WE HAVE BEEN REFUTED!! - Dr. Bradley and Great Commission Christianity

Well, today I wanted to try a bit of an experiment. I was watching a

YouTube video the other day, and it was a guy who was responding to someone's article that was a response to something that he had said, and what he decided to do is to say, okay, well, let's just read this article, and let's see if, let's just assume that everything that is said is true in the article.

Everything in the article is actually true. We're not going to challenge any of the statements that it makes, and let's see if the argument still holds water, and I think, you know, that struck me as a very effective way to sort of, you know, evaluate things, and I think that, you know, one of the things that I'm trying to improve is my ability to sort of evaluate an argument on its own merits, and, you know,

I think that, you know, even if you're not a scholar, that you can kind of cultivate this sort of approach to scholarly materials, or writings, or things like that, and this is an article that's written by Dr.

Anthony Bradley. It's something that came out recently. A lot of people are commenting on it, and I haven't read much of the comments about it, so this, hopefully

I'll be going into this very fresh. Now, I have read the article already, and I said that I did like the article, and I do.

I do like the article. I agree with the general thrust of the article, even though, in the article itself,

Dr. Anthony Bradley engages in some just pathetic race -baiting behavior, and when

I say race -baiting, I mean that behavior that is intentionally trying to increase racial tension.

I don't know why he does this, but he does this all the time on his Twitter feed, and he does it in this article as well, so what

I want to do is let's just read it. It's a brief article, and let's talk about it as we go.

The title of the article, if you want to look it up online, and I'll link to it in the description of this as well, the title is,

The Great Commission Christianity Keeps Blacks Away from Evangelicalism. Great Commission Christianity versus Cosmic Redemptive Christianity.

Such a fascinating title, in my opinion. Great Commission Christianity Keeps Blacks Away from Evangelicalism.

I mean, it's a little bit click -baity.

That's fine. I do click -baity titles as well, but I mean, wow, when you read that title, this is a good example of just sort of poisoning the well right up front, and when you title something like this, it doesn't really matter what your article says.

People tend to believe that your article proves what the title says, so anyway, let's just jump in.

Here's how it starts. It says, Since 1994, I've been researching Evangelicalism's inability to successfully integrate its churches and institutions following the

Civil Rights Movement. Let me stop right there and jump out of the article for a second. Since 1994, he's been researching the inability of Evangelicalism to successfully integrate its churches and institutions.

This leads to so many questions right up front. First of all, has Evangelicalism tried to integrate its churches?

What does integrate actually mean? Because when you're looking at this from a biblical perspective, obviously the

Evangelical Church, at least you would hope, that they'd be looking to do things biblically, and so what does he mean by integrate?

You know what I mean? Let's move on. Maybe he'll explain. He says, The United States military, professional sports, the arts, film, business, the health care professions, and so on, have all made advances in terms of racial diversity since 1965.

Evangelicalism, however, remains just as white today as it was when Tom Skinner addressed race and Evangelicalism at Urbana in 1971.

Not much has changed. After 21 years of observations, my conclusion is that Evangelicalism's reduction of the mission of Christianity to the extra -biblical phrase, the

Great Commission, serves as an obstacle preventing white Evangelicals from connecting the gospel to the lived experiences of African -Americans.

Okay, so this is the point of his article. He's saying that the

Evangelical Church, and again, I'm not zealous for the term

Evangelical. I'm not even really sure what it means anymore, to be perfectly honest with you. I have a general idea of what it means, and essentially what it means is like white people's churches in the

United States, and I find that interesting because if that's what it means, like white churches in the

United States, then if you integrate a church, then you're not Evangelical anymore.

You're not an Evangelical church. And so, by definition, no matter what an Evangelical church does, the

Evangelical church has not successfully integrated because once you integrate, you're no longer identified as an

Evangelical church. Now, look, I'm not saying that that is the definition of Evangelicalism, but it seems to be the working definition that many people use.

When Lecrae says, I'm done with Evangelicalism, or however he worded that, what he essentially meant was he's done with the white church.

And so, if you define it in that way, this is an obvious statement. Evangelicalism has not been able to successfully integrate because once they do, they're no longer

Evangelical. But anyway, let's continue. He says,

I call this Great Commission Christianity. I call this Great Commission Christianity.

Great Commission Christianity is not heretical. It's not necessarily wrong. It is accidentally deficient.

Although the phrase, the Great Commission, is found nowhere in the Bible, it has been defended by Evangelical as the core imperative of the

Christian mission. Now, this is a fascinating argument as well.

