I recently read this blog post by Dr. Chuck Lawless:

http://chucklawless.com/2021/03/10-questions-to-ask-in-preparation-for-worship-this-weekend/

While I certainly cannot improve upon the 10 Questions given to us by Dr. Lawless, I want to come at it from a slightly different angle.  Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries has often said that Christians should find a healthy New Testament Church then build their lives around it.  I heartily concur. 

The concept of building one’s life around a healthy covenantal family of Christ-followers was not a radical concept 100-150 years ago in our nation.  Frontier churches were often literally situated smack-dab in the middle of a settlement or village.  The lay out of the town reflected the actual priorities of the citizens.  We can opine the multiple cultural and economic factors that have been the driving force behind our centering our lives today on anything and everything but the church.  But truth is, we, the church, are ourselves at fault. 

We often tacitly or explicitly gave permission for church members to build their lives around other things, by

• Neglecting to rebuke workaholism among men.
• Encouraging women to seek full-time careers that removed them from the home.
• Turning over the full-time education and child-rearing task to the State.
• Dropping the concept of church membership / covenant altogether.
• Lowering expectations upon those attending worship gatherings, and dismissing any notion of genuine accountability or responsibility to one another as a Church Family.
• Engaging in our culture’s sports and entertainment idolatry, to the point that we thought it a good idea to employ such things to “attract” people to our assemblies.
• Baptizing young children at the first sign that they profess faith, and now the growing trend in the SBC is “spontaneous baptisms” of adults (I will address this perhaps in a future post, but for now will simply say I take those texts in Acts to be descriptive, not prescriptive).
• Turning the Lord’s Supper into a “free-for-all” quaint little tea party.
• Allowing rampant church-hopping driven by a consumerist view of church, without even any attempts between churches to call church-hoppers to account.
• Reducing the church’s discipleship and evangelism schedule to one morning per week so as to not infringe upon people’s “busy lives.”

You might think of other egregious errors to add to my list.  But here at Corydon Baptist Church, we are determined by God’s grace to keep rowing upstream against the white-water rapids threatening to sweep the local church to the periphery (if not into the rearview mirror) of our lives.  Why? 

Because the Church, founded upon Christ, living under the Headship of Christ, preaching the Lordship of Christ and pursuing Christlikeness in every facet of life is God’s Great Eternal Plan A to bring Himself glory!  God has no Plan B. 

So, this weekend and in weeks ahead you can get with God’s Program by intentionally centering yourselves and your households up on Christ and His Church.  Here are a few practical ways to do so:

• Pray and lead your family to pray for your pastors, for Bible teachers, for servants in various ministries, for newcomers and lost people, for your own hearing of the Word, for God-centeredness in your worship gathering, for missions and missionaries.
• Serve and lead your family to serve in various capacities on Sundays and Wednesdays and in other ways available in your local church. Brainstorm with your family about ways you can all arrive at a church gathering or ministry with a servant’s heart, preferring others and considering others better than yourselves. 
• Look around during the church gathering to locate those who might need help, or a prayer, or an encouraging word, or someone to sit with them. The elderly, widows, single moms, single young adults, troubled teens, families with many children, guests, and those with physical challenges all come to mind.
• Prepare for hearing the Word. Read the passage to be preached in your home the evening before the assembly.  Pray over it with your family.  Ask God to convict, challenge and change you by the Spirit’s application of the Word. 
• Talk about the sermon and Bible lessons you heard during the church’s gathering. Talk about what God taught you, how God convicted you, how God encouraged you, what commitment you made to God.  Ask questions of one another to increase your grasp of the Word. In small groups. Over coffee during the week. At PTO meetings. In the stands at soccer practice.  Use the preached Word as a springboard for evangelistic and sanctifying conversations. 
• Plan for the next time you will gather with your church family or minister with them. Create excitement in your family so that they anticipate more regular times with their church.
• Invite a church member, a guest in a gathering, or an unchurched neighbor or friend, to join you for a meal or activity, at least once a month. Relational evangelism and discipleship must take root in us, if we are ever to recover God’s Center. 
• Say no to lesser things. O God help us learn to say no!  The myriad activities our society now offers us, even on Sundays, is dizzying.  Dear Christian, ask God for courage to reclaim the Lord’s Day for His all-consuming glory in your life.  For it is certain, if your Sundays are mostly secular, there is little hope for your Mondays. 

“So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to His eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11). 

What would the heavenly rulers know of the wisdom of God through the church by observing your day-to-day life?

In a sermon now infamous among many of us Southern Baptists, the then President of the SBC, J.D. Greear, stated that “God whispers about sexual sin.”  Pastor Greear said he was quoting Jen Wilkin.  And of course, the now President of the SBC, Ed Litton, parroted Greear (without citing his source, but that’s a story for another day). 

It is not my intent to call into question the salvation of any of the above named.  In fact, I have learned from the ministries of Greear, Wilkin, and Litton, even if I find myself sometimes disagreeing with them. Rather, I simply want to explore this notion of God “whispering” about sexual sin.  So, let’s take a sampling of God’s whispering:

After a lengthy lists of forbidden sexual relations, Leviticus 18:29 says,

“For everyone who does any of these abominations shall be cut off from among their people.”

“If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both of them shall die . . . If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and you shall stone them to death” (Deut 22:22-23). 

