Gospel Coalition's Last Ditch Effort to Get You to Worship The State

All right we're ready to go.

All right.

Well I hope you had a good weekend this week.

I sure did.

I had a good Lord's Day back with my home church for the first time in a few weeks so that was great and I

hope you had a good Lord's Day as well.

Did some fishing this weekend.

I didn't.

I wouldn't say I had a great weekend fishing but I did catch a two -pounder.

I don't remember exactly but before the for the Sun came up I went out and got a two -pounder

which was it's the biggest bass I've ever caught.

So that's good.

Anyway I wanted to address the the the

largest progressive women's ministry in the country and they put out an article

here.

And it's actually not a terrible article.

But just like with everything gospel coalition does the timing is all wrong.

It's kind of limp -wristed.

It doesn't really talk about what it's really talking about.

This is about vaccines and mask mandates and various things like that.

Because and you could tell it's about that because of the timing.

Right.

Like like little weasels like to write articles where they don't actually talk about the thing that they're actually talking

about.

And it's really annoying.

I hate that style.

It's awful.

But that's what this is about.

And again it's actually not all bad.

The article is pretty good but we're gonna talk about it.

It's a short article at least I remember it being short.

I actually predicted before I had read it one of the things it would talk about.

I on gab I said how much you want to bet.

This talks about how the world is watching.

And it definitely does what a pagan thing to say.

Right.

Like like the world is watching.

It's like yes they are.

But who cares.

Because God has spoken right.

The world is watching God has spoken.

Like I don't know I mean I don't know why so many Christian articles focus so much on that one instead of you know

thus saith the Lord.

But you know progressive women's ministries you know they can't be trusted with anything.

So anyway this is from Michael Kruger.

I guess he's the president of RTS.

Or at least one of the RTS is.

And well here we go.

It's titled men.

Are you submissive.

Who.

That is click bait if I've ever heard it.

That's provocative.

I like that men are you submissive.

Let's read it.

Look at this.

Look at this picture too very stylish.

I really like it.

You can see he's probably wearing I can't really tell.

But they kind of look like skinny jeans.

I mean everything is here.

It's all here.

Let's read the article.

Here's what it says.

Quote submission of all the words in the Bible this may be one of the least

popular.

After all our cultural moment is not one that values a posture of submission to authorities.

On the contrary our world insists that we should challenge and critique those over us.

Let me step out of the article for a second.

I actually do not agree with this.

I think that submission in the context of Christianity of course is very unpopular in

the world.

But any other kind of like question authority type of things and stuff like that even mention the bumper sticker

here.

Question authority.

That's all LARPing.

You know I mean like like yeah I remember when I was in college you know everyone used to be all about rage against the machine.

And you know how they're gonna fight the power.

It's like okay.

But that was all LARPing too.

Because you were actually pro the government.

You were actually pro the power.

You're communist.

You're socialist.

Like you can't be against authority but also show socialist.

That doesn't make any sense.

That's a complete subversion of what's real.

So I disagree.

I think I think people pretend like they're against authority but they're really actually very pro -authority.

And in fact that's one of the biggest problems that we face here.

Because the world is pro any authority except for God.

That's the big problem in our culture.

It's pro every authority except the one who's actually in authority the Lord

of Lords the king of kings.

Like the king over the kings.

That's the one they question everyone underneath.

They're like oh yeah totally man we gotta close down our church.

We gotta close down our gyms gotta close down our business.

We gotta take a shot like that's the big problem here.

And actually we're gonna talk about this.

But this is one of the issues with this article.

It's actually not terrible.

There's a lot of truth in the article.

There's some things to quibble with of course.

But the timing is all wrong.

We'll talk about that.

Let's continue.

If submission is already an unpopular concept it only grows when unpopular verses like Ephesians 5 22

wives submit to your husbands as unto the Lord.

Indeed this passage and its counterpart in first Peter has been ground zero in the submission wars both in our

churches and in the broader culture.

But letting these verses take center stage can give the mistaken impression that the Bible teaches that

only women submit.

In reality scripture has a more comprehensive view.

