They Think We're Stupid - But We Dont Play by Their Rules Anymore

Wanted to start off this video today with just a bit of a personal message. You know, I came to Christ when I was an adult. Now, I grew up going to church, and I grew up with my parents teaching me about the Lord, but as soon as I was able to make my own decisions, I lived however the heck I wanted to live.

And I've talked about some of the activities I used to engage in. I've talked about some of my patterns of sin that Christ has saved me from, and by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit working within me, you know, I've been able to sort of have more victory over things like that.

I've talked about all that stuff, but I came to Christ as an adult, and I took some intentional steps in really trying to not be the way that I was. And a lot of the stuff I found was, you know, typical sort of big evangelicalism, big Eva, you know, the machine, you know, conference speaker type stuff.

And a lot of it was very helpful, but some of it I came to realize really wasn't that helpful. And I think one of the things that kind of sticks to my mind so much—I don't remember exactly who this was.

Some of the people that I've talked to afterwards think that it was probably John Piper who said this. I don't know that, so I'm not gonna say that it was him. But I remember somebody saying something like this.

It was like, you know, Christ was—a Christian should be nonviolent. And, you know, I think that, you know, let's just say someone was coming into our house and was going to hurt my kids or my wife, was gonna rape my wife.

I wouldn't fight him. I wouldn't attack him. I would pray for God to deliver me from it some other way. And I remember thinking about that and thinking, you know, that's not the Bible that I read. That's not the kind of nonviolence that I see the Bible advocating.

I just wondered, like, how could this person say that, having read the Old Testament, having read the New Testament? How can this person say this, having read what's going to happen in the book of Revelation?

You know, the Bible says the Lord is a man of war. You know what I mean? There's so much in the Bible that would just stand in stark contradiction to what this man is saying. You know, love requires action sometimes.

Love requires you to defend those who you love sometimes. And I just remember thinking that this guy is putting this forward, that he wouldn't defend his wife from rape as a virtue. And so I started at that point to really sort of be more discerning.

Because, you know, I was a new Christian, and so for me, I knew that I was scum before I came to Christ, right? And I knew that Christ had forgiven me and that I was holy in his eyes. I had Christ's righteousness.

God looked at me and saw Christ's perfection, his obedience, his righteousness. He saw that. So I knew that, but I wanted to be more sanctified, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't gonna be the way I used to be before I was a Christian.

But at the same time, once I heard that, and I just knew that just stands in contrast to what the Bible presents as the picture of a man, of a picture of someone who has love for people, I knew that I had to be more discerning about what I imbibed, right?

And so that's just a little bit about me. And again, if that wasn't John Piper who said that, I don't want to put any shade his way. I like John Piper, you know? But I've heard that he has said something similar.

So, I mean, it's very likely that if he has said that, it probably was him, because I did consume a lot of John Piper when I was a new Christian. Anyway, but the reality is, though, that this reaction to this trailer that's come out, you know, I'm gonna talk about some of the reactions that I've seen.

You know, this trailer came out for Founders Ministry, and it is, I said yesterday, it's spicy. You know, the editing is spicy. It's intentionally provocative, I think. You know, I think some people have said that, you know, the people who made this trailer, they're not smart enough to put in hidden messages.

And I'm like, well, they're not hidden, first of all. They're not hidden messages. This is intentional stuff. People who make movies do things intentionally. So anyway, the point is, though, that the response, I mean, yesterday I made a video about the response to this.

People came with the quickness, and they want to distance themselves from this. And, you know, look, I've been privy recently, in the last couple years, a couple of guys have, you know, kind of let me in on some of what happens politically behind the scenes.

And believe it, right now, this is about 1050 a .m. on the 24th of July, year of our Lord, 2019. Right now, there are probably meetings happening about what kind of pressure are they gonna put on Founders, guys, to not let this movie come out?

What kinds of things, what kind of levers are they gonna pull? What kind of dirty, underhanded tactics are they gonna use to suppress this information? That kind of stuff is happening right now. And you know what?

That reaction says a lot. It says a whole lot that they responded with the quickness here. And the reality is, you guys think we're stupid. We're not stupid. You guys think we're stupid. You political leaders of the machine, the Big Eva machine, the people that are power brokers, the movers and shakers, y 'all think we're stupid.

You're objecting to things like, well, you know, it's using aggressive language. It's demonizing people. You mean to tell me that that's a problem for you? We sat here for years while 45 of the country has been demonized.

