Chip and Joanna Gaines are executive producers of “Back to the Frontier,” a Magnolia Network show which debuted July 10 featuring families living without modern amenities. Controversy arose over including a homosexual couple with surrogacy-born twins, prompting criticism from those who see it as an affront to the traditional values the Gaines’ claim to uphold, and a misleading portrayal of family.
Scottish born Alistair Begg has been pastoring and preaching at Parkside Church in Cleveland since 1983. That’s over 40 years at the same church, something to celebrate. His online ministry is called Truth for Life.
He is well-known and looked at credibly by his peers. He has not been involved in any huge scandals. His preaching to my knowledge is straightforward and unapologetic on ALL the Bible’s texts.
This week a video surfaced where this past September 2023 Begg was interviewed by Bob Lepine at Truth for Life, promoting Begg’s new book, The Christian Manifesto. Begg was asked a question of how people might be changed reading Begg’s book. Part of Begg’s answer included a surprising reply.
Begg said he’d a conversation with a grandmother about her grandson inviting the grandma to the grandson’s wedding ceremony. He was marrying a transgender person. Begg acknowledged that people may not like his answer, but he said he’d encouraged the grandma to attend and to buy the homosexual couple a gift. It was OK because the grandma, she assured Begg, had already made known to her grandson that she doesn’t approve of his lifestyle, and that her disapproval was in the name of Jesus and the cause of holy sexual ethics. Begg said her attendance would signal love and compassion, and might take him by surprise, whereas her absence would spark accusations of judgmentalness and criticism.
If we really think about Begg’s reply, it seems that his definition of love is more the world’s than Jesus’. When Jesus confronted the Woman at the Well about her sexual sin, He didn’t say I love you, here’s a housewarming gift for you and the man you’re living with, and by the way I don’t approve of your living situation. That would not make sense would it? It’s conflicting behavior.
Secondly, we never base a response to sin on whether the people would receive it critically. We are told to prepare for mocking and scoffing, hate, and even martyrdom. The lawless hate their deeds being brought to the light, but we must trust the Lord to convict them when we adhere to His standards and live and speak them into a darkening world.
Begg’s reply caused a furor online, with people’s reactions running the gamut from ‘off with his head’ to ‘what’s the big deal’. Most comments were somewhere in between.
When a long-standing, credible pastor or teacher makes an “out there” reply to a question, or suddenly preaches something contrary to the word of God or to what he has preached before, take a breath. Here is Meg Basham’s take, one I agree with:
Megan Basham@megbasham Even the best, most godly preachers and teachers can have a bad take. Even a really bad take. I don’t stop listening to them unless it 1) becomes a pattern that shows a general lack of discernment or 2) clearly endorses heresy. I’m bummed about the Alistair Begg clip circulating. But it’s a bad take against a lifetime of faithful teaching. Hopefully he’ll address it.39.9K Views
But this is not the first time I scratched my head over something Begg said he believed. There are two other instances that I know of that gave me pause in Alistair Begg’s discernment in the recent past.
Issue with A. Begg #2 (the first issue being attending a trans/gay wedding, already discussed above).
In 2019 he preached that women can speak to the gathered congregation in church on a Sunday, if the elders decide they want her to. If she has something worthwhile to share. Since she is “not speaking as a pastor or in rule and authority”, she can teach at the podium, Begg said, and it does not violate the prohibition in 1 Timothy 2:12. Forbidding women from speaking to the church on a Sunday is “making a law out of a principle,” Begg advised. Listen to him say this here: “Christian Women” slide to 30:00.
No. Paul’s prohibition was clear. Women may not teach or usurp authority over a man, but to be in silence. An elder’s permission does not trump the biblical rule.
Also in 2019, Alistair Begg appeared at a conference with Beth Moore, Tony Evans, and a female reverend called Mary Hulst. His ministry was contacted by a concerned bystander, and amazingly they answered. Begg, through the media contact, said he was also concerned about Moore and Evans, but he’d committed to the conference prior to knowing who else would be there. He also said he wanted to preach the Gospel wherever he went. Lastly, he wasn’t sharing the platform with these folks, just being present at the same conference.
This to me, is a disingenuous answer. Sharing the conference IS sharing the platform. Sharing your good name with false teachers throws mud on your name AND the name of Jesus. It’s also biblically forbidden. Secondly, it’s foolish to agree to speak at a place before you know who else will be there. Just…don’t do that. No one does that. And preaching the gospel wherever you go…well, I’d answered that above. There are some places we don’t share with false teachers. Why else did Paul become so upset at the demon possessed girl? She was saying a TRUE thing, but it came from demonic lips.
