What Happened to Gospel Coalition? - Matt Chandler and David Platt

You know, Jesus spoke like a man. Jesus was a perfect man and he didn't pull punches. He didn't soften things that shouldn't be softened. And, and this is, I'm going to be reading from Matthew chapter five.

Salt of the Earth and the Loss of Christian Witness

This is the middle of the sermon on the Mount, which we all have a lot of warm emotions in our hearts about because it's a lovely sermon, but it wasn't just a lovely sermon. I mean, he said some hard things in this sermon, and I'm going to be reading from the new King James version, verse 13.

He tells the people he's preaching to, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

That's a terrifying verse. He calls his followers, the salt of the earth, but then he warns them. And he says, look, if you lose your saltiness, you're not good for anything. The actually the only, you are good for something.

You're good to be trampled and walked all over by the men of the world. This is a video about the gospel coalition. All right. So, uh, a buddy of mine, um, you hopefully, you know, him, Matt Williams, he does the how to build a tent podcast, which you should definitely subscribe to.

Um, so he sent me this video from the gospel coalition from six years ago. It's about social justice and it contains encouragements and concerns about social justice and young, young evangelicals. And I've seen this video before it's been a while.

And so I figured I'd watch it again to talk about sort of the, the, the interesting nature of what has happened. Because to be honest, the gospel coalition is square in, in, in line, in my opinion, from the kind of thing that Jesus is talking about when he says, what good is salt that's lost its saltiness.

The gospel coalition is out of saltiness. I like to say it like this. Their testicles have fallen off. They don't have any cojones anymore. They're not willing to go against the stream. And so what happens?

They get trampled by the ideologies and the worldview of pagans. They, if you look at gospel coalition articles, it's very in line with what you'll find on Washington post and New York times and stuff like that.

Sure. They'll sprinkle a little Jesus in there every now and then. And they've got, um, of, uh, a slightly different opinion on abortion than those organizations. They don't like abortion, but they've lost the edge that a Christian ought to have about all of these issues, including abortion, including abortion shouldn't be softened and gospel coalition always softens it.

And there's so many other examples of this. So let's just jump into this. We're not going to respond to the whole thing here. I urge you to watch this and compare gospel coalition then to what you see from gospel coalition now.

Um, but let's, let's take a look at this.

Defining Social Justice and the Church’s Role

Social justice, um, and young evangelicals, encouragements and concerns. So as I was thinking about this, I wrote down a list of what, what do you even mean by social justice? Are there issues? Are there principles?

So I'll give you a list that I wrote down of what came to my mind by social justice, and then, uh, tell me if that's what you think it is. And then, and we can tackle what's going on out there. I wrote abortion, racial prejudice, human trafficking, healthcare issues, immigration reform, so-called same sex marriage, environmentalism.

That's my list. Uh, is that what you think of when you think social justice or am I on different?

So basically he lists every single, uh, liberal progressive talking point. Um, that's a good place to start because social justice is, um, has got its claws in every one of these things. Now, let me just at the outset say that this is not the, this is not the ownership of social justice warriors, like the scripture and conservatives and hard nose people should have something to say about every single one of these issues, including healthcare and immigration reform.

Um, so it's not to say that the Bible doesn't speak about these things, but what does it definitely is not the case is that the Pagans don't have this right when the Christians have it wrong. That's definitely not the case when you start talking like that's the case.

And we should look to these other Pagan sources for guidance on these issues. Um, that's when you know, you've lost your saltiness. That's when you're starting to be trampled underfoot by the world. Let's listen to Matt Chandler noted social justice warrior, and let's see what he sounded like back in 2014.

No, I think you're right. I think there are some things on there that I don't know that the church, I don't know that the church would see abortion as a social justice issue.

I think it is a social justice because you're killing people that shouldn't be killed. Yes.

So, but, but I, again, there there's a, and this, I don't want to be the guy that jumps right into my concerns. Okay. Um, because I do believe that the church should be about, um, justice and, and, and should be, I mean, God has, has clearly said these are in just things.

And he has put us here as our covenant people to engage. I think primarily we engage with the gospel, uh, of Jesus Christ, but, uh, there are things, so you've got.

From “Primarily the Gospel” to “You Don’t Just Preach the Gospel”

Chandler, what he just said, this is 2014, right? And then listen to, if you saw my video, a lot of you did, I think it's almost got 30 ,000 views about his little tirade, uh, in the middle of his sermon, where he said, it's so hypocritical when you say the gospel, just preach the gospel.

You don't just preach the gospel. Listen to the difference in how he sounds back then and how he sounds now. Why has the emphasis shifted? You know, a lot of people have been wondering who's changed in all of this.

Like, like, are, am I changing? Are they changing? And I think it's so abundantly clear that they're the ones changing. Just listen to how he just said that we primarily engage with the gospel. That was in 2014.

