The State of the SBC

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Greetings. Welcome to the WRAP Report. Now, one of the things you're going to notice right off the bat is this happens to be a WRAP-less WRAP Report. Andrew WRAP Report is not with us today. I'm Bud Alheim.

I'll be hosting in his absence. Andrew has apparently decided to go hobnobbing with the jet set and is taking some sort of tropical hiatus. Some kind of holiday. Either that or he's celebrating John MacArthur's birthday.

Maybe he's at the party. But actually, I think he is in Florida. I'm in Florida and today it's an overcast, kind of drizzly day. We're certainly not experiencing anything like global warming at the moment.

We're actually exhibiting what you might call global moistening. Which is not unusual for whenever Andrew does visit Florida. So, wherever he's at, I hope he's having a wonderful time and I appreciate the opportunity to sit in.

What I wanted to discuss today, because it is certainly relevant and newsworthy, and you can't possibly have missed it unless you have been quarantined from all social media, is the Southern Baptist Convention.

The SBC officially met this past week. It was on June the 15th and 16th in Nashville, Tennessee. The lead up to this had been predicting a momentous convention. They had not been able to meet as a convention in 2020 because of the pandemic.

So, the Orlando conference, the Orlando convention that had been planned for 2020 was not held. So, this is two years. After two years, they've come back to meet in Nashville. And there was a lot going on.

It generated a lot of discussion prior to the convention, certainly during the convention. And I think for the days, weeks, and even months ahead, there's going to be a lot of fallout from what happened at this particular convention.

Over the last week, I have posted on strivingforeternity .org, strivingforeternity .org, a few articles related to the Southern Baptist Convention. One of them was the first one prior to the official start of the convention.

It's called A Fight is Brewing in the SBC, So Pray, kind of highlighting what looked like maybe some of the key issues that would be addressed or hopefully addressed at the convention. So, you can go read that.

The other one is called What Happened to Al Mohler? That article actually is kind of drawn from some comments that the SBC Executive Committee member Rod Martin made while the convention was going on, but with specific commentary about his assessment of Al Mohler's kind of crash and burn for the presidency at this convention.

And then, most recently, I've written one called The Soft Baptist Convention. And it is that article that I largely want to go through with you today and conclude with some remarks afterwards in discussion about how do we think about what's happened at the Southern Baptist Convention.

On the morning of June 16th, which was the second day of the convention, it was following the presidential election results, Josh Bice, who is a Southern Baptist pastor in Atlanta and, of course, is well-known as the president of G3 Ministries, he put out a tweet, kind of a poll question, in which he asked this.

He said, Let me just read that again. Very important question that you're not going to see highlighted much anywhere else in the press, but certainly a question that a lot of people going into this convention were asking themselves, asking others, a lot of discussion about that.

So the question is, is indicative of a leftward theological move that will necessitate your church's departure from the SBC. Now, like I said, his question is not one that you're ever going to see officially polled by the SBC itself, certainly.

But people in the convention and out of the convention were asking this question. What will the local churches do in response to the events, the decisions, the resolution, the narrative, the tone of this convention?

His question, though, targets what many see now, following the election, as the feature point of concern, the election of Ed Litton as the new president of the SBC. His election, from before the final gavel of the gathering was pounded upon the rostrum, was being framed by the onlooking world.

If you had any occasion to watch the goings on during the two days of the convention, one of the things that you kept hearing frequently from the platform was the phrase, the world is watching, the world is watching.

It was so pronounced among the participants in the convention that it seemed to have been adopted almost as, you know, some sort of backstage green room official slogan, replacing Hoosier One and Gospel Above All that had been so prevalent in the SBC's recent past.

Well, the fact is the world was watching. Newsweek magazine watched. It had an article entitled, Southern Baptist Convention Dodges Critical Race Theory Fight, Elects Moderate Ed Litton. On the website The Hill, there was an article entitled, Southern Baptist Convention Elects New President, Fends Off Far-Right Takeover.

In the New York Times was an article, Southern Baptists Narrowly Head Off Ultra-Conservative Takeover. Flip over to the Wall Street Journal, there was an article, Southern Baptist Convention Elects Ed Litton President and Victory for Moderate Forces.

And a website called the Arizona Republic had an article entitled, Southern Baptists Elect New Convention President Bucking Effort to Push Conservative Denomination to the Right. And the reports go on and on.

