For there are certain men crept in unawares,
who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,
and denying the only Lord God,
and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:4
“I have never heard such a brazenly blasphemous statement from any of the word-faith preachers … this was jaw-dropping heresy.” Justin Peters
Dr. David Uth, pastor of First Baptist Church Orlando, was the point man responsible for perhaps the most epic act of apostasy seen in the Southern Baptist Convention.
No one in the SBC leadership, no one in the Florida Baptist Convention, indeed not even, it seems, any authentic believers in First Baptist Orlando seem to be even slightly concerned at the intentional blasphemy proclaimed from the pulpit of this flagship SBC church.
On the evening of June 14, Uth paraded across the platform an array of speakers gathered for a noble-
sounding, though Scripturally-illicit purpose, “for prayer and encouragement” following the terrorist attack on a homosexual nightclub.
One of those, invited by Uth, standing in the pulpit and proclaiming what Justin Peters referred to as “jaw-dropping heresy” was Dr. Larry G. Mills, pastor of Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Orlando. Mills’ proclamation of the false “Jesus loves everybody regardless” gospel opened with his reference to the KJV version of 1 Peter.
Emphasizing the KJV usage of the word “peculiar” in verse 9, Mills proclaimed “we’re not peculiar because of race, or gender, or creed.” Instead, he said, “In Orlando, we are peculiar because of e pluribus unum … out of many, one.”
That bit of hermeneutical heresy should have prompted Dr. Uth, at least, to rise in compassionate correction for the erroneous commentary. It did not.
While Peter was clearly targeting his epistle to a targeted audience, “those who are elect,” (1 Peter 1:1) Mills proclaimed a universal application of these inspired words of Scripture. Every person in the audience, in Orlando, indeed, every person in America became, under Mills’ Scripture-twisting interpretation, “the elect.” His universalism passed unchallenged.
“We are peculiar because we know how to let theological differences, and disputes, and factions not get in the way of love and Christ.” Dr. Larry Mills
Not done with his “peculiar” word play, Mills unknowingly acknowledged the very tolerance for apostasy that allowed him to stand in a Southern Baptist pulpit in the first place. Neither he, nor Dr. Swanson who proclaimed universalism from the pulpit just prior to him, nor Dr. Uth, allowed any “theological differences” to get in the way of proclaiming a repentance-void false gospel of “love.”
But Mills wasn’t finished. He went much, much deeper into the waters of damnable blasphemy. Referring to the “cornerstone” of Peter’s remarks in verse 6, Mills spewed forth from this Southern Baptist pulpit nothing short of rank heresy. As he acknowledged the tragedy incurred by the homosexual community, Mills stripped Truth from two millennia of Christian orthodoxy, ripped the royal robe from our Lord and Savior, and replaced it with diabolical deceit.
“That LGBTQ area is the head cornerstone … and we are here to lift up and magnify and allow them to know that regardless of people’s opinions, regardless of where we are, love triumphs over evil. It’s all about love. The question is asked, what does love have to do with it? Everything.” Dr. Larry Mills
Jesus is not, according to Mills, the chief cornerstone. That honor goes to the LGBTQ community.
Why? Because “it’s all about love.” Jesus’ love. Your love. My love. Community love. Gay love, heterosexual love, any kind of love. The heresy flowed from this SBC pulpit with the ease of gentle, lapping waves on the sandy shores of a Florida beach.
Rather than rightly exalting Christ, rather than lifting Him up, magnifying Him, and declaring His Gospel, Mills exalted unregenerate, “condemned already” homosexuals because they had been persecuted.
Let that reality sink in. A standing ovation was given to a proclamation that everyone will be saved, that Christ is NOT the chief cornerstone of our faith, and that love, un-tempered by the corresponding truth of God’s coming judgment on sinners, is all that matters.
Universalism. False doctrine. A denial of “our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4) Such things were stated, unchallenged, from the pulpit of a Southern Baptist Church.
Can you say, A-P-O-S-T-A-S-Y?" Pulpit&Pen