TCW Short Take #5 - Week of

I never have believed that this young millennial generation of pastors, many of them, not all of them, but many of them, I never have believed they really had a true commitment to sound doctrine.

And the reason I didn't believe it is because they didn't have a robust biblical doctrine of sanctification. You know, many of them like the idea of the sovereignty of God, that's kind of a macho concept, and they like the idea of the security of the believer because, you know, they like thinking they're safe forever and they're not going to lose their salvation. They like the gospel, they even like the idea of the doctrine of imputed righteousness because they know they're sinful. But what has been missing and what I've been calling for for decades is where is this solid, reformed doctrine of holiness and sanctification?

It's not there. And as a result of that, when they chase the world, they become overwhelmed by the world. And what happened, I think, was you had all these guys like Jim Boyce and R.C., my good friend, and myself, and a lot of other guys in the early years of Reformed theology, they were the trustees of this doctrine. And over time, it got handed to millennials, and it got handed to them, and, you know, they said that they believed in it, but without robust commitment to the doctrine of sanctification and, secondly, a doctrine of ecclesiology, the true understanding of the church, they tampered with that theology and they mixed what they had of Reformed theology, they mixed it in their pragmatism. They put a little Reformed theology in the glass and stirred in their pragmatism, and they got a hybrid that we see happening now, which is theologically confused, socially confused, doctrinally confused, and that's why I wrote the book on the church needing to repent. We hope you gained from this short take of the Christian Worldview radio program. To hear the full program and further connect with this ministry, go to thechristianworldview.org. I'm David Wheaton.