I am one of those women who have worked under Tim Keller’s leadership at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. [Tim] hired me to envision and develop an entire ministry to equip and mobilize men and women in Redeemer’s congregation to work with gospel-centered vision and integrity out in the world. We partnered in the establishment of the Center for Faith & Work, which may have done as much as any church in decades to honor Abraham Kuyper’s vision of humble, respectful engagement in a world of many faith perspectives.
- Katherine Leary Alsdorf, "Tim Keller hired women in leadership: Katherine Leary Alsdorf responds to the Princeton Kuyper Prize controversy" in A Journey Through NYC Religions.
Far above all other blog posts I've done through the years, the things I've written criticizing Tim Keller have cost me the most in terms of being viewed as an outlier among Reformed Evangelicals. "Who on earth would want to criticize Tim Keller," people ask; "he's the best we have!"
Maybe he's the best of my generation, but sorry to say, that's not saying much. Based upon the past generations of leaders I've known personally, as well as my reading of fathers in the faith who preceded us across the centuries, it's my judgement those of us leading the church today are moral, theological, and spiritual midgets. Children. Infants.
A little less than a century ago, J. Gresham Machen observed that America...
was living off its moral capital. He added, "watch out when it's gone."
It's gone and those of us leading the church in America today have presided over its squandering. We have done to God's truth what our Democratic and Republican presidents and legislators have done to our national treasury. We've run a deficit of moral, theological, and spiritual expenditures for decades, now, and we have nothing more to spend. We've caved on the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the doctrine of the church, the doctrine of Hell and judgment, the doctrine of repentance, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of man, and the list goes on. In my former (Tim Keller's present) denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, it's laughable and tragic how easily men can be found in conformity to the Westminster Standards while repudiating major doctrines of Scripture—starting with the doctrine of Creation itself.
Tim Keller has led the way. Under his papacy across the Reformed world, not one single doctrinal, which is to say Scriptural, commitment has been strengthened. Not Creation. Not Hell. Not the Substitutionary Atonement. Not the Church. Not the Fatherhood of God or the Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the authority of Scripture. Not any part of Biblical sexuality (the understatement of the year).
In fact, unless one wants to make the case that selfishness needs to be added to the Seven Deadly Sins, there's not even any significant sin Tim has grown our understanding and repentance for—except perhaps the sin of elder-brotherishness Tim makes into the point of Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son. Or maybe the sin of not appearing to be sufficiently progressive; that's the only sin Tim has been successful in getting PCA pastors to repent of, although I'm not sure their repentance has been particularly effective, missionally, if our mission is still the Gospel.
Yes, Tim's written a bunch of best-sellers, but to what end? Mass conversions? Massive increases in the church's sanctification? And I say "massive" because that's what his sales have been. We'd like to see something commensurate with his sales, right?
But you see, that's the rub. If Tim were transported back to the Sons of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years or the nation of Israel at the time of Jeremiah, would his books have sold as well? You won't be surprised if I answer, "yup, I think so." If I'm right, book sales and conference registrations should be no comfort to those of us who love Jesus Christ and His Bride.
Have you thought about this? The major rebellions against God our Father during our time have been the major rebellions that permeated the land of Canaan as the Sons of Israel entered: idol worship, child-sacrifice to those idols, incest, bestiality, sodomy, adultery, fornication, etc. Today, despite the superfluity of book sales and conference registrations and attendance in Tim's circles, these sins not only have overrun our culture, but right now as I write and you read, they are taking over the conservative Reformed church in North America.
And the female rebellion against God's Fatherhood and Adam's federal headship?
Tim Keller has been ground zero of that rebellion for decades, and all his fan-boys have lapped it up just as the General Assembly of the PCA lapped it up last year by appointing a study committee of the denomination to justify women who are feminists being given more preaching, teaching, and authority in their churches. (I say "women who are feminists" because Godly women don't hanker after exercising authority over men.)
So guess who's the most prominent name on this Biblical study committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America?
Why, none other than Tim's wife Kathy. Surprise surprise.
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
Want to get in touch? Send Tim an email!