Large swaths of white evangelicals have been demonized by people on your side of this issue. You even said word one. It's not about that. We're not stupid. You know, we're not stupid. It's not about that.

People have said, well, yeah, yeah, you're putting these people, you're taking their words out of context. Are you serious? You know how many people have taken my words out of context, James White's words out of context, the statement of social justice words out of context to make it say the exact opposite of what they said actually?

Your problem is not taking words out of context? Come on, man. We're not stupid. We're not stupid. Look, and I'm not saying it's not sin for one, it's sin for the other. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that these tactics, this kind of editing, this kind of strategy that's being used, you're claiming you have a problem with it.

You don't have a problem with it. The only problem that you have is it's targeting people who are the untouchables. It's targeting made guys, and that's your problem. And so we're not stupid. You know, the regular people in the pews like me, the regular Joes like me, people who don't have power, who don't have huge platforms, who don't have funding that comes from shady sources, people like me, we're not stupid.

You think we're stupid, but we're not. We remember what you guys, how you guys acted when Resolution 9 came out. We remember how you guys acted when Walter Strickland said, yeah, I'm teaching Cohen's ideas, but I don't mention him because I don't want to put a stumbling block in front of anyone's face.

We remember about that. We remember how you acted where you either didn't respond or took weeks and months after it was already irrelevant to respond, and then when you did, it was like this carefully crafted, completely irrelevant, unuseful political jargon.

We remember that. We're not stupid. You see, you think we're stupid, but we're not stupid. We're not stupid. You would be content to just let all this mess happen. You would be. You'd be content to do that.

You don't want to upset the apple cart too much. Look, a lot of you guys have fought some big wars, some big battles, and won. And I love that about you guys. I mean, a guy's like Al Mohler, man. He fought some big wars in the past, some big battles, and he won.

Good on him, and I'm grateful for that. You know what I mean? I'm grateful for that. But right now, you're not fighting this battle. Maybe you're fighting it behind the scenes. Maybe you're doing some things behind the scenes.

I don't know what you're doing because you're not signaling anything. Here's the point. This battle, you are losing. Some people say it's already lost. I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that this battle is already lost.

No. This battle, you are not fighting correctly. And so, you know what? We're not gonna play by your rules of what's polite and what is proper anymore. Because they're not biblical. It's like that thing I just mentioned in the beginning, where somehow not defending your wife from being raped by an intruder becomes a virtue.

It's not a virtue. To some people, it sounds pious. It's like, oh, I'm not gonna fight. I'm totally peaceful. That's not a virtue, man. That's cowardice. That's cowardice. You know, this is the interesting thing.

Doug Wilson, forget when this was, but this is before the trailer came out. A few days ago, he wrote this great article about the effeminacy of silence. The effeminacy of silence. And this paragraph here, wow.

Man, I wouldn't have said this. I'll tell you that right now. I wouldn't have said this. But you see, Doug Wilson is good at a couple things. He's good at a lot of things. Let's just be honest. But there's a couple things, and one in particular that he is an expert at.

You know, you've heard the phrase, you know, straining at gnats and swallowing a camel. It basically means that, you know, you focus on the little things and you have a real big response to the little things, you know, like aggressive language, like tone, stuff like that.

But then you let swallow the big thing, the big thing that'll kill you, that'll choke you. You know, if you swallow a gnat, it's not gonna kill you. It might be gross, but it's not gonna kill you. You swallow a camel, you'll be dead.

You know what I mean? And he's good at making you swallow that camel again and again and again. He does this all the time. And here's a little paragraph. It gives you a window into his strategy. Listen to this.

Ready? This is what Doug Wilson said. I wouldn't have said this. Listen to this. He says, let's just say that we are at the point when some up-and-comer is likely to catch far more grief for agreeing to speak at our grace agenda than he would if he spoke at revoice.

It is not the case that Big Eva doesn't discipline. Of course they discipline. It's not whether, but which. It is just that they instinctively discipline men who are moving in a biblical direction, and they instinctively shelter men who are moving in a gala homo direction.

This is because, as should be obvious by now, it is far more desirable to them to have men in the ministry who sexually yearn to be in the sack with other men than it is to have men in the ministry who use hurtful neologisms like a gala homo.

