A pastor’s plea to embrace ‘compassion’ over truth is dangerous advice

Alistair Begg has been an incredible instrument for the kingdom of God. I know many of you have been richly rewarded by his work as a pastor and on the airwaves with Truth for Life Christian Radio. I have also been rewarded on a personal level, including at an event we were both a part of last July in my hometown of Des Moines.

But when a video recently surfaced of Begg counseling a grandmother to attend the “wedding” of her gender-confused grandchild, well, all hell broke loose. And his decision to then defend himself with a “compassion over condemnation” self-justification has only served to further darken already murky waters.

Do you expose sacrilege by celebrating it? Do you do evil so good may come of it?

I don't believe Begg is merely guilty of error here so much as I believe he is guilty of idolatry.

Follow me: If a grandmother had contacted Begg and said her grandchild was inspired by the movie “Natural Born Killers” to go on a killing spree but also invited her to a secret location for his or her wedding, do you believe Begg would have advised the grandma to attend?

Or suppose her grandchild had walked out on her previous spouse and wanted to marry the person she had been cheating with after also walking out on her children. Do you believe Begg would tell Grandma to bring a present, too?

What if the grandfather and grandson wanted to marry? Would Begg tell Grandma to show up and “kill them with kindness”?

Of course not. That all sounds insane and frankly silly to contemplate. Why? Because you haven't been worked over by the culture and the spirit of the age into normalizing those things yet. That's why. Schools do not sponsor incest clubs or adultery clubs. We don’t have serial killer pride month, either. We haven’t been desensitized to those sins yet, and neither has Begg.

Truth vs. grace?

That’s why this isn’t error but idolatry. It’s making kindness its own god. It’s deciding you are nicer than God — the same God who calls sin what it is and demands that sinners come to repentance to avoid eternal damnation.

So for those of you who lost your businesses because you didn’t want to serve flowers or bake a cake for a gay wedding, it turns out you weren’t wrong about the sin. Apparently, you weren’t sufficiently kind — at least if we are to follow Begg’s thinking to its logical conclusion.

He has somehow put truth and grace in opposition. Why?

Ironically, the only scripture that Begg specifically cites in his defense is Ephesians 5. Let’s have a look at some of that chapter, shall we?

Take no part in the unfaithful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Do you expose sacrilege by celebrating it? Do you do evil so good may come of it?

Now in the case of Grandma, she isn’t just going to dinner with her broken grandchild. She isn’t just showing kindness to a relative steeped in rebellion to his Creator. This is no ordinary event or gathering, but a wedding. A sacrament from the hand of God Himself. From the heart of God Himself. Defined and instituted by God Himself. The event at which God among us determined to perform His first miracle.

It is the ungrateful attempt by mere mortals to shake their fists at God and redefine His institution of marriage that opened the door to all the other rainbow madness — like the gender cult — under which we are suffering culturally right now. Yet that was all forgotten by Begg, who instead decided to slander those reminding him of the truth as “pharisees.”

Humility over piety

Begg is on a dangerous road. For there's never a moment when you've built up enough credibility that accountability suddenly comes to an end, even for a pastor as rightfully renowned as Begg, and everything out of your mouth henceforth becomes defined by holy nuance that few can hope to understand or appreciate. Those are dangerously self-righteous assumptions to allow into your conscience.

Some may say pharisaical, even.

God is not a respecter of persons. As Martin Luther once pointed out, the Almighty once spoke out of the back end of a jackass. He can speak out of anybody. Your title, tribe, movement, sect, denomination, heritage, legacy, reputation, résumé, tradition … none of that matters. We are all one very bad day away from becoming that which we hate, which is why we must “die daily” to stay upon on the narrow road.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And it's our level of humility, not piety, that we need to constantly be reminded of if we are to stay tethered to the truth. The math isn’t hard. Piety is self-righteousness. Humility is His righteousness.

The primary focus of a pastor is to help your relationship remain in the truth of Christ and not with the whims of other people or this world. Begg spent so much time concerned this grandma might lose her connection to her grandson that he never even addressed the problem of the grandson having lost his connection to God — and is now publicly asking for affirmation for it while encouraging others to do the same. A wedding is a public proclamation of your love, but in this case, it isn’t “love” at all. It is a sinfully dangerous delusion, one with eternal consequences.

Finally, there is someone else who agrees that Begg’s “focus on the family” for the sake of the truth is idolatry:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Those are Christ’s words, and they apply to everyone — even grandmas and grandchildren.

Yes, this is hard. Yes, this is unfair. Yes, this is heartbreaking. Yes, the personal cost can be steep. But we are not our own; we were redeemed at a high price. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow.

This grandmother may lose her grandson for a time if she clings to those words, but her grandson may be lost for all time if she does not.