February 29, 2024 Show with Dr. Joseph C. Morecraft III on “The Dangers of Hero Worship in the Christian Life”

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth.

We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, for our leap year edition of Iron Sharpens Iron.

It's Thursday, February 29th, 2024. And first of all,

I want to thank my dear friends, Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries and Pastor Keith Foskey of Sovereign Grace Family Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

I was alerted a day or two ago by one of my Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners about a podcast that was conducted live on site in Tullahoma, Tennessee, at the recent

Open Air Theology Conference in Tullahoma that featured both Dr.

James White and Pastor Keith Foskey on a long roster of speakers. And I was told by this listener that Dr.

White and Pastor Keith were raving about me and Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

I listened to the episode, and I can say that I was blown away by the accolades

I was receiving from these two men and their promotion of the show. And I just want to thank them for that.

You can hear that on the episode of Keith Foskey's podcast called

Talking Calvinism with James White. And you could fast forward until 13 minutes into the show where they start raving about me, and then you can turn it off.

I'm only kidding. Listen to the whole thing. Anyway, today

I'm thrilled to have back on the program one of my very favorite guests who is also, without question, one of the very favorite guests of many of my listeners in growing numbers from what

I hear in their praise reports back to me about my guest. But his name is no stranger to the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience. It is Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III, and he is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, author of the eight -volume commentary on the

Westminster Larger Catechism titled Authentic Christianity, and a regularly featured guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

And we are going to be discussing something very important on the heels of the recent controversy featuring

Alistair Begg, where many of Pastor Begg's loyal supporters are defending him tooth and nail over his recommendation to a grandmother during a podcast to attend a transgendered wedding.

And that's an oxymoron, obviously, because there is no such thing. But he urged his grandmother to attend her grandson's transgendered wedding, and that really created a firestorm.

I conducted an interview in response to this with Dr.

M .D. Nelson, who has not only written on the subject of homosexuality, but is on the staff with the

American Family Association, and their radio network removed Alistair from their lineup because Alistair refused to repent over this.

And there was an avalanche of complaints that I received for airing that interview, and people were very upset over the positions taken by my guest and myself, and also over anyone who was critical of what

Pastor Begg did. And therefore, I contacted my friend

Dr. Moorcraft to do a follow -up program on the dangers of hero worship in the

Christian life, properly revering heroes of the faith without overlooking their sins, and denying

Solus Christus and Solus Scriptura. It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron, Sharp, and Zion Radio, Dr.

Joe Moorcraft. I love being on your program. Well, first of all, tell our listeners about Heritage Presbyterian Church, Cumming, Georgia.

We are a small and growing congregation in Cumming, Georgia, which is the county seat at Forsyth County, a bedroom county to Atlanta, Georgia.

We are thoroughly committed to the Westminster Confession of Faith, to the inerrancy of Scripture, and to the carrying out of the

Great Commission. Our church is involved in all kinds of evangelistic and world mission activity, and we just wish we had more money so that we could be involved in even more opportunities.

Our people come from all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of places, and they are thoroughly committed to the

Reformed faith. So it's a pleasure, again, to be on your show. Well, I thank from the very bottom of my heart you, your lovely wife

Becky, and everyone at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia for being longtime generous financial supporters of this program.

Even though you are a small congregation, you're one of our largest financial supporters, and I can never thank you enough for that.

It's a pleasure and an honor too, brother. And for anybody who wants more details about Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, go to HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com,

HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. And if you want to find out more about Dr.

Moore Craft's eight -volume commentary on the larger Westminster Catechism called

Authentic Christianity, you can go to WestminsterCommentary .com,

WestminsterCommentary .com, and we'll be repeating that information later on.

So I'm assuming that you agree with me, since you are eagerly accepted my invitation to discuss this topic today.

I'm assuming you agree with me that there is a danger of hero worship that exists in our day where people overlook very serious mistakes, errors, and sins of their heroes, and that really sets a precedent for other

Christians and churches and denominations to start following those very bad mistakes and agreeing with them.

And I'm assuming you adamantly oppose Elister Begg's recommendation to this grandmother to attend her grandson's so -called transgendered wedding.

There are many serious problems within reform pulpits, problems that are related but all different kinds.

And I want to make sure to distinguish the kind of problems that we're talking about.

Every reform pulpit has a problem because the pastor is a sinner. And I'm a sinner.

I make mistakes. I don't do it intentionally. I could improve at everything that I'm doing.

So this is not to say that there's such a thing as a perfect preacher, but it is to say that there are some disappointing things in allegedly conservative and reformed churches,

Baptists and Presbyterian particularly. And they're because of a variety of reasons.

One reason is because some of our pastors do not have discernment.

They can't discern what's good and what's bad, or like Spurgeon said, they can't distinguish between what is right and what is almost right because they do not study the

Word of God as much as they should. There's another problem among reformed preachers, and that is an unbiblical view of tolerance.

Whenever the other side, that is the enemies of the gospel, want to step up their assaults upon the gospel, they'll talk about tolerance.

And like Rushden said, when they start talking about tolerance, it always leads to a new intolerance unless you know what you're doing.

