Why Is There Just So Much Nonsense Spewing From Big Eva?

Let me tell you a little story about old A .D. when he first became a Christian. When A .D. first became a Christian, what I used to do was I used to consume so much Tim Keller materials. Like, there was a few guys.

It was Tim Keller, it was Mark Driscoll, you know, and that was really it. I mean, maybe some Matt Chandler in there as well, but really it was primarily Tim Keller. And that's because when I came to faith, it was his book, The Prodigal God, that first started getting me interested in the gospel.

And I've since gone back and read that book, and eh, eh, whatever. God uses whatever he wants to call his people. So because it was Tim Keller, because I lived in New York City, I just used to consume so much Tim Keller content.

I loved it. I thought it was great. I loved his style. I loved everything about it. And I was a young Christian, so a lot of times what young Christians do is they'll read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

That's what I did. So when you get to Genesis, I was really excited. And Genesis is really interesting. Then you get through the law of God. I was less excited, but I was still, you know, just kind of consuming it as fast as I could.

I read the Bible very quickly. And so when I was a new Christian, I got into the law right away because it's right in the beginning of the book. And so I was listening to a Tim Keller sermon. He did this series about different things that are hard for New Yorkers to swallow about the Bible.

And one of the things was slavery. And he preached this apologetic sermon about slavery. And I had just read the law of God, so I knew all about what the Bible said about slavery. And I knew that what Tim Keller was saying was not what the Bible said.

He was playing fast and loose with the text. And at the time, I was like, I still loved Tim Keller, so I was like, you know, maybe I just don't know. Maybe there's something in Revelation that kind of overturns this or something.

I was a young Christian, so I just kind of filed it and never went back to it. And then one day I found Doug Wilson's content on slavery. And I remember being just so grateful to God for finding this because I was like, oh, no, no, I was right.

It does say what I thought it said because the thing about the Bible that I find amazing is that it's so clear. It's so clear. There's a few things that, you know, contextually, it's not in our culture, so we need to do a little bit more work to understand it.

But by and large, it's understandable. God spoke to us in a way that can be understood. He spoke to us in plain language. It's very easy to understand most of the themes of the Scripture. But the thing is that so many pastors, and I'm talking about the ones that are writing books, the ones that are on the conference circuit, the ones that have podcasts.

They don't speak in a way that can be understood. And here's what I think this is about. I think they're trying to create a market for their nonsense. And so what they do is they confuse you on purpose, so you're constantly at their mercy to explain things further.

They don't want you to think that the Bible is understandable. They want you to think you need them, so they buy their stuff. Yeah, so this is obviously my opinion, but this is really what I think is going on with a lot of the organizations.

And I don't think so much it's the individual pastors all the time. I think sometimes it's just the actual, it's like the business around these pastors. Because let's just face it, the gospel is business.

It is. It is. The pastors and the speakers, they have entire industries around them. And sometimes it's more explicit than other times. Sometimes the organization's named after the pastor, right? That's very explicit.

They've got a business. They've got an operation around them. And sometimes it's a little less explicit. And listen, I'm not saying this is just people I don't like. This is often people I do like that have this kind of situation.

But there's a key difference between the ones that I find myself drawn to and the ones that I find myself repulsed by. And that's a strong word. I'm repulsed by some of these. And the difference is, I think, so many of the people I'm repulsed by, they speak in a way that is, in my opinion, intentionally obfuscating the truth.

And then because there's so many guys out there doing that, there's now an industry for people that are now re-clarifying things, right? It didn't need to be clarified, but there was a whole army of people out there that were confusing things.

And so now there's an industry of people trying to re-clarify what should have been clear in the beginning. And that's kind of what I mean by this Doug Wilson thing, right? Doug Wilson's content on slavery really didn't need to be written.

But for all the people that decided they're going to muddy the waters because, you know, this will be the way that we can get more New Yorkers to join the faith. Because, you know, the Bible seems to be pretty barbaric about slavery.

But really, let's just kind of twist a few things here. We'll shake a few things here. And that way it will be more attractive to people who think that we're backwards and that we're barbarians and that we're Bronze Age goat herders or whatever it is that these idiot atheists say.

