hey guys colin here and welcome back to
the channel where the bible and critical
thinking meet to give you real christian
commentary about the things that matter
thanks so much for watching let's get
into the video so tim keller is one of
the biggest pastoral influences in
america today but he's also been very
compromised doctrinally as of late case
in point recently he praised late night
host stephen colbert for an amazing
example of christianity on the late
night show this was according to tim
quote a brilliant example of how to be a
christian in the public square end quote
tim also said quote notice the witness
but in a form the culture can handle we
should desire to have more christians in
these spaces and give them grace as they
operate end quote oh how lovely he said
the word grace therefore he must be
correct so there are three clear points
made by keller that you need to know
before i show you the video one tim said
that this was a brilliant example of
christianity two this was a great
witness to the culture and three that we
need more christians acting like this
now with that being said would you guys
like to see this amazing example of
christianity that stephen colbert
offered watch this
is there any you know
does your faith and your comedy ever
overlap
and does one ever
win out
i think ultimately us all being mortal
the faith will win out at the end
but i certainly hope when i get to
heaven jesus has a sense of humor
but i will say this it would say this uh
someone was asking me earlier about what
i this is this relates to faith because
my faith is involved with i'm a
christian and a catholic and that's
always connected to the idea of um
love and sacrifice being somehow related
and giving yourself to other people and
that death is not defeat
if you if you can
see where i'm getting at there someone's
asking me earlier what movie did i
really enjoy this year and i said well i
really like belfast which is kind of
bronze story of his childhood and one of
the reasons i love it is that i'm irish
and uh irish-american and it's such an
irish movie um and i think this is also
a catholic thing because it's it's funny
and it's sad
and it's funny about being sad
in the same way that sadness is like a
little bit of an emotional death but not
a defeat if you can find a way to laugh
about it because that laughter keeps you
from having fear of it and fear is the
thing that keeps you from turning to
evil devices to save you from the
sadness as robert hayden said we must
not be frightened or cajoled into
accepting evil as our deliverance from
evil we must keep struggling to maintain
our humanity though monsters of
abstraction threaten and police us so if
there's some relationship between my
faith and my comedy it's that no matter
what happens you are never defeated you
must understand and see this in the
light of eternity and find some way to
love and laugh with each other
wow
stephen colbert everybody
in case you're wondering yes that's it
that is the entire video that was the
amazing and brilliant example of
christianity that tim keller thought was
a great witness to the culture and that
he even thinks more christians should
try to emulate so let's go through each
point made by tim and see if they
measure up to scripture shall we tim
says that this was a brilliant example
of christianity in action and to that i
would simply ask the question how
stephen colbert at the beginning of the
clip was asked if his faith quote wins
out over his comedy in practical ways
when the artist dua lipa who's asking
the question asks if either his faith or
his comedy wins out she's specifically
asking which one supersedes and
dominates the other there's overlap
between these two things she says your
comedy and your faith but which one
quote unquote wins out the question is
great and it's very clear which one gets
to be victorious and dominate the other
she literally uses the word win so with
that in mind watch this response to this
specific question once more offered by
stephen colbert check this out
i think ultimately us all being mortal
the faith will win out at the end
but i certainly hope when i get to
heaven jesus has a sense of humor
so to make sure you don't miss this i'm
going to read it again because it's very
important colbert's response was that
quote ultimately all of us being mortal
the faith will win out in the end but i
certainly hope when i get to heaven
jesus has a sense of humor end quote
again the question effectively was does
your faith supersede and control your
comedy does your faith come before your
jokes a very easy question to answer if
you're an honest person his response
though was a vague and general answer
about how because everyone is mortal
meaning everyone will die someday that
means the faith will eventually win out
for everyone i have no idea what that
means but notice how this does not
actually answer the question at hand
whatsoever he did not say that his
comedy is in submission to his faith or
vice versa no he merely says that
everyone's gonna die someday and that he
hopes when he dies jesus has a sense of
humor again what does that even mean in
other words there's absolutely no
assurance here that his christianity
comes before his comedy which was the
question that was actually asked in fact
there seems to be a very deliberate and
intentional effort here to avoid that
conclusion entirely so how on earth can
tim keller say that this was a brilliant
example of christianity in action let me
offer you an alternative response the
response that a christian really should
be giving when a christian is asked
about their comedy and their faith and
which one wins out against the other a
christian should boldly and clearly tell
their audience that their faith
supersedes their comedy at all times and
even when they violate their faith by
making a joke that's not acceptable
within their faith they strive to repent
and change that behavior because again
they have a strong conviction that their
faith is above their comedy he didn't
need to say that exactly as i did but a
really brilliant christian answer would
have included some of what i just said
as the main sentiment but it's not true
because i said it it's true because the