And another thing, and this is what Paul constantly emphasized, and that is we must not be men -pleasers.

Paul says that many times. That we must not be afraid of people, afraid of men, and we must not preach so as to win men's applause and become popular and become celebrities.

And we have today, particularly in reformed pulpits, we have preachers who seem to be more committed to maintaining their celebrity status than to preaching the gospel.

I want to be careful in what I say. I'm not accusing many of these people that I'm concerned about today of heresy and of denying the doctrine of the

Trinity or denying the deity of Christ. I'm not accusing them of anything like that.

I am accusing them of being reckless or careless in their application of the truth that they believe.

They are influenced by the culture in which we live.

They want to maintain a celebrity status in that culture, and so their applications in their sermons don't always fit the doctrines that they profess to believe that they want to please man.

I'll give you the most recent example about one preacher whom

I respect, who I think is a reformed preacher and has preached many good sermons.

I don't think he's a heretic in any sense whatsoever, but I was greatly surprised and disappointed at his application in his sermon and then his doubling down in another sermon in saying that it can be okay for Christians to attend transgender weddings and even take gifts to those weddings.

Now, why would he even say such a thing? I'm sure in his heart of hearts he does not believe that the whole transgender movement is good.

No, he emphatically said that he disagrees with it, believes it's sin, and so on.

Yes, so why would he say something like this? I think he was not thinking straight, and then when he got cornered he had to defend the position that he made for himself.

For instance, like other preachers have pointed out about this man and his comments recently.

As others have pointed out recently, there's something that he overlooked, and that is going to a transgender wedding is going to a place or to any wedding is to celebrate that wedding.

It's a covenant ceremony, and you're not going with any kind of neutral attitude.

You're going to celebrate the covenant making of the two people that are getting married, and I'm sure there's nothing about a transgender wedding that Mr.

Begg can celebrate. So then he went on to defend himself.

He went on to double down, as other people have said.

That I cannot understand. He could have very easily said,

I shouldn't have said what I said on national radio or television.

I'm sorry I said it. Please forgive me. Here's a clearer statement on what

I believe, but he didn't do that. Now, that tells me that he is seeking popularity and celebrity status among the group of people that pretty much control culture today.

And so it worries me when these preachers make mistakes, and all preachers can make mistakes.

We can make doctrinal mistakes. We can make mistakes in our application, but when other brother ministers point out our errors and we don't repent of what we've just said, we may fall into the category of men -pleasers, being more afraid, being more desirous of what men say to us than what the living

God says to us. Now, there are other allegedly Reformed preachers who are extremely dangerous.

They have dangerous doctrine. They make dangerous application because there is a synthesis in their preaching.

They blend the Reformed faith with various other philosophies and various other outlooks that are dominant in that particular culture.

I would hope and pray that Brother Begg has not gone that deep into compromise.

So why does it happen? Why does God let things like this happen in the lives and ministries of men who have been used of God and who are committed to the

Reformed faith? And it's not just that God allows these things to happen.

God plans for them to happen. Like in the book of Corinthians, it says that these divisions and false teachings and misrepresentations and false applications that lead to divisions in the church,

God brings into the life of the church so as to prove and test those who are faithful to see that they are in fact faithful.

Amen. We're always going through tests. All the way back to Abraham, God is always testing us and testing our churches and testing our pulpits to see if we'll be faithful to his word no matter what.

Now what I'm interested in and worried about and I'm worried it's the right word is

I know people in his church. Wow. And I don't know what's going to happen to his church.

Now all these other famous Reformed preachers are coming down hard on him.

All the people in his church have a great respect for these famous Reformed preachers of which

I am not one. But they all have a deep respect for these

Reformed preachers that they put in the same category with Mr.

Biggs. Now what's going to happen? False doctrine, false application, careless application, irresponsible application always cause division in the church.

And now there's great division out there in social media. You have many people and one good thing that's come out is preachers that I didn't think would take a firm stand have taken a firm stand against the applications that Mr.

Biggs has brought out about transgenderism. There's some of these preachers that I mean it's been a great blessing to me to see them take a stand for the truth.

But it's divided. The Reformed faith now with all of its divisions is divided even more among the conservative

Reformed people and the conservative Reformed churches. And now we got people that are more concerned with standing with Biggs or standing against Biggs.

I think he said the wrong thing and I think he should be exposed for that. I think he should not be condemned as a false preacher but I wish and pray earnestly that he would humble himself to say

I'm sorry. I never should have said that. There are things that I overlooked and I deeply repent and ask the forgiveness of the

Christian church. If that doesn't happen with him I'm afraid what's going to happen for his church.

His church, most of his church people I'm sure were shocked and I'm sure most of them disagreed with him but they also love him.

They also see him like you say as a hero. He's one of the famous Reformed preachers.

Now what? Now what are these hundreds of people in his church going to do when their hero stands against the position of historic, biblical,

Reformed Christianity? They got to make a choice. They either say we must dilute what we've said all along or else be identified as Pharisees.

And so Mr. Begg and others use events in the life of Jesus makes them completely out of context and uses them to show that those people that disagree with him are

Pharisees or are the older brother in the prodigal son parable.

