NOTE: The following is protected by federal copyright law and is an excerpt from the book Marxianity written by Brannon Howse and is not to be published online. The footnotes that document the content in this article are found in the book Marxianity or the eBook.
A quick review of Revelation 18 shows how Scripture predicts the rise of the three-legged stool that leads to a one-world system. Chapter 18 begins with the words “after these things,” an indication that it recounts new events and facts that follow from those outlined in Chapter 17:
[quote] After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory and he cried out with a mighty voice saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit.” [end quote]
Here, demons and spirituality denote religion. Then, in Revelation 18:3: “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her.” “Kings” speaks of government. So far, the passage references government and religion.
Midway through the chapter, we add business in verses 11 and 12:
[quote] And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargo anymore. Cargos of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and every kind of citrine wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep and cargos of horse and chariots and slaves and human lives. [end quote]
“Merchants” are the third leg. So, what do we have? Business, religion and government, as Alice Bailey called it, joined together.
We’ve already looked at the role of leaders like Rick Warren, Tim Keller, Peter Drucker, and Bob Buford in promoting the third way, but now a significant force has been added that trains young clergy in this worldview. Led by Chancellor and CEO, Ligon Duncan, Reformed Theological Seminary is now on the social justice bandwagon.
A 2009 document produced by the seminary extols a program referred to as SWC—Seeking the Welfare of the City. Among its recommendations, the report announces that “efforts geared towards city transformation require collaboration with leaders across all social sectors” (emphasis mine), meaning government, business, and the third sector–nonprofits and churches.
The report also yammers about white privilege, internalized racism, and the need to promote “creative capital.” Creative capital is a concept promoted by Richard Florida, author of the book The Rise of the Creative Class . . . And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life. Richard Florida works with radical, cultural Marxist groups like the Human Rights Commission that call for pro-LGBT laws that could clamp down not only on the free market system, but also on freedom of religion.
The RTS document also promotes Ron Sider, who we’ve already discussed is a Neo-Marxist, and proclaims that “the church is called to the social and spiritual renewal of the city.” Yet, not a single verse in Scripture calls the church to social transformation, only the report from Reformed Theological Seminary.
Further, RTS heralds Bob Lupton as a hero of the urban community. Lupton’s book Renewing the City: Reflections on Community Development and Urban Renewal, reflects his views of social transformation which the RTS document describes this way: “Using the Old Testament story of Nehemiah as a role model for community renewal and transformation, Bob Lupton offers modern-day principles for revitalizing decaying urban cities.”
The theological problem with using Nehemiah as a role model is that the modern church is not Israel. This errant Replacement Theology presumes that Israel has been replaced by the church, and now the church is meant to mimic Old Testament Israel. Yet, we now participate in the new covenant with the creation of the church as recounted in Acts 2. Instead of looking inward as Israel did, believers in this church, formed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, look outward in fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Israel’s job was to protect the lineage of Israel for the coming of Messiah. They ate and dressed differently to set themselves apart and maintain the purity of the people from which would come our Savior and the Jewish men whom God would use to write the Word of God.
Today in the church, we don’t do what Israel did. We don’t stone rebels or people caught in adultery. We don’t concern ourselves with what kind of material we can wear or food we can eat. And yet, some people claim we’re to model after the nation of Israel. Should we not work on Saturday? Should we be bringing our first, second, and third tithes to church? Even if we tried, it would be a problem since there is no temple to bring the tithes to.
RTS also promotes another of Lupton’s books, And You Call Yourself a Christian: Toward Responsible Charity. The RTS report states:
[quote] This book was presented by the Christian Community Development Association and the CCDA Institute. Founded by CCDA, the institute’s purpose is to fully engage the Christian in the process of transforming under-resourced communities. [end quote]
This is ‘Perkins-speak’ for redistribution of wealth and another example of using the church for promoting socialism.
