What Happened to Gospel Coalition? Part 2 - Matt Chandler and David Platt

AD Robles

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Eric Mason is Desperate to Make it Fit (Part 3)

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All right, well, let's finish up this video. Social justice and the young evangelicals.

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Encouragements and concerns. And what we're doing is we're using this video to see how things have changed over at the

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Gospel Coalition over the last few years. I did get some pushback though. I got a couple of pieces of pushback that I felt like I should mention here in this video.

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The first piece of pushback is, what are you talking about, AD? They haven't changed. They've been the same from the beginning.

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And while I do sympathize with that, there are some subtle, maybe we shouldn't call them changes, but we should call them changes, maybe an emphasis.

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So maybe their opinions haven't changed, but the things that they're emphasizing have certainly changed. They've become far more radical these days.

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And then the other piece of pushback I got was saying, AD, I like you, but you interrupt them too much.

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We don't need to hear you all the time. I mean, that's fair, but you know,

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I'm trying here. I'm trying to do well. Anyway, let's jump right in. Do you try to mobilize your people to be devoted on the street or politically with these things?

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Or is the focus at a personal holiest level and gospel level underneath that without calling people to that?

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At The Village, we would have as our foundation and as the lenses by which we see the world, the gospel lenses.

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And then on top of - You ever notice Matt Chandler likes doing this? Listen, listen, listen, I'm not mocking him.

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I've got my things too. I speak with my hands as much as Matt Chandler does, but he loves doing this. I don't know what this is.

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It's almost like he's showing off like his manicure or something, I don't know. That in some of these issues we would be, so a layman at our church started an organization called

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Free City International that works with immigrants that have come into Dallas.

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So there's a Middle Eastern culture that we are a hub for them.

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So you didn't, as the pastor, feel, I must make that happen.

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I have to draw the people together. I have to form the organization and lead the group. We have not created anything like that as the church organization.

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So you say the ideal and wonderful way it would happen would be for church elders to so minister a robust gospel, full -blooded, deep, sanctifying, transforming, humbling, radical -making gospel, that those sorts of things happen.

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So we give our, is that the way you? And they happen in different ways. That's definitely changed. I mean, Matt Chandler is all about just full, you know, full bore.

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We're doing the movement thing now, you know. That's definitely changing emphasis. I wonder why. I wonder why.

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I'm not really sure why, but he seems to be right at the forefront of all of this now.

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He's not just letting it happen. He's going to MLK 50, you know, woke conferences and talking about how a bunch of people left his church and they don't care about him because they're fools.

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It's really just kind of pathetic, but let's see what David Platt has to say because I'm done with Matt Chandler for right now.

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Yeah, a robust gospel, robust commitment to the Great Commission, making disciples by proclaiming this gospel. And as we do that, we're going to encounter, if we're going to do that in all nations, we're going to encounter a lot of people who are poor.

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So how do we address that as we, we're going to encounter orphans and widows. So how do we address that?

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We're going to, abortion, like we need to speak on that as we're making disciples, proclaiming the gospel.

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We're proclaiming a gospel that the God of life, and this is a serious sin in the world around us.

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And so we, and so these are things that, but they're not the top thing. They're not the gospel

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Great Commission. They happen as we carry that out. And different people do different things.

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So not every Christian needs to be passionate about every single one of these things and feel guilty if they're not doing something in every organization that would.

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Oh, that's okay. So that's definitely changed as well. But I actually want to, I want to address something he said there.

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He said that there's the gospel and it's up here. And he says, it's the Great Commission.

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The gospel's up here. And then down here, like maybe not as important, but still, it comes from the gospel, are these social things.

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And we need to say something about abortion and stuff like that. And he almost makes it kind of like this two -tiered thing.

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But actually, and this is something that I always emphasize in my channel, and I really hope that you kind of internalize this, but the

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Great Commission, the marching orders from the church, includes all that stuff.

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It includes all that stuff. I had one guy, he did a video about me. Well, he's done a number of videos about me.

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And I appreciate that. I wish more people would do videos about me. Well, maybe not. I take it back.