Great Commission, the term, is not presented in the Bible, but it's been defended as the core imperative of the

Christian mission. Now, you might feel like this argument is familiar.

Have you ever talked to an anti -Trinitarian, right? An anti -Trinitarian, or a

Muslim sometimes will say this, the word Trinity doesn't even appear in the Bible. And you're like, well, yeah, it doesn't appear in the

Bible. That's true. But what matters is if the idea appears in the Bible. Word Trinity is a word that was invented to explain an idea that is presented in the scriptures quickly.

Because if we had to explain it out using only words that we had already had, it would be more complicated to have a conversation about the

Trinity. But so instead, we invented a word to represent a biblical teaching.

And so it doesn't matter if the word Trinity is not there. I'm not zealous for the word, but what

I am zealous for is the idea. Because the Trinity, I think most every Christian would agree that the

Trinity is a core doctrine, a definitional doctrine of the Christian faith.

If you don't have the Trinity, then you're not a Christian. You know what I mean? So, yeah, the word

Great Commission isn't in the scripture. That has nothing to do with whether or not it is a core imperative of the

Christian mission. Right? I mean, like, this is a weird way to start this article.

He's saying, well, Great Commission Christianity, it's not heretical, it's not wrong. It's deficient.

And it's, the word is not even found in the Bible. So what's the big deal? Okay. I mean,

I don't understand why he would start there. It's such a weak place to start. And so when you, again,

I'm trying to accept everything he's saying is true and seeing if anything matters here.

Like what is he actually, what is he accomplishing by this article? So anyway, let's continue. He says, the phrase

Great Commission is found nowhere in the Bible. It has been defended by evangelicals as the core imperative of the Christian mission.

The problem exegetically, however, is that the word go in Matthew 28 is not an imperative.

It's a participle. According to Robert Culver, the Greek grammar simply does not support go as an imperative command unless you are reading a revivalist agenda into the exegesis of the text.

Hmm. Properly translated, the verse should read, having gone or as you go.

The aorist participle is not functioning as an imperative in this text. Therefore, the call to go is not a particular action by individuals to physically go anywhere in particular.

That doesn't mean that the Christians shouldn't go intentionally. The church's work in disciple making is a distinct call and an exegetical imperative throughout the biblical text.

But the Great Commission Christianity is a truncated view of the gospel, the kingdom, and redemption that may permanently keep evangelicalisms one of America's only predominantly white spaces.

It's hard to kind of cut through this, right? So he makes a grammatical point, a

Greek grammatical point. And again, I'm going to accept it as true. I've heard people that have said that this is not true.

And I've read grammars, Greek grammars, that talk about why this is actually not true, what he's saying.

But it really, it makes no difference to me. It really doesn't. Because if it means as you go or having gone, like he postulates, let's just assume that that is correct.

What difference does it make? Because if someone is having gone, then obviously they have gone.

And then he also, like he, my goodness gracious. I mean, this is just such a, again, another weird point.

Because he says, quote, that doesn't mean that Christians shouldn't go intentionally. The church's work in disciple making is a distinct call and an exegetical imperative throughout the biblical text.

So he's saying that go is an imperative, but it's not an imperative in the

Great Commission text that everyone quotes. What I think is going on here is

Dr. Anthony Bradley is trying to dazzle you with his knowledge. He's trying to dazzle you.

And like you ever, I don't recommend this show. This is not a Christian, this is not a show Christians should be watching. But if you've ever seen

True Blood, the HBO series, one of the things that these vampires do is like, they're able to sort of dazzle you and like you look at them and they kind of like put you in a trance and so you're very easily to fall into suggestion and things like that.

That's what Anthony Bradley's doing here. And a lot of scholars do this. It's really obnoxious. They try to dazzle you with terms and their knowledge about certain things.

In this case, he's trying to dazzle you with his knowledge of Greek. And so you're kind of like disoriented.

You're not really sure. I mean, look, this guy really sounds like a scholar. And so you hear this upfront, which has no meaning.

I mean, look, he's saying it is an imperative, but he's trying to make some kind of argument that evangelicals misunderstand the

Great Commission, even though it is an imperative. It's not an imperative here. Okay. So what?

It's like, so what? If it is an imperative, what's the difference? And I think that's why

I think he's trying to dazzle you here. So you kind of say, okay, he's trying to present himself as the authority so that you buy the rest of the article.

I really do think that's what he's doing here. I mean, there's what other point could he possibly have? Oh, Matthew 28 is not an imperative.

It's a participle. But you know, the commission is still an imperative. Okay, I guess.

