Truth Unites - What Critiques of Alistair Begg Are Missing

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

In this video Gavin Ortlund reflects on how disagreement in the church is happening right now, stemming from responses to Alistair Begg's recent comments about attending a gay wedding ceremony. Truth Unites exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville. SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunites FOLLOW: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlund Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/ Website: https://truthunites.org/

Recently, Alistair Bag made some remarks about whether to attend a LGBTQ wedding, and it generated a lot of reactions. And I always initially feel this sense of, oh, I don't want to wade into this. That's not really my personality. I really get turned off by all the clickbait type stuff that inevitably comes up. But then you realize, and I talk with my wife, and I think it through, and I realize, you know, there needs to be healthy voices speaking gospel truth into these situations. And in this one, here's why I'd like to talk about this one.

the purpose of truth unites my YouTube channel is gospel assurance i want it to feel i hope i pray this way for every single video that it's like romans 5-1 stamped on the heart of a viewer peace with god the wonderful the happiest news in all reality the good news of the gospel i hope that and what that feels like not just abstract but in your heart i hope that every video shepherds people toward that because there's such a need for that in our time you know that if you watch my videos well i think one of the biggest impediments to seeing renewal, to seeing gospel refocus in our time is the way we conduct disagreement in the body of Christ. This is why I talk about theological triage so much. And I sort of grieve as I watch a situation like this play out because I think the way we're

disagreeing with one another is so often lacking in wisdom and love. Now here's, so here's how I'll address this. My convictions are such that I do have a different, uh, perspective than my brother Alistair Begg. So I would have a disagreement. I would give different counsel than he gives. To be brief to explain, I would say based upon what a wedding is and what attendance at a wedding has traditionally been understood to convey, I think a Christian should abstain from attending an LGBTQ wedding, but eagerly seek to express care and love for the person in other ways. If I have a neighbor who is marrying their gay partner, I would like to build a friendship with them. I would like to have them over in our home for a meal. I'd like to be a

good neighbor and so forth. But we have to give consideration to the larger ontological structure of marriage. A wedding, I sometimes think we're a little naive in thinking about these things. A wedding is something very specific and sacred and unique. It is a spiritual union in which God is the primary actor. Jesus said, what God has joined together, let not man separate. It's God creating something new between one man and one woman. And so when, if you're attending a wedding, because attending a wedding, traditionally that has been seen as a form of support and a kind of participation in what's happening. When I officiate weddings, I often will involve the participants as witnesses. I'll talk about, you know, our role here today is to support these two

as they take this step to pray for them. Sometimes there will be a specific time in the ceremony to pray for them, to pray God's blessing upon them. Sometimes I don't do this, but sometimes at a wedding, there will be an opportunity to express vocal dissent. I think right now in my mind the scene from the Princess Bride is coming into my head. You don't see this as much anymore, but this happens where someone says if anyone has a reason why they should not, you know, so the point is, if your conscience is such that you don't believe what is happening is a legitimate expression of that divine action of union, then participating in that way is something that is prohibited to you. you, that is how my convictions lie on this issue. But what I want to address in this video is sort of

the larger net effect of how a discussion like this is playing out and just the concern I have about the way people are responding to Alistair Begg in a way that I think is unhelpful and even destructive at times, even like Galatians 515, biting and devouring, consuming each other type stuff. Not in every case, but sometimes. Let me explain, I'll just be brief, brief video here. the main issue that what am I concerned about this tendency that I see to reduce a person to our disagreement with them even on a secondary or tertiary matter here we have a situation where a man has been faithful for decades in ministry including on the issue of marriage he's in an interview context he's giving advice on a very specific question of Christian prudence namely

in a grandmother to grandchild relationship in which the grandmother conviction is clearly known. He gives the advice that he gave. And the thing is, I love Alistair Bag. I know his heart. I know, I know who the man is. I actually don't know him personally, and I'm not tied with him in any official way, but I'm just saying I trust where he's coming from, what he's trying to do.

So you can disagree with someone without discounting their entire ministry or writing them off. but these reactions are so over the top in some cases. So many criticisms, though not all, but so many make this one comment a litmus test for his entire status. So there's significant organizations that cut ties with him. He's withdrawing from conferences. There's this swarm of critical reactions, some of which have this aroma of like sharks smelling blood in the water. It feels like people are eager to attack.

