A Year Later and They're Still Upset -#BigEva (Part 2)

Alright, well I had to do it. I had to jump right back into this article. So you're getting two videos today, and hopefully you appreciate that.

And if not, and it's too much, I can't really say I'm sorry, but you know, it'll just have to be that way.

But before I jump into the rest of this article, I was thinking about McLean Bible Church, because he uses

McLean Bible Church as sort of like his case study for the problem that's happening. And he's actually unintentionally right, you know, for all the wrong reasons.

I agree, McLean Bible Church is a perfect example of what's going on here. But he says it's because it's an example of, oh, there's these evil right wingers that are just trying to accuse everyone of being

CRT, you know, Marxist, and it just came out of nowhere. And poor David Platt, poor pastors.

And it's like, like, again, it is a perfect example, because he leaves out key details, just like always happens with the mainstream media.

You know, we see this shooting, and we're all supposed to think, oh, it's a racist shooting, as if white people never get shot by the police officers.

But we have like this, this two second clip, and it's taken out of context, and we all the important context is gone.

And we're like, well, we're not going to believe anything until we see the context. And then we're called a racist, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, what about the context here in McLean Bible Church, right?

It's like, he makes it seem as if these accusations and this trouble came out of nowhere, when in reality, it was all started by Platt and his team.

There's a what about the example of the black pastor at McLean Bible Church, who gets on a video and says, man, it's really hard for me.

Now, every time one of these shootings happens, it's very hard for me to not want to torch all white people.

And it's like, dude, you hate white people. Like you're a pastor who hates white people. You're a pastor of a church in which there's a lot of white people, and you get on videos and say how you want to torch them all.

And it's like, and then he apologized for like, you know, the inflammatory aspect of the rhetoric, but he didn't apologize for what was actually wrong.

And that's the hatred in your heart towards all white people whenever a white person does something that he thinks is not correct.

When one white person does something he thinks is not correct, he wants to torch all white people. It's like, dude, you're partial.

You're a partial pastor. You have hatred in your heart. And it's like, there are legitimate reasons why these complaints have come up in McLean Bible Church.

This is all on video. This is all there. And it's like, but he makes it seem like it isn't by leaving out the context, which is exactly what's happening all over the place.

So the author of this article is right. McLean is a perfect example of what he's talking about. But unfortunately, not for the reasons that he thinks it is.

I just find that kind of ironic. Now, let's continue this article, because I have a feeling that it's going to get spicy.

All right, here we go. He says this. How is it that evangelical

Christianity has become for too many of its adherents a political religion? How did it happen?

I mean, this is mind -boggling. How did it become a political religion? I mean, I know that Jesus gave the

Church the Great Commission in like, you know, AD 33 or whatever it was. Yeah, sure.

I mean, I know that that Great Commission says that all authority has been given unto Christ and therefore, so all authority, all authority, not just authority in the

Church, but also authority in the political realm, also authority in the family, also authority in the, you know.

So all authority has been given unto Christ. That's what it says. Again, 33 AD is when this was said.

All authority has been given unto me. Go, therefore, and make disciples, disciple all nations, not just the small pockets of the nations that become

Christians, not just the small pockets of the nations that go to church on Sunday. No, disciple the nations, because all authority has been given unto

Christ. So since all authority has been given unto Christ, then we should teach all nations to recognize that authority.

So all authority has been given unto Christ. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There you go. There you've got conversion. We've got to convert the nations, preach the gospel, converting hearts, things like that.

Christ is, of course, in charge of all that, and teaching them to observe everything that Jesus Christ commanded.

Now, Jesus Christ has commanded many things, because remember, all authority has been given unto

Him. And so since all authority has been given unto Christ, and since we're supposed to baptize the nation, since we're supposed to teach the nations everything that Christ commands, it has to be a political religion.

So if you're asking, Peter—which I don't really think you're really asking, you just have a secret agenda here—but since you're asking, how is it that evangelical

Christianity has become, for too many of us here, it's a political religion, it's because evangelical

Christianity has taught the Bible and recognizes the Great Commission, where Christ said that all authority is given unto

Him, and we should be discipling the nation, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that Christ commands. And of course, we don't want to leave out the last part.

I'll be with you. To the end of the age, we recognize that Christ is the one doing the work. We get to work with Him.

He doesn't have to work with us. We get to work with Him, and so we do. We submit ourselves to Christ, and so therefore we submit our families to Christ.

Therefore we submit our businesses to Christ, and also we submit our political activity to Christ as well.

And so, Peter, how is it? Well, I mean, it's been this way since 33 AD, but you know, hey, who am

I? I'm just a guy on YouTube. Anyway, the historian George Marsden told me that political loyalties can sometimes be so strong that they create a religious -like faith that overrides or even transforms a more traditional religious faith.

The United States has largely avoided most virulent expressions of such political religions. None has succeeded for very long, at least until now.

The first step was the cultivation of the idea within the religious right that certain political positions were deeply

Christian, according to Marsden. Full stop. Let's just stop right there. Yeah, certain political positions are deeply

Christian. I mean, and the thing is, what's so funny about talk like this, because a lot of people talk like this, it's like, it makes it seem like we're talking about trivialities here, right?

Like, you know, somebody says, well, the Christian position is 1 % taxes. And then like the pagan comes and says, no, no, no, no, no, the real position is 1 .2

% taxes. And like, we're disagreeing over a 0 .2 percentage point difference between the taxes.

Now, there is a Christian position on taxes. So don't get me wrong. But that's what he kind of makes it seem.

It's sort of like this trivialities, like, should we put in a pool in our town or not? And it's like, well, there's a Christian position, you definitely want to put in the pool.

And then the non -Christian position is that you don't, you do, you do, you don't, whatever the opposite of what

I just said with the pool. And that's how he makes it seem. But that's actually not the case here. We're not talking about trivialities here.

So in the very difficult question, should we encourage children to be homosexuals?

Should we encourage children to engage in homosexual intercourse? Should we encourage children to pretend like they're a woman if they're a girl if they're a boy or a boy if they're a girl?

Like these are very difficult questions, I'm sure. But there is actually a Christian, a deeply

Christian answer there. Same thing with killing children. Should it be okay to kill children in the womb?

There's a deeply Christian answer there. And it's like, should it be okay to go and bomb Iraq to kingdom come, you know, for no reason?

I mean, there's a deeply Christian answer there. Okay. And so it's not like this is a play.

This is just a reality. We're not talking about trivialities here. But that's what it wants to make it seem.

Well, they're just making a big mountain out of a molehill. I mean, it's just it's a political religion taking over.

It's like, no, no, that's actually our our religion taking over our politics. It's our religion. We follow

Christ, we recognize all authority has been given unto him. And it's taking over our politics. That's actually not a bug.

That's a feature. Our religion absolutely must drive our politics always, always.

And you can look there's an order of operations here. Certain things are more important than others. But the thing is, we're still fighting about the basic things like should you kill children just because you want to?

Like, no. And we can't even get that one right. So we're like, we haven't even moved to the more complicated stuff.

Like how do we raise revenues for, you know, for the government and things like that, like those are more complicated, granted.

But But the thing is, there is a Christian answer to all of those things. And he wants to make it seem like Oh, no, there isn't.

And so everyone who's saying that there is is just a rebel rouser. No, no, that's actually not the case. Let's continue.

Still, such claims were not at all unprecedented in American history. Through the 2000s, even though the religious right drew its energy from the culture wars, as it had for decades, it abided by some civil restraints.

Then came Donald Trump. And so this is why I say this article actually has a lot of strategic value for us.

Because you see, the progressive Christians and the pagans, like the straight up pagans, and then the

Christians who claim to be Christians, but actually don't follow Christ. Like those people are very happy to abide with fundamentalists like me and people who believe the

Bible like me conservatives, they're, they're willing to abide with us, they're willing to put up with us, so long as we play by their rules of civility.

That's what they're okay with. They don't mind that I'm over here believing that abortion should be punishable by the death penalty.

They don't mind that I'm over here believing things like that. So long as I actually play by their rules, and I don't, you know, you don't get too aggressive about it,

I don't insist, I don't go to the abortion clinics and say anything like, as long as I'm in my house, you know, with my family, believing my private beliefs, and I stay there, they're happy to deal with me.

And I can even vote a certain way. But I can only vote a certain way. Like I can only vote for the civil politicians, the ones that aren't going to do anything about it, the ones who have for decades been elected,

I'm going to do something about abortion, have never done anything about abortion. So long as that's what I'm doing.

They're happy. They're fine with that. But you see, what they're revealing, though, is that they're blaming

Donald Trump for this. And I don't necessarily blame Donald Trump for this. Although I think this is actually one of the benefits of Donald Trump.

There's there's not that many benefits of Donald Trump. But this is actually one of them, that he kind of showed us that you actually don't have to play by their rules.

If you play by their rules, you're going to you're going to, you know, win according to their standards.

So you're gonna, you're gonna lose, but you're gonna win in like the, the most lamest sort of way that they're willing to put up with, like, they don't mind if Republicans get elected, so long as they're, they're kind of Republicans, you see, that's the big thing.

And so if you play the unbelievers game, you're going to go to where the unbeliever wants you to go.

It's like, if you had referees, right? And the referees are going to referee a basketball game, you're playing a basketball game.

And they come to you and say, Hey, here's the rules that we're going to play. And they're all skewed, they're all skewed towards the other team.

Like you'd be an idiot to play that game, because that's not real basketball, you're actually trying to, you know, make sure that my opponent wins.

So So this is the thing, they really don't want you to abandon their rules of civility, because they know that as long as they've got you in this, in this web of, well, you can't really call abortion murder.

You can't really say that homosexuals are sodomites, you can't really say, like, as long as you're in these, in these, these, these boxes that they have for you, you're totally harmless.

And they want you there and that you can believe your things privately, but you can't take it to the streets. They hate that.

They hate you. They hate you living as if you believe what you claim to believe in private, that's what they hate.

And so this is strategically valuable, guys, to know this is the thing that they're scared of.

So keep increasing the pressure, guys, keep living more consistently today than you did yesterday, with what you say you believe.

Live more consistently tomorrow than you do today. Resolve it in your heart to sanctify every, every activity, every, everything that you do to make it more like the way

Christ would behave than it was the day before. Every thought captive, guys, every thought captive. That's what we need.

Anyway, let's continue. When Trump was able to add open hatred and resentments to political religious stances of true believers, it crossed a line,

Marsden said. Tribal instincts seem to have become overwhelming. The dominance of political religion over professed religion is seen in how many for the loyalty to Trump became a blind allegiance.

So this is what happened. So it became a cult, guys. Like everyone was just blindly allegiance, had allegiance to Trump, and it's overrided their religious, you know, this is what they always say.

It's like a Trump cult, right? But the thing is, and there are some people that are blindly, they have allegiance to Trump blindly.

There are a few people like that, very small amount, very small amount. But here's the reality. What I see are people that really likes

Trump's style, but then they'd have no problem saying, yeah, but I'm not getting that shot. I mean, what's the deal with the shot?

I'm not getting the shot. And Trump loves taking credit for that shot. And people are on our side are like,

I'm not getting that. You crazy? Just because Trump did? He's not God. I remember one time

Trump had, this is a hilarious tweet. He said something like, I forget what context it was.

I think it was like a trade dispute or something. And he said, I hereby command that this or that in a tweet.

It was so funny. And somebody retweeted and said, okay, Palpatine. And this is a pro -Trump guy.

Like we, he's not God to us. Obviously there's many things that he did incorrectly. And on my channel, you know, we criticize that kind of stuff.

I mean, he was all in on the fake money, Federal Reserve printing and stuff like that. He's, he was very proud of being able to get the interest rates lowered and he's all, he's part of the system big time.

But he did, in my opinion, reveal, you actually don't have to pretend like that person over there is not advocating that somebody kill a child just because they want to.

And you know what? There's a certain level of hatred that you must have. If you're a believer for that kind of a position, you can't tolerate it.

You can't tolerate it. And if you do tolerate, that's an un -Christian position. How do you like that?

But anyway, so that's the thing. He tries to make, oh, he's a cult leader, blah, blah, blah. It's just not the case. Yes, there are some people that are blindly, you know, following Trump.

So small, it's not even worth mentioning. But the Atlantic, of course, wants to play that up as if that's everybody. Yeah, I voted for Trump.

But guess what? You know, Trump was not God. Trump is not the end all be all. In fact, he had many, many downsides.

