It may very well be that Brannon Howse doesn’t understand Christianity, given his repeated use of non-Christian commentator, Robert Spencer. Howse re-published an article first published at Spencer’s website, which took aim at Sinclair Ferguson for saying the greatest threats to Christianity are internal rather than external. Sharing the post at Worldview Weekend, Howse neglected to mention that Spencer himself is not a Christian, and is instead is a member of Melkite Greek Catholic church (this is an autonomous church, but in communion with the Roman Catholic cult). Howse has repeatedly used the argumentation of this papist throughout the Interfaith Dialogue Controversy of 2017.
That’s right, if you can try to make sense of it…in criticizing James White for dialoguing with a non-Christian, Brannon Howse has repeatedly partnered with a non-Christian. In this case, Spencer’s website, Jihad Watch, ran an article repudiating Reformed theologian, Sinclair Ferguson, for saying that those within Christendom threaten the Gospel more than those outside of Christendom. For Spencer and Howse, the notion that false Christianity is more dangerous than true Islam is tantamount to treason. In reality, Ferguson’s comments are unassailable. Ferguson, who is an excellent Christian academic and a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, reportedly said, “That’s a greater threat than Islam. Christendom. A far greater threat to Christianity than Islam is. Islam can never destroy the Gospel, but Christendom can easily destroy the Gospel and is destroying the Gospel.”
Ferguson’s message is incredibly Biblical. The Apostolic writers spent zero time going after external threats to the church. The Apostles didn’t warn about the Greek pagans or their Roman oppressors, but warned repeatedly about false prophets, antichrists, and professed Christians who happened to be heretics. As JD Hall said during the Judge Not Conference, “Michael Brown is a greater threat to the church than Yasir Qahdi.”
Ferguson’s quotation also specifies in what way Christians can be a bigger threat than Islam, and and he’s not talking about property destruction or suicide vests, but limits his statement to harm done to the Gospel, saying, “Islam can never destroy the Gospel, but Christendom can…”
Brannon Howse has never been adept at understanding (or caring about ) context, and so ripping Ferguson’s statement apart, the Howse-Spencer Interfaith Partnership Team has claimed that this professor doesn’t recognize the physical threats posed by Islam, when that wasn’t the point of Ferguson’s comment.
The author of the article originally posted at Jihad Watch and then Worldview Weekend claims the following:
In addition, Ferguson is spreading a dangerous message and perpetuating a blindness and navel gazing within the Church. This reduction to irrelevance in the current day has caused the Church to lose numbers, “lose its salt,” and lose its compassion for victims of jihad terror. Worst of all is Ferguson’s implied message that the world’s problems are the fault of Christians. Not only is this patently false message promoting an insensitivity about the sufferings of the persecuted Christian Church worldwide, but even worse, it minimizes the atrocities committed in the name of Islam against Christians and other minorities, and against women and girls globally. Ferguson absolves Islamic supremacists of responsibility while jihadists not only continue to wipe out Christianity in the Middle East, but have been attempting to destroy Israel since soon after its birth in 1948 and continue on that quest today.
Ferguson, realizing that a counterfeit of the true is worse than the obviously false, is now guilty of losing “compassion for victims of jihad terror” and “insensitivity about the sufferings of the persecuted Christian church worldwide,” and minimizes “the atrocities committed in the name of Islam.”
Of course, that is absurd. To recognize that theologically the greatest threats to the church are those who (like Spencer) claim to be Christians and are not, is not the equivalent of not caring about the national security threats posed by Islam. This is a jump in logic based upon a fear mongering display of poor cognition. Simply put, Spencer and Howse aren’t thinking. They are the equivalent of frantic, hysterical women blathering about like cackling hens without a modicum of intellectual honesty.
As a startling case-in-point, the article at Spencer and Howse’s website says, “Shame on Ferguson! Contrast his statement with that of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John X Yazigi, who called the Church ‘the beacon of truth in this agitated world.’ That Spencer – and by extension, Howse – thinks that the Greek Orthodox ‘church’ knows what is and is not Christianity demonstrates that ignorance really has invaded American evangelicalism and some of its loudest “defenders” have no idea what Christianity even is. If ever Ferguson could be absolved for believing that threats within Christianity are greater than the fear without, it’s that Brannon Howse and Robert Spencer defend Christianity by citing an idolater.
On Twitter, Howse doubled down on this homicide of logic, and made what might be the most self-contradictory statement to date.
Consider Howse’s logic here (if you can call it “logic”): Ferguson said that false Christianity was a bigger threat to the Gospel than Islam, and Howse – in order to negate the idea that anything is more dangerous to Christianity than Islam, goes on to say that he would agree with Ferguson if Ferguson means “men like [him].” So, follow through this logic: Ferguson is wrong that anything is more dangerous than Islam…so therefore…Ferguson is more dangerous than Islam.
Genius. No, really.
Howse’s new podcast lackeys, who he has used to replace stellar broadcasters like Susan Heck, Jesse Johnson, Justin Peters and Mike Abendroth who also exited his network, have been busy in social media defending their dark WVW overlord and attacking his perceived enemies.
Woods, a new podcast broadcaster at Worldview Weekend, accused Johnson, White, Flynn and Peters (the latter two were also podcasters at Worldview Weekend, until they left because of Howse’s behavior) of hyper-Calvinism. None of those men are hyper-Calvinists, which holds that (A) only Calvinists can go to Heaven and/or (B) that missions or evangelism are unbiblical. To call them hyper-Calvinists is slanderous and demonstrably wrong. But, Howse, Woods and Jeff the Gatekeeper aren’t exactly aiming for accuracy, here.
Brannon Howse apparently doesn’t understand that Christians can’t simultaneously worship Jesus and worship idols, and his repeated use of Robert Spencer to attack qualified ministers for saying what amounts to truth, is increasingly troublesome. If anything, it demonstrates that Ferguson was right.
Reporting next, where does Brannon Howse attend church and why is he lying about it? Stand by…