Like, what is that? That's not healthy. It feels wrong. And some of the criticisms are missing. representing his position. For example, you see people saying, oh, another pastor comes out affirming gay marriage. But that's not accurate. There's a difference between affirming gay marriage and affirming the legitimacy of attending a gay wedding ceremony in some cases. So that even if we don't come to the same position as Alistair on that, as I don't, we still need to be clear about what that position is. He's not

affirming gay marriage. But you see that. You see people saying that. You even see people opposing the quote-unquote nuance that's involved in a distinction like that. But I would say that nuance is all the more important when the temperature is raised, and this isn't even that nuanced. That's just a pretty basic distinction that's important for accuracy. So I guess to step back and look at the big picture of how this whole episode has played out and is playing out and the way I see these things happening in the body of Christ, I feel compelled to share this concern that something feels broken about the way we are doing

disagreement in the body of Christ. We're creating a culture of reactivity that encourages an all-or-nothing reaction that flattens a person into their stance on the latest controversial issue, rather than situating that issue in relation to the wholeness of their person, their ministry, and their identity in the gospel if they are indeed our brother and sister in Christ. That's why we need to do triage. Figure out how important is this thing. That's what I said, you know, Alastair Begg's counsel is it is what it is. It's specific counsel in that context. Now, of course, I'm not saying that we shouldn't give public criticism or disagreement, like I just did at the beginning of this video with Christian leaders. But what I'm saying is

we need to give criticisms that avoid reducing people into the one issue where a disagreement exists, particularly if that one issue is one in which godly Christians differ. We need to have the ability to say in the body of Christ. I disagree with so-and-so on issue X, but there are so many good things about them for which I praise God, and we are ultimately together in the gospel. If we can't do that, very few pastors and leaders and theologians will make it. John Stott will be canceled for his views on annihilationism. He'll be written off as a liberal. C.S. Lewis for his views on inerrancy or inclusivism. Dietrich Bonhofer for his views on the historicity of Genesis 2 and 3, you can just go down the line. From Billy Graham back to the church fathers,

very few people will survive the culture we are creating right now. Can I just say that again? Very few Christians, very few pastors, very few leaders can survive the environment that we are creating, this reactive, you know, everything's an explosion, everybody's a lightning rod. Something is broken about this. We need. the ability to calmly, biblically work through our disagreements, carefully doing theological triage. I know I sound like a broken record talking about theological triage, which means ranking different issues. It's because I so believe it's important right now in the times of polarization in which we live. I have a video on that, if you're interested in learning more

about that. So practically, what does this look like? Well, I really don't know all the answers, but I've just been thinking about a few specific things. One is a simple thing of what if we stopped having public disagreements on social media on the Sabbath, on the Lord's Day, on Sunday. I see a lot of these heated battles break out on Sunday morning and people are fighting and so forth. And I'm thinking, you know, I remember my wife and I went through this season where, you know how it is. Every parent knows this, where if you want to go somewhere on Saturday morning, if you're going to the park on Saturday morning, it's easy. But when you try to get to church on Sunday morning, everything goes wrong. and you're like, what, you know, I have a lot of non-Christians who will watch my videos,

who will maybe make fun of me for this, but I do think there's an element of spiritual warfare in the weekly rhythm. I think Satan hates Sundays, and a lot of times he tries to disrupt Sunday mornings. So we used to have a time, Saturday night, prayer, pray for the next morning, bathe the day in prayer. What if? So I, so, for example, I was thinking, just, I'm sharing personal thoughts. I don't want to bind someone else's conscience on a really specific thing like that. I hope this one doesn't sound too trite. But it's just, I'm trying to get practical thinking. How do we do this better? Because the answer is not to stop disagreeing. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying stop doing public critique. But I just grieve at the thought of a godly, seasoned veteran pastor like Alistair Begg.

This doesn't feel right. The way we're doing these kinds of, the way we're reacting, the way things are playing out, especially on social media. So I'm thinking, what do we do? Well, one, Maybe we just block out Sundays. You know, for me, I'm not going to post anything controversial on Sundays going forward. I was just like, that's something I can do, a small thing. Unless it's like a devotional video, you know, I'll wait until Monday morning. And I thought, what if we just took a break from fighting? Don't let Satan feed off of our enmity, at least on Sunday.

At least when we're honoring the resurrection of Christ and worshiping God, at least give it a breather. I mean, we should never allow him to feed off of our enmity, which he does. But at least give consideration to that. You know, I'm trying to think of practical things. Another thing I thought of is just how can we speak with honor about our leaders? That is totally biblical. Even if you disagree with them, I think First Timothy 5-1 has some relevance to this situation. I'm not saying it's directly applicable, but it has relevance, the principle there.

Show respect. So many people criticizing Alistair Begg, they don't have. they're not tested and seasoned in ministry, but they're quick to attack. But Alistair Begg, you know, he's been a faithful pastor for many years that should induce a sense of respect and honor. We should speak respectfully of our leaders, I think. And I, you know, in the times in which we live, you always have to qualify this. I totally, I know firsthand that there is a lot of pastoral malpractice that we need accountability for church leaders, yes, and amen. But I just feel that right now pastors are increasingly operating in a climate of suspicion.

You're guilty until proven innocent. We're having to regain trust. That's true for institutions generally right now. Trust in pastors especially is lower than ever. Christianity today ran an article I'll link to in the video description, showing that right now, less than one out of three Americans rate clergy as honest and ethical. I'll put up this graph. You can see how rapidly and precipitously public trust in clergy has fallen in just a few decades.

I don't think that's mainly because pastors are suddenly becoming worse people. There are bullies. There are narcissists. That's real. But I think the trend toward more and more distrust is more of a function of sociological trends right now in our culture. And it's deeply concerning to me. This is not healthy. What if that keeps going?

