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

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson,

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It's Iron Sharpens Iron.

This is a radio platform in which pastors, 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

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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 Radio on this 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 Chopper 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're a growing congregation in Cumming, Georgia, which is the county seat of 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

long -time 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.

You're a 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. Morecraft's eight -volume commentary on the larger

catechism, 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 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 Reformed 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 Reformed pulpit has a problem because the pastor's 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 have not and 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, that 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, he 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 Trinity or denying the deity of Christ.

I'm not accusing them of anything like that.

I am accusing them of being reckless

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.

Yeah, 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,

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, 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 Big 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 all but we're always going through tests.

We're 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 where he's right word.

Yes, 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 they all have a deep respect for these reformed preachers

that they put in the same category with Mr. Begg.

Now, what's going to happen?

False doctrine, false application, careless application.

Irresponsible application always caused 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. Begg has brought out about transgenderism.

Amen.

There's some of these preachers, but I mean, it's been a great blessing to me to

see them take a stand for the truth.

And but but it's the 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 Begg or standing against Begg.

I think he said the wrong thing and I think he should be exposed to 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.

Amen.

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 they most of them disagreed with them, 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 this 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 as,

uh, as they've been, 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, that

Pharisees and the

prodigal son parable.

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

reformed churches 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

chrisarnsen 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 USA, 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. Marc Raft, the third, right after these messages.

So please do not go away.

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I'm Dr.

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By the way, 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 MD Perkins.

I believe I said MD Nelson for some reason, but MD 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.

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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 in 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.

I mean, 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?

I 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 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

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.

And 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 big because they don't like what people are saying about him

and work.

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.

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 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 that 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 Begg is the new Andy

Stanley.

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

into this evil culture, if this is true in reformed churches,

if reformed churches cannot stand steadfast

for biblical ethics and doctrine, 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.

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 Begg 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 backseat of a getaway car

while they robbed 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 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?

Well, 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 where I left off.

Well, you see that 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, it states 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 bare 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 doctoral 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?

Right.

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, on the same platforms at conferences and promoting his

books, and he's.

Limited, he's limiting his ministry, if not ending it.

And by the way, I want to make it clear that Cindy in Findlay, 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 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, this theme, that this could wind up

causing people to deny Solus Christus and Sola 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. Morecraft, 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 OK 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.

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Here's Joe Reilly, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show

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I'm Joe Reilly, a faithful Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland.

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give us a first name at least city and state and country of residence did you want.

To pick up where you left off Dr. Moorcraft?

Yes a couple of 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. Big 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 and 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 Big'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 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 if there's elders in the church surely the

elders don't agree with him.

Get the elders to take a firm stand and against him in the church saying we

do not agree with our pastor who 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 reform 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 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 reform 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 and the life to

some and a savor of death and the death and others and when it quits being a savor of

death and the death to some it stops being a savor of life and the life to others.

We're talking about a very serious thing here.

We have a question from Morty and

Morty lives in flowery branch Georgia.

Five minutes from where I live.

Oh wow.

Okay well Morty if you haven't already please pay a visit to Heritage

Presbyterian Church coming Georgia especially if you don't have a biblically sound church that

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 and

the Christian faith are important.

You remember you and I had a two or three four week series on them.

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

and 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 world we're

fighting with humanism.

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 does the word of God teach about transgenderism and trying to escape

the gender that God has made you in?

What does God's 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

of the of a person of the opposite gender how on earth could it be blessing people who go

to the lengths of having uh hormonal chemical and and surgical

methods of 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 if the clothing is even prohibited how on earth could anybody think that

something more right but.

The bible forbids any unnecessary defacing of the human

body.

That's right.

And so it's more it's it's more than sexual.

It's 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 uh we have uh philip in

muleshoe texas.

And philip asks don't we in the reform 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 uh from philip in muleshoe texas.

And uh 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 pedo -baptist.

I'm a credo -baptist.

And uh i 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 exact.

Reformed baptist preacher.

Good friend of mine great guy who ate

volumes of my commentary in one summer the only person i know has ever done it wow.

And he was a reformed baptist.

And he read the chapter that particularly the chapter on infant baptism

and he said pastor moorcraft uh 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 we 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 that we are convinced of scripture

of anything.

Uh that we that we i had.

