David Platt's (SBC) Weaponizing of Matthew 18 - The Bust Out of McLean Bible Church Part 1

All right we are back today is October 28th Monday year of our Lord 2024. Happy birthday to my brother. Very special day for him. Matt Robles. Happy birthday. I talk about you all the time of the channel as you know.

And he does watch my videos from time to time. It's not that impressed with him but he does watch them. But you you guys as the audience hear me talk about my brother a lot. It's his birthday today. Give him a nice happy birthday in the comment section.

Big big sports weekend this weekend. It's been really really really fun. You know the Yankees they're just unfortunately the Yankees are just not good enough and you know I like I said I was kind of pulling for the Yankees but now that they're losing I just kind of want them to get swept and have it be over with it's.

I'm not like I'm not a Yankee fan for sure but I'm not against them. But you know it's just is what it is right. The Yankees are just not good enough. They've got two good hitters and then the rest of their lineup is just a complete waste.

And it's not good. I don't know what else to say about that. They just they just stink. And for some reason Aaron judge the best player on the planet for whatever reason can't play in the playoffs. He just can't hit.

He looks like a he looks foolish out there. I don't understand it. It's there some players they just can't do it in the playoffs and Aaron judge unfortunately is one of them. He doesn't hit. They just can't win.

It's as simple as that Aaron judge doesn't hit they can't win. So I'm not feeling that great about that series. I just want to be done with four game sweep. Just make it nice and clean. That's what we need.

But but then and then also you know get close you know get to the offseason quicker you know Soto becomes a Matt. That'll be that'll be that'll be great then. Of course the Jets man the Jets are just comic comically bad.

I mean this is this is very historic. This might be in the biggest you know failure of a season in any sport in history. I mean considering where the aspirations were. I was never fooled by this but a lot of my Jets fans friends were like oh yeah you know Super Bowl you know we're we're primed for a Super Bowl run and I'm like don't you think you need to have a winning season first.

Like I don't know we haven't even made the playoffs in 15 years. You're talking Super Bowl. I was never fooled by it but I didn't think it would be this bad. This is this is horrendous. I couldn't. I like I I knew it wasn't gonna work out.

I didn't think we'd make the playoffs but I didn't think it would be worse than last year. Like how could the team get worse with Aaron Rodgers playing. Somehow they're worse. I don't understand it but that's just the way the cookie crumbles and I think it's quite hilarious.

And one of my secret pleasures is I like to watch a Jets podcast and YouTube channels after losses because they're they're complete they're unhinged all the time and today was no exception. I got a lot of pleasure out of that so it's been fun it's been fun.

David Platt, McLean Bible Church, and the Money Trail

Today's video is about David Platt and we're going to talk about some of the David Platt stuff in a little bit but before we begin I did kind of pop over to the eschatology matters YouTube channel which I'm a big fan of eschatology matters so I'm not trying to throw any shade whatsoever but Tobias pastor Tobias the guy that's involved in the meme fiasco you know the Holocaust meme fiasco he he had his inaugural episode today and when I saw them announce the inaugural episode it's about the Joel Webin and the Holocaust meme controversy which I thought was a little weird like that seems like a weird inaugural episode.

You think you'd probably want to choose something else maybe and then make kind of work your way into it you know just warm up with some other things and then get into the you know eventually you have to talk about the Joel Webin meme fiasco.

I suppose I mean I don't really think you have to but you know if you want to you know maybe ease your way into it right. And so I text I texted Joel. I was like Joel you planning on watching this and I'm not gonna tell you what he said but cuz I wasn't I wasn't planning on watching it.

I wanted to see what he had to say so I just popped over there just to see what's going on. It was it was live at the time. You know I don't think it was live but you know it's premiering at the time maybe it was live.

If it was live then this is even more funny but I just popped in over there just to see what was going on in the chat and I kid you not this is the I say what's up to the people in the chat and and I hear Pastor Tobias well I've never heard speak before.

He's got a great accent you know you got to take him seriously especially because that accent you know what I mean and this is what this is what Pastor Tobias is doing. Joel says says make some comment about how you know Israel has like the largest you know gay gay pride parade in in the world or something like that.

And Pastor Tobias I kid you not this is what he's doing. He stops it and he's in this in the process he's in the this is I didn't see any other part of this video so I don't know how long he was in this process but he it seemed like he was in the process of trying to prove that Joel Webbin is actually some kind of you know cryptic you know crypto you know undercover Nazi or something like that or you know whatever like not not like an overt Nazi but like sort of undercover Nazi that's that was the section that I randomly found myself in and one of the proofs was that that you know to say that the that Israel has the largest gay pride parade in the world is is anti-semitic because they really don't and so he pulls out these numbers you know he's done his research and he says well you know New York has a bigger one and and Brazil has a bigger one and you know San Francisco has a bigger one and and he's going through these number who knows where I got these numbers it makes no difference this is ridiculous anyway and he and so you know so I guess Israel was like I don't know 30th 40th who knows but not a very high on the list is basically his point and so he said that that that's that's more evidence that he is a some kind of undercover you know secret Nazi and that this this this Holocaust beamer you know learned how to be a Holocaust memer because of Joel weapons Nazi tutelage.

I jump on I jump on the live stream and it's uh they're quibbling about the numbers of gay pride parades and all that who's the best in the world I don't know it's not Israel's that's that's how you know it's anti-semitic.

Oh boy oh boy anyway I'll tell you what though I you know I'm fact-checking you right here pastor Tobias Israel is very full of homosexuals. It's as simple as that. Oh man anyway we're not going to talk about that right now I may actually do a video about that I'm trying to think of how to do it because when I when I jumped into the live stream they were already well over an hour and I'm not gonna respond to the whole thing I just I don't have the patience for that but I may I may try to respond to the thrust of his of his analysis let's just call it but I don't want to spend too much time on it so I don't know if you think that would be helpful in the comment section let me know so I don't I don't know if it's valuable or not but whatever whatever.

A McLean Bible Church Bust-Out

So yeah David Platt let's let's let's go into David Platt you know what there's a few topics that I definitely want to cover and I got a lot of feedback on what they think I should do about the David Platt stuff and this is where I'm gonna start because I think this is very applicable to lots of different contexts and you know one thing I was thinking to the whole the whole scenario with you know David Platt you know and the money because that was a big part of the second part of this this documentary the money where they start to direct tithe money that used to go to various programs in the church and stuff like that they cancel a lot of those programs and then a lot of the money instead would go to Southern Baptist you know with the Southern Baptist Convention you know the Cooperative Fund it would go to David Platt's personal ministry radical and there was not a lot of that was there was not a lot of transparency behind it.

Not not at all in the documentary does a really good job of you know showing people that tried to get you know financial transparency like hey you know we're tithing and you know all this stuff like where's the money go you know stuff like that and they were just stonewalled again and again and again and again there's just no transparency coming and then you find out well it's going to Southern Baptist Convention it's going to radical and it's going to this and that it reminded me of the Davy Scatino bust out.

You're familiar with the Davy Castino bust out that that's what I think kind of happened here at McLean Bible Church it was a bust out you know and if you don't know what a bust out is it's a classic mafia move right.

And in the Sopranos Davy Scatino gets into debt with the mob. He's a degenerate gambler and he's in a lot of debt with the mob he can't pay it back. And so what do they do. Well they they basically take over his business and they start running up the credit on the business you know they order a thousand you know coolers and then they sell them on the street for three but three dollars apiece you know that kind of two three dollars apiece you know and they just make money that way they just run up credit on the store and then eventually it goes bankrupt and it's a bust out you know that's that's how they get their money back.

Essentially it's a bread and butter of the mafia at least that's what I've been told allegedly allegedly at least that's what they say in the Sopranos that's a bust out and yeah this this the McLean Bible Church thing really kind of strikes me as a bust out you know you you get your you get your guy in there David Platt and he basically squeezes as much juice from the you know blood from the rock as he possibly can and then you know it's an empty shell and now all of a sudden God's calling me to the mission field you know a lot of people predict that that's the trajectory this is going and it certainly doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility.

That's for sure. You know you suck them dry you bleed them for a while and then when there's no more blood left to give you move on you know I mean it's a bust out the McLean bust out that's what this was in any case.

Matthew 18 and Church Discipline

But here's the section I wanted to cover. So let's let's this just has to do with church discipline because in this documentary some of the members of the church get church disciplined you know Matthew 18 style things like that and it and it's it's really the people that opposed some of the things that David Platt was trying to do and they were gonna vote you know you know against it and they were trying to mobilize the vote against it.

You know things like that and you know congregational polity allows for this kind of stuff. It's not in my opinion it's not the greatest polity. That's not really what this is about. A lot of churches are congregational but you know if you bring politics into the church it's gonna be political.

You know what I mean you got to mobilize the vote and you gotta you know put out your your your efforts to get the vote to go the way you want it to go that's how it goes. And then the vote doesn't go the way Platt wants it to go and all of a sudden they say hey we're gonna vote again.

That's we need a do-over. It's just too close to call we need a do-over. That's basically what they say is that they have a new vote but this time they basically have a new vote. And then they excommunicate tons of members so and you know of course it's the members that are gonna vote against them.

Of course and so they they basically you know they scam that they scam their own congregation to get the vote to go the way they wanted it to go. But there's one couple here that gets excommunicated and I wanted to just show you what this was like and what this was all about because this this excommunication thing the Matthew 18 thing is something that is used so much with the SPC and SPC adjacent people and it's Matthew 18 it means obviously you can excommunicate people but let me just.

Explain why it's not what you think it is. On November 29th 2021 Laura and I were allegedly trespassed and disfellowshipped by David Platt and his illegitimate elder board. They stated in an email the following.

Dear Jeremiah and Laura. We have previously notified you of our desire to meet with you to discuss your persistent and public efforts against the leadership and body of Christ at NBC. In light of your unwillingness to meet with us and out of concern for the spiritual health of our church fellowship we are writing to inform you of the following.

In accord with God's Word and in light of article 5 section 6 of the NBC Constitution which states that members of this church who engage in conduct that is a reproach to Christ and a derogatory reflection on the reputation of his church shall be publicly dismissed from the church fellowship.

We are dismissing you from membership in our church fellowship effective immediately and will be communicating this to our church fellowship appropriately. We are taking this step after much prayer and with much sadness as we sincerely desire your restoration to the church.

As we have previously communicated we remain willing and open to meet with you to discuss these matters at any time including discussion of the specific conduct that forms the basis for this separation from church fellowship until that process is carried out and also effective immediately.

You may no longer enter NBC property unless it is to attend a previously agreed upon in scheduled meeting with church leaders to pursue restoration in accordance with the NBC Constitution and Matthew 18.

If you have any questions at all we look forward to addressing those in personal meetings with you. Sincerely the NBC.

Board of Elders sounds pretty good and it sounds very biblical. It sounds very prayerful and all of that kind of thing. You know Matthew 18 you know of course that's the famous church discipline passage if your brother sins you go to him privately.

Maybe you can win your brother. If he doesn't listen you bring somebody else maybe he'll listen. If he doesn't listen to them you bring it to the church. And if he doesn't listen to the church then well you know he's a tax collector to you.

He's an unbeliever essentially. So you excommunicate him sounds pretty good. And the way they've worded this message it sounds like they really did try. You know they tried and you can't. You can't force someone to play a ball like the most you can do is say hey I'd like to meet with you to discuss some things I have against you.

These are sins. And they actually don't even really call it sins in this this email which I think is very interesting. They basically call it actions against the leadership of the church which can of course be interpreted in so many different ways.

But okay let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. These are actual sins. Right. They're calling them to repentance for actual sins because obviously opposing an elder candidate is not a sin. Right.

Obviously you know what I mean. That's why we have a congregational polity. We could. Some people might oppose them. You know what I mean you know wanting a financial transparency and saying hey you should give us financial transparency is not a sin.

Obviously right. But there could be sins involved in those things and so let's just let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. I know it's hard because this is the McLean Bible Church bust out. And you don't give the mafia the benefit of the doubt.

But you know let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. So they they tried to talk to talk to him about these sins and they were. And this couple refused to meet with them. And and they tried over time they tried and kept refusing.

What else can you do besides jump to excommunication. Right. If someone refuses to meet with you to discuss it I mean that's essentially them not listening to you. That's right out of Matthew 18. Right.

They don't listen to you. And so now the next step is to bring it to the church and kick them out. Basically they won't listen. They won't listen. What can you do. So that all sounds pretty good. And they worded it in such a way again there's some ambiguity here.

They don't name specific sins in this letter which I think would be appropriate you know if you're gonna kick somebody out via a letter you should name the sin like name the sin. It can't just be you opposed leadership.

That's not a sin. But let's just say that they did name the sin. Right. They did give them the benefit of the doubt. This sounds like exactly what Matthew 18 is all about. Right. Yeah it does. They talked about it.

They quoted it. People quote Matthew 18 all the time. But.

Whether Matthew 18 Was Actually Followed

Let's keep listening. The funniest part of the whole letter is that the Elder Board had never actually reached out to us nor had they expressed any concerns at all whatsoever. What they didn't like was that they were being exposed for their corruption which I can totally understand.

