Tom Ascol is Not a Careful Man
I’m not going to win over too many people by starting this post with a Doug Wilson quote. So be it. He’s right:
Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men. The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.
These are desperate times in the SBC and Tom Ascol is not a careful man. A careful man would not have stood at microphone 4a in Birmingham and pushed back so strongly against Resolution 9 in 2019. A careful man would not have attempted to get Resolution 9 rescinded in Nashville in 2021 in the face of a scoffing moderator. A careful man would not have created a cinedoc reminding Southern Baptists that our standard is the Word of God and that we must submit to its authority and trust its sufficiency. A careful man would not have publicly lamented David Uth’s pastor’s conference lineup in 2020. A careful man would not stand for God’s truth time and again both publicly and privately at the constant risk of losing friends and influence in certain circles.
Tom has been rundown, slandered, falsely accused, and attacked repeatedly over his stand on God’s Word. A careful man would have backed down a long time ago.
But as I said. Tom Ascol is not a careful man.
He is, however, unequivocally, a faithful man. He is a man who loves Christ. He is a man who seeks the Lord’s honor among his neighbors and the nations. He is a man who loves the Word of God and has fought the battles in the days of the conservative resurgence over its inerrancy and continues to fight the Lord’s battles today over the Bible’s authority and sufficiency. Tom Ascol is a man who loves the local church. He has consistently and lovingly called upon Southern Baptists to have a biblical ecclesiology including accurate membership rolls.
Dr. Ascol is a man committed to upholding Biblical gender roles. He is committed to the Baptist Faith and Message (2000) not merely in lip service but also in true application. He is a man who has spoken out against sexual abuse and racism. He is not a coward. He is not a politician. And he is not afraid to call our beloved convention to repentance and a return to Christ. He is not afraid to continually point us back to the Bible! He is a conservative Bible-believing Southern Baptist and he’s not whispering about it.
Some are going to absurdly attempt to make this about Donald Trump or secular politics. I’ve seen a post today in The Baptist Review calling Tom a “political panderer”. Anyone making this about Trump or the GOP is either a wicked man or intellectually incompetent. This is about Christ – His honor. His glory. His mission. His Church.
And Tom has rightly reminded us for a while now that the SBC is not important, but it does matter. And indeed it does! Should we abandon ship the SBC will continue to train pastors and send missionaries to the nations. So, for many of us, it’s not time to abandon ship but change the direction. If all conservatives leave the convention our seminaries and missionary entities will still exist but only be downgraded all the more. Thus, we continue to battle for the truth and glory of our King.
But in order to do so, we need more faithful men, not careful men.
The careful men can pray for us. They can cheer us on silently in their hearts. And I do hope some careful men will take good notes so that in the years ahead they can write a faithful biography of Tom Ascol.
On to Anaheim
Brothers and sisters, the way forward as a convention is to elect Tom Ascol as our SBC President. Anyone who knows Dr. Ascol knows that he is a humble and wise leader. He would appoint the right people and would be a welcome representative of Southern Baptists before a watching world – a man who takes preaching and pastoring seriously. I’m sure it will be spun as though Dr. Ascol is divisive and fringe, but you must remember this is because he’s not careful, but faithful. Some who are careful have a difficult time stomaching those who are faithful. It is my sincere hope that more careful brothers and sisters will come over to the faithful side as they see the SBC continue to drift.
With that in mind, I hope you’ll make your way to Anaheim and be prepared to vote for Tom Ascol as president. We do not need more of the same. We must change our direction. It will be expensive to go to Anaheim, no doubt. But the cost of conservatives not going could actually be so much more.
Join us, ye faithful men.
Read Dr. Ascol’s own reasons for accepting the nomination to SBC president here.
About Author
I’d vote for a candidate that believes that the SBC is INDEED important. Otherwise, why bother running. It represents over 38k churches and funds 3816 international missionaries. It funds six seminaries and church planting. We fund children’s homes. We feed the hungry. But most of all, we preach the most important Message is the history of the world. What could be more important than that? I haven’t decided who I will vote for, but I’d definitely want someone who leads with an understanding that this is important to him.