Albert Mohler - Q & A Session

good morning it's good to see you all this morning I appreciate you gathering rather unusual this is not a service of worship but rather an opportunity for some conversation and we do this from time to time seemed timely and I do appreciate you being here and the process will be very straightforward you see two microphones near the front and and oh as you were led to ask a question or yeah question you want to ask we're hoping to talk about boisei as you know on the Facebook live and when I did radio live it's ask anything well and and it is ask anything in theory what we really mean is ask important questions and maybe a question important to you but we hope important to to all of those gathered here we'll get to that in just a moment we are in relative calm this morning the Sun is out the winds are still but elsewhere they are raging and many people including many many dear brothers and sisters of ours are in the direct path of Hurricane Florence we're told this morning there's good news and bad news the good news is that the storm is slowing down and that turns out also to be the bad news because it it may linger and dump feet of rain where it cannot be saturated and there could be flooding and as you know we are facing the limits of human ability to predict anything bigger than ourselves certainly on this scale but the one thing we know to do is to pray for those especially whose lives may be endangered and for those who are going to be ministering on the backside and even in the midst of this storm so let's do that our fathers we come this morning where our hearts are directed towards a great wind towards a hurricane towards a great weather development that is so infinitely outside of human control the father you are in control of all there is not an atom or molecule the universe that is not under your direction we pray that there would be care protection for those along the threatened coasts we are concerned for all that they represent but far more for their persons than their property we pray your protection of your work with so many churches in that area we pray for so many brothers and sisters no doubt even now carrying greater burdens because of the storm we pray for protection we dare so to pray and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord amen I'm gonna ask folks if you could please turn the air-conditioning down that would be helpful it may just be because I'm under these lights which is a bit like being a rotisserie chicken at Kroger that's the same the same net effect well what's going on in the world and lots to talk about so the microphones are here and somebody's got to get this started so some brave souls going to have to be the first to come to a microphone there are plenty of things I could raise to talk about but I really wanted to give you the opportunity just remind me of your name and from where you've come great my questions is from proverbs 30 verse 7 through verse 6 through seven give strong drink to him who is perishing and bitter wine to him whose life is bitter let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his table no more I was wondering if this is a proper approach to drinking alcohol and excuse me it's are actually chapter 30 okay gonna do seven because I was I was lost there for a moment well first of all have been thank you for the question and and for the very clever setup there where I'm challenged to say whether or not the Bible is right so I simply say great setup got it the Bible is the inerrant infallible Word of God what we're given in Scripture is a totality of course and the greater proportion of the of the text in scripture concerning wine or alcoholic beverages or warnings about drunkenness but I want to be very very honest as I hope to be in any context the Bible does not mandate total abstinence we do but the Bible does not and that means that there are Christians of good faith and good convictions who must recognize the dangers of alcohol and must recognize the the sin of drunkenness but would otherwise drink wine or some similar beverage there there are a couple of historical notes here Bob Stein who taught for many years on this faculty as professor of New Testament actually gave a great deal of academic attention to this because this tells you something about how human beings are much even most of what is called wine in the old and new testaments was a mildly fermented beverage and the reason for that was there wasn't time that you're not talking about ancient Israelites living in one room dwellings with all their families and their associated animals and and then the beautiful wine cellar out back that that wasn't the way it worked it was it was a very quickly and and lightly fermented drink you had to drink a great deal of it which is one of the reasons why the book of parables make clear it was it's not just imbibing it's and by being a very great quantity Stein actually was able to use mathematical formulas to destroy the quotient of alcohol is by the way there's similar things going on now with marijuana you-you-you're with all the legalization and conversation about marijuana people say well you know marijuana's marijuana no it isn't the THC the hallucinogenic power of marijuana these days is a multiple of what it was in the 1960s so the effect of one whatever of marijuana today is likely to be far more powerful than before but that's important background implicit in your question is why would our policy be different than then what is mandated in Scripture and and and the answer is because we we seek as an institution to be faithful to our charge in two specific ways here one of them is to be faithful to the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention which expect this of us they they expect that we will hold to a total abstinence policy and and and it's and it's clear moments the Southern Baptist Convention has never said we believe that's absolutely biblical as a mandate but rather we believe is absolutely wise and the Southern Baptist Convention has made that clear over and over again the the other issue is a bit more paternalistic and that is we want to prevent harm amongst members of this community and this is a this is a very important way of preventing harm on academic campuses alcohol is a major out of control problem and you can google the headlines fast enough to assure yourself of that to put the matter bluntly I do not want as a part of my job to have to decide which student is drinking just enough and which student is drinking just over the line and what to do with that student I certainly don't want to deal with which faculty member is drinking just enough and which faculty member is drinking too much so there are many ways in the Christian life in which you take biblical principles and as a church or as a group of Christians you put hedges around yourself this is a hedge there's just no denying that no embarrassment about that the Bible doesn't say that a Christian Christian man can't meet for instance someone in my capacity with a woman who is not his wife or immediate family member the Bible doesn't say that the bible does warn against every form of sexual immorality we have a rule here that faculty and staff and I would encourage all other than young people in a dating relationship properly defined that that all should follow us a more policy that where the world makes fun of it calling it the Billy Graham rule or the mike pence rule but it's virtually impossible to commit adultery when there is no opportunity and it's a matter of strategically removing the opportunity or even the opportunity for a slander or misrepresentation so just being honest parents do this all the time you will require rules of your children that are not clearly mandated in Scripture because of other commands that are and and churches do this and then schools do this so as the answer yes I believe Solomon was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write every single word that he wrote and we'll put that in the totality of all the scripture reveals go over to this side yes sir all right my name is Nathan from Seattle yeah and I was just thinking about SBT that's BTS and there's a really a variety of theological backgrounds here and I think you know everyone would agree you know there's primary doctrines secondary doctor and tertiary doctrines and I think that's agreed on but I was wondering if you yourself kind of have a systematic framework to you know work through those you know obviously like a doctrine of salvation would probably be primary but how do you yourself sort through it got yes those levels if even have those three levels yeah Thank You Nathan and I I wrote an article on this that has become I say this as a matter of fact quite influential years ago and entitled a call for theological triage and you can find that very quickly either on my website or many others now and it's in several books of Christian theology triage it's a French medical term and I transformed it into a theological term because it was convenient it was urgent triage refers to the process whereby persons of various injury are brought onto a medical facility it came out of the Crimean War as a matter of fact and it came out of the fact you have somebody coming in this one's got a broken leg this one's got a bullet in his chest you know this one's got a severe spinal injury who gets treated first what was most urgent triage was the French word for deciding this is most urgent this is NEX urgent this is next urgent my argument was that we need that theological II and it comes down to three different levels of theological doctrine and that structure does not come out of the blue that comes out of the history of Christian thought the history of Christian theology to put it bluntly there are first-order doctrines and there are second-order doctrines and there are third order doctrines and and you need at least those three levels first order doctrines are doctrines necessary to establish the faith now there are some who would call themselves kind of mere christians or mere protestants who would want to put in that category