Gospel Coalition writer and SBC Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile has been mourning the deaths of the 8 people killed in the horrific massage parlor shootings. This is well and right, and it is a tragedy that this disturbed young man killed so many people on account of an addled mind consumed with sin and depravity.
While things are too early to know the extent of the killer’s motivation, Thabiti has been tweeting up a storm, declaring that it’s for sure, 100% on account of racism that this happened. This is not unexpected, as there is little that happens in the world that he does not consider a matter of racial conflict.
He likewise shared a post from Rebecca Shrader, a pro-choice bible study leader who attended J. D. Greear’s Summit Church for years but just recently left. In her post, she notes that the shooter’s church was a member of the Founders Ministry (dun dun dun!) – in one of the most despicable attempts to draw a connection we have ever seen, shy of Rachel Denhollander taking a swipe at John MacArthur for this same thing.
Furthermore, in a mess of confusion, Anyabwile shared a post by Samuel Perry, who argues that the murderer, Robert Aaron Long, was in fact a “real” and “committed Christian” when he let loose and imploded the world of countless souls.
It would perhaps be accurate to say that he was a committed “church goer” except that there has been no indication of what his church attendance has been in the last three years since being baptized in 2018, with no information on how frequently he attended services or what his participation level was.
But more importantly, secretive, highly disturbed, sex-addicted porn-fiends who go out and commit mass murder are not born-again believers, no matter how much Anyabwile wants to claim they are. There are things called “fruit of the spirit” that exist, and filling 8 bodies with bullets coupled with a plot to commit more murder is not one of them.
Of course, this is all being done to further the narrative of the SBC as a denomination full of white zealots that are being radicalized into bible-believing white supremacists with the blessing of the church.
This belief, coupled with their contention that the SBC is not playing nice with egalitarians while emphasizing an unhealthy focus on sexual purity (something Beth Moore recently said amen to, as a matter of life and death situation), has led them to believe that culpability lies squarely in the hands of the sin-enabling leaders and pastors who won’t deal with “racism” in their congregations.
Our favorite pink-haired, mainstream continuationist, spunky charismatic meme-bot and “Dr. Michael Brown-approved prophetess” continues to bring us all sorts of insights into the wonders of heaven is back with some new information about the celestial realm.
You’ll recall she has previously regaled us with a host of insider tidbits from one who routinely journeys up to the third heaven/ goes on an acid-tripping bender, including but not limited to the fact that:
Heaven has “flowercopters” to carry people into the air.
Heaven has cows that drive tractors.
In Heaven, kids take art classes taught by rabbits. Giant rabbits. Giant multi-colored rabbits. Who help the kids paint the eggs with “liquid light” so they can draw Minions on them. And inside the eggs are baby chicks or rabbits. Somehow.
The kids sit on mushrooms that rise up into the air.
There’s a city in Heaven made out of Jell-O where you can “eat the mailboxes.”
Now, she has apparently discovered a new neighborhood, where St Patrick lives. She tells chief-enabler Steve Shultz, who honestly must be her dealer:
… Patrick was a great winner of souls. And he is — I can tell you — he is in Heaven. I have seen his mansion. And because Jesus also has a sense of humor, He built Patrick’s mansion in a field of five-foot-tall shamrocks. [Laughs]
[SHULTZ: Wow! Really?!… You’ve seen that in Heaven?]
Yeah… I did. I saw him in Heaven, and so he’s got all these shamrocks that sing to him and they work with Jesus Christ because God has a sense of humor…
While there is a certain degree of satisfaction in pointing out that Kerr is verifiably insane, this is no laughing matter. Her streams are viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. This stream alone has almost 95k, and it was released less than a day ago.
The comments section is filled with captivated weak women and effeminate men, all led astray by her and this nonsense and slurping up this slurry purée of milk, mushed peas, and spiritual strychnine, rather than than the wholesome meat of the word.
Pray for those who are being deceived by this damnable duo.
h/t to the hive of scum and villainy known as the Friendly Atheist for the link and transcript
On this episode of Polemics Report for March 16th, 2021, JD talks about Tim Keller blaming conservative evangelicals for their inevitable removal from the public arena, Russell Moore falling all over himself to defend Beth Moore, Tim Keller, and Rick Warren, and Kyle J. Howard’s ridiculously white recalling of hanging out on “the block.” In the patrons-only portion, JD and David discuss Gentle and Lowly, and JD answers questions from patrons.