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I take it back. No. But anyway, he did a video about me where he said,

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A .D., where is the Great Commission, the similar verse to the Great Commission about establishing law and order in the culture wars?

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Wait, A .D., point me to the Great Commission verse for the culture war. And I'm like, I don't have to, because it's already included in the

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Great Commission. So a lot of people, and he just did it here too. I think he does this unconsciously. I don't think this is nefarious.

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David Platt just did this. He said, make disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's the Great Commission. But that's only half of the Great Commission. Like, the rest of it is part of that commission, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.

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So yes, we baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We preach the grace of God.

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It's grace alone, faith alone. We preach all that stuff. But part and parcel of that Great Commission is teaching them to observe all that God has commanded.

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All that God has commanded. That's part of the Great Commission. There's no separate Great Commission for the culture war.

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It's all included in there. And he just said, well, the gospel's up here. The gospel and the

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Great Commission's up here. And then these other things are down here. It's like, no, no, that's part of the Great Commission. It's not part of the gospel, because the gospel is about the grace of God, right?

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The kingdom of God coming in power, and how, you know, you're a sinner before God, but Christ went to the cross until you bore your sins, you die with Christ, you rise with Christ in newness of life, all of that, right?

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So we talk about that grace of God, that wonderful grace. But as part of that Great Commission, we're supposed to be teaching people to observe all that Christ commanded, and not in a soft, dull, ambiguous kind of way, in a very specific way, because God speaks specifically about things like abortion.

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And so it can't just be abortion is not God's best for you. It can't just be abortion is moral brokenness.

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It's gotta be, yeah, okay, if you wanna use those words, fine, but it's also rebellion.

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It also, you should get the death penalty. It's that serious. You can't kill people. All of that stuff is included in that second part of the

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Great Commission. And so I don't think, again, I don't think it's nefarious, but that's included. That's part of the

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Great Commission. It's not like the Great Commission's here, and then all that other stuff is down here.

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It really isn't that way. But they do all need to be making disciples and growing in the gospel.

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Well, we've tried to say, be where you are. I mean, if you're downtown and you're in the business community, okay, then where are you?

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What does it look like where you are, in your neighborhood, where you are? So we want our people to be where they are and be doing gospel ministry in their neighborhoods, around there, and in their workplaces.

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And so rather than taking you from here and plugging you in over here,

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I'd rather you just live out the gospel where you are, and then there'll be plenty to do in terms of justice and in terms of gospel ministry.

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That's definitely changed because now everybody has to be with the racial reconciliation stuff.

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Pastors, you gotta say something. I'm asking you to say something. And it's like, well, you know, and we've talked about this many times, obviously, don't feel browbeaten if you're not in a diverse church, if you live in a white neighborhood, like that's okay to have a white church in a white neighborhood.

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There's nothing wrong with that, whatever that means. But not anymore. That be where you are thing that he just said, he must have abandoned that somewhere along the way because now it's like, well, no, no, no, you gotta be all over this

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Black Lives Matter thing. And don't criticize it, of course, because you gave up your inheritance, whatever that's supposed to mean.

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That's a big time change in emphasis. It's not, you know, do ministry where you are. No, it's like, you gotta care about these things.

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These are the hot things. And Matt Chandler wants you to know that you gotta speak up about the hotness, the new hotness.

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Let me give you one of my concerns and tell you if it's a concern. I can't wait to hear what his concern is.

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This is gonna be good. This is gonna be good. You know, John Piper, he's like a, he's social justice -y, you know, at times, but he's got his head on straight a little more than some of these guys.

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Let's see what he has to say. What's his concern? Maybe I share it. Wrap it up. Courage and the fear of being consumed with my dad's, mom's, previous generation's issues.

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Courage over here on, say, the issue of so -called same -sex marriage, not wanting to speak on it lest you be called someone who's a hate monger and whether that fear is penetrating younger evangelicals.

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And the other one over here is, abortion, that's your issue. That's your issue. We don't do that anymore. That's kind of an old -fashioned, middle -class, white issue.

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And I'm into another one. Are those concerns or am I? All right, so I don't wanna,

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I don't know his mind. I think he wimped out there because, yes, that's a very valid concern.