only the historic Trinitarian and christological creeds of the faith i don't think that works i think the the one of the clear lessons of the reformation is that justification by faith alone Nathan you mentioned doctor salvation let's just say the the dr. the doctrine of justification by faith alone must be in that first order doctrines because you cannot have a Christian without justification by faith alone and also the the formal principle of the Reformation must be there and that is the the centrality and sole authority of Scripture because you have no way to establish the relative importance of doctrines if you do not know where God is spoken and have a trustworthy revelation second-order doctrines are doctrines upon which Christians may disagree but this will lead to different congregations or different denominations not to anathema in the first order doctrines as someone denies the Trinity we have to say to them you're not a Christian someone denies the full deity and humanity of Christ we have to say to them you're not a Christian and yes if someone denies justification by faith alone then they're teaching some other gospel as Paul warned we have to say you're not a Christian but and the second order issues the easiest best one to illustrate is baptism and as you well know there are some people who love the gospel and clearly hold to the entire Orthodox structure of Christianity who are mistaken in in baptizing or believing that they baptize infants or for that matter anyone other than confessing believers in Lord Jesus Christ and we are in a severe disagreement here this is a this is a disagreement that means we can't be in the same congregation because we're not going to do the same things with a baby and that's a matter of theological principle and this is the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and there are very Presbyterian Presbyterian seminaries and very Anglican Anglican seminaries and insofar as they love the gospel we consider them brothers and sisters in Christ but not members of the 3rd Avenue Baptist Church and so there's a there's a clear difference at first level we're saying you're not a Christian the second level we're saying you're not a Baptist and you're not right all right we'll listen continue to have that that debate the first level the answer is evangelism the second level is doctrinal persuasion that's what we do the third level our doctrines and Theological assertions that are important because we believe every single word of God is important every everything scripture teaches is important but it's not it's not constitutive of the congregation so you could have a church in which I mean just to take eschatological issues there could be a range of eschatological issues within a congregation by the way even within a congregation that doesn't think it has a range of eschatological issues and that does not become an impediment to fellowship these are theological issues that we can debate the the third-order issues are all over the place and coming down to the interpretation of many texts and so you if you don't have that kind of structure you don't have any coherent way of dealing with doctrine or theology or the faith of the church or questions when they arise in the church if everything is a first-order issue you are a fundamentalist you know you you are raising 2nd and 3rd order issues to first order issue you're you are anathematizing and calling not Christian those who merely disagree over a an important Christian doctrine but not one that constitutes the faith if if on the other hand you see no first order issues then you're a theological liberal and no doctrine is of vital importance essential importance for you so I find that to be a very helpful system and by the way there are people who have who have rejected my argument otherwise known as stupid people there are people have rejected my arguing look there's some there's some smart criticisms the Chris the smart criticism is in distinguishing exactly where something should be especially between first and second order doctrines and second and third order doctrines that's a smart conversation but a lot of people to say look there's no such thing as theological triage there's no such thing as first order second order third order doctrines all truth is God's truth so everything's on the same level I'm just gonna bet that's a fascinating marriage because if everything is a first order issue then god bless you your church is going to be a Church of one and everyone else is not going to be wrong but lost so I and I think inevitably whether people articulate it this way or not they've got to get to something like this and I think you'll see that structure in the churches yes that you often come across to something along the lines of and go and sin no more yeah so if someone is born again and truly has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them how can we reconcile and say that it is okay that we still sin when so often throughout the New Testament we see that we should not send because we have God dwelling within us thank you and your first day Rob Rob thanks for the question yeah well a great question of tremendous pastoral question I'm gonna rephrase your question in one respect where you said then how can it be okay if we said it's never okay that we said so let's just recognize that there's no there is no biblical warrant whatsoever for saying it's okay that we send what we do have is a biblical acknowledgement that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ do sit and why that's a good question I think Paul deals with this extensively but if you take the New Testament as a whole it is clear that there's a major distinction between two absolutely integral aspects of our Redemption and that justification and sanctification our justification is punctilious place in it it is manifested in a moment so we are lost and then were found we're blind and then we see the gift of faith that comes with illumination and and contrition and repentance and faith resting in Christ we believe in justification by faith alone so on the basis of Christ and what Christ has done and by the promise of the gospel were saved and we're not a little bit saved we're completely saved we're not progressively saved we were lost and then were found we sing it right was blind and now I see and and we're never going to be any more justified than we are at the moment of our conversion and our coming to faith in Christ but our sanctification is the opposite it's not punctilious its progressive and again the New Testament is very clear about this we are growing in grace we we are we're redeemed by the Father we are united with Christ we are filled with the Holy Spirit but to be a Christian is and in the fellowship of other Christians is to be knowledgeable about the fact that that sanctification is progressive now that sanctification is also purpose if it has a it has a tell us it has an end and and we are called not to sin we are it is commanded that we do not sin but then you turn around in the scripture says but he who has says he has no sin lies and then we are told that if we do sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so throughout the history of the Christian Church you've had in the history of Christian liturgy and you can see this perhaps most classically in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England which is the most classic Protestant statement of of worship but you can find it also in in the church even before the Reformation you have a prayer of confession followed by a statement of assurance and that simply comes from the knowledge that when we come together a part of we do is to can our sentence and to pray for God's forgiveness and then to declare on the basis of Christ and his promise and his work that our sins are forgiven and then we say to each other go and said no more and we pray to see sanctification by the Holy Spirit in our lives even one week till the next we come back the next Sunday in prayer pray the prayer of confession and receive the assurance of pardon and then say go and send no more and we will be doing so until we die or Jesus comes and then the Telos which is our glorification and at that point sin will be no more we're not there yet okay yes I may lose track of which side I'm going to hear yeah my name is Joshua I'm from Texas yeah my question was what do you believe at this point in time is the greatest threat to Christianity both in America and outside of America Joshua yeah thank you well it's it's very hard to answer that isn't you say thee because the threats inside the church and outside the church are different and they yet happen simultaneously so inside the church is just unfaithfulness a lack of biblical courage and an unfaithfulness in our lives immorality in the church these days the greatest scandal to Christianity writ large right now if you if you look in the secular world no doubt is massive moral failure especially when it comes to child sexual abuse so much in the headlines when you think of dangers outside the church I think it's very important to remember that it depends on where you are in some parts of the world it's vehement deadly persecution to the point of death in other parts of the world it is the seduction of a secular age growing ever more secular so I've just proved the fact that I'm incapable of answering a simple question it's a good question but I have to start inside the church then go outside the church and outside the church it depends on where you are right now if you're facing Isis European secularism is not concern if you are in in Brussels it is or Manhattan or on the campus of Harvard it is and that's that's the terrain as I see it yes sir Virginia and my question is how would you define social justice and how would you understand our gospel call in relation to how you define social justice you know thank you and remind me again to the first name William thank you yeah I figured someone might get to that this morning IIIi am trapped in in words and gladly so that's that's my business and has been my responsibility for a long time so