No wonder so few people want to go to seminary. No wonder so many pastors want to leave the ministry. I feel a little defensive of pastors. I know that makes me, some people, I don't know, I know that goes against certain trends, but I really feel that way. This Barnostat, I'll put in the video description to this as well, I'll put it up here. You can see it's alarming how quickly this is changing, how quickly and precipitously it's becoming more difficult to be a pastor. Every pastor is now a lightning rod. every cultural event, no matter what you do, you know.

So I guess you're in trouble with people. So I don't know, I don't have answers here. I'm saying we all got to come together and figure out how to reverse this trend. All of us lose in scenarios in which the pastoral office becomes more and more distrusted. We all benefit from creating an environment in which our pastors and leaders can flourish. The answer certainly is not to disallow public critique, but I think every time, time we give a public critique, it's good to ask, is this from the Holy Spirit? What is the culture that I'm contributing to? Overall, what's the net effect of this? And if you're like me and you want to see

renewal in our times, revival in our times, we want to create an environment that feels like Galatians 1-6, where it talks about a spirit of gentleness. And it talks about watching yourself, lest you be tempted. And I think that little end clause means we need to know that spiritual correction has its own unique temptations and oh man do we fall into sin when we start attacking others very easily final point something simple is we need to show love along the way here's a simple fact some people won't like this i'm going to make say it here this is again right at the heart of the purpose of my channel humanly speaking the world will respond to the gospel based upon whether we love one another in the church i was talking with my friend Trevin Wax about this. He talks about this a lot in episode one of his excellent podcast,

Reconstructing Faith. I'll put a link to the YouTube video for that first episode in the video description. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts as well. But he reminded me of this Francis Schaefer quote that he quotes there. It's about Jesus's statement in John 13 that the world will know we are disciples, his disciples by our love for each other. And Schaefer pointed out, He said that Jesus gives the world a right to judge whether you and I are born again Christians on the basis of whether we show love to all Christians. Looking at how this episode plays out and the net effect it has, I'm asking this question, what's the overall net effect to the onlooking world?

Not good. Because of the way we're going about it, in my opinion. And I'm concerned that so many Christians I know are suspicious of these values, they say, oh, we shouldn't be concerned about our credibility in the eyes of the world. That's compromise. If you start looking for credibility from the world, you're going to be tempted to, you know, soften your convictions and gain in favor and so forth. And that's a valid concern and principle that definitely can and does happen. Nonetheless, these are the words of Christ. You know, what Trevin shows in his podcast, he quotes early Christians showing this is nothing new,

this idea from John 13. But more important, I'll put up some examples, but more importantly, this is biblical. This is straight out of the words of Christ, or you can think four chapters later, the final night he spent on this earth was praying for unity among Christians with the purpose that's so that the world would believe in him. So if we have a problem with seeking unity and love with all other true Christians, we have a problem with Christ himself. This was his prayer.

And I think what that means is, among so many other things, when we conduct disagreements, we need to do it with a spirit of love and even openness to reconciliation along the way. When there's public controversy, we should strive to show love in the midst of it and not reduce someone to this one disagreement. And, you know, I guess I could just finish by saying this. I long to give my life to a new positive movement of the gospel in our time, which is so desperately needed. I think young people are open, are spiritually open right now. but so often we're so fighting about things we're not even, we're not as receptive and responsive to that as perhaps we might be. So I would say, let's build a new culture in how we work through our disagreements in the body of Christ,

one that reflects beauty and honors people and recognizes the wholeness and complexity of their humanity. Let's build something fresh and good that is of the Lord. I'll leave you with this. I don't even know what all that means, but can we join together to try to figure it out? You know, let me leave you with this quote from Charles Spurgeon. He's talking about someone with whom he has profound disagreements, George Herbert. And yet here's what he says, where the spirit of God is, there must be love. And if I have once known and recognized any man to be my brother in Christ Jesus, the love of Christ, the love of Christ, constraineth me no more to think of him as a stranger or foreigner, but a fellow-same. citizen with the saints. Now I hate high churchism as my soul hates Satan, but I love George Herbert, although George Herbert is a desperately high churchman. I hate his high churchism, but I love George Herbert from my very soul, and I have a warm corner in my heart for every man who is like him.

Let me find a man who loves my Lord Jesus Christ, as George Herbert did, and I do not ask myself whether I shall love him or not. There is no room for question, for I cannot help myself. unless I can leave off loving Jesus Christ, I cannot cease loving those who love him. I will defy you, if you have any love to Jesus Christ to pick or choose among his people. Simple question that that wonderful quote challenges us with. Do we have a warm corner in our heart for all the sheep of Christ? If we love Christ, we must love the ones he prayed for in John 17. That's not compromise.

That's just obedience to Jesus. And that's what I kind of want to give my life to is exploring that. And I, you know, it's not formulaic. Leave room for accountability, leave room for the pastoral epistles, for distancing yourself when necessary in all the complexities of life. But have a warm corner in your heart. Yeah, it's just what's on my heart tonight. Hope that's helpful.