Last year, Tim Keller gave an update on his ongoing health crisis, and it was encouraging but not without its challenges. Keller was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2020 but was taking positive steps toward recovery. This was excellent news, as the recovery rates are devastatingly low. According to John Hopkins Hospital, “The combined five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer—the percentage of all patients who are living five years after diagnosis—is meager at just 5 to 10 percent” because it is typically caught so late in the game.
Sadly, Keller announced on Twitter in December of 2021 that his pancreatic cancer had progressed into stage IV, regarded as incurable. The five-year survival rate is 1%, with most patients expected to live less than a year- usually around six months.
Keller has survived for 18 months now but is facing new challenges. Two months he wrote on Facebook that while his previous immunotherapy successfully eradicated 99% of the tumors, new tumors had formed “in some fairly inconvenient places,” and he would be going in for further treatment.
Last weekend, Kathy Kathy posted a request for prayer after Tim was hospitalized following complications from his treatment.
Tim is out of the hospital and recovering at home after complications from his treatment. Please continue to pray during this slow recovery.
-Kathy Keller
— Timothy Keller (1950-2023) (@timkellernyc) May 14, 2023
Hours ago, his son Michael wrote that despite being briefly released from the hospital, his father was forced to return to receive additional care.
A brief health update on my Dad: After being released from the hospital on Saturday, he returned late Sunday night to receive additional care. Please continue to pray for his recovery.
-Michael Keller
— Timothy Keller (1950-2023) (@timkellernyc) May 17, 2023
Continue to pray that Keller recovers and is miraculously healed.
Editor’s note. This article has an accompanied video, which simply must be seen to be believed.
(Evangelical Dark Web) Broward County Florida is a national embarrassment. Once renown for hanging chads, Broward County’s law enforcement became a national disgrace for refusing to put down a school shooter which a jury pool in Broward County would refuse the death penalty to in further disgrace. The latest travesty of justice in Broward County Florida is a story of how a church excommunicated its disgraced elders who would then weaponize the Sheriffs office against the church. The Broward County Sheriffs Office would take a clear stand against the church by enforcing the ownership of the excommunicated elders.
Background
The Church at Deerfield Beach is a small 1689 Reformed Baptist Church. In June 2022, Pastor Jeremy Tatom was hired by The Church at Deerfield Beach. As part of his employment by the church, he and his family were given a residence on the church. Through a series of events, three of the church’s elders either voluntarily resigned or were removed from membership by a vote of the congregation for biblical reasons. One elder, Tom Lund, voluntarily resigned from the church in mid-August 2022 and another elder, Jack Lowther, left the church in mid-October 2022 and was officially removed from membership in mid-November 2022.
In late 2022, the former elders of the church filed a lawsuit against Pastor Tatum and church bookkeeper and long-time member, Molly Redmen, in violation of the church by-laws which insist upon Christian arbitration. In the lawsuit, the defrocked elders sue as The Church at Deerfield Beach. However, the lawsuit in which they claim to have fired Jeremy Tatum was dismissed with prejudice in late January 2023. The court ruled that the former elders did not make a persuasive argument that overcame ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.
Police Involvement
On February 1, Tom Lund would attempt to gain access to the church property. According to police bodycam footage, Lund was informed that police would not involve themselves in a civil matter that lacked a criminal element.
On February 28, Capt. Hofstein of the Broward Sheriff Office overturned the status quo and demanded that Pastor Tatom, and by extension the church congregation, share access of the church property with former member Lund who had not attended any services or had any access to the property in over 6 months. Capt. Hofstein showed up to the church property on February 28th with his second-in-command, Executive Officer Lt. Murillo-Quigley, as well as with Lt. Palamara and another deputy plus former church member, Tom Lund. He dictate terms of operation to the church.
Following this incident, the Tatoms were assured by the Internal Affairs division that there was an investigation into Hofstein’s actions. At their advice, the church changed the locks.
On March 15, Lund returned to the property to trespass with the assistance of a locksmith, and the Tatums called the non-emergency police number to have him removed. The police, when they do show up take no action against Lund. Upon appealing to the Major and the Sheriff, the actions of Capt. Hofstein continued.
On April 2, both Lund and Lowther show up at the church and request police assistance so that they can break into the church.
