A Few Thoughts on Those Defending Mohler's Firings at SBTS

Conversations That Matter

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Hello and welcome to a short video on this beautiful afternoon. Well, it is afternoon where you are, because that's when

00:08

I'm uploading it. Probably you'll see it in the afternoon. It's actually morning where I am, which means that this video is actually obsolete because the news cycle probably already changed.

00:18

That's how fast things move. But and I was about to say it's it's it's a beautiful Saturday, but I would be wrong.

00:25

But then I thought during covid -19 every day is a Saturday. So I've been losing track of days, but it is a

00:30

Friday and I'm getting updates as as I'm recording this, the news cycle is already changing.

00:37

This is actually not a conversation that matters to most of you. I'm explain that I don't usually upload videos that are that don't matter, that aren't important to the audience.

00:50

This one is very important to a very select few. But to most of you, you won't care.

00:55

So feel free to tune out. But if you're concerned about the SBC and concerned about the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and you saw my article two days ago where I said and I'm explaining this, a conservative wing was fired and then, more importantly, asked to sign

01:08

NDAs if they wanted benefits through July that said they would not disclose anything negative about the seminary or their firing process, etc.

01:17

If you're in that group, then then I made this video for you. And the reason I'm making it, I was I was on the fence. I wasn't going to make this.

01:22

But there's some people I care about that. Probably like five messages this morning from people saying, you know, really, really what they were doing was they were worried.

01:31

John, John, we know that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is going liberal. And and you're probably battle weary if you're in that category because you've been saying this for a while.

01:41

You know, you've seen the videos. You know what's going on to some extent, at least. And John, they're going to get away with it.

01:49

John, you know, that article that you posted two days ago, they're nitpicking at it. They found that one area that you're weak on.

01:57

You said that there was this conservative wing that Hummler fired. And and now they're

02:02

I don't know, were they all conservatives? Is that really the reason they were fired, John? They're going to take down the whole article.

02:08

And look, I need I need to just tell you, number one, this was all anticipated in some ways, not not in every way that it manifests itself.

02:18

I did not. I'll say this. I didn't know that Theodore Cable was going to come out with what he said. And I'm going to go through what he said.

02:24

But it's not a surprise. I knew people were going to say similar things. And I expected to be tarred and feathered for for a period of time before things started making their way to the surface and authenticating.

02:37

But here's one thing you understand. I'm saying this is for my whole audience, those who are still listening, who still are interested in what

02:43

I have to say about this. You know, if you've listened to me for any length of time and this is probably, probably partially due to the historical training that I have.

02:54

But I feel naked without primary sources like I have to have them.

02:59

I hate talking about things and just, you know, people want me to speculate about something. I hate doing it without something that I can grab and say, like, this is the reason

03:08

I don't just shoot from the hip. And you know that this is, you know, part of,

03:13

I think, why I have the following I do and why this podcast even exists.

03:20

There are times, and they tend to be more rare, but there are times when I'll come out and I'll say something and I don't always have every primary source cited.

03:31

And those are rare. I hate doing it. But there are times that I have to do it in my thinking. And when

03:36

I do that, though, just know that it doesn't mean that a primary source or sources don't exist.

03:43

All right. It doesn't mean they don't exist and doesn't mean that they're not going to be available at some point.

03:51

All right. I know I'm being a little vague, but you need you need to understand kind of how I'm approaching this.

03:57

There were a lot of primary sources in the article, but the narrative that there was a conservative wing fire, that there was one of the reasons for the firing of some of these professors was they were essentially political opponents to Al Mohler.

04:12

They opposed some of the things he wanted done. And they did so because they were more conservative. And I'm going to define what that means.

04:20

The article did define what it means. I'm just going to show you what the article said, because people are missing this, some people. So that's the angle that those who have some affinity or level of loyalty to the institution, the seminary, are trying to take.

04:32

They want to take that narrative that there was a conservative wing, that there were conservatives who were fired and they want to challenge it because there is an element of subjectivity in a way.

04:43

It's not really actually subjectivity. It's it's the way you define conservative. There is because that that's a word that you can define in different ways.

