Why I’m Still Protestant

New Year Reflections and Winter in the Catskills

Happy New Year everyone. I wanted to make one video before the end of the year. So I'm Making it on the last day of the year I want to give you a little taste of what it looks like here in New York at least in the Catskill Mountains in the winter.

You can see. Well, actually you really can't see I was gonna say you can see a beautiful view behind me, but it's covered in clouds right now we'll probably get some weather later on but you can see there's snow on the ground and That's the path and a lot of pines up here, it's very pretty and I always enjoy coming up here there's a challenge that I'm doing this particular winter to try to keep in shape and I think it's important to have goals and one of mine is to do all the 3 ,500 peaks they're called the peaks over 3 ,500 feet in the Catskill range in the winter.

I've already done them well some of them I've done in the winter, but I've already done all of them before mostly in the summer in the spring and Maybe some in the fall, but I'm gonna now do them all over again in the winter so I'm working on that right now, and that's why I'm up here, but Wanted to just let you know first of all thank you to all those who supported me in 2022 on patreon and just through prayers and I'm blown away by some of the Generosity that I've received and I mean I teared up a few times and getting Just Christmas cards from some of you and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We've done a lot in 2022. I think I traveled a lot more than I was expecting and that's been a blessing. Being able to meet so many of you it also means I wasn't able to get to some things I was hoping to get to and I am arranging things in 2023 to To work on a number of projects I think will be very beneficial.

Upcoming Projects and a New Writing Platform

I'll probably do less travel. I'll do some but that's what I'm saying now at least. But I'm looking forward to a number of projects. I know I've already announced the 1607 project is happening and that's one of them.

But there's a number of them. I'll tease one right now. I'll just I'll let you know that I am I'm having conversations right now about a blog website. That will be similar not that we're patterning it completely after the gospel coalition website, but it'll be similar to that format short Accessible articles and I want to give pastors a platform especially but not just pastors laymen to who have some really good things to say.

But they'll never be platformed in big Eva circles or let's face it even little Eva circles. The more conservative if you want to call it that and you know, non woke evangelical side there's there's guilds all over the place and I Firmly believe that those who have good content and good wisdom and experience and biblical insights, I firmly believe that Those are the people worth reading.

Whether or not they have friends in high places or went to the right schools or are associated with the right ministries and so I'm thinking through a way to try to at least for those in this audience who are writers who already have their own personal blogs to kind of Create a platform for all of you that will be beneficial and it's a place where you can write Articles on a variety of topics maybe even things like helpful movie reviews.

Not that that I want to make that be. I don't want to make that the focal point. It's not about pop culture or anything like that. I think far too many evangelical ministries have gone veered in those directions, but I do think there is a benefit to Talking about the things obviously I do this podcast talking about things that are being talked about out in the world and in the culture and I think that the more biblically minded people weighing in the better and so will include space for that will include space for people who just have really good articles on scripture and and Practical things Christian living things and so that's one of the things you can pray for there.

There's a number of other projects though that I I'm looking forward to talking to you about and sharing with you. I did want to just give you some content though. There's a number of things that are in the news cycle right now that I could talk about.

I suppose I know the Princeton University wants to get rid of John Witherspoon's statue and Kevin de Young's kind of on the ropes right now for defending it and I do plan to talk about that and Other things that are in the news right now but I got a Got a an email not an email.

It was a voicemail. Really. It was a long voicemail from someone and It it broke my heart a little bit because I know that this particular person is not alone in The question that he was asking me and the question was Why are you still Protestant John?

Why I’m Still Protestant

And I think behind that also, why are you still evangelical? And I don't have time to give you a full robust Answer. I want to give you the short answer though. And I want to At least acknowledge what I think is going on out there right now and why so many people who are more conservative politically Socially are struggling with this issue.

So here is my answer to that question, I'm a Protestant because I have Protestant convictions and They're rooted in my final authority, which is Scripture and I can't just because I see evangelical and Protestant organizations capitulate and Believe me.

I've seen it more than a lot. Maybe not as much as some but I've been to Educated at three major evangelical institutions and I have to say I saw a massive compromise at all three I saw betrayal. I was betrayed in some ways.

I feel like I mean people that should have had a backbone didn't and it seems like the people ones who were willing to fight were willing to fight on the wrong side and and this has been my experience and so The person who was asking me this was asking me knowing this and saying, you know, why do you bother you?

