How Tim Keller Came Up Intellectually Short as a Pastor. Plus Did Mars Hill and Sovereign Grace Reveal His Shortcomings?

Tim Keller was held high on a pedestal and viewed by many as being a deep intellectual with much to contribute to evangelicalism. My experience was different, as I recall my deep disappointment with reading, “The Reason for God” on an Amtrak train back in 2011. Plus it must also be asked, did Tim Keller really care about the Gospel and the church? If so, why as an influential leader of The Gospel Coalition did he ignore the Mars Hill and Sovereign Grace sex abuse scandals? What type of pastor stands idly by while an abusive wolf destroys a person’s faith?

“True repentance begins where whitewashing (‘Nothing really happened’) and blame-shifting (‘It wasn’t really my fault’) and self-pity (‘I’m sorry because of what it has cost me’) and self-flagellation (‘I will feel so terrible no one will be able to criticize me’) end.”

Tim Keller

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Proverbs 15:1 ESV

This post took an extra day to work on, and before writing it I wanted to spend some time skimming Tim Keller’s “The Reason for God.” Having done that its time to discuss some of the concerns this blog has about Tim Keller. Previously I wrote about Tim Keller in the following blog posts, “George W Bush on the Death of Tim Keller and the Shame of Evangelicals” , “What The New York Times Said About Tim Keller After His Death”  and “The Irony of Eric Metaxas Mourning Tim Keller. Or How Tim Keller Failed to Pastor Eric Metaxas at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.”

Reading Tim Keller on an Amtrak Train and Being Deeply Disappointed

It was October of 2011. I had a wedding to attend in St. Louis, Missouri. But instead of flying I decided to take the train. The plan was to take Amtrak from Washington, D.C. to Chicago, and then take another train to Kansas City, Missouri. After a couple of days there I took another train from Kansas City to St. Louis for a friend’s wedding. At the time I was in the depths of my first major faith crisis. And I had a number of people who told me to read Tim Keller’s “Reason for God.” Andrew White who tried to get me into Sovereign Grace asked me to read Tim Keller. A couple of people I knew from McLean Bible reached out to me and asked me to read Tim Keller. It was explained to me that Tim Keller was a heavy hitter on difficult issues like the problem of evil. He was rock solid and orthodox. Plus he was intellectual so I would appreciate him.

So as Amtrak’s Capitol Limited worked across the heartland of America I settled into my coach seat and started to read “The Reason for God.” “The Reason for God” is often sold by many in the Neo-Calvinist movement as Tim Keller’s best work. When people say, read Tim Keller “Reason for God” is what many individuals believe should be read. The first seven chapters deal with doubt. They touch on issues such as there not being one true faith, the issue of hell, problem of evil/pain/suffering and conflicts between faith and science. What drove me in my faith crisis at the time is the problem of evil. I wrote about it years ago in the following post, “The Doubts which Overtook Me, and the Problem of Evil which Drove me from Christianity…” plus I also wrote “How Reformed Theology/Neo-Calvinism Make the Problem of Evil Worse: John Piper, Adam Lanza and a Massacre in Connecticut.”

In “The Reason for God” the second chapter about allowing suffering is the part of the book that I looked most forward to reading. Surely Tim Keller would do a deep dive on the problem of evil, and explore the issue in great depth and introduce a new way to think about some of these issues. The chapter lasts from page 22 to page 35. I read through the chapter and when it was over I became deeply disappointed. From my point of view it was more of a thinly veiled attempt to just defend God from the issue of pain and suffering. Keller also quoted from C.S. Lewis a number of times in the chapter and it felt like Keller just regurgitated what C.S. Lewis wrote in the “Problem of Pain.” On the Amtrak train I actually wanted to throw the book, as my disappointment grew. Surely Tim Keller could do better, and write a more detailed and longer monograph on the problem of evil. Its at this point that I began to realize that Tim Keller was oversold. He was not the intellectual individual that could contribute new ways of thinking to historic and classical problems such as the problem of evil when it came to faith. What I had witnessed with everyone pushing Tim Keller is that evangelicalism is consumed with fads. And at the time Tim Keller was the fad. In reflecting on this situation too many people in my view give Tim Keller way too much credit.

Does Tim Keller Care About the Gospel? Why Ignore Mars Hill and Sovereign Grace?

Tim Keller was an advocate for the power of the gospel and the local church. He often spoke of how important the church was in a person’s life. According to The Gospel Coalition Tim Keller once stated the following about the church. “The glory of God is available to you in the church in a way it’s not available to you anywhere else. . . . There is no more important means of discipleship than deep involvement in the life of the church.” But did Tim Keller actually believe this? Remember Tim Keller helped co-found The Gospel Coalition with D.A. Carson. He was in a very unique position to influence and lead to a different outcome.

Tim Keller was involved in leading The Gospel Coalition when Mars Hill raged in 2013 and 2014 while a lot of dark abuse and fraud was hemorrhaging from Mark Driscoll’s organization. There was financial fraud in what happened with using church money to market “Real Marriage” and financial abuse of Mars Hill Global Fund. There was also plagiarism, and then there was Driscoll’s bullying. There was Joanna Petry on the blog Joyful Exiles writing that if Mark Driscoll could have murdered her elder husband he would have. At the same time there also was the scandals of Sovereign Grace. There was sex abuse, information coming forward that C.J. Mahaney blackmailed his ministry partner Larry Tomczak. Sovereign Grace was also covered by the press as you can read here. Wayne Grudem once described Sovereign Grace as the perfect church and what all evangelical churches should aspire to be.

But what came out from both organizations was sick, disturbing and frightening.

When Mars Hill raged its this blog’s understanding that some members from Mars Hill reached out to The Gospel Coalition for help and even tried to contact Tim Keller. But nothing happened. The Gospel Coalition just looked the other way to all the abuse that was happening at Mars Hill. Tim Keller today is dead, and some people may think this post is poor taste. But I have to ask the following question. Did Tim Keller really care about the gospel when he didn’t reach out or use his influence at The Gospel Coalition in a productive way? The Gospel Coalition could have issued a statement on Mars Hill. They could have done an outside investigation. They could have met with some of the survivors of Mars Hill and helped them.

But Tim Keller did no such thing. Instead they were ignored.

And yet people claim that Tim Keller cared about the gospel? That was his pastoral response as someone who loves Jesus? It was the Gospel to turn the other way as Mark Driscoll spiritually destroyed people? Again evangelicals and those in the Neo-Calvinist movement I just do not understand you. Tim Keller had a million opportunities to make a wrong right, and to work at changing the situation. And yet Tim Keller did no such thing. He even went to his death allegedly claiming that he is ready to “see Jesus” but yet he didn’t care about any of the abuse that he could have helped resolve.

Can I ask, why do people respect such a pastor and are okay with that?

Evangelicals again I say to you, as a refugee from American evangelicalism I do not understand you at all.