Thabiti Anyabwile: beware

Thabiti Anayabwile was a speaker at the Truth and Life Conference last night (Thursday). He spoke against police officers as if they are our enemies and therefore need to love them too. But this is against Romans 15. To get young people stirred up against the police as the enemy is to be rebellious against God’s ordained order. I’m astounded TMC would be ok with such rebellion.

Thabiti is also part of The Gospel Coalition, and this sounds like angry social justice, not biblical Truth.

Additionally it appears he promoted Cross 15 Conference (which appears to be New Calvinist—not biblical) & mentioned Piper, who will be a speaker there. I have extreme concern about Piper who is known to be a New Calvinist, and who defies 2 John 9-11. Piper stands with Word of Faith false teachers (Carl Lentz, pastor and feminist Christine Caine), mystic and pro-Roman Catholic feminist Beth Moore, x-rated disgraced Mark Driscoll, as well as inter-faith univeralist Rick Warren. Worst of all, Piper denies the necessity of Justification belonging to the Gospel and salvation.

******UPDATE*****

Even while writing this, and doing more research as things came to the forefront, I must update here.


The bewilderment is gone. Now it all makes sense. Thabiti Anyabwile AKA Ron Burns, born and raised in America, became a convert to Islam (Nation of Islam?) in 1991, got saved in 1995. [Thabiti is no longer a pastor at Capital Baptist Church with Mark Dever, as his bio is removed; for the info on his Muslim faith go here.]Still to this day he has kept his Muslim name and Malcom X as one of his favorite authors, along with his Black liberation theology. According to another article, Burns was an activist with early childhood education--just rings a lot like Obama---activism, black liberation theology--name change. This is VERY concerning.

Here's his Black Liberation theology defense promoted through The Gospel Coalition.

For example Burns/Anyabwile says:

Quote:

....It’s like the man who wrote to lecture me on the scripture, how it never commands God’s people to protest or organize or march. He tells me Christianity is completely unconcerned about such things. He claims to be “orthodox” and charges me with careening off some “liberal” cliff into the abyss of the “social gospel.”

This man is blind. He means well, no doubt. But he doesn’t see how he not only removes the Scripture from real life concern, but also abandons his own “orthodox” view of the Bible. In a more abstract context he would tell me the Bible is sufficient. He’s quote a text like 2 Tim. 3:16-17—....

And this is why Evangelicalism—safe far away from the cliff of “liberal” theology—has backed its heels onto the opposite cliff of complete irrelevance to the residents of Ferguson, who want to know if God remembers them, loves them, or cares about them at all. Does God the Judge answer the cries of the disenfranchised, the poor, the weak, the fatherless? Is there a hope of justice for mothers and fathers bereft of their children playing in the park, or husbands and fathers choked to death on city sidewalks? Have we no answer for them?

End quote.

That seems to be quite a caricature of what biblical Christians believe about Scripture's teaching on issues like politics, slavery, orphans, injustice. To jump to that conclusion when someone seemed to just remark biblically, that the Bible doesn't tell us to protest or march, is a HUGE leap.

Scripture states that the poor we will always have with us. It states slavery is wrong. It tells us in Romans 13 we are to submit to our government and it's leaders, not rebel against them and Acts says we can ONLY IF they command us to disobey God. Last time I checked, our government never commanded anyone to enslave people or insult them, etc. Scripture doesn't tell Christians to fight political causes. It tells us to live righteous lives consistent with Scripture. What Ron Burns advocates IS liberalism and Black Liberation Theology at that. It's fleshly-focused, not Christ-focused. So much so that he's making gross generalizations about police officer both online at at TMC. He is, after all, a student of Malcome X.

God is into social justice?

Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men, Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is godless and an evildoer, And every mouth is speaking foolishness. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out.

An astute TMC student noted after this disaster of a message at "Truth and Life":

Quote:

What I'm still trying to understand is how in two cases where the perps were clearly guilty of a crime and dealt with in such a way that was proven not to be racially motivated has now turned into a discussion on how the "white Church" needs to fix its problems. First off, Mike Brown wasn't a Christian, and for all we know neither is Darren Wilson. Forensics as well as the APB put out on Brown proved two things: 1. He robbed a store and was being sought after by police. 2. When found, he charged after a police officer and was shot at close range. This has no ecclesiastical connection, but people will exploit such for the sake of their own credibility and relevancy. As for the Eric Garner case, likewise, Garner was no Christian, at least it can be observed by the fruit of both he and Brown that neither claimed Christ as Lord. The police officers who wrestled him to the ground were all under the supervision of a black, female police officer, who also was under the supervision of a black police officer. These officers were told to patrol this particular area more thoroughly because of illegal sales and what do ya know? There was the repeat offender Eric Garner. The rest is history, but do you see the disconnect? Only a fool and a subtle racist would stand behind a pulpit to make these two cases connect to the Church at large. It seems to me that people should be taking heed to more Voddie Baucham and less Thabiti Anyabwile.

End quote.
The evangelical church is increasingly aware of the need to witness to Christ in acts of mercy, especially since some evangelicals in the past spoke almost exclusively of individualistic and future salvation. In reaction, some today are adopting “orthopraxy” (right action) as their main emphasis, downplaying or even abandoning “orthodoxy” (right belief). But good works and sound belief cannot be separated. Alas, instead of a biblical balance, we face the serious danger of a new form of the old “social gospel,” which turns the Christian faith into a system of salvation by works, Jesus into a mere example, like the Buddha, Socrates or Lao Tzu, and Christianity into one variant of interfaith good will. But orthopraxy alone cannot preach the gospel. We as redeemed sinners must “confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.”

~Peter Jones