What I'm going to say in this article is not going to win me any friends - I know this. And it will likely further alienate me. But what else can I expect, I suppose?

For about the past three or four years, I've finally hooked up with a "system" of belief that I believe for no other reason than that it accurately describes me - through and through.

And I mean that it describes me in ways that are not exactly complimentary. Ways which I wish it didn't describe me. More properly it might be called "exposing" me. Convicting me. Impeaching me. When I say that "it describes me" I mean it describes me in ways that I would be ashamed to be seen by others. Ways that I can scarcely stand to see myself.

This school of thought descrbes me accurately, yet brutally honestly. Both my prior life, my conversion, and a good bit (but not all) of my current life in Christ. It's called by various names: Sovereign Grace. Reformed Theology. Doctrines of Grace. Calvinism. Puritan.

Actually, it's not that I've finally "got it" or finally "discovered" it. It's what I've actually always believed from almost the very instant that I got saved and started reading my Bible. I just never really knew there was a name for it, and that there were others out there like me.

Total Depravity described me perfectly. The difference between me and most self-professed Calvinists is that I see the "T" in TULIP as still describing me to this very day.

It's worth reading "A New Heart" right now before going on. The basic theme of it is that a total transformation is not going to happen in this world, but in the world to come - after death and OUR resurection into Heaven. That nothing essentially, and fundamentally changes IN THIS LIFE and IN THIS FLESH. We are marked and sealed for a future redemption; but that transformation has not taken place already on this earth. It is a future work. A future reward for FAITH in this world and in this life. And even that faith is not our own - it is given to us.

But the point of all that is to say this: in crusing around the internet and "fellowshipping" with other reformed believers, I've come to notice that a great number of these "blogs" are little more than people's online video collections of what other people have to say. They don't really have much to share from their heart. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. But in many cases, I can't tell what, if anything, is in their heart because THEY don't speak. They let someone else do all the talking for them; and the roll-call is pretty short, and pretty predictable.

Reformed Theology, on the internet, has become like a "McReligion". It's the same list of videos, from the same short list of speakers/preachers, packaged in the same way and basically "worshipped" in the same way.

At the top of many lists is Paul Washer - the Wal-Mart of Calvinist thinking. Don't get me wrong - a lot of the fervent zeal and excitement I feel about knowing just how great a God it is that has saved me, I got from Paul Washer. I think his message is very worthy. But he is so ubiquitous in these circles that I'm left wondering, doesn't anyone else have something to add?

Next are the likes of John Piper, John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul. If Paul Washer is the Wal-Mart of Calvinst thinking, then these guys are kinda like the "Old Navy" of reformed thinking. Packaged a little neater, and a tad more popular in appearance. Every one of them are fantastic preachers and teachers from whom I have learned a lot.

Again, each of them have a worthy message. What I'm hoping to point out in this article is that there really is more to be heard than just what these guys are bringing to the table.

Twenty years ago, there was actually some point to travelling around the country. Mississippi was really, essentially a unique experience than, say, Wyoming. New England was really a different experience than the Bible Belt. But now, when I travel on business, I get off the plane and the city I'm standing in is indistingusiable from the one I just left. Drive down the highway in my rental car and it's all the same: Home Depot here; McDonalds there. Wal-Mart there. This mall has all the same stores in it that my own hometown mall has. The road signs all look the same - the people look the same; they wear the same clothes; listen to the same music. Why bother going anywhere when you know ahead of time that when you get there, there's nothing really unique or distinctive about the place?

Reformed Blogdom has become the same. My critics will already being firing up their keyboards: "Wallace is just looking for 'experiences'. He's just in it for the 'novelty' and not for the doctrine." Well, I'm not. But I do think it is worthy that a site owner express what his OWN thoughts are rather than simply pointing at a bunch of other people and say "that's me over there. I'm like that."

I'm very happy that we are truly in "unity of faith and doctrine." That is very assuring to me. But it's not edifying. It's edifying when I get a glimpse of the PERSON and realize that PERSON is like me in heart or spirit. Not that that person points to the same videos that I point to or believes the same things I believe.

Part of being in the church is the sense of community it provides. We need this as Christians. It's good for us. God designed us this way. But community (or "unity" as the Apostle Paul puts it) is something that should operate at a personal level.


Every "Reformed" site on the net is like another Home Depot of theology - just in another town.

And, more and more often, most of these sites have become really nothing more than a video collection of other people's thoughts. You Reformed Bloggers out there. How about telling me what YOU think. What God has done in YOUR life. What things about God that YOU find amazing. What love God has shed abroad in YOUR heart.

It's disconcerting to me to think that people have become incapable of READING and can now only sit through 10 minute videos - videos that I've seen on a dozen other sites just like theirs.

That's part of the reason I don't feature a lot of videos. I'm trying to share what God has given ME to share. I'm trying to preach what God has put on my heart to tell others. The new internet religion has reduced the entire Christian life to a life behind a digital firewall - a handful of videos of what other people have to say without the need for anyone to share what's on their own heart personally.

It's become sterile and lifeless.

Stainless Steel Christianity.

Surgical Room Theology.



Please - folks. Get on your blog and tell us what God has done for YOU. What it means to YOU. How YOU were encouraged by it. I want to get to know YOU. Maybe I'll like you and stick around. Maybe I won't and I'll look elsewhere.

But at least we can related to each other directly instead of through our proxy representative, law firms of Washer, Piper, Sproul and MacArthur, Esq.

I like those guys as much as the rest of you, but I also want to get to know YOU too.

The saints, in the end, defeated the devil by the WORD of their (own) testimony. They didn't refer the devil to a YouTube video of Paul Washer.