The word Great Commission doesn't even appear in the Bible, but the idea does. I don't get it.

I really don't get it. Great Commission Christianity. Here's the, here's the, here's how it continues.

The dominance of the Great Commission as a clarion call for the work of the church in the world is often attributed to the

Baptist missionary, William Carey. However, as Robbie Castleman observes, quote, it turns out that this passage may have got its summary label from a

Dutch missionary, Justinian van Wels, but it was Hudson Taylor nearly 200 years later who popularized the

Great Commission. It seems then that Wels or some other post -reformation missionary probably coined the term.

The Great Commission and today's evangelicalisms inherited a slogan that is more of a handicap than they may realize.

Okay. I mean, I'm still not seeing the point here, right? Like, okay. Someone coined the term and it's a handicap according to him.

We still haven't figured out why this is a handicap, but let's, let's continue. He says, here's a well -accepted summary of one of the best examples of how the

Great Commission, how Great Commission Christianity views the Christian story. For Great Commission Christianity, the gospel is the announcement of the good news of Jesus's work to restore sinful image bearers to the rightful worship of God.

Sounds pretty good to me. Right? Stepping out of the article for a second. That sounds pretty good to me.

He continues, the kingdom of God is the rule of God demonstrated on earth among a worshiping people and redemption is

God's work to free his people from slavery. Again, this view is not wrong. It's just limited in application.

It's hyper focus on saving individuals and the work of the church says nothing about the redemption of creation, which

God is also reconciling himself through Christ. Now this is what

I find so interesting because I do agree with Anthony Bradley here that some people do reduce the gospel into individual salvation.

I do agree with him and I don't think that that's appropriate. But the question is, does, is there something about Great Commission Christianity or the

Great Commission itself that, that, that does this? I don't think so.

I don't think so. So I mean, he's got an interesting, you know, problem that he's addressing, but I'm just curious, what does it have to do with the

Great Commission? Because the Great Commission, in my opinion, is all encompassing.

Go and make disciples. Oh, let me, let me, let me back up. Let me accept what he's saying. As you are going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded.

Well, God has commanded a lot of things. Christ has commanded a lot of things and so if you're teaching the nation everything that Christ commands, then that should probably cover it, right?

That should cover it. I mean, so, so I'm just, I'm, I'm trying to accept what he's saying, but it's, he's being very vague.

And again, he's, he's, he's been dazzling us, but the problem is like a useful scholar tries to clear things up and speak plainly and then an annoying scholar like this tries to dazzle you with his knowledge.

It's so frustrating, but let's, let's continue. Let's continue. This, this next section is titled

Cosmic Redemption, Redemptive Christianity. The alternate view is what I call

Cosmic Redemptive Christianity. At its core, Cosmic Redemptive Christianity is a redemptive historical view of the gospel.

Now let's, let's just pause for a second here, okay? We just got done in a section that talks about how the

Great Commission, the term Great Commission isn't in the Bible. Remember, he was trying to dazzle us with that.

And that's supposed to communicate something, right? Like the, the fact that, that the Great Commission, the words aren't in the scripture, that's supposed to communicate something.

We're not really sure what it is because he didn't really say what it's supposed to communicate, but it's supposed, I mean, let's just face it.

I think he's presenting that as if that's, that's, that's something that should make you pause. Those words aren't even in the

Bible, the Great Commission, yet this is so important to you. So, so, so let's accept that, that that's true.

Like that, that should make you pause and, and, and maybe pump the brakes a little bit. Is the phrase cosmic redemptive

Christianity in the Bible? I mean, again, we're accepting everything he says is true.

Is his argument consistent? Is there, is there something to it here? And I'm just wondering, like, did he not, did he, did he forget what he just did a few paragraphs before?

So Great Commission, the words aren't in the scripture. Okay, great. Cosmic redemptive Christianity also isn't.

So what's the point? We've got two phrases that aren't in the scripture. One is better because what?

Now, again, I don't necessarily disagree with what he's about to say. I've read this article before. I don't necessarily disagree with what he's about to say, but, but it's just like, do you see what

I, why I think he was trying to dazzle us like, oh, the Great Commission's not in the Bible. Yeah, but neither is cosmic redemptive

Christianity. Anyway, here he says, he's, he's gonna, he's gonna quote Tim Keller. Tim Keller's definition of the gospel is a great example.

He defines it this way. Through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God fully accomplishes salvation for us, rescuing us from judgment for sin into fellowship with him, and then restores the creation in which we can enjoy our new life together with him forever.

