Tag: Paul Brown

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Nothing New Under The Sun: The Eclipse, Rapture, and Red-Faced False Prophets

For Christians in the United States, 2024 is a boon year for amateur prophetic speculations. For the false prophet, geopolitical events, wars, the coming presidential elections, and the April 8 solar eclipse create the perfect environment to make predictions about the imminent judgment of God or the return of Christ. 

Never mind the fact that a number of these so-called prophets have a checkered history when it comes to accurately predicting future events. Self-proclaimed prophet Shawn Bolz has made numerous failed prophetic predictions in the past, including a prophecy that President Trump would win a second term in 2020. Instead of stepping down from public ministry, Bolz decided that he would take a break for a season from public political prophesies, stating, “I am growing in this prophetic journey…” Bolz recently made the vague claim that the eclipse might be a sign from God of a coming national Spiritual awakening or individual breakthrough.

“From a Prophetic Standpoint the eclipse represents a moment of real divine alignment and intervention. You know just as the moon temporarily obscures the light of the sun during the eclipse, there’s some areas of our lives where darkness might seem to be prevailing, or areas of our businesses or country or social issues or whatever that the enemy looks like he is prevailing, or that man’s sinful nature looks like it’s hindering the ability to see clearly or experience the fullness of God’s blessing, but like the moment when the sun emerges again, breaking through the darkness, the eclipse could signify the season of breakthrough and illumination in our lives…”

Bolz now prefers to make vague, rambling predictions rather than specific ones, but this hasn’t stopped him from grifting off of the eclipse event. 

A number of prophecy-oriented social media personalities and channels actively promoted the April 8 eclipse as a sign of either judgment, the imminent rapture, or both because the path of the event was purported to pass over seven cities named Nineveh, a town named Rapture, and the Answers in Genesis Ark Encounter. 

When these claims were critiqued, it was found that only two actual towns named Nineveh were in the path of the eclipse. Nothing about these “prophetic signs” point to actual contextualized scripture that predicts events with any level of specificity. Rather, their focus is vain speculation and grasping at the straws of current events in a foolish game of pin the tail on the judgment of God and the rapture.

From the viewpoint of a new follower of Christ, the enticement of shady false prophets may seem alluring. These types of failed prophecies have been made for the last two thousand years, but the frequency has increased in the last 200 years, as some dispensationalists have attempted to pin, with detail, a modern futurist interpretation of apocalyptic literature on texts such as the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation. 

In the twentieth century, the anti-Christ has been prophetically identified as nearly every dictator and world leader who has come on the scene, with various “prophets” throughout the 20th century claiming that the antichrist is Hitler, Stalin, Obama, and even Danny DeVito. Recent attempts to pin the rapture on a specific date or identify the antichrist are not new developments.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 

Numerous false prophets have also attempted to predict the date of a premillennial dispensationalist Left-Behind movie-style rapture. In 1988, prophet Edgar Whisenant published his book 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be In 1988. The best-selling book sold more than 4.5 million copies. When Whisenant’s prediction failed to materialize in 1988, he published Rapture Report 1989, which included a revised prediction that Jesus would return in 1989. Whisenant tripled and quadrupled down with predictions of the rapture in 1993 and 1994, writing 23 reasons why a pre-tribulation rapture looks like it will occur on Rosh-Hashanah 1993 and the book And now the earth’s destruction by fire, nuclear bomb fire.

In the same year that Edgar Whisenant made his last failed prediction, Christian Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the rapture and day of judgment would take place on September 6, 1994. When the rapture failed to take place, Camping revised his original prediction to September 29, 1994, and then October 2, 1994. Undeterred by previous failures, Camping falsely predicted that the rapture and a five-month-long fulfillment of the judgments of Revelation would take place in 2011. 

False prophecies of the return of Christ have wreaked destruction on gullible Christians and associated ministries. Many people who bought into Whisenant and Camping’s failed predictions quit their jobs, sold all of their possessions, and donated large sums of money to the false prophet’s media campaigns. 

Eschatology does matter. It puts life in perspective of our imminent call to give an account to the God who gave us life. However, this fact is not dependent on the imminent return of Christ. At any given time, a believer can die and find themselves in the presence of the Lord. Christ has promised that he will return, but he has made it crystal clear that no one knows the day or hour of his return except for God the Father.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:36-44

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Right Now Media Brings Left-Wing Partisan Political Indoctrination to Church Small Groups

With less than nine months until the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, political operatives of all stripes are hard at work using all means of persuasion to push the electorate to vote for their candidate. In early 2023, Protestia reported on the launch of The After Party, a left-wing political indoctrination campaign produced under the guise of a church small group curriculum. The After Party is the initiative of Redeeming Babel and its leftist founder Curtis Chang, who produced the material in partnership with Christianity Today’s editor-in-chief Russell Moore and New York Times Columnist David French. 

The curriculum is designed to make conservative Christians doubt their political convictions and cast aspersions on anyone who would say that the truth on issues like abortion can be readily ascertained through scripture. 

Chang, French, and Moore would rather have Christians believe that all political issues are so complex and convoluted, that a faithful Christian must seek to find common ground with political opponents and leave the complex and controversial issues of politics to “experts”, like French, Moore, Chang, and their secular-leftist counterparts. 

Attempts to gain political power and enact laws that reflect Biblical values by Christian conservatives like U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson are rhetorically slapped down with the labels of “Political Idolatry” and “Christian Nationalism.” Chang, French, and Moore preach a brand of religious pluralism that seems to trust secularists and leftists over Christian leadership in what would best be described as an ill-conceived left-wing pluralist pietistic caricature of Biblical Christianity. 

The After Party was recently placed under renewed scrutiny, as investigative reporting by Megan Basham uncovered that production of the curriculum was funded by secular leftist organizations, including Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ New Pluralists Project, One America Movement, and the Hewlett Foundation. These organizations that funded The After Party simultaneously funded numerous leftist causes, including LGBTQ awareness, efforts to expand access to abortion, and “gender-affirming care” for youth. 

