The End of T4G

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Mark Dever and Ligon Duncan announced the end of Together for the Gospel. worldviewconversation.com

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Hey everyone wanted to give a quick update from the road. I am traveling across the country and I Have a schedule you can look it up at worldview conversation .com
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If you want to come out and meet me would love to see you I'll be in Indiana tomorrow and the next day and then on Wednesday and Thursday.
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I think it is of next week I'll be in Oklahoma So would love to see you had a wonderful time last night in DeForest, Wisconsin at the
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Evangelical Free Church They are great crowd great questions stayed with a wonderful family
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Wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to come to Chicago Which is where I am now and do a project on Nene's deli
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So for those who have seen paint the wall black Juan Riesco has basically uncanceled himself.
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He is Serving empanadas at Nene's deli as I speak he had a lot of customers come in he had police officers come in and I'm just amazed that the same business that was canceled last year same person who was canceled has
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Basically made a comeback so doing a project on that and it's it's worth it
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By the way, the food is so good. The empanadas are so good. If you are traveling through Chicago, please make a pit stop
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Support Nene's deli. It's a good business If you support free speech and of course if you support
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Christianity that this is the place to go And it's good food, so there you go but I wanted to Talk about a few things when you're on the road you have a lot of thoughts if you have a lot of time and I have had a lot of time with the windshield and Just kind of thinking about a number of different topics
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So there's a lot of podcasts that I want to do But one of the the topics that I a lot of you have sent me links to and I You want me to comment on I'm guessing from all the people who have sent me the link
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Is the t4g conference and how it's basically coming to an end the last t4g conference together for the gospel conference is
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Is coming up and it will be the last one and so This won't probably be as relevant next week as it is this week
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So I figured I'll do this first because I think a lot of people want to know What my thoughts are on it, and I don't have a lot of thoughts.
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I don't think we'll see by the time I get done with this video, but There's a video you can go check it out at the t4g website of Mark Dever and Ligon Duncan and They're talking about the the end of t4g for those who don't know t4g conference that happened every two years
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Mainly a reformed conference kind of part of this young restless reform movement. Whatever that was you had some charismatic
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Reform people some Baptists some Presbyterians. It was just all kinds of people and It's you know it kind of stood for that that new
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Calvinism That was t4g was kind of about that and this is the last year
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They're doing it, and there's this video of Mark Dever and Lincoln Duncan talking about it kind of reflecting But it's kind of a weird.
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It's unusual. It's just an unusual video in my opinion. It strikes an unusual chord and I Thought maybe
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I would I wrote down a few thoughts as I listen to it It's about half an hour long, and I figured I'd share some of those with you
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And then also there was a gospel coalition article that came out. I think it was today on The end of t4g and I'll mention that briefly as well, and and just how
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I interpret this whole thing so the first thing is that about the two -minute mark in the video between Mark Dever and Ligon Duncan they basically admit that people just aren't interested they say that They knew there would be coming there would come a time when people wouldn't be as interested anymore in attending
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And so it tells me they're probably They probably realize the writings on the wall that you know this is kind of they're not gonna be able to sustain this for much
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Longer they're not gonna get the numbers out like they used to get For a conference and I'll let you try to figure out why you think that is
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I have my own ideas on that I'll give those to you, but you know there's a reason that This coalition is kind of falling apart, and I think they also give you the reason for that in the interview they don't state it outright, but at the emphasis of this whole discussion between Dever and Duncan seems to indicate that they know the social justice stuff has something to do with it so This was a decision made between Mark Dever Al Moller and Lincoln Duncan.
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They say about the 955 mark and And and then it's this interesting kind of it's kind of disjointed.
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I'll be honest. They're there Duncan and Dever are kind of especially Dever is interrupting
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Duncan there There's clearly not a script which is fine, but there's they're just kind of all over the place and kind of Just having a casual conversation in the kitchen or something.
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It looks like someone's kitchen and For such a big movement a big conference It is just it is a little unusual to just have this kind of this conversation in someone's kitchen
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That's just very It I don't think they knew exactly what they were gonna say before they said it perhaps
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There was a few things they knew they knew they wanted to cover but The the two things
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I was left with afterward the the emphasis that I saw was number one They are very defensive about social justice issues.
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They want to they feel like they've I think been misrepresented in some ways They want to explain themselves, and they want to defend themselves and so they defend
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Shilin and and some of the the pushback he's gotten from conservatives and One of the things that I thought was interesting is conservatives.
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This is a very important point actually conservatives in the evangelical world or otherwise They don't do the same thing that those on the left do those on the left kind of defend their own a lot more than Conservatives will defend the people that are to their right.
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Let's say They tend to want to back up and let that person kind of defend themselves and They'll they'll allow them to be kind of thrown to the wolves
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But people on the left don't do that as much and Devor and Duncan. You know they really went to bat for Shilin They defended him.
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He's gonna speak again Mark Devor defends himself from the accusations that he endorses divided by faith
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Which has been a very controversial book and basically says why don't endorse the solutions in there?