the the thing I want to remind you of is that if you want to know what I believe about almost anything I've been stupid enough to write everything and it's all out there so and I'm appreciate the question I want you to understand what I just want to say look IIIi am when I speak to something like this you can count on the fact it's not the first time I've spoken to it and I've dealt with this issue for the better part of my lifetime I think it's important to say that there are two concepts of social justice out there and and there have been from the very beginning the one that is getting a lot of attention right now is a notion of social justice that is rooted in was basically a Marxist source and explicitly you can draw a line and and and as a teenager I was having to look at these issues and grapple with them because the new left as it emerged in the in the 60s and 70s was emerging as I was a young person and as a Christian apologist very young Christian trying to think these things through this kind of new left Marxism was right in my face and and and right in the classroom where I was being taught and it's it's a very toxic worldview now it's very interesting these days you've got people who I think it's probably fair to say have never really read critical theory who are talking about it but most of what they're talking about right critical theory at Frankfurt School coming out of the the left-wing of Marxism in Europe was basically and this is what's key was a repudiation of of consensual politics so when you had that end of this said you didn't know you're signing up for this but it's important so this critical theory and and all that came out of this form of Marxism emerged from the idea that democratic politics won't work it's not going to get to revolution it's it's not it's not going to get to justice therefore there has to be a confrontation all the way down to the foundation and that's the critical critical means taking it apart and and so they wanted to blow up the world basically ideologically and and they read everything through what they called reification and an alienation but it's just another form of Marxism every basically it was a matter of identifying all the structures of authority and of order in society as repressive and social justice meant tearing down all of those institutions tearing down all of those orders tearing down all of those authorities and that was the new left as it was in Europe first and then it came to the United States that's the way it always happens in the at least an intellectual work a lot of bad ideas all you know higher criticism started in Germany the next thing you know it's showing up in the United States so so critical theory was the same thing now the universities are filled with those who are committed to critical theory it's an it is a radical form of Marxism social justice was very much a part of that movement and again you're talking most importantly Italians and Germans thinking in the 19-teens and then the New Left coming into power after World War Two and and so there you have a theory of of social justice that requires tearing down everything that now exists and appending every authority it's critical theory but you have to take everything apart from art everything else it's all about oppression it reads everything through oppression that's what everything is every structure that exists merely exists to oppress and the only way to liberate is to tear down all the traditions tear down all the institutions and of course it leads to a form of anarchy and the the difference also between the critical theorist and the classical Marx this is a critical theorist didn't know where anything was to go they were just willing basically to blow it up and and see what happens later hopefully better in their view so social justice in that view became associated with identifying peoples who are oppressed at various levels of oppression and working to liberate them by whatever means necessary and that was put in the in the the language of social justice that's justice for an entire society and it was very quickly also transformed because if you're gonna have that then you're gonna have to define what justice looks like and so what justice was redefined to look like is a constant equality inequality of power equality of access equality of material goods equality of not only opportunity but equality of outcome and and so there's this utopian idea of absolute equality which by the way has to be reset all the time because people won't stay equal this is one of the insights by the way of what you might call the the the the the democratic or liberal this means little l not like liberal and conservative this means a little liberal like in liberal arts and in liberal democracy which means emphasis on liberty the response was from from the democracies well the problem is people don't want the same thing this person wants a loaf of bread this person wants a bottle milk hey this person will buy your milk this person will buy your bread and pretty soon equality of outcome doesn't work because people only want the same things but nonetheless it goes back to identifying grievances and fiying oppression now by the way when the critical theorist went about identifying oppression were they always wrong and the answer is obviously not obviously not in a fallen world oppression is everywhere but was their diagnosis grounded in a worldview that will that is true and will work no was their method of redemption or salvation [Music] possible and the answer is no but did they eventually get tenure and most of the universities the answer is yes and this led to critical legal theory the first lecture I gave as president a Southern Seminary the first academic lecture was before I even had a chance to move here it was it was at Emory University and it was a Christian response to critical legal theory I've been in this conversation for a very very long time critical race Theory coming out of much the same so that understanding of social justice is is not compatible with a Christian understanding of justice but long before that movement emerged and one before the New Left was new or left centuries before Christians had been struggling with another understanding of justice that had social implications and must have social implications you read the Old Testament there is a great deal of concern about the social implications of justice I was just looking for instance I'm holding here the the English standard version due to the previous question open to the end of the book of Proverbs but if you were to look for instance in the book of Deuteronomy the headings of the chapters for instance as several the chapters will be things like laws of social justice now that did not come from the Frankfurt School nor from the New Left it came from trying to translate Deuteronomy because if you're going to summarize what this is about these are laws of justice that have social implications to which God's people are called so do I believe in social justice in a Marxist version no and I'll fight that with every fiber of my being do I believe in social justice as meaning where God's people are there must be an increasing realization of the Justice of God in the Society of which they are a part the answer is yes and a lot of this comes back to the statement being released on social justice in the gospel I did not sign that statement there is a much of it that that would be consistent with what I just laid out I'd rather lay it out the way I just laid it out there are concerns there is there is a good conversation evangelicals should have about the relative importance of what we might call social justice issues for the church and where social justice issues arrive in our conversation about the gospel there's been some loose talk here some of the loose talk is where people say about everything this is a gospel issue well what do you mean by that what do you mean by that if that means this is a gospel issue in that no one's gonna come to faith in Christ until they get right about that issue then that's going to compromise the gospel but if you mean this is a gospel issue because gospel people will look like this because scripture commands this and increasingly where you find Christians you will find a greater attention to this and a greater concern about this a greater brokenness of heart about this a greater honesty about this then then it's right to say this is a gospel issue but if you just say this is a gospel issue you're gonna look you learn and in life and in ministry as you go forward that in certain contexts you have to explain more so I would just warn that we ought not to say without explanation what we mean when we say this is a gospel issue we need to make clear is this is this a product of the gospel in God's in God's people is this a sign of the gospel or is this a prerequisite to the gospel where is this is this the gospel is it a part of the gospel you would sit down this year with someone telling them how they can come to know salvation and full acquittal sentencing and no everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord so that's a part of it I did not sign the statement because I simply could not express my own understanding of this hammered out over now nearly four decades of life with the language that was used there I I think I think it will be a part of a conversation I know that it already is we're just having a conversation of nowhere else on planet Earth but but it's a conversation that I don't think will end with this with this statement and there are there are parts of the statement that that are undeniably true I mean just just undeniably true many of their assertions are are are good and healthy and wholesome and clearly protective of the gospel there are some other statements in it that that I don't understand and that I certainly couldn't affirm as I see them and then also when you have a statement like that you not only have the statement you've got statements about the statement and and so you have blogs that have been written explaining what the statement is about so that all becomes a part