Nearly all of them recognize, certainly as Josh Bice likely does, that the election of Ed Litton represents a decided rift that continues to grow within the denomination. Now, we must not misunderstand.

In contemporary news speak, the appellation moderate, the word moderate, is employed merely as a palatable synonym for liberal. Biblical conservatives, you will note, have been defined as far-right. They've even been considered insurgents in one story, while the liberal forces of Litton are considered moderate.

Well, Ed Litton is not moderate. Ed Litton is liberal. And with the election of Ed Litton, the Southern Baptist Convention has officially moved to the left. It is ever capable, in a very nuanced and post-modern manner, its denominational elite are able to push the clichés of the faith, which, in the vernacular of one Russell Moore leaked letter, amounts to what has been called playing enough to the Bubbas and the Rednecks.

Well, at this point, because the engine of the SPC is fueled by the coffers of SPC churches, the necessity demands the elite's public employment of comforting and favorable clichés on the platform, while destructing them in official policy arranged in green rooms, boardrooms, and seminary classrooms.

Apparently, the Bubbas and the Rednecks will keep paying if they're just told what they want to hear on the decks, while down in the hole the elites are boring holes in the hull of what was a conservative ship.

But as Bice's Twitter poll specifically points to the election of Ed Litton as the possible cause for church departures from the SPC, what specifically is represented by Litton's election that might be so troublesome?

Well, there are a number of glaring takeaways, but I want to discuss three particular ones related specifically to Litton. And in my view, those things represent something that could only signify SBC as meaning Soft Baptist Convention.

Soft on Theology and the Trinity

The first point is being soft on theology. In the 4th century, in 325 AD to be exact, the church was faced with a Trinitarian heresy known as Arianism. Now, that particular heresy related to the charge that Jesus was not co-eternal with God the Father.

It was directly attacking the fundamental core doctrine of Orthodox Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity. The result of the Council of Nicaea in combating this heresy is known as the Nicene Creed.

It is a robust, biblically Orthodox, and by now, some 1800 years later, a long-held faithful statement on the Trinitarian doctrine of God. Through the ages, attacks, misunderstandings, and outright heresies have been introduced to the church regarding the doctrine of the Trinity.

But if you flash forward from the 4th century to this 21st century gathering of the world's largest Protestant denomination, another attack on the Trinity was in play. In this case, it was with the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

On the very day of Lytton's election to the presidency, the We Believe section of his church's website, the name of his church is Redemption Church in Sarah Land, Alabama, right outside Mobile. On the very day of his election, the We Believe statement of his church contained the following statement regarding the Trinity, and I'm quoting this.

It said, Well, Lytton and his church were professing nothing less than a heretical view of the Trinitarian doctrine of God. They were professing to believe what is technically known as partialism, a Trinitarian heresy, again, that is something that taught the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together are components of one God.

Its proponents believe that each of the persons of the Trinity is only one part God, and they only become fully God when they come together. Well, this is a heresy. But on the day following Lytton's election to the SBC presidency, but before his official installation, Lytton's church website suddenly changed the statement to read as follows.

God is one, the creator and ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They struck the statement, these three are co-equal parts of one God. Well, the Trinitarian heresy on the part of Lytton's church was called out on social media on day one of the convention, even though it was subsequent to the first vote for the presidency.

But on the second day of the convention, the church suddenly, and with no explanation by Lytton, changed what it believed. One messenger, even, from the floor of the convention, questioned Al Mohler as he was giving his seminary report to the convention.

He questioned Al Mohler about the seminary's teaching on the doctrine of God since Lytton is a doctoral graduate of Mohler Seminary. Mohler, however, deferred to Lytton, who he thought surely would want to answer the question, but Lytton did not want to answer it.

Now, numerous and serious questions ought to be asked surrounding this doctrinal drama, given that the professed belief of the entirety of Lytton's church changed overnight. Was the church itself, were its members, its leadership, etc., were they informed and duly involved in altering this portion of what they claimed we believe?

Or, does it seem more likely that this was merely doctrinal damage control effectively arranged ex cathedra by a pastor who simply couldn't, and clearly had not, been bothered with the trivial details of precision in doctrine?

Why was something as foundational as a nominee's view, and that of his church, their view of the Trinity not vetted both by opponents and allies prior to the election? Does this not merely indicate that the largest Protestant denomination on the planet, though it will frequently profess allegiance to the authority of Scripture, as well as to its own Baptist faith and message, does it not actually show, it doesn't expect anyone to actually abide by those standards?

