The Kobayashi Maru: A Clarification of a First and Final Word on an Impossible Situation

For some context: Today, my good friend Jon Moffitt is dealing with the fallout of things that have happened to him involving his wonderful Theocast podcast, in large part because of his association with me and our year-and-a-half Reformed Fringe podcast partnership. Over the last handful of months, I have been viciously and publicly attacked and accused of believing things that I do not believe. Jon is guilty by association. But Jon is a man of deep integrity who refused to throw me under the bus to save his reputation and ministries. I sit here deeply humbled by such integrity. It is rare to find in our day. Now he is having to face the hard consequences of not conforming to their demands. Returning to the attacks, in one instance, a series of blog articles (that very few even know exist and that I am only aware of because someone else told me about it) has been ongoing for a couple of months until at least this past Friday. It now sits there like a landmine, waiting for just the right person to step on it and blow everything around it to smithereens. Though it is against my better judgment to try and defuse it, and because pastors and others have taken these attacks as unquestionably true and turned on Jon when he doesn't deserve it (frankly, neither do I), I've decided that I will no longer remain silent. I will respond this one time so that people will understand from my perspective just what these accusations really are at their root--whether these men understand that or not. What could Emmett Till facing the KKK, Rebecca Nurse in her Salem witch trial, or Galileo standing before the Spanish Inquisition do to exonerate themselves in the face of a mass formation group psychosis that saw them all guilty until proven innocent? Answer: absolutely nothing. This is why, whether the consequences of such trials are as grave as being put to death or something less, I find myself in an impossible situation—the Kobayashi Maru but without a way to cheat like Kirk did.[1] Say nothing, say too much, don’t say enough—it can and will all be used against you in the court of public opinion. In the words of the Borg to Capt. Picard, all you can do is “comply” and then face their predetermined consequences.

Recent days have seen me accused of theological crimes against God, or as they are usually called: heresies. And I’m not talking little things here. I’ve been accused of polytheism, Gnosticism, Arianism, henotheism, and even paganism.[2] It’s completely surreal. These are doctrines of the first order of magnitude. If it were only me that was facing the repercussions, I would gladly continue remaining silent. Frankly, it is even still against my better judgment to write this article, but when others end up suffering the consequences because of me, and if I can do something to at least show them that I stand with them, I feel I must now speak up.

If Elizabeth Warren is an Indian, Bruce Jenner is a woman, and Joe Biden signed his own Executive Orders, then I am guilty as charged. For that is Clown World. As it stands, I recognize not a single thing said against me as my own beliefs. Not a single one. It's all strawmen. I’m not sure it is possible to say this more concisely or forcefully. But I will reiterate. There is not a single charge these men have brought to the public through their social media or to Jon in their counsels that I recognize as my own. I don’t teach the things they are saying, nor do I believe them. Not one of them. Never have.

Nevertheless, though I know it won’t matter in the slightest to them, in fact I’m certain it will somehow be used against me, I want to make it perfectly clear to others who might be finding themselves sucked into the vortex, that I have and continue to affirm every single phrase of the London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 Chs. 2 and 8 (those are the two that have been brought up). Always have. Nothing has changed. Every. Single. Phrase. Every word. These are core, precious truths that I recently preached here. That’s really all I need to say about that.

Still, some people will demand that I say things exactly the way they want them to be said or else I’m a wolf in sheep's clothing (yep, been called that too), that I really do teach these heresies. But that isn’t on me. The church is not an oligarchy ruled by a small group of online friends who police all others from their own echo chambers. There’s nothing I can say that will change their minds, because they made them up before they ever took this public. I’m not the one disrupting the unity of the church, as I’ve also been charged with. They are. Deliberate distortions, cherry picking someone's teaching, and especially slander, defamation, and lies are categorically denounced by Holy Scripture, every bit as much as heresies that creep into the church. Taking those distortions public and demanding that I recant and repent of things I don’t’ even believe? This is disturbing the peace of Christ’s church.

I will not mention names here, nor will I drive any traffic to their X accounts or blogs. They know who they are. And they will have to give an account to their Maker one day for their actions, even as I will. Sadly, a certain segment of the Reformed world has become known for simply attacking anything and everything. It isn’t all of us. But it is a smaller group within the larger tent. If they aren’t attacking me, then it’s on to the next victim, even as I have hardly been the first. Amazingly, this all happened a dozen years ago and over many of the same doctrines. This is no coincidence, and I think it is necessary that more people understand this, because it is deeply relevant to the events of this article. The recent "unseen realm" attacks and accusations accusing me of things like polytheism have shown themselves to be at the end of the day only a trigger to get back to impassibility and divine simplicity fights of these older days, when an association of churches went after professors, seminaries, churches, and pastors. That association no longer exists for reasons I will not get into here. You can go look it up for yourself.

Then as now, many of these attacks are behaviors unbefitting the Christian, especially when they are full of slander concerning things I have publicly always condemned or never believed. My personal favorite has to be the time I was recently called out for holding to "Star Wars hermeneutic" of the book of Revelation. Talk about showing your ignorance to the entire world, and what does that even mean anyway? But that doesn’t matter to those caught up in their own doctrinal righteousness and the mass formation psychosis. All that matters is the attack—always couched, of course, in flowery terms such as “I’m just showing them love by calling out their heresies. Now, repent!” With colleagues like that, who needs enemies?

For the record, as disturbing as all of this in the last few months has been, I am still bound by my conscience. The problem isn’t Reformed Theology. The problem isn’t Confessionalism. The problem is human sin. Therefore, I will continue to gladly confess my Reformed faith, refusing to knee-jerk into something less as I naively hope that the grass is greener on the other side. It never is. This stuff happens in all of our Christian realms as well as out in the bigger world. People are people and you can’t get away from them any more than you can get away from yourself. I just hope this post brings some kind of clarity to these matters for people that might actually care and truly want to listen. I simply don't believe what I've been charged with believing. How am I supposed to respond to that? You tell me. And by the way, if you want to have such a discussion, why not consider coming over to the Reformed Fringe online community and be part of a group of Reformed Christians who are actually trying to make a positive difference in our world.

I’ve been a pastor in the same church for nearly 24 years. I’m in good standing in that church and in my association of churches who all know the things I believe. I haven't been shy about them. I've made them all as public and accessible as I know how. I love all these people and they love me. Frankly, I love those who want me to be the fall guy for my late friend Mike Heiser as well. I hold no ill will against them, though their actions do make me tremendously sad and disturbed. I'll let these things do the rest of my talking for me.

This will be my first and last comment on these matters.

[1] The Kobayashi Maru is a fictional Starfleet Academy training exercise in the Star Trek universe designed as a no-win scenario. Its purpose is to test the character, command capabilities, and emotional response of cadets facing an impossible situation where any decision results in negative consequences.

[2] I refuse to drive traffic to these articles, but I have archived them on the Wayback Machine so that they will last for all time for anyone who wants to go and search them out for themselves. It shouldn’t be difficult for the inquiring reader to track down for themselves.

Douglas Van Dorn

Nov 4, 2025