WWUTT 650 Q&A The Bible Project Reviews Evangelism?

Why the Bible Project Is Not a Helpful Resource

Is the Bible Project really a credible resource? Is 1 Timothy 5 .8 about sharing the gospel with our family? And what if I want to be a public evangelist? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of the Word of God. And now it really is a daily study. All seven days of the week you can find good Bible teaching right here on this podcast. Tell your friends to visit www .utt .com.

Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

Hey, remember a few weeks ago we went through the podcasts that we listened to. All right, I'll take that back. We went through podcasts that I listened to.

Right.

Remember that?

Uh-huh.

I do.

Somebody said, hey, Pastor Gabe, what are some podcasts you listen to? And I mentioned my three. We didn't talk about what podcasts you listen to.

Right.

I had a couple of emails saying, well, what podcast does Becky listen to?

Oh, well, I can say when I have the time, I listen to what first. And then

You listen to my study and the kids are there.

Right.

They'll hear the daily Bible lesson.

Right.

Okay.

And then Renewing Your Mind by R .C.

Sproul.

Okay.

Well, his, I don't know what you call it.

Well, it's a podcast.

Yeah.

But it's not really... Anyway.

It's really him. It's just not new stuff.

Right.

There we go. There we go.

I didn't know how to word that. I'm so sorry.

Yeah, but it's not just him.

It's awkward.

I mean, it's

No, it's not just him.

Sinclair Ferguson or Robert Godfrey or something like that.

Yes.

And then on the rare occasion that I get more time, I listen to, I squeeze in Al Mohler, The Briefing, possibly Wretched, Wretched Radio

Yeah.

I know The Briefing isn't all that interesting to the kids.

No.

Yeah.

No.

They're not real thrilled when I listen to it with them around.

And then Theology Driven and Entreating Favor. I mean, there's

Well, it's been a long time since Entreating Favor's been on, but I get you. I get what you got.

Yeah.

I mean, but like I said, I rarely get time. So that's how far back I'm going.

Yeah.

So when we did that episode, I had a lot of suggestions of podcasts to add to that list.

Right.

And I can't.

Right.

I cannot add anymore to the

Right.

We're talking, this has been within the past six months to almost a year that I've been able to listen to them all in one week.

Right.

So that's been a long time.

But if I could add some extra recommendations, if I've been on a podcast, that would be good. That would be a good one to listen to, like The Bar Podcast.

Right.

Average Andy. I just call him Average Andy because that's who he is on Twitter.

Right.

But he's got the Echo Zoe.

Yeah.

Andy Olson. He's got the Echo Zoe podcast. Those are good to listen to as well. Thank you for your suggestions, but I can't add any more.

Yeah.

I'm kind of

We're blocked.

I'm stuck with what I got.

Yep.

Busy, busy.

Can't squeeze any more in there. So there's Becky's podcast for those of you who are curious.

Kind of podcast.

And sometimes when I listen to a certain interview and I'll tell Becky about it, then she'll bring it up and listen to that, too.

Very rare.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the Billy Graham episode.

Right.

So we were remembering Billy Graham. We talked about some of the pluses and minuses about his ministry.

Right.

I had several follow-up emails from folks saying, Graham was actually worse than what you presented and gave me some other information. And I get that. That was kind of what it was that we were presenting, that there were aspects about his ministry that were problematic, very problematic.

But as I stated in that program, when he preached the gospel, that's what you heard.

Right.

It was an Arminian presentation of the gospel, but it was nonetheless the gospel. And if somebody heard it, they knew to turn from their sin and follow Christ because that's what Billy Graham said. And he called for a response when he preached the gospel.

It's when you got him away from the pulpit, from the podium, and started talking with him about other theological matters, that you would come into some things a little bit more wonky. So I get that. And there were even a few things that I had in my notes, which we didn't talk about that.

Day.

We just didn't have the time. Didn't get to it. But all of that was to say, even though there were some very serious problems with some of his doctrine, there nonetheless was a clear presentation of the gospel at any one of his crusades.

Right.

And I say that the man should be commended for that. You didn't get the wonky doctrine at the podium.

Right.

You got the wonky doctrine in the interviews. So yeah, that's something that Graham took up with the Lord when he stood before God. But that is certainly something that is worthy for our consideration.

But what I presented in that program is kind of going to be the extent of it. I'm not going to delve into any more now. There was.

I think that's wise.

After. Thank you.

After last week's Q &A, which seems like so long ago now, because we had to do that before I left for Shepcon. But after last week's Q &A, I got a few follow up emails from folks that were concerned about my endorsement of the Bible project.

