The Afghan Taliban and The American Secularists
You wouldn’t expect it, things normally being clearer up close, but the human race has a knack for seeing idolatry at a distance. Show us idolatry over yonder and we can spot it in an instant. Tell us of idolatry in our own living rooms and we stare with bewilderment. And yet, God has a way of using that idolatry to expose our idolatry—”Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die…’ Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:5-7).
Americans have watched in horror as the Taliban has taken Kabul, Afghanistan. The people of war-torn Afghanistan indeed need our prayers. I have heard a report that the Taliban have sworn to kill Christians. Various news articles lament the coming treatment of Afghanistan women under Sharia law. Over the years, American soldiers have heroically given their lives on Afghan soil, and praise God for them and their families. All of this calls for Christian grief and intercessions that God would have mercy. It also calls for Secular America to fall flat on its face before the King and call upon the name of Yahweh.
Secular America can see the Taliban’s idolatry and its fruits, but it is blind to its own. We are right to be outraged by the way women have been treated under Sharia law. But, you cannot be outraged while oppressing women with a heavier yoke than Sharia. You cannot object to misogyny while engaging in misogyny. And you cannot demand women stop being brutalized while brutalizing them.
Joe Biden cannot express shock that the Taliban requires women to wear Burqas, while at the same time sending violent men to the women’s prison. The American National Commission on Public Service cannot lament the Taliban restricting the movements of women while recommending that women be forced to fight male soldiers from hostile countries. The educator cannot decry the Taliban’s philosophy while teaching girls to deny their femininity. The American surgeon cannot be dismayed at the Taliban’s barbaric punishment of women while using his surgical knife to cut off a woman’s breasts in the sickening and vain attempt to make her a man.
It will do you no good to claim that I minimize the Taliban atrocities and inflate those of Pagan America. “Their god tells them to slaughter innocents!” says the American Secularist. And so does yours. American Paganism has given rise to 60 million children slaughtered since 1973. And do you know what about half of those children were? Women. And you are upset with Islamic Fundamentalism? Those 30 million precious girls would have fared far better under the Taliban than they did under Planned Parenthood.
Many Americans converse over the very difficult decisions regarding foreign policy. What do you do when a foreign leader oppresses his people? What actions are fitting when he uses chemical weapons against innocent civilians? Such questions are right and good, challenging though they be. But, can you imagine the difficulty another conscientious nation faces as they consider what to do about the United States of America whose leaders permit the slaughter of innocent civilians?
The American Government has permitted genocidal jihad against innocent civilians in their land. 48 years this slaughter has occurred unabated. The children themselves who have been lost could have formed a nation one and a half times the entire population of Afghanistan… Should we deploy the Hellfire missiles on the White House or put boots on the ground in New York City?
I love my fellow Americans and I love my country. And that is why I say, “You are the man.” Pagan America has oppressed women and slaughtered preborn precious children because they are afraid and guilty. You want life. And you will let nothing stand in your way. You want happiness. So you use people in an attempt at happiness. But no matter how much blood you shed, no matter how you assault and deform the image of God, you cannot get free of the guilt. You cannot be rid of your fear. And you are not happy.
The reason you are miserable is because idols don’t save. Baal does not send the rain. Neither does Allah. Neither does the self. Neither does the state. And the CDC is no help at all. It is Christ or the abyss. And the abyss is not only over there in Kabul. You are in the abyss, and the breach widens daily.
The good news is that Christ is the Savior King. He saves, not idols—”And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified, dead, and buried. After descending into hell, He rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. Put away your idols, be it Allah or any form of creature. And call upon the uncreated Creator, the Redeemer Christ the Lord: You will be saved.
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Divisive Diversity Rhetoric: How Some Christians Misunderstand What Really Matters in the Church and in Heaven
This article originally appeared at Standing For Freedom.
Ferguson marked a turning point in the evangelical world on discussions about race and the Church — and not in a good way.
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was lethally shot by a white policeman, Darren Wilson, in an act of self-defense. Officer Wilson was found justified in his actions in every follow-on investigation, including one undertaken by President Obama’s Department of Justice, then led by Attorney General Eric Holder. CBS News reported that “Federal officials concluded there was no evidence to disprove Wilson’s testimony that he feared for his safety.”