Deuteronomy 22:25-27 prescribes the death penalty for rape.  Only the rapist is to be executed.  We might remind ourselves that when we view pornography today, we are often gratifying our lusts by watching rapes.  Not all, but much of the pornography industry is fueled by sex trafficking.

“For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey . . . but in the end she is bitter as wormwood . . . her feet go down to death . . . keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house . . . for a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord” (Proverbs 5).

“Can a man carry fire next to his chest and not get burned?” (Proverbs 6:27, speaking of adultery).

“For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error . . . Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:26-27, 32).  

 “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 5:11). 

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality . . . will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). 

“Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the lusts of the flesh . . . Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality" (Galatians 5:16, 19).

“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (Ephesians 5:3).   

“For this is the will of God, your holiness, that you abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city (heaven) by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Revelation 22:14-15). 

If this is how God whispers, I would not want to be around when He shouted! 

Every sincere Christian I know would say he or she believes these verses.  Yet, I so often find myself as a Pastor counseling a brother or sister who has either had their pornography addiction exposed, or who has relapsed after patting himself on the back for a few “clean” months.  What is wrong with us, beloved?  Why don’t we hate this sin like God does?  Why doesn’t bile rise in our throats each time we even think about clicking that link or tapping that phone screen?  Why is Jesus not beautiful enough to us to prevent us from chasing other lovers?  Why is Christ not important enough to us to filter all our devices, get a flip phone, cancel our internet service, throw our i-pads away, and rend our hearts? 

Why do we so easily excuse away a few minutes of pornography?  Would we proudly say, “I only fornicate a few times a year?”  Or, “I only commit adultery once a year.”  As if this is the evidence we would present of a vibrant, mature, growing-in-love walk with the Risen, Glorified Christ who bled out on a cross for our disgusting lusts and all their accompanying excuses!  God help us.       

We had better stop scrolling down and start reading the Scroll of God.

A pastor friend recently posted this citation from R. J. Rushdoony, from page 111 of his book The Politics of Guilt and Pity.  I thought it worth posting again here:

“The modern state . . . has made salvation its function.  Man is to be saved from poverty, sickness, death, ignorance, sin, war, superstition, and all things else by the saving state, which works steadily to create its divine order, in the name of the saving society.  Every area the state wishes to invade and possess in the name of the welfare of man becomes its legitimate jurisdiction. A total sovereignty is asserted in the name of man. The state steadily denies the need of the Christian theological order as it claims jurisdiction over every area in terms of its royal divinity. The early church . . . yielded an obedience where obedience was due without surrender. It refused to accept freedom under Caesar by sacrificing to Caesar; it insisted on its freedom under God. The church today has almost universally accepted the messianic state . . . The church is content to have freedom under the new caesars, within the new divine monarchies, and to become its servile subject.” 

Well, if the last 18 months have shown us anything, it’s the validity of this claim.  Our federal government, and some of our state and local governments, seemingly will stop at nothing in their quest for total sovereignty over our lives.  And their currency is fear.  Always has been. Always will be. Until the One and Only real King returns to make all things right. 

May God awaken His people to stop buying what our ever-more robust socialist politicians, in bed with socialist institutions spanning every conceivable market space, are selling. Marxist utopias are founded upon hate and division, and sold to us on a platter of fear. But lies never keep their promises.  And we need not wonder where lies originate:

“He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is not truth in him. When he lies, he speaks from his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).       

Imagine the horror of thousands of people who immigrated here from Marxist regimes and nations over the decades, risking it all for political freedom and economic free markets and educational freedom and religious freedom, as they watch our businesses, educational institutions and systems, governments and even churches, keep gulping down the kool-aid of wokeness (a clever label for godless Marxism in its nuanced variants such as CRT and Intersectionality).  The state won’t rest until the State is God. 

But fear not, true Church.  God is not mocked.  Caesar is not lord. Never was. Never will be.  Every king and every kingdom – Marxist, Taoist, Buddhist, Fascist, Atheist, Socialist, and Capitalist – will all bow and pass away.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). 

“Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20)

A mom in our church recently texted me a question:

“I’d like to know what top 12 hymns you would recommend all children know.”

Great question!  This mom planned to teach her children a “Hymn of the Month” in her home.  Great idea!  Praise God!  What pastor doesn’t delight in such a question and such a desire? 

Without even giving it any deep thought, I fired off these twelve:

1) Holy, Holy, Holy

2) Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

3) How Firm a Foundation

4) The Church’s One Foundation

5) And Can it Be?

6) It is Well With My Soul

7) A Mighty Fortress

8) Rock of Ages

9) On Christ the Solid Rock

10) My Lord I Did Not Choose You

11) Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross

12) In Christ Alone

So, there you have it!  I could have easily listed dozens more.  My childhood was crammed with hymns.  And we filled our home with hymns too, when our girls were growing up.  While there is no substitute for reading and discussing the Bible with your kids in your home, singing hymns ought to be a centerpiece of every Christian home.  Great hymns help us lock sound theology into our minds forever.  God is so often pleased to grant grace to us as we sing these magnificent truths of who God is, who we are, who Christ is, and how we must repent and believe. 

Do you know these twelve hymns?  Do your children?  Grandchildren?  Are you singing them regularly in your homes?          

