(Image: “Spurgeon Lectures with Alistair Begg” Screenshot/Midwestern Seminary)
In the nearly ten years that I’ve been writing for this blog, I’ve warned readers against more than my fair share of false teachers. One of the top critiques I’ve received for doing this, however, has been that I’ve failed to also tell readers who they should listen to instead.
However, that is not exactly true.
Anytime I “mark” someone to be avoided, I always point readers back to Scripture. I always encourage the Saints to listen to Christ Jesus instead. And if they want to know which pastors they should listen to, I always point readers to the faithful pastors and elders at their Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching local church.
Granted, I’m not dense. I understand that this critique comes because the ultimate hope is that I would recommend a list of “solid” celebrity pastors, preachers and teachers. After all, I’ve only ever “marked” false teachers in the public sphere, so it tracks. However, I am of the mind that redirecting the sheep back to the voice of Christ is the most efficient and prudent counsel. This tactic, in my humble opinion, not only challenges everyone to grow in the knowledge of Christ that we know His voice, it equips us to rightly discern for ourselves faithful under-shepherds and teachers - as well as wolves - when we hear them.
I am also of the opinion that recommendation lists give us a false sense of security. With them, it’s easier for us to let down our guards and stumble into being too lazy to actually test the spirits, as Scripture commands (1 John 4:1). Or, we might find ourselves puffed up and quarreling over having selected the “right” mortal men to follow: “‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas’” (1 Corinthians 1:12)...or I follow Alistair?
Indeed, the most recent dust up concerning Pastor Alistair Begg demonstrates another reason why I’ve opted to avoid making public recommendation lists. Of course, I have a personal “list” of celebrity pastors I enjoy listening to and, admittedly, Pastor Begg’s long been someone on it. However, I’ve felt it foolish to make such lists public, as human imperfections would never allow such a list to remain static.
I might recommend someone today, then they stumble tomorrow and now I’m on the hook for leading someone into error through my recommendation. I might even be accused of tacitly supporting whatever error or sin they committed. Or I might be immature or flat out wrong in my understanding of a given theological concept and, in my ignorance, I might recommend someone who is equally immature or wrong.
Perhaps I’m being “extra” in how I view such things, but I know enough about myself to know my conscience wouldn’t be able handle such a burden. So, again, simply redirecting the sheep back to the voice of Christ has been the best and safest use of my public platform.
Which begs the question that many have raised in recent weeks: What are we, as Believers, now to do with Alistair Begg?
We Beg Pastor Alistair's Pardon
With more than 50 years of faithful preaching of the Scriptures and zero public scandals, Pastor Begg had certainly earned my unofficial designation as a “solid” celebrity pastor. However, his recent handling of a cultural matter countered a Biblical worldview, and this was not at all consistent with the reputation that has long preceded him.
During a September 2023 episode of the Truth for Life podcast, Pastor Begg recounted a time he counseled a Christian grandmother to attend her grandson’s wedding to a transgender woman (a biological male living as a woman) - and to bring the couple a gift. In Pastor Begg’s view, the grandmother’s attendance would present her with the opportunity to show Christian love to her grandson and his transgendered partner, and it would thusly create an opportunity to witness Christ to them in the future. It must be noted that Pastor Begg publicly shared this counsel as a model for what Christians, in general, ought to do when faced with similar scenarios.
“We’re going to have to take that risk a lot more if we want to build bridges into the hearts and lives of those who don’t understand Jesus and don’t understand that he is a King,” Pastor Begg shared.
This may all sound good, and his counsel may have even been well-meaning. But Pastor Begg was actually counseling the grandmother to compromise her faith, affirm evil and participate in that which mock’s God. He, and those who agree with him on this issue, refuse to see the matter this way, of course. But it’s likely because they fail to remember the meaning and sacredness of marriage in the eyes of God.
Not only did God design marriage to be an institution and commitment between one man and one woman, it ultimately serves as an earthly picture of Christ’s union with His Bride, the Church. As school-yard quippy as the famous, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” may sound, it’s based in truth.