And today he says, it's so hypocritical. You don't just preach the gospel. And it's like, well, what happened, Matt? What's happened. Well, you know, what happened to you? I mean, why did you change? It would be nice to know why you changed so we could follow your logic through and decide if that's a change that we need to make or not.

But one thing I've noticed is that social justice warriors in particular, when they've changed their opinions or their emphasis on things, they very rarely admit that they've changed, much less give you any kind of indication as far as why they've changed.

I've noticed that conservatives often will, when they've changed, they'll tell you exactly why they've changed. I've, I've changed on certain issues and I've done videos about, uh, about why I was wrong about so-and-so and why I was wrong about this.

And so that way, even if you don't agree with me, you could at least follow my logic and my thought process and say, okay, does that make sense to maybe follow AD into this change? I've said that about Donald Trump, for example, I'm planning on voting for Donald Trump in 2020.

I didn't vote for Donald Trump the last time. And I've talked about why I've changed there. And so that's something that would be very helpful, Matt Chandler, but let's, let's, let's let them continue.

Scott, um, the, the sex trade right now, which is a, it's a very kind of sexy, let's do this, let's shut this down. Let's kill this. That's it. And I'm, I praise God for that. I'm hopeful that, that some real good can be done there and people.

So it's a positive at one level.

Huge part of that passion are all into this.

Was it a man go for it and put a red X on my hand, took a picture, tweeted it out this morning. So, so yeah, so I'm, I'm, I'm in. Um, and, and then there is a part of me.

Counter-Cultural Posturing and the “In Jesus Name” Problem

Well, I guess one thing hasn't changed about Matt Chandler. He'll ride any wave of popular, you know, justice issues. He put the red X on his hands. I listen, if you guys do that kind of stuff, if you go with the hashtags and whatever's popular, I don't have a beef with you, but just know that you're not being counter-cultural if you do that.

I think gospel coalition likes to pretend like they're being counter-cultural when they do some of this kind of thing. Like I guess the red X and stuff like that. Um, and there's nothing counter-cultural about that.

If you want to find out more about the, uh, the fake scam of pretending to be counter-cultural while just going along with the stream of everybody else, I did a great video on it called, uh, the scam of big Eva or something like that.

I'll try to remember to put a link to it in the comment section of this video, although I rarely remember to do that. Sorry about that guys.

Okay. But, but where does yes. Cup of cold water in Jesus's name. Where's the, in Jesus's name part that that's it. So I'm yes. For the cup of cold water. Yeah, absolutely. But, but is it in, in Jesus's name and, and is the gospel tied to it?

And are we, um, are we making people comfortable here without meeting their most significant need and the thing that's driving all of these things, which is the brokenness and sinfulness of the world.

So let me just, let me just say something here about this as well, because I think that this is kind of an indicator of, of what's to come when it comes to Matt Chandler and stuff like that. And what he's saying is he's like, okay, well, we want to give you the cup of water.

We want to meet that physical need. Of course, that's something that the scripture tells us to do. You know, we share with those who don't have, that's something that we should do as Christians completely agree with Matt Chandler there.

And then he says, then he says, but we want to make sure that we do it in Jesus name. So here's a cup of water in Jesus name. And what he's concerned with is what he said. He said, I'm concerned with that part in Jesus name, right?

And, and this is something that I think we all should understand and be very careful about because saying in Jesus name doesn't actually do anything like we need. We can't treat that as if it's the magic words, right?

Like it's like, almost like saying abracadabra, except the Christian version of abracadabra, because in Jesus name, we can say that. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with saying that, but when you say that, that's saying I'm taking on in Jesus's name, right?

I'm my, my identity is in Jesus Christ. Right. And so the things that I do, I do it according to Jesus's command. So it's like, like I'm a representative of Jesus at this point. You see what I'm saying?

Like I'm an ambassador for Christ. That's something that Paul talks about being an ambassador for Christ and an ambassador for Christ doesn't decide what to do on his own. Rather, he has a Lord. He has a master that he takes his orders from.

And likewise, Christians have a master that we take our orders from. And so when we do something in Jesus's name, when we give you a cup of water, we have to give you that cup of water in such a way that comports with biblical truth, with biblical commands.

And so what we couldn't do is say, okay, I'm going to go give cups of water to people. And then when, when, when it comes down to people who need cups of water, we have black people and we have Latinos and we have whites and we say, okay, well, I'm going to give, if a black person comes to me and wants water, I'll give them water.

But if a white person comes to me and needs some water, I'm not going to give them water because we're serving blacks right now. Well, that that's a very stupid example, obviously, but you would easily see, no, no, no.