The After Party released a statement attacking Basham’s report as containing “inaccuracies and misleading insinuations”. The organization was especially concerned that Basham described the curriculum as “a Bible study” when they viewed their material as a “six-part digital course designed for individuals and small groups to experience, within or outside of a local church.” 

While Basham’s reporting focused on the secular progressive organizations that bankrolled the propaganda in The After Party, many conservative Christians, pastors, and elders are unaware that their churches are currently paying for subscription services that pipe leftist political propaganda like The After Party into the homes of their entire congregation. Right Now Media advertises itself as “the world’s largest video-streaming library of Biblical Resources.” The Christian media giant has partnered with more than 25,000 churches to provide what they describe as a “library of over 20,000 Biblically-based videos.” 

Right Now Media Subscribing Churches pay monthly subscription fees ranging from $154.99 for a church of 101 average attendees, to $1,509.99 for a church of 5,000 attendees. A large portion of Right Now Media content is targeted at church small groups, which also happens to be the explicitly self-stated target audience of The After Party:

“The After Party does the heavy lifting to support local leaders. By presenting national trusted evangelical voices, local leaders do not have to take all the fire by themselves. They only need to sponsor this curriculum into their small group communities, and let us make the case….. The curriculum does the complex – but absolutely necessary – theological work of reframing Christian political identity from today’s divisive partisan options….In today’s political environment, faithfulness to this Biblical ‘how’ of political engagement will shine as a radical alternative to both the Right and the Left.”

While The After Party criticized Megan Basham for characterizing its curriculum as a “Bible study”, Right Now media markets the curriculum as part of its package of “Biblically-based videos” for church small groups, and describes the course as “advancing a Christ-centered political identity”. How can one accurately describe what it means to be Christ-centered without delving into the scriptures?

Right Now Media’s 2023 For the Health of the Nation curriculum partnered He Gets Us Campaign apologist Ed Stetzer with National Association of Evangelical’s President Walter Kim to produce another piece of leftist political propaganda. ‘For the Health of the Nation’ functions as an ideological companion piece to The After Party. Stetzer and Kim label anything deemed politically divisive as “political idolatry”, lean heavily on the same ideology of political surrender found in The After Party, and equivocate on social issues by labeling them “complex”.

For Black History Month 2024, Right Now Media partnered with The And Campaign, a leftist political organization led by democratic political strategist and slavery reparations advocate Justin Giboney to present How I Got Over, a documentary on the origins of the Black Church. How I Got Over purports to “debunk the misconception that orthodoxy is a white western construct.” Promotional material for the series features Marxist theologian and leftist politician Cornel West and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who denied various foundational truths of the Christian faith, including the virgin birth, resurrection, the trinity, and substitutionary atonement.

The Right Now Media landing page for the series includes direct links to the And Campaign website, where Christians are urged to “become advocates against political violence”, by politically advocating for The And Campaign platform of social welfare programs, the end of voter ID laws, the implementation of civil rights laws that protect LGBTQ identifying people as a protected class, and a commitment to religious and ideological pluralism. The organization’s platform is aligned with much of the Democratic party platform. 

Right Now Media’s content on politics in a presidential election year has a demonstrable left-wing bias, and political operatives like Curtis Chang, David French, Russell Moore, Ed Stetzer, Walter Kim, and Justin Giboney are actively exploiting the content pipeline, in an effort to convince conservative Christians that they must compromise their political convictions and give power over to secular progressives for the sake of “principled pluralism.” Many conservative churches unknowingly support this effort by paying subscription fees that support this content. The most concerning aspect of Right Now Media’s political influence is the fact that many congregants will receive the messages from these propaganda campaigns as a form of “Biblical truth”, since they are tagged as “Biblically-based videos” with a tacit stamp of approval from the church that provides access to the subscription.

Sources:

Follow the Money to the After Party | Megan Basham | First Things

RightNow Media

Home – Redeeming Babel

The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics – Redeeming Babel

Frequently Asked Questions – Redeeming Babel

An Open Letter to the Editor of First Things: Correcting the Record – Redeeming Babel

How I Got Over: The Resilience of the Black Church | RightNow Media

The Means and Methods of Christian Political Engagement | RightNow Media

The After Party: Towards Better Christian Politics :: RightNow Media

Russell Moore’s New Curriculum Exists to Give Pastors ‘Plausible Deniability’ For Avoiding Politics in Pulpit+ Sneak in Beliefs Without Taking the Blame – Protestia

David French and Russell Moore Launch Curriculum to Teach Christians How to Engage in Politics – Protestia

AND Campaign Leader Says White Churches Who Don’t Want to Pay Racial Reparations are Arguing With God – Protestia

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Meet the Coalition of Leftist Theological Misfits Trying to Kill ‘Christian Nationalism’

As arguments over the much-maligned and inadequately defined concept of “Christian Nationalism” rage in the bowels of social media, a wonky inclusive coalition of leftist theological misfits from several organizations has taken upon themselves the task of defeating Christian nationalism and foisting religious pluralism upon all those Christians in America who believe that their convictions should influence life beyond their church or personal prayer closet. This coalition includes the Baptist Joint Committee, Faith Voices, Know Your Neighbor, National Coalition For Public Education, Christians Against Christian Nationalism, and Shoulder to Shoulder.

Notable endorsers of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism statement include Sister Simone Campbell of the network lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Red Letter Christian Founders Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo, and Sojourner’s founder Jim Wallis. Members of Christians Against Christian Nationalism and its affiliated sister organizations are unapologetically dedicated to promoting religious pluralism. They believe that attempts by Christians to exercise power in the public square are fundamentally unchristian. For example, the Baptist Joint Committee filed a legal brief against Jack Phillips, the Masterpiece Cake Shop Owner who refused to make a Gay Wedding Cake.

