“He who claims to be a slave of Christ, is no such thing if he does not obey Christ.”
This will be the last of the articles on Servus Christi (Mr. Joshua Chavez) and his friend “causafinitum”/”waldens” (Mr. Dennis Grützmacher). After my last article, “Servus Christi – Updated,” I received a 47 page email from Mr. Grützmacher as a response to that article (and every other article as well). And yes, you read that correctly – 47 pages! And if you think that's excessive, to date I have received 299 pages of emails between the two of them! In his current 47 page long email to me he gave me his very best well-reasoned, logical, “Christian” biblical arguments against all that I had written, as well as in support of Mr. Chavez. The highlights of his email tome were that:
I only condemn that which I do not understand.
I don't know what I am talking about.
I lack “experimental knowledge.” (whatever that is)
I am scared.
I am an idolater.
I am ignorant.
I am presumptuous and biased.
I am a crybaby.
I need to grow-up.
I am a hypocrite.
I am a sinful hypocrite.
I am a sinful judgmental hypocrite.
I belong to a hypocritical church, and not the True Church of Christ.
I am worthless.
What I write belongs in the dustbin.
I should laugh at myself.
I should doubt myself.
I have a mental impairment.
I am not smart enough to make an informed comment.
I am a swine.
I am self-righteous.
I am holier-than-thou.
I am full of myself and pride of self.
I am not a Christian, because he does not recognize my salvation.
I am pretentious.
I am going to hell.
I am a papist.
I am a bigot.
Perhaps most telling was his response to my statement, “To be clear, while I agree with much of Reformation theology, it is God whom I love. The Triune God of Scripture.” To which he replied, “Sorry, Bob, your reply is truly ridiculous.”
Interspersed between these little “love notes” from Mr. Grützmacher to me, he repeatedly reiterated his and Mr. Chavez's standard “guilt by association two or more times removed” nonsense; which basically states that Mr. “A” is a heretic because he associates with Mr. “B,” who in turn associates with Mr. “C,” who in turn associates with a known heretic. And as we have come to expect, he does this all while ignoring the fact that both he and Mr. Chavez are guilty of the very same thing they are accusing others of. He states that my pointing this out to him is nothing more than a “red herring.” Their “do as I say, but not as I do” behavior is, of course, by definition hypocritical.
There were other nonsensical tidbits in his email, such as his statement, “Joshua must and can defend himself.” While forgetting (or ignoring) that both his first set of emails to me, as well as his most recent, are prefaced with the statement, “At the request of Servus Christi the information below.” If Joshua Chavez can defend himself, then why has he employed the services of Dennis Grützmacher to do this for him?
The majority of his most recent email, however, was with regard to their De Coniuratione Vaticanum Magna theory – the Great Vatican Conspiracy – which is a detailed account of over 650 years worth of “evidence” studied over a five-year period, which proves conclusively (at least to Mr. Grützmacher) that the Vatican is trying to take over the world in order to bring about the one world religion led by the pope as antichrist and the papacy as Babylon the great.
In his less than cogent presentation of just how this conspiracy is unfolding, Mr. Grützmacher has put forth the argument that John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, the editors of the Reformation Heritage Books KJV Study Bible, the editors of the ESV Bible, Ligonier Ministries, the speakers at the European Bible Training Center Conference 2017, the speakers at the Shepherd's Conference 2017, the speakers at the Together For The Gospel Conference 2016, the speakers at the Ligonier Conference 2017, the speakers at The Gospel Coalition Conference of 2017, and the speakers at the G3 Conference of 2018 are all agents of the Vatican. Every single one of them is an undercover Romanist. Every single one of them without exception. How does he know this? He presents two pieces of evidence which he claims unequivocally support his assertion. They are:
Grützmacher's Supporting Evidence #1: Not one of these people have, in any Study Bible they have written, stated that the papacy is the Babylon of Revelation 14:6-12, and that the pope is the antichrist of Daniel and 2 Thessalonians 2:8; nor did a single person speaking at the conferences mentioned state that the pope is the antichrist of Daniel and 2 Thessalonians 2:8, and that the papacy is the Babylon of Revelation 14:6-12.
Grützmacher's Supporting Evidence #2: He goes on to state that these people cannot be true biblical Christians (and therefore must be Romanists – undercover papists sent to infiltrate the True Church) because they do not meet the standard of biblical Christianity. And what is that standard? According to Mr. Grützmacher, it is the book, “A brief and impartial account of the nature of the Protestant religion” by John Owen.
Mr. Grützmacher does not look to God's Word as the standard of a biblical Christian, or biblical Christianity, but rather a book by John Owen.
Now, don't misunderstand me. As far as I am concerned, John Owen was a great man of God; solid in his faith, and I look forward to meeting him in heaven. But he is not God. His writings were not inspired of God, nor are they infallible or inerrant. Only God's Word meets that specific criteria. I am glad Dr. Owen is not alive to see them misuse his name and writings in this way. If such a thing were possible, he would be turning over rapidly and repeatedly in his grave.
I find it both interesting and telling that when I asked Mr. Grützmacher to show me in Scripture where God states the pope (specifically) is the antichrist and the papacy (specifically) is Babylon; he pointed to John Owen instead. I point to God, he points to John Owen. Now what does that tell you?
