A Response to Jim Wallis Pt1

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Here's your host with today's lesson, Pastor Keith Foskey.

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

Thank you for listening to the program today.

It is August the 24th, 2020 and if you're following along in our daily Bible reading today, you're going to be reading from Acts chapter 23.

If you'd like to get a copy of our daily Bible reading sheet, you can go to our website at Sovereign Grace Family Church, that's sgfcjacks.org.

You can download a copy of that sheet and read along with our daily Bible reading.

Also keep this in mind, if you are in the Jacksville area this coming Lord's Day, we would love to have you come and visit with us at Sovereign Grace Family Church.

We have Sunday school at 930 and we worship at 1030.

Well on today's program, I'm going to be doing something quite different than I have done in the past.

Over the last several weeks, I have talked about my journey to Calvinism.

I've talked about how our church became Calvinistic and I even gave some answers to some of the common objections to Calvinism.

But today, I'm going to be taking and going a different direction because today I'm going to be responding to a video that came across my newsfeed just a short time ago.

There was a video posted by the Reverend Jim Wallace.

Now I had never heard of Jim Wallace before this video came out and the video was introduced by NowThis.

NowThis is an online network that posts videos about social issues.

NowThis usually has a very leftward leaning focus and so when I see NowThis videos pop up, I kind of know what I'm getting into.

Yet this one caught my attention because it basically said that it was a Christian minister and he was going to challenge Christians on how they were going to be voting this November.

So far on Coffee with a Calvinist, I have not tried to make any political statements but as a person who teaches the Bible, I cannot help but make statements that are moral in nature because the Bible speaks to issues that are moral and ethical and I cannot help but to speak on matters of truth and error.

And what I heard from Mr.

Wallace, he identifies as Reverend Wallace, what I heard from him is a lot of error.

Now not everything that he says is wrong and I want to be clear up front that I want to give grace where it is deserved.

I want to give grace to him as a human being, as a man who identifies himself as a Christian, though I don't know what his particular beliefs are.

A lot of people say that they are Christians.

A lot of people say that they are ministers.

What I'll say about this, this is a little blurb about him that I found online.

It says, James E.

Wallace Jr., born June 4, 1948, is an American theologian, writer, teacher, and political activist.

He is best known as the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine and as the founder of the Washington DC-based Christian community of the same name.

Wallace is well known for his advocacy on issues of peace and social justice.

And although Wallace actively eschews political labels, he describes himself as an evangelical and is often associated with the evangelical left and the wider Christian left.

He worked as a spiritual advisor to President Barack Obama.

He is also a leader in the red-letter Christian movement.

So that gives a little bit of a little synopsis as to who he is.

And this video is about six minutes long, and so it's not a long, long video, but a lot is said in this six minutes.

And I'm not going to play the whole thing because I think it would be difficult to listen to the whole thing and then go back and respond to it piece by piece.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to play portions of it, and you're welcome to look it up.

Again, it's Jim Wallace, Now This.

It's readily available for anyone to go and look up and listen to the whole audio file or watch the whole video.

But what we're going to do on today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist, because I consider this part one, I don't know how long it's going to take to get through all six minutes, but I know we're not going to get through it all today.

But what I want to do on today's program is I want to just play the first few minutes, really the first maybe minute to two minutes of what he says, give you an idea of what he is saying, and I want to go ahead and respond.

Now here's something to note.

The very first thing that the video will do is it takes about a 15 second clip and it introduces him with this little clip, and you'll hear what it's going to say in just a moment, and then it goes into the statement that lasts about five minutes.

So we're going to listen to this starting at the beginning.

I'm going to be stopping as we go, making commentary, giving some responses, and I'm going to do this today, tomorrow, possibly a third day, depending on how long I talk regarding these things.

So we're going to begin by turning it over to the video, and I'm going to start that video right now.

To be a Christian is more than your stance on abortion and same-sex marriage.