Right.

And I took those emails seriously and looked into the Bible project a little bit deeper.

Well, you take a lot of the email series.

Yeah, I do.

There's very rare that you don't.

So while I am not going to add any more to what we did on the Billy Graham episode, correct, I am going to walk back my endorsement of the Bible project. I don't think it's a helpful resource.

Oh, dear.

I even ended up watching a few more videos, some of the videos that they've done that are not the overview of the book of the Bible that you're reading. And I haven't agreed with everything. So when I'm watching those videos where they're doing, here's what this book of the Bible is about.

You know, Romans was very much not a reformed presentation of Romans, especially when they went through Romans nine.

You had mentioned that.

Yeah, because we went through Joshua last week. And I mean, obviously, there were things there that I didn't agree with. But as far as the presentation was concerned, I thought it was a pretty helpful resource to give you that outline of what this book of the Bible was about.

Well, there's other videos that they have done that are problematic. And I would say not even good for your kids. Even though they do this animation style. There was one video I watched where Adam was flipping off God.

Oh, well, hello, whoa, that I wasn't expecting that at all. Where did that come from? And furthermore, I looked into their doctrine. Now, when you go to the Bible project website, that's hard to find.

So and I did try to do that several years ago when I was first introduced to the Bible project, but you couldn't find anything. There were certain like a list of these Bible organizations endorse us. One of them was the Gospel Coalition.

And at the time, I was a very ardent reader of the Gospel Coalition. And so that was like, oh, OK, well, TGC endorses them, then they must be OK. And I watched several videos from them. Unfortunately, when you when you finally do delve into these two men who are behind the Bible project and some of the teachers that they follow, there are some very serious problems with their doctrine.

So the guy that whose voice you hear when you're watching one of those Bible project videos, which is who is Tim Mackey. OK, I went to his website and he had a list of teachers that he follows. There there are only nine teachers that are listed.

OK, some of them I didn't recognize, but the ones I did recognize raised some serious concerns. So the most prominent name on there was N .T. Wright. OK, N .T. Wright has said that a person does not need to believe in the resurrection of Christ in order to be a Christian.

That is a very serious issue. That's something that that Al Mohler confronted several years ago related to what N .T. Wright said. But we read in First Corinthians 1517, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.

It's very necessary to believe that Christ was raised from the dead and very clear. And Wright has speaking of clarity, Wright is one of those guys that is just not clear on things. Sometimes you could really go anywhere with his description of certain doctrines.

I really don't understand why the guy is so popular, especially in reform circles. But but nonetheless, that is not a teacher that I would endorse. And when somebody says that one of their most influential teachers is N .T. Wright, I kind of go.

Now, there are some good guys out there like Michael Horton, for example, who reads N .T. Wright. And although Horton is Presbyterian and I'm not, it's not like I would say Horton's a heretic because Horton's a heretic.

Horton, here's a who just because he gets that a lot just because he reads N .T. Wright. So it's not like somebody's automatically dismissed just because they read Wright. But it's still one of those things.

I just don't understand why Wright is so big.

OK, so then if he wasn't the only one on there, what other one raised a couple. Red.

Flags? John Sailhammer, he wrote a book called Genesis Unbound, in which Sailhammer argued that Genesis one is a description of God creating the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. Genesis one is not a description of God creating the whole earth or the universe.

Oh, that's well, that's now that causes issues in other places. If you don't hold to a literal reading of Genesis one and two, then it affects your understanding of sin, original sin, how death came into the world.

And it's very unfortunate that just like N .T. Wright, just like there are trusted teachers out there that nonetheless love N .T. Wright. There are some guys out there who's teaching I have admired who love this description from Sailhammer of of what Genesis one is talking about in creation, that it's the preparation of the Garden of Eden and not the creation of the entire universe.

And some of those teachers include Matt Chandler and John Piper. They love this critique from Sailhammer. In fact, Piper has said that Sailhammer's book on the Pentateuch is the most one of the most life changing books he's ever read, and it changed his reading of the first five books of the Bible.

I've not read it, so I don't know what he says, but if it's anything like what he's written about Genesis one, I can't find it trustworthy. Yeah. So other teachers that Mackey follows, Karl Barth and Karl Barth was a a Swiss reformed theologian.

OK, very popular, but he's he's kind of neo reformed. He's not really of like the reformed orthodox persuasion or the way that liberal theologians describe Karl Barth. They called him neo orthodox. OK, so he's he's not really orthodox, even though he was greatly influential throughout the 20th century, even made the cover of Time magazine.

