What to Discern from the Church Fracture Where David Platt Pastors, Part 2 of 2

What to discern from the church fracture were David Platt pastors. Today is part two of this topic, right here on the Christian Realview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and the Christian Realview is a non-profit radio ministry. Thank you to our listeners for your encouragement and support, and also to our national sponsor, Samaritan Ministries. Before we get into the preview today, I just want to read a note, a note that's representative of the kinds of encouragement we receive every week from listeners, and we just so appreciate it.

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To God be the glory for the great things He has done. Now, last week we discussed part one of this topic on the fracture taking place at McLean Bible Church just outside Washington, D.C., where a well-known evangelical leader and author, David Platt, is the lead pastor. What has been going on within the church has been covered in national media, including Christianity Today, which stated—and I'll read more of their article on this situation in a moment, but I'll just read one paragraph now—to some observers they write, Not surprisingly, Christianity Today would have that perspective because they are more on the theologically liberal end of things. To put it more succinctly, David Platt, the pastor, sees ethnic reconciliation and integration as a priority of the gospel, while those who oppose this move within the church see it as practicing the sin of partiality, and it leads down the road to compromise.

Now, on July 4th, Independence Day, Platt called out a small group of people in the church—what he called a small group of people—for hindering the election of three new elders. Earlier this year, a 17-page letter was sent to the church leadership detailing concerns about the direction of the church and its focus on social and racial justice. We'll get to that letter today. Now, the goal of this program is to analyze how the issue of social or racial justice is fracturing conservative evangelical churches, and to understand where both sides are coming from in this division, and to compare their views against the final authority of Scripture, and to learn from both good examples and bad examples so our own churches can be more faithful to God. We'll strive to do that today here on the Christian Real View in Part 2 of this topic.

We have a lot to get to today, so I hope you can listen to the entire program. I want to start out by reading some paragraphs from that Christianity Today article, because I think they actually summarize fairly even-handedly what is taking place at McLean Bible Church. The title of the article is Platt's McLean Bible Church Hit with Attempted Takeover, and also Lawsuit from Opposition. It was from a July 22 story on Christianity Today. The Washington area megachurch led by best-selling author David Platt has affirmed three new elders, but only after a public tussle over politics, race, and alleged liberal drift, plus a lawsuit filed by dissenters.

And again, this story has been all over the country, big publications, even the Washington Post and other newspapers all across the country. The conflict at McLean Bible Church is significant, they write, not only because of the congregation's size and influence with several thousand attendees in a prominent place in the D.C. church landscape, but also because the incident marks the latest salvo in an ongoing clash within American evangelicalism. Now let me just add, here in the Twin Cities, something similar has taken place with a very influential church here, Bethlehem Baptist Church. This is the church formerly pastored by John Piper, and his successor, Jason Meyer, has recently resigned. And I don't know all the details of that, but from what I've heard of that situation, it sounds like these issues of racial justice, social justice, were at the core of the division that took place in that church and led to the resignation of the pastor.

But again, I don't have all the details, just what I've heard so far. Similar situation taking place out here at McLean Bible Church in Virginia. The article continues at a June 30th meeting. Nominees Chuck Hollingsworth, these are elder nominees, Chuck Hollingsworth, who's white, Jim Burris, who's Asian, and Ken Tucker, who's black. And I mention that just because that's going to be a part of the program today as we talk about ethnic or skin color issues, just so you know that, had failed to receive a clear 75% majority vote, the margin required for elder election in the church.

So a second vote was held July 18th, at which all three nominees received at least 78% of the vote. Just before we go on here, I want to play that soundbite, or at least just a portion of the soundbite that we played last week, if you didn't hear the program of what David Platt said to his church on July 4th. So this would be after the June 30th meeting, where the elders didn't receive enough of a majority to get voted on the Elder Board, and between July 18th, which was the second vote they took, where they did get voted on to the Elder Board. So here's what David Platt said about what was going on in the church.

