Theology Gone Wrong - More Gems From G3

Pastoral Care, Theological Precision, and Speaking Like Regular People

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Make it happen. The link is in the description. All right, everybody, we're going to get right into it today. Phishing update will be at the end, and I've got a good one for you if you're into that kind of thing.

But I wanted to start because today I was thinking about this story, and I think I've told it on the channel before. But I was visiting my grandfather in Florida, and he was telling me a story. Like a lot of grandfathers, he tells a lot of stories.

He's a very emotional guy, and he was getting very emotional about it. It was because he was telling me about his daughter, my aunt, who passed away. She was the youngest of the kids, his only girl, and she died from cancer, essentially.

He was telling me about one day he was praying. He's the kind of guy that prays all the time, very godly guy. He was praying one time, and he was just very angry that he didn't outlive his daughter, and that his daughter died suddenly, and all of these things.

He was very angry about it, and all of this kind of thing. And then he told me that God spoke to him. I'm a cessationist, and so on the inside, because I'm not a psychopath, I don't let people see this, but on the inside I'm rolling my eyes.

I'm rolling my eyes, and he says, God spoke to me. Then what he told me that God told him was a Bible verse. I believe it was, my grace is sufficient for you, or something, my power is made perfect in suffering or weakness.

I forget exactly which verse it was, but he quoted a Bible verse. I learned a really good lesson that day. My grandfather is not the kind of person that you would consider theologically exact. You know what I mean?

On everything, but he cares very much about the Lord, and what the Lord requires of him, and he loves the Lord, and all of these things. He's a believer. But I learned a very valuable lesson that day, because oftentimes people are going to say things, especially when they're emotional, but even when they're not, they're going to say things that those of us who pride ourselves on being theologically rich, I guess you could say, they're not going to be 100 accurate.

But a lot of times what those people are actually saying is essentially exactly what you would say. I would never say that God spoke to me if I was praying, and that verse came to mind. I wouldn't say it that way, but that's exactly what's happening.

That verse that I've read hundreds of times in my life, it came to remembrance, and it wasn't by accident that it came to remembrance. It came to remembrance because God was speaking, and God has spoken, and that's what he's done.

It doesn't have to be this weird, charismatic-like feeling. But some people, that's how they say it, because they are charismatic. When they think, oh, I got a word from the Lord, those of us that are cessationists, we have a tendency of being like, oh, yeah, whatever, that kind of thing.

But a lot of times, in this case especially, it was a word from the Lord. That's what it was. Just because I wouldn't say it that way doesn't mean that it's not true. I guess the lesson I learned is that—there's a bunch of lessons that I learned, but I really have come to detest, absolutely detest this view of Christianity that is all intellectual, it's all academic, and it's so intellectual and so academic that it almost sneers at regular people, just the regular folks that don't read the latest theological volume that you think is so important and helpful.

They don't care to, you know what I mean? They read their Bible, of course, but they're not the kind of person that's going to slog through multiple volumes of whatever, and there's nothing wrong with that, because those people are believers too.

In fact, most believers that exist are like that. They're regular people who use regular language, who use regular thought processes, and they're just regular Joes. People call them Joe Six-Packs or whatever.

They're just regular people, and over time—I used to be the kind of guy that read tons and tons of theological work, and I would pride myself on accuracy and all these kinds of things. There's nothing wrong with being accurate and wanting to be as theologically accurate as possible, but there is something wrong with being so much that that you just are incapable of communicating with regular people.

Regular people—and again, especially when they're emotional, it doesn't do any good to correct someone's theology to such a minuscule kind of degree, where it doesn't really matter in the moment. They're weeping because their daughter died.

It would have done me no good to say, well, Grandpa, it's not really like a word from the Lord. It's like, you understand that God is always speaking, and it wouldn't have done me no good to do that. It would have hurt, too.

That's the thing. It's not just that it doesn't do good, it actually hurts. It's actually the opposite of helpful, and I've come to detest that style of Christianity so much, so much, where you just can't even talk to people because you're too busy trying to dot your I's and cross your T's.

