Responding to Concerned Ex-Subscriber

Right, so I wanted to respond to an email that I just got from someone who seems sincere and someone that I'm planning on speaking with on the phone very soon.

Not going to name him because that's not important. But you know, I have new subscribers all the time. And so you know,

I think it's worth addressing this topic, which I've definitely addressed before. But again, it's worth addressing every so often.

And especially in this case, because the person who comments makes it a little bit personal. So here goes.

So it says, Hey, ad my name is blank. In the last year or so I've seen more and more of your videos.

So I just wanted to ask you a few questions. Here's my first question. He says, Why do you do the videos that you do?

The reason I ask is because the people you tend to attack seem to not be heretical in the view of the gospel and orthodoxy, but you critique them publicly without reaching out to them and seeking to understand them.

Do you have any biblical justifications for this? I'm not saying there aren't any justifications for what you're doing. But to my knowledge and viewpoint, there seems to be only verses that condemn what you're doing.

I'm thinking of Titus three, verses eight through 11. And so, you know, I'll answer that question.

Why do I do what I do is because I care about the church and I care about people. And I think that the people that I critique is at least the ideas that I critique of theirs are extremely harmful to the church, and extremely harmful to people.

And so if I'm going to love my neighbor, I'm going to have to provide some kind of pushback to those ideas.

And these ideas are not just dangerous in the theoretical, they're dangerous in everyday life.

And we're seeing a lot of that play out, you know, in our streets today. And we're seeing it play out in HR rooms and boardrooms and the gates of Congress and stuff like that.

So this is not theoretical for me at all. This is all of the ideas that I analyze or critique or rip apart have real world consequences.

And I don't want my children to live in a world that is put forward by some of these ideas. I think that would be horrible.

And so because I think that that's not only is it antithetical to everything scripture says the ideas that I critique, but the world if it was made after the image of those who put forward these ideas, it would be a horrible place to live.

I make the videos that I do out of love. There's no question about that. This idea here that critiquing publicly is somehow a sin that there's nothing in the scripture that says that there's nothing in the scripture that says that public critique is a sin.

And if it did say that, then Jesus Christ couldn't be the Savior because he critiqued people publicly.

And so if you want to know why I critique people publicly, it's because I'm trying to follow the example of Jesus Christ. I'm trying to follow the example of Paul, as he follows the example of Jesus Christ, and all of that.

But this idea, listener about me not seeking to understand people that is just so slanderous.

It's unbelievable that you would even say such a thing. I take a lot of effort and a lot of time to hear people in context to read their works to watch their videos to listen to their podcasts.

And I think that that comes through very clearly in my in the content that I produce that I actually have listened to them. You might disagree with how

I've interpreted them. But that's very different than not seeking to understand people. And so, you know, there's, there's, there are a lot of, you know, kind of mixed accusations here and things like that.

But I don't think that even even the verse that you've brought up here, Titus three, doesn't condemn public critique.

And if it did, then we'd have a big problem because Paul who wrote Titus publicly critiqued people.

So that would be a contradiction in his own behavior. But more importantly, Jesus Christ publicly contradicted people.

And so we wouldn't want to say that Jesus Christ was guilty of some kind of a sin, that would be pretty crazy. But as far as Titus three, what it does say is it says avoid foolish controversies, genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law because these are unprofitable and useless.

Warn a divisive person once then warn them a second time and after that, have nothing more to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful, they are self condemned.

It also says that we should devote ourselves to doing what is good. These things are profitable for everyone.

But we have to understand this verse in such a way that doesn't make again, Paul a hypocrite or Jesus a sinner because Jesus talks with people about the law.

Jesus taught, he corrected errors about the law in the Pharisees.

And so obviously, not all controversies about the law are foolish, but he's rather saying, avoid the foolish controversies about the law.

Not all of them are foolish, but some of them are. And so we need to understand these verses in such a way that that provides room for that kind of a thing because you know, because otherwise, we're in a position where we've got, you know, a sinner

Savior, which is not not possible. So that's the that's how I would address that first thing.

