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The Gettys represent new Reformed Calvinism. For four years, Keith led worship at Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio, pastored by Alistair Begg. This is the world of John Piper, David Platt, R.C. Sproul, Al Mohler, Jr., John MacArthur.
Reformed Calvinism itself is not biblically sound. It is a path to the world of Augustine, the church fathers, John Calvin, Protestantism, the Puritans, infant baptism. It is a path to Replacement Theology (the church is Israel). It is a path to Amillennialism and the rejection of the imminency of Christ’s return and the loss of all of the spiritual benefits of that essential doctrine.
New Reformed Calvinism, unlike old Reformed Calvinism, is ecumenical. There are no strict boundaries. The Gettys associate in ministry with almost anybody: Pentecostal, Charismatic, Roman Catholic, deniers of the blood atonement (C.S. Lewis), theistic evolutionists (John Lennox). Keith Getty favorably quotes all sorts of unsound men. For example, in his 2017 book Sing! he quotes the Roman Catholic mystic J.R.R. Tolkien, Augustin, C.S. Lewis, and Sting.
New Reformed Calvinism is sympathetic toward Rome. The old Reformed men believed that Rome is the great whore of Revelation 17, drunken with the blood of the martyrs. But the new Reformed have ecumenical relationships with Rome. Consider The Gospel Coalition. The Getty’s former pastor, Alistair Beggs was once the head of this organization. The web site promotes ecumenical unity. One report was entitled “The Urgency of Evangelical Ecumenism.” The report “Should Christians Be Ecumenical?” said, “Can evangelicals and Catholics truly be together? ... Jesus’ prayer for unity in the Body obligates me to see the ecumenical task as important for Christianity.” This is false. Jesus’ prayer has nothing to do ecumenism. In fact, Christ emphasized obedience to God’s Word and the importance of truth (Joh. 17:6, 8, 14, 17, 19), which are incompatible with ecumenism. Yet this article was written by Trevin Wax, a Southern Baptist Wheaton College professor who associates closely with the Gettys.
And New Reformed Calvinism (also called neo-Puritan), unlike old Reformed Calvinism, is not separated from the world. In July 2019, longhaired rocker Alice Cooper gave his testimony at Parkside. They should rather have reproved him for his association with the vile world of rock & roll. Mark Driscoll, one of the most influential new Reformed Calvinists, said, “We are theologically conservative and CULTURALLY LIBERAL.” His church in Seattle, Mars Hill, had New Year’s Eve champagne dance parties.
Consider the issue of dress, which most churches today consider of little consequence, but it is a clear biblical issue. Kristyn Getty is one of the few contemporary worship artists that wears a dress of any kind in her performances, but she also wears skin-tight pants and low-cut tops and other types of immodest attire, so there is no consistency. There are no boundaries. And some of the other female musicians in the Getty performances are even less modest. An advertisement for the Getty’s Sing! 2019 conference featured a young woman dancing an Irish dance in extremely tight pants. That type of thing is very sensual and has no place in Christian worship. A few years ago, when we asked for feedback from Christian men about how various types of female dress affect them morally, many made the observation that tight clothing is as seductive as slight clothing. One man wrote, “I would say the number one problem is any garment that is form fitting, be it jeans, pants, skirt, dress, shirt, whatever. Anything that is tight, no matter how long it is, leaves nothing to the imagination, and that defeats the whole purpose of covering the skin in the first place!” Another wrote, “One thing I see in my church is tight clothing. Oh, it may very well be covering but it is revealing the shape in a woman. This can be even more tantalizing to a man.” (See “Tight Clothing and Modesty” at www.wayoflife.org.)
The Gettys represent the “cool New Calvinism” that is sweeping through evangelicalism and the Southern Baptist Convention and that is capturing large numbers of “young fundamentalists.”
It is influencing Bob Jones University graduates, which is probably why the school is being drawn to the Gettys.
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