“Sing praises to the Lord, all you His saints, and give thanks unto His holy name” (Psalm 30:4). 

“For with you is My contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day; the prophet shall also stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to Me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4:4-6).

In this series, I have endeavored to share some observations and critiques of the SBC21, which gathered last month in Nashville.  I focused the first two posts on Resolutions.  While Resolutions are not binding in the SBC, which believes strongly in local church autonomy, they are an important glimpse into the hearts and minds of SBC leaders.  And Resolutions are seen by the secular press as the way to know what churches in the SBC think, believe, and find worthy of acting upon in our culture. 

I turn my attention now to the election of the President of the SBC.  The office of SBC President, while not at all comparable to the authority possessed by a Regional Bishop in more hierarchical denominations, is nevertheless important.  He appoints the Committee on Committees (yes, that’s a real thing in SBC life), which then appoints the Committee on Nominations.  And that Committee recommends trustees for the various SBC entities.  The trustee system is designed to hold entity heads accountable to the SBC churches (or the members of those churches).  But perhaps in more recent decades, the SBC President’s interaction with the secular press has become an even more important facet of his role than the Committee appointments.  He is seen as the representative of the entire Convention of Churches.  His voice is “the voice” of the SBC.

This year there were four candidates for SBC President: Randy Adams, Albert Mohler, Ed Litton and Mike Stone.  While not everyone will agree with my assessment here, I think generally Adams and Stone were considered the non-establishment candidates.  Stone was endorsed by the Conservative Baptist Network and Founders Ministry.  While I have respect for both Randy Adams and Dr. Mohler, I voted for Mike Stone because he seemed to have the most momentum of the truly conservative candidates.  And indeed, he won the first vote!  But, he failed to get a majority, which was no surprise in a four candidate race.  It went to a run-off between Stone and Litton.  I went into the run-off with a high degree of confidence that Mike Stone would win.  After all, I could not imagine that the over 3,000 messengers who initially voted for Albert Mohler would then make the leap leftward to vote for Ed Litton in a run-off against Mike Stone.  As one of my local pastor friends put it, “I voted in the run-off for the only man I knew I would have in my own pulpit.”

Ed Litton was the obvious progressive candidate, though he would refuse that label.  He has co-preached sermons on Sundays in his church with his wife, Kathy.  That’s common knowledge. He has not been willing to rebuke CRT with any degree of specificity or force. Instead, he often makes CRT sound like nothing more than a “distraction” that we should ignore so we can get back to the Great Commission.  (For the record, I agree that CRT is a distraction, but it is so because it is a false gospel.)  On Wednesday of the SBC, a messenger called out a heretical statement on the Trinity from the church’s website which Ed Litton pastors (the sentence was removed that night from the site).  Maybe just an innocent oversight?  But nonetheless a significant theological oversight!  I am not saying he is not a Christian.  I am merely stating what I believe is obvious – Litton was the most left-leaning candidate of the four. 

So, I cannot begin to describe to you my shock when Litton won the run-off.  I think the final tally had Litton winning by just over 500 votes.  I sat stunned. Perplexed. Grieved. That night, at the “9Marks at 9” conference, I heard Dr. Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, tell the 1,000 plus attendees that he voted for Dr. Mohler in the first round, and Ed Litton in the run-off.  I cannot process that reality, at least not without the leaked letters of Dr. Russell Moore.

Friends, say what you want, but if one of our seminary presidents, and several thousand others who initially voted for Albert Mohler (our most prominent seminary President), cast a vote for a pastor who co-preaches with his wife, that is most definitely a leftward doctrinal and theological drift!  At what point in the last thirty years could that have happened in the SBC?  That one issue alone is enough to prove that there is a progressive drift in our SBC leadership. 

To add insult to injury, we are now wrangling with SermonGate – the public scandal of Ed Litton’s obvious long-term plagiarism.  Newsweek and the NYT have reported on it.  I am not one to level such charges against a brother lightly, or hastily.  But the evidence is splashed all over the internet and various social media outlets.  And it is crystal clear plagiarism. And it’s happened multiple times dating back at least as far as 2013.  We’re not just talking about a misplaced quote. We’re witnessing a man stand in the pulpit and preach an entire sermon that someone else produced, personal illustrations and all.  To make matters worse, he has demonstrated no brokenness or contrition. He has downplayed it as a mere mistake of “Oops, forgot to credit J.D.”  And to a local newscaster, he claimed the charges of plagiarism are coming from “unnamed” sources.  What?  Are you kidding?  Anybody with a smart phone can name those sources!  Even a recent 9Marks podcast addressed Litton’s admitted plagiarism. 

I am sorry to have to say this, as I take no pleasure in publicly criticizing anyone, especially an SBC pastor, but Brother Litton’s responses to this blatant sin are disgusting.  The SBC is being humiliated every day that he remains in office.

“Do not lie to one another, seeing you have put off the old self with its practices” (Colossians 3:9).

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands” (Ephesians 4:28).

“Go to the ant you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6). 

In my humble opinion, Brother Litton has disqualified himself from the pastorate, as this sin was not merely a one-time oopsie, but is rather systemic.  I am not saying with genuine contrition and long-term repentance he could never be restored as a qualified pastor.  But as of now, it appears to me he’s DQ’d.  This matter is ultimately, of course, between him and the church he currently pastors.  But, he could start down the dusty road of repentance by taking the first right step – resign as SBC President.