He goes on.

The Bible is clear that everybody submits to somebody.

Men and women are called to submit to the government.

Children are called to submit to parents.

Church members are called to submit to elders.

Servants are called to submit to masters.

And it goes on.

Of course the ultimate demonstration that submission is a good and biblical virtue is that it was practiced by our Lord himself.

Christ in his earthly ministry submitted himself to the father.

His submission was so complete that he was quote obedient to the point of death even death on a

cross.

Here's the point submission is not a female virtue.

It's a Christian virtue.

And I have to step out of the article for I agree.

I mean you can't really deny this.

Of course there is a kind of submission that men should be practicing to various kinds of authorities.

I completely agree with that women of course should submit to their own

husbands.

That is definitely a biblical you know command as well and so not a whole ton to

quibble with here.

So let's perhaps then we need to recalibrate the way we think about and talk about

submission in the church rather than repeatedly focusing on one example we need to call all

Christians to submit to whatever authorities are over them.

See this is where the article I think goes off the rails because I think what he what he does here is he sets

up this boogeyman.

Will Christians only talk about women submitting to men.

And that's actually not true.

I've heard so much especially in the past few years about submitting to governing

authorities.

I knew about submitting to governing authorities before the past few years.

I've heard about submitting to your elders.

I've heard about submitting to your employers and stuff like I've done.

I've heard it all.

And I don't think that my experience is that unique.

I mean tell me in the comments below if you notice the same thing that Michael Kruger is pretending to

notice where churches only talk about women submitting to their husbands and they don't talk about

you know submitting to the government and things of that nature.

I think that this is bogus.

I think he made this up and I think he did it in order to prove a point.

I think he's spreading propaganda here and we'll talk about that in just a minute.

Let's go back to the article.

Let me know in the comments below if you agree with Michael that there's we need to recalibrate the church because we only ever talk

about Ephesians 5 in the context of submission.

Quote.

And if men are to be leaders in the church and at the home a point often made in discussions about submission then they ought

to lead by example Christian men should be a model of submission to whatever authorities

they are under men.

Here are some diagnostic questions.

One.

Do you show a submissive spirit to your employer or do you grumble complain and undermine your boss's

authority to men.

Do you submit to your church leaders or are you a member who regularly kicks against accountability and oversight.

Three.

Are you a pastor and elder.

Do you submit to your fellow elders.

Do you show a spirit of submission to your denominational body when that body asks you to do something.

Do you comply or push against it.

This is an interesting one.

The denominational body I mean you know depending on if you're Baptist or Presby you might have something

to say there.

So that's an interesting one.

Last one is men.

Do you respect the governing authorities God has placed over you regardless of their political affiliation and your

opinion of their policies.

Or do you mock and deride those authorities.

One can imagine how difficult not to mention discouraging it might be for women who are repeatedly called to

submit to see their husbands and church leaders refuse to submit to authorities over them.

By contrast how encouraging is it for women to see that they are being asked to do something which their leaders

willingly and cheerfully do first.

I think that this is preposterous.

I really do.

I I think this is preposterous because let's put this back into the context of of our time because this was written

a few days ago right.

This is September 30th 2021.

He's talking about vaccine mandates mask mandates.

He's talking about all that kind of tyrannical stuff that the government is doing right now.

And he's saying that all these poor women they have to endure this.

They're being told to respect their husbands and their husbands don't even get the vaccine.

Their husbands is my hysterical voice.

Their husbands don't even mask up.

I mean how could how can they be expected to submit to their husbands when their husbands don't even wear the mask.

That's my hysterical voice.

Let me know if you if you like it I don't think this actually happens.

And if it does happen then then then this is there's a problem at the home there because the reality is that

when you're talking about fake laws like wear a mask or get the vaccine or stuff like that things things

that are that are inappropriate for governments to do because the Bible tells us when it tells us to submit to the

governing authorities it also tells you the purpose of those governing authority and so to obey

laws as if the government had authority that it does not have.

For example the government says you're gonna shut down worship.

Because thus saith me when you obey that authority what you're doing is you're actually saying government.