I think that we've—it's become habit, I think, for pastors to speak in a confusing way. And I don't blame all of them. I do blame the industry, though. So let me give you an example, right? So this is the T4G conference.

And what they've done here is they've taken a few of the key lines that they think are so awesome. They think it's fire. And they've put it into a meme. So this is just one line from an entire sermon.

And so I don't trust T4G to be doing this in a way that gets the whole context of it. I don't. I think that probably they're pulling out these lines and maybe there was some good explanation that was actually more clear.

But they like the fire. They like the snazzy, kind of sexy language. And so that's their industry. They put that out there all the time. But I think that what ends up happening when you don't speak with clarity is that it heaps burdens on people.

And I really hate that. It really pisses me off because—let me just say this. So I know a lot about the scriptures. It's just a fact. I studied them. I read tons of stuff. And that's just the reality.

So I understand a lot about the scriptures. But sometimes these pastors speak in a way—this is a complete mystery to me. Let me just give you an example. This is H .B. Charles. I have no idea what this sermon is like.

So maybe he explains it. It's super helpful. But this quotation is the exact kind of thing I'm talking about. You cannot faithfully serve the gospel if you do not personally savor the gospel. Now, if you're not watching the video, I emphasize the word, savor the gospel, because that's what they did.

They highlighted that word, and they obviously want you to focus on that word. And so this is what it sounds like. You cannot faithfully serve the gospel if you do not personally savor the gospel. And I've got to be honest.

I don't know what this means. What is this supposed to mean, right? So I like the gospel, right? And I'm grateful to God for what he's done for me. I didn't deserve it. I got this mercy. I got this grace.

And I was not a good person. If you could know me when I was in New York City, you would not have liked me. I was a disaster. I was a jerk. I was a scumbag. I was a dirtball. I was blessed in some ways, because I had income.

I had a good job. But I easily could have been the guy in the gutter, right? Easily, but based on my behavior. I didn't earn the things I had. And for some reason, God decided to change me. He decided to grab me as one of his people.

I don't know why he did it. I'm grateful for it, and I love it. And sometimes I think about it, especially when I'm before communion, and I think about just my life, my past, and I think about it, right?

And so I appreciate it. I'm grateful for it. I don't write poetry about it, right? I don't write poetry about it. I don't meditate on it all the time. I don't journal about it. Am I savoring the gospel enough?

Do I savor it? Can I be a faithful servant of the gospel? Because I don't know if I'm savoring it enough. Like, I don't know what that means. And look, maybe you look at me and you're like, well, AD, maybe you're just an idiot.

Maybe you just don't get it because you're an idiot. Well, okay, maybe. I'm not going to deny that. But there's a lot of guys like me that probably don't know what this means, but they hear this all the time from these pastors, and it puts this, like, when I read something like this, it makes me feel a burden.

Like, how do I know if I'm savoring it? And a lot of times the kind of guys that say this are the kind of guys that, you know, all they do with their platforms is talk about the gospel and doctrine. They write poetry.

All they talk about online is this. And it just seems like their whole life is nothing but doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. It's like, yeah, but I use Gab for, like, I post pictures of the fish that I catch, right?

You know, I go fishing. I like fishing. I post pictures about fishing. I talk about the stock market. You know what I mean? And I talk about Christ as well, but that's not the only thing I use Gab for, right?

And it's like, you know, it's just like, I used to know a guy. This is actually another one. So let's move on to another one here because this is the same kind of thing, right? Same kind of thing. Here's Juan Sanchez.

Again, I'm not blaming Juan for this, but this is the quotation that T4G pulls from it. He says, Again, gospel is the word that's emphasized. So, you know, this puts a—I feel the burden here, and I know I don't have a burden.

I know Christ's yoke is light. I've read the Scriptures. I understand what it says. But when somebody says something like this, I start to think, do I have gospel friendships or do I—do I just have friendships?

I mean, what does it mean to have a gospel friendship, right? And I got to be honest with you. I think they do this, and I'm not talking about Juan here because I think this is just a learned behavior for Juan.

Juan has known people that explain everything like, oh, it's a gospel unity. It's gospel friendships. It's gospel mission. It's gospel tweeting. Like, he's heard this. He's learned this behavior. But I think that these organizations, they speak in this way.

Well, it's a gospel friendship. They do it to sell books. This doesn't come from the Bible. This doesn't come from the Bible. What the heck is a gospel friendship? I used to know a guy that—and this was the co-pastor of the church I used to pastor.

And he used to say that you're not really doing fellowship if you're not talking about Christ, right? So it's not fellowship if you're not talking about Christ. So if you're just hanging out, maybe you're going fishing or something like that, that's not fellowship.

That's not Christian fellowship. That's just hanging out. You got to be talking about Christ and savoring Christ and doctrine and stuff like that. And it's like, you know, I like talking about that stuff sometimes.

Sometimes I just want to talk about just life. Is it okay if we just get to know each other? Do we have to talk about doctrine? I don't like doing that all the time. So I guess it's not really a gospel friendship if I invite you out to go fishing with me, and I want to talk to you about those whoppers over there at the log.

And I had a big one. It was the biggest fish of my life. I lost him. All my fish stories are the fish I lost, right? Is that okay? Am I fellowshipping with you, or do we have to talk about the Trinity?

Do we have to talk about baptism or something? Sometimes that stuff comes up. I invite my friend to go to drinks with me, and maybe he's considering switching teams and going to paedo-baptism, and he wants to know kind of why I believe in infant baptism.

And it just comes up, and it's natural. It's totally natural, right? That's fine. But also sometimes I just want to go to drinks with my friend and be like, hey, man, how's work? And I don't mean spiritually how are you doing at work.

I just mean how's work, right? Are you going to get a promotion soon? Is the company doing well? Are you thinking about changing careers? When I was hanging out with John Harris at Joel Webb and Sal's, he kind of made a joke, and no one really said anything about it, but I could tell he was serious.

And I'm right there with you, John. I don't know if you remember this, but you said, you know, I like talking about doctrine and stuff, but what kind of movies do you like? I just want to get to know you.

And it's like, yeah, that's right. No, no, no, you can't do that. That's not a gospel friendship. That's just so weird. It's contrived, and it doesn't make any sense to most people, I don't think. If you ask most people what's a friendship and what's a gospel friendship, and I'm talking about Christians here, they wouldn't have any freaking clue what you're talking about, right?

I think they do this to sell books because now someone can write you a book, and maybe it's not even Juan. Maybe it's somebody else. Now someone can write you the book about how to cultivate gospel friendships.

It's like, what the heck is that? How about just friends? Can I just be friends? Can we just hang out? That's still fellowship, right? We're sharing our lives. We're having fun together. I'm just going to go fishing, right?

And look, this is the thing. If you like writing poetry about Jesus, go for it. I'm not saying you can't do that, but there's, like, this industry that it's the way they speak, the way they act, the things they do.

It's just so unnatural and weird. And I think they do it to sell books because it's just like a mystery. It's like, that's weird. And it's like, but I like Christ, and I like the Scripture, and you guys seem to really know about the Scripture, so maybe I'm the one that's wrong, and you weirdos have it right, so let me buy your weirdo book about gospel friendships.

It's totally unnatural, right? The Scriptures apply to every area of life. Christians live differently. We obey our master. We do the things that our master would want us to do instead of the things that our flesh wants to do.

But you do this in normal life, just kind of as you're doing stuff. You're working. You're raising your family. You're going fishing. You're going hunting. You're doing things you enjoy. And it's like, you know, sometimes when I'm out fishing, you know, I stop and think, man, God's creation is so amazing.

The way the sun feels on my face, I love it. It's so great, and I thank God for it. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'm just enjoying it, and I'm not thinking about, you know, how God created it. I'm just enjoying his creation, and that's totally fine.

We don't have to be these freaks, these weirdos. I just don't understand where this comes from except for the fact that it sells. It's an industry. It's a marketing ploy. This is from the T4G conference.

This is so unnatural. This is so weird. And Christianity is not weird. I mean, could anything be more straightforward and more natural than worshiping and serving the man who created you? The God-man.

He created you. He created everything. Not a single thing that's been made was made besides through him, right? Jesus Christ created the entire universe, so it makes sense to fear him and keep his commandments.

It makes sense to abide in his love by keeping his commandments. That makes perfect sense. This doesn't make sense. Do you see this? It's grown men at a conference designed for pastors. There's 12 ,000 pastors, somebody said, at this conference, and they're talking about gospel unity.

And it's like it's a gospel unity, and we ought to be inward focus but united. I mean, outward focus but united. And so four men, four pastors. This freaks me out that these men are in charge of people's souls, like real souls that will live forever.

Four grown men are standing on stage, holding hands in a circle, facing outward. It's so freaking unnatural. It's so awkward. And this has nothing to do with Christianity, by the way, but this is how they're selling it.

This is the freaking weird stuff that they're selling. It's like people see this, and they're perplexed. Nobody looks at this and like, oh, this makes a lot of sense. This is normal. This is natural. No, this is unnatural.

There's just a crisis of authenticity in Christianity. There's a crisis of authenticity. There's nothing authentic about this. This is something that an elementary school kid would do. And even when I was in elementary school, I thought this kind of stuff was weird.

It's just contrived, and it's like nobody would do this. Nobody behaves like this. So even if the sermon's great, why are you doing this? This is so weird. But I think they do this because they make it like a mysterious thing.

Christianity's so mysterious, and it's like you've got to do this weird stuff, and it's like it's totally out of context, and all it does is confuse people. Well, now you can sell the missional book about how to be missional and how to do sermon illustrations like a freaking weirdo.

And it's like I think they do this just to make a market for their nonsense. They confuse issues in the Bible that are clear so that they can sell you a book to explain this issue that does not need that much explanation.

You could explain what the Scripture says about slavery very easily in like a 15-minute video, but no, no, no, I'm going to tell you something else. I'm going to confuse the issue on purpose, so now you have to buy my book.

I'm not going to talk about friendships. I'm not going to say what the Bible clearly, easily, plainly, clearly says about friendships. No, I'm going to create this new category called the gospel friendship.

I'm not going to say, oh, you know, believe the gospel, you know what I mean, taste and see that the Lord is good. That doesn't create a burden. That's very clear what that's all about. No, no, I'm not going to say that.

I'm going to say you can't even be a servant of the gospel if you don't savor the gospel. Now I can write a book called Savoring the Gospel. And it's like, well, what does that mean? Well, buy my book.

I'll tell you what it means. And even some guys that I like do this. When you speak in a way that does not bring clarity, all it does is heap burdens on people. That's all it does. Oh, I'm a Christian hedonist.

Christian hedonism. It's not enough to be like, you know, I want to glorify God in everything I do. That's clear. That doesn't heap any burdens, right? Like I want to enjoy God's creation. God's got a lot of gifts that he's given his creatures.

Why don't I just fear God and keep his commandment, enjoy the life of my youth, things like that. Normal stuff, right? But no, no, no. We've got to heap burdens. So we've got to be Christian hedonists.

And it's like, that's weird stuff, man. That doesn't resonate with normal people. But you see, this kind of stuff is falling by the wayside. Nobody thinks this is natural. This is weird. Even the people doing this don't think this is natural.

This is bizarre. This is a joke. This is becoming a byword, right? This is like Michael Scott stuff, right? This is not resonating with people. But you know what is resonating with people? Simplicity.

Simplicity. We don't need to figure out how to have pronoun hospitality. That has nothing to do with Christianity. What does have something to do with Christianity is fear God, keep his commandments. That's the plan.

Fear God, keep... We don't need to figure out how to... Oh, how do we best not offend transvestites in our midst? And how do we savor? It's like, no, no, no. No, we're going to fear God and keep his...

It's simple. No burdens. No nothing. It's simple. It's just crazy. I was going to talk about how to use social media with grace. It's the same thing there. I mean, they know grace sells, so they're going to call it grace, right?

We've got to use social media with grace because grace is the product, and we be selling that product. But nothing of what they talked about was grace, right? The dude's like, yeah, you know, it's a grace to block and report people on Twitter.