Oh, but there were serious issues with his doctrine. Before I get to his doctrinal problems, though, Barth made a shipwreck of his faith by having an ongoing affair with his secretary for more than 30 years.

Oh, and his secretary lived with him and his wife and children in his home. And it has since been said that this woman with whom he was having an affair was incredibly influential on his studies, his theology, the things that he wrote.

And of course, she was a person cannot be involved in sin like that and have it not affect their theological interpretation of what the Bible says. So speaking of some of those theological issues that I have with Barth, he argued that Christ is the word of God, not the Bible.

So when we read in John one, one in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. He says that's describing Christ. Well, of course it is. I don't disagree with that. Right.

But he's saying that because Christ is described as the word of God, the Bible is not the word of God. Oh, it's only Christ. So therefore, there's not a reason for us to have to receive the Bible as inerrant.

And and Barth did not think that the Bible was inerrant. In fact, according to Van Til's critique of Barth, he denied biblical inerrancy and did not believe the Bible was historically accurate, nor did it need to be.

Oh, I want to know, Tim Mackey, who is one of the creators of the Bible Project, is that what he believes about the Bible? So are you listening to him teach you the Bible and you're listening to this from a person who doesn't even hold that the Bible is inerrant?

The lack of clarity is just really confusing. That is. And unfortunately, like I said, it's very difficult to find out what it is the Bible Project guys believe without watching a bunch of videos on it.

Right. But there's no statement of faith. So it's only by going to Tim Mackey's page that I found this list of teachers and got some understanding of what his vein of theology is like. Right. The last theologian that stuck out to me on that list was a guy by the name of Abraham Heschel, and he is a rabbi and a Jewish mystic who believed that God continually revealed new truth to modern day prophets.

And he taught that you don't have to be a Christian to go to heaven. Whoa. And these are he was among the nine teachers that Mackey considered the most influential. Wow. And so is are these the guys that are motivating the theology that comes through the Bible Project?

If that's the case, I cannot endorse that ministry. Now, if you're just sitting in front of your computer and you're watching YouTube and you see one of those, you're like, OK, give me a description of the book of Matthew.

Give me an overview. And you watch. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with sitting there and watching a video like that. Just, you know, again, make sure that you're reading the book of Matthew and not letting them tell you what the book of Matthew is about and calling it good.

Right. Yes. Use good discernment. But then taking those videos and applying them to ministry or showing them to a Sunday school class or something like that, I can't say that would be a good idea because you would be presenting to that class.

This is the Bible Project. And they say that's where the video comes from.

And this is OK. And this is OK. And then you go home and they look it up.

You watch some other videos that that end up presenting some serious theological flaws. So I am apologizing for my endorsement of the Bible Project. I'm walking that back and saying that I'm not going to endorse the Bible Project and to be very careful with what it is that you watch on that particular channel, the videos that they release.

And don't let your kids watch it. If they think it's OK to throw up a picture of Adam flipping off God, it doesn't matter the point they were trying to make. That's irreverent and stupid and and has no place in in a video that you would be showing your kids.

All right. Thank you for those who patiently emailed me and said that I needed to take another look at the Bible Project.

And I appreciate that. Thank you.

A Christian Response to A Wrinkle in Time and the Apostle Paul Film

This next question comes from Janine in Alabama. She says, Dear Pastor Gabe, thank you for your review of A Wrinkle in Time, which I did on my blog. I had not read from anyone else about the Christian themes in that book, though I did read somewhere that they took out all the Christian themes from the movie.

That's true. There were right. The Christian themes weren't in the film and the Christian themes that were in the book, as I was pointing out in the blog, were blasphemous and heretical. Unfortunately, there are some people that thought that A Wrinkle in Time was a Christian book.

It's something that we could let our kids read, like the Chronicles of Narnia. But if you let your kid read it, I'm not one of those persons like ban all books. You know, there's certainly some content that your children should not be reading.

But if you if you let your kids read it, just be sure you talk with them about those Christian themes. Mom and mom and dad, you should read it first. Right. And then talk with your children about that.

And it probably would serve as a good lesson to say, here's why, even if somebody mentions Christ, that doesn't make it Christian and that doesn't make them a Christian. It could be a good way to help them learn that if your kids want to read A Wrinkle in Time, if your kids attend public school and maybe they're reading it as a class or something like that, just make sure you walk through those things with your kids so that they can better understand what the Bible says versus what Madeline L. Engel says.

I don't even know how you pronounce her name. I've never understood. I don't know either. Madeline Lingle? Madeline L. Engel? I don't know. Anyway, so I appreciate that. I'm glad you like the review. So Janine goes on to say, are you planning on doing a review of the Apostle Paul flick?