To listen to the free, truncated version, click below.
To listen to the full program, support us on Patreon for only $5.95 a month for this and every other full-length, subscriber-only podcast from the #1 Polemics Organization in the world. Not a bad deal, right? Click here to join.
It didn’t take long for the critics of complementarianism to capitalize on the tragic death of 8 people by massage parlor shooter Robert Aaron Long.
Discovering that he had been baptized in a Southern Baptist church two years prior to going on his rampage, and without knowing how active he was in his church since, Rachael Denhollander, retweeted by the usual simping suspects like Kyle J. Howard and Dwight Mckissic suggested that there was a direct line from what SBC pastors and seminary heads teach about biblical sexuality and the decision for this deranged man to go put some bullets in some heads. Even Auntie Beth Moore gave the status a hearty ‘Amen!’ to that accursed logic.
She, very crassly, writes:
Of course, when we consider the millions upon millions of men who have been part of the SBC over the last 180 years, compared to the amount of deranged sex-addled idiots who have gone on killing rampages because they were trying to eliminate places of temptation for their sex addictions, on account of the specific teachings of the SBC, it’s pretty clear this is little more than the most unkind way to twist a knife in the teachings of the church and make them bleed a little.
It’s illogical, opportunistic, and has no basis in reality. For those making the charge, however, that’s probably the point.
Pastor Keith Craft of Elevate Life Church, a non-denominational megachurch in Texas has come under fire for some spicy words he said about governing leaders during a recent message to his congregation.
Kraft is known as a rough and tumble persona who oversees the ‘Cathedral of Frsico.’ Frequently billed as a motivational speaker, he often namedrops celebrities he’s shared the stage with and has an insatiable, relentless focus on raising and acquiring money within the church. The insistence that his congregants “fully participate” in the life of the church by “generously supporting” them being a theme has is beaten into the brains of any sheep who has the misfortune of stepping into his fold.
Because he’s also a historically bad preacher, he frequently bears the brunt of Chris Rosebroughs’s verbal and exegetical lashings.
In this case, Craft speaking on February 26th Warriors Night. (Where they also raised another 100K, he is proud to say) During the message, he took aims at the governments suggesting to double up on wearing masks, as well as the manipulation and fear-mongering they are involved in.
We are the sons of God in the earth and guess what? We’re not afraid. We’re not afraid. HEY LISTEN! Let me go on record and say it. I had COVID. If I had died, I died of COVID. I’m not afraid of it. I’m not afraid of a heart attack. I’m not afraid when it’s my time to go.
We can’t cower. We can’t play. We can’t play small. We can’t hide. We gotta live. We’re the sons of God in the earth. That’s who you are. And our country’s being run by a bunch of P******!
That’s the only way I can say it. So record that and send that!
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are badly treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Hebrews 13:3
The Church has been Charged as an ‘Entity’
Not content to simply insist to keep the pastor in jail, GraceLife Church has now been charged as an “entity” for violating COVID-19 public health order capacity limits, with the church itself being served a summons to attended Stony Plain provincial court on May 5, the last day of Pastor Coates trial.
As for what that means, organizations, corporations, and churches (entities) can be guilty of a public health order offense in the same way that an individual can. If the health orders apply to gatherings, and the church hosts the gatherings, this would make the church guilty and being charged as an “entity” allows it to be held accountable and punished. The consequences for the entity are either fines, seizure of assets, or being physically shut down. Because the entity is overseen by people, this means there may be personal liability for the leadership structure of the church.
John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms – the organization representing Coates in court – said that it’s likely both the Church’s trial and James’ will be amalgamated into one, explaining:
The onus will be on the government to prove that these health orders are valid under the Charter. That’s the No. 1 point about this trial that a lot of people aren’t getting. It will be the government’s health orders that are on trial.
Though the church is charged as an entity sounds ominous, it may be a bit of a ruse. With public outcry against the church rising, this may be a way to satiate critics of the church who are demanding something be done without having to engage in more strong-arm tactics. After all, James remains in prison for being a “public health menace” and “danger to the public” for preaching on Sunday, while the other pastor, Jacob Spenst, has been preaching, in the same manner for the last 4 weeks, all without similar intervention so far.