And I want you to listen closely to the words I'm about to say. A small group of people inside and outside this church coordinated a divisive effort to use disinformation in order to persuade others to vote these men down as part of a broader effort to take control of this church. And so here are some of the lies that people were being told as they entered the building in that lobby that night. If we affirm these elders, and just hear all the buzzwords and scare tactics that were used, MBC would be gone, down a road of leaving the gospel behind, leaving the Bible behind, embracing liberal theology and cultural Marxism, like the author of the Communist Manifesto, that we would change our stance on abortion and sexuality, that we would allow critical race theory and Black Lives Matter and defunding the police to drive our agenda as a church.

I could go on and on with ideas that are unquestionably untrue. And just to clearly communicate again, the seriousness behind this, behind all of this disinformation and deception is a small group of people who have stated that their purpose is to take control of this church. Just to give you a glimpse, I saw one email from one of the main leaders in this group using race to say that MBC is no longer a McLean Bible Church, that it's now a melanin Bible Church.

That is not acceptable for the body of Jesus Christ. That language has no place whatsoever here, and I only share it, I hesitate to share it because I know it's so ugly and painful even here, but I want to point out the approach that's being used by people giving leadership to this group in these meetings. And we need to say loud and clear, that definitively does not represent who we are as a church. We will not apologize for our increasing diversity or our commitment to humbly address racial issues from God's word as we unite together on a glorious mission to proclaim this good word and our great God in a city where 5 million plus men, women, boys and girls are on a road that leads to an eternal hell and need the good news of God's love for them.

Again, that's David Platt, the pastor of McLean Bible Church, basically calling out this group for accusing them of trying to take over the church, that they're racist, they've renamed the church melanin Bible Church, and that he's not going to give up on their noble cause for racial reconciliation, racial issues that he talked about here. This is clearly a passionate man who's on a mission, and he ended up getting his way. He convinced enough of the congregation to come back and vote on July 18.

And these three elders that he wanted elected were in fact elected. So let's continue with the article at Christianity Today. It says Platt, the author of Radical, is known for his passionate call to evangelism. You just heard that in the end of that soundbite, missions in Scripture. What opponents claim as being Platt's liberal or woke politics, supporters see as the 42-year-old preacher's commitment to Christ above all.

It's all one's perspective, right? Moving on in the story at Christianity Today with a quote, over the last several years, we've watched David Platt take the church, the church we built, the church we love, the church we've poured our hearts and souls and lives into, turned into a political, stripped-down version of what it used to be, wrote former elder Mark Gottlieb, who is encouraging members of a group called Save McLean Bible Church to, quote, admit defeat and walk away after the July 18 vote. And then they go on to some other things that have taken place with David Platt in the church recently that we didn't get into last week.

So here's some new information that just kind of adds to the whole story. In July 2019, then-President Donald Trump showed up at a worship service and Platt prayed for him from the stage, an action that drew criticism from some in the church. A year later, Platt, an African-American McLean pastor, Mike Kelsey, remember that name, we're going to get into him later, participated in a Christian march following the death of George Floyd, which was construed by some as support for the Black Lives Matter organization. McLean Bible Church stated in a Q&A on its website that Kelsey's son held a poster that read, Black Lives Matter to God. Platt's 2020 book entitled Before You Vote also drew criticism from some church members as being soft on traditional evangelical issues like abortion and sexuality.

We'll get into that today. Allegations that leaders were seeking to join the Southern Baptist Convention is another issue in violation of the church's constitution led McLean Bible Church to suspend all contributions to SBC causes this month. The church claims that it's not affiliated to the Southern Baptist Convention. However, the article continues Baptist Press stated in July 21 article that McLean Bible Church is a cooperating church with the Southern Baptist Convention, yet like all Southern Baptist churches remains independent and autonomous in its functionality and governance. Moving on to some observers, McLean's conflict seems like a replay of other episodes from American evangelicalism where leaders who appeal the scripture to address social issues are accused of theological liberalism or secular influence even if they continue to hold traditional Christian views. Well, the question is, my response to that would be, do they really hold to traditional Christian views if they're espousing social and racial issues which aren't supported by scripture?

We move on with the column. Chuck Hannaford, a Memphis clinical psychologist who has helped churches mediate conflicts for 30 years, said McLean Bible Church's troubles are the latest iteration of a broader conflict between younger Reformed Christians and older generations of white evangelicals. Interesting. There is some resistance from what some would consider the old guard in evangelical circles to younger guys accused of being soft on doctrine in an effort to reach a more diverse audience. Some older evangelicals see it as sort of a coup.