I've thought I thought these through, Mr. Listener. So I just want you to understand that. And again, I've got new subscribers all the time.

So I just I don't have a problem explaining this. He goes on, he says, Do you believe that the above passage is relevant at all to what you're doing?

Yes, I do. It says to devote yourself to good works, your videos have only tempted me with anger, division and doubt in people's salvation.

It has not been helpful to me to watch your videos. So I have recently stopped viewing them for the sake of being diligent over my heart.

You should definitely do that. If if you feel like watching my videos is tempting you to sinful anger, or to sinful divisiveness, or things of that nature, then

I would suggest not watching. Absolutely not. But to don't don't don't don't project that on to me, because that's that's not something that I feel about the people that I'm critiquing.

I do doubt some people's salvation that I critique, but not all of them. And but there's nothing wrong with that.

I mean, you know, people buy their fruit. And I think that when you ask me, does the Titus three passage have anything to do with what

I'm doing? It's very relevant. It's very relevant, because often the people that I reserve my strongest words for, let's say, these are people that are dividing their church over foolishness, not dividing their division is actually not a bad thing.

The Bible teaches us that as well. Some division is actually necessary division over the truth is necessary.

But division over foolishness, like CRT, critical race theory, like this woke church nonsense, like white supremacy and white fragility.

These are made up things. These are foolish controversies, white fragility is a foolish controversy.

Right? And so to divide people over that, yes, have nothing more to do with people like that. We should divide with people like that.

You see, division is not a problem, so long as it's division over the right things. And, and so the vitriol that I have for people that try to divide the church up like a pizza over nonsense,

I think is not only is it necessary, but I think it's actually a good thing. And I think it's out of love for people that I do it.

And so I would suggest that if you have a hard time with sinful anger in your heart, when you're watching my videos,

I would not want to tempt you in that way. Definitely do not watch my videos. But the thing is, you can't project your feelings upon me.

I have anger towards people that are that are doing evil in the church, definitely, but it's appropriate anger.

It's not, it's not anger that seeks to treat them differently, or to seeks to treat them with partiality or against the law of God.

When people lie about God, I hate that. I hate that so much. I hate people that are double minded.

I hate people that are double minded, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. So long as I'm not breaking the law of God against them.

There's just no question about it. Anyway, he continues, he says, I wonder how many other people whether they agree with your conclusions or not get tempted not to do good, but to actually be divided because of your videos.

I think I just addressed that not all division is wrong. But again, I don't appreciate you, you know, trying to project your feelings on the people that watch this channel.

It's not, it's not fair of you to do at all. In fact, I would argue that is sinful, to project your feelings onto people that watch this channel.

And to myself, you have no idea about the good works that I do or do not do. You have no idea about the good works that my people that will listen to this channel do or do not do.

You have no idea. But the thing is, if you did bother to ask anybody, people reach out to me all the time about their concerns with their church and their their sadness that their church is starting to go woke and stuff like that.

And they'll often ask me for what my opinion is. And if you ask anyone who's asked me, there's two things that I typically say to people.

Number one, the first thing I say is go to your pastor, because that's what the Bible requires. You see I'm not in this for my team versus your team.

I'm in this because I believe it's right scripturally. So I'm going to follow the scripture as as consistently as I can.

And I tell people, go to your pastor. That's what the Bible says you should do. And then I say, oftentimes, they asked me, should

I leave my church? And let's just say they have gone to their pastor and stuff like that. I'm always saying, you know, that's a last resort, like that should be like, that should be a very difficult decision to go and make.

I never really recommend just leaving your church without a lot of praying a lot of steps being taken a lot of tears and heartache and all that kind of stuff.

I've I've left churches for small reasons that I and I regret it. And I've regretted it for a long time.

And I don't want people to make that same mistake. But I'm not saying that this is not worth dividing over because it certainly can be depending on how woke somebody is.

And again, dividing sometimes can be a good work depending on what you're dividing over.