In fact, Mr. Grützmacher applies this unbiblical standard to everyone across the board. Unless you, dear Christian, do not openly proclaim that the pope is the antichrist of Daniel and 2 Thessalonians 2:8, and that the papacy is the Babylon of Revelation 14:6-12, then you are not a true Christian, and you are actually a papist. Mr. Grützmacher wrote in his email to me that history proves this because ALL the Reformers, and ALL the Puritans throughout history believed it to be so; and, he says, the persecution of Christians by the Roman church, “proves the historic fulfilment of the book of Revelation in the history of the papacy, it shows the martyrs of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I have tried to be patient with these men, although my patience has worn pretty thin at times (as I am sure is glaringly evident in my responses to them). I have tried to treat them as brothers in the Lord. For that I received nothing but rejection, ridicule, mockery, slander, defamation and other ad hominem retorts from them. I'm done with them.
I extended to Mr. Chavez the courtesy of one-on-one private communications in order to try and convince him to repent of his sin. Mr. Grützmacher did not see fit to extend the same courtesy to me, choosing instead to bring his nonsense against me to a public forum (this blog) in the form of replies to the specific articles and their content. Yes, he emailed me as well, but nothing that he hadn't already posted here on The Reason Blog. They both continue in their sin, compounding it daily. It is as if their sin is their life. I do not see any fruit of repentance in any of their communications to me, either privately or publicly on this blog. I do not see any loving kindness, no compassion, no love of any kind; not toward me, and not toward anyone in the Body of Christ; and certainly not toward God Himself.
What they call me, how they treat me, etc., means less than nothing to me. As a retired Correctional Sergeant, I spent more than half of my adult life dealing with criminals of the worst sort. I have had the worst of the worst throw the worst they could muster at me, and it never made a dent. These two guys, Mr. Joshua Chavez and Mr. Dennis Grützmacher are no different than the criminals I dealt with for all those years. They are simply criminals of a different stripe. They are spiritual criminals. Spiritual thugs. Spiritual bullies. However, while their tired old canards do not bother me personally (after all, it is our Lord who said, “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” – John 15:20), when they direct them at the Body of Christ, and by extension Christ Himself, then I tend to get a little miffed.
Both Mr. Chavez and Mr. Grützmacher have told me that by pointing out their sin to them, I am the one in sin and in need of repentance. In spite of their condemnation, I see no need to repent of a sin that is only perceived to be such when viewed by someone whose sole intent is to find fault within the Church. Sin is rebelliousness against God, not rebelliousness against those who view, through their practice, Pharisaical leaven to be a virtuous and valued commodity.
There are those within the Body of Christ that serve sort of like police officers. Their job is, like any police officer, to serve and protect. Those in the Body who serve our Lord in this manner are serving and protecting the Body from those forces outside the Body that are seeking to damage and destroy the Body. We commonly think of these people and ministries as Discernment Ministries. When they discover false teachings and false teachers within the Church, they sound the alarm much like the watchmen on the tower (Isaiah 62:6; Proverbs 8:34), thus protecting the Body. They also serve the Body by educating the Body on how to recognize false teachings and false teachers intent on damaging and destroying the Body.
There are also those, however, more often outside the Body than in, who think of themselves as monitors. They “monitor” the Body ready to pounce upon anyone who falls within their personal, rather than biblical, definition of apostate or heretic or false teacher. They are not monitors, they are, in fact, what are commonly known as “fault finders,” and “heresy hunters.” During the 17th century they were known as “witch burners.” They are rogue “Christians” who act not unlike vigilantes; usually serving up their own brand of vigilante justice based upon their own presuppositional biases, personal opinions, and eisegeted Scripture. Both Mr. Chavez and Mr. Grützmacher fall clearly within this category.
Something I have learned since becoming a Christian, is we are not to lower ourselves to the level of these sorts of vigilantes. To do so would place us in the same sin as they are in. Nor are we to adopt their manner. In fact, a thought has occurred to me that, at least with regard to Mr. Grützmacher, there is a distinct possibility that a degree of mental impairment is at work here. He obsessiveness with regard to the Vatican conspiracy noted above; his lengthy, highly detailed, but at the same time illogical arguments endlessly repeated to anyone whose email address he can find; his quixotic behaviour all seem to point to this conclusion.
That Mr. Chavez seems to use Mr. Grützmacher to distract his critics with Grützmacher's endless illogical nonsense seems to demonstrate he is taking advantage of a willing and naïve follower. This suggests to me that Mr. Grützmacher is feeding off of Mr. Chavez's conspiracy theories. Or, perhaps they are both feeding off one another and they are both in need of psychiatric help. If true, it would explain a lot. Either way, however, we ought not to scorn or ridicule them; or hold them in contempt; not repaying their evil with more evil (1 Thessalonians 5:15). But rather, we should pity them. Pity them, have nothing to do with them, and keep them in our prayers.
Rather than employing Mr. Grützmacher's methodology and compare the words and attitudes of Mr. Chavez and Mr. Grützmacher to the works of John Owen; I believe it would be more profitable, and more biblical, to compare these two men, their words, and their behaviour to Scripture. Therefore, keeping in mind the things these two men have publicly stated (the open derision, mockery, slander, defamation, general name calling, and false witness borne against the Body of Christ), compare that to the Word of God:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. –– 1 John 4:7-21 (ESV)
And let's not forget what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself, said:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. … 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. –– John 14:15, 21-24 (ESV)
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” –– Matthew 22:36-40 (ESV)A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. –– John 13:34 (ESV)
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. –– John 15:12 (ESV)
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. –– Matthew 5:43-48 (ESV)
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” –– Luke 6:46 (ESV)