of how we interpret what this statement is it's not just the words the words present and the and the words chosen it's also the context in which those who put it together who are in many cases not all Kaido know all of them but in many cases dear friends of mine I have counted for virtually all my adult life John MacArthur is one of my dearest friends and spoken so often of of his influence in my life and of the the great gift of his friendship I I speak for him he speaks for us I have considered us very much a part of the same thing and not only that on so many of the issues that one would get to out of this I would be in fundamental agreement I'm it's no secret to say I'm a I am a I'm a very conservative thinker when it to the questions of politics and cultural engagement but that's a that's not a conservatism that hangs in the air that's a conservatism that walks through a tradition of history and conversations that that go with us as we go forward it's a respect for traditions and respect for certain ways of making argument and and for a certain understanding of of moral concerns I don't want to hold off all further questions and hopefully we'll get to those but this is so important I need to stay here for just a few moments and apologize in advance I guess the one issue of all that that perplexes me and and I want to believe the best of everyone and so my statements about this statement hmm my comments about this statement have sought to be generous towards those who have released it to say that this is a conversation that evangelicals should have that 2018 is evidently a good time for us to have this statement precisely because of some of the things that have been said although and and some of the confusion that might be out there it's a good thing for us to to ask some of these questions but I could not sign this statement because of some particular areas I had for instance the question of victims and the recognition of real victims the the the statement itself uses language like entitled victims certain people should not be told that they are entitled victims of social structures certainly we have an entire entitlement identity politics victim culture and industry out there that we can recognize for what it is but the reality is there are also real victims who really are victims and have been victims and there are victims right now of social forces of oppression and that's just a matter of just because those on the radical left point to everything is oppression doesn't mean that nothing is oppression and if you read the Bible you understand this in a fallen world we're the only people have a theology and not merely a political ideology to explain why we understand this and by the way this means that we understand oppression not as due to massive economic pressures and a system merely of corrupt people in a seeking a place of superiority and and greater economic wealth and then to protect that we believe it is because of a serpent in a garden and because Adam and Eve sinned and thus everything is corrupted so in other words we don't believe there's some safe place untouched by this oppression nor do we believe that we will ever have before Jesus comes a society free of oppression but we do have a responsibility to be honest about what real repression oppression looks like and to speak on behalf of the victims and not on behalf of the oppressors and so just to get to give the the clearest example perhaps right now before us just take the child abuse crisis I mean there are real victims and and and and there is no truth in saying they're not real victims and there were all kinds of structures of lies and oppression and and coverup that not only denied their their injury and and it's hard to come up with an adequate word for that but also perpetuated the protection of the of the abusers so that even other children more children could be abused now we have a theology that explains that we we it's a biblical it's a Pauline informed by the prophets worldview it is a is an Augustinian worldview that is to say goes back to a Gustin city of god in the city of man the great founding text you might say in christian history of our understanding of the culture and i am i am profoundly Augustinian the tradition that brought the seminary into being is profoundly Augustinian we understand sin is horrifyingly real it's everywhere first in US and then in every level of every human dimension of every human society and we understand that we are called first of all by the gospel of Christ to be a part of the City of God the part of a part of the church God's eternal people and he will he will bring about in us everything that he promises in the gospel and not only that were citizens of a new Kingdom the kingdom of God and and and and thus we have a higher allegiance to the city of man than to the city of man but we are left in the city man for a purpose that was the question that Agustin had to ask if the question we all have to ask if we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom and we are being fitted for God's kingdom and the the total the total fulfillment of all that God has promised and the total realization of our vocation even assigned to us in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 then why are we here now why in this world why do we have to worry about economics and what why do we have to bake bread and well why do we have to pick up the newspaper and read of murders and child sexual abuse why and Agustin said clearly arguing from Scripture we are here because God has a purpose for his church for the City of God still here visible within the city of man to make a distinctive difference now Augustine's order was very important where you find redeemed people you find evidence of their Redemption you'll find this in the New Testament just consider that the two epistles of Peter how we are told to to to live before the world in such a way that when they see our good works they testify of God the Father and even when they try to condemn us they bring condemnation upon themselves so victims at least some statements have been made saying that when you say to someone you're a victim you robbed them of the gospel that can't be true it can't I don't understand what's being asserted there I want to understand what someone means by that but the reality is that if you are dealing with someone who lets just take again a person who comes to you and they say years ago I was sexually abused the evidences they certainly were there bearing the scars of that acknowledging that cannot be robbing them of the gospel it could be denying the gospel if you say to them well then you don't need Christ for that and you don't need your own sins forgiven but the the biblical worldview holds to the fact that and this is what's so radical that that in a world in which there are real oppressors and there is a real oppress that every one of them is an equal infinite need of the forgiveness of sins that comes only by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that's a radical statement that's fundamental to the gospel is it not so we dare not rob anyone of the gospel but that also means we dare not we dare not deny real oppression because it's just not true we fight against the the victimization industry yes and by the way yes it does function in order to tell people you're not the problem someone else is your problem and this this it's the same lie that human beings been trying to tell one another for a long time now dressed up with the language of the new left I get that and there are some evangelicals that that use some of that language in ways that that are not helpful it's good to be warned about that there's one other issue behind this that that I think I have to speak to and that is that that there's kind of a particularly most urgently important issue with the most urgent history behind it for me in reading this and and and that is the issue of race and I can't associate with any us version that we do not have a massive problem in the society and in the church with claims of racial superiority and with historic patterns of claims of white racial superiority and with the fact that remnants and ongoing manifestations of those claims of white racial superiority continue and I cannot I can't stand on this campus I'm the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the president of a Seminary established by slaveholders as a part of a convention established to allow slaveholders to continue to send missionaries and be slaveholders i I I grew up in the south born in the 1950s though barely and growing up in the 1960s and III I've lived through an era that leads me to have no way to run from basic structures of racism deeply embedded in every part of every culture and community I have been a part of my entire life I'm a part of the Southern Baptist Convention leadership in 1995 I was a part of drafting the statement in a team of white and African American Baptist leaders for a statement of repentance for the legacy of slavery represented by the Southern Baptist Convention that was necessary owes on the 150th anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention now the slaveholders who established the Southern Baptist Convention were not present to repent nor to adopt that statement they were long dead I do not believe that one can repent on behalf of another but you can and southern map just felt if not unanimously then so overwhelmingly that no negative votes were recorded that it was right for the though who are part of the Southern Baptist Convention now to repent of structures and of a legacy and of a history that is our responsibility to address so we were acknowledging the sins of those who came before us we're confessing the sins that are our own now if you're going to turn all this - to what we hope will be a healthier place I'll simply say I don't believe I could possibly honestly give a cent to a statement that could be read and has been interpreted by some as as denying this reality and the continuing urgency of this reality this is the history I have to walk around with I am the Joseph Emerson Brown professor