What Does 2 John Have to Teach Us about Partnering with False Teachers? 9Marks- What this means practically for those in ministry is that they should not, in any way, under any circumstance, lock arms with heretical teachers, pastors, authors, professors, or anyone in any capacity who comes to you bringing a different Jesus.
This includes: Conferences, Prayer Breakfasts, Bible Studies, Pastors Coalitions, Parachurch ministries, Pulpit Swaps, Book Recommendations, Article sharing or website promoting, And more.
The Trans/Gay Wedding issue
How would Begg’s peers who are at his level reply to a similar question? Here are past replies to the question “Would you attend a gay wedding if invited?” from other pastors. These comments are not a response to the current issue with Alistair.
John Piper: “No. One, it is not a wedding, because it is not a marriage…” more here.
John MacArthur: “No matter how much you desire to be compassionate to the homosexual, your first sympathies belong to the Lord and to the exaltation of His righteousness.” more here
Kevin DeYoung at Ligonier: “A wedding ceremony, in the Christian tradition, is first of all a worship service. So if the union being celebrated in the service cannot be biblically sanctioned as an act of worship, we believe the service lends credence to a lie. We cannot in good conscience participate in a service of false worship.” More here
Voddie Baucham:
Owen Strahan responds to Begg’s stance on attending gay weddings, here
RESOURCE–
Here is David Murray at Heart Head Hand blog (a counseling site) with a hypothetical answer on what he would say if his son came out as gay. I thought it was a good in-between response that showed his son fatherly love but also set Christian boundaries: What letter would you write to a gay son?
CONCLUSION
While we don’t leap on a teacher who has been solid for years with the first little tittle they say that appears to vary from the Bible, we do wait to see if there is a pattern. Alistair Begg has partnered with people who he knows aren’t solid, has overturned the prohibition for women teaching and preaching in church, and has seemed to have gone soft on practical applications in life regarding homosexuality/transgender. It is my opinion he has established a pattern that bears close watching. Perhaps the outcry will cause Pastor Begg to re-examine his stance in this hot-button issue, and perhaps he’d also pray for more discernment on the other two issues. We pray and wait to see.
It’s ‘pride in one’s homosexual sin’ month. Mother gets a day but sodomy gets a month. Hm. That’s normal in a world where evil is called good and good is called evil, light is dark and dark is light, bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter, says Isaiah 5:20.
People have questions on how to help those on bondage to it, or how to help parents struggling to come to grips with their child’s sin of homosexuality, or how to respond in apologetics to those Christians waving a rainbow flag in affirmation of the decision, or many other issues. As I saw good and trustworthy resources come across my laptop, I saved them and systematized them into groupings. I hope any of this may help as you witness to the truth regarding this particular sin.
1: Help for those emerging from homosexuality
1. Rosaria Butterfield is probably the number 1 exhibit of the post-gay lifestyle of a former feminist and lesbian. She seems like the real deal, an sinful lesbian who is now a Christian. As an adult in 1999, a tenured professor at a liberal university teaching post modernism, feminism, and actively promoting and involved in the lesbian lifestyle, Rosaria is now a married woman to a pastor and mother to children, most important of all, a liberated Christian, freed from her bondage of sins, including homosexuality.
2. This article at Piper’s Desiring God website outlines four tactics for the ex-lesbian, or anyone struggling with a besetting sin, to live their life under God in an ever-increasing sanctification. The Dead End of Sexual Sin
3. Setting Captives Free I am not familiar with this website/program until someone I trust on Facebook posted about it. I looked it up and apparently they have been counseling for 15 years. I found no negative reviews to speak of, no scandal, and nothing of ill-repute.
They focus on helping people with online and telephone mentoring through structured 30 and 60 day classes, for a fee. Not all classes are for fee, some are free. It is a non-denominational, Biblically based set of courses. They help people who are struggling with–
adultery pornography masturbation homosexuality
They offer a couples class in purity. They offer a class for spouses whose spouse is struggling with sexual addiction.
Recently they have added two other classes, Self-injury and gluttony. In addition, they offer general devotionals and Bible studies. On the website also, there are many resources, some for pay and many for free.
2: Help Understanding what the Bible says about homosexuality
These resources from Pastor-Teacher John MacArthur and Voddie Baucham cover a range of issues related to homosexuality. This is just a sampling. There are additional resources available at gty.org on the topic.
Q&A, it’s available in written, audio, or video form. Answering the Key Questions about Homosexuality “2004: I think the topic touches all of us in one way or another because it intersects with all of society’s most basic institutions…home, marriage, government, and of course, religion and our faith. And so the questions that I have for you today are going to explore all of those areas. This debate over homosexuality is an emotional one and it hasn’t diminished over time, only the opposite.”
