During a chapel service at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) on Tuesday (Sept. 24), Dr. Albert Mohler offered remarks regarding Dr. Steven Lawson‘s recent removal from leadership. Although Mohler refused to mention Lawson by name, he made it clear who he was speaking about.
Mohler, who is the president of SBTS, told seminary students that felt “a bit of urgency in the need to talk with you for just a bit this morning.”
Mohler then shared that he was having a conversation with a couple of students last Thursday and asked them how they were doing.
“Not particularly well,” they replied, going to explain that they had just heard the news that Lawson had been “removed indefinitely from all ministry activities” in light of an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman.
“And let’s just face it,” Mohler said, “the fall of that house is very great.” Mohler admitted that he too had been struggling with what he had heard.
Mohler Says He Didn’t See Lawson’s Moral Failure Coming
“I did not see this coming,” Mohler said, adding that Lawson, who has preached at SBTS’ chapel and many other events with Mohler, is a “dear friend.”
Mohler repeated, “I didn’t see this coming. Whatever meter someone may have to anticipate this happening, I lack that meter.”
However, Mohler said that, in retrospect, he could see a pattern that would lead to this outcome, particularly that Lawson spent “an awful lot of time traveling alone and the exposure of being all over the world alone.”
Describing Lawson’s sin as a “catastrophe” and a “plague,” Mohler said that he believes that although it appears more church leaders are failing morally, it is just that the public is more aware of these failures because of “social media and the digital revolution.”
“And so, you know, beware your sins will find you out—well, your sins will be broadcasted to the entire world in a matter of seconds on social media platforms,” he said.
Mohler told the chapel that he doesn’t have a “census of these things, but I have read the New Testament as you have. I do know church history, and I will just tell you, I have no sense that there is an increase in number.”
However, he added, “There is an increase in public damage to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry of the church—the wounding of little lambs and disrepute upon the gospel.”
“I think it’s also absolutely right to respond to this not only with a sense of grief, but frankly, with a sense of outrage,” said Mohler. “Because it’s not that we say this has never happened before. It’s not that we say we can’t imagine that this could happen. It’s because the effect upon the church and the gospel ministry of such a sin and on God’s people so grievous.”
Mohler said that what took place with Lawson is “as grievous as it looks, and honestly it’s almost always worse than it looks.” But he warned against “feeling some kind of moral superiority,” sharing that the “Scripture tells us that we should look at this with, ‘There but by the grace of God go I.'”
Continuing his warning, Mohler said there is “no man at any age, in any situation, is beyond temptation and the risk of falling.”
Mohler then told the seminary students to “look at this and be absolutely horrified.” Also, he said, “look at this, and by the grace and mercy of God, make certain there are protections and policies in your life—which means the avoidance of certain patterns in your life that would expose you to this kind of vulnerability and this kind of temptation and this kind of sin.”
 on Tuesday (Sept. 24), Dr. Albert Mohler offered remarks regarding Dr. Steven Lawson's recent removal from leadership.){kind=link}