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Rachel Denhollander Latest Tweets About John MacArthur Are Super Dumb, and This is Why

(Midwest OutReach) A little over a week ago (Wednesday, March 8, 2023), Megan Basham asked me a question via text message. I immediately realized it would be difficult to give her an adequate response via text, so I told her I’d respond by email.

As I was working on the email, it took longer than I expected. Along the way, it occurred to me that Don Veinot often asks me if I could write something for the MCOI blog, and the longer I worked on it the more the email was looking like a blog article. After sending it, I asked Megan and Don if it would be alright with both of them if I simply posted the email, as is, as an article. They both agreed.

Some background on Megan’s question is in order here. It was prompted by a series of tweets from Rachael Denhollander in which she referred to a now-deleted article on The Gospel Coalition web site which Denhollander suggested placed husbands “in a priestly or salvific type of role.” She was attempting to show that quotes she provided (in screenshots) from John MacArthur do the same sort of thing. The MacArthur quotes come from a recent question-and-answer session at his church which is available online both in video and transcript form. In the following three paragraphs that I’ve copied from that site, I’ve put the words Denhollander highlighted in bold text and added underlining to the ones I think supply helpful context:

I think you have to look at yourself—and this may help—you have to look at yourself in the way that Paul described marriage in Ephesians 5. He basically says that a husband is like a savior to his wife. That’s essentially what it says. And I think the burden really lies with men to see themselves as those who rescue women from loneliness, who rescue women from being in an unfulfilled—being in a place where they aren’t protected, they aren’t provided for, they aren’t cared for, they aren’t loved, they aren’t given the opportunity to have children. So from what I would experience in our society, it’s the men that have to step up. And I honestly do not know what in the world they are waiting for. I have threatened many times to line up all the single women on one side, all the single men on the other side, and assign you a wife.

But instead of looking for someone who is some kind of trophy, you need to look to someone who loves Christ, that you can be a savior to that person and a protector and a provider and a lover, and be what Christ is to His church—because that’s the picture. And I’d strongly exhort young men to find a wife, because in that finding is God’s greatest gift in this world. And it allows you to raise up children who know and love the Lord; that’s the purpose of marriage: to procreate. And to do so in Christ is the highest calling in life.

I want to do all I can to encourage the men to step up. And I know there have been enough bad marriages in our society that there’s a certain amount of fear and trepidation. But you have to look at marriage as the way the Lord looks at His church. He knows the bride has problems, but He is her redeemer, He is her rescuer. And I think if you can find a godly woman, that reward is the greatest reward that life can offer. Just don’t let the world define what that woman should be. OK? Really good question.

Denhollander has major problems with what MacArthur said here. According to her, MacArthur,

…specifically uses the word “redeem”, which is a reference to Christ’s salvation of His church. He encourages this young man to view himself towards a wife, the way Christ redeems the church. Context also for how he encourages men to view themselves as “a savior”.

This simply restates her view that MacArthur sees husbands in a “salvific” role, that is, a role leading to salvation. Later she wrote,

I do believe, however, that MacArthur did intend to communicate a redemptive and salvific archetype from husband to wife (while yes, affirming eternal salvation by grace through faith.)

But when we read him in context, that’s not what he’s saying at all. Concerning Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 5, MacArthur says: “He basically says that… to continue reading, click here.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Ron Henzel  and published at MidWest Outreach. Title changed by Protestia.

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Protestia Suspended From Twitter for Violating ‘Hateful Content’ Policy

Yesterday we received a 12-hour suspension from Twitter under their rules against ‘hateful conduct’ after one of our comments was flagged. In a discussion, we were challenging the notion that the gospel and the redeeming work of Christ are not efficacious for all people so that even pedophiles can be saved, can have their grotesque and perverse minds sanctified by Christ, and as a result, should be able to attend a local church. (We specified in this post that due to the nature of the sin, if they are not legally barred from being around children, they ought to be accompanied at all times by an elder or deacon while on church property or at church functions, without exception)

For this, we got axed for a bit:

It’s a reminder that even under Elon Musk, Twitter is a dangerous place to be. Getting removed from the platform would be a significant loss for us, as we do all we can to expose theological mischief makers and try to be a quick and concise discernment resource chock full of primary sources and references. Your financial help ensures that we have options to live on even if this happens.

If you already support our work financially- thank you so much. We will never take for granted the sacrifices you make to give to us, and in return, we do all we can to stretch and be smart about what we have been given. Always give to your family first, your church second, and us last. If you are not part of a local church or are not actively looking for one to attend, stop sending us any money and stop reading us, as this website is not for you. 

If you find value in the decade of back catalogue we’ve created, from the website to the Podcast to our partnership with Bible Bashed, please consider donating at patreon.com/protestia. 

Lastly, if you cannot support us except by prayer and supplication, then that is awesome too. Knowing we have saints lifting us up gives us confidence and infuses us with enthusiasm to keep going despite pushback and grief.

In Christ, David and Dustin



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Twitter Un-Bans Christian Post After 9-Month Suspension

Nine months after suspending the Christian Post from Twitter for sharing “hateful conduct,” the social media giant, under new management, has overturned the previous ban and reinstated their account.

The Christian post was suspended in March 2022 for sharing this tweet, where they rightly called Rachel Levine, the transgender U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a “man.”

At the time of the suspension, they explained:

In an alert emailed to CP on Sunday, the social media giant notified the Christian news publication that the tweet violated its policy against what it deems as “hateful conduct” by stating a biological fact and has “temporarily limited some” features of the account, including the ability to post new articles.

Other limitations include being unable to like, follow or retweet posts. Twitter also told CP that the restrictions could be lifted 12 hours after deleting the tweet about Levine…

In a series of tweets today, the Post was ebullient about their return, explaining why they chose to stay off Twitter rather than cow to their ultimatum and allowed to remain on this whole time.

While we are glad they’re back on, we’d like to channel their promises of obedience to other matters, namely the fact that their reporting doesn’t differentiate between genuine believers and twice the sons of hell.

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#BabylonBee Trends as Elon Musk Pledges to Un-ban Them

With Elon Musk now squarely at the helm of Twitter after completing his $44 billion acquisition of the social media giant, the self-described “Free Speech Absolutist” has already signaled his intention to unban many previously banned pages, including the Babylon Bee, which Musk has seemingly singled out.

In two brief missives Musk, who frequently retweeted the satire site before their suspension, wrote “anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail” and “Comedy is now legal on Twitter.”- likely referencing the banning of the Babylon Bee for this post, which many see as an inflection point for the whole debate and the straw that broke the camel’s back. Consequently, #babylonbee was trending Friday night

Having already fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and head lawyer and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, Musk has pledged to clean house and is expected to lay off up to 75% of the workforce to purge the company of anti-free speech sentiment.

In response to the news, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon has been ebullient, and it’s only a matter of time until they are sharing the special brand of satire again.

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Phil Johnson Permanently Suspended From Twitter

The estimable Phil Johnson, Executive Director of Grace to You, founder and former curator of The Spurgeon Archive, and one of our favorite people ever, has been permanently suspended from Twitter after he decried the stationing of drag-queen crossing guards at elementary schools as “state-sponsored grooming.”

We say permanently, or at least if and until Elon Musk purchases Twitter and loosens the rules, because the censorious, science-denying big tech overlords insist that Johnson delete his tweet to have the ban lifted, something he says he isn’t willing to do. 

He writes: “I’m refusing to admit that this constituted harassment or a threat of violence against anyone. It was a statement of my moral convictions regarding a news story” and that “I am NOT going to delete that Tweet. Their demand for me to confess an untruth is nothing short of ideological blackmail.”

Johnson has 73.2k followers, 22k tweets, millions of impressions, and his presence will be missed.

At the rate things are going, we know we’ll be following soon.

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YouTube Says It Will Start Deleting Videos That Contain ‘Abortion Misinformation’

Megacorp giant YouTube has released a series of statements on social media pledging to begin cracking down on certain abortion videos under the auspices of their “medical misinformation policies.”

