Was I Wrong About McLean Bible and the SBC ? - Lets Take a Look

All right, everybody, well, happy Monday. If you are new to the channel, welcome once again.

I just am so glad that you're here and I think you'll find today's episode very, very interesting.

And if you're not new and you've been with me all along, well, you're welcome too. I felt bad the last few days.

I've just been saying how grateful I am for new people, but I'm definitely grateful for old people as well.

And I don't mean old age -wise, although I love you too, but people that have been with me for a long time, welcome back,

I'll say. So I just wanted to jump right into this because there's so many new people,

I've had a number of comments in the comment section and also some very concerned emails as well from people that are worried about this project.

And there's been a lot of accusations thrown at my way saying that, who made you judge

AD? And why are you showing everybody this? Like, why are you doing this? How dare you put this out on Blast and stuff like that?

And you should be more loving is really what the accusations boil down to. And if you're new, you should know that I have thought very carefully about the kinds of things that I do content on.

Now, this does not mean that I'm perfect, of course, but I put a lot of thought into the nature of this channel, what

I talk about and who I talk about and how. And I think that one guy had said to me, and I think this was a guy, that said something like that he doesn't see anywhere in the

Bible that says to do the kinds of things that I'm doing, you know, to confront people with the realities of what

I believe are their errors and stuff like that. And I just kind of had to laugh about that because, you know, you must not be really reading the

Bible very carefully. You know, one of the most popular verses in the Bible is actually from Leviticus 19, if you can believe it.

And this is something that Jesus quotes in his own teaching, which of course makes sense because Jesus was the one who gave the law of God to the

Israelites. It was the pre -incarnate Christ that did that. And so here's the verse, and you probably know it very well.

This is Leviticus 19, verse 18. Well, it's the second half, let me say this.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. That's a very popular verse.

Love your neighbor as yourself. It's so popular that even a lot of non -Christians will quote it. I played a clip at Sunday school the other day of Vice President Cornelia Harris talking about love your neighbor as yourself.

Nancy Pelosi often talks about love your neighbor as yourself. Every politician loves this verse. It's one of the most popular verses in the

Bible. And many of you have confronted me with this verse. You need to love your neighbor as yourself regarding the content that I produce.

The problem though is that this verse is in a context. And what's interesting about the context of Leviticus 19, if you read

Leviticus 19 and Leviticus 18, Leviticus 17, Leviticus 20, you're gonna find a ton of verses that are the most unpopular verses in the

Bible. Things about sexual immorality, things about prostitution and adultery, things about homosexuality, bestiality, things like that.

And I find that so interesting that in the middle of all that, God gives us this verse that all the liberals like to play fast and loose with, love your neighbor as yourself.

But the most interesting context verse, in my opinion, is the one that comes right before Leviticus 19, 18.

What comes right before 18 is 17. So let me just read this. I think these verses go together, not only because they're right next to each other, but they actually address the same thing.

So let me read the entirety of Leviticus 17, 19, 17, 18.

Man, it's a must be a Monday. Leviticus 19, verse 17 and 18. Here's what it says.

These are the words of God. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord. So the reason I think these go together is obviously they're right next to each other, but they contrast hate and love.

These verses, God is showing us what hate looks like and what love looks like. They're a contrast, right?

And he says, God says, you shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.

What this is saying is that how you hate your neighbor is to not reason frankly with him, is to not confront him with the realities of his sin or his falsehoods or whatever it is.

Because if you don't do that, if you know your brother is in sin and you don't confront him, now you've incurred sin because of him and you're hating your neighbor.

You're hating your neighbor. And so the reality is that if you don't confront someone that's, you know, let's just say a transsexual, for example, and they're saying, well, it's okay that I, you know, that I consider myself a woman, even though God gave me a man and you kind of just go along with it.

And you're like, yeah, I'll use your pronouns, you know? That sounds really lovey and gracey and stuff like that. But the reality is

God says that if you don't reason frankly with that neighbor, you're incurring sin because of him and you don't love him, you hate him.

You hate him. And so for people who say, how dare you do this channel? How dare you confront their errors?

How dare you say that these are the non -essentials? These are the things that shouldn't divide us and stuff like that.

I ask you, why are you hating your neighbor? You like to quote love your neighbor as yourself as if it's a slogan or a bumper sticker, but you have to understand that that came in a context.

And the context says that if you don't confront your neighbor for these quote unquote non -essential sins, the little sins and all of that kind of thing, then you hate your brother in your heart.

