It’s October! It’s time for our Semper Reformanda conviction rubber to meet the road. Love for Christ, for His Church, for 1.3 billion perishing Roman Catholics, and for compromised and hypocritical Christian leaders requires #SemperReformanda to be more than a Twitter hashtag, more than a point in a Reformation Day sermon, and more than mere words on a page in a history or theology book. It’s time for many Reformed and Evangelical pastors, leaders, and professing Christians to get to reforming or to get a new name. If you’re not actively reforming through the clear declaration and defense of the Gospel…you’re not really Reformed or Evangelical. If you aren’t willing to lovingly expose the soul-damning, Satanic evil of Roman Catholicism and call real Catholics to really repent and really believe the real Gospel…you’re not really Reformed or Evangelical. If you partner with, provide sheep’s clothing to, feed, help, and refuse to call out and expose perverted wolves in sheep’s clothing that walked boldly into our midst with a G3 Conference tag on (Doug Wilson & Mike Reid)…you’re not really Reformed or Evangelical…you’re not really qualified to exhort men to be manly, or to have backbone, or to demand that men repent for “slandering” your stalwart ministry…you’re actually a compromising hypocrite who should repent publicly.
There’s much to be commended in Josh Buice’s life, ministry, and teaching. The same can be said for his G3 Conference. However, that which is commendable doesn’t negate Josh Buice and the G3 Conference’s need for reformation. The recent social media scuffle between Costi Hinn, Doug Wilson, and Josh Buice brought the much-needed moral and Gospel reformation to the light of day.
Josh Buice Biblically Calls Out and Exposes Error on Social Media, Just Not the Error of Men in His Camp of G3 Ministry Friends and Partners
Not only does Josh rightly call out erring musicians like Chris Tomlin and Word of Faith false teachers like Joyce Meyer, but he dogmatically defends it by saying, “To shut your mouth would be a lack of manliness, backbone, and to violate God’s Word.” and then goes on to reference the Epistle of Jude as a clear defense of his social media rebuke of Tomlin and Meyer. Josh is absolutely right, “When wolves attack the church, you don’t feed them and help them…you call them out.”
Unfortunately, Josh is absolutely wrong when it comes to perverted wolves in his own circle of friends and G3 ministry partners. It’s easy and costs you nothing to call out and expose erring musicians and female TBN preachers outside of your theological camp and ministry. It’s not easy and it costs you significantly to call out and expose perverted wolves who are well within your own camp and circle (look what happened to Costi Hinn). Denying his own sound Biblical counsel…Josh has hypocritically fed and helped Doug Wilson…while refusing to call out and expose him.
Where are the manly men with backbones and waists girded up with truth who will stand up against the tide of those protecting Doug Wilson and wage a good warfare against Doug’s blasphemy of Christ and His Gospel?
“This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
1 Tim. 1:18-20
Where Are the Manly Men With Moral Clarity, Gospel Clarity, and the Essential Backbone To Stand by Their Convictions…Alone if Necessary?
Where are all the influential Evangelical, Reformed, Protestant, Biblical G3 Conference preacher men with Bibles and backbones at? Why are they either strategically and stubbornly silent or actively defending a Gospel blaspheming pervert? Doug Wilson is an incorrigible heretic and pervert with an army of Wilson-ite defenders ready to call anyone who exposes him a slanderer…in the same shameful way that an army of Driscoll-ites defended the heretic and pervert, Mark Driscoll, before him. I used to wonder how Joseph Smith got away with his wild twisting of the Gospel and stealing other men’s wives, but over the years the repeated pattern of willful blindness toward men like Mark Driscoll, Mike Reid, and Doug Wilson has helped me understand how heretic perverts get away with it. Praise God, some faithful men are beginning to openly stand up against Wilson’s false gospel, perversion, and growing corrupting influence.
Pastor Costi Hinn stood up on Twitter and got hated, ridiculed, and called a slanderer for it. He planned to do a podcast exposing Wilson and he got significant pushback that resulted in him removing a podcast in which he mentioned Wilson and a shocking reversal of conviction and sickening public display of smiling unity with Doug Wilson. Costi couldn’t withstand the Wilson-ite storm and (perhaps worse) the censor of influential men who have long been compromising with Wilson…namely, Josh Buice, who hosted Doug Wilson at the G3 conference like he’s a theological reformed rock star and not the counter-reforming “Catholics are Christians too” heretic pervert that he so demonstrably and undeniably is. Pray Costi counts the cost and stands back up! No doubt his moral and theological head is a little fuzzy from the public beating he took.
Pastor Jon Moffitt, of Theocast, released a video September 26th, titled, Is DOUG WILSON a FALSE TEACHER? He stood up and he too received the Wilson-ite standard Doug defense in the form of accusations of misrepresentation, divisiveness, and slander…but he did not back down.
Pastor Duncan Forbes, of Council Estate Christianity, made an introductory video and put together a PDF file cataloging Wilson’s perversions, false teaching, and outright heresy. I don’t condone all the individuals quoted in the PDF file, but it serves as a thorough catalog of Wilson quotes and links to original sources. If you can read and or listen to all that this perverted heretic has written and said…and still walk away a Doug Wilson fan…something is deeply wrong with your moral and theological discernment.
A word of caution to those of you calling faithful men (like those above) slanderers for exposing Wilson’s false gospel and perversion and/or exposing your promotion of Doug Wilson and your apathy toward his heresy and perversion. Wrongly calling godly men slanderers for exposing obvious, irrefutable, false teaching, heresy, perversion, and unholy alliances…is actually slander.
A word to the Wilson-ites who dismiss all Wilson criticism out of love of country, hatred of tyranny, and love of Biblical manliness. I’m an America loving, flag waving, gun owning, tyranny hating, anti-woke, anti-BLM, anti-ANTIFA, anti-LGBT agenda, anti-egalitarian, patriot, with a USMC tattoo on my right arm…who has pastored and preached the Gospel in the pulpit and on the streets of Portland, Oregon, in the city center, at the riverfront, at abortion clinics, etc. for well over 20 years. Doug Wilson doesn’t offend me because I’ve never heard juvenile sexualized speech, or because I’m woke, or because I disagree with pedobaptism. As a man and an American there are many things that I agree with and appreciate about Doug Wilson and his followers. As a Christian man, a husband, a father, a pastor, a minister of the Gospel, and a reformer there are many things that I find disgusting, shameful, and blasphemous. Here’s my own July, 2022, message of warning regarding Wilson’s false gospel and gross perversion.
Josh Buice Can’t Defend His Hypocrisy With Doug Wilson in the Light of Day…so He Canceled/Blocked Me on Social Media
Josh Buice and I have much in common. We love much of the same theology and many of the same preachers. That commonality has made me hesitant to expose his long-term compromise and hypocrisy with the perverted wolf in G3 Conference sheep’s clothing named Mike Reid. When the social media scuffle between Costi Hinn, Doug Wilson, and Josh Buice broke out earlier this month and I saw Josh publicly beat down Costi Hinn and once again refuse to protect Christ’s Church from an obvious perverted wolf in sheep’s clothing…I publicly asked Josh Buice a question on Twitter that should have been easy to answer. Josh inadvertently described Doug Wilson in his October 12th tweet below, saying, “Many false teachers are good communicators.” He then admonished Christians everywhere to, “Beware. Be discerning. Be wise. Be committed to Scripture. [And] Be willing to separate from false teachers.” This was a logical place to ask a pointed question after what took place earlier in the month with Costi and Wilson. Buice’s response was deeply and consistently disappointing.
Here’s the backstory regarding Josh Buice’s connection with Doug Wilson. Josh has been quoting and highlighting Doug Wilson on his G3 Ministries website for years…Josh partnered up with Doug Wilson, Cross Politic, and New Saint Andrews (Wilson’s college)…Josh taught at New Saint Andrews…Josh hosted Cross Politic and Doug Wilson at the G3 Conference…and then Josh deceptively downplayed his connection with Doug Wilson and boldly crafted an entirely misleading false narrative, saying, “Did DW come to G3 as an attendee a few years ago? Yes.” as if that was the extent of their connection.
My Twitter exchange with Josh reveals his inexplicable commitment to obfuscation, mitigation, and deception in order to avoid answering my original question, “Is #DougWilson a perverted heretic to be exposed and separated from…as a man who calls women ‘cunts,’ Catholics ‘brothers,’ and says an antichrist Catholic apologist is genuinely saved…or is Doug a godly preacher worthy of a #G3Conference booth?”
Protect the Pervert Wolf in G3 Sheep’s Clothing! Silence the Truth. Cancel the Pastor Who Pleads With You To Take Your Own Counsel.
Josh Buice never answered my originalquestion, “Is #DougWilson a perverted heretic to be exposed and separated from…as a man who calls women ‘cunts,’ Catholics ‘brothers,’ and says an antichrist Catholic apologist is genuinely saved…or is Doug a godly preacher worthy of a #G3Conference booth?” Why didn’t he just answer? For a man who publicly calls out Chris Tomlin, Joyce Meyer, and Beth Moore…many would think the answer to my question would be easy. Nor did Josh answer my subsequent questions, in which I compared Doug Wilson’s statements to Charles Spurgeon and John MacArthur’s and asked who was lying. His compromise and hypocrisy with Doug Wilson is undeniable. Josh Buice’s refusal to take his own counsel to call out, expose, and separate from false teachers, heretics, and perverts in his own circle of G3 friends and ministry partners is clear.