Furthermore, the official DOJ investigation concluded,“…nor was there reliable evidence that Michael Brown had his hands up when he was shot.”
It was almost a year later, and the false narrative of “Hands up, don’t shoot” had already turned into a nationwide rallying cry, but even the progressive Washington Post columnist, Jonathan Capehart, ultimately conceded this fact.
Writing in response to the DOJ investigations that cleared Officer Wilson, Capehart admitted that the reports “forced me to deal with two uncomfortable truths: Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown.”
That’s right: “Hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie. Always has been. I wonder how many Christians realize that?
Sadly, the obvious answer is “not nearly enough.” Because as we look back over the last eight years, it’s clear now that the lies of Ferguson served to kindle the raging, destructive fires of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Far more than the death of Trayvon Martin, it was the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson that birthed the current (though fading) “racial reconciliation” craze that swept across American Christianity, smuggling in all kinds of unbiblical beliefs and practices.
This was a movement that completely suckered many evangelical leaders and pastors (Voddie Baucham being a notable exception)—a triumph of pathos over logos—who happily repeated the slogan, put #BLM in their bios, marched in the rallies, and began to chastise their white congregants for not being committed enough to this ill-defined and extra-biblical notion of “racial reconciliation.”
How many pulpits were filled with pastors who lamented another instance of “racial tragedy” the Sunday after Ferguson, even though no evidence existed to support such a claim? Those prayers were lies; those pastors should repent.
The way that so many evangelicals fell hook, line, and sinker for the “Ferguson narrative” is all the more appalling when you consider that the official BLM organization is committed to disrupting “the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure,” as well as being a “queer‐affirming network.” While they claim they exist for the sake of racial justice, The Heritage Foundation explains that “a closer look reveals BLM to be a revolutionary movement, rooted in Marxism, that wants to dismantle Western society.”
Has BLM made life better for black Americans? Of course not. Their movement is arguably to blame for disastrous policing shortages in major cities, like Chicago, where homicides, violent crime, and gang activity have hit levels not seen in decades, while arrests are at record-breaking lows. And the founders of BLM are under investigation for potentially misusing millions in donations for personal benefit.
Why retread this ground now? Because this history is an indispensable background for the continuing conversations about the role, purpose, and priority of diversity in the Church — and in Heaven.
Given that the conversation about “systemic racism” in America and in the Church is largely built on lies like Ferguson, it’s not surprising that the resulting — and continuing — conversation is confused and unbiblical.
This was on clear display this past week when megachurch pastor Rick Warren sent a tweet that concluded with this rather remarkable claim: “If diversity scares you, you’ll hate heaven.”
It was one of those comments that made me stop and go, “Beg pardon?”
The entirety of his statement read: “In Heaven, YOU will be a minority! Get used to it. Most Christ-followers in the world don’t look like you, think like you, or vote like you. They’re saved by grace thru faith, Jesus-lovers from every era of time & place. If diversity scares you, you’ll hate heaven. Rev. 5:9.”In Heaven, YOU will be a minority!Get used to it.Most Christ-followers in the world don’t look like you, think like you, or vote like you. They’re saved by grace thru faith, Jesus-lovers from every era of time & place
If diversity scares you, you’ll hate heaven.Rev. 5:9
— Rick Warren (@RickWarren) July 22, 2022While it’s not clear what this comment was prompted by, it’s a good example of what I am calling “divisive diversity rhetoric” and a great example of how Revelation 5 is often misused.
The first way this is divisive is that implies that we know who will be a “minority” in Heaven. No one, to my knowledge, has any reliable data on the demographic composition of the Celestial City. God saves who He will. Yes, in Revelation 5:9 we are told that Jesus Christ “purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation” — but we aren’t given a percentile-based breakdown of this redeemed gathering. God saves according to grace, not according to race.
Second, I do know this: No one in Heaven is going to care about things like “being a minority” or a “majority.” Those are manmade terms and concepts, the “things of earth” that “will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” The hope of Heaven isn’t that it’s going to be a super diverse gathering, just the kind to make all the closet racist Christians squirm. No, the hope of Heaven is that we will all experience perfect, unceasing fellowship with our Triune Creator God.
