Dr. John Robbins Undermining Scriptural Authority! | Part Two

It's not our role to judge, and the church is notoriously bad about doing that.

Of course we're all sinners. Of course we need to be hearing the Word of God. We're all sinful people. But then when you go on to say, like, who are we to judge and all these things because we all have sinned, who are we to say what the Scripture says?

I mean, well then what are you up there teaching for? Like, if that's your understanding, Dr. Robbins, why are you standing in a pulpit telling people what the Scripture says? Who are you? You just defeated your own argument.

Critiquing John Robbins and the Red-Letters-Only View

All right, everybody, welcome back to part two of Critiquing John Robbins from Little Rock, Arkansas, United Methodist Church in Pulaski. He's doing a sermon on homosexuality, gay marriage, and how it's right and good, and you only need to believe the red letters.

So we did part one. Hopefully you can go back and watch that. And now we're here with part two, so I want to welcome back my guest, my good friend, Jeremiah Nortier, the apologetic dog. What's up, buddy?

What about it? What about it? How are you.

Doing? I'm doing great. I've had a lot of really positive feedback with the last video that we did because it's almost so ridiculous that you would, you know, that Robinson would glorify the red letters of Jesus only, but people are realizing you can't do that.

He has such a really good voice. That alone is really convincing to people, but like we're going to be continuing to do today, Trey, when you examine the substance of what he's saying, it doesn't work.

It's totally.

Ripping God's Word apart. Well, he has a good voice and a good suit, and that combination is very believable. You know, you put a good suit on somebody. I mean, look at us. I'm wearing a t-shirt. You're wearing number 13.

Very unlucky. Who's going to see a guy wearing unlucky? Hey, I went to Passion Conference 2013. All right, so let's just pick up where we left off and just jump right into it because we really do only have a little less than an hour here.

Where we stopped the other day was around minute 23, so I just want to replay something real quick to let you know why he's saying what he's saying, okay? Why would he argue for homosexual gay marriage and say the things he's saying in this, and here's why he's going to say this.

Here we go.

I would disagree vehemently. I am, now listen to this, I am an evangelical Christian. I have a very high Christology. I get accused all the time of sounding like a Baptist. They don't have a monopoly on Jesus, by the way, but I always take that as a compliment because I talk about Jesus a lot.

I elevate Jesus to the status of God because he is God. I am an evangelical, but the reason I take the stand I do on social issues is because I respect and admire and.

Appreciate Jesus that much. There you go. That's why. This is why he takes Jesus' words out of context and the rest of the Bible and just rips it to shreds is because he admires Jesus that much. I would say he doesn't believe in Jesus.

He doesn't regard Jesus' words and he, I mean, if it was his mom, what he said to his mom, like when his mom told him to do this, this and this, and he didn't do it and he just changed her words. What'd he say?

Mom, I did it because I love you that much. That's how much I love you. What do you think Jeremiah?

I loved how he said he's not a Baptist. So I kind of felt that over here, but to me, that's okay. I would rather people see there's a huge disconnect with what he's saying and then the Baptist crowd, but all it is is show.

All it is is showing lights because it sounds good to say I have just such a high view of Jesus that he should have the final say, right? And what he's really saying is the red letters. And so it kind of sounds good unless you're very familiar with who Jesus actually is and how he's revealed himself to us in his word.

So it's not compelling for Bible students, that people that live in the scripture, Trey. Right, right. So here he goes. He.

Goes on to say, and I'm probably going to try to speed this up a little bit. He's talking about judging. So just give me a second here. Who did Jesus? Let's just, I'm going to try to speed this up here.

Is it a minute? 2334. We're just going to skip about 15 seconds if we can.

All right, let's just listen to this real quick. That they have lived their life without sin to make a determination about who's worthy and who's not to be here. We're all messed up. Every one of us. I am too.

We're all broken and every one of us are in need of a savior. What right do we have.

To say? Scripture says, Ooh, Ooh. Now like here's, here's the, the, the false piety, the false, um, you know, humility and saying what he's saying is, look, we're all sinners. I mean, we all need to be here.