“Starting today and ramping up over the next few weeks, we will remove content that provides instructions for unsafe abortion methods or promotes false claims about abortion safety under our medical misinformation policies. Like all of our policies on health/medical topics, we rely on published guidance from health authorities.

We prioritize connecting people to content from authoritative sources on health topics, and we continuously review our policies & products as real world events unfold. We’re also launching an information panel that provides viewers with context and information from local and global health authorities under abortion-related videos and above relevant search results.”

While taking down videos that seek to show how to have illegal or unsafe abortions is a good thing, it’s the “promotes false claims about abortion safety” that is concerning and unnerving. The perspective of the “authoritative sources” will likely be that abortion is a wonderful event with no health risks or adverse mental or emotional impacts, either short-term and long-term. 

Talking about how many women come to regret their abortions as they experience psychological distress and guilt resulting from their acts of baby butchery will more than likely result in the videos being removed or even the whole channel being suspended. We expect to see Twitter follow suit very soon.

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Lesbian Once Featured in ‘Anti-Prosperity Gospel’ Film Renounces it, Embraces Woo-Woo Theology

In 2018, The Gospel Coalition’s resident ‘GAYTHEIST’ Jackie Hill Perry appeared in the American Gospel Documentary, joining conservatives like Phil Johnson, Paul Washer, Costi Hinn, Steve Lawson and Justin Peters, along with questionable folk like JD Greear and Matt Chandler, to attack the prosperity gospel and word-faith chicanery promulgated by Benny Hinn, Todd White, Kenneth Copeland and Bethel’s Bill Johnson. In doing so they demonstrated why it’s not biblical and instead pointed its audience to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Soon after appearing in the video that called out Bill Johnson and Bethel, she would share a platform with them. Two years later, Perry would repudiate her involvement in the documentary and its drawing dividing lines in the sand, describing the contrast between the two gospels as too tribalistic and reeking of “theological superiority.”

It’s pretty clear why.

Fresh from saying that all white people are Racists, that white people only care about black folk in the womb, Perry has begun to invest herself in the word-faith movement, which is the essence of the prosperity gospel and has at its core supernatural dreams and visions bringing forth fresh revelation direct from God himself. This is made manifest not only by the company she keeps, but also by the beliefs she’s espousing. She writes on Twitter:

“The Lord deals with me prophetically...God primarily deals with me in dreams. I’ve been enlightened, warned, and led to intercede for others through them. But lately, I’ve had an increase of “inner unctions” by the Spirit, that arise in prayer, about people I know and don’t know. It’s deep.”

This is crazy. God deals with people primarily through the scriptures, with the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit. What kind of woo-woo talk is this? Even the most wretched false prophets don’t go to this extreme or believe this. Even charismatic prophetess Kat Kerr, bless her heart, doesn’t believe this. For Perry, however, this is her new normal. She concludes with a story justifying her experiences, revealing she has years of similar such stories.

And to think people raked us over the coals for discerning that the was something deeply problematic about her and her trajectory all those years ago. Give it a couple more years. Maybe then she’ll be so far gone that even the most unbalanced critic of ours with concede that something is deeply amiss, and that we called it when no one else did.

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Bart Barber Opposes Conservative Baptist Network’s Message of Unity In the Gospel of Christ

Bart Barber, pastor of FBC Farmersville and Chairman of the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention Resolutions Committee really wants Russell Moore’s old gig in the ivory tower of the ERLC, and he is willing to do just about anything to align himself with the establishment liberals of the SBC to obtain the position. Since the election of Ed Litton as SBC President, Barber has been unapologetic in his defense of the plagiarizer-in-chief. Barber despises conservatives and consistently complains about conservatives who oppose critical theory, leftward drift in the SBC, and compromises on abortion

Barber recently found himself in hot water after bashing the Conservative Baptist Network’s Twitter messaging in response to the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s Racial Reconciliation Sunday.