Critique what's happening out there in evangelicalism? So why are you still an evangelical? And so the answer is I have convictions. I have I believe in the solos. I Wouldn't I mean the alternative was why aren't you Roman Catholic?

Why aren't you Eastern Orthodox and it's just because I don't believe their theology but I will say this I have seen a lot of traditional more conservative types veering in those directions and I do think there is something about it.

That is attractive the thing. I think that is most attractive and This this is I'm saying this observing people who have gone in these directions. I'm saying this visiting an Eastern Orthodox Church when I was in Lynchburg not because I was planning on becoming Eastern Orthodox or converting and just because I wanted to see what What the attraction was and I think a lot of it has to do with the idea.

Or the perception at least that Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism resist modernity better. Because they are so rooted in tradition or at least they say they are. They have a better solid grounding a better stability.

Evangelicalism reinvents itself about every ten years. It seems like you have to learn new songs. You have to get used to new deck decor architecture Dress I mean It seems like there's nothing solid. It's they kind of chain themselves to whatever is popular.

That's how it feels, right? And I've had to ask myself why is that and I have a number of I Guess more academic approaches to this. I I see new evangelicalism is a big problem. I see going back to revivalism as a big problem and Reading ourselves of liturgy and tradition and you know tradition is not the final authority, but it certainly is an authority and there are far too many evangelicals who have taken the tact that tradition doesn't matter and They're biblicist in the sense that They think they can approach the Bible on their own With their own views and just render a correct interpretation and With their own knowledge and wisdom and they don't need the wisdom of the past to shine a light and That's something that I've rejected.

I and I I'm not part of that evangelicalism. So where do I fit? Where do many of you fit and I find myself more and more reading Martin Luther John Calvin Augustine going back to even early church fathers when I'm reading scripture I've I've seen in neo-evangelicalism though in revivalism and in Puritanism, I think cultural.

More so cultural I say especially with Puritanism Barriers to resisting modernity resisting everything that we see around us and I know I realize there's people in the audience who benefit a lot from certain Puritans and I'm not trying to take that away from you, but there's an essay I read years ago by Richard Weaver and It helped me so much with this called two diarists and it compares Cotton Mather with William Byrd.

William Byrd an Anglican in Virginia Probably not a Christian to be honest with you. I don't know but Sins and then confesses it moves on and but the thing that struck me was that Cotton Mather when he compared William Byrd with Cotton Mather.

Cotton Mather is just obsessed. Completely obsessed with you know, I hope Lord I can do something for you one day. Oh, no, I sinned I can't and It's just pathetic it really is his life and I realized I was kind of Cotton Mather ish when I read that years ago and I Could see the influences that kind of brought me to that.

I think some of the desiring God stuff I mean, I don't know if I want to name all the names here because some of these ministries do some good work on some things, but There's an overall tone in reformed evangelicalism in particular That really is obsessed with our performance with is obsessed with With perfecting the world not just our own world that the world in general I think it's not a coincidence that organizations like gospel coalition want to immunitize the eschaton it seems like and They they have a bit of a city on a hill kind of perfectionism going on there and I saw that as destructive in my own life and I could probably put some more meat on these bones with more time and I do plan to but I wanted to give at Least somewhat of an answer to my friend who asked this question.

Why Traditional Christian Alternatives Feel Attractive

Some people and this is the big thing this is you know, pay attention. This is this is my big point some people who convert to Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism or another form of Christianity? That's not Protestant they attribute the the betrayal the left-leaning the Corruption the lack of love whatever they're seeing from institutional Christianity.

They're attributing it to theological reasons they're they're saying it's theological problems and They don't seem to define those things in those other traditions. I Say two things about this. I say number one.

I do think these are in other traditions. You know Rod Dreher might be you know, he converted Eastern Orthodoxy, but has it really done a lot of good for him now maybe you could say there's people that you think that has done good for him, but It doesn't seem to have changed his general disposition the way that he The tone that he takes the angles he takes when he writes the kind of I don't know pessimism and You know, I don't find anything attractive about that Eastern Orthodoxy because of someone like a Rod Dreher, let's say.

