Calvinism in the Christian Science Monitor

Josh Burek from the Christian Science Monitor has written a lengthy, even-handed article on the comeback of Calvinism. The article’s subtitle gives the gist: “In America’s Christian faith, a surprising comeback of rock-ribbed Calvinism is challenging the Jesus-is-your-buddy gospel of modern evangelism.”
Like many previous exposes on the Reformed resurgence, this one is part history, part human interest story, and part theological analysis. This particular article looks in detail at Mark Dever and Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C.

As morning light filters into a fourth-floor room on a Sunday, students huddle on tiered seats, listening to a lecture on substitutionary atonement. The teacher poses a tough question, but a hand shoots into the air, eager to answer with a recitation of the week’s memory verse from I Peter 3:18: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
Scholars and seminarians call this systematic theology. Kindergartners at CHBC just call it Sunday school.
Their parents are downstairs, absorbing seminars, prayers, and a Scripture-saturated sermon that add up to five hours of worship over the day. Just before noon, the adults jot notes as they listen to an hour-long sermon on II Samuel 5-9. These chapters cover King David’s glorious reign over Israel, but Dever doesn’t skip the tough verses, such as when God strikes Uzzah dead for trying to steady the ark of the covenant.
“Friends, have we sinned like Uzzah?” he asks.
Such statements are meant to prick the hearts of his listeners. Yet he often follows up the hard questions with reassuring comments like: “You and I should not draw a breath today, without living for the praise of God’s glory.”

Don’t read the article to feel important (isn’t that the opposite of the theological message we proclaim?!). But read it to hear how others describe the New Calvinism and, more importantly, to learn more about a very good church.
Kevin DeYoung