The National Coalition for Public Education, a coalition member, uses its political influence and clout to push an agenda of opposing private school vouchers and promoting increased funding for the woke public school indoctrination system. Supporting members of the NCPE include secular leftist organizations, such as Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, and the National PTA. The accusation against private Christian schools is that they are discriminatory and support the teaching of religion. Never mind that these secular leftist organizations promote an overt LGBTQ-promoting agenda that sexualizes children at a young age through graphic sex ed programs and diversity initiatives that normalize sexual deviancy.

The Baptist Joint Committee of the coalition isn’t afraid to join hands with anyone who advocates pluralism. The group openly accepts non-Christians who promote the cause of religious pluralism. Faith doesn’t matter to the BJC as long as you agree with their stance on religious pluralism and the first amendment and “find common ground that allows all of us to make a greater impact,” whatever that means.

Members of these coalition groups appear to be more concerned with creating a religiously diverse nation than preaching the Gospel to a lost and dying world. According to Christians Against Christian Nationalism signer Paula Dempsey, “all are beloved as God’s children,” and Christians should “promote a pluralistic society grounded in the First Amendment’s free establishment clauses.” 

Interestingly, the leftist coalition of theological misfits who oppose the ever-nebulous boogeyman of Christian nationalism seems to be the same misfits who have advocated for “separation of church and state” for the past 50 years. Their argumentation isn’t rooted in scripture but rather in a pluralistic interpretation of the constitution and a religiously secular conceptualization of the founding documents. The secular state isn’t neutral, and its practices will never be neutral. If the coalition of leftists against Christian Nationalism were honest, they would say that they prefer drag queen story hour over public Christmas nativities, abortion on demand over public funding for faith-based crisis pregnancy centers, graphic sex tutorials for elementary-school students over teaching a Biblically-based sexual ethic, and most notably an emphasis on religious pluralism over the exclusivity of Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

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Self-Proclaimed “Black Darwin” of Biologos Declares Social Justice Our Only Hope

Biologos, the theistic evolution organization founded by Francis Collins and heavily supported by Tim Keller, is swimming in the primordial goo of false teaching and leftist ideology. Many theistic evolutionists begin their deconstruction by denying the historicity of the first three chapters of Genesis; a perspective quickly devolves into a denial of any other inconvenient Biblical truths.

Biologos refuses to take a position on Biblical inerrancy and openly admits that its members have a broad range of views on whether the Bible is inerrant. The result is inevitably a theology that denies the trustworthiness of Biblical narrative. In a vacuum of truth, Biologos and its founder Francis Collins, have embraced numerous worldly ideologies that directly contradict the truth of scripture.

As head of the NIH, Collins oversaw an increase in the ghoulish use of murdered baby parts for scientific research, made overtures towards the acceptance of antibiblical and anti-science LGBTQ affirming policies, and directed the COVID masking and vaccine public policy charade that convinced millions of Christians that they should live fearfully and forsake the assembly of the local church. 

Keeping in step with the deconstruction trends at Biologos, Joseph L Graves, an up-and-coming Biologos conference speaker, recently announced, in an article released on the Biologos website, that humanity faces extinction, and its only hope is social justice. 

Graves, who claims that his friends and colleagues call him “Black Darwin” for his prowess in the field of evolutionary studies, might also have earned the title “Black Greta Thunberg” for his recent baseless doomsday predictions about the future extinction of humanity. Graves doesn’t offer any explanations for his belief that the human race is doomed to “extinction,” but he claims to have a divine calling, which he compares to the “Voice in the Wilderness” of John the Baptist, only to proclaim the “truth” of social justice.

Still, I feel I was placed here for a reason. Like John the Baptist, I was called on to give voice to the truth.  (A Voice in the Wilderness, excerpt from Conclusion)

Graves believes that the justice provided by God at the end of days is not sufficient. He clearly denies the sovereignty of God in such matters.

Unfortunately, there are too many within the broad tent of our faith who are entirely comfortable with the status quo, or who simply think that we are in the “end times” and Jesus will soon sort everything out. 

Graves’ social justice resolution unmasks the gospel according to Biologos. That gospel is the false Social Gospel of social justice. Graves is just a secular humanist, cosplaying as a Christian. 

In the final chapter of my book, I outline a path towards social justice that all people of goodwill can get behind, so that like Amos 5:4 we might “…let justice roll down like waters. And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” I also emphasize what is at stake if we don’t do anything. Social justice is our only hope, not just because it is morally right and long overdue but because without it our species will die. We are now in a race between justice and extinction. I conclude that we now have a choice to decide to save ourselves, but this is only possible by learning to love our neighbors the way Christ taught us.

Contrary to Graves’ lunacy, Jesus and his atoning work on the cross are the only hope for humanity. There is only one path to salvation, and it doesn’t involve human effort or “saving ourselves.”

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:11-12

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Kansas Abolitionists Rejoice After Trojan-Horse Abortion Amendment Goes Down in Flames

Kansas, a state with a Republican supermajority in the legislature, rejected “Value Them Both,” a ballot referendum on an incrementalist constitutional amendment that would have granted legislators the constitutional right to regulate abortion. Protestia reported on the amendment back in June. The language of the amendment differed significantly from the amendment proposed by abolitionists and then tabled by legislators, under threat from incrementalist political activists who promised to run primary opponents against any legislator that supported the complete abolition of abortion. 

If passed, the Value Them Both Amendment would have enshrined the incrementalist position into the state’s constitution, making abortion law subject to the whims of each new legislative session. While Value them Both proponents envisioned that this would lead to a steady ratcheting up of the law until abortion only happened on occasions that are rare and heavily regulated (notice how similar this sounds to the old Democrat Party position on abortion), the results of the referendum show that such an amendment would likely have unintended consequences in the form of abortion policy that constantly wavers rather than offering the unchanging protections that are found in the proposed abolitionist personhood amendment that would have defined a pre-born child in Biblical fashion, as a “human being” from the beginning of conception.