He had this one upside that you think is the worst thing ever, which I find funny. Anyway, the result is many

Christian followers of Trump have come to see a gospel of hatreds, resentments, vilifications, put downs and insults as expressions of their

Christianity for which they too should be willing to fight. So yeah, so all of us have a gospel of hatred, resentment, vilifications, put down.

But you see, this is the thing. It's like, you do realize, though, that they're advocating killing children, right?

And so, yes, I hate that. I think it's completely disgusting. I think it's putrid.

It's, I mean, what else could you say about that mentality? Like, you do realize that they're advocating killing children and you're busy saying, hey, don't be too mean to them.

Are you out of your mind, Peter? I think you are. I mean, I don't really know you.

I don't know who you are, what you do, what you're doing. But this is the problem that we're having. It's like, no, I'm not going to be civil with people who want to advocate that more people butcher their children.

I'm not going to be civil with them. I'm a nonviolent person. But I'm not going to pretend like that's something that's totally acceptable.

I'm going to pretend. I'm not going to pretend like it's something that should be tolerated. I'm going to live as if that's disgusting.

Because it is. When somebody says, I want to train your children to be a demonic, you know, transsexual, you know, follower,

I'm not going to pretend like that's normal. I'm going to pretend. I'm not going to pretend at all. I'm going to act as if it's vile, because it is.

But you see, this is the thing. Like, they don't want that. See, that's too much. That's a bridge too far. You can oppose that stuff just so long as you do it according to their rules.

We don't play by your rules anymore. One of my favorite videos that I ever did was called, We Don't Play By Your Rules Anymore.

And that's just it. And I think that's one of the best things that Trump actually did. We don't have to play by those rules.

We have to honor God. And we have to honor God in our speech and the way we handle things. But we don't play by fake rules of etiquette when they're not scriptural.

And they're not. Let's continue. Tim Schultz, the president of the

First Amendment Partnership and an advocate for religious freedom, told me that evangelicalism was due a reckoning.

It has been held together by political orientation and sociology more than by a common theology, he said.

The twin crises of the summer of COVID 2020 and a heightened awareness of enduring racial injustices expose this long, unnoticed truth.

Right. Well, the thing is, the political orientation and stuff like that, it's all driven by your theology.

We're actually much further apart theologically from the progressive Christians like David Platt, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, Beth Moore.

We're actually much further apart theologically than a lot of people like to admit. And I'm going to have to take one on the chin for this one as well, because I've often said, well,

I believe with you on 90 % of things. And you know what? That's no longer helpful. It really isn't.

I mean, I might believe similar things to you about the gospel and how people are made right with God, but actually not entirely.

And I think that the chasm, theologically speaking, is way bigger than we give it credit for.

Because here's the thing, when you hear Tim Keller explain how you're made right with God, but then you hear him also talking about these other things, about repentance and sanctification and stuff like that, and they're just off the reservation.

You know, if you're white, you've got the sin of whiteness. It's like, okay, so do we really believe theologically that it's the same?

I mean, I know you signed a confession, but lots of people sign confessions that they don't actually believe.

And so I agree here that, yeah, there's not really a common theology anymore, and the more honest we can be about that, the better.

Let's continue. Some of the most distinctive features of the evangelical movement may have left it particularly vulnerable to this form of politicization.

Among religious believers, evangelicals are some of the most anti -institutional. Tim Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, told me,

The evangelical movement flourished in this relatively anti -institutional country at a particularly anti -institutional time.

Evangelical ministries and churches fit the spirit of the age, growing rapidly in the 1970s and retaining more of their members, even as many mainline denominations declined.

This is interesting. So he's kind of trying to say that the institutional nature of the mainline denominations was one reason why they were declining.

And it's really the liberalization of those churches. Many of them stopped believing the

Bible. You know what I mean? So it's interesting that he would say that. I'm not really 100 % sure on all the history there, but that doesn't strike me as actually true, but whatever.

All right, well, let's stop there, because actually the next video, I've got something that I think is going to take a little bit to kind of get through.

So I want to stop there, but if you're enjoying this, let me know in the comments section that you want me to continue.

I don't have to continue this article, but there's a few things I definitely want to point out, and so let me know if you find this helpful.