Did James MacDonald ever invite Voddie Baucham to 'Elephant Room 2'? Old dispute resurfaces following the latter's passing at 56

According to a post shared by Voddie Baucham, he stated that James MacDonald invited him for a session at the 'Elephant Room 2,' however, he declined due to certain reasons.

In a lengthy post, Voddie shared how he was invited to the 'Elephant Room 2' and under what circumstances.

The post reads:

"In October of 2011, I was invited to participate in The Elephant Room 2. The invitation followed Mark Dever’s decision to pull out. James MacDonald called me and asked me to take his place. He also informed me of the controversy at that time surrounding the invitation to Jakes and Dever’s decision to pull out, and that Crawford Loritts had agreed to fill in. I knew James MacDonald only indirectly, and I had only recently heard of the Elephant Room."

Voddie Baucham explains why he declined James MacDonald's invitation to the 'Elephant Room 2'

The post by Voddie Baucham continues:

"Initially, it sounded like a very good idea to 'pin Jakes down' on the Trinity. My area of emphasis in my theological training is Evangelism/Apologetics. Moreover, I addressed Jakes's modalism in my first book in 2004, so I am well aware of the issues in question, and believed I could make a contribution. Also, to my delight, James indicated that Jakes had abandoned Oneness Pentecostalism, rejected Modalism, and, he believed, Jakes would make that clear at ER2."

Before making a decision to attend the ER2 or not, he spoke to the elders in his church. Baucham elaborated:

"I called my fellow elders to make them aware of the invitation... We agreed that I should 1) find out more about the Elephant Room (specifically, was this an apologetics forum, or a forum that would assume Jakes’s orthodoxy), and 2) find out why Dever had backed out. After investigating the matter, I decided to decline the invitation. My decision was based on four major areas of concern," he spoke about the four concerns to MacDonald on a phone call the following day.

These are the four concerns expressed by Voddie:

"T.D. Jakes has a history of holding to, teaching, and associating with modalism, and ER2 was a forum wherein he would be assumed to be a “brother”."

"The “Word of Faith” gospel he preaches is heterodox and harmful."

"Jakes’s influence in the Dallas Metroplex has been negative, at best."

"Bishop Jakes is an example of the worst the black church has to offer."

On the other hand, Voddie Baucham was supposed to speak at MacDonald's Harvest Bible Chapel Men's Conference, two days after the ER2 session. Baucham arrived at the conference and spoke to MacDonald, along with other Harvest members. They both decided that it would not be a good idea for Baucham to speak at the conference, and then he left.

This is what Voddie Baucham has to say about James MacDonald:

"He's my brother, and I love him. We disagree. We both understand that. Ironically, that's what The Elephant Room is supposedly all about... Brothers should be able to disagree with one another and still be brothers. There's just one problem: Embracing Jakes while rejecting others because we question his history of modalism and Word of Faith teaching... that's the real 'Elephant in the Room'?"

Voddie Baucham was invited to James MacDonald's ' lephant Room 2' but declined it after raising concerns about T.D. Jakes' theology and influence. Although Baucham later stepped away from MacDonald's Men's conference as well, he explained that their disagreement did not affect their brotherhood in Christ.

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