Doesn't it simply show that for all the chatter about the Bible that you hear in the SBC, for the SBC the Bible's doctrines are unnecessary and superfluous to the more pressing ministerial and convention matters at hand?

Well, indeed, Lytton's heresy, which is now corrected, reveals one thing that must not go unnoticed. It reveals that for the majority of the SBC, doctrine truly does not matter. It reveals that the SBC has gone soft on theology.

The world would not have been watching this particular eruption of theological softness, but we can be certain that God was, and God is. The second point, related specifically to Lytton, and why his election might cause pastors and churches to consider leaving the SBC, the second issue is with regards to complementarianism.

Soft on Complementarianism

As any reasonably aware onlooker of evangelicalism will notice, there's a growing debate regarding women in ministry. The burgeoning influence of both feminism and intersectionality within evangelicalism has fostered a lot of dialogue about the roles, rights, and responsibilities of women within official church ministry.

For instance, in 2018, when the Southern Baptist Convention itself swirled with chatter about electing Beth Moore, who is now gone from the SBC to its presidency, you also heard Russell Moore famously declare in 2019 that an SBC that doesn't have a place for Beth Moore doesn't have a place for a lot of us.

Well, Russell Moore is gone now in regards to both Beth Moore and Russell Moore. Prior to her departure, but during the midst of debate in which she was central, Ed Lytton defended Beth Moore against detractors, stating, quote, that many were, quote, many were fighting battles we shouldn't fight.

Well, Russell Moore said that if there was no place for Beth Moore, there wasn't a place for a lot of people. Well, that place may not have remained for those two unrelated Moores, but that place most certainly does persist within churches of the SBC, and most notably, the place for women in the pulpit and for those who would support ecclesiastical egalitarianism can simply be found by glancing at the new president's own church.

Lytton has, on more than a few occasions, according to his own church's website, been found co-preaching with his wife, Kathy Lytton. While we would rightly argue that neither of them were actually, or technically, or biblically preaching, it didn't qualify as preaching, it's nevertheless the case that they jointly stood on the platform of their church before the gathered assembly of believers and presumed to proclaim, thus saith the Lord.

A multitude of issues are in play as a result of this clear violation of Scripture. The ordering of not only the church but the family and society itself are inverted when the creation-established guidelines of God's Word are left unattended or, in Lytton's case, expressly disregarded.

A church with a woman pastor is not a church, and any woman who claims to be a pastor is not. Contrary to arguments, the judgment of God is evident in such a thing in giving them over to sin, so that in the case of women preaching, the aggravated continuation of such a behavior doesn't reflect God's favor by its continuance, but it reflects His judgment through its continuance.

As women in the pulpit is contrary to Scripture, it is therefore sin, and for the denomination or the church that readily accepts it, it can only be viewed as being given over. Yet, for all the blustering, all the posturing, and all the pro-women preacher ink that's been spilled pushing an egalitarian narrative, the topic itself went largely and officially unattended at this Southern Baptist convention.

On a statement that Lytton had given prior to the convention, to the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, he said, quote, At Redemption Church, we do not have women preach. Well, Lytton's undisguised deception, it garnered no attention at the convention.

But since the SBC has now elected a man with a clear egalitarian behavior, the topic was actually implicitly addressed, and it was implicitly accepted. That Lytton preached alongside his wife was not an unknown when the convention time rolled around.

It was known. It just wasn't featured. The sole challenge that was issued that would have been seen in support of the SBC's reputed and longstanding complementarianism would have been offered from the floor by one Louisiana pastor.

He made the following motion, and I quote, I move that we, as the SBC, would break fellowship with Saddleback Church as they have ordained three ladies as pastors, and all other churches that would choose to follow this path.

At the very least, I am asking that the validity of this matter be looked into and a report given at the 2022 convention. You may recall that Saddleback Church, a Southern Baptist church, which is pastored by now-outgoing Pastor Rick Warren, the Charles Finney of our day, you might say, Saddleback formally ordained three women into ministry back in May of 2021, so just the prior month.

Well, in response to the pastor's motion regarding disfellowshipping or investigating Saddleback Church for their ordination of women, President J .D. Greer, who was presiding at the time, advised the pastor that he should refer that issue to a separate credentials committee, and then he quickly moved on to other business.