End quote. The difference is subtle, but overwhelming in its application for the black experience in America.

Now here's where I start to, look, I think that that, that definition of the gospel is very good.

I agree with Tim Keller there because the gospel saves us from eternity in hell.

It saves our souls, our sinful souls. Then you know, and that's, and that's sort of the baptizing part of the

Great Commission. We're baptizing people. People are getting saved. You know, they're repenting of their sins.

They're being baptized and God is saving their souls, but then we disciple them.

And what does discipling mean? Well, we teach them to obey everything that God commands.

And so that is a way that God restores us as full people. So it's not just our souls.

It's also our economic activity. It's also our, how we engage with work. It's also how we raise our families.

It's also all of these things. It's full orbed. This is nothing new. Like, like, you know, this is something that, that almost everyone that I would suspect that he would accuse of Great Commission Christianity would believe.

So I don't, I don't, I'm not really sure. The difference is subtle, but overwhelming in its implication for the black experience in America.

Now here's the race baiting. I can't, I can't stand for this. Overwhelming in its implication for the black experience in America.

No, that's not how it works. It's overwhelming in its application for every person in the world.

Every single person needs to be sanctified. Every single person needs to be discipled.

Every single person needs to obey everything that God commands. This, I can't, I can't take this race baiting stuff.

I can't. Let's, let's continue. The key phrase here is restores the creation.

Great Commission Christianity sadly does not include the creation, the kingdom, or redemption as a necessary part of the gospel.

Full stop. I'd like to see the proceeds on that. Hopefully he's about to prove it. He says leaving out the creation explains why

Great Commission Christianity struggled to encourage Christian involvement in social issues.

Let's just, let's just accept it. Let's just see how he, where he's going with this. He says, I define the gospel by saying it's the good news of God's saving work in Christ and the spirit by which this powers of sin, death, and judgment are overcome and the life of the new creation is inaugurated, moving towards the glorification of the whole cosmos.

I like that. I think that's, I think that's pretty close to what Tim Keller said. I like what he said here, here, because, because here's the thing.

God is making all things new, all things. There's a new heavens, a new earth, there's a new creation that's been inaugurated.

I completely agree with that. Christ is reversing the curse. So God created everything.

Then he cursed the ground when we sinned. And now after the resurrection, he's been reversing the curse.

I, you know, some people have said this and I'll just repeat it. You know, after Christ is resurrected, he is mistaken by someone for being the gardener of the, of the area where they were.

He, they said they mistook, mistook him for being the gardener. And I've heard somebody say, well, why do you think that was?

I mean, did they have a gardener uniform? I guess maybe. Was he wearing a gardener uniform or was it more likely that they mistook him for being the gardener because he was doing some yard work?

He was doing some gardening. That image is essentially what we should have been doing from the beginning when we sinned against God.

So we should have been working the land. Remember in Genesis, God tells us to do that, take dominion, work the land, all of that kind of stuff, cultivate things.

So Christ, when he resurrects, starts doing that. So I agree with Dr. Anthony Bradley here.

If you, if you're, if your gospel doesn't have a redemption for all things, for the heavens and the earth, then

I think that there is a deficiency there. But the question is, does Great Commission Christianity have this whole?

Because I think he would accuse lots of people of Great Commission Christianity that actually do not have this whole in their, in their message, that they all agree that God is making all things new, that God is working now and God's reversing the curse.

I like, like, I'm pretty sure he would accuse me of Great Commission Christianity, which it,

I mean, you know, I don't know that for a fact, but, but, but anyway, so I agree with that.

I think, I think, I think that's really good. He says this, he says, cosmic redemptive

Christianity as a redemptive historical approach seeks to call God's people to himself through evangelism and to liberate creation from the power of the devil until Christ returns.

That's very true. That's very true. I talk about this kind of thing all the time because God did curse the ground and he's going to reconcile that to himself.

It's not going to stay cursed forever. There's going to be a new heavens, a regenerated heavens, a regenerated earth, and things are going to be fantastic.

There's going to be no more sin, so there's gonna be no more curse. He goes on, the reformed tradition has recognized that God cares about everything in creation that was affected in Genesis three, and that God intends to redeem everything as far as the curse is found.

Redemption is a covenant story about everything in creation. This paragraph has confused me big time.

This paragraph has confused me because he's talking about how this great commission

Christianity that he's defining has this deficiency, but here he's telling us that it's the reformed tradition that has recognized that God cares about everything in creation.

I agree with him. The reformed tradition has recognized this forever, as long as it's existed, essentially.