How can a man whose public reputation is so tarnished possibly lead us well?  Even if his church refuses to rebuke, discipline and/or remove him, we, every single one of us members of SBC churches, are by default caught up in this embarrassing mess.  And, I am not aware of a single SBC Seminary President who is publicly standing with pastors like me against Brother Litton. This, in spite of the fact that plagiarism gets students at their schools expelled.  Is there anyone on the Executive Committee of the SBC publicly calling on Brother Litton to repent and resign? Any other SBC entity heads?    

Brothers and Sisters, God often gives us the leaders we deserve. 

“How long will you go on limping between two different opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21)

In this series of blog posts, I want to offer my thoughts and analysis on the recent Southern Baptist Convention held in Nashville, TN on June 15-16, 2021.  I do so, as with all my blogs, primarily as a service to the local church I love and serve, Corydon Baptist Church. 

In Part 1 of this series, I tackled the first two resolutions approved by the messengers in Nashville.  Below I want to assess two more resolutions that passed, and one that had to be tabled due to time. 

The leaders on the platform clearly expected the Resolution “On Abuse and Pastoral Qualifications” to pass without even a hint of discussion or controversy, much less dissension.  The reason I know this is because I observed carefully the looks of utter disdain and disgust when President Greear announced “Microphone #__ to speak against?!”  His furrowed brow lingered for what seemed like 30 seconds or more!  Ditto for others on the platform.  But the leaders should not have been so shocked.  The Resolution was sloppily worded.  In its original form, the Resolution permanently disqualified from the office of pastor “any person who has committed sexual abuse.”  Our CBC messengers had a good discussion about whether or not such a stance is actually biblical.  After all, a person might commit all sorts of heinous sins in his lost condition.  Just ask the Apostle Paul who used to be Saul.  Should a man be disqualified forever from being a pastor because of sins he committed prior to conversion? 

That’s an impossible case to make, biblically, I think. And so did several other messengers who stepped up to the mic and said as much.  One messenger pointed out the growing prevalence of child-on-child abuse. He remarked that he did not think it was a display of belief in the power of the gospel to save sinners to the uttermost to permanently disqualify a man for something he did as an unregenerate eleven year old.  It seems to me that if the Apostle Paul wanted to list those kinds of sins as permanently disqualifying he missed his opportunity to do so in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 where he names sexual sins with specificity.  Instead, he says,

“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11).

Doesn’t sound like he thought those washed, sanctified, justified men were forever barred from God’s call to the office of Pastor!  Now, whether it’s wise for a church to call such a one to be her pastor is a matter we can debate.  But, as one messenger aptly pointed out, this Resolution also infringed upon the local autonomy of a church to call such a man as pastor if they determine his life after conversion consistently meets the biblical qualifications (1 Tim 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9).  Indeed, the Resolution says, “we recommend that all of our affiliated churches apply this standard to all positions of church leadership.”  But if a local church interviews a man who is transparent about his past as a lost man, and who demonstrates repentance by his voluntary hard and fast boundaries in ministry, shouldn’t that church have the right to make that decision without being made by the Convention to feel like horrible supporters of abuse?  Many inmate prison chaplains are serving faithfully and well, who were raised up and trained by our SBC seminaries!  Some of them are on death row.  NOBTS has ordained many of these former hardened criminals into gospel ministry inside the prison systems. 

The way this Resolution was originally worded sounded more like Law than Gospel.  The “stoning” of the offender is his permanent disqualification. No forgiveness and restoration in Christ, only perpetual sorrow and repentance.  While I believe the intent was good, we need not be so determined to show the watching world how against abuse we are (and what true Christian has ever been pro-sex abuse?) that we run rough shod over the Bible, making a law where God has not spoken.  Thankfully, the Resolution was amended to at least say, “any person in a position of trust or authority who has committed sexual abuse is permanently disqualified from holding the office of pastor.”  Still not as explicit as I prefer, but better than the original. 

The undeniable highlight of the convention was the passing of the Resolution “On Abolishing Abortion.”  The Committee did not bring it to the floor for a vote, but offered another less strongly worded (but nonetheless good) Resolution “On Taxpayer Complicity in Abortion and the Hyde Amendment.”  But the messengers voted to override the Resolutions Committee and bring “On Abolishing Abortion” to the floor for a vote.  And it passed!  Albeit with an amendment that ever-so slightly softened the language to ensure those in the pro-life movement who are battling for every victory they can get do not feel unappreciated or slighted.  But the final Resolution is still the strongest anti-abortion resolution the SBC has ever passed!  I encourage you to read it here: https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-abolishing-abortion/.

My only consternation regarding this Resolution was how vehemently it was opposed by a Professor at Mid-West Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as a paid employee of the ERLC.  I guess my brow furrowed like Greear’s did earlier at the very thought of this Resolution being opposed at all.  But praise God, in the end, the messengers approved it.  Now, let’s put feet to it and start working to completely abolish abortion from our nation. Period. God help us! 