Christians aren’t going to be gathered around the throne of God, glancing around at each other and trying to size up apparent ethnic allotments. Rather, we will all, in unified spirit and wonder, behold our God face-to-face. We will be worshipping Him with our glorified bodies, free from sin, sickness, and death, and praising Him for His goodness, love, and majesty forever.
No one in Heaven is going to care about things like “being a minority” or a “majority.” Those are manmade terms and concepts, the “things of earth” that “will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
The hope and focus of Heaven actually isn’t Revelation 5:9, its Revelation 21:3-4:
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’”
Third, and finally, here is another fatal flaw with Warren’s comments and this broader way of thinking — as informed by lies like Ferguson. This misstep gets at the shoddy philosophical foundations of the statement, the overall lack of coherent logic, and the theological mistake.
It’s as simple as this: Hell is a very diverse place, too.
This isn’t just a throwaway point; it’s crucially important. Along with tweets like Warren’s, I hear people say all the time, “I want my church to reflect Heaven more by being more diverse.” Okay, well, Hell is also diverse. In fact, Hell might be the most diverse place in existence. Consider the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14:
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
The hard reality is that Hell is every person’s default destination. This is because we are all born sinners, inheriting guilt from the shared father of all humankind, regardless of your race, the first man — Adam.
In Adam, all fall. All Europeans. All Asians. All Africans. Everybody.
Your race plays no part in your damnation — your sin does that. And your race plays no part in your salvation — your repentance and trust in Jesus Christ and belief in the Gospel does that.
So, I guess, if “diversity scares you” then you’re not going to like Hell either. See how silly that sounds?
It’s that point right there that exposes the biblical bankruptcy of Warren’s admonition. Diversity isn’t the point of Heaven. Nor is it the point of Hell. The pressing question of our final resting place is whether you are spending it with God as a member of His family in eternal joy, or whether you are suffering under God’s just judgment for your sin in eternal damnation. I guarantee that in both end-states no one cares one bit about “diversity.”
I’m not the first to make this observation. Mark Dever, the senior pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, has said something very similar. In fact, given the fact that I’ve listened to more sermons from Mark Dever than from any other preacher out there, I probably picked it up from him in the first place.
Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mark said: “Diversity is very common in Hell. Diversity is not a uniquely Christian trait. Unity in diversity is what is unique to Christians — the unity we have in the Spirit.”
Mark is correct. For Christians, it’s the unity in the Spirit that counts—and that’s what will count in Heaven as well.
I want to make a qualification to Dever’s addition. Even non-Christians can have “unity in diversity” when they unite around shared affections, such as love for nation. Unity in diversity is not, in fact, an exclusive or unique Christian trait. But unity in Christ — now that’s uniquely Christian.
Let’s turn off the detour and get back onto the main path. What do we conclude? Hell is diverse. Heaven is diverse. Okay, then, that’s settled.
But what about here on earth? I’ve seen pastors argue that a more diverse church equals a more holy church. It’s funny, though, how such standards are never applied to Kenyan churches. Or I’ve heard it said that if a church is more diverse on earth, it looks more like Heaven. I’ve dealt with this already, but consider, again, the logical implications were such a statement true. It would mean that a faithful, Gospel-preaching church located in a 99 percent black community, say somewhere in Baltimore, that is almost entirely made up of black congregants, doesn’t look much like Heaven. Does that mean it looks more like Hell? Of course not!
We must point out once more (even as our pointing finger is getting sore) that it’s never the black churches, Hispanic churches, or Korean churches that these people have in mind when they lob these bombs. It’s just the majority white church in rural Ohio caught between their “look more like Heaven” crosshairs. But with a little bit of reason, we can see that either way, it’s truly a meaningless metric.
Because it’s not the diversity that makes a diverse church “look like Heaven.” It’s how the members of any local church treat each other (and non-Christians) that counts. For example, if you were to just physically survey a multi-ethnic congregation, in a snapshot, what does that picture tell you about how this diverse body loves one another, sacrificially gives and serves each other, pushes each other on to love Jesus more, and helps each other repent of sin? Nothing. You might have the most diverse church in the world, but if that church is defined by division, slander, quarrels, and hate, it doesn’t look like Heaven at all.
In our age of postmodern multiculturalism, we have lost sight of the basics, of ground truths, and we have imported sloppy thinking into the Church. This might sound shocking, but it’s true: There is nothing intrinsically valuable about diversity.