On April 9, Resurrection Sunday, both Lund and Lowther return again to gain access to the church, this time to no avail, until Lund returns later that afternoon with another man who breaks a glass door to gain access to the church, while police are in the parking lot enforcing Hofstein’s orders.
With no recourse to be had with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, The Church at Deerfield Beach has appealed to Governor Ron DeSantis multiple times petitioning him to launch a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s treatment of The Church at Deerfield Beach.
Additionally, they’ve launched a social media campaign to raise awareness over this ongoing injustice. Their video compilation on YouTube garnered over 5600 views.
It is a fraudulent sham to swallow the fiction that the Broward Sheriff’s Office will legitimately investigate its own abusive police state tactics, especially when it is Sheriff Tony himself and his command that has allowed these abusive police state tactics to continue. Florida Department of Law Enforcement can do an independent investigation if ordered to do so by the Governor. But, the Governor has ignored 4 requests since April 6th. The Church at Deerfield Beach and its Pastor have unsuccessfully tried to work within the system so that the abusive police state behavior of the Broward Sheriff’s Office, that continues with Sheriff Tony and his command, stops. It even has included advising the Governor. But, to no avail. It is important to at least shine a light on this abusive police state behavior, and how the Broward Sheriff’s Office with the knowledge of its Sheriff and command allows such abusive police state behavior, and how the Governor will not even order an independent investigation of that abusive police state behavior.
Tom Connick Attorney for The Church at Deerfield Beach
The audacity for police to intervene on both a civil and ecclesiastical matter remains a gross abuse of power by the civil magistrate.
Editor’s Note. This article was written by Ray Fava and published at the Evangelical Dark Web. Republished by Protestia in full with permission.
Also, The Broward County Sheriff’s Facebook page is here, their email is socialmedia@sheriff.org, and their phone number is 1 954-831-8901. We would encourage all our readers to share this or EDW’s article far and wide, and to contact these folks and let them know what you think of their actions, in a kind and polite way.
During a recent townhall featuring Mike Stone, the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Blackshear pastor running against Bart Barber for the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, interviewers grilled him on a wide array of topics relating to the scandals the denomination is imbroiled in, from the disfellowshipping of Rick Warren to Rachael Denhollander’s role in the future of the SBC.
As a participant in a new docu-series about Hillsong Church set to air this Friday, former Hillsong NY pastor Carl Lentz admitted to an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with their nanny but denied that he sexually assaulted her, according to People Magazine, who had an advanced screening.
In November 2020, Carl Lentz was ousted from his church after it was revealed he was having an adulterous affair with a New York City-based designer named Ranin Karim. Though his bombshell got him fired, it was only one of many affairs, according to a 51-page barn-burner of a booklet titled ‘Internal Investigation Report Regarding Carl Lentz and Other Matters’ commissioned by Hillsong leadership.
The report revealed that rather than committing a so-called ‘one-time mistake’ with Karim, which is inexcusable but at least partially understandable, Lentz exemplified predatory sexual behavior for years, including grooming behavior, allegations of paying masseuses for sexual favors and ‘happy endings,’ another affair in 2014 with a young celebrity, and yet another in 2020
In the documentary, wife Laura Lentz says she was in shock after she learned of the adultery with Karim. “Carl was like, ‘Hey, can I talk to you for a second?’ As soon as he shut the door…my heart just dropped. He basically said, ‘I’ve been unfaithful to you.’ Carl Lentz goes on to reveal:
“There are some things that you can recover from. There’s other things that I’ll never recover from. Just the sound of her voice, the kind of cry that she had was like no other cry I’ve ever heard. Nobody should go through that, especially a wife that is flawless in character. I told her the best I could at that time and at that time I wasn’t even fully honest. She wasn’t mad, she was just so broken. eople who have walked through infidelity know what I’m talking about right now.”
Lentz also opened up about his relationship with Leona Kimes, who spent seven years as their nanny but later became lead pastor at Hillsong Boston. The report recounts Lentz admitting to “subliminally encouraging a relationship with the married Kimes with whom he engaged in at least 20 but less than 100 sex acts which he described as “manipulated intimacy.” Laura tells the interviewer that while Kimes was viewed as trusted member of the family, she suspected there was more happening.