Finally, there was the Resolution that got tabled and never voted on, which condemned the January 6 Capitol insurrection and riots, and mourned the loss of life.  In and of itself, there was nothing horribly wrong with the Resolution (although the actual number of deaths directly due to that riot are hotly disputed, and the Resolution listed exactly 5).  But as the messengers from our church quickly surmised, this Resolution lacked any reference at all to the plethora of riots, looting, burning and loss of life and livelihoods for the past 12 months due to Antifa and BLM “protests.”  Why?  Why on earth would our SBC Leaders call upon us to publicly denounce only one of the dozens and dozens of riots in our nation over the last year?             

Might be because “the world is watching.” 

Many prominent SBC Leaders say they are trying desperately to somehow “depoliticize” things in the convention, making it a safe place for folks affiliated with either political party.  But are they really?  This Resolution smacked of left-leaning politics, just to be blunt.  It appears to be yet another example of a growing unwillingness among our leaders to condemn sin, period, wherever and in whomever it is found.  Violence against people and property is not ultimately a political issue.  It’s a sin issue.  So, we ought to condemn it regardless of whether it comes from BLM or QAnon.

Thankfully it never came up for a vote. Let’s see, however, if it reappears in some form in 2022.

That’s all the assessment I care to make on Resolutions.  Other Resolutions passed, but the ones I have addressed in these two posts, in my opinion, demonstrate a definite leftward limping in the SBC.  May God put that left leg out of joint, forcing us to hobble back to the Sufficiency of the Bible, and to a desire to please and glorify our risen Lord Jesus Christ above all.

“How long will you go on limping between two different opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21)

In this series of blog posts, I want to offer my thoughts and analysis on the recent Southern Baptist Convention held in Nashville, TN on June 15-16, 2021.  I do so, as with all my blogs, primarily as a service to the local church I love and serve, Corydon Baptist Church. 

First, let me say to my church family, “I am sorry. Please forgive me.”  I have not attended a convention in many years. I have been relatively unattached to the goings on at national / convention levels. I have placed an implied and uncritical trust in SBC leaders over the last decade.  For all this, I am genuinely regretful.  Resolution #9 at the 2019 convention awakened many thousands of us local SBC pastors to the reality that something sinister was afoot in our beloved “denomination” (technically we’re a convention of churches).  Many of us were pretty ignorant about Critical Theory and Intersectionality.  But thank God for leaders and ministries such as Tom Ascol at Founders, who began sounding the alarm!  We got educated, and like thousands of Americans now storming school boards, once we got educated, rebuking Critical Race Theory as a godless, unbiblical, toxic and demonic worldview proved a no-brainer.

But in 2019, somehow a Resolution was passed that actually promoted CRT/I as “a set of analytical tools that explain how race has and continues to function in society” and “can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences.”  Say what?  Do you see how this language assumes CRT/I offers a valid explanation and lens through which to analyze the world and our culture?  The Resolution even went so far as to say “Critical race theory and intersectionality alone are insufficient to diagnose and redress the root causes of the social ills that they identify” (emphasis mine).  Here again, it is pre-supposed that CRT/I is in some way able to “diagnose and redress the root causes of the social ills.”  Isn’t the root cause sin?  And isn’t the pure, unadulterated gospel of Jesus as revealed in the Bible the only solution that can actually diagnose and redress sin?  Isn’t the Bible enough to diagnose and redress any and all social ills, including racism, sexism, and so on?   

Imagine my shock and dismay upon discovering it was a prominent professor at my beloved Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who chaired the Resolutions Committee that gave us this atrocious statement!  Imagine my double shock at discovering how he and his committee took the original resolution submitted by a SBC pastor from California, totally gutted it, and turned it into something that was 180 degrees opposite from its original intent.  This whole thing smelled like a skunk!  And the seminary presidents all sat silently while this insidious resolution passed.    

So, I and thousands of messengers descended upon Nashville last month with intent to redress the evil of Resolution #9.  To right our convention’s wrong. To admit our error and make a biblical course correction.  Several resolutions had been submitted to do just that, including one signed by over 1,300 Southern Baptists.  But none of those were brought to the floor for a vote.  Instead, what the Resolutions Committee, chaired by Pastor James Merritt, did was to write their own generic Resolution #2, titled “On the Sufficiency of Scripture for Race and Racial Reconciliation.”  In and of itself, the resolution was fine.  It states, “That we reject any theory or worldview that finds the ultimate identity of human beings in ethnicity or in any other group dynamic; and  . . . we reject any theory or worldview that sees the primary problem of humanity as anything other than sin against God and the ultimate solution as anything other than redemption found only in Christ.” 

Well, amen. But nowhere does the Resolution call CRT/I by its name.  An effort to amend the resolution to so name CRT/I failed. No real debate happened because a savvy messenger from Indiana “called for the question.”  He was banking that the majority of messengers really did not want to have any open or real debate about CRT/I, nor our need as a convention to rebuke it with doctrinal and theological precision.  We had named it in 2019 as a “useful analytical tool.”  Makes sense that we now need to rebuke and repudiate it by name, essentially owning up to our mistake.  To my great shock, the majority of messengers voted to end the debate and approve the Resolution #2 as written.  Perplexed doesn’t begin to describe my feelings on how this went down.  Are we seriously scared to rebuke CRT?    

