Categories
News

Married to Jesus? TGC’s Resident Gay Anglican Priest Wears Wedding Ring Despite Being Single, for THIS Reason

Gay Anglican priest Sam Allberry, known for partnering up with the Gospel Coalition and the ERLC to be one of the architects for the acceptance of Same-Sex Attraction (SSA) “Christianity, has revealed that he wears a wedding ring on his ring finger, despite being single, as a reminder that God is “pursuing him.” For this reason, he believes he is just as “swept up” in the “whole marital romance” thing as a married couple might be resulting in him being “taken by Jesus.”

Speaking on Episode 5 of the Connecting Podcast with Paul Tripp, he explains:

As a single person with an increased capacity for friendship that comes with that, there’s a breadth of intimacy I get to experience that you don’t. So there’s, again, there’s some unique pluses to being in my situation. And I keep coming back to ‘I know the bridegroom’. I’m not actually missing out. I’m not getting that the temporal signpost of the love of God that marriage is designed to be. I’m not getting the appetizer, but I’m getting the entrée, and the entrée is so good I can skip the appetizer.

So if I have the bridegroom, then I’m not missing out on the whole marital romance- all of that stuff-actually, I’m just as swept up in it. That is profoundly meaningful to me. I’m wearing a ring on my ring finger, which is a cultural signal for ‘hey, I’m married.’

There’s other stories to why I’m wearing this to do with medical research, it’s a smart ring. But I felt, I felt actually, I’m gonna wear on this ring because I’m taken. I belong to someone. And it’s a nice tangible reminder to me that the bridegroom pursues me.”

This type of thinking is strange behavior, particularly because he’s not ‘taken’ in the way he thinks. He could easily marry a woman if he so chose, rather than suggest he’s married to Jesus, then deal with the scriptural pretzeling that would result in trying to justify his divorce/ annulment from his marriage to the Almighty to pursue a real one.

Honestly, this is the sort of thing a newly converted 14-year-old girl who just returned from a bible camp run by women youth pastors would come up with. Still, the line of thinking is consistent with the sexual ethos of the SSAC movement that Allberry has spearheaded and continues to promote.


Bonus: SSAC is the movement within the larger evangelical movement that narrowly defines the sin of homosexuality to include only acting upon one’s sinful desires, and defines the sinful desires themselves as simply a part of a person’s identity and something God is content with not changing in the heart of the believer.

The false beliefs of the SSAC movement include:

  • Same-sex attraction is never a result of early childhood abuse and is always unchosen.
  • Same-sex attraction only becomes sin if it is acted upon.
  • Homosexual acts are no different than other sins.
  • Christian regeneration has no influence over same-sex desire.
  • The church is guilty of oppressing this group instead of helping them bear their cross of unchangeable same-sex attraction.

h/t to Doctrinal Watchdog for the story.

Categories
News

Brother Andrew, ‘God’s Smuggler’ who Snuck Bibles Into Communist Countries, Has Passed Away

Brother Andrew, the Dutch missionary known for his harrowing (and frequently miraculous) tales of illegally smuggling bibles into closed communist countries with his VW Beetle, has passed away at 94, according to his ministry page.

Brother Andrew, whose real name was Anne van der Bijl, became known as “God’s Smuggler” after a book of the same name published in 1967 recounted his adventures bringing bibles into countries like East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia, a move that the Southern Baptist Mission Board at the time criticized.

This book would sell 10 million copies and be translated into nearly 40 languages, with Bijl estimating that he and his organization have distributed millions of bibles over the decades in some of the most challenging places to do so. 

According to one famous incident, recounted on his ministry web page:

One of the most loved Brother Andrew stories recounts a risky incident from early in his ministry. On this occasion, Brother Andrew approached the Romanian border in his car—which was packed with illegal Bibles.

He could only hope the border guards were moving swiftly and not paying much attention, which might allow him to pass through undetected.

But just as he was hoping this, Brother Andrew saw the guards stop the car at the front of the line. He watched, in anticipation, as the vehicle’s owners were forced to take out all of the car’s contents and spread them on the ground for inspection.

Each car that followed received the same treatment, with the fourth car’s inspection lasting the longest. The guard took a full hour to sift through it, including removing hubcaps, taking the engine apart, and even removing the seats.

“Dear Lord,” Brother Andrew remembers praying, “What am I going to do?”

As he prayed, a bold idea came to Brother Andrew. “I know that no amount of cleverness on my part can get me through this border search.  Dare I ask for a miracle? Let me take some of the Bibles out and leave them in the open where they will be seen.”

