The Perils of False Brethren in the Southern Baptist Convention
On November 5, 1709, Henry Sacheverell delivered a sermon at St. Paul’s on The Perils of False Brethren in Church and State. His text was 2 Corinthians 11:26.
“In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.” 2 Corinthians 11:26
Let us borrow Sacheverell’s sermon text and apply it to our situation today in the Southern Baptist Convention. Notice how the Apostle compares the dangers from robbers and the dangers at sea and the wilderness to the peril of being with a false brother.
In fact, the false brethren or ψευδαδέλφοις are the most dangerous of all. According to one commentator, “This was the most insidious peril of all. The other dangers threatened life and limb and property, but this one imperiled, and sometimes ruined, his work. The others often caused delay, but this one generally caused disaster.”[1]
The Southern Baptist Convention now faces such disaster from our very own false brother—Russell Moore.
A man who was paid by the Southern Baptist Convention and given a six-month golden parachute severance package, within days of leaving his job publicly abandoned the theological convictions of the Southern Baptist Convention.
How easy it was for Russell Moore to turn his coat!
Russell Moore, former head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention, joined a non-SBC church. What is more, he joined a church that practices infant baptism.
This man was an SBC employee as a professor, dean, and ERLC chief for well over a decade and this is how committed he was to key doctrines and practices of our Southern Baptist churches. They were tossed away within days.
Is it any wonder that this man spent most of his ERLC career slandering conservative Christian voters?
As Mike Huckabee said in 2016, “How long will Southern Baptists pay Russell Moore to insult them?”
The answer is six more months.
Six more months of your tithes and offerings to be used by a false brother.
Six more months of your tithes and offerings to be used by this false brother to undermine the Great Commission work of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Six more months to spread these calumnies and do it while being paid by Southern Baptists.
Russell Moore’s Democratic preferences pervert the Gospel
Russell Moore is a lifelong Democrat. He bragged about this fact while he was employed by Al Mohler at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). As Jack Richardson IV noted in October 2016, “It’s not so surprising that Russell Moore is a ‘Never Trumper,’ as he was always fond of reminding me that he was a Democrat.” (Something to ponder: Why does Al Mohler hire and promote people like this lifelong Democrat Russell Moore and CRT proponent Matthew Hall?)
Moore’s Democrat politics caused him to subvert the gospel, the church, and Christian ethics. He was president of the University of Southern Mississippi Young Democrats and an aide to Democrat Congressman Gene Taylor. The Mississippi Democratic Party was formative to Dr. Moore’s conception of politics—and traces of Democratic Party orthodoxy still infuses Dr. Moore even influencing his conception of the Gospel—where almost every Democratic Party policy preference becomes a Gospel Issue™.
Moore’s insistence on linking the Gospel to performing Social Justice works is perhaps the greatest theological error. In Moore’s conception, as revealed in his MLK50 speech, “Black and White and Red All Over: Why Racial Justice is a Gospel Issue,” evangelical churches are deficient because they do not engage in sufficient works fighting racism.
In other words, Russell Moore demands Christians do works of anti-racism (the politically abused term) as a condition of salvation. This is hardly the Gospel that Southern Baptists believe—a Gospel where justification is by faith alone.
Russell Moore goes full Blue Anon
So, as any good lifelong Democrat is wont to do, Russell Moore labels all his opponents as racists and sex abusers.
The latest news from Russell Moore is that he was pushed out of the SBC not for all his political lies, slander, and incompetence.
No. Russell Moore was persecuted because of his crusade against abuse. He’s gone full Blue Anon.
This means that Russell Moore is claiming that Mike Stone, who is a sex abuse victim, is deliberately trying to harm sex abuse victims.
Mike Stone denies this.
Aren’t we supposed to believe victims?
Alas, not when the victim is a conservative and a Republican.
And Russell Moore being a lifelong Democrat knows this. He promotes these calumnies with his good buddies in the mainstream press—like the liberal Religion News Services (RNS) and the progressives at the New York Times and Washington Post.
His brethren are the secular coastal elite Democrats. His brethren are not Southern Baptists. He abandoned those convictions for his pieces of silver.
Russell Moore has been good at getting his pieces of silver. He collects pay from Southern Baptists and then gets support from Democrat billionaires to support his causes like George Soros for the Evangelical Immigration Table and other Democrat billionaires to support the MLK50 event.
False brothers are a most dangerous peril
As Lenski notes on 2 Cor. 11:26, “Under the mask of ‘brethren’ they who are pseudo-brethren have easiest access to their victim.”[2]
And another commentator points out, “The term ψευδάδελφοι, ‘false brothers,’ is placed at the end of the list deliberately to bring the list to a powerful (if lamentable) conclusion and to drive home to the Corinthian readers that their hospitality to such people (11:4, 19) is a source of great grief to him now. These men are no less than his rivals; and worse, they are Satan’s agents (vv 13–15).”[3]
Indeed, Russell Moore is Satan’s agent.
Russell Moore is causing dissension among the brethren.
He divided brothers since the beginning of his work at the ERLC. His entire purpose is to destroy God’s great work being done in the Southern Baptist Convention and to do so to spread his Democratic Party platform.
The SBC has been one of the world’s greatest missionary sending forces in history. Yet, Russell Moore for the sake of his Democratic politics would jeopardize all of it to suppress a few Republican votes.
It leads one to ask—Was he ever one of us?
He was among us but not one of us. So, he has gone out from us.
He is a false brother. He is doing the work of His Democrat friends.
As such we should redouble our efforts to purge the church of such false brothers. All who give aid and comfort to this effort should be put on notice that there is no place among bible believers for men like this.
The Southern Baptist Convention faces many perils. The peril of false brethren in the Southern Baptist Convention is the greatest danger.
[1] Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians., International Critical Commentary (New York: T&T Clark, 1915), 327.
[2] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s First and Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1963), 1279.
[3] Ralph P. Martin, 2 Corinthians, ed. Ralph P. Martin, Lynn Allan Losie, and Peter H. Davids, Second Edition., vol. 40, Word Biblical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 568.