We all need to be in church and here in the word of God. Right. Um, that's true. Of course, of course, we're all centers. Of course, that's, we need to be here in the word of God. We're all sinful people.

But then when you go on to say like, who are we to judge and all these things because we all have sin, who are we to say what the scripture says? I mean, well, then what, what are you up there teaching for?

Like, why are you like, if that's your understanding, Dr. Robbins, why are you standing in a pulpit telling people what the scripture says? Who are you? You just defeated your own argument. Go ahead, Jeremiah.

Well, I was reminded when Jesus.

Was rebuking the Sadducees in Matthew 22, and this is the red letters, not in my Bible, but in a lot of people's, this is what Jesus said. He rebuked the Pharisees and said, you are wrong because you neither know the scriptures nor the power of God.

And he says, as for the resurrection of the dead, you have not read what was said to you by God. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Jesus held the Sadducees accountable for the scriptures that they had. And the Sadducees only saw the first five books of the law of Moses as authoritative and Jesus met them where they were at and held them accountable to that.

And so it's ridiculous to not hold people accountable to the scripture. And like you said, it's a false piety. And when we covered this last time, all scripture is God breathed. It's a unified whole. It's the whole counsel of God.

So if you actually take the words of Jesus seriously, then you would take the words of Paul seriously. You would take the words of Peter seriously because Jesus commissioned the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into truth.

And if you accept the gospel of Luke, which Robinson should, then you should also accept the book of Acts that he wrote, where we get the account of Jesus appearing to Saul of Tarsus saying, you are a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name to all these people groups.

So if you actually have a problem with Paul, you have a problem with Jesus. Right. And what I like about Luke is in 24.

In the Road to Ermaus, right? Jesus opens up the scriptures to him, the Old Testament, the prophets, the law, and shows them how they're all pointing to him. It's all about him, right? Where Jesus tells them where you were just reading in that area right there, and John, the reason you don't believe me is because you don't believe Moses.

You don't believe me because you don't believe Moses. Moses wrote about me, right? And so, look, I just want to hit this scripture real quick because remember, his whole point is it's not about authority.

It's about interpretation, right? And if you guys are just now watching this one, watch the first one, and he just goes on and on about how it's not about, you know, scripture authority. Everybody says it's authority.

It's about interpretation. But according to Jesus here, I just want to point this out right here in John 7, right? Look at verse 16. So Jesus answered them right here. I got to highlight it for you. My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority. Not my own interpretation, right? My own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there's no falsehood.

Because when you're saying that, well, it's not authority, it's interpretation. You changing what God says is you taking the authority away from God, and you taking the authority into your own hands, and that your authority is greater.

So, I mean, it's for your own glory, John Robbins, and we kind of hit that last time. You're doing this for your own glory. Now, I don't know what that is. I don't know what the bin is, like where your angle is, and why you're doing it.

Maybe it's just to continue to be in the Methodist church and have a job. I don't know. I don't know what your angle is, but I know it's not from scripture, and it's not God's authority. Here we go, back to this video.

So you can't. It's not our role to judge, and the church is notoriously bad about doing that.

Wow. This guy's got his PhD. I mean, I'm just gonna do something here. I'm gonna go to a little book called 1 Corinthians 5. We'll look at verse 12 here. Now, what did he.

Just say? He said we're not to judge, Trey. It's not our job in the church to judge, right?

I'm pretty sure that's what he said. What do you think?

Go for it.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Who would the outsiders be, Jeremiah? Those in the church or outside the church? Outside the church. Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you, Pulaski Methodist Church. Purge the evil one among you. This dude is distorting God's word left and right, and that's not a suggestion. That's an order.

Purge the evil person from among you. This guy's just butchering scripture intentionally, I would say. But what do you got to say about that, Jeremiah, before we go on?

Well, I can't remember what he says next, but typically when people talk about not judging, the idea is, well, Jesus said judge not, right? Matthew 7. And I love where you went to Paul because we're to judge inside the church, meaning that we are to purge the sin, right?