That is Doug Wilson expertly making you swallow the camel again and again and again. He is exposing you for straining gnats and swallowing camels all the time. And this video, this trailer that came out, it does that again.

It does it again, because all of a sudden people are like, oh my goodness, look at your editing. It's so evil, and the tone, and all of this. And they're they're screaming at these gnats where if they swallow them it's no big deal.

They don't want to be associated with this anymore. Anyway, the point is, you think we're stupid. We're not stupid. You guys might be content to sit on your hands and let critical theory, and black liberation theology, and all of this social justice mess, and egalitarianism, you guys might be content to let that run rampant.

You guys might think that you've got a better plan in place, that you're working the long game, and you're got a better, you might think that, right? But you know what regular Joes see? We see nothing happening except us losing again, and again, and again, and again.

And guess what? We're not gonna play by those rules anymore, because they're not biblical rules. This whole idea of you can't mention a Southern Baptist by name, you can't criticize a Southern Baptist by name, oh you can't use an aggressive tone, oh you can't say that, you can't say a gala homo, like things like that.

Doug Wilson's a pariah for this kind of thing. He said, look I wouldn't have said it. I wouldn't have said it. He said it, and he's a pariah for that kind of thing. That's why people don't want to talk to him.

But you know what? Saying a gala homo is not a sin. Using aggressive words is not a sin. I mean, we read the Bible, guys. We're not stupid. You think we're stupid? We're not stupid. You made up those rules of etiquette, and what's proper, and what's good.

You've made up those rules, man! The Bible knows none of that. The Old Testament prophets spoke in aggressive tones. The New Testament prophets spoke in aggressive tones. Jesus spoke in aggressive tones.

You think we're stupid? We're not stupid. We've read the Bible. We know that this whole idea of being nice and soft-spoken, and just so wonderful, we know that's not how eras dealt with in the Church of Jesus Christ.

We know, and we know you're not doing it. And so the reality is, guys, look, circle the wagons if you must. I can't blame the machine for defending itself. I can't blame it. But you think we're stupid, and we're not stupid, man.

We've read the Bible. We've read the Bible. We've read the prophets of old, faithful men of God. We read the kinds of things that they said in times when there were serious issues at play. When there was wars and battles going on.

We read that, man. And it's not like we're picking fights because we like to fight. None of us like to fight. I don't like to fight. None of us like to fight. We consider lots of you allies and friends and things like that.

But a lot of you are letting dangerous things happen to the Church of God. You are abandoning your posts. At the critical moment, you're abandoning your posts. And we know how courageous you've been in the past.

We remember that stuff. Think about Martin Luther, you know. Facing down the machine, nailing the theses to the wall. Facing down the machine with courage. I could just hear the people saying, well, did you have to nail it to the wall?

I mean, couldn't you have submitted it in writing privately first? Oh my goodness. You think we're stupid. We're not stupid. We've read the Bible. We know what Paul said. We know the kinds of things that Jesus said.

We know the kinds of things that Peter said. We know the kinds of things that the prophets said. We know the kinds of things that the book of Revelation says. We're not stupid. We don't play by your rules anymore.

Will this strategy work? Will this be the thing that turns the tide? Will it? I don't know. I can't see the future. But I'll tell you what's not working. I think we all know what's not working. Speaking about Resolution 9 days after it's already passed, when it's irrelevant.

That's not working. Never speaking about James Cone being taught in your seminaries. That's not working. Allowing women to preach and teach at your conferences and at your churches. That's not working.

Oh man. That's definitely not working. And so look. You think we're stupid by this pushback. Oh it's the aggressive tones. Oh it's I don't like this. Oh I don't like that. We're not stupid. We know you let it slide when the liberals are running roughshod on things.

And the minute conservative people, people more conservative than you are pointed out, all of a sudden you want to distance yourselves. I'm not a fundamentalist. I'm not a fundamentalist. Well guess what?

You're not gonna give us your platforms. You're not gonna give us the power. You're not gonna broker power to us. And we don't want it. We don't want that kind of power. Because that kind of power has failed us at this moment.

That kind of power has done nothing. While the liberals are taking control of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church of America. I've got windows into the political maneuverings of both of these organizations.

And I know what's happening. And we are losing these battles. Our teeth are getting kicked in. And so excuse us if we have a different method for dealing with this going forward. People in the pews like me, we're not stupid.

You think we're stupid but we're not. And we don't play by your fake rules anymore.