I would suggest that you need to start doing the kinds of things that I do on this channel. I'm not saying you have to have a

YouTube channel obviously, but you need to start confronting your brothers with their sin directly in all of these kinds of things.

You need to start not allowing people to spread slanderous lies about the Lord and about what he's like.

These are the things like we get all uppity when somebody slanders one of our friends, but when people slander and lie about God, this is something that Machen saw in liberalism a century ago.

Nobody cares. Nobody cares when they slander God. Nobody cares when they question what

God says. It's like that should be like your utmost priority, right? You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor.

If you're not spending any time in your day reasoning frankly with your neighbor when your neighbor's in sin or teaching wrongly or lying about God or whatever it is, then

I have to ask you, then why are you not loving your neighbor as yourself? Why are you hating your brother in your heart?

That's what God says. This is Leviticus 19 verse 17. I think we ought to all take a good look in the mirror and ask ourselves, are we falling on one side of this or the other?

Are we hating our brother in our heart? Are we loving our neighbor and all of that? Like these are the things that I consider, but there's many other places in the

Bible that require Christians to confront error, to confront and reason frankly with their neighbor and all of that kind of thing.

So anyway, that's why we're gonna move right into some more about McLean Bible Church because I received,

I don't know, maybe 20 emails sending me this letter that McLean Bible Church has on their website about how they're really not in the

SBC. And it's a very interesting letter. And what I find funny about this, let me just put this on the screen here.

Hold on, hold on. Here we go. There's the letter. There's the letter. Now, what

I find really interesting about this letter is that it really does attempt to make a case that McLean Bible Church is not in violation of its constitution.

And it comes from the SBC, which should give it at least a little bit of weight, but it actually ends up proving the case, ironically.

This is kind of similar to the Ruslan KD video that we did the other day where he accidentally exposes

David Platt. And I think this SBC letter, trying to defend David Platt and his church actually ends up proving the case against him, which

I find amazing. That's why this letter is actually pretty good evidence in my opinion. Okay, so let's just read this letter and we'll take it from there.

It says, Larry, it has come to my attention that in an email exchange between myself and blank, a

McLean Bible Church member, March 16th, 2021, that I unintentionally miscommunicated the relationship status between McLean Bible Church and the

Southern Baptist Convention. I would like to bring clarity to this issue. As background, the

SBC executive committee, so let me just stop for a second. This letter is supposed to be bringing clarity to this issue.

That's the intention of this letter. Let's continue. As background, the SBC executive committee office for church affiliation exists to identify and facilitate quote, partnering relationships with like -minded evangelical churches for the purpose of gospel advancement, church planting, sending missionaries, offering theological training and giving hope and relief to the broken and hurting people.

To this end, the SBC executive committee uses the term quote, affiliation as a descriptive term in our efforts to partner with and work together with like -minded evangelical non -SBC churches.

McLean Bible Church is one of many churches which fall into this category of quote, partnering churches. We intentionally do not use the term membership in these partnership initiatives, as we know many most non -SBC churches are looking for a fraternal status.

Again, a working partnership with the SBC and do not intend to join our denomination or otherwise identify as Southern Baptist.

Larry, I was actually a participant several years ago in the original discussions between McLean Bible Church and the

SBC executive committee to establish a productive working relationship for the sake of the gospel. My original understanding from the beginning of McLean Bible Church's giving to SBC entities was that McLean Bible Church was partnering together with SBC entities for the sake of mission, including planting churches in Metro DC and supporting missionaries around the world, but that McLean Bible Church was not becoming a

Southern Baptist church or joining a denomination. My understanding of this partnership today is unchanged. The SBC executive committee recognizes that McLean Bible Church is an independent non -denominational

Bible church, and they are not affiliated denominationally with the SBC. One final note,

McLean Bible Church is included in the SBC church database with an identifying SBC ID number purely for the sake of accounting purposes as McLean Bible Church partners together with SBC entities on mission.

Grateful for you and grateful for McLean Bible Church. Now, number of people have said, so what's this all about?

They're saying that they're not a member of the SBC. That's what this letter purports to say.

But actually, I think this is interesting because if you look at the constitution of this church, it doesn't say anything about membership.

It actually uses the word affiliation. The McLean Bible Church cannot and shall not and cannot be affiliated with any denomination.

And this letter actually affirms two important things. Number one, quote, they are affiliated.