We are to have church discipline because that's how Satan infiltrates the church. He will creep in through false doctrine or sin that's not being dealt with, and it will cause divisions. And so I like what you said.

There's a false piety. A lot of people quote that one bracketed text about he who is without sin cast the first stone with this idea, well, you can't judge me, right? We can't judge the scriptures. We can't know its true meaning.

That's absurd. God has spoken clearly. God's word even says that it makes wise the simple. That's why we're reformed. We believe that God's word is powerful and clear, and it can be understood. So when I hear nonsense like that, I'm glad you're telling people, hey, he is butchering scripture left.

And right. Right. And here's the other thing. For him to say, don't judge. I mean, he literally just said that, right? It's not your job. It's not our job, and the church is notorious for that. How long can he live up to that standard, do you think?

Five seconds.

Five seconds? Let's see.

Here we go.

It is not our place.

Okay, gotcha.

Just this past week, Susan and I were at Reagan Airport in Washington, DC. We were sitting there waiting for our plane to take off, which, by the way, was four and a half hours late. I was a very pleasant person to be around, I can assure you.

You're pleasant right now.

But while we were waiting, two young men sat down to us, very clean young men.

Did you do it, Trey? You know what I'm talking about.

Could I? Did he? 15 seconds? Very clean young man. That is a judgment. He is judging these young men at Reagan International Airport, whether they're clean or unclean. That's that Old Testament Leviticus junk.

That boring stuff.

That's boring. Throw that stuff away. But you're about to hear the standard by which Dr. Robbins lives by, and it's not the standard of God. It's not God's standard. But you're about to hear it. You got to listen.

When you read the Bible, read it slowly and see what God's telling you. When you're listening to somebody, listen slowly and carefully so you can hear if what they're saying is true, if it's God's word or not, because this guy is contradicting himself everywhere.

Here we go.

Both wearing nice shirts, jeans, etc. But one of the young men had painted fingernails. But I just became infatuated with that. I told Susan, look at that guy. He's got painted fingernails. You know what her response was?

What do you care? So what? What difference does it make to you? How does that affect your life in any way? And listen, you all, listen to this, please. I have thought about that all week long. I am judging somebody who has painted fingernails, and some guy goes in an elementary school and massacres children.

Sometimes in the church, we get it so wrong. Most of the time we get it so right, but sometimes we become infatuated with things that really we ought to be saying, who cares? What difference does it make?

Well, so your standard is if it doesn't affect you in any way, if it doesn't bother you, if it doesn't affect your world and your little life, who cares? And if these people want to have homosexual relationships and get, you know, what they call a gay mirage and go around acting like they're married, even though that goes against God's word, and even though it goes against what Christ even said in the red letters, who cares?

It's not affecting you, right? Would you say that's loving your neighbor if we had that type of standard? Would that be loving your neighbor if I applied that standard to everything?

Well, I mean, it's so off the rails, right? And it goes back to he does not take the Bible as a whole or consistently at all. And it's interesting because he's saying as long as it doesn't affect him, then we shouldn't worry about it.

There's people committing murder. Well, how do we know that committing murder is wrong? Well, how about God has told us in his word that he's impressed certain things on our hearts that we know because we're image bearers of God.

We confirm that with God's word. So, yes, we should be concerned about the mass murder going into schools, going through all these things. We should also be worried about marriage and how God has defined marriage as being between a male singular and a female singular, right?

That that is the standard of marriage. And so when someone steps outside the bounds of that, Jesus would have called them that that is a sinful sanction, right? It would not be something honoring and glorifying to God.

And you can find that just in the red letters. Probably would go to like we did last time in Matthew five. But you also go to Matthew 19, where Jesus clearly goes back to that Old Testament boring stuff and says, have you not read from the beginning that God has created the male and female?

Right.

So very inconsistent here, right? To be a preacher of the word of God, I would think criteria one is that you believe the word of God. That'd be the first criteria. So, you know, he says don't judge, right?