So there's this idea in this email that's like division is bad. And it's and good works don't divide.

And that's just simply a false idea of what the Bible is talking about there. And again, you know,

I'm not mad at you for sending me this email. I get it. This is how I was taught to. But but I think we need to think this through a little bit more deeply.

He continues, he says, Our Lord Jesus says that they will know us for our love for one another. He gives a new commandment to love one another.

Are you loving the brothers you are correcting? I know correcting and rebuking is loving and is commanded in the scriptures, but it should be done in a certain way and attitude.

If you have the free time and desire to you can Okay, so he's this is where he asked to call me and I will call you this is not a replacement.

I'm looking forward to speaking with you on Monday, but I suggest you watch this video first so that we can have a better conversation.

Because this is where I'm coming from. And I think the idea is, Mr. Listener that that I just turn on the camera and I just pop off at the mouth.

The first thing that I think of, and I don't think about it. And I'm not trying to be I'm trying, I'm trying to be careful. I just don't even care about understanding.

That's the idea that I think you're kind of presenting here. And it just could not be further from the truth. I take this very seriously.

And I absolutely love the church. I absolutely love the brethren.

I absolutely try to love that my neighbor as myself as consistently as I possibly can.

I'm not perfect. I understand that. But the thing is, I don't just I didn't just wake up one day and say,

I'm gonna start blasting Jonathan Lehman. I'm gonna start blasting Jim Artisby. Like it didn't happen that way. I saw these people start to divide up the church over nonsense.

And, you know, I bit my tongue for a long time. And you know, I was patient. And, and I'm still patient.

You know what I mean? That's, that's, I'm not to say that I'm not anymore. And if you look at some of my older videos, you know, they're, they're very nuanced and winsome and all that stuff.

And then I then what I saw is, is is just a bunch of snakes change their tactics, because they want to make a meal of the sheep.

So many of the men that I criticize seek to make a meal of the sheep. Sometimes it's about money. Sometimes it's about fame.

Sometimes it's about things that I don't know. But the reality is, though, that if you're trying to create a situation where correcting and rebuking is not filled with zeal sometimes, then you just got to read your

Bible again. If you look at the scripture, what you're trying to propose here, that it's got to be done this like kind of like Kong soft, like lovely kind of way.

Like, if that's not what the Bible says, we I know too much about what the

Bible says, I know about how Jesus acted, I know about how what Paul acted and stuff like that. And the and the way that I've always recommended this is that the people that are leading the folks astray, that's who you reserve your fire for.

But the people that have been led astray, that's different, you treat those people differently, you look at how Jesus treated the, the masses and the crowds, he had compassion on the masses and the crowds.

You look at how he treated the Pharisees, the people that were leading them astray in this nonsense. And that's where that's who he saved the fire for.

You understand what I'm saying? So I thought about this, I'm trying to follow Jesus's example. And I wish that other people would would would seek to follow both sides of Jesus's example here where there was zeal on one side, but on the other side, there's compassion.

And it's kind of like depends on the situation depends on the variety of factors. I'm trying to do that perfectly.

I no doubt, no doubt have I not done that perfectly in the past. But, you know, there's the there's a few accusations in this email that I don't think are very fair.

But I look forward to speaking with you about this so that you can maybe you can put some flesh and blood on it. So that way, I know exactly more about what you're talking about.

But that's really where I'm coming from. And, you know, I know this video might come across as me kind of trying to defend myself, which

I definitely am. And but the thing is, I'm not just defending myself, I'm defending a lot of other people who, who get this kind of criticism, where it's like, well, you could rebuke, but just not that way.

And it's like, yeah, but if you want to make rules that are like extra biblical, okay, maybe fine, but but we don't play by those rules.

Those are, those are fake rules. I learned those rules to you know what I mean? I learned the rules about how every man has to be lovely in every situation and things like that.

And it's just not the case at all. Anyway, I look forward to speaking with you on Monday. Hey, everybody, have a great weekend.