The Amazing Disappearing Dr Voddie Baucham (UPDATE 1-30-2012)

James Macdonald's Harvest Bible Fellowship Men's conference ran into a little glitch today.

VODDIE BAUCHAM’S SCHEDULED APPEARANCE AT HARVEST BIBLE CHAPEL MEN’S CONFERENCE CANCELED DUE TO “DIFFERENCES REGARDING ER2″

Lord, thank you for men willing to take a stand against heresy even while face to face with their friends.

(UPDATE 1-30-2012 10:14 am CT)

Voddie has given his account of the controversy:
The Elephant in the Room

This was probably the harshest paragraph:

4. Bishop Jakes is an example of the worst the black church has to offer.

One of the goals of ER2 was to address the issue of “racial” unity. Thus, Bishop Jakes was there (at least in part) as a representative of the “black church.” In light of the aforementioned issues, I was disinclined to participate in such an event. You see, Jakes was an invited guest; an invited ‘black’ guest. If he were mistreated, he had the race card; if he was accepted, he had entree into a new audience. It was a win-win for Jakes, and a lose-lose for evangelicalism. Obviously, he was not going to spout unadulterated modalism. Nor was he going to repudiate his roots (remember, this is his “heritage,” both ethnically and theologically). He had a perfect opportunity to find a middle ground and show “humility” in an environment that would be portrayed as “hostile” even though hostility was forbidden in light of the unwritten rules surrounding his blackness. Thus, his opponents had to choose between outright defeat and pyrrhic victory.

Superb observations. The entire set-up was just that -- a set-up. You couldn't disagree without being labeled and you couldn't agree without compromise. So much for the STATED premise of the Elephant Room.

I have a regular practice of posting notices of upcoming events in my monthly newsletter, and on my Facebook fan page. These have been invaluable tools that keep people apprised of when I’m coming to their area (or the area of friends and family whom they’d like to invite to one of our events), how they can pray for me, and what kind of doors the Lord is opening for the ministry.

As per my practice, I posted a link to the Men’s Conference and asked, “Any fan page members planning to attend...” As you can imagine, there were more than a few questions about my position on ER2, my relationship with James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel, and a whole host of other things. I answered those questions as honestly as I could. I made it clear that I opposed the decision to invite Bishop Jakes; pointed out what I saw as his masterful ‘dodge’ on the trinitarian question (and subsequent affirmation of modalist language), and gave a brief explanation of my reasoning for keeping this prior commitment (see here for a recap).

This did not go over well with James MacDonald. Upon my arrival at the church the next day, he and I sat down (along with my assistant and several members of his staff) and had a candid conversation about my decision to answer questions in a public forum. Ultimately, we agreed that it was not a good idea for me to speak at the conference. MacDonald had already made arrangements for a replacement speaker. My assistant and I were escorted to a waiting car and taken back to the airport.

James was already preparing to kick him out before he arrived. That does indeed sound like James has received some vision from some 'god' and has the bit in his teeth. He is in deep error and is not being led by the Holy Spirit. It sounds as though, like all of them who achieve this level of worldly success, he will not be stopped as long as the worldly acclaim, money, and status keep flowing in. And we as a supposed Christian community, because we idolize those things too, keep feeding it to him, to our everlasting shame. It is the most unloving thing to do.

Passover

Something I thought of after hearing some news or maybe rumors tonight that I desperately hope are not true:

Sometimes I feel like it's the long night of Passover and I'm huddled in my house, hearing the wailing from outside and wondering if I put enough blood on the doorposts and lintel for the Angel to see.

Lord have mercy, if you removed your hand of grace and protection from our lives for a moment, we would be lost!

So did T D Jakes disavow modalism or not? No, he did not.

Daniel at Better Than Sacrifice has put together a string of Tweets from James White

ELEPHANT ROOM 2: JAMES WHITE ON T.D. JAKES AND ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM

Macdonald already says he has responded:

Bishop Jakes, 2nd Decisions and Coming Home

"But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” John 3:21

I was initially planning to publish the transcript of session #4 between Mark Driscoll and Bishop Jakes, where Bishop Jakes confirmed his Trinitarian belief and affirmed “God in three persons, eternally existing.” He disavowed modalism, while expressing his great love and appreciation for his spiritual heritage including Baptist, Methodist, and Oneness. I wanted to publish the conversation word-for-word to keep people from distorting it, but on our staff we talk about the importance of the ‘second decision.’ The second decision is where you admit that the first decision was a bad one. I have decided not to publish the transcripts of any conversations from Elephant Room.

A Model of Spiritually Abusive Language (provender)

I was recently alerted to this interesting post on spiritually abusive techniques and language. I don't know much about this site, so I can't vouch for it entirely. I just found the post interesting, AND convicting, as I am surely guilty of using some of these behaviors on occasion out of exasperation and anger.