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But I don't think abortion's really the example that he should use because I'm not seeing a whole lot of Christians saying that's an old -person issue.

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But what I am seeing, though, is lots of courage when it comes to the issues of yesteryear, like slavery.

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I stand against slavery. It's like, congratulations, you know what I mean? Racism is bad.

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If I see another think piece about how evil racism is, I'm gonna, I don't even know what

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I'm gonna do. There's nothing courageous about it. Everyone's against racism, obviously. And so it's like I see a lot of courage about the stuff before.

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I've seen think pieces on all kinds of big evil sources. Well, if John Edwards is in my church, I would definitely church discipline.

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I'm like, no, you wouldn't. You wouldn't even church discipline that guy who cheated on his wife yesterday. You know what I mean? No, you wouldn't.

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You would be going along with the flow back then just like you do right now. This whole woke thing has really opened my eyes to how it happens, right?

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Because you often wonder like, how is it that the church went along with the slave issue?

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How is it that the church went along with Nazi Germany? How did that happen? And I can see how they could justify it now.

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Oh, you don't wanna be a scofflaw. Oh, you gotta care about this. We gotta care about that. You know, it's just like, I can see how it happens now.

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You're going along with the flow. And you wouldn't kick out John Edwards. You'd be right there with him on the slave ship.

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And I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm just saying that's the kind of guy you are. That's just how it is. So I think he kind of wimped out on the example, but this is a valid concern.

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Courage where it's not really needed. And then kind of throwing out the issues where courage is needed and saying, well, that's not really the main thing anymore.

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And maybe I'm reading him wrong, but that seems to be a very valid concern in my opinion.

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Let's see how these two guys respond. Making it up.

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I don't have the concern around abortion that I would around gay marriage. So I've found -

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Fair, because that's the exact point I made. Again, I think our median age is about 28.

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And man, when we do right to life and all the, you know, plant, not plant, the pregnancy and advocacy centers around us are just staffed with our 20 somethings.

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And so that, there are more tears, prayers, and cries to heaven when we tackle that issue than any other issue that I've seen.

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On the gay marriage issue, I simply think we need to continue to teach well that this is a gospel issue.

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This isn't a, well, a couple of things. We need to teach well that this is a gospel issue.

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And then we need to teach well what love is. I mean, you're talking about a culture that's so, like the most unsexy form of love in our culture is a love of the will that says,

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I'm in this and I'm not going anywhere. And instead, our culture views that as - The second time he said the word sexy in a strange context and,

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I don't know. This is weird, kind of creeps me out. Oh, you poor soul.

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You poor, I mean, you don't have a bunch of emotive, you know, butterflies in your stomach every time you see this person.

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Well, man, God didn't want that for you. God would want you to feel that emotive love, which is as someone who did lay on the floor and was completely helpless for 18 months and have his wife go,

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I love you, I'm not going anywhere. Let me tell you, it's a far sexier love to have someone see you when you got nothing to offer and are definitely not meeting any of their kind of needs to say

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I love you than those butterflies would ever be. And so I think you gotta teach well what love is and then you have to teach why this is a gospel issue.

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And then I think they'll get it. But until we do that, they simply, like suffering, don't have the framework to understand.

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I think, you know, I agree. I agree with a lot of what he said there. I don't understand why he keeps using the word sexy.

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I really don't like that. I know people use that word in that way. Ah, it grates on me.

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But anyway, that's just an opinion. I'd actually go a step further because this is the thing like, okay,

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I'm glad that you're taking a stand against gay marriage, but it actually does have to go further than that because what we're seeing in our churches is people saying things like, oh yeah,

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I'm against gay marriage too, but you know, you could have a partner, a life partner, just so long as you're not penetrating each other.

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And it's like, that's actually not enough. You have to actually be more specific than that. And we actually, when we teach on that, we need to teach the whys behind that because gay love, as he said, is not the same thing as biblical love.

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And it's not just about emotions versus commitment because there are plenty of gay people that feel like they're committed to one another.

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And so it can't just be that. That's the easy way out. We actually have to say, no, when you do this with another man or another woman, you're actually demonstrating your hatred towards them because you don't care about their health.