You know in a situation like that it's imperative that you silence the truth. Funniest part of the letter is.

That they never reached out to us to meet nor do they even say anything. Now they obviously didn't like being exposed. He understands that. But that's what I mean. That is what it is. I mean heavy wears the crown.

You know heavy heavy is the crown. Right now you might say well this is just his word. Let's hear what they have to say. And you know what. Maybe they have some proof. Maybe they have some proof of another email that they sent.

Because obviously their email address works. They got this email. Maybe they have some proof of another message that was sent or something like that. You would think they'd have it in discovery but whatever.

Maybe they have some proof. Okay let's wait and see. Right. But I'm not holding my breath. I'll tell you that right now this is in line with so much of what I know about SBC leadership. They do this all the time.

I've got personal stories where this has happened to me where somebody says you're like a tax collector to me. I've had Jared Wilson literally said those words you're like a tax collector to me. So he jumps the church discipline all the way to the end.

You're not even a believer. I'm not even gonna treat you like a believer. And the whole time I'm like well what did I ever do. What have I done to you. I'd like to talk to you. I'd like to talk to you.

In fact in my situation I was going hey I'd like to talk about this. I'd like to have a one-on-one conversation. We could record it. We could do a video. We could do a phone call. We could do whatever.

Let's talk. Not a single conversation. Not a single accusation. Not a single chance for us to have give-and-take. Hey maybe you misunderstood this. Maybe I didn't. Maybe you know whatever. Nothing like that.

Nothing. I've had others examples too. This is just the first one I could think of. And of course you know I've talked about Jared before. This is what they do. This is what they do. They excommunicate this way.

They reference Matthew 18 but they don't do what Matthew 18 says to do. They pretend to but they don't. They pretend to but they do. In fact I remember with my Jared Wilson situation. At one point he says we did talk and I'm like yeah I don't know.

I think I'd remember that you know what I mean and what he what he was saying was you know he sent me an email once and and you like it or no. No was it it was. It is either an email or it could have.

I don't want to say it was a tweet because that would. I think it was a tweet. He's I had tweeted at you once. It might have been an email though. It might have been an email. And I was like yeah the email was just full of accusations.

Like it wasn't a conversation. You just accused me of a bunch of stuff like I want to talk to you. We didn't talk you. You ranted at me in a message. That's not the conversation. So they reference Matthew 18 but they don't do what Matthew 18 tells you to do.

And and of course they'll reference it. And they'll also use all the emotional language. It was after much prayer and heavy hearts that we have to do this. Matthew 18. You didn't even talk to me. And it's all bunch.

It's fugazi. It's fugazi. They reference it but they don't do it. They ref they know the scripture but they don't do it. They can teach it correctly but they don't do it. Somebody else that I comes to mind about people who teach the right thing but they don't actually do the right thing.

I you know I mean I named my book after them. It's too much. It's too much. And I'll never forget this too. Like there was there was all kinds of I remember my situation with Jared. He said he would talk to me but he would only talk to me if I agreed that I was sinning like if I was repenting.

So it was like it was like the stipulation he put he said I will have a conversation with you only if you are you know are repentant and you agree with what I'm saying. I'm like I but I don't agree. I don't think I'm sitting.

I mean there's like it's like the only way I'll talk to you is if you and that's actually kind of what they do here as well. They basically say well we'll talk well we'll only allow you on our premises if we're talk about your repentance.

And so what repentance. What sin has there been. You haven't told me we haven't even talked about that. They know the right thing but they don't teach it. They know the right thing but they don't teach it.

It's this is a common tactic. You got to watch out for that. It's not enough for someone to ref reference Matthew 18 and church discipline and stuff like that they actually have to walk the walk. This is this is what happens.

This happens in big megachurches like McLean Bible Church you know where the money stakes are a little bit higher and it also happens in small country churches as well where maybe the stakes aren't quite that high but it's still what needs to be done.

It's the right thing to do. I saw some people talking about how this documentary a lot of people the way that they're commenting on it was like well this is the problem with megachurches. This is the problem with megachurches and I'm like I understand why they're they're doing that and they're not necessarily wrong right.

This is a problem with megachurches. You know the run like companies and stuff like that and there's lots of money at stake and stuff like that and the megachurch just kind of ramps up the profile and ramps up the like the stakes.

But this is not a megachurch problem. This is an every church problem. Small churches are run this way too small churches are torn apart in this way too you know what I mean and it's it's a shame because you know if if if if if one church just decides we're gonna maybe we'll reference Matthew 18 but we're not gonna do it.