And, of course, the Reformed Theological Seminary report promotes Tim Keller. Evidently continuing the relationship touted by the 2009 report, the RTS website announced on September 22, 2014, a partnership with Keller’s church in an article entitled, “Reformed Theological Seminary, Redeemer City to City Announce Strategic Partnership.” The seminary planned to work with Tim Keller to set up a seminary in New York. The press release explains:
[quote] Redeemer City to City and Reformed Theological Seminary are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to provide a seminary education in New York City. This advances the vision of the Reformed Theological Seminary to provide graduate theological education globally, and that of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and its founder, Pastor Doctor Timothy Keller, who started City to City to prepare ministry leaders, pastors and church planters for New York and cities internationally. Reformed Theological Seminary is thrilled to collaborate with Redeemer City to City and with Tim Keller to prepare a new generation of ministry leaders and establish a Reformed Theological Seminary extension in New York.
Says Dr. Ligon Duncan, chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary: “I have known and admired Dr. Keller for many years and count him as a friend and am deeply grateful for his ministry and vision for planting churches in New York and in other major metropolitan cities around the world. The board of Reformed Theological Seminary and I are pleased to partner with City to City to offer a rigorous program of graduate theological study in New York City.” [end quote]
Apparently, Duncan wants to train students to pastor churches for non-believers.
This is critical because Reformed Theological Seminary is supposed to be one of the most prestigious reformed, conservative-gospel, Bible-defending seminaries in the world. Yet, RTS teams up with cultural Marxist Tim Keller who says we should build churches for unbelievers and redistribute wealth. Sadly, Duncan is featured on the platform of John MacArthur’s Shepherds’ conference year in and year out. MacArthur featured Duncan for his 2019 conference even after we brought out this information on our national radio & television program in the summer of 2018. I find it very interesting that John MacArthur has been so critical [and rightfully so] of Rick Warren’s communitarian, church growth movement and yet, his buddy Duncan is doing the exact same thing with Tim Keller. Keller is the reformed version of Rick Warren. Apparently, as long as one preaches extreme Calvinism like that of James White and Ligon Duncan, then it matters not if White has an interfaith dialogue with a Jew-hating, holocaust-denying, Hitler-defending, Jihadi-preaching Imam and Duncan plants a seminary with Marxianity proponent Tim Keller.
Keller was even invited to speak at the Third Convocation of Reformed Theological Seminary in 2017. This is the same Tim Keller who proclaims that “the purpose of salvation is the restoration of the material world.”
Remember the interwoven connections among these people, too. Keller is part of the Gospel Coalition which included a blog in 2016 entitled “Evangelical Leaders Tell Us to Vote for Clinton.” Written on behalf of Gospel Coalition member Thabiti Anyabwile, the article said:
[quote] I’m writing this post in Thabiti’s space both to add my voice to his and to make a claim that goes a little further. I think that evangelical leaders, in particular conservative evangelical leaders, need to use all the influence God has given them to encourage thinking Christians to vote for Hillary Clinton. No dithering. No qualifications. The stakes are simply too high. [end quote]
This may seem like a rabbit trail, but the point is: why would any supposedly conservative evangelical encourage people to vote for pro-abortion, partial birth abortion-defending Hillary Clinton who is married to Bill Clinton, who vetoed the ban on partial birth abortions? This is evidence of how radical the Gospel Coalition actually is. Another Gospel Coalition member, Al Mohler, called the communist and terrorist Nelson Mandela a “hero” in a December 6, 2013 article. And a 2018 Gospel Coalition article, “Martin Luther King’s Developing Vision for True Racial Integration,” praises the destructive economic worldview of Martin Luther King, Jr., (more about this in Chapter 12):
[quote] King’s speech goes on to outline policies for a guaranteed national income and a universal housing program. Whatever one thinks about the efficacy of his policy proposals, King clearly came to see that ambitions for integration that ignored economic inequalities were self-defeating and definitely unloving. This seems to echo the practice of the church in Acts 2, which describes a unity we could call “gospel integration.” . . . our takeaway from King’s development is twofold. First, pursuing racial reconciliation requires confronting economic inequalities . . . as we pursue racial reconciliation and gospel community today, we should be prepared to talk biblically about the economics of racial reconciliation as a feature of Christian discipleship. [end quote]
The writer misconstrues Acts 2, of course, but notice that “pursuing racial reconciliation requires confronting economic inequalities.” It’s a thinly veiled reference to reparations, which is simply another form of taking money from one person without consent (i.e., stealing) and giving it to another. So, Ligon Duncan and Reformed Theological Seminary join the merger of left and right.
