Why I’m Still Protestant

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 3500 peaks, they're called, the peaks over 3500 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 and 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 I 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 in 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 work on a number of projects

I think will be very beneficial. 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 let you know that I am 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 too, 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 non -woke evangelical side, 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 a place where you can write articles on a variety of topics, maybe even things like helpful movie reviews.

Not that that... 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 we'll include space for that. We'll include space for people who just have really good articles on Scripture and practical things,

Christian living things. And so that's one of the things you can pray for. There's a number of other projects, though, that 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 Princeton University wants to get rid of John Witherspoon's statue, and Kevin DeYoung'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...

not an email. It was a voicemail, really. It was a long voicemail from someone. And 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? 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 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 ones who were willing to fight were willing to fight on the wrong side. 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 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, just because I wanted to see 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 10 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. They kind of chain themselves to whatever's 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 see neo -evangelicalism as a big problem.

I see going back to revivalism as a big problem, and ridding 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. And 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 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 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. 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 desire in 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 is an overall tone in Reformed evangelicalism in particular that really is obsessed with our performance, is obsessed with perfecting the world, not just our own world, but 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 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.

Some people, and this is the big thing, this is, you know, pay attention, 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 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 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, he converted to 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 can think of 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 Eastern Orthodoxy, coming in at a 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. 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 cultural influences, sometimes things we've been raised with, sometimes things we're 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 -evangelicalism.

And when I talk about that, I'm talking about a very specific idea. I'm 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 God and Mather. We're also living in a very puritanical world.

And there's a rigidity in Reformed evangelicalism and an innovative spirit in Reformed evangelicalism 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 going through any conversion or anything like that. I still have evangelical and I have Protestant convictions, and I'm going to 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. I don't think this is, you know, sometimes people can be dismissive of that.

Oh, you just had a bad experience. No, I think there is something going on. There is something that people just feel betrayed by, 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 to 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 places for people who are reformed or not even just reformed.

Okay, this isn't just about reform, but just Protestant in their convictions, biblical in their convictions, but they're not global Gnostics.

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 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 church settings, in church institutions, in church hierarchies.

You just keep being faithful to the Lord. And maybe you are the leader. 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 somewhat encouraging.

I'm not abandoning ship on Protestantism or evangelicalism, whatever that means, right?

And I think of it as the Bebbington quadrilateral. But I'm, you know,

I'm going to 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.

Find it in 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 work hard for the things that matter.

And I guarantee it'll be satisfying, you'll be rooted, and you'll find that you'll attract people who have the same convictions and concerns that you do.