“It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18).
God gave “the man” the woman, who is different from him, but also who the Lord deemed suitable for him. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. She was of his same species in God’s creation. Like him, she was human, made in the image of God, thus having the same value and being a beneficiary of the same level of God’s mindfulness in His creation (Psalm 8:4-8).
But she was not of his same sex or gender.
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 9:4-5, my emphasis).
As a union to be entered into and enjoyed by one man and one woman in this life, God also only enables the union of one man and one woman to produce offspring. Even as sin has made parents of the unwed and modern technology and medical practices have made “parents” of same-sex couples, such couples must still yield to God’s inherent biological design for male and female before a child can be conceived and ultimately birthed.
There’s just no way around these truths the Lord has seen fit to hardwire into His Creation.
And yet, humans given over to sin will suppress these obvious truths in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). And Pastor Begg is proof that even the “best” of us are subject to doing the same when we lean to our own understanding of the best ways to show love to our neighbor or compassion to the lost.
(Image: “Compassion vs Condemnation” Sermon Screenshot/Parkside Church)
We Beg for Pastor Alistair’s Repentance
Upon learning of Pastor Begg’s counsel to the grandmother, I initially counted it as a terrible misstep of which he’d surely repent when shown his error. As such, while his counsel was upsetting, I wasn’t so quick to jump on the bandwagon to outright “cancel” him. It initially seemed that American Family Radio (AFR) had jumped the gun by removing Pastor Begg’s Truth for Life broadcast from its airwaves. It also seemed unfair to drop him from this year’s Shepherd’s Conference. Then I learned that Begg’s team had doubled down on his behalf in response to AFR’s earnest attempts to ask him to retract his counsel. Then I watched Begg’s sermon “Compassion vs. Condemnation”, which he delivered before his congregation on January 28, 2024.
It probably took me two hours to get through the 45-minute message, as I found myself pausing it at random intervals out of sheer frustration and disappointment with what I was hearing. It had to be the most Scripturally-misapplied sermon I never would have imagined a Bible teacher of his ilk could ever espouse, and it broke my heart.
But it was the first time he’d publicly spoken to his now viral statements since September 2023, so I wanted to hear him out. Yet, Pastor Begg only used the pulpit to triple down on his erroneous stance, and he was clear that it wasn’t his intention to repent, nor did he believe there was a need for his repentance.
Drawing from Luke 15, Pastor Begg essentially likened the grandson and his transgendered partner to the sinners as well as the “lost sheep”, “lost coin” and the “prodigal son” described in that chapter’s parables. He also called those of us who disagree with him on this matter “Pharisees”, and he characterized us as behaving like the older son when the prodigal son had returned home (Luke 15:25-30). Not only were such comparisons unfair, they were wholly inconsistent with the spirit of God’s word.
Firstly, Luke 15 opens with an acknowledgement that the “tax collectors and the sinners drew near” to Jesus to hear Him (Luke 15:1), which tells us these were those who actually wanted to know and follow Christ. Of course the Pharisees were wrong for disparaging Jesus’ reception of them!
But this is not what was taking place at the grandson’s “wedding”.
The couple and the attendees of the wedding, by virtue of their participation and affirmation of a same-sex couple (which God calls an abomination and names among those who will not enter the Kingdom of God (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)), will not be there to draw near to Christ. They won’t be there to hear Him that they might follow Him. They will be gathering to publicly mock Him… and His Bride!
Again, marriage is an earthly reflection of Christ’s union with the Church. By unifying outside of His design and order, they were demonstrating that they wanted nothing to do with our Lord or that which was made through Him. And the grandmother wasn’t counseled to attend for the purposes of speaking against any of it, but to celebrate it…and to bring the hosts of the event a gift!