Josh Buice couldn’t stand in the light of day SO HE CANCELED ME with the block button. Who gets promoted and who gets canceled/blocked? Josh Buice partners with and promotes the pervert, heretic, wolf in G3 sheep’s clothing who teaches his fictional niece and vicariously every other young Christian woman that their potential suitor, “should be aggressive enough and well endowed enough to satisfy you sexually;” who boldly, repeatedly, and unapologetically demeans women with ugly, sexualized slurs, like “twinkies in tight tops…waifs with manga eyes…easy lay…lumberjack dykes…harridans, termagants, harpies, crones…small breasted biddies…[and] just a couple of cunts;” who calls Catholics “brothers;” and who says one of Satan’s chief antichrist Catholic apologists (G.K. Chesterton) is a genuinely saved Christian brother and now in Heaven. Josh Buice cancels/blocks the pastor exposing the pervert, heretic, wolf in G3 sheep’s clothing. All Josh Buice had to do was to play the man he calls others to be; to take his own Biblical counsel; and to call out, expose, and separate from false teachers, heretics, and perverts in his own circle of G3 friends and ministry partners for the protection of Christ’s Church and the rescuing of 1.3 billion perishing Catholic souls. In a text conversation with Josh regarding his compromise and hypocrisy with Doug Wilson, I repeatedly exhorted him to bring the needed reformation to the G3 Conference, to protect Christ’s Church, to stand against perversion and heresy…and not to force me to do it for him.
As I said in my opening paragraph. It’s October! It’s time for our Semper Reformanda conviction rubber to meet the road. Love for Christ, for His Church, for 1.3 billion perishing Roman Catholics, and for compromised and hypocritical pastors and Christian leaders requires #SemperReformanda to be more than a Twitter hashtag, more than a point in a Reformation Day sermon, and more than mere words on a page in a history or theology book. It’s time for many Reformed and Evangelical pastors, leaders, and professing Christians to get to reforming or to get a new name. If you’re not actively reforming through the clear declaration and defense of the Gospel…you’re not really Reformed or Evangelical. If you aren’t willing to lovingly expose the soul-damning, Satanic evil of Roman Catholicism and call real Catholics to really repent and really believe the real Gospel…you’re not really Reformed or Evangelical. If you partner with, provide sheep’s clothing to, feed, help, and refuse to call out and expose perverted wolves in sheep’s clothing that walked boldly into our midst with G3 Conference tags on…you’re not really Reformed or Evangelical…you’re not really qualified to exhort men to be manly, or to have backbone, or to demand that men repent for “slandering” your stalwart ministry…you’re actually a compromising hypocrite who should repent publicly.
I’m praying that Josh Buice preaches a pivotal Reformation Day sermon of repentance tomorrow in which he man’s up, shows more backbone than it takes to call out Joyce Meyer or Beth Moore, and calls out the perverted counter-reforming wolf that he helped bring into our midst with a G3 Conference name tag hanging around his furry neck. I’m praying Josh Buice’s elder board, the men who sit on the G3 Ministries’ board, and the men who fill the G3 Conference’s pulpit will follow Buice’s Biblical counsel to not feed, not help, but rather call out, expose, and separate from obvious wolves…and not follow his unconscionable example of partnering with, feeding, and giving dangerous wolves G3 Ministries sheep’s clothing to help them devour the sheep of the Lord’s fold. I’m praying Costi Hinn will pick up his pastoral rod and staff once more and do some righteous verbal reformation violence to the wolf that publicly beguiled him and any men that facilitated it. I’m praying that more men with Biblical moral and Gospel clarity who do not “lack manliness, backbone, and [refuse] to violate God’s Word” will stand up and speak up in both the spirit and embodiment of Semper Reformanda. I’ll give C.H. Spurgeon the final word of admonishment.
There are hundreds of pastors in Portland,
Oregon (America’s most atheist city). Do
you know how many of them I’ve bumped into ministering the Gospel at the
abortion clinic, at parades, in the city square, at the riverfront, or anywhere
else? Not one, not ever, in over 20 years of pastoral ministry. If you took a
survey in all of America’s
cities you would find it’s much the same. As a rule, pastors won’t obey the
Bible, won’t obey the Great Commission, and won’t “do the work of an
evangelist” in the manner the Lord Jesus commanded and so clearly
exemplified personally and through His Apostles on the inspired, inerrant, and
authoritative pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and the rest of the New
Testament (2 Tim. 4:5). What’s worse is that they not only won’t do it, they
won’t teach it, they won’t support it, and they often outright condemn Biblical
evangelism as detrimental to souls and the good reputation of the local church.
They’re what I call “Don’t go therefore!” pastors. They have exchanged Christ’s
Great Commission command for the self-loving goals of staying popular,
prosperous, and safe in a world that hates God, His Law, and His Gospel. They
may give lip service to the Great Commission or the plight of perishing
sinners, but they’ve chosen love of self over love God and neighbor and
defiantly refuse to die to self and take up the cross — forsaking their
cherished popularity, prosperity, and safety.
What’s the result of this long term “Don’t go therefore!”
pastoral defiance of Jesus Christ’s Great Commission command in America?
The result is the abandonment of God-centered, Bible-driven ministry and the
adoption of man-centered, seeker-centered, pragmatism-driven ministry and the
rebellious deconstructing and reimagining of the church, preaching, evangelism,
missions, Heaven, Hell, the Gospel, and God Himself. The result is the
conscious rejection of the one true God, the God of the Bible, the only God
there is. The result is the decline and widespread rejection of Biblical
Christianity as antiquated, ugly, hateful superstition. The result is the rise
of professing Christians, seminary professors, and pastors who sympathize with Christopher
Hitchens’ literary ax-grindings against God and are apt to say and teach things
that sound like quotes from his book, GOD IS NOT GREAT: HOW RELIGION POISONS
EVERYTHING. The result is the rise and near universal acceptance of the faith
system and worldview of atheism under the guise of Naturalism, Materialism, Big
Bang Cosmology, and Evolution in schools, universities, seminaries, churches,
and society as a whole. The result is the rise and absurd promotion of the
oppressive, cruel, misogynist, murderous, jihadi terrorism inspiring, soul
damning, false religion of Islam as a “beautiful and peaceful religion.” The
result is the rise of rampant immodesty, unbridled lust, sexual immorality, and
the accompanying mass genocide of millions of unborn babies in America’s
abortion clinics. The result is the rise and globally enforced celebration of
radical homosexual perversion and gender rebellion in which you are commanded
to don a purple shirt, wave a rainbow flag, bend your knee, and gleefully
confess the glory of Sodom and Gomorrah with an obligatory lisp or be labeled,
ridiculed, marginalized, and cancelled as a disgusting homophobic hater worthy
of only derision and destruction. The result is the rise of a false woke
church, with false woke teachers, with a false woke gospel, and false woke
converts who exchange the moral commands of God for the immorality of Satan.
The result is churches filled with unrepentant Democrats who support and vote
for the advancement of everything God hates — calling evil good and good evil —
while they pretend to love God and Jesus too (Isaiah 50:20).
How has this happened? Those “Don’t go therefore!” pastors
have the same Bible you and I have. They have the same four Gospels that
contain the Great Commission example and commands. They have the same book of
Acts that records the history of Christ’s Church obeying Christ, going
everywhere, preaching to everyone, suffering, dying, filling their cities with
the doctrine of Christ, filling the Athenian
Square with the Gospel of Christ, and turning the
world upside down for the glory of Christ in the redemption of sinners.
They have Matthew 28:18-20 in their Bibles:
“Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority
has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
They have Mark 8:34-38 in their Bibles:
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples
also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s
will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and
loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For
whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His
Father with the holy angels.”
They have Luke 24:47 in their Bibles:
“Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
They have Acts 1:8 in their Bibles:
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.”
They have Acts 2:40-41 in their Bibles:
“With many other words he testified and exhorted them,
saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who
gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls
were added to them.”
They have Acts 4:18-20 in their Bibles:
“So they called them and commanded them not to speak at
all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to
them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to
God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and
heard.'”
They have Acts 4:29 in their Bibles:
“Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your
servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.”
They have Acts 5:27-32 in their Bibles:
“The high priest asked them, saying, ‘Did we not
strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your
doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!’ But Peter and the other
apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of
our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has
exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and
forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things.”
They have Acts 17:6 in their Bibles:
“These who have turned the world upside down have come
here too.”
They have Acts 17:16-18 in their Bibles:
“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him
when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the
synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace
daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers encountered him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler want to
say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,’ because he
preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.”
They have Acts 17:30-31 in their Bibles:
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but
now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on
which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.
He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
They have Acts 20:20-21 in their Bibles:
“I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed
it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews,
and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
They have Romans 1:16 in their Bibles:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is
the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”
They have Romans 10:14-17 in their Bibles:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they
are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the
gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’ But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So
then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
They have 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 in their Bibles:
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it
is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it
pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who
believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach
Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God.”
They have Philippians 1:27-30 in their Bibles:
“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of
Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your
affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for
the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries,
which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from
God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in
Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in
me and now hear is in me.”
The Bible is clear. The problem is today’s “Don’t go
therefore!” pastors simply won’t obey the Bible. The command and example of the
Lord Jesus is clear. They simply won’t obey Jesus, who they somehow manage to
call “Lord, Lord,” without blushing (Matt. 7:21-23). The command and example of
the Apostles is clear. They simply won’t obey the Apostles’ Spirit inspired
commands or follow their example while they shamelessly continue to preach
their epistles. They’re smarter than the Bible, Jesus, and the Apostles. In
fact, they’re far more spiritual and nicer too. I mean look what happened to
Jesus and His Apostles. They all were hated. They all suffered terribly. They
all died horrible deaths. Surely that’s no example to follow. Or is it?
“[Jesus] said to them, “Whoever desires to come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever
desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake
and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the
whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for
his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in
the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” -Mark 8:34-38
Today’s “Don’t go therefore!” pastors are smart. Too smart.