Putting the Bibles out in the open would truly be depending on God, rather than his own intelligence, he thought. So when the guards ushered Andrew forward, he did just this. “I handed him my papers and started to get out. But his knee was against the door, holding it closed.”

And then, the almost unbelievable happened.

The guard looked at Brother Andrew’s passport and abruptly waved him on. “Surely thirty seconds had not passed,” he remembers.

Brother Andrew started the engine and began pulling away, all the while wondering if he was supposed to pull over so the car could be taken apart and examined. “I coasted forward, my foot poised above the brake. Nothing happened. I looked out the rear mirror. The guard was waving the next car to a stop, indicating to the driver that he had to get out.”

God had cleared the way for Brother Andrew to smuggle the Bible to Christians who had no access to God’s Word.

Brother Andrew would later found Open Doors, a ministry dedicated to helping persecuted Christians by “Strengthening Christians wherever they’re in danger for their faith in Jesus. Operating in 60 countries “From Sudan to Syria and North Korea to Nigeria” they help rebuild destroyed churches, offer emergency relief, discipleship training, trauma counselling of bible distribution.

Welcome home, good and faithful servant

Categories
News

Worship Band Maverick City Music Cuts Ties with Bandmate- (No, Not the Pro-Choice One)- Over Bad Behavior

Worship band Maverick City Music has announced that they’ve cut ties with one of their members for “behavior that is inconsistent with our core values and beliefs,” and it’s not the one who recently came out as pro-choice. 

MCM is a Christian music worship collective based in Atlanta that has seen much success in just a few years. Known for such songs as ‘Jireh’, ‘Promises’, and ‘Wait on you,’ their album Maverick City Vol. 3/ Part 1 recently won a Billboard Music Award for the Top Gospel album, and they recently won a both a GMA Dove Award and a Grammy for their song Old Church Basement.

In a statement on Instagram, they write that popular singer Dante Bowe has been axed for this “inconsistent behavior,” and as a result, they have “decided to put a pause on our professional relationship with Dante Bowe” and that “decisions like these are not easy because of the level of nuance, both professionally and personally, but we felt it necessary to address.”

In response to his ousting, Bowe himself announcing he’s going to “take time off social media to rest mentally and physically.”

Though no specific cause was given, it’s believed that part of the reason stems from a video of him that was released partying and singing the Bad Bunny song “Despues De La Playa,” a Spanish song which has these filthy lyrics and caused the band no end of controversy.

Tell me where do we go after the beach

If we get dry, I’ll bring the towel

And later we get wet but in my bed

I’m going to give it to you hard

Now when we gonna talk about the member who thinks killing babies is a woman’s right?

Categories
News

Texas Church Hosts “All Ages” Drag Bingo, Major Protest Ensues

(The Dissenter) A major protest has ensued during a drag queen event hosted by First Christian Church in Katy, TX. The “all ages” drag queen bingo event drew nearly 300 protestors as they lined the streets surrounding the so-called church.

This church describes itself as a church that welcomes “all people as sacred & valued children of God regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, gender identity & expression, age, family configuration, physical & mental ability and cultural or economic privilege or lack thereof.” Interestingly, we didn’t see any of the 300 conservative Christians who actually believe the Word of God welcomed in to join—shows just how…to continue reading and see the video, click here.

Editor’s Note. This article was published at The Dissenter.

Categories
News

SWBTS Trustees Change Their Mind on Interim President as New Candidate is Selected

Days after naming O.S. Hawkins interim president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the seminary’s trustees have changed their mind and appointed a new leader, David Dockery, to take the helm while they search for and select a new permanent president following the ousting of Adam Greenway. Hawkins, who will instead serve as senior advisor, explains the reason for the new direction:

“It is no secret that the seminary has serious financial challenges and going forward we will be giving oversight to aggressively manage costs and implementing best business practices with the intent to move our school to a more solid financial footing. I will be visible on campus and will seek to provide visionary and Christ-hearted, servant leadership to all the seminary family. “

It is hoped that by functioning as a leadership team, rather than a one-person show, they will be able to stabilize the seminary and undo some of the reputational and fiscal damage Greenway caused, which is not insignificant according to Travis Dickinson:



While Greenway may be gone, he’s not going without cashing in on a tidy little sum. According to the Capstone report, despite failing miserably at his job to the point of getting canned, Greenway is set to receive a six-figure severance plus six months of benefits.