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You don't care about their soul. And I can prove it because scripture says so. And you can talk about that.

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But the thing is, he can't go there because Gospel Coalition promotes this kind of, you know, celibate, but I'm still gay kind of Christianity.

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And that's a really tough spot to be in for Mr. Chandler. You know, and a big part of this whole thing is language as well.

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You know, language is important because, you know, the tendency is for guys like Matt Chandler and David Platt and Gospel Coalition in general to soften things, to try to soften things as much as possible so as not to offend.

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And I personally believe that we shouldn't do that with very serious sins like same -sex marriage and things of that nature.

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These are very serious, soul -destroying sins. And we ought to use language that has as much power as is appropriate to such a soul -destroying lifestyle.

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Like if you ever, check out Robert Lopez's stuff about the lifestyle, because this is a guy who used to be gay.

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He's married now, has kids and all that kind of stuff. And he was very involved in the whole lifestyle. And he can explain a lot of this.

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Read Michael Brown's book, A Queer Thing Happened to America. And it talks about the lifestyle.

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This is not just like, you know, making a small mistake that doesn't really have that much bearing on things.

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That's how it's presented so often. This is very, very serious. And we should be very strong with our language on that.

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That's a big part of this. And let's see what Platt has to say and we'll take it from there. And undergirding all that is a holistic, you're talking about a big picture of love, picture of justice that has discernment to look at these different issues and see, apply

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God's word and the gospel to these different issues so that we don't just get caught up in the waves of trends, what's popular at this time.

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We need to latch onto this. Okay, this issue's in the past. Or so -called gay marriage, as you described it.

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That picture, many people are saying, well, that's a, I mean, it's being labeled a civil rights issue in our day.

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And so I don't think there's a discernment that has categories for, I'm against abortion, I'm against poverty, and I'm against so -called gay marriage.

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And I mean, there is a category for that. But for so many believers, they out of hand just say, well, no, we can't apply anything really about Israel's code.

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That was for Israel. We're not Israel. But the thing is like, we can learn from that law. We can apply the general principles that God gave to Israel.

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Even though we're not Israel, we can see the morality to a lot of those laws and they apply to our situation as well.

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They might not apply in the exact same way, but sometimes they do. Like, for example, the death penalty for murderers.

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That should be the law of the land here, without exception. But so many Christians bring the dull blade to the fight and they say, well, murder should be illegal.

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Okay, I agree. But we should have more compassion. And then I'm like, well, more compassion than what?

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More compassion than God? Like, what are you actually saying here? Like, we can't bring a dull blade to this fight.

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And so when we talk about so -called gay marriage, when we talk about immigration, when we talk about poverty and stuff like that, yes, we should talk about justice, but it has to be justice that comes from God, not just justice that comes from feelings and emotion.

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That's how you don't fall victim to following the flavor of the day like Matt Chandler does.

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That's how you know not to jump on the I'm with Ahmaud bandwagon right away because it's like, well, no, no, no.

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In a godly perspective, I need to love Ahmaud Arbery and I need to love those two white guys.

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In a godly perspective, I need to love George Floyd and I need to love Derek Chauvin. I can't love one at the expense of the other.

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I can't love one and not the other. I have to love them both. And the only way to be safe to do that is to apply

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God's law to both. And so when you see the situation with George Floyd sitting on the guy's neck and you feel those feelings come up, you don't join the lynch mob.

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Instead, you say, okay, this looks bad. This looks bad. He needs to have his day in court because number one,

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I don't know how this guy died. I don't know why he died. I don't know really what happened. So I'm not gonna join the lynch mob just yet.

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Now it may come out later that I'm gonna say, wow, this guy's a murderer. He deserves the death penalty. I'm not saying that option's off the table, but what you can't do is jump on Twitter and say

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I'm running with Ahmaud. I'm doing, you know, George Floyd is a patron saint. Derek Chauvin's a murderer before you know anything about this situation.

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That's how you do it and that's not a fun place to be. Trust me, I have to be that stick in the mud a lot of times because I'm trying my best to apply

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God's law and God's standard to this situation. And so it sucks because I saw the same video you saw of George Floyd and it looks bad.