You have a legitimate authority over whether or not I worship God on Sunday.

And you're and you're respecting that that must be defied.

That must be defied.

Because if you don't defy that order you're actually disobeying the actual authority.

The King over the Kings the Lord over the Lords.

Yes there are lesser Lords and lesser Kings in our time right people that are in authority over us

from a governmental perspective but they're only in authority in so far as God has given them that

authority.

And God never gave the civil governing authority the ability to tell you when and where to worship.

It simply didn't so so so this is this is the problem with this article

because at the end of the day I agree with a lot of this stuff but the reality is that it's written in a time

when the government is doing all kinds of things that it actually does not have the authority

from God to do.

And not only does it not have the authority from God to do but it actually doesn't have the authority in our country to do.

And so therefore they're the ones that are that are refusing to submit.

They're the one we need to preach sermons against the government and telling them to repent in order to

submit to the governing authority.

See that that's the see that's the thing here that a lot of these guys refuse to acknowledge is that we are a country based

on a document that tells us how we were to operate right.

That's what we're submitting to right.

And so when when when they do something outside of the purview of that Constitution or that state Constitution

they're the ones that need to be preached at to repent and cease and desist what they're doing.

See that's that's how that's how ministers that were actually prophetic back in the day used to preach.

Now what they do instead is give propaganda to say well you know you just gotta listen man because otherwise

your wife's just gonna be totally like she's gonna not gonna submit to you.

Like that's nonsense.

That's nonsense.

Now we're gonna talk about that a little bit more in a minute.

Let's finish the article.

This is the most craziest part of the article.

But Christian submission is not just an issue in the church it also affects the way we relate to the

broader culture.

Do we practice what we preach before a watching world.

When Christians flout government directives one might understand why the watching world begins to scratch its

head in confusion.

Haven't Christians complained the loudest about how we are living in an anti -authority age.

Haven't Christians lamented our world's lack of submission to authority.

And yet it's often those very same Christians who seem unwilling to submit when faced with a government rule

they disagree with.

Are there anyone.

Is there anyone in the culture that's not a Christian.

That's that's like well you know like they don't submit to authority like that means like they're totally like against the Bible.

Like again I think he made this up he made this up to try to like manipulate you

into into obeying ridiculous orders which is so crazy.

Because again in our time right now this is the problem with this article.

It's just the timing is all wrong.

I could see a time where an article like this would be necessary where you've got a lot of revolutionaries out there trying

to overthrow the government or not paying their tax or something like that.

Like if there was like an epidemic of Christians not paying their taxes you know stuff like I could see maybe you want to write an

article like this.

But right now what we need from our from our from our preachers is encouragement to defy

tyranny.

Because the tyrants are not just leaving us alone.

They're saying no.

You can't worship.

You can't gather you can't sing.

You must wear this to be clean.

You must do that.

You can't lay hands on the sick.

You can't see your dying relative.

Like like what we need right now is encouragement from the scripture that says to Caesar you

are not Lord.

That's what we need.

So of course gospel coalition's giving you the opposite.

Gospel coalition saying yeah well Caesar might be Lord.

And some of these areas like like it's just totally tone -deaf.

It's the opposite of prophetic.

It's just propaganda.

That's what this is.

This is government approved propaganda.

It's saying look no matter how crazy what Caesar says is you pretty much have to do it otherwise

you know the world's gonna not like you which is that's I guess priority number one for a Christian the world needs to like you.

And number two your wife's gonna be unruly at home as well.

She's gonna she's gonna see you not wearing the mask and then so she's gonna no longer respect you because like you're so hypocritical.

It's like I mean I guess

they've tried everything else.

So why not try this to try to get you to do what the government says.

Let's continue now to be clear submission does not mean we blindly follow all government

directives or the directives of other authorities for that matter.

Submission does not require us to obey if they ask us to sin.

In such cases we have an obligation not to submit or to obey laws that dishonor God.

And submission does not mean we are unable to work for a change in our situation.

We can submit to the government while seeking to change its laws.