The adoption of Value Them Both would have made adoption of the personhood amendment impossible without the repeal of Value Them Both, as the incrementalist amendment guaranteed the right of legislators to regulate abortion, a concept antithetical to the idea of pre-born personhood. The Value Them Both Amendment also contained moderating language that liberal judges would have likely interpreted as a license to legislate rape, incest, and life of the mother exceptions from the bench, as well as contrive the right to the existence of the abortion industry.

Many mainstream media outlets have declared that the defeat of the Value Them Both Amendment is a defeat for pro-life policy in a traditionally conservative state and a bellwether for how the rest of the nation will respond to the fall of Roe Vs. Wade. Contrary to media claims, the amendment itself was not an actual abortion ban but rather an amendment that would allow for the regulation of abortion, specifically in an incremental manner. Absent from the mainstream media coverage of the referendum is the role that abolitionists played in the defeat of Value Them Both.

The abolitionist position of opposing Value Them Both as an unbiblical compromise was presented in public debates by AIM (Abortion Is Murder) Kansas. During the campaign leading up to the referendum, the abolitionist position was publicized by abolitionist ministries, including Apologia’s expose on the Southern Baptist Convention ERLC to defeat a Louisiana bill that would have outlawed abortion in Louisiana. Prominent SBC Pastors Bill Ascol and Tom Ascol both addressed the unbiblical nature of regulating the murder of pre-born babies at the SBC’s annual convention in Anaheim. 

Pew research conducted before the referendum shows that the proportion of Kansans who believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases (49%) is nearly identical to the balance of Kansans who say that abortion should be illegal in most or all circumstances (49%). Given that the referendum was scheduled during the primary election, a time when Republicans who tend to be more conservative turn out in higher numbers, initial polling on the referendum indicated that the referendum would likely pass by only a few percentage points. With only a few absentee votes left to count, Value Them Both was declared a failed initiative, with 59% of voters casting a “no” vote and 41% of voters casting a “yes” vote, a much wider margin than polls predicted. 

While the exact number of abolitionist voters who rejected the referendum cannot be readily ascertained from the total number of “no” votes received, abolitionists remain hopeful that the failure of Value Them Both will function as a springboard to revive the Personhood Constitutional amendment that would effectively abolish abortion as a legal practice in the state of Kansas and facilitate the growth of abolition as a much more prominent national movement in coming years. 

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Op-Ed: 9 Marks Maestro Issues Misguided Warning to ‘Magisterial Protestants’

othing characterizes the state of Big Eva like the overly nuanced statements of evangelical leaders in response to cultural issues and events. In the wake of the fall of Roe V. Wade, some evangelical leaders made statements that rejoiced in the ruling while recognizing and mourning alongside those who syncretize faith with the murder of pre-born children. Other leftist evangelical leaders decried the verdict as a miscarriage of justice. Christian abolitionists who seek to utterly abolish abortion now face criticism from incrementalists in evangelicalism who attack abolition as impractical and lacking in nuance.

The methodology for achieving such nuance usually lacks a standard. Often the test for finding the perfect moderate third-way position on a theological issue looks like the Goldilocks test. Identify the left and right positions, label both as “too extreme”, and then quickly assume the pragmatic third-way position, as if the middle position must be correct solely because it sits betwixt left and right. Such a strategy approaches every problem as if the answer to the question, like the one faced by Solomon in 1 Kings 3:16-28, is to split the baby right down the middle. Third-way proponents believe that the answer must lie in a highly nuanced middle position when in reality, the baby has one mother on either the right or the left, and the truth is clearly discernable when scripture is used as a guide. The position of Big Eva third-wayism exists in nearly every modern evangelical issue, from the issue of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood to the matter of determining standards of guilt for sex abuse cases. 

The root of many third-way positions lies in the antinomian disposition of church leaders who neglect scripture as the origin of all relevant standards. Often the arguments made by Big Eva third-way position holders begin with an accusation of legalism or theonomy against those to the right. Believers in the sufficiency of scripture, which refer back to standards found in Old Testament law or the Apostolic instructions of the New Testament, are accused of acting as heartless legalistic Pharisees who could care less about the feelings or emotions of their opponents on the opposite side of an important issue. Never mind the fact that actual theonomists, those who believe that the entirety of the moral and ceremonial law of God given to Israel should be directly applied word for word to modern criminal and civil law, are about as common as real live unicorns. 

Jonathan Leeman of 9 Marks, a Big Eva figure who loves himself some third-wayism, recently issued a warning for Christians who have begun “exploring various forms of theonomy or magisterial Protestantism” in response to “cultural opposition to aspects of Christianity.” 

In his recent exposition on the threat of theonomy, Leeman fails to define with any level of precision the definitions of either theonomy or magisterial Protestantism. One must assume that by referring to “various forms” of theonomy, Leeman broadly refers to all those who believe in the general equity principle of the Law of God, along with actual theonomists. Leeman’s main point seems to be that those who engage in culture wars run the risk of falling into the ditch of neglecting the Gospel, as if the church can’t engage every issue in culture war under the banner of the Gospel, with the primary purpose of advancing the Gospel, as it has done for millennia. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the history of Leeman’s line of argumentation against what he characterizes as “various forms” of theonomy, Leeman appeared on the September 6, 2020 episode of Crosspolitic, where he was pressed by hosts Toby Sumpter, Chocolate Knox, and Gabe Wrench on his opposition to John Macarthur’s position of church’s remaining open during COVID restrictions, in the face of government-mandated closures. Leeman characterized his idea that churches don’t necessarily have to meet on Sunday or in person as simply a different way to “cut a diamond” in response to the arguments of the Crosspolitic hosts.