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I said that from the beginning. But I cannot join the lynch mob because God doesn't allow me to do that.

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And it sucks because people think I'm a jerk. People think I'm a stick in the mud. People think I'm some kind of scumbag.

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And it's like, I'm not a scumbag. I just need to love Derek Chauvin too. And I know you're willing to cast that aside in order to look good to the world.

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I'm not willing to do that. Look, I'm not perfect. I'm not perfect. But I just want you to understand where I'm coming from on this.

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I'm trying my best to apply God's law here, God's morality, God's standard. And you're over here talking about not going with the flavor of the week.

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I've got a great way to do it. Just be consistent, be relentless applying that law. You know, it doesn't mean you have to take one side over the other, but you do have to do things according to God's law, which oftentimes will put you on the opposite side of the zeitgeist.

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And the problem is too many of you find yourself going along with that zeitgeist way too often.

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And it makes no sense at all because Christ said, if they hated me, they'll hate you too.

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And we got Matt Chandler saying, don't criticize Black Lives Matter. And I'm like, why? That's the zeitgeist.

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That's the world. That's the pagan dark ideology. They're gonna hate you, but you have to criticize them.

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You're not above your master. They hated Christ because he was relentless in his pursuit of holiness.

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I guess it wasn't a pursuit of holiness. He was just holy. He obeyed God's law. He was born under the law and obeyed it relentlessly.

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And so that's where you, that's your example. I'm not perfect. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but man, I'm trying.

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Man, I'm trying. And I know that when I fail, I've got an advocate. I'm covered by Christ's sins.

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I'm not afraid to make a mistake. I don't wanna make a mistake, but if I do, I know where my righteousness comes from and it doesn't come from me.

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Okay, that's that gospel message, man. It's you baptize in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Christ commands.

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And so when you see Derek Chauvin on that guy's neck, God has commands for you. And one of those commands is you don't join the lynch mob.

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You don't get on Twitter, I'm with George Floyd, before you even know anything about the situation. That's reprehensible.

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That's sinful. That's against God's law. And so I'm with you, Platt, but what happened in the last six years?

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The world certainly don't have categories for that, but we really need to create categories for that with a holistic understanding of justice and the word of God.

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It has to be in the Bible. That's the thing, David Platt, six years later, you're about, or eight years later, or I'm sorry, four years later, you're gonna preach a sermon, let justice roll down like waters.

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And you, it's a disaster of a sermon because yes, you quoted the verse, and then you start pulling things out of Black Lives Matter rhetoric.

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And it's like, they don't have categories for what you need to say. What you need to say needs to be thoroughly biblical.

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And I'm sorry, it's not enough to just quote the verse that says justice and then go out wherever you wanna go.

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That's the thing, you need to be relentless. And it's gonna make people hate your guts sometimes.

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People hate my guts when I say all kinds of stuff about what biblical law says we ought to do.

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Phil Vesher was shocked that I was bringing biblical law into this situation. Oh, you know, people are always shocked when

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I say, yeah, we should have restitution instead of jail. And they're like, what do you wanna be a slave owner? And I know you think

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I'm a jerk, but I have no choice. It's not up to me what to talk about, what to preach about.

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We have a word. We have a word, we know what it says. Let's let him finish and then

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I'll wrap it up. Bring to the gospel. Thank you guys. What happened,

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Gospel Coalition? Because I agree with a lot of what was said there. But what happened? What happened? Guys, we need to figure this out.

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That last part that David Platt says, we need to figure out this in a thoroughly biblical justice, categories for this stuff.

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The world doesn't have it, right? That's true. But we need to do the work. Because so many of you are borrowing from pagan ideologies, pagan worldviews.

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You're telling us to read white fragility and all kinds of garbage. And it's like, no, we know how to do this better than they do.

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We know how to do this better than sociologists do. We know how to do this. We have that word.

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We can't alter it. That's all we, that's the whole message. It's right there. So I would encourage you,

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Gospel Coalition, to step up your game. Get to work sharpening that sword again and bring it to the fight.

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Because the next time we come to battle, it could be the last chance you have.

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You need to bring that two -edged sword. It's the only hope that you have in this whole situation. Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful.