Everything Wrong with #BigEva - The Tim Challies Article on Government

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Hello there, this is A .D. Robles, and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight Laugh Feast Network.

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Alright, before we begin today, I wanted to ask you a very simple question. What are you doing to refuse your consent to despair today?

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What are you doing to reject despair today? There are lots of different things you could do. I've been talking a lot about this on my

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YouTube channel. If you've watched me and followed me on YouTube, you know that this is No Despair 2020.

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I've been talking a lot about this. One of the things that I'm doing is today, if it stops raining, maybe even if it does continue to rain,

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I'm going to go outside and I'm going to start building a fence for a chicken run. Because I need a place for the ten chickens

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I bought to hang out outside and dig for worms and all kinds of stuff. Just to have a good life while they make me eggs that my family can eat.

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That's one thing that I'm doing to reject despair. What are you doing? Maybe you don't have to buy chickens, but there's one thing that you could do that would certainly show your disdain, your rejection, your refusal of consent to despair.

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That is, buy a No Despair t -shirt. I'm going to put the link in the description of this video and this podcast.

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And we also have a version that says No Despair 2020, perfect for this political season that we find ourselves in.

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Refuse consent to despair. If you want people to know that you are not fearing, not despairing in this time of crisis and pandemic and food shortages and chaos, what better way than buying a

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No Despair 2020 t -shirt? It will support this channel and the content that I produce, and I would appreciate it very much.

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Plus, it might strike up a conversation about the hope that is within you.

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No Despair 2020, buy a t -shirt. Now, before we begin, over the last few weeks, probably a few months even,

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I have been talking about just a real vaccine issue, about how evangelicals treat the

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Bible. We take these very simple biblical principles and we overcomplicate them.

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I did a video this week. If you haven't checked it out, please check it out. It's called The Scam of Evangelicalism.

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And my premise in that video is that Big Eva has made a ton of money, a killing, a killing, on overcomplicating issues that are really very simple.

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And the reason they do it is so that you get so confused that you have to buy their book to decipher the answer.

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And really, you didn't need their book. It's a very easy answer to the question. Let me give you an example. There was an entire conference that kicked around questions like, if I'm a dude, is it okay for me to snuggle another dude and be attracted to him?

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And it's like, okay, that's an easy answer. The answer is no. It's not okay to snuggle another dude if you're a dude, if you're attracted to the dude.

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It's not okay to live with that dude. It's not okay to adopt children with that dude. That's not okay. And it's very easy to understand.

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You could read the Bible. I would suspect that my teenager, when he becomes a teenager, 12, 13 years old, that transition, he should be able to interpret the

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Bible easily enough to understand the answer to that question. But what they want you to do is buy their books.

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What they want you to do is attend their conferences, buy their merchandise. And I guarantee you, baby, they don't have any merchandise like this.

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No despair, 2020, baby. Anyway, that's the point. So why are evangelicals like this?

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Well, we didn't just become like this. I don't think that this is something that we just did.

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Like if you just threw someone in the woods, right, and you said, hey, here's a Bible, read it, come out with the message.

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I believe, and I think most Reformed people believe, that the Bible is clear. God spoke to us because he wanted us to understand what he was saying.

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He didn't write to us because he didn't want to communicate something to us. The Bible is often very clear.

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There are some passages that are clearer than others. Yes, of course, I'm not going to deny that. There are some passages that are more complicated than others.

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Yes, I'm not going to deny that. But evangelicals have developed and they have been taught a knack for really disliking the simplicity of the

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Scriptures. Let me give you a perfect example. Yesterday, I tweeted out, and this is a typical tweet of mine.

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If you don't follow me on Twitter, if you like this kind of thing, go ahead and follow me on Twitter because you'll get a lot more of it. I would say something like this.

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I'd say, you know what, I could tell someone, I could say on Twitter right now, men should act like men.

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And I would get dozens of people saying, well, what does it even mean to act like a man?

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I want to agree with you, but first you have to define what it means to act like a man. And I'm like, really?

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Really? So we're overcomplicating this. It's very simple to know what it is to act like a man.

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I shouldn't have to explain that. And if I do, then you shouldn't be on Twitter right now.

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You should be with your pastor right now, desperately saying, Pastor, I need to figure this out because the

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Bible told me to act like a man. I need to figure out what that means. And that kind of thing.

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So that's what I said in my tweet. And I said, but I could also say, hey, stop being such a sissy.

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And nobody would question what I'm talking about. Everyone would know exactly what I was saying. And they would clutch their pearls like, how could you?

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You know what I mean? So on the one hand, that's almost a quote from the scripture, act like a man, act like men.

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That's a quote from Paul. I could quote the Bible and someone would want to analyze it and nuance it to death and stuff like that.

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But people love unbiblical phrases and they know exactly what unbiblical phrases mean. I'll give you a great example.

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One guy said he doesn't like the phrase act like a man. He prefers live out biblical manhood.

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And I'm not saying, people, that there's anything wrong with the phrase live out biblical manhood.

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But think about what that means for a second. I quoted scripture, act like men.

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And this Christian comes to me and says, no, I don't really like that term. I prefer live out biblical manhood.

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Is not the Bible enough? Is not God clear enough? You know, Job, when he was whining to God about his state of affairs, that one of the first things that God said to him out of the whirlwind, do you remember?

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Dress for action like a man, gird up your loins. And Job did not say, but God, what do you actually mean?

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Does it mean that I can't enjoy baking? Does it mean that I can't wear female clothing?

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Does it mean that I can't wear tight v -necks showing off my cleavage? God, what are you actually talking about?

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Gird your loins up like a man. Loins, loins, loins. No, Job didn't say that.

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He kept his mouth shut. Just like we should keep our mouth shut when the scripture says, act like men, because we know exactly what he's talking about.

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Evangelicalism has made a killing over complicating simple issues like this. And one of those topics where Big Eva is is currently making a killing over complicating is the issue of government.

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That's right. The issue of civil government. God has given us a lot of information about government.

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God has given us more information about government and justice and laws that he has given us about lots of other topics.

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There is so much here. There's a lot of specificity in what God says about government as well, which is so, it's vexing.

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It's vexing to think, given all the information God has given us about government, how is it that we're still over complicating this?

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It's really not that difficult. It isn't. It isn't. Everyone who affirms the Westminster Confession should understand government at a very granular level.

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Not totally, you know, exhaustive, but very specific. And likewise, anyone who agrees with the 1689

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Baptist Confession should also understand government very well. Very well.

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It's vexing. It's somewhat vexing. But I think it's intentional. People overcomplicate issues that are not complicated.

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And a couple things happen. One, you become reliant on their blog, their conference, their podcast, their books.

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And two, it allows a little wiggle room in how you deal with the pagans.

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It's just that simple, because if God's not that clear about government, well, all of a sudden, it's okay to vote

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Democrat and all that kind of stuff. It's okay to be a socialist. It's okay to do all these things.

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And it really isn't. It isn't. It's pagan. It's devilish. It's satanic. It's demonic.

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You understand what I'm saying? Like, socialism is satanic. There's no wiggle room there. There is no wiggle room there.

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God has spoken clearly on socialism. But I think a lot of our big Eva celebrities want to have that wiggle room, because they don't want to be a bad guy.

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They want to be liked. Let's talk about Tim Chalise.

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Tim Chalise is the only approved Internet Christian pundit, according to Gospel Coalition.

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He is the creme de la creme of Internet punditry. He's trustworthy and approved.

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I am most certainly not. And the other thing that Tim Chalise is, is Canadian. So I said on Twitter today,

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I feel kind of bad criticizing a Canadian's words on government. It's kind of like, you know, finding the weakest kid on the playground and beating him up.

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Like, it might be fun, but it's not a good look to pick on the little kid, you know.

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And Canadians, I mean, I've talked about Canadians recently. Canadians, I'm sure they're fine people, but it's not even a real country.

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Anyway. All right. Well, there's a lot I could comment on regarding this article. But what

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I'm going to do, I'm just going to read the whole thing. And then at the end, I'm going to comment on just my general feelings on it.

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Anyway, so it's called Thankful for God's Good Gift of Government. Tim says,

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I was asked the other day what I was thankful for in the midst of a pandemic. My answer surprised even me. That doesn't sound too hard.

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I'm thankful for government. It was surprising but true. Even as I sit at home during a long forced lockdown, even as I wonder whether anyone really has a master plan, even as I scratch my head at some of the measures being enacted, even as I grow in my concern about some of the liberties being curtailed,

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I've never been so thankful for government. I'd even say I've never been so thankful for God's good gift of government.

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As Christians, we understand that God is the ultimate authority over all this. We understand as well that rather than exercise this authority directly,

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God delegates it to human beings. He delegates some of it to civil governments, some of it to the church, and some of it to parents and so on.

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As Paul insists in the beginning of Romans 13, there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

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This puts a clear calling on each of us. Let each person be subject to the governing authorities. If we wish to submit to God, we must also submit to the authorities he has established.

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Said otherwise, obedience to God manifests itself in obedience to government. Christians may dispute the exact parameters of governmental authority, but surely we can agree that matters of public health fall under the jurisdiction of the state.

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It is the role of government, not church, to enact policies that protect and preserve the health of the nation, and when the government enacts such policies, it falls to us to submit to its authority.

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After all, whether our government leaders know it or not, they are acting out an authority that has been conferred to them by God, and right now,

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I'm thankful that God had the wisdom to institute government for times and situations like this. I'm thankful government has accepted the responsibility and is acting on it.

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I'm experiencing the joy that comes with obeying God's duly appointed authorities as they act within their mandate.

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That's not to say I necessarily understand every decision, or that I necessarily agree with every action the various levels of government have taken, but that's the very nature of submission.

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God doesn't call us to follow leadership only when we fully agree with it. It has struck me that the

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New Testament's posture towards civil leaders is generally positive. It seems to nudge us towards the assumption that governments are acting wisely, not foolishly, that our opinion toward their actions should be generally favorable, not skeptical, that our words about them should be supportive, not rebellious, and that our response to their decrees should generally be submissive, not resistant.

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Romans 13 is not about the limits of governmental authority, but about the goodness and necessity of Christian obedience.

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The same is true of 1 Peter 2 and Titus 3, not to mention Matthew 22 -21.

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Of course, there are times when obedience to a higher authority means we must disobey lower authority.

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Peter and the Apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men in Acts 5, but we may do this only when that lesser authority is overstepping its bounds, or when obeying government would be disobeying

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God. For every other occasion, God gives us a sober warning, whoever resists the authorities resists what

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God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. When government acts within its mandate, we must obey.

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When we fail to obey, we risk judgment, God's own judgment, as it's carried out by the state. But conversely, when we obey, we gain joy, the joy that always comes with obedience.

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But even then, we owe more than mere obedience, we also owe respect and honor. As every parent learns from their children, it is possible to act in strict obedience, yet in a way that is disrespectful and dishonoring.

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It is in the context of Christians' relationship to government that Paul commands, When I put all of this together,

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God's delegated authority, the necessity of submission, the role of government in acting to protect and preserve the health of the people, the call for respect and honor,

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I find myself joyful and grateful. I am joyful to obey the mandates of my government as it tries to lead through a grueling, opaque situation.

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I'm grateful for God's good gift of government, and even grateful for my government. Behind it,

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I see him. In its authority, I see his. Of course, this government will lead imperfectly, they will make poor decisions, they will make mistakes, they will even act sinfully at times.

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They are, after all, human beings, and subject to every kind of frailty, sin, and limitation. But God was not unaware of what was in the heart of men when he commanded through Peter be subject, for the

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Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him.

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1 Peter 2. That's the article. That's the article.

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And on one level, there's some truth here. Of course, all government, all governing authority comes from God.

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There is no authority except by God. And yes, of course, this authority is delegated, right?

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This authority is delegated to the civil government, to the church government, to the family government.

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And that's very true. And of course, there are times when we should be disobeying the government, when they overstep their bounds, is what

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Tim Chalise says. And when they tell us to disobey God, that's another thing that Tim Chalise says.

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And all of that. But the thing is here, guys, that the whole thrust of this article is obey the stay -at -home order, obey the shelter -in -place order, and even obey the do -not -meet -church order.

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That's the thrust of this article. There's no reason to write this article otherwise. He's saying that Justin Trudeau, when he says you cannot meet for church,

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I don't know if he's done that because I don't care about Canada, but when your governor says you shall not meet for church because of public safety, you should obey.

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That's their realm. That's their authority. And they have your best interest in mind. They're acting wisely. That's the other thrust, that we should assume they're acting wisely.

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And listen, I don't know how they do things in Canada, but here in the United States, our government is set up in such a way that we actually acknowledge

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God's spheres of authority that he gives some to the government, some to the church, some to the people.

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And definitively, whether or not we meet for church, definitively, any way you slice it, whether you're going by the

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Bible, which is the only thing that really matters, or you're going by the Constitution, that authority is definitively given to the people, the church.

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And so if we're going to submit to God, most importantly, but also the civil governing authority that he's given us, then we must decide for ourselves.

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You see, this whole idea that as long as they're acting in the realm of public health and safety, then you should listen to them.

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You should just listen to what they say. It's naive to the highest order. It's totally worthless to say something like this without giving us specifics, because the reality is that I could very easily imagine, especially if you're

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Canadian, which Tim Challies is Canadian, the civil governing authority saying, hey, look, it's a matter of public safety whether or not you spank your children.

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It's a matter of public safety whether or not you allow your child to be pumped full of hormones of the opposite sex because they are transgendered.

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It's a matter of public safety to not misinform your child that being gay is somehow wrong or sinful before God.

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No, on the contrary, it's beautiful. It's good. It's righteous.

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And so because of these things, it's a matter of public health and safety, by the way, which is clearly in our purview, according to Tim Challies.

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We all agree on this. I love when people say we all agree on things. Let's just go with it, right?

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Because when you read an article like this, the best thing to do is just assume that he's right. I think you could argue with that, the idea that public health and safety is the purview of the civil governing authorities.

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I don't think it is. But anyway, let's just say we agreed on that. Does that give them the authority to decide for themselves how to enforce that?

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No, it does not. No, it does not, because God has given us a wealth of information about government.

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He doesn't just say Romans 13. He doesn't just say 1 Peter 2. He doesn't just say

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Titus 3. He gives us a lot of information on how to do this, and people have pointed out numerous times, and I know

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Tim Challies knows this, is that God does, in fact, address quarantine situations.

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He does, and guess what you do? You quarantine those who are sick.

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You don't quarantine the entire nation. It's stupid to do that, and more importantly, it's not what the

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Bible says. So even if I did agree, Tim Challies, that public health and safety was the purview of the civil government, that does not mean that anytime they want to, they can just say, well, it's just a matter of public health and safety, and I just have to go with it.

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It doesn't mean that, obviously, because the Bible says lots of other things.

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That's why this stuff is worthless. This is typical Big Eva. They give you these high -minded arguments that start, well,

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I love God's good gift of government. Yes, so do I, and then it says a bunch of gobbledygook that's not really that helpful in the middle, and then it ends with I love

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God's gift of government, and it's like, well, it sounds right to me, and the thing is, I love God's gift of government too, especially because he gives us a huge book of law in the first quarter of the

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Bible, and he gives us specific details on what the government should do, what is good, what is righteous, what is holy, and what your responsibility is, because I'm not saying we're here yet, but we're almost there, where I have a responsibility before God to provide food for my family, for my children, and the government is going to be hindering that ability, and I'm just going to have to disobey because God is the higher authority, as you mention in this article.