Don't judge. He's nice.

Clean, clean.

Trey, I wish you would have painted your fingernails, man.

I was going to. I was going to paint them, but no, I couldn't do it. So let's just go on. Let's just see. Like, don't judge, all right? Don't judge. Listen to me. Don't do as I do. Do as I say, because I got a nice suit.

We let the petty become so important, and the most important becomes petty.

Mm-hmm.

The world needs Jesus Christ, and when we tell people, however we tell them, you're not welcome, guess what? They're going to find something, and it's not always healthy.

Now, what do you mean it's not always healthy? That's a judgment call. Who are you to say that what they're about to find, if they don't find Jesus, it's going to be unhealthy? You can't say that, Johnny.

Stop it.

I have learned over my 58 years of life.

That only the red letters matter.

That sometimes when you take a stand, people are in agreement, and people love to shred you. So I'm ready for it, you all, whatever comes.

That's what we're doing, Jeremiah. That was an open invitation to do what he said.

Yes. He's ready for it.

He's ready to stand on this. He ain't backing down, he said.

Trey, it lets me think he knows what he's doing, right? Because he's taking a stand. He knows that he's saying some radical things that are going to go against not only orthodoxy, but clear reading of Scripture.

So it's almost as though he's inviting this, and so we're taking him up on it. We're wanting to take a stand, too, but we love Mr. Robinson. We love the people there at his church, and we love them enough to actually engage with what the Scripture says, right?

And to talk about what it means, and to have correct interpretation. We talked about last time, you don't get to just read the Word of God and say, oh, I think it means this to me. Have you ever been a part of a Bible study where people just say, well, what does this mean to you?

That's not good hermeneutics, right? We ask the question, what does the Bible teach? What did the original audience, how would they have understood? What did the human author originally attend by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

So not all interpretations are equally valid, right? We've got to use the grammatical historical method of interpretations. Words have meaning in the context in which they were intended, and so that's what we're.

Doing.

We're taking him up on his offer.

Well, let's just go on, and to add to that, we're going to call him up. I'm going to send him these videos if he hasn't seen them already, give him a chance to watch and ask him to come on here, talk with me and you, defend his position, or hopefully, and we pray that he repents of his position, you know, and turns back to the one true God in his Word.

Let's just go on and keep watching here about he wants people, he's not backing down. You can shred it all you want.

Here we go.

Because I'm going to take a stand on this. Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church opens up its doors to everybody, and this notion of scriptural authority, what in the world does that even mean? That's a cute catchphrase that makes some people out there feel real comfortable.

Of course, I believe in scriptural authority.

Are you judging me for scriptural authority, Dr. Robbins? And here's the thing. Of course, our doors, let's be clear. See, we're not going to play this game. I'm not playing this game. Our doors are open to everybody.

The worst of the worst. Give me the most sinful, nastiest person in the world, and guess what? The doors of the church are always open, and we will preach the gospel to them, and we will share them Jesus Christ and his Word.

But here's what we won't do. We will not call their blatant sin good. We will not do that because that's calling God a liar, and that's what you're doing. I want to be very clear. That's what we're doing here.

We're not saying that you shouldn't let sinful people in. If sinful people couldn't come into your church, Dr. Robbins, nobody could come to church. If sinful people couldn't come to our church, I couldn't even go to our church.

We're all sinful people. We get it, okay? We're not playing that game. You know exactly what you're talking about. Your video starts off with two lesbians in your church, members of your church, talking about how much they love Jesus, and you don't love them enough to tell them the truth.

That's the problem. That's the problem, and that's the difference we have with just Christians and you, right? Jeremiah, do you want to add to that?

No, I mean, you said that well. Everybody is welcome into the church to listen to the Word of God, to hear the singing of the Word of God, to hear the praying of the Word of God, but we're going to call sinners to repentance.

That's what Jesus did, right? And so it does come back to scriptural authority. You can say you believe in the authority of scripture, but we know that that's not true based on how you're handling the text.