Police and Alberta Health Services (AHS) employees continue to show up at the church, but do not stay long. They don’t enter the church property, engage with churchgoers or hand out fines, and usually leave after about 20 minutes.
Gregory Harris, a spokesperson for AHS, said they are still monitoring the situation and working on the file:
Grace Life Church continues to create unacceptable public health risks by violating the Public Health Act, Chief Medical Officer of Health Order, Public Health Inspector Order, and a Court of Queen’s Bench Order. AHS continues to work within the legislation and cooperatively with the RCMP.
Appearing on Tucker Carlson
Erin Coates has continued to share about her husband’s imprisonment. She recorded a segment with Fox’s Tucker Carlson, which will be airing tonight. She explains that it took an effort to record the segment, after being barred from one of the studios.
I’m so thankful for local guys who helped me out, originally I was booked at CFRN CTV news studio – I went through all their ‘rona protocols and the studio called the next day telling Tucker’s assistant that they reserve the right to deny any guest and they didn’t feel comfortable with me in their studio. It left us scrambling and pushed taping an extra day. I guess I don’t fit their narrative after they have butchered my husband and church on their media outlets.
James Time in Prison + His Health
Today marks the 30th day Pastor Coates has been in prison, after being arrested on February 16th. Erin shares that his health is struggling, but they are leaning on the provision of Christ to see them through this.
James is out of quarantine and in general population. This gives him about 3 hours out of his cell a day for exercise, showering, talking to the inmates, and calling our lawyer and the children and I.
He gets about three 20-minute calls a day and one 25-minute video call. The prison does not allow visitors so this is the only way we can see him. It’s quite difficult when I have the children because only one person can hear and talk to him at a time. So we get about 8 mins each. It’s about a 45-minute drive for us to head into the city to do this.
In the last year, James has been showing signs of Celiac disease so he eats GF [gluten free] in the jail, the calories in the meals aren’t enough to sustain him but he is able to order what is called a “canteen” to supplement his food. The canteen doesn’t have great options and this food is causing his health issues to surface.
I’ve tried my best to tweak it for him from afar. This has been hard for me; our whole marriage I have taken care of him and now I can’t. My care for him has taken on a different face in this season. I know this is what we need to grow in further dependence on Christ. As @drstevenjlawson said in his #nonshepcon message 2 weeks ago, ‘I supply the weakness, He supplies the power.’ We are learning contentment. Please pray for James. The enemy appears to attack him extra hard on Sundays. He longs to be with us. Not having fellowship for 4 weeks (and potentially until the middle of May) is hard…even the apostle Paul was able to have visitors!
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. (Philippians 3:11-14)
Dane Ortlund, senior pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church and son of woke Gospel Coalition contributor Ray Ortund (who famously told Christians to read the Koran after the Bible), released his book Gentle and Lowly in April of 2020 to near-universal acclaim and it became (at least in evangelical circles) a runaway bestseller. Churches gobbled up copies for study as weary Christians responded to the book’s premise of showing its readers the true heart of Christ.
It earned the accolades and praises of doctrinal stalwarts like Russell Moore, the always manly Paul David Tripp, and “no way he’s still gay” Sam Allberry on top of being named the Gospel Coalition’s “Popular Theology” book of the year.
Yet even with this clearly solid list of endorsements, something was amiss. It took a comprehensive, theological, and critical review from the editors at Grace to You to expose the book’s theological and Christological imbalances, but most tellingly it exposed (once again) the doctrinal and dispositional softness of modern evangelicalism.
Soft and effeminate evangelicals were aghast that the team at Grace to You (long the sworn enemies of woke evangelicalism) would dare to criticize such a tender and empathetic take on the person of Christ. The book was (ironically) given away at the 2020 Shepherd’s Conference, but upon a closer read merited a more in-depth analysis by Jeremiah Johnson and the Grace to You team.