Now so that's going to alienate even more, divide even more

Reformed churches. So this attempt to make an application and now to defend himself is splitting the

Reformed church. And we have to go to our first commercial break and if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question our email address is

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com

Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

U .S .A. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter and a topic like this

I believe could easily lend itself to evoking personal and private questions so we will honor your request to remain anonymous.

But please, once again, if it's a general question give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

We'll be right back with Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III right after these messages, so please do not go away.

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I want to admit a mistake of my own earlier on in the program. I believe

I accidentally misnamed a guest that I had on to give the first response to Alistair Begg's horrible counsel to the grandmother who he told to attend a transgendered so -called wedding of her grandson.

That guest was M .D. Perkins. I believe I said M .D. Nelson for some reason. But M .D.

Perkins, P -E -R -K -I -N -S, who is the author of Dangerous Affirmation, the

Threat of Gay Christianity. And I've interviewed Dr.

Perkins twice, so you could go to my archive at ironsharpensironradio .com

and listen to both of those interviews. One was on November 16th of 2023 on his book

Dangerous Affirmation, The Threat of Gay Christianity. The second time was on January 30th of 2024 on a response and loving rebuke to Alistair Begg.

So that name is spelled P -E -R -K -I -N -S and you could type it into the search engine to find those interviews at ironsharpensironradio .com.

But this is a serious issue, is it not, Dr. Moorcraft, because most

Christians, and perhaps especially Reformed Christians, we recoil with horror, at least many of us.

There's far too much ecumenism going on between Reformed or so -called

Reformed Christians and the Church of Rome. But many of us recoil with horror when we see the blatant idolatry of Roman Catholics kneeling before statues and praying to them and kissing them and treating them with no less adoration than they offer to God himself despite their protests that they are not worshiping these things.

But we recoil in horror and we can plainly see that that is idolatry. And yet many of us are blind to our own idolatry.

In fact, every time we sin, we are holding something as an idol, perhaps unconsciously, because we are preferring that person or thing over Christ and his will for our lives.

And it seemed to me that the responses I was getting to the Alistair Begg programs, the programs that I conducted rebuking

Alistair Begg, it seemed to me that people were responding in a way that they never would have if it was

Joel Olsteen, for instance, who had made the recommendation. Perhaps you could pick up where I left off there.

Yes, that is true. And what's amazing to me is that the thing that I would ask now is what's next?

Where do we go now? We tell people they may go to celebrate transgender weddings and take a gift.

Transgenderism is not a sickness. Those who desire transgenderism are people who are self -consciously in defiant rebellion against God.

And they, like God says in the first couple chapters of Romans, that when a culture gives itself to sexual perversion, it is the end of that culture.

It's the burning out of that culture. And as God says three times in those chapters,

I give them up. I give them up. I give them up.

I'm through with them. A culture that condones sexual perversion and defiance of God and the defacing and deforming of the image of God in man and the attempt to escape reality, it's a vain thing.

He that sits in the heavens laughs with scoff in his laughter that a man will never be a woman.

It's impossible for a woman ever to be a man. But this is a blatant attempt to break free from God in their own language, to break free from the chains that God holds them down with.

And if there's any issue that a preacher must be clear on, it's this issue.

We've got to take a stand on things, and we've got to make sure that our stand on those things is thoroughly biblical.

The line has been drawn. We are in a war, just like Jehovah was in a war against the gods of Egypt and against Pharaoh and against the religions of Egypt.

We are in a war against this culture in which we live that is in a blatant rebellion against God.

We cannot appear to be neutral. We cannot appear to be uncertain.

There are certain people's feelings that we will hurt. The gospel is a scandal, and the cross is a scandal to those that are in rebellion against God.

And if there's any time that the Reformed Church should stand firm in unity in the truth and in the application of the truth, it is now.

And now our churches are confused. There'll be people to leave that church.

There'll be people that will stand with Beg because they don't like what people are saying about him.

And where the Holy Spirit has worked, there's unity, and unity in the truth.

Where there's disunity and division, there's a breakdown in truth, and there's an absence of the

Holy Spirit's work. I mean, this isn't any little thing. He brought up the prodigal son and the father of the prodigal son, accepting the prodigal son, welcoming him with open arms.

He did after the prodigal son repented and came back home to the father.

I mean, he's having to go against his conscience, and now he's leading his people to go against the conscience, and other preachers will stand with him.

I'll tell you the worst. I hope nobody ever says about me, but I actually had one preacher said, and I think this is going too far, but nevertheless, you see the nature of things.

I had heard one preacher actually say that Alistair Beg is the new

Andy Stanley. And we are seeing in this battle right now the diluting of the

Reformed faith. You'd expect liberals to act like this. You'd expect people like Tim Keller, except now he's in heaven and knows better, to act like this.

But when people that you trust and who earnestly preach the faith stand for perversion, it shows you how far our culture has fallen into this evil culture.

If this is true in Reformed churches, if Reformed churches cannot stand steadfastly for biblical ethics and doctrines, we have no reason to expect that any of these evangelicals or any of these other churches will do anything other than give in as well.