It's probably safe to say that while complementarianism may be alive in the SBC, it is with no lack of parliamentarian rapidity that its discussion was tabled and obscured, and given its new president's past performance, the doctrine may well find itself dying the ignoble death of unemployed obscurity.

Soft on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality

Now we come to point three that I wanted to point out, and that is that the SBC has gone soft on critical race theory and intersectionality. This year's convention was attended by over 15 ,000 messengers.

The last convention that was close to those numbers was in New Orleans in 1996. It had just over 13 ,000 messengers. But this year's convention was so heavily populated because of one driving issue, critical race theory and intersectionality.

Now what is interesting is I heard some comments, again by Rod Martin, who is on the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. It seems that this impetus, this motive for the growth in attendance at this year's convention, it seems like the executive committee completely dismissed that.

It's stated that in an executive committee meeting prior to the official start of the convention, Ronnie Floyd, who is the committee's president and CEO, Ronnie Floyd was opining that some of the reasons for the large turnout this year included such things as the fact that the 2020 convention was skipped because of the COVID pandemic, it was because the executive committee had done such a good job in promoting this year's gathering, and even that Baptists simply just missed getting together.

Well, Ronnie was wrong. The single issue which drove attendance at this gathering was the pronounced biblical and gospel threat represented by critical race theory and intersectionality. The 2019 Southern Baptist Convention, through its resolutions committee, had forced through the adoption of the now infamous Resolution 9, which expressly endorsed CRTI as, quote, helpful analytical tools.

Though an attempt was made at the 2019 convention to amend Resolution 9 to correctly identify it as contrary both to scripture and to the denomination's own statement of faith, that measure failed in 2019.

An ignorant messenger base, far too trusting of its committees, particularly its resolutions committee, adopted Resolution 9. Critical race theory and intersectionality had been given an official denominational nod.

Well, as Providence did so orchestrate it, the Southern Baptist Convention was unable to meet the following year, the pandemic year of 2020. That hiatus allowed many faithful pastors within the SBC to embark on what was largely a ministry of education, seeking to teach Southern Baptist pastors and churches what, in fact, the 2019 convention had done with regards to Resolution 9.

Notable among this effort to contend for the faith against CRTI was Founders Ministries, headed by Tom Askell, a Southern Baptist pastor. Founders did such things as produced a full-length synodoc called By What Standard that analyzed the very real dangers of cultural Marxist doctrine of critical race theory and intersectionality.

But through its documentary, through blog posts, podcasts, conferences that it had, Founders was galvanized against CRTI, and it seemed tireless in combating the threat. You can go to Founders Ministries' website and find multitudes of resources that teach you what the threat is, what cultural Marxist CRTI is all about.

They've got a multitude of resources there. But just interestingly, if you go to Baptist Press, which is the official media outlet for the Southern Baptist Convention, and you do a search for critical race theory, you're going to find 37 articles.

In two years, there have been 37 articles which just contain the phrase critical race theory. But if you go on that same site of Baptist Press and you do a search for racial reconciliation, you get over 600 pages of documentation.

Well, Bice's Twitter survey, which we want to get back to, was specifically framed within the context of Ed Litton's election as president. So the question is, where is Ed on the issue which drove so many Southern Baptist messengers to this year's convention?

Well, we could be lenient and say that Ed was missing in action on CRT, because there's very little extant commentary from him on the topic. But actually, to be correct, we would have to say Ed Litton was not missing in action on CRT.

He was undercover for CRT. And this requires a little bit of background and context. So I'm largely reading from the article that I just posted about the Soft Baptist Convention. Let me go through this.

In December of 2020, maybe November, December 2020, but reported in December 2020, the presidents of the six Southern Baptist seminaries collectively issued a statement which asserted the Baptist faith and message as a classic statement of biblical faith, and it unequivocally declared that the affirmation of critical race theory, intersectionality, and any version of critical theory is incompatible with the Baptist faith and message.

While that bold and collective clarity would have been much more useful at the 2019 convention when Resolution 9 was adopted, that statement by the seminary presidents nevertheless caused no small debate within the SPC.

In response to the seminary president's statement, at least two black pastors left the convention, Charlie Dates of Chicago's Progressive Baptist Church and Ralph West of Houston's The Church Without Walls.

Marshall Osbury, who was then head of the National African American Fellowship of the SPC and was the convention's first vice president, he expressed disappointment with the seminary council's statement.