04:50

The article did define it. But to to ignore what the article said and how the article was using the term conservative and then to say, well, anyone who signs a statement of faith is conservative.

05:00

They can sort of try to create a narrative that that that article was wrong because they said that the conservatives were fired and that liberals weren't fired.

05:11

And we know that there are no liberals at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Everyone's a conservative there because they all signed a statement of faith.

05:18

That's more commonly what I'm seeing out there among those who are really trying to defend the school. And it's it's really a pathetic defense, guys.

05:26

I'm going to show you why. But not only that, but it fails to actually read the article.

05:31

It purposely misrepresents what the article is saying in order to create that defense.

05:38

And then to and what it's trying to do is create this mountain that is can't be climbed. If you start if you start off, if your starting point is every single person at the

05:46

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is conservative because they signed a statement of faith, then and you just assume that you you you just it's going to basically nullify my whole article because my article does not assume that.

06:01

And that's where actually probably the debate needs to be. Why do you assume that? Let's talk about it is postmodernism, not liberalism.

06:09

So if you say that, you know, there there really is no objective truth, you know, you're not liberal. You know, that's where we probably need to start the conversation.

06:17

But if you just assume that right away, which most of the people defending the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary just assume, then you know, then then by definition, it would they just presupposes my article is wrong and that's so it's more of a narrative thing than it is an actual like they're not going after primary sources.

06:38

They're going after the the narrative itself. And and that that's what

06:44

I'm seeing, at least so far. And things will change over the next few days, few weeks. I'm not worried about it. But but that's the tact.

06:51

And and so I'm going to point out, I'm going to show you. Oh, by the way. And the most disturbing thing about the whole this whole story are the

06:58

NDAs. Notice how no one wants to talk about that on the other side.

07:03

Those who want to defend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary don't want to talk about the NDAs. Just find it interesting.

07:09

All right. So let's go over the article. And I'm going to take you through what conservative meant, according to the article, and what conservative wing meant, because it was actually very well defined.

07:19

So so so first of all, you're going to notice the headline breaking Al Mohler fires conservative wing at Southern Seminary.

07:26

Breaking whenever in journalism, whenever you break a story and you got to understand this, you're coming out with here's what happened and the facts get developed.

07:35

It's a developing story. You know, you find out more information. It changes the the narrative, perhaps possibly.

07:44

But it gets added to the story. And and this thing develops and you find out over time.

07:49

It's like think about it like you arrive on a murder scene. OK, this guy, this guy is dead, you know, breaking someone's dead.

07:57

Someone's murdered. And that's what look, all the evidence we have looks like they were murdered. But as you get details, as you do forensic evidence and stuff, you start adding to that narrative, start adding to that story.

08:07

And so I think some of you all out there don't might not comprehend what a breaking story necessarily is or what it's supposed to be.

08:15

But but but this is these the facts are in this article. These these are facts.

08:22

This this is what happened. These primary sources and the ones that aren't actually cited. But I know about this is what actually happened,

08:29

OK? And and as you can see, if I scroll down here, update, you know, for 42 p .m.

08:36

on that day, update the next day, update another update yesterday. And so so you have that you have you have updates getting put out there now.

08:47

The updates add to the story, but the core of the story, what happened? The main points, you know, the

08:56

NDAs, the what seminary, what professors were fired, what professors still have their jobs, those things.

09:02

The core of that is actually true. And I wouldn't have come out with the article unless I had some way to authenticate that.

09:09

And so so let's go through this kind of we'll start with conservative wing because that's been targeted.

09:19

There's no conservative wing at the Southern Baptist. Theological Seminary, what are you talking about? Well, there's a very specific reason that that language was used.

09:29

And the reason is, is because these four guys you see in this photo have actually and actually what

09:36

I'll do is I'll read this first and then I'll explain. So what what was said in the article is this.

09:44

The Southern Baptist Seminary, et cetera, fired four, and I quote, four of the remaining conservative professors at the institution.

09:51

So notice right away, it's not saying that there aren't any conservatives at the institution for of the remaining conservative professors.