So I don't think this is a little thing. My heart breaks over this, and we must stand firm or sink.

Amen. And we do have a listener question for you from Cindy in Findlay, Ohio.

And Cindy says, Good evening, Pastor Moorcraft and Chris.

I would like to mention, as I do every time you are a guest, that you are one of my favorite guests on Chris's show.

I have listened to Alistair Beg daily for the past four or five years since becoming

Reformed. I don't think his purpose in supporting and encouraging attending homosexual or transgender wedding ceremonies has anything to do with his attempting to preserve his celebrity status.

I truly think he has a sincere desire to love people, including homosexuals and transgenders.

I personally think there are many ways to do this without violating

Scripture, and we must do so since we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I also must say that I absolutely disagree with his advice and was a bit offended when he labeled those like me who disagree with him as Pharisees.

The prodigal son story and the Jesus eating with sinners story were seriously incorrectly applied to this situation.

I have 11 grandchildren. When they are of age, if any of them would ask me to ride along in the back seat of a getaway car while they rob the bank,

I would decline and firmly correct them, explaining to them how it violates

Scripture and the clear teachings of God. There is no debate necessary.

I wouldn't consider this offense as egregious as the one that Alistair recommended. To sum it up, it may be true in some cases, but I do not think in the case of Alistair that it is an issue of maintaining a celebrity status.

I truly believe he wants to show love to this segment of society as misplaced as his desire may be.

One thing I'd like to say before I forget to, before Dr. Moorcraft responds, one thing that Alistair and those who defend him seem to not consider seriously, in all this talk about Alistair recommending a grandmother to do a so -called act of love to a transgendered person by showing up at a wedding, and I don't believe that is an act of love, but with all this focus on the person, the transgendered person, what about all those people that may be in that so -called transgendered person's life who are devastated that he's getting married to a person of the same gender, and what kind of an act of love is attending the wedding to those people?

What kind of an act of love is it to everyone who had prayed that this person would repent? But I'll let you pick up where I left off there.

Well, you see, that is it, that to say that what he's recommending is an act of love is to say that what

I'm recommending is not, and so it's this whole understanding of love and acceptance of evil that is at stake, that it is saying in this culture we must be loving and we must be tolerant, and we must be compassionate with those that are struggling with transgenderism.

I think the thing to bear in mind is that they're not struggling with transgenderism.

They're in rebellion against God, and an act of love would be to invite them to our church, to preach the gospel to them, to try our best to lead them out of the perversion they're into, to get them to repent, to show them just how evil and wicked, pernicious, dangerous, deadly what they're doing is because you don't just commit one sin.

You just don't make one doctrinal mistake, and so once you start making mistakes in the application of the

Bible to culture, you're going to make more, and this has gone from transgenderism to now a battle over who's showing compassion and who's not.

That brings an even greater division within the Christian church.

It is to say that only those that are willing to celebrate transgender weddings are being compassionate, and I mean, it continues to deepen and to worsen, and we get farther and farther away from the

Reformed faith. Like I said a while ago, what's next? Where do we go from here?

Why does somebody who has known the truth take such an arrogant stand for this new and unbiblical view when he says,

I'm not ready to repent. Why would anybody say that?

I'm not ready to repent of my decision, or those who disagree with me are

Pharisees. Why would somebody say that about brothers and sisters who stood with him in the faith and biblical ethics for years and years?

Yep, on the same platforms at conferences and promoting his books.

He's limiting his ministry, if not ending it. Yep, and by the way,

I want to make it clear that Cindy in Findley, Ohio, agrees with us that his counsel was very wrong.

She just does not believe his motivation was maintaining a celebrity status, but in one sense, that doesn't matter.

We're not mind readers, but not only was his counsel grievous and egregious, his doubling down on it perhaps was even more so, even defying the godly counsel of friends and peers in the ministry.

But I want to remind our listeners that I am primarily conducting today's show not to focus on the flaws of Alistair Begg, but to have our listeners examine their own hearts and minds and lives, perhaps especially those that are continuing to defend

Alistair Begg so vociferously and tenaciously, but it could be anything else.

It doesn't have to be Alistair Begg that they're defending. Anything that they are so attached to that it really clouds their discernment in a very dangerous way, and even as I originally titled this theme, that this could wind up causing people to deny

Solus Christus and Solus Scriptura, people who are not putting

Christ first in their faith, and also allowing the thoughts and teachings of men to stand as a higher standard than the

Bible itself. Am I going overboard by saying that, Dr. Moorcraft, in your opinion? Not in my opinion, and also, what about our children and grandchildren that are in his church and that are hearing things like this, and then they go out in the world and they hear the world confirm the very same things?

What do we say to our children and our grandchildren? Is it okay to celebrate perversion sometimes but not all the time?

I mean, this is right at the heart of everything we're fighting against in this culture, and I pray earnestly that Brother Begg would see the division and the confusion and would come to his senses and would repent and would humble himself and would return to preaching what he once preached.

He does in so many other areas, but ethics is so important in this culture.

And we have to go to our midway break right now, Brother, so you can pick up where you left off. We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors, so please do not go away.