Categories
News

Queer ‘Christian’ Artist Holds Protest Show After Not Being Invited to the Dove Awards

Queer “Christian’ artist Semler has been pleading to be considered for this year’s “Best New Artist” at the 53rd annual Dove Awards, which are given for outstanding achievements in the Christian music industry. She hoped the committee would consider her despite her flagrant promotion of LGBTQ theology and beliefs in her public and private life and ignore the fact that she is an out-and-out pagan.

Baldridge gained publicity after her profanity-laced album briefly took the top spot on iTunes Christian and Gospel charts. Last year she toured with Relient K, the queer-affirming former Christian band, gaining prominence and visibility. She also recently wrote the “world’s gayest worship song” after channeling the hurt of someone who “broke my heart for Jesus.”

Unfortunately for her, she didn’t even make it past the first round of voting, which is decided by Gospel Music Association (GMA) members (professionals who work full-time and earn their income primarily from the Christian and Gospel Music Industry.)

After begging to be invited as someone’s plus one and seemingly having no takers, she chastised the show for being “goofy” and “on the wrong side of history,” announcing that she is holding a ‘protest show’ in the same city on the same weekend.

Here’s hoping to decades of never being invited.

Categories
News

Chris Tomlin Plays Worship Fundraiser for Heretical TBN Network at Joyce Meyer Conference

“I’m going to tell you something folks, I didn’t stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head I wasn’t a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that’s heresy and they want to hang you for it. But the Bible says that I’m righteous and I can’t be righteous and be a sinner at the same time … All I was ever taught to say was, ‘I’m a poor, miserable sinner.’ I am not poor, I am not miserable and I am not a sinner. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is what I was and if I still am then Jesus died in vain. Amen?” Joyce Meyer “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?


Worship Superstar Chris Tomlin put on a concert during the 40th anniversary of the Love Life Women’s Conference, put on by Joyce Meyer, and serving as a fundraiser for Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN.)

Founded by false teacher Paul Crouch, TBN is the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and is known for platforming the worse of the worst, including TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, Steve Furtick (who took over from Kenneth Copeland two years ago), Joseph Prince, John Hagee, Andrew Womack, and Jonathan Cahn.

Having recently gotten into hot water over the  ‘VIP Ticket Packages’ Amid Backlash and currently touring with Hillsong, Tomlin performed all his big hits with TBN raising funds online.

The conference also featured Joel Osteen and Christine Caine, the latter spending the better part of her week “liking” and “loving” posts by Trinity-denier T.D Jakes.

The 79-year-old Meyers is long thought to be one of the ‘Big three’ heretics, along with Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Popular with women and effeminate men, the famed multi-millionaire televangelist whose ministry brings in over $100 million yearly and is known for her word-faith teachings, among the beliefs that put her outside the bounds of orthodoxy.

According to CARM, who has cataloged her wayward ways, she has a bizarre view of the atonement where Jesus paid for our sins in hell, believes that Jesus stopped being the Son of God for a time, that Jesus had to be born-again, that Jesus went to hell in our place and was tormented, that If you don’t believe Jesus went to hell, you cannot be saved, and that the scripture teaches that we are little gods. This is all while claiming that she routinely receives revelation from God and the angels.

Given the lack of discernment that Tomlin continues to show, it’s no wonder this sort of event is right up his alley.

Categories
News

Hillsong Releases Major Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Update

Hillsong has released a significant update to their megacorp organization, announcing the hiring and creation of a Global Race Diversity and Inclusion Committee team and strategy to ensure that the church is operating in an equitable manner and making sure there are sufficient minorities and women on staff and in positions of power, announcing in a press release:

“We realized we had to go after not only racial reconciliation and healing but also racial diversity and inclusion. And this we did.”

The church formed a “Global Race Diversity and Inclusion Committee” that is compromised of “global RDI experts” and other church leaders.” It is spearheaded by longtime pastor Darren Kitto and Hillsong member Harry Phinda. Over the last few months they’ve been busy doing the following:

Hired a full-time Race Diversity and Inclusion Manager.

Developed a Global Racial Diversity and Equity Strategy to build racial diversity, equity, and inclusion into our church’s strategic planning, policy, and governance process.

Published a theological paper on Racial Diversity to ensure that Hillsong staff are leading from a Biblical standpoint.

Provided racial diversity equity and inclusion training for the global lead pastoral team and global board.

Started the creation of a high-quality Race Matters 9-hour mandatory video training for Hillsong staff and volunteers, composed of numerous global experts and lead staff, with the intent of increasing awareness and equipping our global leaders.