They’ve figured out a way to do Christianity and fulfill the Great Commission
that allows them to be popular, prosperous, and perennially safe. They’ve
figured out a way to do Christianity and fulfill the Great Commission that
gives them their best life now and avoids needlessly suffering for Christ’s
sake and “having the same conflict” the Apostles experienced with a Satanic
world system very much opposed to God, His Son, His Word, His Law, His Gospel,
His Heaven, and His Hell. What today’s “Don’t go therefore!” pastors fail to
get is that Jesus and His hated, persecuted, martyred Apostles successfully and
gloriously turned the world upside down. Their biographers can joyfully write,
“MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED!” at the end of their lives — and their tombstones will forever
have “FAITHFUL DOULOS!” boldly chiseled upon them. What today’s “Don’t go
therefore!” pastors fail to get is that the world is crushing their pathetic,
popular, prosperous, safe, apathetic, anemic, cowardly perversion of
Christianity and their churches too. No matter what feigned deception of
valiant Christian ministry they manage to pull off in life, their true
biographers will write, “MISSION FAILURE!” at the end of their lives — and
their tombstones will forever have “DISOBEDIENT REBEL!” emblazoned on them.
What are we to do? What’s the answer? What do we need in
this evil hour of compromise, cowardice, and encroaching spiritual darkness in
the world and the visible church? We don’t need smart men. We don’t need
creative men. We don’t need soft men. We don’t need fearful men. We need
faith-filled men! We need men who believe the Bible and obey it! We need
valiant men! We need men who don’t just quote the Apostle Paul when he says,
“To live is Christ and to die is gain!” but men who minister the Gospel like
him! We need men who don’t just quote George Whitefield, but men who minister
the Gospel like him! We need men who are empowered by the Spirit of God to die
to self, take up the cross, and “Go therefore!” in obedience to Christ their
King — who can truly say to Christ’s Church, “Follow me as I follow Christ!”
That’s God’s man. That’s the need of this hour and every hour. That’s the need
of this nation and every nation. That’s the need of Christ’s Church and every
local church. Nothing else will do.
Our seminaries and Bible colleges need to start asking potential
students on what street corners, in what parks, in what city centers, at what
abortion clinics, and where else they minister God’s Law and Gospel in
obedience to Christ’s Great Commission command as an entrance requirement? Our
seminaries and Bible colleges need to start training, equipping, and requiring
their students to engage in weekly Biblical ministry of the Gospel on the
streets as a graduation requirement. Our seminaries and Bible colleges need to
purposefully train up Gospel warriors who will march forth from their
institutions with the full armor of God fixed in place, the shield of faith in
their left hand, and the double-edged Sword of the Spirit in their
battle-trained right hand. Our seminaries and Bible colleges need to treat the
Gospel not just as a doctrine on the page, a doctrine to be believed, a
doctrine to be preached in the pulpit, but the central message of Christ that
must be proclaimed in accordance to the central mission and command of Christ
to “Go therefore!” to the highways and byways and rescue perishing sinners
wherever they’re found. Our seminaries need to equip Gospel men — men who
fearlessly declare, define, and defend the Gospel above all else — not mere
polished pulpiteers who safely exegete Paul’s Gospel battles from the pages of
Scripture while stubbornly refusing to enter the battle themselves.
Look around. Every form of abominable evil is advancing and
Biblical Christianity is ebbing from the earth. The era of the “Don’t go
therefore!” pastor must come to an end. We need courageous men who believe and
obey Romans 10:14-17 and equip others to courageously do the same:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they
are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the
gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’ But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So
then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Stephen Hawking, the world-famous theoretical physicist, said:
“I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science…If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn’t take long to ask: What role is there for God?”
We need to ask our atheistic, naturalistic, materialistic, big bang cosmologist friends a few vital questions. What exactly do you mean by “nothing?” By nothing do you mean absolutely nothing, or do you actually mean something? And who created and fixed these laws of nature you keep talking about?
You see Hawking was an avid believer in and champion of the Big Bang theory. He believed the universe began by exploding suddenly out of an ultra-dense singularity smaller than an atom — and that’s not nothing. He believed that from this speck emerged all the matter, energy and empty space that the universe would ever contain — and a speck isn’t nothing, a speck from which everything in the universe supposedly emerged is definitely something! He believed all that raw material that emerged from the speck of something evolved into the cosmos we perceive today by following a strict set of scientific laws — and that’s not nothing either, that’s a preexisting strict set of laws — and where do you get a strict set of scientific laws without a Law Giver? Stephen Hawking and the majority of secular scientists believe the laws of gravity, relativity, and quantum physics explain where the cosmos came from and all life in it — and those laws that govern the material universe aren’t nothing!
Clearly recognizing that a set of invariant, universal, immaterial, strict laws to which the entire material universe is subject to demands a Law Giver, Hawking wrote, “If you like, you can say the laws are the work of God, but that is more a definition of God than a proof of his existence.”
In Hawking’s conclusion to the first chapter of his final book, he wrote, “We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.” Saints, you don’t have the near-infinite design evident everywhere in our universe without the Grand Designer of Genesis chapter 1!
Let me humanize Stephen Hawking just a bit and then make a final important point. Hawking’s research career began at the University of Cambridge in 1962 with a big bang. No, not the Big Bang, but a personal big bang to his life and sense of wellbeing. At 21 years of age, just after entering his Ph.D. program, he was diagnosed with a devastating degenerative motor neuron disease. He was told he had two years to live. Another big bang came in 1962. Hawking was told Sir Fred Hoyle, his chosen Ph.D. supervisor, had no room for him as a student. As the most famous British astrophysicist in the world at that time, Sir Hoyle was the much sought after supervisor for up-and-coming physicists. Hawking simply didn’t make the cut. He was assigned to work with a little known physicist by the name of Dennis Sciama. The degenerative disease quickly weakened Hawking’s body, but his mind remained sharp. Two years into his Ph.D. work his motor skills began to fail. He had trouble walking and talking, but he was very much still alive. He defied the doctors and lived on to marry and have three children. Mr. Hawking died in 2018 at the age of 76…54 years after the doctors said he would die. Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement:
“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world. He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”
Elsewhere, Hawking had this to say about death, “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” Saints, what is love in an atheistic, naturalistic, materialistic universe according to the atheists’ worldview? If all we are is soulless products of random chance and time; if all we are is space dust fizzing according to a strict set of laws along with the rest of the material universe; if our friends, parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren are just cosmic computers made of space dust, with no soul, and no afterlife — then love in this universe is a meaningless fairy story for people afraid of the dark — and Lucy, Robert, and Tim’s statement about missing a broken down computer forever is just a fairytale too. If atheism, naturalism, and materialism are true — then there is nothing: no laws, no space, no time, no matter, no gravity, no life, no design, and no love.
Ex Nihilio, Nihil Fit. From nothing, nothing comes. The fact that you actually exist, that you’re reading this right now, and your hearts are actually full of love for your living and deceased friends and family members means atheism, naturalism, and materialism aren’t true. The God and truth of Genesis 1:1 are the only explanation for the cosmos, all life, and all love in it!
You don’t need to get woke, embrace the folly of the social
justice movement, or join #BlackLivesMatter to stand against hate, racism, and
murder. You just need your Bible and the most well known children’s Sunday
school song ever.
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’…So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” -Genesis 1:26-27
“You shall not murder.” -Exodus 20:13
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” -Matthew 22:37-40
“He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” -Acts 17:26
Our perishing neighbors and our burning cities don’t need
Christians to get woke, become social justice warriors, and take up Black Lives
Matter signs. Our perishing neighbors and our burning cities need Christians to
wake up, become Gospel warriors, and take God’s Word, God’s Law, and God’s
Gospel to perishing sinners. Here’s the social revolution Christ enlisted us
for:
“Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” -Matthew 28:18-20
America,
do you hear the laughter? The all powerful, all knowing, all holy Creator of
the universe and all life in it…is laughing.
America
rejected God. America
rejected God’s Word as a mythological work of men. America rejected God’s Law as an
archaic restrictive burden. America
rejected God’s Gospel as irrelevant foolishness and then joined the atheist
disciples of Richard Dawkins or the apostate disciples of N.T. Wright…who both
call the Gospel “cosmic child abuse.” We became gods unto ourselves, deciding
for ourselves what is good and evil…until nothing was evil at all…except God,
His Law, and His Gospel. We silently tolerated and then we loudly celebrated
fornication, adultery, abortion’s unconscionable murder of 1.6 billion babies,
homosexuality, transgenderism, drag queen story time, and then drag queen kids
dancing provocatively to the applause of sexual deviants with mom and dad
proudly looking on. How did America
get here? Friends, judgment begins with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17-19).
America’s
Christians refused to love God and love perishing sinners by “go[ing]
therefore” to preach God’s Law and Gospel in the city center, in the open
air, everywhere perishing sinners are found…calling every man, woman, and
child to repent and confess Christ as Lord. America’s Christians turned an
apathetic, hateful, blind eye to the cruel slaughter of 125,000 babies every
day and just kept getting their best life now while safely and comfortably
sipping their designer coffees. America’s
Christians opened their churches to the rebellion, the perversion, and the baby
genocide…calling the unregenerate, unrepentant participants their liberal,
then emergent, then woke Christian brothers and sisters. America’s
Christians filled Christ’s church with unholy rebels who hate God, hate His
Law, hate His Gospel, and delight in things God hates. Dear Christian, judgment
begins with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17-19).