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Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,

Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio listener here in Atai, in County Kildare, Ireland, going back to 2005.

One of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpen's Iron is Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, Dr.

Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr.

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Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the

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Always mentioning that you heard about them from Chris Orensen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before I return to Dr. Joseph C.

Moorcraft III and our discussion on the dangers of hero worship

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and put I need a church in the subject line that's also the email address to send in a question to Dr. Joseph C.

Morkref III chrisarendsen at gmail .com give us your first name at least city and state and country of residence did you want to pick up where you left off Dr.

Morkref? yes a couple of other things one is concerning the impact this is going to have on young preachers that are not famous that pastor small churches and that have preachers like Mr.

Begg as heroes what are they going to do? a lot of them will be influenced by these guys to weaken their stand against the evil of our culture

I mean a Christian preacher he's really affected when he's accused of not being loving

I mean not being compassionate that makes a big impact on him and so when you have a famous preacher saying people that disagree with his application of the word of God are unloving they don't want to be unloving they want to reach our culture they want to reach transgender people for Christ so they're going to water down their particular stand and take a similar stand to some of these celebrity preachers because they respect them and so the dilution of the reformed faith continues one other thing is my advice to the members of Brother Begg's church like I say

I know I have some friends that go there and my advice to you is this do not leave the church do not leave the church even if you're very angry at what he is saying right now trust the

Holy Spirit of God to change his mind most of his sermons are going to be full of truth they're going to be edifying there's probably nobody in that city that will preach more of the truth than him so I don't recommend that you leave the church over this

I recommend that you pray for him that you and your family regularly cry out to God for your pastor that you have groups in your church meet together and have

Bible studies and earnestly and sincerely with an attitude of love towards your pastor pray that God would change his heart

Amen and get the elders there's elders in the church surely the elders don't agree with him get the elders to take a firm stand against him in the church saying we do not agree with our pastor whom we love and so the elders can can stop the bleeding in that church if they would take a strong faithful stand so the issue is pray get the elders to be good shepherds and it is my prayer and hope that Brother Begg would repent and not just him but of these other preachers who make such weak applications of the gospel

I know of one allegedly reformed preacher who was so concerned to be accepted by the progressives in the political world that he recommended on television that people sell all their guns and give their money to missionaries now that was really stupid it was not only stupid why would a preacher say that?

you know I think the only people the only people who would listen the only people who would listen to that are those that don't have guns to begin with yeah that may be true and so preachers have got to be careful they're dealing with the souls of men and women and particularly the reformed preachers out there who are even more accountable and they've got to be careful on how they apply the word of God and they've got to do it fearlessly they've got to do it in such a way that it's a savor of life unto life to some and a savor of death unto death unto others and when it quits being a savor of death unto death to some it stops being a savor of life unto life to others we're talking about a very serious thing here we have a question from Morty Morty and Morty lives in Flowery Branch, Georgia that's about five minutes from where I live oh wow okay well

Morty if you haven't already please pay a visit to Heritage Presbyterian Church Cumming, Georgia especially if you don't have a biblically sound church where you're a member already but even if you are a member you can visit the church there's nothing wrong with that Morty wants to know that he asked the question it is likely that most people who are idolizing their heroes to the point of actually committing idolatry are unconscious of this do you have any steps that every

Christian should take when they are examining their own minds, hearts, and lives to see if they are guilty of lifting up a hero in the faith far too high very good question

I think heroes godly heroes in the

Christian faith are important you remember you and I had a two, three, four week series on it very important I have all kinds of heroes in the

Christian faith but make sure that the heroes have the qualities of heroes make sure they're godly make sure they're holy make sure they are inflexibly committed to the preaching and teaching of the word of God and so just continue to encourage if a pastor starts to go down a blind trail if he starts to compromise tell him tell him you're praying for him tell him you think he's making some big mistakes going in the direction he's going don't be afraid to tell him those things he's not

God and your comments can change the direction of his ministry and of your church and have a major influence in the war we're fighting with humanism so the members of the church have got to be courageous and they must follow the preacher when he's right and not be afraid to call his hand when he's wrong and the standard by which you tell the difference is the word of God so you've got to be a faithful diligent student of the word of God yourself and ask yourself the question what does the word of God teach about sexual perversion what is the word of God teach about transgenderism and trying to escape the gender that God has made you in what does

God the word say about this culture in its blatant attempt to escape the commands of God and then stand firm for the truth no matter what the call no matter what your preacher says about you and you may be the one person that can have the changing influence on your pastor's life

Amen and by the way since the Bible doesn't specifically address transgenderism couldn't we rightly say that if the

Bible condemns even wearing the clothing of a person of the opposite gender how on earth could it be a blessing people who go to the lengths of having hormonal, chemical and surgical methods of trying to change their gender obviously you and I know that it is impossible to change somebody's gender but to make themselves look more like the opposite gender if the clothing is even prohibited how on earth could anybody think that something more

Right, plus the Bible forbids any unnecessary defacing of the human body

That's right and so it's more it's more than sexual

I'm not satisfied with what God has made of me and so I'm going to be the

God of my life and make myself into what I want to be I mean it is an issue of rebellion not just an issue of sex and we have