What matters are the beliefs and values that draw diverse people to them. In this case, those beliefs are in Christ and the Gospel.
When all the redeemed stand around the throne of God in perfect worship, it won’t be race that matters, but grace. Our culture is obsessed with a skin-deep diversity that demands cognitive conformity. But the Church should reject such petty, small-minded paradigms and demand that we unite in truth and the great things of God — on earth and in Heaven.
What matters is being humble, respectful, and willing to learn from others of different races and backgrounds, all while seeking and prioritizing objective and transcendent truth together. What matters is if a church on earth is “speaking the truth in love” and, by doing so, growing “to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 3:15-16).
Our culture is obsessed with a skin-deep diversity that demands cognitive conformity. The Church should reject such petty, small-minded paradigms. We, of course, want (and demand) unity on the confessional matters of orthodox Christian faith. But we don’t seek manufactured diversity — by no means. Rather we aim, per James 2:1-13, to “show no partiality.” Every local church, no matter where they are located, should tear down any barriers to entry built on sinful human partiality. Beyond that, they must preach the Gospel, love their neighbors, and trust God with both the growth, and the composition, of their local gathering.
Hectoring faithful Christians about being a minority in Heaven isn’t helpful, it’s divisive. Telling mono-ethnic churches in mono-ethnic settings that they aren’t as holy as the multicultural church in downtown Manhattan isn’t loving, it’s divisive. This is “divisive diversity rhetoric,” and it needs to end.
Yes, God is gathering a people for Himself from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. What a great reason for rejoicing! The Gospel will go to the ends of the earth. Christ the conquering King guarantees it. But it’s God who is doing this, not mankind. Revelation 5:9 isn’t an imperative for local churches here on earth to reflect such a diverse gathering here and now or be found unfaithful. Far from it. It is a glorious indicative, a statement about what God Himself is doing and will do by the power of His Spirit and the preaching of His Gospel. Christians misstep when we mistake indicatives for imperatives. In those missteps, we can needlessly divide the Church.
Instead, Christians should strive to hold fast to the truth, both about what happens in our world, like in Ferguson, and what can be found in the pages of the Bible, like in Revelation.
Let’s get back to the truth. And by doing so, leave behind the last decade of divisive diversity rhetoric, grounded in unbiblical and illogical conceptions of what Heaven will look like. Our churches here on earth will be better—and more heavenly—for it.Tweet Share
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A Compelling Case for a Confession of Faith – Part 1
Every Local Church’s Duty
In Ephesians 6:14, Paul instructs the church at Ephesus to gird themselves with truth. Similarly, 1 Timothy 3:15 calls the church the pillar and buttress of the truth.
It is the church’s job to:
1. Protect the truth – the truth has enemies. Chief of which is Satan and his lies.
2. Promote the truth – the church is not just on the defensive. We are storming the gates of hell and proclaiming the truth of God in Christ.
3. Perpetuate the truth – the church in each generation is responsible pass on the truth to the next generation.
In order to accomplish these sacred duties, our triune God has given the church a Book. A Book that we affirm is the inerrant, infallible, necessary, clear, authoritative, and sufficient Word of the living God. This Book has been attacked. It has been confiscated. It has been burned. It has been torn to pieces. And yet, here it remains today.
With that being said, let me share a little quote here and see if you agree with it: “Our appeal is to the Bible for Truth.”
I agree wholeheartedly with this quote at face value, but there is a grave problem. This quote actually comes from a book written in 1946 seeking to defend the false religion of the Jehovah Witnesses. Thus, the problem. Both the Baptist and the Jehovah Witness appeal to the Scriptures as their final authority.
Now, this does not give us a problem for the Bible. Men’s misuse of the Bible is not a problem of the Bible, but a problem of fallen man. This, then, is where I will make the case for a confession of faith.
A confession of faith is meant to be a servant of the Bible. It is subservient to the Bible and seeks to point us to the Bible and say, essentially, “We are not only saying the Bible is the highest authority here but also that we are not ashamed to actually say in writing what we believe this Book teaches.”