bible says it second corinthians 10 5
says that christians should quote take
every thought captive to obey christ and
as you may have guessed when the bible
says every thought it really means every
thought that includes your comedic
thoughts ephesians 5 4 for instance says
quote let there be no filthiness nor
foolish talk nor crude joking which are
out of place but instead let there be
thanksgiving end quote this ladies and
gentlemen is a practical example of what
it looks like for your comedy to be
superseded and dominated by your faith
as a christian you are commanded to
refrain from making a joke if it
violates your faith if it's crude or
profane that is the testimony of
scripture with regards to faith and
comedy stephen colbert did not have to
flesh this out in any kind of detail he
didn't have to quote a single bible
verse i'm a pretty reasonable guy when
he was asked about whether or not his
comedy or his faith went out all he had
to do was say my faith wins out or
something of that nature how hard is
that instead he made some spiritual and
intellectually vague comments about the
fact that we are all mortal and he tried
to cover up for his complete lack of
substance by saying that he hopes jesus
has a sense of humor when he gets to
heaven this answer effectively says well
i'm not really sure if i'm pleasing
jesus in what i'm doing but i certainly
hope we can have a good laugh about it
together in heaven there is nothing
explicitly christian or explicitly
biblical about any of this in fact
there's a really good case to be made
that this misses the biblical mark by a
country mile and yet tim keller one of
the most popular evangelicals in america
has praised this as a quote brilliant
example of the christian faith in action
if you can't see what's wrong with that
i'm not sure you have your eyes open the
next thing that tim says is that this
comment was a great witness to the
culture tim's actual words were quote
notice the witness but in a form the
culture can handle end quote i suppose
the implication here is that the culture
cannot handle anything other than a
sugar-coated vaguely spiritual message
that says nothing about christ other
than that he has a sense of humor and i
would agree with that the culture is
chocked full of blasphemous god-hating
idolatrous pagans who are living in
complete rebellion to their creator of
course they can't handle the true gospel
they hate it first corinthians 1 23-25
says quote we preach christ crucified a
stumbling block to jews and folly to
gentiles but to those who are called
both jews and greeks christ the power of
god and the wisdom of god for the
foolishness of god is wiser than men and
the weakness of god is stronger than men
end quote the bible makes it very clear
that the unbelieving world cannot stand
the gospel for one reason or another
they either think it's a stumbling block
or foolishness or some other negative
thing but the solution to this problem
is not to preach a different gospel or
to preach a vague gospel or to preach no
gospel at all it is rather to preach the
real gospel of jesus christ anyway and
pray that god would use that gospel to
draw people to himself that is what true
witness for jesus looks like but tim
keller seems to be so confused that he
thinks this video shows a great example
of how to witness to the culture it's
absolutely baffling watch this again but
i will say this it would say this uh
someone was asking me earlier about what
i
this is this relates to faith because my
faith is involved with i'm a christian
and a catholic and that's re
always connected to the idea of um
love and sacrifice being somehow related
and giving yourself to other people and
that death is not defeat
if you if you can
see where i'm getting at there someone
asked me earlier what movie did i really
enjoy this year and i said well i really
like belfast which is kind of bronze
story of his childhood and one of the
reasons i love it is that i'm irish and
uh irish-american and it's such an irish
movie um and i think this is also a
catholic thing because it's it's funny
and it's sad
and it's funny about being sad
in the same way that sadness is like a
little bit of an emotional death but not
a defeat if you can find a way to laugh
about it because that laughter keeps you
from having fear of it and fear is the
thing that keeps you from turning to
evil devices to save you from the
sadness as robert hayden said we must
not be frightened or cajoled into
accepting evil as our deliverance from
evil we must keep struggling to maintain
our humanity though monsters of
abstraction threaten and police us so if
there's some relationship between my
faith and my comedy it's that no matter
what happens you are never defeated you
must understand and see this in the
light of eternity and find some way to
love and laugh with each other
[Applause]
stephen colbert everybody
so you see there is not an ounce of
gospel witness in here guys so what on
earth is tim keller talking about when
he says notice the witness here i tried
tim i really did and quite frankly
there's nothing here to notice let me
recite what colbert said again he talked
about the idea that death is not defeat
or death is not the end effectively and
he follows up this idea of death not
being the end or not being defeat by
saying if you see what i'm saying here
no colbert the non-believing world does
not know what you're implying are you
saying that certain people will spend
eternity in heaven and others in hell do
you mean to say that we all have souls
and those souls will be judged in the
last days no he's just saying death
isn't the end and i'm sure the world can
figure out the rest for themselves right
as the great apostle paul once said i am
not ashamed of the gospel for it is the
well you see what i'm saying then
colbert also talks about generally
loving and sacrificing for others those
are related to the gospel but even
pagans can love and sacrifice for each
other in some ways even pagans value
love and sacrifice there's no mention at
all of christ's love or christ's
sacrifice explicit or implied
then he talks about giving yourself to
other people no gospel here either not
even a passing comment about how christ
gives himself up for his people which