Like last time when he went to 1 Corinthians 1 and just went to one proof text that said we weren't baptizing the Paul or Paul wasn't crucified, you don't get to say, okay, I think that means that Jesus gets the final say-so, as though there's not unity between what the apostle Paul says in his letters and the red letters of the gospel.

I mean, it's just, it makes me kind of mad, honestly, Trey.

It's very maddening, but let's just go on, and let's just knock this thing out real quick because I don't want to take my, we're just playing it, right?

Of course I do. Well, who doesn't? But it's about interpretation of the one that we follow. And the one we follow who has the final word said something much differently.

I just, stop, quit it.

You have heard that it was said, but I say to you, and finally, I've heard this ad nauseum. Well, let me tell you, it's really all about biblical marriage. Now, please tell me what that means. Because most of the biblical figures in the Bible have hundreds of wives.

What does that mean?

It means you can marry dogs and kitty cats and whatever you want.

Paul was never even married. In fact, Paul says there's no need to get married unless you're a flame with passion. Then go ahead and get married.

Let me tell you what, buddy. The last thing you need to be is a preacher of the gospel if you don't even know what.

Marriage is.

It's the last thing you should be. Jeremiah, do you want to add to that?

Yeah, yeah, because there are so many ways to understand the Old Testament with the patriarchs having many wives. That was never commendable. Now, we understand there was a unique time in history to where women were not able to work and provide for themselves.

If they did not have a husband figure, right, if they did not have, if they weren't with their father or if they weren't with a man that was providing for them, they were typically left to prostitution or to starve.

I believe God in his grace allowed this to happen, but we never see the scripture saying it was a great thing that Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines, as some of the youth like to say, and I'm like, you're close.

The point is God does not glorify that sin. God is gracious, and he blesses the patriarchs, the people in the Old Testament, in spite of their sin. Rahab the harlot, she lied, and yet the scripture tells us that she was faithful, right?

She used a sinful means in order, that's all she knew, right? And so God blessed her, not because of her sin, but in spite of her sin. So the fact that Paul was single as a Christian, he was actually probably married when he was a part of the Sanhedrin.

So all of his points, there's just not a unification. It's not looking to the whole counsel of God as a unified whole. I mean, the things that he is saying, Trey, is what a lot of atheists say as they attack their Christian faith.

That's what is kind of taking me aback.

That's what he's doing. He's attacking the Christian faith. And let's just go on real quick. Let's hear what he says here.

What is biblical marriage anyway?

Wow.

Okay.

He wants to hear what Jesus says about marriage, right? Do you care if I just read a little bit from Matthew 19?

Who do you think you are?

You have a 13 t-shirt on. You do not have a PhD. How do you know what Jesus says?

Go ahead.

I'll go ahead and look it up. Where do you want me to go so we can share with everybody?

So yeah, Matthew 19, the whole passage is really good. Jesus teaches about divorce, but he asks, what is biblical marriage anyway? Well, how about we go to those red letters? I'm glad, Trey, I'm glad you have the red letters because that's the only ones that truly matter here.

We can make them blue, whatever color you want.

Verse four, Jesus answered them, have you not read? Now, Trey, where do you think Jesus is going to be going to? The Old Testament. Boring stuff?

Dr. Seuss book.

Have you not read?

It's not going to Leviticus. That's boring. And that thing puts you to sleep, you know? It's an ancient book.

So Jesus says, red letters, you got them there. Have you not read that he who created them, Adam and Eve, from the beginning, made them male and female and said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

That's all we need to go. That is the definition of marriage that Jesus is giving as he quotes from the Old Testament. I don't understand what is so complicated about this, Trey.

But I should just listen to him. I mean, he's Dr. Johnny Robbins. I mean, surely there's something we can do about this. Surely there's a way around this, John.

Right?

Can we get around this somehow? What do you say to this? Because this is a great one. So we're going to ask him about this. If he comes on to you. First of all, do you think he'll come on?