So, a confession of faith is simply man’s attempt to say, “Here is what we confess the Bible teaches.” The Bible ultimately needs no defender. It is, as they say, the anvil that has broken many hammers. But a confession of faith is saying to the world, “When we gird ourselves with truth, this is what we mean by truth. This is what we believe the Bible says.”
Spurgeon once preached, “Whatever we find in this Book, that we are to state.” And so, this is what a confessional church seeks to do. We lay out our doctrine. We confess these truths. And we don’t just give vague or nuanced positions, but rather stand for what it is we believe the Scriptures teach.
A Simple Reality
Truthfully, a confession of faith is not a necessity so much as it is just a reality. That is, everyone believes something about the Bible. You can write down what you believe, or you can choose not to write it down, but it doesn’t change the fact that you confess something about the Bible.
So, to reject a confession of faith denies reality. Thus, a confessional church acknowledges this reality and says, “we are going to actually own this and articulate what we believe instead of pretending that we don’t have beliefs about the Bible.”
With that said, let me give you 4 problems with rejecting a confession of faith:
1. It denies reality – as mentioned, everyone believes something about the Bible. To say something like “No Creed but the Bible!” is actually, a creedal statement. To say you don’t like confessions of faith is to pretend as though you don’t have already have a confession of faith. But you do. Everyone has a set of beliefs.
So, to reject a confession of faith denies reality. Thus, a confessional church acknowledges this reality and says, “we are going to actually own this and articulate what we believe instead of pretending that we don’t have beliefs about the Bible.”
2. It is Historical Snobbery – that is, it says in the 21st century we are smarter than everyone else in history and we don’t need them.
3. It is an adoption of hyper-individuality. In essence, it says well, all that matters is what I personally believe, and I don’t need to confess truth along with the church.
4. It ignores our present condition –
We live in a world today, an American culture I should say, that is apostatizing before our eyes. We are watching the SBC, the largest once staunchly conservative evangelical denomination, drift before our eyes.
We are watching the phenomenon of what people call “deconstructing” from the faith, people who claim they grew up evangelical, but now are walking away from the faith or embracing all sorts of unbiblical things to add to Christianity.
Who could look at this current state and say, “What we need today is less truth. Less clarity. Less precision.”? It is foolish to look at our present condition and to say we just need to keep making the tent bigger to let more people in. No! All this has done is play right into the Evil One’s hands.
Thus, it is every local church’s responsibility before God to gird ourselves with truth. We must protect the truth, promote the truth, and perpetuate the truth until Jesus returns for His Bride.
Serving Not Shaping
A good confession of faith is merely a servant to the Scriptures. A biblical confession of faith does not shape the Bible, but serves it. Don’t press these analogies too far, but let me give a couple of illustrations:
1. If the Bible is a delicious steak, a good confession of faith is a plate, knife, and fork. It helps serve the steak. It helps digest the steak. It does not add to or stand in authority over the steak.
2. If the Bible is gold, a good confession of faith is a chest to carry it in. It helps pass the gold on from one generation to the next. It helps keep nefarious characters from trying to scuff up or steal or harm the gold in some way. The chest serves the gold. It does not add value to it.
Ultimately, what a good confession of faith does is help us use the truth rightly in order stand against the Evil One’s lies.
So far, we’ve covered introductory issues on why ever local church should have a confession of faith. In the next post, I’ll give you 5 positive reasons for a local church to have a good confession.
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Ed Litton, Southern Baptist Leaders, and Judgment Day Honesty: A Call for Accountability and Action by Southern Baptist Churches
The eighteenth-century writer, Samuel Johnson, once quipped, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Though, to my knowledge, I am not slated for such an end, I can testify to the sanctifying value of drawing near to death. It provides perspective and an opportunity to think simply, critically, and honestly, by reminding one of that unavoidable reality that Scripture announces unequivocally: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
On that day, when called to give an account for every idle word and the stewardship entrusted to us as those who have received the gospel of Jesus Christ, the kind of equivocation that often serves so well when we don’t want to make necessary judgments will be meaningless. As a Pastor, I have a double burden in this regard because I will “have to give an account” as one of those charged with keeping watch over the souls of the people I serve (Hebrews 13:17).
My late friend and mentor, Ernie Reisinger would occasionally exhort me when dealing with difficult, vitally important matters, to speak with “judgment day honesty.” He meant that I should evaluate the matter with the kind of seriousness that recognizes one day I will stand and give an account for what I say and do.