But just as wives are called to submit to imperfect husband citizens are called to submit to an imperfect government.

And men should be leading the way in doing so.

See this is where he tries to get some of his conservative bona fides back.

I mean you're writing for a progressive women's ministry but you're trying to get some of those bona fides back.

I get it.

But this is the point though guys he's right submission you can't submit if they're telling you to sin he's

right.

If the law tells you to dishonor God you can't submit.

So that's so so mask mandates are out so vaccine mandates are out canceling churches out so

like but he won't say that because this is a weasel article so he's not gonna call out his friends number one.

But here's the thing though I disagree that those are the only two times where submission or I'm sorry

rejecting authority matters because here's the thing and this is the famous one that that man

who said this somebody said that the government tells you to wear a clown suit then you need to wear a clown suit in order to honor God.

That's totally wrong totally wrong.

We must practice in my opinion everyday defiance.

Because here's the thing when Caesar tells you wear a clown suit because I say so I'm Caesar

I would say this if you want to do that I'm gonna tell you to knock yourself out.

But I think that trying to treating Caesar as if he is Lord of Lords as if

he is King of Kings as if he has unlimited authority and wearing that clown suit.

I think that that's wrong.

I I want no part of it.

I don't want Caesar thinking for one moment that he has authority over me that he does not have from God.

Because what does the scripture say ready all authority comes from God.

So if it doesn't come from God then it doesn't exist.

You made that authority up.

That's the point you made that authority up now with as with anything you got to count the costs.

Right.

You got to count the cost.

So if Caesar tells you to wear a clown suit and you don't wear a clown suit and he says okay the penalty for not wearing a clown suit

is death.

Okay.

Well you got to count the cost.

Right.

You got to count the cost.

But if he says the penalty for wearing a clown suit is you can't work for me like you

see what I'm saying like you've got to figure out how to best honor God.

And I do not think it honors God to pretend like Caesar has the authority to make you

wear a mask that doesn't even work.

I don't think it honors God to to put a vaccine section in your

church.

I don't think that honors God.

I don't think it honors God to pretend or to make Caesar feel as if he has authority that he

does not have.

I think we ought to start practicing everyday defiance of tyrants.

I think that's all I want to say about that.

Here we go.

Submission will change you.

When men take the lead in practicing submission here's something we discover submission is hard.

It's substantive and weighty act of self -denial.

It can feel like death even though we know it's the path to life.

First -hand knowledge of the difficulty of submission will in turn grave us greater understanding and compassion for

those under our leadership.

We will not be able to talk about submission in a light and trivial manner as if there's no cost.

We can be the gentle leader we are called to be because we understand the weightiness of submission

from practicing it ourselves.

Even more learning the difficulty of submission will give us all a renewed sense of gratitude for what

Jesus suffered on our behalf.

While tears in an agony he asked his father if it be possible at this past cup pass from me.

And yet he uttered those stunning words of self -denial.

Nevertheless not as I will but as you will.

So when we as Christians both male and female deny ourselves and submit ourselves to those in authority over us we

are doing something distinctively Christlike.

Whenever we say not as I will but as you will we are acting like Jesus.

This is what pisses me off about this article so much because

he is manipulating you using the example of our Lord and our Savior.

This makes me so angry.

The example of our Lord and our Savior.

And he's telling you without telling you get the jab wear the mask.

Do the social distancing.

You know you can't go.

See grandma the government said it and what you need to tell the government is not as I will but as you will.

It's gross man.

It's absolutely gross.

And again I could see potentially an article like this being written in a time where there's so much

rebellion against legitimate authority.

But that's not what I see amongst Christians.

What I see amongst Christians is honoring Caesar even Biden in the sense of yeah he's got a

legitimate job to do.

He's got to punish evil.

He's got to reward good.

And he's got a legitimate job to do.

And so in those things of course I submit to him but but he he's not God.

He's not God.

And so when when he says he forces my business to have a transsexual bathroom or to allow men into the

women's bathroom or to do you know whatever it is like like I have I say no to that because he's not God.