Meanwhile, younger leaders like Platt see the pushback as its own sort of coup and remain concerned about the influence of opposition fueled on social media and watchdog blogs. Okay, just the last paragraph or so here, the Q&A stated, quote, We want McLean Bible Church to be a place where people with all kinds of convictions on matters of conscience can thrive. So wherever possible, we want to work together to move forward together on mission, even with our different perspectives. And let me just add to that, that viewpoint diversity, even if it's on issues of conscience, when you have lots of viewpoint diversity and those kinds of issues, that does not work well in a church to be unified. The article closes with a quote by Platt, which says, We have walked through tumultuous days over the last year in the world, surfacing many challenges in our lives, families, our country, the world and the church. We all need God's grace to love one another well and to live for the spread of his love in a world that desperately needs what only he can give. And as we walk faithfully with God during these days, keeping our eyes fixed on him, I trust that he will work all these things together for our good and ultimately his glory, unquote. What kind of Christian could possibly be against what David Platt just said there until you start peeling back the onion of what's actually taking place within his church?

You find out that the situation is very different than his call for unity in that quote. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. At Samaritan Ministries, our members are passionate about being part of a Christian community that shares one another's medical needs without the use of insurance. But for Samaritan members Tony and Ginger Malik, that passion to share health with others is a way of life. It was my wife's dream to come back to the farm. She wanted to be able to do sustainably raised vegetables and teach people where their food comes from.

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Now, back to today's program with host, David Wheaton. Now, last week, we also talked about the four keys that lead to or cultivate unity in the church. And the first one is for a church to be clear and committed to biblical doctrines. We referenced passages from Scripture.

That one was from 1 Timothy 4, 16. Pay close attention, Paul writes of Timothy, to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. So be clear and committed on biblical doctrines.

Take pains to be very focused on that. Don't be fast and loose with biblical doctrines just for the sake of, quote, unquote, unity. Number two, second key, choose qualified pastor elders, overseers who are discerning of false teaching and teachers.

And that's a big story about what's going sideways at McLean Bible Church. Third key to cultivating unity in the church is to focus on the fundamentals of what the church originally was meant to be from Acts 2, to teach the word, fellowship of believers, share in communion, remembrance of Christ's death and resurrection, and also prayer. Those are the four fundamentals, and by doing things beyond that, that is going to necessarily impact the church. If you have tons of programs and ministries and you go down different roads and music worship bands and do all this kind of stuff, it just distracts from the four fundamentals that are mentioned in Acts 2.42. Finally, the fourth key to cultivating unity in the church is to exercise church discipline and restoration. That comes from Matthew 18. You can't let people who attend your church or are members of your church just get away and sweep their sin under the rug. If there's unrepentant sin that's being practiced in the church, the church needs to deal with that, according to the model in Matthew 18. We talked about that last week.

We won't get into it again this week. So just keep those things in mind as we read this letter from those in the church who are opposing, who are against what has been taking place at McLean Bible Church. I don't know this for sure, but I would be willing to guess that David Platt and those who agree with him at the church on the Elder Board and the group opposing him probably share about 85 to 90 percent of the same doctrinal views. But when it comes to the issue of social justice, that's where they part ways. David Platt and the elders have decided that racial reconciliation and integration in social justice should be a priority. Well, those who oppose it realize that that's going to take the church down the wrong road.

It's going to be divisive and it's going to lead to compromise and more of a social gospel rather than the preaching of the true biblical gospel of salvation. Now, David Platt, to be clear, would never say he believes in critical race theory. But his words and his actions make clear that he's in fact sympathetic and possibly even agrees maybe in a lighter way with some of the tenants. If you listen to the program, I don't know, a month or so ago, we did that program or did a couple programs on critical race theory and we pulled those six tenants of critical race theory off the GotQuestions.org website. Number one, that American government, law, culture and society are inherently and inescapably racist.