of Christian theology Joseph Emerson Brown saved this seminary in the 1870s from its absolute financial demise Joseph Emerson Brown was the United States Senator from Georgia and he was the Confederate governor of Georgia Joseph Emerson Brown once and probably far more than once notably argued that the one thing every white man knows no matter how low his state is that he is the better of every black man put that on your title that's unvarnished white supremacy and I believe that it is a heresy I believe it's a heresy not because that's an ethical judgment of repugnance but because because if you hold to that historic let's go back to level one those first-order doctrines those first-order doctrines start with Christology and Trinity that first order doctrine of Christology starts with Jesus as true humanity Jesus assuming human flesh whose human flesh what human flesh assumed it must be the flesh of all humanity all humanity included within the incarnation of Jesus Christ not some races to a greater or lesser degree because of some greater or lesser worth that is an insult to creation an insult to God is an insult to the gospel and and and by the way when I say it's a heresy there's another important issue I believe any claim of racial superiority is a heresy but it's it it's not grounded in the fact that we know that claims of racial superiority are merely wrong and merely sinful it is to say you cannot you cannot hold to theories of racial superiority and adequately sustain the preaching of the gospel and the proof of that comes very quickly in the Southern Baptist Convention where it would be impossible let's be clear to preach those messages of white supremacy and to preach the gospel and to be taken seriously that's the burden we face and by the way those are the very theologians who established this institution and the Southern Baptist Convention and this is writ large across Protestantism it's not just a Southern Baptist problem it's a it's a problem for me because I'm president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary this is not just a Southern Baptist problem this is an American problem it's a Western problem it's a white problem it's a it's a Methodists Episcopalians and and you go down the list problem but I've got to deal with our problem it's it's it's a sin that simply has to be confessed and within the evangelical world there has been a pendulum on these questions and this is especially true with modern evangelicalism after world war two the new evangelical ism i I was raised as a young theologian and apologist to deal with these issues and I've been trying to deal with them faithfully as I know how ever since I first became I would say an apologist a theologian which was a late teenager trying to struggle with these things in in evangelicalism the very fact that there is an evangelicalism a new evangelicalism what we know as I'm Angelica lism today was was because the founding fathers and they were largely fathers at that time people like Carl Henry they believed that fundamentalism had brought disrepute upon the gospel by denying any kind of social responsibility and in the tumult of America after the war it just appeared they wanted to wall it all off and this lack of engagement Henry and others believed had brought disrepute upon the gospel now at the same time they believed that the Liberals had abandoned the gospel by transforming the gospel into a social gospel so the evangelicals of the late 40s the 50s and the 60s who are the the the forefathers of our movement as we know it today that they were men who said abandoning the gospel is what the Liberals did by training it changing it into a social gospel that they exchanged the gospel of Jesus Christ for a gospel of some kind of utopian political dream and they lost the gospel they lost members they lost the scripture they lost it all but they also warned that a refusal to engage questions and and to understand the church's responsibility in this age will also bring disrepute upon the church and so they called for engagement that was their word now I realize time is short but so long as you have time I feel the need to elaborate a bit on this the in evangelicals there's always been a tension between those who often called the conversion estándares who are the transformation astern swell the conversion to say the mission of the church is to tell people about the saving knowledge of christ so that the lost can hear the gospel and be saved and thus they say it's a conversion isten on the other hand there are the transformation as' and they're the people who say you know no citing people like abraham kuyper and and others that the gospel is the transforming power of god not only in not only in the church but in the larger society it's the proof of the gospel in the transformation of society at every level and thus on that side you have the people who are saying we need to start art museums and we need to send Christians into the professions and we need to we need to invade every dimension and and transform it now the reality is that if I'm looking at you I bet every one of you has a certain tension within yourselves between this conversion ISM and and transformation ISM but you know the priority the priority is the teaching and preaching of the gospel but you also know that it should make a difference where Christ's gospel people are found certain really good holy things should be happening orphans should be cared for widows should be cared for people without clothing should be clothed and eventually this means understanding there are social implications to the gospel keeping that order right has always been an evangelical problem attention but within gospel people it comes down to this and this is I would plead with you to think about this in this context let's say that that John MacArthur represents the classic conversion estar Gyu man made here the church's mission is to preach the gospel of conversion and then to preach the word to Christ Church that's the let's just say it's the classic conversion estate someone like Tim Keller and say he's probably the classic transformation esteem ight be able to hold up here and and look if you go to Redeemer Church in Manhattan and you go to Grace Church therein in Sun Valley California you're gonna know you're in two different churches if they have a different vibe they have a different feel they're in a different location but here's the thing I want to tell you gives me hope and confidence and why I think this current debate is out of proportion I have absolute confidence I want you to hear me say this I have absolute confidence that a person who does not know Christ will hear the gospel at both Redeemer Church in Manhattan and at Grace Community Church in California I have absolute confidence in that so the parameters of health to me include John MacArthur and Tim Keller I'm not giving up either of those polls now to be honest in my own my own self understanding and my own understanding of the gospel I'm closer to John partly perhaps because I'm as an Augustinian less enthusiastic about the prospects of transformation ISM I do want to see Christians go into the arts home to see Christians go into everything but I just want to remind those Christians that the reason the Protestant liberals lost the gospel and the social gospel is because they began to define whether or not the church was faithful by how much social transformation they were seeing and if that's what you're looking for then you're gonna be looking outside the church for evidence of the saving power of Christ and well you know if you're talking to people who are evangelicals and love the gospel and are together for the gospel and Coalition for the gospel you're me talking to people who know it's the saving power of the gospel that has absolute primacy the question then is what kind of people does the saving gospel of Christ produce and where are you going to see evidence what kind of evidence should you look for to what degree should the church be involved or not involved in the issues of the day those are good debates those are really good debates I trust that the debates are healthy I also trust that they're inevitable so we can all of a sudden say we're gonna stop this conversation right now well you're gonna have it two years from now or two weeks from now because this is where we live in this age of already but not yet I also want to remind you that this is the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and as a confessional people one of our confessions is the Baptist faith and message and I just want to remind you of a statement and there are two if you look at the Baptist faith and message but I'm not going to turn to 14 I'm going to turn to statement 15 this a part of our confession of faith all Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society means and methods use for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ here the priority is conversion the priority of the gospel is conversion that is the gospel but the gospel has consequences going back to the statement in the Spirit of Christ Christians should oppose racism every form of greed selfishness and vice in all forms of sexual immorality including adultery homosexuality in pornography we should work to provide for the orphan the needy the abused the aged the helpless in the sick we should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death every Christian should seek to bring industry government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness truth and brotherly love now you notice there's no confusion of the gospel there it doesn't say to bring a lost world somehow as the Protestant liberals thought under the reign of God's kingdom without belief and regeneration instead it says under the sway of principles of righteousness truth and brotherly love in order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of goodwill in any good cause always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and his truth what does that mean when it says that Christians should be ready to work with all men of goodwill and any good cause well