America’s
churches despise the public revelation of God’s Law and Gospel. “You’re doing
it wrong!” is the universal Christian protest against the public proclamation
of the Gospel. America’s
churches despise what the Lord Jesus and His Apostles did. We train our pastors
and missionaries not to do what Jesus and the Apostles did. We train our
pastors and missionaries to be safe and respectable preachers behind pulpits,
not to be despised and rejected preachers like Jesus, Peter, and Paul in the
open air. We train our pastors and missionaries not to obey the Great
Commission by going to the world with a call to repent and confess Christ as
Lord. We train our pastors and missionaries not to do what both the Divine
Author and original recipients of the Great Commission did. We train our
pastors and missionaries not to fill their cities with the Gospel and turn the
world upside down by going boldly into the city square to preach Christ to
perishing sinners. We train our pastors and missionaries not to emulate the
dusty, courageous, dangerous, beaten, bloody, and often jailed preachers in the
book of Acts. Instead, we train our pastors and missionaries to preach the book
of Acts as a dusty history in the confines, comfort, and safety of a church
building. We spice up our sermons with quotes from Gospel heroes like George
Whitefield, but we won’t emulate them. Instead, we train our pastors,
missionaries, and congregants to invite the unregenerate, unrepentant, God
hating world to church. That’s not Christ’s Great Commission. It’s Satan’s
great compromise. It’s a satanic conspiracy to shut down the ministry of the
Gospel that Christ modeled and commanded. We have withheld the means of God’s
mercy and grace from our cities, states, and nation. We have invited God’s
judgment and His holy laughter on ourselves and our neighbors. As we watch our
neighbors celebrate gross sexual perversion; slaughter 125,000 of their
children a day; assault and murder each other in the streets; and vandalize,
loot, and burn our cities down…we cannot forget that judgment begins with the
house of God (1 Peter 4:17-19).
What does
the Lord Jesus say to America’s
criminally apathetic pastors, missionaries, churches, and individual
Christians? What does the Lord Jesus say to Christians who are getting their
best life now…who are busy pursuing things that are quickly passing away while
babies die, sinners perish, and America
burns? He says this, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own
soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed
of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of
Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy
angels’” (Mark 8:34-38). Brothers and sisters, judgment begins with the house
of God (1 Peter 4:17-19).
Without
God’s active sustaining mercy on our nation all it takes is a microscopic virus
and the death of one man in Minneapolis
to bring us to our knees, rip our country apart, light our cities on fire, and
end the world as we know it. Psalm 2 terrifyingly assures us that God is
laughing in His justice. Psalm 2 comfortingly assures us of God’s gracious
invitation to repent; to bend our knee to His Anointed; to kiss and obey His
Son as our Lord, our King, and our Master…and His promised blessing upon “all
those who put their trust in Him.”
Consider
the sober message of Psalm 2 for American Christians, for all of post-Christian
America,
and for all post-Christian Western nations in this hour in which we so clearly
hear God laughing at our united rage and futile rebellion:
1 Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. 5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: 6 “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” 7 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son,Today I have begotten You. 8 Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear,And rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
The
Coronavirus has given mankind an entirely unique opportunity. The
entire globe has never come to the grinding halt that we’re experiencing
today. Humanity has never been so universally humbled. In the midst of
the global pandemic panic we all have significantly more time and
motivation to consider life and eternity. Take a few minutes for sober
reflection.
What are you living for? What would your close
friends and family say you’re living for if they took a hard look at
your life, at where you spend your time, at where you spend your money,
at where you spend your energy, at what you view on television, at what
you view on the internet, at what you delete from your history, at what
fills your social media, at what makes you happy, at what makes you sad,
at what makes you angry, at what you laugh at, at what you support and
vote for, at your daily prayer or lack thereof, at your daily Bible
reading or lack thereof, at your worship or lack thereof, at your
obedience to the Great Commission or your lack thereof, at your empathy
or apathy toward the genocide of 1.6 billion babies since 1980, at your
empathy or apathy toward billions of sinners perishing in their sin, and
at what you’re willing to suffer and die for?
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” -James 4:13-14
You’ve got one brief life to live, one opportunity to glorify your God
and King who set His eternal love upon you; who was pierced for your
iniquity upon a cruel Roman cross; who took the eternal wrath of the
Father that your sin deserved; who laid down His holy life for your
wretched life; who rose from the grave on the third day conquering sin,
Satan, and and the curse of death on your behalf; who ascended on high
to sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede on your behalf; who
is preparing a place for you to abide forever under the eternal love of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — a place where there’s no more sin,
pain, disease, death, or tears — a new heavens and a new earth in which
only righteousness dwells.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!” -1 Timothy 1:15
How then should you live? How are you loving your God and King? What
are you doing about your King’s mission to save sinners? What are you
doing with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Who is hearing the the Gospel of
Jesus Christ from your lips and fingertips? What are you actively doing
to seek to save sinners who are one breath from eternal wrath? How are
you loving the men, women, and children all around you that are
perishing in their false religion and idolatry: Muslims, Catholics,
Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, Hindus, Oneness Pentecostals,
etc…? How are you loving the men, women, and children all around you
that are perishing in their sin: liars, thieves, drunkards, fornicators,
adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders,
non-binaries, rapists, child molesters, murderers, baby murderers,
agnostics, atheists, and every other god-hater who’s one heartbeat from
eternity in Hell?
“To live is Christ and to die is gain.” -Philippians 1:21
The Apostle Paul found the secret to getting your best life. Here it
is. LIVE FOR CHRIST! Be all in for Christ. Be busy about Christ’s
business of saving sinners. Knowing — to die is gain. Knowing — your
best life is later. Knowing — your best life is the eternal life that
your God and King purchased for you at the cross. The secret to getting
your best life is to die to self in this life, take up the cross in this
life, and unashamedly proclaim Christ and His Gospel from the rooftops
with certain confidence that your best life is the eternal life yet to
come.
“[Jesus] said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” -Luke 9:23-26
If you have confessed Christ as Lord — now is the
time to consider your life; to consider the brevity of your life; to
consider the meaning and purpose of your life; to consider how you’re
spending your one precious life; to consider how you’re living the life
that God authored for His glory; to consider how you should live in
Christ; to consider eternal life yet to come; to commit yourself to the
truth that your best life is later; to cry out to God that you might die
to self truly, take up the cross daily, follow Christ fully, and
unashamedly make the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ heard in this
diseased, dying, damned world that will soon burn with the heat of a
thousand suns.
If you haven’t confessed Christ as Lord — now is
the time! Flee from sin. Flee from death. Flee from Hell. Flee to Jesus
Christ: the only Savior, fully God, fully man, born of a virgin,
crucified for sinners, buried, resurrected, and seated at the right hand
of the Father as the only Mediator between God and men. Confess Christ
as Lord and be saved from the eternal and just penalty sin called Hell.
Your life is a vapor. Soon it will be gone. You’re one breath and
heartbeat from eternity in Hell. Here’s the sober truth. You may be dead
by the end of today. You may never see tomorrow. Even if you see ten
thousand tomorrows — all too soon — death and Hell are going to swallow
your precious life and soul. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of
security. Now is the time to flee to Christ and find forgiveness, grace,
mercy, and eternal life. Outside of Christ there is only the certainty
of death and Hell to come. In Christ there is life now and forever under
the fullness of God’s love.
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” -2 Peter 3:10-13
THREE DAYS OF SHEPHERDS’ CONFERENCE 20/20 TRAINING, BEING EQUIPPED TO “ACT LIKE MEN” AND PREACH COURAGEOUSLY
The 2020 Shepherds’ Conference mission is to reestablish our 20/20 theological vision and the courage to declare, define, and defend God’s truth in an age of woke, social justice, homosexual confusion and outright apostasy. It will be challenging and edifying. No doubt, the fellowship, worship, and preaching of God’s Word will fill our hearts to overflowing. Brothers, will we not feel the burning passion of Jeremiah to “act like men” and declare, define, and defend God’s truth courageously?
“Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.’ But His word was in my heart like a
burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I
could not.” -Jer. 20:9
What can we do about it? We can stand together as brothers in Christ from across the nation and around the world to proclaim the magnificent, all sufficient, all powerful, unchanging truth of Christ on the streets of Los Angeles!
It has become an annual tradition for many Shepherds’ Conference men to take this rare opportunity to gather and labor together in the Lord’s field of harvest in sunny southern California! Many pastors, elders, and men of God have preached the Gospel on the streets and at the abortion clinic for the very first time during the Shepherds’ Conference Gospel Outreach. The Lord Jesus commanded, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). The Apostle Paul turned the world upside down in obedience to that command, and late in his life he called the Elders of Ephesus to himself and described his evangelistic ministry, saying, “I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-22). The Apostle Paul commands Elders in the Pastoral Epistles to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5). Men, this is a vital part of our ministry. Let’s labor together as brothers in Christ — ministering the Gospel for the advancement of Christ’s Church on the sunny streets of Los Angeles!
We invite you to join us in “subdu[ing] the world to [Christ] by the preaching of His Word” and the distribution of Gospel tracts on the streets of the Burbank (John Calvin). For the glory of our Lord and the rescuing of sinners, we look forward to ministering the Gospel together with men from across the nation, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning (March 4th-6th) from 6:30 to 8:00 AM, at the North Hollywood Transit Station on Lankershim Blvd. Bring your Bible and your favorite Gospel tracts. We’ll have an amplifier for preaching and several thousand tracts on hand.
When the Shepherds’ Conference ends on Friday, stick around and enjoy the bonus of one more day of Shepherds’ Conference Evangelism on Saturday! Have you ever thought about starting an abortion clinic Gospel ministry for the saving of souls and rescuing of babies? At 7 AM on Saturday morning (March 4) we’ll be joining Shelton Ko and Don McGinnis, at the Family Planning Women’s Health abortion clinic in Mission Hills. Don faithfully ministers grace and truth at this abortion clinic all year long. He regularly sees many babies rescued from the slaughter and has sown the omnipotent seed of the Gospel into thousands of men and women’s hearts.