09:58

OK. And then if you scroll down here, it says that these four professors stood against the advance of new liberalism at the school.

10:10

And oh, look, there's a source for new liberalism. You can click on it. What is new liberalism? What does John mean by the new liberalism when he says that?

10:17

Oh, click on it. Well, it takes you to this whole article by Joshua Summer on what new liberalism is. And it's it's fairly detailed.

10:24

So you can go and you can actually click on that article and you could find out what I meant by new liberalism. I'm not sure if anyone's doing that, but these four professors stood against that.

10:33

That's what the article says. And and then it contrasts these four professors with here are the names

10:42

Herschel York, Matt Hall, Jarvis Williams and Jonathan Pennington. And look, there's links for all of these guys.

10:49

You can click on them. You can click on Herschel York. It'll take you to an article. Here's another one by Josh Summer. Critical Theory right under Al Mueller's nose earlier this year.

10:59

And it's a it's taken from a talk. Herschel York, you can click on the Matt Hall one. It'll take you to a video of me going over a

11:07

Matt Hall article. Jarvis Williams. It'll take you to clips of Jarvis Williams. And if you go to and then here's

11:15

Curtis Woods. I should throw Curtis Woods in there as well, because he was mentioned here. You know, I'll take you to Curtis Woods and et cetera.

11:22

Actually, if you click on the Curtis Woods thing here, it'll take you to his dissertation, I believe. And he overtly said he uses principles of critical race theory to guide his 2008 dissertation at the

11:33

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jonathan Pennington, you can click on it. It'll take you to a book he wrote. He favors the

11:38

Gadamerian of postmodern interpretation, literally says that of scripture and denies the one true objective meaning.

11:44

How do you look if those if that's not liberal? Well, what is liberal to you then?

11:51

They signed a statement. OK, like you can sign a statement all day. You know, you can have you can you can you can be seduced by someone.

11:59

You can have someone trying to seduce you to break your marital vows. But if you keep saying, yeah, but I got a marriage license.

12:05

Look, I signed my my marriage license. Well, who cares? Like it doesn't matter.

12:10

So so so the fact that these professors signed a statement, you have to look at what they've actually said.

12:17

And and so that's what what we've been doing now for over a year. We've been looking at what these professors say.

12:23

So there's a contrast. You got to understand that. You got to see that in this article. There is a very big contrast between these four guys right here and the professors that are spoken of down here.

12:36

That's how the narrative that's part of the part of how the narrative has been woven. Those guys are not part of of of this group.

12:47

OK, so, yes, there are some distinctions being made. Now, I will say this about those four guys.

12:54

I'm not going to answer every question you have right now. OK, there's a reason for that. And you're going to have to if you're part of my audience, you know how this works.

13:03

You're going to trust me on this for a few days at least, maybe even a little longer. We'll see. But these four guys actually were were put into the article and framed in that way, conservative wing for a very specific reason.

13:23

And that's because there are actual things like in time that that they have done that would merit someone thinking that they are part of the conservative wing.

13:34

So I need to overemphasize this. There are conservatives at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

13:41

All right. They exist. But those who are aware of the internals there would have known these four guys to have somewhat of a reputation for opposing the new liberalism.

13:50

And you guys know what that means. If you listen to me for any length of time, not only did I put a link in the article explaining this and make a contrast between these other guys, but, you know, from listening to me,

14:00

I'm talking about that family of that social justice panoply. I'm talking about the postmodernism, the critical race theory, the intersectionality, et cetera, et cetera.

14:08

You know what that means. I shouldn't even have to say this, but but but there may be those who are just aren't familiar, who didn't actually read the article carefully, who didn't click on the links defining things.

14:19

And so I'm putting this out there for you. Now, I'm getting getting emails as we speak here.

14:28

The so so here's the new. Yeah, here's it's like clockwork.

14:35

As I'm recording this, here's someone named. I'm not even going to say their name. It doesn't matter.