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So this stuff gives us a lot of high -sounding, sort of very pious -sounding rhetoric.

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Well, you must have a posture of submission. Yes, and then, of course, he tips his hat to, yeah, but you can disobey if it's telling you to do something that God doesn't tell you to do, or if they overstep their bounds.

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They've already overstepped their bounds, my friend. This is the point, Tim Challis. You can write these pious -sounding articles, but really not say anything of any value.

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This is not valuable. Everyone agrees we should submit to the government, and you say, well,

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Christians might disagree on the role of government. No, we should not disagree on the role of government because God gives us so much information.

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You see, you want to allow that wiggle room where you can kind of say, well, what does it really mean to be a man? What is masculinity anyway?

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You want to allow that wiggle room, and really, this is one of those topics that God gives us tons of information, tons.

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There's really not a debate here. No, the government cannot tell you that you can't leave your freaking house or go to worship.

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It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. Aye, aye, aye. You know, the civil governing authority is a gift from God, but it can also become a beast, and we need to be ready for it to be a beast because when it's pagan, especially when it's pagan, and I don't know if you understand this because you're

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Canadian, but here in America, we understood that a government can be a beast, and that's why

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God's commands in Scripture about the limitations of government. The government can't just do anything it wants as long as it says it's a matter of public health and safety.

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No, a father has to decide for himself what is a matter of public health and safety for his children, and even if you don't want to go with the

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Scripture and you want to just say, we'll submit to the governing authorities, well, the governing authority here in the United States is the

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Constitution of the United States, which specifically gives every power not specifically given to this government to the states or to the people.

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That's how it works in this country, and so, Tim, maybe your article is valid for Canadians.

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I don't think it is, but maybe it is. I don't know, but this is the kind of stuff. This is typical

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Big Eva, pious sounding words that really don't help. This is why we have legions of people on Twitter when

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I say men should act like men saying, but what does it mean to be a man because we've seen hundreds of articles just like this,

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Tim Chalies, that talk about masculinity in a way that sounds pious, sort of, but doesn't really give us anything that we can use.

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We've got a generation of Christians that are thirsty, desperate for some information that we can actually use, and this ain't it, man.

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This doesn't help us, Tim. I know you think you're being helpful. I know you think you're being profound.

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This is not helpful. We need meat. We need meat, something that we can use, something that we can evaluate the situation and say, well, hold on a second.

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Do I obey God and meet with my church or do I obey the government that says they're acting in my best interest? It certainly seems like the thrust of this article is the government acts in your best interest, and that's just simply not always the case, and it's definitively not the case in this situation.

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Definitely, definitively. There's no debate there. We need to do better than this, guys.

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We really do. I had a guy. I quoted scripture on my Twitter. I quoted 1

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Thessalonians 4 where it says be dependent on no one, and this guy, this is a pastor.

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He reached out to me. The Bible also says that there's wisdom in good counselors, so you're wrong, and I'm like, are you really doing this?

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Like you're trying to pit the Bible against itself? This is the confusion here that you want to sow confusion, and the thing is

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I can't blame this guy. He was taught by people like Challies, by Gospel Coalition folks to obscure things that are clear and to confuse issues that are easy.

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It's a very easy question. Who has the authority to tell you to meet and worship the

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Lord on the Lord's day? Who has the authority to cancel worship service? Who has the authority to tell you, well, you might get sick, so you can or cannot go to church?

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I'll tell you what, we used to know this because every flu season when my kids are sick, sometimes

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I don't go to church because I'm a father that's a responsible member of a church, and I don't want to get my fellow churchgoers sick, and so we stay home sometimes when we're sick.

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That's my authority given to me by God, and when the government says you cannot meet, they're overstepping their bounds.

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We're already there. We're already at the point of saying do I obey God or men, and we've got legions of Tim Challies saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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Maybe one day it'll come to that point, but not right now. Overcomplicating issues that are very, very simple.

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We gotta do better, folks. We gotta do better. Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful.

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God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the

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Fight, Laugh, Feast Network. Peace.