Now, I do not know the heart motives of the Resolutions Committee or the messengers who did not want to name it as a worldview we specifically reject.  But the most common refrain we heard from the platform this year was “the world is watching.”  That at least hints that our SBC leaders are scared of being branded racist, and of possibly losing black or African American churches if they specifically rebuke CRT/I.  Indeed, some prominent black SBC leaders have been leaving the convention, like John Owunchekwa and Charlie Dates who pastor in Atlanta and Chicago, respectively.  They did so simply because the seminary presidents issued a statement last fall repudiating CRT/I by name and stating it would not be advocated in the seminaries.  And as Dates specifically stated, because Dr. Albert Mohler dared to state that he believed a Bible-loving Christian has to reject the Democratic Party Platform because of its obvious endorsements of evil. Another prominent SBC pastor, Dwight  McKissic threatened to leave the SBC with his church if the seminary presidents’ statement was ratified by the 2021 convention, dismissing the statement because it “originated with six Anglo seminary presidents.”  As if their skin color rendered them incapable of understanding and rightly applying biblical truth! McKissic has clearly adopted the worldview, the lens, the pre-suppositions, of CRT!

But if the SBC Leadership and the messengers of the SBC cannot find the doctrinal spine to, as one messenger aptly put it, “call a skunk a skunk,” then our witness to the lost world, regardless of the amounts of melanin those lost people possess, is already a wreck.  And if a black brother or sister cannot rebuke a white brother or sister, or vice-versa, because he or she is in obvious biblical error or espousing outright anti-gospel heresy, then our convention is already lost to the muddy morass of doctrinal and theological liberalism.  Liberalism despises doctrinal precision.  The Protestant Reformation did not happen by way of generic doctrinal statements and debates!  Truth has to be proclaimed with Spirit-enlightened precision. And error has to be called out in like manner.  The Apostle Paul called out Judaizers with gospel precision!

James Merritt rejected the attempt to amend Resolution #2 with a zealous diatribe that accused those of us who wanted to repudiate CRT by name of being more passionate about CRT than we are about evangelism.  It was unkind, to say the least, and it was a straw man argument.  He also said CRT was not in the Bible, so we need not name it.  Somebody forgot to tell that to the Resolutions Committee in 2019.  His diatribe received wide-spread applause.  My heart sank. 

Perhaps Resolution #1, “On Baptist Unity and Maintaining our Public Witness,” can shed some light.  It stated, “RESOLVED, That we will not permit our personal, social, theological, or political interests to supersede the urgency of evangelism and distract us from the task of the gospel’s advancement through the whole world.”  The messengers from the church I pastor immediately saw a problem with this wording.  It calls theology a distraction, and pits theology against evangelism!  It essentially tells theology to take a back seat to the Great Commission, as if they’re at odds.  But Jesus commanded us to make disciples of the nations by “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20).  The theology and doctrine of Christ is part and parcel to the mission.  This resolution, if memory serves me, was rightly amended to say “secondary theological interests.”  But the fact that this was brought to the floor as originally worded, gives me no great confidence in our SBC leaders’ concern for doctrinal purity which drives proper biblical evangelism.  What gospel we are proclaiming does still matter, doesn’t it?  Or, are we now just for cooperation for cooperation’s sake?  If so, let’s ditch the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 which is supposed to be our doctrinal standard for cooperating. 

I truly have no desire to be the nit-picky thorn in any SBC leader’s side.  But these first two resolutions of SBC21 did not serve to encourage me to keep wholeheartedly supporting the SBC.  They were just generic enough to be sure to pass messenger muster, without saying nearly enough given the very obvious debates and doctrinal errors running rampant among us today (in both broader evangelicalism as well as in the SBC). 

I wonder if the seminary presidents, whose anti-CRT statement I commend, will now demand that professors who have been promoting CRT/I and speaking publicly in ways that clearly demonstrate they have adopted that unbiblical worldview, publicly recant?  If not, why not?  When I have misspoken from the pulpit in years gone by, or when I have sinned in orthodoxy or orthopraxy, by God’s sanctifying grace I have confessed the sin or error and asked the church to forgive me.  Other pastors I know have done likewise, as this is just Christianity 101.  So, will we hear any public recantations?  Will any of the obviously pro-CRT professors at SBC seminaries be fired?  Based upon the seminary presidents’ statement, they should be! 

But I fear that SBC21 all but ensured those professors will stay safely ensconced in their professorships. Sadly, the mothers of America demanding resignations among school boards and public school teachers seem to have more courage than Southern Baptists right now.  And the world is watching . . .  

I just wonder if they are also applauding. 

Things have been heating up at local school board meetings all across our nation. 

And rightly so. 

Perhaps no issue I address as a pastor has stirred more hornet nests among church members than my unashamed plea for Christian parents to homeschool, private school, or do any kind of school other than public schools if at all possible. 

My position has nothing to do with my respect for Christians who teach in the public schools.  I pray for them to be salt and light in a very dark place.  I know saintly teachers who have been hog tied when trying to help their students think critically about Darwinian evolution.  And now, those same teachers are having to stand bravely against Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and an open onslaught of so-called “sex education” curricula that look and sound pornographic even to adults, much less the Kindergarten classes upon which they are unleashed.  How long Bible-believing Christian teachers can continue to stand against godless Teacher Unions and godless curricula remains to be seen.  But they have my prayers. 

My anti-public schools position is based upon three primary things:

1) My own personal experience. 

