My friend Paul Washer says, ‘You don’t fall into sin. They fall because they have been falling. No one just immediately falls into that sin. And there are many people that say, ‘Oh, that could have been me.’ But the truth is I hope not, because one falls into that kind of sin after many, many small compromises long before. I’ll quote from a key point in that sermon.ģ9:37 - “One of my dear friends has fallen into a great sin. It was clearly motivated by the October 31 public announcement of Doug Phillips that he had resigned from Vision Forum Ministries.
One of Doug Phillips’ long standing and closest former friends and ministry associates preached a sermon yesterday entitled The Smell of Apostasy. But a few of his closest former associates, in the know, aren’t doing the same. Now that Doug Phillips has outed himself (or rather been compelled to out himself), many of his faithful patrons/customers are defending him, as is evidenced by some of the comments right here (not saying such comments here come from Vision Forum patrons, but merely that they evidence the same bias). Most chose not to cover for him but just quietly distanced themselves. They have known of Doug’s infidelity for quite some time. But some of his closest associates, men in the know, aren’t convinced and long before his Oct 31 VFM resignation pulled away from him. What many commenters here are assuming is that Doug Phillips can be trusted to have repented solely on the basis that he says he repented.
Repentance means we not just acknowledge the sin, but that we stop sinning. Had there been genuine repentance it could have all been handled “in house” and privately. Would they have done so had Doug Phillips genuinely, convincingly repented when he stepped down as elder in February? Unlikely. Voddie and Scott started distancing themselves from Doug even some months prior to that resignation in February, as have some of his other close associates. Eventually he could control it no longer and had no choice to out himself in an effort to minimize the damage. Why the secrecy? The fact is Doug Phillips has been trying hard to clamp the lid on a scandal that’s been boiling up for some months. Other than that his resignation was very hush hush. It included Voddie Baucham and Scott Brown. That’s some impressive people control! Only a handful of people outside BCA knew of Doug Phillips’ resignation in February 2013. That in itself should have been significant news, but word of that never leaked out. We’re only learning now that Doug Phillips resigned as elder/pastor of Bourne Christian Assembly in February 2013. One indication I would look to in a cult is how much control do the pastors/elders/deacons exercise over their members, such as how tightly do they control the flow of information to and between members and from the inside to the outside world. Many have commented that Bourne Christian Assembly, the church founded by Doug Phillips, is a cult. Why not just issue a pastoral call for the gleeful to repent, without assuming they are God’s enemies? I fear you evidence a similar legalism, and hastiness to condemn, as Doug Phillips has shown. But does that sin, in and of itself, necessarily identify them as “enemies of the Lord”? You go too far in committing the same sin of judgmentalism found in those you seek to condemn. Pastor Wilson, I’ve seen some of the gleeful comments too, and they disturb me. I have no idea if Doug Wilson will approve my comment, so I’ll also leave it here for posterity: It’s a lengthy comment that I just also posted Doug WIlson’s blog (one of those blogs that accuses you and others of being “gleeful” and “chortlers”).
My comment goes to several questions that you’ve raised in your excellent article. It also includes a transcribed paragraph from the sermon by Scott Brown: This person refers to Doug Wilson’s blog post in which he complains about people finding glee in Phillips’ state and calls them enemies of God. I also am posting a comment I got on my blog today that I found interesting and think it has some pertinent info worth considering. Ok, here is the sermon from Scott Brown, director of NCFIC and pastor:
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