You could read this stuff in the Westminster standards. You could read this stuff in the 1689 standards that he disparages all the time as great commission

Christianity. Again, we're accepting ... I'm not challenging anything here.

Well, I'm not trying to. I'm sure I have. My emotions get the better of me sometimes, right?

But if what he's saying is true, and there's been this hole, this deficiency in great commission

Christianity's gospel, he really needs to define great commission Christianity and show us exactly who he's talking about, because here he seems to say that this is a reformed tradition, and so seemingly this has been in the church for a long time.

I don't think he's arguing that the black church tradition is reformed. So we're talking about white folks here.

I mean, isn't the reformed tradition a lot of white folks? I've heard that accusation all the time. It's just a bunch of white people in the reformed tradition.

Okay, so then what are you saying here, Dr. Bradley? Do white people understand this or not?

You see, this is where the race baiting stuff just falls apart, because this really doesn't have anything to do with skin color.

It has to do with your understanding of theology and things like that, but he's insisting on bringing race into this, and so I'm wondering, what are you actually saying here?

Does the reformed tradition have this belief or not? Because I know tons of people that you call great commission

Christians, as a disparaging term, that believe this stuff, that their standards believe this stuff, they teach this stuff.

So, I mean, what are we doing here? You know what I mean? What are we doing here? Again, I agree with the thrust of this.

I do. Gerard von Grongrigen, in his book,

From Creation to Consummation, explains that the creation, the cosmos, includes industry, technology, recreation, the arts, education, commerce, politics, and so on.

I agree with that. I mean, the commands of God affect every area of life.

They address every area of life. I've said this on my YouTube channel since I've had a YouTube channel. I've believed this for a long time.

I remember when I discovered this. I remember when I discovered this, and I was angry at the fact that no one had taught me this before.

Going back to the article, it says, this is God's cosmic kingdom. Cosmic kingdom, is that a word?

As a result, black lives matter to God. Wait, wait, how did we get there?

I'm not missing any words. Let me read this to you, ready? This includes industry, technology, recreation, the arts, education, commerce, politics, and so on.

This is God's cosmic kingdom. As a result, black lives matter to God. He's already dazzled you, so you just go with him.

That's what I'm saying. He's trying to dazzle you, so that you just go with him. What is he? Who is saying that they don't?

Who is saying that they don't? Name names. I'm more than willing to name names, right? How come

I don't know a single person, a single Great Commission Christian? That says black lives don't matter.

Let's continue with the article. Poverty matters to God. Gun violence matters to God. Racism matters to God.

Divorce, child abuse, genocide, sex trafficking, all matter to God. Great Commission Christianity.

Now, I want you to listen to this. Great Commission Christianity remains truncated and largely unhelpful to the black experience, because God's people have been commissioned to have dominion over the world for its current liberation, not just its spiritual salvation.

Issues of justice in society for Christians are issues of liberating the creation from the work of the devil.

The hyper -focus of Great Commission Christianity on evangelism obscures this reality. Okay, so I need you to be careful here, because as he's dazzling you with his knowledge of Greek, and as he's dazzling you with his weird arguments that Great Commission is not a phrase that's in the

Bible, he's also making a point here, and he's saying that Great Commission Christians, people who are focused on evangelism primarily, what they're doing is, even if they're not thinking this, they're acting in such a way that black lives don't matter, poverty doesn't matter, gun violence doesn't matter, racism doesn't matter, divorce, child abuse, genocide, sex trafficking, all of these things don't matter.

Do you know a single person, and I'm serious here, I think there are people that de -emphasize this world in an inappropriate way.

I'm with him. Again, I agree with the general thrust of this article, but do you know a single person that would say that any of these things don't matter to God?

I mean, this is a... And you can see he's tying this to black -white.

He's saying that black experience knows that all this stuff matters, but white experience doesn't think it does.

And that's the race -baiting part that I just don't understand. I just don't get why he's doing it. He knows this is harmful because he said so in an article from 10 years ago, that this kind of race -baiting, ethnic tension, increasing rhetoric is harmful to blacks.

He knows it, but he's doing it. I don't get why he's doing that. It says here, let's just go on.

Van Groningen explains that Genesis 1 and 2 teach that humanity was to be involved in the discovery of, unfolding of, and developing of the potentialities, forces, and laws that God has embedded into his cosmic kingdom.

That is, God created human persons to be culturally active and productive until the cosmic kingdom will be renewed by a sudden and cataclysmic event when

Christ returns. The fall introduced the kingdom of Satan into creation. As Tim Keller explains, when humanity fell into sin, the created order shared somehow in that fall.