The conversation initially focused on issues related to government overreach concerning the church. Leeman argued that “a legitimate implication of Genesis 9:5-6 can be used to defend “preventative” government measures related to government-mandated COVID restrictions. While Leeman believes that elements of the Noahic Covenant can be used to defend a position that allows government overreach against a church during lockdowns, he opposes a hermeneutic that allows for the “normative” use of Old Testament Mosaic law in the context of the general equity principle. Instead, Leeman believes the Bible is insufficient to answer all the specific questions that a pastor may face. He claims that the wisdom necessary to answer the more complicated questions comes from God in a form that looks like the wisdom of Solomon but is frequently divorced from specific scriptural support.

The interview ends with Leeman repeatedly dodging questions about whether the general equity of principles found in the Levitical law can be applied to a modern context. Chocolate Knox asked Leeman whether the death penalty should be applied to people who have sex with animals, women who murder their pre-born children, or abortionists. Leeman claimed that he was hesitant to answer the Crosspolitic host’s questions because he hadn’t given much thought to the questions. Leeman, by his own recent account, has been actively contemplating political theory since the 1990s but somehow hasn’t given enough serious pastoral thought to state with any degree of certainty whether the death penalty should be on the table for an abortionist.

Leeman couldn’t answer simple questions about the law of God because he considered it to be subservient to a gnostic form of wisdom that is not tethered to scripture. As the downgrade in evangelicalism continues, fault lines continue to form between those who believe in the sufficiency of scripture to determine truth and those who use claims of wisdom that contradict the written Word of God. These fault lines are evident in the debate over sexual abuse. Many Big Eva figures purposely ignore or reject the Old Testament principles for what constitutes rape in passages such as Deuteronomy 22:23-27. The fault lines are also evident in the partiality debate, where proponents of Social Justice Theory and Critical Race Theory impose anti-Biblical lenses onto the clear teachings of scripture while ignoring scriptures like Galatians 3:28 that clearly show that partiality based on woke ideology is anti-Gospel. 

Jonathan Leeman is only one of numerous Big Eva figures who ascribe to an abstract view of Biblical Wisdom and despise those who seek truth in God’s Law and the clear instruction of the scriptures. 

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TGC Author Charlie Dates Tells White Evangelicals To Leave Chicago’s Name Out Of Your Mouth

Following the murder of 19 students and 2 teachers in the Uvalde school shooting, leftist evangelical thought leaders politicized the tragedy in an effort to push universal background checks and other gun control legislation. While many Texas state leaders have called for their constituents to pray for the families of the victims, shameless political clown Beto O’Rourke raided a press conference that was focused on the tragedy, in a publicity stunt that will likely backfire at the polls in November. A number of evangelical thought leaders made incoherent comments about guns, including SBC Presidential contender Bart Barber.

Not to be outdone by pagans like Beto O’Rourke, or ignorant evangelical institutionalists like Bart Barber, TGC author Charlie Dates has taken up the mantle of anti-gun activism in the name of being “pro-life”. Dates published a rambling pro-gun-control piece in Christianity Today, the rag to which leftists like Russell Moore run when they want to publish an article that would be better suited for a leftist secular news source like the Washington Compost. Simply add a little Christianese to leftist talking points, and voilà, secular thought is baptized in the waters of a “Christian Magazine”.

Talking About Chicago Gun Deaths Is Racist

Dates calls republican references to gun violence in Chicago a racist “dog whistle”. According to Dates, white evangelicals should not discuss gun violence in Chicago, because they don’t care about black lives lost.

“In short, I think you should leave Chicago’s name out of your mouth until you understand the forces that shape this city. We are not your rhetorical whipping boy, trotted out for another session of mockery that serves your political ends. We are not your minstrel show, played on repeat on your news channels as a way to reinforce tropes about the inherent dangerousness of Black people. We see what you are doing and name it for what it is: racism. We know that you do not actually care about the Black lives lost to gun violence here. If you did, you wouldn’t use dead Black boys and girls as a political tool. You would see their tragic deaths as a catalyst for action.”

According to Dates, white people who reference Chicago in their arguments are involved in a sinister plot that involves using “dead black boys and girls as a political tool.” Such an argument attempts to equate the deaths of children in the Texas school shooting with shooting deaths in Chicago. Dates ignores the huge difference between the deaths of schoolchildren in Texas and gang-related shootings in Chicago. The children in Uvalde, Texas didn’t deserve to be murdered. While all death is lamentable, many of the “boys” and “girls” who have died in Chicago were willing participants in the gang war culture of Chicago which glorifies crime and murder as a way of life. They live with one foot in the grave. Chicago pastors should place their focus on confronting wicked aspects of their city’s gang culture, rather than blaming white Christians for not advocating gun control measures (i.e., take the cannonball out of your own eye before trying to remove the BB from your brother’s eye).

Blame Republican States

Dates proceeds to blame the lax gun laws of Republican states that surround Illinois for the crime that takes place in Chicago. Instead of blaming Chicago gangs for rampant violence in the city of Chicago, leftists like Dates prefer to place blame on all of the surrounding states that have lax gun laws. Never mind the fact that the border states with more lax gun laws have a much lower crime rate than Chicago itself. According to Dates, Chicago is beholden to its neighbors.

“Chicago is a border colony. Illinois is a gun-restrictive state. Studies have shown that nearly 60 percent of guns connected to crimes in Chicago arrive through Republican states. The loose privileges of others have a direct, negative, and destructive effect on us.”

According to the study linked to Dates’ article, the death by firearm rate for black children is more than four times that of white children. Blaming Indiana for Chicago’s gun violence is equivalent to blaming the United States for gun violence in Mexico. A large number of guns are smuggled across the border from the United States to Mexico, by Mexican criminals who break many laws in the process. The vast majority of these guns are purchased by drug cartels. The United States is not responsible for gun violence in Mexico. The drug cartels are to blame for smuggling guns and committing murders. In the same way, the gangs of Chicago are to blame for gun violence in the city. Criminals will commit crimes with complete disregard for the law, and that is why they are criminals in the first place.