Sermon, available in written, audio, or video form. Thinking Biblically about Homosexuality “Well, tonight I want to talk to you on the subject of what God thinks of homosexuals. It is not a particularly enjoyable subject to discuss, nor would any sin be enjoyable to discuss, for that matter. But it has become pertinent and essential and necessary for us to get a biblical view of this rapidly increasing and normalizing effort to accept homosexuality in our culture. We need to understand what the Word of God has to say.”
Homosexuality, Cultural Decay, and the Only Hope “But be encouraged, because even in the face of the cultural slide, there still is hope—a hope tied to believers like you, the Body of Christ. John MacArthur recently sat down to talk about “Homosexuality and Today’s Moral Slide.” It’s an hour of Bible-based discussion on same-sex marriage, transgender issues, and other evidences of profound cultural decay—and how you and believers like you need to respond to what’s going on now, and to what’s to come if the Lord tarries.”
Sermon, available in written, audio, or video form. What the Bible teaches about Homosexuality “Tonight we’re going to return, at least to begin with, to Romans chapter 1 for our study. We really finished last week looking specifically at the text of Romans 1. But there was much interest and reaction as we discussed the issue of homosexuality as it is mentioned by the apostle Paul in this text. I really feel that God used our study of Romans 1 in a very unique way. During the time we were in that chapter many people gave their lives to Christ. I think many of us have a greater understanding of why God is angry with men who reject His revelation, sink into rationalization, religion, and ultimately reprobation, as we saw in our last study. But we noted last time that in the process of Paul’s defining the sinfulness of man and the utter fallenness of man, he gives an illustration of the depth of man’s sin by pointing out what is the worst earthly expression of man’s fallenness, and that is homosexuality.”
In this 4-minute video clip, Pastor Voddie Baucham biblically refutes the comment “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality” and in so doing, teaches Christians how to think about the comment and what to say in response. https://youtu.be/9akakOqG-_c
In this essay, Kevin DeYoung poses 40 thoughtful questions to the Christians celebrating gay marriage. These can be used in a counseling situation, or if meeting face to face in counseling, via email… whatever. The questions get the Christian to consider their position using the Bible as a mirror. 40 Questions for Christians now Waving Rainbow Flags
In this pair of essays, in one a supposedly Christian father was shockingly heartless in response to his son’s coming out. It is Exhibit A in what NOT to do. Father disowns his gay son in shockingly heartless letter “5 years ago, I was disowned via letter when I came out to my father,” writes Redditor RegBarc.”
David Murray read the heartless dad’s letter and mused upon the issue. What letter would he write if his son came out as gay? What would you write to your gay son? “As I find it hard to believe that a true Christian would ever write such a letter, I’ve drafted a letter that I hope a Christian father would write (although I’m sure we all hope we’ll never have to write it).”
How to respond to a homosexual child “The challenge of responding to homosexuality used to be “out there.” Now it’s in our denominations, our churches, and for some, in the home. Many Christian parents are beginning to wonder, “How should I respond if my child claims to be a homosexual?” For some parents, that question is no longer theoretical. How should believing parents respond to their homosexual children? How do they deal biblically with their children’s sexual sins—particularly if the children claim to know Christ?”
Sound like a harsh headline? It isn’t, it’s just biblical truth. There are two agendas in the world; God’s, and satan’s. We either belong to God, or we belong to satan. We do what God wants (enabled by the Holy Spirit), or we do what satan wants (according to our sin-nature).
Kids are impressionable and they follow personalities and celebrities, and believe what these people say, usually unquestioningly. That is why there was an outcry when it was revealed that a children’s Sunday School curriculum coloring book at ‘Pastor’ Steven Furtick of Elevation Church’s Sunday School referred to himself as the person to unify around, rather than Jesus.
But another heinous crime in the face of God is homosexuality. In reading these articles, I was saddened by the sudden change of the newspapers publishing them of their website banners to rainbows. There were rainbows all over the place, in ‘support’ of the homosexual lifestyle. False teachers such as liberal Glennon Doyle Melton and influential Rachel Held Evans immediately responded with Facebook statuses in support of homosexuality. Evans said in her note that Christian theology “hurts” gay people. Evans’ note about the Orlando massacre got 2176 shares and over 200 comments before I quit looking.
I quote the passage at Romans 1:18-32 a lot. It is the section where Paul shows what God does to a society/individual that rejects Him. At the last, God judges them with homosexuality and that means that “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.” (Romans 1:29).
Homosexuality is the judgment upon a person. Its widespread presence in a culture indicates that the judgment upon a society is already here.
the-end-time.org 