A Serious Concern About Tony Evans’ Teaching!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So recently

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I made a video about Tony Evans, who is the pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas.

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Now, I actually ended up deleting my recent video on Tony, but not for the reasons you might expect. I still believe everything

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I said in that video was true. However, I don't think that I presented the very best points I had in that particular video.

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And so to offer Tony a more solid analysis and critique, I've decided to delete that previous video and make a new video that actually contends with a particular teaching of Tony Evans.

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Just to be clear, I'm not saying that Tony is unsaved, I'm not saying that everything Tony's ever said is false and unbiblical, that's not what

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I'm saying at all. What I am saying is that Tony Evans has presented a specific false teaching that is very dangerous and highly unbiblical, and it needs to be refuted using

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Scripture. So that's what we're going to do in this particular video. Let's take a look at one of the beliefs of Tony Evans which he calls transdispensationalism, and then let's respond to this view using three biblical points.

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By the way, this view that Tony Evans promotes is so problematic that even John MacArthur himself rebuked it publicly.

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So if you think I'm the first person to have an issue with this, think again. With that said, let me read an excerpt from Tony's book entitled

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Totally Saved. It's a bit long, but bear with me because it's important that we understand his position here before we contend with it.

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The book is written about salvation, and on specifically the topic of those who never hear the Gospel message, it says the following,

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For instance, people in the Old Testament were saved without hearing the name of Jesus because Jesus hadn't come to earth yet, but they were saved because they believed in the revelation of God.

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The Bible says Abraham believed God and was accounted as righteous, or saved, for believing

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God's promise of a son and a seed. Genesis 15 .6. I am not saying that people can be saved apart from Jesus.

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Never. Nobody can get saved without Jesus because he is the Savior of all men, as we read in First Timothy 4 .10.

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So a person can be saved without knowing Jesus' name, but not without Jesus' provision for sin.

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End quote. Nothing here is glaringly wrong yet, but let's keep reading because this is where it gets dicey.

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In the case of a person who never hears the Gospel, and who never knows the name of Jesus, but who responds to the light he has,

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God treats that person like an Old Testament saint, if you will. That is, if the person trusts in what

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God has revealed, God deals with that person based on the knowledge he has, not the information he never received.

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I call this transdispensationalism. End quote. So here Tony Evans says that people in other religions, that's who he's talking about, who never hear the name of Christ, can be saved through their unbiblical religion by trusting in the

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God of the Bible in the only way they know how. This is an extremely unbiblical and dangerous idea that has no basis in Scripture whatsoever.

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So let's go ahead and respond to this using three biblical points. Number one. First, let us consider

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Tony's argument about the Old Testament saints like Abraham compared to people who never hear the Gospel today.

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Tony says the following, quote, In the case of a person who never hears the Gospel and never knows the name of Jesus, but who responds to the light he has,

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God treats that person like an Old Testament saint, if you will. End quote. To illustrate this, he points us to Genesis 15, 4 -6, which says, quote,

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And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, This man shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir.

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And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them.

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Then he said to him, quote, So shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

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End quote. So the one true God of Israel reveals a promise to Abraham, and Abraham trusts in God and believes his promise.

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As a result, Abraham is saved and counted as righteous. That's what the passage says. That's what it means.

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This is a true and wonderful story of Scripture. But unfortunately, Tony's application of this is deeply wrong.

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The application of this, according to Tony Evans, is that people in other religions, Muslims, Mormons, Hindus, etc.,

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these people can be saved by Jesus through believing whatever revelation God gives them of himself through their religion.

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This is absolutely unbiblical and has no support whatsoever in Scripture. Abraham was not saved through believing

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God within a false religion or through some roundabout revelation that came to him by way of believing in another

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God. No, in the passage Tony quoted, Abraham clearly was spoken to by the one true

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God of Israel. In other words, it is clear that Abraham believed in the true God of the Bible and believed in his promises alone.

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There is absolutely no comparison or application to be made between this and a person who is in an unbiblical religion believing in whatever false deity they happen to worship.

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To compare one's belief in the one true God of Scripture before the birth of Jesus to one's belief in a false

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God without having heard the Gospel, as if those are in the same category, that's absurd and unsound in every way.

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It is comparing theological apples to theological oranges. The difference between Abraham and a modern

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Hindu or Muslim is that Abraham actually directly believed in the true God of Scripture, while a

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Hindu or Muslim or Buddhist who has never heard the Gospel, by definition, does not. That's the difference and it's a very important one.

