Yesterday I started getting a lot of tweets from people in the US. They were pointing me to a sermon entitled ‘ashamed of the Gospel’ which it was suggested I listen to. I thought it must be some sermon and so today a bit foolishly I started listening to it. I broke my golden rule – never listen to a sermon by someone called Chuck, especially if its 90 minutes long. I have not listened to it all – after a few minutes it launched into a, at the time of listening (there is more to come), 30 minutes plus diatribe against yours truly. I’m not quite sure how an American preacher of the Word of God justifies spending so much time on an insignificant Scottish Presbyterian minister, but if you can stand it, you may find in interesting – you may even agree with it. You can get it here –
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=82014239523
Just in case you can’t be bothered (and why should you) let me share with you some of the gems of wisdom that this man has gleaned from the bible..
“David Robertson is an enemy of John Knox, the apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ..he is anti-Christ, anti-Christian, anti-Paul,ashamed of the Gospel..ashamed of John Knox,a traitor of Christ and ashamed of the Gospel”
“It’s a fact, not an opinion, a fact. David Robertson would be against the apostle Paul”
“David Robertson insists on going against the commands of God”
You get the picture….what has caused this diatribe? Was I declaring that the Gospel was not the Word of God? Did I deny the Trinity? Hell? Heaven? Salvation by faith alone? The atonement? Nope. I dared to write this –
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/crying.wolf.is.free.speech.being.suppressed.in.the.uk/35363.htm
What can one say? I feel sorry for Tony. He needs to be a wee bit more careful in the friends he chooses. Maybe if he gets a preacher friend called ‘John’ or ‘Sinclair’ or even ‘Dave’…but no more Chucks…! But the sad thing is that men like Chuck are self-appointed prophets who think they can accuse, abuse and yell in the name of Jesus and get away with it. There is a real arrogance in their presentation – they seem to genuinely believe they are on a par with the apostle Paul because they do street preaching (however badly)! This particular sermon, apart from being very long, was ignorant (of Scotland – “You are not allowed in Scotland to tell people why Jesus died”, yours truly and the Word of God – equating a narrow fundamentalist US church culture with the bible). At times this can be a wee bit amusing – often it is just pathetically sad, but sometimes it is actually dangerous.
Take the quote – “He believes in culturally sensitive evangelism” (accompanied by laughter!)…What bothers me about all of this, is not so much the personal attack, or the arrogance but the appalling ignorance of both the Word of God and the people they are supposed to be trying to reach. Yes – I do believe in culturally sensitive evangelism – and I much prefer it to culturally INsensitive evangelism. I read the book of Acts contrary to the accusation of Chuck…and there I find a great deal of cultural sensitivity – whether at the temple in Jerusalem or the Areopagus in Athens. This kind of crass, ignorant, arrogant, immature and wacky evangelism is not telling the good news at all. It is at best a product of immaturity and ignorance, and at worst an example of self-glorying (made worse by using the name of Jesus) and blasphemy – causing the name of Jesus to be blasphemed amongst the Gentiles. I am all for bold proclamation of the Word of God – but not when it is done as a form of macho cultural imperialism, rather than the loving proclamation of the Good news of Jesus Christ.
“A final word on David Robertson….quit being creative in evangelistic rebellion….I did my research on David Robertson…this is not his first defection from a biblical bold ministry of the Gospel..he needs to repent”
With that last phrase I totally agree. I do need to repent. Soli Deo Gloria!