He tweeted in February 2021 that, quote, Resolution 9 rejects the African American life experience and African American personhood. Another very vocal pastor on the matter of CRT, and particularly with regards to the seminary president's statement, is Dwight McKissick, a Southern Baptist pastor.

He produced a lengthy diatribe which included the threat of his Texas church's exit from the SPC, saying, quote, As for me and my house, if the major thesis and thrust of Resolution 9, passed by a majority in Birmingham 2019, if it is gutted or rescinded, we will exclusively align with the National Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

He is threatening the departure of his church from the SPC if Resolution 9 is altered, rescinded, or tinkered with in any way. Okay, one other influential Southern Baptist pastor must be noted in response to this seminary president's statement against CRTI.

Fred Luter, who is the SPC's first and only black president, he dissented to the statement issued by the presidents. His dissent came at the time Dates and West each led their churches out of the SPC.

In particular response to the seminary president's statement, Luter joined with a chorus of other SPC pastors and members in signing a rebuttal statement. That rebuttal statement is called, A Statement on Justice, Repentance, and the SPC.

It includes a charge that, quote,. The actions of some in the SPC appear to be more concerned with political maneuvering than working to present a vibrant, gospel-loving, racially and culturally diverse vision.

Ed Litton, Resolution 9, and the Denominational Drift

Well, that reactive statement, reacting to the seminary president's statement, further said this, quote,. Now, finally we arrive at the undercover status of Ed Litton as it pertains to CRT and in response specifically to Josh Bice's question about whether his election might cause churches to consider leaving the convention.

Here's the point that we get to. Fred Luter, who is a vocal, well-platformed Southern Baptist pastor, former president of the convention, he was supportive of Resolution 9, he was supportive of the reactive statement against the seminary president's disavowal of CRT.

Fred Luter is the man who nominated Ed Litton for the 2021 SPC presidency. Additionally, if you go and the article that I've posted on strivingforeternity .org has a link to this. If you go to the statement, a statement on justice, repentance, and the SPC that was in response to what the seminary presidents had issued, if you go to that, alongside Fred Luter, Dwight McKissick, Marshall Osberry, and a whole slew of other people who signed on to that statement, you will find, quote, Rev. Ed Litton, pastor, Redemption Church, Saraland, Alabama.

Liberal Ed Litton is not a stalwart standing firm against the onslaught of critical race theory within the SPC. Despite a May 2021 report which stated that candidate Ed Litton has claimed anyone who thinks critical race theory is a problem in the SPC believes a conspiracy theory, Litton's political posturing is very clear.

If there is a CRT conspiracy in the SPC, Litton is expressly facilitating it and has officially benefited from it. He would not be the new Southern Baptist Convention president if it were not for Resolution 9 and critical race theory.

The 2021 Southern Baptist Convention is now under the helm of a decidedly liberal president. The convention has gone soft. It has gone soft on doctrine, as is evidenced by its new president's evident disregard for doctrinal integrity and orthodoxy on his own church's website.

It has gone soft on complementarianism, in that while precious little time was allowed at the convention to even discuss the topic, the convention elected a man who has co-preached with his wife and the convention seems clearly unconcerned about that violation of a God-mandated, creation-based order.

The Southern Baptist Convention has gone soft on critical race theory, which is the most direct and frontal assault on the Christian faith and gospel which most of us have seen in our lifetimes. That denominational softness is found in Ed Litton.

He would not have gained the presidency were it not for the pro-critical race theory forces aligned behind him. Now, the results of Bice's Twitter poll, it was unscientific, of course, but the results are nonetheless telling.

Of the 881 responses to his question, 37 answered yes. We would leave the convention. Another 24 responded we would seriously consider leaving the convention. And 39 responded no, the election of Ed Litton does not prompt us to leave the Southern Baptist Convention.

But in terms of just raw numbers, which again are unscientific, the yes votes and the we-would-give-it-serious-consideration votes, if you add those together, they potentially would represent over 500 churches that either will or would consider leaving the SBC as a result of Ed Litton's election.

It's a big deal, and even though it's not a scientific poll and not every vote represented a single individual church, it does show that the tone and temper of a lot of those Southern Baptist pastors and messengers who have left the convention have this on their mind.

Well, regardless of the results of this Twitter poll, the question must now be considered by any pastor, church, and SBC member. What do you do now? Do you leave a convention that has decidedly turned left, or do you stay and fight?

And there are valid arguments on either side of that matter, whether to stay or whether to leave. Just remember this, that the local church does not need the national convention. It does not need the national denomination.