There's a movie about the Apostle Paul that's coming out. I think it's right around Easter. Oh, I can't remember when the release date is.

Oh, I think I've briefly seen something.

At one point, Hugh Jackman was attached to it. He was supposed to be the Apostle Paul. But I think because of conflicts, he didn't do it. But Jim Caviezel is Luke. He's Dr. Luke in the Apostle Paul movie.

You know, Jim Caviezel, right? Nope. Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ.

Never watched it. Sorry.

And you call yourself a Christian.

I know. I'm just kidding.

Terrible. Nobody has to watch that movie in order to advance their faith in any way. It's very Catholic influenced. So anyway, it's a well-directed Mel Gibson did a good job with it. But I'm sure it's a Catholic film.

Anyway, Jim Caviezel was in. Oh, there was a TV show we watched that was. Maybe I shouldn't say because we shouldn't endorse TV shows. Just bleep it out. Person of interest. Oh, OK. Yeah, he's the the main guy.

OK. Yeah. Got it.

John Smith or so. I think they gave him some weird alias. You know what I'm talking about, though? OK. So that's Jim Caviezel. So he plays Dr. Luke in in this Apostle Paul movie. I have reached out to Sony Pictures, who is producing the film, and they have turned me down over and over and over again to do a prescreening and a review of this movie on my blog.

And my understanding is that because Alan Nelson got to see a prescreening of the movie. Alan Nelson, the fourth quattro, he saw a prescreening of the movie and posted a review of the film on his blog, which he then had to take down.

Right. I did see that. Yeah, I read it.

So, oh, you did. I did.

Right before he had to take it down to read.

I did. You got to read the review. Yes.

Because I said, hey, you're mentioned in it. And then you're like, well, I can't find it. I can't. It's gone. I'm glad I read it.

Well, I missed that. Two seconds.

So it was more than two seconds. You got to see it.

I did. So what did he say about it?

I don't remember.

Thank you for your review.

I remember liking it, though. It was a very good review. OK, I remember. So I mean, very well done. Not like endorsed.

It wasn't endorsing the film. It was a well-written review. It was.

OK, so I remember reading it and thinking, oh, I like this way of.

Yeah. Whenever a studio gets tight lipped like this. It's because the the feedback they're getting is very negative. So they will withdraw or they'll kind of like, oh, I can't remember what they'll put a freeze on any reviews.

You can't even post anything on Twitter about it. So if somebody's seen a prescreening, they have a Facebook page or a Twitter page. They're not even allowed to go on Twitter and say, wow, hey, I saw this movie.

It was terrible. Guys, don't go see it. They they put this embargo on any kind of mention of the film.

They spend a lot of money on it.

Right, exactly. And then somewhere like a few days before the release of the movie, they'll lift that freeze and say, OK, now you can say something about the film. Right. So Quattro's trying to.

Stir up the interest about it.

Yeah. Yeah. Trying to protect their investment. Yes. Quattro's review will likely come back up again. The website is called ThingsAbove .US. He's got some other great guys that write with him on that particular site.

It's not just his site. But but anyway, whenever they release the freeze on that review, you will see it again. Yeah. One of these days. But yeah, like I said, I've reached out to Sony. They won't let me see it.

So, no, I probably won't be doing a review on this Apostle Paul movie.

That's OK. You can just point them towards Quattro's.

I'll point them to Alan's. Yeah, you can read his. Thank you for your email, Janine. This next one comes from Mark in Orlando. And this had to do with First Timothy five eight. He said, if you consider that the meaning of this verse is in reference to providing your family with the gospel, love your stuff, keep up the great work and word.

Providing for Your Family and the Meaning of 1 Timothy 5:8

So coming back again to First Timothy five eight, Paul said, but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

The gospel could certainly apply to that. So part of your caring for your family is that you would share the gospel right with your wife, with your children, training them up in or raising them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord, as the Bible instructs.

They're your number one neighbor. Exactly right. They are your first ministry. Yes. Before anybody else. So I should have mentioned that. And if I did not mention that when we were going through First Timothy five eight, I'm sorry for not saying that.

Yeah. With with this gospel focus is I am that one.

And I forgot. I don't I can't recall whether you did or not.

I don't remember that either. But but overall, the the point that's being made here is that the love and kindness that we're supposed to show to one another starts in our home, also applies to our church.

And these are our first priorities before it's then to anyone else in the world or anyone outside the church. Right. So like I said, as Paul says in Galatians chapter six, as we have every opportunity, let us show charity to everyone, especially those of the household of faith.

