Joel Beeke: A Puritan Infected with Modernism

by Stuart DiNenno

Joel Beeke is represented by “the most conservative Reformed churches” as being a staunch defender of orthodoxy following in the footsteps of the Puritans. Although I have not read any of his books nor listened to enough of his sermons to make a judgment on the matter, I do not doubt, and have it on good authority, that there is some truth to this belief. Most likely, he is as advertised in terms of the theological doctrines he professes and teaches.

Nevertheless, I came across a statement on Mr. Beeke’s own blog several years back, which clearly indicated to me that despite all of his apparent zeal for “the old paths,” and his diligent efforts to publish Reformed truth, he had become infected by modern thought.

Take a few minutes to read his statement and my comments upon his thoughts, and then decide for yourself if I am correct.


Beeke writes:


Q: “Where do the Puritans speak least helpfully to the contemporary church?

A: “Political Liberty and Equality. The concepts of liberty and equality now dear to us in the Western world hadn’t yet matured during the Puritan era. Civil powers had established the church for more than a thousand years. Full liberty of conscience was untested, and the disestablishment of religion seemed foolhardy in the context of multiplying heresies and sects. Sensitivity to racism and sexism simply didn’t exist in any developed form in the British and European mindset as it does today. We’d argue, however, that the seeds of truth that would blossom and bear fruit in contemporary freedoms are found in Puritan theology.”

I have responded to his statement point-by-point below.

“The concepts of liberty and equality now dear to us in the Western world hadn’t yet matured during the Puritan era.”

The concepts of liberty and equality that we have today are perverse and contra-biblical products of the so-called Enlightenment, which was actually a period of darkening. Does Beeke believe that what we have today in the Western world is a more mature, in the sense of improved, view of liberty and equality over the beliefs held about liberty and equality by the 17th century Puritans?

“Civil powers had established the church for more than a thousand years.”

Is Beeke suggesting this is a bad thing? Civil powers should be protectors of the church and the church should guide the civil powers. This is a foundational tenet of Reformation era theology, the theology to which Beeke professes to adhere.

“Full liberty of conscience was untested, and the disestablishment of religion seemed foolhardy in the context of multiplying heresies and sects.”

Is he advocating for full religious tolerance here? We can allow liberty of conscience in the sense of private individuals holding their own opinions but that does not translate into allowing them to publicly advocate beliefs that are at variance with the established orthodoxy and, therefore, disruptive to the peace of the church and harmful to the social order.

Is Beeke also arguing that the disestablishment of Christianity is a good or benign thing? If so, why? And if “the disestablishment of religion seemed foolhardy in the context of multiplying heresies and sects,” then why does it not seem foolhardy today when we have more heresies and sects than anytime in the history of Christianity?

“Sensitivity to racism and sexism simply didn’t exist in any developed form in the British and European mindset as it does today.”

“Racism” and “sexism” are concepts invented by revolutionary anti-Christs for the purpose of destroying Christendom. Both are pseudo-sins that have no basis in biblical law. The concept of “racism” was developed to demonize whites who don’t want to go along with the neo-Babel plan of amalgamating all of the races into one undifferentiated blob of humanity and of erasing national borders, and the concept of “sexism” was developed to demonize those who oppose feminism, which is an attempt to destroy gender distinctions and roles, and ultimately the family. Beeke seems to be ignorant of these truths and unwittingly cooperating with the anti-Christs in accepting these concepts as if they are Christian ones or are somehow compatible with Christian morality. They certainly are not.

“We’d argue, however, that the seeds of truth that would blossom and bear fruit in contemporary freedoms are found in Puritan theology.”

Beeke believes that “contemporary freedoms” are the fruit that blossomed from Puritan theology. The reality is that contemporary freedoms are wholly anti-Christ. The Puritans would be appalled at what our formerly Christian nations have become and what is defined as freedom today, as should any true Christian.

“We need to read the Puritans realizing that, while the Reformation had transformed much of their thinking by the Scriptures, in some ways they were more like medieval Christians in their cultural viewpoint than modern Christians.”

Would to God that modern Christians were more like medieval Christians in their cultural viewpoint, as Beeke says the Puritans were. Should we believe that today’s professing Christians are more enlightened in cultural matters than them? Europe was known as Christendom in their day. Is there any sense in which it could bear the same name today? As for the relatively small number of people in Western countries these days who still profess Christianity, have any significant portion of them had their thinking transformed by the Scriptures? The reality is that most so-called Christians today, even most of those who call themselves Reformed, are closer in their worldview to the Cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt School, than they are to that of the faithful Christians of old.

“Yet even here they are helpful, since they enable us to step outside our modern cultural box.”

Puritan writings can enable us to step outside the modern cultural box but one must first recognize and abandon unbiblical modern presuppositions in order to gain full benefit from them. It appears that Beeke has not done so.