And so I would venture to bet that David Platt and those who think like him believe some of that. They believe the country is systemically racist. Just look at our history. It's a country that has come a long way, but there's all kinds of racism still at work in our country. Number two, the second tenant of critical race theory, everyone, even those without racist views, perpetuates racism by supporting those structures. In other words, there is like an implicit bias by people in this country because you're just a white American.

And so we support this systemic system. Number three, third tenant of critical race theory, the personal perception of the oppressed, their quote narrative outweighs the actions or intents of others. We need to listen to another person's narrative, their own lived experience, as that is valid, even if it doesn't align with reality. Number four, oppressed groups will never overcome disadvantages until the racist structures are replaced. And I would say to that, this is why churches believe and pastors believe that they are called to change these racist structures. Number five, oppressor race or class groups never change out of altruism.

They only change for self-benefit. And that's why these pastors in these churches believe that it must be forced, racial justice, social justice must be forced on the unwilling, the ignorant, those who just don't get it. Number six, a tenant of critical race theory is that application of laws and fundamental rights should be different based on the race or class group of the individual involved. And this is why churches like McLean Bible Church and David Platt and others put a strong emphasis on we need to have leadership, has to have a certain makeup in the church, elder boards.

Otherwise, the curriculum read should have representation there by those of different ethnicities, which they would call race. Just to show you that I'm not making this up, I'd like to play a audio bite of David Platt as he spoke, I believe at the Gospel Coalition Conference or the Together for the Gospel Conference a couple years ago. Here's what he had to say with regard to racial issues within the church. I want to sacrifice more of my preferences as a white pastor. I need to grow in my laying aside of preferences for members of this body because I want Christ to be exalted through increasing diversity in our leadership and our membership.

Just to jump in here real quick, did you hear what he said? I want Christ to be exalted through increasing diversity in our leadership and in our membership. Now, where is that Bible verse that Christ is exalted when there's greater diversity?

Christ is exalted when there's greater unity amongst believers, regardless of their skin color. So don't get thrown off when someone throws words out like the gospel and Christ and reaching people and missions, but there's this racial overtone to the whole thing. On a related note, I do not want to speak from the Bible on issues that are popular among white followers of Christ while staying silent in the Bible on issues that are important to non-white followers of Christ. That's not faithful pastoring.

Really? There are parts of the Bible that are popular amongst white people that won't be popular amongst blacks people and vice versa? All of scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for all people no matter what your skin color is. There are no white parts of the Bible or black parts of the Bible that should be popular within a certain ethnic group. I actually read this week how studies have shown that white church leaders are less likely to speak and act prophetically on race issues because white church leaders have more to lose when they do. Basically, if you want to draw a crowd in general, stay away from racial issues.

If you want to draw a crowd of white people or black people or this type of person or that type of person, then stay away from saying any one of those types of people is part of the problem on racial issues. Because the reality is many people mainly want to be comforted when they come to church, and as people we're naturally drawn to that which brings the most benefit with the least cost. So if you give people a choice between the church of comfort and the church of comfort, but you need to make sacrifices to change your life, people will choose the church of comfort most every time. And this is exactly why he's willing to fracture his church over pursuing racial issues.

He thinks you need to hammer white people or dissenters over the head because they just don't get it. They just want to be comfortable, they don't want to be with people of different skin colors, and you can't let them stay comfortable in your church. Which is why we've designed so much of the church culture the way we have today.

It's why we're so prone not to talk about issues that are uncomfortable to us. And I just want to see that the Bible doesn't give us that option, like Amos 5 doesn't give us that option. We cannot truly worship God while we stay silent on injustice in all kinds of areas. And I know as a white pastor I have blind spots, so I am part of the problem. I need friends and fellow pastors around me from different ethnicities who help me see those blind spots. And I'm committed to listening and learning and loving, laying aside whatever contemporary church growth methodology says is the best way to grow the church, i.e. ignore the issues.

I want us to do the exact opposite. I want us to hear God's word clearly on these issues, and then we can trust Him with the growth of His church. I've got to say, if you just cry a little bit and speak very passionately, people will listen to you and think you must be telling the truth. But it's very clear that what he's saying is he has imbibed those tenets of critical race theory. Maybe not to the full-on effect of someone like Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote How to Be an Antiracist, or Robin DiAngelo on white fragility, but he has certainly been influenced by that kind of thinking. And now, with the kind of influence he has, he's influencing younger people especially all over the country with this kind of errant and divisive theology. How about treating people as individuals and just love your neighbor as yourself?

Not treating people as communities or groups, but just treating people as an individual made just like you are in the image of God. Okay, we need to get to the letter, otherwise this is going to be a three- or four-part program. We started a little bit last week and read it was posted on the Capstone Report website. And it said, this letter to the elders of McLean Bible Church was sent on February 3rd, so much earlier this year. This isn't something that just popped up in the church in the last month. And the letter outlines in 17 pages many of the concerns about the leftward drift of MBC and its move toward promotion of critical race theory and other divisive ideologies. And the letter starts out like this. As you know, several months ago we provided the Elder Board with a paper discussing our grave concerns regarding the gospel, the church, justice, and racism.

G-C-J-R. That's a class they had at the church. We write again to share our deeper underlying concerns on the following key issues of elder oversight, lack of transparency, biblical preaching and teaching, staffing, and outside influences to the church. We believe that these issues are at the root of McLean Bible Church's current predicament and regrettably believe that they call into question the fidelity of MBC to scripture. We are concerned that secular worldly ideologies have improperly influenced the teaching of scripture at McLean Bible Church, confusing and dividing the church body, ultimately undermining the preaching of the gospel at MBC.

So I'm going to get into all the various categories here today. We're not going to be able to get to the whole letter. We do have it linked on thechristianworldview.org, and we would highly encourage you to read the letter. It's very instructive as to the various elements of the church they touch on and what's going wrong at McLean Bible Church. First, under the category of philosophy, they say, we believe the elders have not properly exercised oversight of church doctrine as MBC has undergone major theological shifts, including embracing a social justice interpretation of scripture and corresponding unbiblical prioritizing of unity at the expense of doctrinal truth, which must exist before love can unite.

This is a very important paragraph, and this is probably the headline for what has caused the fracture. And everything else we're going to read kind of goes back to this. The elders have not exercised proper oversight over church doctrine. The church has undergone major theological shifts. There's been an embracing of social justice theology. There has been an unbiblical prioritizing of unity at the expense of doctrinal truth. You can't have unity at the expense of truth. Truth is the basis for having unity.

When everyone comes around and has the same understanding of doctrinal issues, then there can be unity. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. David Wheaton here, volunteer host of the Christian Worldview radio program. Listeners are often surprised to learn that we as a ministry pay for airtime on the radio station, website, or app on which you hear the program. The primary way this expense is recouped is through listeners like you donating to the ministry or becoming a monthly partner.

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Now, back to today's program with host David Wheaton. Go down to the next category, board composition, elder board composition. We believe it is impractical for members of various campuses to accurately assess and affirm in a vote the impeccable spiritual and moral character of elder candidates from different campuses, most of whom they have never met. Next point, we are concerned that some of our current elders, while they are good men, have not demonstrated qualifications for being elders, in particular in the matter of being able to teach from the Bible. That's one of the qualifications of elders in 1 Timothy. A qualified elder must be able to teach the Bible. Next point, we believe the secular philosophy of, quote, affirmative action may have influenced recent decisions regarding the composition of the elder board and pastoral staff in pursuit of the secular goal of diversity in meaningless superficial characteristics like skin shade rather than strictly adhering to biblical qualifications. Can you see how much there is in this letter? And that's just the second category.

There's a fly in the ointment here that we really haven't touched on. And this is the fact that McLean Bible Church is a congregation led church and it's a multi-site church. So what this letter says about the fact that you're expecting the congregation to vote on elders that they don't even know they go to a different church, even though it's part of the same church family. How on earth will congregation know how to vote on people they don't even know? And when it says it's congregation led means that the congregation is the final authority instead of the pastor and elders or as the Bible calls them overseers. There's no basis really for a congregation led church in the Bible. It should be elder overseer pastor led church. Elders should be making the decisions. The congregation can petition the elders or they can leave the church, but the decisions in the church should be driven by these biblically qualified elders. That is the structure of the church.