that means as the preceding paragraph would tell us when we're working for the gospel we can only work with fellow gospel Christians period and and so we cannot mix the world we can't mix Protestant liberalism with the preaching of the gospel nor with the work of the church but if there is a fire next door we have a responsibility to help to put our neighbours fire out and in that literal circumstance we can pass a bucket not on to a fellow member of our church but to a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness and take a bucket from them because it's right to put out the house on fire it's wrong to call that the gospel and it's deadly to confuse the difference I I want to be very clear about that I I hope I've been clear I apologize that I've been long but and I fully understand the time is is out for this chapel hour so there should be no embarrassment and having to leave but I've had some folks who've been standing here and I want to respect them so I'm gonna start answering some questions as fast as I can we'll see yes so as everyone leaves yeah yeah so my question is in light of the reavoice conference what is southern doing to love and care for those who struggle with same-sex attraction while also informing those who don't struggle with same-sex attraction on how to love and care for those who do yeah good question that the reverse conference has kind of become a catalyst for thinking through many of these questions you know I think the most important thing for us to recognize is that wherever you find human beings and that means also in the church you're going to find some human being struggling with the issue of same-sex attraction and I think we also have to recognize that same-sex attraction doesn't merely disappear with conversion and come into faith in Christ we also have to say according to scripture that same-sex sexual attraction is in its very essence sin now this is where we know we look at each other we're saying none of us is without sin and and even when it comes to issues of gender and sexuality none of us is without sin none of us has has had only thoughts and inclinations and imaginations that are totally honoring to God so I think what we've learned through at least some of the more and debates is there's real danger I believe in identifying people as gay Christians I think that's a very dangerous thing because given the identity politics of the age once you create an identity then you've got to ask to what degree one qualifies the other and so I want to say I believe there are people they're gonna be struggling with same-sex attractions as part of every church we need to encourage them to holiness to honesty we need to receive them as brothers and sisters in Christ and hold them to accountability to holiness as they hold us also together is what it means to be the church and and I think we've got to be honest about what that means ongoingly the same way that other Christians and anyone is a pastor for a long time you see this they're people who recognize their own patterns of sin whether sexual or otherwise are going to dominate their lives but for rescue by the gospel and from the support and help that comes to them by Christ people in the church I want to be a part of that kind of church I think I am right now a part of that kind of church I wrote about my concerns about the reverse conference because I think the identity politics side and a confusion even of the of the gospel became very apparent when you're talking about what kind of queer treasure can be brought into the New Jerusalem we've we've crossed some very important line okay yeah so speaking about the house fire and the responsibility to take care of that I think that's kind of a metaphor for the largest care of the world and how Christians have a responsibility to influence the world to be right that's why we're in the to shine the light to be a city alright so to that respect what is the relation that Christians should have thinking of Romans 13 - governor um tyrannical and should we be neutral in helping - for like the better word overthrow those governments or should we take aside and try to help pass the bucket and put out that fire because thinking of my church history hearing about Paul writing this yeah you know under Roman persecution so that's just been about yeah I appreciate that max right yep so I'm thankful Christians are struggled with this for a long time and this would take all day so I'm gonna distill it as short as I can it kind of comes down to was the American Revolution justified okay and and and here's what so let me just use that one test case so in the American Revolution the thoughtful Christians at the time said according to the scripture anarchy is the worst possible condition no government is as a horrible condition government is God's gift we are to be subject to the rulers the question is who are the rulers so if you'll notice the argument made in the Declaration of Independence is we don't want a ruler we're going to reject all government it is we have come to the conclusion that George the third over there in England is not the proper ruler for the United States what would become the United States and so the thoughtful Christian said we must obey the rightful ruler we must and and we will determine what that what that will be so look that was a real theological debate in the 1770s it was a real theological debate in England when you consider the time of oliver cromwell the same kind of question there's no easy answer there's no easy answer and sometimes there's not even an easy mechanism you talk to Christians under the the the boot of Nazi Germany many of them came to the conclusion that they could not be faithful to God it was like being ordered to bow down to an idol and they could not do it but but it it it takes different Christians and different times talking to each other about how when exactly that comes so it's just not easy to answer it but it is easy to say our salvation the power of the gospel is not under any effect of any ruler rightfully or wrongfully ruling and so that's that's where Christians have to always end that kind of statement Thank You max lightning-round yes my name is Kayla Bethel and I'm from West Virginia my question concerns article 17 of the abstract yea concerning the Lord's Day and the last line of it says that you should rest from worldly employments and amusements works of necessity and mercy only accepted and so my question would be how do you understand the intention of the framers of the abstract and I understand there's a spectrum of beliefs concerning that here at southern and so how does your understanding of what the framers of the abstract meant kind of inform what is taught here at southern yeah you know one of the most interesting things you have to look at is is when you have a confession of faith where'd it come from and why is it exactly as it is so when you look at the abstract principles what's interesting because it's derived from the Westminster Confession of faith is what's not in that document not in that article what's specifically not in that document is the identification of the Lord's Day as a Christian Sabbath so that's not there if you look at it if you look at what came before it that would surprise you because there's there's so it's not a sabbatarian document it's a lord's day affirmation and it's about the priority of worship on the lord's day now the works of necessity and urgency that that was a question for seminary students in the founding era of the seminary can you study on Sunday afternoon if you had a test on Monday maybe you need to that might be urgent but we also know that the the seminary faculty the founding faculty held study sessions there was no Sunday evening Church at that time that was that was a later invention mostly with electric lights they held study sessions with students on Sunday evenings in the cool of the night they discuss theology it was more relaxed I don't think that was wrong now if you're asking me would I ethically play or watch a football game on Sunday afternoon that's easy because I don't care do I think that someone else is sitting by doing so if they have faithfully given priority to the worship of the one true and living God and given themselves to that worship and to the Ministry of the church and if the church does not have an event at that time I do not believe they are sinning by watching the football game or going out to play you know frisbee with their kids I believe that can be a good and holy endeavor so that's the best unknown answer it my mother was a strict sabbatarian my had my first car when I was 16 it was a Ford black supercharged Ford Fairlane vent on the hood it was cool wish I had it so one Sunday I was doing what a 16 year old boy most wants to do I was washing and polishing the car my mother came out and want to honor her in this but my mother came out and it just was furious saying that was ruining my witness before the whole world and by washing my car on Sunday and you know chastised me and called me in and that's when I realized you know she may be right that I'm breaking the 10 commandments but she's got the wrong commandment it was more likely the car was idolatry then that washing it on the Sabbath was the problem but nonetheless I respect I'm speaking with great love and respect for my mom I don't believe I was ruining my Christian witness by washing the car before I went to sing in youth choir but it's good that Christians talk about this it's good the Christians in a local church talk about this I'm glad it is as it is in our confession of faith yes you could explain exodus 10 verse 27 where it says but the lord of hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go exactly what that hardening of Pharaoh's heart meant because I don't believe it was God forcing him or causing him to say so when it says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart that's one of the ultimate statements in Scripture of God's sovereignty over every human heart and one of the greatest mysteries to humanity is we cannot understand our own heart I'm going on a limb