14:40

Someone who's posting one out of 60 plus faculty who wholehearted confess and teach in accordance with, not contrary to the abstract and principles,

14:49

Baptist Faith Message 2000, Chicago Statement on Inerrancy, Denver Statement and Nashville Statement. Yeah, real liberals get a life.

14:56

And who do you make sure? And when you do, make sure it includes love. This is like saying this is like saying.

15:03

And I know I'm going to just repeat this. Like you guys need to just go to town with this analogy. This is like saying

15:09

I'm being seduced by by someone. I'm I'm I'm I'm in an affair.

15:15

I'm I'm being I'm in a bad relationship that's breaking my covenant with my wife, but I have a marriage license.

15:23

And I signed it. Get a life, get a life when you when you see, you know, me going to strange places in the middle of the night and stuff.

15:32

I have a marriage license. How dare you? That's that's the equivalent, guys. That's what that is.

15:38

I mean, if you don't think postmodernism is liberalism, I don't know what I can do for you. I don't know how, you know, object.

15:44

There is no objective meaning, but I'm a conservative. So so you guys see most of you see through this stuff.

15:51

Now, let's keep going through this article. So so the way that that this works with a breaking story is you know, here's here's what we know.

16:03

Here's here's the dead body. Now, as we start, you know, hearing things, things surface. And I told you things are going to be surfacing over the next couple of weeks.

16:11

This is, you know, the things that I think are important, I'll put here. Most of them aren't. But that day, about two hours, not even yet.

16:19

Two hours after this was posted, update Ken Magnussen status is undetermined. He will find out in two weeks whether or not he's fired.

16:26

He has been put on notice, however. So it appeared from the from sources that Ken Magnussen was fired.

16:34

Well, something is up with Ken Magnussen, but he wasn't actually fired yet. But something's up. So that update was put in there.

16:41

Update the next day. Russell Fuller's son, David Fuller, comments on his own

16:47

Facebook account. There's the link. You can see it right there. He says and he he basically affirms everything that this is said, you know, and this is an angle you got to think about.

16:56

He says basically his dad wrote the book on how to learn biblical Hebrew, which is true, and it's used by the other professors there.

17:04

It's used at Union College. He and second and most important, he is unafraid to take a stand for orthodoxy, even if it means losing his job.

17:10

He condemned publicly the wicked social justice movement that outrages among the faculty and leaders of Southern Seminary. You can see evidence.

17:16

He signed the Dallas statement. And this was only the tip of the iceberg for many. And, you know, so so he's saying that, you know, his dad was fired by the self -avowed racist

17:27

Matt Hall. He puts that little thing at the end of it, which is interesting. But he says, yeah, that's why my dad was fired.

17:32

And by the way, my dad was the one who wrote the book on Hebrew. You know what that means, guys? There's a brain drain going on.

17:39

I've seen this at other places. They are firing a guy. Yeah, think about this. A guy who's like 60 or so near retirement.

17:46

I mean, wouldn't be that many years before he could retire. And they fire him now, fire him right at this moment.

17:53

And and he's the guy who basically he he he's the biblical Hebrew guy.

17:59

Like you're getting rid of him and you're keeping someone like a Jarvis Williams, a

18:06

Matt Hall, you're keeping a Jonathan Pennington. Why are you getting rid of the you know, these guys don't have those academic credentials.

18:17

So you got to you got to think about it from that angle, too. How in the world does this benefit the seminary? Maybe there was another reason that he was.

18:24

Look, you can try to speculate on that all day. All right. I like I said, there are certain primary sources and I don't feel comfortable of posting something unless I have sources.

18:37

I know that I know that they're the opposite of that to be true, guys. So this this particular professor, according to his son, fired for that reason.

18:49

That was an update for 23. Here's another update. This is the one I'll talk about a little bit. Theodore Cable. He posts on his blog three paragraphs, very short.

18:56

But this is what's being waved in everyone's face right now. He says, due to the economic crisis caused by COVID -19 pandemic, the

19:02

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary made the difficult decision this week to cut its budget by 30 percent. OK, we reported on that. Right.