In the book of Luke, when Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan. So you have the man that was beaten up. He was left on the road for dead. The the Levite wouldn't stop and help him. The priest wouldn't stop and help him.

It was a Samaritan that came along. Right. And nursed his wounds, put him on his donkey, took him to a place where he could get further treatment and care and left enough money with the attendant so that this man would be nursed back to health.

Right. The point that Jesus was making with that story is that a Samaritan knows how to do nice things for people. And the Samaritans did not even have the complete word of God. They accepted only the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, but did not listen to any of the other prophets.

And we have that mentioned in John, chapter four, when Jesus was having the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.

That's what I was thinking.

He said to her, you worship what you do not know, but we worship what we do know for salvation comes from the Jews. Right. So a Samaritan who does not have the rest of the prophets of God, yet they know that they need to care for a person who's been beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road.

Right. Yet the Pharisees and the Levites won't even bother to stop for help. So who knows the instruction of God better to love your neighbor, the Jews or the Samaritans? So if if the Samaritans know that you need to care for somebody and they do it, but the Pharisees and the Levites know what God's word says and they don't help somebody who understands showing love to your neighbor better, the Samaritan or the Jew.

That was the point that Jesus was making with the story. So likewise, we apply that concept to this, to first Timothy five, eight. If you don't know that you're supposed to care for your immediate household, you do not provide for your wife and your children as you are instructed to do in the scriptures.

You're worse than an unbeliever because even unbelievers know that you're supposed to do that. And as far as the instructions that are given in first Timothy five go, that's specifically the context that we're talking about there.

The gospel certainly applies, but is not necessarily the context of what we see. Paul instructing there in first Timothy five, right? Yes. You do need to give your family the gospel, the spiritual health, right?

And they would be your ministry first before, uh, it would be anyone else. That's the same way with me as a pastor. My ministry is my wife and my children first. Right. And I'm very grateful that when I applied for this job, the pastorship that I hold at first Southern Baptist church, that was one of the things that they clarified.

I didn't even ask, but they said to me, your ministry first is your wife and your children. And so if anything comes up in which you have to say, Hey, I need to take a step back from this because I have to focus on my family.

Then we're going to, we're going to give you that and we would encourage you to take that if necessary, we're going to step in and say, you need to take a few steps back and maybe focus on your wife and children, which I have had to do before that has come up as saying no to certain things or walking back from certain things, because I needed to give more attention to my family.

It's easy to say yes to too many things.

And Phil yeah. And then you look at gaps in your schedule and you're like, Hey, I can fit something else in there.

So you do that often.

I do.

You're bad about that.

And then I don't have any time for anybody anymore.

Yeah, but it's okay. We still love you.

Thank you. I, I learn, I get convicted and then I go and apologize for being stupid. Uh, stupid twice in this section. That's three times right there.

I can't, I can't listen to the episode around.

I know. All right. This last one comes from Jeff. He says, Hey, I just finished listening to episode six 38 regarding first Timothy four 13 and being devoted to the public reading of scripture, an excellent episode.

And I appreciated the way that you articulated how, even if one doesn't have the gift of teaching, we have an obligation to sit under the teaching and public reading of scripture. Yes, indeed. Something that I have been considering lately is the role of open air preaching as it pertains to this verse.

I've been thinking about it a lot recently as I've been feeling a greater burden for the lost and considering ways to reach them with the truth. I was wondering if I could get your opinion about the practice of open air preaching.

Do you think it's a good idea? Are there better ways to go about doing it? Are there any open air preaching ministries you're aware of that maybe do it better than others? Thank you, Jeff. Uh, the two resources, it is a great question.

Uh, the two resources that I would direct you to first are wretched and Ray Comfort. Uh, I think Ray Comfort is probably the best open air preacher in our, in our current era. So just watching Ray Comfort videos on YouTube, living waters is the name of his ministry.

Uh, Mark Spence who's also a part of that ministry. I've watched several videos with him doing open air preaching also very good. And there are guys that'll come in that aren't necessarily part of living waters ministries, but they'll come like be with Ray out there on the West coast and doing the boardwalk thing that he does, you know, where he's preaching the gospel out there.

And they'll come just partner with him for a little while just to get the feel of doing it and, and get some exposure and, and, uh, and some teaching and learning and things like that on how to do some open air preaching.

So you'll see some other guys that are doing that. And again, all that's through the living waters page. Cool. Um, and then, uh, like I said, wretched and in fact, wretched has what's called witness Wednesday.

So if you look, yeah, I listened once to that. Yeah, it's great. I think it's when we were on our trip to a conference. In fact, there's, yeah.