Sean McDowell is a famous apologist platformed by Biola University and does frequent interviews on his channel with false teachers and unbelievers. He has come under fire by Discernment ministries, like Dissenter and Doctrinal Watchdog, for platforming Brandon Robertson, a homosexual pastor. Brandon Robertson was the Baptist News Global writer who argued that Christians should fund buttsex drugs. He is evidently a viral figure on social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Sean McDowell brought him on to discuss his views on Jesus and the Bible.
Brandon Robertson is not your garden variety theological liberal. He denies the validity of the Ecumenical Councils. He denies the inerrancy of Scripture. He believes that Jesus sinned in Matthew 15 when he was testing the Canaanite women’s faith and reads modern ethnic dynamics into the text in order to do so. Towards the end he articulates that Jesus came to liberate the Jews from Rome and that his followers in the Gospel of John retconned and hyperspiritualized the life of the historical Jesus.
Sean McDowell prefaced the conversation as “What do conservative and progressive Christians have in common and where do they differ? Sean invites progressive Christian author Brandan Robertson on to discuss Brandan’s latest book. They talk about Jesus, culture, scripture, and much more.” At no point does he overtly treat progressive “Christianity” as a distinct religion or heresy. He consistently uses “progressive Christian” towards Robertson in a non-euphemistic way.
Yet despite this flawed preface, this debate ultimately becomes an interfaith dialog. Not only do Robertson’s views of Jesus fail to reconcile with history or tradition, his theology falls apart internally.
When Brandon Robertson articulates a Jesus that is a failed Messiah, this begs the unasked and largely unanswered question as to whether Brandon Robertson affirms the bodily Resurrection.
While Sean McDowell makes it clear that he disagrees with Robertson, McDowell appeared more interested in having Robertson on a second time than engaging with him in a way that would cut into the heart of his worldview. This perhaps explains the undue level of credence he gives to so-called “progressive Christianity.”
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The Bible clearly says that Brandon Robertson is not a Christian. He is not born again. 1 Cor. 6:9-11, Rev. 21:7-8, and many other scriptures state this fact. Sean McDowell committed an egregious sin just by calling Robertson a Christian and having him on the show.
One would expect the son of Josh McDowell to have a better and more comprehensive understanding of scripture and of the Gospel.