Answering Johnny Robertson: "What Does the Bible REALLY Say?" (The DVD that didn't air)

In the wake of my "extending the opportunity" to "Martinsville Church of Christ" cultist Johnny Robertson on June 1st, WGSR general manager Charles Roark offered me 25 minutes of free airtime on Sunday night in response to Robertson. I took up the offer, even though 25 minutes is not nearly long enough to counter everything that Robertson, James Oldfield and Norm Fields spend thousands of dollars to broadcast for about a dozen and a half hours a week.

And I already knew that it would have been futile to have even tried to counter everything they preach, too. But I never believed that I had to try to, either.

"Christianity is not a competition", as I said on Sunday night. And I was never out to "beat" Johnny Robertson at anything. All of this began with a simple question...

"Johnny, how is what you are doing showing devotion to Christ, and demonstrating His love for others?"

That was almost three months ago. To this date, Johnny Robertson has not provided an answer. He has only dodged and run away.

I spent some time this past week putting together a presentation on DVD that would run on Sunday night. And up 'til the last half-hour or so, this was going to be what people would have seen on Sunday night. A friend came over and we prayed about it and in the end, I felt led to just "be me" and let the chips fall where they may.

If you watched WGSR on Sunday night, you know that I did not run this presentation. That instead I got on live television for about 13 minutes, and just... spoke from the heart about what God had been showing me from scripture this past week.

A lot of it had to do with what we are told in Galatians 5 is the "Fruit of the Spirit". Those being...

- love
- joy
- peace
- patience
- kindness
- goodness
- faithfulness
- gentleness
- self control

Robertson, Olfield and Fields cannot show that they have produced the Fruit of the Spirit with what they preach. They only present "...hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy."

Can it be said that Robertson, Oldfield and Fields can demonstrate to us that they do produce the Fruit of the Spirit in the least bit with what they are doing?

Does that alone indicate that they preach "another Christ", are perhaps even of the "spirit of Antichrist" as the Apostle John wrote?

I won't speculate. But I will certainly observe that their evidence demands a verdict.

A number of people have passed along similar thoughts, after watching Robertson for the first time on Sunday night: that Johnny Robertson is "demon possessed", "evil", and "ungodly". As much as I would like to offer a defense on behalf of Robertson, I'm hard-pressed to find any rationale for one, parse that as you will.

And as I said on Sunday night, this is partly why I'm not going to pursue the matter any further. Because I do want my own life to produce the Fruit of the Spirit. Because I do not want to be like Johnny Robertson and his bunch. What they preach isn't the freedom and joy that comes with a life in Christ. And as I said on camera the other night: "I pity Johnny Robertson." He probably will never know what it means to be free by the grace of God.

After I finished in front of the camera, I had a DVD of Schrodinger's Bedroom which ran. That was included in the DVD that I'd prepared too. Again, because I knew that 25 minutes wasn't long enough to fully counter all the harm these men have done and continue to do... and also because I'd promised the cast and crew of the film that I'd get it broadcast on television somehow. Lo and behold, God let me uphold that promise. So on that note alone, I'll consider Sunday night a success.

I didn't watch Robertson's show, which came on after mine. I do understand that he said something about how I wouldn't speak to him as he was entering the building. Which is a lie: I didn't even see Robertson at all. I saw his car, but did not happen to notice him. And he was nowhere in the WGSR studio as my friend and I were leaving, either. So he was either invisible to the naked eye, or he broadcast an outright falsehood.

I did happen to catch him on the "warm up show" yesterday afternoon. The gist of what he was saying was: "Chris was an idiot to think he could take us on. He can't do it. We won! He threw in the towel! Yay for us! We are better than he is! We are better than ANYONE!"

Can anyone imagine Peter, or Paul, or the Apostle John, or any other follower of Christ of the first century, carrying on like this?

As I said on Sunday night, Christianity is not a competition. I wasn't out to "beat" Robertson anyway. That's never what this has been all about. It's Robertson and his bunch that insists on framing this as an "us versus them" situation. As if there is some tangible prize that is up for grabs.

All of this started with a question that I asked Johnny Robertson. Almost 3 months later, he still cannot answer it.

I'm going to assume at this point that for all the power and authority that he claims, that he cannot do so simple a thing as give us an answer.

If Robertson insists that this be a contest, and if he cannot even attempt to tell us how what he is doing is giving the glory to God and showing Christ's love to others...

...if Johnny Robertson can only run and hide behind Shirley Phelps Roper's skirt...

...then I suppose that I've beaten Johnny Robertson by default.

There is nothing that Robertson can do about that. And for years to come, the permanent record that people will be able to find on their own is going to reflect that: that in the arena of ideas, Chris Knight did beat Johnny Robertson.

I would rather have the long-term victory than be able to "brag" like Robertson did yesterday.

As I said on Sunday night, I'm not going to spend any more time on Johnny Robertson. I asked him a question, he can't answer it. It can't ever be said that I didn't try. The real reason I came to him with my question to begin with is to give him a choice. Who am I to think that I would succeed where so many others have failed? But he had to be given a choice all the same. That's done. I can't do anything else.

Here it is: What Does the Bible REALLY Say?, the presentation that I had made, but did not run, on Sunday night...

If certain technical issues can be resolved, I will post the live broadcast here also.

Categories: christianity, church of christ, johnny robertson, martinsville, reidsville, wgsr