After the Gospel Coalition’s Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics published an article about the similarities between sexual intercourse and the church’s union with Christ, which was an excerpt from Pastor Joshua Ryan Butler’s brand new book, both he and TGC received unprecedented pushback.
These rebuffs include fair-minded critiques unimpressed with these crude comparisons, endorsers of the book who admit they never read it in the first place and were forced to retract, and the usual cadre of cry-foul ChristianHarpies seeking to use these questionable texts as a way to score points against complementarianism while bolstering their own bizarre notions of gender roles.
The article landing page now displays a message from TGC President Julius Kim, who shares:
“…we took the time to listen to our critics and the serious objections from concerned fellows, as well as discuss this matter with our Board of Directors and care for our friend Josh. Earlier this week, we accepted Josh’s resignation as a Keller Center fellow. He will no longer lead an online cohort with the center nor speak at TGC23. While he will no longer participate in these events, Josh remains a beloved brother and friend whom we respect and care deeply about…
We will also review our publication processes more broadly at TGC and develop plans to ensure greater accountability to you, our readers…..We want to model grace-filled conversations, and we want to learn from one another. In this case, we failed you and hurt many friends.”
While this all continues to trend, these arguments from Butler are not new. As early as March 17 2021, on the Proven Ministries webshow, he was teaching them and working them out with host Shane O’Neill.
Butler: The Bible is less prudish about its language than we are. You know, one bodily union (unintelligible) it’s actually describing what’s happening in the act. And historically that’s often been called like the ‘active’ and ‘passive’ roles in the equation, right? That on the male side of the equation has active role of penetrating one’s spouse, one’s bride. And then the female sex is kind of the passive/ receiving your spouse within yourself.
And I think that’s significant when we look to our union with Christ and the nature of salvation
is while there’s a mutual self-giving between Christ and the church, there’s also a sense where
Christ penetrates his bride with the seed of his word, with the presence of his Spirit. And the bride here is a corporate figure. It’s like the church cosmically, like the whole church whatever.
But there is this picture of this intimate union that the church has with Christ as our King and our Lord, where we receive his presence within us, we receive his word (unintelligible) within us and that Christ’s word and his Spirit, his seed and his presence, it makes his bride fruitful. It actually causes her to bear children of God, to bring us forth as children of God into the world and to nurture and nourish us as the, you know, the bride of Christ. Like, nurtures and nourishes us (unintelligible) children of the king and his bride.
So, I know I kind of threw a lot out there, but I think there’s this beautiful picture of sexual union as an image of Christ’s union with his church and the way that he, you know, yeah. And that that relationship is marked by both generosity and hospitality.
O’Neill “Yes. Okay. So yeah, because I think it’s, I really need a double check this but I think it’s James 1 where it talks about how like, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. That its “receive” has a sexual, not just like connotation, but denotation. Where it’s like ‘Seema’ or something like that in the language.”
Butler: “Yeah, it’s in 1 John. I have to go back and find the exact, but it talks about us being conceived by the Sperma of God. (Ah Yes) Yes. You know, but it’s literally the word ‘seed’, which in Greek and Hebrew, like, seed can refer both to like plant seed or human seed. And so, when Jesus is telling the parable of the four soils and the planting of the seed like it’s the Sperma, you know? (Ah, Ok)
But then it’s also the word that’s used for human and so in the context of 1st John there, the imagery is birth imagery- that we have been conceived by the sperm of the seed of God, which is in reference to I believe his word. It’s been a while since I’ve like that passage. But yeah, (Man that’s helpful)”
Editor’s Note. The transcript is lightly edited and due to the low sound quality, may contain errors.
Also, this is hardly the worst thing TGC has ever done. From TGC Senior Editor’s Favorite TV Show Contains Graphic Homosexual Sex Scenes to TGC Writer Says The World Should Have Let Hitler and Nazis Conquer Unopposed, their track record is abysmal and the majority of their contributors are deeply theologically compromised.
For more swill from TGC:
TGC Author: Christians Have Endured No ‘Hostility’ or ‘Ill-treatment’ From Govt During Pandemic
TGC Contributor Argues Pro-LGBTQ Xtians and Universalists Are Still In the Faith
TGC’s Thabiti Anyabwile: Resisting Reparations is ‘The Echo of Cain’s Voice’
TGC Author: Believing in ‘Big-Government Overreach’ Is a Denial of ‘Objective Reality’
TGC Author: Straight Men Should Consider Singleness Out of Solidarity for Celibate Homosexuals
TGC Canada Again Argues that Their Churches Aren’t Being Persecuted
TGC Author Advocates for Using Trans Personal Pronouns, Suggests Not Using them Makes one a ‘Weaker Brother’
TGC’s Senior Editor Watches Sex Scenes on TV to be Better at Evangelizing
Woke TGC Contributor Suggests Mary Taught Jesus The Sermon On The Mount
TGC Author Suggests Campaigning for the Democrats is A-OK
TGC Contributor Ironically Praises Enneagram On Podcast about ‘False Teaching’
TGC Author Says that the USA is too ‘Exhausted’ to Handle Overturning Roe v. Wade + Deletes Tweet
TGC Author Rebecca McLaughlin Says We MUST Repent of our Parent’s and Grandparent’s Racism
TGC Senior Editor Criticizes ‘What Is A Woman’ Doc for Not Being ‘Empathetic’ Enough
TGC Author Suggests ‘Deadnaming’ Transexuals is ‘Disrespectful’
TGC Author: Stopping Active Shooter in Church Is Just Like Peter Cutting Of Servant’s Ear: Jesus Says Not To
TGC Author Claims That Deconstruction May Just Be Smashing Cultural Idols
TGC Finally Edits Article Describing Rittenhouse as ‘Mass Shooter’+ Still Compares him to Mass Murderer
And many, many more