That was the part I was talking about.

That is immediately, it's now going to go into his statement, but you hear right away what he's saying.

To be a Christian is more than your position on same-sex marriage and abortion.

And honestly, just that, I could deal with just that, because if you think about it, that statement by itself is not true.

Being a Christian is more than our position on abortion and same-sex marriage.

But as everyone knows, those two issues are among the most important issues right now because of, and I'll give you the reasons why.

Abortion is the human rights issue of our day.

There are thousands of innocent babies being murdered in the womb every day.

And since the Supreme Court gave essentially permission for women to have unrestricted abortions with the Roe vs.

Wade decision, since that time there have been millions and millions and millions of babies whose lives have been snuffed out, who have been murdered in the womb.

And for someone to say that your Christianity is more than your view on abortion would be tantamount to going back to the time of the Holocaust and saying your position, your Christianity is more than your position on murdering Jews.

And while someone might make that argument, I believe it wouldn't stand the test of real scrutiny, because this was the human rights issue of that time, and the human rights issue of this time is abortion.

And so to say that it's more than abortion, I think that's possible to say, but I'm not going to give too much ground on this, because if a person comes out and states emphatically that they are for abortion, that they are pro-abortion, now they may call themselves pro-choice, but that is just a language trick that is not the case, it's not about choice, it's about the only choice of murdering the child.

And I remember so many of the political candidates being asked, you know, what is your position? My position, they will often say that my position is for women's reproductive rights, which is a canard, because this isn't about reproductive rights, this is about the right to murder a child in the womb.

Sometimes the belief is that the child can be murdered all the way up to the point of birth, that a child can be murdered, and this is legal in some places in the United States, that a child can be aborted all the way up to the point where that child would be born.

And so the idea that this shouldn't be the only issue, this has to be a major issue for Christians.

And what we're going to see as we go through this, what we're going to hear Mr.

Wallace do, is we're going to hear him basically put this on the back burner and essentially say, this is, you know, the more important thing right now, he's going to say, is white nationalism and racism.

You'll hear this as we go, but he's going to say, you know, you can't just make everything about abortion.

I disagree.

I think we have to take a stand on at least the murder of babies.

It has to be a point of no return for Christians.

A Christian cannot support someone who is intentionally and purposefully for the slaughter of unborn children.

That's absolutely, 100%, I disagree with him on this, and that's the reason why.

But he also says same-sex marriage.

He throws that in as well.

It's more than your position on abortion and same-sex marriage.

Well, let me say this about that, because the issue is with that, same-sex marriage is part of a larger problem of the rise in the glorification of the homosexual lifestyle, and the Christian cannot, in keeping with the faith of the scriptures, the Christian cannot support a homosexual lifestyle.

The Christian cannot say that that is right, that that is wholesome, that that is good, that that is God's plan, because those things are not true.

Now, I understand that this may offend some, and that may just have to be the way it is, because this is what the Bible says.

The Bible is very clear about the issue of homosexuality.

It's not an Old Testament issue or a New Testament issue.

It's a whole Bible issue.

The Bible said man was created for woman, woman was created for man.

They have a complementary, that's with an E, complement, not with an I, complement, but the two together make the one whole.

Therefore man shall leave his father, mother, shall join unto his wife, cleave unto his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

And what we have seen in our day is we have seen an absolute repudiation of the biblical understanding of male and female, an absolute repudiation of marriage, and we have seen even at the highest level of our courts, we have profaned marriage.

We have done away even with the concept of male and female, because now gender is a choice, and it is a fluid choice.

And so what has happened is this breaks down to the very heart of God being God, God being sovereign, God choosing the way that men and women are to function and the way that a man and a woman are to be distinguished.

And so the idea that these things are secondary things is something that cannot in any way be defended.

And while he is going to try to defend this throughout this video, I just wanted to say from the outset even if it's just these two things that he's wrong about, I think these two things are enough to warrant a response.