A Christian can't do that. Even if he says it's in Jesus name, he's actually taking that name in vain. That's actually what taking the Lord's name in vain means. It doesn't really mean, you know, saying a cuss word.

It actually means doing something on the Lord's behalf that the Lord did not command you to do. That's what taking the Lord's name in vain means. And so Matt Chandler here is saying, I'm concerned about the, in Jesus's name, me too, but there's content there.

There's content there. And this is why we have to oppose Matt Chandler, social justice warrior in these days, because so much of it, though, he says it's in Jesus name is actually taking the Lord's name in vain because God didn't command you to engage in affirmative action policies.

When you're hiring a pastor, God didn't command you to, um, believe everything that a black person says, and not anything that a police officer says. God didn't command you to condemn a man without two or more witnesses or giving him his day in court.

Like God didn't command those things. So if you say that you're doing that in Jesus's name, I can turn around and tell you, no, actually you're taking the Lord's name in vain there. That's the problem.

It's not about appearances. It's about what's actually good. And if you, if you go, if you go back to some of my Matt Chandler content, my early stuff, when it comes to the MLK 50 conference, look at my, watch my responses to Matt Chandler's MLK 50, uh, uh, presentation.

And in that video, he makes it very clear that what he's worried about is looking like he's doing the wrong thing. Not so much actually doing the wrong thing. He admits this in that presentation. He says, I don't want it to look like the tokenism I preach against, even though it actually is the tokenism I preach against.

And by the way, there's nothing in the Bible about tokenism. So why are you preaching against it? Like there's so many problems here, but you know, even here, he says, I'm worried about the, in Jesus name.

He's really just worried about the, the optics. They're not really the content of what in Jesus's name means.

Justice, Evangelism, and Personal Holiness

Is that if you take that concern that a totally legitimate biblical right? Yes. Go for it. Issue of doing good to people, especially hurting or abused or captive slave people. Yes. And then underneath it, this concern of whether or not in the name of Jesus, whether.

Or not, is that, I would say, yes, I would say overall, absolutely encouraged by a desire to show God's grace, his character, his mercy and issues like these and truth that needs to be proclaimed when it comes to issues like this is a big issue here.

And, and, and I'll let, I'll let him finish his thought here, but I've also reviewed a Dave David Platt speech where he preached on let justice roll down like waters that, that verse from the old Testament.

And, and here's the problem. Like they all sound good, right? They say they're biblical truth. We got to bring truth to bear on these issues of justice. We need to do that. And I'm like, right there with him.

Yes, that's right. Amen. Christ says something about sex trafficking. Christ says something about partiality. Christ says something about abortion and it's like, okay, great. But, but we can't keep it ambiguous.

You see, that's another thing where the social justice warriors want to use a dull sword when they're, when they're, when they're talking about these issues, because nobody likes the specifics of what Christ commands.

Nobody likes the specifics. Again, this is another example of losing your saltiness. You become worthless because Christ says specific things about what to do with murderers and abortion is murder. And so you'll very rarely hear a big Eva person say, yeah, there should be the death penalty for people who get abortions and people who do abortions.

That's the, that's the double-edged sharp sword of God's word, right? But a guy like this has lost his saltiness. And so he'll say, yes, the Bible speaks to abortionists, but he takes away the sharp edge and he puts a dull blade on there.

And the world is willing to put up with that. They're willing to put up with your, your peaceful protests against abortion. And it's like, abortion's not God's best for you. Yeah. But the scripture says a lot more than that.

The scripture says abortion will send you to hell and you ought to get the death penalty. If you're caught killing your kids, that's what the scripture says. And there's, there's more to it as well. I'm not saying that's all it says, but this is an example of losing your saltiness.

Right? So, so there's content here. David Platt, when you preach that sermon on let justice roll down like waters, and he instantly started talking about things like wealth disparities and income disparities.

I'm thinking to myself, you should watch those videos. I'm thinking to myself, is that what Micah was talking about there? Is that, is that what the scripture was? That kind of justice? Because I'm pretty sure let justice roll down like waters wasn't talking about wealth disparities.

In fact, I don't think the scripture ever talks about wealth disparities as an injustice. I see the scripture talk about wealth disparities as something that's been instituted and commanded by God. God made wealth disparities.

He gives some people some and other people's more and other people's less. That's part of God's blessing. That's part of God's prerogative. We recognize that every good gift that we have comes from God.

And so it's like, what are you talking about here? Like this is, we can't lose our saltiness, but, but let's talk, because he's going to probably talk about some concerns.

Maybe we'll agree. Poverty in there is another big one, which is intertwined with others. But I think my two concerns would be one along the lines of tying it to personal evangelism. I mean, I, I so appreciate the way you've expressed.