“I’d sometimes get these little feelings. And then one night I found them in a compromising position. I was angry and I definitely freaked out…. We were her pastors, we were her leaders; she was on staff. It got really messy…I was pretty much gaslit by both of them for quite a while.”
Afterwards, Laura says they “never talked about it again.” In a Medium post, Kimes wrote that Lentz flat out assaulted her:
During the years I spent serving them, I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and sexual abuse. The abuse of power started small. Hours would increase beyond belief. Often I would work from 7 am to 11 pm…Gossip was constant. If I didn’t join in or if I disagreed, I was the odd one out. Classic bullying.
The sexual abuse started small, too. My pastor would look at me and say, “Gurl, you’re looking good. You’ve been in the gym?” There was a lot of flirty teasing like this. I had been around long enough to know that’s just how he was with women. But after a while, the comments started to escalate. I remember being told, “after you have kids, we’ll buy you a boob job.” Looking back, I know I felt embarrassed, but I didn’t know it was wrong then. It hadn’t occurred to me that I had a right to not be spoken to like that, by my pastor or anyone else.
While he never had intercourse with me and never kissed me, I was physically violated by his unwanted and repeated sexual touching of my intimate areas. I froze. Every time, I froze.
He offered to accompany me to the doctor with his sick son once and he touched me while I was driving, both hands on the wheel. Again, I froze.
He suggested accompanying me to a movie with the kids and sat next to me and touched me in the dark, even though we were surrounded by people. Again, I froze.
In a previous statement about these claims, Lentz’s attorneys told People magazine, “Laura and Carl Lentz vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as Leona Kimes has described.” Speaking about it now, Lentz is mildly more reflective.
I am responsible for allowing an inappropriate relationship to develop in my house with someone that worked for us…(but) any notion of abuse is categorically false. There were mutual adult decisions made by two people who lied profusely, mainly to my wife. It’s an issue because I was a boss, this person was an employee. I’m responsible for that power dynamic and the management of it and the wisdom that goes with it and I failed absolutely miserably.”
Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church is one of three churches that submitted a written appeal to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Credentials Committee, according to an report by Church Leaders, and they will challenge the ruling that they are not in “friendly cooperation” with the Convention.
Two months ago, the Executive Committee released a list of five churches they deemed not in friendly cooperation with the denomination due to their insistence at having women functioning in the office of pastor. One was Saddleback, who famously ordained several women pastors in late 2021, handed over his church to a husband and wife pastor and pastrix team, and then last weekend, announced a new campus pastor for the Lake Forest campus, a woman named Katie Edwards.
According to Church Leaders:
The three churches will be given a brief time to speak before the messengers at the SBC Annual Meeting on June 13 regarding their removal from the convention. According to the statement, this opportunity will take place during the afternoon session in which “one representative of the church will be recognized to speak and one representative of the Credentials Committee or Executive Committee shall be permitted to speak to the question.”
After the church representative speaks, a ballot vote will take place. “A ‘yes’ vote will affirm the decision of the Executive Committee and Credentials Committee. A ‘no’ vote will overturn the decision of the committees and allow the church to immediately be registered and to seat messengers in accordance with Convention rules,” the Credentials Committee explained.
Warren explained that they were not challenging the ruling of the EC for Saddleback’s benefit, as no one wants to stay where they aren’t welcome, but rather “we are challenging the EC ruling for five reasons that involve others.” They include:
We’re challenging the ruling on behalf of millions of SBC women whose God given spiritual gifts and leadership skills are being wasted instead of empowered for the Great Commission. We cannot finish the task Jesus gave us, with 50% of the church forced to sit on the bench. Great Commission Baptists believe that Jesus authorized every woman to go, to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach—just as he authorized every man.
2. We’re challenging the ruling on behalf of over 300 concerned pastors who have female pastors serving on their staff and have written to me. They are fearful and worried that their congregations will also be disfellowshipped when the new inquisition discovers them. (I’ve seen one list with over 1200 names of Baptist women in just Texas churches.)
3.We’re challenging the ruling on behalf of our IMB missionaries. Today our missionary force has almost 1,500 fewer missionaries than we had 23 years ago when the revised Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M) was approved in 2000. With a renewed emphasis on the restriction of women, we’ll lose more godly female church planters and couples serving as pastoral teams in the mission field.
4. We believe a decision this critical to the SBC’s identity and future should be decided by the Messengers, not a committee. The Messengers must decide if they want the Executive Committee to act like a Catholic Magisterium.
5. Our goal is to spark the thinking of messengers regarding the direction of the SBC, regardless of the outcome of the vote. If you really love something, you fight for it. But sometime it takes years for people to consider an event before change happens. Wilberforce lost every vote for 17 years before the slave trade was eventually abolished. It took 10 years after the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955 for the Civil Rights movement of the ‘60s to coalesce. Note my prediction: The next generation of Southern Baptists will remove the restriction on women one day, because truth eventually triumphs over tradition.
Lastly, Warren revealed that Saddleback has been told by “both the California Southern Baptist State Convention and our Orange County Southern Baptist Association, that the EC ruling will be ignored at their levels.”
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Former President Donald Trump has been relentlessly attacking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis not for being too liberal, but too conservative. In a recent interview with the Messenger, Trump took a shot at DeSantis for signing a heartbeat bill in Florida that would ban abortions once the baby’s heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks. Using the “pro-lifers” as a proxy for his critique, the former President trumpeted his beliefs in the need for abortion “exceptions,” all the while refusing to offer his own position.
The Messenger: Abortion is a big issue you talked about in 2022 when you said that Republicans didn’t really have the right message. They didn’t know how to talk about the issue properly. So what’s the right way for a Republican to talk about abortion in the 2024 elections?
Trump: “Well, pretty much what I said in the CNN town hall. … First of all, I’m a believer in the exceptions, right? And just as Ronald Reagan was a believer in the exceptions, but I’m a believer in the exceptions … the life of the mother, raping and incest. … The other thing I really believe is that the radicals are people that would have a baby destroyed, killed at the end of the ninth month or even after birth.”
The Messenger: Not to be argumentative about this, but do any women really get abortions at eight or nine months if it’s not because of the life or health of the mother?
Trump: “Yeah, probably. You might not know about it.”
The Messenger: It sounds shocking.
Trump: “I know it’s shocking. But it’s happening. … For 50 years, they’ve been trying to get rid of Roe v Wade. I was able to do it. Nobody else could have done that but me. And I was able to do it [by nominating] three excellent judges on the Justices of the Supreme Court. And I was able to do that. What it did more than anything else is it gave us a tremendous power of negotiation, which we didn’t have, the pro-life movement, a tremendous power of negotiation. … Now the pro-life movement has the power to negotiate a deal that’s acceptable for them.”
The Messenger: DeSantis signed a six-week abortion restriction in Florida. Do you think he was right to do that?
Trump: “Well, he has to do what he has to do. If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”
The Messenger:What do you think? Is it too harsh for you?
Trump: “I’m looking at all alternatives. I’m looking at many alternatives. But I was able to get us to the table by terminating Roe v. Wade. That’s the most important thing that’s ever happened for the pro-life movement.”
The Messenger: Would you sign a six week abortion ban or not?
Trump: “I’m looking at all [options].”
While many pro-lifers have praised DeSantis for his heartbeat bill, most abortion abolitionist groups have been critical of the half-measures, with Abolitionist Rising commenting:
When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7
Gerald Elston, Sr. is the Senior Impastor of Good Hope Union United Methodist Church in Silver Spring, MD.
During a recent sermon, he drew comparisons between the death of Stephen, the first martyr murdered for unflinchingly preaching Christ, and the death of Jordan Neely, who was ‘murdered’ for simply saying ‘I’m hungry and thirsty.’
Elston says in the same way that the ‘proud’ Sadhedrin sought to stop Stephen from preaching his famous sermon in Acts 7, so too did the ‘proud on the train say ‘we got to stop this guy from talking.’ and then they killed him for it.
(In reality, Neely, who’s been arrested 42 times, frequently for assault charges, was acting erratically on a subway train and allegedly making threats of violence against passengers. He, unfortunately, passed away due to being subdued by good citizens seeking to stop him.)
“Our text says ‘the proud covered their ears and with a loud shout all rushed him and they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him’
You know, this story of Stephen reminds me of what happened to brother Jordan Neely up in New York on the New York subway. All he said is this ‘I’m hungry and I’m thirsty and I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of having nothing’ but the proud on the train say ‘we got to stop this guy from talking.’
And so they took it upon themselves to put brother Jordan nearly in a chokehold and he died. Y’all remember that story, it just happened, yeah. We’re so quick today to give death. That’s what happened to brother Jordan Neely and so many others. But we have no right to give death. Well I got to say it again-we have no right to give death.
We are not God. Who died and made you God? Come on somebody, what does the word say? ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.’ Some translations say ‘in fullness thereof.’ The world and all who live in it. This is God’s. Keep your (grabby?) hands off of (it?)
Come on somebody. Ah my Lord oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. But this is just arrogance, prideful arrogance. We’re wrapped up in our self-pride and in the pride of life as if somebody gave us the right to take life.”
"This story of Stephen [Acts 7] reminds me of what happened to brother Jordan Neely…All he said is this: 'I'm hungry and I'm thirsty and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of having nothing!' But the proud on the train said, 'We've got to stop this guy from talking.'" pic.twitter.com/Z5sEtTxsiI
— Woke Preacher Clips (@WokePreacherTV) May 15, 2023
The Florida Baptist Convention has released a statement informing members that they were the “victim of a highly sophisticated cybercrime which used fraudulent emails” to reroute a payment of $700,000 from the convention to their Send Network Florida account, which is in partnership with the North American Mission Board.
We have reported this crime to the FBI, local law enforcement, our insurance carrier, our bank, and our auditing firm.
This fraud was accomplished with a general knowledge of the communications and practices between the SBC entity and the convention. An investigation is being launched to determine how this knowledge was gained. At this time, we have no reason to suspect malfeasance by any convention employees. Nevertheless, the convention is committed to fully investigating the matter.
Explaining that they “continue to work with federal and state investigators, our internal and external auditors to recover over $700,000 in funds stolen from the convention through cyber targeting,” they note that they are working to further reinforce their level of information technology security and are “prayerful that some of this loss may be mitigated through insurance and/or the recovery of stolen funds.”
It’s unfortunate that the stolen payments were taken from Send Network monies rather than payments allocated due to ERLC, as any donations given to the corrupt lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention can be considered squandered and as good as stolen anyways.
Perhaps no single individual has done as much to stunt the spiritual growth of and sear the modern American evangelical conscience than Rick Warren. With his Peter Drucker-mentored corporatization of the church, his advocacy for purpose-driving, his Schuller-inspired, man-pleasing “gospel,” and his endless ability to taint every would-be solid minister from on his way to becoming the king of dollar store, bargain-bin Christianity, Rick Warren’s career as the leader of the 25,000 members, 14 campus Saddleback Church has been nothing short of infamous. Warren’s brand of cheap, biblically-devoid, “I’m lovin’ it” Christianity has been the junk food that fattened up the American McChurch with so many empty spiritual calories, and he has been nothing if not boastful about it.
He’s also just been appointed and installed as the “first-ever Chancellor of Spurgeon’s College,” a London-based Baptist Institution that “trains men and women for evangelism, ministry, and pastoral leadership,” according to a press release.
Founded in 1856 Charles Haddon Spurgeon when he was just 22 years old, during the esteemed Baptist preacher’s lifetime, nearly 900 pastors trained at the college, and almost 200 new churches were planted in Britain alone. Now, Warren will be the honorary and ceremonial Head of the institution. It is an official and ambassadorial role where the Chancellor will serve as “a vital advocate for the vision, gospel mission and values (nationally and internationally) of Spurgeon’s College.”
This is the epitome of downgrade. Commenting about the incident, the Dissenter was characteristically fiery, writing:
Charles Spurgeon was a beacon of evangelicalism and a stalwart of biblical truth. Yet, in one fell swoop, the college that bears his name defiles his legacy by aligning itself with a figure whose theology is as far from Spurgeon’s as East is from West. Warren’s ecumenical bent, his wavering from the steadfast road of biblical inerrancy towards a gospel of unity and compromise, is a flagrant betrayal of Spurgeon’s legacy.