But the national denomination needs the local church. Darrell Harrison had put out a very astute tweet, which redefines the moniker SBC, the acronym SBC. He said it means suicide by compromise. And he's exactly right.

They've compromised on theology. They've compromised on doctrine. They've compromised on false teaching. They've compromised on scriptural authority. It represents nothing less than denominational suicide.

The Lord's Will, Chastisement, and the Call to Faithfulness

Churches must ask themselves whether they will die on the hill for or as a result of this compromise. The SBC is soft. Its churches must not be. So, to kind of wrap this up, what is the takeaway? Well, it's like the line in the prayer that the Lord taught His disciples to pray, Your will be done.

When we look at the Southern Baptist Convention, we must assuredly affirm that the Lord's will was done. But the question of discernment, the question of providence, indeed the question that a man of Issachar must ask is, what exactly was that will?

Was it one of the Lord's blessing for faithfulness, or was it one of the Lord's chastisement and judgment for faithlessness? I think that we can only rightly assess that the latter view must prevail. This was the Lord's chastisement.

The Convention was marked by platitudes, posturing, politics, and compromise. It was not marked, as many people, including myself, had prayed for, by a wholesale call to repentance, accompanied by the fruits of that repentance, a faithful return to the authority and sufficiency of God's Word.

If anything, even though Scripture was slathered across everything about this Convention, it was evident that the authority of Scripture was given lip service, and the sufficiency of Scripture was utterly dismissed.

There was no brokenhearted plea to the Lord for forgiveness, for mercy, for repentance, for guidance. In more ways than one, while the world is watching and was watching this Convention, it ended up being nothing but a well-orchestrated Convention, maneuvered to be increasingly more like the world than it was to be coming out from among them.

In an interview that he gave just a couple of days after the Convention, Russell Fuller, who was a former professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Al Mohler Seminary, Fuller had been fired back in 2020 for speaking out against false teaching and liberalism in the school.

But a couple of days after the Convention, Fuller gave an assessment of the SBC following the Convention. I want to read a paragraph to you that quotes him directly, and it will put some perspective, perhaps, for you.

Here's what Fuller said, quote, The presidents, the six presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention seminaries, came out with a statement, I think it was around November 2020, where they said, we're against critical race theory.

That was an act of camouflage. And I'll just say it like it is, it is nothing but prevarication. It is a lie. Because while they're doing that on the one hand to convince you and me, the rank-and-file Southern Baptists out there, at the same time they have professors that they know are teaching these things.

And again, Ed Litton, and this is a repeat quote from Russell Fuller, quote, Ed Litton has come out and made the statement that in our seminaries, no one believes critical race theory and no one has taught critical race theory.

That simply, again, is prevarication. It is a lie, pure and simple. And when you see the lying that is going on, you can see that we have an apostate convention. So, is the SBC soft on doctrine? Is it soft on theology, on complementarianism, on CRT?

The answer, on all points, is yes. Well, what does that softness mean? Well, in the words of Fuller, it means one thing. When the false teaching is embraced, and when that embrace is lied about, what you have, in Fuller's words, is an apostate convention.

Which takes us back to Josh Bice's Twitter question. Do you believe that the election of Ed Litton as SBC president, among other decisions, is indicative of a leftward theological move that will necessitate your church's departure from the SBC?

There are many faithful pastors of biblically sound SBC churches that are asking that question right now. I have heard from many of them, whom I am blessed to know, mainly through social media. This is a question that is ongoing.

It will be for the weeks ahead, the months ahead. Let's pray that the Lord would give them guidance, and that they would be faithful to His will, to His word, and to His work. I want to close with a quote that is in the preface of Vodie Bauckham's book, Fault Lines.

It's the quote that's apocryphally attributed to Martin Luther, but it actually was penned by a 19th century author named Elizabeth Rundle Charles. And here is what it says. It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity.

It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess. If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity.

Where the battle rages, the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point. That's the challenge. The SBC, you will hear much more about this issue.

It's going to go on for quite a while. The reason is because of its behemoth size. It is the largest Protestant denomination in the world. What it does has an impact. And what it did at this convention, it was a negative impact.

It was a liberal impact. It was one that, though they said they affirm authority and sufficiency of Scripture, completely dismissed that. So I encourage you again, take a look at those articles on strivingforeternity .org.

And I've enjoyed the opportunity to record this. Hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you. God bless you.

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