It's now subjected to frustration. Nature isn't what ought to be, or what it was created to be.

Satan intends to destroy everything good in God's cosmic kingdom. It's a parasite kingdom, and beginning in Genesis 4, we see that all forms of injustice in all of human history start there.

American slavery and Jim Crow were works of the parasite kingdom. Van Groningen reminds us that the first message of redemption announced in Genesis 3 was not only about messianic redemption activity, but it was also the announcement of the ultimate judgment and destruction of the parasite kingdom.

This is where the gospel of redemption begins. Theologians call this the proto -evangelium. It is the earliest indication that God intends to reclaim and redeem what the fall cursed.

Until Christ returns, observes Van Groningen, the antithesis between God and Satan must be recognized and dealt with spiritually, but also in all aspects of social and cosmic activities, as believers seek to execute their spiritual, social, and cosmic mandates.

This is why Christians do not have to ask whether or not certain justice issues in society are gospel issues.

For cosmic redemptive Christianity, God bringing justice here and now is one aspect of announcing the redemption of God's cosmic kingdom under the

Lordship of Jesus Christ. I agree with that.

I agree with that. I think that every injustice that happens in this world,

God cares about it. I don't think there's any single person that doesn't agree with that.

Where people do disagree though, is when it comes to how to address those injustices.

Because the Great Commission is actually very instructive in this area. What does the

Great Commission say? Baptizing the nations, it's conversion, and then discipling them, teaching them to observe everything that Christ commands.

Now, what does Christ command? Is it just a vague, nebulous idea of loving people?

No. Christ has specific commands that apply specifically.

And so, when you tell me that poverty is a gospel issue, because the gospel addresses it, okay, fine, that's great.

That's why I'm against welfare programs. Because if you're teaching people to obey everything

Christ commands, you know that that is wrong and stealing. You know it. This is why

I'm against reparations for African Americans today that their ancestors were enslaved.

Because if you're teaching everyone to obey what Christ commands, according to how the Great Commission tells us to do it, you know that that is sinful.

That's not what Christ commanded. That's not what Christ commanded. And so, the reality is, like, again, this is,

I'm accepting everything he says here, and I actually agree with a lot of it, but that's why I stand against so much of what you do,

Dr. Anthony Bradley, and what you say. Because it goes against the things that Christ commanded.

Does Christ care about poverty? Yeah, but that doesn't mean that every idea of how to alleviate it has merit or is good.

In fact, many of the ideas that are put forward are bad.

Great Commission Christianity doesn't need social justice. Great Commission Christianity doesn't typically preach a redemption of all creation.

They never have. Great Commission Christianity preaches a revivalistic, individualistic, truncated gospel to slaves on plantations and did not seek to free slaves from slavery.

Great Commission Christianity did nothing to thwart and fight against lynching during Reconstruction. Great Commission Christianity did nothing to liberate blacks from Jim Crow.

In fact, it was the opposite. It was typically Great Commission Church members in the South that fought against the black church -led civil rights movement.

Fast forward to recent American racial tensions, and you will find a parallel. This is where I can't go with them, because, oh, look at all you.

The church, the evangelical church was bad back then. They did bad things back then. Look at them. They opposed abolition.

They opposed civil rights. And now they're doing the same thing today. It's never proven, of course. It's never demonstrated, because it's easy to do this.

All you got to do is go to the Scripture, right? Because, again, we're teaching people to obey everything that God commands, right?

Great Commission Christians have that in their commission. So we're teaching people to obey everything God commands. So we can look back at people and say, so Christ commanded that if somebody was a man stealer and they were caught, and the evidence of two of them were witnesses, that they should be executed.

So it's very easy to see how what they were doing was wrong, right? Christ's commands tell us what slavery is, how it works, and things like that.

And if they were breaking those laws, it's very easy to compare it to Scripture and say they were breaking those laws. But the thing is, we got to do that today, too.

So when Thabiti Anyabwili promotes reparations for blacks,

I have to go to the Scripture and compare it to what God commanded us to do and say, look,

God didn't command this one. I know he cares about racism. I agree.

He cares about the marginalized. I agree. But he does not command taking money from some and giving to others on the basis of their parents.

In fact, that goes against his law of not punishing the kids for the crimes of the parents.

And so we have to go to the Scripture to compare what did people do back in Jim Crow?

What did people do during the Civil Rights Movement? What did people do during slavery? And where it did compare with the

Bible, then fine. Where it doesn't, then we can condemn that, and we have to do that today. It's not enough to say, well, there was racial tensions back then, and they did the wrong thing then.

Therefore, they're doing the wrong thing now. That's not how it works. Because again, as the Great Commission says, we are teaching them to obey

God in every area that God speaks. Cosmic redemption, right?

Cosmic redemption. So we go fast forward to recently.

You'll find the same parallel. Great Commission advocates were unable to respond well to what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Full stop.

How? In what way? Because they didn't believe the narrative, hands up, don't shoot?

That was a false narrative. That didn't happen. So what would you have them do?

What would you have Great Commission Christians do in Ferguson that they didn't do? It's no wonder that African Americans like Lecrae, who once aligned with the

Great Commission Christianity, divorced themselves from white evangelicalism. So you see, my thought was correct.

That when he's talking about evangelicalism, he's talking about white evangelicalism. He's talking about the white church.

Okay? And so, it's no wonder that the white church can't integrate. Because the second it does, it's no longer an evangelical church in his mind.

So of course, there's no integration. So you see, again, I'm accepting everything he says in this article.

And it does not hold water. It's not internally consistent. Look, in the very beginning, he talks about, let me just scroll up.

He talks about, I've been researching evangelicalism's inability to successfully integrate its churches and institutions.

And then down here, and I had an idea that maybe he was talking about white people. And he actually is.

He's talking about the Great Commission, it's white evangelicalism. So it took him, 1994,

I mean, it took him a long time to discover what the reason is that white evangelicalism can't integrate.

I discovered it in two seconds. It's because you define it out of existence the second they integrate.

The only thing you're studying is the churches that haven't integrated for some reason. So it's no mystery why they haven't.

They just haven't. And once they do, they don't count anymore. I've often wondered, do

I go to a white church? Am I part of white evangelicalism? I've often wondered that. Because it's a false idea anyway.

It doesn't have a real definition. I go to a church that's majority white. We've got five families.

Most of them are white. It's probably the most integrated church in Vermont, to be perfectly honest. We've got me.

I'm Puerto Rican. I've got my kids. They're Puerto Rican. We've got an adopted black kid. And so by the percentages, we're probably the most diverse church in the state.

Do I go to a white church? I like the Great Commission. Maybe that helps.

Okay, he says this. He says, to garner participation in social issues from Christians, Great Commission Christianity has to justify their encouragement of justice work by casting it through the lens of evangelism.

This effectively dismisses the real suffering that comes at the hand of injustice. As a result, Great Commission Christianity in America will likely always be a religion for the predominantly white people who have never suffered

American systemic and cultural evils of the parasite kingdom. And it's lingering flare -ups.

And I can't go with him here either. Yeah, white people, they've never suffered from cultural evils of the parasite kingdom.

This is the race baiting that I'm talking about. He could just say this, and it's obviously false.

I mean, it's hard to accept this is true, but let's continue. It says that it's one of the privileges of being white in America is never needing

God to intervene on your behalf in the work of the parasite kingdom that's operating through American social structures.

It's one of the privileges of being white in America to never need God to intervene on your behalf in the work of the parasite kingdom as it moves through the norming oppressive forces of white supremacy.

This is some precedence in American history during the fundamentalist era. It was Great Commission Christianity that prevented white evangelicals from being united with black evangelicals because fundamentalists did not view structural racism as a gospel issue.

The black church, historically speaking, has been the best American representation of cosmic redemption Christianity between slavery and the civil rights movement.

And it has changed America forever. Again, I mean, he talked about how this is a reformed tradition.

Is he saying that the black church is reformed? I mean, is that what he's saying?

Because if he's not saying that, then this is an inconsistent statement as well. Again, I'm accepting everything he says here.

White people never need God to intervene on their behalf. Never. They never need that. As stupid as that is, let's accept that it's true.

White people don't need this. But for some reason, white people were able to formulate this theology in the reformed tradition, even though they've never needed it.

They've never needed it. Now, am I saying that reformed people have been consistent with this always?

No, obviously not. We can go to the scripture and see where they were inconsistent. But this article, again,

I agree with the general thrust of it, that people who have a truncated view of the gospel, that is an issue.

That is a problem. They're too otherworldly. I agree. But who is he talking about here?

It should come to us as no surprise that in 2018, blacks were named the most Bible -engaged in the U .S. Black Christians have needed the entire canon of the

Bible to make sense of all aspects of life, persons, and societal in ways that white people have not.

For black Christians, the Bible has not only brought many into union with Christ, but also helps us navigate the parasite kingdom's activity in America.