But there might be others, you know that you that you can think of that that are that way. I do know of people who are trying to one person in particular who Was part of a big evangelical church converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and now she's finding the same woke stuff in East Eastern Orthodoxy Coming in at a different different way at a different speed.

But it's still there the Catholic Church, you know the same thing. You still have the woke stuff coming in through the Pope With I mean Pope Francis is more woke than almost any evangelical figure you can think of and so I Don't know that those are really alternatives just because there are some traditional types in those traditions.

The grass is always greener, right? But the other thing and this is the bigger thing to me is I don't attribute the reasons that evangelicals in Institutional settings have compromised so much to theology so much as I do culture and I think that's one of the things that maybe I'll explore a little more in 2023 is What What cultural influences some sometimes things we've been raised with sometimes things we were just unaware of influence the way that we act and we think and I have a theory that Reformed evangelicals in particular have been extremely impacted by Not just neo-evangelical ism.

And when I talk about that, I'm talking about a very specific idea. I'm talking going back to Carl Henry and the Uneasy conscience of modern fundamentalism and what he proposed in that book in 1947, I think it was and I mean we're living in his world to some extent, but we're also living I think in the world of Cotton Mather we're also living in in a very puritanical world and there's a rigidity in reformed evangelical ism that and an innovative spirit in reformed evangelical ism that I Don't find when I go and examine other traditions other Protestant traditions that would be concurrent with or predating the Puritans and I found myself reading more in those traditions and So anyway, I'm not I'm not going through any conversion or anything like that.

I'm I still I have evangelical and I have Protestant convictions and I'm gonna still fight for those but I understand why people feel like there's something missing and Some people and why they're shopping around why they're looking in other places not just politically but also when it comes to spiritual matters because they see so much compromise and This is a problem, I think it's a real problem.

Like I don't think this is you know, sometimes people can be dismissive of that y 'all you just had a bad experience. No, I think this is there is something going on. There is something that people just feel betrayed by their their leaders in so many different realms, but Unfortunately Big Eva or evangelical industry leaders are part of this.

And I want to provide as much as I can resources and helps to people going through this to connect you. I mean, this is why we have discerning Christians website. This is why I'm talking about doing this blog.

But we do need events. We need conferences we need. We need places for people who are Reformed or not even just reformed. Okay, this isn't this isn't just about reform but just Protestant in their convictions biblical in their convictions.

But they're not global Gnostics. They can they can see that, you know, God has a created order nations exist Biblical roles exist for men and women and all the things that are being under attack and the things that aren't defended by our current crop of leaders we need a new crop of leaders and I'll tell you what if you go to a church where you have good pastors and leaders who are Uncompromising on these issues man.

Praise God you you hug that pastor you support that pastor. You just realize what you have is worth its weight in gold and a lot of people are looking for it out there and that's one of the challenges we'll talk about more in 2023, but Don't abandon your convictions just because of some people who have acted in reprehensible ways and just because they've compromised or they've Let you down.

It doesn't mean that the truth of God's Word is the problem. We've seen you know, I think of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and how corrupt it was we're there in evangelicalism, it's a different maybe forms of corruption, but You know, it's not the first time in history that things have gotten corrupt in in church settings and church institutions and church hierarchies.

You just keep being faithful to the Lord and and maybe you are the leader. Maybe maybe you need to take leadership in your community if you're not finding the leadership that should be there. Well, I hope that was a challenge to some of you for 2023 and I hope it was a somewhat encouraging I'm not abandoning ship on Protestantism or Evangelicalism if whatever whatever that means right and I think of it as the Bebbington quadrilateral, but I'm You know, I I'm gonna hold to what I know to be true.

Even if the people around me who also say they hold to it have character issues or Maybe they really don't hold to it because my convictions are in God's Word they're in the final authority and They're not in these People change right?

They're not in the shifting grounds that exist around us and believe me We live in some shifting times. Doesn't mean there's not stability though, and the stability must be found in the right place. So find your stability in 2023 finding God's Word find it in local community of true authentic believers who love the Lord.

Who are rooted in the truth? Get yourself educated on the things that you're lacking in learn about Christian history learn about your own country's history learn about what the Bible teaches and and work hard for the things that matter and I guarantee it'll be satisfying.

You'll be you'll be rooted and you'll find that you'll attract people who have the same convictions and Concerns that you do. Well, God bless. Happy New Year more coming in 2023. Bye You.