No, I think he'll chalk this up to be persecution. But what he could possibly say about this is, well, all Jesus is saying. He'd have to make a judgment, by the way. If you say you cannot make a judgment on Scripture, and this is real similar to the church, Christ.

All you can say is the Bible says what it says and it means what it means. Then you have barred yourself from actually expounding upon the text and giving application. Because the moment you say something different, you've left that standard.

And so what he could possibly say, I don't think he would actually come on and engage with this. I would love it. I'd love to do that with you, Trey. But what people have said is, well, Jesus is just talking about human to human relationship, right?

That can be had with female and female. You can have that with male and male. The problem is, it's not what Jesus says. It's not what the Old Testament says. And you do have to divorce the red letters from everything else because Leviticus expounds on it being an abomination for male to lie with male and female with female.

Romans chapter one talks about how people began to glorify the creation over the creator. And you see the total depravity of man put on display. And one of the first things said was men started doing what was just an abominable in the sight of God, laying with other men, all these unnatural things.

Because it's obvious that men and women were designed to be together by design, by nature. You have to have a debased mind, right? It has to be perverted to do something else.

Well, did we talk about this last time that God speaks to us in two ways, right? Special revelation and natural revelation. Well, not only does God tell us in his special revelation through God's word right here, okay, that he does not bless homosexuality, right?

In that lifestyle. Nature itself and God's natural revelation will not bless a homosexual. You can't have a kid. You are not going to be blessed in this relationship. It's so obvious, like you're saying, Romans one, it is obvious and we know it.

But is it any more sinful than anything else? The sin is sin. And that's what we're saying. We're just talking about this because this is what Johnny's trying to... If Johnny did a sermon on how drunkenness is good and right, and you can get drunk and live in a drunken lifestyle, we would do this video.

But he's doing it on homosexuality and how you can be in the member of the church, and you can be a very good member, upstanding member in the church by being a homosexual and an active, practicing, calling homosexuality good.

That's a lie from the pit of hell. And that's who this man is. He's lying to you from the pits of hell. And he does not believe God's word or Jesus Christ. As you can see right here, who says never, not one time, not one iota, he says, ever talks about human sexuality.

And Jesus never says anything about marriage. What? Go ahead.

Trey, how can you judge him like that?

Because my Bible says you should judge those inside the church. Now, his Bible says no, but he keeps on judging. And let's just keep...

Well, it's because you're quoting Paul. That's the problem.

That's true.

Here we go.

So let me say this.

Go ahead.

For those people who say gay marriage has destroyed the sanctity of marriage, really?

Sanctity.

I don't think he knows what that is, but go ahead.

With the divorce rate at more than 50%, and the infidelity rate almost as high as that, and the number of couples who now live together who are not married, is the sanctity of marriage really that big a deal?

And if so, are we going to blame that on the gay community? Because that issue has been around for generations, long before gay marriage was legal. In other words...

So you're telling me because divorce rates are so bad, homosexuality is good. I mean, what is your point, dude? Do you understand what his point? Like, who brought up marriage statistics?

Well, he's softening the blow is what he's trying to do, right? Because, you know, we could say there are homophobic Christians out there, and that's not a good thing, right? We shouldn't be afraid to interact with homosexuals that are just very open.

We should show them love, right? We should be able to talk to our server at a restaurant that has the look and be super over-the-top kind to them and loving. I've seen, especially in the South, you got these legalistic, moralistic, professing Christians that are just going to kind of shun and not engage, and that's wrong.

So I think Robbins here... Robbins, right? Is that his name? This doctor? I think he's softening the blow to just being like, oh, man, we think this is such a big deal. It's really not, right? All these problems have been around way before this became a thing, and I think that's what he's doing.

Well, I mean, because look, if it's just about marriage, I mean, there's so many people that have divorces, and I mean, who cares about the sanctity of marriage? I mean, look at the heterosexuals. They have divorces.

So we should be able to let homosexuals get married, even though we know that the statistics are just as bad or worse. So let's just base this on statistics and not God's word, right?