19:07

That's that we said that that's the reason that Al Morlow gave. We said that staff and faculty layoffs were part of this cut and included me.

19:16

I would not normally need to address this issue, especially at a time when people are losing even loved ones. But yesterday, persons unknown to me described online my layoffs as a purge of the last theological conservative faculty at Southern.

19:27

Number one, we got we got to stop right there. He says persons unknown to him describe this.

19:34

Those persons were not me, though, that that person wasn't this article. OK, if you read the article like I just explained to you, that's not what the article says.

19:42

A purge of the last theologically conservative faculty at Southern, that would be completely inaccurate. But that's not what was said.

19:49

The idea that those remaining are heterodox shocked and angered me. That's also not what was said.

19:55

No one no one no one said here. I'm going to pull it up for you. Sorry, I didn't have it pulled up. There we go. The idea that those remaining are heterodox shocked and angered me.

20:03

Well, that's not what this article said either. So whoever he's talking about, it's not this article. The rest of the piece got worse.

20:10

So now he's saying that there's a piece. So now it makes you think, well, he is talking about this article. So those first two things don't describe the article.

20:17

But now he's talking about the article. OK, presenting many Southern Baptists I love and respect as if they were heretics.

20:24

Now, again, word heresy wasn't actually used in this article. Could it have been? Maybe. But it wasn't.

20:31

Let's see. Before day's end, other bloggers repeated the falsehoods, but none consulted me regarding any of their content.

20:39

I affirm my colleagues and others I know to be exceedingly fine Christians in purity of life and doctrine.

20:45

To besmirch them in this way is trivial ignorance and or dishonesty. I bear no ill will towards SBTS over my layoff and looking forward.

20:53

OK, so that's basically the end of it. All right. So I responded immediately. And this is,

20:59

I guess, what the those who control the gatekeepers of algorithms did not favor me because this didn't hardly go anywhere.

21:04

But I immediately posted a response to this. And I already had a response written for this kind of thinking the day before.

21:12

So I just linked to it. But I just put to those who think folks like Jarvis Williams aren't liberal and not sure not sure

21:18

I can help you. More details will be available in time as far as who was fired. There were more than just the four. These four were instrumental in stopping the liberal trajectory, though.

21:25

Again, more is coming to the handful of people who have created a straw man in which their imaginary version of the article states all the conservative professors at Southern were fired.

21:33

You may want to read it again and apply the grammatical historical approach. It doesn't say that. And and I went on.

21:39

But but that that is 100 percent true. It doesn't say that. Now, this is possible.

21:47

I'm just going to get throughout the possibility. Theodore Cable is he's hearing all this from a bunch of people. People might be taking this article an extra step, saying that it's saying that there is this purge that every single conservative was fired.

21:57

There are no conservative left. Everyone is a heretic. I mean, these are words that weren't even used in the article.

22:03

But he's hearing this and he now blames the article for it. That is possible. And he's reading all these things he's hearing into the article.

22:10

That is that's what it seems like. I could be wrong. That's what it looks like to me. That does not negate the fact, though, that Theodore Cable was a guy who opposed this stuff, some of it.

22:20

And doesn't mean he thought that maybe it wasn't as big of a deal to him as it is to some of us. That is very possible, guys.

22:26

But there just I'm telling you, there are actual reasons to think that at one time

22:32

Theodore Cable opposed some of this stuff. Now, the question I have, and this is what I posted today. This is what it's going to get me in real trouble today.

22:39

Yeah, it already is. I said, here it is.

22:45

Oh, that's not the one. Hold on. Hold on. I'm finding it on my Twitter account here. People need to figure out people who like created

22:52

Twitter need to figure out how to make this more of a navigable thing. By the way, I can never find threads.

22:58

But anyway, here I am. Questions people should be asking today of Ted Cable.

23:04

Did you or did you not oppose Matt Hall because of theology? Did you or did you not oppose

23:09

Jonathan Pennington because of theology? Have you or have you not signed Al Mohler's NDA now? I think the

23:16

NDA thing needs to be focused on. So here you can see it right there. Now, these are really important questions because this could this actually any tension that you think might exist between the article and what

23:30

Ted Cable saying, it'll be completely eliminated with these questions being answered. If he opposed on any level whatsoever,

23:37

Jonathan Pennington or Matt Hall, you know, and I'm not going to get into specifics of what that might mean.

