Tag: todd friel

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Why Todd Friel is Completely Wrong about Romans 13 and Vaccine Mandates

(Evangelical Dark Web) Todd Friel is most certainly one of the most trustworthy more establishment voices in Evangelicalism. However, there is a great split in Evangelicalism on the role of government and whether civil or even violent disobedience to government is on the table for Christians. Todd Friel takes a near absolute stance on Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, with the only exception being if the government commands a person to sin. On the issue of vaccine mandates, Todd Friel’s argument is leads to a convoluted and squishy justification for defying vaccine mandates. But first, we should take a look at Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. (NASB1995)

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (NASB1995)

In both of these passages, the sphere of government is laid out. It is to punish evil and reward good. These passages establish why God ordained these institutions in the first place. Commanding people to sin is acting outside of their sphere of authority but that’s not the only way in which the government can act outside of its authority, thus justifying a Christian to defy.

Todd Friel rejects sphere sovereignty as laid out in the Magdeburg Confession, and therefore rejects the Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates and interposition. He says so explicitly. This leaves Todd Friel in a no-mans land of navigating these “unprecedented” waters. John MacArthur famously held the same position on Romans 13, but would ultimately invoke the Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates in order to reopen his church during lockdowns.

Sphere sovereignty would establish the four spheres of authority: self, family, ecclesiastical, and the civil magistrate. On the issue of vaccines, the self and family are the proper spheres of authority, depending on the situation.

However, Todd Friel’s position that you can only defy government when it commands you to sin has him pondering strange arguments about situations where taking the COVID Vaccine is sinful. Essentially he takes a roundabout way to come to the conclusion that if and when the government mandates a vaccine, defying them is a conscience issue.

Things that are conscience issues are issues in which the state and the church have no authority over you on, per sphere sovereignty. Yet, Todd Friel’s pathway of coming to the same conclusion by a different name promotes eisegesis. In other words, his deconstructive theology on civil magistrates rewards or gives ample liberty to defy the government using the Bible to do so. The idea that the body is a temple to the Holy Spirit and doing something that puts the body at risk you could determine is sinful is a logical path that leads to dark places. Yet these are arguments that Friel employs, perhaps to not alienate a hesitant audience.

Instead, the Christian needs a…

To continue reading, as well as watch a video where this is broken down further, click here

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Ray Fava and posted to The Evangelical Dark Web

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Todd Friel Defends Pastors Who Won’t Open Their Churches

Todd Friel has a message for pastors who haven’t opened up their churches yet 14 months into the pandemic, along with those planning on staying shut for months longer- perhaps even years- on account of the novel coronavirus: he fully supports you.

The Wretched Radio show host made the comments during a program uploaded April 19, where he sought to explain Romans 14 and how it applies to Christians.

What Romans 14 tells us, brace yourself for this and please don’t think suddenly I’ve become a member of the Democratic party (or) I’ve become a liberal theologian. No, but there are times when certain issues are ‘a truth’ and not ‘the truth.’

Todd explains that he’s not being postmodern, but rather he’s offering a straightforward summary of Romans 14, positing that if we as Christians can properly understand that chapter, then we will have more unity over divisive issues raging in Christendom, like COVID.

There are Christians with differences of opinion. Some are opening up their churches, some are adhering to the government mandates whatever they happen to be- a percentage, distance between people, wearing the masks – different churches are reacting differently to the same set of information that we all have access to.

And I’ve noticed we’re starting to cop a bit of an attitude toward those churches that don’t do it exactly the way that we do. Or some of us are leaving our good churches because we don’t agree with what the elders have decided is the right way to approach this situation.

Might I suggest to you (that with) COVID maybe there’s an aspect of it where this doesn’t apply, but COVID is an ‘a truth’ issue that different churches are going to see the situation based on their history, their people, maybe even for all I know their comorbidities, what their government is mandating, where they’re at in the history of the church.