and believe you can't understand your heart I often can't understand my heart fundamentally I can't but when it says that Pharaoh hardened God hardened Pharaoh's heart does it mean that he did something to Pharaoh that hardened his heart the answer has to be yes and that that's clear in the entire narrative does that mean that Pharaoh was any less responsible no no and by the way Pharaoh had already demonstrated a hard so I think it's very much similar to what we read where in Romans 1 we are told that God gave them over in other words he gave Pharaoh unto himself hardening his heart because it was God's will that he be the great enemy of Israel whose defeat would demonstrate the chosen this of God's people and the power of God's purposes for them so it's a good it's a good question well I think one key thing is to remember that whenever the Bible says God does something we never want to back up at all from just a straightforward statement that God did it but when you look at Pharaoh who was clear God didn't take a heart that had been inclined towards him or even neutral towards him and reverse it he took a heart that was hardened towards him and made it harder thank you okay I promise only these two yes how do you balance all of your responsibilities with work and trying to stay informed with current topics in the world and your personal responsibilities with your family and to the spiritual disciplines yeah that's very good question Abby right yeah Thank You sweet question sort of say how do you do I started say poorly this is a this is an interesting week for you to ask me because there are times and seasons in life and by the way I don't think any any person can tell you I've got that problem licked I did write a book about this I'm not referring you to the book was simply to say I think faithfulness is rarely found in an hour and a day sometimes not in a week it's more likely found in a month in a season because we've got to constantly be giving attention to this into that I just try to do all the things that I do all the time and yet right now right now Mary and I are thrilled because we have Katie home her husband is with the State Department as in Uzbekistan at the moment just for matter days but that meant we had Katie and Benjamin who's two and a half and an Henry who's 12 months 12 weeks excuse me with us we're having a blast I'm not getting a whole lot done this week okay because when I go home I'm playing trucks on the floor and naturally what I need to do you know last night when I really needed to be making a phone call about a denominational issue I was pulling a two-year-old on a green plastic tractor around the lawn of the president's home I just have to believe that the Lord has us too so you know when we had small children in the home that were our own I could not turn to dealing with other things until their bedtime and just trying to be a good husband trying to be a good father trying to look at no day and no day did I sit down and go boy we licked that I had everything in exact proportion but the Lord gives grace and I'm a night person not a morning person so my spiritual disciplines are at night not in the morning technically they're in the morning but they're not in the morning with light and and you know I just that that that's the only way I know I I don't I can't say this is how anyone else should do it but I I have a faithful wife who watches over me and knows knows the rhythm of my day and and helps and yeah well it is such a sweet question I just want to say it just never licked because they're different seasons of life once these in life is one way then you're married then you have children then then then then you have this then you have grandchildren and then you have crisis and right now we're living with I've got a mother with Alzheimer's in a care facility in Florida I'm trying to constantly you know regularly get down to take care of her and be attentive to her and have the same conversation over and over again bless her heart and in in a 10 minute period Mary's got a 94 year old mother with the challenges here in Louisville so we're the Sandwich Generation there are days in which nothing we plan to get done you know in the evenings gets done but we just try to do what Lord makes clear we need to do then and then try to get at it again tomorrow but thank you happy for the question yes you're the you are the closing word thankfully I'm not well unfortunately I'm not closing with the theological question but also practical question this is one I've been struggling with a lot and what that is to dealing with homelessness whenever a homeless person comes up with you what is the proper Christian response it's a great question it can vary from place to place and and and our Christian conscience should be haunted by this question constantly and so the this is that this is the thing so I'm a member of 3rd Avenue Baptist Church some others in this room also members of that church your members of other churches the first thing we should do is make certain that our churches are engaged in ministries that offer organized ways to try to help persons who are in a position of urgency and I've served on the boards of some of these in other ax so when I am confronted by someone that I believe to be in genuine need and not in the professional homeless class and you know what I mean this is a and if you're there any major city in the world you know you may say I don't believe that's what's going on but 24 hours after being in London you'll know exactly what's going on not in the professional class but but rather those who are an urgent need we have a responsibility to help them and thankfully we have mechanisms to help them so when I was 19 years old I was minister of youth in a church in Florida part-time summer job and I'm sorry this will take him it'll be a surprise one day anyway old brother Bill Smith was the associate pastor of the church now he's an interesting guy because he was from Scotland and he had been a member of the Mafia and he was supposed that no it's not called the Mafia in Scotland but the the organized crime and he'd been a boy the streets he was like born in 1896 97 when he was a boy on the boy the streets and and and then of the wars in Scotland joined a gang and in order to be a made man he had to kill somebody so he was given a knife and he was told who to kill and he was on the the ship and he was getting ready to kill him and just about the time he was gonna kill him he realized I can't kill it but he realized he also couldn't go back because then the gang would kill him so he just stowed away on the ship and when he walked off the ship the Mariners mission in New York City was offering soup and so bill Smith who is then like a 17 year old would-be murderer walked into the Mariners Mission Inn in New York City came to know Christ and became a preacher and when I knew him he was like 130 years old he was the oldest man I knew and he never prayed I couldn't understand his prayers he was always praying when he mentioned in the cross it was Calvary the rugged gibbet it was it was a character case but he but he knew hardship he had grown up without a father on the streets and so people would come to the First Baptist Church and they would come in needing things and presenting needs and I realize I'm completely incompetent to deal with this I don't know who really needs and who doesn't bill Smith could read it in a minute but we took care of everybody who had a need so in in Louisville for instance if I see someone it happened not too long ago where they say just give me some money I'm hungry I'll never give them money I just won't give them money but I will say look here's a subway let me buy you a sandwich let me get you something to drink let me get you something to eat sometimes that works but I wish Katy were here right now because Katy was with me during an evangelical theological Society meeting in in Baltimore she was a staffer in Washington at the time she came up to have dinner with me at the ETS and this was on in Providence no seasoning Baltimore we're there in the inner Wharf and the convention hotel actually had a subway in it or Jimmy John's one of the two so anyway there's this homeless guy and he wanted he said just give me five dollars and I said why and he said I'm hungry and I said well I I won't give five dollars but I will buy you something to eat let's go in and get the sandwich and so I had him I said please just just order sandwich and in the name of Christ I want you to have something to eat so I ordered sandwich but he got he said I would really like to well you know you're hungry have two sandwiches so it got even paid for it so I'm getting ready to leave I'm feeling pretty good about my Christian faithfulness in this moment I'm feeling pretty good about myself this is the Boy Scout quandary you know you save a little old lady's life and you know instead of being humble about it you think boy that was really good so anyway I'm walking out with Katie and this guy's on the corner going I'll take five dollars for these two sandwiches and my perfect plan turned out not to be so perfect after all but but III do not give money to people and and it's just because I have seen what people do with money and I don't I don't want to I don't want to increase their misuse but I do try to direct them if I think there's a real urgent genuine need not someone who set up business at the end of the ramp then and then I will try to help and thankfully there are some wonderful wonderful ministries here in town and that means you should and I should know what they are and know how to get people to them and know how to make sure it's not just passing them off and we should support those ministries generously because they are they're doing to a far better degree of stewardship what we as Christians know we should all be doing but don't know how to do just seeing someone you know on a street corner or someone coming up to us on the sidewalk so sure I hope that helps god bless you all you're like the remnant of Israel and there will be a blessing for you god bless you you [Applause] you