Other members of the team include Fadzi Whande, the Senior Diversity and Inclusion Adviser at the United Nations Human Rights Office in Geneva, Switzerland, who retweeted this lovely tweet, and Femi Olu-Lafe, an “award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist” who is the Senior Vice President of Global Culture & Inclusion for Kinesso.

In an attached Q&A about whether or not the church supports Critical Race Theory, they note that “We understand CRT to be a social theory” and that “we believe that where social theories align with Biblical truth, they can be useful tools for us as we learn how to love our neighbors better.”


Categories
News

Kenneth Copeland Says He Gave Away a Plane as a ‘Seed Offering’ and Got a Better Plane in Return

When he’s not claiming that COVID has been destroyed ,  throwing someone in a wheelchair to the floor, casts away bald spots in Jesus name, or even running his own Bible college, arch-heretic Kenneth Copeland, 84, the world’s richest prosperity preacher in America, can be frequently found on his show making up stuff about Jesus and justifying his personal theological idiosyncrasies, particularly when it comes to attaining that filthy mammon.

Speaking on Believers Voice of Victory, he teaches the existence of a “heavenly grant,” using John 16:23-24, to say that “my Father will grant you whatever you ask in my name.” He offers that because he sowed a seed of an airplane, he reaped an even better airplane, encouraging his listeners to do likewise and tithe to him in order to be granted wealth and riches.

“2019, 2020 broke all the financial records. 2021 broke all the financial records. And 2022 has taken off. We’re ahead of 2021, but we have heavenly grant and every member of the board signed it and we had our lawyer draw it, grow it up in legal language and everybody signed it and we pray it together.”

He explains:

I said, “Jerry (Savelle), the Lord just said to me in my spirit to give (Apostle) Joe Nay that 310.” Jerry said he thought, “Well how are we going to get home?” That’s not my problem right there then. So I called him. I said “Joey, you sitting down?” I said, “The Lord just told me to give you my Cessna 310 twin engine airplane.” Well, we came home, and I said, “Jerry, here’s what I’m gonna do…this is my seed. And I got quite a bit of time on those engines, so I’m going to put it in the shop here and get those engines overhauled.”

Jerry said, he thought “he gonna give it to the guy, let him overhaul the engine.” No, no. It must be a proper seed. And it was getting close to time for engine overhaul, so the ministry had both engines overhauled and we presented it ready to go.

Now what are we gonna do? Well, there was a woman that walked in, and there’s something had happened with some stock. And she just walked into our office and just brought a check in there for $250,000 .Okay?

And another friend of mine call me and he said “Kenneth-” Now he had a twin Cessna, but his was pressurized, glory to God. He called he said “Kenneth, the last time I was down there, it just seemed to me like I was flying your airplane brother.” But he said, “I owe a little money on it. But I’d like to just go ahead and give it to you.” I said, “Well, let it just be fine. Just help yourself.”

There was enough money in that other check to pay off the debt on that twin Cessna and it was pressurized. The heavenly grant worked. The heavenly grant was working all the time because Jerry Savelle and I set ourselves in agreement…. It had to do with the prayer of faith. It had to do with the heavenly grants.

Categories
News

FBI Raids Home of Pro-Life Christian With Guns Drawn as Family Watches in Horror

(CNB) The FBI used a major show of force to arrest pro-life Christian Mark Houck, 48, with dozens of agents reportedly descending on his home with guns drawn as Houck’s wife and children looked on in horror.

Early Friday morning the FBI arrived at the Houck’s residence in Bucks County, PA and began pounding on the door. Despite putting his hands up and willingly cooperating, multiple agents pointed guns in Mark’s face as his family – including his seven children – were forced to watch their dad “shackled” and taken away, according to family representative Brian Middleton, who spoke with CBN’s Faithwire.

Houck’s wife Ryan-Marie described the shocking scene to LifeSiteNews, saying her husband was pleading with agents. “‘Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house.’ But they just kept pounding and screaming.” She added that they “had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house.”

Houck was released Friday afternoon.

“This show of force carried out by the Biden regime against ordinary Americans is an abuse of power that stands against the fundamental principles on which our country was founded,” Pennsylvania State Senator and Republican nominee for Governor Doug Mastriano said in a statement.

This massive display by the FBI – Houck claims 25-30 heavily armed agents were used to haul him in – raises serious questions as to why so much force was deemed necessary. The FBI raid stems from a minor altercation back in October 2021 with a volunteer at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Police were called, but declined to pursue the case because of lack of evidence.

The volunteer…to continue reading click here


Editor’s Note. This article was written by Dan Andros and published at CBN