As Luke 15 continues, we see that the lost sheep and lost coin are found and the prodigal son returns, which also ultimately represents the repentance of individuals who were once “lost”. Whether the sinner draws near to God (John 4:8) or God seeks the lost sinner (Luke 19:10), the sinner who is saved will always be one who is repentant. A gay couple entering into a mockery of marriage is not a sign of their repentance. And unless the grandmother attends the wedding to make that clear and share Christ with them, she nor any other Christian has a God-glorifying purpose for being present or for giving the couple a present.
It is right that Pastor Begg would encourage Believers to love our neighbor and show compassion. But his error shines through when he conflates loving and having compassion for our neighbor with taking part in and affirming their evil works.
Though the sermon’s show notes boast in Pastor’s Begg ability to speak to the “fine line” Christians are to walk between affirming and reviling wickedness, it was disappointing to witness him blur that line without conviction.
We Beg for Teachings on Compassion with Conviction
Compassion is a godly attribute the Church is commanded to display - especially to one another (Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:8)! But as a godly attribute, it has no part in ungodliness.
A good and faithful Christian must “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). We should avoid even the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
Even Pastor Begg admits that the couple from his story is essentially putting a “finger in the face of God” through their lifestyle and wedding.
“They reject God. They reject His ways. They do it publicly, and they do it in a fashion that makes it absolutely clear that they have no interest in [His ways], while mocking Christians as bigots,” Begg declared during his message. He went on to admit that this is certainly something he hates.
Yet, he immediately undermined his point by attributing his “hate” to something that is of the flesh, rather than the righteous indignation or “perfect hatred” Believers are supposed to have towards iniquity (Proverbs 6:16-19; Psalm 97:10; Romans 12:9). He also contradicted himself as he noted the Christian’s calling to the “supernatural work of loving [the wicked]” and “actively seeking to bless them” may entail the Christian taking part in gay weddings - which he’d just admitted were displays of rejecting God.
As he continued to explain his stance, Pastor Begg said he believed the grandmother’s (or any Christian’s) decision to attend a gay wedding is a matter of conscience, depending on their personal circumstances. His logic is such that a Believer can attend such weddings without sullying our witness, as long as the couple knows where we stand in our faith.
But this logic is inconsistent with Scripture, which tells us that whatever we believe ultimately dictates our actions - for better or worse. The heart is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). Defilement comes from the heart (Matthew 15:19).
A same-sex wedding is almost universally understood to be inherently and wholly out of step with what Christ and His Church approve. It wouldn’t make sense for the grandmother to attend if in her heart she sincerely disapproves of it. But if she does attend, most at the wedding would reasonably presume that her attendance is to affirm the union. And if she chooses to attend the wedding while also in her heart hating the idea of the wedding but saying nothing to warn them, she becomes a hypocrite and a coward at best and one with blood on her hands at worst (Ezekiel 3:18, 33:6). So, again, unless the Believer attends a gay wedding in order to make a public objection to it, that Believer is sullying his witness. That Believer is compromised, and the couple and their guests can fairly speculate the Christian is ultimately in agreement with the sin on display.
(Image: “Teaching the Truth When Times Change” Sermon Screenshot/Timothy Trust)
I Said all of This to Say…
Since I first learned of Pastor Begg’s statements on his podcast, I looked forward to hearing him address the issue. And while I’m glad that he’s now had the opportunity to say his peace, unfortunately, what I ultimately heard was a man I’ve long revered using the pulpit to defend his personal opinion.
Yes. You read that correctly.
After slandering the character and questioning the spiritual maturity of those who disagree with his stance on this issue…after misapplying God’s Word to present his error as a righteous rule, Pastor Begg essentially concluded his sermon by acknowledging that his counsel to the grandmother was merely an opinion born of his emotions, rather than Christian convictions! Though he’d earlier stated that he had nothing for which to repent, I heard him slightly walk that back.
“I think as long as you understand that my response to one grandmother, whom I have never met, was not in any way a blanket recommendation to all Christians to attend LGBTQ weddings. If I was misguided in any way, it was that I allowed my ‘grandfather hat’ to take over. It was my personal opinion, as I sensed what was best as I learned about the individual and specific situation.”