Channel: Southern Seminary

Views: 44,791

Rating: 4.6998124 out of 5

Keywords: Albert Mohler, SBTS, Chapel, Q and A, Q & A, Southern Seminary

Id: TsXTuWi4zUA

Length: 84min 36sec (5076 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/BirdieNZ]

While I appreciate his viewpoint, at ~52 minutes he says that it is a Protestant problem and a white problem and a Western problem. This isn't accurate, though. The sins of the USA are not the sins of the whole Western world. The sins of New Zealand are not the sins of the whole Western world, either. We have our own problems, but they aren't the same problems as the USA, and our problems with race, which may have some similarities, are not the same. I am in no way guilty of or a partaker of any African or African American oppression, nor were any of my ancestors as far back as I know of. There are hardly any African Americans here to oppress, for one thing.

Having said that, I'm mostly nitpicking, America-centrism is hardly a new problem :P

[u/centurion88]

Sorry if link is broken, time-stamping YouTube videos on mobile is a nightmare.

https://youtu.be/TsXTuWi4zUA

24:17 is when the question is asked.

[u/centurion88]

Not sure about some of what he said, but overall I felt that his full answer was a very balanced, charitable, and thought through response.

[u/considerablyrumpled]

Thanks for posting this!

[u/SizerTheBroken]

Loved every bit of this. Thanks for posting.

[u/OneSalientOversight]

Thinking as I write...

Mohler makes a number of assumptions in his background story. He talks about the "New Left" coming along and changing things back in the 1960s and 1970s. What he doesn't examine is whether the philosophy of the time that was being challenged by the New Left was itself somehow wrong. It's almost as though he's saying "Everything was fine and America was living in a Biblical Worldview and then the hippies and Communists came along and destroyed it". He doesn't compare the ideas of the New Left with the ideas of the time, within the thinking of the post-war intellectual world. I've seen this a few times in American Christian thinking, that somehow the godless lefty communists took power in the 1960s and there's been a battle between good and evil going on ever since. This is a trope which has been developed over many decades within conservative political circles and it's sad that Christians have accepted it uncritically.

The second thing that Mohler assumes here is that the college professors of today are a result of the Marxist new left. This again is part of a trope, a piece of propaganda that is popular among political conservatives that the lefty communists control secular colleges. the reality is that while the New Left was influential, and continues to be influential, the current crop of professors and academics aren't all a bunch of hippy SJWs. One of my history lecturers at university in the mid 1990s was a former Marxist historian and he explained his journey from Marxism to something more reasonable. In fact Communism and Marxism went through a massive political collapse in the 1970s in Western society and many of those influenced by it ended up rejecting it in one form or another. What you see today in the academic world is not the same thing that Mohler saw back when he was an undergraduate.