Beware of "Big Eva"

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. Today we're going to be talking about Big Eva. What is Big Eva? Big Eva stands for Big Evangelicalism. And I did a podcast the other day where I addressed this, and that was my Steve Lawson update video.

Phil Johnson, Social Justice, and the Rise of Big Eva

So I'm going to play a clip from that video or from that podcast in a moment. But first, I want to play a clip from Phil Johnson. This was the 2019 Shepherds Conference at Grace Community Church in California, because this is the very first time I heard the term Big Eva.

It was coined by somebody else, but the first time I heard it, the first time most people heard it, is when Phil Johnson used the term. And he was very concerned about social justice and how false doctrine was, and liberalism was creeping into the church through these organizations like Gospel Coalition.

So let's just listen to what Phil Johnson had to say. And he was on stage with Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, three guys that a lot of people today consider woke. And also John MacArthur was on stage, but that was the last time these men shared a platform because now they're all going in different directions, unfortunately.

But listen to the clip.

What you said about incremental changes that promote that sort of liberalizing tendency and realize that just last year at both the Gospel Coalition and Together for the Gospel, I was hearing some rhetoric that actually I first heard from Jim Wallace and Sojourners 20, 30 years ago.

And so I think what I'm asking you is, in fact, what I am asking you is, do you not see that the evangelical movement, even our constituency, the most conservative end of the evangelical movement, is becoming a little more susceptible to that?

But Phil, you've known me for a long time. You know the answer to the question is yes.

Would you agree, though, that over the past three, four years, there has been a dramatic acceleration of rhetoric about this issue?

Social justice.

And that historically it has had a very strong liberalizing tendency, right?

I think you get a yes and a yes from me on that.

So why wouldn't Together for the Gospel and the Gospel Coalition, two organizations that were founded in the wake of the emergent church who were using social justice rhetoric themselves, to clarify the Gospel, why wouldn't the stress be to say, look, we're not trying to add to the Gospel here or clarify the fact.

Because there are people, some of the most outspoken people on the social justice side who are saying, look, this is the Gospel. One famous author said he didn't really understand the Gospel until he was woke.

This next generation, which is already wavering on a whole range of cultural issues.

Wouldn't you agree, though, that that desire to get the culture to love and appreciate us is a pathological cancer on the evangelical movement, on Big Eva? I mean, that's, I would say, perhaps the defining mark of Big Eva.

I definitely see that there, Phil.

Defining Big Eva and Its Conference Circuit

Okay, again, that was the first time, you know, myself and most people, this was the first time we heard the term Big Eva used by Phil Johnson. So now I'm going to play a clip from the podcast from the other day, the Steve Lawson update.

I did that updating about Steve Lawson first, then I talked about Big Eva. So we're just going to play that second half starting now. But if you've already heard it, you can stop listening at this point or listen again, because still a lot of people haven't fully absorbed all the information.

If somebody comes up to you later and asks you, Hey, I heard this pastor talking about.

Big Eva. What is it?

Could you give an answer? If you can't give an answer, maybe listen again. But here's the clip. Let's talk about Big Eva. What is Big Eva? As I said, it's Big Evangelicalism. There was a definition I pulled off the internet.

It says, Big Eva is a term that refers to the network of large evangelical organizations and conferences that seek to shape the thinking and strategy of the American evangelical churches. So the term was coined by Carl Truman.

The first time I ever heard it used was by, let's see, it was 2019 Shepherds Conference. Phil Johnson, the right-hand man for John MacArthur at Grace to You. Phil Johnson used the term Big Eva. That's the first time I heard it and I've been hearing it ever since.

So yeah, these are the, uh, this is the conference circuit, the, the big more left-leaning ministers like David Platt, Russell Moore, and, uh, Paul David Tripp would be another one. They basically represent what is called Big Eva.

So they speak at the conferences, make a lot of money selling books, and they are sort of re, I would say they're reshaping the way that American evangelicals think. And one of the big issues with Big Eva, and this was in the context that I, the first time I heard it again, Phil Johnson, 2019 Shepherds Conference, the big issue at hand was social justice and social justice.

You say, well, we all want justice, but what's this term social in front of, like, what does.

That mean?

We all want justice, right? We believe in justice. The Bible talks about justice, true. But when you put that term in front of a social justice, here's how I tell people. I say, you know, think of it this way, social justice.

Think of the term social as in like socialism, like, yeah, leftist, Marxist socialism. That's more what we're talking about with social justice. And it's really a synonym with the term woke, right? Woke, liberal, social justice.

It's pretty much the same thing. And here's how this ties in with Steve Lawson. So Steve Lawson, you know, hindsight is always 20 -20. I remember John Harris from the Conversations That Matter podcast, which is a great podcast.

If you don't listen to it, check it out. But John Harris from the Conversations That Matter podcast, he mentioned this, how Steve Lawson, you know, in hindsight, looking back, Steve Lawson really wasn't in the fight back in 2020, 2019, when the social justice, BLM, all that stuff was raging.

Steve Lawson, he wasn't in that fight. He wasn't speaking up. Matter of fact, Steve Lawson, actually, there's some clips where Steve Lawson seems to be almost in favor of social justice. Now, I saw some other clips where he seems to be speaking against it.