Adopt Leftist Policies or You Can’t Call Yourself Pro-Life

Dates joins other left-leaning evangelicals, who say that those who claim to be pro-life must promote a litany of government-funded social projects, supporting individuals who are born from conception to death. Apparently, pro-lifers must support increased funding for government childhood indoctrination centers, free government healthcare, and pledge themselves to Marxist organizations like Black Lives Matter; in order to be considered truly pro-life.

“We have waited for you to use your influence to lobby Congress for better school funding, access to quality health care, and food security. We have waited for you to denounce the alt-right racism that made a playboy a president. We have waited for you to declare that our lives matter.”

Social Gospel Pushes Aside the True Gospel

Asserting that white evangelicals who point out the gun violence of Chicago know nothing about the “hard work of pastors and religious leaders on the ground” in Chicago, Dates lists several organizations and individuals that work to decrease violence through Social Gospel work. Among these individuals is James Meeks, the executive vice president of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition.

“If you talk about Chicago, talk about James Meeks and the Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, which decreased violence by voting their neighborhood dry for two decades.”

James Meeks’ strategy to end alcoholism in his community mirrors Charlie Dates’ strategy to end gun violence. Meeks focuses on the evils of those who supply alcohol to alcoholics, and Dates’ focuses on the so-called evils of gun store owners in states that surround Illinois. All of these strategies push aside the true Gospel of Jesus, as anti-gun Social Gospel advocates seek to build an ecumenical coalition of churches to push their social agenda. In advocating for Meeks as a pro-life success story, Dates promotes an individual who serves as an executive for Rainbow Push Coalition, an organization that promotes race-baiting, abortion rights, big government globalist agenda items, and a false social Gospel narrative.

Perhaps Chicago is not the only thing that should be left out of people’s mouths.

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The Bad and the Ugly of the SBC Guidepost Sex Abuse List (Is it Worth the Paper It’s Printed On?)

The SBC and Guidepost solutions recently released a list of individuals who have been accused of sexual abuse. Reporting on abuse in the SBC has been sensationalized, and many media outlets have glossed over the details of the investigation, resulting in a mischaracterization of the facts that surround the story. Here are the facts surrounding the sex abuse list, including the bad and the ugly.

Not All of the Accused Are Part of the SBC

The report contains more than 700 entries. More than 300 of the entries are against individuals who are either not part of the SBC or their denomination is unknown. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest denomination in the United States, with approximately 14 million members.

Reported Sex Abuse Accusations by Denomination
DenominationTotal 
SBC396 
Freewill Baptist2 
Baptist Union of GB1 
American Baptist3 
Other Baptist6 
Unknown Baptist179 
Redacted66 
Independent Fundamental24 
Independent Baptist19 
Missionary Baptist4 
Unknown5 
Baptist Type-Nondenominational1 
National Baptist1 
Baptist-Full Gospel1 

The Report Is “Not Adequately Researched”

A quick review of the report shows that the data presented has not been thoroughly reviewed or vetted. Referenced news sources include Fake Baptist news site, Baptist News Global. The report itself clearly states that its data is incomplete, not proofed, and not properly researched:

The information is largely pulled from news articles complied from 2007 until 2022. It is incomplete. It has not been proofed. It has not been adequately researched. It is not Southern Baptist specific.

The name of the individual who produced the report, a “former employee of the executive committee” has been redacted from the report.

Report contains records that are completely redacted

The report contains numerous items that are either partially or fully redacted.

The fact that 66 records are redacted indicates that either some or all of these entries are either completely unrelated to sex abuse or could not be verified in some way.

Sex Abuse Falls On The Woke

While the egalitarian hordes on Twitter have been busy blaming the patriarchy for all of the “systemic” sex abuse in the SBC, they ignore the fact that sex abuse scandals also affect the woke and progressive. The list of churches affected by sex abuse includes the woke First Baptist, Venice CA, a bastion of liberalism whose youth pastor, Demetrius Allen, sexually abused a 14-year-old student, before the now-defunct church became a museum for cultural Marxism.

First Baptist, Venice CA. Where Demetrius Allen was youth pastor.

Some Incidents Occurred Long Ago

While the target date of the investigation related to sex abuse from 2000 to 2021, a number of cases on the list occurred prior to 2000. The sex abuse committed by pastor Dale Dickie Amyx occurred in 1974. The victim settled a civil suit against Amyx in 2008.

Other accusations that were 30 years old, include a current employee of the International House of Prayer, who was accused of abusing a victim in 1988.

Abuse From Across the Pond

The report includes the case of Anthony Akers, a deacon in the Cary Baptist Church in Preston, Langshire UK. Akers abuse took place in England in the 1970s. The Baptist Union of Great Britain is not affiliated with the SBC.

Not All Incidences Are Related to a Church

The case of Sergio David Bezerra took place at Waco Baptist Academy, a school that appears to be an independent Christian School with its own facilities. It is unclear why such a case was left in the report, as the school doesn’t seem to have any affiliation with a specific church or the SBC.

Not All Offenders Are Clergy

The report lists teacher Tonja Stovall-Fishcer as an offender, for sexually assaulting a male student. The entry for Stovall-Fishcer states that it is not sure about her association with the SBC. Such an entry brings into question the parameters of the SBC report. If the report was intended to include sex abuse by all members of the SBC, including laypersons who commit abuse in a setting outside of the church, the report would undoubtedly contain thousands of entries. The executive committee seemed to only include Stovall-Fishcer’s entry because she was included in the Houston Chronicle Database.

Kurt W. Sturtevant, another entry that is listed as “Baptist Type- Non-Denominational” (whatever that means) lists the sex abuser as a member of a Baptist Church, but then goes on to ask the statement “Did he do anything at the church?”