Phillip in Muleshoe, Texas and Phillip asks

Don't we in the Reformed community often revere our heroes too highly and follow in their footsteps with theological choices that we make not because we find them in the

Bible but because our hero either from the past or present either did or does these things you know that's an excellent question from Phillip in Muleshoe, Texas and this is going to be a sensitive thing here

I'm going to bring up because my brother and friend who's my guest today is a Pato Baptist I'm a

Credo Baptist and I believe that it is a serious error for anybody to for instance change their view of baptism just because their heroes believed and practiced a certain

That's exactly right I'll tell you a story you'll appreciate There was a young Reformed Baptist preacher good friend of mine, great guy who read through the eight volumes of my commentary in one summer the only person

I know that's ever done it and he was a Reformed Baptist and he read the chapter particularly the chapter on infant baptism and he said,

Pastor Moorcraft what you said about infant baptism in your commentary was pretty convincing he said but I don't want to believe in infant baptism just because you do and I don't want to believe in Credo baptism just because my daddy does

I said, you're in a hard place, buddy Yeah, we who say we believe in Sola Scriptura really have to put our money where the mouth is as they say and make sure that we are convinced of Scripture of anything that we believe

I had a young man that wanted to marry my daughter my youngest daughter and he was a

Reformed Baptist and so I gave him some books to read on infant baptism because I knew he was a strong Calvinist but I wanted him to be a

Christian so he took me out to eat to ask me if he could marry my daughter and I said, well, let's talk about infant baptism and he said, well,

I used to not believe in it but after talking to you and reading all your books you gave us, I now believe in it

I said, that's good, but why do you believe in it? If you believe in it just to get the girl it doesn't count and so we must not follow no matter how much we respect or love a man we must not follow him simply because we love him but we must always follow the word of God wherever it leads us

So where is this young man buried? I'm only kidding He married my daughter

I believe in it now because of the word of God I said, okay, that counts So anyway, the point is

I'm tempted, I'm sure you are I'm tempted, there's a lot of great men in the past that I love and respect and can't get enough of and I'm often tempted to believe what they say simply because they said it without looking at the word of God which is always sinful

Yes, and I have a very close friend who swore she was a pre -tribulational dispensationalist and the answer when we would have conversations always wound up with well, that's

John MacArthur's view and I can't see any reason why I should disagree with a great man like that I said, really?

Are you kidding me? I said, if you told that to John MacArthur I'm sure he would be upset and by the way

I want to let you know that today she is a theonomic post -millennialist

That's great, bless her heart and great men of God were used to bring her to that position but it was the scriptural evidence they gave that led her to that I tell my church often

I say, if you believe what you believe because it is the Westminster Confession of Faith your house is built on sand

There you go that you must build your house upon a solid foundation of rock

Amen which is the word of God and in fact, that's even coming from you, who wrote an eight -volume commentary in the larger catechism

That's exactly correct and so I would hope that the people in these churches where these pastors are compromising on things would recognize the compromise and if the pastors preach the truth to confront them lovingly and firmly instead passively and call them to repentance

We have an anonymous listener who says,

I fear that my pastor is guilty of hero worship not that he is idolizing great men of either the past or the present but he seems to be idolizing his own mind and his own opinions because he very rarely will quote from or cite a great hero of the faith or a commentary and seems to think he is too wise in his understanding to need those things

Isn't that also equally a danger in the same category? That is a wise observation and the answer to that particularly in the

Reformed faith you have Reformed preachers who idolize their own mind and themselves and a preacher must constantly bring himself under the judgment of the word of God and humble himself to realize that he can make mistakes that he's not perfect and that he must constantly bring himself under the discipline and judgment of the word of God So, whoever asked that question that is a very wise observation particularly among young preachers

Young preachers sometimes who do a lot of reading who have a lot of books who've listened to a lot of tapes have a far more high view of their own mind than they ought to have

Amen and I would pray that that the young preachers listening that would listen to that particular question and search their own souls and make sure they're not idolizing themselves and thinking that what they believe is the final word on anything

Amen There is a question from Sally in Seaford, Long Island, New York and Sally says

Do you have any anecdotal evidence since you've been a pastor for many years of reaching the heart of someone who you believed was guilty of the idolatry of a hero and you saw them reach a point where it dawned on them where they turned around and repented and acknowledged that fact

Yes sir, I've seen those times and I think a person must be if there's a great

Calvinist that somebody really appreciates and is benefited by even to the point of idolatry and you see it the first thing

I would do if the old guy is really a Calvinist is read his writings learn from him realize that he is one of the giants of the faith and tell your friend that you fully appreciate the things that you have learned from him and you pray that you would always follow the scriptures and not just where he would lead so if you're going to get anywhere with somebody that worships a great

Calvinist of the past you must first of all make sure that you read that guy and that you have allowed him to make a great influence on you and then tell your friend

I don't worship him I don't believe what he believes because he believes it

I have studied him and his writings in comparison with the word of God and it's obvious to me that he follows that word more than the will of man

Amen and by the way I've got a note I usually don't give the full names of people but in this case it's a pastor that I've heard great things about Tim Crockett who is the pastor of Bible Way Baptist Church in Worcester Massachusetts once a free will believing independent fundamentalist

