Alistair Begg’s Interview

Popular evangelical preacher, Scottish American Alistair Begg, on September 1, 2023 revealed the following account in an interview:

And in very specific areas this comes across. I mean, you and I know that we field questions all the time that go along the lines of “My grandson is about to be married to a transgender person, and I don’t know what to do about this, and I’m calling to ask you to tell me what to do”—which is a huge responsibility.

And in a conversation like that just a few days ago—and people may not like this answer—but I asked the grandmother, “Does your grandson understand your belief in Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“Does your grandson understand that your belief in Jesus makes it such that you can’t countenance in any affirming way the choices that he has made in life?”

“Yes.”

I said, “Well then, okay. As long as he knows that, then I suggest that you do go to the ceremony. And I suggest that you buy them a gift.”

“Oh,” she said, “what?” She was caught off guard.

I said, “Well, here’s the thing: your love for them may catch them off guard, but your absence will simply reinforce the fact that they said, ‘These people are what I always thought: judgmental, critical, unprepared to countenance anything.’”

This didn’t seem to get on the radar of the rest of evangelicalism until an article about it on January 23, 2024 on Christian Headlines, almost four months later.  Then the evangelical internet and podcasts exploded with mainly negative reactions to Begg’s interview.

Response of Begg to Criticism

In response to the criticism and hoopla over his counsel, Begg came out fighting.  This is the biggest story right now in evangelicalism.  He has elevated the story with his combativeness.  Begg preached an entire sermon defending himself and he said a lot to crush opponents.  Among everything, he said this one paragraph:

Now, let me say something that will be a little explosive. I’ve lived here for forty years, and those who know me best know that when we talk theology, when we talk stuff, I’ve always said I am a little bit out of sync with the American evangelical world, for this reason: that I am the product of British evangelicalism, represented by John Stott, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Eric Alexander, Sinclair Ferguson, Derek Prime.

I am a product of that. I have never been a product of American fundamentalism. I come from a world in which it is possible for people to actually grasp the fact that there are nuances in things. Those of you who are lawyers understand this. Everything is not so categorically clear that if you put one foot out of this box, you’ve got to be removed from the box forever.

Begg said some very, very harsh things in public about all of his critics, but in this section, he called them “American fundamentalists.”  That is a pointed insult for most evangelicals.  It’s essentially calling them an odious modern day Pharisee.  He actually gets worse than that.

British Evangelicals and American Fundamentalism

British Evangelicals

Begg distinguished himself from American fundamentalism by referring to himself as a “British evangelical.”  However, he was not attacked by fundamentalists.  I would reckon that zero to few fundamentalists even listen to Begg   It was in reality many, many evangelicals who had something in public to say about Begg, not fundamentalists. Out of ten podcasts denouncing Begg, close to ten on average were evangelicals.  Among them, many big-named evangelicals spoke against Begg and his position.  Yes, a few also came out in public support of him, but one might say, the usual suspects did that.

Alistair Begg said that he places himself within the British evangelicalism of John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  For his sermon, he relied heavily on an early book by Stott, Christ the Controversialist.  I’m not one to coach Begg on the ins and outs of British evangelicalism, but I do understand American fundamentalism.  I lived in it, took a class on it, read books on it, functioned among historic figures of fundamentalism, and wrote about it here.

Fundamentalist Movement

The fundamentalist movement is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented movements in world history.  Fundamentalism deserves a critique, but secular historians and evangelical ones of all different stripes tend to slander fundamentalism.  Calling someone a “fundamentalist” becomes then an ad hominem attack for an evangelist.

In his defense, Alistair Begg is saying that he’s just being his regular old British evangelicalism, but his critics are all being their American fundamentalism.  In some ways, Begg is right that this behavior among his 95% plus evangelical critics seems like a historic outlier for evangelicalism in the United States.  I would also agree that it looks like at least some type of neo-fundamentalist movement in evangelicalism.

If I were acting right now as a historian, I would say that this is a new, albeit small, movement in the United States, perhaps like that of Spurgeon during the Downgrade Controversy in England, a precursor to American fundamentalism.  The critics of Begg are truly acting or behaving in the militant spirit of fundamentalists.