23:43

But if he opposed for theological reasons, any of those guys, then the narrative stands.

23:50

He's part of this conservative wing that opposed the new liberalism. He may not think it's heresy. He may not think it's as important as you think it is.

23:57

But if he opposed it in any way, that actually justifies the narrative. Now, here's the third question.

24:03

Have you or have you not signed Al Mohler's NDA? Now, this now, remember, I told you this

24:09

NDA. There are benefits that and really the question should be phrased.

24:14

Will you sign? Not just have you, but will you present future past tense?

24:20

Have you, will you? So but really, that's the issue that making all these benefits tied to signing an

24:30

NDA that you won't be smirched to seminary in any way. That's really important. That's what Theodore Cable could really help us on.

24:38

And any of these other guys who were fired, because that's honestly, that's the bigger root issue to all of this.

24:45

We know who Russell Fuller is. To some extent, we also know who Jim Warrick is because he was a critic of the new

24:51

Calvinism. Right? Those guys, that's publicly available information right now that you can go check out. And it's literally linked in the article, right?

24:58

Those are two of the four that we called in the article, conservative wing. And, and you're going to have to wait around for information on the other guys.

25:06

But you know what they could, they could clarify right now, whether they opposed Jonathan Pennington, Matt Hall, any of any of the the panoply of new liberalism stuff.

25:18

They can clarify that. You don't find that clarification in this article. What you find by Theodore Cable is that it's, he had been told by others, a complete misreading of the people who took it way too far.

25:32

A misreading of the initial article. And then that he loves the, you know, SBTS.

25:38

That doesn't touch the narrative that was given in the article, guys. You need to understand that. It's being waved around like it does.

25:44

And you know, I wonder, like, why are people reading the article? Like, so I had to come out and explain some of this, or I felt the need to, at least.

25:55

What else? What else can we talk about here? Probably not much. I will leave you with this, though. There's a lot of inside info in that article that could be verified.

26:06

You could call SBTS, find out about these NDAs. That's a bigger issue. Were professors required to sign these contingent, it was, you know, used as a contingent thing that if they didn't sign, they wouldn't get their benefits through July, etc.

26:20

Find out. You could verify that. The fact that professors were fired. No one was talking about that before the article dropped.

26:27

How did I know that? You know, there's a lot in that article that only someone who has primary sources of some kind would know.

26:37

And I think that's the thing that makes some of these guys nervous. They know that this is a true article.

26:43

And so they're trying to twist it in any way they can. I'm not saying Theodore Cable. It sounds like Cable got the twisted version sent to him, essentially, and had a lot of people who linked the article to him taking it two steps farther.

26:56

But there's this twisting of, you know, oh, he's saying that all the conservatives are fired and everyone there is a heretic.

27:03

No, didn't say that. Look at the things in the article that are actually able to be verified. Why would someone like myself, over a year,

27:11

I talk about this on the podcast, meticulously primary source montages, articles that I put out there, and you can check them out.

27:18

Why would I all of a sudden say, yeah, I don't care. I'm just going to make up stuff. I have no evidence that Mueller fired anyone.

27:24

No evidence NDAs were signed. No evidence that the one signer of the Dallas statement was fired.

27:30

I'm a really good guesser, and I'm going to make up the story out of thin air. Obviously, I didn't make it up out of thin air, guys.

27:37

And the issues in the article that are being ignored are the ones you should be focusing on right now.

27:43

Why are they ignoring the NDAs? Why? So I want to kind of leave you with that,

27:50

I guess. I'm not concerned, just so you guys know, let not your heart be troubled. Sin will find people out, whether it's the judgment seat of Christ or now.

