Progressive Evangelicals - Don't Play Footsie With the Devil

So one of the things that I like about Facebook, but it's kind of a little bit weird, is you can kind of see the trajectory of people, right? You can kind of see things happen in slow motion that normally you wouldn't get to see.

Like I've seen many people that, you know, I kind of had an idea in my mind where, you know, they're probably gonna end up Roman Catholics, you know what I mean? Just based on some of the things that they said, and sure enough, they're Roman Catholics now and stuff like that.

But it works in a variety of different ways and even there are some people that I, you know, I said, man, that guy, he's gonna become a Christian. I can tell. And sure enough, they're Christians now. It's just like, it's just great, like to see that kind of stuff.

You can see where everybody ended up. And one of the things though that it does is it humbles you as well. You can, like, you know where people were at and now where they're at 10 years later, and it's like, God, you know, keep me, Lord, please.

I throw myself at your mercy. I'm not immune to any of this kind of stuff. Like, God, Lord, please keep me, you know, that kind of thing. But anyway, I got some weird news. So I wanna talk about that today.

The Blessing of a Faithful Church and the Need for Humility

All right, everybody. I hope you had a great weekend. I sure did. I had a fantastic weekend with the family and just at church too, man. It's just such a, I hope you guys understand the absolute blessing from God that it is to have a good church with people in it that care about you.

Like, I mean, like really care about you and care about the condition of your soul and just people that take God's word seriously. Man, I'm so blessed by my pastor, you know, just to hear him preach. It is so abundantly clear that he takes God at his word and he tries his best to give us the word of God in as pure a way as he possibly can when he preaches.

And obviously he's a Baptist, so we're not gonna see eye to eye on everything, but there's no doubt in my mind that his goal is to take the word of God as seriously as possible. And so I know that I'm blessed.

I know my family is blessed. I see my kids learning about God and all of these kinds of things, you know, in their kid way. I mean, they're six and four and stuff like that. And so, you know, it's just such a, it's such, it's something that we cannot take for granted.

And I just, I had that thought this weekend because I just got some somewhat distressing news, but like, it's actually not all that, well, half of it's not all that surprising, but the other half is very surprising to me.

A Missions Leader's Drift Into Progressive Christianity and Sexual Sin

Just a little story. So when I first became a Christian, I very quickly met my wife. The very first Bible study I went to after I became a believer, I met my wife. And, you know, she was very involved with overseas missions specifically to Ethiopia.

And so one of the first things that we did was instead of going on a normal honeymoon, we went on a kind of like a short-term missions trip just so she could introduce me to Ethiopia, a place that she loved very much.

And so it was one of those trips where like, you don't really do a whole lot, but you're kind of like touring the different facilities. You give money, you get, you know, you try to figure out a way that, you know, you can raise money for them.

And then when you get back, that kind of thing. So, but it was a good introduction. It was a good replacement for a honeymoon because it wasn't like super hardcore, you know, in the trenches missions, but at the same time, it gave you an idea of what was needed, what the needs are and stuff like that.

Anyway, side issue. The organization we went through was run by a guy and I'm not gonna name him, but it's possible you could figure this out. It's not, it's not, I don't need to hide who he is, but I just don't want to put him on blast.

And he definitely struck me as a little bit effeminate, which I picked up on right away. I mean, every man can pick up on that kind of thing right away. And he was, you know, he seemed to believe God's word, but he was definitely more on the progressive side.

And at the time I was a fairly new Christian. So like, and I, and I, and I became a Christian in New York city. So like even the conservatives in New York city are somewhat progressive in comparison to everybody else.

And so I took note of it, but like it didn't really, it didn't really register any action in my opinion. Like I just, I just, I was, I was a very new, you know, believer at the time. Anyway, over the years I've seen his, I've seen his trajectory and it's just gone more and more progressive.

He's totally woke, very progressive and all that kind of thing. And then come to find out that he adopted two, two Ethiopian kids with his wife of like 15, 20 years, something like that. Come to find out that he's left his wife and he's with his boyfriend now.

And like there, it's just like one day his Facebook, it just changed. Like there's, there's no real acknowledgement of it. It's just like, boop, now I'm with my boyfriend. And it's like, guys, like this kind of stuff.