A Model of Spiritually Abusive Language

If you could watch in slow motion and analyze how abusers manipulate, it would be enlightening. But when you are smack dab in a spiritually manipulative situation, sometimes the abuse happens so quickly that you don’t know what hit you. Every once in a while you catch a frozen glimpse of spiritual abuse in action. When it's in writing, it's easier to analyze. When it's in writing, it is inscribed in cement. You can take your time and actually see how the abuser is abusing.

read more at Provender

Please cross reference the techniques highlighted there with the information in Do Not Be Surprised's blog posts highlighting Steven Furtick and James Macdonald's tweeting behavior (and remember that innumerable examples of their followers mimicking this circle-the-wagons, assault the-messenger-behavior can be supplied).

Do Not Be Surprised - "We Can Work It Out:" Is Steven Furtick Qualified to Have this Conversation?

Do Not Be Surprised - "We Can Work It Out:" Is James MacDonald Qualified to Have this Conversation?

Essentially, if a person is not using physical force on you, they are simply resorting to fallacious reasoning to manipulate you into a position of submission. It's psychological warfare, based on deception. Ungodly.

The Juvenile online behavior of mega pastors (Furtick and Macdonald)

Do Not Be Surprised has some excellent write ups of the order of events that happened on twitter over the course of the last few days.

While in some ways I am shocked, in other ways I am... well... "not surprised." I always hope these guys will grow up and learn to handle criticism, what since they are supposed to be leading large numbers of Christians. But... "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." (Prov 13:12a) If this is what the church's leadership is like is it any wonder our society is seemingly overrun with "carnal Christians?"

"We Can Work It Out:" Is James MacDonald Qualified to Have this Conversation?

"We Can Work It Out:" Is Steven Furtick Qualified to Have this Conversation?

The behavior there really is shocking. These are pastors being paid a lot more than I can imagine and a whole lot more than their preaching and teaching is worth.

It's a bit like that scene from the Wizard of Oz where they bring the broom of the Wicked Witch back to the big scary wizard who likes to do nothing more than jerk their chain, intimidate them, and boss them around. So the little dog Toto finally figures out something isn't right and goes over and pulls the curtain away from the little man behind the workings of the giant scary wizard. But instead of realizing he's busted and giving up the charade, the little white haired guy symbolizing Furtick/Macdonald turns and kicks the dog. Classy.

I'm torn. Is the church more at fault when juvenile boys, playing church, are promoted to positions of national prominence, or is it the leaders' fault? I think, both. Immature people and immature leaders feed off of each other. And of course, we were told this would happen.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,


Maranatha, Lord, come quickly...

There's more to James Macdonald's resignation than meets the eye

Apprising has a piece of email that details more about why James Macdonald left TGC

I found this bit interesting:

They were asking that he "pull the plug" on Bishop Jakes coming to the Elephant Room (ER) conference. Their reasons are rooted in weak evidence of Jakes' current doctrine and infighting among the black members of the Gospel Coalition who have deep seeded resentments. Crawford Loritts is the black pastor who spoke at James' 50th birthday and is also a council member of the Gospel Coalition. Crawford is participating in this ER conference because he believes in what James is doing and has stepped forward to help. All that to say, not even Gospel Coalition members are unanimous in the opposition, but certain influential men have rallied to pressure James to cancel Bishop Jakes.

Now, are they going to do anything about Crawford Loritts? What about the others who think James is on the right track? TGC needs to man up and take a stand. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. This pussyfooting around with heresy is doing nothing for their original cause of the clarity of the gospel NOR for the idea of how Christians ought to handle disagreement. We don't sit around and let our group get used to promote heresy and error without saying anything until the straying person is so far gone as to be closing the barn door (very quietly and politely) long after the horse escapes.

After prayer and counsel with other Christian Leaders and some of our Elders, James believes it is best to simply resign from the Gospel Coalition and continue to pursue his vision of gracious conversation, face to face, as a model for how to handle disagreement in the church.

He MUST be joking. He doesn't even want to have to have those who disagree IN THE AUDIENCE and threatens them with arrest if they dare to enter. James Macdonald is now officially a liar.

The Elephant Room Closes Its Doors to Bereans - or, the "Let's Not Talk About The Elephant In The Room Conference."

Turned Away at the Door of the Elephant Room (Do Not Be Surprised)

Daniel at Better Than Sacrifice has also blogged about this latest development:
RUNNING SCARED: WHY IS THE ELEPHANT ROOM AFRAID OF SCRUTINY?

It's amazing that James Macdonald can happily consort with and promote heretics of all shapes and sizes in the 'broader church' (because God told him to, unlike us poor schlubs with no direct line to God other than that old dusty Bible) but you can't have a real Christian Berean or two attend your conference about being 'open minded' and discussing prickly issues.

Apparently they're really not interested in discussing the real elephant in the room or even risking the possibility of having someone in the audience who they know can see it.

How are those new clothes fitting, pastor Macdonald?