Tim Keller Responds To His Critics About Stephen Colbert!

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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 I recently made a video about Tim Keller praising

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Stephen Colbert for being a great witness for the Christian faith. I highly recommend you go watch that video before you watch this one.

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Link in description. In any case, Tim Keller said that Stephen Colbert was being a great witness for our

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Christian faith in his recent interview with music artist Dua Lipa. There are two glaring problems with this.

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Number one, Stephen Colbert did not make his Christian values clear in almost any perceivable way in that interview.

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In fact, he said some things that were quite troubling. Number two, Stephen Colbert is an extremely immoral person who consistently misrepresents the way that Christians should conduct themselves publicly.

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I trust that any biblical Christian with an ounce of common sense can see how problematic it is to promote a leftist, propagandist, pro -abortion, pro -homosexuality, pro -transgender person as a great witness for our faith in any way.

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Especially given the fact that this person, Stephen Colbert, skirted the actual question at hand and gave no indication that he has genuine faith or submission to Jesus Christ as Lord in his occupation or otherwise.

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If you look at the Twitter thread linked in the description, you will find that Tim Keller's main defense consists of these two points.

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Number one, Tim defends himself saying that just because he quoted Colbert once doesn't mean he's responsible for everything he's ever said.

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Tim's actual defense was this, quote, Note, when you quote a person as an example in a particular moment, it doesn't mean you have to answer for that entire person's life for that quote to be valid.

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It's almost like those who do so don't want to deal with the material at hand, end quote. And I completely agree with this in principle, but Tim is wrong in the way he's applying this.

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Let me give an example. If I were to quote a Mormon person on the topic of history, science, or logic, and what they said was true, then that is permissible.

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In fact, it is permissible despite that person's theological differences with me. However, if I were to say that this

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Mormon showed a great example of how to witness as a Christian, even though they gave no real biblical truth in their presentation, that would become a problem.

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It would become an even bigger problem if that person supported a slew of disgusting, wicked, pagan ideologies which are completely anti -Christian.

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And it would become yet an even bigger problem if that person did all of these things on a weekly basis in front of millions of people.

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Romans chapter 1 talks about those who murder. That would include those who murder unborn children. It also talks about those who commit vile sexual sins.

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That would include homosexuality and transgenderism. The proof of this should be on your screen now. At the end of the chapter though, it not only condemns and separates

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Christians from those who commit these sins without battling them, it also condemns those who quote give approval to those who practice them.

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That's verse 32. To support abortion and LGBT behaviors wholeheartedly for years and years does not make you a confused

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Christian. It makes you a non -Christian. Matthew 7, 21 says, quote, Not everyone who says to me, that is,

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Jesus, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

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End quote. These passages do not mean that Christians have to be perfect at all times in order to be Christians.

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It means, rather, that Christians do not make a consistent and permanent practice of committing and approving of wicked and disgusting sins that God clearly condemns in His Word.

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When there is no repentance and no battling of these things for decades, as is the case for Stephen Colbert, then that person should not be treated as a brother in Christ or used as a good example of one.

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And of course, Tim Keller did both of these things in his post. That's the problem. Here's another practical example.

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You do not have to answer for all of the religious opinions of your car mechanic just because you wrote him a good

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Yelp review. His religious opinions are entirely separate from his effectiveness as your mechanic.

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But if you call him a great witness for Christian truth publicly, then all of a sudden his public views on things like abortion, transgenderism, homosexuality, politics, etc.,

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will those become entirely relevant all of a sudden. Whether or not that person's comments are relevant depends entirely on how public those comments are, how severe they are, and what exactly your quote of that person is meant to accomplish.

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So I agree with Tim that all of this context should be taken into account. But in this case, the context is as follows.

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Stephen Colbert is a fake Christian whose worldview is explicitly anti -Christian. He supports the murder of children, the mutilation of genitalia, and sexual encounters between people of the same gender.

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The same man who believes these vile things and actively promotes them to the culture made a passing remark about how humor can help us deal with the sadness of life, and that he has some sort of vague, ethereal faith in God, and Tim Keller immediately called this wicked man's statement a great witness for the

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Christian faith. That is the context here, and it does not excuse the statement at all. In fact, it makes the statement even more unbiblical.

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Let me offer another example. If someone came out and said publicly, I'm in favor of murdering any child you want who's under the age of two years old as long as the mother wants to,

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Tim Keller would most certainly not have quoted such a person or called them a great witness for our Christian faith under any circumstances.

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But Tim is perfectly happy to quote Stephen Colbert because Stephen only supports murdering infants as long as they're not out of the womb yet.

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Oh, how sweet and how charitable of him. Suppose Stephen Colbert came out in favor of bestiality.

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Knowing this, would Tim have called him a good witness for our faith under any circumstances? Surely not.

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But why is the effect any different if Stephen Colbert supports homosexuality and transgenderism? By the way,

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I am well aware that there are notable differences between those sexual sins in practice. I'm not saying they're exactly the same in every way.

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I'm saying they're both sexual sins that are wicked and vile before a holy God, and the fact that one of these things is a deal -breaker for Tim Keller and not the others, well that tells you everything you need to know about how consistent his standard is here.