The Biblical Doctrine of Separation

Sine Qua Non of Fundamentalism

American fundamentalism was a movement in the early twentieth century within evangelicalism across denominations in defense of the fundamentals of the faith.  Fundamentalists stood for doctrines that would preserve a true gospel and evangelical Christianity itself.  A key feature of fundamentalism was and is separation, essentially “come out from among them and be ye separate” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

Separation is a biblical doctrine found in almost every book of the Bible.  The non-fundamentalist, professing evangelical does not separate.  The sine qua non of fundamentalism was and is separation.  Separation is of the absolute nature of God.  He is holy or separate.  God separates.  The goal of the original fundamentalist movement was to keep the fundamentals and thus keep the gospel.  The fundamentalists understood the necessity of separation for protecting the fundamentals of the faith.

Evangelical Non Separatists

Evangelicalism itself became distinct from fundamentalism.  Evangelicals would not separate.  Instead, they emphasized their concept of unity, which meant toleration.  In order to get along and to maintain the greatest possible coalition, evangelicals look for ways to compromise.

The non-fundamentalist evangelicals in the United States began to turn into something more in nature with mainstream evangelicalism in England.  Especially characteristic of evangelicals was forming bridges with or to the world through social programs.  In many cases, this turned into its own form of liberalism that today manifests itself today in rampant “woke evangelicalism.”  Evangelicalism turned back toward liberalism in forms of cooperation, what many labeled a “new evangelicalism.”

Cultural Issues and Nuance

Cultural Issues

A major means by which evangelicals could sustain their idea of unity is to remove much of the application of the scripture, especially on cultural issues.  Cultural issues are the most offensive teachings and practices of scripture.  Examples of cultural issues are the unique identities of men and women, masculinity and femininity, the distinct roles of the man and the woman, marriage between only a man and a woman, parental authority over children, and the worship of God in the beauty of Holiness.  There are many more cultural issues taught in scripture.

The defense by Begg is a case study of the nature of evangelicalism, especially represented in the above paragraph by the word, “nuance.”  He calls out the lawyers in his church for their support on this thought.  Yet, do we treat the perspecuity of scripture like we do that of federal, state, and local criminal and civil laws?  The Bible is God’s Word.  Almost his entire sermon performed nuance to defend what he did.

Nuance

Nuance allows for a multitude of possible acceptable positions on various scriptural issues.  Nuance means permitting differences.  Allowing for many different positions is the type of unity embraced by evangelicals.  Evangelicals want to keep a large percentage of biblical doctrine and practice open to numerous positions.  They tolerate many various positions on numerous different doctrines and practices for the sake of unity.  This requires nuance with scripture.

Many evangelicals, I can see, understand now the damage of not practicing separation on doctrine and practice, including cultural issues.  They comprehend now the connection between the gospel and same-sex marriage and transgenderism.  Can you believe in Jesus Christ and accept same-sex marriage?  I’m not saying that Alistair Begg would say, “Yes.”  However, he values nuance and nuance goes both ways.  Acceptance of same sex marriage starts with tolerance of it.  This is akin to the progression one sees in Psalm 1:1:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Lloyd-Jones, A Fundamentalist?

Compared to John Stott as a professing evangelical still in the Church of England, Martyn Lloyd-Jones himself was a British fundamentalist.  He was a separatist.  A British publication, the Evangelical Times, reports:

Evangelical Times was launched in February 1967, four months after the much-discussed division between Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Stott. . . . In 1963, Lloyd-Jones quoted the Independent, John Owen, to show ‘the duty of every saint of God’ was to withdraw from a church where ‘notorious, scandalous sins had gone unpunished, unreproved’. In 1965, Lloyd-Jones dismissed arguments against separatism as ‘sheer lack of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit’ in favour of ‘trusting to expediency’.

I am not a fundamentalist, but I have much more sympathy for fundamentalism and fundamentalists.  I’m not a fundamentalist, because I don’t think it goes far enough.  You can’t protect the faith by diminishing doctrine and practice to fundamentals.  One of the fundamentals is not “marriage between only a man and a woman.”  Based on that kind of thinking, a fundamentalist doesn’t need to separate over same sex marriage.  It is not a fundamental of the faith.  This relates directly to this issue with Begg.  This presents a problem even for the fundamentalist model of belief and practice.

Stott’s Evangelicalism

John Stott was an evangelical Anglican.  How could Anglicanism coexist with evangelicalism?  The framework for the Church of England undermines a true gospel.  Henry VIII, who started the Church of England, didn’t deny the gospel of Roman Catholicism.  He just wanted a divorce.  The Church of England itself does not preach a true gospel.

Stott did not believe in a literal Hell or eternal torment.  He believed and preached Annihilationism.  Stott went to Venice Italy to join the Evangelical-Roman Catholic Dialogue on Mission.  He denied the inerrancy of scripture.

More to Come