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That's why Abraham was saved and the others we mention will not be saved unless they believe in God and his promises through Jesus Christ who is the ultimate fulfillment of Abraham's promise that he accepted of being, quote, a blessing to the nations as described in Genesis 22, 18.

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This whole argument about Abraham being similar to the people in other religions who never hear the Gospel, it's illogical and not consistent with Scripture in many important ways.

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And this brings me to point number two. Let's revisit that quote from Tony Evans. He said, quote, in the case of a person who never hears the

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Gospel but who responds to the light he has, God treats that person like an Old Testament saint, end quote.

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I want to focus in particular on the statement he makes with regards to people in other religions who, quote, respond to the light that they have, which they have access to.

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This is an important question. Where in the Bible does it say that people in other religions who have never heard the name of Jesus might have access to spiritual light?

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The Bible clearly says that those who are in unbiblical and pagan religions do not have any light at all until they receive the revelation of Christ's Gospel.

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In John 8, 12, Jesus says, quote, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life, end quote.

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So here Jesus says that only those who follow him will not walk in darkness, but Tony Evans says that people in other religions have access to this light somehow without following or knowing

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Jesus at all. In fact, he says that in their own respective pagan religions, they actually have access to some aspects of the light of Christ.

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Again, the Bible is in complete contradiction to all of this. First Peter 2, 9 says that God chose, quote, a people for his own possession that they may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, end quote.

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So here again, the light being spoken of in the passage is inside the Christian worldview.

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The light is exclusively inside the revelation of God in Christ. But what about these people before they heard the

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Gospel, before they were saved? Well, the passage clearly says that these people at that time were living, quote, in darkness.

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It was only when they had exited the darkness of their former unbiblical worldview that they could truly be said to walk in marvelous light.

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The Bible makes this extremely clear, that those who are in other religions that are out of alignment with the one true biblical

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Christian religion, these people live in darkness. But Tony Evans believes, contrary to scripture, that these people actually have access to the true light of Christ and that they can hold fast to that light and gain salvation through their unbiblical religion.

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This is not sound teaching in the slightest. And this brings me to point number three. The other problem with Tony's comments here is that they do not acknowledge the idolatrous state of those who worship false gods.

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Exodus 20, verse 3 says, quote, You see, all other gods are idols.

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They're not real gods at all. So all of the people in other religions worship idols rather than the true creator of the universe.

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That's what the Bible clearly says. So how then can Tony Evans say that these people have access to the truth when they actually walk in lies?

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The Bible utterly condemns idolatry and clearly says that those who worship other gods are not true believers in any way.

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So in essence, Tony Evans is actually saying that people can be saved by believing the true God of scripture through worshiping false gods who are not in scripture, who actually are disobedient to scripture.

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The Bible contradicts this idea at every turn. Nowhere in scripture is this supported. In fact,

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Jonah 2, verse 8 says this, quote, In other words, it is very clear in scripture that there is no way in which someone can inadvertently be responding to any form of truth or light by participating in another religion.

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They have forsaken their hope of steadfast love by following idols. Those who worship idols and who never worship

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God are completely without hope unless they repent and turn to Christ. Tony Evans' statement here is not just slightly unbiblical, it's an affront to the gospel itself.

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He suggests that through secular religions and idol worship, people can actually believe in and worship the true

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God of the Bible. This kind of theology is dangerously false. So in conclusion, let me reassure you,

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I am not saying that Tony Evans has never said anything true. Of course he has. He has said many things that are very true and very helpful over the course of his ministry.

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And I'm not saying that Tony is unsaved and going to hell either. I'm simply saying that Tony Evans has a seriously dangerous perspective on the topic of those who have not heard the gospel.

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And this perspective violates virtually everything the Bible says about those who worship other gods, and there's really no way to excuse this.

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So let's pray earnestly that Tony would repent and correct this, and that he would change his view to one that is more biblical and more sound.

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Thank you so much for watching. If you liked that video, please like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you never miss another one.

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If you didn't like that video for any reason, then I invite you to watch my Frequently Asked Questions video, link in description, where I deal with common objections and define the purpose and goal of my channel using

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Scripture. This channel is funded by generous donations from my amazing patrons. If you'd like to help us put out more videos just like this one, hit the link in the description or go to patreon .com

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slash Colin A. Miller. You can donate to my ministry there and earn tons of rewards just like these.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you and God bless.