We pulled our oldest daughter out of 2^nd grade after the teacher sent notices home to parents that some “sex talk” had been going on between students, and they really had no idea what, where, who, when, why or how.  This forced me to recall that way back in the early 1980s, my family moved from a very rural area of North Carolina to a city in Kentucky.  It was in the city school 3^rd grade class that my classmates began educating me on all things sex, unbeknownst to my parents, of course.  What 3^rd grader wants to come home from school and tell his Mom and Dad he just learned about masturbation?  Why would I think if it was that bad in the 80s, that it’s somehow improved in the 21^st century?  Fact is, the public schools have long been a place where peers do the majority of educating one another.  Add social media and cell phones to this equation, and nothing but disaster could possibly ensue.  I remember a teen son of a friend of mine once telling his Dad that all the guys in his classes watched porn on their phones during class.  It was literally impossible for him to not see pornography somewhere at school during the normal day.  And that was a public high school in rural Kentucky! 

2) The curricula itself. 

Nearly every Christian church member, when confronted with some of the realities of the brokenness of the public education system, says, “But that’s not happening in our schools. We’re a small town. Some of our teachers are Christians.” And so on.  Well, praise God!  But we must realize that the curriculum does most of the instructing.  Teachers’ hands are often tied as to how much biblical worldview or Christianity they can insert into the classroom instruction.  I remember many years ago telling a Christian parent that atheistic evolution was being taught in every single class at the middle school level.  She looked at me incredulously.  So I asked her middle school son to let me borrow his math textbook.  I did not have to even read beyond the introduction to encounter statements about the earth being billions of years old (THE most foundational assumption of the theory of evolution).  It was stated as a fact.  In a math book!  Needless to say, she was awakened to the need to begin reading the textbooks that her son was reading in school.  That’s the only way to help them counter the devil’s lies with God’s truth!  You’ve got to know what they are reading and studying, then help them analyze and critique everything in light of the absolute truth of Scripture.  It’s a big task.  Christian parents putting their children in public schools must assess whether they’re up to it or not. 

3) The Word of God. 

The Bible makes little distinction between education, discipleship, instruction, correction, teaching, rebuke, and indoctrination.  These are all critical in raising up and nurturing children.  It’s a comprehensive view of parenting and pastoring that the Bible gives us.  We like to compartmentalize, but the Bible rarely does so.  Truth is, all education is indoctrination.  To indoctrinate simply means to teach and inculcate truths or principles into the mind.  And it is done so in hopes that the student will embrace a certain viewpoint or way of thinking and living.  There is no neutrality in education!  The end goal of teaching a student addition is to ensure he knows and believes that 2+2=4.  There are immutable principles and definitions that make it just so.  In the Bible, God assigns the primary role of educating children to parents and pastors (Deut 6; Psalm 78; Eph 6:1-4). 

Those are the three primary reasons I exhort Christian parents to strongly and prayerfully consider alternatives to the public schools.  Back in 2004, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott Disney for their aggressively pro-homosexual agenda.  The next year, a motion was proposed to also boycott the public schools for the same reason!  Of course, that motion was laughed to scorn.  This despite the most respected voice in the convention, Dr. Albert Mohler, endorsing it and going on record calling for “responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools.”  That hasn’t happened . . . yet.    

But now, it seems a year of lock-down where parents witnessed what is being taught to their children has awakened a sleeping giant.  Parents all over America are fired up about pornographic sex education and Critical Race Theory being pumped into their kids’ hearts and minds.  As well they should be.  But I fear it’s too little too late.  Only time will tell. 

Whatever educational decisions you make, please make them prayerfully.  This is not an issue that should prevent us from serving Christ in the same church joyfully together.  But it is, nonetheless, a very important issue.  Few things matter more than raising our children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord.  So, keep your eyes and ears open. Get engaged with the school boards, stand for truth, maybe even run for a position on the school board. Christian teachers, stand strong against the liberal powerhouse teacher unions.  Be bold to minister the gospel to students when God gives you opportunities.  Fear God. Not man.

To hear more:

https://www.facebook.com/elizabethjohnstonministries/videos/544450250047371/

https://youtu.be/_xx84042zd4

“For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You [Lord]” (2 Chron 20:12).

O Lord, God of our Fathers, are You not God in heaven?  You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In Your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand You.

Thus were the words of King Jehoshaphat of Judah.  As he prayed, we are told “All Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” 

As they prayed and cried out to God, the Spirit of God filled a prophet and he spoke the words of God to the people of God: “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.” 

The Southern Baptist Convention finds itself in a very similar predicament.  Maybe due to our own pride and sin. Maybe due to our allowing some theological drift towards man-centered philosophies and man-made solutions to problems that stem from our fallen state as Adam’s race.  Maybe due to our organizational structure not adjusting well to the rapidity of technological change.  Maybe due to us talking about one another instead of to one another.  Maybe due to our becoming far too influenced by the ways of our culture, instead of staying on the old paths.

I suspect all of the above.

But one thing is certain.  Only God can save us. Only God can preserve us. Only God can humble us. Only God can employ us for the glory of Christ in the propagation of the gospel.  Only God can grant us repentance and forgiveness where needed. Only God gives us wisdom. Only God.

