The Leftist Agenda of TGC & The Shepherds for Sale Controversy / Gavin Ortlund on Climate Change
In this video I give my take on the Gavin Ortlund controversy surrounding Megan Basham's new book "Shepherds for Sale - how evangelical leaders traded the truth for a leftist agenda." This has been going on for years with Tim Keller's ministry known as The Gospel Coalition.
Transcript
Hello, in this video, I just wanted to play a clip from Gavin Ortland of TGC.
The Gospel Coalition is an outfit founded by theistic evolutionist Tim Keller.
Tim Keller has passed away, but his legacy lives on with TGC.
And their writers are often going against the teachings of the Bible.
And here is a clear example of that with Gavin Ortland.
So, I want to talk about climate change.
And I have five things to say, from a Christian perspective, particularly.
I care about it so much, I think we can't not talk about it.
It's just too important.
The climate affects everything.
Now, it is true, as people often point out, that climate change is extremely common and
kind of severe throughout Earth's history.
So you can go back to times, I think it was like around 50 million years ago.
So, there's basically no ice anywhere.
And you've got, you know, islands near the North Pole with huge trees.
And the annual mean temperature at the North Pole, 50 million years ago, is
60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Okay, notice, he's espousing the view that the Earth is billions, or at least
millions of years old.
If that's true, which it's not, because the Bible's very clear.
The Bible's very clear in the book of Genesis.
God created the heavens and the Earth in six days.
Adam was created on day six.
We have Adam's genealogy.
It adds up to about 6 ,300 years, 6 ,400 years.
At most, the Earth is anywhere from 6 ,000 to 10 ,000 years old,
15 ,000 at the very oldest, but not even that much.
But Gavin Ortland is rejecting Genesis.
Now, someone will say, well, that's just your interpretation.
No, it's what it says.
God created the heavens.
How do you know they're literal days?
Because it actually says, in the evening and the morning, we're the first day.
Read Genesis chapter 1.
Read Genesis chapter 2.
In the evening and the morning, we're the second day.
In the evening and the morning, we're the third day.
These are 24 -hour days, because they have evening and morning.
Also, if Gavin Ortland were correct, again, which he's not,
but if he were, and that Adam, God used evolution.
You know, Tim Keller, I guess he's going on Tim Keller's Theistic Evolutionist Playbook, you know, that
Adam lived 6 ,000 years ago.
God used evolution to bring Adam about.
Well, if that's true, then death was in the world before sin.
That denies Paul's writings in Romans.
So, this is highly problematic.
I believe it is a rejection of Genesis, a denial of the writings of Moses.
And of course, we know Jesus affirmed everything that Moses wrote, so that would call Jesus into question, really, if
you're going to be consistent.
But listen to Gavin Ortland go on and on about climate change.
Listen.
It's just good to observe, first of all, that there is pretty much a scientific consensus, or very
close to a scientific consensus on human -caused climate change as a very real
problem.
If you're going to go against a near consensus in the scientific community, study it and make sure that that's a wise
thing to do, because I see a lot of people reacting instinctively rather than really hitting the books.
And I don't think that that's a responsible posture for Christians to take.
The basic idea of climate change is not only extremely well supported in the
scientific community, it's also very intuitive and commonsensical and basic.
You've got a lot more people alive today.
Going back to the principles of just basic wisdom and planning, we have to think about how do we do that?
How do we manage that?
Where might that put a strain on resources and so forth?
And here's the main problem.
It's not the number of human beings, so that can contribute to what is the main problem, and that's the technological
advances since the Industrial Revolution have dramatically altered how we relate
to the environment.
And to put it really simply, we have forms of technology that consume huge amounts of what are called
fossil fuels.
So sources of energy like coal, natural
gas, petroleum, things like this.
And we use these to power our cars and our homes and our airplanes and so forth.
And in so doing, they emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide.
Huge increases in emissions of greenhouse gases.
The reason that's a problem is because, first of all, greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere forever,
practically, but basically they trap more heat energy from the sun.
So it's like putting more blankets on at night.
You can observe the greenhouse effect at the local level very easily.
It's not in dispute as such.
From 2007 on, every other scientific body of national or international
standing agrees that human -caused global warming is a serious problem.
So the level of conspiracy and hoax it would be if somehow all of these different...
People think that scientists are all together.
People have this distrust of science.
Science is an inherently conservative process.
And these people are not all in cahoots with each other, you know.
