Canon Press VS. The Gospel Coalition!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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As always, please know this video is not a sinful attack, but rather a Biblical critique.

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In today's video, we're going to be talking about the Gospel Coalition versus Canon Press. And for those who don't know, the

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Gospel Coalition, or TGC for short, is a Christian organization that makes media and resources for believers.

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Some of their council members include big names like Ligon Duncan, Tim Keller, D .A. Carson, Russell Moore, David Platt, John Piper, and many, many more.

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Canon Press, on the other hand, is similarly a Reformed Christian publishing and multimedia ministry in Moscow, Idaho.

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Doug Wilson is a Presbyterian pastor and a mainstay in their content. He is a conservative

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Bible -believing Christian who makes some excellent videos himself. Link in description. Now, let's be precise here.

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We are not saying in this video that the Gospel Coalition has never put out any helpful resources.

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Of course they have. And we are also not saying that Canon Press is perfect in everything they do.

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Of course they're not. But all qualifications aside, there is a reason that organizations like Canon Press are firmly winning, or at least being effective in, the culture wars.

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And organizations like the Gospel Coalition have become toothless tigers. Politically, Christians should stand on the truth of God's word unashamedly in everything they believe.

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The folks at Canon Press, well, they do that with regularity, even at the cost of their own reputation within Big Eva.

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On the other hand, the folks at the Gospel Coalition are bending the knee to secular progressives with regularity.

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That's the difference. Now, let's take a look at a recent interaction with the folks at Canon Press and what they said to a

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Gospel Coalition leader on Twitter. By the way, for the sake of the YouTube algorithm, I will be using the word baby -killing instead of that word that starts with an

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A. I'm sure you can connect the dots here. In the wake of the deadly shooting that occurred in Texas recently,

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Brett McCracken, senior editor over at the Gospel Coalition, well, he had this to say on Twitter, quote,

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We've utterly failed our children when they can be brutally killed in the womb because enough adults clamor for baby -killing rights, of course he used the other word, or they can be brutally killed in the classroom because enough adults clamor for gun rights.

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A child's life is more precious than our rights, end quote. And you've got to love the response from Canon Press here.

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They tweeted back saying this, quote, Are you in the market for a logic textbook for your kids? Introductory logic is a great summer option.

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And then they post a link to their logic textbook at Canon Press. This was a perfect response.

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Why? Well, because it did exactly what all short, pithy responses must do. Point out the obvious.

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And the obvious error in Brett McCracken's tweet is that it commits several flagrant logical fallacies.

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First, it commits the fallacy of correlation and causation. Just because all shootings have guns and guns are related to gun rights does not mean that gun rights are the direct cause of all shootings.

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The cause of shootings could be mental illness, over -prescribing medications. It could be the degradation of the moral fabric of this nation.

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All of these are perfectly plausible options. But Brett McCracken, well, he wants you to think that gun rights are the cause of school shootings because there is a correlation between guns and the right to own guns.

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But correlation is not causation. I suppose by that very same logic, though, forks and spoons are responsible for obesity.

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Cars are responsible for drunk driving. So we should ban cars and have everyone ride on horses from now on, right?

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But of course we would not advocate for that because it's ridiculous. And the second blatant logical fallacy here is that of false equivalence.

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Brett assumes that there is a valid comparison to be made between these two situations. But of course, there is absolutely no comparison at all.

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He assumes that the two types of rights being fought for are synonymous. This is egregiously poor reasoning.

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When people fight for gun rights, they are not fighting for more shootings to occur. That's not what they're wanting.

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In fact, Brett McCracken seems to ignore the fact that they may be fighting for gun rights in order to protect children from shootings.

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The fact is, 99 % of people who fight for their rights to legally own guns are doing so for the sake of using those guns legally.

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By contrast, the people who clamor for the right to kill unborn babies in the womb do so to accomplish just that, the killing of a in the womb.

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In the case of gun rights, a shooting would be an unlawful and unintended use of those rights.

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In the case of baby killing rights, killing a baby is precisely what the right is there for.

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The equivalence here is false, and the people at Canon Press are absolutely right to call it out.

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More than this, Brent's argument is wrong biblically speaking as well. There is a direct moral precept in the

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Bible that baby killing is sinful and wrong. First John 3 .12 says, We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one, and murdered his brother.