It's not meant to be a democracy. And then finally in this category of board composition, the sin of partiality comes in, which means favoring someone according to characteristics that they shouldn't be favored by. In other words, thinking there must be some sort of ethnic makeup in leadership in the church.

We need to have so many black people, so many Asians, so many whites on the board to truly be diverse. Instead of focusing solely on the character qualifications the Bible lays out, they bring in other qualifications that are meaningless according to scripture. Next category in the letter is on functionality, where they say, we believe the elders should be much more publicly recognized and accessible and be regularly involved in the leadership of the worship service. Members of the congregation have put themselves under the spiritual authority of the elders, yet very few congregation members know who they are or have sat under their teaching. And I'll just add that this is a big problem in big churches, where you don't have much contact with the pastor. You don't know who the elders are.

They're not very visible. There's not enough elders, qualified elders, in these big churches to be able to serve and oversee thousands of people in the church. Next point under functionality, we believe there is too much power even informally vested in the chairman of the elder board or the lead pastor who is David Platt, which endangers the congregation to the preferences of a single individual or two. And this is the tendency, when you have a well-known, popular, powerful personality like David Platt, this is going to be the tendency to look to him, it's the human way, look to him as the leader and the decision maker in the church, rather than being a part of a well-qualified elder board of men who are character qualified to be elders of a church. Next point under functionality, we believe it is the elders responsibility, they write, to discern when the church is proceeding in the wrong direction in mission and focus.

In the current circumstance with MBC pursuing social justice and unity without sound doctrine around which to unite, the elders have failed to diagnose and remedy the problem. This is one significant example of the elders failure to meet their constitutional responsibility of, quote, guarding the reputation and doctrinal integrity of the church. Now this is one of the four keys to a unified church we mentioned earlier in the program, is that you must have well-qualified elders who are able to discern false teaching and false teachers. They need to be able to guard the sheep, shepherd the flock from those who would come in or those who are already in and be inserting false doctrines that will lead them astray. Next point, the elders should carefully review and approve positions and written statements before they are published. For example, David Platt's book on voting necessarily represented McLean Bible Church with a position of dubious biblical fidelity. When MBC senior leadership publishes a book to the world, they are representing McLean Bible Church, its congregation and the elders. The same applies for statements written on social media or public speaking.

Indiscretions in this area have severely damaged MBC's long-standing reputation locally as well as nationally. So what they're saying here is that David Platt's book on voting gave the impression that Christians can really vote many different ways and you can vote for a Democrat as well as a Republican. Take a quote from the book, yes, abortion is abhorrent, that's clear in the Bible, but is that the only issue at stake in an election? What about the scores of Christians, including overwhelming percentages of African-American Christians, who consistently vote for Democrats because of the party's record on other issues that they also deem biblically important? Can you really conclude that they lack faith in Jesus and are on a road that leads to everlasting suffering because of how they weigh those other issues? Will you really exclude them from the church because they voted for a Democrat?"

He's basically drawing a moral equivalency. If you're black and a Christian, you vote for a Democrat. There's really nothing wrong with that because they have different priorities of issues, whether you're white, evangelical, and you vote for a Republican candidate because they're against abortion and same-sex marriage.

We need to get together and get along. Voting is a comparative decision for a believer. A Christian should vote for the candidate whose policies will more honor God and His word. For a Christian, it can't mean voting for the party that is the most God-rejecting party of all. It stands for killing babies as a sacrament, the homosexual transgender agenda, the redistribution of wealth and entitlement programs that ruin the family. We would say that that should not be the option for Christians.

There are other options besides that one. That's the worst one of all. Let's get to the next point. We're still under functionality of the church, where they write the letter to the elders. We believe the elders should have a prominent role in ensuring guest speakers and ministry associations, whether Sunday preaching and conferences that we platform or host, are in doctrinal alignment with MBC, and thus in keeping with faithful shepherding of our people. For example, both Francis Chan and Jackie Hill Perry were questionable choices whose behavior, post-speaking at McLean Bible Church, validated that they should not be given access to our pulpit. In case you don't know who Francis Chan is, he went to the Master's Seminary, which is the seminary affiliated with John MacArthur. Over the years, he has become charismatic in his theology. He's been involved in visions and purported healings. He's partnered or supported or spoke at organizations like International House of Prayer and the New Apostolic Reformation.

