More New Calvinist Nonsense from G3

https://g3min.org/on-baby-grands-and-expensive-hymnals/

This would have to be reckoned as a sequel to a previous post responding to G3 on the issue of pianos. Apparently this ministry website excels at missing the point.

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2022/04/some-of-lameness-of-new-calvinism-on.html

In this case if you question their waste, you're akin to Judas Iscariot. While I do believe the whole temple-building ethos is in error and extremely wasteful in terms of finances – and entangling besides on other levels when it comes to codes, legalities, insurance, mortgages, and the like, the point here is not waste. It's a misguided emphasis on trappings that these folks seem to equate with having a solid church. The only problem is what they're appealing to has little or nothing to do with the Bible but is instead rooted in traditions and intuitions and sometimes speculative deductions based on this tradition-intuition nexus.

Somehow questioning their spending means you must have Leftist proclivities and in a capitalist milieu nothing makes these people more angry than talking about the poor. I might add that it's somewhat interesting that this pastor is in South Africa.

And usually at this point Christ's words are abused and manipulated as a justification for exorbitant spending – the poor you will always have with you. De Bruyn doesn't evoke it, but one might say it's hovering in the background.

But again, all of this is secondary. The real issue stems from the confusion over their doctrine of worship – which (dare I say it above a whisper) isn't actually Reformed. What tradition are they appealing to then? It's really more of a nineteenth century Evangelical sensibility.

I agree – throw away the guitars and the PowerPoint. You won't have any argument from me but I repeatedly struck by this – they don't seem to realise that there are other options. One need not choose between contemporary pop-culture ecclesiastical sensibilities and nineteenth century ones. At this point many think the answer is found in going 'high church' and getting out the robes and candles. One must grant its historicity but it's not Biblical either. None of these options are.

New Testament worship is actually very simple and it doesn't require a lot of expense. All we need is the Word, bread and wine, and sometimes water.

There's nothing wrong with hymnbooks (assuming they're sound) but the instruments have no place in Christian worship. A Biblical case can be made to this end by appealing to Redemptive History. The history of the Early Church also testifies to this and there are many voices which echo down through Church History (some sound, some less so) that also testify to the fact that instruments have no place in New Testament worship. It's kind of a glaring problem for Evangelicals who have made their music the central and even sacramental core of their worship. In truth they are as far afield as Rome on this point. As far as these New Calvinists, some of them are better than the Evangelical mainstream but not for any kind of sound or solid doctrinal reasons.

Truly, no pianos or guitars are needed but for these New Calvinists this kind of functionally counter-cultural discussion is beyond the pale and in many cases they're unfamiliar with the historical debates. Some of them love to talk about the Puritans but how little they know of them, or the theology and methodology that guided them. I'm no longer a big fan of the Puritans but on certain points they were solid and this was one of them. And yet in our day most of the people who love to trumpet them become quite agitated on these points and they don't want to hear it.

The rest of De Bruyn's discussion is basically a case of non sequitir and a waste of time as again these aren't the real issues. If anything he's just weaving a smoke screen to distract from them.

As far as pursuing 'beauty', 'excellence' and the like – that's the world talking and these terms have to be defined. What he's doing is making assumptions but they're not assumptions that stand when compared with the pilgrim and eschatological ethos of the New Testament.

The article is well written but it utterly misses the point. If G3 is supposed to focus on God's Word instead of 'pragmatism' and Evangelical 'techniques', then this article fails the test. With the piano you're trying to create a certain kind of ambiance and style. I'll grant it may be better than the guitars and overhead projectors, but the gospel cast in more cultured terms over and against the consumerist approach is not a Biblical solution.

Once again New Calvinism is revealed to be somewhat wanting in terms of its intellectual and doctrinal foundations and the charges of shallowness are all too often valid.