At 10:00 AM we’ll transition over to Hollywood Blvd. (just outside the metro station) and from about 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM preach the Gospel in the open air, disperse tracts, and enjoy Gospel conversations with thousands of tourists.
DON’T MISS THE SPIRITUAL ICING ON THE CAKE
We all love spiritual meat, potatoes, and cake. The Shepherds’ Conference provides all that and more! Shepherds’ Conference Evangelism is spiritual icing on the cake! It’s a rare opportunity to stand together in sweet fellowship laboring for the glory of Christ and the souls of men. It’s a rare opportunity to step out in faith with other brothers who may be able to encourage your evangelistic zeal and provide a bit of feet on the street training just like Jesus did with his disciples and Paul no doubt did with Timothy, his “true son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2). Hope to see you at arguably the finest conference on the planet getting your 20/20 theological eye glasses on and then getting out on the streets to courageously proclaim the God of all truth!
*NOTE:You can clickthe links for Google Map directions to each location. For more information you can reach me at pastorchuckbgbc@gmail.com.This outreach is not officially sanctioned by the Shepherds’ Conference, but praise the Lord, Grace Community Church and the Shepherds’ Conference sanction the ministry of the Gospel in the greater Los Angeles area and every other inch of God’s green earth.
“From among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.” -Acts 20:30-31
SHOOT THE MESSENGERCOVER-UP
Tony Mianowrote an article on February 8th, 2020, in which he addressed Christians biting and devouring one another. He provides several compelling quotes from long dead authors to make a solid case against Christians needlessly taking up pitchforks and torches against each other. On the surface it’s a good article, but the timing of its writing is not arbitrary or innocent. It comes on the heals of Kevin Jandt releasing several articles that expose Mike Reid’s dangerous and perverse teaching and practices.
Mike Reid is Tony’s pastor. Kevin’s last article (Deception, Abuse & Disqualification) came out January 14th. It’s primarily a devastating exposé of Mike’s ministry, but Tony’s complicit role in advancing and defending Mike’s alarming perversion of pastoral ministry is touched on as well.All of Kevin’s articles confirm the facts of the warning I’ve been giving for over three years (here, here, and here). Many of Tony’s recent tweets are congruous with the message and aim of his article. They all serve as an oblique attempt to shoot the messenger (Kevin Jandt) and mitigate the effects of his message.
WHO’S KEVIN JANDT AND WHY DOES IT MATTER
Who was Kevin Jandt to me in 2017? A brother in Christ, thoroughlybeguiled by Mike Reid, who: was under Mike’s perverse pastorate with his wife and children for nine years, served as a deacon, helped produce Mike’s “Ask a Pastor” videos, and publicly defended Mike’s ministry in direct opposition to my warnings — utilizing Mike’s well practiced shoot the messenger methodology against me.
Who is Kevin Jandt to me today? A brother in Christ, no longer beguiled by Mike Reid. Now, independent from each other and from very different starting points, we’re both working to expose Mike Reid’s undeniably dangerous perversion of Christianity and pastoral ministry. Now, we’re both targets of Mike and Tony’s shoot the messenger cover-up. You can see below where Kevin historically came to Mike and Tony’s defense on Facebook.
KEVIN AND HIS FAMILY SPENT 9 YEARS UNDER MIKE REID’S PERVERSION OF PASTORAL MINISTRY
In God’s perfect timing and grace, after 9 years, Kevin Jandt and his family came to see Mike’s ministry for the dangerous perversion of Christianity and pastoral ministry that it is. They left Grace Fellowship Church, moved far away from Iowa, found a genuine church, are active in Gospel ministry, and Kevin is pursuing a Master of Divinity Degree. Kevin’s not grinding an axe of bitterness against Grace Fellowship Church (GFC), Mike Reid, or Tony Miano…and neither am I. We’re Biblically laboring to love and protect Christ’s Church from the clear and present danger he and his family experienced first hand. Join me, and many others, in praying the Lord will use Kevin’s testimony and articles to:
Rescue other individuals and families from GFC.
Compel men and women who are ignorant of and/or apathetic toward the situation to take the necessary Biblical stand against Mike Reid’s perverse ministry for the protection of Christ’s Church.
Compel knowingly compromised men and ministries who actively promote and associate with Mike Reid, Tony Miano, and GFC on social media, at the G3 Conference, and elsewhere to repent and cease their compromise and complicity.
“Controversy is an odious thing; but there are days when it is a positive duty. Peace is an excellent thing; but, like gold, it may be bought too dear. Unity is a mighty blessing; but it is worthless if it is purchased at the cost of truth. Once more I say, Open your eyes and be on your guard.” -J.C. Ryle
KEVIN’S GRACIOUS WARNING TO THE CHURCH:
KEVIN EXPLAINS HOW TONY MIANO WAS RECRUITED AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TONY’S ROLE IN LENDING CREDIBILITY AND OPENING DOORS FOR MIKE REID:
KEVIN DESCRIBES HOW MIKE REID ABUSES PASTORAL AUTHORITY, SYSTEMATICALLY MEETS ALONE WITH MEN’S WIVES, INVADES MARRIAGES, AND UNDERMINES HUSBANDS IN THE NAME OF “SHEPHERDING” WOMEN:
KEVIN EXPOSES MIKE REID’S PERVERSE “PASTORAL” FIXATION ON SEX, MIKE’S DEMAND TO KNOW EXPLICIT DETAILS OF WOMEN’S MARITAL SEX (FREQUENCY, TECHNIQUE, NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS), AND HOW MIKE USES EXPLICIT DETAILS FROM HIS OWN SEX LIFETO HELP THE WOMEN FEEL COMFORTABLE SHARING:
NICK AND MIKE SHARE A PERVERTED PATTERN OF PASTORAL MINISTRY
THE BIBLE WARNS OF PERVERSE MEN RISING UP SPEAKING PERVERSE THINGS
In Acts 20:28-31, the Apostle Paul warned the elders of Ephesus, and all of Christ’s Church for all time, that men will rise up from within the visible church “speaking perverse things”to lead disciples away morally, theologically, and physically. He both establishes and actively exemplifies the essential ongoing pastoral ministry of “warning everyone” about dangerous false teachers who come from without and rise up from within the body of Christ to lead disciples away from Christ, truth, and righteousness. Paul warned everyone about Hymenaeus, Philetus, and Alexander the coppersmith by name — providing a Holy Spirit inspired example of how we are to warn Christ’s Church about false teachers and their perverse teachings. I don’t know of a man who has taught and stubbornly defended a more perverse set of doctrines and deeds under the guise of “shepherding.”
LESSONS LEARNED FROM TULLIAN AND HIS ENABLERS
How do perverse teachers speak perverse things, do perverse things, brazenly put their perverse teaching up on the world wide web, and get away with it for years? When men act as enablers and refuse to hear and heed Acts 20:28-31 and the other applicable Scriptures. Tullian Tchividjian had his defenders and enablers. Mike Reid and Tony Miano have theirs. The men, evangelists, apologists, and pastors who knowingly promote Mike Reid and Tony Miano are exhibit ‘A’ of how men like Tullian Tchividjian are able to bring scandal to Christ’s Church and harm so many women for so long. It’s destructive enabling whether it’s motivated by friendship, Tony’s relative fame, or just that it’s easier to ignore the obvious truth than to do the hard work of dealing with dangerous error. Not only are we to cease fellowship with men engaged in perverse, unfruitful works of darkness — we’re to expose them for the protection of others. Enabling perverse men, their perverse deeds, and their perverse teaching is willful defiance of Ephesians 5:11.
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” -Ephesians 5:11
MIKE’S SHOOT THE MESSENGER “RESPONSE TO SLANDER” IS ACTUALLY FAR MORE OF A CONFESSION THAN A DENIAL
Mike Reid’s release of his “Response to Slander” (see below) reveals that he, Nick Rolland, Tyler Bolkema, and Tony Miano (elders & evangelist of GFC) have been effectively running a slanderous shoot the messenger cover-upfor three years behind the scenes. I want to publicly thank Mike for finally bringing his hodgepodge of obvious lies to the light of day. It’s good to now know the concoction of lies that’ve long been told in the dark to cover up Mike’s shameful perversion of “shepherding” ministry. As transparently fallacious as they are, we now understand better why some men have ignored the warning they’ve been given and have continued to endorse, support, partner with, and promote Tony Miano and Mike Reid despite their undeniably dangerous and perverse doctrines and practices.
Here are the sequential steps to Mike Reid and Tony Miano’s shoot the messenger cover-up methodology. The first and most vital step is to delete the evidence. Second, lie boldly and tell everyone who’ll listen, “We didn’t say that! Chuck edited our words to make us say really crazy, disgusting, indefensible, dangerous things!” The third and final step is to shoot the messenger with a direct assault on his character and his credibility by telling everyone, “Chuck’s a liar, slanderer, gossip, reviler, and a servant of the Devil“…and keep on saying it for three years…without providing a shred of the necessary proof that your words were actually cut up mid sentence and pieced together to make you say things you didn’t say. Once you’ve thoroughly shot the messenger, his message (no matter how true) is dismissed as mere lies, slander, gossip, and reviling.