We care about all suffering, especially eternity, eternal suffering. We talk about it at Brick Hills. As we work for justice in the world, we speak clearly about the judge of the world, and, and so we want to, to, to proclaim the gospel in the middle of that.

So tying it to personal evangelism, but also another concern would be tying it to personal holiness. And so poverty, if we're going to fight poverty, to look at our own hearts and lives and idolatry of wealth and money and materialism in our own hearts.

If we're going to fight sex trafficking, then it makes no sense to fight that and indulge in pornography on the internet. That, that's what, but I think there's a tendency to, to disconnect those two and see them as separate and that's dangerous.

Projection, Partiality, and the Need for Biblical Consistency

What's happened here? What, what's happened here? Because again, you can see the shift because I want to agree with everything that he just said, right? Like we, number one, we need to tie it to evangelism, a clear presentation of the gospel.

And number two, we have to talk about personal holiness, right? It makes no sense to fight sex trafficking. If you're indulging in pornography, it makes no sense to fight poverty. If you are, you know, greedy and, and, and, and love money and stuff like that.

And I would say David Platt, it makes no sense to fight partiality. If you are indulging in partiality and buddies at your gospel coalition are indulging in partiality, David Platt, your sermon, I remember it.

Um, I don't remember the exact words, but you expressed a little bit of, of, of discomfort in speaking to white people in your sermon about social justice. And, um, I think at the time I said, yeah, you should have followed your first instinct because that sermon was chock full of partiality.

Matt Chandler's over here, nodding like he agrees with everything you're saying. Maybe he did back in 2014, but in 2020, Matt Chandler's preaching is full of partiality. He holds blacks to a certain standard and he holds whites to a different standard.

That is against God's law. You've lost your saltiness. You you've lost your saltiness. You've become worthless except to be trampled by the world. And the world is eating our lunch right now. The world is eating our lunch right now.

We're being trampled. The gospel coalition blog reads just like progressive blogs do all in any context. It doesn't matter if it's in a knitting club context or a journalism context or sports context.

All the leftists all sound the same and they all sound like you. And that's a problem. You've lost your saltiness all while pretending that you're being counter cultural and gospel centered. You can't just sprinkle Jesus on top of leftist ideologies and pretend like you still have your savor.

You don't have it. And Jesus's warning here in chapter five is very serious. You should take it seriously. Let's let Matt let's let David Platt finish.

I had a secretary 30 years ago who did a summer project in the southwest where she was working with a group that was totally devoted all summer long to fighting poverty and working with street kids. And she said they all were sleeping around on the weekend.

They were sleeping with each other on the weekend and going out for property. So that's. That's the disconnect you're talking about. Yes. God cares about both. Right.

Exactly. So to tie that holiness person commitment to personal holiness and discipline with with commitment to showing God's character in the world. So it's got to be both in there. You're both pastors.

We're going to stop there. This video is at 20 minutes right now. If you like this and you want to see more of this content about this particular video let me know. Now let me just end with this. So a lot of you have reached out.

You want me to do more content about the Phil Vischer video. More specific more of a deep dive. So I found out from my buddy John Harris from Worldview Conversations That Matter podcast he's going to do a deep dive into the historical claims that Phil Vischer went into in that video which I think is probably going to be very good.

I haven't seen it yet but I'm looking forward to it because he's more of a historically minded person he's trained and he knows about the methodologies and he's he's better at looking into the sources and stuff like that than I am.

That video is coming out soon. Also if you want I'm going to probably still do more content on the Phil Vischer video as well but me and John potentially could tag team that video as well. So once his video comes out it's probably coming out tomorrow or the next day.

Let us know if you want us to do kind of a tag team on it because I think between his his mind when it comes to history and my spiciness I think that could be very effective about that Phil Vischer viral video.

But if you like this video and you want to see me do the rest of this Gospel Coalition presentation from 2014 let me know. I would love to do it and let me just leave you with this. One of the things that I have noticed a lot about people that I criticize is that there's a lot of projection.

A lot of times you see problems in people that that really you struggle against you struggle with. And I am no exception to that. And so I think that myself as well as you should be careful about this kind of thing because the reality is that we don't want to be so reactive to this kind of stuff that we end up emulating worldly ideologies and worldly tactics.

We need to be steeped in that scripture to see how did Christ deal with this kind of thing. How did Paul command us to deal with this kind of thing in the church. And I think that we need to be very careful about that kind of stuff.

And so my encouragement to you is that always make sure that when you say that you're an ambassador for Christ when you say that you're doing something in Jesus name that you're actually doing that because it's not magic words man.

It's not about looking like you're doing something in Jesus name. It's actually about doing it and we don't want to end up losing our saltiness as well. And so that's just a word of encouragement for you.

God is good all the time. He's on his throne. And despite what it looks like in the culture right now we will absolutely be victorious in our mission. Anyway I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.