I’ve mentioned in the del.icio.us links in the side bar the great pastoral material regarding Ted Haggard at the Ref21 blog. Well, it keeps getting better.

I fear that it [claiming we are all “just like Ted”] poorly presents the biblical description of normative Christianity. Biblically, we are not supposed to be “just like Ted.” The biblical rule is that the fornicator has no place in the Kingdom of God. Paul writes, “You may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5). So we should all look into our hearts and see the sources of Ted’s sins, but if we look into our hearts and see the actual sins that Ted has admitted, you are in deep trouble. In this respect, if you are “just like Ted,” then you should question your salvation. Let’s not kid ourselves, Ted Haggard did not “slip” into this situation overnight. As he has indicated, it resulted from a long-term pattern of deceipt and moral corruption. This does not absolutely mean that he is not saved — of that, I certainly am not his judge. But according to the Bible, people who live like this normally are not. (But what about David after his tryst with Bathsheba? The answer is that David’s salvation truly tottered on a knife-edge, at least from a human perspective. Read Ps. 51 carefully! Without Psalm 51, we would have little basis for considering David a regenerate man. Moreover, he never fully recovered from the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, and neither did his kingdom.)

By the way, if you read the post, you will see I am taking one point in a very even-handed presentation which gives a lot of pros and cons. It is a good and judicious post. Nevertheless, I hope Pastor Phillips will be careful lest he join company with Calvin in having a presbytery write an appeal against him. Claiming that salvation can be viewed from different “perspectives” has gotten some people in a lot of trouble.

That irony aside, I repeat that the post is well worth reading.