It is in that spirit that I have tried to evaluate the antics of many Southern Baptist leaders and pastors over the last seventeen months. An honest evaluation of several facts should convince Bible believing Southern Baptists who are interested in maintaining—or recovering—the integrity of the SBC that we are fast approaching DEFCON 1 in terms of how fast and far the convention has fallen.
The response to the Covid crisis, 2020 riots, BLM “protests,” governmental tyranny, and violation of religious liberties was in so many ways, abysmal. From Al Mohler’s “Covenant and Commitment” for Southern Seminary and Boyce College employees and students to Danny Akin’s disastrous “How to Shepherd Your Church through Racial Injustice” led by four Southeastern Baptist Seminary faculty to Kevin Ezell’s church planters’ similarly unbiblical assessment of the riots (though it seems NAMB may have removed their video from their website), Southern Baptists were served very poorly by those we employ to give leadership to key institutions and entities.
These are just a few highlights from the last seventeen months. Space does not allow me to elaborate on previous failures like the hiring of a faculty member who has endorsed the damnable Revoice conference or the elevating to seminary Provost of a self-described racist and white supremacist. Nor will I describe the cowardly smear campaign and admission of participation in sexual abuse coverup by Russell Moore (who stayed quiet for months if not years about what he calls “a culture where countless children have been torn to shreds, where women have been raped and then “broken down”) formerly of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
When questions were raised about these events by countless “SBC headquarters” (local churches), SBC elites dismissed or ignored their concerns altogether, scrubbed websites, and accused the pastors of those churches of being troublemakers or otherwise tried to gaslight them. It’s bad enough to be treated this way by those who are supposed to be our leaders. It’s doubly immoral to expect churches to continue to pay those leaders’ salaries as they do so.
Given the disconnect between the elites and rank-and-file Southern Baptists, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the almost complete failure of leadership when Ed Litton’s dishonesty and pulpit plagiarism came to light.
To be sure, I did not vote for Ed Litton to be the SBC president in Nashville. I didn’t like the fact that he claimed that he did not allow women to preach in his church while videos of him and his wife preaching were circulating. I also didn’t like the fact that NAMB (and on at least one occasion, Southwestern Baptist Seminary) sponsored him speaking around the SBC on the campaign trail. For me, those are simple integrity issues.
On June 26, less than two weeks after Litton was elected President of the SBC on the second ballot, I was sent a video clip of Litton’s sermon on Romans 1, along with a sermon by JD Greear on Romans 1. The date on Greear’s sermon indicated that it was preached in January 2019, a year or so before Litton plagiarized it. A comparison of the two was (and still is) bad. Very bad. After watching the video that morning, I sent Ed a letter. I wrote it as a pastor to a pastor. I acknowledged that while there might be an explanation that I simply could not conceive, what he did “looks very bad.” I encouraged him to step away from the demands of ministry long enough to “seek help and encouragement from trusted counselors.”
Those were my thoughts after seeing just the initial plagiarized sermon by Litton. Since then at least half a dozen more have been documented, including one from several years ago where Ed and his wife stole from Tim Keller in one of their joint sermons. There may be many more, but we may never know since Ed removed over 140 of his sermons from the Internet once the scandal broke.
And make no mistake, it is a scandal—scandal of massive proportions. The emperor has no clothes, despite how much certain SBC elitists and those who want Ed to further a progressive agenda try to convince us that he is arrayed in the finest of fabric. Just ask any child. Or think about what answer you will give to the Lord were He to ask you about Ed’s plagiarism on the Day of Judgment.
To my knowledge, only one SBC leader spoke directly against pulpit plagiarism in the immediate aftermath of Litton’s dishonesty being made public. Jason Allen, President of Midwestern Baptist Seminary tweeted this on July 5, 2021.Re re-preaching other’s sermons, I believe:
One *ought* not preach another’s serm (w/ rare exceptions) even w/ permission & attribution.
One *must* not preach another’s serm w/out permission & attribution.
If this appears to happen, the church’s elders should review & resolve.
