Dave Miller wants to pink slip the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) because it’s a waste of money, serves no necessary purpose, and takes money away from real missions.
Scratch that. Dave Miller wanted to pink slip the ERLC. After years of flattering servility, the soft-handed and paunch-swollen potluck-driven professional sycophant from Sioux City, Iowa, has been made a leadership council member at the leftist political organization owned and operated by the Southern Baptist Convention.
Miller’s arguments for ending the ERLC back 2010 are as salient as ever, but the pastor’s always-evolving and ever-eroding convictions have disappeared along with his evaporating conscience. Miller, whose “the denomination is always right” persona has earned him the nickname The Company Man™️, was selected to serve on the ERLC Leadership Council in February of this year. Miller is now doing the job the ERLC is having him do, which is to use his small blogging platform to attack discerning Christians.
The ERLC hates discerning Christians for the same reason venereal diseases hate antibiotics. The ERLC is run by a Democrat and Communitarian leftist who works in partnership with George Soros. Southern Baptists, who are traditionally conservative, don’t like the fact that the ERLC has promoted the construction of a Mosque in New Jersey, have largely abandoned the fight against abortion and gay marriage, promote a queer Anglican priest, and promote animal rights along with Critical Race Theory, Cultural Marxism, and Black Liberation Theology. In short, the ERLC has the identical views of those who the Conservative Resurgence expunged from the SBC several decades ago (except they affirm inerrancy at least in theory).
Miller wrote a blog post at SBC Voices, which we’ll not link lest we quintuple their readership to 5 whole people, attacking discerning Christians entitled, They Will Know You Are My Disciples if You Trash Heretics.
To my knowledge, no one has accused Miller of being a studious exegete, but the passage he twisted like Satan to make his blog title is John 13:35, “By this you’ll be known as my disciples, by your love, one for another.” Of course – and this may be beyond Miller’s cognitive grasp – heretics are (by definition) not those who are among the disciples of Christ.
If we truly love Christ’s disciples, we will trash heretics, because Christ and his disciples trashed heretics.
Have you read Galatians? Jude? 2 Peter? It’s pretty clear that the Apostles – who personally heard Jesus’ word sand carried them out – trashed heretics as a part of their love for the disciples of God. This point seems lost on Miller.
Miller writes:
But who is the wolf if not the one who falsely accuses fellow believers of being enemies of the gospel? As we need to stand against those who deny the truth of God’s word we need to stand against those who devour the Body of Christ through false accusation and slander. This roots in tribalism, a self-centered belief that demands that other Christians conform to our group rather than simply that they conform to Christ.
Miller is not specific with any particular complaint against any particular individual, so his words are as useless as they are thoughtless. While anyone should be against “false accusation and slander,” Miller is referring to those who criticize the Southern Baptist leaders who give him finger sandwiches like doggie treats. To Dave Miller, anyone criticizing an anointed SBC leader is guilty of the above.
It is time we confront this wicked attitude as forcefully as we confront heretical doctrine.
I’ve never seen Miller forcefully confront anything but discernment and the dessert counter. He seems to put almost everything into the “secondary and tertiary” categories except the ‘sin’ of criticism, which is a grievous error and Cardinal Sin.
LifeWay put Modalism in their Sunday School curriculum. Did Dave Miller confront that? Nope.
LifeWay sold Heaven Tourism and TD Jakes. Did Dave Miller confront that? Nope.
LifeWay still sells omen interpretation (aka Jonathan Cahn, etc), books claiming to be direct and divine revelation (Jesus Calling), Roman Catholic books, Greek Orthodox books, Word-Faith books, Prosperity Gospel books, and New Age mysticism books. Did Dave Miller confront that? Nope.
Ronnie Floyd preached at a cult, Kansas City IHOP, while president of the SBC. Did Dave Miller confront that? Nope.
I’ve literally never read Dave Miller say a cross word about heresy. I’ve seen him attack discernment like it were the devil.
Some of these discernment enthusiasts are wolves, false brethren among us to bite and devour instead of to care for the flock of God. But most of those who participate in this unfortunate savagery are not evil in heart. They’ve been misled into believing that spirituality demands that they be rigid and constantly call out anyone who diverges rom their doctrinal position. They have been taught wrong and an unhealthy spiritual culture has developed which has poisoned the church of Christ.
Let me be clear: “Spirituality” (if by that he means the religion of Christ) requires us to be rigid. God wrote his law into tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18) that forms a body of law that is immutable. Being a “reed blowing in the wind” is a bad thing (Matthew 11:7). We are told to be unmovable (1 Corinthians 15:58). That’s all pretty darned rigid.
And while we do recognize differences in degrees of divergence that range from problematic to heterodoxical to heretical, we are explicitly instructed to “call out” those who teach falsely (Romans 16:17) and to reprove and rebuke them (2 Timothy 4:2).
So who does Dave Miller think is being too ruthlessly attacked?
Beth Moore and Sam Allberry.
Yup. Beth stinking Moore and the gay Anglican priest, Sam Allberry.
I do not always agree with Beth Moore. Even a continuationist like me sometimes thinks she takes the “God spoke to me” thing too far. But the discernment wolves are uniformly extremist cessationists who view anyone who isn’t a cessationist as a part of the “charismatic chaos….”
I can disagree with some of what Beth Moore says without condemning her as false. I can disagree with Sam Allberry (I’m not sure what side I take on that issue at this point) without anathematizing him. And can we not have a simple discussion about the implications of the gospel for issues like racism and abuse and other social issues without resorting to questioning the gospel fidelity of those with whom we disagree?
If Dave Miller informed his thoughts from the Word of God and not by whatever SBC elitists told him to think, he would grasp that the Bible indeed tells us to have no regard for those who prophesy falsely. Even Miller doubts she’s prophesying accurately, but then says he shouldn’t condemn her as false.
Dave Miller needs to read his Bible, and then obey it. Deuteronomy 18:22 demands that we give no respect to those who claim God’s words but have done so presumptuously.
Miller also admits that he doesn’t know upon what side of the “Same-Sex Attraction is not sinful” argument he stands. Could you imagine a pastor not knowing if wanting to sodomize dudes were a sin or not? Oofta. I presume this is only because the ERLC has not specifically given him his opinion on the subject yet.
You see, what Dave Miller teaches us is that discernment is not the problem. It’s a spiritual gift. What Dave Miller is doing is attacking a gift of the Holy Spirit, and by extension, the Holy Spirit Himself.
Shame on him. He needs more discernment.
