Ergun, My Brother
My friend Aaron posted on Ergun Caner this weekend, quite funny to me, the day after I had watched Ergun's testimony of his conversion from Isalm to Christianity. Even knowing the controversy that surrounds him, I went to bed that evening thankful to God for this man. Imperfect yes, but a brother in Christ.
It was Ergun Caner who sealed my attending Southern Seminary. It wasn't the tour by my uncle & dean at the time, or all the books he bought me while there & sent me home with. It wasn't getting to meet Dr. Mohler in his office and his pet snake. It wasn't getting to meet an array of Christ-like faculty who by now have been my pastors, friends, taught me so much and shared their homes and food with me. It was the chapel service that day. I thought, if I can get under preaching like this 2 times a week on campus, my heart will be a wild-fire of passion for Christ. The speaker that day was a man at the time I had never heard of - Dr. Ergun Caner. You can & should listen to it. I just simply figured, at my first & only chapel as a prospective student, that this is what you got at all times. Caner even makes a light hearted comment about the ongoing debating of calvinism on campus. He speaks highly of 12 point calvinist Tom Nettles.
Fast forward to today & all the controversy surrounding this man. Yes, Dr. Caner goes too far sometimes. He can be atagonistic. He seems like he has a short fuse. But it just so appears to me too that he has a passion for the Lord that gives overwhelming evidence that he is a child of God & bears good fruit to the glory of the Father. In the 2 messages I've ever heard him preach live, he admits what a rotten, no good, doesn't have it together, sinner he is, because he has a strong grasp on grace.
I'm not excusing him. I just think the whole thing is grotesque on both sides. I am a calvinist who believes in evangelism & missions & am pursuing Christ's call to Indonesia. Caner does not clearly understand calvinism, but hyper-calvinism. A house divided does not stand. Like it or not, Caner is under Christs' roof. Satan & his demons are all unified for one common goal, undivided. Too often Christians are slicing each other up over secondary issues, cutting our legs out from underneath ourselves - with nothing left to stand on.
It has cost Caner much to follow Christ. Disowned by his father for admitted Jesus is Lord in his life. He has seen his brothers & mothers & grandmother come to faith in Christ over the years. He has a passion for Christ & His Church as well as for his former Muslim brothers to come to faith in Christ. He has written & published helpful books on Southern Baptists, Islam, & the Church, & he has gone into hostile, secular & Mulsim enviornments to unashamedly proclaim Christ as the only way to God. Knowing I am calvinistic he has addressed me as "Brother" in an email exchange. He is nowhere near man-centered in his theology. Ergun Caner is not the enemy. Pride is. His, ours, James White's, you name it. Satan is loving every second of the tearing down going on.
Could we who do not understand other brothers, try & adopt the vantage points of those, like Dr. Caner ? Consider the god of hyper-calvinsim vs. Allah. Very close indeed, and for a former Muslim, perhaps it hits too close to home. Caner used to live his life hoping he would be 51% righteous, just enough good over bad, so that he would have a chance of Allah allowing him into heaven. Can you imagine how sweet that grace appeared to him, when he learned, that he could not earn salvation, but, that it was a free gift by trusting in Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for his sin, & that through Him, he could spend eternity in heaven - that this free gift was offered to all, indeed, even Ergun, a Muslim. Imagine hearing the calvinist then, saying, it is a gift only unto the elect. Certainly, the Bible says this, but the Bible also says "whosoever will" and that God does love the world, & to a former Muslim trying to tell his Muslim family, "if you repent & believe, you too can be saved & secure from the wrath of God!" And yet, it seems as though the calvinist is saying, "you can't say that to your Muslim brother. They have to be elect." Allah & Islam are fatalistic. The hyper-calvinist must also embrace fatalism. Ergun boldly offers salvation to all decieved Muslims he comes in contact with, & perhaps he wrongly assumes that if the calvinist had his way, the mercy & grace of God through Jesus Christ would never be expressed. Caner has even slammed John Piper, a man I respect perhaps more than any non-divine person who has ever lived.
The purpose of this post is not to take sides. It is not to say that Dr. Caner is right, justified, or a model in the current situation. It is a plea to bear patiently in love with one another. I was one who did indeed used to be an angry calvinist. I tend to break the stereotype of calvinists being non-missions minded by missions being my heart. I could even go so far as to say I can go overseas because of my belief in election & the sovereignty of God. And Dr. Caner's opinions should cut me quickly. But I've also learned a major lesson under my current pastor. We teach the Bible, not a system. I don't have to make everything fit & be filtered through calvinism. If the Bible says "as many as were elected unto salvation were saved," I preach election. And when the Bible says, "whosoever will," I preach to all men, "repent & believe & you will be saved." It doesn't take a genious to figure out that these Biblical verses are in no ways at odds with each other.
Anyways - back to the point - I simply think that we should consider our brothers more as brothers. I guess that natural question at this point for the reader is, "what is the irreducible minimum for truth," or at what point do you break fellowship. I do not attempt to answer that today, but feel free to inform me of your opinion. Based on other things I've heard Caner say about other men who are calvinists, I truly don't believe he lumps them all in one hell damned pile. Maybe there's baggage from a father who died lost who never saw him as his son again. Maybe he's a passionate person who sometimes is blazing for God's glory & at other times that passion burns down the filter between his brain & his mouth. Maybe as a Turk that firey-ness is part of his DNA. Leonard Ravenhill once said, "I'd rather have a fool on fire than a scholar on ice." Hopefully this all doesn't get me in trouble - again, there's no excuse for the mean-spiritedness that is at times apparent. It becomes about being right & who was wrong & Christ becomes some foot note, some side street. All the while, the lost world watches, maybe just a few, & finds complete justification as to why the would happily go to Hell than be like one of the hypocrites. More than anything, it sure grieves Christ.
At the latest SBC annual meeting I, again, a calvinist, voted for Frank Page, who even has a book out called The Trouble with TULIP. I couldn't be more pleased as to how this man is seeking God's face as he leads the SBC. We claim a Gospel that is uncompromising, but powerful enough to embrace all who want to glorify God through Jesus Christ, not matter which camp they claim. Ergun may possibly think me an idiot, by undoubtably, Ergun is my brother.
It was Ergun Caner who sealed my attending Southern Seminary. It wasn't the tour by my uncle & dean at the time, or all the books he bought me while there & sent me home with. It wasn't getting to meet Dr. Mohler in his office and his pet snake. It wasn't getting to meet an array of Christ-like faculty who by now have been my pastors, friends, taught me so much and shared their homes and food with me. It was the chapel service that day. I thought, if I can get under preaching like this 2 times a week on campus, my heart will be a wild-fire of passion for Christ. The speaker that day was a man at the time I had never heard of - Dr. Ergun Caner. You can & should listen to it. I just simply figured, at my first & only chapel as a prospective student, that this is what you got at all times. Caner even makes a light hearted comment about the ongoing debating of calvinism on campus. He speaks highly of 12 point calvinist Tom Nettles.
Fast forward to today & all the controversy surrounding this man. Yes, Dr. Caner goes too far sometimes. He can be atagonistic. He seems like he has a short fuse. But it just so appears to me too that he has a passion for the Lord that gives overwhelming evidence that he is a child of God & bears good fruit to the glory of the Father. In the 2 messages I've ever heard him preach live, he admits what a rotten, no good, doesn't have it together, sinner he is, because he has a strong grasp on grace.
I'm not excusing him. I just think the whole thing is grotesque on both sides. I am a calvinist who believes in evangelism & missions & am pursuing Christ's call to Indonesia. Caner does not clearly understand calvinism, but hyper-calvinism. A house divided does not stand. Like it or not, Caner is under Christs' roof. Satan & his demons are all unified for one common goal, undivided. Too often Christians are slicing each other up over secondary issues, cutting our legs out from underneath ourselves - with nothing left to stand on.
It has cost Caner much to follow Christ. Disowned by his father for admitted Jesus is Lord in his life. He has seen his brothers & mothers & grandmother come to faith in Christ over the years. He has a passion for Christ & His Church as well as for his former Muslim brothers to come to faith in Christ. He has written & published helpful books on Southern Baptists, Islam, & the Church, & he has gone into hostile, secular & Mulsim enviornments to unashamedly proclaim Christ as the only way to God. Knowing I am calvinistic he has addressed me as "Brother" in an email exchange. He is nowhere near man-centered in his theology. Ergun Caner is not the enemy. Pride is. His, ours, James White's, you name it. Satan is loving every second of the tearing down going on.
Could we who do not understand other brothers, try & adopt the vantage points of those, like Dr. Caner ? Consider the god of hyper-calvinsim vs. Allah. Very close indeed, and for a former Muslim, perhaps it hits too close to home. Caner used to live his life hoping he would be 51% righteous, just enough good over bad, so that he would have a chance of Allah allowing him into heaven. Can you imagine how sweet that grace appeared to him, when he learned, that he could not earn salvation, but, that it was a free gift by trusting in Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for his sin, & that through Him, he could spend eternity in heaven - that this free gift was offered to all, indeed, even Ergun, a Muslim. Imagine hearing the calvinist then, saying, it is a gift only unto the elect. Certainly, the Bible says this, but the Bible also says "whosoever will" and that God does love the world, & to a former Muslim trying to tell his Muslim family, "if you repent & believe, you too can be saved & secure from the wrath of God!" And yet, it seems as though the calvinist is saying, "you can't say that to your Muslim brother. They have to be elect." Allah & Islam are fatalistic. The hyper-calvinist must also embrace fatalism. Ergun boldly offers salvation to all decieved Muslims he comes in contact with, & perhaps he wrongly assumes that if the calvinist had his way, the mercy & grace of God through Jesus Christ would never be expressed. Caner has even slammed John Piper, a man I respect perhaps more than any non-divine person who has ever lived.
The purpose of this post is not to take sides. It is not to say that Dr. Caner is right, justified, or a model in the current situation. It is a plea to bear patiently in love with one another. I was one who did indeed used to be an angry calvinist. I tend to break the stereotype of calvinists being non-missions minded by missions being my heart. I could even go so far as to say I can go overseas because of my belief in election & the sovereignty of God. And Dr. Caner's opinions should cut me quickly. But I've also learned a major lesson under my current pastor. We teach the Bible, not a system. I don't have to make everything fit & be filtered through calvinism. If the Bible says "as many as were elected unto salvation were saved," I preach election. And when the Bible says, "whosoever will," I preach to all men, "repent & believe & you will be saved." It doesn't take a genious to figure out that these Biblical verses are in no ways at odds with each other.
Anyways - back to the point - I simply think that we should consider our brothers more as brothers. I guess that natural question at this point for the reader is, "what is the irreducible minimum for truth," or at what point do you break fellowship. I do not attempt to answer that today, but feel free to inform me of your opinion. Based on other things I've heard Caner say about other men who are calvinists, I truly don't believe he lumps them all in one hell damned pile. Maybe there's baggage from a father who died lost who never saw him as his son again. Maybe he's a passionate person who sometimes is blazing for God's glory & at other times that passion burns down the filter between his brain & his mouth. Maybe as a Turk that firey-ness is part of his DNA. Leonard Ravenhill once said, "I'd rather have a fool on fire than a scholar on ice." Hopefully this all doesn't get me in trouble - again, there's no excuse for the mean-spiritedness that is at times apparent. It becomes about being right & who was wrong & Christ becomes some foot note, some side street. All the while, the lost world watches, maybe just a few, & finds complete justification as to why the would happily go to Hell than be like one of the hypocrites. More than anything, it sure grieves Christ.
At the latest SBC annual meeting I, again, a calvinist, voted for Frank Page, who even has a book out called The Trouble with TULIP. I couldn't be more pleased as to how this man is seeking God's face as he leads the SBC. We claim a Gospel that is uncompromising, but powerful enough to embrace all who want to glorify God through Jesus Christ, not matter which camp they claim. Ergun may possibly think me an idiot, by undoubtably, Ergun is my brother.