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He defends there seems to be some kind of an insecurity he has over the MLK panel
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That was very controversial I remember the only thing I really remember from that was and there's probably a bunch of controversial things involved in it
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They seem to think that it revolves or it's about MLK that you know like because MLK I guess wasn't
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Orthodox and wasn't Maybe the figure that reformed Christians should be looking to That they have to kind of defend that MLG it really wasn't about MLK It's about you know this the broader kind of civil rights movement, but you know they called it the
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MLK panels I mean at least that's what they're calling it in this interview, which I thought was interesting and Mark Mark Devor on that panel.
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I remember this he said that George He insinuated at least that George Washington wasn't a brother. He wasn't saved it, but the reason was because He owned slaves
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It's like you I guess you can't be slave you can't be saved if you own If you were a slaveholder or something and that it's just it's it's a weird
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I just remember that and thinking like well What do you do with so much of Scripture? On that topic and and the the people that we look to in the
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Bible who would have fit that description It just it was an unusual cord and that was from a few years ago but he's still thinking about it and a lot of the the insecurities and Just the things that they're defensive about came out in this interview or this discussion between Duncan Endeavor They talk about they justify you know the
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MLK panel and the association with divided by faith and having Shilin speak and all of that because of The affirmations and denials in the
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Charter statement for T4G an article 17 Says that we acknowledge that the staggering magnitude of injustice against african -americans in the name of the gospel presents a special opportunity
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For displaying the repentance forgiveness and restoration promised in the gospel We further affirmed that evangelical
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Christianity in America bears a unique responsibility To demonstrate this reconciliation with our
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African African American brothers and sisters We deny that any church can accept racial prejudice discrimination or division without betraying the gospel and I'm not gonna comment on that article necessarily, but that I just want to give you the information that that's the article that they think
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Justifies what they've done in T4G and they kind of pass the blame
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They say that well, you know the controversy that's been that surrounded certain things in T4G.
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It's not really them They were they were doing everything in keeping with this article It's it's these critics
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You know, it's it's the the changing political climate and the critics that have arisen because of that.
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It's not them That's that's kind of the message between the lines that you're seeing. Why are they bringing all this stuff up?
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They talk a lot about younger preachers and how excited they are for younger preachers that are up -and -coming But it's it's a weird chord that they strike because you're it's a video about T4G's ending
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It's it's done. It's this is the last one. But hey, we're excited about these really, you know, cool up -and -coming preachers
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I don't know like if they were saying like T4G's going full steam and we got these great up -and -coming preachers
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It would make more sense, but it's ending people aren't coming as much but we're hey, we're really excited about these up -and -coming preachers
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It's a weird court. It's kind of just disjointed. It's not it feels It feels like discord.
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It just feels like you know, it's doesn't belong together those two things They talk about you know
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Some of the people that they're excited to have come speak and it is interesting to me And I'm not telling
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I'm not saying exactly, you know that like I know the reason why but like of course John MacArthur's not there I'm always not even
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I guess gonna be speaking but You do have people like David Platt speaking and and they were very very clear
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David Platt speaking about missions I think that's because when he gave that speech in 2018,
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I think it's 2018 on horrible horrible Message that I consider to have false teaching in it on Social justice and the disparities that exist between white people and black people in the
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United States and how you know, the church is complicit in this and We you know, the church has to people have to repent the church is guilty somehow, you know that that whole speech was very controversial
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Let justice roll down it was called and so They don't mention that message, but they do say
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They do emphasize that David Platt's going to be speaking on missions and they don't they don't really do that for some of the other Speakers, so I thought that was interesting.
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It just shows me they're very sensitive right now And they're very aware of the fact that they've they have critics mark ever even said it, you know, he knows he has critics and so T4g is ending in this climate where they say well, it's ending because you know
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We always knew it would end and you know There was going to be less interest and it's really just so stressful to to do these conferences
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I'm sure that's all true, but When you listen to the whole half an hour, you kind of start to realize
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Wait a minute in this whole discussion about it ending there's an awful lot of defensiveness an awful lot of insecurity an awful lot of Bringing up controversies from years past and it makes you think that that has something to do with it
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That's connected to it in some way. The social justice issue Is connected with the ending of t4g the together for the gospel conferences in some ways so here's the the interesting way the gospel coalition is kind of Interpreting this
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Colin Hansen wrote an article about this whole thing and his point is basically if I could just summarize to give the point is that The gospel coalition is ending because there's all these political
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Disagreements going on and people who are Christians feel more at home with those In that agree with them politically than they do other
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Reformed brothers and sisters in Christ and he kind of Talks about this as if he's not really part of that.
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He's he's an observer of this This is just kind of kind of something to lament in some ways It's kind of a negative thing, but it it really strikes a sour note that you know
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This is not you know, God used it, but that you know, this is the end of an era This is the end of a movement.