If somebody could disprove this, there'd be much incentive to do that.
And yet you have so much agreement in the scientific community.
And some of the things are obvious.
Like you think of sea level rise.
Other things you may not think of right away.
But even just sea level rise is a big deal.
11 out of the 15 largest cities in the world are on
coastal estuaries.
So you can see this happening already.
It's not like a distant hypothesis.
You see it happening in places like New Orleans or Venice.
You also have more intense hurricanes because they are fueled by the warmer waters in the summer.
You have more wildfires, which I live in Southern California.
I can tell you how devastating those are.
Partly because of drought, but also because of drier air.
The oceans become more acidic as ice melts and other forms of pollution.
You know, richer countries like the United States, which we consume so much per capita.
It's embarrassing how much we consume.
We won't face the direct effects as much, probably, as other places in the world.
If you are pro -life, you should care about climate change.
Because when there is a drought or a famine in a poor country, people die.
The particular beliefs of Christianity, the particular worldview that is
inculcated by the Christian gospel, is one that should naturally
incline us to care about issues of stewardship and sustainability and responsible usage of
resources and things like that.
I'm just deeply concerned that there is an anti -science mentality that evangelicals often have.
And then there's just basic principles that all Christians believe in that play into
an issue like climate change, wisdom in planning for the future, opposition
to greed, contentment and valuing simplicity and
modesty of lifestyle.
You think of Proverbs 38, which says, Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Second of all, the basic principle of love your neighbor.
Okay, so now he's not getting those beliefs from the Bible.
He is, and this is the amazing part, after COVID, after we saw what the
science, and I'm not saying that scientists are always wrong.
As a matter of fact, modern science, it's amazing.
They are often correct.
But there are some areas where science, science, it's not even science saying anything.
It's scientists.
Science doesn't say anything.
Scientists say things.
They draw conclusions.
But there are clearly areas where scientists, many of whom are funded by
government grants, they have an agenda.
And when it comes to COVID, that was a whole issue of its own, where
maybe we shouldn't put our faith and trust in them as though they're speaking gospel truth because,
well, you know.
But clearly, evolution, he's just repeating talking points, whether it be
evolution with the age of the earth or with climate change.
Now, the earth may be getting warmer.
I accept that as a possibility.
I accept the fact that man might even be making the earth.
You know, it could be man -made.
I accept that as a possibility.
But it's not the Bible.
That's not biblical doctrine.
And to bring that into the pulpit and to bring that into the realm of Christian
teaching, I think is, well, it's divisive, to say the least.
And the bigger problem is, he's twisting verses like, you know, love your neighbor as yourself.
You cannot use that verse to say, well, if you love your neighbor as yourself, because Jesus said this is the
first and great commandment to love God, and then the second like it is this, love your neighbor as yourself.
It's a summary of the second half of the Ten Commandments.
You cannot say that love your neighbor as yourself.
What that really means is you need to fight against climate change, and you need to get on board with this agenda.
That is a twisting of Scripture.
So, you know, do I buy into it all?
Actually, I don't.
But even if I did, even if I were to leave the door open to the possibility that it was, you know, it is getting
warmer and it's man -made, that's just a twisting of Scripture.
So, he's denying Moses, denying Genesis, and he's twisting Scripture.
And again, he writes for this organization, TGC, that was founded by a theistic
evolutionist, Tim Keller, who once said when asked about homosexuality, Tim Keller said it's
misleading to even call homosexuality a sin.
He said it's very misleading.
Can you figure out what's going on here?
So, if I could give one piece of advice to evangelicals, do not, do
not listen to any writer, any speaker, any writer,
any contributor to the Gospel Coalition.
If anyone is part of that organization, please do not listen to the
people of that ilk.
You know, I'm just going to say it flat out.
Another man who wrote for the Gospel Coalition, a man named J .D. Greer, he once said in
a sermon from Romans 1 that Christians should be the biggest supporters of gay rights.
From Romans 1.
That was his conclusion.
Listen, folks, this is what TGC, Gavin Ortland, you know, Megan Basham, wrote a book
titled Shepherds for Sale.
It sounds like a great book.
I haven't read it yet, but I've got the gist of what she's saying.
People are smuggling left -wing politics into the church.
This is what TGC is all about.
They take what the Bible says, and they take what, you know, the leftist narrative, and they're trying to
blend it together.
My friends, stay away from the Gospel Coalition.
Alright, thanks for watching.
Until next time, may the Lord be with you.
Have a great day.