While scripture is clear about Christ’s gentle and lowly heart (Matthew 11:29), Ortlund’s book characterizes gentleness and lowliness as the primary and defining characteristics of Jesus, writing on page 18 that this verse is “the one place in the Bible where the Son of God pulls back the veil and lets us peer way down into the core of who he is.” Of course, orthodox Christianity understands the entire revealed Word of God to be a revelation of who He is, and the divine simplicity of God to mean that all of His attributes work together to comprise His holiness. Simply, one characteristic does not outweigh the others – Christ’s sword is not tempered by his gentleness, nor is God internally conflicted as Ortlund seems to teach on page 40 – “Mercy is natural to him. Punishment is unnatural.”
Most ridiculously, the very premise of the book is that the modern church is beset by a scourge of Christians who hold a view of God that is too judgmental and holy. That is, if only Christians could understand how Jesus “feel[s] about his people amid all their sins and failures” (book description), we might stop “suspect[ing] that we have deeply disappointed Him” or that we have “permanently diminished our usefulness to the Lord” (from the book’s introduction). Both of the aforementioned feelings are sinful for the Christian, for the record.
Instead, the modern church is infected by a Christianity that does not take God’s judgment and righteousness seriously enough. It is not that our view of God is not gentle and lowly enough, it is that our view of God is not holy enough. We don’t take Christ’s hatred for sin seriously enough. The reason Christians flocked to the comforting arms of Gentle and Lowly‘s premise is the exact same reason we flock to seeker-sensitive ministries that feed us what we want to hear and teachers who seem to compete for who can best soften and equivocate the Gospel so as not to offend anyone. Ortlund’s Gospel “presentation” in the book follows the same man-focused pattern, as revealed in Grace to You’s critique:
Nowhere is the danger of his imprecision more evident than in Ortlund’s discussion of the gospel. He writes, “Here is the promise of the gospel and the message of the whole Bible: In Jesus Christ, we are given a friend who will always enjoy rather than refuse our presence” (p. 115). Elsewhere he argues, “If the actions of Jesus are reflective of who he most deeply is, we cannot avoid the conclusion that it is the very fallenness which he came to undo that is most irresistibly attractive to him” (p. 30). You read that right—Ortlund says your sin is what makes you most attractive to your holy Savior. Put another way, “It is not our loveliness that wins his love. It is our unloveliness” (p. 75).
In the same way we are being fooled into navigating by feelings and accepting them as automatically valid (you know, empathy) despite the clear teaching of Jeremiah 17:9, we are being told that the church needs a softer understanding of the character of Christ, and there are plenty of beaten-down, feckless Christian leaders anxious to be self-affirmed by this characterization. The premise (and indeed the book itself) affirms what so many Christians want to hear: Jesus is a soft, emotional crier just like them. If Christ has to fight, he fights with the feelz.
While there are plenty of examples on Twitter of “gentle and lowly” Christian leaders responding to Grace to You’s critique without the (admittedly subjective) gentleness and lowliness they demand from others, perhaps the best example of the kind of softness the critique exposed comes from none other than Ray Ortlund, who will apparently mute critical voices on Twitter because he needs “uplifting” voices in his life (not Bereans or discerners, of course):
*Note: A prior version of this article mentioned Rosaria Butterfield in the opening paragraph, insinuating she was still a feminist. Recent developments have made me uncomfortable using that label for her, so the reference has been removed.
The Los Angeles County Health Department has issued a bizarre new threat against John MacArthur and Grace Community Church in order to keep them from gathering: shut your church down or we’ll sic the homeless on you.
Pastor John MacArthur confirmed the bizarre threat while preaching at the Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, TX on March 14. He explains:
We have been threatened by the county, the city, the state of California, endlessly for about a year. They have not been able to close us down at all. We’re thankful for that. They have made all kinds of bizarre threats. They have threatened to lock down our parking lots- that didn’t work.
The latest threat was that two weeks ago, they called and said they’re going to put a homeless encampment in our parking lot. They’re going to gather homeless from everywhere- this is actually true- and fill up our parking lot with homeless people to try to shut us down. My response was ‘perfect, we’ll have our seminary students evangelize them all day long.’
Maybe someone got the word in the city because they pulled back from that.
The visit to Trinity Bible Church is the first church MacArthur has preached at other his own since the pandemic began, over a year ago. He likewise expressed his amazement that even though his church hasn’t had an offering in over a year, the giving has exceeded any giving in any period of time in the history of the church. Speaking to the future and his upcoming trial, he is hopeful the proceedings may not get that far.
None of us knows when this nonsense is going to end, but we may get to a point where this COVID lockdown begins to slow down to such a point that our case will never even be litigated, and that’s our hope.
Now, Keller is back at it again. This time explaining that a decade from now Christians likely won’t be able to work for a major university, government, or for a big corporation due to our view on sex and gender and saying awful, vilifying things like “Democrats and the left are gonna destroy your religious liberty.” Despite this frightful reality, Keller says we shouldn’t be “crybabies” about it, because “we nurtured it” and “we brought it on ourselves.” He explains:
For the last 20 years the Christian right, though I usually would agree with their positions, I’m pro-life, I still don’t think that same-sex marriage is a good idea for the country or people. So I would technically be agreeing with them, but you know how they raised their money. For 20 years, they sent out letters talking about how “You’ve got to send us money, because the gay people are going to try to come and take your children away, because they’re evil and because the Democrats and the left are gonna destroy your religious liberty.”
They just said awful things and vilified people. It’s one of the reasons why so many gay activists now just don’t want to forgive evangelicals, because when they had a little more power in the ’80s and ’90s, that’s how they raised their money. That’s how they got people out. And weirdly enough, that’s not the Christian way at all. The Christian way is, the way up is down. The way to rule is to serve. This is how Jesus did it.
The way to get happy is to not think about your own happiness but the happiness of others. The way to get any influence is to empty yourself and be a servant. That’s Jesus’ way, and they’re not doing that. They’re actually using the Nietzschean way. And I think what that did was, by for a long time just keeping evangelicals frothing at the mouth about how everything is going so bad and making everybody so angry.
By the way, things are getting bad for evangelicals. It’s very possible. I am not in denial about the fact that ten years from now, if you have evangelical convictions about sex and gender, you may not be able to work for a major university or for the government or for a big corporation. And it’s not that Christians haven’t faced that other places in the past. We shouldn’t be crybabies. Nevertheless, having said all that, yeah, we nurtured this. And Christian nationalists use that. And therefore, we brought it on ourselves.
Robert AJ Gagnon has responded to Keller in an especially insightful way on Twitter, retorting:
Keller’s statement is irresponsible: The idea that Xians brought the attenuation of their liberties upon themselves, as if it was never the original objective of “LGBTQ” zealots to codify into law the view that Xians are hateful, ignorant bigots, is absurd.
No figure in the ancient world had a higher view of the necessity of a male-female prerequisite for marriage and sexual relations than Jesus. None. Servanthood did not negate his willingness to make this clear publicly.
Keller’s recipe that if we had followed the way of Jesus we never should have warned about the threat posed to civil liberties by “LGBTQ” immorality and deception, or voted accordingly, may justify his Never-Trumpism but it has no basis in reality.
h/t to wokepreachertv for the transcript and audio
A woke pastrix has given us some insight into what would happen when charismatic theology and Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 project collide, with a sermon saying that societal demons landed on the shores of America in 1619, and that they need to be cast out, particularly out of the police stations.
Tanisha Walton, campus pastor of The Way Berkely explains in a sermon preached in June 2020:
The future depends on the work that every person puts in now to heal both their inner demons as well as our societal demons… Racism is demonic, and we shouldn’t be surprised when it keeps popping up. The same demon that landed on these shores in 1619 is the same demon that keeps popping up right now in 2020s, that demons have the same mode of operation, and all it needs is a host or person who is willing to let them manifest in them. So we’re seeing the same spirit, the demons don’t have any other mode of operation, but to operate in the same way that they originally did when they first got here…
People still have the autonomy to operate in these manners. We’re still holding the person accountable, but we have to get to the point where we can look at someone and look past them, and look right at the heart of the matter, that is this a demon that is manifesting itself. How else can you explain that man would keep his knee down on someone’s neck for almost 9 minutes unless you’re full of demons? Unless you’re full of the devil?
She references Mark 16:17 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; and says that believers have the power available to cast out the spirit of racism and demonic forces.
Do you believe that God wants to use you to raise you up for a prophetic hope, to cast out these demons out of our cities, out of the police departments, out of our government? We have the power to be able to do it in the name of Jesus, but we can’t do it in our own strengths it has to be Holy Ghost, spirit-fueled social justice.