27:57

I'm not worried about that. And I don't do this for popularity. This is such a small part of my life, but it is an important part for some of you, and that's why

28:05

I do it. I do it for you guys. I do it for some of the guys who were fired. I do it for people who have been persecuted, and I know who they are, and I know how the

28:16

SBC works, and I know that this tactic, this NDA, this backroom arm -twisting tactic has been used numerous times in the denomination at numerous schools, and it's frankly disgusting.

28:29

And people that I know, because I've been in their offices, etc., who took a stand against the liberalism, they cower sometimes when their arms are twisted and money's attached to it and reputation, and, you know, hey, you need to do our bidding, and then we'll make sure you're set up somewhere.

28:47

I've seen it. I've seen the bribes, and I'm sick of it, guys. And I can't talk about a lot of it because, you know, people that I love and respect have had, oh, had been persecuted so badly in this denomination at some of these entities and institutions, and then the face that's put on it, you know, you want to talk about this abuse thing that the, you know,

29:06

ERLC is so big on. He's like, we got to know, we got to address abuse situations, and then usually the situation is like, this pastor was abusing me, and I couldn't say anything, and everyone thought

29:17

I was crazy. Guys, that's the narrative that should be being applied to this stuff right now because I'm, I, people know, the insiders who are listening to this right now, because I know you're paying attention to me.

29:27

I know the person at Southern who has been asked to watch me. I know who it is. And you're watching this right now.

29:34

Where's your conscience, man? Where's your conscience at? How can you go to sleep at night when you know exactly what's going on behind those closed doors?

29:44

I know that came off. I wasn't expecting to say that in this video. Look, I'm just a simple guy.

29:50

I have my own simple businesses that I run. I teach part -time.

29:56

My family's the most important thing to me other than the Lord and doing his will and the word of God, et cetera.

30:04

It's my family. It's my local community. It's the things that are tangible. Those are the things that matter to me, not some entity or some organization.

30:12

But you know what? I know that it affects a lot of you guys because it's your world, and that's why I do this. Do it for you because I know what that's like.

30:19

I know what the heavy hand feels like, and you're not alone. There is a lot of people right now waking up and this article is one of the things that's being used, and there will be more that will be used, and it scares the

30:31

SBC elites to death, which is why they're taking this really pathetic, trying to mischaracterize the article and then knock it down by saying, oh, there's no liberals.

30:42

Look, even one of the guys he said was conservative says they're not heretics there, and making the article say things it doesn't say.

30:49

Guys, don't fall for that. Don't fall for that at all. And for those of you who have said to me,

30:54

John, I don't know about this yet. You're onto something, but man, I got to hear the other side. Good. Don't take my word for it.

31:00

I'm not the final authority on everything. That's absolutely fine. In fact, I respect you for it. Don't post my article yet.

31:07

Or if you post it, just say, this is interesting. You don't have to say, some of you know me well enough that I've been verified and authenticated so many times, in your minds that you're like, well, he said it, it's true.

31:20

That's fine too. But look, if you're skeptical and you want to hear the other side, that is good for you because the first person to argue his case is the one that seems right until the next person comes.

31:29

I want SBTS to argue their case. I want them to talk about this. And they're overplaying their hand big time right now.

31:35

And you may not see it, but I see it. And I'm taking note of it. And they're heading into a trap.

31:43

And I wouldn't normally tell them that they're heading into a trap, but I think there's some of the guys, I could qualify this.

31:48

Some people there are so arrogant, they don't actually care. If I say that they're heading into a trap or not, they're still gonna do it.

31:56

So let not your heart be troubled. Their house is not burning down. And next week, hopefully, you know what?

32:03

We're gonna, I got a bunch of different things for you guys. Things that are gonna be, oh, the things that I'm gonna be talking about next week, guys, you are not gonna wanna miss.

32:12

I hope this was helpful for all of you. Please keep some of these professors in prayer.

32:19

Please keep SBTS in prayer. And ultimately, our goal is we wanna see this place turn around. We're losing hope in that.

32:26

And again, if you think that you would wanna be someone who would help in the formation of a new theological educational entity of some kind, outside of the convention, send me your name,

32:39

I'll put you on the list. So that is a wrap. And looking forward to next week.