Alistair begg gay weddings

Both stories, he said, showed the power of God’s grace.

He also drew from a story Jesus told of a shepherd who had 100 sheep and lost one of them—and left the 99 behind to find the one that was lost.

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent,” Jesus says in Luke 15.

Begg warned his congregation about Christians who seem unwilling to show grace or forgiveness to others, telling his congregation to be wary of pastors who are eager to loudly condemn sinners.

By their very presence, they participate in a celebration that glorifies sexual sin.⁷ The ceremony joins two people together who may not be rightfully joined. This story instantly blew up and led to Begg getting canceled from [the Shepherd’s Conference, a major Reformed evangelical pastors’ gathering led by California pastor and author John MacArthur] a radio ministry [American Family Radio] and losing much of his credibility.

Now, Alistair Begg has done a soft-ball interview for Expositors Collective, a small YouTube channel with barely 1000 subs.

When a rebellious world demands the blessing of the church, or Christians in the church, a blessing the church and her members cannot give, those Christians inside that warm and gracious space have to gird up their loins. He, Begg says, was afraid of being tainted, polluted by the sins of the prodigal. All sex outside of marriage is sin (Leviticus 18).

I do compassion, all hell breaks loose against me.”

Begg, who has been in pastoral ministry since 1975 and served as the senior pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1983 until last year, echoed the sentiments he expressed in a recent sermon following the controversy. She stood by the side of the road, begging men to take her in, willing to offer money to anyone who would be with her (Ezekial 16).

I was wandering around Aldi, trying to do my weekly shopping, distracted by my phone, when the link appeared in my feed. “After all, attendance so as to show ‘love’ or avoid giving offense is a form of blessing, just without the name,” wrote Carl Trueman, professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College, for the Catholic publication First Things.

Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, hosted a special broadcast explaining why the group parted ways with Begg.

By contrast, 87 percent of nones, 81 percent of Jews, 77 percent of Buddhists, 77 percent of white mainline Protestants, and about three-quarters of Catholics approve of same-sex marriage.

Begg had been scheduled to speak in March at the Shepherds Conference, a major Reformed evangelical pastors’ gathering led by California pastor and author John MacArthur.

Expositor’s Collective put out an 8-minute clip with auto-captions to promote their interview, highlighting Begg’s position and response to the gay wedding scandal. Ceasing to have a close connection to someone, it is believed, will sever the only possibility that person might ever have to hear the gospel and repent.

Wildmon said the ministry got calls complaining about the broadcast—and reached out to Begg, whose radio program had appeared on AFR for more than a decade.

“The goal of the call was reconciliation, but reconciliation with truth,” said Walker Wildmon, an AFA vice president. Begg said he was thinking with his “grandfatherly hat” when he gave that advice, hoping to help that grandmother show God’s love

“All I was thinking about was how can I help this grandmother,” Begg said, adding that he didn’t want her to lose her grandchild.

To a different person in different circumstances, he said, he might have given different advice.

Believers aren’t free to alter it, to expand it to same-sex couples or more than two people, nor to narrow it to some absurdity like “self-marriage,” because it doesn’t belong to us. God created us male and female (Genesis 1:27). Because she is alienated first and foremost from God, and she longs to go back and find acceptance and mercy. He expressed our appreciation for Begg’s preaching and our grief over this counsel.

In fact, any way one works through the story, there are complexities that make the analogy break down.