The statement by the CBN, which began with a recitation of 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, and contained numerous passages of scripture, called for unity in the Gospel and the avoidance of partiality on the basis of skin color. Apparently, the CBN got under Barber’s skin, because Barber constantly pushes the partiality-laden Critical Race Theory drivel that has been common amongst Big Eva types in the SBC for the past three years. In addition to direct references to scriptural guidance on Biblical Unity in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the statement calls out Southern Baptists, such as Barber, who have resorted to worldly anti-Biblical strategies for racial reconciliation rather than relying on the all-sufficient scriptures which call for impartiality.

Numerous Twitter responses to Barber called for him to explain exactly how the statement by CBN was off message in any way. Barber refused to answer the question, dodging personal responsibility for his statements and accusing the CBN of being an agent of division in the SBC, because they don’t agree with social engineering in the church.

Bart understands that in order to earn Big Eva capital, he must constantly condemn the Conservatives in the convention. Eventually the race-baiters will show up to defend him, and hopefully the horrible Twitter trauma that he experiences will allow him to earn the reward of sitting in Russell Moore’s old chair as head of the ERLC. If all else fails, maybe Eddie Munster himself will invite Bart to join him at Christianity Today. In a stroke of irony, Bart Barber described his accusatory ways in a tweet, just days before the controversy.

Bart Barber loves himself some Bart Barber. Unfortunately, Bart is frequently Bart’s standard, rather than the eternal word of God.

Editor’s Note. This article is a guest post by Paul Brown for Protestia.

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Greg Locke Permanently Banned from Twitter

Pastor” Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, TN has been permanently suspended from Twitter, the result of a series of violations stemming from his continued public comments telling people not to get vaccinated.

Readers of Protestia will recognize Locke as the foul-mouthed, spouse-abusing-and-abandoning, Tennessee “pastor” who notoriously divorced his wife of two decades and quickly married his secretary, claimed that “Mitch McConnell is being controlled by Illuminati hand signals,” threatened a Dunkin’ Donuts worker with kicking his teeth down his throat, and recently said that if you deny the existence of tunnels under the White House or Capitol Building that were uncovered by the military and used to house both live and dead children, you’re just as complicit in the abuse as “crack-smoking perverts.” All that when he was not putting up signs telling potential visitors” If you Come to Church in a Mask, I’ll Kick you Out.”

Now, he has been banned from Twitter, losing the ability to create new accounts.

It’s not the first time Locke has been suspended, receiving a host of 24 hours to 30 days band dating back over a decade, when he first joined the platform. Now, having amassed nearly 115,000 followers on the social media giant, Locke is spitting mad about the whole affair, taking to Facebook to air his grievances, telling followers that he has already filed a lawsuit to be restored.

“After building it up, having a verified platform on Twitter, they take the whole thing away. After years, since 2009, because I’m a ‘danger’. Guess who’s still on Twitter? The Taliban, ladies and gentlemen. Are you awake yet, sheep? Wake up, use your brain, use your Bible, get a backbone, they just permanently banned me.

I’m the first pastor with any sort of a platform that’s been banned. So guess what? We’re fighting back right now. Within one hour of it happening, we’ve already had our wonderful lawyer for our ministry file, and we have just entered in to the class action lawsuit against Twitter and all of these censorship Nazis.

Locke goes on to explain that he’s joined the class action lawsuit with Candace Owens and Donald Trump, and expressed his disgust that they banned a blue check verified pastor, telling his followers to follow him on other social media platforms, professing his belief that he was excised from Twitter “because they just want to be where they censor us. We’re over the target. We’re dropping bombs, gospel bombs, political bombs, biblical bombs. They don’t like what we’re saying.”

“Shame on you. Twitter, shame on you. You ban a pastor, you ban a sitting president, you ban other conservative voices. You ban Christians but you let the Taliban- you let the Taliban terrorists stay on your platform and keep saying all the wicked evil nonsense that they need to say? It shows who you really are. You show your true colors.”