He's a firm Roman Catholic doctrine. Meanwhile, Jackie Hill Perry is a just overt social justice advocate. You can listen to the soundbite that she made with her husband in really advocating critical race theory. And so I feel like until all white people, and I say all white people, look within themselves and say, God, where is the deceitfulness in my heart? Where have I bought into the narrative that all black people are criminals? Where am I treating my neighbor not as better than myself? Where am I assuming that I am superior and they are inferior because of the color of my skin?

I mean, it's just such an obvious statement of critical race theory that all white people are biased, whether they know it or not. I am sorry. I have grieved you because they're made in your image. That's good. And also, too, we have to understand that white guilt is not repentance.

Yeah, that's true. Like white guilt is not repentance because what white guilt? You mean like feeling sorry? Yeah, feeling sorry, because what white guilt does, white guilt will make you do exactly what you have to do to get ready to get rid of your guilt.

That's interesting. So it would say, let me let me do what I can so I won't feel guilty. So my conscious is clear. But that still doesn't cause you to walk in love with your black brothers and sisters.

What what what what love does, love says, I will step out of my comfort zone. I will step out of my my my my own privilege. Right. And that's what humility does. Jesus stepped out of his own privilege. He did not count his rights with God, a thing to be grasped, but was able to let them go. Philippians 2, go ahead.

Was able to let them go to serve people. So again, just wrapped in critical race theory, you need to give up your white privilege, equating it to like Jesus giving up his privilege to come to earth to save sinners. This is just black liberation theology and someone who absolutely should not be speaking at your church. And so that's what true Christlike love and humility does. It says I will let go of my own privilege. I won't hold my white privilege a thing to be grasped. I'm willing to let them go to serve my black brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you cannot do that, then you're not walking in love. Yeah, period. The woman who spoke again is Jackie Hill Perry. Need to know that name. She's very popular. She appears in lots of evangelical conferences, articles she writes and so forth. But you can just see from that soundbite, she's not someone that any church that's interested in sound doctrine should platform on there at their pulpit and have them speak to the people of their church.

Next point from the letter. Faithful shepherding of our flock and stewardship of our good name requires that every speaker from main session to the smallest class, small group or breakout session be in keeping with the stated doctrine of McLean Bible Church. This is about guarding sound doctrine within the church. Once again, if you have a church and you have your statement of faith on your website and you know what your pastor believes, but in your Sunday school classes, you have people teaching doctrines that aren't consistent with what the Bible teaches. You're not guarding the doctrine within your church. There needs to be, again, a unity around sound doctrine in your church where people are in agreement of those teaching the classes. The next point goes on to say the promoted 2020 Evangelicals for Life Conference speakers list include Ann Voskamp and Russell Moore, neither of which should be platformed at McLean Bible Church, given their aberrant theological beliefs and political activism.

We've talked much about Russell Moore, the leftist influence that he had within the Southern Baptist Convention when he was president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Now he's, no surprise, working for Christianity Today. But Ann Voskamp may be someone that you don't know. She wrote a book entitled 1000 Gifts, and in that book, I'm just going to read a few quotes from her book. On page 201, she said, and there's this erotic connection she makes with God.

She said, quote, I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God. Page 211, quote, I run my hand along the beams over my loft bed, wood hewn by a hand. Several hundred years ago, I can hear him, God, he's calling for a response. He's calling for oneness and communion. Page 211, another quote, quote, I remember this feeling, the way my apron billowed in the running, the light, the air, the harvest moon. I remember the yearning to merge with beauty himself, referring to God. But here, now, really?

I am not at all certain that I want consummation. And who wouldn't cower at the invitation to communion with limitless holiness himself? Unquote. That's Ann Voskamp. And they're saying someone like her should not be platformed at McLean Bible Church. And I would agree with that. Voskamp also said about U2's lead singer, Bono, she said, Bono is legitimately brilliant, legitimately sold out for Jesus and legitimately incarnating the gospel's call to live out gospel shaped justice.