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If someone supported killing two -year -olds and having sexual relations with animals, Tim Keller would have thought it to be unwise to quote that person as a good example of Christian witness under any circumstances.

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But for whatever reason, Tim thinks it's perfectly wise to quote Stephen Colbert so long as he only supports killing unborn babies and homosexual relationships.

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Again, just to be clear, if Tim had called this video of Stephen Colbert an interesting anecdote, an informative piece of personality journalism, or simply an entertaining clip that he enjoyed watching, he would have been well within his rights as a pastor to say that.

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But that is not what he said. No, Tim said that it was a great example of witnessing for our

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Christian faith. That is why Colbert's worldview comes into play here. When you call someone, even in an individual quote, a great witness for the

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Christian worldview, the fact that they have a disgusting, wicked, and anti -Christian worldview is not some irrelevant detail that you don't have to answer for.

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Rather, it's an extremely important factor that strikes at the very heart of this conversation. And this brings us to point number two.

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Tim Keller also defended his comment, saying that Christians do not have to present the full gospel of Christ every time they speak to someone who isn't a

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Christian, or every time they go in public before a mixed audience of Christians and non -Christians. And I agree.

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Specifically, in a tweet, Tim said this, quote, In Act 17, Paul spoke of judgment, but not of the cross or how to get forgiveness.

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So it wasn't a full gospel presentation. It was laying a foundation for talking to people later.

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End quote. And I agree with Tim partially here, but only to a certain degree. Yes, Paul's exact words in Acts 17 could not qualify as a full gospel presentation.

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However, Paul's witness in Acts chapter 17 is still very robust and certainly a far cry from the witness of Stephen Colbert that Tim is praising.

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Stephen Colbert, in the video, basically said he hopes that Jesus laughs with him when he gets to heaven. He also made some vague remarks about eternity in love and sacrifice.

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Paul, in Acts 17, 30 through 31, boldly says that God, quote, commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

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End quote. For Tim to compare Paul's words here with Stephen Colbert's trivial statements on his show, that's either totally ignorant or extremely disingenuous.

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Yes, neither of these statements was a full and complete gospel presentation, but one certainly had some bold Christian truth in it that contradicted the unbelieving worldview, and the other had next to no

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Christian truth in it and didn't contradict it at all. And it was given by someone, furthermore, who promotes a wicked worldview in practice.

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In other words, I think Tim is grasping at straws here. But in any case, I'm sure that Tim and I would both wholeheartedly agree that you don't have to give a full gospel presentation every time you speak to someone.

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In other words, being a good witness for Christ is not just being an evangelist. It also includes your overarching worldview and lifestyle.

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Matthew 5 .16 talks about this when it says, quote, In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

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Father who is in heaven. End quote. Having a good marriage, helping the poor, praying in a restaurant, letting a friend crash on your couch for a while, giving someone a ride to the airport, showing sportsmanship even when you lose a game, these can all to one degree or another be great examples of the

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Christian faith in action in a particular context. Yet, none of those things is a full and complete gospel presentation.

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To that I will say yes and amen. However, none of those things are relevant in this conversation.

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If a person supports abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, no -fault divorce, crude joking, and government overreach as a core part of their public lifestyle, then it is a very bad idea to use that person as a good example of how public figures can spread their

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Christian values. Right? If the person gives to charity, or feeds the homeless, or adopts a starving child, those are all still good things.

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But if they promote a wicked and sinful worldview on the public stage to millions of people, then they are by definition a bad example of witnessing for the

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Christian faith, not a good one. This isn't rocket science. There's no getting around this. Even if they said one good thing one time on their show, you still can't get around it.

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So in conclusion, I'll summarize this again. Stephen Colbert is not a confused Christian. He's not a casual

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Christian. He's not a well -meaning Catholic Christian who makes a few mistakes, no. He's an ardent anti -Christian who dishonors

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Christ publicly to the culture. His statements about his faith on his show were convoluted, weak, and even unbiblical at times.

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Again, watch my first video for proof of that. In other words, the problem is not that people are ignoring the context of Tim Keller's comment here.

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No, the problem is that Tim's comment is ignoring the context of the situation in an important way.

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To call bad witness for Christ good witness, and to say, as Tim did, that all Christians should try to emulate it, that is false teaching.

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To be consistent with Romans chapter 1, Stephen Colbert must be used as an example of those who approve of the works of darkness, those who are outside the realm of our

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Christian faith. To be consistent with the teaching of Jesus in John 8, 44, because Colbert lies unrepentantly about morality, he must be called a son who is doing the work of his father, the devil.

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These are serious categorical errors being made by Tim Keller. There's no scholarly excuse that makes this okay.

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It misses the mark of Scripture in a very important regard. Period. As Isaiah 520 says,

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Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.

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When you imply that someone like Stephen Colbert is on our Christian team, so to speak, you're lying about God's team.

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In fact, you're lying about the very nature of what it means to be on God's team. So please, let's pray for Tim Keller, that he would stop this nonsense and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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