Jordan Mark Stone

Back in 2007 the Southern Baptist Convention was at war with itself over the issue of Calvinism. It was during this time that Mark Dever offered a brilliant series of blog posts considering ten factors that contributed to the rise of Reformed theology among younger evangelicals.

Last week Dever reworked his blog series into an hour long lecture entitled, “Where Did All These Calvinists Come From?” This reworking finds Dever offering the following twelve factors motivating the rise of Reformed theology in America (timestamps included):

1. Charles Spurgeon (10:39)
2. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (14:43)
3. The Banner of Truth Trust (23:03)
4. Evangelism Explosion (27:15)
5. The inerrancy controversy (34:08)
6. Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) (37:50)
7. J. I. Packer (40:50)
8. John MacArthur and R. C. Sproul (43:52)
9. John Piper (46:41)
10. Reformed rap (51:46)
11. Influential parachurch ministries (57:37)

The twelfth, and final, reason is a new one and it is oh so profound. Special thanks to Matt Smethurst for his work at transcribing Dever’s thoughtful analysis . . .

12. The rise of secularism and decline of Christian nominalism (59:36)

“There’s no reason my Arminian friends should disagree about the effect of any of the previous 11 influences I’ve noted,” Dever contends. Number 12, however, is another story.

This final two-pronged factor has served to “shape a theological climate in which weaker, more pale versions of Christianity fade and in which more uncut, vigorous versions thrive.” Arminian theology, Dever fears, is too frail to be helpful. “In a nominally Christian culture, Arminianism may appear to be a satisfying explanation of the problem of evil,” he admits. “But as the acids of modernity have eaten away at more and more of the Bible’s teachings and even presuppositions about God, that explanation has proven woefully insufficient to more radical critics.”

Dever’s conclusion is worth quoting at length:

This world’s increasingly open and categorical denials of God and his power will likely be met not by retreats, compromises, edits, and revisions, but by awakenings and rediscoveries of the majesty and power of the true God, who reveals himself in the Bible, the God who made us and who will judge us, the God who in love pursued us even to the depths of the incarnation and the humiliation of the cross. This is Christianity straight and undiluted, and the questing, probing spirit of the rising generation has, by God’s grace, found this rock.