And so that's part and parcel of why I'm doing this short series responding to Mr.

Wallace.

So we'll continue and let him speak for a little bit longer and we'll see if we can't keep this under 20 minutes today.

Followers of Jesus Christ must understand that every person who walks this earth possesses the image of God.

For this reason, racism, sexism, and homophobia is an assault on that very image of God.

Notice right there, I don't disagree that every person who walks the earth bears the image of God, but notice what he did.

He said racism, sexism, and homophobia.

He is equating three different attitudes, all of which have to be defined within a context.

Racism is defined within a context.

You'll notice as we go through this, his understanding of racism is always a burden that is a white burden.

Only white people are racist.

Only white people are guilty of having the animus towards other races.

You'll hear him lay a lot of guilt at the feet of white people as racists.

But racism is a real thing.

It is true that there are people who hate because of race, and that is true of white people, that is true of black people, that is true of other colored people.

This idea of race and racism, there is a genuine issue of racism, and so that is one thing that he is saying here.

He's saying racism, but then he says sexism, and again you have to define what is sexism.

I have been called a sexist because I do not believe women should be in the pulpit, because the Bible is very clear that women are not supposed to be preachers of the word.

As far as I understand, Mr.

Wallace's wife is a preacher, so he would certainly disagree with me, and he would say I was sexist, even though I'm following the dictates of Scripture, which clearly teach that women ought not to be pastors.

So again, sexism, racism, they are defined within a context, but the real one to note is the term homophobia, because homophobia has become to mean to be afraid or fearful of homosexuals, and this term is labeled.

Anything that you say against homosexuality is homophobic.

In fact, I have heard many people say the Bible is homophobic because the Bible speaks against homosexuality, and that is a very dangerous and untrue statement to make, to say that the Bible is homophobic, because the Bible is God's word.

That would be essentially saying God is homophobic.

Homophobia is a word that is used to attack people who take a biblical stance on sexuality, human sexuality, marriage.

If you say that a man should not lay with another man, then people will say you're homophobic.

That is not true.

It's not a matter of being afraid.

I'm not afraid of people who identify themselves as homosexuals.

I'm not afraid of them, but I am concerned for their soul, because they are living in open rebellion against Almighty God.

Therefore, they're living in a dangerous situation, and in the same way, a person who is standing next to a ledge, and there's a thousand foot cliff, and at any moment they could fall off, I'm concerned for that person.

I'm also concerned for the person who is living in habitual, unrepentant sin, and that's why I'm concerned for homosexuals, in the same way that I would be concerned for people who were living in fornication, in the same way I would be concerned for a person who lives as a violent person, or a person who lives as a thief.

See, the issue with homosexuality, people say, why do you make such a big deal about homosexuality? It's not that we make such a big deal about homosexuality.

The issue is this.

Homosexuality is one of the few sins that the world tries to say is not a sin.

You see, if I were out trying to say that thievery was right and good, everyone would say I was crazy.

If I was out saying murder was right and good, everyone would say I was crazy.

If I was saying lying is right and good, everyone would think I was crazy.

But if I say homosexuality is right and good, people say, oh what lofty wisdom.

It's not lofty wisdom.

It's false.

It's untrue.

And this is the thing that I'm most concerned about with Mr.

Wallace, because as we're going to see in tomorrow's, as we listen to more of what he has to say, is ultimately he is attempting to downplay these sinful issues and replace them with social issues such as global warming, he's going to mention that, and racism, white nationalism, and he's going to very, very much attack the president as a racist nationalist.

So I hope you stay tuned for tomorrow's episode, and I hope you are able to continue to listen with us as we continue to follow along on Mr.

Wallace's remarks.

So this is what we're doing this week on Coffee with a Calvinist.

Thank you for listening to today's episode.

Again, my name is Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.

May God bless you.

Thank you for joining in for today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.

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