You see, SBC uses the term affiliation to describe the status of McLean Bible Church.

They are affiliated with the SBC. It also affirms that the

SBC is a denomination. So it says denomination right here, and it says affiliation right here.

So by any stretch of the imagination, this letter says not that they're not affiliated with the

SBC, a denomination, but rather that they are affiliated with the SBC, a denomination.

But what it tries to do is it tries to make this distinction here. And it makes,

I'm pretty sure that this is probably the very first place this phrase ever appears. Affiliated denominationally, right?

It says McLean Bible Church is not affiliated denominationally. So what this letter is attempting to do is create a semantic argument that says, yeah, sure, they're affiliated with the

SBC, and yeah, sure, the SBC is a denomination, but McLean Bible Church is not affiliated denominationally.

And it's like, are you serious? This is the approach you're taking? You're trying to lawyer us to death?

That's what this is. You're trying to lawyer us with lawyer speak and nonsense. That's not a thing affiliated denominationally.

In fact, even if it was a thing, it doesn't even matter because the Constitution doesn't say anything about that.

It does not say that we can't be affiliated denominationally with a denomination. It says they cannot be affiliated with a denomination.

That's not my problem, by the way. I don't care about that. I didn't come up with the Constitution of McLean Bible Church, and I don't think that's necessarily the wisest choice, but it doesn't matter.

The Constitution says it. And so it's so funny that this is submitted as evidence that they're not breaking their own

Constitution when it in fact establishes the facts that they are. And then this whole thing where it tries to create this fiction of a status affiliated denominationally, it's just irrelevant.

Okay, let's just say that you have that status. It doesn't matter to the McLean Bible Church's Constitution because the

McLean Bible Church's Constitution knows nothing of the status affiliated denominationally.

All it says is it cannot and shall not be affiliated with any denomination, which you've agreed that it is.

So I guess you could put this on your website, McLean Bible Church. Look, this is put up there by mcleanbiblechurch .org

as some kind of exonerating document. It's not. It actually establishes our case clearly.

I just don't understand this. Like, they have to know this, right? I mean, maybe they don't.

I don't know, but you've hung yourself here. I mean, this is the linchpin evidence.

So let's just back the truck up a little bit, right? So this letter provided as evidence against our case actually proves our case, so that's number one.

But let's just take it at face value for a second here. This is what we're expected to believe. Just bear with me here for a second.

I know this is crazy, but this is what we're expected to believe, okay? We're expected to believe that McLean Bible Church is affiliated with the

SBC denomination but not affiliated denominationally with the SBC denomination.

We're expected to believe that, and at the same time, McLean Bible Church has planted 55

SBC churches that the McLean Bible Church affirms the Baptist faith and message of 2000, which is the doctrinal statement of the

SBC, that McLean Bible Church supports SBC ministries like the North American Mission Board, the

ERLC, the SBC seminaries. We're expected to believe that also everyone that applies to work for McLean Bible Church is from the

SBC. We're expected to believe that they have an SBC ID number, but they're not in the

SBC. Remember, they have an SBC ID number for accounting purposes, but they're definitely not in the

SBC. So they plant SBC churches, they profess the SBC doctrinal statement, they support all the

SBC ministries, they have an SBC ID number. That's not all. That's not all.

McLean Bible Church can send messengers to the SBC conference to vote for president and stuff like that.

So they have that as well. They have, you can get the

SBC discounts at seminaries if you're a McLean Bible Church staff and all of that. I just,

I can't even fathom the, how stupid do they think we are, honestly?

How stupid do they think we are? So they're not affiliated denominationally with the church, which

I'm sure you made that phrase up just now, by the way, but it doesn't matter for the constitution anyway, so that's stupid anyway, but we're expected to believe that they're not an

SBC church even though they do everything SBC churches do and they have an

SBC accounting number and all of that kind of stuff. I keep telling people in the comments, it's like, sure, they're not in the

SBC and just like, you know, Bruce Jenner is not a man. Like he has all the attributes of a man, he does all the man stuff, but he thinks he's a woman, so I guess he's a woman.

That's not, you can't just use these fictitious phrases and lawyer speak to try to get around this one, guys.

Guys, at this point, you just gotta admit it. You're lying, you've done this shady stuff, and just repent.

I bet you people would forgive you, but the reality is that this is nonsense. Guys, this is nonsense.