KJV only anti -Calvinist Pastor Crockett says

Dr. Moorecraft's series on the Synod of Dort was excellent and I'm wondering what he meant by series do you know what he is specifically referring to sermon series perhaps

A series on what did he say Synod of Dort I've got thousands of series On the

Synod of Dort Sir The Synod of Dort Oh the

Synod of Dort So he wants to know what my opinion is of the Synod of Dort No no he was just bragging about how excellent your series on the

Synod of Dort was Oh well thank you very much Synod of Dort was a great historical moment in the history of the church

Let me just play on the back of that The Synod S -Y -N -O -D same thing as assembly was a meeting of all the reformed people of Europe in 1619 the only reformed preachers that couldn't come were from France and the

Catholic government would let them come but there were reformed preachers from every country on Europe and they represented the heart and soul of Protestantism and they brought before them some people who were following the writings of a man named

Jacob Harmonson we know as Arminian Arminius and they were following him and they were denying the basic principles of the reformed faith so the entire reformed world at the

Synod of Dort called these men on the carpet gave them the opportunity to defend themselves and then condemned what they preached condemned what they wrote expelled them from the churches now what's amazing is the

Synod of Dort condemned these men for believing doctrines that are the most popular doctrines among evangelicalism today in the 21st century wow so in the 1619 the whole reformed world condemned the teachings of these men that are now accepted by most people in the

West today and what also is amazing since you brought it up what also is amazing is that what most evangelicals believe today is the theology of medieval

Catholicism and so between medieval

Catholicism and the Arminianism of the 16th century you have you have a description of what evangelicals today believe that's why it is so absolutely important for reformed men to stand in the pulpit and not compromise the exposition or the application of the reformed faith our mutual friend

Bill Shishko pastor of the Haven Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Comack, Long Island he has said that much of modern evangelicalism is nothing more than non -liturgical

Roman Catholicism how true is that and we have to go to our final break if you have a question that you'd like to ask

Dr. Moorcraft send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time chrisarnson at gmail .com

give us your first name at least city and state and country of residence we'll be right back please do not go away

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Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com Rebinding .com proclaim Christ Jesus the

King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond.

I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as I have.

For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

I'm Brian McLaughlin, president of the SecureCom group and an enthusiastic supporter of Chris Arnson's Iron Sharpens Iron radio program.

The SecureCom group provides the highest level of security, closed -circuit television, access control and communication systems for Manhattan's top residential buildings, as well as churches, commercial properties, municipalities and more.

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For more details on how the SecureCom group may be of service to you with the very latest in security innovations, call 718 -353 -3355.

That's 718 -353 -3355. Or visit

SecureComGroup .com. That's SecureComGroup .com.

This is Brian McLaughlin of the SecureCom Group, joining Chris Arnzen's family of advertisers to keep

Iron Sharpens Iron radio on the air. Puritan Reformed is a

Bible -believing, kingdom -building, devil -fighting church. We are devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in Scripture alone.

Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image -bearing prophets, priests and kings.

We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline and exalt

Christ. This is Pastor David Reis of Puritan Reformed in Phoenix, Arizona.

Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

Puritan Reformed Church. Believe. Build. Fight. PuritanPHX .com.

Welcome back. And folks, I want to remind you that Iron Sharpens Iron radio is paid for in part by my dear friend,

Dan Buttafuoco, attorney at law, has been a friend and brother in Christ going back to the early 1990s and financially supporting nearly every single major public ministry endeavor

I have ever set my hand to do, even long before I had this radio program. But he is a very generous financial supporter of Iron Sharpens Iron radio.

And if you are ever the victim of a serious personal injury or medical malpractice anywhere in the

United States, please call Dan at 1 -800 -NOW -HURT, 1 -800 -NOW -HURT, or visit his website 1 -800 -NOW -HURT .com.

Also, if, oh, by the way, mention Iron Sharpens Iron radio, and that goes with all of our advertisers, make sure you always mention

Iron Sharpens Iron radio. Another thing I want to remind you about, if you are a man in ministry leadership, you are invited to my next free biannual

Iron Sharpens Iron radio pastor's luncheon on Thursday, June the 6th, 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, and that is in Perry County, Pennsylvania.

Not only is admission free and you're food free and your time of fun, fellowship, rest, and relaxation, and also hearing an edifying and powerful message free, everybody is going to be receiving a very heavy sack of free brand -new books personally selected by me and donated by generous

Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom. And this June 6th, for the very first time, we have as our speaker

Dr. Joel Beeky, author, conference speaker, and founder and president of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

If you'd like to register for this free event, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

and put pastor's luncheon in the subject line. I also want to invite you to an event where I am going to be the emcee.

It is a fundraising gala for the school operated by the church where I was a former member on Long Island, New York before I moved to Pennsylvania, Grace Reform Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York.

Their school is Grace Christian Academy of Long Island, a classical Christian school, and I am going to be the emcee for their fundraising gala on Friday, March 15th in Baldwin, Long Island, New York at the

Coral House Catering Hall, and that name may sound familiar to many of us, many of you I should say, in the audience because that's where the great debate series that I arranged starting in the mid -90s with Dr.