One thing I've noticed, too, about people like that, where the intellectualism has kind of taken the forefront and growing in grace turns into growing in theological knowledge, which is just so opposite what the Bible says.

It's preposterous how wrong people get it. But one thing I've noticed about people like that is that they actually don't have their I's dotted and their T's crossed. Their theology is typically pretty piss poor when they have this idea of intellectualism being the marker of godliness.

I detest that style, but also I've come to learn over time that so often those people have terrible theology. They have terrible theology, and my charismatic grandfather could probably run circles around you when it comes to practical theology.

That's just the bottom line. It's just the bottom line. I'm getting a little pissed off because I saw so much of this just today and yesterday. Obviously, you know, President Trump was—they tried to kill him.

Responding to the Trump Assassination Attempt

It was the attempted assassination. I mean, it's just so ridiculous. I mean, I think a lot of us kind of knew that that's where we were headed. We're headed towards something like this just because of the way that people are framing Trump and things like that and all of that.

And so people, you know, are obviously very emotional right now, and a lot of people are thanking God for sparing his life and for, you know, moving the bullet, moving his head, you know, whatever it is that they say.

And they're speaking in a way that's just regular. They're just regular people, you know what I mean? God spared his life. God moved the bullet. These are just regular ways to say things, right? And it's just like, I promise I'm not picking on Scott and Neil, like, on purpose.

The problem is that Scott is just—I mean, in the last video I called him, he's a childish thinker, and that's very true. He thinks like a child. It's really pathetic. It's really sad. But also, he's one of these types that I'm talking about where everything turns into this intellectual exercise, and he can't get out of his own way enough to just wait a few minutes, just to wait a few freaking minutes, because people are emotional.

Like, my grandfather's crying in front of him, telling him that he was praying, you know, God, why did you take my daughter? All of this stuff. He's weeping, you know what I mean? And he's telling Scott and Neil this, and then he says, and then God spoke to me, and then Scott said, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't you know that God doesn't speak that way anymore? And he's found the need to, in the midst of emotions, in the midst of all of this, he found the need that I've got to correct some people's theology.

What's important right now is that they say it in the most accurate way possible. God didn't move the bullet. That's not accurate. That's not completely accurate. It's just unbelievable. Like, I just...

Somebody, somebody, I forget who this was, so I'm not giving credit to somebody here, but this was, it really does feel this way. It feels like, like G3 and these kind of groups, they have like a couple donors, like one big mega donor, who just is tickled pink every time they say something idiotic.

It's unfreaking believable. The claim God moved the bullet is more of a mythological view of God than a biblical view. God didn't have to move the bullet as if the shot was somehow independent of him.

He ordained the trajectory before the foundation of the world. You see, Mario Robles, God didn't speak to you because he spoke before the foundation of the world. It's, you know, it does make me mad. I'll be honest, it makes me mad.

And I think one reason it made me mad is, it makes me mad, is because I used to be like this. I mean, it's just as simple as that. I used to be like this. I was the guy, I was the loser that would be visiting a church, right?

This is how it was, guys. I'm telling you, I'm not, I'm proud of this. This is nothing to be proud of. I was the guy that would visit the church, you know, I'd be on vacation or something, or I'd be visiting family and I'd go visit a church, not my normal church, and they would be singing songs of praise to the Lord.

They would be singing, the purpose for the gathering, to hear the preached word, to sing songs of praises to God, to pray as a group, to come together, that's the purpose. And they're doing it. They're doing the purpose.

And they're singing a song that I would never sing. They're singing a worship song, a little too lovey-dovey for me, you know, you know, those kinds of songs I'm talking, Sloppy Wet Kiss, that was the famous one, but they're singing a song that I wouldn't sing.

And it's not quite theologically accurate. It's not quite according to me. And I would stand there silent, and I wouldn't sing it. And I wouldn't sing it because it wasn't worded the way I would word it.

I would just sit there, and I don't know if I had a scowl on my face, but I obviously wasn't happy. And then afterwards, you know, I talked to my brother, and we'd be on vacation together, and we'd be like, yeah, you know, yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

And what I should have been doing was freaking enjoying being with the saints from around the world and enjoying the time together. That's what I should have been doing. But no, you know, I know better.

I'm an intellectual giant. I'm the intellectual giant that can parse this exactly right. This is just, like, is it, I mean, is emotional intelligence even a real thing? I don't know if that's a real thing.

Who knows? Who knows? That sounds like one of those made-up things. But there's a lack of emotional intelligence here. There's a, I think it's a lack of IQ as well. I think this is an IQ thing. This is an intelligence thing.

It really is. Like, it takes a real lukewarm thinker to say this is the time. President Trump was almost assassinated, and people are thanking God for moving the bullet. This is the time to teach the lesson about how sovereignty works.

This is the time. Maybe it's not IQ, but it's something. Something's missing here. Something's bad. We talked about Cody Leibel and how there's something missing there where they just, he just doesn't understand, like, how to interact with people.

There's something missing here. I just, it's hard for me to put myself back in that mindset when I thought I was better than everybody. I don't know how I got out of it, but I'm really glad I did. I'm really glad I did.

I wish I knew how I got out of it because then I could help people, but I don't. I don't know how I get out of it, but it just boggles the mind. It just boggles the mind. And here's the thing. This is how regular people talk, right?

This is how regular people talk. Why not just rejoice that people understand that God is in control of the universe? He's in control of even a bullet. And so if a stray bullet hits a little kid on the street, we understand that God was in control of that bullet.

And likewise, if a bullet misses the president's temple by an inch and a half, we understand that God is in control of that. Why not rejoice that people understand that God is in control? That's the big picture here.

God is in control. Now, does it matter one iota whether or not they, in that moment when they're emotional, decide to say things the exact right way? And there's funny jokes that can be made like this.

The other day I posted about fishing, about how it's fun because it's just the right amount of mix of skill and luck that keeps you coming back. You know what I mean? You feel like when you don't catch anything good, like, man, it was just the wrong time of day.

I was just unlucky that time. And so it keeps you coming back because there's a practice that helps. But of course, there's always a little luck too. And somebody made a joke with a meme with Batman slapping you, and it's like, it's not luck, it's sovereignty.

Or it's, what's the word? Oh man, I don't remember the word. I don't remember the word. But it's a joke. It's a joke because we understand that when people like me talk about luck, I actually don't believe in luck.

But you know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the part of the equation that really isn't up to me. It's up to the Lord, right? So God, I understand that when I go out for a session of fishing, that God already knows if I'm going to catch a fish or not.

It's already been predestined. I understand that. I get that. But when I'm talking like a regular person, yeah, I'm just going to call it luck because everyone understands what I'm talking about here.

And if somebody doesn't understand the sovereignty of God, they still kind of understand what I'm saying. At that time, at that day, I did all the same things I normally do. I hit all the spots I normally would, and I didn't catch any fish because sometimes they just don't bite.

Sometimes they're not hungry. Sometimes it's the wrong time of day, wrong water temperature, wrong this, wrong that, wrong spot. We understand that there are certain things out of our control. That's what I was trying to communicate.

That's what I was trying to communicate. Now, if you want to tell a joke to me about Calvinism by when I say luck and slap me in the face or whatever, that's totally fine because fishing, it's non-emotional.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's a funny joke. Scott isn't joking here. He's not joking here. And he's choosing to do this at a time when emotions are running high. He wants to say, he wants to be the one with the biggest brain dead dink of the moment.

What is this? What is this? I saw Nick Storm say, and then people wonder why, and then Calvinists wonder why people can't stand them. And it's like, I totally get it. I totally get it. Now, I'm a Calvinist.

I'm a full bore Calvinist. I'm a cessationist. I'm all of these things, right? I'm all of it. I love it. But I totally get why people can't stand Calvinists sometimes. I do. I like Calvinists. I understand that they put a high value on these kinds of specific accuracies and things like that, but there's a time and a place for that.

There's a time and a place for that. And it's not when your grandfather is in front of you weeping and bearing his soul at his struggle with God taking his daughter before him. That's not the time for it.

The time to make a big stink is not when you're visiting a church and they're all singing a song that you wouldn't quite word it that way. And by the way, half those songs were perfectly fine. They just were not worded the way I would choose to word it.

Man, I'm struggling to really explain myself here because I'll be honest, this really pisses me off. We've got this event that's just, it's one of those game-changing events that are just, it's hard to put into words.

I saw Chocolate Knox say that, you remember where you were when this happened? This is one of those moments, right? And unfortunately, I was watching Ghostbusters with the kids. I was watching Ghostbusters with the kids and my wife texted me from the couch, did you see what happened at the thing?

And I'm like, no. And I looked it up and I'm like, wow, this is ridiculous. Oh man. No, but Scott thinks this is the time to slice and dice theology just perfectly. And by the way, it really isn't all that perfect.

It really isn't all that perfect because when you say God moved the bullet, that is true. That is actually true. So he acts like he's correcting something that people got all twisted up and messed up, but it's actually not.

A correction at all, because it's the same thing. He's just adding more detail. God didn't have to move the bullet as if it was shot somehow independent of him. By the way, you added all that nonsense.

That's not what was quoted here. You got that right. God moved the bullet. He moved the bullet. It's like you become so, it's like you become so wrapped up in these emotional moments, in the specific, like you've got to, if you're going to say anything, you've got to say everything.

You can't talk like a regular person. See, some of us, some of us people, and a lot of me and my friends, I take for granted that we understand theology very well. I do. I mean, I understand theology very well.

But there's two kinds of people that understand theology very well. There's the kind of people that understand theology very well, but live in the real world and can talk to regular people. You know what I mean?

I can go out with my unbelieving brother-in-law and have a conversation, go fishing and have a normal conversation with him. And then there are some of us that are freaking, are so, are heads so in the clouds that we just can't recognize the moments for what they are.

We can't recognize the moments for what they are. And we've got to turn everything into a freaking Sunday school object lesson. That's no way to live, man. And it's, and it's, and it's definitely not helpful.

That's the other thing. These guys think they're, Scott thinks he's helping and he's doing the opposite. He's doing, he's making like, like if I was an unbeliever and I saw this kind of behavior, I'm just like, what freaking planet do you live on?

What? Because I don't know how I would say that because I'm saying that now. And I'm a believer. What freaking planet do you live on Scott? And this is just, and this is common in Scott's, all of his nonsense, all of it.

This is common. It's just, it's just so sad. It's just so sad. It doesn't have to be this way. Calvinists don't have to be this way. And lots of Calvinists aren't. And I got to take my hat off to, to a lot of people out there that are, that are Calvinists, but have their head on straight.

They believe in sovereignty, but they understand how to communicate with people. They understand that, that every moment is not the moment for a exacting theological lesson to be learned. Not every moment is like that.

We can love the confessions. We can love theology. And yet we can talk like a regular person. We can make the confessions accessible to regular people. I think of Mike Foster, for example, or I'm sorry, Michael Foster.

I know he hates being called Mike. I don't know why I said Mike. That's weird. Anyway, I think you guys get it. I think you guys get it. But that being said, let's shift gears. Let's talk about my fish.

The Thrill of Fishing and the Role of Providence

Last week, I caught my biggest bass ever, which was four pounds, six ounces. It was a little under four and a half, just a little under, I think it was six ounces. And it was just a great, it's a great story.

It's a great story. So I know, you know, those of you who live in Texas and Florida and all those kinds of places, four and a half pounds is no big deal. But up where I live, that's a really good fish.

You know, I mean, it's not common that you see fish over five pounds and even close to five pounds in some of the ponds and lakes that we have up here, but it was a, it was a nice fish. Here's what happened.

I was fishing. It was a hot day. I'm on my kayak and it was windy too, very windy, which on a kayak is the worst thing because it just blows you all around. You can't stay in one spot. It was so windy that even with my anchor, I was still being blown around and I was just, I was just fed up.

So I, I actually, I found a little Cove that was kind of wind protected. So I was like, Oh, go there. It looks, it looks pretty good. And it actually does look like a good spot. I've never caught a fish there before, but, but I've, I've always thought like, why isn't there a fish here?

So anyway, I'm in this little Cove and you know, do a few casts and stuff like that. And, and I didn't get anything. And then I do a cast and my line tangles and I don't know what, what happened, but all of a sudden it just tangles and I pull it in.

I try to get it out and it's just not going to come out. And so I just get frustrated. I just get frustrated. And I just throw my line. And it was, it was like half frustration and half, like maybe magically if I throw the line, it'll untangle itself.

Sometimes that does happen actually. So I was just frustrated. So I throw the line. And so then I, I reel it in and I'm going to go because like, I'm not, I don't have time and it's too windy to like re-tie.

So I'm just going to go. And I start reeling and instantly this thing, it hits it like a truck. And I'm like, Oh, this is a good fish. And so I'm, I'm like reeling and it's pulling me and it goes, it makes for these weeds.

Right. And it's in these like thick weeds. And I, I reel and reel and I'm right on top of it, but it's not going anywhere. And I'm not using like a really heavy rod either. And I'm trying to pull it out, but I don't have heavy line and I don't have a heavy rod.

And so I'm worried that it's going to cut, break me off if I, if I put too much pressure, pressure, but it's stuck in these weeds. And so, but it's really shallow. So I was like, okay, here's what I got to do.

I'm going to jam my net down there and maybe I'll dislodge the fish. And hopefully it doesn't come off. Cause sometimes when you jam your net down there, it does come off. So I did that. Jam my net down there.

It breaks free and it starts running and stuff like that. And I'm, I'm just terrified. I'm going to lose it. I actually haven't even seen this fish yet. And so I just put the net where I think it is because of where the line is and I pull it up and it's just this behemoth.

It's like a 19 inch, maybe a little more, uh, uh, large mouth bass. It's huge. It's the biggest bass I've ever caught. And it was just awesome. It was just awesome. So I posted it on Twitter and I'll tell you what I posted on Twitter cause I was, it was my personal best, but also because I was getting made fun of like crazy for, uh, for using a, a fish grip to grip these bass.

And I do that because when I take out the, the treble hooks, it's just too risky. I don't want to get my hand impaled with the, with the treble hook. So I grabbed, this one was hooked perfectly in the corner of the mouth with just a single hook, grabbed it.

And I just showed everybody, Hey, look, look, guys, I'm a man. I'm a man, but man, what a fish, man. And it was an adventure too. I was for sure that it was a big fish. And also I was almost positive.

I was going to lose it based on all the variables there, but it was so awesome. And I don't know if any of you guys go fishing and you, and you get a big fish, you get that adrenaline shot and man, there is nothing like it.

And I was shaking. I'm trying to take a picture and my, my hands are just like shaking with the adrenaline. It is just so awesome, man. Catching a nice fish like that. It's just, it, it, it, like it, you, your face lights up and the adrenaline's pumping and you're shaking.

It's just, some of you hunters know what I'm talking about. When you, when you get a nice buck and you're just shaking, it's just, it's just such a great feeling, man. If you guys don't go fishing, you've really got to try.

It's so good. Some people take hits of, uh, of cocaine. Some people post brain dead, pietistic nonsense. Um, maybe that's why he does it. He gets that little shock of, uh, of adrenaline every time he does it.

Cause he knows he's about to get, uh, ratioed, but man, I cannot recommend fishing to you more. I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.