Unquote. Just beware when people are constantly throwing Christianese gospel, incarnational words out, there's probably something that you're being sold that is off base. Well, according to Broadway World Web site at their concert in Chicago's United Center, U2 renamed their iconic song In the Name of Love or Pride in the Name of Love to Gay Pride in the Name of Love. This is our America shouted Bono before breaking into the hit song. And Bono has been a big supporter of homosexual marriage back in his home country of Ireland as well. Not someone who's legitimately sold out for Jesus when you are advocating for relationships that the Bible clearly opposes. And one more example from her, how she reads something into scripture that is just not there.

It's called eisegesis. Instead of exegesis pulling things out of scripture that are accurate, eisegesis is reading your own interpretation into scripture. Listen to her comparison to Christ hanging on the cross and how that's a symbol of hospitality. Our actual theology is best expressed in our hospitality. How do we live with open doors, open hearts, open homes?

How open is your life to those who don't look like you? There again, the explicit statement that hospitality is somehow better when you open up your home to someone else who doesn't look like you. Hospitality is not a sidebar to our theology. Our hospitality is our theology. The very shape of Christianity and the cross itself is out of hospitality.

The wide open arms of Jesus on that cross is the form of Christianity, and it's the form of the ultimate hospitality, the form of welcome. Come. I want you. I invite you.

I want to be with you. I'm sorry, but that's just wrong to draw a conclusion about the Son of God nailed and hanging and bleeding on a cross to being a symbol of hospitality rather than of what it actually was, the Son of God dying for the sins of mankind. Hospitality is a wonderful thing for a Christian to practice, but it's not Jesus hanging on the cross. Next point. Additionally, Jen Wilkin, scheduled speaker for the NBC Word-filled Women's Conference in February 2020, has advocated for homosexual inclusion and teaches that God's word, quote, whispers about homosexuality while it, quote, shouts about other sins. Now, you've probably heard that before. Well, J.D. Greer, the past president of the SBC and the current president, Ed Litton, both used that quote from Jen Wilkin about the Bible whispering about homosexuality and shouting about other sins in their sermons.

Jen Wilkin comes from or is based out of Matt Chandler's church in Texas. Another point from the letter. We believe the elders should be much more involved in evaluating the biblical fidelity of corporate worship, which includes worship songs and artists, which should reinforce, not contradict our doctrinal convictions. What they're saying is that the songs we sing as a church should be sound doctrinally and they shouldn't be from ministries who we have to pay royalties to that are actually not advancing strong biblical sound doctrinal content.

Why are we supporting them? Those should not be part of our worship service. We have so much more to get to, but we're out of time today. So just in conclusion, we do not believe that David Platt is an apostate, at least not at this point, one who denies Christ in the gospel. I think an accurate way to put this situation is that David Platt sees racial reconciliation, racial integration, social justice. He views that to be a priority for the church. And my expectation is that David Platt in this church, having now gotten their way on getting their chosen elder board is going to go much further down the road on these issues. So let this be a lesson for all of us in our own churches.

Don't pursue social justice. Proclaim the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when you do, true believers of every skin color will unite around the truth of God's word.

It doesn't need to be forced or coerced. Read the messages of Christ to the revelation churches. They lived in a very diverse world. Not one word was said by Jesus about a church not being diverse enough. Keep the main point the main point at church to disciple believers in the faith to help them grow closer in their walk with Christ, and to train them to proclaim the only saving gospel that through repenting of sin and placing your faith in the person and work of Christ, you can be right with God, no matter your skin color or background. Thank you as always for listening to the Christian worldview you can hear past programs and order resources or sign up for our free weekly email and support the ministry and find out more about our national sponsor Samaritan Ministries by going to our website, the Christian worldview.org we have a lot going on right now. So until next time, let's remember, Jesus Christ and His word are the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Think biblically, live accordingly, treat others impartially, and stand firm. email, or to find out what must I do to be saved, go to our website, the Christian worldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233, the Christian worldview is a listener supported ministry and furnished by the Overcomer Foundation, a nonprofit organization, you can find out more order resources, make a donation, become a monthly partner and contact us by visiting the Christian worldview.org calling toll free 1-888-646-2233 or writing to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.