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So we know that baby killing is wrong for the same reason we know that murdering your brother is wrong. If it is wrong to kill your brother, then it is wrong to kill your unborn child.

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So all that's been covered. But does the Bible say that gun ownership is explicitly wrong in the same way?

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No. There is absolutely no direct prohibition against owning a weapon with the intent to protect others.

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We do know that owning a weapon and using it sinfully would be wrong, but that's not what we're talking about here.

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Romans 13 .4 says this, If you use your weapon against the innocent, the government has the right to punish and stop you.

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In fact, biblically, they ought to do that. But what if you're intending to use that weapon lawfully?

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Is that prohibited in scripture? Should the government prohibit that biblically? Well, let's see. Exodus 22 .2

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-3. It says this, You see, most

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Christians cannot answer the question of gun ownership and self -defense because they have cast out the

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Old Testament from their biblical worldview. But that's a for another time. The point here is this.

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Under God's law for Israel, if someone snuck into your house at night, you had the right to strike them so that they die.

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When it is dark, you may assume that they are entering your house with ill intent, and you may lawfully protect yourself and your family.

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In fact, the passage assumes that any normal person would want to do that. When it is light, though, if someone can be easily identified with the intent of a thief and not of a murderer, then you cannot kill them.

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In other words, the principle here is that if you have a valid reason to believe that not only does someone intend to harm you or your family, but they are actively involved in perpetrating it, you may act biblically in self -defense, even if it results in the killing of the aggressor.

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This is biblical truth as well as common sense. Exodus 20 .13 says, You shall not murder.

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Yet, at the very same time, Exodus 22, just two chapters later, says that you can kill a nighttime intruder.

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Therefore, there must be a biblical category for justified killing in self -defense, which does not qualify as murder.

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In an age where criminals have guns, it is asinine to suggest that law -abiding citizens should be biblically prohibited from owning guns.

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If defending one's self and one's family using appropriate lethal force is allowed in scripture, then why should it matter if a gun is used as the method of that force?

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In Old Testament law, people were allowed to own weapons to protect their families. Yet, murdering innocent people was still a capital offense.

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In other words, if the principle of God's law allowed for lethal self -defense and yet prohibited murder at the very same time, then we must assume that there is no biblical contradiction between those two things.

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In other words, we can prohibit unethical shootings and still keep self -defense gun rights.

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Now, we can't deal with every single argument used by anti -gun Christians in this one video, so I will link a helpful article in the description.

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The point is this. Canon Press is biblically and logically correct, while Brett McCracken at the

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Gospel Coalition is using all sorts of illogical and unbiblical arguments in favor of a largely secular political agenda against gun ownership.

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Christians, we must be able to see through these things. TGC has an aim to appear reasonable and winsome and middle -of -the -road to the world on virtually every issue, but this is not a good aim in and of itself.

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Instead, we should aim to be biblical, and if that results in us appearing reasonable to the world, then so be it.

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But if being biblical makes us appear as kooky Christian nutcases to the world, which it often will, then so be it.

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You see, the Gospel Coalition is often trying to fight the culture war by using the talking points of the culture.

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This will not work. Organizations like Canon Press, on the other hand, are fighting the culture war while standing firmly on the foundation of Scripture and the common sense for which

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God's character is the foundation in Scripture. And this is why, for the most part, if you follow the

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Gospel Coalition's lead politically speaking, you are not going to be effective or true, because you're not going to be in touch with Scripture or reality.

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Now, does this mean that every political article at the Gospel Coalition is false? Of course not, but I think we would be blind if we suggest that TGC has consistently been a good, solid resource for Christians on political ethics.

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They obviously haven't been. So again, if you're going to be truthful and effective in the culture wars we see today, in the controversies in our world, we must follow

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God's Word, rather than the emotional talking points of the pagan culture. When the two come into conflict, let us say alongside

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Romans 3, 4, Let God be true, though every man be a liar. And please know this,

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I do not offer any of this correction from a high and mighty position. I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

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So let's pray for TGC and for Brett McCracken that they would stop this argumentation, and by God's grace, that they would turn to the true standard of God's Word.

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Truth Army today, and until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open.