CRC knows that all injustices around the world and in the church are gospel issues because the gospel at its core is about God calling people to himself and the liberation of creation.

Claiming dominion over injustice is not therefore an implication of the gospel. It is a fundamental part of the gospel. Okay, but you have to do it according to what

Christ has commanded. And again, I'll bring this up again. Yes, poverty is an issue that God has commands for.

Okay, and so we need to preach the full counsel of God in our churches. All of us gospel

Great Commission people need to preach what God has said regarding poverty. And that's why we must stand against socialism.

That's why we must stand against welfare programs. That's why we must stand against reparations, as they're discussed today.

We have to. We have to. Because Christ didn't command it. That's why we have to be against abortion.

That's why we cannot vote for Democrats. Because Christ commanded it. You see what

I'm saying? So like, so yes, okay, fine. Whatever. It's not an implication of the gospel. I could quibble with that, but I'm just gonna accept what he's saying as true.

It is a fundamental part of the gospel. Okay, great. And that is why you have to believe the same thing

I believe regarding if they are unwilling to work, they do not eat. They should starve.

They should starve. As long as Great Commission Christianity keeps its truncated, revivalistic, and individualistic gospel at the center of evangelicalism, the quiet exodus of African Americans leaving evangelical context will continue.

The majority of conservative evangelicalism's refusal to value the liberation of creation as also central to the gospel is the theological reason it has not advanced substantially on race issues since 1970.

Has he proved that, by the way? I mean, we're at the end of the article here. There's only a few sentences left.

Has he proved that in any of this? No. It's just stated. It's just stated.

And so like I predicted in the beginning, the title keeps blacks away from evangelicalism.

The article doesn't prove it, but what he does is he dazzles you with his title, and then he dazzles you with his knowledge of Greek, and then he says a lot of things, but it's not demonstrated, ever.

It's not demonstrated. This is propaganda.

This is how it works. You dazzle people with your knowledge and your intelligence, but you don't really say anything.

The gospel of redemption cosmically includes God calling his people to himself and redeeming the entire cosmos.

It includes evangelism and working to destroy the devil's work in creation in the here and now. This is the redemptive historical gospel that began in the garden of Eden and will reach all tribes, nations, and tongues in a world at war with the parasite kingdom until the consummation of God's kingdom at the return of Jesus Christ.

Amen. I agree with that. I completely agree with that. But you see what

I'm saying? I think that there are some people running around that have this idea that the gospel is only for your soul and only for the next life and things like that, and the world is going to hell in a handbasket, so why rearrange the chairs on the deck of the

Titanic? There are people who believe that. But most of those people do it inconsistently.

And what I mean by that is a good inconsistency. It's not a bad inconsistency. So they'll say that. Why worry about the deck chairs on the

Titanic? But then they work to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. They'll vote for the pro -life candidate.

They'll vote against abortion. They will speak against injustices and things like that.

And so even if you are one of these people that think the world's going to hell in a handbasket, most of those people still live their lives in such a way that they have work to do here and now.

They've got dominion to take here and now. And so I know for a fact that Dr.

Anthony Bradley would consider a guy like John MacArthur one of these GCCs, one of these Great Commission Christians, right?

I know for a fact that he'd consider a guy like James White or Josh Buist the same way. But these men, even if they have a thing,

I don't even know if these men have that theology. But even if they did, they don't act that way. They act in such a way that they know they must do justice.

Now that they're saved, they need to obey everything Christ commands and Christ commands that you do justice.

But not in the stupid way. Not in the stupid way. Christ never commanded that everyone have the same salary.

Christ never commanded that everyone have the same wealth. Christ never commanded these things. That's the stupid way to do justice.

That's the worldly way to do justice. The way that Christians, Great Commission Christians often put forward as the way to do justice is the second half of the

Great Commission. Because as much as he's trying to disparage it here, the Great Commission is actually a fantastic summary statement of the life of a

Christian. Evangelize people, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit and then teach them to obey everything that Christ commanded.

Your salvation is not hinging on your obedience, but it is required that you obey. And that's why the

Great Commission is such a good statement. Because it includes cosmic redemption.

It includes it. You don't need a new thing. The commission includes it.

It's like, okay, I'm a Christian. I've been baptized. Now what? Okay, now you learn how to obey Christ in every area that he addresses.

Every area. This is nothing new. Reformed people have been teaching this forever as he admits in this article.

This article is a mishmash of contradiction. Again, I agree with the general thrust of it, but it contradicts itself.

It's race baiting. Quite frankly, I don't even really know what else to say.