In the end, Pastor Begg’s motive when counseling the grandmother wasn’t to steer her towards what was best for her relationship with Christ. It was to do what was best for salvaging her relationship with her grandson - and to prove herself not to be a judgmental bigot after all.
Respectfully, that’s a shame!
And even as his counsel was merely his opinion, it is based in his own understanding rather than his or the grandmother’s trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6). This is key to note, as Pastor Begg and those who agree with him on this issue portray his position as merely a perspective or a doubtful disputation where there is no objective right or wrong over which we can rightly divide.
But, sadly, Pastor Begg is wrong on this topic, and it leads to so many other issues. His advice causes one person to compromise her standing in Christ; the couple to store up God’s wrath upon themselves, and it lays a foundation for others under his influence to stumble into the same error.
Moreover, while he says the point is to make a future opportunity for the Gospel, one would have to wonder why that opportunity has to take place at a later date or why the grandmother has to participate in a mockery of the Lord to secure that opportunity. Is TODAY not the day of salvation (Psalm 95:7-8; 2 Corinthians 6:1; 2 Timothy 4:2)? And has the Lord asked us to compromise our own faith as a means for bringing others to faith? Is that the “risk” Pastor Begg thinks Believers ought to take to “build bridges” with the lost?
The reality is the opportunity for the Gospel has been available to the grandmother for as long as she’s been a Believer during her grandson’s life. If earlier opportunities were not discerned, couldn’t one have come in response to her grandson’s wedding invitation or during the wedding? If earlier opportunities were taken, but the grandson rejected his grandmother’s warning, she’s done her job and Scripture says she is free to “shake the dust off” her feet (Matthew 10:14). Attending the wedding in hopes of creating another opportunity to share what was already rejected would be unwise and out of step with Christ’s counsel.
So, again, this all boils down to Pastor Begg’s attempt to help a grandmother salvage her relationship with her grandson. Except, part of our cross to bear as Christ’s followers is to be rejected by the world, which may include our loved ones, for His sake. And if it isn’t one’s willingness to be subjected to such a loss for the cause of Christ, He has told us we aren’t worthy of Him.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:34-29).
So, with all of these things considered, here’s where I’ve landed on Alistair Begg:
Because he still espouses a clear Gospel; because this is his first offense after 50 years of faithful ministry; and because his walking back his statements suggests he possesses some semblance of shame over his counsel, I still regard him as a brother in the Lord.
But because Pastor Begg has yet to fully and clearly repent of his counsel, seeing fit to even triple down on his error from the pulpit; because he has falsely accused faithful brethren before the world; and because he drastically misapplied the Scriptures to defend himself from the pulpit, I can’t say that I currently see him as a teacher I can trust.
Yet, I tend to believe that is the ultimate point of this entire ordeal.
I truly perceive it God’s intention to use this matter to humble us and remind us to NOT put our trust in mere men, but in Christ alone. No matter how faithful a man may be or may have been, he is still human and prone to sin, mistakes and error during his natural life. As such, indeed, this is why we are to test EVERY spirit and follow someone only to the extent that they follow Christ.
With this, I do believe it is right for Believers to back away from Pastor Begg at this time - but not as an enemy…not even as a “false teacher”, but as one to be warned as a brother (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15). This may look like Paul opposing Peter to his face at Antioch after Peter behaved contrary to the truth and encouraged others to do the same. (Galatians 2:11). It most certainly looks like us parting ways with him for now to make the distinction clear (1 Corinthians 11:19). As hard as this may be to do, the ultimate aim is to encourage his repentance and to defend the integrity of God’s word.
May we beg the Lord to cause him to see his error, confess it and turn away from it. And whenever he makes that confession public, may those who are spiritual restore him “in a spirit of gentleness”, considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted (Galatians 6:1).