MIKE DOESN’T SEEM TO GET THAT ANYONE AND EVERYONE CAN HEAR THE MATTER FROM HIS OWN LIPSWITHOUT TALKING TO HIM OR ME…ANDTHATPROVERBS 18:13 & 17 CUTS BOTH WAYS
“He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him…The first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him.” -Proverbs 18:13 & 17
Mike references Proverbs 18:13 & 17 in his “Response to Slander” as if it’s a good defense for him. It isn’t. What Mike missed is that anyone and everyone can hear Mike’s uncut, unedited, full length perverse teaching for themselves. They don’t actually need to go to him or me to hear the matter or answer the matter. They can hear the matter from Mike and Tony’s own lips right here in edited for brevity form and the full unedited form: Mike Reid’s Perverse & Dangerous Doctrines & Practices. They can examine both his teaching and his claims of cut and paste, crafty editing simply by listening to and comparing the edited versions with the unedited versions for themselves. They don’t need to take my word that they weren’t diabolically edited or Mike’s word that they were.
Nevertheless, with Mike making his “Response to Slander” public, we now know Mike, Nick, Tyler, and Tony have been accusing me of lying, slandering, gossiping, reviling, and serving the Devilbehind the scenes for over three years. According to Mike, “godly men have practiced Proverbs 18:13, 17 by seeking out [their] testimony,” and they’ve all “been able to see through Chuck’s slander and gossip.” How’d the “godly men” obey Proverbs 18:13 & 17 without talking with me? They didn’t. How’d the “godly men” Biblically determine the dangerous and perverse teachings that came from Mike and Tony’s own mouths were actually just “slander and gossip?” They didn’t. They just took Mike and Tony’s good word on it.How’d the “godly men” compare these videos with Mike and Tony’s deleted videos and verify that Mike and Tony didn’t really say or teach unconscionable things? They didn’t. Did Mike and Tony actually show the “godly men” a single example where their words were “cut up mid sentence, and pieced together” to make them say shocking things they didn’t actually say? They didn’t, because it’s impossible to show where their teachings were “cut up mid sentence, and pieced together” when it didn’t happen. It’s odd that not one of the “godly men” who talked with Mike, Nick, Tyler, and/or Tony in accordance with Proverbs 18:13 & 17 ever talked with me about my supposed evil video editing skillsbefore believing Mike’s unsubstantiated accusations of lying, slander, gossip, reviling, and serving the Devil?
DIABOLICAL EDITING MADE ME SAY IT
Mike and Tony’s backroom claims of diabolical editing areobvious lies designed to cover up their perverse doctrine and deeds. Why did they delete all those audios and videos if they had nothing to hide? If it was truly safe, solid, and sound Biblical teaching, why don’t they put them back up and provide the necessary proof of how they were supposedly cut and pasted to make them say, teach, and defend undeniably wacky, dangerous, and perverse things they didn’t really say, teach, or defend? Seems like a no-brainer.
In Nick Rolland’s portion of GFC’s official “Response to Slander,” he tells the fabricated story of how it was Mike’s pacifist teaching in one of his “Ask a Pastor” videos that supposedly compelled Chuck O’Neal to start “slanderous attacks on Mike Reid and GFC.” I’ll take a moment to show this is an absurd lie.
Nick’s ridiculous story is that Chuck is such a wild eyed gun fanatic that Chuck lost his mind, declared war on Mike Reid because of Mike’s radical pacifism, and then started a slander campaign against Mike and one of Chuck’s best friends (Tony Miano). Make no mistake — Mike’s condemnation of Christians who serve in the military, his condemnation of Christians who serve as police officers, and his condemnation of Christians who own a gun for self defense and the defense of their families as premeditated murderers — disgusts me. It’s wholly unbiblical, and like so many of his doctrines, it’s dangerous. He’d strip the military and police force of all Christians. He’d have men stand by while unspeakable evil acts are committed against their families. Yep. I’m against that. It’s also crossed my mind that disarming the men of your congregation with extreme pacifist teachings is a good idea before you take over their home, take over their finances, take over their parenting, take over their marriage, take over their sex life…and embrace, kiss, and insist on regular private “shepherding” sessions with their wives.
In stark contrast to Nick’s lie, here are my brotherly admonitions and final words to Mike Reid regarding his pacifist teaching:
“My counsel is to take down the “Godly Men and Assault Rifles” discussion audio. It’s not Biblical. It’s not loving. It is unnecessarily offensive and divisive. I will love you either way, because you are a dear and courageous man, a genuine brother, a bold Gospel preacher, a protector of unborn babies…and my friend.”
With Love,
Chuck
PS. I remain in prayer for your recovery. Your ministry is vital. May the Lord soon strengthen you that you might press on for Christ, His Church, souls, and babies precious lives!
(Chuck ONeal, email to Mike Reid, June 2, 2016.)
USUALLY THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION IS THE BEST
What changed between Mike Reid and I? Why did I stop calling him “a dear and courageous man, a genuine brother, a bold Gospel preacher, a protector of unborn babies…and my friend” and start warning people that he is a dangerous man teaching dangerous doctrine and engaging in dangerous practices? How did I go from saying Mike’s “ministry is vital.” to saying, Mike’s “ministry is abhorrent?” Did I get my new NRA bumper sticker, wrap myself in the flag, and lose my gun loving mind? That’s what Nick Rolland would have you believe — and that’s an obvious lie. The simplest explanation and obvious truth is that I found out who Mike Reid really is (Mike Reid’s Perverse & Dangerous Doctrines & Practices).
WE DO KISS 💋 OTHER MEN’S WIVES, JUST NOT ON THE LIPS 💋
A few more sections of Mike’s half-baked “Response to Slander” beg to be brought to light. You’ll find they serve as Mike’s bumbling confession and confirmation of perversion rather than his brilliant defense. GFC’s newest elder, Tyler Bolkema, wrote this:
OK, MAYBE JUST ONE KISS ON THE LIPS
The testimony below is from the wife of a faithful minister of the Gospel who lives near Grace Fellowship Church in Davenport, Iowa. A man that I and several friends know. I’ve spoken with him on this matter and he adamantly confirms Mike Reid kissed his wife on the side of the mouth, without warning or welcome, on their second visit to Grace Fellowship Church.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH ALL THIS KISSING
Mike’s “Response to Slander” confirms that Mike and the men of the church do kiss the women. What could go wrong? Seems like history has proven that a whole lot can go wrong once the kissing starts. Apparently, one thing that can go wrong is that you can plant a kiss on a woman who doesn’t want you to on her second visit to the church.
Stop and think about all this kissing.Other than Mike’s five known rules seen on the right, have any definite parameters been set for all this “holy” kissing? Is all the kissing done in group settings or is it fine to kiss in a back classroom, the church office, the parking lot, and behind the church too? Is it OK to kiss off of the church property in more private residential settings? Do the men kiss the men as often as they kiss the men’s wives? Are the women allowed to initiate and kiss the men? Are the wives allowed to kiss the handsome single men or just the homely married men? Does a wife have any recourse if she notices her husband kissing the pretty single women more often than the other women? What does it say about a man’s heart if he kisses the pretty women more often? Is that a sign he has a lust issue or does he have the “spiritual gift” of appreciating feminine beauty? Conversely, what does it say about a man’s heart if he won’t kiss the pretty women? Is that a sure sign he has a lust problem or is he just wise? Do the women kiss the women? Are the young men and young women allowed to kiss? Do the young women kiss the young women? Do young men kiss young men? Are the boys and girls allowed to kiss? Do boys kiss boys? Do girls kiss girls? Are the middle aged men allowed to “holy” kiss the young women? Are the middle aged men allowed to “holy” kiss the teenage and preteen girls? Are newcomers to the church allowed to kiss the women, girls, and boys? How long do you have to be at the church before you can kiss other men’s wives, daughters, and sons?Are there criminal background checks done before the kissing starts?
WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH KISSING, HUGGING, TOUCHING, AND MEETING ALONE WITH OTHER MEN’S WIVES AND DAUGHTERS
Mike’s “Response to Slander” further confirms that Mike and his fellow elders systematically meet alone with the women of the church. To those who have heard what Mike and Tony have taught, their “Response to Slander” really is a confession, not a defense. Mike and his elders openly admit to rejecting the “Billy Graham Rule.” Tullian Tchividjian also rejected his grandfather’s obedience to Romans 13:14 and 1 Corinthians 6:18 — and we know how that ended. Tullian’s historic enablers and Mike’s current enablers have both said, “Rules schmules! What could possibly go wrong?”
WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH ADULTERERS AND PEDOPHILES BEING PASTORS WHO MEET ALONE WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN…AND ALL THIS HUGGING, KISSING, AND TOUCHING
A PUBLIC CHALLENGE TO ANY ENABLERS WHO WANT TO DEFEND MIKE’S PERFECT PREDATORY PERVERSION OF PASTORAL MINISTRY
Mike Reid has created the perfect predatory perversion of pastoral ministry. If a man intent on preying upon women and children was given license to redesign pastoral ministry and set up a local church, he wouldn’t do anything different. This is not an inflammatory accusation of adultery or predatory criminal behavior. It is an indisputably accurate description of Mike Reid’s teaching and practice. I challenge any of Mike’s defenders and enablers to argue otherwise in the light of day.
Do your due diligence. Actually listen to all the full length audios and edited for brevity audios found here.Compare and contrast them. Search high and low for diabolical editing. You won’t find any.
Be sure to put your name on your public defense of “repentant” serial adulterers becoming pastors who embrace, kiss, and systematically meet alone with the women of the church for private “shepherding.” Please include your name, phone number, email, home address, church name, church phone number, church email, and church address with your defense of “repentant” pedophiles becoming pastors who meet alone with children for private “shepherding.” It’s time for Mike’s enablers to repent and take a stand against this evil or double down and defend it outright in the light of day.
