The Rise of Woker-Than-Thou Evangelicalism–Phil Johnson
This excerpt is from a critique of at least some of the T4G and TGC movement by one who probably considers himself a part of both of them. (KSchaal)
The Gospel Coalition (TGC) and Together for the Gospel (T4G) were founded little more than a decade ago to bring Christians together around a shared commitment to the foundational doctrines of gospel truth. Earlier this year both organizations sponsored conferences promoting Woke dogmas. Both of them, for example, paid homage to Dr. Martin Luther King not only as a great champion of civil rights (which he certainly was), but also as an exemplar of gospel truth and authentic Christian conviction (which he emphatically was not). Those of us who don’t believe that kind of “wokeness” reflects biblical integrity have been scolded, shamed, and called racists by key leaders from both organizations.In other words, these two organizations that were originally founded to unite believers in the proclamation and defense of the gospel are now dividing evangelicals over something other than the gospel. Under the guise of being Woke they are championing ideological dogmas and political policies that no biblically-minded Christian in any generation of church history ever considered germane to the gospel. They are actually shifting the evangelical focus away from true gospel issues.In short, I fear both TGC and T4G are dangerously close to becoming exactly what they were founded to oppose.
For the rest of Phil Johnson’s article, go here. Pyromaniacs: The Rise of Woker-Than-Thou Evangelicalism
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4 years ago I examined TGC’s founding documents and T4G’s documents for a seminary paper (see summary reposted at https://biblicalworldview.blog/2018/04/11/together-for-the-gospel-the-gospel-coalition-thoughts-from-2014/). What I found especially concerning TGC was an expansion of the idea of “gospel” into other areas. Thus, this trend Phil Johnson is observing is hardly surprising to me. T4G had a little less of that kind of terminology and seemed to focus more on true individual salvation, but he and MacArthur being more in the T4G orbit it is significant that he is willing to put T4G in with TGC on this same trend. As much as the issue of treatment of women is a serious matter, Albert Mohler’s own reactions to the Paige Patterson controversy only suggest that may be moving in this leftish direction and I have been very disappointed with most of what I’ve heard from him on that. For those within fundamentalism who look to John MacArthur as someone more oriented to separation in some sense, the question remains will he break from T4G (which he has been more involved in)? Time will tell…