You know what I mean we'll put it in the letter but we're actually not going to ever give you an opportunity to talk about this. We're just gonna pretend like we did and you didn't want to and now you're excommunicated like this.

This happens everywhere. This is not a megachurch thing. It really isn't the megachurch. You know part of this is that yeah millions of dollars were in play here right. And at the local level the smaller church level it's not gonna be millions of dollars at play but here at McLean we're talking millions of dollars that were that were busted out in in the McLean Bible Church bust out.

It's as simple as that they got their ounce of blood they got their pound of flesh. And maybe at the smaller church level it's gonna be a couple ounces you know what I mean. But this happens all the time.

This happens all the time. And Matthew 18 you like you actually you have to meticulously follow it. You have to. I remember in my situation where I was where I resigned as pastor of the church my co-at my co-pastor you know he suddenly kind of blindsided me with this the problem that he had with my content and stuff like that.

And I remember telling him I remember saying okay well and and and and he was like ready to quit and stuff like that. He wanted to blow up the church because he couldn't pastor with me anymore. Because I was making this you know anti-woke church content.

And I remember looking at him saying dude slow down slow down. We have a word from God on this. It's not just we have to figure this out on our own. You know what I mean. It's not just we disagree in them.

And he tried to spiritualize it to just like they did in that letter. This is our Paul and Barnabas moments. We cannot do ministry together. We must support. It's good for the good of the gospel. And I'm like dude slow down slow down.

We've got a word from the Lord on this. Let's do what it says. Let's get some people together. We can't figure this out on our own. Look I say one thing. You say the other. Okay. I'm willing to say I might be wrong.

Are you willing to say you might be wrong. He said yeah. I mean I kind of shamed him into it. He said yes. Let's get other people together. Let's get the families of the church together. Let's get a third party who's not at our church someone we both trust.

And I even let him pick. I said you pick who that third party is. And let's talk about this and figure this one out. Let's do what Matthew 18 says that you need to do. Let's bring up in other people. So whoever's wrong let them listen to them.

He agreed. And the rest is history. Of course we did that. And of course the every person to every man that was there everyone. It wasn't a vote. It was literally unanimous said oh it all ad Robles is right.

Even his hand-picked third party. Yeah ad Robles is right. He's not sinning. That's what happened. And then of course you know he disagreed anyway he refused to go along with Matthew 18. He won't listen to the other people and you know blew up the church anyway.

Matthew 18 isn't just in there for fun. You know what I mean that's the thing it's not just in there for fun. It's because we are fallible people. We don't always see things the way they are. You either believe Matthew 18 or you don't believe Matthew 18.

If Matthew 18 and the church comes and they say that you're wrong. Listen to the freakin church. Listen to him. This guy wouldn't blow up the church because of it. And this is a microchurch. Our church was a microchurch.

It wasn't. It wasn't a mega church. We had a handful of families. We didn't have a million dollar budgets. We had small budgets. This is not a megachurch problem. This blows up churches whether they have thousands of members or they have a hundred members or tens of members.

This is this is this is something you all have to get right. There's not a ton of instruction for what the church needs to do in the Bible. But there is some there's some and those small things like God doesn't burden us with a thousand rules.

He gives us a handful. There's a handful is enough that we can get our hands around it and do it. This Matthew 18 thing is a real big thing it really is. And so you know and and we'll maybe we'll watch more of this.

But this is now undercover camera footage because he allegedly gets excommunicated and he's like I'm this this wasn't legitimate like they didn't even talk to me. I don't even know what sins I'm talking about.

I'm going to the next meeting. So he went to the next meeting ends up getting arrested or I don't know if he got arrested but he got detained and went to court. And of course the judge dismissed it because this is insane obviously.

But this this camera footage is very interesting. And even Joe Carter shows his face in this camera footage. I've talked to Joe Carter personally before he apologized to me. Actually I'll give I'll give him credit for that it at one point he said I was an anti-semite because imagine that he said it was an anti-semite.

At one time he said I was an anti-semite because I refused to like denounce some other anti-semite or something. And it turns out that I had had this guy blocked for like years. Of course I didn't see the tweets that he's talking about but that was enough proof for Joe Carter.

Definitely not a fed Joe Carter. It was enough proof for him to call me an anti-semite. But he did apologize for it. So that was nice that was nice but in any case that's all I have to say today. I hope you found this video helpful.

God bless.