And they’re making decisions that some perhaps don’t agree with. And I would suggest to you that if they are working through the subject, whatever it is that they decide about whether or not they should open up, whether or not they should tell the government, ‘Sorry, we have to obey God,’ wherever your church is at on that spectrum would suggest to you that is ‘a truth’ but it’s not ‘the truth.’

Friel offers the caveat, “If your church is obeying government ahead of God, that would be a sin,” but makes it clear he does not consider a church shutting down on the demand of the government to be putting the government first, reiterating that “I can’t judge your church because you are following ‘a truth'” and “different Christians are going to have different takes on it and we need to recognize that is okay.”

Later in the message, Friel offers his thoughts on James Coates and the stand that he has taken, saying that the pastor was right to insist on keeping his church open, but that another pastor who has chosen to keep his church relegated to virtual services for over a year, and even for another year or two, would be right to do that, as that would be “a truth” too.

And so do I agree with what GraceLife Church is doing? Sure. If your church is doing the opposite I think what you’re doing is right too, because we let other believers go about the business of making decisions on subjects that are not theologically crystal clear issues, and ultimately have a different conclusion. And here’s the – this is the tough part about this – they’re both right. They’re both right.

We leave Friel with the words preached by Pastor John MacArthur more than seven months ago:

I’ll tell you what is disappointing to me, how few churches are standing up. How few large churches or even Christian leaders are willing to say, “Look, we’re, not going to bow to Ceasar. We’re going to serve our Lord.” Churches are shutting down. Large churches are shutting down until they say January. I don’t have any way to understand that, other than they don’t know what a church is and they don’t shepherd their people. But that’s sad. And you have a lot of people in Christianity who seem to be significant leaders who arent giving any strength and courage to the church, they’re not standing up and rising up and calling on Christians to be the church in the world.

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Conspiracy Evangelical Stuff Featured

Gospel Coalition Writer Calls out Todd Friel for Bashing TGC, Calls him to Repent for Being ‘Divisive’

Justin Taylor, one of The Gospel Coalition’s (TGC) long time writers and members has come out swinging against the venerable Todd Friel, accusing him of bearing false witness, being divisive, and declaring he ought to marked and avoided.

The substance of this tweet betrays a guilty conscience, however. Todd Friel will certainly name names but has generally resisted painting whole organizations in the way that has been charged. Therefore we ask: where is the evidence that Friel has done this?

The more likely thing is that Friel has come out against organizations that have caved to Marxism (Gramscian Marxism is an obscure, rarely used term. Taylor is being petty for using it.) and then TGC read themselves into the comments and have out swinging, without having the courage to tag Friel in the post.

In this way, TGC is being “divisive” with their accusations. If they say they are not, then put up or shut up. Show us the quotes and screenshots of what Friel has done to warrant the label from such a prominent organization.

Of course, even if Friel did say this, there are more than enough witnesses to satisfy the biblical charge of the notion that these organizations are doing these very things, guilty conscience or not.

In fact, our entire website here at Protestia, and formerly at Pulpit and Pen have shown this to be true. Go to pulpitandpen.org and type “the gospel coalition” into the search bar and you’ll see at least a hundred eager and ready witnesses eager to testify to Todd’s claims.

Yet TGC has a near-pathological aversion to engaging their critics, frequently posting without allowing people to comment on their content and rarely if ever deigning to respond to tweets asking clarifying comments or questions about content they post. The fact that they have responded to a critic is a miracle indeed.

Rather, the authors have a nasty habit of saying something shocking, like calling Kyle Rittenhouse a mass shooter and comparing him to Dylan Roof, and then never answering any followup questions to those who want to know more or get clarity on what he means and why he would say this. Or how about all the TGC authors trying to convince evangelicals it’s ok to vote for pro-abortion candidates like Tim Keller has done recently and repeatedly?

If Taylor and his fellow Gospel Coalitionites want to do more than play the #BigEva version of “the knockout game,” that would be great.