The “Secret List” Isn’t Really a Secret

The list compiled by the Executive Committee employee isn’t really a secret. The majority of the accusations were documented by media sources at the time that local law enforcement either brought charges or the perpetrators were convicted. The list acts as a rough “database” for sex abuse, but the data is shoddy, because it fails to stay within the defined parameters of SBC-related cases and the sources are unvetted. Anyone who can google “Baptist Sex Abuse” would have the ability to develop a similar list.

The entries that don’t have media sources show the difficulty faced by bureaucratic ivory-tower institutionalists who try to discern the truth of what happened when thirty years have passed and the information is merely “he said” versus “she said”.

Perhaps, with the wisdom of Solomon, someone would be able to discern the truth in such unclear cases from the 1980s. The executive committee and leadership of the SBC undoubtedly lack such wisdom.

This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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SBC Guidepost Report Calls For Establishment of Sex Abuse Bureaucracy

Guidepost Solutions has released its “Independent Investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention”, a 288 page report that details the issue of sexual abuse in the convention. The report includes a sexual assault accusation against former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who partnered with Ravi Zacharias to open up massage parlors, as well as numerous other accusations of sexual abuse within the SBC. As one might expect, the Guidepost report sided with leftist Russell Moore, who pushed the convention to investigate claims of sexual abuse in a letter that claimed the problem was ongoing within the convention for many years, even as Moore did nothing to stop it while he was at the helm of the ERLC. The move by Moore has been exposed as a political hit job against conservatives within the convention.

While the accusations themselves will be the subject of much debate over the next three weeks, leading up to the denominational convention in Anaheim, the most disappointing part of the report is the unbiblical and destructive recommendations made by Guidepost:

Baptist Press As SBC Pravda

Baptist Press previously reported on former Vice President of Lifeway Jennifer Lyell’s admission of having a “morally inappropriate relationship” with a seminary professor that lasted 12 years. Following the report, the executive committee issued Lyell an apology for an alleged “misunderstanding” about the nature of the relationship. In the apology, Lyell’s relationship was portrayed as “non-consensual”, despite the age of the victim and the duration of the “abuse”. Baptist Press retracted the article and Lyell received a settlement in 2020 from the executive committee, and then a second settlement from the executive committee in 2022. Guidepost recommends that the convention should utilize Baptist Press to continue reporting on sexual abuse, while “balancing the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort”. Thus, the way that Baptist Press spun the Jennifer Lyell story will serve as a model for how it will manage stories that contain inconvenient facts in the future.

Sexual Abuse as Primary Focus of Credentials Committee

The credentials committee is responsible for investigating matters related to a church’s qualifications to be a part of the SBC. In recent times, churches and local associations have been removed for issues related to the acceptance of homosexuality and other cultural downgrades that violate the Baptist Faith and Message. Guidepost would like to remake the committee so that its primary focus is on sexual abuse, rather than doctrinal fidelity. This includes social engineering of the committee’s makeup to increase the representation of women and the social science practitioners.

Creation of a Sex-Abuse Bureaucracy

Guidepost’s recommendations include the creation of a new “administrative entity” to regulate and process sex-abuse allegations, because the best people to deal with sex abuse allegations apparently aren’t local law enforcement, or local leadership who understand the nature of the situation. Inevitably, such a bureaucracy will infringe on the autonomy of local churches. Guidepost doesn’t just want the SBC to establish a bureaucracy using the normal 2-year procedure that the SBC normally follows to create a new entity. Instead, the consultant agency recommends that the SBC create the bureaucracy at the upcoming June convention, in 3 weeks, using bylaw 25 to bypass the normal process that would be used to critically think about such an undertaking before rashly moving forward.

One Registry for Both Convicted and Accused

The Biblical standard for accusations against an elder requires 2 or 3 witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19). Guidepost would like the newly created sex-abuse bureaucracy to lump those convicted together with those who have been “credibly accused” in an offender blacklist.

“Credible” is defined as “not manifestly false or frivolous”, meaning that the burden of proof is on those who are accused to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the accusation is false. The list would also include those who “aided and abetted in the cover-up of such conduct”, which means that all of the conservative executive committee members who resigned in protest would also likely be a target of the blacklist.

and

The system would be publicly accessible, meaning that those individuals who are “credibly” accused, but not convicted, would receive the same treatment within the SBC as a convicted sex offender.

The #MeToo movement took the standards of determining guilt and innocence and turned them on their head. Now this movement is on the doorstep of the SBC in the form of the #Churchtoo movement. Proponents of the movement are rejoicing at the Guidepost report. They can’t wait to dance on the grave of the SBC.

Establishment of a Sex-Abuse Compensation Slush Fund

The executive committee used critical theory to redefine sexual abuse, making the case that grown women in consensual affairs could be considered sex-abuse victims. With that precedent set, Guidepost recommends that the SBC set up a “Survivor Compensation Fund Program” that will be funded by cooperative fund giving, the liquidation of SBC assets, and a special giving drive that would likely be similar to the Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon Offerings. The fund would be administered by the newly created bureaucratic sex-abuse entity, whose master would determine the amount of compensation from the comfort of an ivory tower.

Guidepost understands that this move will be very costly. The cooperative fund will likely become a black hole for the cooperative giving of the convention. The consultant agency would also like local churches to add sex abuse prevention as a line item in their annual budgets.

Guidepost proposes that an “independent fund administrator” or “special master” be appointed to administer the fund, meaning that the final say on who receives money from the sex-abuse fund wouldn’t be in the hands of a jury, local church, or an elected SBC official, but rather an appointed bureaucrat.

Permit Outside Influences From Public Theologians and Consultants

Guidepost recommends that the Credentials Committee be given the authority and funding to retain a “panel of theologians” and Support Specialists, to support the decision-making processes of the committee, meaning that the committee that Guidepost would like to infuse with a significant number of sex-abuse survivors, social workers, and victim’s rights advocates could potentially be advised by the likes of Russell Moore.