A young man that wanted to marry my daughter my youngest daughter.

And he was uh a reformed baptist and uh 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 pristine.

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 uh 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.

So where's this young man buried.

I'm only kidding.

He married my daughter oh wow because he said uh

i i believe in it now because the word of god i said okay that counts.

So anyway so the point is that i'm 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 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.

Uh who uh 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 uh 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 just i want to let you know that she is a

theonomic post -millennialist.

Well that's great.

That's right.

And great men of god were used to bring her to that position but it was the scriptural

evidence they gave that.

Yes.

That led her to that i tell my church often i said if what you believe 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 uh you who wrote an eight volume commentary in the larger.

Catechism.

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 and

steadfastly.

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.

Observation.

And the answer to that particularly in the reform faith you have reform preachers

who idolize their own mind and themselves.

And uh you must.

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 there are 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.

Amen.

Uh 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 don't you saw them.

Reach a point where it dawned on them where they.

Turned around and repented and acknowledged that fact.

And i think a person must be uh if there's a great calvinist

that somebody really appreciates and is benefited by even the point of idolatry.

And you see it uh the first thing i would do if the 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 believe 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 uh i've got a note i usually don't give the full names

of people but in this case it's a pastor that uh

i've heard great things about uh tim crockett who is the pastor of bible

way baptist church in worcester massachusetts.

Once a free will believing independent fundamentalist uh kjv

only anti -calvinist pastor crockett says

dr morecraft series on the synod of dort was excellent.

And uh i'm wondering what he meant by series do you know what he's specifically referring to.

Sermon series perhaps a series on what did he say synod of doors.

I got thousands of series on the synod of dort.

The synod of dort oh the synod of dort he said 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.

The uh let me just uh 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 the uh in 1619.

Uh the only reformed preachers that couldn't come were from france and

the uh catholic government would let them come.

But there were reformed preachers from every country on europe in 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 the

reformed faith.

So the entire reformed world at the synod of dort

called these men on the carpet let them gave them the opportunity to defend themselves

and then condemned uh 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 in the in the 1619 the whole reform world

condemned the teachings of these men that are now accepted

by most people in in in the west today we.

And what also is amazing since you brought it up.

What also is amazing is that what most evangelicals

believe today is a 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 comac long island.

Yeah he has said that modern much of modern evangelicalism

is nothing more than non -liturgical roman catholicism.

And uh we have to go to our final break.

If you have a question that you'd like to ask dr moorcraft send it immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.

Chris arnson at gmail .com.

Chris arnson 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.

James white of alphanamega.

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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 who's been a friend and

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nearly every single major public ministry endeavor i have ever set my hand to

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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 uh 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

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And this uh june 6th for the very first time we have as

our speaker dr joel beakey 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 chris arnson 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 mc.

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 america new york.

Their school is grace christian academy of long island a classical christian school.

And i am going to be the mc 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 uh 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

hailey in badger south dakota.

And hailey 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 reform people.

But if you could.

Comment on that uh.

Dr mark yeah i think that is true.

I don't think it's true everywhere.

I think that uh it's important that we love everybody who professes

the name of jesus christ and who believes the word of god whether they're calvinists 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 b as being uh standing uh as being

cultic.

Yeah 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 when you make us proud we don't understand

calvinism right.

Because if we're calvinist it is only because the sovereign god

has bent down and let us know the truth when he's hidden.

It from other people amen.

Well thank you.

Hayley in badger south dakota.

Keep spreading the word about iron trip and zion radio.

Oh let me repeat uh if anybody uh has submitted a question for the 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 friends at cumberland valley bible book

service cvbbs .com who will ship the bible out to.

If you could.

Uh dr morecraft 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.

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 asserts as true on any subject is

true.

And we may never compromise on that point.

That when it comes to the truth and to righteousness what 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 as god has revealed that to us.

But 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 and we're at.

But the point is we don't believe this because our brilliant minds have followed up.

But we believe or will 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 morecraft 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 coming georgia and also westminstercommentary

.com westminstercommentary .com where you can find out more about the eight volume

commentary written by dr morecraft 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 beakey as our guest speaker.

Send in your registration by email to chris arnzen at gmail .com

chris arnzen 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 mc 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 will turn in 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 uh 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 savior than you

are a sinner.