Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled

Some personal history

It was during my second year of Bible College when I fully embraced the Doctrines of Grace and declared myself a Calvinist. Shortly after that, I listened to a sermon on husbands and wives by Mark Driscoll for the first time. I was rocked to my core. Driscoll became my gateway drug to other like-minded men, such as Matt Chandler and Francis Chan. Eventually, I found my way to the men who had influenced these younger pastors, men like John Piper, John MacArthur, and R.C Sproul. Eventually the path led to the dead saints that had influenced these older pastors, men such as J.I. Packer, John Stott, and Charles Spurgeon. Finally, I found my way to the fountainhead of the Reformation and was exposed to the Reformers and the Puritans.

I was a part of what has been coined the “Young, Restless, and Reformed” movement of the early 2000’s. Young men, who had grown up in churches steeped in seeker-sensitive and squishy theological convictions, were, for the first time, confronted with the holiness and majesty of God, the power and authority of His Word, and the sovereign reign of Christ. As we discovered the works of both older pastors and dead theologians, it awoke a fire deep within our bones, and we could not consume enough sermons, YouTube videos, or books. My heart was captured by the God who was so different from what we were taught at youth groups and youth conferences.

One of the consequences of the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement was that it made young men like me so committed to these doctrinal discoveries – which stood in stark contrast to both the culture and the church – that we felt it was our personal duty to correct people and churches. I am sad to say that we did not engage in this task with tact and godliness. We often sounded more like young, angry prophets than men gripped by the sovereign grace of God. We loved the Lord, and we were transformed by our new understanding of the Scriptures, but we swung so far in the other direction that we lacked the fruit of the Spirit.

I was as guilty and as obnoxious as any other Young, Restless, and Reformed guy I know. At times I was rude, condescending, and unwise with my words. In my late twenties I finally saw how ironic my life was – a graceless person extolling the grace of God. I had to ask for many apologies, mend several relationships, and undergo the experience of God painfully humbling me. I know God has used every experience to shape me and accomplish His will, but I was grieved that I had acted the way I did for as long as I did.

The causes of the new movement

I share all of this history, first, to let you know why I did what I did and the reasons for it, and second, because I see a new movement among Christians, primarily men, that is similar in several ways to the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement, and while both movements have wonderful truths that will enrich lives and strengthen churches, I worry that the same reactionary and harsh spirit is prevalent in the latest iteration of the Reformed movement.

For many Christians, the previous generation was marked by the following three things that have been present both in the world and in the church. First, churches have adopted a defeatist and retreatist attitude. Pastors have said, “The world is going to Hell, and we have our ticket to Heaven. We don’t engage in culture and politics, and let the world fall apart; we don’t expect the church to exert a positive influence in the world or achieve any real success.” This is demonstrably unbiblical, and it is likely a vestige of the Fundamentalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Second, churches have given much ground to the Feminism that has dominated the culture, and churches have become very feminized. What has this looked like in the church? Here are just a few examples: female elders and women preaching on Sunday mornings, reinterpreting Scripture through a “cultural-contextual hermeneutic”; male passivity in church as women step in to fill the gaps; sermons and music that is geared to women and soft men; a lack of a prophetic witness in the culture; and, what I believe has become the Evangelical 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt never criticize women in church, especially if you are a male pastor.”

Third, churches have done a poor job including the children of believers in the life of the church and establishing their roles and responsibilities. Many churches have children who do not join their parents during corporate worship until they are 17. Children who profess faith in Christ are forced to wait years, maybe even more than a decade, to be baptized and serve in the church because of some weird theology around profession of faith. Proper discipleship and catechizing of children is sorely lacking. Children are also abandoning their faith and their churches in staggering numbers once they outgrow having to obey their parents.

Real problems require real solutions

Just as seeker-sensitivity, soft preaching, and human-centered theology were the catalyst of the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement, so defeatist and retreatist churches, feminized churches, and child-neglecting churches are the catalyst for what I have coined the “Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled” movement in Reformed Evangelicalism. And just as the first Young, Restless, and Reformed movement created Cage-Stagers like yours truly, so this Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled movement has created its own Cage-Stagers. By the way, a Cage-Stager is one who, upon discovering some new aspect of Reformed theology, becomes so argumentative and confrontational that it would be best to have them locked in a cage rather than among the general population.