The Credentials Committee would use advice from these so-called outside experts to determine the standards by which local churches are deemed either friendly or unfriendly.

While many of its local church recommendations are excellent, Guidepost’s recommended standards for cooperation would also require churches to fire anyone who is listed in the Offender Information System, which would include those who could not disprove an accusation, but were never charged with a crime. This would inevitably lead to a system where accusations are weaponized against innocent individuals in the church. If a pastor cannot disprove a false accusation, he will lose both his job and career, as part of the blacklist system.

Accept Anonymous Accusations

Guidepost recommends that the newly-created sex-abuse entity change the current policy of the credentialing committee to require that the committee accept anonymous submissions about sex abuse in a church, meaning that anyone, even pagan activists could manipulate the reporting system to devastate a church and pastor.

Anonymous accusations should never be permitted by the credentialing committee. If false accusations are proven to be false, the accuser should receive the punishment that he or she intended for someone who was innocent.

The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil  from your midst.

Deuteronomy 19:18-19

The way that the convention deals with the Guidepost report will be key over the next few months. The annual SBC Convention meeting in Anaheim is sure to be a turning point, either for better or worse, as the messengers will either choose to change course and elect leaders that will reform SBC institutions; or double down on the tomfoolery and continue onward with denominational downgrade in a manner that is irreversible. God is sovereign over the SBC. He will either reform the institution, or it will become just another dashed piece of pottery beside the potter’s wheel. He will not be mocked.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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Elijah Removed From Gospel Coalition ‘Molech Debate’ Following Dismal Performance At Mount Carmel

Following a dismal “Good Faith” Baal worship debate performance at Mt. Carmel, The Gospel Coalition has removed Elijah, the controversial Prophet, from its upcoming “Good Faith” Molech worship debate. At the showdown on Mt Carmel, Elijah relentlessly mocked Baal and his prophets, resulting in a frenzy of self-inflicted injuries, as the Baal worshipers cut themselves in an attempt to solicit a response from their god. The prophet lacked the winsomeness and nuance that characterize the gentle and lowly hearts of Gospel Coalition contributors, as he caused unnecessary trauma with words that were anything but seeker-sensitive. After God rained fire down on Elijah’s sacrifice, the Prophet piled on to the humiliation of the Pagans’ defeat through the uncharitable act of slaughtering them after the debate was complete.

In a promotional spot for her upcoming debate, TGC’s Pro-Woke, Pro LGBT “Good Faith” debater Rebecca Mclaughlin called on Elijah to repent of his actions, explaining:

“Elijah needs to recognize and repent for the damage that he has caused to the Baal Community, just as Christians need to repent for the damage that they have caused by not accepting and loving members of the same-sex attracted community in our churches. How can we expect to have good faith debates and find common ground with those who hold different opinions if we don’t foster an environment that allows us to question and weigh out our differing opinions so that we can find middle ground?”

Gospel Coalition founder Tim Keller defended Elijah’s removal in a series of cryptic tweets that he will probably soon deny have anything to do with Elijah:

“Wavering between 2 opinions is the best way to find the third way that we so desperately need in the evangelical community.”

“Ahab is a brilliant example of how to be an Israelite in the public square. Notice the witness, but in a form that the culture and his sweet wife Jezebel can handle. We should desire to have more Israelites in these spaces like Ahab, and give them grace as they operate.”

“Sacrificing to Yahweh doesn’t get you into heaven. I happen to know this. So how in the world could sacrificing to Molech get you into hell.”

“As one of my esteemed colleagues frequently says, ‘we ought to whisper about the things that the Bible whispers about and shout about what it shouts about.’ The Bible whispers about child sacrifice, compared to its shouts about religious pride.”

“We Should not judge pagan beliefs on the basis of God’s law. The fairest way to evaluate a world-explaining narrative is by judging on the basis of its own premises and beliefs. If we decide it fails, we must show it fails on its own terms.”

Sean Demars, another “Good Faith” debater, questioned Elijah’s judgement of those deemed false prophets, as a legalistic witch hunt:

“Elijah, man, he is zealous, and constantly accusing guys of idolatry when they hang out in the high places.  Most often I’m saying to him, ‘Hey some of these guys that you’re saying are worshipping false gods. I know them. They’re my friends. That guy discipled me. I had lunch with him last week. I heard him say this about that person. Trust me, he’s not going pagan at all.’ Anyone who’s even slightly sympathetic to hanging out with the ladies of the high places or watching the soft-core porn laced entertainment recommendations of Brett McCracken and Jackie Hill Perry is suspect in the eyes of Elijah. That guy is a real buzz-kill.”

Now that Elijah has been removed from the debate, the race is on to find an adequate replacement. The current frontrunner for the spot, SEBTS English professor and TGC author Karen Swallow-Prior, has stated that if chosen she would like to expand the scope of the Molech worship debate to include all issues related to life:

“People like to look at the Molech worship issue as if it was just as simple as not throwing babies into the fiery altar. In reality the debate is much more nuanced and complex like. It;s like that book, ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’, only the title should be ‘If You Make a Woman Keep Her Baby.’

If you make a woman keep her baby, you have to provide her with everything that she could possibly need. Food stamps, free baby formula, and universal basic income are a pro-life issue. Once the baby is born, the mother will need free government childcare and healthcare, which are also pro-life issues. The child will need government funded schooling, condoms, subsidized housing, and free college tuition, which are also pro-life issues. Animals are alive, so by nature animal rights are a pro-life issue. Fundamentalists like Elijah need to focus on the pro-life issues that really matter, rather than just narrowly focusing on stopping Molech worship.

Look at how much water he wasted on Mt. Carmel in the middle of a drought, and those bulls definitely weren’t free range organic. Worshipping God in a sustainable way is a pro-life issue.”

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia, and is a piece of satire.