would have been a great segue then he
talked about being irish again certainly
no gospel there then he talks about i
like the movie belfast because it's sad
and funny no gospel there either then he
talks about laughing through hard times
in life big whoop i'm pretty sure oprah
winfrey says something to that effect
every time she speaks there's still no
gospel here and then he talks about we
need to have good rather than evil but
which good and which evil well those
aren't mentioned pretty much every
atheist believes in good over evil in
some way what does that mean well i'm
sure they can figure out the specifics
for themselves right if your witness
goes about as deep as a disney movie
then your witness is pathetic and it's
certainly not a witness to anyone and
then of course at the end of this video
at the end of this witness the secular
new york crowd goes crazy for what he
just said that's a pretty good sign that
no actual witness occurred here ladies
and gentlemen first john 15 9 says quote
if you were of the world the world would
love you as its own but because you are
not of the world but i chose you out of
the world therefore the world hates you
end quote so the question i have for tim
is if stephen colbert is not of the
world if he's been saved then why does
the world claim him as their own the
scripture explicitly says that they
won't if he is a christian who's been
chosen out of the world then why does
the pagan world approve of and agree
with pretty much everything he says
answer me that the fact is if the
average audience member of a late night
show claps for your gospel witness
thunderously there's a really good
chance you didn't witness at all yet
despite all of this tim keller says that
this is a great way to witness to the
culture he says that all christians can
learn from this but let me tell you
something guys this is not witnessing at
all so with that said i'm not sure what
tim keller's standard for a good witness
for the lord is but my standard is the
word given to us by the lord who we are
witnesses of what is the bible's
standard for a good witness that seems
to have gone out the window here well in
the city of lystra paul and his
companion barnabas offer a christian
witness to the people of the town who
are not believers here's how it goes in
acts 14 15 they say quote we bring you
good news that you should turn away from
these vain things to a living god who
made the heaven and the earth and the
sea and all that is in them end quote
this ladies and gentlemen is an example
of witnessing for the lord there is a
god you are rebelling against him now
repent and serve him you are enslaved to
your sin repent and find freedom that
comes with being a servant of christ if
stephen colbert had said that i would
have been impressed in fact if he had
said one percent of that i would have
been impressed but no stephen colbert
made vague references to love eternity
enjoying movies and being irish and
according to evangelical pastor tim
keller this is what passes as a great
christian witness to the culture what a
stalwart christian standing up for the
truth of our faith
absolutely abysmal also just to be clear
there's nothing wrong with being irish
or liking movies or talking vaguely
about eternity because you think it's an
interesting concept the problem is when
those things are being called a strong
witness to the culture of the truth of
christ because they're not that is where
the problem is by the way so far in this
video if you've noticed we've only
talked about what tim keller said in
comparison to the actual content of the
video and what stephen colbert said we
haven't even talked about the
implications of approving of catholicism
we haven't even talked about the
implications of stephen colbert's
extremely inappropriate comedy in
conjunction with tim keller's approval
here we haven't even talked about the
fact that stephen colbert is a raging
leftist who consistently approves of
killing millions of infants all of these
things cast even more doubt on tim's
comments here but we haven't even
touched them because i am convinced that
that is not the central reason that his
comments are dangerous and inaccurate
put simply the reason tim's comments
here are dangerous and unbiblical is
that they are encouraging christians to
see their public conduct and their
public witness in the light of a video
that misrepresents how christians should
go about doing both of those things that
is the problem and let me repeat this
again because i want you to understand
this once again put simply the reason
tim's comments here are dangerous and
unbiblical is that they are encouraging
christians to see their public conduct
and their public witness in the light of
a video that misrepresents how
christians should do both of those
things christians should be clear about
the fact that their faith comes before
their comedy it shouldn't even be a
difficult question colbert was not clear
at all christians should witness clearly
about the truth of god's word colbert
did not do that in any way so if tim had
called this video a fun anecdote or
simply an interesting video about
stephen colbert i wouldn't be making my
video right now there's nothing sinful
about watching that video and being
entertained by it nothing at all the
problem is that tim called it a great
example to all christians to emulate and
a great witness for the christian faith
to say that from his massive platform as
a pastor is inaccurate unbiblical and
misrepresents the goals and methods of
the bible in a serious way in short i'm
saying that if tim's statement here is
allowed to either rise or fall based on
its own merits and how it compares to
the video at hand it falls it's that
simple and in a follow-up video i plan
on tackling the defense that tim offered
for his actions here the defense is in
many ways even more unbiblical and
telling than the statement being
defended so make sure you stay tuned for
that video and with all that said let's
pray sincerely for tim keller that he
would stop this compromise and turn to
the truth of god's word
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fight for truth never surrender and keep
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[Music]
you