MIKE AND TONY ADMIT ONE OF THEIR PEDOPHILE PASTORS MIGHT HARM CHILDREN, BUT SAY IT SHOULDN’T KEEP THEM FROM A “NO LIMITATIONS” MINISTRY
Don’t worry. What could go wrong? Mike’s teachings and practices are almost, pretty much, nearlycompletely safe! Mike has tested this out in his church for some time now and has this rock solid assurance to offer judgmental pharisees who don’t think pedophiles should be pastors and meet alone with children:
STOP THE MORAL AND THEOLOGICAL MADNESS!!!
After three years…it’s time for Mike Reid and Tony Miano’s moral and theological madness and their shoot the messenger cover-up to come to end. Apathy won’t do. Playing Swiss won’t do. Will those of you who have ignored thewarningforthree years now allow Mike and Tony to add Kevin Jandt, his wife, and other brave men and women to their shoot the messenger hit list? Are Kevin and his wife also to be dismissed as embittered anti-pacifist gun owners? What creative lies will Mike, Nick, Tyler, and Tony tell to explain how their once faithful deacon and defender, Kevin Jandt, has now supposedly lost his blooming mind and is waging war against poor Mike and Tony with lies, slander, gossip, and reviling in the service of the Devil? Will you allow Mike and Tony to malignthe men and women who have been brave enough to stand up publicly and give their testimonies…testimonies that just happen to perfectly matchthe long list of aberrant and abhorrent teachings that came out of Mike and Tony’s own mouths?
Will you continue to promote Mike and Tony’s ministries and lend them credibility and encouragement on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram? Will you continue to hold their church signs and help them recruit new individuals and families to suffer under Mike’s predatory perversion of pastoral ministry in Iowa? Will you continue to help them export their twisted teaching to the African church already ravaged with sexual scandal? Will you continue to shamefully shake their hands and pull them in for hugs (and kisses) at the G3 Conference and elsewhere? Will the G3 Conference continue to promote Mike Reid and allow him to beguile and recruit unsuspecting sheep of the Lord’s fold as he walks around the conference giving out his bighearted hugs and kisses?This has to stop.
FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS BLASPHEME CHRIST AND HARM HIS CHURCH
Some of you are thinking, “Mike and Tony are my friendsand I’m going to stand by them.“ I was Mike’s friend too, until I found out who he really was. Mike sent a large number of his congregants 2,000 miles from Iowa to attend my church’s evangelism conference in Oregon. My brother-in-law and his family, who live in Iowa, attended Mike’s church for a short time because I recommended it to them. Tony was one of my best friends and a constant ministry partner. I served on Tony’s board of advisors. I wrote the forward to one of Tony’s books. Tony stayed in my home and preached in my pulpit. Tony was like family to my wife and children. My children affectionately called him, “Uncle Tony.” If Mike and Tony told me they were being slandered by a servant of the Devil, I would have believed them too — until I saw and heard the readily available, abundant proof of the matter.
Mike and Tony know I’m no liar, slanderer, gossip, reviler, or servant of the Devil — and so do the men defending and enabling them. I’m a δοῦλος of Christ and a pastor who was forced by divine providence, not of my choosing or liking, to take a hard stand against a friend (Mike Reid) and an incredibly hard stand against a dear friend (Tony Miano) who was like family to me, my wife, and my children.
It’s understandable that men who know and trust Mike and Tony have been lied to and that they acted or failed to act based on misplaced trust. However, at some point their willingness to believe Mike and Tony’s shoot the messenger cover-up, their unwillingness take an honest look at the facts and actually listen to what Mike and Tony have taught and defended, and their failure to demand proof that Mike and Tony’s teachings were diabolically edited — leaves them culpable for blindly trusting them and continuing to enable them just like Tullian’s enablers before them.
WILL THE “GODLY MEN” PLEASE STAND UP!
It’s relatively easy to stand up against notorious Word of Faith, TBN, wolves in sheep’s clothing like Todd Bently. It’s hard to stand against dangerous men in your own theological camp. It’s harder yet to stand against one of your best friends when he gets bit, beguiled, and recruited by a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Faithful friends don’t let friends lose their minds and do nothing to win them back to moral and theological sanity and genuine service for Christ. Faithful friends don’t let friends blaspheme Christ and harm His Church. For the sake of Christ, His Gospel, His Church, and erring friends — we must be willing to take necessary stands. Don’t be an enabler.
Mike and Tony don’t want you to know that many godly men and women have already stood up. They don’t want you to know that many godly men and women have corrected and rebuked their moral and theological madness. They don’t want you to know they’ve lost endorsements from well known godly men and ministries who clearly heard their own perverse words come out of their own mouths and weren’t willing to swallow their obvious “Chuck edited the videos” lie. They don’t want you to know that Tony has lost financial support from godly long term supporters who dared to question the insanity coming out of Mike and Tony’s mouths and got nothing but an ugly rebuff or silence from Mike and Tony.
Join me in praying: that Mike and Tony’s defenders and enablers will wake up, repent, and stand up in defense of Christ’s Church; that solid men who haven’t yet stood decisively and taken Biblical action against this dangerous perversion of pastoral ministry will do so now; that the individuals and families in Iowa and Africa under Mike’s bewitching influence will be set free; that the G3 conference and other ministries will stop promoting and inviting wolves to come beguile and devour the Lord’s sheep; that Mike, Nick, Tyler, and Tony will repent and step down from ministry; that Grace Fellowship Church in Davenport, Iowa will be disbanded and the genuine believers who are there will find a true church with true undershepherds — and that this moral and theological madness will come to an end.
WE’RE GOING TO BE BLESSED BY A FULL SHEPHERDS’ CONFERENCE WEEK OF “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH” TRUTH
The 2018 Shepherds’ Conference is centered around the Lord Jesus Christ’s declaration, “I will build my Church” (Matt. 16:18). Brothers, let’s stand up, step out, and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ together…for the building of Christ’s Church one repentant soul at a time. Many pastors, elders, and men of God have preached the Gospel on the streets and at the abortion clinic for the very first time during the Shepherds’ Conference Gospel Outreach. The Lord Jesus commanded, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). The Apostle Paul turned the world upside down in obedience to that command, and late in his life he called the Elders of Ephesus to himself and described his evangelistic ministry, saying, “I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-22). The Apostle Paul commands Elders in the Pastoral Epistles to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5). Men, this is a vital part of our ministry. Let’s labor together as brothers in Christ — ministering the Gospel for the advancement of Christ’s Church on the sunny streets of Los Angeles!
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY 6:30AMLANKERSHIM BLVD. TRANSIT STATION GOSPEL OUTREACH
A group of Shepherds’ Conference men have laid an evangelistic plan to labor together in the Lord’s field of harvest on the sunny streets of southern California. For the glory of our Lord and the salvation of sinners, we look forward to ministering the Gospel together with men from around the globe and across the nation. In past years we’ve had men from India, Australia, Canada, Alaska, Arizona, Texas, California, Iowa, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. We’ll meetWednesday and Thursday morning (March 7 & 8) from 6:30 to 8:00 AM, at the North Hollywood Transit Station on Lankershim Blvd. Bring your Bible and your favorite Gospel tracts. We’ll have an amplifier for preaching and several thousand tracts on hand. The video below is from the Lankershim Blvd. outreach last year.
When the Shepherds’ Conference ends on Friday, you could rush home, you could go to an amusement park and spend lots of money to feel sick at the end of the day…or you can stick around Saturday and enjoy the bonus of one more day of Shepherds’ Conference Evangelism! Have you ever thought about starting an abortion clinic Gospel ministry for the saving of souls and rescuing of babies? At 7 AM on Saturday morning (March 10th) we’ll be blessed to join Don McGinnis (see left photo), a member of Grace Community Church, at the Family Planning Women’s Health abortion clinic in Mission Hills. Don faithfully ministers grace and truth at this abortion clinic all year long. He regularly sees many babies rescued from the slaughter and has sown the omnipotent seed of the Gospel into thousands of men and women’s hearts. It’s my understanding that Elder Phil Johnson (see right photo), Pastor Mike Riccardi, and Sheldon Ko from Grace Community Church, along with future pastors from the Masters Seminary, have joined Don in this beautiful life saving work — and that it is now an official ministry of GCC.
At 10:00 AM we’ll transition over to Hollywood Blvd. (just outside the metro station) and from about 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM preach the Gospel in the open air, disperse tracts, and enjoy Gospel conversations with thousands of tourists. The videos below are from last year’s Shepherds’ Conference Abortion Clinic Evangelism and Hollywood Blvd. Gospel Outreach.
DON’T MISS THE SPIRITUAL ICING ON THE CAKE
We all love spiritual meat, potatoes, and cake. The Shepherds’ Conference provides all that and so much more! Shepherds’ Conference Evangelism is the spiritual icing on the cake! It’s a rare opportunity to stand together in sweet fellowship laboring for the glory of Christ and the souls of men. It’s a rare opportunity to step out in faith with other brothers who may be able to encourage your evangelistic zeal and provide a bit of feet on the street training just like Jesus did with his disciples and Paul no doubt did with Timothy, his “true son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2). Hope to see you at arguably the finest conference on the planet soaking in God’s Word and out on the streets proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If you can’t join us…please pray for Christ to be glorified, for men of God to step out in faith, for souls to be saved, and for babies to be rescued through the ministry of God’s omnipotent Word!
*NOTE: You can click the blue links for Google Map directions to each location. For more information you can reach me at pastorchuckbgbc@gmail.com. This outreach is not officially sanctioned by the Shepherds’ Conference, but praise the Lord, Grace Community Church and the Shepherds’ Conference sanction the ministry of the Gospel in the greater Los Angeles area and every other inch of God’s green earth.