..I’m not apologizing for being too abrasive, okay? The days of ‘diplomacy’ are well over, it’s time to fight. It’s time to stand up and say ‘enough is enough.’; We’re gonna push back and so Twitter, you’ve done your dead level best, now we’re going to stand up we’re going to push back…”

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Joel Osteen Likes God, He just doesn’t like Jesus. A Twitter Survey of @JoelOsteen

We often talk about the Christ-less Gospel of Joel Osteen. Whenever people ask us what that means, we tell them this; Joel Osteen does not talk about the Christian Gospel. Joel does not follow in the footsteps of Paul and shares this message

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve… 1 Corinthians 15:1-5

Rather, in the gospel of Joel Osteen, the “good news” that he brings is that “God loves you and wants to save you from life of mediocrity and small dreams. Therefore, if you believe in God and be obedient to him, God will give you a plan for your life that includes big dreams, self esteem, favor, health and wealth, influence, a better job, a positive self image and a fulfilled life free of negativity”.

That’s it. That’s what it’s all about. That is the sum of just about every book, every sermon, every media appearance, and every tweet of Joel Osteen, condensed into a few sentences.

That being said, there is something significant to understand about Joel Osteen: He does talk about God. A lot. You cannot accuse the man of not mentioning him because he’s all over that. Yet it’s never really in a personal sense. Joel talks about God, but it’s always in a vague, amorphous sense. There is undoubtedly nothing distinctly Christian or Biblical about it. There’s nothing doctrinal or theological about the way he talks about God. Instead, He is an ethereal, shapeless, formless, customizable, singular being thing that is out there called God that functions like a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is seeming to bless you and make your life better. Even when he mentions God, it’s not ABOUT God, but it’s about what God can do for YOU.

Why do we say “singular being”? Simple. While mention of a “God” may be plastered all over his Twitter feed, Jesus is Not. Joel Osteen rarely, if ever, mentioned Jesus. He rarely, if ever, mentions Christ. This is true when you listen to his sermons, read his tweets, and listen to him on whatever talk show he’s touring.

Years ago, we did a quick survey of all Joel Osteen’s tweets from June 8, 2013 to July 18, 2014, or about a year. Out of Joel Osteen’s 806 tweets, not including any of his replies to other people, he mentions “God” 334 times.

Want to guess how many times he mentioned “Jesus”?

Once.

One time.

We figured that number seemed small, so we exchanged the word “Jesus” for “Christ”? And know how many times Christ was mentioned?

Twice.

Two times.

In the spirit of generosity, we thought perhaps Joel was more comfortable using his real name, “Yeshua,” and searched accordingly.

No times.

How about “Lord?”

One time. And it was referring to God.

So this is where we’re at. This means that America’s most influential pastor, the guy with the most prominent church of 43,000 members, one of the most well-known and most recognized pastors with the biggest platform, out of 806 tweets this last year, in a Twitter feed that is not about his personal life, but rather serves to communicate his version of theological truths about Christianity and faith for his 2.6 million followers (at the time) …Joel Osteen mentioned Jesus in some capacity 3 times.

We didn’t have access to the rest of his Twitter account prior to that date. Still, if you extrapolate the numbers going back to 2009 when he joined, out of his 11300 tweets, he mentioned the name Jesus, God in human flesh, our great God and Savior who was fully man and fully God, who excruciatingly bore the wrath of the Father on a cross and died and rose again in propitiation for our sins- he likely only got mentioned 24 times. On a Twitter feed designed to share the truth about the Christian life from a supposed Christian leader who tweets 2-4 times a day.

If you look up some of Joel’s favorite topics and the main message he likes to communicate, he references “dreams” 48 mentions, such as this tweet “You’re closer to seeing that dream come to pass than you think. You may not be able to see it, but it can see you.” 

How about “great/greatness?” 36 mentions, such as “You have the seeds of greatness, don’t allow something small to keep you from God’s best.” 

“Favor?” 32 mentions, such as “Go get your favor, your dream, your victory. It has your name on it.” 

Put any other of his favorite buzzwords in a search bar, and you’ll get scores of hits. But talk of Jesus and his death and resurrection, his salvation, his shed blood, sin, the forgiveness he offers, his grace and mercy, his loving kindness- there’s nothing even remotely like that there.

Like we said, Christ-less.

Editor’s Note. This post was adapted from a 2014 post we did on the subject. Updated to make it more current