And these kids, man, these kids are going to be all jacked up now. I mean, God, pray for those kids. God, do something for those kids, because, you know, they're adopted, which, you know, can be challenging in and of itself.

Like it's not a bad thing to adopt kids, but it can be challenging to make that transition, right? And now all of a sudden their dad has a boyfriend and it's like, man, like this progressive Christianity stuff is no joke.

It's no joke. I mean, it ruins people and it ruins their families. Like there's ripple effects, right? And so we have to just understand that when we're confronting, just like someone that's starting to dabble with progressive ideologies and stuff like that, we understand that like that doesn't lead anywhere good.

And you might say, oh, that's a slippery slope fallacy. Well, that's actually not a fallacy. Like how many times does the slippery slope have to actually come true in order for it to not be a fallacy?

I'm sorry, it just isn't, right? Slippery slope argument is a good argument a lot of the time and that's why they tackle it so often. Doesn't mean you're wrong because of the slippery slope, but it's a warning.

It's like once you start dabbling with God's word a little bit and you start messing with the meaning, oh, you know, I don't know, did God really say this? That's why Satan started with that. Did God really say, right?

And so this progressive stuff, it's not just something that's like fun to fight on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter, which I make no bones about it. I'm having the time of my life fighting this stuff, right?

I do think it's fun. And there's nothing wrong with that. Fighting for the Lord is fun, but it's serious as well. And I just, big reality check when it comes to that kind of stuff. I mean, this kind of thing ruins people.

The trajectory of Jamar Tisby and Kyle Howard and Matt Chandler and Jon Piper and all of these guys, like they're all on different parts of the spectrum, right? But the trajectory does not lead anywhere good.

It doesn't lead anywhere good. And the reality is the more you do not fight it, the worse it's gonna be when you eventually do fight it. And so the time to act is now. If you want to save the unity of the SBC, the time to act and kick out all of these critical race theorists is now.

It's just gonna be harder the more you delay. And that's just something that you need to face. The other thing is another guy that I met in Ethiopia, actually. This guy was, he worked for a company that was a very major company that did like, you know, missions oriented work and stuff like that.

Anyway, he eventually got married to a woman that he met through the missions work and all that kind of stuff. Came over to the United States. Now he's wearing dresses. So there you go. Now he's wearing freaking dresses.

And he's too, started in the same way. Started dabbling with progressive ideologies and stuff like that. A little bit, a little here, a little there. And eventually he's a man wearing dresses. Left his wife and now he's wearing dresses.

And it pisses me off. And it's like, this is real stuff. This fight is real, right? This is a real thing. This is gonna ruin people's lives. This is going to destroy people's souls. And we have to do what we have to do.

We have to pray like we've never prayed before. And we have to fight it in the public square. Do not give liberal progressive ideology a foothold in your churches or your seminaries. It makes absolutely no sense to do this.

Why would we do that? It just makes no sense. I don't even really know what the point of all this is. It's just that, it's just a reality check, man. It's just a reality check. Like you don't play footsies with the devil, okay?

You don't play footsies with the devil. What does the Bible say about how you deal with the devil? You resist him and he will flee from you. When the devil tries to get a foothold in your church, you say no, you slam the door and you kick him out.

And that's it. He has no power over you as long as you don't consent to it. The minute you consent to it, that's when he gets a foothold. That's when he's in there. And eventually to kick him out, it's gonna be a lot harder.

Critique of Joe Carter, DA Horton, and Donnie Griggs

Anyway. But yeah, all's right with the world. All is right with the world. I saw Joe Carter had had another conversation where he deleted his half of it and he just hasn't learned his lesson at all. He just can't help himself.

This one was hilarious. He was arguing with a woman who basically was calling out the gospel coalition and the ERLC for being cowards. And in this debate, he actually claimed that the reason why he never wrote about the Democrats is because he just doesn't have time.

Like he can't write about everything that he cares about. He didn't have enough time to write about Biden and Kamala Harris. And it just, you know, he ran out of space. He ran out of space in gospel coalition, ran out of time.

He just, you know, he can't write about everything. All is right with the world. The other thing I saw was DA Horton. DA was saying that one of the casualties of our confronting of critical race theory is all the professions that use critical race theory all the time.