James R. White and Roman Catholic opponents, the first several of the great debates were held at the

Coral House. With the keynote speaker at this gala is my friend Dr.

Ernie Zara who is an educator, an author, and so if you'd like to attend this event go to gcali .com,

that's gca which stands for Grace Christian Academy, li for Long Island, dot com.

We're now back with Dr. Joseph Moorcraft and we have

Haley in Badger, South Dakota, and Haley says, would you agree with me that Reformed Christians tend to very often be guilty of the sin of idolatry when it comes to our denominations and sometimes we do not give any love, warmth, or respect to brothers and sisters in Christ who are outside of our denominational circles?

Yeah, I agree with that, but I don't think it's exclusive to Reformed people, but if you could comment on that, Dr. Moorcraft.

Yeah, I think that is true. I don't think it's true everywhere. I think that it's important that we love everybody who professes the name of Jesus Christ and who believes the

Word of God, whether they're Calvinist or Arminian or whatever, that if they love

Christ and believe His Word, there are brothers and sisters. I think that sometimes when

Calvinist people stand firm for the truth that is misunderstood by other people as being cultic, as being sectarian, and we're not sectarian.

We don't believe in that any one denomination is a perfect denomination.

We believe that all churches are to commit themselves to the Word of God, and we are to be particularly committed to the

Word of God. In this world today, we've got to be careful as to when we're tolerant that there's sometimes we shouldn't be tolerant.

We've got to be careful about that, but the person that asked the question asked a good question.

Whether it's true of many Reformed people or not, if we leave that impression, then we've got to change our behavior to make sure we're not misleading people.

Amen. And while I do not believe that we as Reformed Christians corner the market on this with any stretch of the imagination—I think people of all theological persuasions can be and are guilty of this—the difference is that theologically

Reformed Christians have the least excuse, because our doctrines are supposed to humble us to the very dust of the earth.

That's exactly right. And if our doctrines make us proud, we don't understand

Calvinism, because if we're Calvinists, it is only because a sovereign

God has bent down and let us know the truth when he's hidden it from other people.

Amen. Well, thank you, Haley, in Badger, South Dakota. Keep spreading the word about Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio.

Oh, let me repeat, if anybody has submitted a question for the first time today, please let me know with your full mailing address, because every time a first -time questioner in our audience sends in a question, they receive a free brand -new

New American Standard Bible, compliments of the publishers of the New American Standard Bible, and compliments of our

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com. We'll ship the

Bible out to you. If you could, Dr. Moorcraft, summarize over the next three or four minutes what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today about this subject.

It's hard to do, but I will try. That Jesus said,

I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. We may never compromise that point.

The Bible says that it is the word of God and whatever it asserts as true on any subject is true, and we may never compromise on that point.

When it comes to the truth and to righteousness, we must be inflexible and unbending.

We cannot be tolerant of non -truth. We cannot be tolerant of unrighteousness.

We must be humble, because anything we know to be true or righteous is because God has revealed that to us.

We must stand firm. The world does not believe in intolerance.

The world believes that we ought to let anybody be free to believe whatever he or she wants to believe, and therefore, we are bigots if we say there is no truth other than the truth found in Holy Scripture.

Actually, they believe that you can believe in anything you want except to be a conservative Bible -believing

Christian. That is exactly right, and that's what our people have to believe, and they have to understand.

We're at war with a people who believe we're arrogant because of what we believe, but the point is we don't believe this because our brilliant minds have followed up.

But we believe because the sovereign God, by His grace, by the power of the

Holy Spirit, has opened our minds to believe what we otherwise would not believe.

Amen. Well, as always, Dr. Moorcraft, it has been an absolute joy to have you on the program.

I look forward to our next discussion, which I hope is very soon. I want to remind our listeners of your websites, heritagepresbyterianchurch .com,

heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, which is the website of Heritage Presbyterian Church Cumming, Georgia, and also westminstercommentary .com,

westminstercommentary .com, where you can find out more about the eight -volume commentary written by Dr.

Moorcraft titled Authentic Christianity. I also want to give another reminder to our listeners, please, if you are a man in ministry leadership, try to attend the next free, biannual

Iron Sharpens Iron radio, Pastor's Luncheon, Thursday, June 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m.,

at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, featuring Dr.

Joel Beeky as our guest speaker. Send in your registration by email to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put Pastor's Luncheon in the subject line. Also, if you would like to attend the fundraising gala, where I will be the emcee and author and educator,

Dr. Ernie Zara is the keynote speaker. This is for the benefit of Grace Christian Academy of Long Island, which will be held on Friday, March 15th, at the

Coral House Catering Hall in Baldwin, Long Island, New York. If you'd like to register for that event, go to gcali .com,

gcali .com. I want to thank everybody who listened.

I hope that you tune in tomorrow, because we've got Pastor David Reese of Puritan Reform Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and also

CEO of the body armor manufacturing company, Armored Republic.

He is going to be on our program again to launch into part two of a three -part discussion we are having on the great pillars of the

Reformation. I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater