“We MUST Have Heresy And Sexual Immorality In Church!”

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So David Uth, and sorry if I get that name wrong, is the pastor of First Baptist Church Orlando, which is a

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Southern Baptist convention church with thousands of people attending each week. David has recently come under fire for some comments that he made, and rightfully so, because these comments were dreadfully unbiblical and really quite dangerous.

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One thing I want you to keep in mind, though, as you watch this video, is that David is not alone in his view here.

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There are hundreds of SBC pastors and many in other denominations who agree with what David is saying wholeheartedly, he's just the one who's taking the fall.

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The video you're about to see is not an anomaly in the SBC today, rather, I believe it is a great representation of where most

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SBC churches are theologically. So we're going to watch this clip of David Uth in segments and compare these separate segments to the

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Bible. So here is the first clip, where he encourages churches to allow unbelievers to become what he calls full participants in their church community.

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Watch this. ...magazine to help churches be better churches. It's called Outreach. Listen to this.

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I'm quoting an article, okay? When a non -Christian is allowed to be a full participant in a community and get an up -close look at what difference the gospel actually makes in people, he or she is given a front row seat to the working of the

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Holy Spirit in our midst. To say people who don't yet know whether they want to give their lives to Jesus, you can't serve here, your voice won't be heard, that's a quick way to shut down the process of their discovering whether or not

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Jesus is even someone they want to give their life to. So he suggests that non -believers should be allowed to become full participants in our church community so that they can get a front row seat, so to speak, to the work of the

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Holy Spirit. And ladies and gentlemen, this sounds very reasonable, very charitable, very nice. But this is about as unbiblical as it gets.

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There are several problems with this perspective. The first problem is that it violates the very nature of what a church is.

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A church, by definition, is a gathering of believers who love and serve the God of Scripture.

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Romans 12 .5 says, "...so we, though many, are one body in Christ." So it is clear that Christ is the head of the

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Church. And the Church is literally held together by their mutual love of Christ. Therefore an unbeliever cannot be a full participant in any kind of church community, because those who truly participate in church at all, to any extent, are by definition those who serve

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Jesus Christ. To suggest, as this pastor has, that an unbeliever can fully participate in the gathering of the

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Church is dishonoring to Christ and dishonoring to the Church itself. Now, is it sinful, then, for you to go invite an unbeliever to your church on Sunday?

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No, not necessarily. And why do I say that? Well, because 1 Corinthians 14 .23 -25 does say, "...if

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therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

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But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, and he is called to account by all."

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This passage seems to indicate that there are appropriate circumstances that would allow for unbelievers to enter the

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Church, see what's going on, and even be affected by what they see. But that's not what David Uth said.

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Remember, he said that unbelievers should be allowed to be quote -unquote full participants in our church communities.

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But what he does not understand is that church is fundamentally a community where believers gather to worship the

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Lord and fellowship together. It is not primarily a place for unbelievers to come and participate and see whether or not

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Jesus is right for their life. And the other problem with this idea is that it seems to be biblically unwise for several reasons.

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For instance, 2 Corinthians 6 .14 says, "...for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

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Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" So you see, when we combine these passages, we begin to understand that while unbelievers are most definitely allowed to be invited into our church gathering in a sense, they are most certainly not to be treated in the exact same way you would treat real church members.

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And they should not be serving in our churches in any capacity either. They are not full participants.

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In fact, the Bible indicates that an unbeliever is not really a participant at all, because they are not in Christ's body.

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They are merely spectators, nothing more, nothing less. And our goal should be to immediately call these people out of their sin, not to merely be content with them watching us worship every

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Sunday. This SBC pastor's teaching on the matter does not reflect the Bible's teaching.

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In fact, there are several serious problems that can and probably will arise depending on the specific application of his teaching.

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But this is just the tip of the iceberg. And believe it or not, this is actually one of his least concerning comments in the entire video.

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Watch this next clip, which is much more concerning. I once heard, he quotes somebody, and the somebody he quotes is from this church.

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He grew up here, and he pastors a church in California. His name is Erwin McManus.

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He quotes, the article quotes him, listen to this. I once heard Erwin McManus say, every truly healthy church has two things, heretics and people who are sexually immoral.

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So the next thing that Pastor David says is that every truly healthy church has heretics and sexually immoral people in it.

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And this is absolutely appalling language to hear used by a pastor. The Bible specifically tells us to call heretics to repentance.

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Titus 3 .10 says, quote, as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once, then twice, have nothing more to do with him, end quote.

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So not only are we to sharply rebuke heretics and those who cause doctrinal divisions in our churches, but if they do not repent, we are supposed to cast them out of the congregation entirely.

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Their false teaching is dangerous and could lead true believers astray, and therefore they must be physically removed for the sake of the purity of the body of Christ.

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But this Pastor David also said that a good, healthy church has sexually immoral people in it. In 1

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Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is confronted with sexual immorality in the Corinthian church. And you know what

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Paul says that the Corinthians should do with this sexually immoral person in their congregation? Well, in 1

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Corinthians 5 .13, Paul says, quote, purge the evil person from among you, end quote.

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So we have explicit directions in Scripture to cast out unrepentant heretics, to cast out unrepentant sexually immoral people from our churches.

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The fact that this pastor is encouraging churches to harbor people like this is horrible. The fact that he's saying that this sin is part and parcel of being a healthy church, that's absolutely unbiblical.

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It's appalling language. You can't call this anything other than what it is. It's false teaching.

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It completely contradicts what the Bible says about a biblical church. In Matthew 7 .17,

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Jesus says, quote, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit, end quote.

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To say that a healthy church can and even should have heretics and sexually immoral people in it is asinine.

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It's so foolish, it's almost beyond words. Jesus himself says that the healthier a person is spiritually, the less they will show the fruit of the flesh and the more they will show the fruit of the

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Spirit. Therefore, we can expand this individual principle to the church level and say that a healthy church has less heretics and less sexually immoral people in its ranks, and an unhealthy church has more of these people.

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Again, this statement made by David Uth is false teaching because it negates the teaching of Jesus Christ.

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It directly contradicts the Bible. This is not a small mistake. This is a serious error that encourages pastors to avoid dealing with the sin that is present in their flock.

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So with that said, let's move to the next clip. Watch this. To translate, a church that consists of only committed

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Christians probably has lost sight of its mission and resembles more the frozen chosen than the messy community that God has in mind that journeys with people as they discover

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Jesus. Invite people to belong to your community, even before they believe, and taste and see whether or not

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God is really good. So the first thing he says here is that a church that only has committed

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Christians in it has probably lost sight of its mission. No, sir, that church has not lost sight of the mission.

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That church is accomplishing its mission. In Matthew 28, 19 -20, Jesus gives the Great Commission.

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Notice that the word mission is literally in the word. Saying, Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

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End quote. The goal of our churches is not to entertain unbelievers, and our goal is also not fundamentally to walk with people through life.

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No, according to Jesus, who is the head of the church, our mission is to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to do everything that he commanded.

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And therefore, by definition, a church that consists only of committed Christians who strive to do everything

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Jesus commands is not a church that has lost sight of Christ's mission. It is carrying out Christ's mission very well.

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I think David should be studying these churches. He should be seeking to emulate them instead of correcting them because they don't have enough sexual immorality in their congregation.

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What a ridiculous thing to say. The next thing he says is that these churches that are chocked full of committed

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Christians, oh, those dreadful churches, well, these resemble the frozen chosen rather than the messy community that God has in mind.

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I guess it must be true because it rhymes. He did, after all, say frozen chosen, didn't he? But all joking aside, though, this is ridiculous.

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Really? God has a messy community in mind when he founds his church? So what are all those passages about order, holiness, and unity there for?

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Those ideas don't sound very messy to me, but they're all themes in the New Testament that are given to the church to carry out.

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This whole modern church phenomenon that you see of life is messy, bro, and we're just here to help you through it.

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It's so empty. It's so shallow. Yes, life is messy. We live in a fallen world. Yes, we would like to help you through it.

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We want to bear one another's burdens, but we help you through it by giving you the true and powerful gospel of Christ by baptizing you and by exercising good church discipline and by calling you out of your messy sin and into God's holy structure for your life.

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Our goal in the church should not be simply to walk with people through their messiness, but rather to call them out of this sinful messiness and into Christ's righteousness.

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This man's teaching does not reflect the biblical narrative at all. In 2 Corinthians 11 -2,

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Paul says, "...for I feel a divine jealousy for you, the church, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ."

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Paul's goal was not to be a messy community. Paul's goal was not to present the bride of Christ to Jesus as a sloppy, messy prostitute with bedhead.

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No, his goal, according to this passage, was to do the exact opposite thing. He wants to present the church as a beautiful, put -together, and pure virgin to Jesus Christ.

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So in conclusion, let's recap what we just heard. David Uth, the pastor of a large Southern Baptist megachurch, says that unbelievers should be full participants in our church gatherings.

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The Word of God, on the other hand, says that they are not really participants at all. Pastor David says that healthy churches must have heretics and sexually immoral people in them.

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But the Word of God says that churches should cast these kinds of people out if they do not repent. And Jesus says that a healthy church bears good fruit.

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Pastor David thinks that churches who have committed Christians in them are not fulfilling the mission of Jesus. But Jesus himself says that such a church is fulfilling his great commission tremendously.

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This is the state of many modern churches, especially in the SBC. There is an exaltation of doubt, unbelief, immorality, and false teaching.

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There's excuses being made for all of these things so that we can lower the bar doctrinally and not scare away the sinners and the unbelievers.

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At virtually every turn here, the teaching of David on these topics is false and unbiblical.

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So let's pray for him and for pastors like him that they would repent of this madness and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.