Obviously, the church must not disengage from the culture and retreat into our Christian compounds and simply wait for Jesus to return. We have a Great Commission to obey (Matthew 28:19-20). We have a Dominion Mandate to fulfill (Genesis 1:26-28). We have an evil and dark world in which we are to shine as lights for truth and work against the decaying effect of evil (Matthew 5:13-16 and Philippians 2:14-16). We are to follow and obey Christ as He is defeating all of His enemies and placing all things under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25-28 and Ephesians 1:20-23).

The feminization of the church is also a very serious issue. As our world abandons God’s ordained roles and good design for men and women, it’s no surprise that our culture is, at present, in the midst of a death-spiral and moral free-fall. We must declare God’s purposes in marriage and sexuality, and we must not be ashamed of how God has designed the home and the church to function. God has made men to lead and take responsibility in their homes as the covenant head and spiritual authority, and God has made women to support and help their husbands do what they could not do on their own (Ephesians 5:22-27 and 1 Peter 3:1-7). God has designed the church to be shepherded and led by qualified men, while women have unique and integral roles in service and ministry in the church (1 Corinthians 12, 1 Timothy 2:12-14, and Titus 2:1-5).

Children of believers are not second-class human beings. They are a part of the local church by means of their parents. They should be evangelized, discipled, and catechized from an early age, with a hopeful expectation that they will trust in and love Jesus. They should use the gifts God has given them to build the body of Christ. They should avail themselves of the means of grace and the Ordinances of the church as is appropriate. The fact that they have parents who love the Lord and are connected to other believers who love the Lord is a gracious blessing from God. The regular hearing of the Word preached and the regular praise of God through singing is a marvellous gift given to our children.

A new breed of Cage-Stagers

Just as the original Young, Restless, and Reformed movement affirmed wonderful theological truths in response to unbiblical thinking in the culture and the church, yet did so in ways that lacked the fruit of the Spirit, so the Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled movement is responding to the issues I’ve mentioned, but in ways that lack the fruit of the Spirit. And just as so many of us had to repent of our unwise and unbalanced words and actions, so I am lovingly calling on my brothers in the Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled movement to see their error, ask forgiveness where it is appropriate, and just grow up a little.

You may be wondering what I mean by Red-Pilled. Someone who has been Red-Pilled has come to realize that Feminism has done serious harm to society in general, as well as men and women in particular, and as such, they have adopted a new worldview. The Red-Pilled Manosphere movement, with its main representatives being men such as Andrew Tate, is an extreme response to the Feminist movement with a desire to reclaim true manhood and womanhood. They get several things right, such as men and women having distinct roles and characteristics. However, they miss the mark by a mile when they veer into a hyper-masculinity that actually turns women into objects and renders all relationships as merely transactional. They are correct to respond to evil worldviews, but they swing the pendulum so far in the other direction they end up doing harm as well.

The Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled Movement exhibits similar tendencies and proclivities as they respond to the failures of the defeatist and retreatist Christian attitude, the Feminism seeping into the church, and believing parents lacking a robust and covenantal view of their children. They swing things too far away from a balanced and measured, and also Biblical, position. My issue is not with the core beliefs, but rather what these doctrinal positions become when they get “red-pilled.”  I perceive that this movement is defined by three main characteristics: a Condescending Postmillennialism, an Overreactive Patriarchy, and a Myopic Paedobaptism.

A monopoly on Kingdom-building

Many of my brothers hold to a Postmillennial eschatological position. They are optimistic about the eventual Christianization of nations and the entire world, and this belief in the inevitability of the growing success of the Gospel on this earth before Christ returns is part of what drives them to boldly proclaim the Gospel, engage the cultural and political spheres for Christ, and build institutions that they believe will last for many years to come. Their faithfulness to Christ involves a long-view approach that is mindful of a multi-generational cultural and spiritual war.

I appreciate these positions. In fact, I hold to most of these positions, especially the ones that have to do with the practical and tangible outworking of optimistic building and fighting. I hold these views within my Amillennial framework, and I am convinced I can do so consistently and with integrity. I have other brothers who do so within a Historic Premillennial position, and they too believe they are being consistent and faithful. Postmillennialists do not own the market on cultural engagement, institution-building, and living with the expectation that God can and will do marvelous things as we work to build His Kingdom here.

The problem with the Young, Restless, and Red-pilled Movement is that many Postmillennialists believe that their view and their view alone is the only one that can accomplish, consistently and with Biblical fidelity, all of the things I just mentioned, and that any person who holds to a different eschatological position while still engaging with similar practices must be either confused, inconsistent, or actually Postmill. Lest you think I am being hyperbolic, I can say I have heard that criticism, to my face, by many, and I mean many, Postmillennialists, young and old, American and Canadian.

I find this attitude rude, arrogant, and extremely condescending. To suggest that I have not thought deeply about my beliefs and how they fit with my Christian life is insulting and unbecoming of a Christian brother. I have been as engaged in the cultural and political spheres as most Christians I know, and to have a younger man - one who is puffed up because he loves using his #DatPostmill tag on every social media post - suggest otherwise is juvenile and frankly embarrassing. To say only Postmillennial Christians can consistently do the work we are doing is Biblically indefensible. God requires us to obey Him, without knowing the end, and without knowing what He is accomplishing. We obey because He commands it. Why do Calvinists pray to God and do evangelism when we know God sovereignly accomplishes what He has eternally decreed? Because He commands it, and because we love Him. Have you ever given your child a gift, knowing it will only last one day? Why? Because you love him, and because you obey God by being a good father. Saying that Postmillennialists alone have a monopoly on optimistic Christian living and building culture and institutions is a theological and eschatological blunder.

It's also historically laughable. Essentially all of the Apostolic Fathers were Premillennial. Augustine was Amillennial. Many of the first- and second-generation Reformers were Amillennial. Many of the Puritans were Premillennial. Spurgeon was Premillennial. Unless you are prepared to say that these men – these giants of the faith – were all less consistent and less Biblically faithful than you because you listened to a Greg Bahnsen debate and watched some Theo Bros drop a #DatPostmill YouTube video, you need to grow up young man, and you need to do it fast. Your condescending attitude is alienating Christian brothers who don’t believe exactly what you do, yet who are faithfully advancing the Kingdom of God on this earth. You are hurting the unity that ought to exist within the Body, and you’re embarrassing yourself in the process.

Maybe Complementarianism IS enough

I utterly despise Feminism. Full stop. In all of its waves and forms and manifestations, I believe it is a direct assault on God’s good and gracious design for marriage and sexuality, and I believe it perverts God’s unique authority structures in the home, in the church, and in the world itself. I know that even the Suffragettes engaged in New Age occultism and spiritualism that elevated female false goddesses as superior to men. I know they were heavily influenced by Marxist ideas of oppressor/oppressed and history being defined as nothing but a struggle between classes of people. The rotten seeds of Feminism in the late 1800’s has produced the bitter fruit of trans-madness, rampant sexual immorality and deviancy, and the destruction of the institution of marriage and the family. In short, Feminism is no bueno.

Interestingly enough, men like John Piper and Wayne Grudem in their necessary work “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” addressed the parasitic nature of Feminism, or more specifically, the position known as Evangelical Feminism. They offered sound Biblical arguments in favour of what is called the Complementarian position. In short, God has created men and women with distinct and unique roles and responsibilities in the home and in the church, and rather than jockey for position while defending a sameness of sorts, men and women complement one another to accomplish God’s good purposes.

God has designed the church to be led by qualified men, and not women. God has designed the church so that spiritual authority and corporate teaching is to be done by men and not women. God has designed marriage and the family so that men are to lead and take primary responsibility as the covenant head. This is all true, and all affirmed by Complementarians. However, with the increasing influence of Feminism in the culture, and the failure of churches to remain faithful and Biblical to these Creation norms in the face of cultural pressure, there has been an over-correction in the church, or as I said, an Overreacting Patriarchy.

My issue is not with the word Patriarchy – I think properly defined it is an adequate way to describe how God has made the world to function. The problem is when men go from saying, “Women are not permitted by God to preach and teach to men in the church” to saying, “Women can only teach other women about womanly and motherly things, not doctrine or Christian life.” That is a swing too far, and it is unsubstantiated in the Scriptures. Paul had a category for women prophesying in the church (1 Corinthians 11:5). Phillip the evangelist had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9). Women are commanded to teach other women how to be pure, kind, and self-controlled (Titus 2:4-5), which last time I checked, requires unpacking sanctification and the Fruit of the Spirit. Saying women can only teach other women how to make sourdough and crochet is an overreaction.

And then we come to head-coverings. Now, let me be clear, I thoroughly understand the Biblical argument for women wearing head-coverings in the corporate gathering of the church. It makes sense, and I respect that decision. There is nothing wrong with any woman who believes that wearing a head-covering is required of her and tantamount to obedience to God. That is a valid position, and I would not tell her to do otherwise, or else I would be in violation of Romans 14. Just to be clear, I fully subscribe to Complementarianism, and, for anyone who knows me, I do not bow to cultural trends in order to be winsome and ingratiate myself to the world, so I don’t think I can be accused of having compromised. But to say that a woman who does not wear a head-covering is being rebellious or not submissive, or that she is being stubborn and has been affected by Feminism, is just too far. Personal convictions on secondary and tertiary matters are fine, but elevating them to primary level status, and essentially shaming, guilting, or belittling women who are also true Complementarians because of it is a gross overreaction.

Will somebody please think of the children

I am a Baptist. There, I said it. I am also Reformed, which means I am Calvinistic, I hold to one of the historic confessions (in this case, the 1689 Baptist Confession Faith), and I subscribe to Covenant Theology (in this case, 1689 Federalism). I have five children. My three older children have all been baptized, and I joyfully celebrated that with them when they professed faith in Christ and understood their need for Christ as Lord and Saviour. My young twins, as I fully expect, will also come to know and love Christ and obey Him by walking through the waters of Baptism. Our family worships together daily (though we have not batted 1.000). I am walking through the Baptist Catechism with my children. They offer prayer requests after dinner and we pray for them together. We regularly discuss the reality of God in our lives as we observe what’s going on in our lives everyday. There is even a picture in our kitchen that quotes Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I understand my role as a father – as the head of my household – and I take seriously the high call to raise my children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:2). I understand that by nature of their mother and I being united to Christ in faith, even when they were infants, they were recipients of tremendous grace from God, and His special saving grace to us trickled down and ran over them as well. In what ways? They have parents that prayed for them. They got to hear God’s Word preached regularly and hear the saints sing to the Lord. As God would lead and provide for my wife and me, my children were along for that ride. Of course they are blessed by God for being in our house. Of course my covenant with God affects them every single day. Of course I believe that God will cause every one of my children to be born again to a saving faith in Christ. And I do all of this, consistently and sincerely I might add, as a Reformed Baptist, and not as one who subscribes to Westminster Covenant Theology or Paedobaptism.

Now, the Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled folk look at the paragraph I just wrote and declare with fervor something like this: “You’re so close, just keep coming and you’ll get on the right side of this.” “You sound like a Presbyterian to me.” “But I thought Baptists treated their children like pagan unbelievers.” Oh, believe me, I have heard all of those comments and more. I’ve even heard some people say that Baptist theology is the root cause of transgender ideology. I know, what a stupid comment. When it comes to raising our children within a covenantal framework, the Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled think that Baptists haven’t wrestled deeply with consistent and faithful obedience to God in this area, for over 500 years now, since the Reformation. It is once again a sign of immaturity and a lack of humility.

The vast majority of churches that remained open during COVID Statist lockdowns in Canada were Reformed Baptist churches. This is an indisputable and demonstrable fact. In the Province of Ontario, where I live, which was ground zero for COVID madness, any idea which churches have taken the lead in starting Classical Christian Schools over the past five years? You got it, the Reformed Baptists. How about the original framers of the Niagara Declaration, or the men most involved in working with politicians to push back against tyranny in Canada? Reformed Baptists yet again. This is not a competition, but it’s to make the point that just because we don’t baptize our unbelieving children does not mean that we don’t take seriously raising our children to love God, teaching our children to think Christianly, and working to build a culture that our children will inherit as they continue to storm the gates of hell. To think that we just need to “get baptism right” in order to be consistent is such a myopic understanding of what covenant theology is really about.

We’re better together

Why I have spent so much time (much more than normal) laboring as I have in this post? Why all of the personal history and testimony? Why all of this looking back into various periods of history at length? Why even address this topic at all?

First of all, those who have adopted and outwardly display the Young, Restless, and Red-Pilled position are actually frustrating and draining to those of us who have moved on from that kind of juvenility. We grow weary in always having to hear about how “more Reformed” we need to be and “how close” we are to getting it right, as you believe you have. You’re going to push away faithful and solid men who are busy doing good Kingdom work if you keep acting in such a condescending manner.

Second, and this is related to the first point, we need each other now more than ever. The State is not slowing down in its mission to turn Canada into a Marxist nightmare devoid of all vestiges of Western Civilization, and that includes the thing upon which Western Culture is built – Biblical Christianity. We have to be working together to build institutions, push back against the darkness, and advance the Kingdom of God together. We will not do this in our denomination or theological silos. We realized this during COVID, when we set aside our distinctives (which we held to dearly and made much of within our churches) in order to protest together, sign statements together, and declare together that there is no King but Christ. Things are going to get worse – much worse than 2020 – and if we push each other away, we will be easy pickings for our tyrannical State.

I hope many of us will find our way out of this new “cage-stage” soon, so we can get to the work we need to be doing together. “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity” – Rupertus Meldeniu.