— Jason Keith Allen (@jasonkeithallen) July 5, 2021This is hardly profound but in the presence of the deafening silence of his fellow SBC elites, pastors and churches welcomed it. Al Mohler, who was in an admittedly awkward spot having come in third in the race for the SBC presidency behind Litton and Mike Stone in Nashville, did recently speak on the matter in response to a student question about it. He put it in the context of the widespread practice of pastors using “manufactured sermons.”
There simply is no doubt that this conversation we’re having right now is occasioned by the fact that the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Ed Litton, has been involved to some degree in preaching someone else’s sermon. Beyond that we can see the whole issue of the kind of manufacture of sermons that is now widespread. I would simply have to say that that is precisely not what we are trying to teach or to hold up as an example here.
Again, true enough. But Southern Baptist churches and pastors could wish for the full-throated renunciation of this kind of dishonesty that a younger Mohler gave in 2006. Then, he called pulpit plagiarism “theft” and used unequivocal language to renounce it.
Words are our business, I cannot imagine using someone else’s as my own. It [Plagiarism] is one of the most despicable practices I can imagine… I cannot imagine sitting in the congregation knowing that this guy is simply parroting something he has read, borrowed, or stolen from someone else….He’s not [a preacher] if he is preaching somebody else’s stuff….It is never right to steal [a sermon] and it’s never right to suggest that it’s yours if it’s not….If a comedian stole another comedian’s material he would end up in court.
A simple google search reveals that this kind of plain-spoken assessment of pulpit plagiarism used to be common fare among Bible believing evangelical leaders, including Southern Baptists. Now, however, that we have a serial plagiarist as President of the SBC, our leaders have lost their voices. Or maybe it’s their spines. My guess is that it’s the latter.
So here is where we find ourselves. Southern Baptist Churches are being led by a President who is a confirmed pulpit plagiarist. As I see it, he should resign immediately and seek help from men of integrity who will deal honestly with him in caring for his soul. Ed Litton lacks integrity. He has forfeited any opportunity to lead the SBC effectively.
None of the SBC leaders have issued any kind of direct, public rebuke. None have called for him to resign, though several pastors have done so. Southern Baptists deserve better.
What should such leaders do when confronted with their failure to lead? They should repent and start doing what their constituents rightfully expect them to do. Or, if they refuse, they should resign.
What should churches do when the leaders whose salaries they pay fail to lead? They should call for their leaders to repent or resign. If such leaders are unwilling to respond to these kinds of admonitions from their congregational “headquarters,” then the churches should defund their institutions. If I pay you to guard my house and you stand by while enemies infiltrate at will, don’t expect me to keep you in my employ.
It is a matter of stewardship. I cannot keep count of the SBC churches who have contacted me out of a deep concern over the lack of integrity right now in their convention. Many of them have left or are in the process of leaving the SBC. Some are looking for an alternative—a way to stay Southern Baptist while demanding that the SBC elites quit ignoring simple facts and the expressed concerns of churches.
Here is what needs to happen—and in many places already is happening in churches of all sizes. Churches need to vote to stop sending financial support to those institutions and entities in the SBC whose leaders refuse to lead. Since each agency and institution gets a slice of the money given through the Cooperative Program (CP), this will inevitably mean working around the CP. I take no pleasure in that thought because the CP is an ingenuous mechanism for funding ministries around the world. Churches should determine which SBC entities—if any—they are willing to continue supporting financially. They can then decide to designate to those entities.
From my vantage point, the two entities that I am happy to support are the International Mission Board and the Disaster Relief work through our state convention. I don’t want our international missionaries to suffer for the leadership failures of SBC elites. And Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is second to none. If only half of the 47,000 SBC churches were to escrow or designate their financial gifts in this fashion, the elites would finally be forced to listen. If they are unwilling to confront Ed Litton over his lack of integrity as matter of principle, perhaps they will be motivated to do so as a matter of principal—especially if that principal begins to dry up because they have lost the confidence of the churches whom they serve.
Will this work? Absolutely. Have we reached the point where this course of action is advisable? Sadly, I believe we have. The facts of Ed Litton’s plagiarism are not in dispute. Neither is the God-honoring course of action open to him.
It is foolish to continue financing failed leadership. As long as Ed Litton remains president of the SBC, Southern Baptist leaders are failing. It is past time to hold them accountable.
It’s not complicated. It’s just hard.Follow Tom Ascol:
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