“But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before them all…” -Galatians 2:14
(The message above was preached at the final evening session of the Reformation Fire Conference. It closes with a discussion of Dr. Albert Mohler’s signing of The Manhattan Declaration and his astonishing pronouncement of millions of Catholics being saved despite their ongoing participation in idolatrous sacraments and rituals. You can hear Dr. Mohler’s own voice as he tragically mishandles Romans 10:9 and declares millions of unrepentant, Roman Catholic, sacrament celebrating idolaters to be repentant believers who are saved through a simple faith and trust in Jesus.)
With Great Influence There’s Great Responsibility
Wikipedia accurately describes Dr. Albert Mohler as “one of America’s most influential evangelicals.” He has long been known as a champion of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformation. For well over a decade, I’ve taken my sons and groups of men from our church to sit under and be edified by Dr. Mohler’s preaching at the Shepherds’ Conference. As of late, he’s been traversing the earth preaching at historic sights and events commemorating the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation. He recently preached Romans 3:21-26 while standing in the pulpit above Martin Luther’s entombed body in the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg (see photo).
It would seem Dr. Mohler has his Ephesians 6:10-20 armor on, is wielding the Sword of the Spirit faithfully, and is leading the evangelical way in the Reformation battle;however, there are a few alarming chinks in Dr. Mohler’s Gospel and Protestant Reformation armor.In April of 2017, Dr. Mohler and I discussed these chinks. To his credit, he confessed the most significant chink to be a “mistake” on his part, and yet that credit becomes greater debt every day he does nothing to correct or counteract his “mistake.” For the love of Christ, the love and protection of Christ’s true Church, and the love of 1.2 billion perishing Roman Catholic souls — I urged Dr. Mohler to correct his “mistake.” Bear in mind, this isn’t just any mistake, it’s a Gospel undermining, Protestant Reformation reversing mistake. It’s unconscionable for Dr. Mohler to recognize and call this a “mistake” and leave it uncorrected for eight long years. It’s worse yet for him to recognize and call this a “mistake” privately and then continue to defend it publicly on the World Wide Webto this day. It pains me to write this, but it is bold hypocrisy for Dr. Mohler to post a picture of himself preaching over Luther’s body on the World Wide Web while refusing to remove his longstanding compromise of Luther’s Gospel and Luther’s Reformation from the World Wide Web.
It’s been six months since my interaction with Dr. Mohler. The 500th anniversary of the Reformation is drawing near. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to correct his “mistake.”
With Great Mistakes There’s Great Accountability
What is Dr. Mohler’s great “mistake?” He signed his name toThe Manhattan Declaration. He signed his name to a declaration framed by the sameecumenical enemies of the Gospel that penned ECT 1 and ECT 2.He signed his name toa declaration that unites Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants together in “our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness.” He signed his name to a declaration that unites Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants together with a “clarion call to the church” and all “Christians” to fight hand in hand together on moral and social issues. The astounding problems with that should not need to be explained. We may find agreement on a few moral and social causes, but not partnership, because when it comes to thecause of Christ the Protestant Reformation is not over and we are yet at war. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches are enemies of Christ, enemies of His true Gospel, and enemies of His true Church. They are not partners in Christ’s Gospel. They are at war against Christ and His Gospel. They are not co-laborers on the mission field “proclaim[ing] the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in it’s fullness.” They are the mission field.
Dr. Mohler is no intellectual or theological slouch, he’s a brilliant thinker and theologian. His “mistake” is not one of ignorance, it’s one of inconsistency in Gospel conviction. His signing of The Manhattan Declaration is a direct contradiction of his own teaching at TGC17 regarding the danger of ecumenical cooperation that results in the pulling back of “theological conviction in order to meet some other end.” It’s one thing to make a mistake, even a serious Gospel mistake (consider the Apostle Peter). It’s another thing entirely for Dr. Mohler to confess a serious Gospel “mistake” and then continue to defend it with an extensive explanation and justification that repeatedly commits the same fundamental error that The Manhattan Declaration does. In his defense of signing the declaration he refers to the non-Christian Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox signers of the declaration as “Christians” again and again. Here are a few of the Reformation undermining, Gospel blurring references from his own article, followed by examples taken from the declaration itself:
Christian churches, denominations, and institutions . . . The statement calls for all Christians to “be united”. . . the statement includes a humble admission of our own Christian complicity . . . we cannot and will not abandon or compromise our Christian convictions . . . Christian leadership . . . Christian liberties . . . Christian convictions . . . Christian ministries . . . Christianbeliefs.
After overtly and repeatedly pronouncing Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox non-Christians to be “Christians,” Dr. Mohler then offers a carefully crafted clarifying statement that catastrophically suffers from notbeing clear at all about the idolatrous and soul damning nature of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox antichrist churches, priests, doctrines, sacraments, and rituals:
My beliefs concerning the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches have not changed. The Roman Catholic Church teaches doctrines that I find both unbiblical and abhorrent — and these doctrines define nothing less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But The Manhattan Declaration does not attempt to establish common ground on these doctrines. We remain who we are, and we concede no doctrinal ground.
Dr. Mohler claims that “The Manhattan Declaration does not attempt to establish common ground on” the Gospel, and that no doctrinal ground has been conceded — and yet the declaration clearly declares the union of Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants as “Christians” and “church[es]” who are standing together in “our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness.” If somehow a brilliant man like Dr. Mohler missed this blatant discrepancy when he initially signed the declaration, we can be sure that it is not lost on him now. Both Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. R.C. Sproul’s explanations as to why they did not sign the declaration show Dr. Mohler to be in obvious, Gospel compromising, Reformation reversing error.
Although I obviously agree with the document’s opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and other key moral problems threatening our culture, the document falls far short of identifying the one true and ultimate remedy for all of humanity’s moral ills: the gospel. The gospel is barely mentioned in the Declaration. At one point the statement rightly acknowledges, “It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season” — and then adds an encouraging wish: “May God help us not to fail in that duty.” . . . Instead of acknowledging the true depth of our differences, the implicit assumption (from the start of the document until its final paragraph) is that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant Evangelicals and others all share a common faith in and a common commitment to the gospel’s essential claims. The document repeatedly employs expressions like “we [and] our fellow believers”; “As Christians, we . . .”; and “we claim the heritage of . . . Christians.” That seriously muddles the lines of demarcation between authentic biblical Christianity and various apostate traditions. The Declaration therefore constitutes a formal avowal of brotherhood between Evangelical signatories and purveyors of different gospels. That is the stated intention of some of the key signatories, and it’s hard to see how secular readers could possibly view it in any other light. Thus for the sake of issuing a manifesto decrying certain moral and political issues, the Declaration obscures both the importance of the gospel and the very substance of the gospel message.
Some signers have stated that this is not a theological document. However, to make that statement accurate requires a redefinition of “theology” and serious equivocation on the biblical meaning of “the gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4). The drafters of the document, Charles Colson, Robert George, and Timothy George, used deliberate language that is on par with the ecumenical language of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) movement that began in the 1990s. The Manhattan Declaration states, “Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God’s Word,” and it identifies “Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelicals” as “Christians.” The document calls Christians to unite in “the Gospel,” “the Gospel of costly grace,” and “the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness.” Moreover, the document says, “it is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season.” Without question, biblical truth must be proclaimed and the gospel preached prophetically to our nation. But how could I sign something that confuses the gospel and obscures the very definition of who is and who is not a Christian?
With Great Mistakes There’s Great Opportunity
Thomas Cranmer has shown us that the great mistake of signing Gospel compromising, counter-reformation declarations can (by the grace of God) become the foundation and fuel of a great Semper Reformanda fire that will burn for decades or even centuries to come. Having recognized and admitted that it was a “mistake” to sign The Manhattan Declaration, it’s time for Dr. Mohler to turn what is likely the greatest mistake of his Christian life and ministry, into his greatest declaration and defense of the Gospel. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). It’s time for our erring brother to exercise his influence through radical public repentance (2 Cor. 7:9-11), leading the way for other noteworthy men who have compromised with the apostate Roman Catholic Church and her doctrines of demons (1 Tim. 4:1).
With Great Repentance There’s Great Semper Reformanda Fire
It’s the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to correct his “mistake.” It’s time for Dr. Mohler to find a high hill, to hold The Manhattan Declaration high in the air, and to burn it before all. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to officially and publicly remove his signature from The Manhattan Declaration. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to take a Semper Reformanda stand against himself, The Manhattan Declaration, and the Roman Catholic Church.It’s time for Dr. Mohler to remove his terrible defense of his Gospel undermining ecumenical compromise (Why I Signed the Manhattan Declaration) from the World Wide Web. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to write a new article in which he joins Dr. R.C. Sproul and Dr. John MacArthur in their public stand against the declaration’s obvious assault on the Gospel and the Protestant Reformation. It’s time for Dr. Mohler to light a great Semper Reformada fire, and play the Gospel declaring, defining, and defending man that we all believe him to be.
All of Dr. Mohler and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s declarations of “Here We Stand” are empty boasts while Dr. Mohler’s signature yet stands on The Manhattan Declaration. Yes, it’s 500 years after the Protestant Reformation, and it’s vital that we ask, “where do evangelicals stand, and what do we stand for?” It’s time for all those who love Christ, love His true Gospel, love His true Church, love Dr. Mohler, and love 1.2 billion perishing Roman Catholic souls — to actually say “HERE WE STAND!” — and to start a white hot Semper Reformanda fire that makes no compromise for “trusted” friends, but rather demands that friends be consistently trustworthy with the foremost treasure entrusted to us, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Men who compromise the Gospel of Jesus Christ and refuse to correct their “mistake,” cannot be trusted to stand in our pulpits, to preach at our conferences, to train our men to be ministers of the Gospel, or to be our voice to the world. Nobody gets a free pass to compromise the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Dr. Mohler,it’s time to stand like Cranmer, it’s time to stand like Luther— it’s time to burn The Manhattan Declaration!
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