Mark Driscoll, Calvinist rebel?

That seems to be opinion of the NY Times reporter:

God called Driscoll to preach to men -- particularly young men -- to save them from an American Protestantism that has emasculated Christ and driven men from church pews with praise music that sounds more like boy-band ballads crooned to Jesus than "Onward Christian Soldiers." What bothers Driscoll -- and the growing number of evangelical pastors who agree with him -- is not the trope of Jesus-as-lover. After all, St. Paul tells us that the Church is the bride of Christ. What really grates is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse. Paintings depict a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs. Hymns celebrate his patience and tenderness. The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into "a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ," a "neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell."

But Allahpundit has viewed the YouTube videos and doesn't see it:

The Times gives the impression that he's some sort of heretic or shock jock, but every lesson I saw was entirely conventional.

I don't listen to Driscoll's sermons so I wouldn't know. Since I'm not a guy, he's not preaching to me. I think masculinizing Jesus is about as helpful as feminizing him. How about we just stick to the Jesus portrayed in Scripture. I'm interested in worshiping the God who sees as one in Christ:

ESV Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Why focus on what divides us and not on what unites us? Our love and union in Christ -- living in light of our union in his resurrection (Romans 6). We are new creatures in Christ, shouldn't that be the focus of the preaching? Not whether we are male or female but what that new life means to us today.

BTW, the reporter seems to be under the impression that Calvinism has gone the way of the buggy whip and that Driscoll is leading a new movement of Calvinism but Calvinism has been on the rise for years as this article in Christianity Today demonstrates.

Another annoying aspect of the article is that the author misstates Calvinism:

Ultimately, however, Driscoll's theology means that his congregants' salvation is not in his hands. It's not in their own hands, either -- this is the heart of Calvinism.

Human beings are totally corrupted by original sin and predestined for heaven or hell, no matter their earthly conduct. We all deserve eternal damnation, but God, in his inscrutable mercy, has granted the grace of salvation to an elect few. While John Calvin's 16th-century doctrines have deep roots in Christian tradition, they strike many modern evangelicals as nonsensical and even un-Christian. If predestination is true, they argue, then there is no point in missions to the unsaved or in leading a godly life.

Calvinists don't believe in an "elect few," we believe in an elect multitude:

ESV Revelation 7:9  After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

And we very much believe in missions, why else would we spend so much of our budget on it if we didn't? Some of the greatest missionaries and preachers were Calvinists: Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, George Whitefield and David Livingstone to name just a few. They cared very much about reaching the lost for Christ.

I know that people can't get their mind around the fact that we believe that God is in control of our salvation and that we believe he uses us to proclaim the gospel to those he has predestined to salvation. It's an easy enough concept to understand and it's also biblical (that's why we believe it :-)

ESV Romans 10:8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

So, knowing that faith comes from hearing the word of the Lord, we proclaim it to those we meet who are interested in hearing it (and sometimes to those who aren't :-) That's Calvinism, baby! Proclaiming God's message of redemption to the world, knowing that God will open the heart of his people:

ESV Acts 16:13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

Another BTW, the answer to Allahpundit's exist question: "If God's doing the choosing, how and when did he decide whom to save and whom to let burn?" is:

ESV Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.