So I offer this prayer as I and 16,000+ of my fellow messengers flock to Nashville next week:

O Lord God, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.  We glorify and exalt Your Holy Name for the ways You have chosen to use us as Southern Baptists to spread the good news of Jesus, the Savior of sinners, both near and far.  Heavenly Father, Your name is to be hallowed. Much of what we are engaged in publicly right now in the SBC is doing anything but. Please forgive us for Jesus’ sake. Lord God Almighty, You have brought us back from the brink of theological liberalism and gospel extinction before. O God, would You do it again?  Be pleased, for the sake of Your steadfast love and mercy in Christ our Lord, to rescue us from ourselves. From the devil, our real enemy. From the world, and the world’s systems which are antithetical to the gospel which makes us one new man in Christ Jesus.  Lord Jesus, You said what is hidden now will one day be shouted from the rooftops.  Give us a fresh awareness of this truth as the Holy Spirit moves in and among us. What needs to be exposed, please lay it bare. And grant us courage Lord, to do what is right in Your eyes.  Help us stand upon the absolute fixed truth of Your Word, which has always been settled in heaven. Settle it in our souls yet again. Father God, You do not need the SBC. Lord Jesus, You will build Your church with or without us as a denomination.  But we are pleading for mercy. That we as Southern Baptists might continue to be useful and fruitful by a sovereign work of Your saving and sanctifying grace.  Because Jesus is worthy of our doctrinal fidelity and great commission cooperation. Until the whole world hears, and until all Your elect are sitting around the table of the marriage supper of the Lamb.  In Christ alone, amen.

On Thursday, May 20^th, the Louisville Metro Council voted 14-11 to allow healthcare facilities to create “buffer zones” or “safety zones” around their entrances. 

Of course, anyone with a modicum of integrity knows this has nothing to do with healthcare.  It has everything to do with trying to ensure more women allow their unborn babies to be hacked to pieces inside their wombs.  It is yet another iteration of our morally repugnant, totally insane cancel culture.  If someone disagrees with you, and dares to voice that opposition, silence them at all costs.  Restrict their freedoms.  Ban their opinion. Create a “safe space” where nobody is allowed to say, “You’re wrong.”  Or, “please reconsider.”  Or, “may I pray for you?”  Or, “Have you thought about adoption?”  Or, “can I tell you about Jesus Christ?”   

Oh no!  We can’t have that!  Such harassment is out of bounds. 

Dr. Earnest Marshall, founder of the EMW Women’s Surgical Center (aka Abortion Mill), welcomed the legislation, telling local news WDRB, "Medically speaking, and first and foremost, our patients are psychologically damaged by the blocking, harassment, taunts and stalking for over a block when they are trying to enter our office.  This is extremely stressful and they express they are afraid on a public sidewalk.”

Well, that’s overly dramatic and mischaracterizing, to say the least.

But even if it were true, does this Doctor seriously think that being asked not to have an abortion while walking a city block is more psychologically damaging to women than actually having an abortion?  The load of guilt these women carry scars them for life, and often the father of the aborted baby is severely damaged as well.  I mean do we as a society truly believe that one can knowingly allow their baby to be slaughtered with psychological and moral impunity?  Not to mention, if the women think they’re scared, they ought to trade places with their unborn babies who are about to be on the chopping block!       

Politically, the Metro Council is claiming that a very divisive and hotly contested ruling by the Supreme Court in 1972 outstrips the clear First Amendment rights of abortion protestors, pro-life counselors, and side-walk prayer warriors.  That’s a weak political position, to put it mildly.  Abortion rights reign supreme over all other rights, so the argument goes.  This kind of argument is now being made from the Gay Marriage Supreme Court debacle.  So-called “gay rights” or LGBTQ+ rights reign supreme.    

Morally, the Metro Council is claiming that murdering an unborn baby is superior and preferable to protesting, counseling and praying outside a “health” clinic.  That’s demonic moral reasoning.  Pure insanity. 

Logically, the Metro Council is claiming that a pregnant woman must have a harassment free safe space, while turning the woman’s womb into the most unsafe space imaginable for an unborn baby.  The only reason that pregnant mom can have a safe space is because her mother did not abort her!  The abortion rights argument is bereft of logic.  It is bereft of science. It is bereft of morality.  It is bankrupt. Period.

And some of us God-fearing, Bible-honoring, Christ-loving pastors and Christians are 100% convinced that the judgment of God has been, is, and shall remain upon this nation until we finally put an end to this murderous scourge.  I simply do not see how any follower of Christ could expect otherwise.

The Metro Council voted to abuse and exploit vulnerable pregnant women. To ignore hurting vulnerable men. And to turn a blind eye to the sharp scissors puncturing babies’ tiny, precious, created-by-God skulls.  God have mercy on their souls.  God have mercy on our nation.  How can we escape His wrath? 

To the 4 Democrats on the Metro Council who voted with the Republicans against this barbaric excuse for healthcare legislation, I want to say thank you.  Thank you for your courage to buck your party’s satanic platform and agenda.  Thank you for doing what is right in God’s eyes, and for honoring our Constitutional freedoms.  May God grant repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ to all who have ever, or are now supporting abortion or wrestling with the aftershocks of having an abortion.  The righteous blood of Jesus can wash the vilest sinner clean.  Confess your sin and call upon His name for forgiveness.   

If you are pregnant and want or need help in the Southern Indiana region, please contact Choices Life Resource Center https://choiceslrc.org/.