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So Stephen Wolfe on Twitter Put this out there The the great irony here is that Colin Hansen is one of the top five people most responsible
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For the current divisions in evangelicalism. This is how elites perpetuate their status their own failures are repackaged as as tutelary instructions for the masses
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Stephen Wolfe was blocked by the gospel coalition for posting this blocked and You know,
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I don't I haven't done a lot of work on Colin Hansen But I he was the one that was basically saying Christians were racist or at least insinuating it
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Because of Trump support that kind of thing so he got right into that political mire and Yet then he turns around and as if he's kind of separated from that says well as you know these political disagreements are ending this great thing that We had for some time and If you look at the panels at t4g
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Even the panels show that there's such an awareness of this the topics are things like, you know how and I'm paraphrasing because I don't have it right in front of me, but Topics on critical race theory.
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There's I think a panel on that. They have one on there's a session on how to basically be a pastor in this politicized age and I want you to think about what's missing from this what's missing from all of this
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What's the thing that just seems like what's what's why does this feel off? It feels way off to me
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I don't think I'm alone in that. Why does it feel off? I think one of the reasons is because t4g
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Was supposed to be in theory something that was focused on God Theology the gospel very focused on on God on those things and And what the focus seems to be in this video with Dever and Duncan and Colin Hanson's kind of Looking back at t4g and interpreting why it's ending the focus seems to be on Themselves.
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It's very much on Kind of their reputations the there's there's like kind of a bitterness that's going on there and You just you don't get the sense that this is a movement that is
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Really focused on the Lord anymore. It's It's kind of in the mire itself and you would think
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I would think for a movement that's having its last conference The focus would be look at all the positive things that God's done
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Like let's just make this a celebration of everything, but they're not going out that way maybe there will be some of that but they're going out with a
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Kind of let let's get this is our last opportunity to really like defend what we did here and really
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You know kind of maneuver again somehow maneuver Ourselves into this position where we're not really responsible for the downfall of this we are
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It's it's the critics. It's other people. It's passing the buck. It's focused on defending oneself and It's it's extremely sad to me because right now in our context the great thing we need is courage, okay it's in realville where the most of us live where there's very scary things happening a totalitarian government that is even denying religious exemptions and exerting such authority over the church and You know even some of the men even speaking at t4g where we went to BLM styled
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Rallies while their churches were closed because of kovat. I mean there's utter hypocrisy going on This is the time to to make a stand
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This is the time to acknowledge what's happening to real people in in church in churches to acknowledge
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The pressure coming from even the Biden administration on Christian colleges and ministries colleges in particular when it comes to the
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LGBT requirements and all of that non supposedly, you know non -discrimination requirements It's the time to look around us and Take note of what actually is going on and then help people help those in the pews.
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They need answers They need to be able to think through these things they need someone who has wisdom and knows what to do and can think biblically and is willing to take risks and is willing to take stands and can acknowledge the elephant in the room and Winsomeness is not the virtue.
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It's not really a virtue anyways, but it's not the virtue we need right now That's more of a personality trait
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We need virtue We need character people willing to suffer deprivation people who don't care if they're called all kinds of horrible names because truth is important and defending the true gospel is important and defending the law of God is important and standing up to the bullies who are standing who themselves are aligned against those things is important and Sticking up for your brothers and sisters who have the steamroller of the state running right over them is important I'd like to suggest that for all the talk about relevance and winsomeness
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T4g and this goes for the gospel coalition and as well. They are not relevant and they have been anything but winsome
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It has been and this is my opinion here It has been a failure as Far if that was the goal to be relevant and to give people these great resources
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They've for the most part failed in that now. I'm not saying there haven't been good messages at t4g
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I'm not saying that there weren't maybe some good things and connections made because of t4g I'm saying though as a whole as as it's ending and you look back at this movement.
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It is very sad how it's ending and There's really not a whole lot to show we sit in the ruins of What was reformed
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Christianity 15 years ago 10 years ago even and there's it's a it's a sad commentary on our state and I Hope that there are some and I know there are but I hope that there are some brave courageous young preachers out there who are
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Not willing to apologize for any part of what the Bible says about anything and will stand up for the truth and Will help the people that actually need the help the real flesh and blood people in their pews and I hope that that is what takes the place of things like t4g because if you are going to t4g looking for answers
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To the questions of the day real answers for real people. My prediction is you're not going to find much and I Even though this is the last one you'd think there'd be a whole big crowd coming out for the last time
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My prediction is it probably won't be that big and that's I think that so many of these speakers have in the minds of the lame many layman been compromised and Many of the heavy hitters that would probably normally be there are not there
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It I just don't know that this is going to be a big thing, but I could be wrong But that's my prediction those are my thoughts on this and my encouragement is
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Follow Christian leaders who have courage who have faith and courage
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They are willing to stand alone if necessary, but they know that Standing with the
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Lord is better than seeking the approval of men And that's what we need right now. So I hope that Satisfies those who wanted me to comment on it
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That's my thought and hey, you can let me know what you think but put your comment in the info section
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Maybe I'm wrong on something. Maybe Maybe I'm missing something in all of this and I I need to see where I aired
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So you can even put a critique in there, but but I don't think so I think I think I'm on the right track on this one
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Anyway, that's my assessment. God bless hope to meet some of you on the road if possible if you're in the area and More coming