But John Harris, again, Conversations That Matter, here's the video I saw in the latest podcast, John Harris says, I talked about a recent book by Paul Tripp called Do You Believe? And here's the thing.

Steve Lawson actually endorsed Paul Tripp's book. Now, the reason why this is significant, why you should care, is because Paul Tripp, and you can check out this video, I shared it on my community page, so I did a post on YouTube about this.

I'll read it in a moment. But Paul Tripp, like so many of these other guys, David Platt, they came right up to the line and maybe even crossed the line into what some people thought was false teaching because, at least with Paul Tripp, he said, I don't have the full gospel, or I didn't have the full gospel until I realized the need for social justice.

So let that sink in for a moment. He said, I had a truncated gospel. I did not understand the full gospel until I recognized the need for social justice, which some people said, does that mean I'm not saved, that I don't understand the true gospel?

Because I was believing in Christ and His atoning death and resurrection, and I was believing in the gospel of Christ, right? Grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone. That's the gospel. But because I wasn't marching with BLM or I'm not involved in social justice, which a lot of these crowds and what they're saying seem pretty progressive, liberal, or woke and all that, like, are you saying I don't have the full gospel unless I'm advocating for it and involved in this stuff?

Well, I'm not going to make the claim that that's what Paul Tripp was saying, that you have to march with BLM. I don't think he ever said that. But he did say he did not have the full gospel until he got into social justice.

That's a concerning statement. So because of that, I posted this on YouTube. So today is November 18th, Monday morning, I said, talk about social justice has died down a bit since 2020, but we still must remain vigilant knowing that some high profile preachers and authors are blending social justice with the gospel.

For example, Paul Tripp, who is part of Big Eva, right? This is the tie-in. Paul Tripp is part of Big Evangelicalism, you know, TGC, the conference circuit. So Paul Tripp, let me just check this out, I just want to be sure, because again, I always try to be accurate in everything that I say, Paul Tripp, TGC, what's going to come up?

Okay, so Paul Tripp is an author at the Gospel Coalition, that's what I thought, okay. So they are Big Eva, right? Liberal, woke, right? Stuff that you should avoid. So Paul Tripp said that, this is back to my post, Paul Tripp said that he didn't have the full gospel until he understood the need for social justice.

And I said, see the video. And I posted John Harris's podcast. I said, this at best comes very close to the Galatian heresy, where if a teacher adds anything to the gospel, the Apostle Paul says, let them be anathema.

Galatians 1, 1 through 10. So if you have the gospel here, and Paul, David Tripp says, well, Christ is death, burial, and resurrection, that's what I was trusting in, but it wasn't the full gospel until I had social justice.

Now you're adding something, and that does seem to be, or at least come close to the Galatian heresy. This is serious. That's why I'm talking about this. I said back in 2020, many churches were shut down for months, months and months, some for a full year or more.

Christians were not allowed to worship. Our church never shut down, by the way, but that's another story. Christians were not allowed to worship. If they did gather on Sunday, they were often rebuked, sometimes by the very same people who are gathering on Saturday or Friday for the BLM rallies.

Many of these same high-profile leaders, they admonished churches that remained open while praising the protesters. So if you were gathering with the saints and going to church during COVID, you were a horrible person, you were going to kill grandma, right?

But the people that were gathering by the thousands, packing the streets, so they're just fighting for justice. Same people were attacking Christians while defending these protesters. I wrote, I am thankful for the 7 ,000 who did not bow the knee, so to speak, the small minority who spoke up and stood against this hypocrisy.

Social justice continues to be a threat to the true gospel, yet Big Eva, Big Evangelicalism continues to promote it in books and sermons. Christians should reject social justice and instead embrace God's justice, which is revealed in Scripture.

P .S. I said Big Eva stands for Big Evangelicalism, a network of large evangelical organizations that seek to reshape the thinking of American evangelicalism through conferences, books, websites, such as TGC, the Gospel Coalition, etc.

I said, in hindsight, it should also be noted that Steve Lawson did not take a strong stand against social justice. On the other hand, his mentor, John MacArthur, John MacArthur did take a stand. He preached sermons, put out that statement.

Remember social justice and the gospel? That was a great statement that MacArthur and others, Votie Bauckham, they put that.

Out.

Steve Lawson did not sign the statement. What did Steve Lawson do? Instead, he endorsed Paul Tripp's book. I said, check out this podcast. It really shines a light on the problem. So, in conclusion, I'm just going to say what I said last week.

This whole problem of celebrity Christianity, the conference circuit, I think conferences for pastors are helpful, but conferences just for, hey, let's bring everybody together to go listen to David Platt and Paul Tripp and Gospel Coalition.

I think this does more harm than good because what they're doing is they're bringing critical race theory, social justice. They're bringing in these really woke, left-wing ideas. They're bringing them into the church and blending them together with the true gospel of Christ.

And once you blend the true gospel with this other stuff, then you have corruption of the gospel. So, in conclusion, if you have any questions about this, maybe you've never heard some of these connections before, you've never heard the term Big Eva, if you have a question, reach out to me.

The email is, well, send a message through the website or my email, morriscornerchurch at yahoo .com. Because sometimes that goes into my spam folder, so the best way to get through to me is just leave a comment on the podcast and I will try to get back to you.

But this is a serious issue and we want to fight for the truth and for the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen?

Amen.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, may the Lord be with you and have a great day.