Statement on the Muslim prayer incident at DFW 🧵

After posting about the announcement to a prayer service at DFW where “all are welcome,” I have received numerous requests for interviews from various media outlets. 1/

https://twitter.com/tomascol/status/1971676370666508595

For personal reasons I am unable to grant those requests, but I recognize the legitimate interest in this event and offer the following statement that elaborates what happened. I will not be commenting further on this in the near future. 2/

Should pastors have mentioned Charlie Kirk's assassination yesterday?🧵

Every pastor is responsible to shepherd the flock in which the Lord has placed him. For that reason I wouldn't presume to dictate to any pastor on this situation. But I did mention him.

Here's why. 1/ Q. 159 in the LC says pastors should preach the Word of God should be preached "wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers."

This wisdom has served me well in my ministry. "What do they need & what can they handle?" Those questions guide me. 2/

A PSA 🧵to every @SBCExecComm related entity. It is time for transparency. Many have called for it for years & an increasing number of SBC pastors & church members are joining the chorus. The old ways of operating are over. The 11th Commandment has become a tool for coverup. 1/9 The painful (& shameful) revelations that are coming to light are an example of what the SBC will experience if transparency must be forced by the churches rather than offered by the entities accountable to them. A day of reckoning is coming. It cannot be stopped. 2/9

🧵 Every SBCer needs to listen to @pj_robertson, chairman of @SBCExecComm1 describe spending $14 million given through the CP to discover that NO sex abuse coverup has existed in the EC. If you only have 11 minutes, start at 14:00. 1/4 #SBC24
The SBC has been listening to & following the wrong people. Many of those leading us have failed to serve us properly. It is time for new leadership. Get to Indy next month, vote for the @sbcamendment & a courageous, new president. 2/4

A🧵—I am grateful for this clarification—really a repudiation—of the statement originally reported that @jbwester, @bartbarber, & @keahbone et al claimed that the new, independent organization would be funded by SendRelief.

But I have questions. 1/6
namb.net/news/send-reli… Why was it originally reported that "Send Relief officials agreed February 19 to release funds to help launch ARC" when Send Relief officials say no such agreement was ever made?

Is this bad reporting?

Is deception involved?

Is it incompetence? 2/6

https://x.com/SBCMessengers/status/1760276524622602531?s=20

A 🧵 against Bart's argument:

Bart confuses categories in this thread & the result can cause misunderstanding of what it means for a Baptist church to be in "friendly cooperation" with other Baptist churches in a convention. While it is true that no entity or organization has 1/

https://twitter.com/bartbarber/status/1735005870801461667

authority to rule over any church—since all churches are autonomous—that does not mean that an autonomous church is free to associate with whatever entity or convention it desires. Just as churches are autonomous, so are associations & conventions of churches. That is, 2/

My kerfuffle with my friend, @GMRench 🧵
My concern is not about whether wine or grape juice should be used in the Lord's Supper. It's about his insistence that one disobeys "God's clear command" if he doesn't use wine and that “'masculine' (emphasize scare quotes) [men who] 1/ sit under pastors who serve them grape juice for communion" are unmanly. Such pastors, he says, "Might as well serve them a baby bottle with a nipple & milk in it."

While he provides a target rich environment for hunters of foolishness & fallacies, I objected to only 1 point. 2/

"Churches faced a difficult decision about whether & how long to remain closed. Should they obey the government, or insist on their right to stay open?...Obey Romans 13, or Hebrews 10?"

This kind of sloppy moral reasoning is deadly & damnable. 1/
christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/may-we… Miller pits Scripture against Scripture & suggests that the dilemma Christians face is which one to obey. He tries to show the decision to shut down churches on order of the magistrate is morally equivalent to the decision to continue meeting. Just choose which verses to obey 2/

Dear SBC pastors & church members: This is the company that your #ARITF selected to administer the Ministry Check Website with your Cooperative Program gifts. If SBC "headquarters is the local church," then it is time for headquarters to stop this madness. 1/

https://twitter.com/GuidepostGlobal/status/1533872616812978176

The #ARITF admits that they know Guidepost supports "causes contrary to Southern Baptist beliefs" as an "ally" to LGBTQ+ activists, but they choose this organization anyway. Are you satisfied with this? Are you content to have millions of CP dollars go to this organization? 2/

A Needed Word from Spurgeon for #SBC21:

“We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago...but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. 1/8 "Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and their compeers had said, ‘The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. 2/8
#SBC21

Unless grace is given to make a man strong in the Lord, educated believers are in these days frequently tempted to aspire after the position of "leaders of thought,” “men who are abreast of the times,” and “persons of thoughtful minds.”

—C. H. Spurgeon 1/4 Old-fashioned believers are at a discount, and are sneered at as a kind of idiots: this is not a pleasant experience for those who know that they are the equals, if not the superiors, of their despisers.

—C. H. Spurgeon 2/4

This is quite a contrast to BH Carroll, founder of @SWBTS, who said, "The modern cry: “Less creed and more liberty,” is a, degeneration from the vertebrate to the jellyfish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy." 1/6

https://twitter.com/EdLitton/status/1387735358482305029

Carroll also said, "All the modern hue and cry against dogma is really against morals. The more we reduce the number of the creed articles, the more we undermine practical religion." 2/

On this day in 1563 the Heidelberg Catechism was published. It is the most Christological & warm-hearted of all the Protestant catechisms. Zacharius Ursinus is the main author. His commentary on it is worth reading. 1/ The 1st Q&A is a profound statement of gospel truth.
Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong–body and soul, in life and in death–to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. 2/

A major part of CRT is its presuppositions—which it demands you accept, including:
• Racism is engrained in the fabric & system of the American society
• Power structures based on white privilege & white supremacy exist & must be overthrown.
Does this seem like a “boogeyman”? 1 Therefore, "Does racism exist in this situation" is never the right question. Rather, it's, "How is the racism we KNOW is present here working?" CRT demands that you assume racism. Suggesting otherwise is racist. Even asking for evidence is racist. 2/

Tisby: “Christians who genuinely want to atone for any personal acts of racism must focus on dismantling racial inequality as it persists across systems and society.” This is what’s wrong with his brand of SJ. IT EVISCERATES THE GOSPEL! Read & weep:
religionnews.com/2019/02/11/chr… 1/4 Note that he offers instructions for Christians to *atone* for their own sins. The atonement of Christ is not enough in Tisby’s brand of social justice. If you fail to measure up to SJ standards, then you must be made to pay. The SJ gospel replaces repentance with penance. 2/4