(Pulpit & Pen) Yesterday, Mark Wingfield at Baptist News Global published an article entitled “Sills lawsuit misrepresents a piece of evidence, and that error got highlighted by Ascol and Basham”. The article is part of on-going coverage in the religious press of an allegedly sexually abusive relationship between Jenifer Lyell and former Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Sills. The handling of the Lyell-Sills affair by Southern Baptist leadership has been, to say the least, controversial and Wingfield’s article will no doubt add more fuel to the fire. One false detail of Wingfield’s reporting, however, must not go unnoticed. In his article Wingfield claims that Tom Ascol, Tom Buck, and Megan Basham share a common adherence to “an extreme version of Reformed theology, known as Hyper-Calvinism, that has been on the resurgence in the SBC over the past 30 years.”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Hyper-Calvinism is not now, nor has it ever been, a popular position in the Southern Baptist Convention. Tom Ascol certainly does not hold to Hyper-Calvinism. To qualify as a “Hyper Calvinist” one must reject the great-commision duty to evangelize the lost. Josh Buice, writing at the G3 blog, has explained Hyper-Calvinism quite well:
When understood properly, hyper-Calvinism is a technical term for an extreme and unbiblical view that rejects any need for Christians to engage in missions and evangelism. Simply put, hyper-Calvinists forbid the preaching of the gospel and the offer of salvation to the non-elect. Such people believe that God has chosen people in Christ in eternity past and will bring about His results without the help of His people. Hyper-Calvinism is heresy and must be rejected.
Fresh off having been deemed fit to return to ministry, disgraced SBC Pastor Johnny Hunt is headlining the Great Commission Weekend conference, a three-day event where he’ll be speaking with other prominent Southern Baptists.
Six months ago, First Baptist Church of Woodstock formally suspended Pastor Emeritus Johnny Hunt, 69, after being accused of sexually assaulting another pastor’s wife a decade earlier.
You can read more about the details here, but 12 years ago, while on vacation with another pastor and his wife, Hunt is accused of making inappropriate comments about her body, such as her tan lines. He then maneuvered himself into her room, where he is alleged to have pinned her to the couch, got on top of her, forcibly removed her clothes, groped her and put his hands and mouth on her breasts and body. She describes it as a sexual assault, and he says it was consensual. The church was never told, and it was only revealed after a Guidepost Investigation.
Confirmed guests include Dr. Jerry Vines, Dr. David Allen, Pastor Ronnie Floyd, Dr. Scott Colter, Pastor Stoney Benfield, Pastor Mike Stone, Dr. Mark Ballard, Dr. Marvin Jones, and Dr. Timothy Pigg.
Hunt is disqualified from the ministry, wholly and utterly, and the fact that these men are ok with him preaching at this event is shameful.
Highlights from an appearance of Sen. Raphael Warnock at The dReam Center, a Atlanta-area church, before his 2022 runoff election vs. Republican Herschel Walker. Pastor William Murphy prays and sings over “God’s man” Warnock, and dozens of pastors from around the country take the stage to join the nearly 35-minute voter turnout rally in the middle of dReam Center’s Sunday worship service.
For reference, Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is a pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ senior ‘pastor’ of the thoroughly apostate Ebenezer Baptist Church (historically known for Martin Luther King Jr’s leadership) who denies the resurrection of Jesus. The thoroughly corrupted pastor shares:
And listen, we’re gonna pause for just a moment. And I believe with all of my heart that God is alright with this, that God would have us to mix, worship, and justice, and politics and legislation. And I’m decreeing and declaring that folk who had no intention on voting for Raphael Warnock are going to get in the voting booth, and the Spirit of God is going to (arrest them?). Can I get somebody else to decree it and declare it, that God is turning the hearts of people in the direction? I ain’t telling nobody who to vote for, I’m just telling you what I sense by the Spirit of God. Because I can’t tell you who to vote for, but I can tell you what I believe; that people get gonna get in the voting booth and their hearts are gonna be turned towards God’s man.
God providentially set this moment for us to be punctually present, in order to usher in a move of God that’s going to transform the landscape of America. This election is not about Georgia. Oh, God, this is a kingdom move, that God is about to cause a shift in this nation in this world through the election of Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock. Tell you, we’re about to praise him into the Senate.
Oh, God, don’t be don’t be timid. Shake on somebody and say we’re about to praise him into the Senate. …Would you put your hand on somebody’s shoulders and say ‘neighbor, there’s so much power in your praise that you can praise people into the Senate….Because the other side is scheming, but we are praising.
The Lord said to me, ‘it’s time to put the kingdom over the government.’ I need about seven people here. Say to your neighbor ‘the kingdom of God belongs over the government.’ The kingdom should never be subordinated. So what God is doing by sending this man of God into the US Senate, he’s putting a man there with a kingdom identity, kingdom mentality and kingdom authority to establish Kingdom territory. Come on say kingdom identity, kingdom mentality, kingdom authority and kingdom territory so that the policies of the government will look like the kingdom of God
You’ve already heard that we need a prophet in politics. We already have a prophet in the Senate, and we need to send him back. Amen.
h/t Woke Preacher TV, adapted from a YouTube Post, where we also quoted the entire description.
Six months after it was revealed that the Pastor Emeritus of FBC Woodstock and former President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Johnny Hunt, either committed sexual assault against a family friend over a decade ago (her side) or a “brief, improper encounter” that was fully “consensual” (his side) resulting in him being formally suspended from the church he founded and pastored for decades, Hunt has been deemed fit to return to ministry by as panel of pastors overseeing his restoration.
Hunt, who himself is said to have restored over 400 pastors, underwent an “intense season of transparency, reflection, and restoration” with the full blessing of his church, led by Mark Hoover of NewSpring Church, Benny Tate of Rock Springs Church, Mike Whitson of First Baptist Church, and Steven Kyle of Hiland Park Baptist Church.
Over the course of the last several months, Johnny and Janet had submitted themselves to a series of intense private counselling sessions together. Alongside that, Pastor Johnny engaged separately in an onsite intensive counselling program as well. This is all in addition to the 16 weeks of private counselling the Hunts participated in 12 years ago, when the original incident occurred.
When Johnny has conviction he puts everything he’s got into it, all of his energy, every minute, and we’ve seen the same conviction during these last several months. He has made this process his full-time job. He’s been all-in on healing his family and ensuring that he’s fulfilled the biblically required process of repentance and restoration.
And he has, and this may sound strange, but he’s been all-in on the humility required to open his entire life and heart to us, also to his counsellors, and other spiritual and personal advisors. …I believe we can recognise when someone is truly repentant or not. When they take these obligations seriously or they don’t. And I’m so grateful for the spirit and attitude with which Johhny has approached our probing questions and our challenges to them, and the ongoing requirements we’ve set out for them. And all that one more thing.
Addressing the previous counselling that was said to have taken place, which was never made public, Hoover concludes:
This was a unique circumstance in that there was a process of restoration, which also took place 12 years ago, that process included counselling, and a confession to those involved. We believe that process was real, it was substantial, and it was biblical.
Kyle concludes:
We believe the greatest days of ministry for Johnny hunt, are the days ahead. And I’m thankful that we have a God that that forgives, restores, and a God that works in powerful and mighty ways. And so and so for that, we are grateful.
Hunt himself appears at the very end of the video and shares “In the remaining years of ministry, I’m praying that the lessons God has taught me through all this, he’ll use for His glory in the lives of others, particularly as I continue to be committed to mentor and encourage pastors, and to preach God’s word, every opportunity that he gives me.”
Deliverance minister Isaiah Saldivar, who is quickly becoming one of the prominent and visible representations of the charismatic right on account of a rapidly growing social media presence, continues to teach weird and wonky things to justify his raison d’être. We’ve written about him previously after he claimed that a gospel presentation without signs and wonders is inadequate, and due to his bizarre beliefs on demons impregnating humans and in a literal incubus and succubus.
This time, he teaches that the Apostle Peter was actually demon-possessed when Jesus told him in Matthew 16:23, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
“Matthew 16, Jesus said to Peter, ‘Satan and get behind me’ because Satan had influence and had entered Peter, Peter being a believer. That’s in Matthew 16. John 13, the Bible says that ‘Satan entered Judas’, another Christian, another believer, another follower of Jesus.
Now, some of you right now in the comments, you’re gonna say, Isaiah, okay, you gave us two definitions you gave us Peter, you gave us Judas. But what about after they received the Holy Spirit? What about in the book of Acts, there’s no believers in the book of Acts that had a demon.’ Wrong. Let’s go to Acts 4:6…Ananias and Sapphira.”
His interpretation of this is very novel, and this isn’t something that’s been taught in church history, particularly because a few verses back, Peter just confessed to Jesus after being asked who he and the people think he is; ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ and Jesus, in turn, calls him blessed and gives him the keys to the kingdom of heaven and tells him about the rock that he will build h
Deliverance Minister Isaiah Saldivar says the Apostle Peter was Demon Possessed pic.twitter.com/mhnfHbSGXh
Kyle J. Howard is more vexed than usual. Over the last few days he’s been putting together a list of words that if directed his way or the way of any black person or white ally, are little more than thinly veiled racial pejoratives designed to replace the n-bomb. Some of expressions he considers to be on par and equivalent to n***** include:
SJW Marxist Woke Divisive Any correction to his thinking/ suggestion that he is in error.
For example:
It’s shocking how much he reads into an appeal to be less divisive, and the motives he assigns and impugns.
The offending statement in question that leads Howard to believe if you say anything about his mind your basically calling him a monkey with your hints of his biological inferiority.
The next:
Despite his insistence, we would never call someone the n-bomb, nor do we view any person of any color as inferior to anyone else. All humans are made in the image of God, and we love all our brothers and sisters irrespective of their shade of melanin.
Despite his evil intent, Howard does not get to co-opt the language to mollify and stave off an examination of his actions. Howard does not get to engage in newspeak, where he cancels all criticism by labeling all criticism as racist, regardless of intent. Howard doesn’t get to declare those words synonyms for n*****, all the while thanking up other words that he wants to bring into the fold.
Because Howard deserves to be criticized, check out just some of what he’s said and done over the last two years while being platformed and praised by Julie Roys (whose associations should make you question her integrity.)
A path must exist for Howard to be corrected without him throwing a white sheet over his correctors head and a swastika flag in their hand the minute he’s told his unbiblical view of race is troubling and theologically bankrupt. This is especially true when some of the language is biblical language that he’s bucking against. These are the actions and expressions of a woke, divisive, racist man. Those invectives against him have a meaning, and they’ll never mean the racially changed insults he desperately desires they be, despite his best efforts.
(Life News) Heidi Crowter, the noted Down’s syndrome campaigner, has lost her legal challenge today after the Court of Appeal ruled that babies with Down’s syndrome can be aborted up until birth. SPUC has slammed the ruling as “callous”.
Heidi Crowter, 27, is seeking a change to the UK abortion law that currently allows babies with Down’s syndrome to be aborted up until birth. In the UK, abortion can be carried out until 24 weeks and then until birth if the unborn baby is suspected of having a fetal anomaly (disability).
But Heidi has challenged the law on the grounds that it is a clear “instance of inequality” regarding people with conditions like her own and is accordingly incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Jonathan Cain, the keyboardist and songwriter for the legendary band Journey, stopped by Jim Bakker’s studio back in 2017 to perform a ‘Christian’ rendition of their hit song ‘Don’t Stop Believin.’
Though best known for his role in the band Journey, Cain, 72, who married Televangelist heretic Paula White in 2015, has enjoyed a solo career as a Contemporary Christian artist for quite some time. During his intro, Cain offers a seemingly retconned version of how the song came to me, adding in a sprinkle of heresy right at the end.
My father, when I was starving in Hollywood, I asked him if I should come home because frankly rock and roll was kicking my butt. My father said ‘son I’ve always had a vision for your career, don’t you come to Chicago you stay there. The Lord’s got plans for you. Don’t stop believing.’
I said ‘okay dad I won’t stop’ and it’s a good thing I had the best old man in the world who never stopped believing in me, and I got the greatest God in the world who never stopped believing in me. Amen’
It’s worth noting how unenthused Jim Bakker looks, particularly at the 2:07 mark.
In a recent live, since-removed video, Christian YouTube creator Ruslan KD, who we’ve clashed with in the past on account of him giving passes to Modalists like Marcus Rogers, doubling down on dissing us over a John MacArthur/Julie Roys article and generally acting as an arrogant gatekeeping elitist (see postscript), took to task a commenter who pointed out that Lecrae had the propensity to watch some filthy TV shows, and as a result should not be revered as a sound teacher in the faith.
Ruslan quickly jumped to Lecrae’s defense and revealed that he himself watched the shows Snowfall and Ozark, that they were the best shows ever, and that taking a perspective of ‘all or nothing’ when it comes to shows with nudity is immature and childish.
Bro I watched Ozark and I watched Snowfall.So that sounds like you have an issue with media in general, it sounds like you have an issue with media in general. Right? So, like, again, all or nothing mentality. If you can’t enjoy a specific artist, well then don’t watch it. But if Lecrae says, ‘Hey, I’m into Ozark’- I’ve been transparent about being into Ozark. I think Snowfall is arguably one of the best shows on television.
The commenter points out that the show is filled with sex and nudity, and for that reason, it’s not appropriate for Christians to watch, but Ruslan burns down a strawman, retorting:
I never said there’s no sex and nudity; I’m saying you’re conflating with you disagreeing with on- if Lecrae has the permission or if I have the freedom to watch Ozark or Snowfall, which you know, by the way, you know what happens in Snowfall when I see those sorts of scenes, which I don’t remember the scene you’re talking about, but you know what happens when I see those types of scenes, you know what I do? I just fast-forward them. I know, right? You can just fast-forward those scenes if you don’t like those scenes, right? So again, this is the low level of thinking here. You don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. You disagree with Lecrae on if he should watch Ozark or Snowfall, so therefore you discard everything he’s ever done in his entire ministry.
By way of reference, not only is there tons of cursing in Ozark, between 20-50 F-bombs an episode and a fair amount of violence, the show is rife with sex scenes, including many graphic homosexual ones, resulting in it being rated 18+ in many countries. This is a show where less than three minutes into the very first episode, a semi-nude man receives oral sex and then starts thrusting into a woman, and the rest of the sexual content is consistent and persistent.
As per IMBD, some of the more egregious content includes: (warning, graphic descriptions ahead)
…Brief nudity shown by an older woman during a short sex scene with a much younger man. As well as another casual sex scene with an unclothed couple (no nudity, covered by sheets).
An email with an amateur porn video is sent and opened in one scene. The webcam video details sexual actions of a man and a woman from the back with only the buttocks shown. It is shown twice. The video is discussed between two men later on. It is played in multiple episodes. A man masturbates in his car and fantasizes about a prostitute giving him oral sex.
A pregnant woman is seen pole dancing at a nightclub. Her breasts are clearly visible.
An old man is walking down to the water naked, only his backside is shown with a towel covering the front. A nude poster is seen on the wall next to a door. A topless girl is seen in a bar. A homosexual oral sex scene takes place in a motel room, a man giving another man a blowjob and you hear him gargle and choke when the man ejaculates in the other guy’s mouth. No visible nudity.
A stripper has sex with a man in a private room until a woman interrupts them, she can briefly be seen nude.
A stripper is hired to seduce a man into having sex with her. She walks in and the stripper is wearing a strap on and the man is sucking on it. The man also appears to be wearing a bra and panties. A woman takes a video of this. She then shows it to the man’s wife.
An elderly couple has sex in a darkly lit room. We see them thrusting and then we hear them orgasm and moan. We also see the woman’s breasts, but the man’s nudity is not seen by viewers.
A man is seen masturbating while he’s listening to a dead man’s voice. A man and woman have sex in the bathroom of a bar, there is thrusting, moaning, and male rear nudity and female rear nudity but they are clothed.
For the record, it’s not just Ruslan who likes this, but Kyle J. Howard and Jackie Hill Perry have both watched the series and have shared their appreciation for it.
The other series is ‘Snowfall’, which also contains a ton of graphic sex and nudity and which Ruslan has watched through. This series has received cautions from both Common Sense Media and its IMBD page, who explain:
In fact, in the very first episode, within the first five minutes, a naked woman blows cocaine up a naked man’s backside, and then gives the man oral sex, before being joined by another woman for a threesome. In the first five minutes,* and Ruslan didn’t turn it off?
That’s the point. He kept on watching after that, knowing that this was setting the pace for the rest of the show. He has the world of entertainment at his fingertips, millions of books, films and art over the millennia, and this is what his heart gravitated towards? If that’s the first five minutes of the first episode, we can’t even imagine what sort of filth is in the four other seasons.
It’s almost as bad as the time Senior Editor of The Gospel Coalition, Brett McCracken, shared that his Favorite TV Show Contains a Graphic Homosexual Sex Scene. It’s shameful stuff, but Ruslan sees nothing wrong with it, and continues doubling down, even as someone asked if Christians could watch Game of Thrones with the same attitude- just fast-forward through all the gratuitous nudity even though it won’t stop you from catching a naked breast here or some naked thrusting there, given how flawed the strategy is.
Ozark is brilliant. I watched all the seasons. And when there was something sus(pect) in Ozark I fast- forwarded them, right? So, no, I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, but you’re missing the point. Like, you’re really missing the point. (Unintelligible) I’m just really trying to hear him out, I think I’m done.
I mean, you got pastors in here saying Ozark is so good-storytelling and cinematography, but I’m sure he probably thinks you’re a bad Christian or you’re not really saved or something. So we’re gonna get him out of here. He dead. He dead.
Editor’s Note* Also, we have not personally watched that scene from Snowfall, or any scenes from Snowfall, but two independent sources have verified that it’s there. We do not watch any terrible films or shows we criticize, but curate the content from various sources.
Bonus
Here's a fun video of Ruslan mocking John MacArthur and questioning his intelligence. pic.twitter.com/RP72uh3WtG