When he when he forces my business to say well you know you got to be totally vaccinated and like

otherwise like you're gonna get a fine like like he's not God.

So I'm not gonna treat him like God.

When he tells me to wear the clown suit I'm gonna say no because I don't want him to think for one

moment that I submit to him in the way that I submit to the Lord.

See that's the reality.

And I think that this article is totally tone -deaf.

It's the it's the it's the typical weasel article.

And so he can deny.

I didn't say anything about vaccines.

I didn't say anything about masks.

But that's what he's talking about.

He's talking about those things he's telling you the world is watching.

So do what.

Apparently there's tons of people out there that they would become Christians if not for the fact that we're just rebels like it's just total

nonsense.

He's trying they're throwing everything at you to try to manipulate you into getting the vaccine to

wearing the mask getting the shots doing whatever they tell you to do you know submitting to their Ponzi schemes all this

like they're trying everything every which way to manipulate you into doing it.

And guys I know that people in this audience won't fall for this.

I'm a nice guy.

I know people in this audience won't fall for it guys but I I just encourage I want you to encourage people that you know that are in your

circles against these kinds of emotional manipulations.

It's abusive scripture.

It's an abuse of of emotions.

It's an abuse of their authority over you to treat you like this to try to trick you into doing something you don't want to do

and pretending like it's it's actually a Christian duty to do some of those things that you don't want to do.

And it's not a Christian duty.

This is so pharisaical.

This is so evil and I hate this.

It's just that simple.

Propaganda has many forms guys propaganda has many forms and gospel coalition is one of the

worst one of the worst propaganda arms of the government that I could imagine because it abuses

the the beautiful words of scripture.

It abuses the actions of our Lord to try to get you to treat Caesar as if

he is Lord.

And we must reject that we must reject that in bombastic ways and we must reject that in

everyday defiance as well.

I hope you found this video helpful.

God bless

all.

Right.

So I'm working out right now.

I just finished and I'm watching John Harris's video on the same article.

I saw that he'd get a video on it too so I started watching.

I'm like eight minutes in it is it is scary how similar our thought processes are.

I'm just gonna send him a message live and and then I have one more comment to make hold on one second.

Hey John just wanted to tell you God bless you.

And I'm watching your article on the gospel coalition article on submission and I just did a video this morning

about it.

And brother it is so scary how similar we think it our art our childhoods are probably

pretty different but it's just amazing how we see things so similarly

and there's different styles or whatever.

But I appreciate you so much brother.

And we'll definitely have to do a dual show very very soon anyway.

But I'm only eight minutes in so I can't wait to watch the rest of it.

God bless you all.

Right.

I was thinking about the last paragraph of the article and

where he says you know nevertheless not my will but your will.

And he uses the Word of Christ and he wants you to apply that to the government.

And it's so jacked up and it makes me so angry.

But what he's doing is he's saying that you you need to say not my will but

your will even if they're overstepping their authority.

And the way that I would compare this to this would be like a woman telling a woman that she needs to submit

to somebody else's husband.

Somebody else's husband comes in and says hey you know make me a sandwich or whatever and well nevertheless not my will

but your will.

It's the God honored.

No that's not his area.

It's not his area of authority.

That would be like telling a woman that her pastor comes over to her house when her husband's not there and asks for

a sandwich.

You know something like this happened in Sopranos where the the priest used to come in and Carmel used to always cook him food.

And he just expected it at some point and and well nevertheless not my will but your will.

That's that's inappropriate authority.

They're overstepping their authority.

And that's the situation we find ourselves here when he says well not not my will but your will get the jab.

It's like that's you're basically now treating the government as if it is God

it is in the place of God.

It is so it's such a manipulation.

It's so idolatrous it's hard to believe that anyone would buy this.

It's it's so pagan it's it's just difficult to put into words.

I recommend watching John's video because he makes a good example about you know a woman who's being abused by her husband.

Nobody in their right mind would say that she's nevertheless not my will but your will.

That's what you have to do like they wouldn't say that.

Or maybe they would.

I don't know I don't know but but you know anyway.

God bless.

I hope you found this out.