This letter doesn't prove anything to the contrary of what I've presented. In fact, it establishes the only two pieces of this that actually matter in this case.

They are affiliated, yes, and the SBC is a denomination, yes. Guys, a lot of people have confronted me in the comments saying, well,

SBC is not a denomination. This letter, again, affirms that it is. It is a denomination.

I just, there's no way around this. There's no way around this, guys. I'm sorry, this letter posted on mcleanbiblechurch .org

actually proves the case against the church even as it tries to pretend like there's this other status, affiliated denominationally, irrelevant, even if there is.

It's totally irrelevant to the McLean Bible Church Constitution, which was written separately and doesn't mention anything about, quote, affiliated denominationally at all.

Guys, this is a problem, because if Platt is willing to lie about this, lots of people have asked me, what else is he lying about?

And I know of some other things that he's lying about. He's talking about the misinformation that people were spreading against his elder candidates, this and that.

Oh, the other candidates were brought up by the congregation when really one of the elder candidates was nominated by himself.

And so, there's other things that he's lying about, guys. But the thing is, we don't know how far these lies extend.

We don't know. I know there's others, but we don't know how, this is the problem with lying and refusing to repent of your lie.

By the way, this is something that I found and I gabbed about the other day. This is just so pathetic.

David Platt is the, we gotta leave the American dream behind guy, right? The American dream, it's just fundamentally different than the gospel.

But then, his church applies for and gets a fully refundable $1 .9 million loan from, courtesy of the

American taxpayer. $1 .9 million. And the, but this is the guy that the

American dream and this and that, he gotta be, it's just unbelief, the absolute hypocrisy here is just unbelievable.

I just, I almost have no words for it. By the way, I've got information about this $1 .9

million loan that I'm sure they have no intention of paying back. Let's just face it. McLean Bible is not going to pay back the

American taxpayer for this loan. Obviously. But the reality is that I've got information that strongly suggests they didn't need this money.

That in fact, last year during the heights of COVID, giving, weekly giving, went up.

Weekly giving went up in COVID. They didn't need this money. I've got information that says that the executive leadership team, the top guys, all got huge raises last year.

Look, I don't have a problem with people making money. Listen, I'm all about capitalism. If you can make money, go ahead and make money.

But if you're going to take money from the American taxpayer, all while preaching against the

American dream, all while pretending to be for the poor, you're a hypocrite, a hypocrite.

That's a strong statement, but it's true. By the way, guys, we don't have this money. The American taxpayer doesn't have enough money to cover these loans.

We don't take enough in taxes. We operate at tremendous deficits every year.

I forget what the most recent deficit was, but it's insane the amount of deficit spending that we do. And how do you fund deficit spending?

Well, you print money. You sell bonds, you print money. And what does that do to the money supply?

Well, it inflates the money supply. What does that do to the value of your money? Well, it shrinks the value of your money. By the way, inflation is a tax on the poor.

It hits the poor the most because if the price of goods goes up because of inflation, well, rich people can absorb it because they have a lot of money, so they can spend more money on food.

It's not that big a deal. I can absorb it because I'm middle -class. I can spend a little bit more. I can spend double the amount

I do on money and I'll be fine. I'll still be able to afford it. Poor people are the ones that get screwed in inflation.

And so McLean Bible Church took a $1 .9 million loan that will be fully forgivable on the backs of American taxpayers, but if actually it's not really

American taxpayers because we don't actually tax enough to cover our liabilities and so who's burdened by this $1 .9

million that McLean Bible Church took that it probably didn't need? It's the poor. Some radical

David Platt is, huh? Some radical David Platt is, unbelievable. Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful.

God bless. Oh yeah,

I did want to issue a correction as well. On the Gab post where I posted the McLean Bible Church $1 .9

million gift that the American taxpayer gave their church, I also said that Radical took money and I actually don't know that they did anymore because I found

Radical, a religious organization out of Birmingham, Alabama, which is where Radical was founded as well.

That's David Platt's group. But actually there's another Christian group called Radical out of Birmingham and that's the one that took the money, not

David Platt's group as far as I know. So they may or may not have taken money, I'm not sure, but I don't have evidence of it so I wanted to issue that correction.

Sorry about that one. What confused me is that on Google, it actually says it is

David Platt's organization. It connects the David Platt website to the

Radical that's not David Platt's organization. So that's what confused me. I didn't just pop off at the mouth,

I just was tricked by Google. Sorry about that. Well, we'll do better next time.