Like we got to think about them. There's a lot of Christians on mission in these professions that use critical race theory all the time. Therefore, you shouldn't be against critical race theory. I'm not even going to comment on that.

It's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Very, very stupid. Oh, and then there was the guy that, that here's, this is, this is really funny. Donnie Griggs, he's a pastor. A lot of people think he's a very good pastor.

I've never heard of him, but he gets on Twitter yesterday on the Lord's day. He gets on Twitter. Pastor Donnie Griggs on the Lord's day gets on Twitter and says this. Confession, as a pastor in rural America, something I'm realizing is this underlying sense of deep shame.

I feel that people in our church have bought fully into conspiracy theories and have seemingly lost interest in the gospel we've held out week after week for almost 12 years. And so this pastor gets on Twitter to talk about how much shame he feels that there's a lot of people in his congregation that are too stupid to realize that conspiracy theories aren't real.

And I think it's appropriate to feel shame when your congregation believes bad things. That's nothing wrong with that, of course. I mean, you're in charge, right? You're the shepherd. You're the one that's supposed to be keeping them away from false ideologies and error and stuff like that.

But I'm pretty sure that the solution isn't to get on Twitter and say, I'm so shameful and regretful that you are so stupid. It's unreal. It's unreal. And so then a lot of people push back and say exactly what I just said.

Like, a lot of people were saying, well, first of all, what are you talking about conspiracy theory? Because that's a weasel word. We all understand that conspiracy theory is a weasel word. So what are you talking about?

The election, the election fraud, the fact that coronavirus isn't the black plague. Like, what are you talking about? Obviously he's not gonna be specific because that's all part of the game, right? You can't be specific because then you can get called out.

But a lot of people were saying, yeah, maybe you shouldn't air your dirty laundry on Twitter. And that's true. You shouldn't do that, especially if you're a pastor, right? But so he responds and he says, well, that blew up.

Thanks to all the kind and supportive posts. To clarify, I was confessing my own personal shame in my original post. Not any shame over my congregation. I have the deepest love and affection for all who call our church home and I'm not ashamed of them at all.

So what he's trying to say is he's trying to make a distinction. I was ashamed for myself, not for them. But like, that's how I read it in the first place. Yeah, you're ashamed of yourself for the stupidity of your congregation, for the lukewarmness of your congregation, for the rejection of the gospel of your congregation.

So you're ashamed because of what they are. So this doesn't help the situation at all. Like he thinks this is a helpful clarification. I'm sure it's a helpful clarification, but it doesn't change what you said.

I just don't even understand this. And this is funny because pastors are very, very often will talk about how they'll get a congregate to come to them and say, well, so and so, certain people believe this about you.

And they don't talk directly. They just kind of use that, that some people are saying X, Y, Z, and they lament that how hard their job is because they always get people that say some people are telling me this and that.

But pastors have their own way of doing, this is what they're doing right here. Donny is doing that right here. He's doing the some people believe this kind of thing without actually calling them out.

This is disgusting. This is absolutely disgusting. I don't understand why a shepherd would do something like this. I actually remember there was somebody that I knew, a pastor that I knew who, I happened to be in his office and I just glanced down at his page and he had notes on his desk where he was getting ready to preach a sermon about a topic, about a conflict he was currently having.

Instead of going to the person like a man, he was gonna preach a sermon about it. And I saw that. Now good for him, he decided not to do that, right? He didn't do it. And so good for him. But that kind of thing happens a lot where you end up preaching a sermon to help you instead of actually doing the godly thing and going to the person you're having a conflict with directly.

It's just, it happens a lot and it's just so shameful. It's so shameful. But anyway, this is kind of a little bit of a mixed mishmash of topics today and we'll see what happens the rest of the day. I'm thinking about doing some more videos on, what's it called?

Or a video rather on the new statement about social justice. That one was a hilarious one. Also, there was a Thomas Kidd's article on Christian nationalism, which I found to be one of the funniest articles I've ever read.

Let me know what you think in the comments. If you want me to do more on the new statement on social justice or the Thomas Kidd article, let me know in the comments below and we will see what the day brings.

Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.