That can be a grace, too, because grace is all about giving people what they're due. And it's like, okay, so I have two options. Does he just not know what grace is? Because that's the opposite of grace, right?

Christians understand that. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible talks about grace being something you don't deserve. You don't deserve it, but you get it anyway. God has favor on you, and you didn't deserve it.

God didn't count your sins against you. That's the blessed man, right? So we know what grace is, and it's not that. So why does he call it grace? Is he really that dumb? Does he not understand? No, no, it's not that he doesn't understand.

Joe Asch understands what grace is. Maybe he doesn't experience it. Maybe he doesn't believe in it, but he knows what it is. He said it because he knows grace sells. And so now he can one day or someone can write a book, How to Use Social Media with Grace, and it's this gobbledygook mess.

And it's like, look, if you want to block people on social media, do it. That's okay, but it's not grace. If you want to report me on Twitter, go for it. I have no problem with you doing that. That's what the platform's for.

You tell on people. It's not grace, though, but he says it's grace because grace sells, and he wants to sell you something. He's selling a product, and the product is grace. Later in the thing, he goes, a lot of people confuse being graceful on social media with talking about trivial stuff like what kind of sneakers you like and stuff like that.

He's like, that's not what grace is. And I actually agree with that point. That's a good point. I use social media for a variety of different things. I'm not out there preaching to people all day on social media.

I do that in other parts of my life. What I use social media for is to talk about trivial things like my fish, my fishing, my kids' arts projects. I post that kind of stuff on Gab all the time. My Gab is pretty wholesome.

And then I use Twitter to antagonize Big Eva. So that's what I use social media for. I don't use it to preach. I'm not a preacher, right? So that's the thing. And, of course, I talk about Christ every now and then, but that's not all I do.

So if you want to do that, that's totally fine, but that's not grace. I agree with Joe Ash. But you see, because Joe Ash has—there's no authenticity to what he's saying. He's just selling a product, and he's doing it in a very sleazy way.

Because there's no authenticity, later in the same panel discussion, Beth Moore is talking about how she uses social media with grace. And what she says is that what she does is she doesn't want to argue so much.

So she says, hey, do you like dogs? I mean, do you like coffee? Do you like gardening? Maybe we can like dogs and gardening together. And that's how she shows grace on social media. So if you're following me, that's the exact thing that Joe Ash just got done saying is not grace, right?

And now Beth Moore is saying, that's how I use social media with grace. And Joe Ash, what do you think Joe Ash did? Do you think he argued with her? Do you think he's like, that's not grace? What are you talking about?

No, no. He was like, oh, yeah, sure. That sounds wonderful, Beth. Because it's not natural. He's just selling a product. It's grace. And grace sells. Grace sells. Savor sells. Gospel friendships sell.

They're creating. Listen. Here's what I really think. I think the big Eva industry is creating a demand for their product by creating confusion. They're creating a demand for their product by creating confusion.

Because they couldn't sell as many books if they just taught, as is the truth, that the Scripture is very clear. The Scripture is clear. Your pastor can explain things to you that are maybe a little less clear.

And, yeah, I'm not saying there's no need for books. There's definitely going to be needs for books. But I never would have written my social justice book. By the way, I'm still giving that away for free.

If you want a copy, email me, and I'll send you one for free. Completely for your charge. Not even shipping. I'll just send it to you. I would never have written the book if people weren't out there confusing issues that are so simple.

My book is clarifying because it's very easy. There's just a few verses that you need, and you can defeat any social justice argument. But there are people out there that have created a demand for their product by confusing you.

Saying stupid stuff online. Saying ridiculous things about social justice and racial reconciliation. And savor. You've got to savor. And not really explaining it. Now they can sell you a book. I think that is what's going on.

That's what I really think about Big Eva. I think that it's like the government, right? The government creates a market for their services by ruining everything. They ruin everything. Now, all of a sudden, you need the government to come save you.

It's the same thing. Big Eva creates a market for their nonsense by confusing you intentionally with the way they talk. With the way they act, as you see on the screen here. And yeah, that's pretty much my real opinion.

Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.