to lack a sense of the historical continuity that imbued each of these periods of time and gave rise to the movement today. I would argue, for example, that in God's providence (much issue that qualifier) there would be no YRR movement today if small, embattled denominations like the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Christian Reformed Church--now the United Reformed Churches, and the Presbyterian Church in America didn't preserve and pass down the historic, biblical faith.

Likewise, every stage or Reformed (biblical) theology throughout Church history has consciously viewed itself as receiving and passing along that "faith once and for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 1:3). Even the chart above concedes this point without recognizing it. The books authored by R.C. Sproul and John Stott were merely a continuation of a long line of popular and profitable works by each of those gentlemen. And R.C. Sproul, for example, was heavily influenced by Westminster Theological Seminary, which was the seminary stronghold of Reformed orthodoxy in the 20th century.

That said, I disagree with Brian and my delightfully provocative former professor (found at this wonderful blog) regarding the lack of theological consistency in the YRR movement. Sure, someone like a John Piper may not be consistent on an issue like baptism, but he certainly shows a great deal of reverence for the rest of the Westminster Confession of Faith. And certain figures, like Tim Keller and Kevin DeYoung, are explicitly confessional (even if they hold some positions regarding cultural engagement that we may disagree with). We certainly can't question R.C. Sproul's bonafides, and he could probably be credited as the unintentional brains of this movement.

I have noticed a surging tide of Reformed theology in the Army chaplaincy. When I first came in, the name I was hearing--more than Piper or Driscoll--was Sproul. Know which name and program I hear the most now? Michael Horton and White Horse Inn. Dr. Horton is a professor at Westminster Seminary California, and WHI is the program that he hosts. Brian and I both attended WSC, and my provocative professor (R. Scott Clark) is Horton's colleague. Even Horton, who I occasionally have a bit of a theological man-crush on, sometimes doubts the YRR movement.

This is not to say that the movement does not have flaws. I (largely) love Mark Driscoll's preaching. He doesn't pull punches and will preach for an hour on the propitiation of God's wrath by Christ's righteousness--pretty awesome stuff. I do not like his "burn it all down" approach toward brothers and sisters that he disagrees with. Nor am I happy at all with the cult of personality that surrounds men like Driscoll, Piper, and Keller. They are sinners. They could go off the deep end. That is a practical reason why I love the connectionalism and accountability of Presbyterian church polity.

The YRR movement clearly lacks a great deal of maturity and historical perspective, but the rise of the movement, to me, is clearly a source of joy. They cannot continually read Sproul and Horton without imbibing a more comprehensive Reformed worldview. These authors do not only write about the sovereignty of God or predestination.

This is a movement that Reformed confessionalists should joyfully engage. We are the older brothers. Many of these brothers are young and hungry (witness the proliferation of White Horse Inn discussion groups amongst Reformed Baptists). Let's feed them.

There is a danger that some of these people might be running so fast away from shallow theologies that Reformed theology proves but a trip wire as they cascade down into the abyss of Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Let's catch them.

By God's grace, they are broadening the sphere within which the doctrines of grace are receiving a hearing. Let's help them sharpen these doctrines and the worldview of which they're a part along the way. In turn, they will bring to us anew the vitality that comes from those who have discovered and fallen in love with the doctrines of grace and the Christ who holds them all together.