This morning, I stumbled upon a tweet that sparked a sudden revelation or insight within me. The problem with the Southern Baptist Convention is that so many Southern Baptist leaders and pastors desire a false Jesus—one who is willing to compromise with their desires of the flesh.

Earlier this year, the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention voted to disfellowship Saddleback Church among other churches for ordaining women to the pastorate. Even though God’s specific rationale may not be explicitly spelled out in the Bible, it unequivocally prohibits women from holding pastoral positions and this ban is stated in no uncertain terms in the Scriptures, regardless of the reasons behind it.

As I predicted before, the messengers’ decision to disfellowship Saddleback was grounded far less in their convictions to uphold the Scriptures and far more in their desire to appease the few remaining conservative voices in the denomination. In other words, the messengers, and the leaders of the movement to disfellowship Saddleback, were merely willing to sacrifice Saddleback in order to shut the conservatives up.

But they were not, and are not, willing to make any lasting changes to move the Southern Baptist Convention back toward biblical orthodoxy. Instead, what Southern Baptists want is to compromise on unpopular biblical positions while appearing to take these issues seriously. Here, SBC pastor, Dwight McKissic demonstrates just that as he explains why he and most messengers voted to re-elect Bart Barber for SBC president.

McKissic explains that the reason he and others voted for Barber is that Barber is a compromiser. Earlier this week, the NAAF, a group of African American Southern Baptist churches that mostly ordain women to the pastorate, wrote a letter to Barber calling on him not to take a hard stance on women pastors, but rather waste another year debating the issue. Of course, Barber is not willing to take a hard biblical stance against any issue. Barber, as a matter of fact, represents the Jesus that McKissic and most Southern Baptist leaders desire and worship—a false Jesus, an idol.

However, Jesus does not compromise with us. He does not barter or negotiate His teachings—they are not commodities to be traded. They are unassailable edicts from the Most High, immutable and timeless. Jesus is the Lawgiver and the architect of social, moral, and especially, ecclesiological order. His words and His statutes are not up for debate, they are to be followed. We cannot remold them to suit our transient cultural whims, nor can we disregard them when they become inconvenient or challenging.

In Matthew 24:35 (ESV), Jesus firmly and irrefutably declared, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” His pronouncement reverberates with an unshakeable certainty, a testament to the enduring veracity and unyielding authority of His teachings. Jesus’s words are not mere suggestions or guidelines, but rather divine statutes forged in the furnace of eternal wisdom, indelible laws designed to guide us towards the truth, light, and the path of righteousness.

Yet, Southern Baptists are attempting to mold God’s words to their personal preferences and to debate their relevance or applicability. They want a Jesus who will “turn the other cheek” on every issue from women pastors to abortion to homosexuality. The SBC is not on a path to biblical recovery, it is on a path to destruction. The ship has already sunk, yet there are some who insist on hanging on while already underwater drowning. Their oxygen tank is running out, it’s time to swim back up.