In Acts 20, Luke records a powerful and poignant gathering of the Apostle Paul and elders of the church in Ephesus that took place in the town of Miletus. This would be the final time that Paul met with the leaders of this important congregation. Part of the purpose of this meeting was to give a crucial warning.
Acts 20:29 For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. 31 Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Savage wolves seek to attack the church from without. And sadly, from within come men who rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples.
Over three years ago, at the IFI Worldview Conference, Dr. Robert Gagnon gave an insightful talk answering this question: Is LGBTQ Pressure Beginning to Crack the Evangelical House? Gagnon gave a warning about the fissure in evangelicalism by citing three troubling examples.
1] An article written by Dr. Preston Sprinkle for Christianity Today on the subject of polyamory. Gagnon was not alone in his criticisms, but it seems that his concerns led Sprinkle to write a response.
2] The Revoice Movement, which is led by Dr. Nate Collins, who is connected also with the Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender. The Revoice Movement uses troubling terms like “gay Christian” and “sexual minorities.”
3] Comments on sexual sin by Pastor J. D. Greer, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a well-known and influential pastor.
More details on Gagnon’s serious concerns about the three above examples can be found
In the three years since Gagnon delivered his warning, more concerning signs in evangelicalism have been appearing. In a recent podcast, Josh Daws interviewed Megan Basham on the LGBT Infiltration of Evangelical Churches. Some of this trend is backed by big money, specifically by the Arcus Foundation, founded by billionaire and homosexual activist Jon Stryker.
Stryker funded the very successful effort to promote a homosexual agenda in the United Methodist Church. But this funding has also been targeting the promotion of this agenda in evangelical churches through efforts by Matthew Vines and the Reformation Project, which has been given funding by the Arcus Foundation, according to Basham. She also says Saddleback Church has had some connections in the past with the Reformation Project.
Additional concerns center around the Embracing the Journey ministry and its recent Unconditional Conference, which was hosted by Pastor Andy Stanley and North Point Community Church. One of the featured speakers at the September 2023 conference was Justin Lee, a board member of the Reformation Project who according to his own bio has been an influential evangelical voice for LGBTQ affirmation for more than twenty years. Lee is “married” to another man.
Another speaker at this conference, Rev. Dr. David Gushee, argues that the Christian church has been wrong to believe that same-sex acts and relationships are always wrong. Would your church ever host a conference where two of the main speakers had no problem with homosexual practices and “same-sex marriage?” I think this would be akin to having Karl Marx speak at your church on the subject of free-market economics.
- Albert Mohler wrote an article calling attention to the serious problem in the direction Stanley is going, calling it a departure from biblical Christianity. In response to Mohler and the controversy, Stanley preached a sermon on the questions and controversy. Stanley’s church still believes marriage is between a man and a woman, but the conference and other messages show there is not the moral clarity that is required for a prominent Christian leader at this critical time.
Another example that I think must be highlighted is Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who wrote a letter to Senators Baldwin (Wis.) and Collins (Maine) thanking them for helping protect “religious freedoms” in the so-called Respect for Marriage Act.
Senator Ted Cruz wisely voted against this legislation due to the dangers contained in it and wrote the following:
“The so-called Respect for Marriage Act is going to set the stage for the Biden IRS to target people of faith, and in particular, to deny tax exempt status to churches, charities, universities, and K-12 schools. This bill creates a federal cause of action to sue institutions that believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman. There are going to be hundreds of lawsuits filed all across this country, forcing underfunded defendants to settle and violate their beliefs or close their doors. That’s what the Democrats want. And 12 Republicans went along with it…”
Sadly, the National Association of Evangelicals believes that this legislation is helping to protect Christian faith and practice.
Highlighting an issue closer to home, this writer and fellow pastors have called attention to the issue of the promotion of Pride Month by Mayor Tom Hayes of Arlington Heights, who attends an evangelical church.
The promotion of Pride Month was defended as a matter of conscience by the leadership of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church. I strongly suggest that the Apostle Paul would not have made that conclusion given the clear testimony of Scripture.
We are in a very strange time.
About one hundred years ago, there was a clear divide between churches that professed the truth and those that claimed to be Christian churches but who had embraced modernism, higher criticism, and the social gospel. J. Gresham Machen wrote his famous book Christianity and Liberalism to argue that the divide was between true Christianity and false religion.
Today the divide is between what I call “orthodoxy and wobblydoxy.” For many mentioned above, there is not an outright denial of historic Christian truth, but there is a naivete about the wolves seeking to destroy and the false teachers rising up within.
I conclude with two points. First, LGBTQ pressure on evangelical churches is only going to continue. Second, the Evangelical house will continue to crack if we do not heed the clear warnings of Scripture and listen to the voices of this world, seeking to win its favor, not Christ’s.
